Data Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Data Analysis - Essay Example Every order contains one or more products; therefore, the association between the Purchase order class and Line product class is one or more. However, every product in Purchase order refers to only one product in Product. Therefore, the association between the Line product class and Product class is one to one. There will only one payment detail for every purchase order; therefore, the association between the Purchase order class and Payment detail class will be one to one. Figure 2 shows the relational model (Entity relationship diagram) for National Treasure Online Shop. Additional attributes as password, and email are included in Customer entity assuming that customer will register on website when he/she will make purchase first time so that for the next time the customer will only need to login for making any purchase with the website. PK and FK show the Primary key and foreign key in entity. Figure 3 shows the output of Query 1 that displays the list of product categories for National Treasure Online Shop. When Query 1 is executed, it displays the list of product categories that is Cards, Calendars, Books, and Diaries. This is the first thing that customer visiting on the website is presented on the website home page. Figure 4 shows the output of Query 2 that displays the list of product with product categories for National Treasure Online Shop. This query will be useful for displaying the product list based on product categories. Figure 5 shows the list of the customer visited the National Treasure Online Shop. Query 5 will display the list of the entire customer who had purchased any products or registered to the website as a customer. This query will be useful for selecting customer for any promotional offers or contests. Figure 7 shows the lists of product for any particular order that customer have made with National Treasure Online Shop. Query 5 will display the

Centralised organisation Essay Example for Free

Centralised organisation Essay â€Å"Outline the main ways in which a large centralised organisation might achieve a more flexible organised structure. Using examples, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of pursuing greater organisational flexibility† â€Å"The structures that organisations adopt are usually aligned to one of five generic organisational structures. These are the simple structure, the functional structure, the divisional structure, the holding company structure and the matrix structure. (Capon, C. (2009) the business environment. Chapter 4: Inside organisations. This essay will explain the various ways of how a large centralised organisation achieves a more flexible structure through de-centralisation. This essay will analyse the benefits and drawbacks of the matrix structure and the functional structure. A flexible structure allows staff to take part in decision making thus making them feel more valued and motivated, this favours the organisation because efficiency and communication is improved. Centralised structures are often referred to as bureaucracies and have a long chain of command and a narrow span of control. They are tall structures designed so that directors, owners and management can achieve maximum control. Decision making is isolated within the top part of the hierarchy with a very autocratic style of management (none/very little shared decision making with employees further down the hierarchy). Centralised structures allow benchmarks and certain procedures to monitor quality closely. A clear path can be seen by employees in terms of promotion which often aids in motivation, in turn improving the productivity of staff. However there are some downsides to a centralised or bureaucratic structure, such as the fact that it’s time-consuming for decisions to be made because the decision has to come from the top of the organisation (CEO’s/Directors) all the way to the bottom through many levels before the employees actually get told what they need to do; because of this it is difficult for companies with a tall structure to quickly react to changes in the market that they operate in. In tall organisations there is a tendency for ‘red tape’ or excessive regulation which also slows down many processes within a business. Another problem with tall organisations is that there is a divide between the top managers and regular employees, which means that the workers lower down in the hierarchy feel excluded and less valued. This In turn leads to workers becoming less motivated. Because of all these difficulties big organisations are constantly attempting to increase flexibility by changing their structure. Decentralisation provides higher subordinate satisfaction and a quicker response to problems and may give workers a sense of ownership and greater levels of motivation in their work† (Ray French, Charlotte Rayner, Gary Rees and Sally Rumbles – (2008) Organizational behaviour ). De-centralised structures are desirable because they allow flexibility within a business, it is essentially a democratic management style of running an organisation, and this means that there is more feedback and input from staff regarding decision making. With a shorter chain of command, due to the flat hierarchical structure, and increased motivation of staff production can increase. The functional structure is relatively restrictive of flexibility, it is fairly rigid and centralised. The managers of the departments are given the responsibility to manage day-to-day problems and take part in decision making only in the short term. Decision making and power in the long term rests very much within the board of directors, thus slowing down communication within the organisation. The functional structure is mainly used by small businesses; large organisations tend to move away from this structure in the search for more flexibility. The reason for this is because of product or service diversification and larger target markets. The functional structure tends to have poor career prospects, high pressure on senior managers , quality monitoring is very difficult and there are skills shortages in the sense that job roles are set so skills cannot be shared within the departments. The matrix structure integrates two structures together, often geographical and multi product structures. For example, a company may have a department for a product A in Europe and for Product A in Asia. One of the advantages of the Matrix structure is the convenience of experts simplifying the sharing of knowledge between the goods. Another advantage of the matrix structure is intra-team communication, this allows ease of communication between the different functional product groups within the same organisation, and similarly there is less pressure on managers, quality monitoring is easier and skills are interchanged within departments of the same function thus improving efficiency. In the early 90’s the majority of IBM and the business press were convinced decentralisation would aid the company in terms of â€Å"flexibility, speed and entrepreneurial motivation†. They believed splitting up IBM into smaller companies would speed up processes and promote and enhance efficiency, which can be true of decentralisation. Lou Gerstner was appointed CEO of IBM in 1993. He was convinced IBM should remain centralised and to â€Å"use its unique size and capabilities to help customers integrate the diverse components of their information technology (IT) systems†. In the end IBM was loosened up but not completely decentralised. This worked tremendously well with IBM’s stock price rising by almost a factor of ten. (Thomas W. Malone Harvard Business School Archives (29/3/2004): Making the decision to decentralise. )From this we can conclude that de-centralisation improves organisational flexibility by speeding up the process of decision making, improving efficiency and communication and increasing job satisfaction for employees. Pursuing greater organisational flexibility could be complex in the sense that the organisation may become less efficient due to the change in structure and managerial span of control. Nonetheless changing from a tall centralised structure to a flat decentralised structure favours the organisation because there are fewer levels of hierarchy and a shorter chain of command which enables better communication. â€Å"Decentralisation, in theory, provides greater potential for motivating employees and, because decisions are taken nearer the place of work, the organisation can react faster and smarter†. Ian Brookes (2009): Organisational behaviour – individuals, groups and organisation 4th edition). However not all flat structures are decentralised; take for example the functional structure, despite being flat it is a rigid and centralised structure. The Matrix structure would enable a large organisation to achieve greater organisational flexibility because one of its main strengths is allowing ease of communication.

Mesos and Kubernetes : A Comparative Analysis

Mesos and Kubernetes : A Comparative Analysis Abstract Containers and application containerization have fast gained traction as the most promising aspects of Cloud Computing. A massive increase in the number and variety of applications has created a need for smooth integration between developer and live environments with quick service time. The amount of user data being handled by todays applications requires heavy computing resources which further require large clusters of hosts. Management of these large clusters is very challenging and containers provide a viable solution. Containers provide an operating system level virtualization for deploying and running applications in a distributed node topology, eliminating the need for configuration of a complete VM per application. Open source technologies like Docker have developed a method that provides better portability for containers. This paper presents a proposal for performance evaluation of two of the most widely used open source orchestration systems Kubernetes and Mesos for cloud native applications. We also provide a brief overview of the importance of choosing the right container orchestration tool to deploy and manage cloud-native applications. Keywords: Kubernetes, Mesos, Cloud native applications, Locust, GCE. With the fast spread of internet hegemony, the conventional and niche web applications are increasing in number. Deployment and maintenance of each of such applications requires a myriad of hardware and associated software designed to perform several generic activities. Rapid progress of cloud computing technologies have aided in decentralizing the implementations, leading to distributed systems. Docker technology provides containers for easy deployment and management of applications. Carefully managed by cluster management tools like Kubernetes and Mesos, replication, failovers, as well as APIs can automate integration and lead to a seamless deployment over clusters of host machines, thereby eliminating disruption of service caused by inherent downtime. Kubernetes: Kubernetes is an open source cluster manager project that integrates cluster management capabilities into a system of virtual machines. It is a lightweight, portable, modular, responsive and fault-tolerant orchestration tool that is written in Go and comes with built-in service discovery and replication utilities. Fig 1.1 shows the architecture and important concepts of Kubernetes. Fig 1 Kubernetes Architecture Important components of kubernetes are : Pods : Pod is the building block for schedul- ing, deployment, horizontal scaling and replication. It is a group of tightly coupled containers that are located on the same host and sharing the same IP address, ports, resources and the same localhost.[7] Kubelet is the agent that runs on the worker nodes that manages Pods, their containers, container images and the volumes if any. Replication Controllers : They control and monitor the number of running pods for a service, and provide fault tolerance.It is the high availability solution of Kubernetes. Kubectl : The command to control the kubernetes cluster once its running. Kubectl runs on the master node. Kubernetes has a policy driven scheduler (Kube-scheduler) which considers availability, performance and capacity constraints,quality of service requirements, and workload. kubernetes can also work with multiple schedulers. Users can add their own schedulers if other constraints are required.[7] Mesos: Apache Mesos is an open-source cluster manager, developed by Benjamin Hindman, Andy Konwinski, and Matei Zaharia at the University of California, Berkeley as a research project along with professor Ion Stoica. Its designed to scale to very large clusters involving hundreds or thousands of hosts such as hadoop tasks, cloud native applications, etc. It enables resource sharing in a fine-grained manner thus improving cluster utilization.To deploy and manage applications in large-scale clustered environments more efficiently, Mesos plays role between the application layer and the operating system and makes it easier. It can run many applications on a dynamically shared pool of nodes. The major components in a Mesos cluster are: Fig 2 Mesos Architecture [6] Mesos follows 2 level scheduling. Each framework asks Mesos for a certain amount of resources it requires, in response Mesos offers a set of resources. Framework scheduler evaluates the offered resources based on its own criteria and accepts or refuses.[7] Apache ZooKeeper acts as a central coordination service to achieve high availability. The design comprises multiple masters, where one is an active leader and ZooKeeper handles the leader election. For high availability setting, a minimum of 3 master nodes is needed. Marathon is a framework that is designed to launch long-running applications, and serves as a replacement for a traditional init system. It provides many features such as high availability, application health checks, node constraints, fault -tolerance and an easy to use web UI for long running application. Marathon Framework is composed of executor and scheduler. The UI of marathon provides an option to start, stop and scale the long running applications. Kubernetes and Mesos makes the process of setting up multiple virtual clusters simpler, allowing for stack management to shed unwanted layers of software which bog down systems. Using Kubernetes and Mesos for cluster management allows for high-level task monitoring, resource allocation and application scaling, whilst offering the control needed to ensure applications run smoothly. Setting up of either Mesos or Kubernetes on Windows means developers and organizations that work between Linux and Windows platforms may use their own tools without requiring heavy resource management. A. Container Orchestration tools and its importance: With the usage of containers, running cloud-native applications on physical or virtual infrastructure is made easy. Containers facilitate easier application management to dynamically adapt to the changing needs of service. It also enables seamless migration of application instances to different environments. Multiple containers need effective management utilities that manage the resources and enable running of containers on different environments, over multiple hosts. Orchestration tools manage applications of different complexities that are distributed for computing over cluster of machines. These tools abstract the cluster systems as a single entity for deployment of application and managing the resources. Orchestrations tools can handle configuration, scheduling and deploying of applications, along with maintenance and support for automatic failovers and scaling. Kubernetes acts primarily as a container orchestration tool whereas Mesos provides a platform to run orchestration frameworks like Marathon or Aurora to manage applications, which may or may not be containerized. Comparing the stand alone Kubernetes orchestration and Marathon with Mesos is effective in understanding the right choice for implementation. B. Proposed solution on Google Compute Engine: There are no synthetic benchmarks that exist to evaluate the performance of Kubernetes and Mesos. This paper aims at evaluating orchestration methods on Google Compute Engine (GCE) for hosted cluster installation and management. A single cluster in GCE for all purposes will have a master VM and four worker VMs. Setting a baseline comparison through a simple cloud application deployment . This is the first proposed benchmark which analyses user experience with minimal containers on Kubernetes cluster and Mesos . Having a Google Cloud Platform account and installing Google Cloud SDK is the first step for this. Cloud application is then deployed on the created cluster to compare their respective processes of deployment. Streaming Engine using Docker clusters on GCE to check the delivery speed , scheduling , and scalability of container orchestrations. This is also to test the feature of pods on Kubernetes where all containers in a pod have single networking point. Standalone analysis using existing tools to test performance and known limitations of both these systems. cAdvisor that collects data about running containers, Heapster which gives the basic resource utilization metrics on Kubernetes and marathon-lb tools on Mesos marathon. This paper aims to provide qualitative as well quantitative metrics to compare and contrast the working of Kubernetes and Mesos. The objective is to compile a substantive list of criteria analysing the performance of both the orchestration tools. The study intends to bring to light comparative results that hitherto do not exist in related literature and also to build upon the existing knowledge through the results of the experiments in this paper. Some of the comparative points are:Load balancing, Scalability, User experience . Kubernetes Mesos Distinctive features Offers a combination of pods which are controlled by replications controllers . IPC between pods systemv semaphores or posix shared memory . Do not support colocation of multiple containers on same mesos. Application distribution Supports master-worker nodes , where the applications are deployed on pods on worker nodes. Supports master-agent nodes , and applications are deployed on different agent nodes. Resource schedulers Has a policy driven scheduler (Kube-Scheduler) Has a 2 levels scheduling approach. Scalability Kubernetes 1.3 supports 2000 node clusters Mesos has been simulated to scale up to 50,000 nodes [9] Load Balancing Supports both internal and external load balancing.. Mesos DNS (rudimentary load balancer), Marathon-lb (haproxy based load balancer for Mesos marathon) Monitoring tools Heapster, cAdvisor and Google Cloud Monitoring .InfluxDB and Grafana as backend tools for visualization. Sysdig and Sysdig Cloud (full metrics and metadata support for Apache Mesos and Mesosphere Marathon framework) The implementation was done on Google cloud platform, using the Google Compute Engine (GCE). Under the scope of the account setup for implementation, following are the details of the resources available. For this implementation, two of the available 4 machines have been used. Resource Machine Names n1-standard-1 n1-standard-2 Virtual CPU 1 2 Memory (GB) 3.75 7.50 Max No of Persistent Disks (PD) 16 16 Max PD Size (TB) 64 64 A. Kubernetes ecosystem Kubernetes ecosystem is spread over two setups as shown below. Two Node Setup Four Node setup Master node VMs 1 1 CPU 1 1 Machine type N1-standard-1 N1-standard-1 Worker nodes VMs 1 3 CPU 2 each 2 each Machine type N1-standard-1 N1-standard-1 Table 3 Kubernetes ecosystem Production grade kubernetes is available open source and can be installed from its official page [10]. After the installation of kubernetes , start up script kube-up.sh can be used to spin up a cluster. A cluster consists of a single master instance and a set of worker nodes each of which is a Computer engine virtual machine.This process takes about ten minutes to bring up a cluster and once the cluster is running , IP addresses of all the nodes can be obtained from the computer engine. Cluster specifications can be specified using environment variables like NUM_NODES , MASTER_SIZE, NODE_SIZE or can also be specified in config_default.sh. kubectl is the command line interface for kubernetes clusters. It supports command types like create, apply, attach , config, get, describe, and delete and resource types like pods, deployment, and services. B. Mesos ecosystem Different approaches were used to implement a Mesos cluster system as per the available resources. The procedure followed for each implementation and the associated complexities are described briefly. The third implementation method, which was incorporated into this project, is described in detail. Single master Single Slave In the first method that was tried for setup, the system was formulated as a single node cluster consisting of zookeeper, marathon, a single master and a single agent processes. The images for these were pulled from the Docker hub, using Docker installed on the GCE shell. Four containers, one each for the process listed were started. The Mesos master UI was accessible through the browser on its designated IP address, at port 5050. Marathon UI was accessed through its external IP address at port 8080. This implementation posed two constraints for successful implementation. The set up used up all the available CPU and a multinode configuration could not be implemented. Further, a public Docker image poses trust issues for a system implementation. It was, therefore, decided to explore other options. Datacenter / Operating System (DC/OS) DCOS is a product of a company called Mesosphere which makes applications and solutions based on Apache Mesos. DCOS is designed as a distributed operating system with Apache Mesos serving as its kernel. The intent is to abstract the different functionalities of multiple machines so as to club them as a single computing resource. DCOS can offer container orchestration as it has Marathon scheduler built into its design at the backend. [11] Installation of DCOS on the Google Compute Engine requires the setting up of a primary bootstrap node on which the GCE scripts shall be run to create the cluster nodes. A yaml format installation file is to be run via Ansible playbook to create and configure the cluster nodes with DCOS running on them. Several environment variables have to be customized such as setting up RSA public/private key pairs that shall allow for a SSH based login into the cluster nodes. The team was unsuccessful in setting up a DCOS running cluster on GCE. The support community for DCOS is not very mature and the installation issues faced by the team could not be resolved. Exploring the services of DCOS has been included as one the future work possibilities in this paper as DCOS promises great potential in terms of effective container orchestration. Installing VMs on GCE In this method, Mesos ecosystem implementation is over 6 virtual machines, using four n1-standard-1 and two n1-standard-2 machine types. The system consists of 3 master nodes and 3 agents, with the Marathon and Zookeeper processes running on VMs 1, 2 and 3, as shown in the figure below. The VMs with two CPUs indicates n1-standard-2 machines. Fig 3 Mesos Implementation Diagram The following processes are run on each of these VMs to establish a self sufficient ecosystem. Marathon Marathon runs as a scheduling framework on Mesos and is deployed over VM1. Zookeeper Zookeeper is a process that manages which master process to run as active and which to keep as standby. Zookeeper processes are run on VM1, VM2 and VM3, to keep a backup zookeeper process running to facilitate automatic failover of a master process. Mesos Master Three mesos master processes are run, each in VM1, VM2 and VM3. The quorum associated with Zookeeper selects one of these three masters to be active and the rest to be standby. Mesos Agents Mesos Agents processes run on VM4, VM5 and VM6. Mesos agent on VM6 runs on an n1-standard-1 machine, as compared to agents on VMs 4 and 5. The Kubernetes and Mesos Cluster systems were set up as described in the implementation section. Each ecosystem was evaluated in different scenarios and the behaviour of the systems were analysed for each of the scenarios in terms of scalability, load balancing and failover capabilities. Kubernetes System: Creating and deploying the application on kubernetes is primarily carried out by the specifications on pod.yaml , deployment.yaml , and service.yaml files. pod.yaml deployment.yaml service.yaml Operations Group of containers tied together for networking Used to schedule the creation of pods and check their health. To expose the created deployment to the outside of clusters. arguments specified -docker image -shared volumes -CPU restrictions on single pod -LivenessProbe -ReadinessProbe -replicas : to ensure the minimum number of pods that needs to be running at all times. -loadbalancer -clusterIP Table 4 Kubernetes :application deployment components Kubernetes Scalability : Setup used for understanding scalability in kubernetes is described in the kubernetes ecosystem section. This process is aimed at gauging kubernetes scalability against the CPU resource utilization of clusters, auto scaling of pods , and API responsiveness. Web based WordPress application was chosen for this purpose. Scaling in kubernetes is achieved by horizontal auto scaling of pods .It dynamically adjusts the number of pods in deployment to meet the load/traffic. Horizontal Pod Autoscaler(HPA) can be created via the kubectl command kubectl autoscale deployment wordpress cpu-percent=14 min=1 -max=10 . This means that the horizontal autoscaler will increase and decrease the number of pods to maintain an average CPU utilization of 14% across all Pods. It also facilitates automatic failover of pods. Locust was used for creating load on WordPress application. Locust is an easy-to-use python based load testing tool which is used to find out how many concurrent users a system can handle . It swarms the web applications with a number of users which is specified by using the web UI. Once the application was hosted by kubernetes , load was initiated to its load balancer ingress IP using locust .The intention was to learn how the auto scalers react on the load as generated by locust. The results of the experiment can be better explained using the tabular format as below. The parameters like minimum and maximum number of pods , target CPU utilization were kept similar to both the setups. Number of requests in the table suggests the total number of users created by locust. Two node setup (Total 7 CPUs) Number of Pods 10 50 150 Target CPU 14 14 8 Max Number of requests 575 966 3158 Failure % 23% 23% 41% Table 5 Kubernetes: Scalability in two node system Four Node setup (Total 3 CPUs) Number of Pods 10 50 150 Target CPU 14 14 8 Max Number of requests 611 1433 7513 Failure % 24% 20% 2% Table 6 Kubernetes: Scalability in four node system Observations from the above tabulated results : The number of pods from 1-10 did not have any significant impact on the failure percentage . The significant difference in the results were spotted as the number of pods were increased. As number of requests increased , the increase in the number of pods was witnessed. And with the load going down pods were downsized automatically. Fig 4 Kubernetes pods in running and terminating states The failure percentage was drastically reduced between the two setups with high load and higher number of pods . The failure percentage is almost similar between the two setups with less load. Setup was benchmarked at 150 for maximum number of pods. It was observed that going beyond this value left many pods in pending state for longer than seven minutes. Starting a pod takes lesser than four seconds in other cases . More number of pods will be created when the target CPU percentage specified in the horizontal auto scaler command is less. CPU resource utilization of four node cluster is as shown below .This shows that the newly created pods were allocated equally across the worker nodes.The below graph is as seen from stackdriver utility. Fig 5 CPU usage of a Kubernetes cluster Fig 6 Load distribution over the worker nodes. Mesos System: Application scalability, in terms of Mesos using Marathon is represented as number of instances that are created and successfully run on the active agent nodes. Marathon provides an option to simulate application instances to be distributed over the agent nodes through the Scale option in the User Interface Dashboard. Applications are specified as JSON files, either through the Create Application option of the Marathon UI or through a JSON file in Git which is imported, built and deployed over Marathon for distribution and scheduling, through the use of continuous integration tool called Jenkins. Deploying an application: Mesos using Marathon forms an orchestration tool for managing application instances on the different active agent nodes. These nodes are managed by a master instance, which is effectively managed by the Zookeeper processes. Distribution of application instances on agent nodes depends on the resources allocated to each of the agents. For this implementation, we consider an application that is not CPU intensive. This application abstracts any data intensive application, that is based on a request response model. Following table summarizes the different scenarios simulated to test scalability of the application, each with the different configurations employed. Cluster configuration represents number of active agent nodes, as number of masters remain at 3. Sl No Cluster Configuration Effective CPUs available CPU Usage per instance (%) Memory usage per application instance (MB) Maximum instances scaled for the CPU available 1 2 Agents 4 10 32 40 2 3 Agents 5 10 32 50 3 2 Agents 4 2 10 200 4 3 Agents 5 2 10 250 Table 7: Scalability analysis with a Data Intensive application The tabulated results indicate the effective operation of Mesos cluster with Marathon scheduling framework, which suggest the easy scalable property of a Mesos cluster system. When there are more number of instances of application that need servicing, a mesos cluster starts new agent process and effectively distributes the application load over the running agents. Load Balancing Increase in number of application instances require more number of agent nodes running to service all the requests. However, the request handling is not efficient, if all of the requests are directed to a single agent. The workload is distributed effectively among all the agent nodes. For the scaling test scenarios described in the previous section, CPU usage was monitored using Google Stack Driver utility. The graph below shows CPU usage at different timelines. The rapid rise or fall of the usage attributes to the increasing/decreasing number of application instances that need servicing. Fig 7 CPU usage of a Mesos cluster with changes in application instances The distribution of workload on all the processes is tabulated, using the Stack Driver utility, as illustrated by the figure below. Fig 8 Load distribution over the six processes There is a significant workload over master node 3, as the marathon process utilizes the core of VM3, even though the process is run on VM1. Master nodes have least CPU usage, owing to the fact that the only operation performed by the nodes is distribution of application tasks over the agents. The agents are represented as three processes named mesos-slave-1, mesos-slave-2 and mesos-slave-3. The workload distributed on these appear even. However, the agent-3 runs only on a single core and it uses 22.9% of the total allocated core. This summarizes the effective load balancing that a Mesos system incorporates. Failover Mesos Cluster system runs additional master processes as standby to facilitate automatic failover of the system. In this experiment, as an initial condition, the quorum of Zookeepers elected Mesos-master-2 to be primary and Mesos-Master-1 and Mesos-Master-3 as secondary. Application deployment was initiated as per the previous procedure, using a JSON file through Marathon. The active tasks on Mesos-master-2 were checked at port 5050 of the master-2 external IP address to check the delegation of tasks to the active agent nodes. To test failover, the mesos-master-2 process was killed. It was observed that the presence of Zookeeper effectively switched the application deployments over the agents through mesos-master-1. The delegation of tasks to slave was now observed through the browser on the external IP address of mesos-master-1 at port 5050. With this project, the implementation and experimentation enabled a better understanding of the concepts related to orchestration, containerization, scalability and load balancing properties of a cluster based environment. This will ease the initial understanding of deployment and management of cloud native applications, and to better setup and environment that houses them. With the help of this documentation, along with the link provided through github, it would be easier to setup an orchestration environment, as the team has tried to collate the steps involved in implementing a cluster with orchestration tools. Through research and experimentation, the team was able to put together enough literature to understand, compare, contrast and conclude on various aspects of orchestration systems and understand the major difference between Kubernetes and Mesos based systems. Lack of resources for implementation of Mesos based systems, and equivocal distinction among the several example implementation required for a better compilation of materials, which was achieved through this project work. In a survey conducted by P Heidari et al [7] on some of the well known orchestration tools with a primary focus on QoS capabilities, the authors have concluded that not all of the solution tools provide a guaranteed healthy running replicas to effectively maintain the quality of service. They have cited that tools like Marathon and Fleet tend to go into a state of unprecedented wait due to the need for appropriate resources. There is a need of an elasticity e

The Relevance Today of A Jury of Her Peers Essay -- A Jury of Her Peer

In "A Jury of Her Peers," Susan Glaspell illustrates many social standards women experienced at the turn of the century. She allows the reader to see how a woman's life was completely ruled by social laws, and thus by her husband. Glaspell also reveals the ignorance of the men in the story, in particular the sheriff and the county attorney. I think some examples are rather extreme, but in Glaspell's day, they would have probably been common. Women did not have many rights at the turn of the century. What few rights and freedoms they did have were dominated by social standards. They were expected to cater to their husbands' wishes and commands. I think their society oppressed them more often than their own husbands did. A good example of this in "A Jury of Her Peers" is Martha Hale. Lewis Hale treats his wife as an equal privately, but does not treat her as an equal in public. When Mrs. Hale attempts to interrupt her husband as he tells the county attorney what he experienced in the Wright household she does not treat him as a master, but as an equal (Glaspell 260). Clearly she is not afraid of him. Many women at this time would have never even attempted to distract or interrupt their husband while they talked. Clearly defined gender roles are prevalent throughout "A Jury of Her Peers." Men are supposed to work outside of the home, and women are supposed to work inside the home. Neither the men nor the women seem to appreciate the other's wo...

Assessing ecosystem health Essay

The simple summary of the article is shown below.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Metaphors drawn from human health can be applied in environmental assessment at ecosystem levels; hence the concept of ecosystem medicine may also be appropriate in trying to understand the environment.   By using metaphors one can understand a difficult concept into more known terms since a comparison as to what is common in medicine and in ecosystem. Human use science but they employ art also in appreciating and studying things. As a necessary consequence of using arts or even science   errors in treatment could also happen as there could also be cased of false alarms in diagnosing the environment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   But for a successful application of the medical concepts in ecosystem, there could be a need have a greater-defined taxonomy of ecosystems to afford a better correlations and analysis of the different variables involved in ecosystems. Taxonomy will allow more definitions of technical terms in ecosystems which could be used by scientists and scholars to make a thorough investigation and analysis.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The health status of ecosystems in turn could also serve a good barometer to assess the present status or health of the environment. This must be so since the better the ecosystem , the better the environment. Question: 2.    Write a review of Section 1 (p-15: Introduction) and also indicate important points which the author has talked about to be discuss in the paper; any critique; anything missing?   Any important information we get from this section?   Any interesting thing we get from this section, and do we really find it in the following section? The simple introduction is shown below.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The author is saying that whatever the ecosystem now suffers is partly caused by human activity.   He is using a metaphor to convey his message.   That the environment’s health must also be determined like that of a human individual.   Like a human being who is subject to stress, the author illustrates that the ecosystem also suffers from effects of various stresses.   He cited as examples of stresses the following: harvesting, introduction of exotic species, generation of waste residuals, physical restructuring, and even extreme natural events which affect the environment. Question 3.   Write a review of Section 2 (p-16: Ecosystem: a nebulous concept?)   What do we learn from this Section?   What has author tried to communicate and how successful he has been to communicate?   And also indicate the significance of this section related to this article, if you see any critique to this section then write it with a complete logic? Is ecosystem a nebulous concept?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The author is saying that while others my think that term ‘ecosystems’ may be indefinite of meaning   because   of difficulty of delimiting boundaries on the basis of conventional observations.   Ecosystems are not isolated, but intimately connected, or nested within adjacent or larger systems as seen in the continuum from rivers to lakes; from estuaries to the sea; from the sea to the world’s ocean.   The author agrees that for management and assessment, ‘ecosystem’ constitutes a relevant macro-level unit for describing the environment (Rowe, 1961, 1989; Bird & Rapport, 1986).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     The author is very clear in describing the ecosystems as a dynamic, complex, and open systems that are in constant change over ecological, evolutionary, and geological time (Rapport & Regier, 1992), and such they exhibit chameleon-like properties; that is, they might exist in a number of alternative forms, the particular composition being very much influenced by internal dynamics and by interactions with neighboring systems (Holling, 1985; Rapport & Regier, 1992). Question 4.   Write a review of Section 3 (p-16: Towards an Ecosystem Health Model) what do we learn from this Section?   What has author tried to communicate and how successful he has been to communicate?   And also indicate the significance of this section related to this article, if you see any critique to this section then write it with a complete logic? The quest for understanding leads to quest for having health ecosystem.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The author is saying that in the quest for a more comprehensive understanding of the process of ecosystem breakdown and recovery, he has come to think that humans are engaged in some form of ecosystem medicine (Rapport et al., 1979).   He said that introducing the medical metaphor suggests that, like physicians, ecosystem practitioners are in need of systematic procedures by which to recognize illness, devise protocols to ‘rule-in’ or ‘rule-out’ possible causes, and prescribe treatment. (Rapport, 1992) (Paraphrasing made)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When it comes to treatment, medicine suggests several options: following internal medicine, ecosystems may be treated by regulating the ‘blood chemistry’ of the system; following surgery, ecosystems may be treated by wholesale physical and biological restructuring.   The latter may involve both removal of undesirable elements and introduction (grafting) of desirable ecosystem components. I should hasten to add that we are concerned here with the application of scientific methodologies developed in medicine in order to assess the state of ecosystem health.   In so doing I neither subscribes to the view that ecosystems can be considered as organisms (for clearly there are not not not not substantive differences in both the mechanisms and degree of integration as well as in the dynamics of these two systems) nor do I suggest.   (Rapport, 1992) (Paraphrasing made) Question 5.   Write a review of Section 4 (p-17: The subjective nature of health assessments) what do we learn from this Section?   What has author tried to communicate and how successful he has been to communicate?   And also indicate the significance of this section related to this article, if you see any critique to this section then write it with a complete logic? Subjectivity is employed in assessing the ecosystem.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The author is equating the subjective judgment used in health assessment as to what is being done in assessing the ecosystem.   He said that clearly, in many cases, the diagnosis and treatment of sickness also uses gut feel or hunches in addition to the scientific way..   Inevitably, there enters a degree of subjectivity in evaluating the health status of an individual or an ecosystem. (Rapport, 1992) (Paraphrasing made)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The author mentioned some ecosystem transformations that are made without recourse to societal values or limitations of scientific understanding and cited as example the demise of the forest downwind of a smelter.   Nevertheless, he admits that more frequently   social value-judgments and the limitations of science appear   to mix as a form of art.   The author gave as an example the conversion to plantations of radiata pine (Pinus radiata) of highly diversified indigenous forests in New Zealand, where there are opposing view between conservationists and foresters. (Rapport, 1992) (Paraphrasing made) Question 6.   Write a review of Section 5 (p-18: Early Warning Signs of Pathological Ecosystems) what do we learn from this Section? What has author tried to communicate and how successful he has been to communicate?   And also indicate the significance of this section related to this article, if you see any critique to this section then write it with a complete logic?   (This section should cover all sub sections of the main section, one by one) Early warning signs of pathological ecosystems have obstacles.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The author mentioned three obstacles in providing early warning of ecosystem pathology and they are: Firstly, basic processes such as nutrient cycling and primary productivity, is highly cyclical and irregular, varying from year to year, seasonally and diurnally.   Such variability and seemingly random behavior raises havoc with detection of the onset of much pathology that beset aquatic ecosystems. Secondly, early symptoms of ecosystem degradation may be missed or discovered only after pathology is well advanced. Thirdly, false alarms are easily sounded owing to a still far from adequate understanding of the long-term dynamic behavior of ecosystems. Ecosystems have common systems of degradation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Under section 5.1 on â€Å"Health indicators at the ecosystem level,† the  author is discussing the identification of common symptoms of ecosystem degradation.   These common symptoms are termed the ‘ecosystem distress syndrome’ (Rapport et al., 1985) and characterize a large number of ecosystems under stresses of various types.   The author citing Rapport, 1991, said that with reference to aquatic ecosystems, the ecosystem distress syndrome comprises the following symptoms: (1) alteration in biotic community structure to favor smaller forms; (2) reduced species diversity; (3) increased dominance by ‘r’ selected species; (4) increased dominance by exotic species; (5) shortened food-chain length; (6) increased disease prevalence; and (7) reduced population stability. (Rapport, 1992) (Paraphrasing made) Like human diseases, ecosystems have risk factors, too.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Under section 5.2   on â€Å"Ecosystem risk factors,† the author   Ã‚  supports the idea of identification of individuals at risk for certain types of diseases, as those found in coronary disease, which will shift man’s attention from treating illness to prevention.   The author argues that using the same principle of identifying risk in ecosystem, prevention of the ecosystem’s degradation could be prevented. (Rapport, 1992) (Paraphrasing made)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   He believes that this approach works best where a single dominant stress acts to transform ecosystems, such as may occur in the process of eutrophication or acidification of aquatic ecosystems.   He said that much is known about the actions of these two stresses and the vulnerabilities of the recipient aquatic systems (e.g., Minns et al., 1990). He then argued that combining the findings from case studies of impacts of such specific stresses on ecosystems with the knowledge of current stress loadings and sensitivities of recipient ecosystems enables one to arrive at an ecosystem level risk assessment. (Rapport, 1992) (Paraphrasing made)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   He was able to cite the development of various factor analyses similar to the manner in which risks of coronary disease are now assessed in ecosystem health evaluations. He cited the work of Minns et al. (1990) who have examined the impact of acid precipitation on the loss of fish species in vulnerable eastern Canadian lakes. (Rapport, 1992) (Paraphrasing made)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   With these studies the author is really looking forward for the prevention of ecosystem’s degradation. Validation of treatment for ecosystem is a problem, too.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Under section 5.3 on â€Å"Validation of treatment† the author also talks of validation of treatment which is considered the bottom line for medical practitioners. This premised on the idea that once an illness has been diagnosed, the question turns squarely to the most effective treatment. Treatment validation provides a basis for selection among alternative procedures.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In applying the medical terminology to the ecosystem, the author said that success rates for a given treatment cannot be evaluated without factoring out the influences of the other stress factors. He cited an example the evaluation of the effectiveness of harvesting regulations on restoring seal populations in the Baltic Sea. He said that it is necessary to take into account impairments to seal reproductive success owing to the presence of PCBs and related toxic substances (Helle et al., 1976). Here, just as in human medicine, he said, â€Å"we have the need to develop methodologies to factor out co-morbidities.†Ã‚   He mentioned the need for a far better taxonomy of ecosystem ills than we presently have. He said that one currently may describe ecosystem pathologies in terms of air pollution damage to forests, eutrophication of aquatic systems, acidification of aquatic and terrestrial systems, etc. but he said that these are very rudimentary categories. He therefore suggested that for each of these classifications there are many finer subdivisions which need to be categorized before one can readily compare case histories. (Rapport, 1992) (Paraphrasing made) Question 7. Write a review of Section 6 (p-21: Reporting on the state of environment from an ecosystem health perspective) what do we learn from this Section? What has author tried to communicate and how successful he has been to communicate? And also indicate the significance of this section related to this article, if you see any critique to this section then write it with a complete logic? Environment could be seen from the health of the ecosystems.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The author is trying to make a picture of the environment on the basis of the status of the ecosystem. He cited Canada as having subdivided its land areas into 15 ecozones, defined on the basis of Physiographic, vegetation type, soils/surface materials, climate, and human use. He reported that the forests of most ecozones are impacted by a combination of natural and cultural stresses (particularly in the Montaine Cordillera, Boreal Shield, and Atlantic Maritime ecozones). Included in the stresses is fire, insects and diseases, over-harvesting, conversion of forests to agriculture, construction of transportation and utility corridors, air pollution, and climate-induced stresses such as red belt and wind throw.   He then cited the relationship of increase disease in ecosystems which are more stressed. (Rapport, 1992) (Paraphrasing made)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The author also mentioned that the other sections of the 1986 Canadian State of Environment Report relate to aquatic ecosystems, both the Laurentian Great Lakes and other Inland Waters, as well as the three marine systems (Atlantic, Pacific and Northern). He also cited that the major stresses affecting these ecosystems include: over-harvesting, construction of dams and diversions, contaminants (including toxic substances), and the purposeful or accidental introduction of exotic species (particularly in the Great Lakes and inland waters). Further, in all but the Northern marine ecosystems, land use change (particularly the drainage of wetlands for agricultural and recreational purposes) and sewage inflows added significant additional stress. (Rapport, 1992) (Paraphrasing made) Question 8. What do we understand from the Conclusions written on p-23, are they appropriate; any critique; any thing missed in conclusion; any thing over emphasized. The simple conclusion could be done as shown below.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   We understand from the conclusion that ecosystem behavior under stress is complex and processes leading to degradation and recovery are only partially understood, nonetheless, ecosystem medicine is coming of age at least as a conjectural art. There therefore many challenges along the way. There also a combination of objective and subjective criteria is called into play in rendering judgments as to the health of ecosystems.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Another thing that   I did understand in the conclusion is that in talking about assessing the ecosystem from a point of view need not involve or borrow concepts from the medical sciences to understand the system but that the author argues that use of the metaphor suggests more systematic approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of ecosystem ills, underscores the importance of validation of remedial action interventions, and draws attention to the inherent subjective nature of health assessments. Further, the metaphor provides a language in which the concern for ecosystem health becomes a natural extension of the concern for individual health The conclusions drawn are appropriate and does not in any way insist that understanding how to manage the ecosystem be necessarily made reference to the medical science field.   It could be made from different points of view and the advantage of using a field of study to bring out the issues via use of metaphor may contribute much to information campaign. Question 9.   Is this article helpful in planning and managing environment, if yes how?   If no, why? What is the relevance of the article in planning and management of the environment?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     I believe this article is helpful in planning and managing environment.   Different persons belong to different professions and different professions have their own languages.   By using metaphor in medicine to discuss ecosystem and the environment, would be getting the member of the medical profession to understand the issues more clearly and to get their support for the cause of the environment Question 10.   Is the title appropriate, if yes WHY?   if no then suggest some other title, and also justify the title with a logical reasoning. How show the article be titled appropriately?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The title evaluating ecosystem health seems not to include treatment on ecosystem treatment.   Since it talks also of treatment the title could be modified as â€Å"Evaluating and Maintaining the Ecosystem’s Health.†Ã‚   By simply saying evaluating it the discussion on treatment should not have been part. Reference: Bird, P. M. & D. J. Rapport, 1986. State of the Environment Report for Canada. Ministry of Supply and Services.263 pp. Helle, E., M. Olsson & S. Jensen, 1976. PCB levels correlated with pathological changes in seal uteri. Ambio 5: 261–263. Holling, C. S., 1985. Resilience of ecosystems local surprise and global change. In: T. F. Malone & J. G. Roederer (eds), In Global Change, pp. 292–317. Cambridge Univ.Press, Cambridge. Minns, C. K., J. E. Moore, D. W. Schindler & M. L. Jones, 1990. Assessing the potential extent of damage to inland lakes in eastern Canada due to acidic deposition. 1V. Predicted impacts on species richness in seven groups of aquatic biota. Can. J. Fish Aquat. Sci. 47: 821–830. Rapport, D. J., & A. M. Friend, 1979. Towards a comprehensive framework for environmental statistics: a stressresponse approach. Statist. Can., Ottawa. Rapport, D. J., & H. A. Regier, 1992. Disturbance and stress effects on ecological systems. In: B. C. Patten & S. E. Rapport, D. J., 1991. Myths in the foundations of economics and ecology. Biol. J. Liimean Soc. 44: 185–202. Rapport, D. J., H. A. Regier & T. C. Hutchinson, 1985. Ecosystem behaviour under stress. Amer. Natur. 125: 617–640. Rapport, D., (1992), Evaluating ecosystem health, Journal of Aquatic Ecosystem Health, M. Munawar (ed.), Assessing Aquatic Ecosystem Health: Rationale, Challenges, and Strategies. KluwerAcademic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands Rowe, J. S., 1961. The level of integration concept and ecology. Ecology 42(2): 420–427. Rowe, J. S., 1989. Implications of the Brundtland Commission Report for Canadian forest management. Forestry

Tips for Creating and Scoring Essay Tests

Tips for Creating and Scoring Essay Tests Essay tests are useful for teachers when they want students to select, organize, analyze, synthesize, and/or evaluate information. In other words, they rely on the upper levels of Blooms Taxonomy. There are two types of essay questions: restricted and extended response. Restricted Response - These essay questions limit what the student will discuss in the essay based on the wording of the question. For example, State the main differences between John Adams and Thomas Jeffersons beliefs about federalism, is a restricted response. What the student is to write about has been expressed to them within the question.Extended Response - These allow students to select what they wish to include in order to answer the question. For example, In Of Mice and Men, was Georges killing of Lennie justified? Explain your answer. The student is given the overall topic, but they are free to use their own judgment and integrate outside information to help support their opinion. Student Skills Required for Essay Tests Before expecting students to perform well on either type of essay question, we must make sure that they have the required skills to excel. Following are four skills that students should have learned and practiced before taking essay exams: The ability to select appropriate material from the information learned in order to best answer the question.The ability to organize that material in an effective manner.The ability to show how ideas relate and interact in a specific context.The ability to write effectively in both sentences and paragraphs. Constructing an Effective Essay Question Following are a few tips to help in the construction of effective essay questions: Begin with the lesson objectives in mind. Make sure to know what you wish the student to show by answering the essay question.Decide if your goal requires a restricted or extended response. In general, if you wish to see if the student can synthesize and organize the information that they learned, then restricted response is the way to go. However, if you wish them to judge or evaluate something using the information taught during class, then you will want to use the extended response.If you are including more than one essay, be cognizant of time constraints. You do not want to punish students because they ran out of time on the test.Write the question in a novel or interesting manner to help motivate the student.State the number of points that the essay is worth. You can also provide them with a time guideline to help them as they work through the exam.If your essay item is part of a larger objective test, make sure that it is the last item on the exam. Scoring the Essay Item One of the downfalls of essay tests is that they lack in reliability. Even when teachers grade essays with a well-constructed rubric, subjective decisions are made. Therefore, it is important to try and be as reliable as possible when scoring your essay items. Here are a few tips to help improve reliability in grading: Determine whether you will use a holistic or analytic scoring system before you write your rubric. With the holistic grading system, you evaluate the answer as a whole, rating papers against each other. With the analytic system, you list specific pieces of information and award points for their inclusion.Prepare the essay rubric in advance. Determine what you are looking for and how many points you will be assigning for each aspect of the question.Avoid looking at names. Some teachers have students put numbers on their essays to try and help with this.Score one item at a time. This helps ensure that you use the same thinking and standards for all students.Avoid interruptions when scoring a specific question. Again, consistency will be increased if you grade the same item on all the papers in one sitting.If an important decision like an award or scholarship is based on the score for the essay, obtain two or more independent readers.Beware of negative influences that can affect essay s coring. These include handwriting and writing style bias, the length of the response, and the inclusion of irrelevant material. Review papers that are on the borderline a second time before assigning a final grade.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being essays

The Unbearable Lightness of Being essays The Ideas of Lightness and Weight in The Unbearable Lightness of Being The title The Unbearable Lightness of Being represents a major theme that reoccurs throughout the book. Milan Kundera centers this theme on the relationship between Tomas and Tereza, the main characters. His writing centers on with whom and what his characters identify themselves with (Day). They are a married couple live in Prague during the Russian occupation. They have a bizarre relationship; Tomas cheats on Tereza incessantly, believing that "...the only relationship that can make both partners happy is one in which sentimentality has no place and neither partner makes any claim on the life and freedom of the other" (Kundera 12). This is the type of "lightness" of attitude Tomas exhibits throughout the novel. Conversely, Tereza is prone to "heaviness," meaning she carries weight wherever she goes and in everything she does. These two ideas shape the relationship between the two. The ideas are often at odds and cause problems for Tereza and Tomas. However, the ideas a lso explain why they are together and what makes them stay together. It is impossible to explain the ideas of lightness and heaviness in this novel without discussing existentialism. Existentialism is "a term that designates a concern in philosophy, literature, and art with the irreducibly personal and subjective aspect of human existence" (Existentialism). There is a definite emphasis on the individuals in this novel. The reader is concerned with how bearing all of this weight will wear Tereza down. At the same time, the reader has compassion for Tomas not being able to live a life of lightness because of Tereza. He is undeserving of this compassion for two reasons: he is a habitual adulterer, and he asked Tereza to marry him. The emphasis on Tomas and Tereza's ability to make their own choices is evident when Tomas decides to return to Prague after Tereza leaves him in Zur...

Free Online Virtual High Schools 101

Free Online Virtual High Schools 101 A free online high school is a program that allows students to study through the internet without paying tuition. Free online high schools are considered public schools. In some states, they may be run by the states department of education. In other states, free online high schools are administrated by local school districts or by private organizations that receive permission by forming charter schools. While some free online high schools only offer a few courses, many provide students the opportunity to earn an entire high school diploma. Do Free Online High Schools Offer Legitimate Diplomas? The short answer is: yes. Free only high schools can award graduates diplomas that are the same as diplomas from traditional brick-and-mortar schools. However, many free online high schools are new and are still trying to become properly accredited. Whenever a new school (traditional or virtual) begins accepting students for enrollment, it must go through an accreditation process to prove that it offers a high-quality education. The process can take some time and a school is not guaranteed to receive accreditation. Before enrolling, you can check a free online high schools accreditation status here. If the school is not accredited, you may encounter trouble transferring to another program or having your credits accepted by a college after graduation. Are Free Online High Schools Easier Than Traditional High Schools? As a general rule, free online high schools are not easier than traditional online high schools. Different schools have different curricula and instructors. Some free online high schools may be more difficult than their traditional counterparts, while others may be easier. Some students tend to thrive in the self-paced, independent atmosphere that online high schools provide. Others have an extremely difficult time trying to navigate their assignments and study without the face-to-face assistance offered by teachers in traditional programs. Can Adults Enroll in Free Online High Schools? As public programs, free online high schools are designed for teenagers. While the rules vary from state to state, most free online high schools do not permit older adults to enroll. Some programs will accept students that are in their early twenties or younger. Older students interested in earning an online high school diploma may want to consider private online high school programs. These programs do charge tuition; however many are targeted to older learners and offer students the possibility of earning a diploma at an accelerated speed. Who Funds Free Online High Schools? Free online high schools are funded in the same way as traditional high schools: with local, state, and federal tax funds. Can Free Online High School Graduates Enroll in College? Yes. Just like traditional high school graduates, online high school graduates may apply to and enroll in colleges. College administrators look for the same types of grades, activities, and recommendations as they do for traditional graduates. Some online high schools offer different tracks for students depending on their academic preparedness and their desire to either attend college or learn a trade. Students that plan to attend college should enroll in college preparatory classes and should find out what courses their desired college requires of new freshmen. Additionally, college-minded students should make sure that their free online high school is properly accredited and is in good standing with the accrediting organizations. Can My Teenager Enroll in Any Free Online High School? No. Because online high schools are usually partially funded by local taxes, schools are location-specific. For example, a high school student from Dallas, Texas could not enroll in a free online high school funded by Los Angeles, California school districts. Students are only permitted to enroll in programs that are designated for their state or city. In some cases, students must live within a particular school district in order to enroll in a particular online high school. Additionally, some online high schools are only open to students that regularly attend traditional schools that the online program contracts with. Can My Teenager Enroll in a Free Online High School While Traveling Abroad? Because of the stringent residency requirements, enrolling in a free online high school while abroad can be a bit challenging. Generally, if students are retaining their American citizenship, they will still have a home state. If the parents remain in the U.S., the student may enroll in free online high schools permitted by the parents address. If the whole family is traveling abroad, residency may be determined by their mailing address or P.O. Box. Individual schools may have their own requirements. How Do I Find a Free Online High School? To find a program for your area, check out the About.com state-by-state list of free online high schools.

Control mechanisms Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Control mechanisms - Research Paper Example Employee incentive program and scheduling of business processes are also dependent on the budget control mechanism. At Boeing, managers do effective budgeting before starting any new project because it makes them complete the projects without facing any financial problem. The benefits, which budgeting control mechanism provides to the management of Boeing, include control over financial resources, improved financial communication, and achievement of definite business objectives. Scheduling of business operations is very important for Boeing, as the company has to deal with commercial as well as military clients. Management of Boeing makes use of project network diagrams and Gantt Charts to do proper scheduling of all business activities. As compared to employee incentive program, which is use to improve employee productivity, scheduling is somewhat more important control mechanism because it has to deal with the management of core business processes required for ensuring production and project completion within the deadlines. Scheduling means to time the business operations in such a way that none of the business operations becomes obstacle in the way of other business operations. Boeing makes a great use of this control mechanism to improve the performance of employees. This control mechanism not only helps the company improve performance and productivity of employees but also improves employee loyalty. Boeing offers different kinds of incentives and rewards to its employees to motivate them. Wellness programs, health insurance, and paid vacations are some of the most considerable incentives that Boeing offers to its employees. This control mechanism holds great importance in the success of Boeing aerospace company. It means to manage the information that is required to run business operations and other activities of an organization. The key tasks of Boeing’s information system include

Is aptitude a factor in second language acquisition Essay

Is aptitude a factor in second language acquisition - Essay Example Aptitude is defined as being an inherent ability and a capacity for learning that goes beyond intelligence. It is â€Å"a combination of abilities and other characteristics, whether native or acquired, that are indicative of an individual’s ability to learn or develop proficiency in some particular area if appropriate education or training is provided†. Aptitude is most definitely a factor in second language acquisition (SLA). However, the importance of aptitude is also dependent on a number of other factors. It is one of the many variables which play a part in determining the speed and comprehensiveness in which an individual gains fluency in a second language. Factors such as age, education level, motivation and general intelligence are also fundamental to a person’s ability to acquire a second language. The purpose of this essay is to establish just how great a role aptitude plays in SLA and its relationship to other aspects. In order to ascertain this, I will analyze academic works on the subject, before outlining what these works reveal about the function aptitude has in gaining fluency in a second language. In his article, ‘Aptitude and Second Language Acquisition’, Peter Robinson characterizes second language (L2) learning aptitude as â€Å"strengths individual learners have – relative to their population – in the cognitive abilities information processing draws on during L2 learning and performance in various contexts and at different stages†. According to Robinson, neural differences, underlying abilities and SLA processes lie at a ‘subcomputational, physical’ level.

Health reform legislation in the US Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

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O.J. Simpson Crime Scene Evidence Research Paper

O.J. Simpson Crime Scene Evidence - Research Paper Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 A. Accusations of Evidence Tampering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 - 6 B. Police Inexperience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 C. Cross-contamination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 D. Bloody Fingerprint on the Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 IV. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 V. Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Abstract A celebrity case like that of the O. J. Simpson twin murders case draws a lot of media attention. The issue of race had also been injected into the case trial because of claims of racist behavior from some police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and one of them was Mark Fuhrman who happened to be also the first among the police offic ers to arrive on the crime scene. When racism becomes an issue, there is the motivation and the suspicion that an investigator like Fuhrman could not be above planting or tampering with evidence especially if it concerns on his behavior towards blacks and inter-racial unions. If the prosecution lost the case, then they have only themselves to blame for it. There were a lot of mistakes made when they did the initial investigation and even during the trial proper; some officers were found to be perjured. In addition to accusations of racial biases and evidence tampering, inexperienced police officers were assigned to the case; from the collection of samples up to the examination of blood samples which kept turning up as evidence even days and weeks into the investigation. There were many instances of cross-contamination also between the crime scene and the residence of Simpson that was initially not considered as possible crime scene. The failure to get the proper search warrant also invalidated much of the evidence that was gathered. A very crucial piece of evidence like a bloody fingerprint, containing the fingerprint of the probable killer and the DNA itself, were not utilized by the prosecution to the fullest extent as a strong corroborative and direct evidence. Keywords: blood, DNA, Fuhrman, fingerprint, glove, samples, Simpson LAW: O. J. Simpson Crime Scene Evidence Introduction Today's societies are often engulfed in a wave of crimes, both property and index crimes that people are rightly afraid for their safety and security. There comes sometimes a crime that is quite unique because of the circumstances and personalities involved. This specially if the crime involves famous personalities such that the public is enthralled and mesmerized by sort of media circus and details of the crime are often obscured. The media can turn crime reporting into a kind of entertainment in the pursuit of a good story. The story then becomes a good fodder for society gossip and diverts the true objective of a crime scene investigation which is to catch the criminal. There is also a long-accepted principle in jurisprudence that flight is indicative of guilt. This is certainly true in most cases where the suspected criminal becomes a fugitive in trying to stay ahead of the arm of law. However, it is also not entirely impossible that a person who can be initially considered innocent takes to flight out of confusion, fear or simply panic on not knowing what proper courses of action to take. A good crime investigation takes not only the

Organization Development and Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 8

Organization Development and Change - Essay Example lly taking into consideration are the content of the agreement (contract) as well as the inter-personal relationships that may occur in the process of organizational development. It is usually imperative that certain issues, specifically the content of the contract are mentioned and comprehended at initial stage of the contract. One of the issues that is usually addressed by many organizations making efforts to engage into contract is clarification of the specific terms of the agreement: This is usually undertaken in order to ensure that the two parties do not engage in future conflicts by improving the level at, which they understand the terms of the contract. Another main focus in regard to content-oriented issues that are usually exhibited during contracts in organizational development process is the essence of addressing complex issues that may arise among professionals and stakeholders engaged in making the contract. That is, it is imperative to set terms that basically indicate the role of each stakeholder for instance: Who is responsible for solving any form of conflict that may arise in future; indicating issues to be addressed by the contract; ways by, which the overall goals of the contract will be achieved and the specific phases/stages of the organizational development process. The process of organizational development also involves the engagement into contract that basically leads into development of relationships. The process of organizational development usually begins with a scenario where one of the stakeholders in the organization contacts other organizational development practitioners in order to engage into a contract. The stakeholder may be the Chief Executive Officer or even a project manager that is facing challenges in regard to certain issues of organizational development. The process of determining whether the two parties should engage into any form of relationship is usually guided by a clear statement of the specific functions of the

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) rated Taiwan ranked 13th out of Essay

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) rated Taiwan ranked 13th out of 66 countries globally for IT competitiveness globally in 2 - Essay Example But to be competitive, there are key public strategies and policies that need to be considered in the field of information technology. In this essay, Taiwan is used as a case study of a highly performing information technology competitive country among sixty six (66) other countries that were ranked by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The inputs that went to getting Taiwan this enviable place of 13th that puts it ahead of countries like South Korea and Japan are examined to the latter using Porter’s Diamond Model. The analysis is also expanded to include ways by which the country can maintain its position or better it as well as ways of avoiding the unlikely event of losing out on its position. At the end of the paper, the writer hopes to achieve the objective of clearly outlining the national information and communication technology strengths and weaknesses associated with various countries in comparison to Taiwan to see how Taiwan could be used as a model especially wh en it comes to the area of electronics and semiconductor development. Overview of the IT Competiveness Index The IT Industry competitiveness index is generally in place as a scale for finding out how various countries are performing in terms of the application of information technology into industrial growth. To this end, several indicators are used to find out how sixty six (66) selected countries are competing among themselves in the various areas of indicators. The index was first published in 2007 (Rad and Beek, 2009) and had 26 of the said indicators grouped into six major categories for scoring. After scoring is done in the various categories, the accumulated score determines the place of various countries. This implies that the IT Industry Competitiveness Index is highly quantitative, making it empirical and open to public critique (Roll, 2006). The subsequent advantage that comes with this provision is that the index is generally tagged as credible; even considering the fact that it is hosted by none other quarters than the Economists Intelligence Unit with support for BSA. The various categories are given different weightings according to the impact that each of them makes towards information technology enhancement. The six major categories and their corresponding weightings are presented below. Category Weighting Overall business environment IT infrastructure Human capital Legal environment R&D environment Support for IT industry development 10% 20% 20% 10% 25% 15% Total 100% Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited, 2011 Factor Conditions Analysis of Taiwan’s Performance The chat bellow gives a detailed and graphical representation of the performance of Taiwan in the 2011 IT Competitiveness Index. From the graph presented above, it can be seen that Taiwan scored more than half of available score of 100% in all six categories. The highest performing scores were however recorded in business environment and legal environment, which scored 86.5% and 74.5% respectively. This means that Taiwan as a country has created an enabling business environment that makes the country highly attractive to investors, both home and abroad. As the investors do business in the country, they are assured of sound legal backing that is free from all forms of

Go to www.zooniverse.org. and write 200 words on each of FOUR of these Essay

Go to www.zooniverse.org. and write 200 words on each of FOUR of these different sites - Essay Example The site explains the procedure to analyze these frequency overlays in a tutorial and provides a detailed database for Kepler findings of exoplanets. The site also provides a detailed account of interference patterns and how they can be identified. Furthermore, weak signals can be identified and put up for more investigation. The experiment involves public for analyzing of this data instead of a computer. These patterns are fun to find and latest projects are always available to look at. Live observations from the Allen Telescope Array are provided as well which makes this experiment extremely interesting for the public. I had fun to read about the procedures and the site gave me some insight into how the signals are analyzed and consequently, processed. The site provides interesting opportunities for us to take part in the hunt for radio signals from exoplanets. 2. Galaxy Zoo Galaxy Zoo simply requires identification of galaxies by participants. The project was launched in 2007 and has changed over time. The team has changed data collection methods over time, however, for the participants the calculations are not necessary and the data is processed separately by the team. The project is very simple as it only involves identifying the shapes of the galaxies. Images are provided by Hubble Space Telescope and Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We need to systematically classify and help the team in identifying galaxies as one of the categories; that is elliptical, spiral, merging or star. The project is very simple and the site presents pictures of galaxies in an interactive player. The design is very intuitive and it guides a participant in few easy steps. These steps involve identifying with shapes and provide some choices to best suit our opinion about the galaxy. The images are of distant galaxies and are at times fuzzy. It is hard to clearly distinguish galaxies, though; some concentration is required to keenly observe the pictures. The best part about the project is the easy connection to discuss the image by others in a detailed forum. Participants can also write about their special observations if any related to the picture that needs special consideration from professionals. Overall, the site provides an interesting experience to look into the shapes and classifications of galaxies and help the team identifying vast database of about 900,000 galaxies. No special knowledge or training is required and it is fairly simple to participate in the project. 3. Planet Hunters The site presents interesting opportunities to participate in analyzing data from Kepler Mission. Kepler measures light from stars precisely and this measurement is presented in the shape of an interactive graph taken over time. A simple tutorial teaches how to analyze these graphs. The light from the star dips when a planet transits in front of the star, therefore, reducing measured brightness by Kepler. These transits can be identified as dips in the graphs as the graph prese nts brightness measured from the star. The graphs are presented in an interactive player with choices for identification in a systematic manner. The data at times has noise and the measurements are occasionally very confusing. Multiple dips can be identified at times; however, some classifications are straight forward with very little noise

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) rated Taiwan ranked 13th out of Essay

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) rated Taiwan ranked 13th out of 66 countries globally for IT competitiveness globally in 2 - Essay Example But to be competitive, there are key public strategies and policies that need to be considered in the field of information technology. In this essay, Taiwan is used as a case study of a highly performing information technology competitive country among sixty six (66) other countries that were ranked by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The inputs that went to getting Taiwan this enviable place of 13th that puts it ahead of countries like South Korea and Japan are examined to the latter using Porter’s Diamond Model. The analysis is also expanded to include ways by which the country can maintain its position or better it as well as ways of avoiding the unlikely event of losing out on its position. At the end of the paper, the writer hopes to achieve the objective of clearly outlining the national information and communication technology strengths and weaknesses associated with various countries in comparison to Taiwan to see how Taiwan could be used as a model especially wh en it comes to the area of electronics and semiconductor development. Overview of the IT Competiveness Index The IT Industry competitiveness index is generally in place as a scale for finding out how various countries are performing in terms of the application of information technology into industrial growth. To this end, several indicators are used to find out how sixty six (66) selected countries are competing among themselves in the various areas of indicators. The index was first published in 2007 (Rad and Beek, 2009) and had 26 of the said indicators grouped into six major categories for scoring. After scoring is done in the various categories, the accumulated score determines the place of various countries. This implies that the IT Industry Competitiveness Index is highly quantitative, making it empirical and open to public critique (Roll, 2006). The subsequent advantage that comes with this provision is that the index is generally tagged as credible; even considering the fact that it is hosted by none other quarters than the Economists Intelligence Unit with support for BSA. The various categories are given different weightings according to the impact that each of them makes towards information technology enhancement. The six major categories and their corresponding weightings are presented below. Category Weighting Overall business environment IT infrastructure Human capital Legal environment R&D environment Support for IT industry development 10% 20% 20% 10% 25% 15% Total 100% Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited, 2011 Factor Conditions Analysis of Taiwan’s Performance The chat bellow gives a detailed and graphical representation of the performance of Taiwan in the 2011 IT Competitiveness Index. From the graph presented above, it can be seen that Taiwan scored more than half of available score of 100% in all six categories. The highest performing scores were however recorded in business environment and legal environment, which scored 86.5% and 74.5% respectively. This means that Taiwan as a country has created an enabling business environment that makes the country highly attractive to investors, both home and abroad. As the investors do business in the country, they are assured of sound legal backing that is free from all forms of

Poet’s emphasis Essay Example for Free

Poet’s emphasis Essay Although poem A contain a thematic unity but it is manifested that poet’s emphasis remained on creating a homogeneous lyrical whole instead of developing the theme in an elaborative way and in an elevated poetical manner. There is weak sentimentality that pervades the whole poem. The most important defect of the poem is that it takes into account a wide range of human roles in life and tried to culminate this human experience into the ultimate reality of death. In this attempt, poet fails to create a unifocal and forceful impact about death in the mind of the reader. Although the main though is not traditional or orthodox but poet does not present any philosophical facets, psychological impact or any other unique reflection about death. Furthermore, he is unable to manifest a great skill in making use of the arts and artifices of verse. So poem is an abject failure. Poet is unable to enjoy the visual delight of death or suffer from it pain and terror. He only changes from one role to another role with the sad demise of the first. Personal Preferences Ranking Poem F Poem C Poem D Poem E Poem B Poem A Poem F The theme is same as other poem ranked above but thematic expressions is the most important thing that elevates this poem above all other poems. Thematic expression manifested in a subtle and delicate way. So delicacy of thought mingles with height of literary expression. Subtle metaphorical attributions to seasons are another important feature of the poem. He does not rely on a single set of metaphors or symbol but he uses the financial symbols in the next quatrain to covey his message and skillfully relates it to the main theme of death and destruction. The most beautiful line of the poem is line 7 where he terminates the effect of death. He is of the view that by reproduction and regeneration, one can produce a replica of his own self, so death can not destroy him. He can conquer the death and destruction. Hence these off-spring(s) will make â€Å"thee living†. So poet has pitched the though at a higher level as compared with other poet and have utilized his language skills to create an effective expression to convey that style. Poet does not show any mystery or fascination about death. If death results in despair and terror, it also brings rest and peace. Poet negates both these conventional concept and gives a new idea that death does not terminate life if one wishes to. He can reproduce siblings like him and this is a continuation of his life. There is not magical abstraction in the poem and everything is presented and represented in clear manner with the help of concrete imagery.

Behavioral economics and economic man

Behavioral economics and economic man How Behavioral Economics Rescue Economic Man From The Selfishness Behavioral economics is one single most influential and dynamic area in the current economics. Applying some insights from psychological science(s) to the economic models so as to understand better the economics decision making, the behavioral look has provided new and important ways for the economists to understand why different people make different choices that they make. The purpose of this article therefore is to explain how behavioral economics rescue the economic man from the selfishness in which he finds himself. Economic man is an imaginary perfect rational person who maximizes his/her economic welfare or being and achieves the consumer equilibrium by thinking marginally all the time. The importance of this concept is hinged in the theory of consumer behavior in which real people function such as this fictional entity (Wansink, 2006). On the other hand, economics is a group of ideas and conventions put together by different economists which they accept and use to reason along with. It is mainly a culture of doing things mainly by the economists. Behavioral economics therefore represents the transformation of such culture and it is a field of economics that study how decision-making process influences reached decisions in any organization as well as in any individual (Ainslie, 1992). Neoclassical economics postulates an economic man in any system is the main course of being economic as well as the course of being rational. This economic man is assumed to have good knowledge is different aspects of his surrounding which is not clearly complete (Wansink, 2006). This man is assumed to posses a well organized and a stable system of personal preferences and better kills of calculation on the best action to take so as to make him attain the highest benefits as compared to other people. The axioms of the consumer choices that underlie the economic man ensure that he, the economic man, is minimally rational and consistent in the choices that he makes because he always prefers more of a thing to less and he is able to efficiently allocate his low income among numerous things that he desires so as to enable him achieve a global utility maximum. In a standard welfare model, habits and culture are assumed to take a fixed position or at least change slowly during a given time period so that the cultural context of the Homo economicus/ economic man does not enter the analysis stage. The way tastes and preferences are formed is assumed to be outside the purview of economics because they are not matters of dispute (Stigler and Becker, 1977). According to Veblens (1898), an Economic man is a homogeneous (Uniform) globule of desire full of self interest. Self-interest is defined by different economists as all things that are intangible and tangible to human beings (Solow, 1993) but in practice the real meaning of utility is radically narrowed down to mean the consumption of goods in the market. Any increase in the welfare is equated to the increase in the economic output. The Economists are aware of public goods, intransitivity, Veblen effects and interdependent utilities but all these real-world phenomena are very difficult to include in the general equilibrium framework that currently dominate the economic policy recommendations (Hirsch, 1976). Different subjects explain the economic man in different terms pointing to the same meaning. For instance, biology explains the economic man as a selfish gene while regarding it as a concept that is used to explain the overall selfishness of any living thing especially man and for the direction of evolution. Richard Dawkins with his evolution theory coined this term in his book titled The Selfish Gene (Ainslie, 1992) as a notion of competition, struggle for survival/existence, natural selection and survival of the fittest in his idea of genes as self replicators. In a teleological account, evolution of the biological life is explained as being driven by these replicators, genes. The conclusion drawn here is that the successful replicators are very selfish that otherwise they would not replicate successfully. In order to protect and preserve their replication process, these genes create avenues of self-preservation in form of living things, their bodies and minds. From this type of re asoning, Dawkins (1976, p. 2) concludes that human nature cannot be anything but selfish as its very essence is composed of very selfish units in the name of genes. Later, Dawkins expanded his biological research by considering these genes as self-contained wholes things. But, as Maynard Smith states in Barlow (1991, p. 195), this Selfish Gene does not contain any new facts but rather offers a new world view. The basic to this view is the notion that competition and the virtuousness of the selfish behavior of biological units are rife in ever being. It is from this view that the biologist Ghiselin (1974, p. 247) writes concerning the species and nature that natural economy is competitive from start to the end .This can be seen in the impulses which lead an animal to sacrifice herself for another turn out to have their rationale in gaining more advantage over a third animal especially where it is in her own interest. Therefore, every organism can reasonably be expected to aid her fellow organisms yet if given full chance to act in her own interest, nothing but speed will restrain her from brutalizing, from murdering, from maiming her mate or child (Andrei, 1999). This perspective of the biological world replicates the economic perspective of human nature as being openly self-centered, rational in being consistent in choices they make and characterized by selfishness which is constrained by expediency (Frank, 1988). Strong intellectual thoughts in both economics and biology see the market economy as being full of utility-maximizing individuals without room for cooperation other than for a single individual to gain the immediate advantage over other individuals (Johnson, 2003). With the above explanation, there are three areas that tend to look at the economic man in a bid to get him out of his selfishness. These areas include the neoclassical economics, the human behavior and the behavioral economics. The criticism of these three areas against each other really explains the demerits of the economic man and the associated selfishness to each other. In the neoclassical economics, economics is the study of the way resources are allocated to their uses. In this school of thinking, economics is said to be the study which considers human behavior as a relation between alternative ends and scarce means. Virtually every neoclassical economist is a positive economist though there are a number of positive economists that are not neoclassical in nature (Harbaugh et al, 2002). Therefore, neoclassical economists consider the study of resource allocation as scientific and not a normative study. In addition, a neoclassical economist believes that free markets always bring about efficient resource allocation (Kagel Roth, 1997). With this understanding, neoclassical economists have made a number of assumptions. Depending on the definition that one can prefer, it can be said that economists are more interested in the resource allocation in nature and causes wealth of nations or perhaps something different. Irrespective of all these, all such things depend on the actions and decisions of people (Luce, 2000). Therefore, so as to get started, economists made or make some assumptions about people and about how individuals act and how they decide how to act. However, the economists have not as a rule based these assumptions on the psychological views of human minds. Rather, most of them have started from an assumption that few modern psychologists might support (Dahlquist Kirkpatrick, 2007). This assumption is that human beings/ individuals are highly rational and self-interested/ selfish. Many neoclassical economists assume that human beings make their choices in a way that gives them the best possible advantage (s) especially given the circumstances that they face. Such circumstances includes such things as the prices of the resources, goods and services available, scarce income, limited and localized technology for transforming such resources into finished goods and services, taxes imposed on them by their organizations, regulations by their governments and other objective limitations on the choices that they make. In Strict terms, neoclassical economics does not just assume that real and concrete people are rational and self-interested as it may seem. Rather, many economists assume that the economic systems work as if they consist of the rational and self-interested persons. People exists in all sorts ranging from sneaky and altruistic to smart and dumb but if the average is an individual that is rational and self-interested, then the system most definitely will act as if human beings in general were self-interested and rational (Hersh, 2002). The basis of neoclassical economics assumes that deviations from the rational self-interests are random and therefore will cancel out making the system to act as if every person is rational and self-interested. As a consequence, neoclassical economics studies the economic system that consists of rational, self-interested persons (Luce, 2000). However, it is known that there are some examples of non-self-interested behavior of human beings who for instance give to the church and who sacrifice themselves in other ways and common sense suggests that human beings are often irrational chumps. There are two very issues here to closely scrutinize. The first one is that human beings are at times altruistic. One can not avoid concluding that people sometimes act on ethical values making it hard to see how the selfishness of this majority can cancel out this self-sacrifice of many others (Kagel Roth, 1997). Therefore, people often act on non self interested values but whenever they do so they act on their own values and not of the government or some philosopher(s) or the economist that is observing (Dahlquist Kirkpatrick, 2007). This might be called a rational individualism rather than a rational self interest. What is left then is the rationality if human beings are not always self-interested. A broader neoclassical economics presumes that human beings choose things in a way that best advances their own values, altruistic or self-interested. The critics of the neoclassical economics sometimes argue that economics is an apology for self-interest. We can therefore note the behavioral approachs criticism to the neoclassical economics that man is always selfish and self centered. The behavioral approach indicates that not all people are self centered since many individuals act on behalf of other people (Harrison, 2005). This indicated that it is not true that all people are selfish. Rather, some are and it should not be generalized that all human beings are selfish to conform to the economic man. However, human behavior is not always selfish and behavioral economics rescues economic man from the selfish gene. In other words, the behavioral economics criticizes the neoclassical economics whether people are always rational or not (Luce, 2000). The neoclassical economics is at times criticized for its normative bias against human beings especially on their assumption. In this perspective, it does not lay more focus on explaining the actual economies instead of describing a utopia in which Pareto optimality applies. The assumption that human beings act rationally can be seen as ignoring very important aspects of the human behavior. Many people see the economic man to be very different from real people. Majority of the economists, even contemporary economists, have criticized the model of economic man. Neoclassical economics assumes people to be the lightning calculators of pleasures and pains, who oscillate like the homogeneous globule of desires of happiness under impulses of stimuli which shifts about an area but leaves then intact. Large organizations might come closer to the neoclassical ideal of maximizing profits but this is not necessarily seen as desirable whenever it arises at the expense of negligence of the wider social issues (Fehr Gachter, 2000). The response to this argument is that neoclassical economics is more of a descriptive statement rather than a normative one. It therefore addresses such problems with the concepts of private against those of social utility. Many critics of behavioral economics typically insist on the rationality of the economic agents. They contend that the experimentally observed behavior is not applicable to the market situations as the learning opportunities and competition ensures at a close approximation of the rational behavior. Equally, many others note that the cognitive theories like the prospect theory are models of decision making and not generalized economic behavior hence are only applicable to the sort of once-off decision problems that are presented to experiment the survey respondents. Traditional economists are very skeptical of the survey based techniques which are put to use extensively in the behavioral economics. Economists typically emphasize on the revealed preferences over the stated preferences from the survey in determining the economic value (Fehr Gachter, 2000). Experiments and surveys should be designed very carefully so as to avoid systemic biases and lack of incentive compatibility. Some economists on the other hand dismiss these criticisms claiming that the results are reproduced in various situations and nations which can lead to good theoretical insight. Behavioral economists on the other hand have incorporated these criticisms by focusing more on the field studies as compared to the than lab experiments. Some economists therefore look at this split as the fundamental schism between the experimental economics and the behavioral economics. However, prominent experimental and behavioral economists overlap some techniques and approaches in giving answers to common questions. In addition, many other proponents of the behavioral economics have taken note that neoclassical models many times fail to predict the outcomes in the real world context (Luce, 2000). Behavioral insights can therefore be used to update the neoclassical equations and the economists have noted that these revised models do not only reach similar correct predictions as the traditional models but predicts correctly some outcomes where the traditional models fail. As an economic student, I object to the fact that man is always selfish. This drives to the numerous criticisms of the economic man. Criticisms of this notion that human beings are purely selfish go back to the start of the modern utility theory. Edgeworth (1881), for instance, in his theory of exchange included the term accounting for pure altruism. He stated that people might suppose that an object X with own utility is P tends, in a reflective and calm moment, to maximize his/her benefits from P to P+, where the + is a coefficient of effective sympathy. Equally, Mr. Veblen (1898) criticized the neoclassical concept of human beings as coldly calculating and coolly rational and this is still one most insightful literature among the criticisms of neoclassical theories (Ainslie, 1992). The other early, though neglected, criticism is that of Mr. Georgescu (1954) who stated that the individual utility not only depends on the individual well-being but also the communitys well-being to wh ich the individuals belong. This truly indicates that human beings are not egocentric and self centered but also works for the benefit of the society in which such a person comes from. Many other economists as well as just writers investigating the behavior of the human beings have come up with more criticisms while explaining the behavior of human beings. For instance, Frank (1988) and Hirsch (1976) all emphasized on the social nature of human beings and their decision-making process which is always associated with their behavior. It is true that that a big number of economic models have been developed to give explanation about altruism, charity, bequests and benevolence among human beings and how they exercise them. In doing all these, many economists together with many other social scientists have been quite ingenious in finding the explanations for the intentions for such behavior in self-interest among human beings. The possible selfish motivations or intentions that apparently lead to altruistic behavior include the enlightened self-interest, the pursuit of reputation among people, anticipation of reciprocity from other people and fear inherent in human being s that they will lose whatever little they have and as a consequence they will be faced with shame (Henrich, Henrich, 2008). Further, different explanations indicate that personal utility can be derived from one persons satisfaction or his contribution to it together with the benefits that adherence to the social contract may provide. The motives of altruistic behavior among human being however can be studied in different categories. For instance, from a psychological point of view, two egoistic motives for altruistic behavior can be identified. The first category is based on the social learning and enforcement amongst people while the second category is based on arousal reduction (Fehr Gachter, 2000). However, the theoretical and empirical investigation to the existence of altruism, different economists argue that altruism can also arise from peoples empathic emotions towards others. In some occasions an individual takes the perspective and position of another person that he/she perceives to be in need without feeling distress and helps to reduce his/her need. Given this explanation, one can conclude from numerous similar examples of altruistic behavior on which human behavior is based that moral commitments and economic factors shape each other and evolve and change within a given social environment and structu res (Arnsperger Varoufakis, 2005). Having explained this, one can forget that neoclassical theories insist on the fact that human beings have the selfish gene dominant in its system. This is the one hat is responsible for the selfishness in the economic man. However, there are a number of criticisms of this argument mainly based on the behavioral economics exercise. The selfish gene, just like the economic man, has also come under attack from numerous directions in general. The selfish gene together with its extension known as the extended phenotype has for a long time been criticized based on the fact that phenotype-distinction is not as clear as its proposers supposes. According to the explanations by the extended phenotype ideas, changes in the genes are reflected in the phenotypes and phenotypical effects determines the selection of genetic replicators (Henrich, Henrich, 2008). Therefore, the phenotypical effects preserve or replicate themselves by means of their extended phenotypes. These phenotypical effects may be morphological or behavioral. For example, a phenotypic expression of the beaver genes is the dam it builds. However, the phenotypical transformations are not exclusively triggered or induced by the changes of the genetic replicators but can as well result from the changes in the elements of the environment (Rabin, Loewenstein, Camerer 2003). On a very close examination and scrutiny, the proponents of the selfish gene idea are not dogmatic enough as popularly believed by many people especially the economists. Some people argue that higher properties of life are emergent in virtually all situations. In addition, it is argued that the accepted explanations of causality from genes to culture just the same as from genes to any other products of life, are not heredity alone. Equally, they are not environmental alone. It is mainly the interaction between the two. Therefore, all possible expressions of phenotype are always encoded in genes though particular attributes which express themselves depends on the triggers from the surrounding environment (Dasgupta, 2002). These phenotypic expressions may as well depend on how an individual integrates within a group. The controversy over the selfish gene is very important to the economists and economics in general because of its implication that competition is of much more complicated sort as compared to that which is assumed by the economic man (Fehr Gachter, 2000). This competition is much more complicated as compared to the isolated people competing for the immediate gain. Likewise, cooperation is complicated as compared to a simple tit-for-tat strategy. Not only does the economic mans model fail the test of realism but also fails to offer accurate predictions about the human behavior. Such failures are evident in the recent empirical findings by numerous economists. In the standard theory, the economic man as described by neoclassical economics lead to micro-foundations approach to the economic policy. Macro economies are assumed to operate by the similar rules of constrained optimization which are used to describe individual organizations as well as households together with their people (Varoufakis Hargreaves-Heap, 2004). Normally, a representative human being whose behavior is indicated and outlined by a well-behaved utility function and a representative organization outlined by a well-behaved production function are made use of to model some real-world phenomenon such as the global climate change or foreign trade. Without the assumptions of economic man and perfect competition such optimization models cannot reach a unique and stable equilibrium. Neoclassical models assume a strictly rational behavior in human consumption with constant returns in production and rely on the prices to dynamically adjust demand and supply. In relation to behavioral economics, the existence of pure altruism and other forms of pro-social behaviors has much more implications to the economic policy. The first policy implication is that the impersonal markets are not and not anticipated to be the best vehicles for the expression of human preferences (Fehr Gachter, 2000). Whenever economic decisions do not conform or tally with the axioms of consumer choices, market outcomes are not rational and therefore, there is no any reason to believe that a competitive equilibrium can represent social optimum. In as much as the market restricts choices to individuals then such choices exclude the richness of human behavior (Thaler, 1991). Equally, depending on who among peoples ancestors is considered human, people have been making decisions for many years based on personal interactions, direct negotiations and imposition of rewards and punishments so as to facilitate cooperation. It is however true that people have difficulties in ma king social decisions especially in impersonal markets (Frank, 1988). Even then, the prevailing trend is toward pushing more critical decisions into the market framework. In conclusion, behavioral economics rescues the economic man from the notion that he is selfish. It is true that human being s are always pursuing their self interests and goals given their human nature, but it not true that they are totally engulfed in their selfishness (Wansink, 2006). The neoclassical economics theories explain well about the economic man and his interests but it should not be generalized that human beings are selfish beings ever in the world (Fehr, E. Gachter, 2000). Human behaviors rescue man from the aforesaid selfishness because thee are many other human beings that sacrifice themselves to support other people in their society. This takes them out of the selfness that the neoclassical economics advocate. Human behavior is therefore not always selfish as is can be portrayed by the neoclassical economics (Harbaugh et al, 2002). Many people have been influenced by religion and molded in a way that they value human life and fellow human beings to an extent that even if they are seeking self interests, they go out of their way to help others achieve they needs. For instance, doctors world over might have their intrinsic desire to posses a lot of money but they always help their patients to gain their health so as to continue working for their good. Equally, different countries can only prosper if every person or at least majority of the citizens works for the good of their nation rather than working for their own gain. Should such happen, that nation is doomed to be poor. Therefore, human behavior explained in behavioral economics plays a great role in rescuing the economic man from the selfish gene. References Ainslie, G. (1992). Picoeconomics, London: Cambridge University Press Arnsperger, C., Varoufakis Y. (2005). 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