Seven Steps to Project Planning Essay Example for Free

Seven Steps to Project Planning Essay Seven Steps of Project Planning April Willochell Project Management Every project is an opportunity to produce something new, to make a real difference. You can introduce change, increase productivity, enhance capabilities of your company or of a client or build new relationships. Seven steps are essential to success in organizations that simultaneously manage multiple initiatives. Effectiveness begins with good pre-project planning plus an understanding of what a project is and what can be at stake. Consistently following these seven key steps can directly improve a company’s operations, profitability and sanity. The first step is a setting goals phase. â€Å"During this stage the teams responsible for the project are assigned and a brief is provided containing information on what the project hopes to achieve and what approach will be taken to complete various actions required. Additionally, this stage usually leads to the appointed of a project manager and executive in charge who with the help of the team start to plan the next step. † (7 Steps, 2013) In this stage all stakeholders should state their needs and how they would like them to be fulfilled. Ultimately, this is the goal setting phase. The next step would be initiating the process. This means that a team would be assembled and the overall project is outlined to detailed specifications. This includes strategic planning, like how long the project will take, how many steps will take place, and what tools will be needed to execute the project. Deciding how the project will be controlled is the third step. This step is also called directing the project. This means that the organization that is controlling the project is defined. Also, all organizations within the company that will be involved are determined. This part of the planning process will determine who receives reports and makes final decisions in the planning process. â€Å"This step is about developing a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) that identifies the low-level tasks and activities required for doing project work and producing the deliverables. The WBS is a critical piece of the project planning process because it defines how tasks will be structured and what dependencies will be created. It is also used for setting up urations, task assignments, resource requirements, and cost estimates. † (The Planning Process, 2013) The control stage is the fourth stage. â€Å"You must develop a project strategy that follows the mission and outlines the high-level actions for implementing the project objectives. You must develop a project strategy that follows the mission and outlines the high-level actions for implementing the project objectives. â⠂¬  (The Planning Process, 2013) This process will let the team know who will need to sign off for what processes in the project. This stage will also let the team know where potential problems may arise and if they do how they should be dealt with. This stage is very important in the planning process. The fifth stage of project planning is setting up boundaries for each stage of the project. This is basically setting up deadlines for each stage of the project. If a stage is not met, there also needs to be backup plan on how the plan will play out in this event. This stage also determines how each stage will close and the steps following that closing. â€Å"The penultimate stage is the management of product delivery. In this step the project manager works with team managers to ensure that a set of formal requirements are created for every piece of work contained in the project. Essentially if this is done correctly all of the work should be delivered on time and to a suitable standard. † (7 Steps, 2013) This sixth stage is to make sure that all paperwork is in order, the project and its product follow all regulations, and all parts are in working order. This is basically, a quality control stage. The seventh and final stage is the closing stage. This step is the risk management assessment part of the planning process. Project managers and their teams must identify all the risks in their project and discuss the alternatives. The plan will be reviewed, discussed, and any potential changes will be made. Once all seven steps are followed accurately a project plan should be planned perfectly and executed just as well. Resources 7 Steps to Project Planning. Retrieved on January 17, 2013 from http://EzineArticles. com/4767743 The Planning Process. Retrieved on January 18, 2013 from

PSO Based Algorithm for Optimal PMU Placement in KPTC

PSO Based Algorithm for Optimal PMU Placement in KPTC A PSO Based Cluster Formation Algorithm for Optimal PMU Placement in KPTCL First A. Author, Designation, Organization, Second B. Author, and Third C. Author, Jr., Designation, Organization Abstract— Power system state estimation with the exclusive deployment of synchronous phasor measurements demands that the system must be completely observable with PMUs only. Direct measurement of phase angles of current and voltage phasors are now possible by Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs). To have lesser number of PMUs, the placement problem in any network is considered as an optimization problem. This paper presents a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based cluster formation algorithm for optimal PMU placement. The proposed algorithm clusters the buses into many sub groups and the maximum connectivity bus is selected as the header bus. The PMU is placed on the header bus to manage the connected buses for complete system observability. This paper analyses the proposed algorithm for the following three cases: Without PMU loss, With single PMU loss, and Zero Injection Bus. The simulation results for IEEE bus and the KPTCL bus systems are presented and compared with the existing approaches. The proposed results show that the method is simple to implement and provide the accurate PMU placement. Index Terms— IEEE Bus, Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL), Optimal PMU Placement, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), and Power System State Estimation I. Introduction Power utilities are facing numerous threats of security of operation due to the over stressed power network in the today’s competitive power market scenario. Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) is an evaluating device which is used to measure the current and voltage. It uses the Global Positioning System (GPS) pulse to facilitate the synchronized measurements of real time phasors of currents and voltage. A power system is said to be recognizable when voltage phasors at all the buses are known. According to Ohm’s Law, if a PMU is placed at the bus, then the neighboring buses also become observable. Obviously, when PMUs are placed at all the buses of the network, and the measurements for all the PMUs are communicated to the control units, then the voltage phasors at all the buses would be known. This approach can change the traditional estimation to state measurement. PMUs are already installed in several utilities for various applications around the world such as state estimat ion, adaptive protection and system protection schemes. Other application fields include stability monitoring, Wide Area Monitoring and Control (WAMC) and efficient system utilization. In the traditional power systems, the buses are monitored using the conventional measurements from voltage and current transformers and the data are forwarded to the Energy Management System (EMS) through the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. It collects the real time measurements from the Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) placed in substations. This approaches are not able to monitor all the measurements across a wide area power system because the data are not time-synchronized [1]. PMUs are an essential part of smart grids and hence the rate of PMU installations are increasing. In the emerging technology, the major issue need to be addressed is the placement of PMUs, which is influenced by the anticipated system applications. The major factor limiting the number of PMU installations are their cost and the communication facilities. Hence, the cost and communication constraints of PMUs have been motivated the researchers to identify the minimal PMU installation for the anticipated applications. Placing PMUs on all buses of the power system results a complete observability of the system. Since, a bus is observed if a PMU is placed on it or some of its neighboring buses, it is neither economical nor necessary to carry put such installations. As a consequence, a problem called Optimal PMU Placement (OPP) problem has been occurs. The aim of this paper is to identify the optimal number of PMUs to make the KPTCL topologically observable. Here, a PSO based Clustering Algorithm is proposed to cluster the buses. The header bus is selected based on the maximum connectivity among the buses. The header bus is placed with the PMU to monitor the other connected buses. The PMU placement strategy confirms the system observability during the normal working conditions and also the single PMU failures. The proposed method is found to be simple, fast and accurate in computation. The proposed method is applied on IEEE-6, IEEE-7, IEEE-9, IEEE-14, IEEE-30 bus systems and KPTCL power maps for 28 bus, 127 bus and 155 bus systems to verify the proposed algorithm performance. The remaining part of the paper is organized as follows: Section II involves the works related to the existing algorithms for optimal PMU placement problem. Section III involves the description of the proposed PSO based cluster formation algorithm for optimal PMU placement. Section IV involves the performance analysis of the proposed work. The paper is concluded in Section V. II. Related Works With the number of PMUs estimated for installation in the near future, both the utilities and researchers are looking for the optimal solutions to their placement. The solutions for the optimal PMU placement problem can be classified into two types: mathematical and heuristic algorithms. Some of the existing works related to the optimal PMU placements are discussed. Integer programming is a mathematical programming approach for solving an optimization problem having integer design variables. Singh introduced an integer programming based methodology for the optimal placement of PMU. It reduces the cost of installation and facilitate the entire power system observability. The zero injection buses concept was used to further reduce the number of PMUs. Integer programming helps to provide multiple results if the neighboring buses to zero injection buses were not handled properly. The best results was selected based on the [2]. Fan and Watson proposed a multi-channel PMU placement problem and their solution. Here, a close relationship among the PMU placement problem and the classic combinatorial problem were identified [3]. Roy et al proposed an optimal PMU placement approach for power system observability. Here, a three stage optimal PMU placement method was formulated based on network connectivity information. Stage 1 and stage 2 of the algorithm iteratively estimate the less important bus locations to eliminate the PMUs and estimates where the PMUs were retained. The last stage reduces the number of PMUs using the pruning operation. The optimal set of PMU locations were obtained for network observability [4]. Manousakis and Korres designed a weighted least squares algorithm for optimal PMU placement. A quadratic minimization problem with continuous decision factors were formulated subject to the nonlinear observability constraints. The optimal solution was obtained by an unconstrained nonlinear weighted least squares method [5]. Mahari and Seyedi proposed a Binary Imperialistic Competition Algorithm (BICA) for optimal PMU placement. The zero injection bus was considered for all investigations to obta in the suitable answers. In addition to the traditional rules, new rule was also generated. It helps to reduce the number of PMUs placement [6]. Tai et al proposed a Random Component Outages (RCO) for optimal PMU placement for power system estimation. The optimal locations were chosen to reduce the state estimation and error covariance [7]. Sodhi et al presented an optimal PMU placement method for complete topological and numerical observability of power system. A two stage PMU placement approach was proposed. Stage 1 identifies the minimum number of PMUs to make the system topologically observable. Stage 2 was proposed to identify if the resulted PMU placement yields to a full ranked measurement Jacobian. A sequential elimination algorithm was proposed to identify the optimal locations of additional PMUs [8]. An Exhaustive search is an optimization technique which systematically enumerates all possible candidates for the solution. It chosen the candidate which satisfy the constraints at the optimum objective function value. It guaranteed the finding of the global optimum but it was not suitable for large scale systems with h uge search space. Azizi et al proposed an optimal PMU placement by an equivalent linear formulation for exhaustive search. The state estimation was implemented based on the complete linear placement [9]. Fei et al [10] discussed an optimal PMU placement based on the limited exhaustive approach. An approximately optimal PMU placement (AOPP) was established in order to identify the searching space. AOPP was deterministically retrieved by detailed power system state observability analysis. The notion of bus neighbor was defined to derive the searching space of limited exhaustive approach. The heuristic algorithms applied for optimal placements are Genetic algorithm, Tabu Search, Simulated Annealing, Differential Evolution, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Immune Algorithm, Iterated Local Search (ILS), Spanning Tree Search (STS), Greedy Algorithm, Recursive Security N Algorithm, Decision Tree and Practical Heuristic Algorithm. Hajian et al introduced an optimal PMUs placement to maintain the network observability using a modified BPSO algorithm. An optimal measurement set was estimated to obtain the full network observability during normal conditions. After any PMU loss or single trans mission line outage, the derived scheme in normal condition was modified. Observability analysis was carried out based on topological observability rules. A new rule was added to minimize the number of PMUs for complete system observability. A modified BPSO algorithm was used as an optimization tool to get the minimal number of PMUs and their corresponding locations [11]. Sharma and Tyagi designed an optimal PMU placement approach based on Binary Particle Swarm Optimization (BPSO) with the conventional measurements. Quadratic programming was used in BPSO algorithm. A method for pseudo observability was introduced for depth one and depth two with and without zero injection measurements. It was tested on IEEE-7, IEEE-14, IEEE-30 and IEEE-57 bus system using BPSO technique [12]. Peng et al formulated a multi objective optimal PMU placement using a non-dominated sorting differential evolution algorithm. It is an organic integration of Pareto non-dominated sorting operation and the differential evolution algorithm. It enhances the individual crowding mechanism and mutual mechanism [13]. El-Zonkoly et al proposed an Improved Tabu Search (ITS) for complete observability and out of step prediction. The system was based on numerical observability and artificial intelligence. ITS was used to identify the optimal placement for the PMU to keep the system complete ly observable. A Predictive Out of Step (OOS) algorithm was proposed based on the observation of the voltage phase difference among the substations [14]. Aminifar et al formulated an optimal PMU placement based on probabilistic cost or benefit analysis. The reduction of system risk cost was recognized as the benefit linked with the development of wide area measurement system [15]. Das et al designed a simulation of wide area measurement system with optimal phasor measurement unit location. These measurements were generally taken for every 4 to 10 seconds offering a steady state view of the power system behavior. It was implemented on IEEE six bus system [16]. Jamuna and Swarup proposed a multi-objective biogeography based optimization for optimal PMU placement. Here, the concurrent optimization of the two conflicting objectives like minimization of the number of PMUs and maximization of the measurement redundancy were performed. The Pareto optimal solution was obtained based on the non-dominated sorting and crowding distance. The compromised solution was selected based on the fuzzy based mechanism from the Pareto optimal solution [17]. Ghosh et al made a reliability analysis of GIS aided optimal PMU location for smart operation. It investigate the impact of topological attributes on commissioning PMUs. Reliability was ensured through various PMU connectivity c onfiguration [18]. Peppanen et al proposed an optimal PMU placement with binary PSO [19]. Abiri et al introduced an optimal PMU placement method for complete topological observability of power system. A revised formulation for the optimal placement problem of the kinds of PMUs was presented [20]. III. PSO Based Cluster Formation For Optimal PMU Placement Power system observability is essential for identifying the real time monitoring and state estimation of the system. PMUs enable advanced solutions to existing utility problems and provide power system engineers a whole range of potential benefits: Accurate estimation of the power system state can be obtained at frequent intervals, Permitting dynamic phenomena to be observed from a chief location and suitable control actions are taken. Post disturbance analysis will be much improved for the PMU placement problem, which is obtained with the precise pictures of the system states through GPS synchronization. This section proposed a PSO based Optimal PMU Placement in power systems. The objective of this method is to provide the optimal placement of PMUs, which can make the system observable and to maximize the measurement redundancy of the system. Fig.1 shows the flow of the proposed method. Initially, the bus system is taken and each bus is considered as a node. Each node connectivity is updated in the binary table. Here, we are considering the following three cases: Without PMU Loss With PMU Loss Zero Injections A. Particle Swarm Optimization Based Cluster Formation for Optimal PMU Placement PSO is an optimization algorithm which facilitates a population based search procedure in which individual are termed as particles. Here, the PSO algorithm is used to cluster the buses for optimal PMU placement. Each particle contains a PMU placement configuration for a power system. It represents that each particle is constructed by binary dimensions, such that each bus of the power system has a dimension which indicates the existence of a PMU in that bus, it is equal to 1, otherwise 0. Algorithm 1: PSO based Cluster Formation Input: Connectivity details of the given bus system 1: Create binary table for the given buses as For i = 1 to number of bus For j = 1 to number of bus If bus (i) connect to bus (j) Matrix element represent as 1 Else Matrix element represent as 0 End If End For End For 2: D= Sum (f(x)) 3: L = max (d) 4: Calculate the bus connection for Lth bus and place PMU on that bus 5: Update the binary table by eliminating the bus from binary table 6: Initialize particles 7: Position of particles = ‘x’ and ‘y’ coordinating points of bus location. 8: Velocity = random (number of buses) 9: Check fitness for given position by using objective function. 10: Minimum (F_Position) 11: 12: Position = Position + Velocity 13: For k = 1 to iteration If Present_fitness < Last_fitness Update fitness value End If Update velocity and position. End For 14: Find maximum (fitness_value), mf = max (fitness) 15: Place PMU on that bus. 16: Update binary table by eliminating the bus from binary table. 17: Loop to Step 6 until binary table gets empty. 18: If the PMU placed at only one bus, Check the nearest bus and made connection between them and update cluster. 19: End If The proposed algorithm is applied on the three cases for optimal PMU placement. B. Case 1: Without PMU Loss In this case, the zero injection and the flow measurement are ignored. To formulate the constraint set, the binary connectivity matric is formed whose entries are defined in the following equation: (1) The matrix can be directly calculated from the bus admittance matrix by converting the entries in the binary form. Consider the six bus system The binary table B is defined as (2) The constraints for this case is, (3) From the binary table, identify the maximum connectivity among the buses. The table shows the maximum connectivity is occurred in bus 3. Hence, bus 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are eliminated from the binary table. Then, the binary table can be updated as, (4) After performing the PSO based clustering algorithm, the PMU is placed on bus 1 and bus 3, which is shown in fig.3. C. Case 2: With loss of PMU It is considered as each bus is observable by single PMU and these PMUs are placed by the proposed clustering algorithm. Hence, the placement of PMUs are highly reliable but, if any disturbance occurred in power system or due to maintenance purpose any of the PMUs places is out from the system. If any of the PMU is disconnected, then some of the buses are connected to that PMUs are not remain observable. In order to overcome such unexpected PMU failures, a strategy is considered for single PMU loss. It can be achieved if all the buses are observed by at least two PMUs. These are operated as two sets, Primary set Backup set If suppose the PMU from primary set is not working properly, then the backup set will take the responsibility to observe the buses. To obtain the couple of PMUs, the constraint and objective function will remain same by only modifying the change in matrix f. In this case, the elements of f is equal to 2 instead of 1. It is defined as follows: (5) This case place the PMU for monitoring the single bus by two PMUs. Other than the objective function, the steps are same. The new constraint function can be constructed as follows: (6) D. Case 3: Zero Injection Zero injection buses are the buses from that no current is passed into the system. Zero injection correspond to the transferring nodes in the system. If zero injection buses are also designed in the PMU placement problem, the entire number of PMUs are further minimized. Consider the following example for zero injection on six bus system where bus 2 is considered as the zero injection bus. Now, the constraint for zero injection bus can be written as follows, (7) From the above equation, it is identified that the bus 3 has maximum connectivity. Hence, PMU is placed on the bus for entire system observability. IV. Performance Analysis To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, the optimal placement of PMU problem is solved for IEEE standard bus system and KPTCL 220 and 400 kV power systems. The KPTCL power buses are shown in fig.6. The results of the proposed method for IEEE bus system is illustrated in table 2. Here, IEEE-6 bus, IEEE-7 bus, IEEE-9 bus, IEEE-14 bus, and IEEE-30 bus system are considered for evaluation. Table 2 provides results for the three cases of IEEE bus systems. We collect the data from the KPTCL 220 and 400 kV power system. Here, the PMU placement is obtained only for the case 1 (without PMU loss). Hence, we proposed an algorithm to obtain the PMU placement, which suits for all the three cases (with loss, without loss, zero injection bus). Table 3 provides the total number of PMU placement collected from the KPTCL. Whereas table 4 provides the proposed result for the given power system. The proposed method results for 28 bus, 127 bus and 155 bus system in all the three cases. V. Conclusion and Future Work In this paper, a PSO based cluster formation algorithm is proposed to solve the optimal PMU placement problem.

Physics of Cooling Lava :: physics lava volcano

On January 23rd 1973 a new volcano unexpectedly erupted in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago, southwest of Iceland. The new volcano was a fissure 1.25 miles long and only 1100 yards from the center of town, also named Vestmannaeyjar. The new volcano was named Heimaey. The town was mostly evacuated over the next few days and the lava slowly flowed towards town and the mouth of the harbor for the next seven months. Vestmannaeyjar is the only good harbour in that part of Iceland, and was the base for a large fishing fleet that produces a significant part of Iceland’s GNP. As the lava threatened to overrun the town and close off the harbor, a decision was made to try to slow and divert the lava by cooling it with sea water. The idea was initially scoffed at, but when small initial efforts seemed to have an effect the scale of the operation was increased. Over seven months eight million cubic yards of sea water were pumped onto the lava flow; they cooled 5 million cubic yards of basal t lava to solid rock. The harbor and much of the town survived the eruption, likely as a result of the efforts to cool the lava. Iceland is known for its volcanic activity. A few years before Heimaey erupted; a nearby sub oceanic eruption formed the new island of Surtsey. The town of Vestmannaeyjar already had an extinct volcano on its outskirts, the volcano was known as Helgafell. It was thought to have been extinct for several hundred years. In January 1973 a new fissure opened up a few hundred yards from the extinct volcano. It went clear across the island and into the ocean on both sides. Boats escaping the harbor saw red magma under the water, and sub oceanic power and water lines from the mainland were broken by the eruption. In the initial eruption a curtain of lava 500 feet erupted from the fissure, after a few days the eruption was mostly from a single vent, with a cinder cone 300 feet tall. The lava flows from the eruption were a viscous slow moving basaltic magma. Average speeds for the lava flows were 3 to 9 yards a day. These relatively slow speeds are what made it possible to try and cool and div ert the lava. The lava was initially cooled with fire pumps and hoses, later in the effort large pumps were leased from the US military and several fire fighting boats were used.

Greek Cypriot Leaders :: History

Greek Cypriot Leaders What is the Cyprus question? Let us hear the answer from the Greek Cypriot and Greek leaders themselves: "I have struggled for the union of Cyprus with Greece, and Enosis will always be my deep national aspiration as it is the aspiration of all Greek Cypriots. My national creed has never changed and my career as a national leader has shown no inconsistency or contradiction. I have accepted independence instead of Enosis because certain external conditions and factors have not allowed a free choice." (Makarios told Le Point on 19 February 1973) How did they intend to achieve it? "Unless this Turkish community forming part of the Turkish race which has been the terrible enemy of Hellenism is expelled, the duty of the heroes of EOKA can never be considered as terminated" (Makarios declared on 4 September 1963) - The present Greek Cypriot leader, Glafkos Clerides in his memoirs entitled "Cyprus: My Deposition" described the Cyprus question as a conflict between "the Greek Cypriot preoccupation... that Cyprus should be a Greek Cypriot stale with protected Turkish Cypriot minority" and "the Turkish preoccupation ... to defeat any such effort and maintain the partnership concept ". - "Just as the Greek Cypriot preoccupation was that Cyprus should be a Creek Cypriot state, with a protected Turkish Cypriot minority, the Turkish preoccupation was !o defeat any such effort and to maintain the partnership concept, which in their opinion the Zurich Agreement created between the two communities. The conflict, therefore, was a conflict of principle and for that principle both sides were prepared to go on arguing and even, if need be, to fight, rather . The same principle is still in conflict, even today, though a federal solution has been accepted - and though a federation is nothing more than a constitutional partnership of the component states, provinces or cantons which make up the federation." (From Mr Glafkos Clerides's memoirs "My Deposition" Vol. 3, page 105.) How the UN, the US and other Related Counties' Officials See Cyprus Question: - The UN secretary-general, in his report to the Security Council dated 8 March 1990 (S/21183), described Cyprus as "the common home of the Greek Cypriot community and of the Turkish Cypriot community. Their relationship is not one of majority and minority, but one of two communities in the State of Cyprus. " This description was also reflected in the UN Set of Ideas endorsed by the Security Council.

Designing a New System for Gala Visions :: Video Rentals Consumerism Essays

Designing a New System for Gala Visions Gala Visions is a widely growing video rental outlet for most of the Asian community where both Hollywood and Bollywood movies are found, I will be using ICT to design a new system for it. Analysis ======== Background to the problem ------------------------- Gala Visions is small video rental store on Whalley Range in Blackburn. The store is home to the many different genres of movies through Hollywood and Bollywood. It is run by Fakhir. Identification of Prospective Users ----------------------------------- Gala Visions is a widely growing video rental outlet for most of the Asian community where both Hollywood and Bollywood movies are found. Because of this, the outlet has grown out of the manual system that is at use for the renting of Video's/Dvd's. Its main problem is it is very slow and unreliable. Fakhir has been looking for alternative systems to upgrade the current system and to increase effectiveness in the business. Identification of User Needs ---------------------------- I myself do go to Gala Visions to hire Video's/Dvd's of all genres. Fakhir has granted me full co-operation from his side to carry out my Computing Coursework which if effective enough he may invest in a computer with the system that I am going to produce. Q) How many videos/Dvd's do you have in stock? A) 3000+. Q) Do you rent out both Hollywood and Bollywood Movies? A) Yes we do but we only rent particular Hollywood box office smash hits. Q) Do you rent out all genres of movies? A) Yes. Q) How does the current rental system work? A) It's a manual, paper pen based system. Q) What happens when a person wants to hire a video/Dvd out? A) Once the customer is happy with its choice we take their name and address. We scan through the record book to check if that person is registered. Then we take that persons id number, which is given to all customers, and label a hire form. The customer details i.e. Name, Address is also labelled. That's it. Q) What time limit is the Video/Dvd rented out for? A) 1 Day. Q) What happens when a Video/Dvd is returned? A) We cross off the rental on the hire form. Q) How do you know that all the Video's/Dvd's have been returned? A) Normally we check through the hire form but sometimes we don't, as it is very time consuming. Q) What happens when Videos/Dvd's are overdue? A) We normally charge extra. Q) What happens if the Video/Dvd is not returned? A) We send a reminder through the post and then issue recovery procedures. Q) How many copies of each Video/Dvd do you normally keep? Designing a New System for Gala Visions :: Video Rentals Consumerism Essays Designing a New System for Gala Visions Gala Visions is a widely growing video rental outlet for most of the Asian community where both Hollywood and Bollywood movies are found, I will be using ICT to design a new system for it. Analysis ======== Background to the problem ------------------------- Gala Visions is small video rental store on Whalley Range in Blackburn. The store is home to the many different genres of movies through Hollywood and Bollywood. It is run by Fakhir. Identification of Prospective Users ----------------------------------- Gala Visions is a widely growing video rental outlet for most of the Asian community where both Hollywood and Bollywood movies are found. Because of this, the outlet has grown out of the manual system that is at use for the renting of Video's/Dvd's. Its main problem is it is very slow and unreliable. Fakhir has been looking for alternative systems to upgrade the current system and to increase effectiveness in the business. Identification of User Needs ---------------------------- I myself do go to Gala Visions to hire Video's/Dvd's of all genres. Fakhir has granted me full co-operation from his side to carry out my Computing Coursework which if effective enough he may invest in a computer with the system that I am going to produce. Q) How many videos/Dvd's do you have in stock? A) 3000+. Q) Do you rent out both Hollywood and Bollywood Movies? A) Yes we do but we only rent particular Hollywood box office smash hits. Q) Do you rent out all genres of movies? A) Yes. Q) How does the current rental system work? A) It's a manual, paper pen based system. Q) What happens when a person wants to hire a video/Dvd out? A) Once the customer is happy with its choice we take their name and address. We scan through the record book to check if that person is registered. Then we take that persons id number, which is given to all customers, and label a hire form. The customer details i.e. Name, Address is also labelled. That's it. Q) What time limit is the Video/Dvd rented out for? A) 1 Day. Q) What happens when a Video/Dvd is returned? A) We cross off the rental on the hire form. Q) How do you know that all the Video's/Dvd's have been returned? A) Normally we check through the hire form but sometimes we don't, as it is very time consuming. Q) What happens when Videos/Dvd's are overdue? A) We normally charge extra. Q) What happens if the Video/Dvd is not returned? A) We send a reminder through the post and then issue recovery procedures. Q) How many copies of each Video/Dvd do you normally keep?

Jane Matilda Bolin

Bolin became the first Black woman to serve as a U. S. Judge. She was the youngest of four children born to Gaius and Matilda Bolin. Her mother, Matilda Emery, was an English immigrant. She died when Jane was only eight years old. Her father, Gaius Charles Bolin, was an African American and, also, part Native American. G. Charles owned a successful law practice in Poughkeepsie, NY. He was the first African American graduate of William College in Western Massachusetts and he was, also, the first African American of the Dutchess County Bar Association. As a child, Jane often shared passionate conversations with her father about law and his profession. She spent a great deal of time in his law office afterschool and on weekends. This helped Jane to determine early on that she wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a lawyer. Having lived a sheltered lifestyle, she was further motivated to pursue a law career when she discovered the hardships of Blacks in America at that time. She became exposed to this through her father’s involvement in the NAACP and by reading the NAACP bi-monthly magazine, The Crisis. The violence, racism, and prejudice that she uncovered was very much unlike the lifestyle in which she grew up, where her father was respected by both blacks and whites. After graduating from high school at the age of 15, she attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she was one of only two black students. Both students were picked on and embarrassed daily. This became Jane’s first racism experience. She graduated in 1928 as one the top 20 graduates in her class. Because she did not receive much support from her professors, she knew what to expect when it was time for seniors to speak to an advisor about career options. Her advisor told her that she would never be able to make it as a black female attorney. However, Jane was determined to attend Yale Law School. Jane’s father wanted to protect her from the prejudice that he endured while trying become a lawyer. He tried to persuade her to become a teacher and inspire other young black minds. However, once he learned that she was accepted to Yale Law School, he gave her all of his support. That year she was one of only three women and the only black woman enrolled in Yale. She became the first African American to receive a law degree from Yale. She returned home, passed the New York State Bar exam, and began practicing law in her father’s law firm. In 1933, Jane married Ralph Mizelle. They moved to New York City and opened their own law practice. Jane began a career in public service in 1937 as an Assistant Corporate Counsel for the City of New York. After two years of serving in this position, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia swore Jane in as the Judge of the Domestic Relations Court (Family Court) on July 22, 1939. This made her the first African American to be the judge of any U. S. court. As a judge, she made several monumental changes. She made it illegal to place individuals with probation officers based on race. She, also, required childcare agencies that received public funds to accept all children, regardless of race. She later founded an integrated center for trouble youth. Jane served as a judge for 40 years. She retired at age 70 in January of 1979. Jane Bolin died on January 8, 2007. She was 98 years-old. Bibliography http://blackhistory. com/cgi-bin/blog. cgi? blog_id=133098&cid=54

Robert Martinson

Indeed, the article written by Robert Martinson entitled â€Å"What Works? Questions and Answers About Prison Reform† has given much controversy to the application of rehabilitation in relation to recidivism. The claims of the article written by the team of Martinson, which includes Dr. Doug Lipton as the senior author and Judith Wilks as the co-author, centered on the theme that there is no significant improvement with rehabilitation strategies. This has been widely accepted by both the Left and the Right and became popular as the â€Å"Nothing Works!† (Sarre 2). Both people and institutions have come to think that the findings provided that nothing works for the crime offenders are something that should be accepted and is a fact (Sarre 2). Thus, it is until now that the claims of Martinson, despite two decades have passed is something that has been held by public agencies involved (Sarre 5). Despite the fact that people have already taken this fact with open arms, there are things which might have been left before Martinson and the authors could speak to clarify the findings further. The conclusions may be of significance but to every research, there are limitations and problems that should be realized together with this. Indeed, the conclusions of Martinson that strategies of rehabilitation employed are not as effective would require a deeper understanding that it may be for a particular group of people and that the limitations would have to be considered for the conclusions rendered. It could be said that the phrase â€Å"nothing works† is not the conclusion that the authors would want to convey for their study. It is not in its entirety that they would want this to be the message. In fact, it is only a partial of this because as they mentioned â€Å"†¦ with few and isolated exceptions, the rehabilitative efforts that have been reported so far have had no appreciable effect on recidivism† and â€Å"our present strategies †¦ cannot overcome, or even appreciably reduce, the powerful tendencies of offenders to continue in criminal behavior† (as qtd in Sarre 2). It is to be noted that there is the phrase â€Å"few and isolated exceptions† and â€Å"our present strategies† which would require some note that there is a hope that rehabilitation is concluded to be still there, just have to be improved or searched. Before Martinson passed away, he claimed that the some treatment programs do have an effect and these are on â€Å"individual psychotherapy, group counseling, intensive supervision, and what we have called individual/help (aid, advice, counseling)† (as qtd in Sarre 4). This could be seen as a parallel point to the phrases â€Å"few and isolated exceptions† and â€Å"our present strategies.† A possible explanation that may be given for such is a phrase written by Sarre as â€Å"the burial of rehabilitation as an aim of sentencing appears to have occurred before its death had even been announced† (5). People have rushed into conclusions before the authors were given the chance to explain further the study or to conduct several researches more to confirm if this is for the general population. The negative picture associated with the criminal offenders would likewise give further strength to the ideas received by the population. The careful publication of researches should be made in the future should be observed and the constant challenge to ideas presented with a critical mind and eyes should be maintained. Work Cited Sarre, Rick. Beyond â€Å"What Works?† A 25 Year Jubilee Retrospective of Robert Martinson. Paper presented at the History of Crime, Policing and Punishment Conference convened by the Australian Institute of Criminology in conjunction with Charles Sturt University and held in Canberra, 9-10 December 1999. 8 April 2008 [http://www.aic.gov.au/conferences/hcpp/sarre.pdf].