In what ways do changes of administration in Washington affect Essay

In what ways do changes of administration in Washington affect continuity in US policy in the Asia-Pacific - Essay Example If the heads of state had come from similar parties it is easier to ensure continuity of policies. Otherwise, the chances of continuity are slim unless the next president is not one for party politics such as Obama’s case. So as to have a clearer view on how administration changes tend to affect continuity in the Asia-Pacific area, this essay henceforth aims to scrutinize the ways in which the change of political leaders may affect policy continuity. Administration changes can affect policies whenever party politics take precedence over continuity. It has been known that Democrats and Republicans have contrasting values. While the former espouses liberal views and political methods, the latter’s beliefs on and approach to policy debates is conservative and traditional. Party affiliation in the US has a â€Å"predominant influence† on the President and his administration. Jim Leach, former chairman of the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, considers â€Å"the interplay between the Republican and Democratic parties and within each of these parties† as responsible for adding another coat of complexity to the US system and its policies in Asia-Pacific. For comparison’s sake, the Democratic administration of President Bill Clinton was markedly different from that of his successor Bush Jr. Though rocked with scandals irrelevant to policy-making (i.e. Monica Lewinsky affai r), there was at least a shortage of war. As Rozoff (2009) quipped in his write-up, â€Å"when Clinton lied no Americans died.† On one hand, the Bush Presidency had enough Republican policies on war to sacrifice thousands of American soldiers. The Democratic Policy Committee condemned such policies as â€Å"misguided† for having â€Å"severely tarnished Americas reputation in Iraq and around the world† and  undermined â€Å"U.S.-led reconstruction efforts†

World War I Diaries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

World War I Diaries - Essay Example Germany failed to attach because of its exhausted manpower reserves. However,, the German home front revolted forming a new German government which signed a conditional surrender called the armistice, terminating the war in November, 11, 1918. The world’s great powers were divided into allies involving the United Kingdom, France and Russia, and the central powers consisting of the triple alliance of Germany, Italy and Austria Hungary (Lymann 13-17). World War 1 was peculiarly a current affair. It was the first major contest of arms fought by large, centrally organised nation states since the dawn of the new revolution. Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary were creations of the nineteenth century. The mechanized production of goods in vast quantities came from Europe and facilitated the pace of technological innovation. The scale of conflict heightened and fighting engulfed all the main states of the European continent as well as Britain, French and German imperial colonialists in Africa, Asia and pacific islands. It also raged the high sea sucked in the colonial peoples from Australia and Indochina to India and Canada and forced the distant and isolationist united states to undertake arms. Modern technology put unprecedented lethal arsenals at the army’s disposal: artillery that could propel explosives from distances up to seventy-five miles, poison guns, airplanes, dreadnoughts and submarines. Fought mainly by soldiers in trenches, the war saw an estimated death of 10 million military men (Browne and Snead 560). It was a world war battle fought between September 12-15, 1918, which involved the American expenditory force and French groups under US commander John J. Pershing against German troops. The Americans expenditory force consisted of 14 divisions (550,000) soldiers while the German fifth army and French army was made up of 10 and four divisions respectively. The United States army air service played a

Current Trends Of Information Technology

Current Trends Of Information Technology EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report has been produced to examine the current trends of information technology with regard to understand the products and services the market is offering and changes in the industry. IT infrastructure generally important in all organizations, whereas the changing of the market is fast, therefore companies and organizations need to be updated to keep pace with the changes. Besides that, issues and challenges that an organization face couldnt be neglect which it may be the major problem for decision making. As an emerging technology and business paradigm, cloud computing has taken commercial computing by storm. To avoid elimination and stay competitive, basically cost or money will plays the most important role in an organization. Keep track with the updated hardware and software will always affected an organizations budget, the change is fast and its costly. Money is the main obstruct. Understanding a technical area as complex as cloud computing is not easy and requires identifying its fundamental characteristics. Clear concepts and terminology into cloud computing help but do not entirely solve the problem of how to design, develop and adopt a cloud computing system. The latest trend of IT world is cloud computing, which allows user of an organization to download software from the web. It generally saves a lot of money from purchasing new software. This report examine and investigate what is cloud computing about and what is the benefits of owning cloud computing services. To own the service we need to know what the service is about, and also understand how the service or system works. Cloud computing platforms provide easy access to a companys high performance computing and storage infrastructure through web services. It is a new method that shares basic framework. The basic principles of cloud computing is to make the computing be assigned in a great number of distributed computers, rather than local computer or remoter server. The running of the enterprises data center is just like Internet. This makes the enterprise use the resource in the application that is needed, and access computer and storage system according to the requirement. Cloud computing comes into the market is for every user convenient. But of course there are still a lot of matters need to be take care of like, the budget and size of company, whether is suitable to use cloud computing. Even though cloud computing is beneficial but will also examine the companys need of the service. Information moves with incredible speed across and between networks and the cloud, making sensitive information challenging to track and locate. And with an IT infrastructure that is virtual and shared via the cloud, organisations must learn new ways to throw light on to risks, threats and compliance performance. This report introduces the background and principle of cloud computing, the character, style and actuality. This report also introduces the application field of cloud computing, such as, it do not need users high level equipment, so it reduces the users cost. It provides secure and dependable data storage center. It can realize data share through different equipments and puts forward some solutions, and discusses the future of cloud computing. Cloud computing is a computing style that provides power referenced with IT as a service. Users can enjoy the service even he knows nothing about the technology of cloud computing and the professional knowledge in this field and the power to control it. TABLE OF CONTENT Page EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 INTRODUCTION 5 IT INFRASTRUCTURE ECOSYSTEM 6 2.1 IT INFRASTRUCTURES 6 2.2 ISSUES AND CHALLENGES 7 CLOUD COMPUTING 8 3.1 CLOUD COMPUTING CURRENT TRENDS 8 3.2 CLOUD COUMPTING SOLUTION 8 3.3BENEFITS AND COSTS OF CLOUD COMPUTING 9 COMPETITIVE FORCE FOR IT INFRASTRUCTURE 9 4.1 IT INFRASTRUCTURE 10 4.2 STRATEGY FOR CLOUD COMPUTING 10 CONCLUSION 11 REFERENCES 12 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1- JOURNAL 14 1. Introduction Petaling Tin Berhad is a progressive property development and investment group listed on the Main Market Of bursa Malaysia, with major ongoing development projects and exclusive land banks in the Klang Valley hub and parts of Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and future high-end resort themed development at Karambunai, Sabah. The group had proven track records in master-planned residential communities, commercial township center and industrial developments for discerning businesses (Petaling Tin Berhad 2010). At Petaling Tin Berhad, we continue to strengthen our core in property development, whilst diversifying into property related businesses such as property investment, management and construction. Today, Petaling Tin Berhad had net assets worth in excess of RM350 million. The Groups continuing strategies include:- Building on a solid foundation of assets by making informed and strategic decisions. Pursuing innovative property products by responding to changes/evolution in needs of consumers. Continuous relationships with our customers, business partners, investors, agencies and communities. The group has few listed companies under the banner and more than ten subsidiaries. Every single company is allocated with different area of responsibility, either in property development or investment. For Karambunai, with cost of RM3 billion eco-nature resort at Nexus Karambunai, Sabah is the next upcoming mega project. The Government will allocate RM100 million to support the tourism industry. With lots of project coming and subsidiaries located separately, groups employees rely on the Internet either to communicate or share updated information. The Malaysian Government initiations via the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) coupled with continued implementations of stimulus packagers augur well for the country, brought with it major property development plains particular within Greater KL, certain indentified infrastructure and tourism projects. The property sector shall continue resilient, moving forward barring unforeseen circumstances, the Group continues to focus of its core business of property development, and shall endeavour to roll-out future planned developments to generate higher sustainable revenue, with continuing effort to optimize the Groups performance. The group currently focuses its commitment contributions along the core themes and concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). As a responsible property developer, the Group adopts and promotes Green Environment approaches and practices in all its property development activities. The Group works closely with its business associates and partners, with emphasis placed on using resources efficiently and effectively whilst adopting environmental best practices whenever possible. Providing a safe, secure, healthy and conductive workplace for employees is a continuous feature of the Groups CSR practice as we recognized the importance of our human resources and work force and their contribution. For the financial year, the Group recorded a higher turnover of RM19.4 million as compared to previous year and also recorded a higher loss before tax. The higher pre-tax loss for the year was mainly due to the write back of profit from the property subsidiary company, mitigated by net gains from changes in fair values of investment properties of the Group. 2. IT Infrastructure Ecosystem 2.1 IT Infrastructures 2.1.1 Internet Platforms Linux is the Internet hardware server at the moment for our group. Internet platforms overlap with, and must relate to, the firms general networking infrastructure and hardware and software platforms (Laudon Laudon 2010). 2.1.2 Computer Hardware Platforms In 2008, U.S. firms spend about $150 billion on computer hardware. This component includes client machines and server machines. The server market is complex. Our group is using HP and IBM, which are the top firms in the market that concentrated in. 2.1.3 Operating Systems Platforms At the client level, 95% of PCs in the world use Microsoft Windows operating system to manage the resources and activities of the computer and our group is one in the category. We are also comprised with Linux as our secondary operating system, which is inexpensive and reliable. 2.1.4 Enterprise Software Applications In our group, software for enterprise application is treated as components of IT infrastructure. The software we are using calls IFCA, its platform one of Malaysias top developers software to fully automate operation. IFCA is paid licensed software that requires renew every year, it is a generally use to update the company whole projects. 2.1.5 Networking/Telecommunications Windows Server is predominantly used as local area network operating system, followed by Linux and Unix. Many local area networks, as well as wide area enterprise networks, use TCP/IP protocol suite as standard. In Malaysia, generally network uses TM. TM is the largest telecommunications service company that offer voice and data connectivity, wide area networking and Internet access. 2.1.6 Consultants and System Integrators Software integration means ensuring the new infrastructure works with the firms older, so-called legacy systems and ensuring the new elements of infrastructure work with one another. This is not necessary for the group while its costly. 2.1.7 Data Management and Storage There are few choices for enterprise database management software, which is responsible for organizing and managing date so that it can be efficiently accessed and used. We are engage with SQL Server by Microsoft, which is one of the leading database software providers. 2.2 Issues and Challenges The biggest challenges for IT professionals are applications, integration, financial and cultural (Kennedy 2009). Even though we have well maintain and established infrastructures for the group but there are still some issues we need to emphasize on like security, connection problems, management cost control, employees knowledge and training, updated hardware and software, data storage and documentation. 2.2.1 The Application Challenges Keeping up with all of the latest technology that is released on a constant basis is another problem. Therefore current applications somehow is not the best, for example connection problem and security issue in Malaysia still need long way to improve on it, sometimes the latest offer in the market might not get upon expectation. 2.2.2 The Integration Challenges Consolidating and integrating multiple finance data warehouses into a single, unified data warehouse is something IT still struggles with. We are property development company, there are too many documentation and process either among external like lawyer firm and banker, or within internal between finance, project and marketing department. Therefore IT department need to ensure everything is going smooth to avoid any hesitation. 2.2.3 The Financial Challenges Financially tight for IT budget is difficult in maintaining information infrastructure under the current budget pressures. Doing more with less continues to be a priority, or as one participant put a fine point on it, getting more results with a big budget reduction. Moreover, these increased expectations are coupled with the reality of lower IT budgets. Providing more service for less money will be a reality well all have to deal with. 2.2.4 The Cultural Challenges Cultural difference play important role in an organization, religious differences and age differences will also play a greater role. However, using them to our advantage will be the challenge. Other than that, implementing change, keeping up with new developments are challenges for the group as well while the products in IT market is changing in a fast pace. Especially giving employees training for new information is not easy task whey they are already get use with the current hardware or software. Thomas C. Staab outlined challenges facing Information Technology leaders in the years to come; he sees challenges based upon the experience and insight hes gained and other technology leaders around the globe (Rosberg 2008). 3. Cloud Computing Cloud computing refers to a model of computing where firms and individuals obtain computing power and software applications over the internet, rather than purchasing their own hardware and software (Laudon Laudon 2010). The cloud computing service model involves the provision, by a service provider, of large pools of high performance computing resources and high-capacity storage devices that are shared among end users as required (Vaquero 2009). The service providers offering may also extend to the software applications required by the end user. Cloud service model requires a high-speed network to provide connection between the end user and the service providers infrastructure. Cloud computing potentially offers an overall financial benefit, in that end users share a large, centrally managed pool of storage and computing resources, rather than owning and managing their own systems (Kondo 2009). The end user in turn sees convenience benefits from having data and services available from any location, from having data backups centrally managed, from the availability of increased capacity when needed, and from usage-based charging (Weiss 2007 Hayes 2008). 3.1 Cloud Computing Current Trends Datapipe, a provider of managed services and infrastructure for IT and cloud computing, is predicting that 2011 will be the year when industry giants from across the spectrum-including major financial institutions, pharmaceuticals and retailers-will migrate major internal and external IT systems to the cloud. (Sowinski 2010). Amazon was first to use a cloud-computing model for their business and now is the leader in providing cloud services to other businesses. Entrepreneurs are exploiting Amazons Web services, Microsofts Windows Azure hosting platform and other cloud services in order to start up companies because of the zero capital equipment requirements. Payment is by credit card and you pay as you go (Bell 2011), examples like iTunes, Dropbox, Salesforce.com and HealthVault; which lets you store and share your medical information. The idea of cloud computing is to make all the information and services run in data centers around the world available via the Web. These new approaches come along roughly every decade and promise to make computers cheaper and more accessible. 3.2 Cloud Computing Solution A number of organizations are already hosting and/or offering cloud computing services. Examples include Google Docs, Amazons Elastic Compute Cloud and Simple Storage services, Microsofts Windows Azure Platform, IBMs Smart Business Services, Salesforce.com, and WebEx (Baliga 2011). Amazon is on the Internet the biggest online retail merchant, everyday is bearing the massive network transaction, and simultaneously Amazon also provides the cloud computing service platform for the independent software development personnel as well as the developer. Amazon calculates theirs cloud the platform to be called elastic compute cloud (EC2), is most early provides the long distance cloud to calculate the platform service the company. Amazon own elastic computation cloud establishment in the platform which the company interior large-scale colony calculates, but the user may operate through the elastic computation cloud network contact surface in the cloud calculates each instance. Amazon elastic compute cloud comes by the named Amazon Web services existing platform development. Amazon Web Services mainly is composed by 4 core services: Simple Storage Service; Elastic Compute Cloud; Simple Queuing Service as well as still occupied at present test stage SimpleDB (Zhang 2010). 3.3 Benefits and Costs of Cloud Computing Cloud services will ultimately save organizations money; cloud services are succeeding in delivering key benefits to the supply chain in the long run. In the cost modelling of cloud services, to offset the initial cost of acquisition of cloud services against existing system licensing and asset costs they will no longer have to pay (Shacklett 2010). Cloud services are less expensive solutions than internal systems, moreover the best solutions for what a given business is striving to achieve in a given business scenario. Cloud computing also allows users to automatically store and back up data without the risk of losing the information in a server crash. It provides organisations with sufficient control over cloud security and compliance to adapt to any type of workload, even mission-critical ones. And giving IT teams the ability to directly inspect and monitor conditions in private, public, or hybrid clouds so they can base their trust on first-hand observations, not just outside Attestations (Patterson 2011). Cloud allows organization to move away from managing their own data centers to focusing their attention and their resources-financial and human-on their core competencies. Cloud is enabling businesses to respond much more effectively to changes in demand. Cloud networks are evolving, linking organizations through complex, multiparty processes into single, virtual organizations (Giniat 2011). Cloud computing do not need high quality equipment for user, and it is easy to use. Cloud computing provides dependable and secure data storage center to avoid data loss or virus problems (Chen 2010). User saved the equipment and maintenance cost with the integrity virtual machine movement controls by user. 4. Competitive Forces Model for IT Infrastructure There has been a growing trend to use off-site infrastructure resources to manage the company IT needs. This has opened up a number of options for large and small companies because it allows them to quickly scale their infrastructure to meet their changing needs, adopt new technology as it comes available, and control all the expenditures related to the IT department (Dell 2011). Cloud computing companies are making it possible to be more efficient, flexible, and cost effective than ever before, it is a very safe, secure way to store data and manage various applications. Cloud services will help organizations enter the age of utility computing in an incremental manner (Hurwitz 2010). 4.1 IT Infrastructure Infrastructure as a service allows us to pay for the things we need. We wont be spending money on physical servers or storage space and wont have to make new technology purchases based on the possibility of growth. We will be able move faster when our IT infrastructure is scalable and flexible by keep up with the recent changes of new technology. This is good from our standpoint, we have no desire to buy and maintain lots of hardware and software. If we can let someone else look after the basic technology, we can more focus on future development. With cloud computing, we have come full circle: the efficiencies of a centralized computing infrastructure that can be easily accessed via the Internet are just too compelling to ignore. Our group doesnt own any servers, with everything else off in a cloud, and we only have the basic productivity software on our personal computers. Recently Google joined with IBM to promote cloud computing, the idea of cloud computing its sufficiently compelling that in large measure it already exists (Weber 2008). We use Google, for search and for analytics and for document sharing, among other things. We are established developer in the industry for more than few decades; we should upgrade our IT infrastructure to be more competitive in the market. Especially over the years, we have too many documents to sort out, but to list systematically is difficult. Lots of burden will be reducing if with the assistance of cloud service. Furthermore it can simplify the documentations between us with lawyer and banker. We can retrieve and trace every document from the web rather than waiting dispatch to send or collect, or need to search the document in the storage room. And also can download s oftware from the web anytime without any hassle while waiting for IT personnel. 4.2 Strategy for Cloud Computing The first type of resources is infrastructure resources, which include computing power, storage, and machine provisioning. For example, Amazon EC2 provides web service interface to easily request and configure capacity online. Xdrive Box service provides online storage to users. Microsoft SkyDrive provides free storage service, with an integrated offline and online model that keeps privacy related files on hard drives, and enables people to access those files remotely (Zhang Zhou 2009). Infrastructure as a service refers to the sharing of hardware resources for executing services, typically using virtualization technology. With Infrastructure as a Service, potentially multiple users use existing resources. In Platform as a Service, the offering includes software execution environment, such as application server. In the Software as a Service, complete applications are hosted on the Internet so that e.g. your word processing software isnt installed locally on your PC anymore but runs on a server in the network and is accessed through a web browser (Ohlman 2009). Through storage as a service, users can outsource their data storage requirements to the cloud (Buyya 2008). All processing is performed on the users PC, which may have only a solid state drive, and the users primary data storage is in the cloud. Data files may include documents, photographs, or videos. Files stored in the cloud can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection at any time (Kondo 2009). In addition, after a user uploads a file to the cloud, the user can grant read and/or modification privileges to other users. One example of storage as a service is the Amazon Simple Storage service. Conclusion Infrastructure management is becoming more important in a dynamic business environment, the right business infrastructure can help optimize IT efficiency, minimize costs, and help organization respond quickly to industry changes. Why we need cloud computing? It is to utilize the vacant resources of computer, increase the economic efficiency through improving utilization rate, and decrease the equipment energy consumption. Among the many IT giants driven by trends in cloud computing has not doubtful. It gives almost everyone has brought good news. For enterprises, cloud computing is worthy of consideration and try to build business systems as a way for businesses in this way can undoubtedly bring about lower costs, higher profits and more choice; for large scale industry, After the financial turmoil will be the cost of infrastructure for large-scale compression seems likely; developers, when in the face of cloud computing, can effectively improve own capacity, cloud computing will bring a revolutionary change in the Internet. Cloud computing announced a low-cost super-computing services to provide the possibility, while there are a large number of manufacturers behind, there is no doubt that cloud computing has a bright future. Certainly, there are many of challenges we need to face, or continue to face, in the unknown coming days. And as we face these challenges proactively, with open minds, and by embracing change, working these things to our advantage, the opportunities well find will ultimately result in our success. If our group depend on someone else for the technology and that can limit our flexibility and creativity. In fact, the personal computer itself arose because the old model of business computing, in which companies had big mainframes and everyone connected to them via dumb terminals, was enormously frustrating for the people sitting at those dumb terminals. They could only do what they were authorized to do. They were dependent on the computer administrators to give them permission or fix problems. They had no way of staying up on the latest innovations. The personal computer was a rebellion against the tyranny of centralized computing operations. Security problem of the exposure to the web still resolve while the user will manage and monitor everything. Cloud computing will help the group save money in the long run, and to be more productive when documentations are done within a faster period. And also provide employees with a greater IT environment with always getting the most updated software in the market. With cloud computing, the aim is to hide the complexity of IT infrastructure management from its users. At the same time, cloud computing platforms provide massive scalability, reliability, high performance, and specifiable configurability. These capabilities are provided at relatively low costs compared to dedicated infrastructures. Cloud computing is making it possible to separate the process of building an infrastructure for service provisioning from the business of providing end user services. It will cut complexity, improve flexibility and make IT more strategic to business there is a misconception about the cloud that the Cloud is cheaper than traditional IT. References Baliga J., Ayre R.W.A., Hinton K. Tucker R.S. 2011, Green Cloud Computing: Balancing Energy in Processing, Storage, and Transport, Vol. 99, No. 1, January 2011, Proceedings of the IEEE. Bell G. 2011, Online 24/7: Life Logging Pioneer Clarifies the Future of Cloud Computing from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=cloud-computing-pioneer-bell Buyya R., Yeo C.S. Venugopal S. 2008, Market-oriented cloud computing: Vision, hype, and reality for delivering IT services as computing utilities, in Proc. 10th IEEE Int. Conf. High Performance Comput. Commun., Dalian, China, Sep. 2008, pp. 5-13 Chen X.B., Huo X.Z., Zhang S.F. Zhang S. 2010, Second International Conference on Future Networks Cloud Computing Research and Development Trend, 978-0-7695-3940-9/10 $26.00  © 2010 IEEE, DOI 10.1109/ICFN.2010.58 , IEEE Computer Society. Dell L. 2011, 5 Components of Effective IT Infrastructure Management from http://www.cloudcomputingzone.com/2011/05/5-components-of-effective-it-infrastructure-management/ Giniat E.J. 2011, cloud computing: innovating the business of health care Hayes B. 2008, Cloud computing, Commun.ACM, vol. 51, no. 7, pp. 9-11, 2008. http://www.ptb.com.my/ Hurwitz J., Bloor R. Kaufman M. 2010, Cloud Computing For Dummies ®, HP Special Edition, Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana. Kennedy H. 2009, IT Challenges: 2009-2010 from http://blog.agencypja.com/2009/09/25/marketing/it-challenges-2009-2010/ Kondo D., Javadi B., Malecot P., Cappello F. Anderson D.P. 2009, Cost-benefit analysis of cloud computing versus desktop grids, in Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. Parallel Distrib. Process., Rome, Italy, May 2009, DOI: 10.1109/IPDPS. 2009.5160911. Laudon, KC Laudon, JP 2010, Management information systems: managing the digital firm, 11th edn, Pearson Prentice-Hall, USA. Ohlman B., Eriksson A., Rembarz R. 2009, What Networking of Information Can Do for Cloud Computing 2009 18th IEEE International Workshops on Enabling Technologies: Infrastructures for Collaborative Enterprises. Patterson A. 2011, The year of the cloud from nzbusiness.co.nz Rosberg J. 2008, Ten IT challenges for the 21st century from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-manager/ten-it-challenges-for-the-21st-century/410 Shacklett M. 2010 Cloud Computing: The value proposition of this promising technology is beginning to reverberate across supply chains. from www.worldtradewt100.com Sowinski L.L. 2010, World Trade Magazine: Cloudy No More, Willowbrook Lane, West Chester, Pa. 19382. Vaquero L.M., Rodero-Merino L., Caceres J., Lindner M. 2009, A break in the clouds: Towards a cloud definition, SIGCOMM Comput. Commun. Rev., vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 50-55, 2009. Weber J. 2008, Cloud computing from http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3874599.ece Weiss A. 2007, Computing in the clouds, netWorker, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 16-25, 2007. Zhang L.J. Zhou Q. 2009, CCOA: Cloud Computing Open Architecture, IEEE International Conference on Web Services IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, New York, USA, 978-0-7695-3709-2/09 $25.00  © 2009 IEEE, DOI 10.1109/ICWS.2009.144, IEEE Computer Society. Zhang S.F., Zhang S., Chen X.B. Wu S.Z. 2010, Analysis and Research of Cloud Computing System Instance, 2010 Second International Conference on Future Networks ,Hebei Polytechnic University, China. 978-0-7695-3940-9/10 $26.00  © 2010 IEEE, DOI 10.1109/ICFN.2010.60, IEEE Computer Society.

Robert Hutchins Goddard :: biographies biography bio

Many of the the most important features of modern rockets, missiles, and even spacecraft use the principles pioneered by Dr. Robert Goddard. Before his work, many people didn't even believe thrust could propel a rocket in a vacuum and, because of this, he was ridiculed by the New York Times when he proposed that space travel with rockets was possible4. When he tried to tell the U.S. Army about the possibility of the Germans using rockets as weapons just before World War II, he was rebuffed. What he had warned became a reality however, when German V-2 rockets hit London. After the war was over, German scientists admitted that much of the design for the V-2 had been taken from Goddard's patents, which were publicly available4. Even though many people didn't take his work seriously, this didn't deter Goddard from the work he loved. He always kept working to advance rocketry, which he believed someday would be the means to travel into space. From his early experiments of measuring the thrust of solid fuel rocket engines on a bench with a ballistic pendulum3, to his last experiments with liquid fuel powered rockets that were over 20 feet long and traveled to altitudes of 9000 feet1, he forged the means to the space age. Before him, rocketry was relatively dead, while after him it was at the forefront of scientific research. Unlike when he first started his work, Dr. Goddard is now recognized for the important role he had in the fields of rocketry and liquid fuel propulsion. He is now known as the father of modern rocketry5. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland is named after him. He recently was named one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century by Time magazine4. In 1969, the New York Times even printed a piece acknowledging that Goddard had indeed been correct about thrust working in a vacuum. Robert Goddard's achievements 1,2 * First to explore mathematically the practicality of using rocket propulsion to reach high altitudes and even the moon (1912) * Received first U.S. patent in the idea of a multi-stage rocket (1914) * Proved, by actual test, that a rocket will work in a vacuum (1915)

How I Learned to Play the Guitar

How I Learned to Play the Guitar Guitar is one of the most popular musical instruments to learn because of its versatility and portability. When I was in high school, I had an abundance of leisure time. I wanted to do something meaningful and fun instead of wasting time on playing video games, so I decided to learn a musical instrument. Honestly speaking, I was a good singer; however, singing without a musical instrument to accompany me seemed strange. That is why I made up my mind to learn to play the guitar.Now I realize that I made a wise decision. To learn to play the guitar, I bought a guitar and a guitar pick. In addition, like playing other instruments, learning to play the guitar requires the love of music, perseverance, and patience. I learned some basic knowledge about the guitar and how to tune it. To illustrate, the neck of the guitar is divided by the strings from the left to the right and by the frets into sections from the top to the bottom. Moreover, every guitar has six strings and each string has a different size and note value.Each time before playing, I need to tune the strings. The tuning process is important for getting the right sound when I play. Next, I began to learn to play the chords, which are made up of different combination of notes. Each time I played the chords, a unique sound was created. The knowledge of the function of the frets and strings helped me identify the chords’ locations easily. There are a lot of chords on the guitar, but I could only memorize the most common chords.I could search for other chords online when I needed them. Now I can play the most important and fundamental five ‘major’ chords. I spend more than 30 minutes every day practicing without looking at the diagram of chords. At first, I strummed the strings slowly to see if all the strings rang clearly. When I could naturally play different chords, I would switch my fingers from one chord to another as quickly and precisely as possible. In this way, I could connect several chords together to make a song.There are many different types of scales, each with different characteristics, note patterns and musical qualities on the guitar. Playing improvisation means playing the scales in different orders. I also learned some techniques to enrich improvising, like mute, vibrato technique, advanced bend and so on. All the different techniques made improvisation fun and diverse. With the encouragement of my professor, I became very enthusiastic about playing the guitar. I carried my guitar everywhere and strummed notes whenever I was free.Before long, my fingertips developed calluses and the pain abated. Also, the more flexible and the stronger my fingers became, the easier I could play the chords. My fingers’ flexibility and strength turned out to be essential for improvisation on the guitar scales. At last, after learning to play the guitar for three months, I could play one of my favorite songs, ‘Time of Your Life’ by Green Day and some other songs with simple tunes. Then I quit my class and decided to learn to play the guitar by myself.Because I knew, practice makes perfect, in order to be a better and more skillful player, I had to practice more. I began to search music scores and videos online, and I followed them to learn new songs. Many uploaded videos on YouTube teach how to play different songs, and I benefited greatly from them. It took me some time to learn a new song, but the process was always fun and enjoyable. Even though I stopped going to the guitar class, I knew what to do and where to go to improve my skills. The most important lesson I learned about playing the guitar is that practice makes perfect.The only way to become a good guitar player is to practice every day. It has been said that professional guitar players practice 8 hours a day, so I knew there was a long way for me to go to become a good player. I am very delighted to say that I can play and sing qui te a few songs at the same time. It has been rewarding to learn to play the acoustic guitar, as it has opened up a whole new universe of expression, conversation and real pleasure. It also has been a great way to make friends, so it was worth making the effort to learn it.

Marketing Research for Costa Cafe Essay

Costa Coffee is one of the most famous coffee chains in the UK. It was founded in 1971 in Italy by two Italian brothers: Sergio and Bruno Costa. Costa company which introduced the first Costa coffee shops in the UK in the early 1980`s, had as a main objective to create and serve the finest authentic Italian coffee. Costa became part of Whitbread PLC in 1995 and has followed an expansion program, so to become recognized nationally. Despite that figures, Costa faces some problems, related to their competitors. A recent survey conducted by Allegra Strategies indicated that Starbucks Coffee (one of the main competitors of Costa), has the highest consumer brand recognition of all the chains, being recognized by a staggering 77% of coffee shop visitors followed by Costa Coffee with 72%. Naturally the management of Costa is very concerned. As Marketing research agency, we are about to conduct a marketing research to identify who are the typical customers of coffee outlets and ascertain their needs, expectations and buying behaviour. The decision problem that Costa Coffee management is facing is why Costa is losing customers from its main competitors. An appropriate research design has been conducted. Justifications will be given in order to prove why specific approaches were used. Background research in order to fully understand the problem at hand has also been conducted. Furthermore, a questionnaire has been designed so as to help us identify the typical customers of branded coffee shops and view their opinions and perceptions concerning the coffee market. In addition to the questionnaire, an observation technique has been followed in order to have a better perspective of customers’ buying behaviour and compare the efficiency of different coffee shops. Moreover, in order to fully address the components of the research a focus group has been conducted as well. Research findings are properly analysed in the form of tables and charts and the results of observation and focus group have been clearly presented. According to our analysis Costa coffee is the second favourite coffee shop after Starbucks. The needs, expectations and buying behaviour of the typical branded coffee shops have been identified and presented properly. Therefore Costa coffee management team can use this data in order to make several conclusions and implement new strategies that will satisfy the needs and expectations of typical coffee customers and become the leading UK coffee shop as to attract as many typical Costa prides itself on providing a genuine Italian real coffee experience, particularly as real espresso coffee originated in Italy. Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa established Costa in 1971.At that time they first started importing and roasting beans, which was long before the current growth in coffee bars. The brothers began roasting and grinding coffee for wholesale to the catering market. From the very beginning, Sergio and Bruno Costa insisted on slow roasting beans in a traditional Italian drum roaster to give a quality of coffee that is recognized by their customers as superior to others. Costa samples, tests and selects beans which have the best flavor characteristics, and which are suitable for their authentic style of roasting, whether as a single variety, or as part of their selected blends. As real coffee experts they have created their reputation from the expert blending of Arabica and Robusta coffee, which they import from Indonesia and Brazil. Only by the right blending can the Arabica beans be correctly balanced by Robusta beans to create a coffee with great aroma, body and golden cream. This unique combination of beans is the original Costa blend and is why coffee lovers always visit Costa stores. The recipe, acclaimed for producing great tasting coffee with a distinctively rich fragrance and taste, is their most prized secret. Beans from 6 specially selected Arabica varieties are combined with those from a single Robusta to create just the right amount of ‘edge’ for the perfect espresso. Costa Coffee Store Espresso is the authentic Italian Pick-me-up and from listening to lovers of real coffee, they tend to agree! The four factors that influence the making of the perfect espresso at Costa (4 Ms) are:  ·Miscela: The coffee blend  ·Macinatura: The grinding of coffee  ·Macchina: The use of the correct machine and equipment  ·Mano: The hand skills of the barista In addition they only slow roast beans, this process takes at least 18 minutes-far longer than is the case for the majority of roasters. Slow roasting provides a fuller flavor and significantly reduces the presence of harsh and bitter acids. The wide appreciation of their secret coffee blend led to the opening of the first coffee UK Costa stores in the early 1980’s. This promoted the popularity of coffee bean sales and revitalized the trend towards drinking authentic Italian espresso, cappuccino and other espresso based drinks. Many coffee companies specialize in only one element of the coffee supply chain. For example: importing only, roasting only, wholesaling or retailing only. At Costa, the coffee production process starts from the stage of importing  the beans, to taking control of the whole process to ensure that standards are applied at all stages. They import beans to their specification, roast beans in their own roaster to the highest standard, they create their own unique blends of the finest coffees, they package and distribute to their outlets to ensure the highest quality and freshest product. The aim is to create and serve the finest authentic Italian real coffee experience every time. When entering a Costa Store, with its Continental ambience, a coffee lover will not just be able to consume the finest cup of real coffee around, but will be able to buy all the necessary equipment and coffee products required to repeat the Costa experience at home. Costa is expanding, opening stores in many locations such as high streets, airports, railway stations, shopping centers, office developments and leisure complexes. The Costa Wholesale division is also expanding nationwide, promoting sales of roasted coffee and coffee equipment in hotels, restaurants, multiple catering outlets and supermarkets. Now Costa can be experienced by a greater number of people in more ways than ever before. Costa became part of Whitbread Plc in 1995 and immediately established Whitbread as the market leader in the premium coffee shop sector. Before Whitbread acquired the company, thus between 1978-1994 there were 41 Costa outlets selling coffee as well as coffee beans. The first store being established in Victoria station in London-where it still runs successfully keeping up to the traditional coffee preparation methods. Since then, Costa has embarked on a major expansion programme in support of its Mission†¦Ã¢â‚¬ To become recognized nationally as the people to come to for the best Real Coffee Experience†. The company’s four values encompass everything they believe, how they should behave and act:  ·Cuore-(Kwor-reh)-sharing a love for coffee, making and serving the best coffee in the world. The roasting and blending knowledge, the coffee making skills and the dedication to service.  ·Onore-(On-or-reh)-Individual responsibility and sense of personal duty. People who take pride in what they do, in being able to achieve sales and profit targets, maximizing the potential of available resources and maintaining an excellent standard of guest and customer service.  ·Eccellenza-(Etch-el-n-zah)-Making the perfect coffee every time. Costa’s skilled Baristas are trained to create a coffee masterpiece in every cap they serve, within a strong retail merchandise environment. Its due to this focus in training that Costa has become well known throughout the UK for a perfect coffee every time, with a stylish and contemporary Italian ambience.  ·Audacia-(Aw-dah-chee-a)-Being challenging and innovative. Taking initiative, tackling tough issues and looking at the business with a critical eye. Costa offers thoroughly rewarding and stimulating environment for people who have the ability to make things happen. 4 At the heart of Whitbread’s strategy is the drive to provide experience, which its customers enjoy, appreciate and consider good value for money. It is this strategy, which has taken the company from brewing, into pubs, pub food, restaurants, hotels, and Leisure and also into high street retailing. Some of Whitbread’s businesses include Bella pasta, Pizza Hut (UK) Ltd, TGI Fridays, The Dome, Cafe Rouge and David Lloyd Leisure. Recently, Whitbread Plc is stepping up the overseas expansion of its Costa coffee brand with plans to open at least 55 new stores across Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and Bahrain5. At the time being, there are 265 stores worldwide including countries such as Dubai, Kuwait and Germany. Samuel Whitbread, a brewer, founded Whitbread Plc in 1742. It became a public company in 1948. Over the years, the company became a restaurateur, an hotelier and (in 1995) an operator of healthy and fitness clubs in addition to its original status of brewer and pub owner. At the turn of the millennium, Whitbread was the country’s leading restaurant operator, number one in budget hotels and sports, health and fitness, first in the pub  restaurant and a clear winner in high street coffee shops6. The UK is becoming a nation of coffee drinkers, with coffee overtaking tea as the most popular drink outside home.7 A decade or so ago an Englishman would have balked at the idea of sitting at a table in his free time with a coffee rather than a beer in his hand. Coffee was a work pick-me-up or a post-meal sober-me-up, its taste and aroma just trivial distractions.8 But times change. And as Britain has become more cosmopolitan, consumers have realised that coffee does get more sophisticated than a jar of Cafà © Hag and that sipping a cappuccino while chatting with friends does not make you weird. Or Italian.8 It is a fact that the UK branded coffee shop chain sector has evolved into a multi-million pound industry after experiencing explosive growth over the past 4-5 years.9 In March 2001 market research firm Mintel compiled Coffee Shops/ Bars, a snapshot of the branded coffee market.8 It estimated the market for branded coffee to be worth more than  £65million, a 16-fold increase on 1994.8 Moreover according to a management consultancy, Allegra Strategies, the branded coffee chain segment currently represents 20.5% of the total UK coffee shop market, and is forecasted to grow by a compound annual growth rate of 20.4%, from 1,532 units in June 2001 to 2,435 outlets by December 2003.9 High street coffee bars have sprung up with such voracity that there is now talk of over-saturation, particularly in the London area.8 With just one branded coffee bar per 65000 people the UK is still playing catch up with the US, where the penetration levels are one per 27000.10 Four operators who control 63% of the branded coffee shop market dominate the UK coffee scene.8 Whitbread-owned Costa Coffee with 300 sites and US giant Starbucks Coffee Company with 294 account for the lion’s share, outstripping Caffe Nero and Coffee Republic who have 107 and 85 outlets respectively.8 Furthermore, the fact that Starbucks now has sites in Sainsbury’s stores and Waterstones bookshops, while Costa Coffee can be found on Abbey National  premises, shows that the new coffee houses have been recognised by leading UK companies as adding value to the experience of visiting them.7 The competition is very high as coffee chains, like Costa coffee, Starbucks, Coffee Republic, Cafe Nero and Prà ªt a Manger struggle for the top. Costa coffee has been a victim of this hard competition and faces a number of problems. According to recent findings from a consumer research conducted by Allegra Strategies Ltd, Starbucks has the highest consumer brand recognition of all the chains, being recognized by a staggering 77% of coffee shop visitors followed by Costa Coffee with 72%.9 Naturally, the management of Costa Coffee is very concerned. Their decision problem is what must be done in order to serve more consumers with different segmentation criteria, so they can overcome their main competitors, and therefore become the number one branded coffee shop in the UK. 2.MARKETING RESEARCH QUESTION/ OBJECTIVE 2.1.Research Objective The main research objective is to identify who are the typical customers of coffee outlets and ascertain their needs, expectations and buying behaviour. 2.2.Component questions of this research:  ·What are the key demographics and psychographics of branded coffee shops customers in the major centres in UK?  ·What is customer’s opinion on various branded coffee shops? Has it changed throughout the years?  ·What are the main criteria people use to decide on which coffee shop to go?  ·What do customers look for and expect from a coffee shop?  ·Have customers habits changed towards coffee in the past and how? 2.3.Decision outcomes On completion of this research, Costa management will know the typical customers of coffee shops, their needs, expectations, buying behaviour and opinions towards various branded coffee shops. Based on the research findings Costa management can implement new strategies in order to gain more customers and therefore, overcome its competitors and take the lead of the branded coffee shop chain sector. 3.RESEARCH DESIGN The research project will be carried out in two main phases utilising both exploratory and descriptive research techniques. We will begin by using exploratory research techniques in order to conduct further background research, as well as gathering information for the research project as a whole. The key methods of exploratory research that we will use will be, conducting secondary research, observation and focus group. These techniques involve qualitative research methods as they rely on a great deal of interpretation by the researcher and also because they generally involve smaller non-representative samples. It is more the nature of how the research is gathered and interpreted than of size of the samples that make a study qualitative. The first phase of our research is exploratory in nature that will allow us to gain insights about the typical customers of coffee outlets, their needs, expectations and buying behaviour. This information will give us the opportunity to build a better questionnaire, one that respondents can understand. Secondary research will first be conducted to find background information from internal and external data in order to diagnose and understand more precisely the research problem and to formulate an appropriate research design. When the secondary sources of data fail to provide the information necessary to meet the research objectives, primary data is going to be gathered. Further an exploratory and qualitative research in the form of observation will be carried out. We want to understand coffee drinking behaviour and brand dynamics and the best thing to do is to get as close as possible to real behaviour as it happens. Observation will be carried out under normal conditions, in a controlled environment. Three or more different coffee shop chains will be subject to this technique. During this procedure we will observe coffee being ordered, served, consumed on its own with snacks or pastries, consumed in a group setting, with the mood and atmosphere changing, with different types of consumer drinking different brands. The queuing system, the hygiene of the coffee shop and employee’s actions will be also observed, so that we can get an overall picture of each coffee shop and point out its advantages and disadvantages. Within a full-scale project we would conduct three to six observations in different times of the day so an objective overall picture of each coffee shop will be formed instead of being judged by one observation only. In order to sufficiently address our component questions a focus group will also be conducted. The group will include a maximum of ten people excluding the moderator and observers. We feel that in a focus group â€Å"group members ‘feed’ off each other and creatively reveal ideas that the researcher may not have thought of or dared to tackle† . The focus group will be useful to us in finding out what the current customer’s attitudes and perceptions regarding coffee are, as well as their needs and expectations towards branded coffee shops in UK. Within a full-scale project we would used three  to five focus groups consisting of a maximum of ten people each simply because we would have no time restrictions, this would make the results from various focus groups a lot more reliable to interpret than having just one focus group to study. Once we have carried out exploratory research we will be in position to proceed with the descriptive research- using quantitative techniques-, which will help in formulating a decision for the research question. In order to get reliable information a survey questionnaire will be developed, † The questionnaire must motivate the respondent to cooperate, become involved, and provide complete, honest and accurate answers† . We will use questionnaires consisting of around eighteen questions each and will be given out to 30 coffee drinkers divided into 15 male and 15 female, who visit branded coffee shops in London. This research will be conducted outside Brent Cross shopping mall, Middlesex University and among friends, family and work colleagues. This form of quantitative research will give us a more refined response and allow us to make resource allocation decisions, because we talk to more people who represent a larger portion of the target population, making our research more reliable. This technique will also augment the observation and focus group results and provide primary information about the purposes of research. The population group for our research is defined as UK male and female coffee drinkers, who have been to coffee shop chains within the past three months. The element for this population will be men and women coffee drinkers aged between 17-75. The extent of the population will be all coffee shop customers within London. Finally the time frame will be within the past three months. For this research project we will use a non-probability sampling method as we do not have a complete list of our population, and therefore clearly understand that we risk not having a representative sample. The sampling  technique that we will use will be that of quota sampling, a non-probability sampling procedure that ensures that various subgroups of a population will be represented on pertinent characteristics to the exact extent that the investigator desires. Ideally our sample size should be determined statistically -probably 1000-, but our restrains will limit us to only 30 branded coffee shop customers . Within a full-scale project sample size should be determined by statistics, according to the market’s current situation. Even though we will carry out the research face to face the research administration method we would have used if this were a full scale survey would have been Mail surveys, simply because mail surveying remains a popular data collection technique in commercial marketing research. In fact, more and more people participate in mail surveys than any other type of survey research . On first consideration, mail appears to be an attractive way to collect data. There are no interviews to recruit, train, monitor and pay. The entire study can be sent out and administered from a single location. Hard to reach respondents can be easily surveyed and can fill out the questionnaires in their spare time and wherever they like, whether they are at work or in the comfort of their own home. Mail surveys appear to be convenient, efficient and inexpensive. Like self-administrated questionnaires, mail surveys encounter problems with not having an interviewer present. In particular, no one is there to probe responses to open-ended questions, a real constrain on the types of information that can be sought. However probing responses to open-ended questions will hopefully not be much of a problem for our questionnaire, as it only consists of one open- ended question. Response rates in mail surveys may run anywhere from less than 5% to more than 50%, depending on the length of the questionnaire, its content, the groups surveyed, the incentives employed, and other factors. Those who operate mail panels claim that response rate in the vicinity of 70%4. Response rates can be enhance by implementing strategies such as advance postcard or telephone call alerting respondent to survey, premiums such as  pencil, pen, key chain, coffee mugs etc, self-addresses stamped return envelope, personalised address and well written and personally signed cover letter, and drawings or prizes. Finally once we have gathered our data, we will then be in position to analyse the expectations, needs and buying behaviour of the typical coffee shop customers and make suitable recommendations to Costa Coffee management group as to how it can improve its outlets in order to gain a competitive advantage and become the number one branded coffee shop in the UK.

Salt And Sand Lab Report Essays

Salt And Sand Lab Report Essays Salt And Sand Lab Report Paper Salt And Sand Lab Report Paper Evaporation is a process where two liquids or solid mixed into a liquid can be separated. To separate two liquids mixed together, the liquid is boiled over a Bunsen burner until one liquid is completely evaporated. To separate a solid within a liquid, the liquid is completely evaporated and a solid will remain, which is called a residue. Procedure/Data: 1. Preheat a clean evaporating dish for 5 minutes; then cool and mass the dish. Mass of empty dish: 28. Egg 2. Set scale to zero after placing an 80 or 100 ml beaker on it; then add the mixture given to you into the beaker and record the mass of the mixture. Mass of mixture: 2. Egg 3. Add 15. Ml of water to the beaker; stir well and filter the contents through filter paper into the pre-massed evaporating dish. 4. Add 5 ml of water to the beaker, stir well and filter the evaporating dish. 5. Set up an evaporation set up and heat the contents in the evaporating dish, over a wavy flame to avoid splashing, until all water is evaporated. 6. Allow dish and residue to cool; identify the residue. 7. Mass the evaporating dish with the residue and find the mass of the residue. A mixture is a combination of two or more pure substances in which each pure substance retains its individual chemical properties. The sand and salt is a mixture because it can be separated by evaporation and filtration, into its monuments without changing their identities. Some processes that can be used to separate mixtures would be filtration, fractional distillation, crystallization, and sublimation. 2. Elements in a compounds can only be separated by chemical processes, while components of a mixture can be separated by physical processes. 3. The five common methods that can be used to separate various types of mixtures are filtration, fractional distillation, evaporation, sublimation, and chromatography. Evaporation is the changing of a liquid into a gas often under the influence of heat. A mixture of a solid and liquid can be separated y evaporation. Filtration is a technique that Uses a porous barrier to separate a solid from a liquid. A liquid and solid (heterogeneous mixture) is the type of mixture that can be separated by filtration. Sublimation is the process during which a solid changes vapor without melting (without going through liquid phase). Two solids are the type of mixture that can be separated by sublimation. Fractional distillation is a physical separation technique that use based on differences in the boiling points of the substances involved. Two liquids are the type of mixture that can be separated by distillation. Chromatography is technique that separates a compound of a mixture dissolved in either a gas or a liquid. A mixture of a gas or liquid state can be separated by the use of chromatography. 4. Chromatography is a method that could be used to separate the components of the ink in a marker. This separation can be achieved when the pigment is dipped in a liquid and the different colors will behave differently, causing them to travel at different speeds. The ink separates because each pigment has a different attraction to the liquid. 5. To separate the heterogeneous mixture comprised of sand, iron fillings, salt, and poppy seeds the first thing that an be done is to use a magnet to attract the iron fillings from the mixture. Next, water should be added to not only dissolve the salt into the water but to cause the poppy seeds to float, making it easy to take them out. Then mix the sand, salt and water together to make a mixture of salt and water. Now with sand and salt water left, filtrate the mixture to allow the salt water to pass through the filter paper and the sand will stay behind as residue. Finally, evaporation should be used to evaporate all the water from the mixture leaving salt behind as residue. 6. Filtrate is what passes through the filter paper when using filtration. The salt water was the filtrate in this lab. Residue is what is left behind, or is stayed back.

visual impairment essays

visual impairment essays " People catergorized as visually impaired range from individuals with mild visual losses to those with low vision to those who are totally blind" (Winzer,370). Vision impairments does not necessarily mean a total loss of sight. Some visually impaired person can detect light, others can see shapes and forms, and others can see nothing at all. Generally, many different problems that interfere the retina to form image or the transmission of retinal images to the brain can cause blindness or vision impairment. It can be heredity or caused by disease or damage after birth. In some cases a specific reason cannot be determined. There are four major types of vision impairments. The first type are refractive errors. It is cause by the change of shape or size of the eyeball, conera or the lens. Myopia (short-sighted) and hyperopia (long-sighted) are two common examples. People with myopia or hyperopia cannot focus image accurately on the retina. Another example is astigmatism, it is caused by the abnormal curve shape of the cornera or the lens. And it can cause distorted or blurred vision. The second type are ocular motor problems. It is caused by irregular movement of the ocular muscles that control the movement of the eyeballs. It leads to the inability for the eyes to control focusing objects. Strasbismus is an example. This condition effects about 2 percent (2 out of 100) of all young children. Strabismus is a lack of coordinated muscle movement or focusing ability between the eyes, causing the eyes to point in different directions. One or both eyes may turn inward (crossed eyes) or outward ("walleye"). The eyes, the brain area that controls vision, and the muscles attached to the eyeball are involved. It result in the child that looks in certain directions, double vision (sometimes), vision in one eye only, with loss of depth perception. Strabismus can affect both sexes, all ages, but it usually begins during ear ...

How to be your own boss

How to be your own boss If you’ve ever had a job with a boss, you’ve probably had at least one of these thoughts at some point, especially on frustrating days: â€Å"I could be the boss, and do it better.†Ã¢â‚¬Å"Why don’t I do that?†And there are a few different ways to â€Å"do that.† One is to rise through the ranks, being a rockstar and getting promoted until get to that place where you’re in charge (though you’ll likely still be accountable to some level of management no matter what). The other way, the true independence route, is to say goodbye to working for others, and go into business for yourself. It’s not the easiest career path, or for everyone, but if this is truly your goal then we can help you figure out how to get started.Are you truly ready?Being your own boss sounds great, but if you’re not in a personal space where you’re mature or capable enough (yet) to handle the potentially large demands of running your own bus iness, it’s important to be honest about that up front. Management consultant Steve Tobak recommends starting with an honest assessment of how you are as an employee to see how well you might function in a situation where you’re depending on yourself to get everything done. For example, people who focus on responsibilities over branding and who seek achievements over power will likely be more successful when it comes time to assume responsibility for every aspect of a business. If you’re seeking to become your own boss just to be a boss (and not necessarily to take on additional responsibility), then this career change might not be the right move for you right now.It comes down to your personal temperament as well. If you do better when given a particular set of goals and benchmarks by someone else, you might struggle a bit when you need to generate those yourself. Or if you struggle with discipline and keeping on task during the workday, there’s a risk t hat the lack of outside constraints may feed your worst tendencies to procrastinate. Definitely ask yourself questions like:How do I respond to high-pressure situations?Do I get angry or upset easily?How effectively do I organize my to-do list and manage my time?How do I set boundaries in my life between work and personal space?Creating your own business requires a lot of honesty about your goals and your reality, as well as a lot of good old-fashioned hustle, since you don’t have the framework of an established company to handle things for you. You’re about to be the boss, but you’re also about to be Human Resources, the CFO, the IT department, and the one on the hook for every business decision. If that level of responsibility makes you a little queasy at this point, then maybe it’s best to table the idea for now and revisit in the future. But if you’re still thinking â€Å"bring it,† it’s time to start formulating your business pla n.Design a plan.Your next step should be deciding explicitly what it is you’ll be doing in your entrepreneurial business. Branding is great, but it comes later. The core business has to come first, so a solid plan is essential in making the decision to go rogue. Ask yourself these questions:What kind of service or product are you providing?Who will be your customers?What are you promising to those customers?What sets you apart from potentially similar vendors competing for the same customers?What are your short- and long-term goals for the business?What strategies do you have to achieve those goals?If you need help coming up with a business plan, there are a number of free and premium services online that can help you craft it, like LivePlan or Microsoft’s Dynamics 365. Every new business is a leap of faith, but you put yourself in a better position with the more information you have about your target audience, your market, and how you plan to develop your business bas ed on the market.Do a test run.Before you take the leap, think about doing a â€Å"soft launch† by creating your business as a side hustle, or a part-time commitment. This is a way of figuring out if this is the right path for you before you’ve committed fully to the idea of ditching your current path for the new one. Plus, it lets you start building a customer base and getting a real sense of what the market is really like- information that will be invaluable when you get to planning to do this full-time. Take a set amount of time to work on your business part-time, and then re-evaluate whether it makes sense to take it full-time. Sure, you’ll be in for a busy few months while you’re working on both, but consider it an essential research process to test the viability of your plan.Consider the money.Before you do anything drastic like quitting your current job, it’s important to do your homework on some baseline financial issues. Finances are an in credibly important consideration here- after all, this is your livelihood. And you’ll be the one writing the paychecks, so there’s not a lot of room for error here if you want to be able to keep your personal finances afloat. Gather your personal financial records and your favorite calculator, because it’s time to answer some brutally honest questions:Are there startup costs associated with your business idea? Will you need to buy specialized equipment or technology? Will you need to buy or rent a workspace? How much money would you need to have up front just to get started?What are the week-to-week operating costs?How long are you able to go without a paycheck, if your business is slow to develop? Do you have enough savings to get you by?Will you need to hire employees or contractors, or will it just be you? If it’s the latter, what can you afford to pay them?It may be that after your financial analysis, you find you aren’t quite ready to quit you r job and go it alone just yet. And that’s okay- it gives you more time to plan, set goals, and lay the groundwork for your business. What’s not quite right for now be much more viable in a year or two.Decide who’s on your team.Another essential element is your support network. Your company may be just you at first, and that’s a lot of pressure. What friends or family do you have in place to help provide a balance for that? Do you have people you trust who can listen to you and help you talk through decisions and provide valuable feedback?You should also start building your network in general, both using online social networks like LinkedIn and joining professional associations in your field. There are also organizations that specifically support small business owners, so you should do a little digging online to see if there are any specific to your field or your state/city/town.Build your brand.Self-marketing is going to be one of the best tools you have at your disposal as you get started with a new business. Creating dedicated social media profiles (apart from your personal ones) on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and whatever-platform-comes-next is a no-brainer. And make sure you stay engaged in those accounts, posting new content and updating the world on your achievements, expertise, and services.You’ll also need a website- ideally, one designed professionally. There are lots of hosting services that also help you build your sleek, functional site. This is not a job for your cousin’s friend’s roommate who wants to test out his design skills. Once you have your own URL and platform, you can use a blog, photo gallery, portfolio, and email to do outreach to potential customers.Get ready to make the transition.This is not the time for burning bridges, so you need to think about a careful transition from your current job to your entrepreneurship. This is especially true if your new company will be in th e same field. People talk, and other people who make ugly exits will be talked about. No matter how disgruntled you may be in your current gig, it’s important to exit gracefully. That means figuring out a timetable for quitting (potentially more than the standard two weeks) to figure out how to disentangle from your job. You may also want to consider asking your current boss if you can go part-time for a transition period. If that’s not an option, then a traditional exit is fine. You’ll need to give notice, and write a resignation letter. You don’t have to explicitly say what you’re doing next- â€Å"pursuing new opportunities† covers it.During this transition period, you should also see if there’s any fine print in your employment contract about pursuing clients or competitive job opportunities. Some companies have a â€Å"non-compete† clause that tries to limit what former employees can do in the same field.So what do you thi nk? Are you ready to make the transition from employee to boss? Or if not right now, is it something you can see in the near-ish future? We wish you all the best, entrepreneurs, and would love to hear what’s worked for you (and what hasn’t) in pursuit of being your own boss.

Technology Acceptance factors of Cloud Computing Assignment

Technology Acceptance factors of Cloud Computing - Assignment Example This addition of behavioural taste to information system requires systems to be developed consideration large number of factors that are expected to have direct or indirect impact on human acceptance and usage of technology. For the purpose, different models have been devised highlighting different factors that directly influence the process of technology acceptance and adoption. Some of the models and associated factors are as follow: Technology Acceptance Model is the pioneer in determining the fact that acceptance of system receives direct influence from the motivation level which in turn is influenced by large number of factors in the external environment. TAM 1 has highlighted two factors which are: Perceived usefulness in general is defined as the probability in terms of future or perspective user’s ability that using a new technological system or application will enhance user’s ability to perform better or giving optimum results (Davis, Bagozzi, and Warshaw, 1989). Moreover, users are more likely to adopt those technologies from which there is expectation that it will increase their performances in terms of carrying out work in their walks of life. Perceived ease of use is another factor that affects the use of technology in teaching and learning environments (Davis, 1989). It deals with the future user’s perception or an expectation that his desired targeted system is likely to be free from efforts and hassles (King and Re, 2006). It is usually defined as the ability of an individual in order to carry out some work or taking some decision is mainly influenced by others (in general people who are closer to him). Or in other words the action or decision that particular individual opt to take because of his perception of what other people might think of him is called subjective norm (Fishbein and Ajzen 1975, p.

Positive Train Control Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Positive Train Control - Term Paper Example Implementation of PTC is anticipated to range over the total rail track mileage of 70,000. PTC is basically a technology of train control that is processor or communication based meant to reduce the frequency of collisions between trains, derailments upon over-speeding, attacks into the defined zones of work, and a train’s improper movement through the main line switch. The systems of PTC are needed to execute various types of functions. There is a wide range of PTC systems that vary depending upon a number of factors that include but are not limited to the level of sophistication and complexity of the functionality and automation implemented by them, their wayside system which can be cab signaled, block signaled, or non-signaled, the kind of system architecture used, and the level of control they can achieve over the train. Use of the PTC system in the railroad industry has increased the safety of traveling by train manifolds. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) support s all rail carriers that are required to install and implement the PTC system as per law and others that implement the PTC system voluntarily, by means of a mix of project safety measures, regulatory reforms, funds, and technological development. The final rule encompassing the requirements of PTC was published by FRA on 15 January 2010, whereas the final rule amendments were published on 27 September 2010 and subsequently on 14 May 2012. 41 railroads initially deposited the plans of implementation that were reviewed by FRA but denied the approval of all prior to the statutory deadline of 90 days for review. Upon the resubmission of all 41 implementation plans, FRA finally approved 24 unconditionally, 1 conditionally, gave provisional approval to 14 implementation plans that were deposited with the Notices of Product Intent that were supposed to be resubmitted along with a development plan of PTC in 270 days, while 2 plans were disapproved. However, the staff of FRA sustained workin g with them to formulate approvable plans. Currently, FRA is collaborating with two more railroads that were not identified before in order to formulate and deposit successful plans of implementation. The fundamental idea in PTC is that the safety of train’s journey is enhanced by making it aware of its location and guiding it so that it stays on the right track. PTC achieves these functions by making use of networks of communication. â€Å"PTC systems are comprised of digital data link communications networks, continuous and accurate positioning systems such as NDGPS, on-board computers with digitized maps on locomotives and maintenance-of-way equipment, in-cab displays, throttle-brake interfaces on locomotives, wayside interface units at switches and wayside detectors, and control center computers and displays† (Poor, Lindquist, and Wendt, 2009). This prevents the train from making unsafe movements. PTC systems can work in both signaled and dark territories and may a lso use the GPS to guide the train. One of the main goals of FRA is, â€Å"To deploy the Nationwide Differential Global Positioning System (NDGPS) as a nationwide, uniform, and continuous

Ethical and legal duties of health care administrators Essay

Ethical and legal duties of health care administrators - Essay Example Providing false data in order to convince the public of the hospital good performance is a serious display of unethical standards. The fact that the staff members were aware of these false data and they did not take any step in correcting or reporting the issues is also a serious display of unethical standards (Pozgar, 2012). The public relies on what is presented to them by the people that are entrusted with the management and running of the organizations that serve them. It is these individuals duty to give the public a clear picture of the organizations strengths and weaknesses so that the public can make the right and informed decision when seeking for services. Not only are the actions taken by General hospital unethical, but also they created a serious legal liability for the organization. If patients are directly or indirectly harmed as a result of these false information, they could sue the organization for presenting them with false information that put their life at risk (A HIMA, 2013). As an administrator, some of the elements from ACHE code of ethics (2011) that would help me determine the right course of action include the first element on responsibility to the healthcare profession. I would also utilize the element of responsibility to the organization by â€Å"being truthful in all forms of professional and organizational communication, and avoid disseminating information that is false, misleading, or deceptive†. Finally use my responsibility to report violations of the code. Following these elements to guide me through my decisions will not only uphold my integrity and ethical standards to the profession, but it will also make a significant change towards improved health care delivery. The first step to take is question those in control of the situation and applies disciplinary action as per the healthcare profession states. The next step is to request for a

SDLC Application on IT infrastructure of UMUC Student Healthcare Case Study

SDLC Application on IT infrastructure of UMUC Student Healthcare - Case Study Example ervice Clinic by providing a detailed information of the Development Life Cycle including the use of Servers, backups Emailing, Internet Accessibility and Software’s used in Clinical Computer System. An information system can be defined as the use of computer hardware and software to process data into information to solve a problem. The term Clinical Information System (CIS) refers to a group of systems used within a Clinic that support and enhance health care. The CIS comprises two major types of information systems: Clinical Information Systems and Administrative Information Systems. Clinical information systems are large, computerized database management systems that support several types of activities: medical, nursing, laboratory, diagnostic, pharmacy, radiology. Administrative information systems support the process of client care by managing non-clinical, client-related information, including demographics, codes for procedures and insurance. Clinical and administrative information systems may be designed to meet the needs of one or more departments or functions within the organization. They can be implemented as stand-alone systems, or they may work with other systems to provide information sharing and seamless functionality for the users. A SDLC is the traditional method used by organizations for large IT projects. The SDLC entails of sequential processes by which information systems are developed: analysis, design, programming, testing, implementation, and maintenance. A Clinical Information System is a complex system, and Clinic Attendants have a key role to play in practically all phases of its development. The beginning of the (life) cycle is a clear vision of the business process. What do we want to do with the new system? How are we going to do it? What do we need for the system to operate efficiently? So, we must determine the purpose and goals of the project, assure the necessary financial resources, carry out cost-benefit and feasibility

Play review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Play review - Essay Example Every man in the town wanted to ask her for a hand for marriage because of her success and beauty. Similarly, Portia’s father loved her and as though he foresaw the challenges that his daughter would face, he decided to leave behind three strongboxes. Each box had a different message addressed to individuals who would try their lack in marrying Portia. Only one of the box contained Portia’s picture and the individual who chose this box had the right to marry her (Williams 67). Different prominent individuals tried their luck and failed. Bassano finally showed up, handsome and whose business was not performing well. His love for Portia drives him to ask for help from Antonia, who promised to give him the money he required to accomplish the task in wooing Portia. Antonia then talked to shylock who agreed to lend him money interest free under the condition that he must refund the money at the stipulated time, failure to which shylock would chop a piece of his body part. Ba ssanio sets his journey to Portia’s who advices him to wait for sometime before making his choose. Bassanio refused and went ahead in his selection on that faithful day, by the grace of God he managed to take the right strongbox. Later the two married and leaved happily thereafter. I did not like the court ruling on the case between Antonio and Shylock. The two characters had an agreement on the terms and conditions of the loan. Shylock had to lend money interest free on the basis that Antonio agreed to refund on time, failure to that, shylock had to cut part of Antonio’s body. Shylock went to seek for the court intervention where the court decides to make a ruling in favor of Antonio (Williams 123). The reason being that, shylock was not a citizen of that country and everyone in the courtroom including the judges were his enemies. At this point, justice failed to prevail. The play

Probing into Internet Culture as New Media Essay

Probing into Internet Culture as New Media - Essay Example Our first question is whether newer forms of technology seek to belittle traditional fields and disciplines. In this respect, we talk of how Plato in his book Phaedrus stood staunchly against writing, as a new form of technology. From here we continue analyzing how computers and the internet, an integral aspect of the phenomenon of new technology and an advance over writing and printing, manipulate the human thought process. The study will be based on how technological advances have faced stiff reaction from the time of Plato. While Plato voiced his reaction against writing as a technological advance over the traditional tool of oration, modern writers criticize the effect of the internet, as an advance over writing, on human memory. Our essay will comprise of a thorough analysis of the boons and curses of the internet on human life today. We will make significant probings into past and present research including literary sources on 'internet culture' to see how it dominates human thinking. We will analyze the literary and online resources to understand the workings of the internet as an aspect of modern technology. Here, we try to see how advances towards technology had been regarded as a social contagion from ancient times. Plato, the classical Greek philosopher, argued in favor of the 'superiority of the spoken word' over writing as a new technology, which had a detrimental effect on human memory. Those who received partial information without instruction remained mostly ignorant. The philosopher debated in his book Phaedrus, through the words of Socrates, about the 'myth of the invention of writing', which often resulted in forgetfulness and the loss of memory. (Plato, Hackforth 156-159). Writing is described as a pastime instead of 'serious business' and importance is given to dialectics, which is ingrained in the souls of men. (Plato writes on the dangers of writing, 2006). Now the question is what Plato would have thought about the internet (Plato's complaint, 2000) Plato's reaction against writing probably anticipated the modern day response towards the computer and the internet. Plato believed that writing isolated man from society. Likewise, computers are perceived as mediums of separating man from social gatherings. Writing is an integral part of our lives. We do not see it as a product of modern technology. Modern tools such as pen, paper, ink and paints are used in case of writing. Writing undermined the power of the word centuries ago. Computers, a technological advance over writing are perceived in the same light now. (Ong, 77-94). Walter Ong specified that, writing or other artificial modes of technology had an enhancing effect on the human mind. He asserted that alienation from society, which writing provided, was required for enhancing the conscious. Writing and computers, he said was the most effective way of technologizing the word. After the word is technologized, the technological means cannot be criticized. Arguments, however, counteract the aforementioned stance about technology. We will mainly focus on how the technological boom, which has swept many a nation, the world over, has a debilitating effect on the brain and human memory. The internet is an encyclopedia, offering

Play review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Play review - Essay Example Every man in the town wanted to ask her for a hand for marriage because of her success and beauty. Similarly, Portia’s father loved her and as though he foresaw the challenges that his daughter would face, he decided to leave behind three strongboxes. Each box had a different message addressed to individuals who would try their lack in marrying Portia. Only one of the box contained Portia’s picture and the individual who chose this box had the right to marry her (Williams 67). Different prominent individuals tried their luck and failed. Bassano finally showed up, handsome and whose business was not performing well. His love for Portia drives him to ask for help from Antonia, who promised to give him the money he required to accomplish the task in wooing Portia. Antonia then talked to shylock who agreed to lend him money interest free under the condition that he must refund the money at the stipulated time, failure to which shylock would chop a piece of his body part. Ba ssanio sets his journey to Portia’s who advices him to wait for sometime before making his choose. Bassanio refused and went ahead in his selection on that faithful day, by the grace of God he managed to take the right strongbox. Later the two married and leaved happily thereafter. I did not like the court ruling on the case between Antonio and Shylock. The two characters had an agreement on the terms and conditions of the loan. Shylock had to lend money interest free on the basis that Antonio agreed to refund on time, failure to that, shylock had to cut part of Antonio’s body. Shylock went to seek for the court intervention where the court decides to make a ruling in favor of Antonio (Williams 123). The reason being that, shylock was not a citizen of that country and everyone in the courtroom including the judges were his enemies. At this point, justice failed to prevail. The play

The Impaired Employee and Liability Essay Example for Free

The Impaired Employee and Liability Essay I believe that the first ethical consideration is the fact that the potential employee was upfront in revealing that he had a degenerative progressive condition that could result in a disability. He did not have to bring this to our attention and his physicians are not even able to predict when the disabling condition will appear or if it will appear at all. The candidate was demonstrating his own highly ethical behavior which is ultimately what we are looking for in an employee. The second ethical consideration is that we are responsible for displaying the same kind of ethical behavior we expect from our employees. The basis for any ethical decision is based on what is morally right or wrong. The right thing to do in any hiring situation is to hire the best possible candidate. The candidate in question went through the screening and interview process and was the number one pick of mine and the screening committee. His potential health problems have nothing to do with his professional abilities and whether or not he would be able to competently perform his duties. A third ethical consideration is the fact that I shared my concerns with other high ranking company officials and instead of looking at the qualifications of the candidate they looked at the financial risk the candidate could impose on the company in the future. I believe we should have considered what an asset his skills and abilities would have been to the company versus an unknown financial risk due to a possible disability that may not occur. Identify and explain at least three legal considerations. The first legal consideration would be in denying the candidate employment because of any kind of disability. The Americans with Disabilities act prohibits any employer from discriminating against a qualified individual with a disability in the job application procedure, hiring, firing, advancement and other privileges of employment (EEOC, 2008). The qualifications of the individual should be the only determining factor on whether or not they are hired. The second legal consideration could be that the screening committee shared confidential information about the candidate without his knowledge. The physicians of the candidate did not even know whether or not the disability would occur or to what extent so there was no reason to share this information with anyone else. The last legal consideration is the liability that could come with hiring this candidate. Healthcare organizations have a corporate responsibility to exercise reasonable care in selecting and retaining employees (Showalter, 2008, pg. 137). If the Health Service organization were to hire this candidate knowing he could possibly become disabled and then get hurt on the job because the facility did not properly accommodate his disability then they would be liable for any injuries that the employee might incur while on the job. Identify and explain at least three Business considerations. One business consideration is what the candidate could potentially bring to the business. His skills and qualifications ranked him as the number one candidate which would make him an asset to the company. The possibility of the candidate costing the company money is a vague at best but the potential good he could do the company is set forth in his qualifications. Another business consideration would be the cost to the company if the candidate were hired and did end up with a disability. Even though they can not discriminate against the candidate for having a possibility disability they should evaluate the cost that the company would incur if it had to accommodate his disability in the future. There is the potential of the employee missing time due to his disability and the cost of providing reasonable accommodations. The last business consideration is that the screening committee has a duty to evaluate and screen potential employees with no bias. If they deny employment to a candidate based on this information they are compromising their integrity. They need to have and follow a specific set of guidelines in searching, screening and recommending potential candidates for employment. Another business consideration is the possibility that if the candidate were not hired that he would file a complaint stating that he was discriminated against because he revealed his health status. Even if he could not prove it there would still be an investigation, a trial and publicity about the case that could possibly hurt the reputation of the facility. Give your decision as the Vice President for health Services and the rationale for the decision. The search and screening committee found an outstanding candidate for the mid-level management position. It is not ethically or legally right to eliminate this candidate based on a possible disability in his future. It is my duty to hire the most qualified candidate and even though he may have a health issue in the future he is, in the present, my candidate of choice. His skills and abilities will be an asset to our organization. Any future disability will be dealt with when the time comes. References Facts about the Americans with Disabilities Act. (2008). Retrieved February 7, 2012 from http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-ada.html Showalter, J. S. (2008). The law of healthcare administration (5th ed.). Chicago: Health Administration Press.

Praktische opdracht bsm

Praktische opdracht bsm Inleiding 1.1 Aanleiding en beschrijving van het onderzoek Een paar maanden geleden las ik een artikel in het Algemeen Dagblad dat ging over kinderen met overgewicht in de gemeente Westvoorne. In dit artikel werd beschreven dat 1 op de 6 kinderen in mijn woonomgeving last heeft van overgewicht. Hier schrok ik best van, aangezien ik dacht dat dit probleem niet zon grote rol speelde binnen mijn omgeving. Fout gedacht dus. Dit bracht mij op het idee om te onderzoeken hoe dit probleem heeft kunnen ontstaan en waarom sport zo belangrijk is voor de jeugd. Ook ben ik er benieuwd naar wat ons land doet om sport te stimuleren. 1.2 Onderzoeksvragen In dit werkstuk zal ik de volgende hoofd- en deelvragen gaan behandelen: Hoofdvraag : Ieder kind heeft recht op sport, wordt dit ook voldoende nageleefd in Nederland? Deelvragen: Waarom is sport zo belangrijk? Waarom sport niet ieder kind? Wat doet Nederland en met name mijn regio aan dit probleem? Wat kan sport betekenen voor een kind? Resultaten 2.1 Waarom is sport zo belangrijk? Sport is meer dan slechts lichaamsbeweging. Het leert mensen met elkaar om gaan, het verbetert de gezondheid en het biedt ontspanning. Met name jongeren tussen de 9 en 19 jaar kunnen door sport op een positieve manier worden beÃÆ' ¯nvloed. Eerlijkheid en hulpvaardigheid, respect en je best doen voor jezelf en voor je team zijn belangrijke normen en waarden die je binnen iedere vorm van sport terug ziet komen. Daarnaast biedt sport veel voordeel voor zowel je geestelijke als je lichamelijke ontwikkeling. Vooral voor kinderen is het goed om al op jonge leeftijd in aanraking te komen met sport. Op deze manier kunnen de jonge spieren en gewrichten zich goed ontwikkelen en voorzichtig worden getraind. Ook kunnen kinderen weerstand opbouwen, waardoor ze minder vatbaar zijn voor bepaalde ziektes. Bovendien kan voldoende beweging er voor zorgen dat de bloeddruk op peil blijft en dat de kans op ouderdomsverschijnselen , bijvoorbeeld artrose (gewrichtslijtage), vermindert. Naarmate een kind ouder wordt, kan het aan intensievere vormen van sport, zoals teamsport, gaan deelnemen. Presteren gaat hierbij een grote rol spelen. Binnen de teamsport trainen de teams meestal twee keer per week en in het weekend worden de wedstrijden gespeeld. Naast het verbeteren van de techniek, wordt er ook gewerkt aan het verbeteren van de conditie. Sporten in teamverband maakt het veel gemakkelijker om te gaan sporten, je doet het immers samen. Samen met je team vorm je een hechte club en door die teamspirit kun je elkaar motiveren om beter te presteren. Een keertje geen zin hebben zit er dus niet in,   je kunt namelijk de rest van je team niet in de steek laten. Ook ontmoet je andere mensen. Ieder weekend neem je het op tegen andere tegenstanders en je leert op een juiste manier met elkaar om te gaan. Tijdens het sporten gelden er regels, zowel tijdens de gymles op school, als tijdens het voetballen op straat of tijdens het sporten op de sportvereniging. Deze spelregels zijn nodig om het spel of de wedstrijd zo goed en eerlijk mogelijk te laten verlopen. Ook zorgen regels er voor dat sporten leuk blijft. Je aan de spelregels houden hoort nu eenmaal bij het spel, maar er zijn natuurlijk ook een aantal ongeschreven regels waaraan je je moet houden. Zo respecteer je altijd de beslissingen van de scheidsrechter en de fouten van je teamgenoten of tegenstanders. Een mooi woord hiervoor is fair play. Bij tieners is het voor het eerst lichamelijk goed te zien wie er wel en wie er niet sport. Vooral rond deze leeftijd gaan de spieren zich sterk ontwikkelen. Bij niet-sporters blijft deze ontwikkeling uit. Niet-sporters passen vaak hun eetpatroon niet aan, aan de mate van hun lichaamsbeweging. Dat is gevaarlijk, omdat ook het vetweefsel zich rond deze leeftijd gaat ontwikkelen. Daarom is het voor tieners dus extra belangrijk om te sporten en zo hun lichaam niet te beschadigen, maar juist te ontwikkelen. Sport werkt ook geestverruimend. Je ontsnapt eventjes van de dagelijkse routine en kunt voor een moment al je problemen vergeten. Bovendien kan sport je zelfvertrouwen vergroten. Met name als je door middel van sport wilt afvallen, word je door goede resultaten extra gemotiveerd om ermee door te gaan. Door zelfstandig te sporten krijg je vanzelf meer zelfdiscipline. Je wordt minder afhankelijk van anderen en doet gewoon je eigen ding. Ook leer je goed aan te voelen wat je wel en niet aankunt. Tijdens het bewegen verbrand je calorieà «n. Deze verbranding zorgt voor een lager cholesterolgehalte. Een te hoog cholesterolgehalte is een van de hoofdoorzaken voor het krijgen van hart- en vaatziekten. Om deze ziekten te voorkomen is het daarom belangrijk om voldoende te bewegen en niet al te vet te eten. Kortom, sport brengt veel voordelen met zich mee. Het goed voor je gezondheid, je geest en je sociale leven. Ook kan het nare ouderdomsziekten voorkomen en bovendien is het erg leuk. Daarom is het belangrijk dat zo veel mogelijk mensen gaan sporten! 2.2 W aarom sport niet ieder kind? Sport bestaat al eeuwen lang. De Oude Grieken organiseerden in 1776 voor Christus al de eerste Olympische Spelen. Tegenwoordig wordt sport gezien als een populaire manier van vrijetijdsbesteding. Er wordt steeds meer en op steeds jongere leeftijd gesport. Toch doet lang niet iedereen mee. Dat is erg jammer, aangezien sport erg goed voor je is. In vergelijking met twintig jaar geleden is het aantal kinderen met overgewicht verdubbeld. In Nederland is zelfs à ©Ãƒ ©n op de acht kinderen te zwaar en dit aantal zal naar verwachting in de loop der jaren alleen nog maar toenemen. Dit zijn geen goede vooruitzichten, omdat overgewicht grote gezondheidsrisicos met zich meebrengt. Overgewicht wordt niet alleen veroorzaakt door teveel eten, maar ook vooral door te weinig beweging. In minder dan 5% van de gevallen wordt overgewicht veroorzaakt door ziekte, medicijngebruik of door erfelijkheid. Dat het aantal kinderen met overgewicht is verdubbeld heeft niet te maken met het feit dat ze meer zijn gaan eten. Het heeft meer te maken met wat ze eten. Tegenwoordig eten kinderen veel meer tussendoortjes dan vroeger. Daarbij moet je denken aan snoep, chips en snacks. Hierdoor gaan kinderen minder eten tijdens de belangrijke maaltijden aan tafel zoals het ontbijt, de lunch en het avondeten. De tussendoortjes bevatten veel koolhydraten en suiker. Zij vervangen niet de voedingstoffen die de grote maaltijden bevatten. Ook de stijgende welvaart heeft een hoop veranderingen met zich meegebracht. Zo komt het de afgelopen jaren steeds meer voor dat ouders na het werk even snel iets makkelijks te eten ophalen of hun kinderen meenemen om eventjes wat te gaan eten in een restaurant. Ook technische innovaties in de keuken zoals de magnetron en de frituurpan maken het erg verleidelijk om iets te snacken in plaats van een verse maaltijd klaar te maken. Bovendien besparen magnetronmaaltijden een hoop tijd en moeite, je hoeft het er immers alleen in te schuiven en te wachten tot het klaar is. Voor de makkelijke weg kiezen is niet altijd even slim. Magnetronmaaltijden bevatten vaak veel energie en zout, in plaats van goede voedingsvezels en vitamines. In combinatie met onvoldoende beweging kan dit leiden tot een energieoverschot en later tot overgewicht. Kinderen hebben wat dat betreft weinig inbreng als het gaat om gezonde voeding. Ouders geven niet altijd het goede voorbeeld. Ook fastfoodketens doen een duit in het zakje. Ketens zoals bijvoorbeeld MacDonalds richten hun reclame volledig op kinderen. Door de leuke verrassinkjes in de Happy Meal worden kinderen massaal verleidt tot een bezoekje naar de Mac. Om hun kinderen te belonen nemen ouders hun kinderen zo nu en dan mee naar de MacDonalds. Voor een keertje is dat niet erg, maar het moet natuurlijk geen gewoonte worden! Overgewicht wordt uiteraard niet alleen veroorzaakt door te veel en ongezond eten, ook een gebrek aan beweging speelt hierbij een rol. Door de ontwikkeling van de televisie, de computer en de spelcomputers hebben kinderen steeds minder zin om buiten te spelen of om te gaan sporten. Ook scholen schenken weinig aandacht aan bewegen. Zij stellen cultuur voorop. Als sport niet van huis en van school uit wordt gestimuleerd, kan je het de kinderen niet kwalijk nemen dat ze weinig sporten. Hier ligt een taak voor scholen en opvoeders. Zij moeten sport stimuleren. Ook sportvereniging zouden meer clinics en sportdagen kunnen organiseren om kinderen enthousiast te krijgen voor sport. Natuurlijk zijn er ook een hoop kinderen die graag zouden willen sporten, maar dit niet kunnen vanwege hun gezondheid, handicap of door een gebrek aan financià «le middelen thuis. Voor deze groep kinderen moet er een oplossing gevonden worden, zodat ook zij in aanmerking kunnen komen voor sport. 2.4 Wat doet Nederland en met name mijn regio aan dit probleem? Het Ministerie van Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport wil meer burgers stimuleren bij het kiezen voor een gezonde en actieve leefstijl. Sport en beweging horen hier natuurlijk bij. Het Nationaal Actieplan Sport en Bewegen richt zich op een gezonde dagelijkse dosis bewegen, waarbij alle mogelijkheden benut worden. Het NASB focust zich op vijf belangrijke gebieden, namelijk: wijk, school, werk, zorg en sport. Deze gebieden worden zo ingericht dat de omgeving moet uitnodigen tot meer sport en bewegen. In 2005 heeft de overheid de zogenaamde beweegnorm combinorm ingevoerd. Men voldoet aan deze norm wanneer er aan de Nederlandse Norm Gezond Bewegen en/of aan de Fitnorm wordt voldaan. Om binnen de NNGB te blijven moet men minimaal 30 minuten per vijf dagen in de week matig intensief bewegen. Bij matig intensief bewegen moet je denken aan het maken van een wandeling of aan het doen van klusjes in en om het huis. Voor de jeugd tot 18 jaar wordt 60 minuten bewegen per dag vereist op een wat hoger niveau. De Fitnorm houdt in dat met minimaal 20 minuten intensief moet bewegen op minstens 3 dagen per week. De overheid maakt volop reclame voor dit nieuwe beleid, denk maar aan de 30minutenbewegen campagnes. De sportdeelname van mensen met een handicap blijft nog altijd ver achter vergeleken met de deelname van mensen zonder beperking. Om sportdeelname toch maximaal aan te kunnen bieden, probeert de Rijksoverheid met het huidige beleid een grotere sportdeelname te realiseren bij mensen met een handicap. Samen met NOC*NSF en Gehandicaptensport Nederland is de overheid bezig met projecten om de jeugd, maar ook de instellingen waar mensen met een beperking wonen, sportproof te maken. Sport en beweging zijn namelijk voor de gezondheid, deelneming en integratie van mensen met een beperking een grote toegevoegde waarde. De overheid vindt dat jongeren te weinig sporten en bewegen op school en daarom wil zij andere mogelijkheden benutten zoals naschoolse activiteiten in samenwerking met sportverenigingen en de school, opvang en in de wijk, zodat de jeugd toch voldoende beweging krijgt. Om dit te kunnen verwezenlijken is er een goede samenwerking nodig tussen sport, onderwijs en andere lokale organisaties. Door het aanstellen van combinatiefunctionarissen wil de overheid sportverenigingen versterken en het dagelijkse sport- en beweegaanbod op en rond scholen verbeteren. Een combinatiefunctionaris is in dienst bij à ©Ãƒ ©n werkgever, maar werkzaam voor twee of meer sectoren. In dit geval binnen het onderwijs, sport en/of cultuur. De combinatiefunctionarissen moeten straks de verpersoonlijking worden van hun wijk. Veel verenigingen hebben te maken met een grote uitval van tieners en achterblijvende deelname van allochtonen, ouderen, chronisch zieken en mensen met een beperking. Het aanbod van de sportverenigingen sluit onvoldoende aan op de vraag van het publiek. Daarom slaan de overheid en de sportsector de handen ineen in het programma Nieuwe sportmogelijkheden om het sportaanbod te moderniseren. Dat moet leiden tot een aantrekkelijk aanbod, dat aansluit op de vraag van huidige en nieuwe leden. Bij het programma Meedoen alle jeugd door sport wordt sport ingezet om volwaardig burgerschap te bevorderen en sociaal isolement te voorkomen. Ook overlast en probleemgedrag door jongeren moet op deze manier verminderen. ReÃÆ' ¯ntegratie is nog een doel dat de overheid met dit programma probeert te bereiken. Mensen ontmoeten elkaar namelijk via sport en het overbrugt beperkingen, verschillen in religie, seksuele geaardheid, klasse en kleur. Keyplayers! is een Europees netwerk van landen die pleiten voor een actieve jeugdparticipatie binnen de sport. Zij richten zich op jongeren tussen de 14 en 24 jaar. Jongeren moeten niet alleen deelnemen aan sportieve activiteiten, maar ook actief betrokken zijn bij de opzet en uitvoering ervan. Wanneer jongeren meer invloed hebben op het sport- en beweegaanbod, zal het ook beter aansluiten op hun wensen en zal de participatie vergroten. Ook zet deze organisatie zich in om gezondheid te bevorderen, overlast te verminderen en om persoonlijk te groeien. Sport en bewegen wordt hier als middel gebruikt. In 2000 is het project WhoZnext van start gegaan. Het doel van dit project is niet alleen sportstimulering voor de jeugd, maar ook een actievere betrokkenheid bij het bedenken en het uitvoeren van sportactiviteiten. WhoZnext roept alle jongeren op om samen sportactiviteiten te organiseren. Dit kan in de buurt,op school of op de sportvereniging zijn.De WhoZnext-teams worden ondersteund door een volwassene, die gebruik kan maken van diverse sportinstrumenten. Deze instrumenten zijn door het landelijke projectteam van het Nederlands Instituut voor Sport en Bewegen beschikbaar gemaakt. In elke provincie zijn er commissies, die actief ondersteuning bieden bij de opzet van het project in de gemeente. Met het project WhoZnext Johan Cruyff Foundation   willen de organisaties ook jongeren met een lichamelijke, verstandelijke of meervoudige beperking sportactiviteiten laten organiseren. Elk whoZnext-team krijgt vanuit de Cruyff Foundation activiteitengeld, whoZnext-kleding, geld voor een teambuildingsactiviteit, een toolkit en een gratis training. De school zorgt zelf voor een coach die het team gaat begeleiden en moet zelf à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 500 beschikbaar stellen aan activiteitengeld. De Johan Cruyff Foundation is een organisatie die zich richt op het bevorderen van het geestelijk en lichamelijk welzijn van kinderen. Dit doen zij bijvoorbeeld door het aanbieden en stimuleren van sportactiviteiten, het financieel ondersteunen van organisaties en projecten met dezelfde visie en door sport in combinatie met onderwijs en gezondheidszorg te stimuleren, voor het belang van minder kansrijke kinderen en jongeren op te komen.Daarnaast   schenkt de organisatie ook veel aandacht aan kinderen en jongeren met een handicap. De Johan Cruyff Foundation wil niet alleen dat de projecten die zij steunt met sport en spel te maken hebben, maar ook dat de uitvoering ervan op sportieve wijze worden uitgevoerd. Veel elementen uit de sportwereld, zoals bijvoorbeeld het spelen in teamverband en een grote mate van inzet, zijn ook belangrijk bij het realiseren van projecten. Samenwerking en eigen inzet zijn van groot belang. In 2003 is de Johan Cruyff Foundation gestart met het aanleggen van Cruyff Courts. Door de aanleg van de Cruyff Courtswordt defunctie van het oude trapveldje, weer terug in de wijk gebracht. Op deze manier krijgen de kinderen uit de buurt een veilige en goede plek om te spelen en te sporten. Er zijn ook Cruyff Courts aangepast. Dit zijn multifunctionele trapveldjes die zo toegankelijk mogelijk worden gemaakt, zodat ze ook voor kinderen met een beperking te betreden zijn. Cruyff Court aangepast. Bron: http://www.cruyff-foundation.org/smartsite.net?id=854 Special Heroes houdt zich ook bezig met sportstimulering voor kinderen tussen de 6 en 20 jaar met een handicap. Via een uitgebreid sportstimuleringsprogramma, dat in overleg met de scholen wordt uitgevoerd, wil de organisatie laten zien en de kinderen laten ervaren hoe leuk sport kan zijn. De leerlingen krijgen op deze manier de kans om uitgebreid kennis te maken met sport- en beweegactiviteiten. Het jeugdsportfonds Rotterdam is een middel om kinderen met financieel minder draagkrachtige ouders een kans te bieden om toch te kunnen sporten. Kinderen tussen de 4 en 17 jaar, waarvan het gezinsinkomen niet meer is dan 120% van het wettelijk vastgestelde minimuminkomen, kunnen in aanmerking komen voor een fonds. Het motto van dit fonds is dat financià «n nooit een belemmering mogen zijn om kinderen niet te kunnen laten sporten. Het fonds vergoedt twee soorten kosten. De eerste is de vergoeding voor de contributie van een sportvereniging en de daarbij behorende sportartikelen zijn de tweede kostenpost die worden vergoedt. De maximale bijdrage per kind per jaar bedraagt à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬250,-. Een aanvraag verloopt altijd via een intermediair. Dit is iemand die op een professionele manier bezig is met kinderen, zoals bijvoorbeeld een meester of juf op school. Wanneer een aanvraag wordt goedgekeurd, zal het sportfonds de contributie direct naar de sportvereniging overmaken. De eventuele vergoeding voor de sportartikelen wordt gestort op de rekening van de intermediair. De ouders ontvangen dus nooit geld. Sport is er voor iedereen en dus uitermate geschikt om mensen en bevolkingsgroepen te binden en de ongerechtigheden in de samenleving weg te poetsen. Voetbal is een van de populairste sporten in Nederland. Daarnaast spelen de voetbalclubs een belangrijke maatschappelijke rol. Zij nemen namelijk een centrale plek in, in de harten van de supporters en zij zijn daarom bij uitstek geschikt om mensen aan te spreken op hun gedrag, verantwoordelijkheden en zaken zoals hun gezondheid. Ook de voetbalclubs zelf profiteren van deze actieve opstelling: de club wortelt zich steviger in haar omgeving, de fans zijn meer betrokken en het doet de reputatie van het voetbal goed. De Stichting Meer dan Voetbal gebruikt de kracht van voetbal voor een betere samenleving. De kernthemas van de Stichting zijn: Sportiviteit en respect, gezondheid en participatie. Veel Eredivisieclubs dragen hun steentje bij aan de maatschappij. In dit geval richten we ons op voetbalclub Feyenoord. Scoren op Zuid is een samenwerking tussen Feyenoord, de deelgemeente Feijenoord en Rotterdam Sportsupport. Het project heeft twee belangrijke speerpunten, namelijk: sport en educatie. Feyenoord wil de deelname van jongeren aan sportieve activiteiten en een gezonde levensstijl stimuleren .Daarnaast levert de club een bijdrage aan het verhogen van de motivatie van kinderen bij het volgen van onderwijs en het stimuleren van taal- en rekenvaardigheden. Dit project zal plaatsvinden in de wijken, op scholen en in de Kuip. Vaste ambassadeurs voor Scoren op Zuid zijn: Karim El Ahmadi, Georginio Wijnaldum en Leroy Fer. [1] Sinds augustus 2003 werkt Feyenoord samen met het Erasmus Medisch Centrum Sophia. De club probeert op verschillende manieren het leven van zieke kinderen op een leuke manier te veraangenamen. Een van deze activiteiten is de jaarlijkse Sophia Dag. Tijdens deze dag wordt een tribunevak in zijn geheel gereserveerd voor de zieke kinderen en hun families. Daarnaast zijn de mascottes en vlaggendragers kinderen die behandeld worden in het Sophia en stellen de Unithouders plaatsen beschikbaar voor kinderen die niet in staat zijn om op de tribune plaats te nemen. Ook wordt er tijdens wedstrijden gecollecteerd door tientallen vrijwilligers. Als tweede grote activiteit heeft het Erasmus MC aan het begin van ieder seizoen de primeur van de nieuwe selectie. Nog voor de Open Dag presenteert de selectie zich in het ziekenhuis. Op deze manier zijn ook zieke kinderen een beetje verbonden met sport. Een andere organisatie die zich bezig houdt met de gezondheid en de sportparticipatie van de jeugd is Scoren voor Gezondheid. Dit is een initiatief van de Eredivisie, de Sponsor Loterij, het Ministerie van Volksgezondheid Welzijn en Sport, het Nationaal Instituut voor gezondheidsbevordering Ziektepreventie en de Stichting meer dan Voetbal. Alle achttien clubs uit de Eredivisie hebben zich bij dit initiatief aangesloten. Het project start met een clinic en een fit- en gezondheidstest in het stadion van de betreffende Eredivisieclub. De spelers uit het team gaan kinderen uit groep 6,7 en 8 van de basisschool helpen bij het kiezen van een gezonde levensstijl. Dit doen ze door de kinderen een contract te laten tekenen waarin zij beloven 20 weken lang het projectprogramma te volgen. Het programma vindt zowel op school als op de club plaats. De kinderen gaan dus naar de voetbalclub en de voetballers komen op bezoek in de klas. Iedere vier weken wordt er een apart thema behandeld. Het prog ramma kan bestaan uit de volgende themas: sport is cool; elke dag ontbijten; gezond en verantwoord bewegen; gezonde voeding; lidmaatschap sportvereniging. De reden waarom er juist gekozen is voor professionele voetballers als begeleiders van dit project, heeft te maken met het feit dat kinderen enorm opkijken naar hun idolen. Ze zien een profvoetballer als rolmodel en om te kunnen presteren heb je een gezonde levensstijl nodig. Voetballers kunnen dit als geen ander uitstralen. De kinderen zijn hierdoor vaak beter gemotiveerd om echt hun best te doen en hun levensstijl te veranderen. Stichting PUSH is een welzijnsorganisatie die een bijdrage wilt leveren aan actieve en gezellige wijken/buurten. Om dit doel te kunnen bereiken organiseert de organisatie gevarieerde activiteiten te organiseren die begeleid en uitgevoerd worden door vrijwilligers, bewoners, stagiaires of professionals. De activiteiten vinden plaats in de volgende gemeenten: Bernisse, Brielle, Hellevoetsluis, Ouddorp, Rozenburg, Spijkenisse en Westvoorne. Stichting Push doet ook aan sportstimulering. Hierbij richten zij zich op kwetsbare groepen in de leeftijdscategorieà «n 6 tot en met 12 jaar, 12 tot en met 18 jaar en 55+. Het doel van de projecten zijn gezondheidsbevordering, sportkennismaking en participatie. Enkele voorbeelden van activiteiten zijn: sportdagen en gezondheidsprojecten op basisscholen, WhoZnext en [emailprotected] op middelbare scholen en sporttoernooien in de wijk tijdens de schoolvakanties. Ook mijn gemeente, de gemeente Westvoorne, draagt zijn steentje bij voor de jeugd. In het huidige beleid staat vastgesteld dat basisscholen de kinderen tijdens de gymlessen kennis moeten laten maken met diverse sporten. Dit stimuleert de overstap van school naar vereniging. Het is de bedoeling dat de leerlingen kennis maken met meerdere takken van sport, zodat zij een gerichter keuze kunnen maken voor een bepaalde sport. De leerkrachten zullen een zogenaamde zapkaart ontwikkelen samen met de plaatselijke sportverenigingen. Dit houdt in dat de docenten en de plaatselijke verenigingen afspreken welke sporten er tijdens de gymlessen worden behandeld, zodat enthousiaste kinderen de overstap van gym op school naar sporten bij een sportvereniging in de buurt makkelijker kunnen maken. Middelbare scholen in de buurgemeenten Hellevoetsluis en Brielle worden benaderd om het sportorià «ntatie programma in beeld te kunnen brengen. De verenigingen uit Westvoorne zullen een aanbod doen voor alle leerlingen dat aansluit op het programma van de sportorià «ntatie op school. Als tennis bijvoorbeeld in de maand april op school aan bod komt, zorgt de tennisvereniging ervoor dat er een aansluitend aanbod is op de vereniging voor de leerlingen die daar interesse in hebben. Het aanbod van de school en de verenigingen zal op elkaar afgestemd worden. Alleen als de gemeente Westvoorne een bepaalde sport niet aan kan bieden dan wordt in de omliggende gemeenten gekeken naar een vereniging die dat wel kan. 2.5 Wat kan sport voor een kind betekenen? Sport is er voor iedereen. Verschil in leeftijd, klasse, geslacht en afkomst doen er op dat moment niet toe. Je zou dus kunnen zeggen dat sport verbroedert. Buiten dat is het niet alleen goed voor je lichamelijke ontwikkeling, maar ook voor je sociale ontwikkeling. Door te sporten, omdat moet je veel mensen. Misschien zelfs wel vrienden voor het leven. Dat weet ik zelf maar al te goed. Van kleins af aan ben ik bezig met sport. Van paardrijden, voetballen, tennissen, zeilen, zwemmen tot fietsen, ik heb het allemaal gedaan. Toen ik een jaartje of acht was, ben ik voor het eerst in aanraking gekomen met hockey. Een vriendinnetje uit mijn klas had op een middag training en vroeg of ik zin had om met haar mee te gaan trainen. Sindsdien heb ik zeker negen jaar fanatiek gehockeyd. Heerlijk vond ik het. Niet alleen het spelletje, maar ook de gezelligheid. Mijn team bestond uit meiden van verschillende scholen. Dit maakte het extra leuk om naar de trainingen te gaan, omdat je hen op school niet zag. Samen vormden we een ontzettend hecht team en hadden we heel veel lol met elkaar. We sleepten elkaar door de zware trainingen heen en wisten elkaar goed te motiveren als een van ons het eventjes niet meer zag zitten. We leerden hoe we moesten samenwerken en respect te hebben voor elkaar, de scheidsrechter en voor de tegenstander. Ook leerden we hoe we winst het beste konden vieren, want winnen deden we zeker! Doordat we met elkaar zijn opgegroeid hebben we elkaar, maar ook het publiek zien veranderen. Waar eerst onze trotste ouders ons aan stonden te moedigen, kwam plaats voor onze mannelijke fans. Natuurlijk mochten onze ouders ook nog steeds komen kijken. Zeker naarmate we wat ouder werden en voor het eerst uitgingen, is het contact hechter geworden. Het kwam ook steeds vaker voor dat we na de training op de club bleven hangen en gezellig wat met elkaar en natuurlijk met het mannenteam gingen drinken. Helaas betekende dit weinig goeds voor onze hockeyprestaties. Van topteam gleden we af tot bierteam, maar dat kon ons weinig schelen. Zelfs met de grootste katers deden we ons best en hadden we het tijdens de trainingen en wedstrijden ontzettend leuk met elkaar. Iedere zaterdag gingen we met veel plezier naar het veld en natuurlijk altijd nog stiekem een beetje voor de winst, ook al kwam dat nog zeer zelden voor. Tijdens wedstrijden werd er niet meer overlegd over de juiste aanvalstrategie, maar hadden we het meer over waar we s avonds eens naartoe gingen, wat we aan gingen trekken en of je dat ene leuke tasje van de ander mocht lenen. Nadat de meeste meiden een vervolgopleiding gingen doen en dus stopten met hockey, is het team uit elkaar gevallen. Ik heb toen nog een jaar in een ander team gehockeyd, maar het voelde niet meer zoals het voor mij was. Ook ik ben gestopt. Wel zien we elkaar nog altijd wekelijks en doen we nog vaak leuke dingen samen. Dat is toch best bijzonder. Sport is dus ontzettend belangrijk. Het heeft een enorme kracht en heeft voor iedereen een andere betekenis. Voor mij betekent sport vooral ontspanning, verlichting en plezier. Ik vind het heerlijk om na een lange schooldag lekker buiten te gaan skeeleren, te hardlopen of te zwemmen. Ook ga ik graag naar de sportschool. Tijdens een zware les Bodypump of Spinning zet ik even mijn verstand op nul en kan ik mijn ei kwijt. Sport is ook heel leerzaam. Zeker wanneer je sport in teamverband leer je een hoop over samenwerking en respect. Zelfstandige sporters krijgen geleidelijk meer zelfdiscipline. Tijdens het sporten ontmoet je ook veel mensen, dat is ook erg belangrijk. Forcial MA2 houdt de stemming erin na de zoveelste nederlaag. 3 Beantwoording hoofdvraag en conclusie Na het beantwoorden van mijn hulpvragen, heb ik voldoende informatie om mijn hoofdvraag te kunnen beantwoorden. Naar mijn menig doet Nederland genoeg om meer iedereen aan het sporten te krijgen. De mogelijkheden zijn er zeker, alleen moet men deze ook grijpen! Zelf heb ik erg goede ervaringen met sportstimulering via school. Ik volg sinds twee jaar het vak Bewegen, Sport en Maatschappij (BSM). Hierdoor ben ik in aanraking gekomen met verschillende sporten en heb ik ook meegedaan aan de projecten [emailprotected] en WhoZnext. Samen met mijn klasgenootjes hebben we een sportdag georganiseerd voor de brugklassers. De voorbereidingen waren enorm, maar het resultaat mocht er zeker wezen. Door het sportorià «ntatie programma op school ben ik gaan Bodypumpen, ook heb ik het tennissen weer opgepakt. Sportstimulering via school heeft dus wel degelijk invloed op kinderen. WhoZnext-team HellevoetZnext. [1] Zie de bijgevoegde folder en het bijgevoegde lesboekje van Scoren op Zuid