Forensic Pathologist Career Description

FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST * Correct Name of the Career The full name for a Forensic Pathologist is a Forensic Pathologist. * Education and Training Requirements To become a Forensic Pathologist you will need about 13 to 15 years of college. All this includes four years of college to earn a bachelor’s degree in any major and completing course requirements for medical school. Second, you would need 4 years to earn a M. D. or D. O. Next, there is 4-5 years of practicing forensic pathology. Also you would need one year fellowship in forensic pathology.This means that they would put their training into the real world and work there jobs. After residency you must pass the test and receive a certificate as a certified Forensic Pathologist. * Responsibilities and Daily Activities The main job of a Forensic Pathologist is to find the cause of the death, what caused the malfunction of the body, and to make autopsy reports. They do this by collecting and examine blood, tissue and DNA samples. They also investigate the scene where the victim died and make hypothesis based on the surroundings.Forensic Pathologist could also make hypothesis based on your health and living conditions of the victim. The work hours are usually 40 hours a week with weekends off. It mostly depends on the office you work at. * Salary Range The salary range for a Forensic Pathologist is $28,505-$226,321. The pay depends on the amount of experience and where you work. Pathologist in private offices would get paid a little higher compared to federal offices. * Documentation of Sources (2008). Forensic Pathologist. ONLINE] Available at: http://explorehealthcareers. org/en/Career/129/Forensic_Pathologist#Tab=Overview. [Last Accessed 28 August 2012]. S. E. Smith (2012). For Medical Students, What Does Residency Mean?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. wisegeek. com/for-medical-students-what-does-residency-mean. htm. [Last Accessed 28 August 2012]. (2012). Forensic Pathologist Salary . [ONLINE] Availa ble at: http://www. payscale. com/research/US/Job=Forensic__Pathologist/Salary. [Last Accessed 28 August 2012]. (2009). Hours and Working Conditions . ONLINE] Available at: http://www. forensicpathologist. com/. [Last Accessed 28 August 2012]. * Self Reflection I would enjoy this career because I enjoy solving mystery and it isn’t a job where you write reports all day, there is work that actually means something. I could collect tissue and blood samples and observe the body to find the cause of death. Also, the pay is really good. The only thing that is bad for me it would take a really long time for certification. It would take 13-15 years after high school to get certification.

Blood Brothers Essay

Dear Headteacher and Governors, I am writing in response to the governor’s decision to stop the production of Blood Brothers by Willy Russell. I understand the reasons for this, but I wish to demonstrate how certain themes are an integral part of the play, and that it is not unreasonable for it to be performed by students. One of the biggest issues is the use of swearing in the play. Willy Russell uses the bad language to emphasise the difference between the classes. This is shown when Micky and Eddie first meet and Micky says that he is â€Å"Pissed off. † Edwards’s reaction to this is â€Å"Pissed off? You say smashing things don’t you. † This shows that Eddie doesn’t understand Micky as he thinks he is â€Å"Smashing† Micky on the other hand is using the swearing to express his emotions in the best way he knows. Also, the fact that he has been brought up with so many brothers and sisters who swear makes it second or even first nature for him to swear. There is also the point that Eddie uses bad language in the wrong context. This is demonstrated when he calls his mother a â€Å"Fuck Off† this not only shows the audience that he doesn’t understand how to swear, but it also hint as the fact that Eddie is actually a Johnstone and is showing his true nature. This would play on Mrs Lyons’s mind, as this is the one thing she fears most and has spent many years trying to avoid. Bad language also gives the play a sense of comedy. This is shown when Edward tells his teacher to†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut. † This inevitably makes the audience laugh, as this is only the second time they hear him swear and the first time he uses it in the right context. It also leads to him being suspended, which reveals another similarity between him and Micky. A second point that someone may uses to discredit the play is the part when Micky and Eddie go to watch â€Å"Adult Films† this again is an integral part of the play as it shows the growing up and becoming teenagers. This is proven when Edward says â€Å"Listen, we can see how it is done; look the Essolado for one week only, Nymphomaniac Nights and Swedish Au Pairs. † This shows that the pair are eager to learn about subjects that they are interested in, and demonstrates them growing up. Also the names like â€Å"Nymphomaniac Nights† and â€Å"Swedish Au Pairs. † Are subtle and could be much more graphic in there description, and whilst performing the play we don’t actually have to show the film, as we can just simulate it. Two teenagers going to watch an erotic film will almost certainly lead to them discussing it in detail to each other, including them making references to the female body. This once again shows them growing up, but also demonstrates the differences caused by the upbringing. This is shown when Micky stops to talk to Linda, where as Eddie jus continues his chat of â€Å"Tits, Tits, Tits,† whilst oblivious to anything else. This shows that although having enjoyed the film Micky is un-phased and continues to act normally shortly after watching it. Eddie however is constantly going on about the film for quite a while after, showing that he has had a more sheltered upbringing. There are many other themes in the play that can be used against it, but these are far weaker in there argument. One of these is the presence on guns and violence in the play. Children today are exposed to violence from a very young age and guns are just a part of that. Also children play with guns from a young age to, and there fore have become desensitised to the violence. The theme of romance and relationships is relevant to the age group that will be performing the play, and also has the sub-theme of childhood sweethearts. Also the Edward/Linda relationship is realistic and does happen in the real world. Tragedy also plays a big part as the whole play is structured towards it. However as the audience see a small clip at the beginning that shows the end, it doesn’t comes as a surprise. Tragedy is a common ending to many stories. Mrs Johnstone makes a big deal about superstitions in the play, and they set up the ending. This demonstrates a contrast to Mrs Lyons as she thinks that superstitions are stupid and pointless. However the biggest theme in the play is class differences. This is in effect the whole play and shows how children are aware of it at a very young age, but it only really affects them as they get older. I hope I have portrayed my opinion of the play and the decision to stop the production of it.

A Feeling of Accomplishment

I’ve always been a not so active person and didn’t like big changes. But this time I couldn’t do anything about it, I was going to high school. The first thing I noticed was that the school was very small and in a huge building. I had so many different teachers and they all asked for different stuff, but everything was normal. A new year, a new starting point in my life, and I had to become active. It took me a couple of months to realize that I had to try something new.There was an old man around his 50’s always walking around the hallway. His name was Mr. Rey .He use to wear formal clothes, brown dressing pants with a blue Civil Air Patrol shirt, and some black shoes. He seemed nice but I didn’t dare talking to him. Until one day, he came to my History class and gave us a speech about flight. It was just like a sleeping pill almost half of the class felt asleep and I was trying my best to stay awake. It was around two months later when some friends convinced me to join the flight program after school. The first few week I was absolutely lost, and plus I had to hear him tell me the same thing over and over again. Every day after class he told me about all the opportunities, activities and trips we had, and about how I was supposed to try my best. All this made me feel like I needed to understand what he was talking about during class, but it was harder then what it seemed like. I hated being the outsider, I felt dumb and the worst part was that I wanted to learn, but like they say â€Å"Everything is hard until you learn it, then it becomes easy†. Time passed by fast, I already had about five months in the program and it was time to try the real thing. After class Mr. Rey told me I was flying on the upcoming Saturday, all this made me feel nauseous. I just glanced at him and wanted to say no, but words didn’t come out my mouth. On my way home I asked myself how I had gone so far, why didn’t I quit when I felt dumb. Two days until Saturday and I was already freaking out. Everyone seemed happy about the news, and I just didn’t want to think about it. Friday night was awful, I couldn’t stop feeling the anxiety and my eyes just wouldn’t close.Unfortunately for me it was Saturday, and at 8:00am we arrived at Republic Air Port in Farmingdale. My hands could stop sweating and it all got worst when Mr. Rey said that girls go first. I packed my stuff ready and got into the piper. My hands suddenly stopped sweating, it was a strange feeling I never felt before. I took off and landed all by myself and actually did pretty good. When I was in the ground I couldn’t believe what I’ve done. I asked myself what had happened to the old me. Where was the shy and afraid to change girl? That’s when I realize Mr. Rey had changed me he always used to push me just a little further and further each time. That’s when I realized I was definitely not the same girl.Sometimes we think people have nothing to do with what we turn out to be, but I can truthfully tell you Mr. Rey changed my life. I fell more confident and am sure that if I set my mind to something at the end ill taste the sweet feeling of accomplishment.

Demerger Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Demerger - Essay Example The segmentation strategies of both Daimler-Chrsyler not only enabled both companies to attain wider customer markets but also fresh chances for the expansion of their automobile lines. On the other hand, the only significant disadvantage in the demerging procedures of Daimler-Chrsyler was the internal adjustments that both companies had to endure particularly in budgeting their endeavors and initiatives. But all in all, the demerging of Daimler-Chrsyler had a positive impact on the succeeding profits of both companies in spite of the fact the demerger mandated both companies to regain their individual company designations. As the American automobile industry became aware of the effects of the demerger of Daimler-Chrsyler to their present system, other American automobile companies had been able to utilize this knowledge to get and maintain a control mechanism to enable them to become top organizations in the world market. In this way, the utilization of demergers and modernization had supported the US automobile industry to become competitive in the world market. The demerger of Daimler-Chrsyler enabled the fundamental enhancement in the economic progress of the American economy and significantly improved financial gains in the aftermath of transferring income and taxes to the American authorities. The demerger of Daimler-Chrsyler will defin

Electronics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Electronics - Essay Example The function of the electronic parts in these systems is to receive input information, to process this information and then to produce an output. For example, in a computer, the input information is provided by pressing the buttons on a keyboard, the processing may involve arithmetic or comparison with previous information in a memory and the output will be a print out or a display on a video display unit. In another example, both input and output of a communications system may be sound such as words or music. In other areas such as instrumentation and control, these are many non-electronic systems widely used. Both power steering and servo assisted brakes in automobiles are usually non-electronic and mechanical clocks and watches still have a share of the market. Electronic systems are required to process or react to information. The information may have many forms, including physical quantities such as temperatures, velocity or mass, simple on/off information resulting from a switch being operated, or the highly concentrated and detailed information in speech, music and pictures. All these different forms of information have one common factor i.e. both amplitude and frequency may vary with time. This means that they can be illustrated by means of graphs and in many cases they can be defined as functions of time with mathematical expressions. Electronic circuit's can only react to information in the form of time-varying voltages and currents. We can conveniently refer to these forms of information as signals. There must therefore be some form of interface or converter between the real world and the electronic world. The interface may simply be a transducer for example; a microphone converts sound energy containing information into electrical energy in the form of a signal which contains the same information. An electronic system will have input signals from transducers and output signals which are reconverted by other transducers to produce energy in various required forms. Between these two processes, within the system there will be other signal forms. Lets quickly look at the function of electronic circuit any systems. And the function is to process signal, many different processes are possible and useful but, before considering a wide range of processes, it will be helpful to examine some simple system and to consider what type of processes may be required. A radio communication system: requires transmitting speech and music from a concert Hall to a place 100 miles away while other similar transmission is occurring in the same area. While the problems are: Alternating signals (A.C.) can result in radiated electromagnetic waves (radio signals) but signals at audio frequencies do not radiate efficiently. Also, as there would be similar transmissions in the same area, there would be interference as all the radiated signals would be received more or less equality. The solution use higher frequencies which can be radiated readily, in order to carry the signal information on these higher frequencies, use different high frequency carriers for each separate transmission to avoid interferences. The process required is: The minimum needed for a simple radio communication system can be represented in the block system. Let's look at am automatic washing machine. The

Agency and partnershipl law assessed coursework Essay

Agency and partnershipl law assessed coursework - Essay Example An agent’s actual authority may be either implied or express. As regards to express authority, there will be no issues as everything will be explained or predetermined. An ostensible authority will occur when if the authority has been conferred on the agent, even if such authority is not bestowed upon him by express words. For instant, if an insurer permits his agent to have in possession of blank cover notes, then the insurer implicitly permits him to create temporary insurance contracts on behalf the insurer. If temporary oral contracts entered by an agent are being continuously adopted by the insurer, then it will confer an ostensible authority on that agent1. This research essay will make an earnest attempt to establish that there is no any difference between the acutual and ostensible authority as it appears to be . Analysis Usual Authority of an Agent An agent’s usual authority is interpreted by the courts in the background of actual implicit power, which is being conferred to an agent due to circumstance of a specific case like usual power of an agent from a specific custom or particular trade. Thus, usual authority of an agent is viewed as a feature of apparent or actual authority. . In Watteau v Fenwick , the manager of a beer house had the express authority to buy cigars from the defendant onlyHowever, the agent (manager) bought the cigars from the plaintiff. In a suit for claiming to settle the amount due to the plaintiff, it was held that as the plaintiff was not aware of the express restriction, and since, it fell within the usual power of the manager of a beer house to place an order for this type of goods, the principal was held accountable3. However, in Daun v Simmins4, the decision held in Watteau v Fenwick was contrasted where it was observed that if an agent (manager) of a â€Å"tied† public house only has the power in general to purchase spirits from a specific source. In cases like this, no reliance on an implied author ity can be made by a supplier so as to sue the principal5. Implied or Ostensible or Apparent Authority An implicit or implied or apparent or ostensible authority means where a third party is enticed to enter into a contract with a principal through a party who seems to have power to function or act but in reality , he is lacking such power or authority. In â€Å"Freeman & Lockyer v Buckhurst Park Properties (Mangal) Ltd†, Diplock, LJ held that there is vast difference between apparent authority and actual authority. Despite these, terms are always coincided and co-existed without the other and their relevant background may be diverse. In actual authority, there is a relationship which exists between an agent and the principal legally which is ushered by an unanimous agreement to which they are regarded to be parties6. In ING Re (UK) Ltd v R & V Versicherung AG7, the apparent authority of an agent was explained by Toulson J as one, which is footed upon estoppel by representati on. Where a third party (X) is being caused or represented by a Principal (P) that the agent (A) has the power to function on P’s behalf, and X is dealing with A as an agent of P purely on the reliance of such representation, P is liable to the acts of A to the same magnitude as if A had the required power which he was demonstrating as possessing8. In Zurich General Accident and Liability

Stakeholder Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Stakeholder Analysis - Essay Example This faction of the stakeholders feel that alternative measure of undertaking scientific experiments for medical development and other reasons are feasible. Winning in this debate has the gain of conscience satisfaction that animals should be taken care of like human beings. They seek to achieve the goal of human moral responsibility to be in charge of the other creatures. Winning this debate also presents a desirable outcome in terms of general perception of animals as being close relatives of man and the cruelty against them are uncalled for. There are various reasons as to why the proponents would want to win. They will assert the moral obligation of man to be a fair steward of nature. The animals are considered to experience pain but lack express vocal ability to show this. It is therefore disadvantageous to them and this raises ethical concern from the perspective of humanity. Another critical aspect of the gain concerns winning the conscience of people towards fair treatment of animals and minimizing chances of their elimination through waste control experiment. Financial support to shift to alternative experiment methods rather than sacrificing animals sounds more human and promotes ethics. Sanctity of life is likely to be upheld by the society and this will be a remarkable outcome in the entire campaign of the religious fraternity. Opponents still stand by the relevance and convenience attached to use of animals for scientific experiment. There is significant propensity of professional inadequacy should the pro-animal activists gain. Besides, alternative experiment procedures that may not use animals are seen as either expensive or inaccurate. There are several experiments that are in progress or already enlist the need for animals. In the event that use of animals is banned, the investment and commitment already put towards such experiments would go to vain and become discouraging. In essence, there has been

Transcending the insanity and illusions of the ego as a path to Research Paper

Transcending the insanity and illusions of the ego as a path to finding bliss - Research Paper Example From the psychological observation and analysis of changes in condition of Maria right from the time she started using drugs, it can be concluded that she is suffering from severe drug addiction and abuse. She started with small intake of alcohol and smoking small number of cigarettes per day, but due to addiction, she ended up consuming large amount of drugs resulting to substance abuse (Twerski, 32). The development issues of drug addiction and substance abuse also became clear when her health started deteriorating spontaneously thus resulting to consequential withdraw from the society. The fall in her grade and general performance in school are also sufficient testimonies to severe addiction and drug abuse that carried away her concentration in school. With reference to the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for substance use disorders, Maria conditions qualify meet criterions for substance abuse and substance dependence. To start with, substance abuse is usually evident when the victim fails to perform vital and critical roles and instead spends most of the time in using drug (Wurtzel, 33). Substance abuse also occurs when individual continues to use specific drug even at the time when the use posses physical dangers. Furthermore, substance abuse becomes inherent when the user maintains its use even at the time when problems connected to use continue to compound. All the discussed signs and manifestation of substance abuse are evident in Maria. Instead of allocating most of her time in doing school work, she uses the time in smoking marijuana, cigarette and drinking beer. She also continues to use the drugs despite of the physical dangers of the drugs on her health as witnessed by tremendous fall in her body weight. Furthermore, Maria pe rsists using the drugs even after falling victim of STI as evident by her contraction of genital herpes. Substance dependence on the other hand

Trust and Equity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Trust and Equity - Essay Example Even if the parties mentioned the word trust when transfer the properties to another, the court still needs to look into the true intentions of the parties. For the trust to be valid, the full intentions of the parties should be clearly stated in the trust agreement (see Re Adams and the Kensington Vestry (1884)2. The absence of a clear showing of the true intentions of the parties will negate the validity of the trust. In the case at bar, Sedwick merely told his wife that he is transferring the money to her account in case something goes wrong. The words in case something goes wrong is so vague and there is really no clear showing what Sedwick really wants his wife to with the money. According to the case of Knight v Knight (1840)3, for a valid trust to ensue, mandatory words has to be given directing the trustee as to what to do with the properties entrusted to it. In the case at bar, since there was no clear showing as to what is the true intention of the parties involved, the bequest of the money can arguably be construed as a form of gift (see Milroy v Lord (1862)4. Given these circumstances, the wife can assert her right over the property. On the other hand, Sedwick may still be able to recover the property by claiming that the bequest was incomplete (Jones v Locke (1865)5. According to the court in the case of Milroy v Lord (1862)6, it is necessary for the original owner of the property to perform all acts within his or her powers to divest him/herself of his/her rights over the property or money for the gift to be deemed as complete. The facts of the case show that the creation of the trust is valid. The three requisites of the validity of a trust according to the Knight v Knight (1840)7 are fulfilled. Note that the intention of the parties is clear (Midland Bank v Wyatte (1995)8, the subject matter of the trust is well established (Palmer v Simmonds (1854)9; Boyce v Boyce (1849)10 and the objects of the trust can be clearly determined (Morice v

Project management coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Project management - Coursework Example Rate of performance is portion of work (in percentage) that is actually complete as compared to the work schedule to be achieved (Meredith and Mantel, 2008). It is assumed that 50% of the work is completed at the end of 5 years in 2011 since no information is available. The report is an analysis of the key causes of failure of the national program for Information Technology project undertaken by the UK government so as to unify patient records over the digital platform countrywide. The cause have been analysed based on theories in importance of project governance and leadership in successful project implementation. It was found that lack of objective and goal definition, proper leadership communication and proper guidance on importance of data security and need for communicating with doctors were key causes behind failure of the national project. Project governance assists in ensuring that the project is being executed as per standards set by the organization, which is using the project. Such governance assures that all activities are executed as per the required standards and ethical compliances are maintained while creating provision for accountability of the project management team. The project manager uses project governance to develop a proper reporting system under the structure of governance and such structures also define the roles and responsibilities of each project team member. The project manager can also utilize the governance structure for priority setting within project objectives. Project leadership, on the other hand, refers to the emphasis of project managers on planning, devising processes, developing structures and solving problems. The project manager is responsible for planning out projects, measuring performances and resolving conflicts and roadblocks that hamper project progress. Project leadership involves visioning, communication, strategizing, empowering, listening, questioning

Form of education Essay Example for Free

Form of education Essay â€Å"Education is the key to success†. Everyone knows about it. Education come in many forms, that’s why many people are speaking and writing about it, some with authority and some are ordinary. But does everyone knows the real meaning of Education? How can we say that we are already educated person if we don’t know exactly the real definition of the word Education? And how can we apply it in our daily lives? Education is a stage of such a process which develops your knowledge to learn different things or simply it is the field of study that deals mainly with methods of teaching and learning in schools. There are three forms of Education. It can be Education of Heart, Education of Norm and at last Education of Dominion. The Education of Heart tackles about the education for the perception of the Individual. While, Education of Norm is all about for the perception of the Family and lastly the Education of Dominion (Intellectual, Technical, and Physical Education) it is the education for the perfection of the Nature of Dominion. Education is the most important thing in our life. It is a gift from above which cannot be taken away from us and can bring us to the top of our dreams. Education is not only by going to school, it can happen by a lot of ways. And it is important specially for those people who can’t afford to go to school, because of their status in life. And they believed that through education, one person’s knowledge can be enhanced and improve. The greatest treasure that everyone must have is Education. It’s like planting a rice; at first you need to execute more efforts, time and skills. Then, wait for the right time to harvest. Education is an important tool that is applied in the modern world to succeed, as it lessen the challenges or obstacles which are faced in life. For some people they compared Education as a special ingredient for a cooking recipe. They’ve said that any kind of dishes will never become delicious if it doesn’t have a complete and satisfying ingredient. The foundation of the society is based on Education, since it brings social and economic prosperity. Education offers a setting in which language, tradition, culture and values of the society are developed. Education has played a major role in the modern life to all individuals in the society and also in the industrial world. Employment is based on education, as employees must have the required skills that correspond with the technology to do their different tasks. As the technology keeps improving , more and more people using it in their lives. Therefore, education grown bigger because people nowadays are learning different things from this technology. Education can mold a personality of an individual. It can help one person to further to his or her own future. A good quality education is not only choosing a good school, it’s choosing a school that can handle different attitudes of students and still can teach them the right path to be a good citizen. There’s no young and adult in education as long as you want to reach your goals and your prepared enough to fight for it. Learning is an education and experience is an education too. But sometimes learning something new can be a scary experience. Specially for those times that you have been facing your fears. But it doesn’t mean that we should be afraid to overcome our own fears and mistakes because we can learn a lot from this things and sometimes it can be our guide to become a better and more stronger one. Although we already know that education is an important thing that everyone must have, but for others it still have disadvantages. Knowledge is power; though it is widely accepted that it is essential for growth and development of an individual, but sometimes it is the reason for some discrimination. Some forms of education blindly impose ideas upon young minds instead of teaching them to think for themselves. A lot of people gathered their knowledge based in their experience for which there is no substitute. An education system is very helpful in developing and improving the quality of human life. Living in this contemporary world is very hard to succeed. That’s why it is better to have a good quality education. Education will be our open doors to attain the training and learning experiences for career opportunities that we need to fulfill in our dreams. Through education we can learn how to enhance life skills such as critical thinking skills, a healthy living lifestyle and self-confidence. It also helps to build our personality to learn how to use good manners, and having respect for others. We learn healthy and productive ways to grow into socially active adults.

Over View Of Implementing Benchmarking Program In Company Marketing Essay

Over View Of Implementing Benchmarking Program In Company Marketing Essay Benchmarking is one aspect of performance management that is used to check and analysis the activities and elements of any organization. It is used to search for best practices of any activity that organizations needs to develop. Moreover, it is not an independent technique as it is considered to be a natural progression from the implementation of total quality management. Successful organizations assess themselves against the best in their category and benchmarking is used as tool for doing that. Benchmarking Implementation: In order to implement performance management system in an organization it is important to do a benchmarking. As a senior manager in a telecommunication company (Etisalat) I was requested to by the CEO to do a benchmarking program to improve the performance of the company as it is fallen below target. The performance point that I was requested to check is the customer satisfaction that was fallen below the expected target that was set by the companys management based on the latest survey done on the market and decrease in number of subscribers, who moved their service to the other market competitor. The benchmarking process does not vary significantly with the three categories of partners selected: internal organisations, direct competitors, or non-competitors. Therefore I am going to compare the customer satisfaction in the telecom company with Emirates Airlines. The reason why I choose Emirates Airlines is that it is a very large multi-destination flight company with a very large number of passengers. Etisalat was established in 1976 with a low number of landline subscribers and increased to 100 million subscribers in the world. Emirates Airlines established in 1985 with 260,000 passengers that year. The number of passengers increased dramatically to 27 million till March 2010 and 108 world destinations. That shows how customers with the service provided by Emirates Airlines in a short period and while other big airlines are going bankrupt during the world financial crises. The reason why we should go for benchmarking is to improve methodologies that result in high productivity and lower costs. Benchmarking is particularly helpful in validating proposals for change. Moreover, it often results in creative imitation and the adoption of new practices that overcome previous industry barriers. Furthermore, this search for diversity and for innovative breakthroughs applied. There are eight steps in order to do a benchmarking are: Select the subject. Forming the team and the project road map. Performance indicators and drivers. Selecting partner. Data collection. Analysis. Integration and action. Benchmarking process: Select the subject Based on the point highlighted by Etisalats CEO, there is a problem in the customers satisfaction that was targeted this year. Customer satisfaction is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet customer expectation Based on the market survey and problem investigation, we found that problem is due to the following: Quality of service. Customer support. Incident handling. Productivity. Pricing. After investigation and looking at the problem from another angle, we found the reason beyond losing customers satisfaction is concentrating on the development projects and reducing the operational costs in order not to lower down the impact of the world financial crises and compete with the competitor (du) from productivity point of view. In order to solve the problem of losing customer satisfaction, a movement has to be done in order to provide more qualitative after sale service and that can be done by spending more on developing the operational processes and spending more on operations as well as the employees as employees satisfaction is the key towards customers satisfaction. Moreover I am going to concentrate on Etisalat customers satisfaction in the UAE only. Forming the team and the project road map A team needs to be formed and a project road map developed. These are integral activities in the subject selection step. The team that I created includes 5 members are experts and represent the various functions affected by the project. The teams composed of staff personnel who are capable of setting recommendations that meet significant resistance during implementation. Each team member will work on studying the each of the below causes, visit the related sections, highlight the drawbacks and set recommendations for: Quality of service. Customer support. Incident handling. Productivity. Pricing. And I am going to follow-up and manage this project as a team leader. Performance indicators and drivers This part begins with the documentation of processes and practices associated with the subject. The primary goal is to identify the vital few performance indicators that confirm superior performance and to identify those processes and practices that drive performance. This search for cause and effect will be followed by the identification and documentation of internal process variables and attributes. That is a major part that each of the team members will have to take an ownership in order to study each of the processes practices and complete its documentations. Selecting partner The selection of partners often involves the use of external data and information sources. Partners fall into two general categories: other internal units and external organisations. External organisations may include direct competitors; Industry peers that serve a different market; Companies that serve the same market in a related but different industry; Organisations outside my industry that performs similar functions. As I mentioned above, I decided to choose Emirates Airlines, an organization outside telecom industry and serve the same market. Moreover, Emirates has great initiatives to develop its services that are provided to the passengers. Therefore, Emirates Airlines is almost receiving a yearly awards for its services such as best airline from Business Traveller Middle East Awards 2009, Best In-flight Entertainment from Skytrax Airline Excellence Awards 2009, Outstanding Food Service by a Carrier Middle East 2009 from Pax International Magazine Readership Awards, etc. Data collection Data collection can be the most difficult step in the Benchmarking process. The primary objective is to gather information and data to confirm superior performance and to uncover best practices without burdening the partners with long, time-consuming data collection methods. Although data and information are collected in establishing baseline measures and in selecting partners, the majority of the data for most projects are collected in this step. The following table shows a summarized comparison between the points that lower down the customers satisfaction of Etisalat and compare it with Emirates Airlines. Etisalat Emirates Airlines Quality of service Medium High Customer support Low High Incident handling Low High Productivity High High with value added services Pricing Average High Advertisement High for newly released products High Promotions On going On sessions Loyalty program Available Available CRM Low Medium Analysis The objective of the analysis step is to identify the best performing organisation and to determine the reasons for the superior performance. The performance indicators define the benchmark standard and the gaps in performance for each participant. The processes and practices of the best organisation are the benchmark performance drivers that each partner will try to creatively imitate. Identifying this cause and effect relationship between performance drivers and the resultant measures is the most challenging part of benchmarking. When we look at the above comparison table in the data collection part, we can find that there are some differences in the services provided by the two organizations. If we start with the quality of service, we can find that Etisalat is providing medium quality of service. For example, for the old and stable services like mobile service and internet the quality is very good, but if we look at latest services like eLife the quality is very low. While in Emirates Airlines, it is always high even for new destinations. Customers support and incident handling in Etisalat is very low as the customers whenever they want to raise a complaint or have inquiry, mostly they will be forwarded from a section to another or from a call centre number to another without having a single point of contact. Moreover, whenever you dial the call center, you have to wait on the phone for more than 10 minutes till someone pick the phone and register your complaint that if it is required advance troubleshooting, the case will not be solved in less than one day and may continue for a month. On the other hand, Emirates Airlines representatives will answer your inquiries clearly and are very helpful to handle your complaints with ownership. The productivity in Etisalat is very high, however due shortage in advertisement and products information sharing for all the products, most of the products are messed by the customers and even the employees. Moreover, the advertisement done by Etisalat is only for the newly released products. However for Emirates Airlines, it is high as the customers is always loyal to the airline and may keep it as the first choice for travel anywhere and he is always expected to have more value added services in flight entertainment. The prices of Etisalat product are average compared to the quality of service provided to the customers, but the customers will always see it high as the after sale services are low. The prices of Emirates Airlines are high, but the service the passenger is receiving before, during and after the flight is high. The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in Etisalat is very low and only done by sending updates to all customers through email and SMS for the new products. On the other, Emirates Airlines are send a monthly newsletter to all their customers by email, normal postage, to keep them updated with all the changes, offers and new destinations. Sometimes, they are requested to provide a quick feedback on a questionnaire. Integration and action The objectives of the integration and action steps are to obtain organisation buy-in, initiate projects to close gaps and implement plans developed in these projects. So based on the analyses done above the organization has to rectify the problems that leads to losing customers satisfaction. Some of the recommended suggestions are: 1. Encourage Face-to-Face Dealings 2. Respond to Messages Promptly Keep Your Clients Informed 3. Be Friendly and Approachable 4. Have a Clearly Defined Customer Service Policy 5. Attention to Detail 6. Anticipate Your Clients Needs 7. Honor your Promises To be effective, Benchmarking works best in an environment in which teamwork and management support is evident. Teams need to focus on results as measured by performance indicators, but the organisation must change the performance drivers to achieve benchmark standards. Target setting alone, without changes in the organisation culture, other structural factors, processes, and practices, can only bring temporary relief.

Stuxnet Network Worm Computer Science Essay

Stuxnet Network Worm Computer Science Essay Stuxnet, a network worm that, during the early part of 2010, began to infect Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and programmable logic controllers (PLCs) becoming the first rootkit for PLCs. PLCs are usually not connected to the Internet, or the internal network, so the creators had to devise a method to get the worm onto these systems. The worm would use 4 zero-day vulnerabilities to propagate through internal networks, and would load itself onto flash drives. Once the flash drive was plugged into an ICS, it would copy itself onto the system, and begin to check to see if there was a PLC attached to the system. The worm would first gather information of its victim to determine if it was its target, and if it found it, the worm would began to alter the code of the PLCs which were believed to sabotage the systems. In the end it is undetermined if Stuxnet reached its goal. Stuxnet Stuxnet is a worm that is said to be an incredibly large and complex threat. It was primarily written to target a specific ICS or a set of similar systems, likely somewhere in Iran. The final goal of Stuxnet is to reprogram an ICS by modifying the code on the PLCs to make them work in the manner the attacker intended, such as operate outside normal boundaries, and to hid these changes from the operators of the machine. The creators, in order to achieve their goal, amassed a variety of components to increase the chance of success. These components included: zero-day exploits, anti-virus evasion techniques, windows rootkit, the first ever PLC Stuxnet 4 rootkit, hooking code, process injection, network infection routines, peer-to-peer updates, and a command and control interface. The worm was found in July of 2010, and is confirmed to have existed a year prior to that, and likely it has existed before that, with a majority of the infections being based in Iran. June 2009 was the earliest Stuxnet sample seen. It did not exploit an auto-run function of a removable storage, and did not contain signed drivers to install itself. In January of 2010, Stuxnet reappeared, this time it had signed certificate from Realtek, and could install itself without any problems. July of 2010 Microsoft revokes the stolen Realtek driver used by Stuxnet, and the very next day, Stuxnet reemerges with a signed JMicron Technology Corp certificate. By September of 2010, the wormà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s exploits have been patched by Microsoft, and all stolen signed certificates revoked. Stuxnet had many features included into it to make sure it reached its goal. Some of these features included a self-replication through removable storage, spreading with a vulnerability in Windows Print Spooler, making itself execute with the Step 7 project, updating through peer-to-peer, command and control server for updates by a hacker, bypasses security features, and hides all modified code on PLCs. Stuxnet is capable of more, far more, but these are the most noticeable features about this worm that make it a large and complex threat. Stuxnet 5 Injection The injection method used by Stuxnet was complex, due to the fact that it had to make sure it would infect its target machine, and so it could bypass any security encountered. In order to load any .dll, including itself, Stuxnet would call the LoadLibrary with a specially crafted name that does not exist on the disk and normally cause LoadLibrary to fail. However, W32.Stuxnet has hooked Ntdll.dll to monitor for requests to load specifically crafted file names. These specially crafted file names are mapped to another location instead that is specified by W32.Stuxnet. Once a .dll file has been loaded by this method, GetProcAddress is then used to find the address of a specific export from the .dll file and that export is called, handing control to the new .dll file. If Stuxnet detects any security software, it will get the main version of it and rerun itself in a new process to bypass the scanning of the software. The process of injecting itself into a process is located in Export 15. First it checks the configuration data of the system, and then it will check to see if the system is 64-bit, which if it is it will exit the system. Once it has determined it is running on a 32-bit system it will check the OS, and then check to see if it has admin rights. If it does not it will check the os once more and determine if it is on XP of Vista. If it is on XP used a zero-day vulnerability in Win32k.sys, and use an escalation of privilege to restart itself in csrss.exe. If it is on Vista is uses a zero-day vulnerability in Task Scheduler, to escalate its privilege, and restart as any new task. Once it has the highest admin rights, Stuxnet will then call Export 16. Stuxnet 6 Export 16 installs Stuxnet onto the system and will also check the configuration data of the system. It will then check the registry value of NTVDM Trace, and if it is 19790509, it will not proceed. This is thought to be an infection marker, or a do not infect marker. If it is not set to this it will continue installation. Stuxnet then checks the date, if it is past 06/24/2012, it will exit and not install, this is Stuxnetà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s kill switch date. It will then see if it is on XP or Vista. If on XP it will set the DACL, if on Vista it will set the SACL. It will then create its files, including its main payload file Oem7a.pnf. It then checks the date one more time, before decrypting its files and loading itself onto the disk, and then calling export 6 to get its version. It will then compare its version number with one on the disk, and then install its rootkit files, Mrxcls.sys and Mrxnet.sys. It will then hide all its malicious files, and infect any removable storage devic e, and then finally infects Step 7 projects. Attack ICS are operated by specialized code on PLCs, which are often programmed from Windows computers that are not connected to any network. The creator would have needed the schematics of the ICS, to know which ones the worm should go after, so it is believed an insider, or an early version of Stuxnet, retrieved them. They would then create the latest version of Stuxnet, which each feature of it was implemented for a reason and for the final goal of the worm. The worm would then need to be tested on a mirrored environment to make sure the program worked correctly. The hackers needed signed certificates to allow Stuxnetà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s drivers to be installed and to get them they would have had to physically go into the companies and take Stuxnet 7 them. Once this was accomplished the worm would needed to be introduced into the environment of infection, and was done so by a willing or un-willing third party, such as a contractor of the systems, which was most likely done with a flash drive. Once injected into the systems, Stuxnet would begin to spread in search of Windows computers used to program PLCs, which are called field PGs. Since these computers are not networked, Stuxnet would spread through LAN using a zero-day vulnerability, infecting Step 7 projects, and through removable storage. Once Stuxnet found a computer running Step 7, it would begin to check values from the ICS, determining if it was on the correct system. It would do this for 13 days to 3 months, and then wait two hours, before sending a network burst to the connected devices. These burst were the newly modified PLC code that contained instructs to change the frequency at which the devices operated on, making them operate outside of normal boundaries. Victims would not see the modified code, as Stuxnet hides its modifications by intercepting read and write commands. If someone sent a read command to the PLC, Stuxnet would intercept it, and if it was to read an infected section, Stuxnet would pull an unedited copy from itself, and send it to the person. If it was a write command, Stuxnet would make it seem like it went through. Though the attack caused more damage due to it spreading beyond the target onto outside computers, it is likely this was necessary to achieve their goal. It is believed the attackers accomplished their goal before they were discovered. Due to all this, Stuxnet is believed to be one of the most complex malicious software written to date. Stuxnet 8

Uruguay :: History

Uruguay Uruguay republic, in east central South America, is the second smallest country on the continent. This country is bounded on the north by Brazil, on the east by Brazil and the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Atlantic Ocean and the Rà ­o de la Plata, and on the west by Argentina. The Uruguay River forms Uruguay's western boundary in full. Uruguay's land mass in whole is a small 176,215 sq km. Uruguay's capital city is Montevideo which is the main port, and economic center of the country. The currency of Uruguay is the peso uruguayos (7.97 peso uruguayos equal U.S.$1). This country's main sport entertainment is soccer. In 1516 Uruguay was discovered by the Spanish explorer Juan Dà ­az de Solà ­s. He was killed that same year by the Charrua, a local native tribe. Future attempts to colonize the territory during the 16th century were discouraged by this native tribe also. In 1624 the first permanent settlement was made by the Spanish on the Rà ­o Negro at Soriano. Between 1680 and 1683, Portuguese colonists in Brazil established several settlements along the Rà ­o de la Plata opposite Buenos Aires. However, the Spanish didn't make any attempts to remove the Portuguese until the year of 1723, when the latter began fortifying the heights around the Bay of Montevideo. A Spanish expedition forced the Portuguese to abandon this site, and there the Spanish founded the city of Montevideo in 1726. In present times, Uruguay has 660 km of coastline along the Atlantic Ocean and its bay, the Rà ­o de la Plata. The country also has an additional 813 km of frontage along its boundary rivers, including the Uruguay River. Uruguay's terrain varies for the different areas of the small country. In the southern areas of Uruguay the land consists of grassy plains, and the marshlands along the country's Atlantic coast. In the northern areas of Uruguay, not to mention the northwest area, there is a low plateau called the Cuchilla de Haedo. Uruguay's climate is a very temperate one. The average temperature for the warmest months 71 ° F, and for the coldest month, June, 50 ° F. Rainfall is also very well distributed along the year, and averages about 35 in a year. During the winter months cold storms blow from the southwest, yet frost is almost unknown in most parts of this country. This country has some resources that contribute to their money intake.

Oakland, CA :: essays research papers

The Forgotten City This paper will discuss the many unique aspects of Oakland, California. Divided into five major parts, Oakland is a very diverse city. The five major parts include: Downtown Oakland which is located in the heart of the city, East Oakland which consists of the majority of the city, West Oakland, North Oakland, and the Oakland hills where the terrain is quite different from other parts of the city. While many may perceive the population to mainly consist of African Americans and Whites, there is a significant growing population of Latinos, and Asians. The topics covered in this paper will shed light on the city of Oakland itself, and discuss the unique city that it is. I will also give my personal experience and perception on the city, after living there for 16 years of my life. History In historical terms the city of Oakland was named after the many Oak trees that inhabited the land when the city was established. Oakland was first founded in 1852 and is located on the East side of the Bay Area in Northern California.(Oakland History) Native Americans had previously lived in the area for over 5 thousand years before many arrived for the Gold Rush, and put down their roots. The famous author Jack London also spent many of his earlier years in Oakland, and his works have said to have been influenced by the city. My personal perception of Oakland is that it has always been the forgotten city in the Bay Area. Almost no one would notice that famous actors Clint Eastwood, and Tom Hanks spent many of their childhood days in the city. Basketball future hall of famers Gary Payton and Jason Kidd also spent their childhood days there. Baseball hall of famers Reggie Jackson and Ricky Henderson still own homes in the city. In modern times Oakland is known as the main metropolitan city in the East Bay. The city possesses 3 professional sports teams, which have a population of just below 400,000. Oakland is also the 3rd largest metropolitan city in the Bay Area behind San Jose, and San Francisco.( Encyclopedia Britannica ) The city mayor is the ex Governor of California Jerry Brown. Located in Alameda County Oakland’s area consists of a total square mileage of 78.2 miles, of which 56.1 miles is land, and the latter consisting of water.( Encyclopedia Britannica ) Oakland also possesses the 3rd largest seaport on the west coast.

Antigone And Ismene Essay -- essays research papers

Antigone and Ismene The personalities of the two sisters; Antigone and Ismene, are as different from one another as tempered steel is from a ball of cotton. One is hard and resistant; the other: pliable, absorbing and soft. Antigone would have been a strong, successful 90's type woman with her liberated and strong attitude towards her femininity, while Ismene seems to be a more dependent 1950's style woman. Antigone acts as a free spirit, a defiant individual, while Ismene is content to recognize her own limitations and her inferiority of being a woman. In the Greek tragedy "Antigone", by Sophocles; Antigone learns that King Creon has refused to give a proper burial for the slain Polyneices, brother of Ismene and Antigone. Infuriated by this injustice, Antigone shares the tragic news with Ismene. From her first response, "No, I have heard nothing"(344). Ismene reveals her passivity and helplessness in the light of Creon's decree. Thus, from the start, Ismene is characterized as traditionally "feminine", a helpless woman that pays no mind to political affairs. Doubting the wisdom of her sisters plan to break the law and bury Polyneices, Ismene argues: We who are women should not contend with men; we who are weak are ruled by the stronger, so that &...

Skyrim Review

Scrim Review Arthur Underworld Diver university So you're sitting at home bored for hours on end, and you want something to Just take your mind away from reality and into another world where you can do whatever you as you wish. Well it sounds like you want to play a video game. Actually, it sounds like you want to play Elder Scrolls V: Scrim. This is a review of the popular cross platform video game commonly referred to as Scrim. I give this game a 9. 75 out of 10 for its amazing graphics, fantastic attention to detail, smooth gamely. Underfed harasser development, and of course, fun story line. The game starts with the main character on the verge of getting executed when he is saved by none other then a giant fire-breathing dragon. You hear from other players that dragons are extinct in this world for centuries. Obviously not. You must decide quickly whether you will escape the burning town with the imperial guard, or with the leader of the rebellion who has recently murdered the ki ng and claims that government is oppressing the natural born peoples to Scrim.This decision is not an important one, but introduces oh to the tact throughout the game you will given choices. Some of which are not simple. Simple this or that choices are prominent, but some are as complicated as do nothing and your reputation will be hindered. You soon find out that you are the dragoon. You have the power of Theme, or voice. You can yell and basically effect the world around you by either doing damage or even become Invisible. The storyline Is complicated and involves twists and plots and quite a lot of dragon killing, and inevitably, dragons killing you.Probably the most annoying part of the game. Eating stuck in a dragon fight that can take some time to finish if your not inept in magic, and all the sudden here comes another dragon, and on a rare occasion, a third or fourth dragon. Leaving you with little ability to defend yourself against an onslaught of dragons that will most like ly leave you burnt too crisp on the side of some road, The Elder Scroll series is famous for their use of the guilds. The Dark Brotherhood, an assassins' guild, the Thieves' Guild, the Fighters' Guild, and the Mages guild are all, as expected, playable in this game.I played through all the guilds this time and am glad to report that there is nothing that leaves you wanting more afterward. Being able to sneak around and play a thief or an assassin, making money and getting rewards beyond compare from regular side quests. Becoming the leader of the Mages guild was particularly rewarding, with a room full of loot and Ingredients that always regret, allowing you to restock on potion Items from hard to find Ingredients in the same room. Character development is particularly exciting In this game. Previous role playing Ames allow stats Increases by overall experience and level ups.In Scrim you level up certain buffs such a health regeneration and a big enough armor rating you can actually level up things like armor by attacking a guard and sitting there and letting the guards attack you. In about an hour your armor rating will be at 99, and you sat back and read your homework the whole time. However with skills like conjuration and lock pick, it's a little harder to level up. Unless you start lock picking, or conjuring monsters early in the game you'll find yourself with a pathetically low level near the ND of the game and needing to make up so many skill levels to level up you main level.This will be very time consuming, especially with the skills I mentioned. The first thing you'll notice about the game, however, is its graphics. Scrim has no cut scenes such as this. All the graphics are designed on the same engine that runs game play. The good and the bad for this you ask? Well loading time can get annoying, but if you download the game to your console then load times are reduced by about half. Rendering graphics can also get glitch. Sometimes an object will appe ar and twitch back and forth stuck on an invisible wall or level.This rarely effects gamely however, so is easily overlooked. Aside from the graphics, the attention to detail in every level of the game is without compare. This is an open world game, which meaner you can travel to any section of the world at any time for any reason. The countryside is full of mountains covered in snow. The valleys are full flowers and plants, all of which are able to be harvested for ingredients to sell/trade or brew potions. Every item you see can be kicked up and sold or used.In the inventory menu you can look at every item specifically, turning it around and zooming in and out as you wish. Overall, the only problems I found with the game was with some glitches, which can be expected in any game of this magnitude. Those glitches are the only reason I didn't give this game a 10/10. This game has a storyline that draws in the player, allowing for expandable play through guilds. It has the best and mo st pleasing graphics yet to date, and a record making attention to detail. It's by far the best RPG Vive played.

Life-Based Leadership Principles from Jack Welch Essay

During the hundreds of millions of years of natural evolution on this planet, survival has always been a continuous challenge for living creatures. It has recently to come into light that in the past four million years, there have been scores of human species on the earth, besides us homo sapiens. However, all of these various human-like beings including the Neanderthal man perished in the course of evolution; we humans have outlived all of them. We have emerged as the true survivors. We are the last â€Å"man† standing. However, in the whole history of the world, survival could have never been as tough as it is in today’s world of big business. It is an ever-changing, dizzingly fast-paced, intensely competitive and danger-saturated environment out there. There are many survivors and many winners in this arena, of course. Of all such exceptional people in the recent decades, there is one man who stands out as a celebrated icon of leadership and business success. And it is none other than Jack Welch of GE, arguably the finest CEO in the latter half of the twentieth century. Speaking from a broad perspective, he is not just an exemplary business leader, but a hero, a survivor, a symbol of the triumph of man. Jack Welch is a man who believed that each individual should control his or her own destiny. Welch sums up his conviction thus: â€Å"†Today, I see winning as people defining their objectives and fulfilling them, not being a victim. You define where you want to go, and then you go for it† (Knowledge@Wharton) And from the depth of this belief perhaps sprang the secret of his greatness. Starting from the early Eighties, Jack Welch, CEO of the General Electric Corporation, has led his company through one of the most revolutionary and far-reaching changes ever witnessed in modern business history. Having taken GE with a market capitalization of about $12 billion, Jack Welch turned it into one of the largest and most admired companies in the world, with a market value of about $500 billion, when he stepped down as its CEO 20 years later, in 2000. Although Jack Welch was the legendary leader of a global manufacturing giant noted for its technological might and superiority, he has utilized a very human process to drive change through GE’s vast organization. He honoured the individual above all, and the humanity of the individual. To him, the individual was the pivotal force in bringing about organizational change. And for the major part of his immensely successful career at the helm of GE he relentlessly embraced change. It was change that made GE businesses leaders in their markets, added profitable, productive businesses to GE’s family, and tapped the brains of knowledgeable employees. Welch worked for change, and change worked for him. Jack Welch of course knew how difficult change could be. Nevertheless he viewed change as his only real chance to transform GE into the kind of top-notch competitive enterprise that he wanted it to be. Only through continuously undergoing massive changes, GE could win, and Jack Welch firmly believed in winning. He wanted to be a winner. And winners were not afraid to make changes. However, pursuit of change, empowerment of individuals, and such principles are only part of a broder human-centric principles of successful leadership in which Jack Welch passionately believed in. Welch’s original approach to management and leadership, which proved so successful in transforming GE could be summed up unders six heads: Control your destiny, or someone else will. Welch’s first maxim became the title of a semi-autobiographic bestseller that described the revolution at GE. The basic approach that Welch followed to carry out a dramatic revolution at GE was to trust the individual and let him or her believe in their own desitiny. Welsh believed in delegating authority freely, fairly and responsibly, within the company. In a general context, however, while no mere human being can have absolute control over his or her destiny, the point is to take total personal responsibility for one’s own life and actions, and assume intelligent control of the course of things. 2. Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it were. Facing reality is tough. Facing reality means looking directly into suffering, failure, inadequacy of ourselves, others, and the world, something which we human beings are programmed to avoid. When corporations do not face simple realities, however, such as their products costing more to produce and being worthless than those of their competitors, market share and profits drop, the company and its employees suffer. Welch saw all these things happening at GE. Only when we are ready to honestly examine ourselves and acknowledge our shortcomings, will we be able to do anything about them. Acceptance can lead to transformation. 3. Be candid with everyone. Traditional wisdom says that honesty is the best policy. This home-spun truth has great relevance in today’s hyper-modern corporate settings. Welch strove to create an atmosphere at GE where people could effortlessly speak up to somebody â€Å"in authority,† who could then do something about their problems. It is an atmosphere, it is in the air of GE. Welch himself regularly spoke with front-line employees on the plant floor. Welch was equally open to hear both the good and bad things about GE. Honesty, sincerity and candor: they have their own rewards. â€Å"In a bureaucracy, people are afraid to speak out. This type of environment slows you down, and it doesn’t improve the workplace,† says Jack Welch. He therefore calls for promoting a corporate culture that appreciates and rewards honest feedback. â€Å"You reinforce the behaviors that you reward. If you reward candor, you’ll get it. † 4. Don’t manage, lead. Welch abhorred a strictly hierarchical type of management built on the concept of control. To Welch, managers should become leaders who show the way to other people by inpsiring and motivating them. Instead of controlling and exploiting workers, leaders should liberate and empower them. Do not push and pull your employees at every opportunity, gently guide them towards greater possibility. Welch’s leadership philosophy continues to be very simple: empower others, ask questions, tap into the potential of all of your associates, choose integrity and candor over charts, graphs, and politics, and spend more time in action instead of planning and posturing budgets. 5. Change before you have to. That is to say, proactivity. One has to be able to look ahead and predict changes that future is going to necessitate. In the context of a business organization, it is far better to change early those things in a company that need to be changed to stay competitive, when there is still plenty of time, rather than forcibly having to change them later when an adverse reality in form of failure and loss thrusts itself in the face of the organization. Welch was fond of yelling across the table at meetings, â€Å"Change, before it’s too late! † 6. If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete. Welch often quoted his business maxim that every division at GE had to be â€Å"number one or number two† or get out of that specific business. In the 1980s, Welch was convinced that inflation would soon become rampant thereby slowing down economic growth. The elimination of the old-line businesses was not going to be an easy job in terms of loss of jobs and lowering of morale that it implied. But Welch had to do what he had to do. The â€Å"Number 1 or number 2† philosophy – as ruthless as it sounds – had been critical for GE to grow and survive in the modern world.

Customs and Traditions of India Essay

Nearly every country in the world possesses some form of religion. With religion comes the need for people to express their beliefs. Often times, these expressions are seen as religious customs and traditions. Along with these religious customs and traditions, most countries also posses customs and traditions practiced by even the average non-religious citizen. These customs can be enormous milestones in the lives of young-adults, or something as simple as shaking someone’s hand. Everything from a child’s first day at school to a newlywed couples inauguration is celebrated through rituals and practices. Many of these traditions have been around for thousands of years. With religion came traditions and rituals and practices. A few examples of these traditions include: Datar. Datar is the welcoming of the bride into the home of the groom by the groom and his family. This practice is seen as sacred and as a necessity. It is believed that if the ritual is not done right or not done at all, then the family is doomed to fail. (IndiaNetzone) Another, less significant tradition, Upanayan, is the day that a male child begins his education. An interesting fact about Indian culture is that they still use the caste system and many traditions are open only to the top three castes: Brahmin, Kshatriya, and Vaishyas. Upanyan is one of those traditions. (Freshroads) Another vital part of India culture is always giving. Giving is seen as the ultimate kindness and in India culture, should be practiced by everyone. Danam is the Indian tradition of giving gifts to one another. Upanayan, The marriage ceremony described above, is a time where Danam is practiced constantly. The bride gives gifts to the groom and groom to the bride. These gifts can range from gold to coconuts to cows. No gift is seen as the clothes from grandma for Christmas. In the final ten days of someone’s life, they are given many gifts which are believed to help them cross the afterlife dimensions and get to heaven. In fact the gift of a cow is believed to help souls of the deceased across a river in the dimensions before heaven. (IndiaNetzone) It seems as though there are many traditions, but how many people practice these traditions? According to the 2002 census of India, approximately eighty percent of Indians practice Hinduism. This means that of the 1. 2 billion people that live there, about 960 million people practice these customs and traditions. That is pretty amazing considering the amount of gifts there must be given daily. With over one hundred perhaps two hundred traditions practiced by almost every India at some point in their life, this means that there are more traditions practiced in a lifetime than there are people in the world. Also, if every Indian practices Namaskara, the Indian form of salutation, around 3-5 times daily, in just eight hours, approximately, there have been more Namaskaras than people in the world. (HowStuffWorks) Christianity has over double the number of followers than Hinduism. Although this data makes Hinduism seem puny compared to other religions, many of the traditions and customs are very similar to those of other religions including Christianity. And many of the non-religious customs are very similar to many of those of the American culture as well. In Indian culture, it is seen as respectful to salute to others. Namaskara is the salutation of India. Namaskara is two people, bringing their hands together while bowing their heads and bringing their hands towards their heart and bowed forehead. This custom almost resembles the handshake of American culture. As stated before, people on their deathbed are given gifts. In American culture, flowers are brought to that person’s bedside and cards are often sent wishing that person good will. In Indian culture, the first day of school is seen as a special day. In American culture, the first day of school can be very exciting, and often times emotional. In America, the family members of the deceased decide whether to burry or cremate the deceased. In India, the dead are almost always cremated. This is because Indians believe that cremating the body of the deceased grants easier access to heaven by releasing the soul from the body. In Indian culture, there are almost always arranged weddings. Unlike India, weddings are consensual in the American culture, not to say that Indian weddings are not consensual, but, American weddings are between two people who have know each other prior to being married. In India, this is not always the case. Often times the bride and groom have never met until their wedding day. This is why Upanyan is such an important time for newly-weds, this is their first time, and their families first time, meeting the person they married. (IndiaNetzone) Although comparisons are not often made between American and Indian culture, once you see just how closely the cultures resemble each other, it gives you a different point of view on the two cultures and their similarities and differences. When you take a closer look, you really see the differences, and similarities, between the American culture and the Indian culture. The India culture is very interesting and full of many amazing and almost insane customs and traditions. There are many traditions and customs, and even more people that practice them. When you take a closer look, you see the similarities between the cultures of the United States and India. Whether they’re religious customs or non-religious customs, they are fascinating. Whether it’s a person’s death, or, birth, there’s a tradition for the occasion.

Miscommunication: Phonology and Message

Sometimes it is not easy to transmit the intended meaning to a person during a communication process. Miscommunication is a phenomenon that people experience almost every day. It is even used for marketing or present in comedy shows. Miscommunication can arise through various incidences, for example in an intercultural communication, where people have different conventions, or when a word is ambiguous and the context unclear. Sometimes people also do not listen because they think the aspect is not relevant to them.One of the most frequent types of miscommunication are those based on slips of the tongue or slips of the ear. When people do not understand words, sentences or whole passages, the brain tries to fill the gap with known structures. Consequently, misunderstandings arise. In the following we want to concentrate on miscommunication that emerges through the transmission of the message in the auditory channel. There are various aspects that can lead to miscommunication through m istakes in the transmission of a message.These aspects, like the difference of hearing and listening, the exchange of letters or problems with the intonation etc. , are going to be dealt with in this paper. First of all we are going to present how a message is transmitted in communication and which phonological aspects play a role. Then miscommunication is going to be treated. We want to show how miscommunication can arise and afterwards analyse some misunderstandings and show how they could have come up. 2. Phonetics and phonology – the transmission of a message Communication always takes place between two or more people who are trying to get a message across.During this communication process, different aspects are important. As we talk about oral communication, which is about the transmission of sounds, phonetics and phonology play a role. They are a main aspect in the transmission of a message. Phonology means †die Entstehung, Ubertragung und Wahrnehmung, also die ma terielle Seite der Sprachlauteâ€Å" (Grasegger 2004: 7) whereas phonetics â€Å"untersucht die Funktion und die Eigenschaft von Sprachlauten als Elemente eines Sprachsystems, also die funktionelle Seite† (Grasegger 2004: 7).In the following we want to concentrate on the transmission of the sounds or the message. We want to have a look at the phonological aspects and prosodic aspects that play a role in the transmission process. But first of all, we are going to present Shannon and Weavers communication model. 2. 1. A communication model The process of communication can be presented as a model. One, the prototypical model, was developed by Shannon and Weaver in 1949. They reduce communication simply to the process of transmitting information (Chandler o.A. : 1). This model consists of five elements, an information source producing a message, a transmitter encoding the message into signals, a channel, a receiver decoding the message and a destination where the message arrives (Chandler o. A. : 2). Thus, a sender and a receiver always exist in a communication process. The sender is the information source who intends to transmit the message by his mouth (transmitter) through a channel. Here the message is transmitted through sound waves and maybe also body language.The ear receives the sound waves (receiver) and the listener decodes the message by interpreting verbal and non-verbal information and constructing a reality of what the meaning could be (www. worldtrans. org : 1). As sender and receiver do not share the same feelings, experiences, perceptions and ideas, the message can be interpreted differently by the receiver (ebd. ). Consequently, miscommunication can arise. Regarding the Shannon and Weaver model, some possibilities where miscommunication might emerge are in the channel, where noise is a dysfunctional factor (Chandler o. A. 2), on the listener’s side or during the process of encoding a message on the speaker’s side. However, t here are other aspects that have to be considered in communication. We also need to know how the speaker succeeds in producing a sound and how the listener reconstructs the message. At this point phones and suprasegmental features play a role. When the speaker wants to encode a message, he takes a phoneme as a basis and produces a phone that is transmitted through the channel. According to Grasegger 2004 the speaker disposes of a creative function, a sending and listening function in his brain.The sending function in the brain thinks of a message that reaches the speech-organs through nerves. There the sound is produced by tongue, breath, palate etc. (Grasegger 2004: 17-31). The sound passes the channel through sound waves and reaches the ear of the listener. The task of the listener is now to reconstruct the message, which means recognizing the individual words, extracting their syntactic relationships, determining the semantic structure of the utterance and its relation to the dis course context as well as recognizing emotions (Cuttler/Dahan/Donselaar 1997: 142).However, few cues are available to signal where one word ends and the next one begins. To understand the message, the listener has to find the individual word boundaries (Cuttler/Dahan/Donselaar 1997: 143). The brain decodes and reconstructs the message. The sounds, the â€Å"Signifikat† (Grasegger 2004: 11), stand for a special concept, the significant (Grasegger 2004: 11). In the following we are going to concentrate on this phonological and prosodic part the of communication process. 2. 2. Phonological elements of communicationAs already mentioned, phonological elements are important in the transmission of a message since phonemes are a unit of linguistic and perceptual processing (Clark/Yallop 1996: 318). During a communication process, the speaker produces sounds. These sounds are not transmitted individually but in bigger units. The smallest and primary unit of production and perception i s the syllable. It can be described as â€Å"symbiosis of consonant and vowel which acts as the effective vehicle for the transmission of linguistic information† (Clark/Yallop 1996: 318).Phonemes never have a meaning themselves. Their primary function is their distinctive function, the differentiation of meanings of speech units like words. If a sound has a distinctive function can be proved by replacing it by another sound. That means that a sound has a distinctive function when you take the example ‘Kanne’ and replace the [k] by a [t] so that the meaning changes (Grasegger 2004: 81). The articulation is not important when it does not have a distinctive function. Such words that differ only in one phoneme are called minimal pairs.By changing this phoneme, the word gets a different meaning (Grasegger 2004: 83). Thus, miscommunication can easily arise at this point since if the listener does not hear a part of a word or sentence, his brain replaces this gap (Clark /Yallop 1996: 318). Another aspect that is important during the transmission of sounds is that two words with two different meanings can sound similar and have to be understood in the context (Bu? mann 2002: 284). Thus, the role of sound in communication is the transmission of a meaning. However, a single sound does not convey a meaning, but a combination of sounds.The sounds (signifikat) stand for a meaning or concept (significant) that the listener has to decode. But if some sounds are replaced during processing in the brain and these sounds form a minimal pair the meaning can be changed. Later on we want to deal with some examples how miscommunication can arise because some sounds are replaces or their position in a word is changed. 2. 3. Prosodic elements of communication As we have seen, not only phones, the smallest segments of sounds, are important for the transmission or reconstruction of a message, but also uprasegmental features, phonetic expressions that include more than one segment. These are pitch, volume and duration which are linked to bigger units like syllables, words, phrases and sentences (Grasegger 2004: 63). However, prosody is normally used as a synonym for suprasegmental features such as pitch, tempo, loudness and pause (Cuttler/Dahan/Donselaar 1997: 143), although Grasegger defines prosody as the linguistic function of suprasegmental features which is to differentiate meaning on the level of words, phrases or sentences, or to structure an utterance rhythmically (Grasegger 2004: 63).So it is rhythm and intonation what helps differentiating meaning (Clark/Yallop 1996: 322). According to Cuttler/Dahan/Donselaar 1997, â€Å"the prosodic structure of an utterance exercises effects on the timing, amplitude and frequency spectrum of the utterance and these are dimensions of sound itself; any utterance, indeed any part of an utterance corresponding to any linguistic component to a phonetic segment even must have a certain duration, a certain amplitude and a certain fundamental frequency† (Cutler/Dahan/Donselaar 1997: 142).Consequently, if a speaker intends to emphasize a segment, frequency, pitch, intensity and duration, or one of these parameters, have to differ from the accentuation of other segments so that the listener is able to understand the difference in meaning or rhythm, since languages like English are â€Å"perceived in the durational interplay of prominent (or ‘stressed’) syllables and weaker or less prominent ones† (Clark/Yallop 1996: 323). However, few cues are available to signal where one word ends and the next begins. Elements that structure sentences etc. hythmically and determine their meaning are for example quality and accentuation. The speaker could change the meaning of an element by changing the duration, called quantity. That means, that for instance long vocals convey a different meaning than short vocals (Staat; Stadt) (Grasegger 2004: 72). The accentuation helps def ining word boundaries. An accent is the stress or emphasize of a syllable, a word or a sentence to emphasize it (Grasegger 2004: 73). Stressed syllables normally have a higher frequency, a higher volume and a longer duration than non-stressed syllables (ebd. . Its function is to structure an utterance so that the listener has the possibility to differentiate meaning by distinguishing different positions of stress like ancora and ankora in the Italian language (vgl. Grasegger 2004: 74). A â€Å"Satzakzent† (Grasegger 2004: 75) emphasizes words in a sentence and thus has a contrasting function. In the sentence ‘Peter searches a book’ , for example, the speaker can emphasize different units such as the book, Peter, or searches to make clear who he is talking about, what Peter does or what he is searching for.This kind of stress in a sentence is related to intonation. Intonation is another prosodic element that can be defined as â€Å"Verlauf der Sprechmelodie inner halb einer lautsprachlichen Au? erung† (Grasegger 2004: 76). It is the „Form der Tonhohenbewegungen im Verhaltnis zur mittleren Sprechstimmlage eines Sprechersâ€Å" (ebd. ). During a unit of intonation, the pitch rises or falls. The boundaries of a unit are defined by different phonetic elements like the distension of a syllable at the end of a unit or a linguistic pause, an interruption that has a structuring function (Grasegger 2004: 76).Thus, the characteristic of intonation is structuring an utterance as well as its distinctive function since the difference in pitch conveys meaning. A rising intonation at the end of a sentence normally is a question whereas falling intonation a statement. A demand or an order is expressed by â€Å"steil abfallender Intonation† (Grasegger 2004: 77). So the content and meaning of a sentence depends on the position of the accent and the rise or fall of pitch. Moreover, syntax and prosody are closely related so that the supraseg mental features may be influenced by the position in the syntactic structure.So we have, for instance, longer pauses before major syntactic boundaries (Cutler/Dahan/Donselaar 1997: 162). Furthermore, intonation (pitch, volume etc. ) show the emotional condition of the speaker and thus have an expressive function. A question, for example, can also indicate doubts or surprise of a speaker. (Grasegger 2004: 77). So prosodic elements that are important for the differentiation of meaning or structure the sentence through a certain rhythm so that they influence the accentuation of a message and the understanding of the listener are pitch, volume, duration and pauses.They help identifying words (Cutler/Dahan/Donselaar 1997: 148). Prosodic problems can lead to serious reductions of the understanding, what is going to be treated later on. 3. Miscommunication – Problems in the auditory channel After looking at the communication process and the transmission of a message through the audi tory channel, we now want to have a look at the emergence of miscommunication. In the following we are going to treat some aspects that can influence the transmission of sounds in a negative way so that the message is not transmitted correctly.Miscommunication can be caused either by the speaker or by the listener. That means by slips of the tongue or slips of the ear, because the receiver did not listen or on account of channel problems. However, we first want to deal with the difference of hearing and listening. 3. 1. Hearing and Listening One aspect through which miscommunication can arise is the difference between listening and hearing. People hear or perceive sounds the sender is trying to transmit. However, we have to listen and reflect to understand the message.Hearing can be defined as attending to the sounds which come to the receiver at certain frequencies and intensities. Thus, the receiver cannot influence hearing but avoid listening since this is a higher cognitive proc ess under the receiver’s control (Truax 2000: 20). There are three levels of listening attention. One of them is ‘listening in search’ which is listening at its most active. It involves a conscious search of the environment for cues. Detail is of the greatest importance for this kind of listening.The listener needs the ability to focus on one sound to the exclusion. That means that in a noisy environment, the listener has to focus on the sound the speaker is producing and not on the background noises. The second level is ‘listening in readiness’. This depends on associations being built up over time so that the sounds are familiar to the listener. Consequently, they can be identified even by background processing in the brain. So, for example a mother does not wake up when trains are passing by but when she hears her baby crying.The last form of listening attention is ‘background listening’. That means that people are aware of sounds tha t are not important for getting the message so that they do not listen. One reason for this is that they are usual occurrences and therefore expected and predictable so that people do not listen to them actively (Truax 2000: 19-22). The more of these sounds are perceived, the more miscommunication is possible since an increase in the noise level means more psychological tress, greater fatigue and consequently an increase in performance errors on account of the extra load of information processing when the brain has to shut out noise (Truax 2000: 19). Thus, miscommunication can arise involuntarily when people do not distinguish between hearing and listening or lack the skill of listening in readiness, for example. If somebody lacks that skill, he cannot distinguish between important or less important sounds so that an overload of sounds is possible. So people maybe do not hear a letter, a word or a sentence. Slips of the ear can also happen when you lack concentration.However, it is also possible to tune somebody out because you do not like the person or since you are bored or tired (Myres/Myres 1992: 139). Another problem that can arise in communication is that immediately after people have listened to a person talking, they tend to remember only about half of what they heard, no matter how hard they thought they were listening (Myres/Myres 1992: 138). Furthermore, the association one has to a sound can differ. That means that the listener does not associate the same meaning to a sound as the speaker does.So a reason for the loss of information or the understanding of wrong information are for instance highly redundant and basically uninteresting sounds that are perceived and do not encourage sensitive listening since they seem irrelevant for the listener. This can described as a listener- based and interactional- related problem. Consequently, problems can arise when the listener concentrates on background noises, when he thinks sounds are redundant or when h e lacks concentration or listening skills. There are also problems on the phonological and prosodic level that lead to miscommunication with which we want to deal later.The problems or types of miscommunication mentioned above are listener based, the last one is based on an interactional and a listener problem. However, miscommunication can also emerge through problems in the channel, during the interaction or on the sender’s side at which we want to have a look now. 3. 2. Channel- based and interactional- related miscommunication The main channel- based problem that influences the communication process negatively is noise. If there is too much noise in the background, the listener often perceives only bits of what the sender is talking about.Consequently, the brain tries to restore the missing segments by top-down contextual prediction (Clark/Yallop 1996: 318). What kind of misunderstanding arises, that means if it is based on prosodic or phonological aspects, depends on the missing segments. Another problem that may arise, is the overlap of turns meaning that for example two people are talking at the same time caused by problems in turn taking. Thus, the speaker A cannot concentrate on the sounds the other speaker (speaker B) is producing and does not understand passages of his speech. This can be categorized as channel and interactional-related miscommunication.To avoid misunderstandings or miscommunication it is necessary that sender and receiver establish a common ground. The speaker wants to know if he has succeeded in transmitting the message and waits for evidence that the listener has to give by asking a question or using continuing contributions like ‘yes’, ‘uhuh’ or ‘I see’. If miscommunication arises at this point, it can be categorized as an interactional problem. 3. 3. Sender and receiver related miscommunication Miscommunication is always a problem that arises either on the speaker’s side or o n the listener’s side.If there are channel problems, the misunderstanding comes up at the listener’s side. However, the sender’s pronunciation can also be a reason for miscommunication, for example when he stutters, does not pronounce the word correctly or clearly and does not stress correctly etc. Regarding these kind of problems, we distinguish between two categories of problems, prosodic and phonological ones. 3. 3. 1 Prosodic problems Prosodic problems are â€Å"Abweichungen in der Realisierung segmentubergreifender bzw. suprasegmentaler Eigenschaften lautsprachlicher Au? erungenâ€Å" (Grasegger 2004: 78).That includes problems or dysfunctions of pitch, volume and intonation that influence the intonation of a sentence and consequently its meaning. Prosodic problems influence the perception negatively and lead to incomprehensibility. Problems that can lead to misunderstandings are stuttering and variations in pitch and accentuation (Grasegger 2004: 78-79). Miscommunication can arise when people do not detect the right word boundary. For example, when a word is spread over a strong and a following weak syllable, listeners tend to divide the former syllable at the onset of the second strong syllable.Englishmen often tend to insert boundaries before strong syllables or leave boundaries between weak syllables out (Cutler/Dahan/Donselaar 1997:146). The reason why such miscommunication emerges is that strong syllables often signal the onset of lexical words (ebd. ). But the â€Å"strong weak distinction is primarily based on a segmental property, vowel quality, rather than on a stress distinction (Cutler/Dahan/Donselaar 1997: 148). However, not every language makes the same distinctions between strong and weak syllables (ebd. ). Whereas the rhythm of English sentences in stress-timed, French sentences are syllable-timed.As the segmentation procedures are part of the â€Å"processing repertoire† (Cutler/Dahan/Donselaar 1997: 148) of the listener, an Englishman and a Frenchman talking can produce miscommunication by applying their strategies to detect word boundaries (vgl. Cutler/Dahan/Donselaar 1997: 148). Furthermore, miscommunication can arise when a listener does not perceive the stress of some words, it is possible that he does not interpret the meaning correctly, for example in the vocal quality distinction (Cutler/Dahan/Donselaar 1997: 155).If the receiver does not get the sentence accents or the intonation, he probably does not know if it was a question or an order or, taking the sentence ’Er ist nicht einmal gekommen’ (vgl Grasegger 2004: 78), if he did not come or if he came several times. A misunderstanding can also come up when the speaker does not stress correctly. Usually, the listener who does not get the right words does not ask but adds the rest of the sentence so that a misunderstanding can arise. 3. 3. 2 Phonological problems Phonological problems are phonetic deviations on the word level.That does not include the pronunciations, the phonetics, but the wrong choice and order of elements a word, for example. We distinguish between paradigmatic problems and syntagmatic problems. Paradigmatic problems include the choice of the wrong elements, syntagmatic ones the wrong sequence or order of elements. The latter could be that people understand ‘papel’ instead of ‘apple’. An example for a paradigmatic problem understanding the word ‘Jacoc’ instead of ‘Jacob’ (Grasegger 2004: 123). Additionally, there are four different types of phonological problems: elision, addition, metathesis, substitution.Elision means that the speaker leaves out segments of a word or a whole syllable. In general one omits syllables that are not stressed. An example for an elision is saying and/or understanding nana instead of banana. Normally consonants are left out, in general the last consonant of a word like street which becomes stree. Addition means that the speaker or listener adds a consonant or a vocal so that apple becomes papple, zebra zebera or Tablett Tablette (Fromkin 1980: 35-36). It is also possible that you have an elision and an addition in a word or that you double a syllable.A metathesis is a problem in sequencing so that the speaker exchanges syllables or puts them the other way round. So Blatt is Balt or ‘fork’ ‘frok’. The last type of phonological problems, the substitution, means that the speaker has the same number of syllables but replaces one syllable by a different one. It is often replaced by another syllable that sounds similar like ‘Jacoc’ and ‘Jacob’. It is also possible to leave something out and replace a syllable or a letter (Grasegger 2004: 123-127; Fromkin 1980: 47).The first segments in a word and the first syllables are more likely to be affected by speech errors since they are more focused on during speech production (Fromkin 1 980: 48). According to Clark/ Yallop 1996, errors on the level of a syllable are detected far more readily than segment errors (Clark/Yallop 1996: 319). When the listener does not perceive one syllable, the brain tries to replace the missing syllable by a segment that could fit (vgl. Clark/Yallop 1996: 318). However, these processing in the brain might fail, especially when the words sound similar.Another aspect that can lead to miscommunication are these homophones. They are a type of lexical ambiguity, â€Å"homonyme Ausdrucke verfugen uber identische Aussprache bei unterschiedlicher Orthographie und Bedeutung† (Bu? mann 2002: 284) like ‚their’ and ‚they’re’. Consequently, misunderstandings can easily come up when for example the context is unclear and the word the speaker used sound similar but has a different meaning. This kind of miscommunication can also be categorized as message-related miscommunication.These problems can be listener-ba sed so that not the speaker changes elements of a word but the listener understands the wrong elements, for example because there were also channel problems or he did not listen or sender-based because of slips of the tongue, for example. 4. Analysis of miscommunication In the following chapter we are going to analyse some misunderstandings according to the features we have listed above. For the collection of data I used the diary method and searched in the internet. One example is taken from the internet, another one is a situation I experienced during the last weeks.The last example was originally broadcast on television some years ago that I remembered and wrote down. By analysing the examples of miscommunication, we want to come up with some possibilities how the misunderstanding could have emerged. 4. 1. A phonological problem The first misunderstanding is a situation I experienced some weeks ago. It took place on the dance floor during a training unit so that there was much ba ckground noise (people talking and music). The sender arrives and tells that he never wants to do it again with Korten, which is the last name of an absent person.M: Das mache ich nie wieder mit dem Korten! A: Was machst du nicht mehr mit dem Korken? This misunderstanding can be categorized as a phonetical miscommunication. The words Korten and Korken, that means [t] and [k], are a minimal pair since they have a distinctive function and change the meaning of the word. The misunderstanding is based on a paradigmatic problem, the choice of the wrong element, sound, in the word. The listener substituted the letter [t] by the letter[k]. One possibility how the misunderstanding could have arisen is in the channel.On account of music and loud voices in the background, the receiver had to listen in search but could not understand the whole sentence because of the extra load of processing in the brain or a lack of concentration. Probably she only got the first passage of the word and the la st syllable was added through brain processing as Korten and Korken only differ in one sound. Furthermore, the context was missing. M arrived and started the sentence with the word â€Å"das† which normally refers to something that had been said before. In this example a reference was missing because this word was used at the beginning of the communication.Additionally, the person â€Å"Korten† M was talking about was absent so that the listener did not expect M to talk about him in this context. M also used an article to refer to a person what you normally do not do in the German language unless you are speaking a dialect. So we can categorize this miscommunication mainly as acoustic misunderstanding which is based on substitution of a consonant and probably came up on account of a channel problem. 4. 2. Hearing and Listening This example was taken from the internet. It is a telephone call an old woman made to the police because she wanted to know if there was a thund erstorm in Neuss. 1)P (police): Hallo? (2)W(woman): hallo? (3)P: Hallo, hier ist die Polizei (4)W: Hallo, ich kann gar nichts verstehen! (5)P: Ne? Dann mussen Sie mal richtig zuhoren! (6)W: Ich wollte fragen, aah, wo die Nacht das Gewitter war. (7)P: Das†¦war uber Bochum. (8)W: Was?! (9)P: Uber Bochum? (10)W: Saarbrucken? (11)P: Auch (speaks up) (12)W: Wo denn? (13)P: Wo solls denn hin? (14)W: Was? (15)P: Wo das Gewitter denn hin soll? (16)W: Wo das gewesen ist? (17)P: In Deutschland (18)W: Ich hab’ Sie jetzt aber nich verstanden, wirklich nich, sind Sie mir nich bose! (19)P: Ne, bin ich nicht (20)W: Wo war das denn? 21)P: Uberall! (22)W: Uberall? (23)P: Ja, †¦ und das war nass. (24)W: bass (25)P: Nass! (26)W: †¦. Ist denn viel passiert? (27)P: Nein. (28)W: Viel passiert? (29)P: Nein! (30)W: Nein? (31)P: Nein. (32)W: Nein,†¦ Ja, entschuldigen Sie bitte, ich bin 99 Jahre alt und ich hab’ eine Tochter in Dusseldorf, in Neuss wohnen und ich hab’ noch nix gehort. (33)P: Da war nichts. (34)W: Was? (35)P: In Neuss war nichts! (36)W: Da was es? (37)P: Nein! (38)W: Nein? (39)P: Nein, in Neuss kein Gewitter. (40)W: Gewitter? (41)P: Nein! (42)W: War da das Gewitter? (43)P: Nein! (44)W: Nein? Ich hab’ kein Wort verstanden!Ich habe extra an die Polizei gewandt, dass ich Antwort krieg! (45)P (schreit): Ja, da war kein Gewitter! (46)W: Was? Bitter? (47)P: Da war kein Gewitter (48)W: Gewitter? Wo? (49)P (lacht) (50)W: Hier? (51)P: Nein! W legt auf. (source: www. radiopannen. de) In general, this miscommunication seems to be listener and channel- based. However, there are several factors that lead to this miscommunication. Concerning the channel, the woman probably does not hear very well because she is already old. We can suppose this because she always asks ‘was? ’ and says ‘ Ich hab’ kein Wort verstanden’.She was also nervous, because she had not heard of her daughter, what could influence the listening process. In addition to this fact, the telephone connection was bad and crackling in the wire could be heard. Perhaps the woman also lacked the skill or concentration for listening in search. In line 47 and 48 the woman did not listen to the beginning of the sentence and just paid attention when the man was talking about the thunderstorm where she was interested in. Obviously, she applied the wrong strategy, listening in readiness so that she heard what he was saying but only recognized the word ‘Gewitter’.The same can also be supposed for line 35 and 36. Moreover, we also have some misunderstandings that are based on prosodic and phonological problems as in line 39 and 40. Here we have a prosodic problem. The woman did not get that the police officer stressed the word ‘kein’, so that she thought there was a thunderstorm. In line 24 the woman understands ‘bass’ instead of ‘nass’. This is a paradigmatic problem that is ba sed on the substitution of [n] by [b] because they are minimal pairs and the words sound similar.In line 45 and 46 she understands ‘bitter’ instead of Gewitter. Here she is not able to define the right boundary because the stress of ‘bitter’ and ‘Gewitter’ is on the last syllable. Furthermore, we have an elision of the letters [g] and [e] and a substitution. [w] is replaced by [b]. Concerning the misunderstanding in line 9 and 10 where the woman understands Saarbrucken instead of Bochum, we have to guess that this arose because she could not understand the word on account of channel problems and ‘Bochum’ was replaced by another town in brain processing.So we can conclude that this miscommunication is based on various kinds of misunderstandings that are probably mainly influenced by channel problems such as a bad connection and an old person who is hard of hearing and maybe also lacks listening skills. 4. 3. Prosody and homophones T he following example for miscommunication was broadcast on television in 1959. A reporter called Heinz Maegerlein talking about sports pronounced the sentence: Maegerlein: Tausende standen an den Hangen und Pisten which was interpreted by the spectators as: Tausende standen an den Hangen und pissten. vgl. http://de. wikipedia. org/wiki/Heinz_Maegerlein) This misunderstanding can be interpreted as a message-related, listener or speaker-based miscommunication. It is a prosodic and phonological problem. As the words ‘Pisten’ and ‘pissten’ are homophones, the spectators added an ‘s’ to the word so that it also becomes a paradigmatic problem. On account of the words being homophones, the misunderstanding is message- related. That is why the speaker has to put the emphasize on the right syllables and the pauses in the right position. Therefore, we also have a prosodic problem here.Either the speaker must have put a wrong stress on the words or the sp ectators did not get the right intonation. To get the message across correctly, the speaker is not allowed to make a pause after ‘Hangen’ (Tausende standen an den Hangen [†¦] und Pisten) since it would emphasize ‘und Pisten’. Thus, as the words are homophones and therefore intonation very important, it seems that the problem is primarily a prosodic one, since the speaker has to try to get the right meaning across. 5. Conclusion Thus, we can conclude that most of the miscommunication happens on account of problems in the auditory channel.According to Fromkin 1980 about 60% of all misunderstandings are based on slips of the ear and 60% result in nonwords (Fromkin 1980: 6). These misunderstandings can come up on the listener’s side as slip of the ear because he does not listen, he lacks listening skills, does not concentrate, or on account of a mistake in brain processing. As the listener did not get an aspect of the communication, the brain search es words that sound similar. Miscommunication can also arise on account of channel problems like noise, interactional problems or message- related problems like homophones.Furthermore, the communication can be influenced negatively through slips of the tongue produced by the speaker. Consequently, the listener replaces the target segment by other segments of the same level of description so that other words with different meanings or nonwords come up. Parts of words, sentences or syllables can also be left out or the place can be changed. Additionally, problems in prosody can influence the meaning of the sentence as wrong intonation makes the definition of word boundaries more difficult to the listener. .Bibliography Bu? mann, Hadumod (2002): Lexikon der Sprachwissenschaft. Stuttgart: Kroner Verlag. Chandler, Daniel (o. A. ): The Transmission Model of Communication. http://www. aber. ac. uk/media/Documents/short/trans. html. Abgefragt am 25. 10. 2006. Clark, John/Yallop, Colin (1996 ): An introduction to phonetics and phonology. Oxford/Cambridge: Blackwell. Cutler, Anne/Dahan, Delphine/Donselaar van, Wilma (1997): Prosody in the comprehension of spoken language: A literature review. Language and Speech, 40, 141-201. Fromkin, Victoria (1980): Errors in linguistic performance. Slips of the tongue, Ear, Pen and Hand. New York/London: Academic Press. Grasegger, Hans (2004): Phonetik und Phonologie. Idstein: Schulz-Kirchner Verlag. Myres/Myres (1992): The dynamics of human communication. New York: Mc Graw Hill. Truax, Barry (2000): Acoustic communication. Norwood: Ablex Publishing Corporation. A communication model : www. worldtrans. org . Abgerufen am 25. 10. 2006. www. radiopannen. de. Abgerufen am 19. 03. 2007.