Cash Flow Problems and Solutions Essay

Sharma and Ryan are planning to share ownership of the business SIGNature Ltd. The business will manufacture plastic road signs for builders, tourist attractions and local councils. It is imperative that the business are continually monitoring and controlling their cash flow if they aim to survive, specifically making sure there are sufficient funds to cover immediate spending. However, SIGNature Ltd. should avoid holding too much cash as this is an unproductive asset, as the business could lose out on the possible profit from investing in the cash. Many businesses produce regular cash flow forecasts, listing all likley receipts (cash inflows) and payments (cash outflows) over a future time period, in this case 12 months. SIGNature Ltd. decided to invest  £12,500 each of their own money into the business totalling at  £25000 altogether, an adequate amount of money to start off the year, however; looking at their closing balance of  £5,556 this investment could have been much hi gher, the business were aware of their costs for this month of  £135,443 – a considerable sum of money to be coming out of a start-up business in the first month. The main issue with these high outgoings is the slightly low opening balance for February, which could have been avoided if precautions had been taken such as investing more money into the business or perhaps spreading the costs. In addition to the capital introduced Sharma and Ryan were granted a bank loan of  £80,000, a fairly large sum which aided the funding of machinery at  £85,000, fittings and fixtures at  £20,000 and insurance at  £1,000 totalling at  £106,000. With the uncertainty of sales these large payments in the first month may have negative results for the months to come if their sales do not meet targets, possibly landing the business into debts that will have to be repaid through external sources of finance, which will in turn incur additional borrowing costs adding pressure to the situation. Their available bank overdraft of  £20,000 could be considered, however, this would mean additional debt and additional creditors to repay, the business would then n eed to find ways of raising money themselves using the money borrowed, in order to repay all debts successfully – this would be unlikely to work as it would take time,  resources and money putting extreme pressure on the business. Many business over borrow to finance growth, increasing interest costs which not only threatens the businesses cash position but the overall control of the business. It is important for Sharma and Ryan to fund growth in a balanced way; additional funds could have been invested through savings, Sharma and Ryan could have looked into accessible external sources of finance by for example seeking financial support from family and friends who would be interested in making an investment into the business. It appears that the business invested too much on fixed assets in the first month as the initial stages of a business’ funds are limited. Spending large amounts of money on equipment, machinery and other capital items can drain resources; Sharma and Ryan should consider lease some of these fixed assets such as the machinery, leaving sufficient cash funds. Receipts are lowest in February than any other at  £41,556, a possible result of the lower opening balance from the previous month’s outgoings. Sales remained the same at  £30,000, while regular costs remained the same, including salary payments of  £6,333 in total; this may have potential effects on the business and its profit, by paying the same outflows while receiving low inflows can cause the business to eat into turnover and therefore their profits. Other payments could also be investigated, such as their courier for example, their payments of  £1,500 seem extortionate, reducing the working capital the business have available to spend on daily activity and pay expenses. This may be an example of poor financial management, an inexperience in managi ng cash or a poor understanding of the way cash flows in and out of their business may lead Sharma and Ryan into problems. For example if a business were to spend heavily just before it receives cash from their customers who have bought on credit it is likely to face problems. It is not wise to spend cash when it is not definitely there. It will help SIGNature Ltd. to save cash if they were able to delay paying their courier for services they have already bought, the courier may also be able to extend their credit period (if any) from 30 to 60 days for example. However the business should be careful that the courier do not withdraw their credit facilities and refuse to transport the business’ goods if they are waiting too long for payment. Alternatively Sharma and Ryan could look into other courier services, comparing prices on the market in order to find a company that will transport their goods at a  lower cost; leaving additional cash funds to support other business activity. Additional action that could be taken includes reducing the personal drawings from the business, owners who regularly take cash from the business could attempt to take less. Living expenses may be an issue to consider, however, making a reduction in drawings taken could reduce the amount of money that leaves the business. March sales are again  £30,000, with the addition of  £10,700 incurred in quarterly costs including payments to HMRC and telephone bills while advertising payments have risen by  £500; the result of these costs mean the closing balance drops to  £7,970 from 12,113 in the previous month, possibly impacting on April’s cash flow if sales do not rise as expected. In addition to this Ryan and Sharma are continuing to pay themselves as well as their two staff, raising costs by  £3,166 which could be spent on other aspects of the business while continuing to pay the same rates for all other costs; consequently their outgoings for the month total at  £40,143, a higher than optimum total. Businesses are subject to unpredictable external forces, meaning they must make financial provision for any unforeseen expenditure. Equipment breakdowns, tax demands, strikes and bad debts are common examples of emergency expense. In the early stages of business development it is more likely that business owners are affected by unforeseen expenditure due to lack of experience or insufficient planning. For Sharma and Ryan, it is very important they take these factors into account when financing their business, their current poor financial management could lead them to additional expenses they are not able to afford and could possibly have long-term effects on the business which will be hard to recover from. In order to raise funds SIGNature Ltd. may consider stimulating sales for cash, many business can generate cash by offering large discounts for customers who will pay in cash, reducing the amount of time waited to receive cash from sales to cover any emergency costs incurred. Sharm a and Ryan could simply delay payments, keeping this cash within the business for a longer period of time and only paying when put under pressure by creditors. Although this may be acceptable in many cases, the business should be cautious to make HMRC payments upfront to avoid future issues such as the loss of assets or additional costs as a result. Sometimes it may be possible to sell stock of raw materials, components or unfinished goods for cash. To  generate cash quickly at lower cost if necessary, however, stocks such as road signs and their materials are specialised so may prove difficult to sell. They may consider selling to collectors of plastic, although this may not generate enough to benefit the business. April and May’s sales are to rise to  £37,000 as do purchases, going from  £13,500 to  £16,650 which could impact on profits after costs are deducted, spending although sometimes necessary can have negative effects on the business inflows. While costs cons ist of mostly mandatory payments, heat and lighting remain at  £500; the approaching summer months and likely hot weather suggest that this month’s bill should be considerably lower as days become longer at beginning of spring meaning more heat and light will be naturally generated, spending cash on these bills when they are not required is an example of financial mismanagement possibly leading to additional finance issues due to lack of cash. The business should focus on making only essential purchases, postponing or cancelling nay unnecessary spending and only buying resources when required. The business should consider ways to utilise natural light effectively in order to save energy, and costs as a result; an example could be the installation of solar panels, in addition to this the temperature in this month should be higher and therefore no need for the business to be paying the amount they are for heating. Other ways to gain or regain cash involve putting pressure on customers to pay back what they owe more quickly. Allowing customers to receive trade credit can benefit as they will appreciate the extra time to pay for purchased goods, however as SIGNature’s customers are often other business they may take advantage of this act of goodwill in resistance to repay the business when asked. Therefore the business should be wary when trusting a customer with this service, as they may not repay as result of pressure and it could lead to them simply resorting to finding another supplier. June’s sales remain at  £37,000 while the second quarterly costs are du e, HMRC payments have risen to  £12,210 as a result of higher company purchases. Total outgoings for this month are  £46,233, this is higher due to aspects of outgoings such as the addition of  £300 in telephone charges,  £500 additional advertising costs and the continual payment of heat and lighting bills of  £500. Other than this the business do not seem to be taking action against managing high costs (such as the courier for example), this demonstrates a reluctance to adapt to new  situations. When dealing with their business, Sharma and Ryan should be evolving, and adapting their business to meet current demands; what suited the business three months ago may not apply currently. Sharma and Ryan may think about introducing fresh capital this month in order to improve cash flow, they may be able to use savings or take out loans using personal possessions as security. As a small business, SIGNature Ltd. may be able to friends and family to invest in it; another possibility could be the acquiring of a new business partner to add to existing funds, in addition they may be able to offer their expertise or a fresh way of thinking which could improve the business further. July to September’s sales rise to  £41,000, a  £4000 increase from April to June’s sales and an  £11,000 increase from the beginning of the year’s sales; inflows are appearing positive by this quarter, with outgoings remaining almost the same with the exception of higher purchases, the businesses profit margin has risen significantly. Sales have noticeably continued to rise after the end of each quarter when an additional  £500 is invested into advertising, from this I can say it is clear the business has potential to improve further from the use of advertisement in order to raise brand awareness and attract new and existing customers to continue using the ir business. It could be that the ‘in-between’ months are not being put to best use, if Sharma and Ryan were to more regularly invest in additional advertisement it could be that the business sales would continue to rise. From this pattern it appears their inexperience holds them from reaching full potential at the rate they could if they were to consult others (such as potential investors, or any associates within the industry for example) who may be able to offer advice or assistance. Another possible alternative as previously mentioned could be the introduction of an additional business partner, preferably one already involved within the industry, to offer their expertise through knowledge and experience while contributing a new take on the running of their business. If reluctant to allow another person have a say in the running of their organisation, there is the possibility of acquiring the new partner as a ‘silent partner’, allowing Sharma and Ryan to gain funds and guidance on the running of their business without the possible disagreements on actions taken during daily activity, which in turn would reduce any stress this may have caused while benefiting from the extra help they would receive. From  October to December sales deteriorate to  £25,000 with bills remaining this reduces profit margins; however, opening and closing balances continue to total at over  £50,000, these large sums of money remaining each month appear positive when looking at the cash flow forecast, although this is known as an unproductive asset. The money left over at the end of the month should be banked or invested, in order to gain money from either interest earned or profit received from investment; the money lost from holding the cash could set the business back from what they could have earned if they were to have invested their money. Although many businesses try to sustain demand for their products, there may be times when it falls unexpectedly. Changes in spending habits could lead to a fall in demand, leading to fall in cash sales flowing into the company; oftentimes, trade fluctuates for seasonal reasons as it appears to have done in this case. To avoid this precautions can be taken , for SIGNature Ltd. it is thought their business would continue to strive in winter due to the nature of the organisation, additional warning road signs are likely to be needed as a result of harsh weather conditions, form this I can say that the business would be wise to invest in additional advertisement for the winter months in order to boost sales. In addition to this they may be able to provide discount in order to promote their product. This situation requires careful management of the summer months in order to regulate the winter months, although it is possible to predict these changes. In conclusion I can say that there are many issues SIGNature Ltd. could face as a small start-up business, due to varying factors; some of which include their lack of experience in both the industry and the running of a business, despite this there are many courses of action they can take in order to improve and grow their business. In my opinion the furthering of their business could be achieved through the better management of their spending, in addition to the alteration of their operation; there were a number of outgoings the business were continuing to pay when perhaps they could have found a cheaper alternative, while when possessing large sums of money, were not taking action to make use of this. As new business owners, the partnership should work on the evolution of their business by finding new ways to do things to ensure their organisation is reaching full potential by increasing profit margins through the cutting of costs and in some cases, the spreading of them in order t o achieve economies of scale,  which could benefit Sharma and Ryan greatly.

The King’s Storm- A Point of No Return

Shakespeare’s King Lear examines the politics of betrayal and the awful costs paid by its victims.   Nowhere in the play are these costs more apparent than in those scenes in which Lear and his exiled companions find themselves caught in the midst of a thunderstorm unsheltered.   As King, Lear embodied the basic assumptions of monarchy, one being that the universe is ordered according to a divine logic.   Within this ideological construct, natural phenomena works as the hand of God.Therefore, thunderstorms, earthquakes, and floods are all extensions of God’s judgment- Biblical examples include the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Great Flood, the Parting of the Red Sea, etc., etc.   Though King Lear is set in pre-Christian Britain, the dynamic enshrined in these examples operates here as well- the wicked shall be punished and the righteous shall be rewarded.   This order of due punishment and reward is shocked when Lear is betrayed by his ungrateful daug hters, Regan and Goneril.   The ensuing storm is a manifestation of this order overthrown, and is as notable for its symbolic function as it is for its direct effect on King Lear.Just as a storm will cover the sun’s rays, many of the characters left in the storm have been forced to cover or mask their true, righteous natures.   Kent and Edgar both don the apparel and manners of unlearned beggars in order to help those they serve in a time of crisis.   Lear similarly adopts the apparel of madness, though unlike the previously mentioned characters, he does so by compulsion rather than artifice.   For Kent and Edgar, these transformations aren’t permanent, as the indignity symbolized by the storm does not conquer them.   But for Lear, the storm is the last stand for his sanity.   He’s simply unable to think of his daughters’ betrayal, for â€Å"that way Madness lies† (Act III, scene 4, line 21).Another interesting parallel between the natu re of the storm and that of Lear’s madness can be drawn here.   A storm is by definition the release of pent-up energies, energies that either implode or explode but will not dissipate.   As the horrible knowledge of his misjudgments dawns on Lear, this knowledge takes the form of psychosomatic energies which must either implode as madness or explode as acts of revenge.Perhaps if Lear were a younger man, he might have tried at revenge, but madness is the seemingly inevitable result of such extreme misfortune at such advanced age.   Just as the storm explodes with its torrential rains and its deafening thunder, Lear begins his implosion in counterpoint, descending into madness.   As he cannot match the explosive rage of the storm with an act of revenge, he must mount an equally powerful attack on his own psyche.His pain runs so deep by this point that the literal gales cannot compare to â€Å"the Tempest in [his] Mind† (III, 4, 12).   Pragmatically, implosion serves not only the purpose of dispersing irrepressible psychosomatic energies, but also sets up a bulwark through which further pains cannot penetrate.   Thus, the aforementioned â€Å"Tempest in [Lear’s] Mind / Doth from [his] Sense take all Feeling else / Save what beats there, Filial Ingratitude† (III, 4, 12-14).Viewed from a different perspective, the storm can be seen as a challenge to Lear- can he show the strength and resolve that’s necessary to right the wrongs that have been done to him?   His answer to that challenge is a resounding no.   Though at some points he seems resolute, as when he calls out to the storm to â€Å"Pour on, I will endure,† his ensuing madness betrays such exclamations (III, 4, 16).Lear does endure, but only behind the aforementioned shield of implosion, a purgatorial state in which neither engagement with reality nor death is possible.   It’s only a little later that he effectively renounces what was left o f his regal spirit, crying, â€Å"†¦-Take Physic, Pomp:/ Expose thy self to feel what Wretches feel,/ That thou mayst shake the Superflux to them/ And shew the Heavens more Just† (Lear, III, 4, 33-36).   Though this statement could be interpreted as a positive call for royal humility in another context, here it is nothing more than a slightly veiled admission of surrender.   In lowering himself to the level of a common â€Å"Wretch,† he does not take dignity with him, but leaves it a memory of his once-glorious past.When considering the effects of the storm on Lear, one must consider not only the storm in itself, but the circumstances in which he experiences it.   If he had experienced such a storm in even a poor peasant’s cottage, the deposed king might have been able to clutch onto a final shred of royal composure and dignity.   But lost in the wilderness, Lear realizes that he has truly lost control of a land he once ruled, and of himself as well for that matter.   To build a shelter for oneself from cold and wind and rain is at bottom an attempt to control the elements, to moderate their rule over one’s life.Lear has, by this point, fallen so far from his earlier height that he no longer has this basic semblance of control to shield him from the whims of nature.   The former king has effectively fallen from the highest station one could possess to the very lowest.   This extreme transformation finds its expression in the extreme nature of the storm.   It is not a polite storm but one in which â€Å"Sheets of Fire,†¦Bursts of horrid Thunder,†¦[and] Groans of roaring Wind and Rain† paint a picture of hell on Earth (Kent, III, 2, 46-47).With these symbolic cues, one is meant to understand that Lear has fallen from the paradise of his court to the hell of a stormy wilderness.   His fall bears some resemblance to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve who were tempted by the flattery and promises o f Satan into actions forbidden by God and thus were expelled from paradise.   Accordingly, the idea of devils, or â€Å"Fiends,† permeates the speech of Edgar in his guise as Old Tom, the beggar, and though it’s never explicitly stated, these â€Å"Fiends† are likely the betrayers Edmund, Goneril, Regan and Cornwall.   The flattery of these betrayers preys on the good-natured faith of their victims, just as the snake preyed on that of Adam and Eve.But whereas Adam and Eve understood the consequences of their actions, Lear does not, and therefore his actions cannot be considered â€Å"sinful,† only misguided.   So fittingly, it is not through the will of God but by the machinations of his betrayers, that Lear is sentenced to a wilderness, the character of which would usually be reserved for criminals and evil-doers.   It is a realm in which, according to Edmund, â€Å"†¦revenging Gods/ ‘Gainst Parricides did all the Thunder Bend† (II, 1, 46-47).   Thus, Lear is unjustly submitted to the thunderbolts that should be reserved for his betrayers.   So it is that the storm appears at this critical time in the play as a manifestation of a judgmental wrath that has been rendered impotent.This is perhaps the nadir in the fortunes of the righteous, when all are gathered a collective of exiles, and the plans of the wicked have yet to begin their slow unraveling.   The spaces normally reserved for the righteous (the royal courts) are occupied by the wicked, and those normally reserved for the wicked (the stormy wilderness) are occupied by the righteous.   The hand of judgment seems to have been momentarily confused.   At the conclusion of the play, Albany attempts to set things back in their rightful order, despite great losses already suffered, stating â€Å"All Friends shall taste/ The Wages of their Virtue, and all Foes/ The Cup of their Deservings†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (V, 3, 295-301).Exposed to the ravages of st orm, such a sense of justice seems unattainable to Lear, an ideal lost in an age of treachery.   The storm serves as his personal point of no return, after such a fall from grace it seems impossible that he could rise again.   And he cannot- the storm is Lear’s crucifixion, though he still lived after its passing, something in him recognizes that as he inadvertently birthed the chaos that engulfs him, he must die for it to pass.

Questions

What should you do next? What are some of the options at your disposal to ensure that you do not alienate your colleagues? As the budget is limited and the number of projects in question is multiple, only the best projects which promise the maximum growth for the company can be selected. As the CIO of the firm, my Job is to keep the functional manager's happy and motivated at all times. At the same time I cannot create a void between the sponsors and myself. This type of situation creates a dilemma and needs to be dealt tactfully.As a next step I would: ) Conduct meetings with my functional managers and explain the situation such that there is no communication gap created b) Create a plan with them to help effectively sell their project to the sponsors c) Explain to them what made the other projects get selected over their projects. d) Help him identify what his project proposal lacked. 2) Are there any structural problems with the budgeting process at Performance Boards, Inc.? What improvements would you suggest for next year†if any? The performance board is tied down for budget and they need to allocate budgets to different projects.However, at a particular time, not all projects can be fulfilled. Thus only the projects best suited towards the organizations growth can be undertaken in the limited budget. However, the organization should undertake projects which will help sales. Since it is a manufacturing firm, â€Å"sales† is an important part of their business line. An increase in sales will lead help the organizations growth and increase in revenue. Performance Boards Inc. should prioritize their pillars when it comes to IT development. Since the industry is digitizing, IT priority in all departments should be created.As a strategy for next year, I would a) Create a plan where the parked projects could be prioritized. b) The project plans that are parked should simultaneously be worked upon to ensure that the plan is update as per industry. c) The departments which are the pillars of the organization and generate revenue should be put on the highest priority d) The departments which help in ensuring that the organization is still a good place to work should be placed next. e) The CIO must appoint other managers to help the departments develop a good project proposal which becomes difficult for the sponsors to ignore. The CIO should emphasize to the sponsors as to how long a particular project has been kept waiting and help the departmental projects get sanctioned. This will help him maintain relations with both the departmental managers and the sponsors. 1) Chargeback Chargeback is the mechanism by which a company charges for the amount of service that is provided by them. This model for revenue generation is used extensively in the cloud and Amazon runs it Web Services based on it. They charge a customer for the amount of resources that they consume on a monthly basis.For instance, a ustomer can start a virtual machine with amazon with a particular configuration at any time. The customer has the option to upgrade his subscription to a new one by paying the difference between the price initially paid and the actual price. By this, he gets an upgraded system. This is a classic example of a chargeback revenue model. 2) Allocation Allocation is a mechanism that many companies use to charge project teams for the services purchased by them. For instance, a company like Accenture which is a service based company has various projects running within.The company provides each team with a lot of infrastructure which is required for carrying out their tasks effectively. An example of this can be the helpdesk system which they have to provide assistance to the employees. The company charges the project team, a fixed price based on the number of employees on the project. Further, the project has to bear this cost irrespective whether it is used by the employees or not. Further, the number of times the helpdesk system can be used is not fixed. The employees are free to use it as many times as they need. 3) OverheadThe distribution of costs incurred by the company to install information systems which are distributed equally to all departments are known as an overhead cost. Crouse hospital in Syracuse went ahead to build an information system to maintain EMR. They had to bear the entire cost of this system which was internally borne by the various departments within the hospital. Whether it be the Cardiology department or the Respiratory department, each department had to bear the same cost to get the EMR installed. This cost that was borne by the department was an overhead cost which was used to fund an information system. Questions What should you do next? What are some of the options at your disposal to ensure that you do not alienate your colleagues? As the budget is limited and the number of projects in question is multiple, only the best projects which promise the maximum growth for the company can be selected. As the CIO of the firm, my Job is to keep the functional manager's happy and motivated at all times. At the same time I cannot create a void between the sponsors and myself. This type of situation creates a dilemma and needs to be dealt tactfully.As a next step I would: ) Conduct meetings with my functional managers and explain the situation such that there is no communication gap created b) Create a plan with them to help effectively sell their project to the sponsors c) Explain to them what made the other projects get selected over their projects. d) Help him identify what his project proposal lacked. 2) Are there any structural problems with the budgeting process at Performance Boards, Inc.? What improvements would you suggest for next year†if any? The performance board is tied down for budget and they need to allocate budgets to different projects.However, at a particular time, not all projects can be fulfilled. Thus only the projects best suited towards the organizations growth can be undertaken in the limited budget. However, the organization should undertake projects which will help sales. Since it is a manufacturing firm, â€Å"sales† is an important part of their business line. An increase in sales will lead help the organizations growth and increase in revenue. Performance Boards Inc. should prioritize their pillars when it comes to IT development. Since the industry is digitizing, IT priority in all departments should be created.As a strategy for next year, I would a) Create a plan where the parked projects could be prioritized. b) The project plans that are parked should simultaneously be worked upon to ensure that the plan is update as per industry. c) The departments which are the pillars of the organization and generate revenue should be put on the highest priority d) The departments which help in ensuring that the organization is still a good place to work should be placed next. e) The CIO must appoint other managers to help the departments develop a good project proposal which becomes difficult for the sponsors to ignore. The CIO should emphasize to the sponsors as to how long a particular project has been kept waiting and help the departmental projects get sanctioned. This will help him maintain relations with both the departmental managers and the sponsors. 1) Chargeback Chargeback is the mechanism by which a company charges for the amount of service that is provided by them. This model for revenue generation is used extensively in the cloud and Amazon runs it Web Services based on it. They charge a customer for the amount of resources that they consume on a monthly basis.For instance, a ustomer can start a virtual machine with amazon with a particular configuration at any time. The customer has the option to upgrade his subscription to a new one by paying the difference between the price initially paid and the actual price. By this, he gets an upgraded system. This is a classic example of a chargeback revenue model. 2) Allocation Allocation is a mechanism that many companies use to charge project teams for the services purchased by them. For instance, a company like Accenture which is a service based company has various projects running within.The company provides each team with a lot of infrastructure which is required for carrying out their tasks effectively. An example of this can be the helpdesk system which they have to provide assistance to the employees. The company charges the project team, a fixed price based on the number of employees on the project. Further, the project has to bear this cost irrespective whether it is used by the employees or not. Further, the number of times the helpdesk system can be used is not fixed. The employees are free to use it as many times as they need. 3) OverheadThe distribution of costs incurred by the company to install information systems which are distributed equally to all departments are known as an overhead cost. Crouse hospital in Syracuse went ahead to build an information system to maintain EMR. They had to bear the entire cost of this system which was internally borne by the various departments within the hospital. Whether it be the Cardiology department or the Respiratory department, each department had to bear the same cost to get the EMR installed. This cost that was borne by the department was an overhead cost which was used to fund an information system.

Management information systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Management information systems - Essay Example It is through obtaining such information, that the management of an organization is therefore able to improve its decision making capabilities, since it can now base its decisions on the accurate information regarding the company’s internal and external environmental factors. The major distinction between Management information systems and the other forms of information systems is that the management information systems enables an organization to analyze the organizational operational activities, and thereby facilitate strategic choices for the company, owing to the consideration of both the internal and the external factors influencing the organization’s operations (Lucey, 2004). ... The management information systems used in Wal-Mart are based in the information department, which comprises of a hierarchy of information specialists, who assists in the collection, analysis, interpretation and distribution of vital information regarding the organization and its internal as well as external environment, for the subsequent decision-making by the organizations top management. After the management accesses the gathered and interpreted data and information, it then plans for the subsequent implementation of the necessary actions to ensure that the business is able to overcome the challenges it faces, while capitalizing on the identified areas of its strengths (Wailgum, 2007). Thus, the Wal-Mart information system comprises of a senior systems information analyst at the top of the hierarchy, who is assisted by the business systems information analyst who is the second in command, followed by the senior business information manager, who is in turn subordinated by the rele vant sectional information managers, assisted by supervisors, and then the employees at the levels below (Wailgum, 2007). The whole department is under the leadership of the Executive Vice-President of the organization, who is also the Chief Information Officer. The organization has established a data collection and storage system based at the Jane Data Center, which has a massive capacity of 460 terabytes, enabling the organization to collect varied forms of information from within the organization and its external environments, for the purpose of storing such data and eventually analyzing it to enable the organization make informed decisions regarding its

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Industry Readiness for Going Global 1 - Assignment Example According to the Ft reporters, the United States of America auto mobile industry went from a boom to a low after the 2007/2008 economic crisis (Ft Reporters 2013). This is so since the automobiles sales from the United States of America industry fell to a record less than nine million from a high 16 million in 2005. However, after economic policies were adopted by the government the industry is slowly getting back to its feet (Lorenzo 2011). As one can see in both 2009 and 2012 China is the highest producer of vehicles in the international market. It is then followed by Japan. One notices that in the year 2009 the number of vehicles produced was low (OICA (2013). This can be attributed to the financial crisis of 2007/2008 which affected almost all players in the industry. However one notices that the USA and Germany were affected the most concluding that the crisis affected the industry most in Europe and the USA. However by looking at the statistics in 2012, the industry in the United States is recovering and shows promise of increasing in its sales and production in the futures. From the charts above, it is within reason that the key companies in the industry in the automobile industry are Volkswagen, Toyota, Hyundai and GM. However, there are other companies rising fast. Such companies include Nissan, ford and KIA. Key competitors as derived from the statistics include China, USA, Japan and Germany. Compared to its competitors, the USA automobile has various factors that give the industry an upper hand when competing with other industries in the international market. Government support is heavy in the USA unlike in other countries since the government offers loans to automobile companies. For instance, companies such as ford were lifted out of the economic crisis as a result of incentives from the government. Another advantage the USA has is that most of the citizens are loyal to home brands thus a huge

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Organizational Change Business - Essay Example The utilization and implementation of change management are needed to turn this company around. H-P since its inception manufactured computers as one its core business strategies. The organization is currently considering a spin-off of its personal computer business which generated over $40 billion yearly revenues. It is looking to move the company in another direction. â€Å"H-P has agreed to pay $10.3 billion to buy U.K. software maker Autonomy Corp. and scrapped its TouchPad tablet computer, moves that had sparked concern from customers and investors alike† (Worthen, 2011). The HP, tablets are a product that the company showcased for many years. There seems to be resistance to change among the managerial staff of the enterprise. Resistance to change can be defined as an attitude or behavior that shows an unwillingness to make or support change (Shermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, 2003, pg. 404). Mr. Apotheker was fired because he was unable to meet the financial expectations of the shareholders during the past three quarters. His tenure as CEO of the firm lasted less than a year. Mrs. Whitman has a tough task ahead as the employees, investors, and other stakeholders of the company are desperate for results. In order for her to be successful, she must change the organizational culture, improve the internal and external communication, and invest in research and development to bring to market the type of innovative products Hewlett Packard customers expect of the company. The second article chosen for analysis was How to Change Your Culture: Organizational Culture Change (Heathfield, 2011). I found this article insightful because the business culture of a company is the root that must be targeted when implementing organizational change. People get accustomed to routines, processes, and old technologies in the workplace. Changing organizational culture is a very tough task. The organization culture of a company is correlated to the managerial style of the decision makers of the company.  Ã‚  

ENaC and Hypertension Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

ENaC and Hypertension - Essay Example However, for individuals past the age of 45, the incidences of hypertension rise and affect more women than men [1]. In the U.S. 25% of Americans suffer from hypertension. High blood pressure varies amongst ethnic groups where African Americans have the highest risk for hypertension among Americans. Forty percent of African Americans have hypertension and it is more likely to be manifested at an earlier age than Caucasians. Hypertension is the primary cause of 25% of deaths in America today. Additionally, 47% of individuals with hypertension have blood pressure that is not under control. Most of hypertensives are resistant to common medications. They have to take more than one medication to render their blood pressure stable[3]. The pathogenesis of hypertension remains unknown. Blood pressure must be regulated to prevent damaging of vital organs. From this point, studying the molecular basis and human protein level of this disease is needed for early detection and for distinguish ing markers and designing targeting therapy. The kidneys play a major role in hypertension mainly in the maintenance of sodium balance within the body. They also maintain the balance of the volume of extracellular fluid that leads to the long term control of blood pressure. Therefore, any imbalance in sodium entry expands the blood volume leading to hormonal and vascular change in the kidneys and increasing blood pressure [2]. In relation to the various mechanisms involved in hypertension’s inheritance, two major categories exist. These are Mendelian hypertension and essential hypertension. The Mendelian form of hypertension occurs because of a single or small number of genes which are defective. These can also be either dominant or recessive [4]. In contrast, essential hypertension, which is a heterogeneous disorder of hypertension, is more complex and does not follow the kind of inheritance

Critically Evaluate the regulatory failures in the 2007-8 financial Essay

Critically Evaluate the regulatory failures in the 2007-8 financial crisis and discuss how these failures can be corrected in t - Essay Example In the absence of limitations on investments, US banks went on an investment spree. But for government intervention, the crisis would have been still persisting though it has not died down. Regulatory failure does not mean regulator caused the loss. The U.S. regulators have woken up to the crisis and offered practicable solutions to avert future crisis due to regulatory failure. The U.K. as major international financial centre has also been affected by the U.S. contagion and has been responsible enough to offer solutions to the regulatory failure by bringing in three more regulators. Introduction The origin of the 2007-08 financial crisis goes to the U.S. where housing mortgage loans were paid to unqualified (sub-prime) borrowers. The loans had been backed by exotic financial products with few tiers highly rated by credit rating agencies. These products were purchased by institutional and banking investors who did so for high yields at low risk. The crisis started when the de-facto b orrowers started defaulting all over the U.S. leading to unexpected losses on the front end or back end? products. Chain of bankruptcies, balance sheet write-offs followed. The sub-prime crisis is only a part of the broader picture of debt expansion. In the U.S. for which detailed data is available, total debt as a proportion of GDP increased from 150 % of the GDP in the early 1970s to 330 % in 2005. Household debt also expanded in similar fashion marked by dot.com crash to over 100 % of the GDP by 2008. Financial services which held 10 % of the total increased their share to 30 % between 1975 and 2005. The structural shift towards financial services resulted in huge increase in its profitability from 10 % in early 1980s to 40 % by 2006 (Lewis, 2010, p. 2 & 8). World is not new to financial crises. The U.K. was not immune to the present one since world’s leading institutional and banking investors are spread across the world. It has witnessed a few major crises before for dif ferent reasons. The present crisis is due to regulatory failure. This paper examines the causes of regulatory failure and solutions to avert such failures in the future. Regulatory failure Regulatory failure does not mean that financial crisis was caused by regulators or regulations. Rather it was due to short-sightedness of financial institutions and recklessness of the borrowers although there were regulatory strategies that could have averted or mitigated the factors that caused the crisis. For example, five causes are attributed to the crisis of the U.S : 1) Failure of underwriting standards for subprime mortgages and loans to inadequately qualified buyers; 2) parties to the mortgage securitisation process not maintaining market discipline; 3) poor assessment of sub-prime mortgages by credit rating agencies; 4) poor risk management by large financial services institutions; 5) non-response from financial institutions for better risk management as pointed by the U.S. Presidentâ₠¬â„¢s Working Group on Financial Markets. Each of these causes had its own regulatory attribution. Thus, there was no regulatory mechanism for business conduct and consumer protection to control sale of mortgages to homebuyers with poor credit background. Regulators could have by tougher supervisory oversight assisted large financial services institutions for better risk management. There was no control on holding companies of investment banks, private equity funds, hedge funds that

Experimental Study Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Experimental Study - Article Example The other exposures of interest include use of nitrous oxide, the utilization of slightly hypoxic mixtures during anesthesia, and postoperative opioid administration. The effectiveness of dexamethasone as antiemetic was compared with the two serotonin subtype 3 antagonists ondansetron and granisetron in 80 patients divided into four groups undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Group 1, consisting of control patients, received 0.9% NaCl; group 2 patients received ondansetron 4 mg i.v.; group 3 patients received granisetron 3 mg i.v.; and group 4 patients received dexamethasone 8 mg i.v., all before the induction of anesthesia. Both nausea and vomiting were assessed during the first 24 h after the procedure. Inclusion Criteria: A total of 80 American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical class I–II patients scheduled for laparoscopic cholecystectomy were included. The age range was from 21 to 75 years (mean: 51.5 years). Each patient gave his or her written consent to participate in the study. The study was approved by the Medical University ethics committee. The exclusion criteria: The patients’ exclusion criteria were as follows: American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) physical class III–IV; age over 75 years; body mass index above 30; pregnancy; smoking; signs of gastrointestinal, endocrine, renal, hepatic or immunological disease; use of opioids or tranquillizers less than 1 week before the operation; treatment with steroids; history of alcohol or drug abuse; history of motion sickness; preoperative diagnosis of gallbladder empyema and previous endoscopic sphincterotomy for common bile duct stones; and conversion to open cholecystectomy. The incidence of nausea and vomiting was recorded during three assessment periods, 0–6 h, 6–12 h, and 12–24 h, by nursing staff without knowledge of which antiemetic the patients had received. Both nausea and vomiting were

Influence of Mergers on Firm Performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Influence of Mergers on Firm Performance - Essay Example The result of a merger may therefore have a positive or negative influence on a firm’s productivity. This paper draws on theory and evidence in evaluating the extent to which mergers influence the performance of firms. Influence of Mergers on Firm Performance Mergers increase market power of firms, which is the ability to influence the price and supply of a commodity in the market without affecting customer loyalty (Peterson, 2002). The merging firms within a particular industry are able to establish a monopoly that is capable of controlling the quantities and prices of commodities produced. On the other hand, as DePamphilis (2002) observes, merging increases the competitive advantage of firms over competitors. A market leader results from mergers so long as government policy favors a monopolistic market and hence with the perspective of market power, mergers can be considered to have a positive influence on a firm’s performance. Organizational effectiveness can also be accomplished through mergers that pool resources from the merging organizations to form one firm with a strong resource base. A firm that has success to sufficient resources is capable of maintaining a competitive advantage. ... This allows the firm to have sufficient time to test the applicability of emerging inventions; hence it can not incur heavy losses. Moreover, merging firms enjoy the economies of scale due to the combined production (Sudarsanam, 2004). Mergers increase the new firm’s market share as a result of the amalgamation of the different levels of market share existing before the merger. In other words, firms do not lose their customers after the merger. A successful merger requires that each firm accounts for its input in to the merger, including its human resources and customers. A greater market share resulting from the merger leads to economies of scale, increased turnover and hence increased profitability (Bruner & Perella, 2004). Tax reduction has significant implications on a firm’s profitability. Each firm submits tax as a single entity depending on the level of profits. When a firm’s external environment is unfavorable and makes losses yet it continues paying taxe s, a merger comes in hardy to save it from collapse. Merging with a larger profit making company enables the loss making firm to continue producing while the larger firm enjoys a tax advantage. This may not be a favorable merger for the loss making firm and hence it may not have any positive impact on performance (Sudarsanam, 2004). Mergers develop a positive outlook of the new organization with regards to the stock market. The larger organization has the capacity to maintain stock stability than the original smaller firms. This stability is significant in maintaining the confidence of investors in the stock market, which on the other hand translates to a strong capital base that is necessary for a firm’s long term strategic

Budget Measures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Budget Measures - Essay Example A relaxing environment contributes to the well-being of a patient. Food - An External Caterer seemed to be a wiser alternative compared to an internal facility. An internal facility seemed too luxurious and could probably promote patients not eating on time. Aside from being less expensive, an external caterer would make the dining area more spacious. A larger eating area can house more patients so that they could eat together and thus promote interaction among one another. In the case of patients getting hungry between meals, the center still offers a facility for cooking light refreshments. Medication - Although much expensive, an Automatic Dispenser is more accurate. With the automatic dispenser residents can be traced they have indeed obtained their required medicine. And since they are the only ones who know their individual codes it is easy to check if they have complied with specific dosage regimen. Recreation - I checked Recreation Area, Library, and the TV Room. Recreation is essential to one's recovery from illness and trauma. The sports area will provide effective wellness and fitness programs for the residents. The upgraded amenities offered by the Library will be for leisure and also for learning process. A TV Room would be great for entertainment. These facilities will provide the patient with a "sound mind, sound body." I left out the Transportation because the residents wouldn't always be going out for a leisure trip and the two new vans can only accommodate 30 passengers and 12 wheelchairs. Perhaps renting transportation for occasional trips is wiser. Communication - I chose Dedicated Telephone over Internet Access because internet access is very expensive. If residents need internet services, they can access the web in the library. In addition, communication over the telephone is much clearer as compared to the internet Miscellaneous - I chose to install an Audio System because soothing music is proven to contribute to the wellbeing of persons in any environment especially in a health care facility. Improving the Interior Decoration will encourage the resident to stay outside the room and mingle with other residents. Social interaction is proven advantageous. But I left out Furnishing because it is unwise. Perhaps it is more appropriate for particular residents to furnish their individual rooms at their additional expense. My decision for the accommodation proved to be a good one as it caters the need of a larger part of the private payer population. The $3.3 million was wisely utilized for the expansion plan. With concerns to food, external catering was not a good decision. I guess I failed to consider the preference of the age group to flexible dining time especially when their families come to visit them. Medication through an automatic dispenser was also not a good decision. I should have researched more about it before preferring it over Common Inventory. Also it was unwise not to purchase new vans as these vans are aimed to provide the patients comfort while traveling. Anyway, I was right not opting to provide each room with a computer. The evaluation said that it was also a good idea to repaint the walls and provide the rooms and the corridors with paintings. I was also correct on deciding not to purchase new furnishings because it was very expensive and unnecessary.

Women in Vietnam Essay Example for Free

Women in Vietnam Essay In Vietnam, women were encouraged to serve within the government and other sectors within the state. Unlike in other countries where women are stereotyped as being weak, in Vietnam, it was different. (Insun, p47-p56) Women were treated as equals. They were given the same positions as those ones of women and were given the same respect. Women were especially encouraged to take up the jobs which were believed to be a man’s reserve. They went out of their way to serve their country as humanitarians, entertainers, military dependents, USAID, civilian nurses, in military, as correspondents and in special services. (Insun, p78-p80) There were a good number of women in Vietnam who served as professionals in the field of medicine, teaching, law, professional nurses, controllers of air traffic, language and intelligence specialists, photographers, physical therapists, aerial reconnaissance, legal officers, security officers and administrative positions. Civilian women in Vietnam also served in the Red Cross, journalists, humanitarian organizations and as flight attendants. They were also leaders in the churches. (Chen, p78) Despite the fact that these women were active then, they kept a low profile. Today, nobody can tell who these women are. This is because they don’t show off and have camouflaged. Women made very noble contributions towards the wars in Vietnam. They fought alongside men and did everything men did and they in fact did it a better. (Insun, p34-p67) It has been said that if the country of Vietnam must heal, women must come forward to reveal their involvements and experiences in the war. Unfortunately, they have not been recognized and acknowledged as significant in the history of Vietnam. The situation has been worsened by their silence and the pain and struggles kept deep within them. Women do not believe that they deserve the same recognition and respect like that given to men. (Woodside, p678) Women in special services were mostly under the army. These armies as well as civilians were under the employees’ defense department. The departments that were served by women were related to recreation and morale and included the bases of the Army in the states. (Song, p456) Most of the divisions were also related to works of arts and crafts, service clubs, libraries, movies, sports and entertainment. These women administered special programs, for example, ‘Rest’ as well as the program relating to recreation. The reason why women were entrusted with these positions was their warm hearted nature. They were icon of hope to the whole of Vietnam; they had a role of encouraging men and giving them morale during wars. They ensured that the homes did not fall apart despite their involvements in other services. Women were good volunteers in these services and they had the welfare of the country and the people in mind. It was not a burden to serve their country since they could see the big picture. (Taylor, p267) As librarians, women gave magazines, books and newspapers to the soldiers. The books served as sources of the correspondent courses they were taking and also for leisure. Most of their wonderful memories were hopping flights, clubs, time shared with friends as well as the loved ones. However, there were still some enmities created during the early days. Women fought wars along the beautiful coastline and peaceful villages and rice fields. These areas were My Lai, Chu Lai, the Que Son Valley, A Shau, Da Nang, Phu Bai and hue. Women witnessed the demise of thousands five bases as well as landing zones. (Woodside, p567) At the military, women served with pride. They knew that their efforts were for a worthy cause. They knew that their victory was a victory for all. During the women’s anniversary, they gathered their past and present achievements. There were at least one thousand and two hundred soldiers selected from the women population and served as band leaders and translators, clerks and typists. (Insun, p78)

Web Application Design for School Organisation Optimization

Web Application Design for School Organisation Optimization Application and Knowledge Design At first, the ontology will be planned in accordance with the methodology of ontology building. Description of the Ontology The ontology domain is based upon the running of a school. The goal of the research is to provide users of the applications with the prospects to get information regarding the requirement that is required in the running of a school. The school will incorporate classes, departments, subjects, all staff etc. Queries In order to get all the required information, a number of queries have to be performed throughout the web. Coupled with the required information, it can be stated that the following queries need to be performed. What is taught Monday morning in room CWG/03 at 9am? How many girls are in year 10 take Science? How old is the head teacher? What teacher is head of the sports department? Who teachers Geography and also Sports? Please give all the names of teachers and their email addresses if known. How many of the admin team are under 40 years of age? Admin Staff members whose surname begin with W Retrieve all teachers and their qualifications Retrieve the name of all subjects taught by the teacher with ID 2341 Why the Domain is Interesting to an Audience? The shift of the paradigms in the field of education in the recent decades, as well as the spreading of education, proposes ways through which the education can be provided under one roof. Practitioners and researchers are making every attempt to find approximate methodologies for making education easily available to every human being. With the proposed ontology, the user can have a concept of the school and will be able to develop the school system in any part of the world with an ease of the information technology. The respective domain ontology will act as an instrument for the construction of the school system in an effective and efficient manner. Consider Salvaging Existing Ontologies In order to make an application that fulfils the needed requirements, the following ontologies have been deployed. Tools for Managing Ontologies In the context of definitions and typologies, there are also several available tools for defining and managing ontologies. Since the initials and more rudimentary (Ontolingua Server, Ontosaurus) to the most recent and advanced, the following typology has been proposed. Ontology Development Tools This group includes the tools that serve for the construction of new ontologies or for the reuse of existing tools (Tolk, 2013). Among its functionalities are the addition and the consultation, as well as the export and import of ontologies, visualization in various graphic formats, etc. Ontology Fusion and Integration Tools These tools try to solve the problem of the combination and integration of diverse ontologies of the same domain; that occurs when two distinct organizations are united, or when it is intended to obtain a quality ontology, from the existing ones (Jain, 2013). Ontology Evaluation Tools They appear as tools for support should ensure that both ontologies and related technologies have a minimum level of quality (Ferraram, 2013). In the coming years, this effort can lead to identical certifications. Annotation Tools These tools are premeditated to consent users to insert information and data (Jain, 2013). Most of these tools have seemed recently, along with the idea of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹ the semantic web. Tools, Storage and Questions They are termed as the instruments that have been created to allow easy use ontologies (Maedche, 2012). The key is the intent that the web becomes a real platform to transmit knowledge. Learning Tools They are semi-automatically used to build ontologies from natural language. Along with the tools or editors, ontologies must mention the existence of different languages à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹that allow the creation and / or development thereof. Most are built by XML syntax or RDF (S) and OIL (Ontology Inference Layer), DAML (DARPA Agent Mark-up Language), OIL and OWL (The Web Ontology Language) (Shvaiko, 2013). In any case, some of these ontology languages à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹are still in development, although thanks to the work and support of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) OWL seems that consolidates acquiring a clear and obvious progression. Significant Terms used within the School Ontology The significant terms that will be deployed throughout the research paper are mentioned below. Staff Students Teachers/Lecturers Admin staff Rooms Classrooms Staff room Timetable Description of the Classes and Hierarchy Classes The classes are explained in the below mentioned diagram. The Architecture of 3-Tier Content Management is illustrated in the below mentioned diagram. Description of the Classes and Hierarchy Classes Describing Classes Three primary classes will be defined i.e. Users, institutions, and learning resources. The institution class is further divided into colleges. The learning resource class incorporates a list of overall courses as its user class and subclasses consists of a list of every type of users i.e. Instructor, student, and administrator (Jain, 2013).   The overall classes are sub classed under one class that exemplifies overall classes root. Tools and Techniques Used in Prototype Development Owl and Protà ©gà © editor have been deployed to build domain ontologies for its popularity and simplicity. RDQL and Jena2 APIs have been deployed in order to interact with a semantic web reasoner to implement the designed prototype (Kholief, 2012). OWL has been used as the ontology language, reason being; it has been recommended due to its tool support, and functionality. SPARQL is the recommendation of the W3C recommendation as a query language within the framework of Jena for RDF. SPARQL has been deployed to extract the information from the graphs of RDF. This infers that the only information retrieved by the SPARQL is stored in a model that consists of a set of N-triple statements (Ferraram, 2013). Moreover, SPARQL can process the ontology in a wide range of languages, including SPARQL, OWL, similar to other languages of RDF based query ierSeRQL, RDQL, and SPARQL is tough to provide semantics with reference to DL, OWL. A typical SPARQL query possesses the below motioned forms SELECT ?x WHERE (?xshortPrefix : localName   value) USING short Prefix FOR ?x refers to the variables that will return to the applications. The WHERE clause stipulates the graph pattern in the form of the list of the triple patterns USING clause describes an alias for URIs prefix to simplify the URL   (Stevenson, 2015) SPARQL can query regarding the objects or predicates too. However, the limitation of SPARQL incorporates that there exists no query disjunction. The Repository tier stores both; the structure and content of the ontology. The Generic ontology researcher engine resides in the semantic tier amid the end user interface tier and repository tier (Icoza, 2015). The end-user interface tier cooperates with the content server via the reasoner by stipulating the criteria tier attribute-value pairs and the constraints. Then, the reasoner locates the pertinent contents (based upon those conditions), and deliver content to the software agents/ users within an arranged manner. Such a type of system decomposition allows those to develop large-scale software systems and reduces the overall time of development (Kholief, 2012). To illustrate the dependencies or relationships in the respective domain, 2 types of relationships have been used; the direct relationship amid content incorporating its inverse relationship. The other relationship is the transitive or indirect, tier prerequisite that refers to the inherited relationships. Sparql queries What is taught Monday morning in room CWG/03 at 9am? PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT ?course ?weekday ?time ?room WHERE { ?course rdf:type sch:Course   . ?course sch:day ?weekday . ?course sch:time ?time . ?course sch:room ?room . FILTER regex(str(?weekday),Monday,i) FILTER regex(str(?time),9AM,i) } Science course is taught Monday at 9AM in room CWG/03. How many girls take science in year 10? PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT (MAX(?course) as ?course_name)   (COUNT(?students) AS ?no_students) WHERE { ?course rdf:type sch:Course . FILTER regex(str(?course),Science_,i) . ?course sch:hascourse ?students . ?students a ?type   . FILTER( regex(STR(?type), Year10)) . ?students sch:gender ?gender . FILTER regex(str(?gender),F,i) . } The number of girls who take science in year 10 is 2. How old is the head teacher? PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT ?task ?num WHERE { ?task rdf:type sch:Headteacher . OPTIONAL {?task sch:age ?num } } The headteacher is 45 years old. What teacher is head of the sports department? PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT ?name WHERE { ?name rdf:type sch:Sports_head . } His name is Martin Richards Who teachers Geography and also Sports? PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT ?teacher ?teaches WHERE { ?teacher rdf:type sch:Teachers . ?teacher sch:IsLecturerOf ?teaches . FILTER (regex(str(?teaches),Geography_,i) || regex(str(?teaches),Sports,i)) . } Bill Waite teaches both Geography and Sports. Please give all the names of teachers and their email addresses if known. (Optional patterns, week 6, lecture 5, slide 12) PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT ?name ?email WHERE { ?name rdf:type sch:Teachers . OPTIONAL {?name sch:email ?email } . } How many of the admin team are under 40 years of age? PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT (COUNT(?all)   AS ?total) WHERE { { ?all rdf:type sch:Receptionist } UNION { ?all rdf:type sch:Secretary } UNION { ?all rdf:type sch:Switchboard_Operator } . ?all sch:age ?yrs . FILTER (?yrs } There are 2 members of the admin team that have less than 40 years. What members of the admin staff surname begins with W PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   ?all WHERE { { ?all rdf:type sch:Receptionist } UNION { ?all rdf:type sch:Secretary } UNION { ?all rdf:type sch:Switchboard_Operator } . FILTER regex(str(?all),_w,i) } Paula Wilson, Charlie Williams and Jane Wight are the admin members whose surname begins with W. Retrieve all teachers and their qualifications PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT ?teacher ?teaches WHERE { ?teacher rdf:type sch:Teachers . ?teacher sch:IsLecturerOf ?teaches . } Retrieve the name of all subjects taught by the teacher with ID 2341 PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT ?teacher ?id ?subjects WHERE { ?teacher rdf:type sch:Teachers . ?teacher sch:ID ?id FILTER (?id=2341)  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   . ?teacher sch:IsLecturerOf ?subjects } Albert Tatlock, the teacher with ID 2341, teaches ICT. DBPedia A timetable query. Results in HTML Ontology-Oriented Inference-Based Learning Content Management System Application Semantic web technologies based upon ontology are considered as the promising solution in order to provide an explicit definition of the shared conceptualisation regarding certain domain as well as acknowledging assemblage of e-learning contents. Ontologies integrated with profiles of the learner integrate to provide enhanced results within an e-learning LMS system. It could be used in contrast with multi-agent technologies in order to derive personalised learning paths (Stevenson, 2015).   The domain of courses can be easily managed by ontology and provide explicit details of education establishment as well as adaptation of students learning paths. General Concepts of LCMS LMS is regarded as the software package, usually applied on the large scale that enables the delivery of learning resources and courses and management to students. Most of the LMS systems are web-based in order to facilitate anywhere, anytime access to administration and learning content. LMS is referred to as the reporting systems and do not include ways to develop new content or to deliver small learning packets (Icoza, 2015). LMS is fashioned for tracking test results, registration, class lists, grades, managing all learning events within the academics institute and class scheduling. In contrast, the LCMs focus upon the learning content. It provides authors, subject matter experts, and instructional designers to means to develop e-learning content in a more effective way. The core concern that is resolved by LCMs is to develop sufficient content just in time to meet the requirements of the learners group or individual learners (Kuhn, 2012). Instructional designers develop chunks of reusable content rather than entire courses and acclimatising to multiple audiences, and make them available to the course developers all through the academic institute. Sequence Diagram The sequence of steps is performed on the retrieve and query as mentioned in the figure below. The flow proceeds as follows: The user search for certain information after the registration to system Then, the semantic-based LMS check the validation of the query The system informs him about, if there is any error in request sending or if the query is invalid If the query is valid, then the system gets the query at repository data as well as user history repository, and sees there is any existing data (Kuhn, 2012). The system notifies him about the existence of data, if the data exists, then data is retrieved by the system makes an inference to that of fetching data by deploying the rules of validation It saves the result of inference to the repository and includes the outcomes to the original retrieved data and responses to the operator. Figure: Sequence Diagram Fundamental   Ontologies The system is based on the ontological framework to allow formal demonstration of learning content along with its principle building blocks such as; different types of learning activities, learning content, participants within the process of learning i.e. teaching assistants, teachers, learners, etc. (Ferraram, 2013). The ontology domains defined can be salvaged by other ontologies, therefore assimilating various contemporary technologies under single ontology illustrating a large domain. Describing Classes Three primary classes will be defined i.e. users, institutions, and learning resources. The institution class is further divided into colleges. The learning resource class incorporates a list of overall courses as its user class and subclasses consists of a list of every type of users i.e. instructor, student, and administrator (Jain, 2013).   The overall classes are sub classed under one class that exemplifies overall classes root. Outlining Properties Figure: Object Properties Figure: Datatype Properties The ontology of the learning resources is the core of this framework has been demonstrated in the graph illustrated below using the OntoGraft (Kholief, 2012). It consists of a number of properties and classes aimed at formally signifying learning content. The ontologies have been divided into two segments; information of learning course and learning content information. The class courses is the one that has been opted by more than one learner while interrelating with customers. The other class consists of the course content such as; lab experience, PowerPoint lectures, notes, and media. Moreover, the courses are also divided into the subclasses. Class course specifications incorporate the information regarding the field, term, and the course type. In addition, class course enrolment includes information regarding the enrolment of students on certain course (Icoza, 2015). The ontology signifies characteristics to the overall procures of E-learning i.e. Preferences and basic personal data along with the speciation of the features of leaner-specific, including multiple dimensions of learning styles and performance. Figure: Projected Learning Resource Ontology Class Diagram A class diagram is the UML structure diagram that illustrates the structure of designed system by exemplifying the classes in the system, constraints, relationships, their features, amongst the classes.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   Moreover, the active entities of the anticipated systems include; courses, students, course administrator, and course content. The entities of the business domain include; test, enrolment, course evaluation, and course specification (Kuhn, 2012). The class diagram of the projected system has been illustrated in the below mentioned figure. Figure: Class diagram of Learning Resources ontology Logical Rules The above mentioned rules demonstrate the semantic probing of course content upon the system. The explanation of the rules is mentioned below. rules 1; the privilege of the learner to course content ie enrollment rules 2; pre-request courses of various courses (Ferraram, 2013). rule 3; topic of certain contents such as; authentication lectures of course database is linked to security of topic too Related Work The research will incorporate the approaches of e-learning content management along with the semantic approach that is associated with the represented work. The review has enhanced the e-learning environments with that of the semantic-rich cognisance information. It has intended the educators to utilise this information when updating learning content for future courses. Therefore, heuristics have been developed that allow both; the convergence of LCMS log data and the intelligent analysis into the ontologies of the Semantic web. ILMSs (Intelligent LMSs) have linked the modern approach to the web-based education is dependent upon the LMSs, but under adaptive hypermedia and intelligent tutoring technologies (Kholief, 2012). As the generation of the new Web, the Semantic web has improved conditions for reusing and composing the learning materials. The research has been aimed to develop a simple, learner-oriented, and customised e-learning system as well as to create the material of particular course conforming SCORM. The research emphases upon the development of an ontology of student model that is appropriate with the needs of learning procedures in the faculty of computer science. The oncology has, moreover, incorporated the knowledge regarding student learning styles, student data, as well as the performance of the students (Jain, 2013). The research is based upon the approach, identifying such of those learning objects that amalgamate information technology and educational pedagogy via instructional design. Brief Phenomenon of Ontologies The term Ontology comes from the world of philosophy is the part of metaphysics that deals with being in general and of their transcendental properties, or properties that transcend the limits of the merely experimental (Wanner et al, 2015).   This concept has been adopted by computer science, specifically in the domain of artificial intelligence, adapting it to their needs, and using a metaphor according to which the experimental, physical, tangible, objective and recordable would be the data, and the metaphysical, inedible, subjective would be informative. More rigorously, this metaphorical adoption has given rise to a wide variety of definitions of this new concept, a product of the points of view of diverse authors and, fundamentally, of the different ways of constructing and using ontologies as computer systems (Brizzi et al, 2016). Among the most well-known and used definitions is that states that that an ontology constitutes an explicit and formal specification of menta l abstractions, which are shaped by an agreement of the expert community in a domain and in a design for a specific purpose this definition implies a multitude of aspects that contribute to clarify this concept. Therefore, when analysed in detail, it is ontology provides the structure for a vocabulary controlled in a way similar to a dictionary or a thesaurus. This vocabulary, agreed by the community, is expressed through concepts, thus conforming the abstractions (Johnson, 2016). On the other hand, in terms of the formal specification of a vocabulary, this could be in various forms, such as a flat list of words, a dictionary, a taxonomy, an entity-relationship diagram, a Unified Mark-up Language (UML) model, an XML schema and many other possible ones (Goodchild, 2013). However, the ontologies are much more than described so far and to give a small sample that its possibilities are not confined and trying to clarify and deepen especially, it has resorted to the definition of Neches and employees. It has been argued that ontology defines the vocabulary of an area through a set of basic terms and relations between these terms, as well as such, as rules that combine terms and relationships that extend given definitions in the vocabulary (Kuhn, 2012). This assumes that the ontologies are not formed only by mere concepts with a certain organisation, which would not be much more distant of a thesaurus, but also relations, rules, and axioms are given between concepts that enrich and contribute to expanding the vocabulary of the work domain. In order to clarify, with a concrete case, what is ontology is included below an example regarding possible travel ontology (Stocker et al, 2014). Within it would be all the relevant concepts related to the subject in question, among others: travel, flight, the client, lodging, road, departure, arrival, rate, etc. In this ontology, everything would start from the key concept, trip. Of the same, the different types of trips that a person can perform (flight, train, bus, by boat, etc.). Also, it is the fact that every trip has a single date, time and place of departure and a single date, time and place of arrival, a company and a tariff, concepts all that would be part of the ontology (Whitehead et al, 2013). Once all the basic concepts have been defined, the relations between them, for example, a trip of a certain type with a place of departure and another one of arrival corresponds a determined duration. Another possible relationship would be formed by the place of the concept of departure, place of arrival, and itinerary by road, and that a certain sequence of roads connects two different places. The complexity and variety of relationships can become as can imagine since the multiplicity of relationships can achieve a system much more powerful and effective. Thus, a city of origin may have as points of departure a particular bus station, a train station or an airport (Jain, 2013). Different points of departure that will be depending on the chosen destination or on other issues such as schedules or economic ailments, among others. With this complexity of criteria, intelligence implemented in the system this will be able to guide to the most suitable station or airport, at a certain time and with the relevant transhipments. In this way, the efficiency can be management process of any trip, greatly facilitating the whole process (Ferraram, 2013). Another important element that is part of the ontologies are the axioms (logical expressions), which serve to define meaningful constraints of the type such as, is not possible to travel from the USA to Europe by train or it is not poss ible to travel by boat between Madrid and Barcelona. In addition to it, this small ontology could be implemented on an Information System (GIS), helping to manage all this information in a more efficient and autonomous, because it will allow the user to know what type of transport takes you from one city to another, days and times of departure and arrival, fares, durations, accommodation, etc., all in a smart and automated way. Without forgetting that the information to be obtained can be as much or more complex as it goes bringing greater

Civil Rights and African American Baseball Players

Civil Rights and African American Baseball Players How African Americans in Baseball Affected the Civil Rights Movement. 8th hour Segregation was the main core of what prevented African Americans from pursuing their dreams of being baseball players, up until a few very recognizable players influenced others to step in and help win freedom for playing baseball. All American baseball teams were consisting of mainly whites but some teams allowed African Americans into their teams up until 1890 when the National Association of Baseball rejected blacks from playing. This caused an uproar in the black community and lead to the creations of all black teams that would travel and play other all black teams and sometimes an all white team, like in 1888 when the Cuban Giants defeated the all white New Yorks 4 games of of a five game series. After many years of overwhelming segregation in the south many blacks moved up into the North where they sought the opportunity of creating their own league. In 1920, Rube Foster the owner of the Chicago American Giants brought other midwest teams together and created the first all bla ck league called the Negro Leagues.( Feature African-American Baseball. PBS. PBS, 2003. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.) The Negro Leagues had a very significant impact in the the entrance of blacks into the majors. After the first all black team was organized and the league was set up this opened up an opportunity for players to really show what they got. Before teams knew it they were winning championships. The first all African American league was starting to piece together. And with all this going on, one player had a goal set and that was to be the first black player in a white league. And that player is Jackie Robinson. In 1945 Jackie was the first black player to sign a formal contract with a white team. He took a big step into what led to the allowance of any black player to be in the majors. With the civil rights movement going on he endured hardships that no person could imagine, according to Duke Snider, He (Jackie Robinson) knew that the future of blacks in baseball depended on it. The pressure was enormous, overwhelming, and unbearable at times. I dont know how he held up. I know I never c ould have. By the end of his rookie career as a Dodger he was named rookie of the year, and as time went on all of his success of breaking the color barrier and becoming the first African American to get into the majors and accomplish many records. Even though Jackie is not around to see how the hardships he faced have made life on people today more easy, he is still remembered as the player who paved a path for our nation. The impact of not only Robinson but also Doby and Campy gave inspiration to Martin Luther King Jr. About a week before King died he stated, Youll never know how easy you and Jackie and Doby and Campy made it for me to do my job by what you did on the baseball field. Baseball was integrated before the army, before schools, and before many other things. It all happened without Jackie but someone had to be the first to step up and take a chance, and that was just what he did. (Bio.com. AE Networks Television, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.†) A few years before World War II, Max Manning had been pitching for the Newark Eagles as a phenomenal side armer. He never thought there would be a chance for him to go and become a pitcher on a white team. His thoughts change for a while when he was approached by an unfamiliar face, the coach of the Detroit Tigers. They were offering a tryout spot for pitching, but that changed when the rest of the team found out he was black. His Negro leagues career was interrupted as he was called into service during World War II. He then returned to pitch the final Negro Leagues World series where his team won. With all this going on Max never gave up and never really cared about what people cared about his color, he only cared about playing ball. After his baseball life was over he went back to school and decided to become a sixth grade teacher up until his death in in June of 2003. Feature African-American Baseball. PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.) Before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, ball players in Oklahoma had been playing in sandlot leagues and excelling in the sport. Willie Wells played in the sandlot â€Å"blackball† leagues all the way through his teen years in highschool as a shortstop. When he finally came up to the Negro leagues he became the best shortstop in the league. In 1997 he joined the Baseball hall of Fame. Along with Willie there were many other black players that had showed they were worthy of being in Baseballs Hall of Fame. In all there are about 18 players from the Negro Leagues in the Hall of Fame, and most had not been recognized till the 80s, all the way up to about 2002. The reason it took so long is because nobody really cared about blacks in baseball because they â€Å"never compared† to whites. After many years of segregation many white people started to gain respect for him, As Mickey Mantle said after one of the games BASEBALL, AFRICAN AMERICAN. BASEBALL, AFRICAN AMERICAN. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2014 : After the game, Jackie Robinson came into our clubhouse and shook my hand. He said, Youre a helluva ballplayer and youve got a great future. I thought that was a classy gesture, one I wasnt then capable of making. I was a bad loser. What meant even more was what Jackie told the press, Mantle beat us. He was the difference between the two teams. They didnt miss DiMaggio . I have to admit, I became a Jackie Robinson fan on the spot. And when I think of that world Series, his gesture is what comes to mind. Here was a player who had without doubt suffered more abuse and more taunts and more hatred than any player in the history of the game. And he had made a special effort to compliment and encourage a young white kid from Oklahoma.(Jackie Robinson Quotes. Jackie Robinson Quotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 May 2014.) As time progressed more and more people started to show respect for Jackie and others that helped integrate baseball and this gave a boost too other players, according to a statement by Hank Aaron In baseball, there is something electrifying about the big leagues. I had read so much about (Stan) Musial,(Ted) Williams and (Jackie) Robinson. I had put those guys on a pedestal. They were something special. I really thought they put their pants on different, rather than one leg at a time.(Hank Aaron Quotes. Hank Aaron Quotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2014.) Near the end of World War II the attendance at Negro leagues took a major decline as the best players were called up into interleague which is the step right below major. With that happening the Negro leagues took a dip and fell apart. This lead to integration of blacks into baseball. What caused this greater decline was the focus of the fans only on the major players like Robinson and Doby. To gain more support teams called female players to stand at the gates just to attract more fans but in the end the players just kept on going to white teams. (Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 05 May 2014.) When people think about integration of baseball, they think Jackie Robinson, but thats not all of it. It took a whole community, a whole league just to earn a chance on an all white team. This was a team effort, the biggest step in baseball history started with one big contract to Jackie and the rest took off. Baseball was never the same, and today it isnt a struggle. Without this happening, today baseball probably wouldnt be what it is.

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Essay -- Muscle Disorder Psuedohypertrophi

Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, also known as psuedohypertrophic muscular dystrophy, is a typical sex-linked disorder in which the muscles degenerate throughout a person's life. It literally means "faulty nutrition of the muscles." Muscular Dystrophy has no cures, and this particular type of muscular dystrophy affects only males. One in 3,500 baby boys are born with this disorder and survival is rare beyond the early 30s, death is usually caused by a respiratory disease. (ygyh.org) Duchenne's muscular dystrophy is named after the French neurologist, Guillaume B. A. Duchenne, who lived from 1806 to 1875. In 1861 he became the first person to describe the disorder. In 1951 Elizabeth Shull Russell, an American geneticist, accidentally observed Duchenne's muscular dystrophy in a colony of mice with which she was working. Over a number of years she discovered that muscular dystrophy was a sex linked trait contained on the x-chromosome. (Narins, 798.) Sex-linked disorders only affect males and are passed down through female carriers. A boy inherits the disorder when he receives an X chromosome with a mutated dystrophin gene (the genetic cause) from his mother. The dystrophin gene is the largest gene found in nature and was identified through a positional cloning approach. It's a highly complex gene, a large rod-like cytoskeletal protein which is found at the inner surface of muscle fibers. (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) Three different tests are used to determine if a male has Duchenne's muscular dystrophy. A CPK (also known as a CK) assay will detect muscle damage, but not the source. CPK is an abbreviation for Creatine Kinase Assay, which is essentially a blood test. Muscle biopsies are also common, a needle is inserted... ...nerated and replaced by fat. Recently, specific compounds in the oil have been identified, they produce regeneration that is even more amazing than that produced by the oil itself. (Gerras, 1056) This form of MD is normally appears in males, but there are a few extremely rare cases where it has appeared in females. Most of the statistics found only dealt with Duchenne muscular dystrophy in the U.S., so it is assumed that the disorder is more prominent in the United States. Also, there was no evidence that it affected any race more than another. (www.ygyh.org) Concluding, Duchenne?s muscular dystrophy is an excellent example of a sex-linked disease. Unfortunately, there is no cure but research is being used to find more effective treatments. Most deaths caused by the disorder aren?t directly due to the muscles, but due to a respiratory disease or disorder.

The Advantages Of American Educational System Essays -- essays researc

The Advantages of American Educational System Parents and the older generation Americans always complain about the educational system of the country. They assert that their children's knowledge and skills are below average as compared to their counterparts in other countries. The American educational system is not inferior to other systems in any other way. Instead, it is just teaching some other factors that are considered more significant than simply basic knowledge and skills. The American educational system tries to develop freedom and creativity among its students. From an American point of view, only in this way can the students contribute maximally to the future society. Freedom is the trademark of America. Americans are admired by people in other countries because they have the freedom to do whatever they wish without worrying about the negative consequences. Therefore, the American educational system must be in congruence with this trademark. According to this system, children can learn effectively only when they are allowed to explore freely with their ideas, "without this they will not really be able to think or believe in themselves" . When children are forced to memorize some materials, they will remember the materials for a few days. However, they would have forgotten everything after a summer vacation. On the other hand, when children are allowed to think of their own ways of learning the concepts, they will tend to re... The Advantages Of American Educational System Essays -- essays researc The Advantages of American Educational System Parents and the older generation Americans always complain about the educational system of the country. They assert that their children's knowledge and skills are below average as compared to their counterparts in other countries. The American educational system is not inferior to other systems in any other way. Instead, it is just teaching some other factors that are considered more significant than simply basic knowledge and skills. The American educational system tries to develop freedom and creativity among its students. From an American point of view, only in this way can the students contribute maximally to the future society. Freedom is the trademark of America. Americans are admired by people in other countries because they have the freedom to do whatever they wish without worrying about the negative consequences. Therefore, the American educational system must be in congruence with this trademark. According to this system, children can learn effectively only when they are allowed to explore freely with their ideas, "without this they will not really be able to think or believe in themselves" . When children are forced to memorize some materials, they will remember the materials for a few days. However, they would have forgotten everything after a summer vacation. On the other hand, when children are allowed to think of their own ways of learning the concepts, they will tend to re...

The Color of Water Essay

The Color of Water by James McBride was a narrative about a immature male child seeking to calculate out his racial individuality but his female parent would non speak about her yesteryear or what race she was. All James knew was that she was white life in a black power vicinity and that fact terrified him. He thought that to turn up he had to cognize his racial individuality but through all the problem and difficult times he went through he learned that his race did non affair. It was his instruction that was the most of import. Ruth attitude about her race effected James through his childhood and as a immature grownup. she negatively affected his racial development. and Ruth finally clears up his inquiries that he has been deceasing to acquire replies from. Ruth McBride’s attitude toward her ain race affected her boy. James McBride. as both a kid and as a immature grownup. Ruth chiefly looked down on her race because of her male parent. All he care about was money and the shop. he did non care about his ain married woman or household. He besides molested Ruth when she was a immature miss. When James was a immature male child he ever questioned her about race. He wanted to cognize if he was black or white and he besides asked what colour The nazarene was. James mother would non wholly reply his inquiry. She responded stating that James was a human and instruction was all that mattered. and that Jesus was the colour of H2O. As a child. James knew that his female parent was white. and that terrified him. He knew that a white lady life in a black vicinity. besides with black childs. was populating in danger. James truly realized his mother’s danger when Ruth and James were walking place and a adult male came up and stole Ruth’s bag. James figured out how strong and brave or crazy his female parent was when she did non contend the larceny back and all she told James was that it was merely a bag and it did non affair. When James grew up. he thought that Ruth was traveling brainsick. and he didn’t esteem her like he did in the yesteryear. If James would hold known about his mother’s yesteryear. it wouldn’t have change much. He might hold been more excusatory for her but that would be about it. Ruth’s impact on James’s racial development is negative. but she had good purposes. James ne'er knows what his racial background is and that bothers him throughout his life. If he would hold known what his mother’s background was possibly so he would understand himself in his eyes. but it does non take your race to calculate out yourself. it takes larning who you are on the interior. Ruth was seeking to do it a positive impact on his racial development. Ruth knew that race did non affair. it was about what was on the interior of the individual. but James did non understand that construct. Race ne'er concerned him by stating he was non traveling to tie in himself with a individual because of their background but he want to cognize about their race. and Ruth had no attentions about their race. which is a better manner to travel at it. Ruth offers James confusion as he grapples with his racial individuality as a younger male child. but she offers him lucidity as a immature grownup. When James was immature. Ruth would reply any of her inquiries and that bothered him but he knew non to force her to her bound or he would acquire the belt. He does non cognize what half of his race is. he know he was black from his male parent but knew nil about his mother’s race. Ruth was non ashamed to be a Jew. but she did non back up Judaism because of her male parent. Tateh. She was non concealing the fact that she was a Jew from James but she did non desire to believe about everything that she ran off from when she left Suffolk. Virginia and her household. more significantly her female parent. Hudis Shilksy. When James turns into the immature grownup he finds out that cognizing your race does non assist you in life like a good instruction does. Even though he has learned this Ruth starts to explicate his inquiries about race to him. In the narrative The Color of Water. James has unanswered inquiries as a kid. At the terminal of the book James learns about Ruth’s race and he finds out his racial individuality. James besides finds out God’s colour. He is the colour of H2O and H2O is neither. black or white. Ruth had harmful memories when she was a Jew because of her male parent and when he might her first hubby. Dennis. she changed her religion and found felicity. Ruth’s race affected Ruth which subsequently on affected her boy James negatively. Her angry about her yesteryear led to James’s confusion about his ain racial individuality. but subsequently on got all his inquiries answered.