Self-organization in complex systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Self-organization in complex systems - Essay Example The changes in the business environment have constantly altered the ways companies do businesses nowadays. Because of the advancement of technology, environmental factors such as political, economic and the social landscape have been altered, which has caused a drastic shift in terms of the rules of the marketplace. Information Technology plays a huge role in this shift of trends in the market, especially the Internet. The Internet has created numerous possibilities in terms of interactions between many stakeholders of the company, most notably, the consumers. The Internet has enabled the consumers to interact with the company in many ways, making them the most important co-creator of value in the process. Gone are the days when consumers are just a passive group in the past to whom a company offers its products. With the interactivity of the Internet, consumers have been given ways to affect the value-creation in terms of the products that a company offers. Consumers also participat e actively in many areas of the value chain such as marketing, with the creation of online communities and greater networking being made possible by the Internet. This creates a shift in terms of the balance of power, where consumers are active determinants of value.

Crime and Poverty Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Crime and Poverty - Thesis Example For purposes of this study, a definition of poverty and crime is outlined. A crime is an act committed in violation of the law commanding or forbidding it and for which a punishment is imposed upon conviction Legal definition of the word states crime is a wrongdoing classified by the State or Congress either as a Felony or Misdemeanor. A felony is a serious crime punishable by at least one year in prison. During the term of sentence, a person charged with felony loses certain rights such as the right to vote and hold public office. A convicted person is also not allowed to make contracts, get married, suing or keeping professional licenses. A misdemeanor is a crime for which punishment is usually a fine and/or a jail sentence of up to one year, but repeated offenses become a felony. Poverty is defined as a state of condition of having little or no money, goods or means of support. Several studies provided different measures on how poor a family or a person is. According to Boyes & Melvin, a family is poor if its income falls below a certain level and it is defined in an absolute sense: The U.S. uses poverty level, the World Banks uses per capita GNP, and economists use economic security index. The poverty level in U.S. for 2011 was set at $22,350 for a family of four. The World Bank uses per capita GNP of $755 or less as its criterion of a low-income country. In this definition, poverty becomes a relative concept, because the poverty level in U.S. would represent a substantial increase in the living standard of most of the poor people in the world.... Data showed that people do not readily conform to the poverty threshold or level set by the government. People contends that the $20,000 poverty threshold for a family of 4 does not reveal the true situation of poverty level, while others believed it should be higher. Poverty threshold is used by the government as a measure of poverty for a family to qualify in government programs, such as Head Start, Food Stamp Program, National School Lunch Program, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, etc. The review also revealed causes of poverty among the people of the United States, stating drug abuse as a major cause, health problems causing huge medical bills, and unemployment reasons. It is also noted that there is a rise in unemployment because of the economic crisis, but I find it intriguing to see too many single parents as a cause of poverty. I did not find any substantive data to support this claim of respondents of survey. Other reasons fall under social and culture since reasons given is that poor people lack motivation, a decline in moral values, while others put the blame on the poor quality of public schools. Drug abuse, health care, education and employment problems are concerns of the government and are larger in scope because of government funding needed to solve them. Towards the review three theories emerged why crimes are committed, the sociological, psychological and economic theories. These theories nullify the hypothesis that poverty is the cause of crime.

Analysing Fedex’s Historical Performance

Analysing Fedex’s Historical Performance FedEx stands for Federal Express Corporation, was founded by 28-year-old Memphis, Tennessee, native Frederick W. Smith in 1971. Smith, who was a former Marine pilot, developed his idea for an overnight delivery service through a term paper that he wrote for Yale University in an economics class. Smith felt that air freight would provide another form of employment opportunity in the aviation sector of the economy instead of making it an added service to the passengers. In his views, a company should specialize in air freight rather than making it an add-on to passenger service which would make it a more lucrative business niche. Speed was more important than cost, in Smiths view, and access to smaller cities was essential. His strategies included shipping all packages through a single hub and building a private fleet of aircraft. Company-owned planes would free the service from commercial-airline schedules and shipping regulations, while a single hub would permit the tight control tha t got packages to their destinations overnight. In making his dream a reality, Smith selected Memphis as his hub: it was centrally located and despite inclement weather its modern airport rarely closed. FedEx began its operation in 1973 with a $4 million inheritance that Smith got from his father and with a $91 million in venture capital. Service was provided in 25 cities with a fleet of 14 small Dassault Falcon aircraft and 389 employees. At this time, FedExs operations basically involved collection of packages from airports every night and taking them to Memphis, where they were immediately sorted. They were then flown to airports close to their destination and delivered by FedEx trucks the following morning. Like every normal start-up ventures, FedEx had a lot to contend with ranking from the high cost of operation and the expensive advertisement that Smith proposed. This led to a financial loss of $29 million in its first 26 months of operation thereby prompting Smiths investors to consider removing him from the helm of the fledgling company, which was rejected by the companys president Arthur Bass. Bass helped the company to improve its delivery schedules thereby made FedExs de livery volume to climb up to a point where it was profitable. Companys profit hit $8 million on sales of $110 million by 1977. This was due to the fact that FedEx had 31,000 regular customers, including giants such as IBM and the U.S. Air Force, which used it to ship spare parts. It also shipped blood, organs for transplant, drugs, and other items requiring swift transport. Expanding FedExs operation to 75 airports and 130 small cities was the major strategy effected by Smith and Bass that sparked up the companys growth. While the major airlines gave the company stiff competition on heavily traveled passenger routes, there was virtually no competition on routes between smaller cities. Its principal competitor, Emery Air Freight, used commercial airlines to ship packages, giving FedEx an important time advantage. Airline deregulation gave FedEx the much needed growth in its operations which resulted from the Smiths led legislative fight to end regulation, and a bill doing so was passed in 1977. Deregulation meant the company could fly anywhere in the United States anytime, and use larger aircraft like 727s, and using its Falcons to expand into small- and medium-sized markets. Prior to the enactment of this bill, FedEx had to fly up to eight small Falcon jets side-by-side to bigger markets when as the use of one larger jet would have saved money. Because payloads for airline operators were less than 7,500 pounds which was a major set-back for FedEx at that time but with the deregulation FedExs operational cost would reduce. The enactment of the bill prompted FedEx to go Public through the New York Stock Exchange. This move raised needed capital and gave FedEx the chance to gain back a portion of their initial investment. The raised capital was used to acquire its fleet 32 Falcons, 15 727s, and five 737s and operations was expanded. Profits for 1979 were $21.4 million on sales of $258.5 million. By late 1980 FedEx was well established and growing at about 40 percent a year. It had 6,700 employees and flew 65,000 packages a night to 89 cities across the United States. During 1980, FedEx gain more market share based on the fact that there was a decline in the reliability of the U.S. Postal Service that caused even more companies to switch to FedEx for important packages. This prompted FedEx to announce a new product that would bring it into direct competition with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) which was the introduction of the overnight letter. This document-size cardboard envelope, which could contain up to two ounces, would be delivered overnight for $9.50 at that time. This further resulted to FedEx having the largest sales of any U.S. air freight company, unseating competitors like Emery, Airborne Freight, and Purolator Courier, which had gone into business about two decades earlier. Most companies shipped packages of all sizes using regularly scheduled airlines, and their services was not speed oriented which was the bargain power for FedEx. FedEx offered speed-oriented service and thereby won over many of the markets customers. This self led action forced other operations in the industry to copy FedEx operational strategy. Emery copied FedExs strategy, buying its own planes, opening a small-package sorting center, and pushing overnight delivery. Airborne also entered the small-package air express business. United Parcel Service of America (UPS), the leading package-shipper by truck, moved into the air-express business in 1981. The USPS began heavily marketing its own overnight-mail service after FedExs Courier-Pak began eating into its revenues. FedEx, the market leader in the America overnight package-delivery industry would be strict competitor of DHL Worldwide Courier Express Network with its entry into overseas services. To this effect FedEx made its first acquisition, Gelco Express, a Minneapolis-based package courier that served 84 countries in 1984. Hoping to recreate its U.S. market dominance overseas, the company made further acquisitions in Britain, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates. Also UPS also began building a competing overseas system. Price control was the major strategic interplay in the 1990s between key industrial players.UPS are key player in the U.S. market introduce volume discount, a strategy that its previously resisted. In response to this, FedEx began company-wide cost-containment policies to reduce waste and overhead, as well as gain increased efficiency in meeting the needs of its customers.. Even with its cost-cutting measures, employee-related expenses rose when FedEx became mired in over two years of contract negotiations with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). The huge salaries and benefit packages were not enough to keep the threat of unionization at bay, which ultimately resulted in the 1996 unionization of FedExs 3,100 pilots. National Labor Mediation Board resolves this because leading analysts doubted ALPAs continued influence over FedEx budgetary policy. Aggressive international expansion was deployed by FedEx through acquisition of some companies in the same line of business operations. This aggressive expansion was witnessed throughout 1999 till date. 2.2 FEDEXS PROFILE 2.2.1 FEDEXS ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE The above diagram shows the top management position within the FedEx Corporation. Each of this above list management position functions as a separate entity based on the fact that FedEx corporation has three different basic line of businesses and in that regard the presidents of FedEx freight, FedEx ground and FedEx express have additional personals in charge various operations. A more detail descriptions of these lines of businesses shall be covered in the following sections. 2.2.2 MAJOR LINES OF BUSINESS. FedEx Corporation has undergone different stage of development which involves change of name, acquisitions of different companies before finally being name as FedEx. It was through these developmental stages with strategic acquisition that actually helped FedEx to develop it lines of businesses. FedEx Corporation includes the following business segments which functions as a separate entity of its own; FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, FedEx Office, FedEx Custom Critical, FedEx Trade Networks and FedEx Services But all these business segments function as a whole under the FedEx Corporation. FedEx Express was the first and solely lines of business operation that FedEx Corporation ventured into when it started operations. FedEx Express was then over seeing all the operation of the corporation as whole. In order to function as a market leader in the globe market, FedEx Express acquired various companies. Some of FedEx Express acquired companies from 1999 are as follows  [2]  , 1999 FedEx Marketplace launches on fedex.com, providing easy access to online merchants that offer fast, reliable FedEx express shipping. Federal Express launches its EuroOne Network, opening a hub at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport. FedEx Corp. acquires Caribbean Transportation Services. 2001 FedEx Express and the U.S. Postal Service forge a public-private alliance. FedEx Express provides air transportation of some U.S. mail and places FedEx Drop Boxes at post offices nationwide. 2007 FedEx Express builds its service capabilities in Europe by acquiring UK domestic express company ANC (later re-branded FedEx UK) and Flying-Cargo Hungary Kft, now a wholly-owned operation in one of Eastern Europes most dynamic markets. FedEx Express expands its presence in India with the acquisition of Prakash Air Freight Pvt. Ltd. (PAFEX). FedEx Ground began operation in 1985 which was then registered with the name Roadway Package System (RPS). This later became Caliber System Incorporation in 1996. The company was the first in the ground shipping business to use bar coding and automated sorting system and tracking system to help customers get relevant information about their packages. FedEx ground was formed as a subsidiary company to handle the ground delivery operation of FedEx Corporation which became effective through launching of FedEx Home delivery and a business-to-consumer service which was designed to help catalog and online retailers meet their markets  [3]  . FedEx Freight is the leading U.S. provider of next- and second-day regional, less-than-truckload (LTL) freight services. FedEx Freight is known for exceptional service, reliability and on-time performance. In 1966, Viking Freight opened its doors in 1966 as a courier service within selected areas of California and rapidly grew to be the states leading intrastate trucking carrier. By 1986, Vikings service area covered 10 western states, including Alaska and Hawaii.   In 1988, Viking became a subsidiary of Caliber System Inc. During the next ten years, Viking solidified its position as the market leader in the West and periodically expanded its reach beyond its western regional territory. In January 1998, Federal Express Corp. acquired Caliber System and created FedEx Corporation, a global provider of transportation, e-commerce and supply chain management services. Meanwhile, American Freightways (AF) was founded in 1982 by Sheridan Garrison. Despite regulatory and economic obstacles, AF quickly became the fastest-growing, independently-owned regional LTL carrier in the nation. In 1989, AF became a publicly-held corporation and by 2001 had developed a wide network of customer centers providing 100 percent direct coverage to 40 contiguous U.S. states.   American Freightways was acquired by FedEx Corporation in 2001. By combining Viking and AF, FedEx Corp. created FedEx Freight to offer one-stop shopping for LTL customers who require top-quality, highly reliable regional freight service. In June 2002, FedEx re-branded AF and Viking as FedEx Freight to accelerate growth of regional LTL freight business through a common branding system. Through a comprehensive network of service centers and with timely, accurate information systems, FedEx Freight is committed to delivering reliable, responsive LTL service throughout the U.S. and beyond.   In 2003, Caribbean Transportation Services-acquired by FedEx Corp. in 1999 and aligned to FedEx Trade Networks in 2001-was realigned as a freight-forwarding subsidiary of FedEx Freight. Caribbean Transportation Services is the leading provider of airfreight forwarding services between the United States and Puerto Rico. It provides door-to-door and airport-to-airport shipping with services ranging from next-day delivery to four-to-five-day delivery. Today, these companies make FedEx Freight the less-than-truckload shipping industry leader in the U.S. In 2006, FedEx Corp. acquired Watkins Motor Lines, a leading provider of long-haul LTL services.   Watkins was rebranded FedEx National LTL and now operates as a seperate network within the FedEx Freight segment.

Joan Of Arc :: Free Essays

Joan of Arc Joan was born to a peasant family in Domremy (now Domremy-la-Pucelle). When she was 13 years old, she believed she heard celestial voices. As they continued, sometimes accompanied by visions, she became convinced that they belonged to St. Michael and to the early martyrs St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Margaret. Early in 1429, during the Hundred Years War, when the English were about to capture Orleans, the â€Å"voices† told her to help the Dauphin, later Charles Vll, king of France. Charles, because of both internal conflict and the English claim to the throne of France, had not yet been crowned king. Joan succeeds in convincing him that she had a divine mission to save France. A board of theologians approved her claims, and she was given troops to command. Dressed in armor and carrying a white banner that represented God blessing the French royal emblem, the fleur-de-lis, she led the French to a victory over the English. Joan was soon given the place of honor beside the king. Joan had united the French behind Charles and had put an end to English dreams of conquering over France; Charles opposed any further campaigns against the English. Therefore, it was without royal support that Joan conducted (1430) a military operation against the English at Compiegne, near Paris. Bourguignon soldiers, who sold her to their English allies, captured her. The English then turned her over to an ecclesiastical court at Rouen to be tried for heresy and sorcery. After 14 months of examination, she was accused of wrongdoing in wearing masculine dress and of heresy for believing she was directly responsible to god rather than to the Roman Catholic Church. The court condemned her to death, but she confessed to her errors, and the sentence was changed to life imprisonment. Since she resumed masculine dress after returning to jail, she was condemned again-this time by a secular court-and on May 30, 1431; Joan was burned at the stake in the Old Market Square at Rouen as a relaps ed misbeliever.

Criminological research Essay

Longitudinal Approach to Chicago Crime Research The Project on Human Development in Chicago Research conducted a research regarding the historical origins of crime using the statistical longitudinal approach — eight-year-follow-up from 1993 to 2001 on 11,000 individuals with equal male to female ratio in nine different age groups selected at random from 70 different communities— and the developmental crime analysis using multi-field approaches from various related studies in criminology, sociology, psychology and biology. The Project is based at Harvard School of Public Health and is jointly sponsored by National Institute of Justice and MacArthur Foundation. The project attempted to explain the psychological and criminological determinants of the city in response to the mounting crime rates from the years 1960’s to current. In lieu with this, the project also aimed to find ‘solutions’ through the aforementioned multi-disciplinary analysis combined with therapeutic intervention analysis. Understanding criminal behavior entails identification of the source (from birth to adulthood), the developmental origin and environmental influences. Main areas for the study include individual differences, influences from family, school, peer and community, criminal careers, predictions of dangerousness. Data collection is by multistream STORI approach—self-reports tests and examinations, observational procedures (surveys and interviews), existing records, and informant reports. Community, as a determinant, is analyzed through systemic social observation. Changes in family structure is measured at several factors including the individual and/or mixed effect of household environment, care providers, key figures , presence of extended family, quality of upbringing, and the relationships within. The impact of racism on construction of identity of the samples was also considered. Gender-specific roles was also investigated–— why males tend to be more violent and the females more into sexual and property offenses  ¬Ã¢â‚¬â€ their differential response to developmental determinants, individuality, and social behavior with focus between adolescence-adulthood period. Antisocial behavior as exhibited by criminal behavior is evaluated at traumatic stress (and PTSD), abuse and child development; the coping mechanism and resilience and cycle of violence hypotheses is evaluated in line with this. Aside from exploring the history and patterns of anti-socialism, the project maimed at creating intervention programs at the following age group to prevent recidivism: 0-6 (improved social skills and cognitive stimulation); and young adolescents (modeling, peer leader and educ films); young adults (probation and diversion programs). Testing persistence-desistence hypothesis by using various theories [ (bio-psych development, social learning and control, social organization, network, rational choice and deterrence theory)] with focus on peer relations will also be included in the Project. The Project also aimed at creating a pragmatic, large-scale approach for crime prevention by testing their hypothesis on differential social organization, individual differences, peer groups and social networks. The Project’s scheme is rather ambitious considering that it requires an 8 year statistical analysis, only 200 field experts and one co-sponsor (aside from the federal). While it is true that ‘meta-analysis’ can be applicable for such types of study, there are problems in statistical method sampling especially if the test samples ‘migrated’ or ‘died’ before the end of the project. Would the Project resort to attrition analysis? The investigation may also be weak because it relies on questionnaires and interviews, and most criminals, in reality, rarely talk about their life. Technology should also be assessed for the study. Additionally, the methods used, although very extensive, may be very tiring to the staff. Although the objectives of the study are great, the methods require extensive staffing and careful management and (detached) association with the samples in the study. Reference Earls, F. J. and Reiss, A. J. (1994). Breaking the Cycle. NIJ Research Report. 91 pp.

How Far Did Henry VIII’s Reign Go in Beginning a New Era in Tudor Kingship

How far did Henry VIII’s reign begin a new era in Tudor kingship? Henry the eighth and Henry the seventh were very different in many ways, their style of ruling and aims clearly had different intentions. Henry the seventh ruled quite safely and avoided war as much as possible whilst being extremely greedy and obsessive with money. Where as Henry the eighth was young and wanted to bring back the glory days and gain a strong reputation, willing to fight and go to war at all costs, whilst being ruthless in punishments. From the beginning of Henry the eighths reign changes began to take place and perhaps a whole new era.Some aspects did stay the same from Henry the sevenths rule though. One obvious continuity was that the Tudor bloodline had been passed along, keeping the same family ruling England. Which eliminated quite a lot of threat from keen opposition. Henry the eighth was young and healthy which was a promising thought at the time for the public. The position of men and wo men didn’t change either, women still had barely any rights and could night speak their thoughts or argue with men’s views. They were expected to do feminine activities and produce children who were possible heirs to the throne.As Henry the eighth needed to produce at least one heir, he decided to marry Catherine of Aragon, (a Spanish princess) after many years of weighing out other options. He used Catherine just like his father did to stabilise and secure a sturdy relationship with Spain and improving foreign relations. Another factor that was kept the same were the bonds and recognisances between the crown and the nobility, which threatened a fine to the aristocracy if they weren’t to remain loyal to the king and break his trust. These were very unpopular with the nobility, but controlled factions being formed, eliminating threat yet again.A common characteristic with both Henry the eighth and seventh was their irrational behaviour with money as they didnâ₠¬â„¢t control or use it very wisely. Henry the seventh splashed out on parties and extravagant entertainment, to uphold a wealthy reputation. When his son wanted to spend it on war and battles to gain back a strong and glorious reputation, when it wasn’t affordable. Although some aspects stayed similar or the same, the majority of the transition was consistent of change. Henry the eighth was young and feisty, seen as a fresh and slightly ulnerable new face to the thrown bringing out excitement from the public. His attitude was the opposite of Henry the sevenths, he wanted to bring back the glory days and looked up to role models such as, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, to gain back a strong reputation. Unlike his father, Henry became very ruthless and wasn’t afraid to sentence punishments and showed little mercy to those who betrayed his trust. One example of this was the execution of two of his father’s closest advisers, Richard Empson and Edmun d Dudley.They were arrested on fictitious charges of treason, even though little evidence existed. Henry wanted to show he wasn’t taking any prisoners and so he executed them a year later. They were involved in enforcing the bonds and recognisances so Henry soon became very popular with the nobility, as he’d killed two of the people they hated the most. Whilst also maybe giving them the impression that he is more persuadable and naive as he is so young. Henry began changing his advises and councillors to men he could relate to better, like Thomas Wolsey, a very colourful character of the Tudor court and a trusting adviser to Henry.Henry began to rely on his advisers more to do the paperwork side of things and allowed them more independence. Whilst he was extremely active, unlike his father, and participated in sports of all kinds. Some say he was slightly more manipulated and persuaded in his younger years by his advisers compared to his father. One example may be when he was convinced to sign a peace treaty in 1510 with Louis XIII (king of France), by William Warham and Richard Fox. Their reasons were that war or an invasion on France would be too expensive and fruitless, despite Henrys wishes he signed the treaty anyway.Despite this it wasn’t long before plans were made for an invasion; Henry was actively seeking war and action so he was to be viewed as a strong king and willing to fight for his country. Very much unlike his Father who was cautious and avoided war as much as possible. Henry also broke from the church in Rome, against his father’s views and beliefs. Over all I think the transition from Henry the seventh to Henry the eighth was mostly a new era. Although there were elements of persistence and continuity, the majority of Henry the eighths reign was consistence of change and he carried out a completely different attitude to what his father did.Henry the Seventh was greedy with his money, he wanted to be safe and cauti ous, avoiding war and confrontation as much as he could, whilst dealing mostly with paperwork. He was ruthless when absolutely necessary but never exceeded in gaining a strict reputation. He was very unpopular with the public and I believe they were ready for someone feisty and fresh to take over the thrown like Henry the eighth. Who was not at all wanting to hold back from war or confrontation, he constantly looked for opportunities to fight and to bring back ‘the glory days’.Not particularly interesting in doing any paperwork until his later years as he actively participated in sports in his youth. He was ruthless and showed no mercy when coming to deciding people’s fait and punishment. He was also much more popular than his father at the beginning oh his years and his reputation was of a handsome young man, who was quite impressionable. This clearly shows the extent as to how different both Father and son’s attitudes and style to kingship were and how t he new era began to evolve. Aimee Fenton-Fearn