Direct And Indirect Restorations Health And Social Care Essay

Today with the of all time spread outing scope of renewing stuffs the tooth doctor needs to be cognizant of how long these Restorations are likely to last and the possible grounds for failure. This will maximize length of service of Restoration and prevent failure. The tooth doctor must besides hold a cognition of renewing stuffs advantages, disadvantages, indicants and contraindications. All this information will let the tooth doctor to choose the right renewing stuff for specific clinical state of affairss taking to long term clinical endurance of Restorations. Long term endurance of direct and indirect Restorations is dependent on the Restoration non neglecting â€Å" failure occurs when a Restoration reaches a degree of debasement that preludes proper clinical public presentation for either aesthetic or functional grounds of because of inability to forestall new disease † 1 Many factors contribute to the failure of a Restoration these include patient, operator and renewing stuff factors. In this literature reappraisal I will turn to the failure of direct and indirect posterior Restorations due to material factors independent of patient and operator factors such as clinical accomplishment degree of operator, tooth place and cavities rate.PurposesWith respect to different stuffs for direct and indirect posterior Restorations I hope to: -Outline failure rates of direct and indirect buttocks Restorations -Outline manners of failure of direct and indirect buttocks Restorations -Outline briefly some advantages, disadvantages, indicants and contraindications of direct and indirect posterior Restorations. -Outline in some instances the factors that operators should see toreduce failure rates -Compare long term endurance of direct V indirect posterior Restoration failureDirect posterior RestorationsBoth amalgam and rosin complexs are indicated as direct category 1 and 2 posterior RestorationsDirect buttocks amalgamAmalgam is one of the most normally used renewing stuffs worldwide in posterior direct Restoration today. Amalgam does n't bond to tooth construction, contains quicksilver and is non aesthetic, but its low cost, straightforward managing process, rapid application and good path record of clinical public presentation in the past mean it continues to be the most convenient renewing stuff in posterior dentitions. In recent old ages at that place has been a diminution in its popularity due to public wellness concerns over its quicksilver content. Failure of amalgams can be every bit high as 6 % at seven old ages. 1 Failure of amalgam is chiefly due to 1. Secondary cavities 2. Tooth break 3. Gross amalgam break 4. Fringy dislocation Secondary cavities has been found to be the most common cause for amalgam failure accounting for 66 % of all failures in amalgam Restorations at seven years.1 Operative technique is of importance in bar of secondary cavities as taint of the readying by blood and spit, hapless matrix technique and hapless condensation lead to hapless adaptation of Restoration to the pit wall and overhangs which predispose to secondary cavities this can do Restoration failure due to tooth break and fringy breakdown.2 Tooth break can besides do amalgam failure. Amalgam does n't bond to tooth construction and therefore does n't reenforce the tooth, it is simply infinite filler and the tooth itself is weakened. It has been found that the bigger the Restoration including deepness and facial linguistic width the more likely the tooth is to fracture.3The ability of a tooth with an amalgam Restoration to defy break can be increased by fixing the enamel borders at an angle greater or equal to 90 degrees.4 This is because the enamel rods in the occlusal country of enamel are approximately parallel to the long axis of the tooth.5 it should be noted that defects like subsurface clefts formed during pit readying contribute significantly to early Restoration failure.6 It has been found that increased cusp break rates are linked to higher figure of surfaces restored increased patient age.7 Amalgam failure can besides originate as a consequence of gross amalgam break. This has been shown to account for about 33 % amalgam failures in one study.1 Amalgam has a low tensile strength which predisposes it to fracture particularly in load bearing countries. 1 Operator can cut down the opportunity of failure by holding pit readyings of equal deepness ( 2mm ) and by making circular internal line angles.8 Marginal dislocation of amalgam can take to failure. Incorrect cavo-surface angle can bring forth fringy surface dislocation and can take to secondary cavities doing failure. Marginal dislocation besides occurs as a consequence of delayed enlargement of amalgam but the add-on of Zn and big sums cooper to amalgam to increase mechanical belongingss has besides lead to a lessening in fringy break and longer service by the Restoration. 9 It should be noted that fringy dislocation of an amalgam is n't a unequivocal diagnosing of secondary cavities or failure of an amalgam. Surveies have shown that secondary cavities is merely present in about 58 % of amalgams with ditched margins.10Direct posterior Resin CompositesResin complexs are non presently the Restoration of pick for posterior dentitions because they are expensive, extremely technique sensitive, take more clip to topographic point and their clinical path record of clinical public presentation has n't been every bit good as amalgam in the yesteryear. This state of affairs is altering as the public becomes more concerned by aesthetics and the wellness hazards associated with the quicksilver in amalgam. Resin complex is besides deriving popularity in the profession as the adhering systems improve and as the thought of conserving tooth construction becomes more of import. Failure of rosin complexs can be every bit high as 14 % at 7 old ages in posterior teeth.1 Assuming the right type of composite was chosen e.g. intercrossed or conventional. Failure of complexs is chiefly due to 1. Secondary cavities 2. Gross rosin composite break With wear, tooth break and staining causing failure of a little per centum of rosin complexs. Secondary cavities has been found to be the most common cause of rosin composite failure accounting for 88 % of failures at seven years.1 However in another survey secondary cavities was found to be 2nd to tooth break at 6 old ages after which it became the primary ground for failure between 6-17 years.11 The chief ground for this is due to polymerization shrinking on scene of the rosin complex which can run 2.6 to 7.1 % 12 this can organize a fringy spread particularly in dentine where bonding is n't as strong which can take to an immersion bacterium ( microleakage ) which can do secondary cavities. The hazard for secondary cavities besides increases with time11 and with the size of the cavity.1 The operator can cut down polymerisation shrinking and perchance secondary cavities by utilizing the incremental remedy technique. Gross rosin composite break is responsible for high per centum of rosin composite failures accounting for 12 % of failures at 7 years.1 Resin complex is a brickle stuff and hence tensile strength is dependent on surface coating. It is for this ground that we ever look at diametric tensile strength as a mention to fracture opposition. Its diametric tensile strength is low and as a consequence rosin complexs are prone to fracture.13 The break opposition is extremely dependent on filler burden of rosin complex with higher filler lading increasing break resistance14 so it is really of import operator chooses of a rosin complex with a high filler burden. Tooth break does n't account for a important proportion of rosin composite failure this is due to the fact that rosin complexs bond to tooth construction and reenforce it against fracture.15 Wear is merely a factor for failure in bruxers in which instance you likely would n't utilize resin composite if it was traveling to be subjected to high emphasiss. Colour is besides no longer a major issue for failure with one survey describing 94 % of rosin complex with acceptable coloring materials lucifer to adjacent dentitions after 17 years.16 This has besides improved with reduced aminoalkanes in the rosin complexs taking to less yellowing. It should be noted that alot of surveies of rosin complexs included older rosin complexs which dont reflect the current rosin complexs in usage which have improved bonding which will take to reduced failure in future surveies.Indirect buttocks inlays and onlaysIndirect rosin complex, gold and ceramic inlays are indicated as indirect category 1 and 2 posterior Restorations. Indirect rosin complex, gold and ceramic onlays are indicated as indirect category 1 and 2 posterior Restorations affecting one or more cusps.Indirect posterior rosin complex inlays/onlaysIndirect inlays and onlays were developed as an aesthetic option for medium and big posterior Restorations. This was done to get the better of some of the jobs associated with direct posterior Restorations. These Restorations are expensive and clip devouring to put but they have distinguishable advantages over direct posterior Restorations which aim to cut down failure. Such advantages include: 1. They have improved proximal contacts as they are developed outside the oral cavity and even if wrong can be adjusted easy. 2. They have decreased polymerization shrinking as it occurs outside the oral cavity. The lone polymerisation shrinking which occurs in oral cavity is of the double cured resin cement on cementation. This decreases microleakage and increases the strength of these restorations.17 No statistical differences in success rates at 5 old ages was seen between these and direct buttocks restorations.18 With respects to failure of these Restorations, in one study19 the failure rate of indirect rosin composite inlays and onlays was 5 % at 4-6 old ages. Fracture of the tooth or fringy ridge, and secondary cavities are the most common manners of failure, with increased failure being seen with increased Restoration size. Loss of fringy adaptation, coloring material and anatomical signifier were besides seen but did non do Restoration failure. In another study20 a failure rate of 6 % at 1 twelvemonth was seen. Failure was due to secondary cavities and loss of mush verve. Again loss of anatomical signifier and fringy adaptation were seen but did non do failure of Restorations. The operator must guarantee round internal line angles and deepness of 2mm. Depth of less than 2mm can do bulk break of Restoration particularily in onlays.Indirect posterior ceramic inlays/onlaysIndirect ceramic inlays/onlays are extremely aesthetic and biocompatible indirect posterior Restorations. They have the same indicants and advantages as indirect posterior rosin composite inlays/onlays but are more expensive and are seen as less user friendly. There is a really strong bond between the rosin cement and the porelain doing it a better stuff for an onlay than rosin complex. Ceramic Restorations have the potency to have on the opposing dentitions, for this ground the operator should n't utilize them for patients with parafuntion and teeth under high emphasiss. Loss of anatomical signifier is non a job with these Restorations. In one study21 eight out of 50 of the Restorations failed due to fracture at 3 old ages it was found that accommodation to the fitting surface and polished surfaces seemed to predispose to failure. Another 6 twelvemonth study22 found failure rate of 12 % with rosin cement and 26.3 % with gic adhering techniques. Partial break and secondary cavities were the most common grounds for failure. It was besides noted that there was increased ditching in ceramic Restoration which is likely due to differing wear rate between ceramic and tooth. Operator must guarantee equal deepness and unit of ammunition internal line angles. The operator must ever do certain that with ceramic Restorations there is contact merely in maximal intercuspation and non in inframaxillary digressive motions.Indirect posterior gold inlays/onlaysPosterior cast gilded inlays and onlays have an first-class clinical path record. These Restorations have first-class wear opposition, do n't have on the opposing dentition and have high strength. They have the same indicants and contraindications as other inlays and onlays with the exclusion that they can be used in high emphasis countries, for illustration they can be used in bruxers. The disadvantage with this type of Restoration is they are expensive, can do hypersensitivity reactions and they are n't aesthetic. Posterior cast gilded inlays weaken the staying tooth construction and can take to cusp break. The chief manner of failure of these Restorations is secondary cavities and tooth break. One survey showed a failure rate of 14.3 % at 10 old ages with 2 and 3 surface Restorations holding lower failure rates that one surface restorations.24 When making these Restorations, particularily in bruxers, the operator must ne'er put occlusal contact at enamel/gold border, contacts must be in enamel or gold merely.Indirect buttocks CrownsCast gold metal CrownsAll metal Crowns are by and large made in the signifier of full coverage cast gilded Crown. This type of Restoration has been around for over 100 old ages and has a repute for giving the longest service of any dental restoration.25 These Restorations are really strong and biocompatible. The readying of full gold Crown is the most conservative of the full coverage Crowns, and unlike ceramic Crowns they cause no wear of opposing dentitions. Their chief drawback is their high cost and deficiency of aesthetics. These Restorations are used in dentition with extended tooth construction loss, root canal treated dentitions and due to its hig h strength they can be placed in bruxers. The chief cause of failure for these Restorations is wear of the metal and secondary caries.26 These Restoration seldom fail by break and tend to protect tooth construction. Surveies have shown that these Restorations have the longest endurance rates and conversely the lowest failure rates of any dental Restoration. One long term survey showed a failure rate every bit low as 4.6 % 27 while another study28 reported a 32 % failure of these Restorations over 10 old ages. Interestingly this survey reported increased failure of dramatis personae gold Crown in root treated dentitions. The operator must maintain in head opposition and keeping when fixing the tooth for these types of Restorations.All ceramic CrownsAll ceramic Crown usage in posterior dentition is increasing all the clip. This tendency will go on as patient ‘s concern with aesthetics additions and development of improved strength in ceramics continues. These Restorations are extremely aesthetic, less expensive than othe r crown options and biocompatible. Unfortunately all ceramic Crowns have a non conservative tooth readying, have really low tensile strength and cause wear of opposing dentitions and as a consequence should non be used in bruxers or in dentitions which undergo high biting forces as they will necessarily neglect. These Restoration are typically merely used posteriorly teeth with loss of tooth construction or which have been root treated. In both instances they can merely be used where aesthetics are paramount and they wont be subjected to high emphasiss. The failure of Thursdaies Restoration in posterior dentition is the highest for all crown Restorations. Current grounds even suggests that clinicians should n't utilize all ceramic Restorations in molars.29 Failure of these Restorations is due to secondary cavities and break of the crown Restoration. One survey showed a failure rate of 0.8 % .30 Another survey reported a 6 % failure in all ceramic Restorations after 3 years.31 Neither of these surveies are longterm survey and the were set in private pattern with individual tooth doctors transporting out work. Possibly their exceeding clinical accomplishment led to such high consequences because in a long term survey over 10 old ages in general alveolar consonant services the failure rate was 52 % . This was higher that gold or ceramometal by a big fraction.28 Just like dramatis personae metal crowns the failure rate is increased in root treated dentitions.Porcelain fussed to metal CrownsPorcelain fused to metal Crowns are the most co mmon signifier of Crown used in dental medicine. They combine the strength of the dramatis personae metal with the aesthetics of porcelain. Their chief disadvantage is their disbursal and the fact they wear opposing dentitions so they cant be used in bruxers. Their biocompatibility is besides questionable as a little per centum of people can hold hypersensitivy reactions to the metal. It is true to state that porcelain fused to metal hold comparatively long term service.32 When they fail it is normally due to recurrent cavities or break of porcelain from the metal understructure.33 One survey showed failure of 38 % at 10 years.28 The rate of failure is increased with root treated teeth as was seen with the other two types of Crowns.DecisionWhile Is have o

Teamwork in Business Environment

Teamwork can be simply defined, â€Å"as a state of unity achieved within a group of people working for a specific economic benefit. † It is used to determine the coordination and cooperation of a business venture so as to attain the optimum output of the employees. All around the world we can find various organizations that work in business group having a fixed and well defined set of rules and regulations to ensure teamwork and maintain team spirit in the organization.Looking at the size and vastness of projects in an  organization, necessary work has to be broken down into different departments, even departments are not sufficient enough to handle the burden of work. Thus in departments there arises the need to make different teams of individual that are assigned a common target, so as to accomplish the organizational goal. A team that works together to share common goal stands out to achieve the goals. Teamwork helps in making the task more interesting with the social su pport and cooperation of the employees and hence improving their skills.NewspaperThe old tale of the Japanese samurai warrior takes a new life in today’s generation. The tale talks about the warrior making his sons realize that if they stick together no power can ever defeat them. Likewise, today’s executives consider that their ability to overcome challenges rests most upon teamwork. In today’s world it is necessary for a leader to work in a team so as to overcome the challenges he faces. Irrelevant of the leader’s rank, he or she needs to gather information, relating to the issue at hand, and consider others viewpoints in order to make an appropriate decision.A leader is always thought to be someone who is heroic and unaccompanied, but instead he is the one who works in a team while solving various problems. Gergern, 2007, here, considers Honoree Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense, America and United Kingdom’s former Prime Minister, T ony Blair. Krupp, being one of the best corporate leaders of America, could not do anything, to reduce carbon emissions, alone.It was the partnership that he, along with Jonathan Lash of the World Resource Institute, created with large corporations including General Electric, Duke Energy and DuPont, which was able to put intense pressure on the federal government to reduce carbon emissions. Believing that no country can alone handle climatic change, Tony Blair being a political leader states, ‘If the U. K. stopped using carbon entirely, industrial production from China would make up the difference in just two years.’Thus it is teamwork that helps leaders achieve success in their respective fields of profession. One’s business and well-being can only grow with the advice, support, ideas and help of his or her TEAM. It is very well said by Napolean Hill that â€Å"no man is an island† and no one can achieve its best or highest success if try to do it by itse lf. It is always amusing to hear that Sir Edmund Hillary was the first to scale Mt Everest, or that Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon.True, they were the individuals who raised the flag, but those achievements were not accomplished alone. Both Charles Lindbergh, the first to fly solo from New York to Paris, and Steve Fosset who flew around the world solo before his untimely death, did it in planes they did not build and with the support of thousands of people who made their flights possible. Every successful entrepreneur has dozens of people cheering them on. Every successful endeavor is the result of many people working in concert, giving advice, sharing the vision and encouraging us.Everyone needs his or her â€Å"companions† in success. If you do not have a â€Å"team† then it is very difficult to optimally achieve the task, and if you do not have a coach then you don’t know whether you are heading in correct direction or not. Remember Napolean Hill– â€Å"no man (or woman) is an island. † Or, as the Beatles put it even more memorably, â€Å"We get by with a little help from our friends. † TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) prides itself on the team’s excellent reputation, credibility and expertise.Academic JournalTeamwork is the most important virtue of a good team. It is the most basic requirement for the successful functioning of any organization. Most individuals work in a business environment that requires cooperative team efforts to successfully reach business goals. All business goals can be only achieved by teamwork and full co-operation of all individuals. This makes the ability to work in teams a critical skill set. It is a skill that is required by any one who wants to effectively contribute to an  organizations development.The recent trend towards leaner, flatter organizations, with fewer levels of hierarchy, places even greater emphasis on the need for cross-functional teamwo rk. Team performance completely depends on the synchronized efforts of the individuals who work in a team. A team that works together can achieve all goals in stipulated time, with 100% perfection and zero defects. The concept of teamwork becomes more important when people work in big teams.Also, teamwork and functioning of a team depend on the team leader. A team that cooperates with its leader and follows him can function smoothly; hence a team which works together achieves heights together. The skill of teamwork is very precious to all organizations; all organizations are always in search of individuals who can contribute to the development of a team. These days’ big organizations also organize special activities to develop team spirit within its employees; this benefits the employees as well.Working in a good team helps employees to concentrate better on their work, it leads to better working environment and hence better development of employees. Thus, teamwork is a skill , which is beneficial and necessary for the smooth functioning of any organization. Cooperation between individuals can only help an organization to successfully achieve its goals and good levels of employee satisfaction.Book Extract or ChapterAccording to today’s business environment, teamwork is a very essential part of every organization. Teamwork improves the quality and performance of the organization and provides job satisfaction to the workers. In an organization, teamwork is widespread and provides flexibly to the organization and shows improvements in the other important areas such as employee relations. Basically teamwork helps the organization to achieve its goals. Using effective teams fallibility can be achieved with provides a  better platform for the organization so that it can operate smoothly in this rapidly changing business world.Teams can only be efficient if it has better working relationship which can only be achieved, provided that working together as a combine effort can make an organization flourish that will also help in increasing job satisfaction and quality of work life. Teamwork will also reduce workload as the work has been divided and it is easy for the employee’s to work more effectively and this will lead to organizational benefits.Benefits of Teamwork:Providing social support to employeesEncourage cooperationMake jobs more interesting and challengingImproves employees technical and interpretation skillsWebpageTeamwork is becoming more significant in the workplace as companies have started to notice the benefits that co-operative efforts can provide. While teamwork has for long been present in the workplace with employees, only recently this has shifted towards the upper level management. One trend that has also recently picked up is the ‘lift out. ’ Companies have noticed that certain groups of employees who are exceptional succeed because of the team that they work with. A ‘lift out,â€℠¢ involves hiring a high functioning team that has worked together in the past.This has many benefits; one of the main being the new group ‘can quickly come up to speed in a new environment. ’ (Groysberg, Abrahams, 2006) Employees that have worked together often have fewer conflicts between each other, and each member of a group is aware of the other members’ strengths and weaknesses, making delegation of a given task much easier and more efficient. As a team grows together, having a variety of different strengths within the group allows the group to function as a single unit, capable of much more than individuals performing together.The longer groups work together, the more cohesive they become and their efficiency only increases. The first known ‘lift out’ occurred in 1946 when a Air Force Colonel took nine of his colleagues to the Ford Motor Company, and helped the desperate company pull through some difficult times. Since then, lift outs have bec ome more common, and today the companies have started to realize the full potential that lift outs can bring.While it may harm the company that lost employees, a lift out can be greatly beneficial financially to the company that’s hiring the team. The company can save significantly on training and acquainting the new group with each other, and can directly put the new employees to work. It is crucial in this day and age for firms to encourage teamwork as the internet has simplified communication and made interaction easier. A good team can be a great asset to companies as they increase efficiency while saving them both time and money.ConclusionAnalyzing the sources given above, we can conclude that:Newspaper article 1- Riaa Khurana: In today's generation all leaders, irrespective of their ranks, need to work in teams in order to achieve success. Newspaper article 2- Shantanu Aggarwal: Every business today can only grow if its members work in a team and solve the problems that the business faces by giving in their respective ideas and viewpoints. Academic journal- Akshai Puri: Any existing organization can only achieve success is it has the beneficial skill of teamwork.It is the cooperation between its members that helps the organization achieves their goals. Book extract or chapter- Gaurav Gandhi: Teamwork helps the organization improve its product and job quality. It also helps an employee get full job satisfaction and work efficiently by reducing his or her workload. Webpage- Vivek Talluri: Teamwork should be encouraged as a good team acts as an important asset for companies and helps them increase their productivity.

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CW1 Rooms division systems - Essay Example   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Deadline & schedule. The twenty rooms will be constructed between November 1 to 30 2006 in order to open to the coming December clients and seminar(Hardill, 33) participants. The planning which includes the design, specifications and contracts will be ready by the end of October 10, 2006.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Planning. The design, specifications(Croak, 51) and contracts will be ready by the end of   June in order to give time for the construction team to acquaint itself with the room construction technicalities.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Budget. Since only local room construction materials will be used, except the room door which will be imported from another country, and only expert construction crews will be hired, the cost of construction will be budget conscious. The budget will funded by   loans with the bank and investments from prospective shareholders in the stock market. The budget will easily be recovered within five years’ time based o n a well researched project feasibility study.   .  Ã‚   The hotel staff will hire an outside building contractor to renovate(Hands et al, 33)   all the rooms of the company. The company will save more money because there will lesser   raw materials wastes when skilled carpenters and their co –workers   work together because as the famous saying  Ã‚   goes, united we stand, divided we fall.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Segmentation. The clients will be concentrated on the couples, their family which includes their children and seminar participants. The entire room can easily be converted to a seminar room that has a capacity to seat around one hundred fifty persons.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Educational Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Educational Psychology - Essay Example Probing students for answers is a crucial process that enhances the learners’ cognitive skills. It helps them to think, memorise, perceive, make decisions and solve problems. Their social skills are also enhanced when they are given a chance to explain and justify their viewpoints in front of the class. Surprisingly, numerous research studies show that some teachers have not fully understand the essence of class participation and the significance of keeping students alert all the time during class sessions. It is unfortunate to find out that there are cases when students turn off and resort to sleeping after the teacher comes to class. Even worse is the fact that some teachers do little to rejuvenate these students. Some would even ridicule the sleeping students and make fun of the situation. In the end, the students’ achievement level drastically falls. Learning, therefore, becomes inadequate. The prime aim of learning should be to equip students with knowledge and skills that can positively influence their behavior. Without this change, learning is of no use. Eventually, in such classes, some few students who are ever attentive will gain while those who switch off will continue recording low scores. Paddlepop Stick Method and Popsicle Stick Method of learning are strategies that have been used by the ‘concerned’ teacher to ensure that all students are active in class. These learning strategies will actuate a learning environment where every learner actively participates in all the classes daily. This method involves inscribing of the learners’ names in popsicles sticks. These sticks are then given to the students to hold during class sessions. The teacher the initiates the lesson and when they have a question to answer, the names written on the sticks are read out. If a student’s name is mentioned, they will be the one to respond to the question. This is unlike the

Law of Intellectual Property 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Law of Intellectual Property 2 - Essay Example Legal issues that arise out of the case under consideration is whether there has been any infringement on the part of Julian who has used the photographs and paintings which Techno Ltd has compiled in a DVD under licence from Howard who is the owner of the original photographs and paintings. Whether Julian has committed the act of secondary infringement? Whether Julian is liable to Techno ltd which makes the DCD under licence or to Howard, the original owner or to both. Artistic work Section 4(1) (a) defines an â€Å"artistic work† to include photograph among other items regardless of artistic quality. S 4(2) (a) & (b) define â€Å"graphic work† to include â€Å"any painting, drawing, diagram, map, chart, or plan and any engraving, etching, lithograph, woodcut or similar work. Section 12 prescribes duration of a copyright in artistic work among other items as 70 years expiring at the end of the 70th year from the calendar year in which the author dies. If the work is c omputer generated, duration ends at the 50th year from the end calendar year in which the work was made. This means that copyrights subsists during the life time of the author of a literary work and continues for 70 or 50 years after his death as the case may be. In the present case copy right on the photographs of Howard’s grandfather can be argued to have expired in 2008 i.e 70 years from the year of death of Howard’s grandfather. Most of the artistic works however are Howard’s own and he is entitled to copyrights over his own photographs during his lifetime plus 70 years (N.A., 2007). Under the Copyrights, Designs, Patents Act 1988, (CDPA) it is an offence to carry out the following restricted acts without the owner’s consent. The acts are copying the work, renting, lending or issuing copies of the works in public, perform, broadcast or show the work in public. And adapt the work (UKCCS, 2000). Howard’s engagement of Techno Ltd to compile a digi tal data base includes all that he possesses and it may amount to secondary works since the data base would include his late grandfather’s artistic works. Secondary works are also original works since compilation involves ‘skill labour and judgement’. In Warwick Films v Elsinger (1969), the defendant’s claim that the books copied from were not original works was countered by the court as both books as original as they had undergone considerable selection from the manuscripts to constitute originality (Colston & Galloway, 2010, p. 293). The data base has been licensed to Techno ltd by Howard and both decide to include data base of their DVD the shipping directory published by Ship Ltd. This DVD has now been acquired by Julian exploits the information contained in the DD for his own book meant for children using the photographs and paintings of Howard. In the absence of terms and conditions of license, it is assumed that they both have become co-owners of th e copy rights for the contents of the DVD. By publishing Howard’s grandfather photographs that remained unpublished even after 70 years of his death now in the DVD, they both acquire what is called â€Å"publication right† that is equivalent to â€Å"copy right† which however enjoys protection only for 25 years from the year of publication In this connection, an exclusive license should be in writing and signed by the owner. This authorizes the licensee to the exclusion of all other

Fine Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Fine Art - Essay Example This paper explores the connection that exists between art and other disciplines/subjects (Marshall, Donahue, Ayers, & Hetland, 2014).   Since art is a multidimensional subject in the sense that it encompasses literature, visual arts, and performing arts, it interacts with other unrelated fields at different levels. For example, art has a relationship with history through fictional and creative essays and novels that give readers insight into historical events and phenomena. Students who learn historical facts through art will develop unique perspectives about the world. Although Science exists to explain the law of nature, arts fine-tunes the understanding of various persons so that they can analyses different situations and the reasons for the existence of such circumstances. It is also worth noting that mathematics and arts have some connection because both require logical reasoning and analysis of situations and problems (Cukierkorn, 2008).   Learning art through visual arts, dance, and music develops a student’s brain so that the student can handle equally or more challenging disciplines like mathematics and physics that require some mental capacity. Whether they do knowingly or inadvertently, individuals/students employ artistic skills in his/her daily life. As a major discipline, art is an all-inclusive subject that covers a broad range of subjects such as social sciences, history & political science, life sciences, and engineering. Art is related to engineering because most of the engineering concepts employ creative skills. Besides, engineering is mainly a design subject, and art plays a primary role in any design aspect (Marshall, Donahue, Ayers, & Hetland, 2014).   Most schools, particularly in the United States, have adopted disciplined-based art education (DBAE) in order to produce students who are wholesome in their curricular. Since most disciplines like mathematics and science focus on specific dimensions, they do not provide students with

Argue that Medea exhibits symptoms of a person suffering from bipolar Essay

Argue that Medea exhibits symptoms of a person suffering from bipolar disorder - Essay Example tica’ to win Jason’s love, and in ‘Medea’ when Jason leaves her to remarry; she turns violent and kills her own children to take revenge on Jason. This act of killing her own children has left so deep an impact on human psychology that filicide is referred to as ‘Medea syndrome’. However in a modern context if we take a closer look at the character of Medea we will find that in her deep anguish, melancholy and her abnormal love for Jason she epitomized all the symptoms of the medical condition that we now know as ‘bipolar syndrome’. Thus Medea is a character that is not to be hated and prototyped as anti-social and an outcast, but it is much to be pitied upon, in her loneliness and in her lovesick melancholia that wreaked havoc on her mind. This article will explore the traits and symptoms of bipolar disorder and relate it with the extreme behavior that Medea exhibited, as portrayed by Euripides in his play ‘Medea’. What is bipolar disorder? Bipolar disorder is a psychological condition where there are great mood fluctuations, from being happy in one moment, to becoming extremely depressed in the very next minute. So this is also a sort of mood disorder. As Peacock tells us â€Å"people who have bipolar disorder experience extreme changes in mood, energy and behavior. They alternate, or switch, between two opposite emotions†¦their mood repeatedly alternates from extremely happy, or high, to sad and hopeless†¦.people with bipolar disorder cannot control their mood changes† (Peacock, 5). People with bipolar disorder swing from, being excessively happy which is known as the manic phase, to being greatly depressed. During the manic phase the patient is restless, full of energy, excited and also irritable. During the depression phase, they have a constant feeling of hopelessness and unhappiness which makes them dull and listless. So people with bipolar disorder are on an emotional r oller coaster ride perpetually, either they are soaring high above

Statistics Project Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Statistics Project - Research Paper Example So aaccording to given conditions we state that null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis will be There are various statistical packages designed to carry out quantitative data analysis, the most widely used package is SPSS. SPSS enables the researcher to input raw data modify or reorganize the data once inputted and then perform a wide selection of analytical techniques (Blaxter, Hughes & Tight 2001). The scales utilized within the test instruments will be designed to denote the use of detailed statistical algorithms on collected data. Preliminary data analysis will include descriptive statistics, which will encompass univariate analytic techniques such as means, modes and standard deviations, and exploratory descriptive statistics, which will ascertain if the data collected, is normally distributed. So the Pearson correlation (r) of popularity and math scores is equal to -0.368. So according to this small value of correlation coefficient we conclude that there is a week negative association between these variables. This may imply as popularity level increases, math test scores decreases and vice versa. We use correlation method to determine whether some variable that's not under our control is associated - correlated - with another variable of our interest. Correlational studies aim at identifying relationships between variables. So i Test Statistic By using formula t = , = = = -1.1194 Scatter Plot Critical Region: t 2.048 Do not reject Ho, because the calculated value is not fall in the critical region. Conclusion: Do not reject null hypothesis so we conclude that there is no significant linear association/relationship between level of popularity and math test score. So in the relationship between children's level of popularity with their peers and their performance in academic tests they respond that there is no significant relationship between these popularity level and their maths scores. Descriptive Statistics The Descriptive procedure displays univariate summary statistics for several variables in a single table and calculates standardized values (z scores). Variables can be ordered by the size of their means (in ascending or descending order), alphabetically, or by the order in which we select the variables. Simple it is a useful procedure for obtaining summary comparisons of

The Wal-Mart Essay Example for Free

The Wal-Mart Essay Currently, Kroger is the country’s largest traditional supermarket chain. Kroger sells over $60 billion a year, and operates over 2500 supermarkets across the country. But even Kroger is still in competition with Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart’s philosophy and culture does not appear to value consumer or company ethics. They compete with more than food prices. Many supercenters offer a full-service drive-thru pharmacy, an optical center, a 1-hour photo processing center, a portrait studio, a bank, video rental store, hair and nail salon, fast food chain, tire shop, and even offer 24 hour a day-365 days a year availability. The temperature controls for all of Wal-Mart’s stores across the country are controlled by one computer in Bentonville, Arkansas. Because of Wal-Mart’s size, they have the power to instruct suppliers on how to package their products, including meats. However, meats is one area of the supermarket industry that Wal-Mart has some weaknesses because many supermarkets provide a friendly neighborhood butcher who provides a friendly face and customized approach to consumers’ meat needs. To Wal-Mart, hiring a butcher is a labor expense that is not needed. These types of attitudes in the supermarket industry are exactly the reason why consumers may choose to seek their family grocery needs in a culture and environment where more emphasis is placed on quality customer service, up-to-date technological advances, marketing strategies that cater to a more culturally-diverse consumer, quality products, and a smaller environment that provides a neighborhood-marketplace atmosphere. Smaller supermarkets can offer a wider variety of products, particularly fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, poultry and fish. Many successful smaller supermarket chains sell a limited number of grocery items to ensure that the quality is maintained and products are not sitting on a shelf for an extended period of time, and change the product mix frequently to offer unique products at a good value, changing the shopping experience for every visit, especially for repeat and loyal customers. A study conducted in 1999 found that the implementation of customer loyalty programs/frequent shopper programs increased by 16 percent from the first quarter of 1998. As loyalty programs increase, and marketing technology becomes more integrated and advanced, the responsible analysis and collection of customer data will provide merchandisers with numerous opportunities to market products, programs and services that supermarkets can offer to its consumers, including those in an ethnically-diverse population. Supermarkets must be responsible and ethical in their collection of data about their consumers and cater to their shopping needs by offering both quality customer service from its employees, and quality products that fulfill their shopping needs. Extensive study must be done on the consumer to uncover where shoppers shop for certain needs like staple items, meats, fresh fruits and vegetables, and organic foods, and offer these products in the most cost-effective manner so that the smaller supermarkets do not lose their market share to the larger supercenters and chains.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Dream Speech Essay Example for Free

The Martin Luther King Jr. Dream Speech Essay In no other place were the overall dreams of African Americans better stated than in the speech delivered by Martin Luther Jr. on August 28, 1963. Martin Luther aptly stated what had been the silent hope of many African Americans who had suffered segregation, slavery and unfair treatment from their Caucasian masters. Martin Luther however, spoke not from a victim standpoint, but from the standpoint of a person who knew that what America was witnessing that day was just a pointer to better things to come. His speech was full of hope, yet he agreed that a hundred years after the signing of the emancipation proclamation, the black people were not yet free, they were still poor in a country that glowed in prosperity and they were not yet accepted as part of the greater American society. This however, did not deter him from being hopeful. He still believed that there was hope in the promissory note depicted by the words of the American constitution as well as the Declaration of Independence that the right to life, liberty and happiness would be available to everyone regardless of their skin color. Though he knew that the black people had been denied many things, he refused to believe that the situation would be like that forever. He chose dialogue over strife as evidenced by his speech and though many blacks may have been overjoyed by his advocacy for them, the weight of the words must have touched a nerve with the white majority. Martin Luther propagated the real meaning of democracy in his speech, which would include eliminating social injustices and embracing brotherhood (Demetrice, A. Perry, J. Jr). Being a straight talker, he spoke plainly about what the African Americans would do if they were not granted citizenship rights. â€Å"The whirlwinds of revolt will shake the foundations of this country until justice is done† he said. He told the Caucasians that their destiny was tied to the African American’s. In this speech, Martin Luther King Jr. did what many slave revolts had been unable to do; convince the white community that America needed to have equality among all the races present if the country was to develop. The Nat Turner Confession Nat Turner on the other hand, started the slave rebellion in Antebellum South by organizing black men to slaughter white men. In the jail where he was incarcerated after the rebellion, Turner confessed about his life and what had led him to stage the rebellion. In the confession, it was evident that Turner too felt the pinch of slavery and deep within, just like Martin Luther , had the dream that one day, the black people would be free. His approach was different from Martin Luther’s as he utilized violence in a bid to air the slave’s grievances. Turner believed that he had been divinely elected to set the black community free. This was the same reason he had given for returning to his master after running away. He claimed that he had received divine revelation and that he must serve his earthly master. His time in slavery however, allowed him to prepare for what he termed as his great mission, which was to execute the white people. Respected among his peers for his great insight, Turner was able to convince them easily to take part in the insurrection. Evidently, the black community was fed up with the ill treatment, but had no channels through which they could vent their frustrations. When Turner suggested the insurrection, they were all too willing to follow him (Gray, T. R, 1831). Overall, Nat Turner and Martin Luther King Jr. were two people with common goals of emancipating the black community from slavery. Their approaches were different in that one choose diplomacy, while the other choose a revolution. Reflection of the African American History in the Speeches Both the Turner confession and the Martin Luther King dream speech portray a part of African-American history that revolved around slavery and the denial of basic freedoms and rights by the white community. In his speech, Martin Luther portrays his dreams well about what he hoped America would become. As such, we get the picture that for each dream that he put forth, the opposite was exactly true in real life. Racism was at its worst, with the blacks suffering the blunt of it. This is evident when he says that the â€Å"whites only† signs rob their children off their dignity. A striking difference between the blacks is evident when Martin Luther says that whereas the Negroes in Mississippi are denied the right to vote, those in New York believe they have no reason to vote The two speeches further reveal that not all white people were opposed to the emancipation of the black people and that indeed a significant number of Caucasian Americans respected and admired the black people. In Martin Luther’s speech, he says that the presence of white people during his speech delivery was evidence enough that not all white people are to be distrusted. This however suffices the norm during those days that blacks would always view the white people suspiciously. Nat Turner also acknowledges that his master realized his great potential and remarked that he would not be of any useful service as a servant. It is also revealed by Turner that slavery was a deeply committing work, such that he could only pray when his slavery duties allowed. He also reveals that it was not uncommon for the slaves to run away from their master’s farms and seek refuge in some of the states that had declared freedom for the slaves. The difference between the two speeches is that the Martin Luther speech was read 100 years after the signing of the emancipation proclamation, while the Turner confession was given when blacks were still under slavery in many states. The two therefore have different aspects of African American history with Turner’s giving some insight in to what life was during the slavery era, while Martin Luther’s gives snippets on the slow progress that the white society made before accepting the free black community as part of the larger American society. According to the Martin Luther speech, despite the signing of the emancipation agreement in 1862, the black people were still crippled by ties of segregation and discrimination. As such, the black could not access basic services with as much ease as the whites did. Poverty was also widely spread among the black community especially because they worked for little wages and did not own property like their masters. Martin Luther says that the black community was still in an island of poverty, while their country was an ocean of prosperity. In addition, he compares the Negroes to people who find that they are actually in exile in their own land. Martin Luther also reflected the hopeful nature of the black community who with each new day hoped that something better and more promising would come their way. He said, and in a way captured the belief of many black people, that the vaults of American opportunities had not run dry and that more opportunities would open up for the black people. A part of the heritage that has been associated with the slavery era is the Negro spirituals as stated in the Martin Luther speech. Reflections of the speeches on the Contemporary African American culture Through the daring and courageous acts of Nat Turner, many African Americans were able to know that slavery is a thing that they did not have to put up with. As a result, many of them started clamoring for freedom, calls that eventually led to their emancipation. The white slave owners were also more aware of the brewing insurrection among the slaves and as opposed to earlier times when they could boss the slaves around, they started giving them some level of democratic space. This was done in order to avoid mass revolts. The fact that the whites and blacks learnt to respect each other and even appreciate each other’s contributions may have an indirect impact on the relation between whites and blacks in contemporary society. Martin Luther on the other hand advocated for human rights, a common characteristic in today’s society. Although not a preserve of the black community alone, human right violations are always met by protests that seek to let the ruling class know that the masses are not comfortable with the negative social developments. As such, Martin Luther advocated for the proper collection of facts, determination of whether justice exists, negotiating with the parties concerned and if this fails, then direct action would be the next best thing (africanamericans. com). Today, the black community is among the minority groups who shout the loudest whenever their rights are infringed upon. The Speeches also teach the contemporary society that oppressed people cannot remain in that position forever and that eventually their yearning for freedom will supersede the forces that try to keep them down. With the African-American, the oppression awakened them to the fact that freedom is real and that it can also be gained through persistence. In a contemporary setting, the speech reflects the fact that discontent if channeled into the right and creative outlets can bear desirable results. Advocacy is such one combination which always provides an alternative to confrontations. The words of Martin Luther resonate well in the contemporary world. For example, one of his famous quotes is â€Å"Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere†. No black leader can vouch for this statement better than the world leaders of all races, colors or creeds who have witnessed injustice sprout and eventually become a wide spread catastrophe that attracts protestors to the streets. The strong belief that Turner and Martin Luther fought for the cause as well as the rights and freedoms of the black community have led to what has been branded the African-American communism. Understandably, having faced the same fate of segregation and discrimination based on their skin color, African Americans were inclined to social groupings that would advance their cause in the social, economic and political circles. Maybe not the kind of brotherhood that Martin Luther had referred to in his dream speech, but still a form of brotherhood that shares the same history. The fact that Martin Luther fought with words, marches and sermons is a clear indication that words are more powerful as a means of getting a truce. One stands a better chance of getting more people to support his or her arguments. At one point in his speech, he urged the black people to refrain from physical confrontation and instead use soul strength to fight against physical force used against them. He also asked them to avoid guilt for things they had done in their struggle towards seeking freedom Conclusion The fact that American is revered as the world’s largest democracy is no small fete. Knowing the history of the country, it is right to say that the country has made enormous steps into ensuring that each of its citizens is well protected by the law and that personal liberties are upheld at all times. Issues relating to racism keep on emerging and it would be wishful thinking to imagine that they will easily disappear. The fact is that as long as there are color differences between the different people in America, the racial question will always arise. Today however, an emerging trend has seen to the branding of the black culture as a fashionable thing and no longer is the black community seen as the underdogs. The evolving of the society to embrace a more inclusive culture where people are judged by their merits and not by their skin color is a true realization of Martin Luther’s dream that one day America will embrace brotherhood. The Martin Luther King dream though told at the height of uncertainty about the future of the black community has proven true as today, people from all races get to live and work in America without much racism. Even in the mild cases of racism, general respect between the people is still maintained in the full knowledge that there is no difference between individuals except maybe their skin color, which does not count for anything. Today the rights of the black worker are respected just as much as those of his white counterpart. In the likely incident that there is oppression in the work place, both suffer the same fate. The social divide today has more to do with economic groupings and social classes as opposed to racism. Through self-determination and utilizing the opportunities provided to them by government institutions, the black community has successfully managed to bridge the economic gap that existed between the white community and them. The journey for the black community in the US has been most dramatic. It has seen the rise and fall of heroes who will forever remain in the memories of the community on whose behalf whom they struggled so much. Martin Luther King Jr. will for example, remain as a civil rights hero who was not afraid to stand up and defend what he believed was right. Under the same ideals, he did not shy away from being put in jail as he upheld the same beliefs. Bibliography Luther, M. Jr. Beyond Vietnam: 1987 www. africanamericans. com/MLKjrBeyondVietnam retrieved 4th December 2007 Demetrice A. W Perry J, Jr. African American Literature an Anthology Second Edition. Topeka Blvd: Topeka Bindery (2001) Gray, T. R. The Confessions of Nat Turner: Leader of the late Insurrection in the Southampton, VA. (1831) www. wfu. edu/~zulick/340/natturner. html retrieved 4th December 2008

Ryman Is Famous For Customer Service Marketing Essay

Ryman Is Famous For Customer Service Marketing Essay Introduction Ryman is famous for customer service. Everyone who works at the 237 Ryman stores nationwide aims to deliver the best possible customer experience to everyone who visits the specialist stationery stores.   This is achieved through a number of routes, including the companys investment in training so that people in the stores have an in-depth knowledge of their product range. Employees feel valued by the organization that encourages them to come up with bright ideas that are then shared within the business.   As well as being the nations high street stationery specialist, many Ryman stores offer additional services to customers. For example, many stores have a photocopier machine for customers to use and all stores provide printed stationery.   Other services range from document binding, a fax service, a photo booth, laminating, and a bulk copying service. Some stores usually based in the larger cities have a Copy Shop where all these services are offered. There are four Ryman stores that also have a Post Office. Industrial Plan Industry analysis is a tool that facilitates a companys understanding of its position relative to other companies that produce similar products or services. Understanding the forces at work in the overall industry is an important component of effective strategic planning. Industry analysis enables small business owners to identify the threats and opportunities facing their businesses, and to focus their resources on developing unique capabilities that could lead to a competitive advantage. Many small business owners and executives consider themselves at worst victims, and at best observers of what goes on in their industry. They sometimes fail to perceive that understanding your industry directly impacts your ability to succeed. Understanding your industry and anticipating its future trends and directions gives you the knowledge you need to react and control your portion of that industry, Kenneth J. Cook wrote in his book The AMA Complete Guide to Strategic Planning for Small Business.However, your analysis of this is significant only in a relative sense. Since both you and your competitors are in the same industry, the key is in finding the differing abilities between you and the competition in dealing with the industry forces that impact you. If you can identify abilities you have that are superior to competitors, you can use that ability to establish a competitive advantage. http://www.enotes.com/small-business-encyclopedia/industry-analysis An industry analysis consists of three major elements: the underlying forces at work in the industry; the overall attractiveness of the industry; and the critical factors that determine a companys success within the industry. The premier model for analyzing the structure of industries was developed by Michael E. Porter in his classic 1980 book Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. Porters model shows that rivalry among firms in industry depends upon five forces: the potential for new competitors to enter the market; the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers; the availability of substitute goods; and the competitors and nature of competition. These factors are outlined below. INDUSTRY FORCES The first step in performing an industry analysis is to assess the impact of Porters five forces. The collective strength of these forces determines the ultimate profit potential in the industry, where profit potential is measured in terms of long term return on invested capital, Porter stated. The goal of competitive strategy for a business unit in an industry is to find a position in the industry where the company can best defend itself against these competitive forces or can influence them in its favor. Understanding the underlying forces determining the structure of the industry can highlight the strengths and weaknesses of a small business, show where strategic changes can make the greatest difference, and illuminate areas where industry trends may turn into opportunities or threats. http://www.enotes.com/small-business-encyclopedia/industry-analysis EASE OF ENTRY Ease of entry refers to how easy or difficult it is for a new firm to begin competing in the industry. The ease of entry into an industry is important because it determines the likelihood that a company will face new competitors. In industries that are easy to enter, sources of competitive advantage tend to wane quickly. On the other hand, in industries that are difficult to enter, sources of competitive advantage last longer, and firms also tend to benefit from having a constant set of competitors. The ease of entry into an industry depends upon two factors: the reaction of existing competitors to new entrants; and the barriers to market entry that prevail in the industry. Existing competitors are most likely to react strongly against new entrants when there is a history of such behavior, when the competitors have invested substantial resources in the industry, and when the industry is characterized by slow growth. Some of the major barriers to market entry include economies of scale, high capital requirements, switching costs for the customer, limited access to the channels of distribution, a high degree of product differentiation, and restrictive government policies. POWER OF SUPPLIERS Suppliers can gain bargaining power within an industry through a number of different situations. For example, suppliers gain power when an industry relies on just a few suppliers, when there are no substitutes available for the suppliers product, when there are switching costs associated with changing suppliers, when each purchaser accounts for just a small portion of the suppliers business, and when suppliers have the resources to move forward in the chain of distribution and take on the role of their customers. Supplier power can affect the relationship between a small business and its customers by influencing the quality and price of the final product. All of these factors combined will affect your ability to compete, Cook noted. They will impact your ability to use your supplier relationship to establish competitive advantages with your customers. http://www.enotes.com/small-business-encyclopedia/industry-analysis POWER OF BUYERS The reverse situation occurs when bargaining power rests in the hands of buyers. Powerful buyers can exert pressure on small businesses by demanding lower prices, higher quality, or additional services, or by playing competitors off one another. The power of buyers tends to increase when single customers account for large volumes of the businesss product, when a substitutes are available for the product, when the costs associated with switching suppliers are low, and when buyers possess the resources to move backward in the chain of distribution. AVAILABILITY OF SUBSTITUTES All firms in an industry are competing, in a broad sense, with industries producing substitute products. Substitutes limit the potential returns of an industry by placing a ceiling on the prices firms in the industry can profitably charge, Porter explained. Product substitution occurs when a small businesss customer comes to believe that a similar product can perform the same function at a better price. Substitution can be subtle-for example, insurance agents have gradually moved into the investment field formerly controlled by financial planners-or sudden-for example, compact disc technology has taken the place of vinyl record albums. The main defense available against substitution is product differentiation. By forming a deep understanding of the customer, some companies are able to create demand specifically for their products. http://www.enotes.com/small-business-encyclopedia/industry-analysis COMPETITORS The battle you wage against competitors is one of the strongest industry forces with which you contend, according to Cook. Competitive battles can take the form of price wars, advertising campaigns, new product introductions, or expanded service offerings-all of which can reduce the profitability of firms within an industry. The intensity of competition tends to increase when an industry is characterized by a number of well-balanced competitors, a slow rate of industry growth, high fixed costs, or a lack of differentiation between products. Another factor increasing the intensity of competition is high exit barriers-including specialized assets, emotional ties, government or social restrictions, strategic inter-relationships with other business units, labor agreements, or other fixed costs-which make competitors stay and fight even when they find the industry unprofitable. http://www.enotes.com/small-business-encyclopedia/industry-analysis http://kelas.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/porters-five-forces-model.jpg Production Plan Production planning is the function of establishing an overall level of output, called the production plan. The process also includes any other activities needed to satisfy current planned levels of sales, while meeting the firms general objectives regarding profit, productivity, lead times, and customer satisfaction, as expressed in the overall business plan. The managerial objective of production planning is to develop an integrated game plan where the operations portion is the production plan. This production plan, then, should link the firms strategic goals to operations (the production function) as well as coordinating operations with sales objectives, resource availability, and financial budgets. The production-planning process requires the comparison of sales requirements and production capabilities and the inclusion of budgets, pro forma financial statements, and supporting plans for materials and workforce requirements, as well as the production plan itself. A primary purpose of the production plan is to establish production rates that will achieve managements objective of satisfying customer demand. Demand satisfaction could be accomplished through the maintaining, raising, or lowering of inventories or backlogs, while keeping the workforce relatively stable. If the firm has implemented a just-in-time philosophy, the firm would utilize a chase strategy, which would mean satisfying customer demand while keeping inventories at a minimum level. The term production planning is really too limiting since the intent is not to purely produce a plan for the operations function. Because the plan affects many firm functions, it is normally prepared with information from marketing and coordinated with the functions of manufacturing, engineering, finance, materials, and so on. Another term, sales and operations planning, has recently come into use, more accurately representing the concern with coordinating several critical activities within the firm. The production plan also provides direct communication and consistent dialogue between the operations function and upper management, as well as between operations and the firms other functions. As such, the production plan must necessarily be stated in terms that are meaningful to all within the firm, not just the operations executive. Some firms state the production plan as the dollar value of total input (monthly, quarterly, etc.). Other firms may break the total output down by individual factories or major product lines. Still other firms state the plan in terms of total units for each product line. The key here is that the plan be stated in some homogeneous unit, commonly understood by all, that is also consistent with that used in other plans. PRODUCTION SCHEDULING The production schedule is derived from the production plan; it is a plan that authorized the operations function to produce a certain quantity of an item within a specified time frame. In a large firm, the production schedule is drawn in the production planning department, whereas, within a small firm, a production schedule could originate with a lone production scheduler or even a line supervisor. Production scheduling has three primary goals or objectives. The first involves due dates and avoiding late completion of jobs. The second goal involves throughput times; the firm wants to minimize the time a job spends in the system, from the opening of a shop order until it is closed or completed. The third goal concerns the utilization of work centers. Firms usually want to fully utilize costly equipment and personnel. Often, there is conflict among the three objectives. Excess capacity makes for better due-date performance and reduces throughput time but wreaks havoc on utilization. Releasing extra jobs to the shop can increase the utilization rate and perhaps improve due-date performance but tends to increase throughput time. Quite a few sequencing rules (for determining the sequence in which production orders are to be run in the production schedule) have appeared in research and in practice. Some well-known ones adapted from Vollmann, Berry, Whybark and Jacobs (2005) are presented in Operations Scheduling. THE PRODUCTION PLANNING AND PRODUCTION SCHEDULING INTERFACE There are fundamental differences in production planning and production scheduling. Planning models often utilize aggregate data, cover multiple stages in a medium-range time frame, in an effort to minimize total costs. Scheduling models use detailed information, usually for a single stage or facility over a short term horizon, in an effort to complete jobs in a timely manner. Despite these differences, planning and scheduling often have to be incorporated into a single framework, share information, and interact extensively with one another. They also may interact with other models such as forecasting models or facility location models. It should be noted that a major shift in direction has occurred in recent research on scheduling methods. Much of what was discussed was developed for job shops. As a result of innovations such as computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) and just-in-time (JIT), new processes being established in todays firms are designed to capture the benefits of repetitive manufacturing and continuous flow manufacturing. Therefore, much of the new scheduling research concerns new concepts and techniques for repetitive manufacturing-type operations. In addition, many of todays firms cannot plan and schedule only within the walls of their own factory as most are an entity with an overall supply chain. Supply chain management requires the coordination and integration of operations in all stages of the chain. If successive stages in a supply belong to the same firm, then these successive stages can be incorporated into a single planning and scheduling model. If not, constant interaction and information sharing are required to optimize the overall supply chain. productdevelpment Operational Plan An  operational planning  is a subset of strategic work plan. It describes short-term ways of achieving milestones and explains how, or what portion of, a strategic plan will be put into operation during a given operational period, in the case of commercial application, a fiscal year or another given budgetary term. An operational plan is the basis for, and justification of an annual operating budget request. Therefore, a five-year strategic plan would need five operational plans funded by five operating budgets. Operational plans should establish the activities and budgets for each part of the organization for the next 1 3 years. They link the strategic plan with the activities the organization will deliver and the resources required to deliver them. An operational plan draws directly from agency and program strategic plans to describe agency and program missions and goals, program objectives, and program activities. Like a strategic plan, an operational plan addresses four questions: Where are we now? Where do we want to be? How do we get there? How do we measure our progress? The OP is both the first and the last step in preparing an operating budget request. As the first step, the OP provides a plan for resource allocation; as the last step, the OP may be modified to reflect policy decisions or financial changes made during the budget development process. Operational plans should be prepared by the people who will be involved in implementation. There is often a need for significant cross-departmental dialogue as plans created by one part of the organisation inevitably have implications for other parts. Operational plans should contain: clear objectives activities to be delivered quality standards desired outcomes staffing and resource requirements implementation timetables a process for monitoring progress. Helping Students   Budgeting can be difficult for students, which is why Ryman offers a discount on line of 12.5% for extra NUS customers. All you need to do is enter your card number in the shopping basket page or show your card in store.   If you are student but not a member of NUS Extra, you can receive a 10% discount in store if you show your student ID.   Helping those Looking for Gift Ideas   The great thing about stationery is that it is always useful, so it is an ideal gift for the practically-minded. You can now buy special pre-paid  gift cards  at various prices. Helping sport the Ryman League   Ryman are proud sponsors of the Isthmian Football League, called the Ryman League. The clubs are highly supportive of the companys charity fundraising and played with red footballs in support of the Red Nose Day and Sport Relief, as well as organising bucket collections.   Helping those in Need   The business has a great track record in supporting  good causes  and raised half a million pounds for Red Nose Day in 2009 and over  £225,000 for  Sport Relief  this year.   Employee fundraising is encouraged at all levels.   Ryman people   The companys dynamic Chief Executive Officer, Kypros Kyprianou, says that business should be fun, as well as being about making money. Perhaps this is why the company holds conferences for employees twice a year and encourages high performance through bonus schemes.   The high level of employee satisfaction might explain the low turnover of employees within the business, something that is very unusual within the competitive retail industry.   It is the belief of Chairman  Theo Paphitis, who is the Skillsmart Retail Apprentices Champion, that happy employees provide the best possible customer service.   All store employees have to be thoroughly trained before they can serve a customer, not least because they need to be aware of legislation relating to the sale of various goods. Training is then run on an on-going basis, resulting in employees joining the companys own Five Star Training program.   In addition, the company has just set up a Retail Academy that is currently training groups of store employees who are gaining a new qualification while working and so far the feedback has been very positive all round.   Ryman is a supporter of the  retail trust  charity which offers a confidential counselling service to retail employees.   Product Range and Sourcing   Product quality is important to Ryman and the company makes sure that all suppliers comply with the code of ethical trading (The Ethical Trading Initiative Base Code) and continues to monitor these standards on a regular basis. Like all forward-thinking companies, Ryman aims to minimize its carbon emissions and has put plans in place to achieve this important aim. Marketing plan A  marketing plan  is a business document written for the purpose of describing the current market position of a business and its  marketing strategy  for the period covered by the marketing plan. Marketing plans usually have a life of from one to five years. Purpose of a Marketing Plan The purpose of creating a marketing plan is to clearly show what steps will be undertaken to achieve the business marketing objectives. While some small business owners include their marketing plan as part of their overall business plan, if a business owner follows the recommended SBA format, parts of the marketing plan will be included in the various areas of the business plan. As an alternative, the marketing plan may be attached in its entirety as an appendix to a business plan. Whats in a Marketing Plan? A typical small business marketing plan might include a description of its competitors, the demand for the product or service, and the strengths and weaknesses from a market standpoint of both the business and its competitors. Other elements usually contained in a marketing plan include: Description of the product or service, including special features Marketing budget, including the advertising and promotional plan Description of the business location, including advantages and disadvantages for marketing Pricing strategy Market segmentation (specializing in specific niche markets or, if mass marketing, how marketing strategy might differ between different segments, such as age groups). Behind the corporate objectives, which in themselves offer the main context for the marketing plan, will lie the corporate mission, which in turn provides the context for these corporate objectives. In a sales-oriented organization, the marketing planning function designs incentive pay plans to not only motivate and reward frontline staff fairly but also to align marketing activities with corporate mission. This corporate mission can be thought of as a definition of what the organization is, of what it does: Our business is. This definition should not be too narrow, or it will constrict the development of the organization; a too rigorous concentration on the view that We are in the business of making meat-scales, as IBM was during the early 1900s, might have limited its subsequent development into other areas. On the other hand, it should not be too wide or it will become meaningless; We want to make a profit is not too helpful in developing specific plans. Abell suggested that the definition should cover three dimensions: customer groups to be served, customer needs to be served, and technologies to be utilized. Thus, the definition of IBMs corporate mission in the 1940s might well have been: We are in the business of handling accounting information [customer need] for the larger US organizations [customer group] by means of punched cards  [technology]. Perhaps the most important factor in successful marketing is the corporate vision. Surprisingly, it is largely neglected by marketing textbooks, although not by the popular exponents of corporate strategy indeed, it was perhaps the main theme of the book by Peters and Waterman, in the form of their Super ordinate Goals. In Search of Excellence said: Nothing drives progress like the imagination. The idea precedes the deed.  If the organization in general, and its chief executive in particular, has a strong vision of where its future lies, then there is a good chance that the organization will achieve a strong position in its markets (and attain that future). This will be not least because its strategies will be consistent and will be supported by its staff at all levels. In this context, all of IBMs marketing activities were underpinned by its philosophy of customer service, a vision originally promoted by the charismatic Watson dynasty. The emphasis at this stage is on obtaining a complete and accurate picture. A traditional albeit product-based format for a brand reference book (or, indeed, a marketing facts book) was suggested by Godley more than three decades ago: Financial data-Facts for this section will come from  management accounting, costing and finance sections. Product data-From production, research and development. Sales and distribution data Sales, packaging, distribution sections. Advertising,  sales promotion, merchandising data Information from these departments. Market data and miscellany From  market research, who would in most cases act as a source for this information. His sources of data, however, assume the resources of a very large organization. In most organizations they would be obtained from a much smaller set of people (and not a few of them would be generated by the marketing manager alone). It is apparent that a marketing audit can be a complex process, but the aim is simple:  it is only to identify those existing (external and internal) factors which will have a significant impact on the future plans of the company.  It is clear that the  basic  material to be input to the marketing audit should be comprehensive. Accordingly, the best approach is to accumulate this material continuously, as and when it becomes available; since this avoids the otherwise heavy workload involved in collecting it as part of the regular, typically annual, planning process itself when time is usually at a premium. Even so, the first task of this  annual  process should be to check that the material held in the current  facts book  or  facts files  actually  is  comprehensive and accurate, and can form a sound basis for the marketing audit itself. The structure of the facts book will be designed to match the specific needs of the organization, but one simple format suggested by Malcolm McDonald may be applicable in many cases. This splits the material into three groups: Review of the marketing environment. A study of the organizations markets, customers, competitors and the overall economic, political, cultural and technical environment; covering developing trends, as well as the current situation. Review of the detailed marketing activity.  A study of the companys  marketing mix; in terms of the 7 Ps (see below) Review of the marketing system.  A study of the marketing organization,  marketing research  systems and the current marketing objectives and strategies. The last of these is too frequently ignored. The marketing system itself needs to be regularly questioned, because the validity of the whole marketing plan is reliant upon the accuracy of the input from this system, and `garbage in, garbage out applies with a vengeance. Portfolio planning.  In addition, the coordinated planning of the individual products and services can contribute towards the balanced portfolio. 80:20 rule.  To achieve the maximum impact, the marketing plan must be clear, concise and simple. It needs to concentrate on the 20 percent of products or services, and on the 20 percent of customers, which will account for 80 percent of the volume and 80 percent of the profit. 7 Ps: Product, Place, Price and Promotion, Physical Environment, People, Process. The 7 Ps can sometimes divert attention from the customer, but the framework they offer can be very useful in building the action plans. Financial plan A financial plan consists of sets of  financial statement  that forecast the resource implications of making business decisions. For example, a company that is deciding to expand e.g. by buying and fitting out a new factory will create a financial plan which considers the resources required and the financial performance that will justify their use. You can see from this statement that the financial plan will need to take into account sources of finance, costs of finance, costs of developing the project, as well as the revenues and likely profits to justify the expansion program.   Planning models may consist of thousands of calculations. Typically these plans will be constructed with the aid of forecasting models and spreadsheets that can calculate and recalculate figures such as profit, cash flows and balance sheets simply by changing the assumptions. For example, the business may want to do one set of calculations for low, medium, and high demand figures for its products. Financial plans Financial plans are typically made out for a given time period, e.g. one, three or five years. The length of the time considered depends on the importance of projecting into the future and the reliability of estimates the further we consider the future. Long-term plans are created for major strategic decisions made by a business such as: take over and merger activity expansion of capacity development of new products overseas expansion. In addition financial planning will be carried out for shorter time spans. For example, annual budgets will be created which can be analysed by month and by cost centre. Short term financial plans then provide targets for junior and middle management, and a measure against which actual performance can be monitored and controlled. In addition it is normal practice for a business to prepare a three- or five-year plan in less detail, which is updated annually. A  budget  is a short term financial plan. It is sometimes referred to as a plan expressed in money but it is more accurately described as a plan involving numbers. A cost centre is defined by CIMA as a production or service location, function, activity or item of equipment whose costs may be attributed to cost units. This Financial Plan template will help you to identify the: Types of labour costs to be incurred during the project Items of equipment needed to deliver the project Various materials needed by the project Unit costs for labor, equipment and materials Other costs types such as administration Amount of contingency needed You can then use the Financial Plan template to create a budget by: Calculating the total cost involved in completing the project Identifying the total cost of each project activity Creating a schedule of expenses Creating a project budget is an extremely important part in any project, as it gives you a  goal post  to aim for. This Financial Plan will help you meet that goal post, by giving you a clear process and template for creating a budget for your project. http://www.myrightplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Financial-planning-process.jpg

Affirmative Action Essay example -- essays research papers

Affirmative action is the nation’s most ambitious attempt to redress its long history of racial and sexual discrimination, however in modern times and approximately forty years after the establishment of this policy, society is plagued with the issues of whether affirmative action is necessary, whether it is a benefit or detriment to society, and why it incites rather then eases the nation’s internal dilemmas after so many years of having been in effect. In the following paragraphs the issues surrounding this debate, such as what is the definition of affirmative action, how and why affirmative action was established to begin with, who is affected by this policy, whether affirmative action is still necessary in today’s society or if such policy should be done away with, and, finally, possible resolutions to this dilemma, will be reviewed, beginning with the explanation of how affirmative action came about. In March l96I, less than two months after President John F. Kennedy took office, he issued an Executive Order (10925), which established the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. Its mission was to end discrimination in employment by the government and its contractors. The order required every federal contract to include the pledge that "The Contractor will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, creed, color, or national origin. The Contractor will take affirmative action, to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin." (QUOTE) Here for the first time the government called for "affirmative action." Soon, thereafter the Civil Rights Act of 1964 restated and broadened the application of this principle with the Title VI, which declared that "No person in the United States shall, on the ground Or r ace, color or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance." But within one year President Lyndon B. Johnson argued that fairness required more than a commitment to impartial treatment. In his 1965 commencement address at Howard University, he said: "You do not take a person who for years has been hobbled by chains and liberate him... ...us attempt to redress its long history of racial and sexual discrimination, however in modern times and approximately forty years after the establishment of this policy, society is plagued with the issues of whether affirmative action is necessary, whether it is a benefit or detriment to society, and why it incites rather then eases the nation’s internal dilemmas after so many years of having been in effect. In the following paragraphs the issues surrounding this debate, such as what is the definition of affirmative action, how and why affirmative action was established to begin with, who is affected by this policy, whether affirmative action is still necessary in today’s society or if such policy should be done away with, and, finally, possible resolutions to this dilemma. Affirmative Action is the bridge between changing the laws and changing the culture. The radical right wing would have us believe that women and people of color earn less because we don't work as hard or we're not as smart. That simply isn't the case. Laws have changed, but discrimination persists. Affirmative Action only opens doors, women and people of color have to walk through those doors by themselves. Affirmative Action Essay example -- essays research papers Affirmative action is the nation’s most ambitious attempt to redress its long history of racial and sexual discrimination, however in modern times and approximately forty years after the establishment of this policy, society is plagued with the issues of whether affirmative action is necessary, whether it is a benefit or detriment to society, and why it incites rather then eases the nation’s internal dilemmas after so many years of having been in effect. In the following paragraphs the issues surrounding this debate, such as what is the definition of affirmative action, how and why affirmative action was established to begin with, who is affected by this policy, whether affirmative action is still necessary in today’s society or if such policy should be done away with, and, finally, possible resolutions to this dilemma, will be reviewed, beginning with the explanation of how affirmative action came about. In March l96I, less than two months after President John F. Kennedy took office, he issued an Executive Order (10925), which established the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. Its mission was to end discrimination in employment by the government and its contractors. The order required every federal contract to include the pledge that "The Contractor will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, creed, color, or national origin. The Contractor will take affirmative action, to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin." (QUOTE) Here for the first time the government called for "affirmative action." Soon, thereafter the Civil Rights Act of 1964 restated and broadened the application of this principle with the Title VI, which declared that "No person in the United States shall, on the ground Or r ace, color or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance." But within one year President Lyndon B. Johnson argued that fairness required more than a commitment to impartial treatment. In his 1965 commencement address at Howard University, he said: "You do not take a person who for years has been hobbled by chains and liberate him... ...us attempt to redress its long history of racial and sexual discrimination, however in modern times and approximately forty years after the establishment of this policy, society is plagued with the issues of whether affirmative action is necessary, whether it is a benefit or detriment to society, and why it incites rather then eases the nation’s internal dilemmas after so many years of having been in effect. In the following paragraphs the issues surrounding this debate, such as what is the definition of affirmative action, how and why affirmative action was established to begin with, who is affected by this policy, whether affirmative action is still necessary in today’s society or if such policy should be done away with, and, finally, possible resolutions to this dilemma. Affirmative Action is the bridge between changing the laws and changing the culture. The radical right wing would have us believe that women and people of color earn less because we don't work as hard or we're not as smart. That simply isn't the case. Laws have changed, but discrimination persists. Affirmative Action only opens doors, women and people of color have to walk through those doors by themselves.

Sociology of Racial and Cultural Groups Essay -- Sociology and Race

Three sociological perspectives used in the study of minorities are: Structural functionalism, symbolic interactionalism and conflict theory. These perspectives offer "theoretical paradigms" for explaining how society influences people, taking into account the social factors that impact on human behavior. However, different theories, ideas, and prejudices can influence a sociologist's conclusions. Each of these theories has a contribution to make with a distinct focus. Functional theory was influenced by Emile Durkheim. Adherents of this theory emphasize, "Various parts of society have functions or positive effects that promote solidarity and maintain the stability of the whole." (Parrillo 11) Thus a society is held together by "social consensus," or cohesion whereby members of the society agree upon and work together to achieve what is best for society as a whole. The social structure consists of status positions, roles and institutions (family, education and religion), and members that share common values. It is a system of interrelated and independent parts, and each of these parts plays an important role in fulfilling certain functions for a smooth operation of society. Functionalists think that all elements of society should function together to maintain order and stability, and under ideal conditions, a society would be in a state of balance with all parts interacting harmoniously. Problems come about when the social system is no longer functional offsetting society's balance. . The most frequent cause for this disorganization is rapid social change, which causes conflicts. Because the focus is on societal stability an important issue in this analysis of societal disorganization is `whether to restore the ... ...to attain socioeconomic growth, educational and job opportunities, and also maintain ethnic solidarity. Alba and Nee indicate that we will have a better understanding of ethnic and racial differences if we refine the assimilation theory to address differences in settlement, language acquisition, and mobility patterns. REFERENCES Janzen, Rod. "Melting Pot or Mosaic." Educational Leadership 79:9-11 Ruane, Janet M. and Karen A. Cerulo. 1997. " Education is the Great Equalizer." Pp156-162 in Seeing Conventional Wisdom through the Sociological Eye. California. Pine Forge Press. Parrillo, Vincent J. 2003. Strangers to These Shores. New York: Allyn and Bacon. Dzgourides, George and Christeie S. Zgourides. 2012. Cliffs Quick Review Sociology New York. IDG Books Worldwide Inc. Samuelson, Robert J. 2014 "Can America Assimilate." Time, April 9, pp42

The mystic drum

Lyrics† (2011). African Studies Faculty Publication Series. Paper 12. Http://schoolwork. Numb. Deed/African_faculty_pubs/1 2 This Article Is brought to you for free and open access by the African Studies at Schoolwork at Amass Boston. It has been accepted for inclusion in African Studies Faculty Publication Series by an authorized administrator of Schoolwork at Amass Boston. For more information, please contact library. [email  protected] Deed. ‘The Mystic Drum': Critical Commentary on Gabriel Okra's Love Lyrics: Checksum Ozone, PhD Professor of African & African Diaspora LiteraturesIntroduction In the course of reading a chapter entitled â€Å"Empty and Marvelous† In Alan Watts fascinating book, The Way of Zen (1 957), a serendipitous key was provided, by the following statement from the teachings of Chinese Zen master,l Aching Yuan Weighing (1067-1120), to the structure and meaning of the experience traumatized in Gabriel Okra's most famous love poem, â€Å"Th e Mystic Drum†: 2 Before I had studied Zen for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains and waters as waters.When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw the mountains are not at rest. For it's Just now that I see mountains once again as mountains and waters once again as waters. What is so readily striking to anyone who has read â€Å"The Mystic Drum† is the near perfect dynamic equivalence between the words of Aching Yen and the phraseology of Okra's lyric.In line with Aching Yuan's statement, the lyric falls into three clearly defined parts?an initial phase of â€Å"conventional knowledge,† when men are men and fishes are fishes (lines 1-15); a median phase of â€Å"more intimate knowledge,† when men are no longer men and fishes are no longer fishes (lines 16-26); and a final hash of â€Å"substantial knowledge,† when men are once again men and fishes are once again fishes, with the difference that at this phase, the beloved lady of the lyric is depicted as â€Å"standing behind a tree† with â€Å"her lips parted in her smile,† now â€Å"turned cavity belching darkness† (lines 27-41).The significance of this closing phrase will be discussed in the appropriate slot in the final section of the paper, below. But because of the complexity of the imagery and symbolism by means of which progression of the lover's understanding of the nature of reality is developed, it seems necessary to visit the lyric in its entirety before proceeding to a phase-bypass analysis of its structure: The mystic drum beat in my inside and fishes danced in the rivers and men and women danced on land to the rhythm of my drum But standing behind a tree with leaves around her waist she only smiled with a shake of her head. One of the major schools of Buddhism that originated in 12th-century China with current strongholds in India and Japan, Zen strongly emphasizes enlightenment through meditation and vehemently denies the value of conventional thinking in favor of an attempt to understand the paradoxes of reality by â€Å"direct pointing† unfettered by what it sees as arbitrary customary compartmentalizing of phenomena.Since the middle of the twentieth-century, the exciting and fresh insights provided by Zen masters have been a source of inspiration for many non- Asian writers, artists and intellectuals throughout the world, especially in North America. 2 The present commentary is a revised and updated version of a paper originally entitled â€Å"Zen in African Poetry: Gabriel Okra's ‘The Mystic Drum† and shared privately with several of my students and academic colleagues at Abidjan, Lagos and Nausea (Nigeria) and Boston (Massachusetts), USA.Checksum Ozone / The Mystic Drum: Critical Commentary angora's Love Poetry: 2 rippling the air with quickened tempo compelling the quick and the dead to dance and sing with their shadows? Then the drum beat with the rhyt hm of the things of the ground and invoked the eye of the sky the sun and the moon and the river gods and the trees began to dance, the fishes turned men and men turned fishes and things stopped to grow? 10 15 20 25 And then the mystic drum in my inside stopped to beat? and men became men, fishes became fishes and trees, the sun and the moon found their places, and the dead .NET to the ground and things began to grow.And behind the tree she stood with roots sprouting from her feet and leaves growing on her head and smoke issuing from her nose and her lips parted in her smile Then, then I packed my mystic drum and turned away; never to beat so loud any more. 35 Aching Yuan's Zen experience is epistemological?pertaining to a step-by-step initiation of the passionate lover into an understanding of the nature of reality, in particular â€Å"the foundations, scope, and validity of knowledge† (Online Enchant).It can thus be surmised that â€Å"The Mystic Drum† is not Just a conventional amatory lyric, revoked by the storm and stress of Okra's passionate love for his adored and adorable second wife (an African-American with Caribbean roots, Diamond Carmichael, who died in Port Harcourt in 1983). 3 It is more decidedly a philosophical poem in which the dynamics, directions and management of â€Å"the mystic drum† of passion that beats in the poet's â€Å"inside† are dramatically reenacted, in a tripartite ritual and initiatory pattern reminiscent of Aching Yen.From a conventional phase, at which the lover's understanding 3 Okra's first wife, a fellow ‘Jog from the Niger Delta and the mother of his son, Dry. Ebb Okra?a clinical psychologist in Randolph, Massachusetts, who lives in Canton, Massachusetts?was divorced when Ebb was only two years old. There is hardly an reference to her in either Okra's lyrics or interviews. Nor do we have any information about the cause of her separation from Okra. Of the nature of knowledge conforms to s ocially accepted customs of behavior or style (lines 1-15), the lover's progresses through a more intimate phase, at which this knowledge matures from a close, thoroughgoing, personal relationship (lines 16-26), to an ultimate substantial phase, situated in the optimum zone of epistemological perception, at which what the lover has come know about the nature of reality is not only solidly built but considerable in amount or importance (lines 27-41), culminating in the lover's self-imposed decision not to allow his â€Å"mystic drum† ever â€Å"to beat so loud so loud any more† (line 41).The poem concludes, in other words, with a firm decision by the lover to put strong reins on the unbridled flights of his amatory imagination, having become wizened by the knowledge and experience he has acquired. Because the tropes (â€Å"mystic,† â€Å"drum,† and â€Å"inside†), two of which appear in he title of the present paper, are recurrent in all of Okra's l ove lyrics (â€Å"Diamond,† â€Å"To Pave,† and â€Å"The Mystic Drum†), it seems necessary to pause awhile to reflect on their meaning and significance.For Okra, the word â€Å"mystic† is indeed connotative of the spiritual, the numinous, the magical, the supernatural, and the shamanistic. But it is more meaningful as a poetic code for the supervisory powers that enable the human personality to tap into hidden strengths buried in the innermost recesses of the psyche. In addition to any other signification carried over by the poet from his he theories of Swiss psychiatrist and founder of Analytical Psychology, Carl Gustavo Jung (1875-1961), as comprising the collective unconscious?the innermost recesses of the psyche, populated by archaic or primordial images which Jung calls archetypes and which, as he posits, are shared in common by all humankind. See Ozone (1981), for a more detailed discussion of the collective unconscious and its archetypes, with ref erence to the poetry of Okra's transnational, modernist, contemporary, Christopher Skibob (193()-1967).This innermost level of the psyche is operated from the outermost level?the conscious mind (the seat of our everyday thoughts and emotions) ?by the personal unconscious (the seat of repressed traumatic personal experiences or complexes which may be re-lived by the individual if and whenever memories of the original trauma that gave birth to the complex are awakened by new trauma of the same kind). In its relation to â€Å"mystic† and â€Å"inside,† the word â€Å"drum,† in Okra, generally refers to the vibes felt by an individual when there is an intense surge of subconscious promptings from any of the two levels of his â€Å"inside. Further research is needed to ascertain the consistency f all these with the idea of â€Å"the inside† in Okra's native ‘Jog language and traditional system of thought. In â€Å"The Mystic Drum† as well as in à ¢â‚¬Å"Diamond† (a lyric also provoked by Okra's love for Ms. Carmichael) and in â€Å"To Pave† (a lyric provoked by the â€Å"fire† and â€Å"flame† of an unrequited love for a mysterious paramour about whom Okra is most reticent to say anything in interviews with him), the intensity of these subconscious psychic pulsations often reaches fever pitch.The three lyrics are thus not only of enormous interest as conventional love lyrics, fusing the commonalities of oral-wide traditions of love poetry and the peculiarities of indigenous African love songs performed as part of moonlight dances; they are also worthy of critical analysis as a windows into Okra's struggle for rapprochement with the presiding lady of his poetic inspiration, his muse.The muse has been described as the source of inspiration that stimulates the art of a poet. In postcolonial discourse, it has been studied as an archetypal female figure (watermark, great mother, earth goddess, water godd ess, and dancer) embodying cultural nationalist affections and idealizations of the colonized earth of the poet's Malden (see Thomas, 1968, and Ozone, in Nonnumeric, 2011).As I have stated in the later citation, 4 For the purposes of the present paper, I retain my earlier understanding of psyche (Ozone, 1981 : 30) as â€Å"the totality of the non-physical components of the human personality' (extrapolated from Jung, 1959). 5 In this paper, I use the terms traumatic and trauma to refer to â€Å"emotional shock† or â€Å"an extremely distressing experience that causes severe emotional shock and may have long-lasting psychological effects† (online Enchant). Jung defines complexes as â€Å"psychic entities that have escaped from the control of unconsciousness and split from it, to lead a separate existence in the dark sphere of the psyche, whence they may at any time hinder or help the conscious performance† (see 7 see Ozone (2006 and 2011). 4 The idea of the muse is often invoked in the scholarship on modern Nigerian literature; but it is often shrouded with a mystique that tends to reduce it to something abstract or far-fetched, or, at any rate, to a kind of African imitation of the classical muses of Garage-Roman antiquity.But our renascent muse was not only concrete and manifest in our postcolonial practical engagement with our indigenous ultras; she was also an embodiment of the highest cultural ideals of our ancestral traditions as we perceived them in the heyday of colonialism. She appeared to each and every one of us in multifarious guises. But whatever her emanation was, she was unmistakably a personification of the earth of our ancestors?the earth goddess, Ala, the supreme light (chi) that nurtures all creation, an embodiment of the eternal bond that unites the living and the dead.When our early devotional poems to this great spirit and those of our predecessors and successors are collected and published, traders will be better able to understand the ramifications of the power of this great goddess who appeared to us, as to our predecessors in the early sass's (Skibob, Window, And, Egged, Insanely, Majoring, Okapi, Kook, etc), as a dancer, spirit maiden, water maid, and other exciting feminine figures?in all cases as embodiments of our communal and individual apperception of the superiority of our indigenous cultural heritage to every single superimposition of the postcolonial order.Like Skibob and other members of the Nausea school of modern Nigerian poetry (see Thomas, 1968 and 1972; Cherub, in Landforms, 1973 and 1974; and Modulator, 1980), Okra is a votary of the watermark or mermaid, whose inspirational â€Å"songs† we hear in â€Å"The Fisherman's Invocation† (Part II and Ill) as the voice of a presiding lady (or ladies) of poesy whose presence and participation are repeatedly invoked to mediate the claims of the what is passing (the Back), is passing (the Present) and to come (the Front).I n Part II (The Invocation), the â€Å"water song† of an â€Å"assembly of mermaid† in linked with the â€Å"midwifes† that would officiate in the delivery of the Child-Front the brave new world beyond colonialism)?rubbing â€Å"gently down/the back† of the great mother past (â€Å"Back), symbolizing age-old traditions: O midwifes rub gently down the back of your Back while the sun play his play and the Back dance its dance and assembly of mermaids sing their bubbling water song beneath the river waves.And in Part Ill (The Child-Front), â€Å"the mermaids† are invoked to participate in the shaping of the future as cleansing agencies that must â€Å"carry†¦ On their songs† and embarrassing negatives of the pre-colonial past) rearing up its ugly head from a anatomically cherished past, in a situational irony reminiscent of Whole Saying's early ritual drama, Dance of the Forests (1960): Where are your Gods now Gods of the Back that have br ought forth this monster? Throw it away, throw it into the river and let the mermaids carry it on their songs.Throw it away to the Back and let the Back swallow it in its abyss And let the Gods remember their lives are in my hands In these lines, the â€Å"Gods of the Back (past) that have/brought forth this monster† (embarrassing negatives of Africans pre-colonial history) are reminded on he ‘Jog custom known as uremia, in which?as traumatized in â€Å"The Revolt of the Gods†?the fate of the gods, which are traditional in the hands of their worshippers, must be determined by humans in accordance with their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their providential conduct.In concluding, in Part IV (Birth Dance of the Child Front), the â€Å"songs of mermaids† are 5 given pride of place in finale of â€Å"our dance/ of the Front† (of the future), again stressing the primacy of the muse as an agency for shaping the future of a troubled land: Let's leave n our dance of the Front with rhythms of the Back and strengthen he fragile songs of the new with songs of mermaids Much later, in his mature post-war, political poetry set at the heart of the future envisioned in â€Å"The Fisherman's Invocation† and collected under the title The Dreamer, His Vision (2006), the mermaid reappears in â€Å"Mamma Water and Me† as the presiding lady of the poet's anguished cry for succor in the midst of the triumph of disorder (â€Å"embers.. Moldering†, â€Å"in memoriam ashes†, â€Å"flames I cannot temper†, â€Å"whirling vortex, helpless†) in post-civil war Nigeria: The embers are smoldering?once again? They've refused to die into in memoriam ashes. And have burst into flames I cannot temper. They draw into their whirling vortex, helpless? Mamma-water & me. There we stand, hand in hand, Like Starch and company, the faithful, Calmly waiting for the redeeming flames Then we shall step out with solemn steps To silence offended eyebrows and daggered tongues and walk on calm waters?still, serene?Free! Clinched by the refrain (â€Å"Mamma-water and me†), the poet expresses strong optimism that, by keeping faith (standing â€Å"hand in hand†) with his muse, â€Å"redeeming flames† that would effect â€Å"the cleansing† and â€Å"free us of earthly dross† would surely mom in the end.By contrast to â€Å"Mamma-water† (a supernatural being under whose divine shadow the poet appears helpless to offer anything but total devotion), Diamond and Pave are human objects of love to whom Okra, in his love lyrics, projects the archetype of the muse in an unconscious recognition of their place in his â€Å"inside† as his soul mates or psychic alter egos (representing, from the Jungian psychological perspective, his anima). The anima, for Jung, is one of the most powerful archetypes of the collective unconscious that participates in the all-important process of individuation. As med up in my essay on Skibob and Jung (Ozone, 1981: 37), â€Å"the anima is the primordial image of woman in a man, a counterpart of the animus, the primordial image of man engraved on the mind of a woman. The anima appears in dreams, visions and fantasies as in literature and myth in the form of a mother, a loved one, a goddess, a siren, a prostitute and an enchantress, or a femme fetal.The impact of these latent images of woman can be as destructive to the psychic health of the man who projects them as they can be beneficent. They often give rise to an obsessive pursuit of the elusive and the intractable. Because of their appearance in the mind of the poet in forms consistent with the well-established characteristics of the archetype of the anima, Diamond and Pave tend to feature in Okra's lyrics in patterns of relationships reminiscent of the kinds of poet-muse relationships described by Robert Graves in The White Goddess (1959) and exemplified in the life and poetry of Okra's contemporary, Christopher Skibob (1930-1967).As Skibob learned from his reading of Graves, and as parsed by Among (1972), â€Å"one phase in the relationship between the muse-poet and his goddess-woman is that in which the toe becomes more consciously aware of cruelty. † This lesson, also learnt by Okra and 6 embodied in the myth's of â€Å"The Mystic Drum,† â€Å"Diamond,† and â€Å"To Pave,† is writ large in the imagery and symbolism of Skibobs second sequence, Limits, especially Limits IV in which the beloved female figure metamorphoses into a ferocious lioness that gores the over-excited lover to death or, at any rate, tranquilizer him into an unconscious state from which he would awake to complete the writing of the poem at hand with a mature mind truly informed by experience: An image insists From flag pole of the heart;Her image distracts Oblong-headed lioness? No shield is proof against her? Wound me, O sea-weed Face, blinded like a strong-room? Distances of her armpit-fragrance Turn chloroform enough for my patience? When you have finished & done up my stitches, Wake me near the altar, & this poem will be finished†¦ (Limits ‘V, lines 71-84) Thus, as stated in The White Goddess, â€Å"Being in love does not and should not, blind the poet to the cruel side of woman's nature?and many muse-poems are written in helpless attestation of this by men whose love is not longer returned† (Graves, 1959: 91). As stated above, this archetypal pattern is amply reenacted in Okra's â€Å"To Pave,† â€Å"Diamond†, and â€Å"The Mystic Drum. In â€Å"To Pave,† the â€Å"fire† and â€Å"flames† of passion reduce everything between the lover and the beloved into â€Å"ashes†: And as before the fire smolders in water, continually smoldering beneath the ashes with things I dare not tell erupting from the hackneyed lore of the beginning. For they die in the telling. S o let them be. Let them smolder. Let them smolder in the living fire beneath the ashes. Through the infusion of the myth's of â€Å"the hackneyed lore / of the ginning† (evoking the sexual overtones of the relationship between Adam and Eve in â€Å"Den's farm,† as subtly recreated by Michael Cherub in his early lyric, â€Å"Sophia† (see Ozone, 2011) his personal story, Okra's â€Å"To Pave† is transformed into an archetypal tale of poet-muse relationship as predicted in Graves theory of poetry.Not surprisingly, in â€Å"Diamond,† the poet-spouse-and-lover presents itself as one in which the artist is possessed by the divine afflatus, theorized in his treatise, On the Sublime, as the primary source of inspiration for poets, by the Greek teacher f rhetoric and literary critic, Longings (ca. 1st or 3rd century AD). Akin to the notion of â€Å"spirit arrest,† in transatlantic African communities in the Caribbean and the Americas, the idea of the divine afflatus is common among the ‘Jog and elsewhere in Africa where artistic and professional creativity is often attributed to possession by a deity of madness and creativity such as Gaga (the patron of medicine-men), among the Gobo (See Mum, 2009).The speaker in â€Å"Diamond† is not only maddened by his love but clearly possessed by the ‘Jog congener of the Gobo deity of creative madness, Gaga: eke it's said a madman hears; I hear trees talking like it's said a medicine man hears. Like ABA, the hero of Herman Melville Mobs Dick, he is not Just maddened by his monomaniac complex (or neurotic fixation of on a single passion), he is indeed â€Å"madness maddened. † But Okra's wifeless is imbued with the kind of tortuous coyness that has provoked, in global amatory poetry, some of the most sublime evocations of the â€Å"cruelty of the rose† (in other words, the cruelty of the alluring object of love, as depicted in Skibobs Limits ‘V, quoted above). She is singularly unyielding: And I raised my hand? y trembling hand, gripping my heart as handkerchief and waved and waved-and waved but she turned her eyes away.The reader who turns to â€Å"The Mystic Drum† from â€Å"Diamond† and â€Å"To Pave† will immediately recognize the reification of the tension between the lover and the beloved as an extended metaphor for the exploration of something that lies in the pits of epistemology, already defined above as the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, in particular its foundations, scope, and validity. Far beyond the realms of the tremulous stirrings of the love-struck heart, the lyric takes us into he highest cerebral realms of abstruse philosophy. As the poet's muse, the beloved is not only the presiding lady of the poet's art but his link to the ultimate source all knowledge of reality?his link to the world beyond the quotidian, the wellspring of true knowledge of the essence of rea lity.From a deep structure analysis of the meaning of the poem, it seems evident that the epistemological underpinnings of â€Å"The Mystic Drum† go well beyond the culture wars of African postcolonial nationalist search for identity through such ideologies as Negritude, Pan Africans, the search or the African Personality, the African Renascent Movement, and the like. The deft modernist deployment of tropes in the poem is one that cuts across cultural and national boundaries, inviting comparison with systems of thought which Okra himself may not have ever even contemplated, including the statement from the Zen philosopher Aching Yen, with which the present commentary begins. There is, of course, no intention here to suggest that Okra was directly influenced by the oriental philosophy of Zen or that he was schooled under any Zen master.Although I have enjoyed close personal friendship with Okra since 1967 and have elsewhere remarked on the Zen mode of apperception in his poetr y (Ozone, 1991), it never occurred to me to ask him about any contact he may have had with Zen philosophy as I did not think that it was necessarily of any value to establish any such a contact, until my most recent interview with him at the University of Massachusetts, Boston (August, 2011). After listening attentively to my reading of Zen master. Aching Yuan's statement with which the present article begins, Okra readily agreed that it applies very well to his intention and the structure of the experience of the