Hillside School New Payment and Billing System Case Study

Hillside School New Payment and Billing System - Case Study Example From this discussion it is clear that the vice principal will certainly have enough space to carry out some more administrative responsibilities. The second benefit associated with this simplified system is that the heaviness of responsibility that the vice principal had to bear every school season are going to be reduced. Unlike it happened before, the vice principal can breath a sign of relieve from tedious work now. She is now sure to channel most of her time and effort into ensuring academic excellence in the school. Considering the fact that Hillside School is still a school with a lot of very young boys and girls, the vice principal’s duty can also be channeled towards ensuring high morals and discipline in the school. This study highlights that the decision table is purposely to look into the discounts available to parents. Generally, there are discounts in place to serve as motivation for parents who show some level of commitment to the school. The discounts are in two major forms and shall be discussed in detail when designing the decision table. Motivation to customers; in this case parents of students has been described as highly important in several ways. In the view of Cherry, â€Å"motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors.† By and large, motivation is needed as reinforcement to spark up a strong urge or desire in getting people put up certain behavior. In a school such as Hillside School which is a relatively new school, motivation in the form of discount to parents is therefore a step in the right direction. Not withstanding the importance of motivation discussed above, it is important that decisions on motivation be run efficiently. It is important that the school has a common system that ensures that there is a level playing field for all parents to benefit from the program.

Anchors: History of and Developments in Anchor Technology

Anchors: History of and Developments in Anchor Technology Inflate-a-Weight Abstract The Inflate-a-Weight is a specially designed anchor that utilizes a chemical reaction to assist in the anchor’s ascent. Connected to the body of the anchor are two balloons similar in design to airbags. One is connected at the top and the other at the bottom. The bottom balloon acts as a backup if the top one fails to activate. Using an infrared remote control, the user can release some water into the balloon. This will react with the trace amount of sodium present in the balloon to produce sodium hydroxide and hydrogen gas. The gas will inflate the balloon and give the anchor the buoyancy necessary for it to rise to the surface. The Inflate-a-Weight is a fast method of hauling in an anchor that could save boaters the electricity they need to power radios, lights, and navigation systems. Present Technology The current technology of anchors includes multiple different anchor types used for various purposes, the line it is connected to, and the chain it is connected to. These anchor types include the lightweight anchor, kedge anchor, grapnels anchor, plow anchor, claw anchor, and the mushroom anchor. The lightweight anchor is usually used on smaller boats used for recreational purposes. The kedge anchor is normally used on very large ships because it buries one of its sides and relies mainly on the weight of the ship to help keep it in place. The grapnels anchor is used by small boats such as kayaks and canoes because it has little holding power. The plow anchor tends to be used on cruising boats because it is able to bury itself in most bottom types. The claw anchor works similarly to the plow anchor but it allows 360 degree turns while anchored and is able to right itself easily if it hits the bottom on the wrong side. The mushroom anchor is used mainly for moorings and is best used in soft bottoms because of the suction it is able to create because of it mushroom shape. Additionally, the anchors are attached to the boat via a line and/or chain. The three-strand twist nylon line is the best line to use because of the shock it is able to absorb from the anchoring. It is recommended that the line is mixed with a chain for the anchor. Chain is usually made from galvanized steel and isgood to use for attaching you anchor to the boat because it can handle more weight and wear and tear and the most commonly used type of chain is the proof coil. Airbags are inflated via a chemical reaction activated in a head-on collision to help protect a person in a crash. They are commonly activated when in a head-on collision the car decelerates at a very fast pace and a ball held in place by a magnet moves forward to activate an electrical circuit to ignite a pellet of sodium azide. Once that happened the airbag inflates in mere milliseconds, approximately 40. After the bag has inflated fully it begins to deflate to cushion the body in time for when the body should make contact with it. For the airbag to produce the gas necessary to inflate it goes through a series of chemical reactions. The reason for multiple reactions is to produce the gas needed and to remove the other harmful substances produced and convert them into harmless substances. There are many gas producing chemical reactions, but the important ones for this project have reactants in group 1, the alkali metals. Some of the elements located in this group have strong reactions with water. Some of these reactants react with water in a violent explosion and produce gas. Lithium has an intense reaction with water and produces hydrogen gas. Sodium has a fast reaction with water, which can be seen by the small explosion or fire when the reactants are combined, and produces hydrogen gas. Potassium has a rapid exothermic reaction with water and can catch fire during the reaction and it produces hydrogen gas. Rubidium reacts very rapidly and violently with water and produces hydrogen gas. Cesium has an extremely fast and violent reaction with water and produces hydrogen gas. The current technology of infrared remote controls and sensors includes being used in television remotes. The infrared or IR remote is able to work by using s low frequency light beam that cannot be detected by the human eye but by the television receiver. The IR remotes and their sensors are used by many different electronic devices today including things such as televisions, radios, and movie players. History Anchors have been used for thousands of years. Ancient forms of anchors, rocks, have been found that date to the Bronze Age. A primitive anchor consists of a pair of wood arms under a large rock. It provided the same purpose as modern day anchors, which is to have a sharp point and mass. Ancient anchors relied on the grappling hook until the stock, a bar perpendicular to the arm in order to roll the anchor to pierce the bottom, was introduced and adopted. Airbags were first used in the early 1950s and were designed by Walter Linderer, a German engineer and later was patented by John W. Hetrick. In 1963, Yasuzaburou Kobori created current airbag technology. In 1968, Allen Breed invented the first automobile crash sensor and airbag safety system. Early airbags had the problem of retaining pressure in the canisters that inflated the bag with compressed air. Sodium azide and its by-product, sodium hydroxide, were commonly used in the 1990s. However its toxicity and reactivity caused it to be phased out. Infrared, or IR, technologies had started to be used in the early 1980s. The first remote control, called â€Å"Lazy Bones† was created by Zenith Electronics Corporation. Eugene McDonald created the first wireless remote, the â€Å"Flashmatic†. An IR remote emits a very low frequency beam of light which is then met by the receiver. In the beginning of the 2000s, ninety-nine percent of all television sets and one-hundred of all VCRs and DVD players were equipped with IR remote controls. Most remote controls today use IR technology. Breakthroughs The gas that needed to be used had to be safe and couldnt be harmful to the environment. Methane and ammonia are harmful to the environment, so they were thrown out as possibilities. The only other ones that would be useful in lifting the anchor were hydrogen and helium, but helium is too expensive to be used on a daily basis. This left hydrogen as the element chosen for the lifting of the anchor. Next it was necessary to find a way to produce the hydrogen through a reaction, but the compounds used couldnt be harmful to the environment, along with its byproducts. The simplest and cleanest way to produce hydrogen was to use a salt and mix it with water. The only salt that will not create a harmful byproduct and will not explode killing any creatures, was sodium and therefore was chosen for to create the anchors needed reaction. The breakthrough that is necessary for the floating anchor to work is the reaction that must take place inside the anchor under the high pressure of deep ocean waters. The reaction must take place in an area that is completely dry, so as to avoid an early and undesired reaction. The separate chambers where the sodium and water are held must be sealed properly in order to avoid compromising the clean water with contaminates and the risk of the sodium being exposed to water, causing an early reaction, is too great. The only possible way for the reaction to occur is if the sodium is kept dry and safely away from the oceans water. The sodium must be kept in a separate chamber where it can be released into the water of another chamber. The water should be filled before the anchor is dropped but if not, the water can be used if it is fresh water. As this is an unlikely case, due to the fact that the anchors main purpose is for deep oceanic waters, the anchor can still be used in freshwater lakes or rivers. When the sodium is released into the water of another chamber, the reaction will rapidly produce sodium hydroxide and hydrogen gas. The hydrogen gas will fill up the balloon that is attached to the exterior of the anchor and provide the lift necessary for the anchor to rise to the surface at a steady and safe rate. The release system is connected to an infrared remote control on board the ship. When the anchor needs to be raised, they simply use a remote control to send infrared signals to the anchor, which in turn opens the chamber, and triggers the reaction. The downside is that due to the fact that a high concentration of sodium, if a leak occurs, could destroy the anchor in a small explosion. To avoid a catastrophe, the concentration of sodium must be kept at a low level. This basically means that only about one or two reactions worth of sodium can be kept in the chambers within the anchor. A solution to any failures in the release of the sodium can be fixed with a more manual format. A tube will be run down the chain to the anchor upon installation, so if the reaction in the anchor fails, hydrogen gas can be pumped down the tube into the anchors balloon. If there arises a problem with the balloon, there is a second emergency balloon attached to the opposite end of the anchor, which is atta ched to the tube, that can be filled if the first fails to do so. If all else fails, the anchor can be raised as it is today, slowly and steadily, by a windlass or by hand. All these things must come together perfectly for this piece of technology to work. If there is one flaw, the whole anchor is compromised and rendered useless for its purpose. Although this technology has the ability to exist today, it is unlikely due to the fact that every time the anchor is used the chamber containing the chemical would need to be refilled. The only solution to being refilled every time is to have multiple chambers, but this could be a problem due to the fact that if the concentration of the chemical is too high and there is a leak, the possibility of the anchor exploding becomes a reality. Future Technologies Future ways of easing the use of the anchor would be to raise it to the surface faster and safer. Our vision includes a way to raise an anchor from the bottom of a body of water to the surface is just this way. This is a safer way to elevate an anchor without a windlass. We visualize our concept to be put in place by many different people for many different uses. For example, the products of reaction in the airbag can be applied to not only airbags, but inflatable boats or recreation inflation uses. Instead of using one’s breath or an air pump, only activate the sodium and water for a rapid inflation. This technology of producing gas can be used in many places for many different reasons. The IR signals can be improved and applied to more uses than they currently are. Infrared signals can be used in many different applications, not only in television remotes or triggering reactions in anchors but also sending information by light. However, the strength of infrared signals must be improved in order to reach longer distances or through different materials since it is such a low energy light. Along with the infrared technology, the other components can be further improved. The strength of the anchor, reliability of the reaction can be improved. Different designs may also prove to be more effective than our own. This leads to development of the Inflate-a-Weight. Design Process After the team decided to do our project on an anchor retraction system we brainstormed different ways to make it easier. After picking which one to do we had rejected three different versions of the idea for various reasons. The first idea that was rejected by the group was an anchor that is retracted by a motorized pulley system. The thought was to have the rope/chain attached to the anchor to be wrapped on the pulley so a button could be pushed or a switch flipped and the pulley would start turning lifting the anchor up and out of the water. The idea was rejected because when further research was conducted on the idea, we found that it already exists and is known as a windlass. Another idea that was rejected was an anchor that is equipped with water jets to propel it upward. The group rejected this idea because of the dangers of the anchor flying up into the boat and damaging it or harming the passengers. If the water jets pushed with too much pressure behind it, it could launch up too much and fly into the boat, causing a hole or other damage possibly resulting in compromising the integrity of the hull and leading to the sinking of the watercraft. The anchor flying up into the boat could also cause serious injury or even death to any passenger riding in the boat. This could be an expensive ordeal because major damage to the boat and medical bills are not usually cheap. The last idea that was rejected was an anchor that floats up using air pumps. Our group rejected this version of our idea because it is not practical because of all the equipment required that could fail or easily break. Some of the equipment would have to be a tube and the actual air pump. The pump could fail by losing power and cause a problem for retracting the anchor. The tube running down to the inflatable device to make the anchor rise could break and then it would be a pain to fix and get in the way of manually raising the anchor in the case that it breaks. However, this idea led us to think of another way to use something lighter than water to raise the anchor. We came to the conclusion that using a chemical reaction to produce gas in an inflatable attached to the base of the anchor would work better. When discussing it more we knew that a way to activate the chemical reaction was needed and we thought of remotely activating it to make it easier on the user. Consequences The floating anchor technology could have some potentially harmful and unintended consequences. If sea creatures ingest the chemicals at all, the entire rest of the food web is affected by the chemicals as well. The toxins may not be as potent in higher levels of the chain, but it still spreads from organism to organism. For instance, a school of tuna fish might be exposed to the chemicals and later end up being caught and processed for retail. The rapidly rising anchors could also be a potential hazard for people in boats. If the reaction becomes out of control, then the anchor could fly out of the water and strike the people attempting to raise it. The anchor could also strike the hull of the boat and damage the vessel, perhaps leading to flooding or even sinking, depending on the size of the vessel. The levels of infrared radiation could gradually increase in the ocean since the anchor uses IR signals to trigger the reaction. This increase would harm the atmosphere more than it does the ocean. The ocean water evaporates, releasing excess heat and infrared energy, which is then absorbed by moist, tropical air. The wind then carries the air to a convergence zone where it falls as precipitation. The heat and IR energy is then released into the atmosphere. Rising IR levels in the atmosphere can contribute to the greenhouse effect. Another potential problem is the precipitate left over after the reaction takes place and the anchor begins its ascent. If the balloon that provides buoyancy for the anchor burst, then the sodium hydroxide would be released into the ocean. When sodium hydroxide comes into contact with water, it produces a massive amount of heat. The heat generated could damage the anchor or even render it useless. If it is close enough to the boat then it may damage the structure of the boat as well. Despite the possible problems that could rise to the surface, the Inflate-a-Weight could be quite convenient and cost effective for sailors. The float would be convenient and quick as opposed to the longer amounts of time it usually takes to haul an anchor from the bottom. Windlasses on smaller vessels are usually powered by electricity. If the Inflate-a-Weight anchor were used instead, then more power could be used for radios, navigation systems, or lights. The quick speed of the Inflate-a-Weight would also be useful for vessels in avoiding collisions. If a ship cannot stop in time to prevent a collision, then the anchored vessel could quickly raise their anchor and move out of the way. Small law enforcement craft and Coast Guard vessels would also find the anchor useful when trying to quickly raise their anchor in order to pursue suspects in boats or on small water craft like jet skis.

A Genocide Forgotten Essay -- Essays Papers

A Genocide Forgotten During his stay at the Crown Hotel’s Sailor Reading Room in Norwich, the mysterious protagonist in W.G. Sebald’s Rings of Saturn was quietly leafing through Independent on Sunday newspaper; he came across an article that stirred his memory. This article dealt with â€Å"so-called cleansing operations† undertaken by Croats, Germans and Austrians which took place during WW2 in Bosnia d, where a souvenir photograph taken by the Utashi showed â€Å"fellow militiamen in the best of spirits, some of them striking heroic poses, are sawing the head off a Serb† (96). Sebald’s protagonist goes on to reveal more historical information with graphic details and in the process is bewildered by the lack of outrage and knowledge of these atrocities. The culmination of the ignorance was the election of an unnamed â€Å"young Viennese lawyer (99)† who was involved in the planning of deportations in the Balkans later became the UN Secretary General and the voi ce of Voyager II. Consequently, in his novel, Rings of Saturn, W.G. retold the tragedy and horror of the Balkan Holocaust and Kurt Waldheim’s ascension in world politics in order to underscore the ironies inherent in historical amnesia. In order to fully comprehend the significance of Sebald’s revelations, one must review the historical background surrounding these atrocities. Following, World War One, the signing of the Treaty of Versailles the ended of the rule of the Hapsburg dynasty, the multiethnic Astro-Hungarian Empire crumbled. In its place independent states of Austrian and Hungary, but also another multiethnic kingdom of Yugoslavia, which contained Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and Jews were established.1 While Orthodox Serbs were an overall majority, Catholic Croats were in m... ...ng war criminals?† Human Events. August 2, 1996: 4-6. Reinhartz, Dennis. â€Å"Unmarked graves: the destruction of the Yugoslav Roma in the Balkan Holocaust.† Journal of Genocide Research. 1 (1999) 81-90 Sebald, W.G. The Rings of Saturn. Trans. Michael Hulse. London: Harvill, 1998. Schindley, Wanda. â€Å"Hidden History: the Horror of Jasenovac.† Ratsko.org. (2005). Utgaard, Peter.Remebering and Forgetting Nazism. New York: Bergham, 2003. Wertz, Joachim. On the Serbian Orthodox New Martyrs of the Second World War:A Brief Historical Background. Orthodox Christian Information Center. (1983) . â€Å"What was Jasenovac?†. 2001. The Jasenovac Research Institute. April 13, 2005.

Two Women, Three Man on a Raft

In the article â€Å"Two women, three men on a raft†, the author Robert Schrank are mainly talk about the problems of power relationship and cooperation between the sexes in organizations by using an analogy between the raft experience and company management according to the Outward Bound raft trip In this article, the author mentioned that one participant’s story of how Raft No. 4 fared on the Rogue. What is more, it specifies to describe the power relationship between the sexes. In the whole trip on a raft, the men unhappy when a women as helmsperson, and the men had subconsciously and proceeded to undermine the women by habit.However, when a man was in charge, they always feel comfortable, and worked to help him be a better helmsperson. In fact, there are many people like John and the other two men in the organization. In other word, the author considers that men often unconsciously desire to protect their power from women’s control in organizations as the sit uation happened on Raft No. 4 on the Rogue River. Generally speaking, men usually want to control the whole things and do the sabotaging behavior to the women. In addition, the article point out that what happened on Raft No. 4, Inc. , occurs in most organizations when women enter positions of leadership.The organizations are usually designed as pyramids. It is less squeezes when got to the top. So, once women enter the squeezing, men are doubly threatened. However, more women become managers in organization; there will have to be shift in power. So for subordinates, it should be support the administrators even they are women. Furthermore, how the men cooperate with women it is very important in a collective activity. The author thinks that women should be support by the men. Otherwise, it must be like the raft is foundering. Like in this trip when the Marlene was in charge. At last, the author mentioned that there are analogy between navigating a river and a big bureaucracy. Like river, a big organization also has sleepers and chutes. However, there existence is a far more political than intellectual task. Women trying to navigate most organizations, they may found it more complex than the Rogue. The men struggled to take over and colluded against the women so they could give their simplistic orders, they were living out the now-outdated command-and-control style of large bureaucratic organizations. In sum, in the organization, the male-female have conflict. When the women from climbing the corporate ladder. Men would act to preserve their positions of power, and they knew how to do that with behaviors both subtle and obvious. However, in this society, the power not only belonged to the men, the women also have the right and ability to gain the power and should be supported. In addition, the author uses the river to analogy the diversity management; the manager should create the environment in which a diverse team can achieve trust and mutual respect. Otherwise, the result was there in a throwaway line in the story—the raft lost its place in line. Finally, they will lose competitive position.

Immigration Research Paper

Limits on Immigration Is Reform on Immigration somewhere in the near Future? Research Paper What is the first thing that comes to mind when one might think of Immigration? Possibly what is the United States current Immigration Policy? Would you even think that it is considered to be one of the most debatable topics constantly? There are two sides to every debate; I have been assigned to the pro side for immigration stating that I feel that there should be limits placed on immigration to our country and also more regulation of illegal aliens. The controversy over Immigration first started when migration reached a peak in the early 1900’s when between the years of 1900 and 1910 over 1 million immigrants entered the United States each year. (Hsu, 2009) Ever since then, immigration has constantly been in debate. Immigration is the powerful strength behind U. S. population increase, right now accounting for half of total net population boost. Our countries population growth, which at three million per year right now is the maximum in the developed world, is a main cause of many of the United States problems and presents a severe risk to our limited natural resources such as topsoil, forests, clean air and water, and healthy ecosystems. Statistics are saying that the population of the United States in the year 2050 should be around 500 million. The population is not just growing, but it is rapidly increasing. Some states are becoming so overpopulated with this rapid growth that people are comparing them to be growing more immensely than that of some third world countries. This extremely rapid growth is beginning to put a vast strain on our countries natural resources, cities and environmental health. There is beginning to be many conflicts connected with massive population growth, such as heavy traffic, air pollution, water and energy shortages, extremely overcrowded schools, declines in purchasing authority and quality of living, tax increases, and soil erosion. †(WHY A 100,000 LIMIT ON IMMIGRATION IS REALISTIC AND NECESSARY) However, the average American citizen's birthrate is at substitution level. What most of the American population doesn’t realize is that â€Å"over 70% of the United States expansion is due to mass- immigration of people generated into the population growth. †(Immigration) A supreme restraint on legal immigration would considerably decrease on both existing and future chain migration. This restriction would give the United States time to even out the current population, address the problems created by over-stressed city infrastructures and poverty, and to form an environmental policy to protect strained natural resources. A halt would then give time for new immigrants and poor citizens alike to achieve better opportunities through higher salary and improved learning opportunities. â€Å"The Untied states currently takes in over one million legal immigrants each year, which is more than all other developed nations in the world, combined. †(Immigration Regulation) The absolute number of immigrants has basically affected our country's ability to continue to contribute for newcomers and natives equally, and to put it simply has only added to America's problems. Immigration reform has been recently been brought to attention by the Obama administration â€Å"pushing amnesty for illegal immigrants. The Administration has also reversed a number of policies that had improved enforcement. These changes have included ending work place raids and a shift toward â€Å"catch and release† of illegal immigrants, instead of detaining them and deporting them. Rather than chase comprehensive immigration reform, the Administration and Congress should ensure that the existing policies on border security, interior enforcement, and non-immigrant visas are working. (McNeill, 2010). What the Obama Administration should be doing is not pushing so much emphasis towards amnesty, but instead focuses on fixing the problems happening along the border, in the cities, and in the U. S. visa system. An incremental approach should be used to solve these problems, focusing foremost on the security of the border and following through with enforcing immigration laws w ithin the United States, while making visa services more successful and bringing them up to date with the realistic demands of the U. S. economy. The Three-Legged Stool of Immigration Policy During a speech given by Janet Napolitano, U. S. Secretary of Homeland security, she referred to the â€Å"three-legged stool† of immigration reform, where she described the legs as â€Å"serious and effective enforcement, improved legal movement for families and workers, and a firm but fair way to deal with those who are already here. The stool is considered to be initially unstable. The three-legged stool of immigration policy would be more stable if it used the following three legs: Border ecurity, Effective interior enforcement, and an efficient and dynamic visa and naturalization system. Leg #1: Border Security. The U. S. has made some advancement on border security, but a large amount work still needs to be done. Secretary Napolitano’s three-legged stool assumes that this piece has already been accomplished. In addition, the U. S. cannot be convinced how much of this development is the product of improved U. S. border security and how much is the product of the recession, which has reduced economic incentives to cross into the U. S. illegally. Leg #2: Interior Enforcement. Instead of building on past progress, over the past year the Obama Administration has overturned a number of successful core enforcement efforts that began under the Bush Administration. Secretary Napolitano has argued, â€Å"We have replaced old policies that merely looked tough with policies that are designed to actually be effective. †(McNeill, 2010) Leg #3: The Naturalization System. U. S. isa and naturalization programs remain unproductive and the country still lacks a stimulating part-time worker curriculum that legal immigrants can use to come to work in the United States. Advocates with both pro-immigrant and restriction views on immigration have convincing points that could be lead in the direction of reform. â€Å"Those that are in favor of the need for improved enforcement argues that reform is needed to both strengthen border security and to put together a dependable interior worksite system to prevent employers from hir ing those not certified to work in the United States. (Tessada, 2010) And those in favor of legalization would like a program that allows immigrants who have lived in the United States for a certain number of years and who are suitable to apply for legal status and the right for occupation to work. In conclusion, when it comes down to immigration, people need to be able to trust the system. Americans need to know that their government is fully dedicated to enforcing the law and securing the border—and that this responsibility is being taken care of very seriously. Law enforcement needs to be better equipped with the legal tools and the required funds to deal with border-related and immigration-related crime. †(White, 2010) Immigrants need to be able to plan ahead for the future —they need to know everything that is included in the laws once they have been reformed, there is going to have a system that actually works, and that the general nature of our immigration laws will last, and they need to know that they will have as many responsibilities as they do human rights. Works Cited