Buildings :: essays research papers

to hold the concrete foundation above in place. The next obstacle in erecting a superskyscraper, and perhaps the biggest one, is wind. Tall buildings actually sway in the breeze, in much the same way that a diving board bends under the weight of a diver. Building an edifice that doesn't topple over in the wind is easy enough. The real challenge is keeping the structure so stiff that it doesn't swing too far, cracking partitions, shattering windows and making the upper occupants seasick. As a rule, the top of skyscraper should never drift more than 1/400 of its height at a wind velocity of 150 km/h. Older buildings, like the Empire State Building, were built so that their core withstood all bending stresses. But structural engineers have since found that by shifting the bracing and support to the perimeter of a building, it can better resist high winds. The most advanced buildings are constructed like a hollow tube, with thin, outer columns spaced tightly together and welded to broad horizontal beams. Toronto's First Canadian Place and New York's World Trade Center towers are all giant, framed tubes. A superskyscraper would undoubtedly need extra rigidity, which you could add by bracing its framework with giant diagonal beams. You'll see this at Chicago's John Hancock Center where the architect has incorporated diagonal braces right into the look of the building, exposing five huge X's on each side to public view. Alternatively, you might design your building like a broadcasting tower, and tie it to the ground with heavy, sloping guy wires extending from the four corners of the roof to the ground. A control mechanism at the end of each cable would act like a fishing reel, drawing in the cable whenever the sway of the building caused it to slacken. Tall buildings also encounter the problem of vortex shedding, a phenomenon that occurs as the wind swirls around the front corners of the building, forming a series of eddies or vortices. At certain wind speeds, these vortices vibrate the building, threatening to shake it apart. In New York City's Citicorp Center, engineers have tackled vortex shedding with a 400-tonne concrete block that slides around in a special room on one of the

International Business Essay

Q.2 a) Evaluate the different ways in which Bata has interacted with foreign political systems in its investments and operations abroad. ANS – Multinational enterprises (MNEs) like Bata must operate in countries with different political and legal conditions, so the political impact on the foreign investments is very important. This paper explains this issue based on the Bata case in three parts. The first part evaluates the different ways in which Bata has interacted with foreign political systems in its investments and operations aboard. In the second part, the advantages and disadvantages, which MNEs bring to their company and the host-country when doing foreign direct investment, are analyzed relating to the Bata case. And the last part gives a detailed analysis of the complex political impact on international business with reference to the political environment in general; also supply the way of formulating effective political strategy. * Bata’s effective organizational structure and managing style With activities in 60 countries, Canada-based Bata Shoe Organization has much operational experience both in developed countries and developing countries and can deal with different political systems. It has an effective organization structure, which consists of  · Bata Limited located in Toronto, Canada, acts as headquarters of the operating companies. Regional offices exist in Toronto, Mexico City, Singapore, Paris, Calcutta and Harare.  · The International structure: a decentralized organization, where operating companies are independent businesses, supported by a global management team.  · Private Ownership: Bata shoe organization companies have also entered into a number of joint ventures, retail franchising and brand licensing agreements [1]. By and large Bata’s operations are independent units established in each country where the firm does business. As such, Bata is able to decentralize control of its political strategy–giving subsidiaries significant autonomy in managing relations with their respective government. b) Should Pizza Hut put more of its efforts in expanding in Brazil or somewhere in South East Asia? Why? ANS – Pizza Hut, one of the most popular food chains, opened their 10000Th shops in the Brazilian market in 1994. Pizza Hut’s parent company is PepsiCo. PepsiCo was trying to penetrate in Brazilian market in various ways. However, the path was not as easy as assumed. Pizza Hut faced decline in the Brazilian market. Experts said that there were two probable reasons for this. One is Pizza Hut’s less successful introduction of new products and the second is the low price strategy of the competitors. However, Pizza Hut had a high hope to make Brazils their second or third major market because Brazil had many location specific advantages like urbanization, size, population, Gross National Product etc. Brazil endured erratic political situations since 1964. After a long military dictatorship, a stable political reformation was done by the year 1997.Economically; Brazil has a mixed history as well. It has a very good economic potential. It has access to several natural resources and well knit infrastructures. However, inflation affected the economy very badly. Pizza Hut entered in Brazil in 1988, during the period of high inflation. It followed the practice of corporate franchise. Later, Pizza Hut bought some of the franchises. But still different problems arose like- difference in cultures, cost of maintaining large pool of employees and of course inflation. Gradually, the inflation rate of Brazil normalized. People made more informed decisions and Pizza Hut began to flourish. However, in 1995, sales of Pizza Hut dropped. As a mean of counterattack, Pizza Hut took two different strategies. One was to cut the price by 25% and another was to announce various sales related decisions by mingling with local cultures like Samba dance. But both of the plans failed miserably. In these ways, Pizza Hut struggled to succeed in the Brazilian market. Q.3 a) what factors threaten India’s future competitive positions in cashew nut productions? ANS – Since the opening of China’s doors to world trade in the late 90’s, it has become an emerging super power. Hence, China may be a threat to India’s current competitive position in the cashew nut production because it is also capable to support cashew processing with its abundance of human resources, low-wage rates, and possible training in the manual dexterity required in the premium cashew nut production. China is currently engaging in new markets and providing cheap manual labor to other manufacturing. With this, China can see that the increasing profitable cashew nut industry and decide to enter it because it has the capability to do so. Moreover, the current formulation of the European Union (EU) provides that its members eliminate trade barriers for imports and exports between each other may be a possible threat to India’s United Kingdom market. Since the UK can virtually import anything from its neighboring countries without any cost, it might affect the demand of cashew nuts –the Europeans may divert their attention from cashew nuts to other products popular in its neighboring countries. India’s competitiveness could also be threatened by the increased Research and Development improvement that countries worldwide are engaging in nowadays. Brazilians (India’s most prominent competitor in the cashew nut industry) may possibly find machinery that can be substituted for the needed hand dexterity for the flavor that India’s cashew nut has. b) Should the United States seek to tighten the economic grip on cube? If so, how should it be done? ANS – U.S. should not seek to tighten economic grip on Cuba as it is already a weak economy as compared to U.S. due to the political environment of the country for the past few decades. For U.S. industries and companies Cuba is a very potential market. Also the workforce is efficient, so there is a possibility of efficient labor at lower cost for U.S. industries. Also, other countries of the world started favoring Cuba and also doubted the rationale of U.S. on imposing the embargo. 1. Attitude: An attitude may be defined as a learned disposition to behave in a consistently favourable or unfavourable way with respect to a given object (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2000). Stated differently, it positions people into a frame of mind of liking or disliking things, of moving toward or away from them‘ (Kolter and Armstrong, 2008: p144). It is acknowledged that people have attitudes toward almost everything – religion, politics, clothes, music, food (Kotler, 2003). For instance The demand for life insurance in a country may be affected by the unique culture of the country to the extent that it affects the population‘s risk aversion (Douglas and Wildavski, 1982). Henderson and Milhouse (1987) argue that an individual‘s religion can provide an insight into the individual‘s behaviour; and understanding religion is an important component of understanding a nation‘s unique culture. Also, Zelizer (1979) notes that religion historically has provided a strong source of cultural opposition to life insurance as many religious people believe that a reliance on life insurance results from a distrust of God‘s protecting care. But historically, some form of social insurance existed in Nigerian and Africa society long before the introduction of the modern insurance in Nigeria (Osoka, 1992). These social schemes evolved through the existence of extended family system and social associations such as age grades, and other unions. The simplest form of the â€â€"social insurance‘ was practiced by means of providing cash donations, materials or sometimes organized collective labour to assist members of extended family and members of social or communal associations who suffer a mishap. 2. Lack of Knowledge of Insurance Culture: In a recent study of quality of life in developing countries with reference to South Africa (Moller, 2004), income and social security (own wages, ability to provide for family, insurance against illness/death and income in old age) have been treated as one of the major indicators of quality of life. This standpoint stresses the significance of insurance to human life. Ironically, insurance services seem not to have been so accepted enthusiastically in developing countries. The abysmal level of insurance culture in developing economies has attracted relative interests among researchers and practitioners alike. Risk has been identified as a central fact of life in the rural areas of less-developed countries (Udry, 1994). Some of the problems associated with this have been marketing. For example, Omar (2005) assesses consumers‘attitudes towards life insurance patronage in Nigeria and found out that there is lack of trust and confidence i n the insurance companies. Other major reason for this attitude is lack of knowledge about life insurance product. 3. Low Level of Education: Educational status of Nigerians has significant influence on their attitude towards insurance. Educated people have more positive attitude to insurance than less educated ones. In a recent insurance conducted in Lagos, Nigeria. The choice of Lagos is due to its nature as a metropolitan city where most Nigerian ethnic groups are largely represented. Fact shows that respondents with higher education outperformed others even though no statistical significant difference was observed with vocational education. 4. Unemployment Issue: Employees working status has a significance effect on Nigerians attitude towards insurance. Retired and Employed Nigerians with means attitude scores of 28.50 and 28.14 respectively outperformed their competitors. No significant difference was observed between retired, employed and Self-employed respondents. On the other hand, self-employed people have significantly higher attitude towards insurance than unemployed, student and part time workers. This result is quite similar to findings in most developed world. In Conclusion, The findings of this study suggest some major implications for marketing of insurances services in Nigerian businesses environment which is a big market. Given that attitude is strongly linked to behaviour, marketers of insurance services targeting Nigerians are confronted with the challenge of encouraging people to embrace insurance institution and its associated benefits. Based on the findings, this article confirms negative attitudes of Nigerians to insurance services further. But apart from this broad finding in respect of the negative attitudes to this line of business, this study suggests some specific findings based on different demographical factors of the respondents. The findings serve as inputs to marketers of insurance services on how they formulate and implement relevant marketing strategies towards addressing the nonchalant attitude of Nigerians to insurance. For instance, specific marketing strategies are required to encourage the young generation below 46 years of age, the divorced/separated, and the less-educated to embrace and appreciate the role of insurance. Since, the basic issue associated with this lack of interest rests mainly in their lack of appreciation of the roles of benefits of insurance services; it is recommended that significant marketing communication activities with instant compensation to both marketers be targeted more at this set of people highlighted. This will help to kindle their interest in the business and brings the insurance institution to the highly exalted position it belongs in their perception.

Smacking Essay - 863 Words

Good morning, My name is Micheal and today am here to talk to you about the issue of smacking. To strike or slap someone with force using the open hand is the definition of smacking. The issue of whether it should be legal for parents to smack their children has now become a major controversy. Today I come to you as a concerned citizen as I find it utterly disturbing that in Australia, it is currently legal for parents to smack their children. I believe that the act of parents, smacking their child should be illegal. Smacking children, in our modern society, is nothing but an ineffective form of discipline. It is actually a violation of the human rights of the child. Furthermore it has potential to cause intellectual and†¦show more content†¦It is illegal for women to be assaulted, yet it is legal for parents to smack children. It is disturbing to see that children are the only category in Australia that can be legally assaulted. Just as all other categories have the right to not be assaulted, so should the children. The United Nations convention has stressed it duty to to give children this right to be free from all forms of violence, including crue l punishment. All children deserve to have human dignity and physical integrity. By smacking, we are violating this. My final argument towards making smacking illegal is the risk of long-term phycological harm. In 2011, research was conducted to test the effects of smacking. Children who were exposed in an environment where they were smacked achieved low scores in psychological assessments including planning, abstract thinking and levels of satisfaction. The scores achieved by these children were significantly lower than the scores achieved by students who were exposed to environments where they were not smacked. The results of this research proved that aggressive environments may have a impact on a childs verbal intelligence. The result of this is that children who are smacked are at high risk of behavioural problems. On top of this, further research has also shown that children who have been smacked in their childhood, have lower IQs. Professor Mark Strauss conducted research that proved that children whoShow MoreRelatedSmacking Children: Is it Effective? Essay1870 Words   |  8 Pagesthrough the use of smacking is not a solution. According to Phillips and Alderson refers to, â€Å"lawful parental violence against children, from the ‘tapâ€⠄¢ to the ‘belt’ and beyond† (1). Smacking as a way of having control over the children has no long term positive effects, even though, some would argue that it should not be criminalized since they see smacking as a way of disciplining children. Some argue that does not leave marks and cannot be persecuted and according to some smacking is not consideredRead MoreShould We Ban Smack Essay1059 Words   |  5 PagesSmacking should be banned to protect children Before I get stated, I’d like to ask you guys for one question: Have you ever got smacked by your parents when you are a little child? If you have, please put your hands up. Alright, it seems everyone has been smacked before, so have I. A black and white picture of a cross father spanking a little boy who is crying on his knees could be described by people as the â€Å"bad old days†. Disciplinary action such as a smack on a child’s bottom is not illegalRead MoreSection 59 of the Crimes Act and a Parents Right to Discipline their Child689 Words   |  3 Pageschild abuse occur as a result of parental personal and economical problems, such as low income, alcohol and drug abuse, and gambling – not from parents trying to correct the disobedient behaviour of their children (Collins, 2009). In Sweden, where smacking has been banned for the past thirty years, there are still reports of aggravated assault happening to children up to the present day. Rather than change laws, more government effort and resources should be put into looking at these issues closelyRead MoreHelen Clark as a Leader1141 Words   |  5 Pagesmanaged to influence the constitutional law and some of her legislation became widely discussed by the public; making certain legislations a common terminology among households. For example, the Anti-smacking law† also known as the â€Å"section 59†. There was extensive coverage about the Anti-smacking law during her last term as Prime Minister in the media (â€Å"Helen Clark stares down the barrel and lies†, 2008). One News published a widely discussed article that was broadcasted in 2007. The news articleRead MoreIs It Illegal For A Child As A Form Of Discipline? Essay1691 Words   |  7 Pagesidea needs to change before more instances of child cruelty are brought to light. The idealistic approach to smacking in this country is that parents are entitled to resort to corporal punishment when attempting to discipline their children. Anonymous (2006) ‘The Australian Childhood Foundation says it s been shocked by its new survey that shows almost 70 per cent of parents’ support smacking their children. Almost half the 750 adults surveyed believe it s reasonable to smack hard enough to leaveRead MoreEvaluation of the Statement that Hitting Children is Wrong Essays1479 Words   |  6 Pagesthis statement in the form of an advisory paper to a relevant Government department, onthe need (or otherwise) to bring in legislation to ban the physical punishment of children. The current law in place in the UK, with respect to smacking children, is known as the law of reasonable chastisement. This law permits, the use by parents of reasonable chastisement when disciplining their children. That is, a parent is permitted to hit a child as a way of enforcing disciplineRead MoreShould Child Discipline On A Physical Level?1462 Words   |  6 Pagesof discipline? Should it be? With the changing of times questions are being raised whether or not smacking or slapping a child is right or wrong by todays standards, This essay is going to argue why child discipline on a physical level should not only been illegal but why the country as a whole needs to ban it. As of the current point in time there are currently no laws making slapping, smacking or striking a child â€Å"illegal†. The only law that is besides that is reasonable chastisement. The meaningRead MoreCorporal Punishment Should Be Taught Essay856 Words   |  4 Pageson the Rights of the Child in the General Comment No. 8 defines ‘corporal’ or ‘physical’ punishment as, â€Å"any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light. Most involves hitting (â€Å"smacking†, â€Å"slapping†, â€Å"spanking†) children, with the hand or with an implement; in the view of the Committee, corporal punishment is invariably degrading.† The negative psychological consequences that stem from corporal punishment far outweigh the positiveRead MoreAdult Female Baboons : A Group Of Females814 Words   |  4 Pagesdo not talk like us, but they do have other many forms of gettin g their point across. These various communication skills consist of grunts, lip-smacking, screams, alarm calls, and facial expressions, just to name a few (Huguet et al. 2015). Scientists were able to determine what most of these communication skills meant (Huguet et al. 2015). Lip-smacking and narrow eyes was a friendly gesture toward other monkeys in the species or other primates, but if a monkey yawns and displays all his teeth, itRead MoreHow From Be A Boy845 Words   |  4 Pagesbecome extreme, but it is very important to get as gross as possible I you want to truly be a boy. The third and most noticeable step is touching or hitting each other. This of course includes Charlie horses, shoulder punches, rhino knees, smacking faces, smacking butts, and most importantly, the nut shots. Nut shots are executed with pretty much anything from a hand to a key lanyard. Although most people find this kind of thing as weird, boys absolutely do not. We don’t always hit there, there also