Casestudy of admin user

The system to be implemented will be an arsenal system of SC Officers (SIT Student Council) containing all information regarding SC officers, task , schedules of duties, projects update, announcement and Adman messages for members and accomplishment report. The main functionality of this system Is to make It easy to distribute and view Information needed with Just a few clicks. 1. 2. 1 General Objective To provide services appropriate related to the priority of each task of officers. It may be important to ensure consistent service over a set of tasks. Member's schedules, personal information, task etc. Will be updated. 2_2 Specific Objectives The specific objective of the project is to support every member's need for real time information. By using a system like this, the members can easily view their specific task and important matters. 1. 3 Significance of the Study This will allow users to have a tool to access related Information that will help them In viewing their schedule and task, announcement and project updates. This can also help Adrian and president In monitoring the members progress. Members will also has a benefit from this system in terms of getting the information, announcements ND other concern of the adman.This tool will also help adman in assessing their members' standings and performing quick resolutions to augment their performance when they view their account from the scheduling system. 1. 4 Scope and Limitations This project will help the members view the following Information. Schedule Task Announcement Messages Project Updates This tool should be updated so that the members and adman can get accurate and credentials form to access the system, same with the adman for security purposes. This system is for the SC Officers only. This system cannot be access using mobile. . 0 Methodology of the Study The education sector is playing a vital role in shaping how the next generation of information technology market will lead with more advances to streamline every rules and specification process. School universities and colleges have adopting the aspect of developing systems and program applications for the advancement of opportunity for improvements. Like every other school institution SIT has also its own student organization that design to help other student of different level and courses address basic issues and encores.The organization comprises with selected students with dedicated and have a high sense of responsibility as a student from workplace and with the co- students. Our project team is composed of five members and one of the developers is an officer of SIT Student Council that initiates to propose and established a tailored and custom desktop application called â€Å"Scheduling System† that would benefit and streamlined its current process for (SC) SIT Student Council as our end user target client. The software like Visual Basic.Net as one of the in demand cutting edge littoral technology of Microsoft is the team choice to use by its advantages. With this kind of software and its capability it can create a more flexible user design and user experience as the front end leverage in working with different type of back end databases. However, team decide to use the Myself software as our database where we connect the tables and query we have created as our data source. It has different type such as the log in form where registered user can only access like Adman and officers.Next form is where you can see the personal information, schedule task, ember's logs, announcement, messages, password reset and projects. Next form can be seen each account of every officer, their task and schedules, announcement from the adman and projects. Next form is where can be seen project proposal and messages. The system designed to create a centralize information for each member to manage their workloads, task, events, and other assigned roles.Advantages: Officers can view listed task Officers can vie w scheduled events Adman can managed collaborative information of officers task Adman can view logs for attendance officers The system is windows base and hosted only at school Can be use for present and future batch of student council The system is limited for student council only Members can view at the school only The system cannot be implemented online Tailored desktop application implemented where the local server is hosted within the school infrastructure only.Maintenance is administered with the help of school staff and member of the council. The project development has its few high lights such as closely working with the team, scheduled a weekly meetings over nights, create a well documented task and to co's, dig the research and development, learn the team collaboration, increase technical expertise. 3. 0 Data Gather and Procedure and Output The team agreed to use the personal interviews by getting their statement and opinions from its current process with an opportunity of improvements.Provide like a survey form or questionnaires with some set of specific questions considering related concerns to the organization. The close coordination with the clients that help us gives the precise insights of how we are going to start the design, development, and implementation. The more important aspects are to ensure the well documented of every detailed business rules and specification requirements gathered from the end user.Project milestone and timeliness are closely monitored to meet the target deliverable of the project. An established high level to low level diagram process flow help sustain the development stage of the software life cycle. User acceptance testing is the crucial part by working closely with the client to ensure in meeting all the requirements upon deployment. Final implementation and deployment is happen after user acceptance testing provided with team maintenance and support.

Sub Level Caving

Sublevel caving techniqueSimplicity and low cost are the essence SUBLEVEL CAVING TECHNIQUE SIMPLICITY AND LOW COST ARE THE ESSENCE Author: Partha Das Sharma, B. Tech(Hons. ) in Mining Engineering, E. mail: [email  protected] com, Blog/Website: http://miningandblasting. wordpress. com/ 1. Introduction – Sublevel caving is usually carried out when mining of the orebody through an open pit method is no longer economically feasible. Mining now proceeds underground, underneath the open pit. At first, both a raise and a network of tunnels are made.At different sublevels, jumbos are used for long hole drilling, drilling directly upwards into the roof. These holes are then charged with explosives and blasted. As the roofs cave in, the rock from the ground surface will cave in to the underground as well. Scoop trams or Load Haul Dump (LHD) vehicles transport the muck, loosened rocks, to an ore pass where the rocks are lifted to the surface. Drilling and blasting takes place at differ ent underground levels of the mine at the same time.As the blasted rock, muck, is continuously transported to the ore pass, more blasting will encourage the roof to cave in to the void and further into the drift. This is repeated until blasting, caving and transporting depletes the entire orebody. 2. Modern day Sublevel caving – The sublevel caving technique, as the method is applied today, the whole quantity of ore between the different sublevels is broken using ——————————————————————————————————Author: Partha Das Sharma, E. mail: [email  protected] com, Blog/Website: http://miningandblasting. wordpress. com/ 1Sublevel caving techniqueSimplicity and low cost are the essence controlled drilling and blasting. Sublevel caving is in many respe cts simple. It can be used in orebodies with very different properties and it is easy to mechanize. In sublevel caving, ore is developed from a series of sublevels spaced at regular intervals throughout the orebody. Mining begins at the top of the orebody. A series of ring patterns is drilled and blasted from each sublevel. Broken ore is mucked out after each blast and the overlying waste rock caves on top of the broken ore. This technique is inexpensive, highly mechanized and yields a large amount of muck.It is normally used in massive, steeply-dipping orebodies with considerable strike length. Since dilution and low recoveries are unavoidable, sublevel caving is used to mine lowgrade, low-value ore-bodies. However, studies are going on in various levels to eliminate the shortcoming of the system. The designs which are used and the measures which can be taken to eliminate the disadvantages are less understood. Possibly the modern version of the method was developed in the iron mine s of Sweden. Over the past few years, the scale of sublevel caving has increased markedly with LKAB being a leader in this regard.Today, with the continuing push to increase mining scale, a fundamental question is whether the gravity flow principles which served as the design basis for the small-scale sublevel caving mine designs of the past can be applied at much larger scales or whether some other approach is required. In fact, in design and operating practices, sublevel caving is among the most advanced of all mining methods. Sound engineering is indispensable to its conduct. The reason is related to the complexity of the caving action and the necessity of controlling it. The increased sublevel interval requires diligence in drilling, loading and blasting practices.The advent of improved drilling technology has made increased sublevel intervals possible in the sublevel cave mine. Hydraulic tube rod drill rigs have made long ——————— ———————————————————————————- 2 Author: Partha Das Sharma, E. mail: [email  protected] com, Blog/Website: http://miningandblasting. wordpress. com/ Sublevel caving techniqueSimplicity and low cost are the essence up-holes accurate with less than 2% deviation. Apart, blasting pattern used has also plays very important role.Proper fragmentation and blasting efficiency is evaluated by measuring the percentage of muck which is able to pass the designated blast size. 3. Description of sublevel caving method – An underground mining method used in large, steeply dipping orebodies where the wall rock is of an incompetent nature. Parallel drives are developed in the ore on equally spaced levels. The ore is then drilled and blasted using longholes between levels, often in a circular or fan pattern, on retreat. The weight of the rock is used to assist breakage. The upper levels are mined ahead of lower levels.Broken ore is extracted from the drive before the next blast takes place. The wall rock caves in when the ore is extracted. As discussed, in sublevel caving, the hanging wall is allowed to cave in as the ore is drilled, blasted and removed. The wall caving is induced by mining the ore in controlled sequence, usually from hanging wall to footwall and from top to bottom. Sublevel caving is often used in conjunction with surface mining. Sublevel caving extracts the ore via sublevels, which are developed in the orebody at regular vertical spacing. Each sublevel features systematic layout with parallel drifts, along or across the orebody.In the wide orebody, sublevel drifts start from the footwall drive, to continue across, reaching the hanging wall. In the orebody lesser width, sublevel drifts are branched off in both directions, from a centre crosscut drive. ——à ¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Author: Partha Das Sharma, E. mail: [email  protected] com, Blog/Website: http://miningandblasting. wordpress. com/ 3 Sublevel caving techniqueSimplicity and low cost are the essence Development volume to prepare sublevel caving is extensive, compared to other mining methods.However, development is mainly drifting to prepare sublevels. Drifting is a simple and routine job for the mechanised mine. Development of sublevels is done efficiently, in an environment of multiple faces on one sublevel available to drill rigs and loaders. A ramp connection is needed to connect different sublevels, and communicate with main transport routes. Ore passes are also required, at strategically locations along sublevels, for LHD-loaders to dump ore from sublevels, to be collected and transported on the haulage level below. —————————————————————————– ————————Author: Partha Das Sharma, E. mail: [email  protected] com, Blog/Website: http://miningandblasting. wordpress. com/ 4 Sublevel caving techniqueSimplicity and low cost are the essence Longhole rigs drill the ore section above the drift, in a fan spread pattern. Longhole drilling is a procedure which is done independent of other jobs, often well ahead of charging. Thus, drilling and charging-blasting longholes can be timed to suit the mine’s production schedules.Blasting on each sublevel starts at the hanging wall, mining then retreats toward the footwall. Miners aim the cave to follow an approximately straight front, and adjacent d rifts mined at similar pace. A section through the cave to show upper sublevels one step ahead of sublevels underneath. Blasting the longhole fan breaks the ore volume covered by the fan-pattern. As the cave is filled with fractured rock, most of the fresh ore remains in the cave, while some caves into the drift opening. Mucking out with LHD-loaders creates a cave pattern of ore and waste from above.Loading continues until the operator decides that waste dilution is too high, and stops the mucking, and transfers to a nearby drift heading with a fresh cave. In the meantime, the empty heading is occupied by the charging team, to charge next ring of longholes. Ore handling involves mucking out at the cave, transport on sublevels and dumping into ore passes. Waste dilution and ore losses are drawbacks for sublevel caving. Waste dilution varies between 15 and 40%, ore losses from 15 % to 25 %, depending on local conditions. Dilution is of less influence for orebodies with diffuse boundar ies, where the host rock contains low grades minerals.Parameters directly influence flow behaviour have been found to include the geometry of the extraction layout and drives, sublevel height, blast ring design, material characteristics of the blasted and waste material, and draw control methodology. In most of the sublevel caving system blasting parameters dominate in association with recovery when compared to drawpoint and geological parameters. Generally, sublevel caving method employs use of fan drilling using long and smalldiameter holes, between sublevels or drill drifts to undercut and blast the ore-zone. An initial slot is developed at the wallrock, and vertical uphole fans are rilled in a diamond pattern from sublevel in sequence. Generally, eight holes, inclined 80 to 85 degrees toward the slot, are drilled. Hole diameter average 51 mm, Burden and Spacing vary from 1. 2 to 1. 8 m and 1. 5 to 1. 8 m respectively. Blasting is performed against broken waste rock as wall rock caves. Generally, specific-charge range from 0. 3 to 0. 4 kg/ton. 4. Below are some salient features of Sublevel caving technique: Application * Weak walls and strong ore preferred though weak ore can be mined too. * Steep dip: A vertical dip is best, while dip>60 is fine too.Possibility of loss of ore in non-vertical steep dips Considerable loss of reserves in flat dips * Preferably, the ore and the rock should be easily separable * Surface should be amenable to caving (not an inhabited or the watershed area etc) ——————————————————————————————————Author: Partha Das Sharma, E. mail: [email  protected] com, Blog/Website: http://miningandblasting. wordpress. com/ 5 Sublevel caving techniqueSimplicity and low cost are the essence Development * Signif icant. Almost 20% of the ore is mine during development * Sublevels are established generally at 7. -12. 2 m vertical intervals and about 10. 7 m horizontal intervals The vertical interval is dependent on the drilling accuracy and the dip of the orebody The horizontal and vertical spacings affect the eccentricity of the cave * The size and shape of the production drift affects the draw Drift should be as wide as possible Should give good support to the back and the brows If the back is arched, the draw is mostly at the center and none on the sides If the back has to be arched for ground support, the drifts should be closer Ore remnants left behind (due to being out of reach of LHD’s) increase with height.Therefore, drift height should be as small as possible (usually about 3-3. 2 m). * Slot raises are driven at the hanging wall end of the production drift all the way up to the next level * Haulage levels driven in waste In wide orebodies, transverse layouts may be used (ore w idths should be > 12-15 m) Here, the production drifts are perpendicular to the strike Recovery better than longitudinal layouts Haulage drift in waste (footwall), about 9 m from ore contact. This distance is maintained so that blasting does not occur too close to it.Diamond drilling is done to obtain ore boundaries so that the haulage drift is neither too close nor too far away. o o * Ramps may be driven at 15 -18 , to production levels to provide access * Long, fan holes drilled 70-80 degrees forward (about 8 holes Production totaling 100 m in a ring) * Side holes, if drilled, should be steeper than 70 degree Side holes reduce length of holes driven up from the level below If flat holes drilled to the sides, however, the blasted material from the side holes cannot be extracted from the working level.Therefore, the neighboring fan hole blasted material does not get enough room to expand * Brows should be supported if necessary If brows collapse, ore floods the drift and covers some rings Also, the loader has problems loading as the ore does not stack high If brows are uneven, the ore funnels down the high spots ——————————————————————————————————- 6 Author: Partha Das Sharma, E. mail: [email  protected] com, Blog/Website: http://miningandblasting. wordpress. com/Sublevel caving techniqueSimplicity and low cost are the essence If sloughing or high brows are noticed from development, it may be decided to blast more than 2 rings just to advance through the area * If drilling is not accurate, a bridge/arch may be left in the stope Re-slotting may become necessary * Powder factor high as blasting is always against blasted muck (almost twice that of blasting against an open face) * LHD’s used for mucking * Good ventilation necessary as all working faces are dead ends * Productivity is quite high (about 36 ton/miner-shift) Comments * High dilution from caved waste.Ore losses occur as well since not all mined ore can be recovered. * Ore/waste flow cannot be predicted accurately prior to mining. * Probably the most economical when mining in weak strata * Development openings are not kept open for the entire life of mine. Once a level is extracted, the development openings are consumed. * Safe, since all mining activities are in small, protected openings. * High degree of mechanization possible. 5. Discussion on ore flow, drilling and blasting for efficient workings: * Fragmentation is of key importance to sublevel cave stope.Proper fragmentation of the ore column resulted in improved efficiency for the other mine operations and was critical to recovery. * Underground observations indicate that the draw-points must be wide enough to account for inconsistent blast results and provide regular flow. * The dr aw-point width determines the width and flow strength of the central channel which is important to achieving high recovery of the ring. * The middle holes of the ring are fired first and can make first use of the swell volume offered by the underlying sublevel drift. * The central holes are drilled subvertical, fairly parallel, and relatively close to one another.The result is a relatively high and uniform specific charge compared to the other holes in the round. Thus, one would expect the best, most uniform fragmentation. * The ore material in the central part of the round can make the best use of the effect of gravity in directing it to the drawpoint. * All of the material in the fan is drilled and blasted. * Because of the fan geometry, the amount of explosive/unit volume and hence the fragmentation varies throughout the fan. * The ore material in the centre part of the fan and the lower part of the fan has a much higher specific charge than that at the boundaries of the ring. Fu rthermore, the â€Å"cave† which lies in front of the blasted slice is an eclectic mixture of waste rock and ore remnants. * Its mobility varies with location and with time (it changes with the extraction geometry). ——————————————————————————————————Author: Partha Das Sharma, E. mail: [email  protected] com, Blog/Website: http://miningandblasting. wordpress. com/ 7 Sublevel caving techniqueSimplicity and low cost are the essence * Finally, most rock materials upon being blasted would like to bulk (swell) of the order of 50%. In sublevel caving, it is the sublevel drift located at the bottom end of the fan which is the primary provider of swell space for the ore in the ring. * It has been observed that, increased amounts of oversize in the r ing decreases recovery, proving the importance of proper fragmentation for sublevel cave operation. * Recoveries could be less than 60% if the ring is composed of 30% oversize. The oversize in the draw-point reduces the mobility of the ore, thus preventing high recovery. * Effective blast patterns also take into consideration the amount of benching. High powder factors are also required to reduce benching but may create excessive blast damage and over-break. * Practical solutions, such as, the blast pattern, blasthole size, primer sequencing, powder factor and degree of fragmentation are to be considered in order to be efficient. 6. Design parameters and some preliminary design rules – Design parameters in sublevel caving are largely a function of caving mechanics, the branch of rock mechanics related to the breakage and collapse of consolidated materials in place and their flow downward by gravity.Although, the ore has to be drilled and blasted, the overlying rock comprising capping or hanging wall is undercut and caves. Extremely careful controls must be exercised in drawing the ore to avoid excessive dilution. Draw control is the practice of regulating the withdrawal of ore in the sublevel crosscuts so as to optimize the economics of draw. Preliminary design rules: * Sublevel drift size (width (Wd) and height (Hd): determined based on equipment. * Sublevel interval (HS): the theoretical maximum value is based on the ability to drill long, straight holes.This, in turn, is based on the hole diameter (D). The actual limit is based on recovery and dilution considerations which are due to managing ore/waste pulsation. * Hole diameter (D): based on the available drilling equipment and the ability to charge long holes. * Spacing of the sublevel drifts (Sd): Sd = (2. 4 to 2. 7) Wd * Ring spacing (Burden B): Based upon the damage radius (Rd): B = 2 Rd Where: Rd/rh = 20 ( Peexp/PeANFO)? ( 2. 65/? rock)? ? Rd = damage radius (m); rh = hole radius (m); Peexp = e xplosion pressure for the explosive; PeANFO = explosion pressure for ANFO = 1600 MPa; ? ock = rock density (g/cm3); 2. 65 = density of typical rock (g/cm3). * Hole toe spacing (ST): based upon the burden ST = 1. 3 B. * Spacing for parallel holes (SP): based upon the burden SP = B. * Front inclination: 70–80 degrees (forward). Example: If it is assumed that: D = 115 mm; Drift dimensions: 7 m wide by 5 m high; Explosive: emulsion (Pe Exp = 3900 MPa); Rock density = 4. 6 g/cm3; Sublevel interval: 25 m based on drilling ability and control of pulsation. ——————————————————————————————————Author: Partha Das Sharma, E. ail: [email  protected] com, Blog/Website: http://miningandblasting. wordpress. com/ 8 Sublevel caving techniqueSimplicity and low cost are the essence One finds that the remaining dimensions are: Sublevel drift spacing: 17–19 m; Burden: 2. 7 m; Toe spacing (fanned): 3. 5 m; Toe spacing (parallel): 3 m; Front inclination: 80 degree selected. 7. Experience from LKAB, Sweden – Sub-level caving (SLC) is an important mass mining method, used at LKAB. The caved rock or debris at the SLC interface reduces the fragmentation and the swelling of the blasted ring and it dissipates the explosive energy.These phenomena may immobilize the blasted ring, causing ore losses. There are two major factors that influence the mobilization of the blasted ring, fragmentation and swelling of the blasted material. The caving process is influenced by also the stiffness of the waste rock, which is dependent in some way by the compaction that the blast ring contributes to. By using the acoustic impedance between the blasted material and the confining debris, a relationship for both fragmentation and compaction have been fou nd depending on material, specific charge and physical properties of the debris.Regression analysis has been used for both tasks, where the two statistical hypotheses clearly have good agreement with actual data i. e. the prediction models can forecast both the fragmentation and compaction for this set-up with reasonable accuracy The results can be comparable with confined blasting in large scale, this both that it have representative design parameters that fulfil in many ways the scaling laws and the second is that it can be linked to other comparisons between large-scale and small-scale, where the similarities have been shown.LKAB’s Malmberget – The Malmberget mine consists of about 20 orebodies, of which ten are currently mined. Most of the deposit consists of magnetite ore, but non-magnetic hematite also occurs. The present main level of the Malmberget mine is at a depth of 1000 meters. About 14 Mt of crude ore is extracted from the orebodies each year. Development – The first stage of mining is drift development. A drift is a tunnel that is driven into the rock. Development involves construction of new areas of the mine where ore can be extracted.A development project begins with construction documents prepared by the mine planning department. Each year, the mine planning department orders development work on the basis of the forecast demand for products as well as current knowledge of the status of the orebody. A development drift goes right through the orebody. Drifts are driven with electrichydraulic drill rigs. For each charge, as many as 60 holes are drilled. Each hole is about 5 meters deep. When all the holes are drilled, they are charged with explosives. The charge is blasted at night. The loose ore is then hauled out by a front loader.This procedure is repeated until the entire development drift has been driven. The drifts can be up to 80 meters long. If necessary, the walls and ceiling of the drift are reinforced with rock b olts and/or shotcrete. When development is complete, i. e. , when several drifts have been driven in the same area, the next stage of mining can begin; namely, production drilling. ——————————————————————————————————Author: Partha Das Sharma, E. mail: [email  protected] com, Blog/Website: http://miningandblasting. ordpress. com/ 9 Sublevel caving techniqueSimplicity and low cost are the essence Production drilling – Slices of ore are drilled up with remote-controlled production drilling rigs. From their control rooms, the operators (drillers) operate several drill rigs out in the production areas via remote control. The rig drills upwards into the ore, forming fan-shaped patterns of holes. There are 10 drill holes in each series. They are no rmally about 40-45 meters deep. The holes are straight, so that subsequent charging with explosive and blasting can be done efficiently.When a pattern of holes has been drilled, the rig is moved back three meters, then drilling of the next pattern begins. About 20 of these patterns will be drilled in an 80-meter drift. Once drilling is completed in the entire drift, the holes can charged with explosive. Blasting – A robot injects explosive into the drill holes in one pattern. The explosive is manufactured by LKAB’s own explosives company. Blasting is done every night. Each round brings down about 10,000 tonnes of ore. When the blast has been ventilated, loading with wheeled loaders can begin.Then, the next pattern is charged, etc. The procedure is repeated until the entire drift has been mined out. 8. Conclusion – Caving methods have become the underground bulk mining methods of choice and expected to continue in the foreseeable future. The growing popularity of caving methods around the world is largely due to the very low production cost and the intrinsic safety associated with this mining approach. It is often the only viable mining method for some of the lower grade massive orebodies that are becoming too deep for open pit mining. Caving of strong rock masses has ecome accepted practice even though there are still some challenges to be resolved. Strategically, most medium and large mining companies are operating or planning to operate a caving mine. Codelco's El Teniente mine in Chile and the LKAB Kiruna Mine in Sweden are among the largest and most famous caving operations in the world. Australia’s leading caving operations include Rio Tinto's Northparkes mines, BHP Billiton Nickel West's Perseverance Mine and Newcrest's Telfer and Ridgeway gold mines. References: * Kvapil, R , â€Å"Subleve l Caving†, Underground Mining Methods Handbook. â€Å"d Edit ion, Vol. 2. , H. L. Hartman, ed. , SME. Littleton, CO, 1992, p. 1789 . * Geddes, P. J. , â€Å"Swedish Drilling and Blasting Practice†, Trans. Int. Min. Metail. , 1 986, Sect. A. , V. 95, p. 204-207. * Alatalo. R. , Heden, H. and Ronnback, L. , ‘large Scale Sublevel Caving in LKAB Malmberget Mine†, Proc. Int. Sym. Large Scale Underground hfining, Nov. 1985, V. 7. Lulea, p. 139- 145. * Baase, R. A. , Diment, W. D. , and Petrina, A. J. , â€Å"Sublevel Caving at Craigmont Mines Ltd. â€Å", Underground Mining Methods Handbook, W. A. Hustrulid, ed.. SME, New York, 1982, p. 898. Chatterjee, P. K. , Just, G. D. , and Ham, G. I.. ‘Sub-level caving simulation of 3000 pillar-recovery operation at Mount Isa mine. Australia†. Tram inst . min. & Met.. Sect. A. , V. 88.. Oct. 1979, p. Al47-Al55. —————————————————————————————â€⠀Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- 10 Author: Partha Das Sharma, E. mail: [email  protected] com, Blog/Website: http://miningandblasting. wordpress. com/ Sublevel caving techniqueSimplicity and low cost are the essence * Cox, LA. , â€Å"Latest Developments and Draw Control in Sublevel Caving†, Trans.Int. Min Metall. , 1967, V. 76, p. A149-159. * Hustrulid. A. , â€Å"Sublevel Cave Mining at LKAB Kinina Mine†. iNCO presentation Aug. 1995. * Bull, G. and Page, C. H. (2000) Sublevel caving – today’s dependable low-cost ‘ore factory’, in Proceedings MassMin 2000, G. Chitombo (ed), 29 October to 2 November 2000, Brisbane, Australia, Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Melbourne, pp. 537–556. * Hustrulid, W. and Kvapil, R. (2008) Sublevel Caving – past and future, in Proceedings 5th International Conference and Exhibition on Mass Mining, MassMin 2008, H. Schunnesson and

Compare wong’s pragmatic classroom kagan kyle and scott win win discipline and morrish’s real discipline Essay

Clear guidelines on how to prepare are defined for each time of the day. Procedures are divided into periods to facilitate implementation in class. Teachers are also directed on preparation in the summer before classes start for the year. Procedures will stay the same this reduces behavior problems and keeps the focus on learning and educating. Teachers understand the boundaries of their control; the teacher can focus on being proactive to prevent problems rather than wasting time reacting to problems she could anticipate. Any teacher can implement the theory of the practical classroom without concern for over- or under-reaching with students. students’ accomplishments are pretentious by the procedures used. †¢ This philosophy has a solid positions that are shared with the students †¢ A Comparison of Discipline Models Wong’s Pragmatic Classroom Kagan, Kyle, and Scott’s win-win discipline Morrish’s Real Discipline Compare and Contrast †¢ Students are given the choose to what they feel is good for them to do. †¢ Students, teacher and parents are involved in the rule making. †¢ Help students understand each other’s responsibilities along with what the teacher’s responsibilities are. †¢ Discipline is something that the win-win problem does not do to students. †¢ Corrects the situation, which allows the students to come up better actions, which will result in acceptable behavior. †¢ According to Morrish’s real discipline children can only learn SELF DISCIPLINE through experience. †¢ Morrish further states that when children enter school they do not have the knowledge on behaving properly. †¢ With the Three theories they all have the similarity that the teachers and students are involved in the learning process of the required discipline. Strengths †¢ Students, Teachers and parents all work together to establish the rules to have a better school experience. †¢ Teachers help students behave which is acceptable behavior to their teacher. †¢ Win-win discipline is to help students develop log-term, self-managed responsibility. †¢ Morrish rewards occasionally the students for behaving correctly. †¢ Morrish gives students courage that they may not have when working through issues that are sensitive. †¢Weakness †¢ There is too much compromise between teacher and student when establishing the classroom rules. †¢ Teachers are too limited on what they can do to prevent disruptions. †¢ The program is most effective if it is implemented from the first day of school until the last day of school. †¢ Morrish overstates the role of the teacher. â€Å"The because I said so† response. †¢ Morrish believes that teachers who praise children to build up their self-esteem actually do more harm than good. †¢ Morris is against giving students the freedom to choose

Bells Palsy Medical Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Bells Palsy Medical Report - Essay Example Displacement of the mouth towards the unaffected side is also apparent. The patient may have difficulty closing his eyelids too hence it is very important to provide eye care to protect the cornea (Stein, & Miller, 2000). Pain behind the ear is also present. Interestingly, the patient may also experience crocodile tears, an excessive eye tearing on the onset of the disorder and at the time of recovery especially during chewing. Physical examination includes determination of muscle weakness. The physician may ask the patient to lift and lower eyebrows, tightly closing and opening of eyelids, and smiling to the ears. Although, a patient may be diagnosed with presenting muscle weakness, diagnostic tests like MRI, CT scan, electromyography (EMG), and nerve conduction velocity (NCV) are still required to rule out other underlying causes and illnesses. The cause of Bell’s palsy is unknown but it is believed to be preceded by respiratory infection like influenza and common colds. Diabetes is less likely a cause. A possible culprit is a viral agent particularly herpes simplex. This makes it possible to treat the disorder with corticosteroid drugs such as prednisone and dexamethasone together with acyclovir, an antiviral

Human Trafficking Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Human Trafficking - Assignment Example Williamson). International brokers and agents play a significant role in the displacement of human from one place to another or from one country to another. Most of the times, children and women are displaced from one place to another or from one country to another on the promises of bright future and better job opportunities which may be unachievable for them within their own country. However, this group comes to know the reality the time they reach their destination and realize that they have been deceived by the agent and learn the exact nature of the work; they are expected to do in future. Soon they realize that escaping from the situation can be difficult and dangerous for them. Child Labor: Child labor is also a form of illegal abuse and a forced labor that may cause adverse affects on the physical, mental, moral and social development of children and it may hinder the process of their education. According to an observation made by International Labor Organization that there a re approximately 246 million children around the world who are engaged illegal drug trade, forcibly involved in youth militia and armed conflicts, child prostitution and pornography or involved in debt bondage and other illegal activities. Emergence of Youth Militia: In major parts of Africa, children are forcibly recruited in diamond mines and to serve in civil and political wars. The political and civil instability in Sierra Leone has given rise to the army of child soldiers who have maintained their power and authority in the region. This army of children is brutally involved in the killing of thousands of innocent lives, rape, sexual abuse, illegal drug trade and sexual slavery. In third world countries, children and youth have played an important role in giving rise to youth violence. This emerging power of youth is also termed as the establishment of â€Å"Urban youth culture.† In other parts of the world such as Gulf-region which includes Palestine, Israel, Iraq and ot her Middle Eastern countries, we cannot neglect the political and civil instability which has also contributed in the formation of youth militia. Thousands of Palestinian children have lost their lives while transporting, throwing or exploding bombs or other explosive materials. Several groups have been established which comprised of young combatants against Israeli oppression. Furthermore, when mentioning the emergence of youth militia, one cannot ignore the rapid emergence of â€Å"Child Martyrs†. These child martyrs have given a new name to suicide terrorism which is the results of wars. Recruitment of child soldiers is a part of international law which is constituted on the basis of law of wars. According to this law, regulation of child soldiers under lawful recruitment is appropriate only if they are supervised or commanded by someone. It also states a particular age and criteria for the recruitment of child soldiers however; the law does not support the unlawful recrui tment of minors or the use of children in any civil or international war. Human Slavery: Human slavery is a part of human trafficking which allows the illegal trade of human especially women and children for different purposes. Human slavery exists in almost all the cultures and it has been there in the history from ages. Children and women are used forcibly and unlawfully in different

Bodyritualnacirema Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bodyritualnacirema - Assignment Example General George Washington led the American revolution in 1776, and became the first American president. For more than half of Americans, he is much more than a cultural hero. The article goes further to note that Nacirema’s culture is characterized by a well developed market economy which delivers financial benefits to the majority of the Nacirema people. The Nacirema people use up most of their time in pursuing in tending their bodies in ritualistic ways that have cultural approval (Miner, 1956). The author is obviously alluding to the preoccupation that many Americans have with ensuring that their bodies are in the best physical shape. The ‘shrine’ that the author alludes to, which exists in many houses for the purposes of ritualistically attending the body is probably a reference to gymnasiums, or exercise rooms, which many Americans have created within their houses. This shrine could also be an allusion to the medicine box. The author states that within their shrines, the Nacirema usually include a chest like box that is built into the wall. This chest is said to hold magical portions which have been given to the people by specialized practitioners. The people cannot really tell what the portions are made up of, as the practitioners write what they are in a supposedly secret language that can only be deciphered by other practitioners. From the way the author describes these portions, it is evident that he is speaking about medicinal prescriptions, as well as nutritional supplements such as vitamins and minerals which can be found today in almost every American home. The author then goes on to stop that the Nacirema culture is obsessed with the human mouth. He satirically states that the Nacirema believe so much in the power of their mouths, that they are certain that if they do not perform certain rituals on a daily basis, their teeth would fall out, and their social and personal relationships

Art Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Art Theory - Essay Example As such a formidable tool, visual stimuli have played an important role in both publicity and advertising (propaganda), and other forms of public art-different parts of society at different points have created art to send messages, or created art to demonstrate the beauty, the potential, or the ugliness of something. While public art exists in many incarnations, from the seemingly innocuous logo to the graffiti at the bus stop to the almost universally-identifiable swastika or cross, its careful manipulation and is an extraordinarily powerful political and economic tool. The advertising industry has capitalized on art's flexible nature, and makes billions annually off our susceptibility to the visual. Images have a long history of manipulation and an important role in propaganda. From the US Army's famous War Bonds posters of World War II to Maoist propaganda, images have been used for hundreds of years to send powerful political messages to the world's illiterate masses. The media, famous for its use of photography, has successfully changed the course of wars, stirred public opinion, ignited arguments, and evoked sympathy through skillful manipulation of images. The US Army's innovative use of artistic images and paintings raised more than XXX in War Bonds between 194 and 194 One particular poster shows a valiant nurse in a bloodstained uniform cradling a wounded soldier; in the background a fascist monster with cunningly painted green eyes lurks. The monster-in reality, probably a German soldier as young, poorly-educated, and confused as our own-is depicted as subhuman, a creature whose only purpose is to thwart American democracy and to kill our men in uniform. The artist's us e of color, context, and detail carefully and clearly fulfills his social purpose: if the Average American Citizen wants to keep these terrible killers off of our shores, he must purchase War Bonds. The War Bonds posters, thanks to this artist and a handful of others, were extremely successful. JC Lenneydecer, iconic poster illustrator during WWII, used powerful, quotidian images such as the Boy Scout to evoke feelings of patriotism and good (ER1). The images portrayed in these pieces of public art were stimulating, convincing, and terrifyingly real. Likewise, the image of the American icon 'Uncle Sam' grew to represent something much greater than art. Although the government did not formally assimilate the image of Uncle Same until the 1950s, it had already become a pivotal part of the average citizen's conception of the government (Ketchum vii). The personifcation of this figure helped to make him that much more 'real', a presence to which one must respond as if one were responding to one's uncle. Conversely, art provokes understanding of our own surroundings; art assists us with defining our sense of place. The cultural icons with which we surround ourselves are largely artistic, and largely specific to our parts of the world. In the United States we are intimately familiar with a thousand small logos, each of them carefully designed to be both visually appealing and to fulfill a certain purpose. We see this art every day in something as commonplace as a the Greenpeace logo, showing the Tree of Life, or the Nike logo, a constant reminder for one to be all that he can be. We look

Financial Analysis and Pricing Structure Research Paper

Financial Analysis and Pricing Structure - Research Paper Example Off 2 Gran Grans is a service organization with a significant emphasis on using corporate social responsibility as a positioning and competitive tool. The target market for the company is the senior citizen aged 60 to 100, with a secondary market consisting of immobilized shut-ins of varying age categories to assist in revenue production. Off 2 Gran Grans provides assistance services, such as house cleaning and errand running for medications and groceries, with a supplementary service for visitation, consisting of gate keeping services and interpersonal relationship development. Being alone is rather frightening to most senior citizens supporting psychologists stating that warm interpersonal relationships are the most fundamental of human needs (Brammertz and Akkizidis 9). Off 2 Gran Grans will provide psychological adjustment for its target consumers and also fill a tangible need that require fulfilling due to limited mobility, lack of access to transportation, and lack of family an d social support. Financial Analysis for Off 2 Gran Grans In the financial analysis of the products and services that Off 2 Gran Grans, the business will need to re-evaluate the number of customers that are likely going to require its services and determine the revenue that it expects from the services it will offer to the customers (Brammertz and Akkizidis 9). ... The business will also need to estimate the expected return on investment before venturing into business. This will aid the decision on how much to invest in the business and even estimate the time that the business is going to require in order o break even. The financial analysis for the above company is going to encompass three main areas, that is, the net present value, the sensitivity analysis, and the break-even analysis (Lee, Lee and Lee 25). This is important in leveraging the company in a business that has negative reviews from customers. However, this will enable the business to identify where its competitors have been failing and correct it before setting out to provide the services to the people. Break-even analysis The understanding of the break-even in a business is important because it helps in fixing the financial status of any business. As a service provider, Off 2 Gran Grans will need to have a a competitive price for its services and products to the elderly people t hat will be identifiable with the customers. The business will have to take a number of initiatives that are geared towards ensuring that fixed expenses like rent, electricity and others are kept to the minimum with a view of cutting down on the operation costs (Shim and Siegel 32). In determining the breakeven point, Off 2 Gran Grans will require to have 200 customers who will be charged $100 per month as upkeep costs. Since the organization’s initial investments is between $58,000 and $95,000, the company therefore should expect to break even in five years’ time. However, with investment in advertisement each year, this period may be reduced to 3 years. Sensitivity

MHE 511 MODULE 1 DISCUSSION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MHE 511 MODULE 1 DISCUSSION - Essay Example It is important for local, state, and federal stakeholders to formulate and implement functional plans that address different types of emergencies and disasters (Haddow, Bullock, & Coppola, 2010). Response plans ought to be different depending on the type of emergency or disaster in question. For example, approaches to natural and manmade disasters differ in regards to the causes, subsequent effects, and the actions taken by relevant agencies in that regard. In this respect, response plans should be tailored towards specific emergencies and/or disasters. From a personal point of view, there exist critical differences between bio-terrorism, natural, and other types of emergencies. It follows, therefore, that response plans targeting each of the aforementioned emergencies should differ from one type of emergency to the next. Doing so would ensure that local, state, and federal disaster management agencies are in a position to concentrate, focus, and identify key points of concern or interest across varying emergencies. For instance, response plans for bio-terrorist emergencies would hardly work in weather-related natural disasters, thus the need for different response plans in such

A summary of Amazon’s business Essay Example for Free

A summary of Amazon’s business Essay I’ve used Amazon in my books for over 10 years now since many companies, from startups and small businesses to large international businesses, can learn from their focus on the customer and the approach of using technology and analysis to improve results. It consistently outperforms other companies in its ACSI customer satisfaction rating too. I aim to keep the case study up-to-date for readers of the books and Smart Insights readers who may be interested. In it we look at Amazon’s background, revenue model and sources for the latest business results. I recommend anyone studying Amazon checks the latest Amazon revenue and business strategies from their SEC filings / Investor relations. The annual filings to give a great summary of eBay business and revenue models. A good summary of the latest business model initiatives is available in this Amazon annual report summary for 2011. For Q4, 2010: North America segment sales, representing the Company’s U.S. and Canadian sites, were $7.21 billion, up 45% from fourth quarter 2009. International segment sales, representing the Company’s U.K., German, Japanese, French, Chinese and new Italian sites, were $5.74 billion, up 26% from fourth quarter 2009. Excluding the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, sales grew 29%. Amazon has come a long way since it launched in 1995: From: and it’s offices†¦ to it’s current Seattle headquarters: Amazon performs exceptionally efficiently measured against revenue per visitor, which is one of the key measures for any commercial website, whether it’s a media site, search engine, social network or a transactional retailer or offers travel or financial services. Of course profit per user would be quite different due to the significantly lower costs of other .coms like Facebook and Google. Note: SEC is the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which is a government agency for which companies have to submit an open evaluation of their business models and marketplace conditions. Further Amazon case information This case study created by FaberNovel â€Å"Amazon.com: The Hidden Empire† one of five â€Å"Most Favorited† slideshows and one of the five â€Å"Most Popular Technology Presentations† of 2011. Recommended: Amazon Case Study Context Why a case study on Amazon? Surely everyone knows about who Amazon are and what they do? Yes, well that’s maybe true, but this case goes beyond the surface toreview some of the ‘insider secrets’ of Amazon’s success. Like eBay, Amazon.com was born in 1995. The name reflected the vision of Jeff Bezos, to produce a large scale phenomenon like the Amazon river. This ambition has proved justified since just 8 years later, Amazon passed the $5 billion sales mark – it took Wal-Mart 20 years to achieve this. By 2008 Amazon was a global brand with other 76 million active customers accounts and order fulfillment to more than 200 countries. Despite this volume of sales, at December 31, 2007 Amazon employed approximately 17,000 full-time and part-time employees. In September 2007, it launched Amazon MP3, a la carte DRM-free MP3 music downloads, which now includes over 3.1 million songs from more than 270,000 artists. Amazon Vision strategy In their 2008 SEC filing, Amazon describe the vision of their business as to: â€Å"Relentlessly focus on customer experience by offering our customers low prices, convenience, and a wide selection of merchandise.† The vision is still to offer â€Å"Earth’s biggest selection and to be Earth’s most customer-centric company. Consider how these core marketing messages summarising the Amazon online value proposition are communicated both on-site and through offline communications. Of course, achieving customer loyalty and repeat purchases has been key to Amazon’s success. Many dot-coms failed because they succeeded in achieving awareness, but not loyalty. Amazon achieved both. In their SEC filing they stress how they seek to achieve this. They say: â€Å"We work to earn repeat purchases by providing easy-to-use functionality, fast and reliable fulfillment, timely customer service, feature rich content, and a trusted transaction environment. Key features of our websites include editorial and customer reviews;  manufacturer product information; Web pages tailored to individual preferences, such as recommendations and notifications; 1-Click ® technology; secure payment systems; image uploads; searching on our websites as well as the Internet; browsing; and the ability to view selected interior pages and citations, and search the entire contents of many of the books we offer with our â€Å"Look Inside the Book† and â€Å"Search Inside the Book† features. Our community of online customers also creates feature-rich content, including product reviews, online recommendation lists, wish lists, buying guides, and wedding and baby registries.† In practice, as is the practice for many online retailers, the lowest prices are for the most popular products, with less popular products commanding higher prices and a greater margin for Amazon. Free shipping offers are used to encourage increase in basket size since customers have to spend over a certain amount to receive free shipping. The level at which free-shipping is set is critical to profitability and Amazon has changed it as competition has changed and for promotional reasons. Amazon communicate the fulfillment promise in several ways including presentation of latest inventory availability information, delivery date estimates, and options for expedited delivery, as well as delivery shipment notifications and update facilities. This focus on customer has translated to excellence in service with the 2004 American Customer Satisfaction Index giving Amazon.com a score of 88 which was at the time, the highest customer satisfaction score ever recorded in any service industry, online or offline. Round (2004) notes that Amazon focuses on customer satisfaction metrics. Each site is closely monitored with standard service availability monitoring (for example, using Keynote or Mercury Interactive) site availability and download speed. Interestingly it also monitors per minute site revenue upper/lower bounds – Round describes an alarm system rather like a power plant where if revenue on a site falls below $10,000 per minute, alarms go off! There are also internal performance service-level-agreements for web services where T% of the time, different pages must return in X seconds. 2011 update on vision and importance of technology According to founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, technology is very important to supporting this focus on the customer. In their 2010 Annual Report (Amazon,  2011) he said: â€Å"Look inside a current textbook on software architecture, and you’ll find few patterns that we don’t apply at Amazon. We use high-performance transactions systems, complex rendering and object caching, workflow and queuing systems, business intelligence and data analytics, machine learning and pattern recognition, neural networks and probabilistic decision making, and a wide variety of other techniques.And while many of our systems are based on the latest in computer science research, this often hasn’t been sufficient: our architects and engineers have had to advance research in directions that no academic had yet taken. Many of the problems we face have no textbook solutions, and so we — happily — invent new approaches†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ All the effort we put into technology might not matter that much if we kept technology off to the side in some sort of RD department, but we don’t take that approach. Technology infuses all of our teams, all of our processes, our decision-making, and our approach to innovation in each of our businesses. It is deeply integrated into everything we do†. The quote shows how applying new technologies is used to give Amazon a competitive edge. A good recent example of this is providing the infrastructure to deliver the Kindle â€Å"Whispersync† update to ebook readers. Amazon reported in 2011 that Amazon.com is now selling more Kindle books than paperback books. For every 100 paperback books Amazon has sold, the Company sold 115 Kindle books. Kindle apps are now available on Apple iOS, Android devices and on PCs as part of a â€Å"Buy Once, Read Anywhere† proposition which Amazon has developed. Amazon Customers Amazon defines what it refers to as three consumer sets customers, seller customers and developer customers. There are over 76 million customer accounts, but just 1.3 million active seller customers in it’s marketplaces and Amazon is seeking to increase this. Amazon is unusual for a retailer in that it identifies â€Å"developer customers† who use its Amazon Web Services, which provides access to technology infrastructure such as hosting that developers can use to develop their own web services. Members are also encouraged to join a loyalty programme, Amazon Prime, a fee-based membership program in which members receive free or discounted express shipping, in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan. Competition In its SEC (2005) filing Amazon describes the environment for our products and services as ‘intensely competitive’. It views its main current and potential competitors as: 1) physical-world retailers, catalog retailers, publishers, vendors, distributors and manufacturers of our products, many of which possess significant brand awareness, sales volume, and customer bases, and some of which currently sell, or may sell, products or services through the Internet, mail order, or direct marketing; (2) Other online E-commerce sites; (3) A number of indirect competitors, including media companies, Web portals, comparison shopping websites, and Web search engines, either directly or in collaboration with other retailers; and (4) Companies that provide e-commerce services, including website development; third-party fulfillment and customer-service. It believes the main competitive factors in its market segments include â€Å"selection, price, availability, convenience, information, discovery, brand recognition, personalized services, accessibility, customer service, reliability, speed of fulfillment, ease of use, and ability to adapt to changing conditions, as well as our customers’ overall experience and trust in transactions with us and facilitated by us on behalf of third-party sellers†. For services offered to business and individual sellers, additional competitive factors include the quality of our services and tools, their ability to generate sales for third parties we serve, and the speed of pe rformance for our services. From Auctions to marketplaces Amazon auctions (known as zShops) were launched in March 1999, in large part as a response to the success of eBay. They were promoted heavily from the home page, category pages and individual product pages. Despite this, a year after its launch it had only achieved a 3.2% share of the online auction compared to 58% for eBay and it only declined from this point. Today, competitive prices of products are available through third-party sellers in the ‘Amazon Marketplace’ which are integrated within the standard product listings. The strategy to offer such an auction facility was initially driven by the need to compete with eBay, but now the strategy has been adjusted such that Amazon describe it as part of the approach of low-pricing. Although it might be thought that Amazon would lose out on  enabling its merchants to sell products at lower prices, in fact Amazon makes greater margin on these sales since merchants are charged a commission on each sale and it is the merchant who bears the cost of storing inventory and fulfilling the product to customers. As with eBay, Amazon is just facilitating the exchange of bits and bytes between buyers and sellers without the need to distribute physical products. Amazon Media sales You may have noticed that unlike some retailers, Amazon displays relevant Google text ads and banner ads from brands. This seems in conflict with the strategy of focus on experience since it leads to a more cluttered store. However in 2011 Amazon revealed that worldwide media sales accounted for approximately 17% of revenue! Amazon marketing Amazon does not reveal much about its marketing approach in its annual reports, but there seems to be a focus on online marketing channels. Amazon (2011) states â€Å"we direct customers to our websites primarily through a number of targeted online marketing channels, such as our Associates program, sponsored search, portal advertising, email marketing campaigns, and other initiatives†. These other initiatives may include outdoor and TV advertising, but they are not mentioned specifically. In this statement they also highlight the importance of customer loyalty tools. They say: â€Å"while costs associated with free shipping are not included in marketing expense, we view free shipping offers and Amazon Prime as effective worldwide marketing tools, and intend to continue offering them indefinitely†. How ‘The Culture of Metrics’ started A common theme in Amazon’s development is the drive to use a measured approach to all aspects of the business, beyond the finance. Marcus (2004) describes an occasion at a corporate ‘boot-camp’ in January 1997 when Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos ‘saw the light’. ‘At Amazon, we will have a Culture of Metrics’, he said while addressing his senior staff. He went on to explain how web-based business gave Amazon an ‘amazing window into human behaviour’. Marcus says: ‘Gone were the fuzzy approximations of focus groups, the anecdotal fudging and smoke blowing from the marketing department. A company  like Amazon could (and did) record every move a visitor made, every last click and twitch of the mouse. As the data piled up into virtual heaps, hummocks and mountain ranges, you could draw all sorts of conclusions about their chimerical nature, the consumer. In this sense, Amazon was not merely a store, but an immense repository of fact s. All we needed were the right equations to plug into them’. James Marcus then goes on to give a fascinating insight into a breakout group discussion of how Amazon could better use measures to improve its performance. Marcus was in the Bezos group, brainstorming customer-centric metrics. Marcus (2004) summarises the dialogue, led by Bezos: â€Å"First, we figure out which things we’d like to measure on the site†, he said. â€Å"For example, let’s say we want a metric for customer enjoyment. How could we calculate that?† â€Å"There was silence. Then somebody ventured: â€Å"How much time each customer spends on the site?† â€Å"Not specific enough†, Jeff said. â€Å"How about the average number of minutes each customer spends on the site per session† someone else suggested. â€Å"If that goes up, they’re having a blast†. â€Å"But how do we factor in purchase?† I [Marcus] said feeling proud of myself. â€Å"Is that a measure of enjoyment†? â€Å"I think we need to consider frequency of visits, too†, said a dark-haired woman I didn’t recognise. â€Å"Lot of folks are still accessing the web with those creepy-crawly modems. Four short visits from them might be just as good as one visit from a guy with a T-1. Maybe better’. â€Å"Good point†, Jeff said. â€Å"And anyway, enjoyment is just the start. In the end, we should be measuring customer ecstasy† It is interesting that Amazon was having this debate in about the elements of RFM analysis (described in Chapter 6 of Internet Marketing), 1997, after already having achieved $16 million of revenue in the previous year. Of course, this is a miniscule amount compared with today’s billions of dollar turnover. The important point was that this was the start of a focus on metrics which can be seen through the description of Matt Pounds work later in this case study. From human to software-based recommendations Amazon has developed internal tools to support this ‘Culture of Metrics’.  Marcus (2004) describes how the ‘Creator Metrics’ tool shows content creators how well their product listings and product copy are working. For each content editor such as Marcus, it retrieves all recently posted documents including articles, interviews, booklists and features. For each one it then gives a conversion rate to sale plus the number of page views, adds (added to basket) and repels (content requested, but the back button then used). In time, the work of editorial reviewers such as Marcus was marginalised since Amazon found that the majority of visitors used the search tools rather than read editorial and they responded to the personalised recommendations as the matching technology improved (Marcus likens early recommendations techniques to ‘going shopping with the village idiot’). Experimentation and testing at Amazon The ‘Culture of Metrics’ also led to a test-driven approach to improving results at Amazon. Matt Round, speaking at E-metrics 2004 when he was director of personalisation at Amazon describes the philosophy as ‘Data Trumps Intuitions’. He explained how Amazon used to have a lot of arguments about which content and promotion should go on the all important home page or category pages. He described how every category VP wanted top-center and how the Friday meetings about placements for next week were getting ‘too long, too loud, and lacked performance data’. But today ‘automation replaces intuitions’ and real-time experimentation tests are always run to answer these questions since actual consumer behaviour is the best way to decide upon tactics. Marcus (2004) also notes that Amazon has a culture of experiments of which A/B tests are key components. Examples where A/B tests are used include new home page design, moving features around the page, different algorithms for recommendations, changing search relevance rankings. These involve testing a new treatment against a previous control for a limited time of a few days or a week. The system will randomly show one or more treatments to visitors and measure a range of parameters such as units sold and revenue by category (and total), session time, session length, etc. The new features will usually be launched if the desired metrics are statistically significantly better. Statistical tests are a challenge though as distributions are not normal (they have a large mass at zero for example of no purchase) There are other challenges since multiple  A/B tests are running every day and A/B tests may overlap and so conflict. There are also longer-term effects where some features are ‘cool’ for the first two weeks and the opposite effect where changing navigation may degrade performance temporarily. Amazon also finds that as its users evolve in their online experience the way they act online has changed. This means that Amazon has to constantly test and evolve its features. Amazon.com Technology It follows that the Amazon technology infrastructure must readily support this culture of experimentation and this can be difficult to achieved with standardised content management. Amazon has achieved its competitive advantage through developing its technology internally and with a significant investment in this which may not be available to other organisations without the right focus on the online channels. As Amazon explains in SEC (2005) ‘using primarily our own proprietary technologies, as well as technology licensed from third parties, we have implemented numerous features and functionality that simplify and improve the customer shopping experience, enable third parties to sell on our platform, and facilitate our fulfillment and customer service operations. Our current strategy is to focus our development efforts on continuous innovation by creating and enhancing the specialized, proprietary software that is unique to our business, and to license or acquire commercially-developed technology for other applications where available and appropriate. We continually invest in several areas of technology, including our seller platform; A9.com, our wholly-owned subsidiary focused on search technology on www.A9.com and other Amazon sites; web services; and digital initiatives.’ Round (2004) describes the technology approach as ‘distributed development and deployment’. Pages such as the home page have a number of content ‘pods’ or ‘slots’ which call web services for features. This makes it relatively easy to change the content in these pods and even change the location of the pods on-screen. Amazon uses a flowable or fluid page design unlike many sites which enables it to make the most of real-estate on-screen. Technology also supports more standard e-retail facilities. SEC (2005) states: ‘We use a set of applications for accepting and validating customer orders, placing and tracking orders with suppliers, managing and assigning inventory to customer  orders, and ensuring proper shipment of products to customers. Our transaction-processing systems handle millions of items, a number of different status inquiries, multiple shipping addresses, gift-wrapping requests, and multiple shipment methods. These systems allow the customer to choose whether to receive single or several shipments based on availability and to track the progress of each order. These applications also manage the process of accepting, authorizing, and charging customer credit cards.’ Data Driven Automation Round (2004) said that ‘Data is king at Amazon’. He gave many examples of data driven automation including customer channel preferences; managing the way content is displayed to different user types such as new releases and top-sellers, merchandising and recommendation (showing related products and promotions) and also advertising through paid search (automatic ad generation and bidding). The automated search advertising and bidding system for paid search has had a big impact at Amazon. Sponsored links initially done by humans, but this was unsustainable due to range of products at Amazon. The automated programme generates keywords, writes ad creative, determines best landing page, manages bids, measure conversion rates, profit per converted visitor and updates bids. Again the problem of volume is there, Matt Round described how the book ‘How to Make Love Like a Porn Star’ by Jenna Jameson received tens of thousands of clicks from pornography-related searches, but few actually purchased the book. So the update cycle must be quick to avoid large losses. There is also an automated email measurement and optimization system. The campaign calendar used to be manually managed with relatively weak measurement and it was costly to schedule and use. A new system: Automatically optimizes content to improve customer experience Avoids sending an e-mail campaign that has low clickthrough or high unsubscribe rate Includes inbox management (avoid sending multiple emails/week) Has growing library of automated email programs covering new releases and recommendations But there are challenges if promotions are too successful if inventory isn’t available. Your Recommendations Customers Who Bought X†¦, also bought Y is Amazon’s signature feature. Round  (2004) describes how Amazon relies on acquiring and then crunching a massive amount of data. Every purchase, every page viewed and every search is recorded. So there are now to new version, customers who shopped for X also shopped for†¦ and Customers who searched for X also bought†¦ They also have a system codenamed ‘Goldbox’ which is a cross-sell and awareness raising tool. Items are discounted to encourage purchases in new categories! I have a more detailed article on Amazon personalisation / recommendation system He also describes the challenge of techniques for sifting patterns from noise (sensitivity filtering) and clothing and toy catalogues change frequently so recommendations become out of date. The main challenges though are the massive data size arising from millions of customers, millions of items and recommendations made in real time. Amazon Partnership strategy As Amazon grew, its share price growth enabled partnership or acquisition with a range of companies in different sectors. Marcus (2004) describes how Amazon partnered with Drugstore.com (pharmacy), Living.com (furniture), Pets.com (pet supplies), Wineshopper.com (wines), HomeGrocer.com (groceries), Sothebys.com (auctions) and Kozmo.com (urban home delivery). In most cases, Amazon purchased an equity stake in these partners, so that it would share in their prosperity. It also charged them fees for placements on the Amazon site to promote and drive traffic to their sites. Similarly, Amazon charged publishers for prime-position to promote books on its site which caused an initial hue-and-cry, but this abated when it was realised that paying for prominent placements was widespread in traditional booksellers and supermarkets. Many of these new online companies failed in 1999 and 2000, but Amazon had covered the potential for growth and was not pulled down by these partners, even though for some such as Pets.com it had an investment of 50%. Analysts sometimes refer to ‘Amazoning a sector’ meaning that one company becomes dominant in an online sector such as book retail such that it becomes very difficult for others to achieve market share. In addition to developing, communicating and delivering a very strong proposition, Amazon has been able to consolidate its strength in different sectors through its partnership arrangements and through using technology to facilitate product promotion and distribution via these partnerships. The Amazon retail platform enables other retailers to sell products online using  the Amazon user interface and infrastructure through their ‘Syndicated Stores’ programme. For example, in the UK, Waterstones (www.waterstones.co.uk) is one of the largest traditional bookstores. It found competition with online so expensive and challenging, that eventually it entered a partnership arrangement where Amazon markets and distributes its books online in return for a commission online. Similarly, in the US, Borders a large book retailer uses the Amazon merchant platform for distributing its products. Toy retailer Toys R’ Us have a similar arrangement. Such partnerships help Amazon extends its reach into the customer-base of other suppliers, and of course, customers who buy in one category such as books can be encouraged to purchase into other areas such as clothing or electronics. Another form of partnership referred to above is the Amazon Marketplace which enables Amazon customers and other retailers to sell their new and used books and other goods alongside the regular retail listings. A similar partnership approach is the Amazon ‘[emailprotected]’ program which enables third party merchants (typically larger than those who sell via the Amazon Marketplace) to sell their products via Amazon. Amazon earn fees either through fixed fees or sales commissions per-unit. This arrangement can help customers who get a wider choice of products from a range of suppliers with the convenience of purchasing them through a single checkout process. Finally, Amazon has also facilitated formation of partnerships with smaller companies through its affiliates programme. Internet legend records that Jeff Bezos, the creator of Amazon was chatting to someone at a cocktail party who wanted to sell books about divorce via her web site. Subsequently, Amazon.com launched its Associates Program in July 1996 and it is still going strong. Googling http://www.google.com/search?q=www.amazon.com+-site%3Awww.amazon.com for sites that link to the US site, shows over 4 million pages, many of which will be affiliates. Amazon does not use an affiliate network which would take commissions from sale, but thanks to the strength of its brand has developed its own affiliate programme. Amazon has created a tiered performance-based incentives to encourage affiliates to sell more Amazon products. Amazon Marketing communications In their SEC filings Amazon state that the aims of their communications  strategy are (unsurprisingly) to: Increase customer traffic to our websites Create awareness of our products and services Promote repeat purchases Develop incremental product and service revenue opportunities Strengthen and broaden the Amazon.com brand name. Amazon also believe that their most effective marketing communications are a consequence of their focus on continuously improving the customer experience. This then creates word-of-mouth promotion which is effective in acquiring new customers and may also encourage repeat customer visits. As well as this Marcus (2004) describes how Amazon used the personalisation enabled through technology to reach out to a difficult to reach market which Bezos originally called ‘the hard middle’. Bezos’s view was that it was easy to reach 10 people (you called them on the phone) or the ten million people who bought the most popular products (you placed a superbowl ad), but more difficult to reach those in between. The search facilities in the search engine and on the Amazon site, together with its product recommendation features meant that Amazon could connect its products with the interests of these people. Online advertising techniques include paid search marketing, interactive ads on portals, e-mail campaigns and search engine optimisation. These are automated as far as possible as described earlier in the case study. As previously mentioned, the affiliate programme is also important in driving visitors to Amazon and Amazon offers a wide range of methods of linking to its site to help improve conversion. For example, affiliates can use straight text links leading direct to a product page and they also offer a range of dynamic banners which feature different content such as books about Internet marketing or a search box.Amazon also use cooperative advertising arrangements, better known as ‘contra-deals’ with some vendors and other third parties. For example, a print advertisement in 2005 for a particular product such as a wireless router with a free wireless laptop card promotion will feature a specific Amazon URL in the ad. In product fulfilment packs, Amazon may include a leaflet for a non-competing online company such as Figleaves.com (lingerie) or Expedia (travel). In return, Amazon leaflets may be included in customer communications from the partner brands. Our Associates program directs customers to our websites by enabling independent websites to make millions of products available to their  audiences with fulfillment performed by us or third parties. We pay commissions to hundreds of thousands of participants in our Associates program when their customer referrals result in product sales. In addition, we offer everyday free shipping options worldwide and recently announced Amazon.com Prime in the U.S., our first membership program in which members receive free two-day shipping and discounted overnight shipping. Although marketing expenses do not include the costs of our free shipping or promotional offers, we view such offers as effective marketing tools. Marcus, J. (2004) Amazonia. Five years at the epicentre of the dot-com juggernaut, The New Press, New York, NY. Round, M. (2004) Presentation to E-metrics, London, May 2005. www.emetrics.org.

Beamforming Algorithm for Adaptive or Smart Antenna

Beamforming Algorithm for Adaptive or Smart Antenna *Satgur Singh, **Er. Mandeep kaur Abstract  Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã‚  The Demand of Mobile Communication systems is increasing day by day. New concepts and methods are necessary which required the need for new Technologies to satisfy the demand of this world of network. Smart Antenna system is one of those, which reduces the co-channel interference and maximize the user capacity of communication system, By shaping and locating the beam of the antenna on the mobile or the target thus decreasing interference to other users. The Main purpose of smart antenna system is the selection of smart algorithms for adaptive array. By using beam forming algorithms the weight of antenna arrays can be adjusted to form certain amount of adaptive beam to track corresponding users automatically and to minimize interference arising from other users by introducing nulls in their directions. Thus interferences can be suppressed and the desired signals can be extracted. Many algorithms are introduced due to advancement in technology. Every algorithms has different convergence characteristics and complexity of algorithm, according to our need we use particular algorithm in communication system. Keywords — Smart Antenna, LMS (Least mean square), RLS (Recursive least square), NLMS (Normalized Least Mean Square), Sample Matrix Inversion (SMI), Constant Modulus Algorithm (CMA), VSSNLMS (Variable step size NLMS). I. INTRODUCTION: Conventional base station antennas in existing communication systems are either Omni directional or sectorised. There is waste of resources since the majority of transmitted signal power radiates in directions other than the desired user directions and signal power radiated through the Cell area will be interference by any other user than the desired one. Signal power radiated throughout the cell area will increase interference and reduce SNR. Although sector antenna decreases the interference by dividing entire cell into sector, But some levels of interface still exist. To overcome the above problem of the communication system the Smart antenna introduced. Smart Antenna system combines an antenna array with a digital signal-processing capability to transmit and receive in an adaptive manner. Such a configuration technically enhances the capacity of a wireless link through a combination of diversity gain, array gain and interference reduction. Increased capacity translates to higher data rates for a given number of users or more users for a given data rate per user. In other manner, the system which can automatically change the directionality of its radiation patterns in response to its signal environment. By this manner, increase the performance characteristics (such as capacity) of a wireless system. All elements of the Fig 1: Block Diagram of Smart Antenna System adaptive antenna array have to be combined in order to adapt to the current channel and user. A Smart antenna is therefore a phased or adaptive array that adjusts to the environment that is, for the adaptive array, the beam pattern changes as the desired user and the interference move and for the phased array the beam is steered or different beams is selected as the desired user moves. This weight adaptation is the â€Å"smart† part of the smart antenna system. It is possible to investigate a wide range of beam forming algorithms without the need to modify the system hardware for every algorithm. For this, now we are focusing on improving the performance of the beam forming algorithms rather than on designing new hardware, which is very expensive and time consumption. There are many algorithms for beamforming concept ,Every algorithm has its own merits and demerits ,according to our need we use that algorithm which satisfies our need,which are given below:- II) BEAMFORMING TECHNIQUES:- A) Least Mean Square Algorithm: This algorithm was first developed by Widrow and Hoff in 1960. Shahera HOSSAIN et al.(2008)[ ] proposed that LMS is a gradient based technique where in a quadratic performance surface is assumed. The performance surface that is cost function can be established by finding the Mean Square Error (MSE). The cost function is a quadratic function of the weight vector w. The minimum of the performance surface is reached when the MSE tends to its minimum value this is made possible by finding out the gradient of MSE with respect to weight vectors equating it to zero. The Weights of adaptive antenna are adjusted in the negative direction of the gradient to minimize the error. In LMS, the weights are updated using, w(k+1) = w(k)+ ÃŽ ¼ e*(k)x(k) whereas e(k) =d(k) – wH (k)x(k) ÃŽ ¼=Step size that determines the speed of convergence of LMS algorithm. The weights here will be computed using LMS algorithm based on Minimum Squared Error (MSE). y(n)=wH (n)x(n) e(n) =d(n) −y(n) w (k+1) = w(k)+ ÃŽ ¼ e*(k)x(k)†¦ step size ÃŽ ¼ is a positive real-valued constant which controls the size of the incremental correction applied to the weight vector as we proceed from one iteration cycle to the next. The performance of the algorithm depends on the step size parameter, which controls the convergence speed. The LMS algorithm is initiated with an arbitrary value W(0) for the weight vector at n= [1], [6], [23], [25]. For the weight vector is seen to converge and stay stable for 0max Whereas ÃŽ »max is the maximum eigen value of the matrix R. The Response of the LMS algorithm is determined by three principal factors step-size parameter, number of weights, and Eigen value of the correlation matrix of the input data vector. The LMS Algorithm has many drawbacks which are solved by other algorithm. B) Sample Matrix Inversion (SMI) Algorithm: T.B. LAVATE et al.(2010) [5]proposed that LMS algorithm is slow in convergence not suitable for mobile communication this drawback of LMS is eliminated by sample matrix inversion (SMI) method. The sample matrix is a time average estimate of the array co-relation matrix using K time samples. If the random process is ergodic in the co-relation the time average estimate will equal the actual co-relation matrix .If we use a K-length block of data we define the matrix Xk(k) as the kth block of x vectors ranging over K data snapshots, the time average estimate of array co-relation matrix is, R=XK(k) XKH (k)/K And the time average estimate of the co-relation vector is, r= d*(k) XK(k)/K†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ The SMI weights for kth block of length K as WSMI = R-1r WSMI = [ XK(k) XKH H (k)]-1 d*(k) XK(k) From equation (4) it is seen that the weights of the antenna array will be updated for each incoming block of data. C) NLMS (Normalized Least Mean Square) Algoritm: Shahera HOSSAIN et al.(2008)[4] proposed ,the Normalized least-mean-square (NLMS) algorithm, which is also known as the projection algorithm, is a useful method for adapting the coefficients of a finite-impulse response (FIR) filter for a number of signal processing and control applications. It can persist over a wide range of step-sizes. Theoretically, LMS method is the most basic method for calculating the weight vectors. However, in practice, an improved LMS method, the Normalized-LMS (NLMS) is used to achieve stable calculation and faster convergence. The NLMS algorithm can be formulated as a natural modification of the LMS algorithm based on stochastic gradient algorithm Gradient noise amplification problem occurs in the standard form of LMS algorithm. This is because the product vector xà ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¨nà ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ©Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  e*à ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¨nà ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ©Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  in Equation (11) at iteration, n applied to the weight vector wà ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¨nà ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ©Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  is directly proportional to the input vector xà ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¨nà ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ©. This can be solved by normalized the product vector at iteration n à ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ «1 with the square Euclidean norm of the input vector xà ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¨nà ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ©Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  at iteration n. The final weight vector can be updated by, W(n+1)= w(n)+ ÃŽ ¼/||x(n)2.x(n) e*(n) Where the NLMS algorithm reduces the step size ÃŽ ¼ to make the large changes in the update weight vectors.This prevents the update weight vectors from diverging and makes the algorithm more stable and faster converging than when a fixed step size is used. Equation ( ) represents the normalized version of LMS (NLMS), because step size is divided by the norm of the input signal to avoid gradient noise amplification due to x(n) [ ] Sometimes x(k) which is the Input signal becomes very small which may cause W(K + 1) to be unbounded. However, to avoid this situation; ÏÆ' which is a constant value is added to the denominator which made the NLMS algorithm be described as W(n+1)= w(n)+ ÃŽ ¼/||ÏÆ' + x(n)2||.x(n) e*(n) we can conclude that NLMS has a better performance than LMS algorithm. D) Constant Modulus Algorithm Susmita Das [8]proposed that the configuration of CMA adaptive beamforming is the same as that of the Sample Matrix Inversion system except that it requires no reference signal. It is a gradient-based algorithm that works on the theory that the existence of interference causes changes in the amplitude of the transmitted signal, which otherwise has a constant envelope (modulus). The minimum shift key (MSK) signal, for example,is a signal that has the property of a constant modulus .The weight is updated by the equation W(n+1)=W(n)+  µx(n)e(n)* where  µ is the step-size parameter(n) is the input vector,and e(n)=y(n)(R2-|Y(n)|2 where R2=E.[X(n)]4/[X(n)]2 †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. D) RLS ALGORITHM In Recursive least square (RLS) algorithm, the weights are updated by the following equation. W(n)=W(n −1)+K(n)ÃŽ ¶* (n) n=1,2, Where, K(n) is referred to as the gain vector and ÃŽ ¶ (n) is a priori estimation error which is given by the equation: ÃŽ ¶ (n)=d(n)-w(n-1)x(n)The RLS algorithm does not require any matrix inversion computations as the inverse correlation matrix is computed directly. It requires reference signal and correlation matrix information. E) VSSNLMS(Variable step size NLMS) Algorithm: Ali Hakam et al.(2014) proposed that the main aim of the developed Variable Step Size (VSS) NLMS algorithm is to replace the fixed step size ÃŽ ¼ that is used in NLMS by a variable one. This is to avoid a trade-off issue between convergence rate and steady-state MSE. In this algorithm a large step size is used in the initial stages to speed the rate of convergence and a smaller step size is used near to the steady state of the Mean Square Error (MSE) to obtain an optimum value. To achieve this, ÃŽ ¼ is multiplied by P(k) which is randomly chosen from the uniform distribution [0 1] and each time of the N iteration times. Then to control the variable step value, it is multiplied by a curve function that is as follows: ÃŽ ¶(k) = (6/N)2[(K-(N/6)]2+0.001 1≠¤k≠¤N/6 .001 N/6 Where N is the input signal number. By Multiplying equation (9) by the random numbers P(k) and the normalized step size parameter  µ, the variable step size develops to:  µ(K) = P(K) ÃŽ ¶(K)  µ Substituting the variable step size (10) to the conventional fixed step size NLMS algorithm (8), the proposed algorithm is shown as: W(k+1)=W(K)+ µ(K)e(K)x(k)/ÏÆ'+ ||x(K)|| TABLE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT ALGORITHMS LMS Easily implemented method for on-line estimation of time-varying system parameters. The performance of the algorithm depends on the step size parameter, which controls the convergence speed and the variation of the learning curve.The LMS algorithm do not involve any matrix operations. LMS algorithm is least demanding in computational complexity. Simplicity and ease of computation It does not require off-line gradient estimations or repetition of data. The rate of convergence is slow for a small value of ÃŽ ¼ but this gives a good estimation of the gradient vector since a large amount of data is taken into account. The algorithm requires knowledge of the transmitted signal sending periodically some known pilot sequences that is known to the receiver RLS It requires reference signal and correlation matrix Information The RLS algorithm also converges much more quickly than the LMS algorithm RLS algorithm does not require any matrix inversion computations as the inverse correlation matrix is computed directly the computational complexity hasbeen increased. CMA works on the theory that the existence of interference causes changes in the amplitude of the transmitted signal, which otherwise has a constant envelope (modulus) usefulness of CMA when channel conditions are rapidly changing. disadvantage of the CMA is slow convergence time. The slow converges limits the usefulness of the algorithm in the dynamic environment NLMS known as the projection algorithm, is a useful method for adapting the coefficients of a finite-impulse response (FIR) filter for a number of signal processing and control applications. It can persist over a wide range of step-sizes. Normalized LMS(NLMS) is used to achieve stable calculation and faster convergence. prevents the update weight vectors from diverging and makes the algorithm more stable and faster converging than when a fixed step size is used. NLMS algorithm requires a minimum of one additional multiply, divide, and addition over the LMS algorithm to implement for shift input data. IV) APPLICATIONS: Use of adaptive antenna in existing systems will reduce power consumption and interference while enhancing spectral density in wireless system which is the need of wireless communication systems. V) CONCLUSION: Smart Antenna systems are antennas with intelligence and the radiation pattern can be varied without any mechanically changed. The principle reason for the growing interest in smart antenna systems is the capacity increase and low power consumption. Smart antennas will increase the SIR by simultaneously increasing the useful received signal level and lowering the interference level. VI) REFERENCES: [1] Ali Hakam, Raed Shubair, Shihab Jimaa, and Ehab Salahat,Robust Interference Suppression Using a New LMS Based Adaptive Beamforming Algorithm in 17th IEEE Mediterranean ElectrotechnicalConference,Beirut,Lebanon,13-16 April 2014. [2] H. Takekawa,T. Shimamura and S. Jimaa, An efficient and effective variable step size NLMS algorithm, in 42nd Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems and Computers, October, 2008. [3] Leandro Vieira dos Santos, Jacqueline Silva Pereira,Least Mean Square Algorithm Analysis for a High Capacity Mobile Long Term Evolution Network IEEE 2013. [4] Shahera HOSSAIN, Mohammad Tariqul ISLAM and Seiichi SERIKAWA, Adaptive Beamforming Algorithms for Smart Antenna Systems,International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems 2008,Oct. 14-17, 2008 in COEX, Seoul, Korea. [5] T.B. Lavate, V.K. Kokate, G.S. Mani, Non blind and blind adaptive array smart antenna beam forming algorithams for w-cdma mobile communication systems ,Second International Conference on Computer Engineering and Applications,2008. [6] Vishal V Sawant,Mahesh Chavan,Performance of Beamforming for Smart antenna using Traditional LMS algorithm for various parameters,Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Electronics, Signal Processing and Communication Systems. [7] Haitao Liu, Steven Gao, and Tian-Hong Loh,Small Director Array for Low-Profile Smart Antennas Achieving Higher Gain,IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 61, no. 1, January 2013. [8] Susmita Das, IEEE Member,Smart Antenna Design for Wireless Communication using Adaptive Beam-forming Approach [9] Anurag Shivam Prasad, Sandeep Vasudevan , Selvalakshmi R, Analysis of Adaptive Algorithms for Digital Beamforming in Smart AntennasIEEE-International Conference on Recent Trends in Information Technology, ICRTIT MIT, Anna University, Chennai. June 3-5, 2011

Human behaviour and Lifespan Development in Social Care

Human behaviour and Lifespan Development in Social Care Suzanna Pickering Social Workers are increasingly referring to theories of the life cycle, life span development and human behaviours these theories indicate the relationship of particular biological ages of life to psychological, social and development changes. From a theoretical perspective key theories of human growth and development will be discussed focusing on infants, highlighting the importance of professionals observing a child and making a judgment on their development and needs. Therefore, the theories will be applied to social work, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of taking a life span perspective, taking into account gender, culture and individuality. Attachment and the different theories associated with attachment will enable us to understand people in a more thorough manner and in particular the circumstances that service users may be faced with considering diversity, their individual cultural needs and beliefs. Whilst staying within the boundaries, values and Ethics set down by the GSCC. It is widely accepted that parent and child relationship plays a central role in the psychological development. (Pg1 Attachment and Development) Goldburg, S. (2000) Attachment and Development, London: Arnold. The term development refers to the process by which a child, or more generally an organism (human or animal) grows and changes through its lifespan. In humans the most dramatic developmental changes occur in infancy and childhood, as the newborn develops into a young adult capable of becoming a parent himself or herself. From its origins much of developmental psychology has thus been concerned with child psychology, and with the changes from infancy through to adolescence. Smith, P.K. and Cowie, H. (1996) Understanding Childrens Development (2nd ed.), Oxford: Blackwell. The term attachment is described in Collins Dictionary of Social Work (Thomas, M. and Pierson, J. (1995), London: Harper Collins) as a long lasting emotional bond between two individuals, involving their seeking proximity to each other and having pleasure in each others company. Typically attachment is developed by infants towards their principal care-givers, but it may also characterize feelings between other people, or between a person and some object. Attachment is a strong emotional bond that develops between infant and caregiver, providing the infant with emotional security. By the second half of the first year, infants are said to become attached to familiar people who have responded to their need for physical care and stimulation. (Bowlby, J 1998) How these attachments develop and whether attachment theory provides a sound basis for advice on how to raise children have been intense topics of theoretical debate. Attachment refers to the interactive reciprocal relationship that infants and young children experience and develop with their primary caregiver(Bowlby, 1982). Many times this caregiver is the infants biological mother. In recent times the population of working mothers has increased dramatically. Due to this demographic change, the primary caregiver for a child is sometimes the biological father and other relatives such as aunts, uncles, grandparents, older siblings, nannies or day care providers.There are also Children in our country who for various reasons find themselves in the care of foster or adoptive parents. Following birth is a rapid area of learning for the child. A new born baby can see approximately 20 cm and follow a moving object, smell, hear and recognise voices. Checks are preformed on the newborn to ensure nothing obvious is wrong, these checks include Reflexes, Moro response (toes curling), Babinski (grasps fingers and hangs), ensuring that infant is rooting for the breast, sucking swallowing, step and stepping. The new born is totally reliant on the caregiver as it is not equipped to survive without it. The caregiver provides food, warmth and protection, for example when a baby cries it is for a reason this is a form of communication. Babies know that when they cry somebody will come and will ensure to satisfy the babies needs. Chronologically, this is the period of infancy through the first one or two years of life. The child, well-handled, nurtured and loved, develops trust and security and a basic optimism. Badly handled, he becomes insecure and mistrustful.(Erikson E Trus t Vs Mistrust 8 Stages of Development) cited Child Development Information (2009) Children develop and grow from the moment they are conceived until early adulthood, showing many changes within their abilities. Whilst no two children will develop at exactly the same time, as Social Workers we use benchmarks to observe behaviours and development. Understanding the stage and process of development can help a Social Worker identify the achievement of developmental milestones such as a Childs first step or first words and to acknowledge the child is developing normally within the benchmarks we work. Attachment theory is a psychological, evolutionary and ethological theory that forms relationships. One important principle of attachment theory is that a young child needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for social and emotional development to occur normally. The theory was formulated by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby. The area of the infant is considered by Bowlby as sensitivity period. Within attachment theory, infant behaviour associated with attachment is primarily the seeking of familiarity of an attachment figure in stressful situations. Infants become attached to adults who are sensitive and responsive to their needs and who remain as consistent caregivers for some months during the period from about six months to two years of age. During the latter part of this period, children begin to use attachment figures as a secure base to explore from and return to with the knowledge that a parent will be where they left them in the case of a secure attachment. Separation anxiety or grief following the loss of an attachment figure is considered to be a normal and adaptive response for an attached infant. The child will show a clear preference for the primary caregiver on their return; this will help guide the individuals feelings, thoughts and expectations in later relationships. Attachment theorists point to data that favour the caregiver responsiveness hypothesis. For example, it has been found that an infants crying changes over the first year much more than the mothers responsiveness to the crying does. Moreover, the mothers responsiveness over a 3-month period predicts the infants over the 3 months significantly better than the infants crying predicts the mothers subsequent responsiveness to crying. In short, the mother appears to influence the infants crying more than the infant influences the mothers responsiveness to crying (Bell Ainsworth, 1972). As a social worker we need to gain an understanding of the whole child, their development and their life course. It is important to take a range of theories and perspectives into account that support us in understanding childrens growth and development and individual experience, the role and the impact of their families and the influence of processes and systems in their lives. Through this you should be able to see beyond the description of the child, to give meaning to their lives and experiences. Thus we are recognising the child as an individual. We need to acknowledge there are children with unique and specific needs that may impact on their individual development and behaviour, certainly on their experiences and how others view and respond to them, a good example would be the experience and views of a child with a disability. Pg 31 SW humanÂÂ   deve. We need to recognise that communities raise children in diverse ways with each culture encouraging the kinds of habits and traits that help them to integrate and function within that culture, (pg 33 Social work and human development) however we need to be mindful of the laws and human rights that we have within the United Kingdom whilst being aware of cultural diversities and preferences. Recognising the importance of culture within the childs development is important for a number of reasons. Firstly we need to identify those aspects of development that impact on all children ,not just through theories and studies based on white, middle class children living with a western culture. Secondly we need to have an understanding of the childs family culture and how that impacts on the child; we need to understand the impact of cultural beliefs as part of that environment. We need to consider how different cultural beliefs impact on how people experience their lives. Attachment process for the parents seems to begin with the development of an initial emotional bond and then extends to more and more skilful attachment behaviours. For the infant, the process is said to begin with attachment behaviours and then progresses to the full characteristics of attachment somewhat later (Atkinson et al 2000). Sigmund Freud however, also offered a view on the area of attachment and his view was later known as the The Cupboard Theory. This theory stated that the absence of the mother would frighten the baby into believing that it would not be nourished. This theory offered by Freud has received a great deal of criticism on the basis that there is no evidence to suggest that the infant associates the mother entirely with nourishment. Bowlbys view supplemented these criticisms as he believed that babies have inborn tendencies towards the mother and are not attached by food or warmth. Another key development which was argued disproved Freuds theory and offered support towards the view of Bowlby was an experiment which was conducted by Harlow and Harlow in 1977. This experiment consisted of Rhesus monkeys been raised without their mothers. The Monkeys were housed is isolated cages with a model mother either made from wire or terry-towel cloth. The terry-towel cloth had no provision in which to feed the monkeys whereas the wire mother figure did in the form of milk yielding nipples. The study concluded that every time the monkeys were frightened they would seek support and comfort from the warm non-food providing terry-towel cloth model as opposed to the cold food providing wire model. These findings clearly disputed the view of Freuds Cupboard theory. And it indicated, as Bowlby would argue, that a mothers love is not for nourishing but for comforting and children, like the rhesus monkeys, use teddy bears for comfort if they feel in anyway threatened (Gleightman, H . et al 1999).ÂÂ   Later criticisms of attachment theory relate to temperament, the complexity of social relationships, and the limitations of discrete patterns for classifications. Attachment theory has been significantly modified as a result of empirical research, but the concepts have become generally accepted, although we are no longer working with just a Euro centric base, we use these theories as a benchmark within Social Work taking into account individual cultures and beliefs. Another disadvantage for a child is having a good attachment with a poor parent; this could cause lack of trust, mistrust and the child then as having to care for themselves and possibly siblings. Although criticisms have been made of the Theory of Attachment and certain aspects of the work of Bowlby, Ainsworth etc I feel that the theory of attachment has developed immensely through their work. It can certainly be argued that their work will and will continue to contributed to our understanding of how parent and child attachments develop and I feel that their work provides us with reasoning as to why children may develop in different ways. Although there are criticisms which exist of the theories, I feel that it can be clearly argued that they give us a solid information base as to why attachment is important in the development of infants and children. The overall consensus surrounding attachment and the associated debates have in past suffered criticism from feminist groups too. For example, criticisms surrounding Bowlbys work have been made highlighting that he maintains that the mother should be the main carer of the infant and that her continuous care should be present while the child is growing and developing (Gross, R. 1999). This has been argued to be sexist as the implication is that the mother will not work and will automatically undertake child rearing roles. It can be argued once again that this presumption is not only sexist but as highlighted previously, culturally unethical too. One major argument which has been offered by Gross R. in 1999 to support the feminist view is that a stable network of adults offers adequate care and in some cases can have advantages over a system where the mother has the meet all the infants needs (Gross, R. 1999).