Sunday, December 29, 2019

How to Bend and Draw Glass Tubing

Bending and drawing glass tubing is a handy skill for managing laboratory glassware. Here is how to do it. Note About Glass There are two main types of glass using in a lab: flint glass and borosilicate glass. Borosilicate glass may carry a label (e.g., Pyrex). Flint glass typically is not labeled. You can bend and draw flint glass using just about any flame. Borosilicate glass, on the other hand, requires higher heat in order to soften so that you can manipulate it. If you have flint glass, try to use an alcohol burner, since too high of heat may cause your glass to melt too quickly to work it. If you have borosilicate glass, youll need a gas flame in order to work the glass. The glass wont bend or else will be very hard to bend in an alcohol flame. Bending Glass Tubing Hold the tubing horizontally in the hottest part of the flame. This is the blue part of a gas flame or just above the top of the inner cone of an alcohol flame. Your goal is to heat the section of glass you want to bend, plus about a centimeter on either side of this point. A flame spreader is helpful for a gas flame, but not absolutely necessary.Rotate the tubing to make certain it is heated evenly.​​As you heat and rotate the tubing, apply gentle and continuous pressure where you want it bent. Once you feel the glass start to yield, release the pressure.Heat the tubing a few seconds longer. It starts to bend under its own weight, you have overheated it!Remove the tubing from the heat and allow it to cool a couple of seconds.In a single motion, bend the slightly cooled glass to the desired angle. Hold it in that position until it hardens.Set the glass on a heat-resistant surface to allow it to completely cool. Do not set it on a cold, un-insulated surface, such as a st one lab bench, since this likely will cause it to crack or break! An oven mitt or hot pad works great. Drawing Glass Tubing Heat the tubing as if you were going to bend it. Place the section of glass to be drawn in the hottest part of the flame and rotate the glass to heat it evenly.Once the glass becomes pliable, remove it from heat and pull the two ends straight away from each other until the tubing reaches the desired thickness. One trick to avoid getting a bow or curve in the glass is to let gravity help you out. Hold the glass tubing vertical to draw it, either pulling up on it or else letting gravity pull it down for you.Allow the tubing to cool, then cut it and fire polish the sharp edges. Among other uses, this is a handy technique for making your own pipettes, especially if you find the ones you have on hand are either too big or too small to deliver the desired volume. Troubleshooting Here are some causes and fixes for common problems: Glass Wont Get Soft - This happens if the flame temperature is too low to heat the glass. The solution is to use a hotter fuel, such as gas.Glass Gets Too Soft, Too Fast - This is caused by using too high of heat. Back off on the length of time you put the glass in the heat, hold it further from the hottest part of the flame, or use a fuel source that burns with a cooler flame.Glass Has Bumps or Crimps - This can happen by bending the glass more than once or by letting it get too soft so that its weight starts to pull it down. The solution to this problem is experience and practice since there is a certain amount of art to knowing when to remove the glass from the flame to bend it or pull it. Just know that once you decide to bend/pull, its a one-time deal. If it doesnt work, its unlikely you can reheat the glass and get a better outcome.Glass Tubing Seals - If the inside of the tube seals, its because the glass got too hot. If you are bending the glass, remove it from the heat soone r. If you are pulling glass, let it cool a bit more before drawing it. Note that you may wish to purposely seal the glass. If you do, just heat the tubing in the flame, rotating it, until it seals shut.

Saturday, December 21, 2019

`` Fun Home, By Alison Bechdel - 1163 Words

Part graphic memoir and part psychoanalytical study, Alison Bechdel’s, Fun Home, is a charming story about a girl’s search for identity within an unconventional family. The novel style autobiography frames Alison’s childhood and adolescence as she struggles with themes of sexual confusion, gender identity, and convoluted family dynamics. These ideas are explored through the examination of Alison’s relationship with her father, and their shared passion for literature. Early on in her childhood, Alison came to the realization that her family was different. As individuals, and as a unit, they were just plain weird. Unlike most young girls, Alison lacked a strong bond with her parents, most notably her father, Bruce. Because they both display introverted personalities and had divergent gender identities, Alison and her father never devised a solid relationship. Bruce is described as possessing generally feminine qualities having passion for fine art and sophisticated interior design; whereas Alison claims to have become â€Å"a connoisseur of masculinity at a young age† (95). Neither of them fit their stereotypical role within the family; Bruce didn’t act like a macho-man dad, and Alison wasn’t playing dress up with all the other little girls. Though their personas seem compatible, the stark difference in their gender affiliations was a source of great tension between Alison and her father. Not only does Alison approach herself a nd her father as â€Å"inversions† of each other, but sheShow MoreRelatedFun Home By Alison Bechdel954 Words   |  4 PagesIn her graphic memoir Fun Home, Alison Bechdel records her unusual relationship with her late father Bruce Bechdel and reveals her family secrets. Through Chapter Three she speculates about the reason of her father’s death after first knowing the catastrophe. By applying the allusion between writer Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald’s famous character Jay Gatsby, and her father, Bechdel effectively presents the tragic nature of her father that he lives in the fictional world created by himselfRead MoreFun Home By Alison Bechdel1392 Words   |  6 PagesIn Alison Bechdel s Fun Home, there is a focus on a sculpted perception of gender roles produced by society and a great emphasis on how Bruce and Alison challenge these strict gender specific characteristics. Through Bruce’s femininity and Alison’s masculinity along with their homosexuality, they are able to go against the norms and the collection of rules set by society. It is also through their struggle with gender roles that one is able to understand their sexual orientation. Although Bruce andRead MoreFun Home By Alison Bechdel1551 Words   |  7 PagesIn the novel, Fun Home, Alison Bechdel explores the Franciscan value of respecting the unique dignity of each person. Throughout the book, Bechdel’s father often challenges this value in his behavior with Alison. From a child development standpoint, these actions complicate the development of Bechdel’s identity. Fun Home follows Alison Bechdel’s childhood, showing both a prominent father-daughter relationship and Bechdel’s developing identity. Following the potential suicide of her father, the authorRead More`` Fun Home `` By Alison Bechdel847 Words   |  4 PagesAlison Bechdel’s comic book â€Å"Fun Home† is narrated by none other than herself who builds the narrative around her family and her life growing up. Then, years later, her father dies in a car accident, and despite not knowing if it was really an accident or a suicide, she occupies herself with finding a justification for his death. Now imprisoned with the task she put herself to, the narrator blames her father s shame and lack of happiness due to him being a homosexual, which she also discovered herselfRead MoreFun Home By Alison Bechdel1518 Words   |  7 PagesAlison Bechdel’s memoir, Fun Home, is a compelling narrative in which Bechdel takes the reader through her life and gives insight i nto her relationship and the complex lifestyle her closeted homosexual father, Bruce Bechdel. However, her serious topic is told through the narrative of comics, images that literally put the readers into the moments of her life with her. Even though, the graphic images provide visual insight, Bechdel makes a conscious decision to include a multitude of literary allusionsRead MoreThe, Fun Home, By Alison Bechdel Essay2271 Words   |  10 Pagesof autobiography in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home. Fun Home is a retelling of Alison Bechdel’s life through the lens of her relationship with her father. However, because of what she considers to have been his suicide, Alison is left with an incomplete picture of who he was in life. By calling Fun Home an autobiography, Bechdel enters an autobiographical pact with the reader that ensures that what Bechdel is telling us is the truth. However, elements out of her control leave Bechdel unable to provide certainRead MoreFun Home By Alison Bechdel920 Words   |  4 PagesIn Alison Bechdel’s first graphic memoir Fun Home, the main focus of the story is Alison’s father Bruce, and her writing wrestles with how both of them came to terms with their sexuality and how they have influenced one another throughout this process. Bechdel does not get to have as many discussions with her father as she would like, however, because Bruce dies shortly after Alison writes home to tell her parents that she’s a lesbian. Aliso n frequently speculates if her father committed suicideRead MoreFilm Fun Home By Alison Bechdel1410 Words   |  6 Pages Alison Bechdel’s comic book Fun Home clearly portrays the importance of gender roles in the society. She mentions in her book incidents which illustrate as to how gender plays a major role in forming a person’s identity. Throughout the book, Bechdel suggests how the society has divided people into different genders on the basis of appearance, duties and behavioural expectations. The society as a whole needs to re-asses these gender roles so that people don’t end up ruining their life thinking aboutRead MoreFun Home by Alison Bechdel Essay1386 Words   |  6 PagesFun Home Picking up the book Fun Home, one would imagine that the novel would embellish some sort of comical life story of a misunderstood teenager. Although the short comic-book structured novel does have its sarcastic humor, Alison Bechdel explains her firsthand account of growing up with the difficulty of living of finding her true identity. Alison was a teenager in college when she discovered that she was a lesbian, however, the shock came when she also discovered her father was homosexual.Read MoreAnalysis Of Fun Home By Alison Bechdel992 Words   |  4 PagesAnalytical Essay on â€Å"Fun Home† By: Alison Bechdel Even though a lot of thing events that happened to Bechdel was sad, dark, or scary she manages to use a very witty tone throughout the story reflecting on her personality. She believes dark events are not central to one’s life. She uses this tone as oppose to an angry tone because she never realized her family was any different until she was compared it to others. This strongly classifies Bechdel in the optimistic category of personalities. The

Thursday, December 12, 2019

Designing - Implementing and Improving Processes Professional Success

Question: Discuss about theDesigning, Implementing and Improving Processesfor Professional Success. Answer: Introduction The critical analysis as well as reflection is important for personal as well as professional success. In order to become an active learner it is important to consider, analyze and gather learning from the various incidences. The previous experiences would help me to gain broader as well as deeper understandings regarding the organizational process. It is important to understand the business architectures of an organization which would foster the learning process. The business architecture can be defined as the design of the organization which would enhance the cooperation of the organization and aligns the organization with its strategic goals (Haeckel 2013). This paper would discuss the understanding of the implementation, designing and improvement of the processes in the organization. The importance of the management of the organizational processes is analyzes which would ensure organizational success (Haeckel 2013). The application of the learning process in the workplace would b e discussed. Discussion The subject helped me to understand the details of the organizational processes which would concern with the designing, implementation and the process improvements. My earlier perception regarding the organizational processes was that there is no fixed organizational process; however, it changed completely after I went through the subject. I have learnt that the aim of the business architectures help in the enhancement of the motivation level of the employees and the overall improvement of the operational processes. I understood that it is important to design suitable planning process for maximizing the operational efficiency. It is also important that there is fair utilization of the organizational resources which would help the organization to fulfill the organizational objectives (Cummings and Worley 2014). It is also important to know how to implement the different planning components in the actual organization. This would help in the process improvements in the organizations whi ch would increase the customer satisfaction rates which would eventually help the organization to achieve its mission. When I was being employed in a manufacturing company, initially, I was unable to understand the process of business operations, which was reflected in my work. My colleagues did not perceive me as a knowledgeable person and it created a bad impression of me. However, after studying the subject, I understood the importance of the designing, implementation and the process improvement initiatives that should be taken for delivering excellent performances. This made me to interact with the operational manager and understand the process followed in the organization. I understood the designing of the manufacturing process and how it was implemented in the actual organization. My learning in the subject has caused an increased awareness regarding the importance of the managing functions in organizations in order to achieve organizational success. There have been several reasons for this increased awareness. I understand that the business operations are changing at a rapid rate and these days the business processes are more complicated (Jeston and Nelis 2014). The various industries are evolving to a great extent with the intervention of technology such as mobile computing, cloud computing and social media (Hashem et al. 2015). There have been changes in the company architecture which has been fostered by the industry development (Christensen 2013). I understood that in the critical infrastructure industries such as chemical, manufacturing and the utilities, the relationship between the operations and thee I.T is becoming complex. These evident changes also need to be incorporated in the corporate strategy of the organization (Chang 2016). This makes it imp ortant to effectively manage the organizational processes. I have understood the fact that the management of the processes is important for ensuring the enterprise mobility. The companies are increasingly realizing the importance of good management of the processes since it provides a number of business benefits (Davenport 2013). The benefits may include increased brand awareness, customer retention, increased number of sales and increased productivity (Peppers and Rogers 2016). This has made me realize the increasing importance of the ability to manage the organizational processes. The ability of managing the processes in the organization would help in achieving the organizational goals since there is higher degree of planning and implementation. I have understood that there are different factors which contribute to the organizational success such as production process, assembling process and the efficient organization of the available resources. I have participated in a number of discussions and activities during my professional tenure which has influenced my view towards the designing, improvement and the implementation of the processes. I was involved in a number of seminars and conferences which were focused on the management of organizational processes, process improvements and others. This helped me to gain industry insights regarding the processes and aided me in gathering diverse knowledge from the experts in the concerned industry. There was interactive session which helped me to clarify my doubts regarding the management of the process. During my professional experiences, I have often pondered over certain critical issues and the seminars helped me to clear my doubts. This was also helpful in enhancing my knowledge regarding organizational process improvements. The group activities in my organization helped me to influence my views regarding how to implement the organizational processes. The practical tasks helped me to understand the real processes that take place in the organization and how to deal with them. It helped in the development of knowledge, skills as well as expertise to better manage the processes in the organization. The role plays in the organization helped me to identify how to design the management processes of the organization in order to ensure maximum process improvements. The real situation like role plays helped me to understand how to meet the design requirements of the project and then implement them in an organizational context. The knowledge gained from a number of different sources helped me to improve the processes in the organization. I would use the learning from the subject in improving the operations of the workplace. I would follow a systematic process for the implementation of my learning in my professional organization. The first step would involve the mapping of the operations process and decide on the processes that I want to improve (Kaplan and Atkinson 2015). I would use a flowchart for performing this step and explore each step in detail. The operational process may contain several sub-steps which should be taken into consideration. The second step would involve the analyzing of the process with the help of swim lane diagram so that the operational issues can be identified (Ezeonwumelu Kalu and Johnson 2016). There should be several information that needs to be collected such as bottleneck of processes, reason of frustration of the employees, costs of the processes and cause of prevailing issues in the workplace. This can be done with the help of Root Cause Analysis so that the actual problems can be tr acked. The third step would involve the redesigning of the processes so that the identified problems can be eliminated. This can be done by performing an Impact Analysis so that the ideas of the team can be taken into consideration (Bedarkar et al. 2016). This step can also use the risk analysis in order to identify the possible risks associated with the processes. It is important to identify the failure that may be associated with the operation process and then take corrective actions. The fourth process would include acquiring of the resources which are required to implement the new process in the organization. It is advisable to use a business case to demonstrate this step (Krajewski Ritzman and Malhotra 2013). The fifth step would include the communication and the implementation of the change. The change process should be communicated well to all the stakeholders. The sixth step would involve the reviewing of the processes and measure their potential impact on the organization a nd its resources. The theoretical aspects helped me to understand my capability and how it can be implemented in my future. This subject helped me to gain deeper understanding of the operation process. It would be helpful to me when I would join an organization. I have also learnt about improving the interpersonal relationships in the organization which has great impact on the process improvements. It would be easier for the organizations to initiate a change management process if there is good cooperation between the organizational members. The employee engagement measures would go a long way in improving the organizational processes as they would be motivated to deliver their best performance. Conclusion The critical reflection is important for improving the process management in the organizations. This is based on my previous experiences in the organizations. It comprehensively described the learning events of my life and derived inferences from the various processes related to the business processes. It showed the gradual progress of my learning in the process of designing, implementation and the process improvements. The increased awareness regarding the management of the processes is determined. The application of the learning in the workplace is explained with a step by step approach. This critical reflection would broaden the knowledge regarding process management and the subsequent improvement of the processes. References Bedarkar, M., Pandita, D., Agarwal, R. and Saini, R., 2016. Examining the Impact of Organizational Culture on Customer Centricity in Organizations: An Analysis.Prabandhan: Indian Journal of Management,9(2), pp.19-28. Chang, J.F., 2016.Business process management systems: strategy and implementation. CRC Press. Christensen, C., 2013.The innovator's dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail. Harvard Business Review Press. Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G., 2014.Organization development and change. Cengage learning. Davenport, T.H., 2013.Process innovation: reengineering work through information technology. Harvard Business Press. Ezeonwumelu, A.N., Kalu, C. and Johnson, E.H., 2016. Development of swim lane workflow process map for sales and inventory workflow management information system: A case study of petrospan integrated services, Eket, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.Mathematical and Software Engineering,2(2), pp.57-65. Haeckel, S.H., 2013.Adaptive enterprise: Creating and leading sense-and-respond organizations. Harvard business press. Hashem, I.A.T., Yaqoob, I., Anuar, N.B., Mokhtar, S., Gani, A. and Khan, S.U., 2015. The rise of big data on cloud computing: Review and open research issues.Information Systems,47, pp.98-115. Jeston, J. and Nelis, J., 2014.Business process management. Routledge. Kaplan, R.S. and Atkinson, A.A., 2015.Advanced management accounting. PHI Learning. Krajewski, L.J., Ritzman, L.P. and Malhotra, M.K., 2013.Operations management: Processes and supply chains(Vol. 1). New York: Pearson. Peppers, D. and Rogers, M., 2016.Managing Customer Experience and Relationships: A Strategic Framework. John Wiley Sons.

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Essay on South Park as Parody of Society Essay Example For Students

Essay on South Park as Parody of Society Essay South Park as Parody of Society South Park began airing in 1997. The commercials that preceded it gave the impression of it being another stupid cartoon; however, when I began watching, I realized important issues were being covered through the repeated behaviors and actions of its characters, through the influences these actions could have on the viewers, through the reinforcement and rejections of certain stereotypes, through the long-term effects that could result from watching the program, and through its reflection of social reality. Some of the repeated behaviors and actions of the characters include one of the children (Kenny) dying during each episode (followed by Stan yelling, Oh, my God! Theyve killed Kenny (South Park).); the children ragging the overweight kid; the African-American chef obsessing about sex; and the geneticist performing insane experiments in his spooky laboratory. Kenny has been shot, run over by a train, impaled on a flag pole, beheaded, crushed by Mir, and taken by Death himselfto name a few. Cartman, the overweight kid, has been called fat ass, lard ass, and the fat kid (South Park). There are numerous references to his weight throughout each episode; he eats continuously, thanks to his Mothers cooking and offering cookies, chocolate-chicken pot pies, and Cheesy Poofs. Each time Chef (voice of Isaac Hayes) offers to explain important issues to the kids, he breaks into a song about making sweet love to a woman. This leaves the children wondering just what the heck he is trying to say. There are references to his having sex with every available (and even unavailable) female in the town. There is a take-off of The Island of Dr. Moreau with a geneticistmimicking Marlon Bran. .in most of the episodes these negative actions and beliefs are dealt with in a manner that seeks to alleviate them. Unfortunately, this manner of alleviation is found in the subtext, and most people are not willing to look that far; it requires too much effort. Frighteningly, the show is a parody of society itself. In film, parody is usually the death-knell of a particular genre. Years ago, I read that Ren and Stimpy (another cartoon) was proof of the decline of our civilization because of its attacks on societal norms. Could South Park be further proof of this decline, or is it just a funny cartoon that allows us to laugh at ourselves while dealing with our fears? Bibliography South Park. Prod. Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Comedy Central, New York. 1997. Superman. Dir. Richard Donner. Perf. Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman. Dovemead Film Export, 1978.

Thursday, November 28, 2019

The Kitchen Was A Mess Essays - , Term Papers

Sean Perkins 1/23/19 Austin "The Kitchen Was A Mess" Slowly my eyes opened like mini garage doors. My pupils slid over to the side of my bed and gazed at my Galaxy S7 Edge. I saw the abbreviation Sat. and dozed back off into sleep, upset that I had forgotten to turn off my alarm for school during the week. Just as I was returning to a comforting sigh of rest my mind jolted me awake! It was as if fingernails were being drug across a chalkboard, such an excruciating sound for an alarm clock (it's the only thing annoying enough to wake me up, though). Turning it off, I puzzled over what could have possessed me to set an alarm for a wonderful sleeping in' Saturday morning? Then my eyes widened "Oh no no no nooo!" Rushing to get dressed I could still smell the popcorn, mint chocolate chip ice cream and pepperoni pizza from the night before. Such indulgence was the like for me when left alone to fend for myself without the guidance of my parents. And similarly looking like the yellow brick road in the Wizard of Oz, I followed slices of pizza crusts, an empty popcorn bag and candy wrappers that led me to the final room of mass destruction, the kitchen! Traipsing through the battlefield of potato chips and half eaten snack food, my eyes caught the time. Yikes! My parents were returning from a relaxing few days away and the one thing they left for me to do is to have the kitchen as clean as they left it. Opps. Anxiety crept into my throat, "Oh shit!" I only had 30 minutes to clean up this jumble of chaos. Into turbo mode I went through the area focusing on throwing items into the trash, rinsing dishes and putting them in the dishwasher, sweeping/mopping the floor. I received a text from my Mom saying they were 10 mins out and as I gazed over my awesome work I realized I had time to jump back into bed and catch up with my dreams of white sandy beaches.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

milgrims shock psychology essays

milgrims shock psychology essays The most famous experiment Milgram conducted was also his most controversial. The issue dealt with the people's right to know on what he/she is being studied. On the surface, the experiment looked legit and totally scientific. Two people were brought in at a time and each would draw from a hat. One would be the teacher, one the learner. After going over exactly how the "shock treatment" worked, the teacher went to his control panel and the learner was hooked up to electrodes. The teacher would first read lists of paired words, then asked the learner to pair up the now separated words. For each wrong answer, an increasing dose of electricity was given. In reality, there was only one volunteer brought in at a time. The learner was one of the scientists, and was not getting shocked at all. Actually, for the entire experiment, a prerecorded audio tape was used for the voice of the learner. The experiment was not studying the effect of electrical shock on learning, but really how the teacher would react to an authoritative figure's requests to continue. In this case, the teacher was to be convinced that as he continued, the learner's health was increasingly compromised. Towards the end of the experiment, the learner stopped pleading or making any noise at all, implying that he had passed out or maybe died. The results of the experiment helped researchers explain such things as why or how Nazi officers and soldiers continued the horrible treatment of the people of Europe in concentration camps during WWII. Although experiments like this provide valuable information, the question "was it ethical" is raised. To answer this, we must examine the necessity of the means. Was there any other way to get this data? If we look at such sociological phenomenon as the Hawthorne Effect, we can say that if the teachers knew th ...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

American History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

American History - Essay Example These images have a significant influence on the way students and historians perceive their past (Chrestien, 104). This paper evaluates a number of primary sources that accrue to the history of the first Americans while relating the sources in terms of their contributions to the current written history. In 1926, George McJunkin, an African-American cowboy, made a discovery that hugely changed the perception towards North America’s first natives (Johnson, 31). He spotted bleached bones while tracking lost cattle near Folsom, New Mexico but the bones were later found to belong to a bison species extinct for more than 10,000 years (Johnson, 33). The talk point of the discovery was the spearheads made of stone by humans found mixed with the bones, which meant that Indian ancestry could be traced back to thousands of years before the time thought by most of the 20th century authorities. As Johnson (48) asserts, the first Europeans who inhabited America in the 15th century believed that this was the new world but this discovery disapproved them as it was established that more that 20,000 years before, there were inhabitants in the area. There exist no documented records to affirm that diversity of societies in early America thrived, although the differences in cultural practices and languages were enough proof. In order to reshape this history, Johnson (66) believes that one has to look at the various primary sources of information, mainly archeological artifacts, which record the past behaviors of the humans. A wide range of artifacts that includes basket snippets, pottery fragments, oral traditions, discarded tools/ equipment, and food remains have been used by archeologists, anthropologists and historians to put together relevant pieces of information about the social organization, diet, and technology of these people and the changes they have gone through over time. In the 16th century, Chrestien (105) argues that Europeans believed that Indians originated from the Lost Tribes of Israel with reference to the Bible, while others associated their ancestry with the myth of the lost continent of Atlantis while another suggestion came from a Spanish missionary (Jose de Acosta) that the Indians are part of the small group of hunters that was driven away from their Asian homes by starvation and other hardships. The notion that America’s first habitats came from Asia is supported by physical anthropology. American natives and people of northeast Asia have common physical traits that form a strong line of evidence that North America was inhabited by Indians. These physical traits include (Johnson, 101); i. Straight black hair. ii. Wide cheekbones. iii. Shovel-shaped incisors. iv. Dark brown eyes. Bering Strait, which currently separates Siberia and Alaska, has been believed to be the area used by America’s pioneers to cross into North America (Johnson, 121). According to Johnson (122), this took place around 25,000 to 70,000 yea rs ago during one of the ice ages where large volumes of water froze into glaciers creating a land bridge between Alaska and Siberia. The land bridge is believed to have appeared twice; between 26,000 and 28, 000 years ago, and between 10,000-12,000 and 20,000 years ago (Johnson, 145). It is during this period that authorities believe Indians came into America as they followed the migratory patterns of animals which were their major source of food with the aid of the Beringia (the land bridge formed from the frozen waters) (Chrestien, 105).

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

SABMiller Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

SABMiller - Essay Example While the company itself is in those who consume its products do not know many instances, its brands are quite popular among the consumers. In many of the African nations, in which it has businesses, the brands under SABMiller are often the most popular. SABMiller is a company that has throughout its history, displayed a high capacity for being able to manage and develop its brands to a high quality level that many of its rivals have rarely been able to match. This skilful management of its brands in different countries has enabled the company to become highly successful, as those who work for it receive a high level of training to ensure that the quality of its products is retained. The wide range of products that this company produces means that it has to hire and maintain a large workforce in order to be able to function effectively. Unlike other companies, SABMiller has since its founding, been extremely careful with the management of its staff, not only because of the need to ma ke profit continuously, but also to further the good reputation that the company has always had. Because of the skill that SABMiller has been able to display in the production of its products in diverse countries, it has been able to achieve success on the international scene where other companies take years to achieve the same. One would claim that SABMiller’s success is based not only on the quality of the company’s products, but also on the strategies that it has been able to implement to make its operations successful. This company was founded as South African Breweries towards the end of the 19th century in South Africa, and for many years afterwards, the functions of this company were restricted to Southern Africa. This is because of the fact that this company had established an overriding position in the southern African market. However, in 1990 this company decided to venture into the European market, and in 1999, it managed to get listed in the London Stock Ex change, with the intention of raising enough capital to make acquisitions. It is in 2002 that the company was able to acquire Miller Brewing Company in North America, and with this acquisition, the company chose to change its name to SABMiller (Hobday, 2002). A series of hostile takeovers in Latin America and Europe saw the swift growth of the company, and this eventually brought it to its status as the second largest brewer in the world (Bruss 2002, p.10). The company’s innovation has ensured that it has remained at the top of the world’s brewing industry and an example that can be given of this innovation, is the recent introduction of Impala Cervejas, the first cassava beer that has been produced for commercial purposes in Africa (Appropriate Technology 2012, p.23). This company has about 70000 employees all over the world and its operations have, according to its 2012 records, it managed to bring in revenue of just over 21 billion dollars (Buck 2012, p.49). In Afri ca, the activities of SABMiller are conducted in 15 countries, all of which are in the Sub-Saharan region. This company has been dominant in the region for many years and because of this, its brands are well known by the people. The large customer base of SABMiller’s products has ensured that the company has been successful in the region and has creates a loyal market for its products (Peaple, 2012). A further 21 countries in Africa are enclosed all the way through a strategic alliance with the Castel group which has ensured that SABMiller has become the largest brewer in Africa, by market share, a feat that has not been achieved by any other brewing company on the continent. In addition to the brewing activities of SABMiller in Africa, it is under license from Coca-Cola to bottle soft drinks on behalf of the latter

Monday, November 18, 2019

English 11 Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

English 11 - Article Example Together with the portability of these devices, the computational capability of smartphones have made the devices increasingly become popular with 42% of all mobile subscribers in the US using smartphones, where 37% and 60% of adults and teens respectively acknowledge their addiction to the devices (Sarwar and Soomro 218). In fact, Boulos, Wheeler, and Jones observe that the devices have offered immense competition to personal computers in their market and have impacted â€Å"not only on the manner in which we communicate, but also on our sense of culture, community, identity and relationships† (2). Thus, this paper articulates the positive and negative effects of smartphone technology with regard to how it has transformed people’s way of communication, conducting and transacting in business and entertainment. Smartphone technology has changed the way people communicate, making it even more convenient. Other than its portability, a smartphone offers Internet connectivit y capabilities which open up the device to various ways through which communication, whether formal or informal could be undertaken. One of the weaknesses that e-mail communication had before the advent of smartphones according to Derks and Bakker was accessibility. E-mails would only be accessed in the presence of a computer. But smartphones offer wireless Internet connectivity such that users receive and respond to e-mail communications whenever, wherever. This makes people available whenever needed, hence more appreciation of e-mails as communication tools. Other than instant communication, smartphones provide various options through which people communicate. The devices have transformed people from using the traditional modes of communication, particularly e-mails and phone calls, to other modes such as WhatsApp, an application that allows for instant messaging. Such applications have transformed group communications such that people no longer have to meet physically to communic ate. Rather, through group communication platforms, such as applications like WhatsApp and social media platforms, groups interact conveniently. If need be, these people could see each other as they communicate through the web cameras on the devices which bridges the distance (Boulos, Wheeler, and Jones 4). This has greatly reduced on the time that was initially spent to make decisions, thus people not only enjoy the convenience of the technology but also the promptness with which it allows for decisions to be made. The portability and greater functionality of smartphone technology have transformed the way entrepreneurs conduct businesses and execute their transactions, hence giving business greater capabilities, which in turn generate more business opportunities. In a study conducted in Malaysia, Osam et al. (274) acknowledge the advancement in computing power and connectivity of smartphones compared to contemporary mobile phones. Businesspeople appreciate this capacity and use sma rtphones to conveniently and promptly access the required information, be it on stocks, market prices of commodities or foreign exchange rates among others. This enables them to make prompt and informed business decisions whenever needed, regardless of their location. Moreover, marketing being an important component of business has greatly transformed with the introduction of smartphones to the market. Marketers use the various communication

Friday, November 15, 2019

The ability of a metal

The ability of a metal < The ability of a metal to deform plastically and to absorb energy in the process before fracture is termed toughness. The emphasis of this definition should be placed on the ability to absorb energy before fracture. Recall that ductility is a measure of how much something deforms plastically before fracture, but just because a material is ductile does not make it tough. The key to toughness is a good combination of strength and ductility. A material with high strength and high ductility will have more toughness than a material with low strength and high ductility. Therefore, one way to measure toughness is by calculating the area under the stress strain curve from a tensile test. This value is simply called material toughness and it has units of energy per volume. Material toughness equates to a slow absorption of energy by the material. There are several variables that have a profound influence on the toughness of a material. These variables are: train rate (rate of loading). Temperature. Notch effect. A metal may possess satisfactory toughness under static loads but may fail under dynamic loads or impact. As a rule ductility and, therefore, toughness decrease as the rate of loading increases. Temperature is the second variable to have a major influence on its toughness. As temperature is lowered, the ductility and toughness also decrease. The third variable is termed notch effect, has to due with the distribution of stress. A material might display good toughness when the applied stress is uniaxial; but when a multiaxial stress state is produced due to the presence of a notch, the material might not withstand the simultaneous elastic and plastic deformation in the various directions. There are several standard types of toughness test that generate data for specific loading conditions and/or component design approaches. Three of the toughness properties that will be discussed in more detail are: Impact toughness. Notch toughness. Fracture toughness. Impact Toughness: The impact toughness (AKA Impact strength) of a material can be determined with a Charpy or Izod test. These tests are named after their inventors and were developed in the early 1900s before fracture mechanics theory was available. Impact properties are not directly used in fracture mechanics calculations, but the economical impact tests continue to be used as a quality control method to assess notch sensitivity and for comparing the relative toughness of engineering materials. The two tests use different specimens and methods of holding the specimens, but both tests make use of a pendulum-testing machine. For both tests, the specimen is broken by a single overload event due to the impact of the pendulum. A stop pointer is used to record how far the pendulum swings back up after fracturing the specimen. The impact toughness of a metal is determined by measuring the energy absorbed in the fracture of the specimen. This is simply obtained by noting the height at which the pendulum is released and the height to which the pendulum swings after it has struck the specimen . The height of the pendulum times the weight of the pendulum produces the potential energy and the difference in potential energy of the pendulum at the start and the end of the test is equal to the absorbed energy. Since toughness is greatly affected by temperature, a Charpy or Izod test is often repeated numerous times with each specimen tested at a different temperature. This produces a graph of impact toughness for the material as a function of temperature. An impact toughness versus temperature graph for a steel is shown in the image. It can be seen that at low temperatures the material is more brittle and impact toughness is low. At high temperatures the material is more ductile and impact toughness is higher. The transition temperature is the boundary between brittle and ductile behavior and this temperature is often an extremely important consideration in the selection of a material. Fracture Toughness: Fracture toughness is an indication of the amount of stress required to propagate a preexisting flaw. It is a very important material property since the occurrence of flaws is not completely avoidable in the processing, fabrication, or service of a material/component. Flaws may appear as cracks, voids, metallurgical inclusions, weld defects, design discontinuities, or some combination thereof. Since engineers can never be totally sure that a material is flaw free, it is common practice to assume that a flaw of some chosen size will be present in some number of components and use the linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) approach to design critical components. This approach uses the flaw size and features, component geometry, loading conditions and the material property called fracture toughness to evaluate the ability of a component containing a flaw to resist fracture. A parameter called the stress-intensity factor (K) is used to determine the fracture toughness of most materials. A Roman numeral subscript indicates the mode of fracture and the three modes of fracture are illustrated in the image to the right. Mode I fracture is the condition in which the crack plane is normal to the direction of largest tensile loading. This is the most commonly encountered mode and, therefore, for the remainder of the material we will consider KI. The stress intensity factor is a function of loading, crack size, and structural geometry. The stress intensity factor may be represented. Role of Material Thickness: Specimens having standard proportions but different absolute size produce different values for KI. This results because the stress states adjacent to the flaw changes with the specimen thickness (B) until the thickness exceeds some critical dimension. Once the thickness exceeds the critical dimension, the value of KI becomes relatively constant and this value, KIC , is a true material property which is called the plane-strain fracture toughness. The relationship between stress intensity, KI, and fracture toughness, KIC, is similar to the relationship between stress and tensile stress. The stress intensity, KI, represents the level of stress at the tip of the crack and the fracture toughness, KIC, is the highest value of stress intensity that a material under very specific (plane-strain) conditions that a material can withstand without fracture. As the stress intensity factor reaches the KIC value, unstable fracture occurs. As with a materials other mechanical properties, KIC is commo nly reported in reference books and other sources. Plane Strain: A condition of a body in which the displacements of all points in the body are parallel to a given plane, and the values of theses displacements do not depend on the distance perpendicular to the plane. Plane Stress: A condition of a body in which the state of stress is such that two of the principal stresses are always parallel to a given plane and are constant in the normal direction. Plane-Strain and Plane-Stress: When a material with a crack is loaded in tension, the materials develop plastic strains as the yield stress is exceeded in the region near the crack tip. Material within the crack tip stress field, situated close to a free surface, can deform laterally (in the z-direction of the image) because there can be no stresses normal to the free surface. The state of stress tends to biaxial and the material fractures in a characteristic ductile manner, with a 45o shear lip being formed at each free surface. This condition is called plane-stress and it occurs in relatively thin bodies where the stress through the thickness cannot vary appreciably due to the thin section. However, material away from the free surfaces of a relatively thick component is not free to deform laterally as it is constrained by the surrounding material. The stress state under these conditions tends to triaxial and there is zero strain perpendicular to both the stress axis and the direction of crack propagation when a material is loaded in tension. This condition is called plane-strain and is found in thick plates. Under plane-strain conditions, materials behave essentially elastic until the fracture stress is reached and then rapid fracture occurs. Since little or no plastic deformation is noted, this mode fracture is termed brittle fracture. Plane-Strain Fracture Toughness Testing: When performing a fracture toughness test, the most common test specimen configurations are the single edge notch bend (SENB or three-point bend), and the compact tension (CT) specimens. From the above discussion, it is clear that an accurate determination of the plane-strain fracture toughness requires a specimen whose thickness exceeds some critical thickness (B). Testing has shown that plane-strain conditions generally prevail when: When a material of unknown fracture toughness is tested, a specimen of full material section thickness is tested or the specimen is sized based on a prediction of the fracture toughness. If the fracture toughness value resulting from the test does not satisfy the requirement of the above equation, the test must be repeated using a thicker specimen. In addition to this thickness calculation, test specifications have several other requirements that must be met (such as the size of the shear lips) before a test can be said to have resulted in a KIC value. When a test fails to meet the thickness and other test requirement that are in place to insure plane-strain condition, the fracture toughness values produced is given the designation KC. Sometimes it is not possible to produce a specimen that meets the thickness requirement. For example when a relatively thin plate product with high toughness is being tested, it might not be possible to produce a thicker specimen with plain-strain conditions at the crack tip. Plane-Stress and Transitional-Stress States: For cases where the plastic energy at the crack tip is not negligible, other fracture mechanics parameters, such as the J integral or R-curve, can be used to characterize a material. The toughness data produced by these other tests will be dependant on the thickness of the product tested and will not be a true material property. However, plane-strain conditions do not exist in all structural configurations and using KIC values in the design of relatively thin areas may result in excess conservatism and a weight or cost penalty. In cases where the actual stress state is plane-stress or, more generally, some intermediate- or transitional-stress state, it is more appropriate to use J integral or R-curve data, which account for slow, stable fracture (ductile tearing) rather than rapid (brittle) fracture. Uses of Plane-Strain Fracture Toughness: KIC values are used to determine the critical crack length when a given stress is applied to a component. Orientation: The fracture toughness of a material commonly varies with grain direction. Therefore, it is customary to specify specimen and crack orientations by an ordered pair of grain direction symbols. The first letter designates the grain direction normal to the crack plane. The second letter designates the grain direction parallel to the fracture plane. For flat sections of various products, e.g., plate, extrusions, forgings, etc., in which the three grain directions are designated (L) longitudinal, (T) transverse, and (S) short transverse, the six principal fracture path directions are: L-T, L-S, T-L, T-S, S-L and S-T. Fatigue Properties: Fatigue cracking is one of the primary damage mechanisms of structural components. Fatigue cracking results from cyclic stresses that are below the ultimate tensile stress, or even the yield stress of the material. The name fatigue is based on the concept that a material becomes tired and fails at a stress level below the nominal strength of the material. The facts that the original bulk design strengths are not exceeded and the only warning sign of an impending fracture is an often hard to see crack, makes fatigue damage especially dangerous. The fatigue life of a component can be expressed as the number of loading cycles required to initiate a fatigue crack and to propagate the crack to critical size. Therefore, it can be said that fatigue failure occurs in three stages crack initiation; slow, stable crack growth; and rapid fracture. As discussed previously, dislocations play a major role in the fatigue crack initiation phase. In the first stage, dislocations accumulate near surface stress concentrations and form structures called persistent slip bands (PSB) after a large number of loading cycles. PSBs are areas that rise above (extrusion) or fall below (intrusion) the surface of the component due to movement of material along slip planes. This leaves tiny steps in the surface that serve as stress risers where tiny cracks can initiate. These tiny crack (called microcracks) nucleate along planes of high shear stress which is often 45o to the loading direction. In the second stage of fatigue, some of the tiny microcracks join together and begin to propagate through the material in a direction that is perpendicular to the maximum tensile stress. Eventually, the growth of one or a few crack of the larger cracks will dominate over the rest of the cracks. With continued cyclic loading, the growth of the dominate crack or cracks will continue until the remaining uncracked section of the component can no longer support the load. At this point, the fracture toughness is exceeded and the remaining cross-section of the material experiences rapid fracture. This rapid overload fracture is the third stage of fatigue failure. Factors Affecting Fatigue Life In order for fatigue cracks to initiate, three basic factors are necessary. First, the loading pattern must contain minimum and maximum peak values with large enough variation or fluctuation. The peak values may be in tension or compression and may change over time but the reverse loading cycle must be sufficiently great for fatigue crack initiation. Secondly, the peak stress levels must be of sufficiently high value. If the peak stresses are too low, no crack initiation will occur. Thirdly, the material must experience a sufficiently large number of cycles of the applied stress. The number of cycles required to initiate and grow a crack is largely dependant on the first to factors. In addition to these three basic factors, there are a host of other variables, such as stress concentration, corrosion, temperature, overload, metallurgical structure, and residual stresses which can affect the propensity for fatigue. Since fatigue cracks generally initiate at a surface, the surface condition of the component being loaded will have an effect on its fatigue life. Surface roughness is important because it is directly related to the level and number of stress concentrations on the surface. The higher the stress concentration the more likely a crack is to nucleate. Smooth surfaces increase the time to nucleation. Notches, scratches, and other stress risers decrease fatigue life. Surface residual stress will also have a significant effect on fatigue life. Compressive residual stresses from machining, cold working, heat treating will oppose a tensile load and thus lower the amplitude of cyclic loading. The figure shows several types of loading that could initiate a fatigue crack. The upper left figure shows sinusoidal loading going from a tensile stress to a compressive stress. For this type of stress cycle the maximum and minimum stresses are equal. Tensile stress is considered positive, and compressive stress is negative. The figure in the upper right shows sinusoidal loading with the minimum and maximum stresses both in the tensile realm. Cyclic compression loading can also cause fatigue. The lower figure shows variable-amplitude loading, which might be experienced by a bridge or airplane wing or any other component that experiences changing loading patterns. In variable-amplitude loading, only those cycles exceeding some peak threshold will contribute to fatigue cracking. S-N Fatigue Properties. There are two general types of fatigue tests conducted. One test focuses on the nominal stress required to cause a fatigue failure in some number of cycles. This test results in data presented as a plot of stress (S) against the number of cycles to failure (N), which is known as an S-N curve. A log scale is almost always used for N. The data is obtained by cycling smooth or notched specimens until failure. The usual procedure is to test the first specimen at a high peak stress where failure is expected in a fairly short number of cycles. The test stress is decreased for each succeeding specimen until one or two specimens do not fail in the specified numbers of cycles, which is usually at least 107 cycles. The highest stress at which a runout (non-failure) occurs is taken as the fatigue threshold. Not all materials have a fatigue threshold (most nonferrous metallic alloys do not) and for these materials the test is usually terminated after about 108 or 5108 cycles. Since the amplitude of the cyclic loading has a major effect on the fatigue performance, the S-N relationship is determined for one specific loading amplitude. The amplitude is express as the R ratio value, which is the minimum peak stress divided by the maximum peak stress. (R=ÏÆ'min/ÏÆ'max). It is most common to test at an R ratio of 0.1 but families of curves, with each curve at a different R ratio, are often developed. A variation to the cyclic stress controlled fatigue test is the cyclic strain controlled test. In this test, the strain amplitude is held constant during cycling. Strain controlled cyclic loading is more representative of the loading found in thermal cycling, where a component expands and contracts in response to fluctuations in the operating temperature. It should be noted that there are several short comings of S-N fatigue data. First, the conditions of the test specimens do not always represent actual service conditions. For example, components with surface conditions, such as pitting from corrosion, which differs from the condition of the test specimens will have significantly different fatigue performance. Furthermore, there is often a considerable amount of scatter in fatigue data even when carefully machined standard specimens out of the same lot of material are used. Since there is considerable scatter in the data, a reduction factor is often applied to the S-N curves to provide conservative values for the design of components. Introduction to Materials: This section will provide a basic introduction to materials and material fabrication processing. It is important that NDT personnel have some background in material science for a couple of reasons. First, nondestructive testing almost always involves the interaction of energy of some type (mechanics, sound, electricity, magnetism or radiation) with a material. To understand how energy interacts with a material, it is necessary to know a little about the material. Secondly, NDT often involves detecting manufacturing defects and service induced damage and, therefore, it is necessary to understand how defects and damage occur. This section will begin with an introduction to the four common types of engineering materials. The structure of materials at the atomic level will then be considered, along with some atomic level features that give materials their characteristic properties. Some of the properties that are important for the structural performance of a material and methods for modifying these properties will also be covered. In the second half of this text, methods used to shape and form materials into useful shapes will be discussed. Some of the defects that can occur during the manufacturing process, as well as service induced damage will be highlighted. This section will conclude with a summary of the role that NDT plays in ensuring the structural integrity of a component. In materials science, fracture toughness is a property which describes the ability of a material containing a crack to resist fracture, and is one of the most important properties of any material for virtually all design applications. It is denoted KIc and has the units of . The subscript Ic denotes mode I crack opening under a normal tensile stress perpendicular to the crack, since the material can be made thick enough to resist shear (mode II) or tear (mode III). Fracture toughness is a quantitative way of expressing a materials resistance to brittle fracture when a crack is present. If a material has a large value of fracture toughness it will probably undergo ductile fracture. Brittle fracture is very characteristic of materials with a low fracture toughness value. [1] Fracture mechanics, which leads to the concept of fracture toughness, was largely based on the work of A. A. Griffith who, among other things, studied the behavior of cracks in brittle materials. Crack growth as a stability problem: Consider a body with flaws (cracks) that is subject to some loading; the stability of the crack can be assessed as follows. We can assume for simplicity that the loading is of constant displacement or displacement controlled type (such as loading with a screw jack); we can also simplify the discussion by characterizing the crack by its area, A. If we consider an adjacent state of the body as being one with a larger crack (area A+dA), we can then assess strain energy in the two states and evaluate strain energy release rate. The rate is reckoned with respect to the change in crack area, so if we use U for strain energy, the strain energy release rate is numerically dU/dA. It may be noted that for a body loaded in constant displacement mode, the displacement is applied and the force level is dictated by stiffness (or compliance) of the body. If the crack grows in size, the stiffness decreases, so the force level will decrease. This decrease in force level under the same displacement (strain) level indicates that the elastic strain energy stored in the body is decreasing is being released. Hence the term strain energy release rate which is usually denoted with symbol G. The strain energy release rate is higher for higher loads and larger cracks. If the strain energy so released exceeds a critical value Gc, then the crack will grow spontaneously. For brittle materials, Gc can be equated to the surface energy of the (two) new crack surfaces; in other words, in brittle materials, a crack will grow spontaneously if the strain energy released is equal to or greater than the energy required to grow the crack surface(s). The stability condition can be written as; Elastic energy released = surface energy created: If the elastic energy releases is less than the critical value, then the crack will not grow; equality signifies neutral stability and if the strain energy release rate exceeds the critical value, the crack will start growing in an unstable manner. For ductile materials, energy associated with plastic deformation has to be taken into account. When there is plastic deformation at the crack tip (as occurs most often in metals) the energy to propagate the crack may increase by several orders of magnitude as the work related to plastic deformation may be much larger than the surface energy. In such cases, the stability criterion has to restated as; Elastic energy released = surface energy + plastic deformation energy; Practically, this means a higher value for the critical value Gc. From the definition of G, we can deduce that it has dimensions of work (or energy) /area or force/length. For ductile metals GIc is around 50 to 200 kJ/m2, for brittle metals it is usually 1-5 and for glasses and brittle polymers it is almost always less than 0.5. The I subscript here refers to mode I or crack opening mode as described in the section on fracture mechanics. The problem can also be formulated in terms of stress instead of energy, leading to the terms stress intensity factor K (or KI for mode I) and critical stress intensity factor Kc (and KIc). These Kc and KIc (etc) quantities are commonly referred to as fracture toughness, though it is equivalent to use Gc. Typical values for KIcare 150 MN/m3/2 for ductile (very tough) metals, 25 for brittle ones and 1-10 for glasses and brittle polymers. Notice the different units used by GIc and KIc. Engineers tend to use the latter as an indication of toughness. Transformation toughening: Composites exhibiting the highest level of fracture toughness are typically made of a pure alumina or some silica-alumina (SiO2 /Al2O3) matrix with tiny inclusions of zirconia (ZrO2) dispersed as uniformly as possible within the solid matrix. (*Note: a wet chemical approach is typically necessary in order to establish the compositional uniformity of the ceramic body before firing). The process of transformation toughening is based on the assumption that zirconia undergoes several martensitic (displacive, diffusionless) phase transformations (cubic → tetragonal → monoclinic) between room temperature and practical sintering (or firing) temperatures. Thus, due to the volume restrictions induced by the solid matrix, metastable crystalline structures can become frozen in which impart an internal strain field surrounding each zirconia inclusion upon cooling. This enables a zirconia particle (or inclusion) to absorb the energy of an approaching crack tip front in its nearby vicinity. Thus, the application of large shear stresses during fracture nucleates the transformation of a zirconia inclusion from the metastable phase. The subsequent volume expansion from the inclusion (via an increase in the height of the unit cell) introduces compressive stresses which therefore strengthen the matrix near the approaching crack tip front. Zirconia whiskers may be used expressly for this purpose. Appropriately referred to by its first dicoverers as ceramic steel, the stress intensity factor values for window glass (silica), transformation toughened alumina, and a typical iron/carbon steel range from 1 to 20 to 50 respectively. Conjoint action: There are number of instances where this picture of a critical crack is modified by corrosion. Thus, fretting corrosion occurs when a corrosive medium is present at the interface between two rubbing surfaces. Fretting (in the absence of corrosion) results from the disruption of very small areas that bond and break as the surfaces undergo friction, often under vibrating conditions. The bonding contact areas deform under the localised pressure and the two surfaces gradually wear away. Fracture mechanics dictates that each minute localised fracture has to satisfy the general rule that the elastic energy released as the bond fractures has to exceed the work done in plastically deforming it and in creating the (very tiny) fracture surfaces. This process is enhanced when corrosion is present, not least because the corrosion products act as an abrasive between the rubbing surfaces. Fatigue is another instance where cyclical stressing, this time of a bulk lump of metal, causes small flaws to develop. Ultimately one such flaw exceeds the critical condition and fracture propagates across the whole structure. The fatigue life of a component is the time it takes for criticality to be reached, for a given regime of cyclical stress. Corrosion fatigue is what happens when a cyclically stressed structure is subjected to a corrosive environment at the same time. This not only serves to initiate surface cracks but (see below) actually modifies the crack growth process. As a result the fatigue life is shortened, often considerably. Stress-corrosion cracking (SCC): Main article: Stress corrosion cracking: This phenomenon is the unexpected sudden failure of normally ductile metals subjected to a constant tensile stress in a corrosive environment. Certain austenitic stainless steels and aluminium alloys crack in the presence of chlorides, mild steel cracks in the present of alkali (boiler cracking) and copper alloys crack in ammoniacal solutions (season cracking). Worse still, high-tensile structural steels crack in an unexpectedly brittle manner in a whole variety of aqueous environments, especially chloride. With the possible exception of the latter, which is a special example of hydrogen cracking, all the others display the phenomenon of subcritical crack growth, i.e. small surface flaws propagate (usually smoothly) under conditions where fracture mechanics predicts that failure should not occur. That is, in the presence of a corrodent, cracks develop and propagate well below KIc. In fact, the subcritical value of the stress intensity, designated as KIscc, may be less than 1% of KIc, The subcritical nature of propagation may be attributed to the chemical energy released as the crack propagates. That is, Elastic energy released + chemical energy = surface energy + deformation energy: The crack initiates at KIscc and thereafter propagates at a rate governed by the slowest process, which most of the time is the rate at which corrosive ions can diffuse to the crack tip. As the crack advances so K rises (because crack length appears in the calculation of stress intensity). Finally it reaches KIc , whereupon fast fracture ensues and the component fails. One of the practical difficulties with SCC is its unexpected nature. Stainless steels, for example, are employed because under most conditions they are passive, i.e. effectively inert. Very often one finds a single crack has propagated while the rest of the metal surface stays apparently unaffected. See also: Fracture. Fracture mechanics. Brittle-ductile transition zone. Charpy impact test. Izod impact strength test. Toughness of ceramics by indention. Stress corrosion cracking. Toughness. References: Hertzberg, Richard W. (1995-12). Deformation and Fracture Mechanics of Engineering Materials (4 ed.). Wiley. ISBN 0471012149. AR Boccaccini, S Atiq, DN Boccaccini, I Dlouhy, C Kaya (2005). Fracture behaviour of mullite fibre reinforced-mullite matrix composites under quasi-static and ballistic impact loading. Composites Science and Technology 65: 325 333. doi:10.1016/j.compscitech.2004.08.002. Other References: Anderson, T.L., Fracture Mechanics: Fundamentals and Applications (CRC Press, Boston 1995). Davidge, R.W., Mechanical Behavior of Ceramics (Cambridge University Press 1979). Lawn, B., Fracture of Brittle Solids (Cambridge University Press 1993, 2nd edition). Knott, Fundamentals of Fracture Mechanics (1973). Foroulis (ed.), Environmentally-Sensitive Fracture of Engineering Materials (1979). Suresh, S., Fatigue of Materials (Cambridge University Press 1998, 2nd edition). West, J.M., Basic Corrosion Oxidation (Horwood 1986, 2nd edn), chap.12. Green, D.J.; Hannink, R.; Swain, M.V. (1989). Transformation Toughening of Ceramics, Boca Raton: CRC Press. ISBN 0-8493-6594-5. http://www.sv.vt.edu/classes/MSE2094_NoteBook/97ClassProj/exper/gordon/www/fractough.html. http://www.springerlink.com/content/v2m7u4qm53172069/fulltext.pdf sriram. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fracture_toughness A fracture is the (local) separation of an object or material into two, or more, pieces under the action of stress. The word fracture is

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Essay --

Teresa Devlin 12 February 2014 PSY2012L The research article that I read was about the relationship between the use of technology in children and how their creativity level increases as a result of using different types of technological devices. This research was done by measuring the child’s level of creativity after using different types of electronic devices based on Torrance’s test of creative thinking, which is said by many researchers to be the best and most accurate way to measure creativity in children. The hypothesis of the study was that one of the four electronic devices would cause for a greater level of creativity. The four devices that were used in this study were computers, the Internet, video games, and cell phones. The researchers were very drawn to the fact that many children played video games and that video games are a part of many children’s every day activity. The study was conducted with almost five hundred 12 year-old children. The gender ratio was about half female and half ma le. The ratio of the racial backgrounds was about 70% Caucasian and 30% African American. The study was set up so the participants had two stimuli to respond to, which were pictures of an elf and an egg. The participants were to respond to the stimuli in the form of questions about what they thought of the pictures, to list what they thought was happening in the picture, and the possibilities of what they think might happen next in the picture. They were also asked what their favorite video game was. The independent variable, or the variable being changed, was the use of the four devices. The dependent variable, or the variable that is being measured, was the level of creativity after using the device. The research was conducted o... ...o become creative so you should go out and buy your child a video game if you want them to become more creative. That is why causal conclusions cannot be made in this correlational study. I think that another explanation of why children that play video games scored higher on the creative thinking tests is because video games open you into a new world. I think that they open your imagination and allow you to think like you never have before because of the things that video games portray such as outer space, different worlds, and things that are impossible for us humans to psychically do like turn into a fire-breathing dragon. I think that with children being able to open up their imagination it allows for a greater level of creativity. Works Cited Snider, Mike. "Research: Video Games Help with Creativity in Boys and Girls." USA Today 02 Nov. 2011: n. pag. Print

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Information Systems and Information Technology Essay

A combination of hardware, software, infrastructure and trained personnel organized to facilitate planning, control, coordination, and decision making in an organisation Contrast IS and IT: What is the difference between Information Systems and Information Technology? In: Computer Terminology, Technology, Information Technology[Edit categories] Answer: Information Systems is a large umbrella referring to systems designed to create, store, manipulate, or disseminate information. Example of an information system is a pencil and a piece of paper. The two objects themselves are just tools, but together they create a system for writing (information). The term Information systems has been around a lot longer than the computer, or the term information technology. These days the two are sometimes thought to be synonymous, but that, in most cases is a misconception. Information technology falls under the information systems umbrella, but has nothing to do with systems per say. IT deals with the technology involved in the systems themselves, e.g. an information system like wiki.answers.com contains many information technologies. Servers, server operating systems, web-server software (IIS, Apache, et al), and code written for the web-server software (PHP, C#, VB, PERL, Ruby, et al). Even your computer and browser make up part of this information system. Like the pencil and paper example, each one of the mentioned parts of this information system in itself is an information technology. That being said, most people in the profession no longer make a distinction. Moreover, companies call their IS/IT department a wide range of titles based on more on culture and tradition than anything else. Assist With Business Processes Information systems aid businesses in developing a larger number of value  added-systems in the company. For example, a company can integrate information systems with the manufacturing cycle to ensure that the output it produces complies with the requirements of the various quality management standards. Adoption of information systems simplifies business processes and removes unnecessary activities. Information systems add controls to employee processes, ensuring that only users with the applicable rights can perform certain tasks. Further, information systems eliminate repetitive tasks and increase accuracy, allowing employees to concentrate on more high-level functions. Information systems can also lead to better project planning and implementation through effective monitoring and comparison against established criteria.

Friday, November 8, 2019

A Guide to Hollywood Film Practitioners - Michael Mann essays

A Guide to Hollywood Film Practitioners - Michael Mann essays Michael Manns life is not as open and public as many of his colleagues and rivals in Hollywood, but over the last few years he has been brought into the forefront through his increasingly impressive work, which will hit a peak this year with the release of his latest offering, Ali. Mann was born in Chicago on 5th February, 1943. After High School, he attended the University of Wisconsin, from there he moved to London, and the London International Film School. All in all, Mann spent 7 years in London, attending Film school, and also directing commercials and documentaries. Mann moved back to USA after his time in England, and in the 70s began writing for American television, working on shows such as Starsky and Hutch. In 1979, Mann directed his first TV movie, The Jericho Mile, which won him an award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Specials, and acted as a springboard for his move away from television, and towards Hollywood. Manns first foray into film directing was Thief (1981). Even though this was a critical success, the relatively unknown director, caused Thief to be a box-office failure. One of the main things that Thief did was introduce many tropes that run throughout Manns work to this day. Mann, in many ways, is an old-fashioned director. He likes to create the right atmosphere for all his films, and scenes within, and there is more than one example of this in Thief. Attempting to recreate rush hour at 2am, complete with rain, Mother Nature failed to provide this, so he ordered a 60,000 gallon water truck to keep both the streets and actors soaked, for 12 hours. This among other examples in Thief, such as the scene where Caan blows up his characters house, a real house was used and the immediate neighbours were moved to a hotel for the three days of shooting, which showed that Mann was and still is a Alt...

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Definition of the Pendleton Act - 19th Century History

Definition of the Pendleton Act - 19th Century History The Pendleton Act was a law passed by Congress, and signed by President Chester A. Arthur in January 1883, which reformed the federal government’s civil service system. A persistent problem, going back to the earliest days of the United States, had been the dispensing of federal jobs. Thomas Jefferson, in the earliest years of the 19th century, replaced some Federalists, who had attained their government jobs during the administrations of George Washington and John Adams, with people more closely aligned to his own  political views. Such replacements of government officials increasingly became standard practice under what became known as the Spoils System. In the era of Andrew Jackson, jobs in the federal government were routinely given to political supporters. And changes in administration could bring about widespread changes in federal personnel. This  system of political patronage became entrenched, and as the government grew, the practice eventually became a major problem. By the time of the Civil War, it was widely accepted that work for a political party entitled someone to a job on the public payroll. And there were often widespread reports of bribes being given to obtain jobs, and jobs being awarded to friends of politicians essentially as indirect bribes. President Abraham Lincoln routinely complained about office seekers who made demands on his time. A movement to reform the system of dispensing jobs began in the years following the Civil War, and some progress was made in the 1870s. However, the 1881 assassination of President James Garfield by a frustrated office seeker put the entire system into the spotlight and intensified calls for reform. Drafting of the Pendleton Act The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act was named for its primary sponsor, Senator George Pendleton, a Democrat from Ohio. But it was primarily written by a noted attorney and crusader for civil service reform, Dorman Bridgman Eaton (1823-1899). During the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, Eaton had been the head of the first civil service commission, which was intended to curb abuses and regulate the civil service. But the commission was not very effective. And when Congress cut off its funds in 1875, after only a few years of operation, its purpose was thwarted. In the 1870s Eaton had visited Britain and studied its civil service system. He returned to America and published a book about the British system which argued that Americans adopt many of the same practices. Garfield’s Assassination and Its Influence on the Law Presidents for decades had been annoyed by office-seekers. For instance, so many people looking for government jobs visited the White House during the administration of Abraham Lincoln that he built a special hallway he could use to avoid encountering them. And there are many stories about Lincoln complaining that he had to spend so much of his time, even at the height of the Civil War, dealing with people who traveled to Washington specifically to lobby for jobs. The situation got far more serious in 1881, when newly inaugurated President James Garfield was stalked by Charles Guiteau, who had been rebuffed after aggressively seeking a government job. Guiteau had even been ejected from the White House at one point when his attempts to lobby Garfield for a job became too aggressive. Guiteau, who appeared to suffer from mental illness, eventually approached Garfield in a Washington train station. He pulled out a revolver and shot the president in the back. The shooting of Garfield, which would eventually prove fatal, shocked the nation, of course. It was the second time in 20 years that a president had been murdered. And what seemed particularly outrageous was the idea that Guiteau had been motivated, at least in part, by his frustration at not obtaining a coveted job through the patronage system. The idea that the federal government had to eliminate the nuisance, and potential danger, of political office-seekers became an urgent matter. The Civil Service Reformed Proposals such as those put forward by Dorman Eaton were suddenly taken much more seriously. Under Eaton’s proposals, the civil service would award jobs based on merit examinations, and a civil service commission would oversee the process. The new law, essentially as drafted by Eaton, passed the Congress and was signed by President Chester Alan Arthur on January 16, 1883. Arthur appointed Eaton as the first chairman of the three-man Civil Service Commission, and he served in that post until he resigned in 1886. One unexpected feature of the new law was President Arthurs involvement with it. Prior to running for vice president on the ticket with Garfield in 1880, Arthur had never run for public office. Yet he had held political jobs for decades, obtained through the patronage system in his native New York. So a product of the patronage system took a major role in seeking to end it. The role played by Dorman Eaton was highly unusual: he was an advocate for civil service reform, drafted the law pertaining to it, and was ultimately given the job of seeing to its enforcement. The new law originally affected about 10 percent of the federal workforce, and had no impact on state and local offices. But over time the Pendleton Act, as it became known, was expanded a number of times to cover more federal workers. And the success of the measure at the federal level also inspired reforms by state and city governments.

Monday, November 4, 2019

Construction Industry Research Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Construction Industry Research - Article Example sought to debates theories infrequently presented by industry supporters about competition being either inapplicable or destructive in the construction industry (OECD Competition Committee, 2010). I agree with the author that construction is a pivotal industry in OECD markets since it develops and sustains the structures and substructures that nearly all other industries require. As a result, I was not surprised if found out at either of their theories about the irrelevance of competition in the construction industry were convincing to the author. A report-like approach by the other leads the OECD Competition Committee to discover the absence of discerning characteristics of the construction industry that lower the advantages that competition introduces to consumer welfare. However, I think the preliminary challenge that the committee should have tackled was focusing on teaching and training innovation as a holistic solution for improving competition in the construction sector. For instance, the article points out that China is aware of the importance of this solution to their cartel challenge in its construction sector. I also think that the articles should have ended with r ecommendations for the listed countries for dealing with the cartel challenges in their respective construction industries on top of the government’s

Friday, November 1, 2019

Business for multi national Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business for multi national - Essay Example There is a concept of separate legal identity which differentiates the assets of the company from its owners. However, in the case of Maxwell, the funds of different organizations were used by him as if they were his own money which is contradicting not only the ethical aspect, but also the accounting aspect of ownership and control. Maxwell should have only used the funds of the company; even those funds should have been used after the approval from board. Maxwell used the funds of pension funds which belonged to employees and used them as collateral. This is an open violation of agency theory. The theory states that the trustees or people who control the movement of funds are the agents acting on the behalf of the true owners of those resources and they should make the best possible decision for the resources that are entrusted to them. When the ownership and control are exercised in the disadvantage of the stakeholders than the relationship between the agents and principal is terminated. Then any loss accruing from the misuse of funds or resources accrues to the agent and not the principal. Maxwell’s share of loss in this case should have been larger and he should have been burdened with all the resources that were due to his actions as an agent acting without the consent of principal. Maxwell disadvantaged the other stakeholders for the benefit of his own company. This is again something that is unacceptable from the ethical point of view and also from the regulatory and business point of view. The stakeholders suffered and in the end, Maxwell and his company suffered badly also. However, the funds that were loss due to his carelessness were not recovered and it can be seen in this case that when agent does something on this own behalf he is probably using the motive of self interest. That is one reason why law makers have developed the concept of â€Å"Board of Directors† that have to be consulted with so that

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Macroeconomics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 3

Macroeconomics - Essay Example The outcome of these models is a comprehensive understanding of the business cycles and the economic growth in the long run and the short run respectively. These results in turn help the government and the central bank of the economy to determine the policies that would be ideal for an economy in a particular scenario. The government of a country and the central bank act as the major policy making bodies in an economy and thus their roles in the molding of the economic system of a country are quite significant. This essay analyses some of the popular macroeconomic models that have been widely discussed over a long period of time. The analyses have been supported by the relevant figures, graphs and mathematical representations. However, before discussing the macroeconomic models it is essential to enumerate the basic concepts that would come up in any macroeconomic discussion. The most important macroeconomic variable is the national income of a country. It is the value added of the total goods and services produced in the specific duration of time. The total output translates to the income and therefore the national income is identified with the Gross Domestic Product of the economy (Arnold 113). The progress of an economy depends on the growth rate of this GDP. But there may not be a consistent level of growth in an economy. The variation in the growth rates are caused by the changes in the business cycles. The fall in the national product during any such cycle can be termed as recession. The other important variables include the rate of unemployment. This is the number of people in the economy who have the potential to get employed but have remained unemployed. On the other hand the increase in the price level of the economy is termed as inflation (Rossi 121). The monetary policy of an economy is a measure to control this

Monday, October 28, 2019

Pride and Prejudice Essay Example for Free

Pride and Prejudice Essay The concept of love is developed and endured throughout an healthy relationship in Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice. She successfully incorporates different examples of marriage in nineteenth century and distinguishes the perfect marriage from the hopeless marriage. The definition of authentic love is caring for someone unconditionally. It means putting someone before yourself and not asking for anything in return. There are a variety of different examples of marriage in the novel, but Elizabeth, Jane, and Lydia’s marriages are the best examples of a perfect marriage, easily-influenced marriage ,and a hopeless marriage. It is emphasized that Elizabeth and Darcy will have the happiest marriage within the novel because of their commited relationship with each other. The perfect marriage between a man and a woman in the nineteenth century would probably be centered around Elizabeth and Darcy’s marriage. Elizabeth’s character was always honest to herself and especially to others. Her defiant attitude made her stand out from the rest of the women according to Darcy. Although Elizabeth did not love Darcy at first, her loved developed through the ups and downs of their relationship. Once Darcy figured out that he could not win the heart of Elizabeth by lying and being prideful, he started to change for the better good of their relationship. Elizabeth fell head over heels for Darcy and accepted his proposal, â€Å"The happiness which this reply produced, was such as he had probably never felt before; and he expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do† (Austen 200). Once she realized that he had a change of heart and his affectionate love for her was unconditional, Elizabeth knew that her marriage with Darcy would be one to last for a life time in complete and utter happiness. Love at first sight is not authentic in some cases. It takes time to love one another to recognize each others flaws and weaknesses. The ability to overcome our flaws and problems with our significant other helps us to develop authentic love with our partner. Jane and Bingley’s relationship was not produced over time, yet they knew that they were soul mates after two dances at the ball. The reason why Bingley came into town was to find a wife; â€Å"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife† (Austen 1). Their marriage and relationship will probably be amusing and entertaining in the beginning, but their marriage will sooner or later fall apart. Since they barely knew each others faults and weaknesses before they entered into marriage, their relationship might crumble because of the lack of stability each other has in their relationship. Jane and Bingley’s character are both described as innocent people in society. For example, Elizabeth describes Jane’s character as, â€Å"Affectation of candour is common enough— one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design— to take the good of everybodys character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad— belongs to you alone† (Austen 29). Rather than making their own decisions, they usually obey the commands of others and depend on other people’s judgments. The main reason why many people elope rather than marry into a relationship is due to the fact that they want to make their relationship official as soon as possible. A rushed marriage will only cause more problems because it is partially due to get it over with, or to hide their relationship from the people that they love. Lydia and Wickham’s marriage was an elopement rather than a real marriage. Both characters acted upon their foolishness instead of their heart and mind. Lydia’s character was described as, â€Å"Her character will be fixed, and she will, at sixteen, be the most determined flirt that ever made herself and her family ridiculous. A flirt, too, in the worst and meanest degree of flirtation; without any attraction beyond youth and a tolerable person; and from the ignorance and emptiness of her mind, wholly unable to ward off any portion of that universal contempt which her rage for admiration will excite. In this danger Kitty is also comprehended. She will follow wherever Lydia leads. Vain, ignorant, idle, and absolutely uncontrolled! (Austen 156). Infatuation also played a huge part within Lydia’s relationship towards Wickham. He knew that he could easily sweep Lydia off her feet because she was the youngest and most immature one in the Bennet family. Wickham was self-indulgent in his plan to fancy Lydia. All Wickham ever wanted was money and pleasure, he did no care for Lydia as much due to his self-contempt. Since Wickham was in finnancial trouble with creditors, he made the foolish mistake of eloping with Lydia to get out of town. His decision proved that he did not care about Lydia’s reputation, but only himself’s. Although love may develop in a variety of ways, there should still be the distinction between infatuation and authentic love. Infatuation does not last as long as authentic love does, rather it sets a person up for heart breaks and instability. The elopement of Lydia and Wickham are the perfect example of infatuation because Lydia only loved Wickham for his devious ways of fancing her and Wickham only loved Lydia for her money and her being as an excuse to get out of town. Jane and Bingley’s marriage defined love, but not authentic love. They knew each other’s strengths and priorities, but they did not know each other’s flaws and weaknesses. Both Jane and Lydia’s marriage are the ones to be slightly less felicitous compared to Elizabeth’s marriage because they did not with hold the unconditional love that Darcy and Elizabeth had for each other. In order to have a healthy long-living marriage, both persons within the relationship need to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and are willing to help one overcome their flaws. The love they should have for each other should be based upon the love that Darcy has for Elizabeth. He put Elizabeth before himself and his problems in order to prove his devotion towards her. Austen made Elizabeth and Darcy’s relationship the ideal marriage in order to show society how a man and woman should love each other.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

What Keeps Me From Writing Essay examples -- miscellaneous

What Keeps Me From Writing When I was a child I liked to write letters to my friends. I had a lot of pen-pals. Also, I had no problems with essays during my grade school years. I did not need much time to create an essay, or a journal, or something else for my writing class. The older I become, the more difficult it gets for me to write. Perhaps, I have more problems, needs, or other various things in my life that keep me from being able to focus on writing. Therefore, when I read â€Å"The Watcher at the Gates† by Gail Godwin, I saw myself there. In this essay, Godwin illustrates examples of many things that may be obstacles to some people to start writing. Also, she suggests several ways that may help people to overcome such a problem. Although I have different kind of excuses to not start writing, they all have the same meaning, purpose, and consequences as in Godwin’s essay: take me away from writing. There are some of my favorite excuses such as having no ideas to write about, other important things to do, and enough time before the deadline, that give me no good chance to begin writing. Still, I know that I must turn in my assignments on time, and this helps me to put aside these excuses. The first reason why I don’t sit down and write is that I don’t know what to write about. I just have nothing in my head to write about the particular topic. Often, I begin with a couple of sentences and stop because I don’t have good thoughts to continue. In these cases, begin to ...

Thursday, October 24, 2019

The Australian Exchange Rate :: essays research papers fc

The Australian Exchange Rate Introduction: What factors affect the demand and supply of Australian dollars in the foreign exchange markets? Distinguish between the possible causes and effects of currency depreciation and a currency appreciation on the Australian economy. What forces have come into play, if any, in the past four months that have affected the value of the Australian dollar? Exchange Rate: â€Å"The rate at which one unit of domestic currency is exchanged for a given amount of foreign currency† A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR Until 1971, the Australian dollar (AUD) was â€Å"pegged† to the British pound. This meant that the AUD rose or fell in line with the pound. In 1971, the AUD became pegged to the US dollar instead. These currencies were fixed currencies, which meant that the Australian currency would only change value when a major world currency also changed. This system lasted only until 1974 when the AUD became pegged to a trade-weighted selection of other currencies. This was still a fixed currency. In 1976 this selection of currencies became moveable. Small shifts were able to take place when needed. In 1983 the AUD became a floating currency. This means that the value of the dollar is determined by supply and demand. Initially, the Reserve Bank of Australia was not intended to intervene in the market however since then it has been deemed necessary for intervention to take place, usually to prop up the price. FACTORS AFFECTING SUPPLY AND DEMAND OF AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS With a floating exchange rate, such as Australia’s, supply and demand factors largely determine the dollar’s equilibrium price. The exchange rate is sensitive to changes in both demand and supply, which can cause changes in the equilibrium exchange rate. Another factor, which can affect the supply and demand of Australian dollars, is intervention in the market by the Reserve Bank of Australia. DEMAND The demand for Australia’s currency in the foreign exchange market (Forex) is a derived demand. It is derived from the demand for a country’s exports of goods and services and its assets. In simple terms, people who may have a demand for the Australian dollar could include: _ Foreigners wanting to purchase Australian exports _ International tourists visiting Australia _ International investors wishing to purchase Australian shares or property _ International firms setting up branches or expanding in Australia _ Speculators and investors who think the value of the Australian dollar will rise in hope of making a profit.