Memorandum of Law Instructions

Memorandum of Law Instructions Legal research and writing often manifests Itself In the form of written documents. Some of these documents are for the Internal use of the firm or other entity. Others, such as letters, pleadings, and briefs are for courts and other third parties. A principal document that Is often used Internally, and, at times, transformed Into a letter, brief, or otherwise altered for use with third parties, is the Memorandum of Law. You will draft one of these documents for a large portion of your grade in this class. It will allow you to practice virtually all of the skills that you will learn throughout this course.The Memorandum of Law is covered in chapter 13 of the text. You should probably read that chapter now in planning for this assignment (it will be covered in detail in Module/Week 7). You will complete your memorandum in three parts, and each part will be graded and returned to you in time for you to incorporate what you have learned Into the next step in the assignment. The Memorandum of Law that you will be writing Is an objective document that ill explain what the law Is with regard to the hypothetical fact pattern that will be given to you by your Instructor.Thus, you will not necessarily be attempting to persuade the reader. Rather, you will be reporting to your instructor (who, in this instance, will be like an attorney in a law firm for the purposes of this assignment) what you believe the law is with regard to the situation posed. Thus, you must address authorities that might be helpful and not so helpful to your client's position. You should format your memorandum like the examples in chapter 13 of the text, include the following: Provide a heading with your instructors name in the â€Å"to:† field, your name in the â€Å"from:† field, and the date and topic. SE headings as shown In the text. Use a professional font that Is easy to read. The text should be double-spaced, with page numbers at the bottom of ea ch page and one-inch margins. Case Briefs Conduct research on the hypothetical fact pattern given to you by your instructor. Locate the relevant cases that you will be addressing in your Memorandum of Law (remember, the Memorandum of Law is an objective assignment, so you should include both cases that help and hurt your position).Read and analyze the cases as discussed in chapter 3 of the text. After reading and analyzing the cases that you found, prepare case briefs for what you believe to be the five most important cases that you will rely upon In drafting your Memorandum of Law. You should generally format the case briefs the same way that you will format the Memorandum of Law (see above, chapter 13 as to the Memorandum of Law, and chapter 4 of the text as to briefing cases and the form of the briefs). You may Include all of the briefs In one Word file.Head the file as you will the Memorandum of Law, and then Include each of the five briefs as the text of the file that you will submit through a link provided in Your Case Briefs are due by 1 1 :59 p. M. (ET) on Monday of Module/Week 3. Rough Draft Finish your research and analysis of the hypothetical fact pattern, incorporate the feedback that you receive from your instructor on the Case Briefs, and then complete this part. For this part, you will complete a rough draft of the actual Memorandum of Law. Formatting, research, writing, etc. Loud be as close as possible to what you envision for the final draft. The better the Job you do here, the better grade you will receive on this part of the assignment. But, perhaps even more importantly, the better the Job you do, the more valuable the feedback you receive. Thus, it will benefit you for the final part of the assignment as well.

Reflective journal Essay

My third week of clinical placement at Trillium Hospital assigned on the same unit and same patient. Arrive early in the lobby of 4J Rehab meet with our Clinical Instructor and group mates. Started with pre-conference had briefing for the day activities assigned as schedule to be with our Clinical Instructor in giving 10:00 am medications. After the briefing, I went to the station where, met my new preceptor , exchange of greetings little bit of introduction about me and her. We started by taking the endorsement from the outgoing night shift nurse. Review the plan of care of our assigned patient. She asked to get the manual Blood Pressure Apparatus and handed me her pager. I was thinking why the pager. She notice me in confusion of the pager, she just smiled and said â€Å" I want you to feel your the real nurse and I am just your assistant†, don’t worry I am at your side† just answered â€Å"ok†. We went to each patient room, greeted patient, took the vital signs, recorded it my notebook, does the head to toe assessment . After all of these activities we went back to the nurse’s station where I do the documentation with regards to patients vital signs. At around 9:00 in the morning we do the morning care for each patient, I had the chance to assist her male stroke patient change his catheter. We finished around 9:30 and had our break. After the break 10:00 Am time to give the medication for my assigned patient together with my preceptor as per schedule. My assigned patient is male 51 years old Spanish who has an Ileostomy case. The medication that I was going to give are pain medications and for his hypertension. My clinical instructor asked me also about the medication routes, and the classification of the drugs. So thankful to her my Clinical Instructor she is so kind and willing to give us all the information we need to learn. I also documented in the MAR sheet, signed the drugs that I gave. I also had the chance of changing the dressing of my assigned patient, Ileostomy case. Prepared the materials needed for the procedure. Feeling nervous at the beginning, my first time to do this kind of dressing, packing ribbon on an stoma. With my preceptor around who is so cooperative and teaching me the proper way to do it I feel confident and grateful to her too. Me and my group mates had also the chance to watch doing the bladder scanner knowing the amount of urine in the bladder. One of my group mates did the in and out catetherization, but unfortunately it did work out, something is blocking maybe pus. I also helped the transferring of patient from bed to wheel chair using the manual Hoyer Lift. Get tired that day but happy I learned a lot of challenges, having this positive attitude, experiences during my clinical duty I know I can handle and deal with the situations that I will be encoutering.

Research: Decision Theory and Pilot Testing

Chapter 4 Terms in Review 1. Some questions are answerable by research and others are not. Using some management problems of your choosing, distinguish between them. When management wants to find out which method of a production process is the most efficient in terms of operational productivity we can use research to provide usable results. When management wants to know if now is a good time to take on debt for equipment upgrades is, research may not be able to provide usable results.Due to the extensive number of variables affecting financing decisions research will likely not be able to assist in this decision. The current market conditions, economy, interest rates, industry competition, and many other items require a type of analysis that research can not provide. 2. Discuss the problems of trading off exploration and pilot testing under tight budgetary constraints. What are the immediate and long-term effects? The text discussed that often pilot testing is not done to both reduce costs and also to reduce the total research time.Not conducting pilot testing can then immediately progress the research process or reduce the total cost of the research but it can possibly have negative long-term effects. By not conducting pilot testing your research results may suffer because the proper information is not being gathered. A pilot test often provides indication of problems with the data gathering process. There may also be an overall increased cost with no additional benefit when no pilot testing has been completed.The pilot test can not only indicate incorrect information be gathered but can also provide some indication as to whether the proper research questions have been asked. When the research questions being asked do not answer the true management questions then the conducted research will be useless. Useless research is a wasted expense. Pilot testing can indicate whether more in-depth research is required thus providing a possible cost reduction or a better justification for proceeding with a higher cost project. 3.A company is experiencing a poor inventory management situation and receives alternative research proposals. Proposal 1 is to use an audit of last year’s transactions as a basis for recommendations. Proposal 2 is to study and recommend changes to the procedures and system used by the materials department. Discuss issues of evaluation in terms of (a) Ex post facto versus prior evaluation, and (b) Evaluation using option analysis and decision theory. Both of these proposals are going to be quite difficult to evaluate.The need of the research will determine which method will be followed. Ex post factor or after-the-fact evaluation will determine the total cost of each proposal after the research studies are completed. This makes it quite difficult to determine whether the research is providing enough benefit to make it worthwhile until after the cost has been incurred. Thus for either of these systems it may be a better decision to proceed with a prior or interim evaluation method.Under this method the research is designed in stages and an ex post facto evaluation is performed at the end of each stage. Then a determination is made deciding if enough benefit has been generated to proceed to the next stage thus allowing management to get results while also controlling cost. Option analysis may also be used to evaluate the two proposed studies. With option analysis the studies are designed in a very explicit manner thus allowing an organization to compare estimated costs (based on prior research approximations) versus an expected benefit.Management will then select one proposal over another depending on the cost benefit ratio and current need. Decision theory allows management to make decisions based on defined criteria. Each criterion consists of a decision rule and a decision variable. The selection process then consists of analysis determining which proposal either increases the decision variable or which follows the decision rule. This information is considered with a choice being determined by the rules and current management need.

Causes and Effects of the Holocaust Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Causes and Effects of the Holocaust - Essay Example Nazi policies concerning the origin of Germans from Aryans contributed profoundly to the massacre during the Holocaust. However, this was considered a misguided notion although Germans continued to insist on its significance leading to killings, not just for the Jews, but also for other minority communities within the region.The augment in popularity for Zionism in the 19th century led to the demonstration of fundamentalism and selectiveness for the Jewish community triggering hatred and prejudices against the Jews. Therefore, Hitler and his associates deliberated on terminating the community’s prosperity in all fields through the Holocaust.Many Jews remained homeless since the Nazis had brought their homes down leading to the creation of camps that held them until they immigrated to Israel. Therefore, the suffering that the Jews endured had not ended due to the effects the events that transpired held for the community. The Holocaust brought psychological traumas to the remnan ts since they observed their relatives’ suffering and even death in the wake of the Holocaust. In addition, many remnants experienced physical harms ascribed to constant harassment and beating by the Nazis who considered them inferior. The occurrence of the Holocaust made the superpowers take measures concerning the prevention of a similar occurrence in the prospect through control and supervision. The Holocaust made other nations around the globe to allow Jews to return to Israel in order to keep them safe from similar occurrences.

Famous Person with Disabilities ( BEETHOVEN) Essay

Famous Person with Disabilities ( BEETHOVEN) - Essay Example Beethoven felt that his hearing loss was the most crippling limitation that he could have ever suffered during the height of his career, and was faced with the fear of losing his identity as a master of sound (Owens, 2011). During his battle with deafness, Beethoven proved to the world that you can still be the best at what you do, and just because one has a disability neither means that he/she should give up on life, nor should he/she give up on the pursuit of their dreams and/or professions. Ludwig van Beethoven: A Legend Is Born Ludwig van Beethoven was born in December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany. Being born to a family of musicians, it was no surprise that Beethoven himself was musically inclined. He studied first under his own father, Johann, who taught young Beethoven all he knew about music. Johann, at times a â€Å"raging† alcoholic, and was very strict on Beethoven, often forcing him to get out of bed in the middle of the night in order to practice his music. Sometimes for hours on end, Beethoven was forced by his father to play and practice. The practice paid off and at the age of eight, and Beethoven gave his first live performance (History, 2011). Though Beethoven’s family wasn’t rich, his father hoped to make the family rich through Beethoven’s musical talents. Because Beethoven’s family was respected servants of the royal court, Beethoven’s family had both connections and means to help Beethoven further his musical education. As far as formal, traditional educations go; Beethoven, however, dropped out of traditional school at the age of thirteen in order to concentrate more on his musical talents, going on tours and so forth (Buzzle, 2011). After learning all that his own father could teach him, Beethoven then studied under Haydn and Mozart; Beethoven’s father often said he wanted Beethoven to become the next Mozart (History, 2011). During his lifetime, Beethoven composed forty-one pieces of work, ni ne of which were symphonies. Beethoven: A Legend Develops a Life Changing Handicap At age twenty-eight, Beethoven gradually began losing his ability to hear (History, 2011). Still, he continued to compose, play, and publish music. He hid his disability from family, friends and the public for as long as he could, which is normal for many people who develop disabilities (Owens, 2011). Once Beethoven’s disability was no longer deniable, he became deeply depressed and began to confide in others of his handicap and of his contemplations on committing suicide, also a common feeling and reaction for those who develop a handicap (Owens, 2011). John Owens became quadriplegic due to a dirt bike accident in 2006; he says that at the onset of his disability, he also went into deep depression and contemplated suicide as well (Owens, 2011). â€Å"When you go through something that changes your life forever, it becomes a challenge just to wake up in the mornings. Even I contemplated suicid e, feeling that my life was over, knowing that I might never be able to do the things I love the most, which back then was playing football, a sport in which I excelled. I knew I possessed the talent and ability to make football my profession, and I was working toward this very goal before my accident. So, I very much know how Beethoven must have felt being a great musician and losing his

The Risks and Prospective of iPad Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Risks and Prospective of iPad - Case Study Example Before developing the product, the firm needs to evaluate customer’s desire and behaviour. Furthermore, they must determine if the consumers would be able to purchase the product as well as the market opportunity. The first month after the release of iPad, one million devices were sold and 15 million in the first nine months, thus making it one of the most successful products. It is essential for the company to determine the reality of the product upon establishing an achievable market. Before development process begins, innovator should define a concept, possibility of developing the proposed product and define market demands. At Apple, the development teams through various sessions meet to discuss technical specifications, social and environmental acceptability of the proposed product. This team is charged with the responsibility of determining the viability of the product and cost of development. Ipad allows numerous update of software and hardware, this aspect makes it suitable and solves unforeseen technical, manufacturing and system problems. In addition, iPad is designed to meet customer expectations and maintain its potential appeal. Upon determining the viability of the market and product, it is important to assess the ability of the company to hold and gain sufficient share of the market. Consumers will choose a product based on value and cost benefits. The development team must evaluate the competitive edge of a product in the market. Ipad offers tangible advantage such as cost and quality. Moreover, the product must be able to sustain the competitive advantage. After the introduction of iPad, other competitors such as Samsung developed a similar product. However, iPad the best selling tablet in the world. To sustain competition the team must determine whether the company’s resource, management and market insight are better than fellow competitors are.     

Balanced Reading Program Part 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Balanced Reading Program Part 3 - Essay Example Description of the balance literacy program, basic components, analysis of linguistic articles to supplement the strategy, design of comprehensive framework components, and metrics to assess the activities and timeline of strategies are the key points of the paper to achieve the desired improvement in the children. Many children struggle to achieve the academic competency despite existence of various viewpoints regarding the approach to teaching children how to read. â€Å"Read to Succeed† program creates the design of comprehensive framework for assisting children in reading and writing. Teachers and academicians faces dilemma regarding the choice of methodology that can serve as model of excellence for teaching and reading in classrooms. For instance, the skills based phonics process that stresses on the breaking down of individual word into several component sounds, or the relatively easier and child-centric approach that emphasizes on the reading of texts and simultaneously deciphering its meaning through fun-filled shared readings in classrooms strengthens the value of the program. Balanced literacy program addresses these issues. The balanced reading approach offers effective techniques for enhancing reading, writing, listening, viewing and speaking skills. Cohen and Cowen (2007) observes the inculcation of right aptitude and attitude in the student in which â€Å""The primary goal of a balanced literacy program is to teach reading, not as a skill broken into isolated steps, but as a lifelong learning process that promotes higher order thinking, problem solving and reasoning† (pp. 37). The basic components of a Balanced Literacy Program include Reading and Writing that can be divided into various sub-components such as ‘Reading Aloud’, ‘Shared Reading’, ‘Guided Reading’, ‘Independent Reading’, ‘Modeled/Shared Writing’, ‘Interactive Writing’, and ‘Independent Writing’.

Interest Groups GP210 Wk 5 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Interest Groups GP210 Wk 5 - Research Paper Example er example can be seen in China which is working towards approving non-animal tested cosmetics in the country following an initiative led by PETA (Gallon, 2012). In order to influence policy and public agenda, PETA conducts activities like holding campaigns and working towards changing the law concerning ‘required’ animal testing. It is also involved in creating public awareness about animal abuse in the entertainment, research, fashion and food industries. Several celebrities like Paul McCartney and Russell Simmons support PETA and this is a major strength as common people look up to them as idols. Their strengths include being creative and highly visible. Their major weakness is their crude and uncaring manner of communicating their purpose. For example, PETA came up with a billboard before Easter 2004 that pictures a pig with the caption ‘He died for your sins – go vegetarian’ (Strom, 2004). This brought about a huge uproar from the Christian community.

Lester Electronics Gap Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Lester Electronics Gap Analysis - Essay Example The process of merger is set in motion by Shang-wa CEO John Lin, as he thinks that the merger will give his company a much needed secured future. On the other hand, Lester Electronics CEO Bernard Lester feels that the merger will prevent future revenue losses. These merger plans were initiated by the actions of two other companies, Transnational Electronics and Avral Electronics, who try to take over Shang-wa and Lester Electronics respectively. But, if the merger plans between Lester and Shang-wa gets actualized it will nullify the other two companies take over bid. Along with that advantage, the merger will also create a lot of opportunities and bring in profits. But, even with all the opportunities, there exist some financial issues or threats that will cause the merger to fail. So, the correct decision has to be taken after analyzing the key financial issues, with the involvement of all the key people and departments, including the accounts department and its head Anne Lorale. â €Å"Good decision-making starts from the right place† (Paul & Elder, 2006 In the scenario, the merger of Lester and Shang-wa could spring up many issues particularly in the financial sector. Normally, in times of merger between two companies existing in different countries, the financial issues have to be dealt firstly, to make the merger a success. So, Shang-wa’s balance sheet and incomes statement has to be properly analyzed by Anne Lorale and her team, before going with the merger. As the income statements will clearly gauge the financial performance of a company over a specific period of time, it will surely aid Lester to grasp the financial condition as well as the value of economic assets of Shang wa. From the analysis of the financial statements, it is clear that the merger of Shang wa and Lester would lead to a low debt to equity ratio, increasing the chances of bankruptcy in the long run. The other issue that will arise in

Business math project Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business math project - Speech or Presentation Example d function implies that if the competitors come together into a merger, the resultant monopolist product may not have more brands than the merged firm may, because more brand competition is internal. Nevertheless, it is not likely that just a single brand will be developed after the competitors’ merger. Producing more brands with a wide range of prices and properties is one technique for breaking up the market demand into sets of different clients with a variety of price elasticity, which also serves to stimulate the overall market demand. The monopolist product function is made up of the quantity or the number of brands in the market, the average cost per unit of the brands produced and the price or the value of the product brands. The questions will thus be solved by inputting the prices in the Mathematica codes and then applying the demand function below: to generate the 2 dimensional plotting of the first question. In the second question, the data input in Mathematica code s will be the quantity of products. In Question 3, the data input will be the same as in question 1 but will have a fixed price of 1 in calculating the demand elasticity. Question 4 will be treated in the same way as question 2 but will have a fixed quantity of 1 to calculating the marginal cost. Question 5 will calculate the profit function as the difference between the price and the marginal cost of the products. The sixth question will produce the 3D plots of the profit function, with two input variables, the prices and the product quantities. From this, it will be possible to locate the maximum profit to answer question 9, and select the quantity and the price that produces it, to answer question 7 and 8 respectively. The study was successful in testing all the numerical questions presented. From the results generated, it was clearly evident that the price and the demand were inversely proportional. As the price increased, the demand for the products was seen to be reducing. At the same

Lets Be Lefties for a Day Essay Example for Free

Lets Be Lefties for a Day Essay Corporations must develop a plan to develop their employees to embrace cultural competency and value diversity. Promoting to understand cultural, ethnic and gender difference requires awareness and being sensitive to others needs in the workplace or patient population served in an organization. Employees should be culturally knowledgeable and be able to interpret the needs and disparities of a particular group or culture. Being able to interpret the health and disparities are keys elements to understand the health care practice. Health care organizations should encourage and promote individuals to engage cross culturally with other diverse backgrounds. Health care providers should be aware of selfcare remedies practices and health traditions of groups served in the clinic or hospital setting. To a be viewed as culturally competent the provider of care should possess the ability to integrate the skills, attitude and knowledge learned of other ethnic backgrounds. Applying the knowledge received is a strategic effort in respecting the cultural difference of others. Avoiding ethnocentric responses to care of the individual patient is a positive reaction of a culturally competent person. Keeping in mind that each patient is culturally unique. Cultural competence should address and accept gender difference among employees, health care team, patients, families, providers and the community. As a population we are diverse in many dimensions including diversity as being recognizable when it comes to gender, religion, race, weight, age, education, physical and mental abilities, sexual orientation, marital status, physical clothing appearance and job relevant abilities. Identifying potential similarities and differences of an organization or a community can help one to deliver competent service or promote relevant team building. In healthcare one example of a guide to assist in transforming is Transcultural Communication in Nursing (Munoz Luckman , 2005). A persons motive to categorize, encompassed with the need to dissect the person categorized, leads to stereotyping. To approach cultural knowledge from a particular viewpoint is inappropriate and can lead to stereotyping in the workplace. One can take explore their cultural value and beliefs related to the corporate environment or health care industry. Developing strategies to examine one’s cultural bias is a way to show sensitivity to others culture. Also establishing a basic understanding is another way to improve cultural knowledge along with taking advantage of creditable websites and reading research studies that describe cultural differences. In order to maintain relationships as a provider or in a corporate environment is relevant to ask a client what they need, what they expect to receive, and whether they have received, what they think will help the situation or make them feel better. Corporations must develop a plan to develop the knowledge, skills and sensitivities needed to work in a culturally –diverse population. Culturally diversity can complicate the delivery of care seen in the community and health disparities refer to inequalities and differences in health status and outcomes. Decisions in cultural diversity is lacking when you evaluate healthcare access to care in urban and rural areas. Lack of preventive screenings and completion of health indicators are seen in the general population and other social ethnic groups of the underserved and social economic lifestyle. Cultural competency is valuable because it facilitates positive experiences and development in team building by improving effiencicy and effectiveness in a health care organization. Training workers and reinforcing the Golden Rule â€Å"Do unto others as they would like done unto them†, is an important mission statement. Being able to effectively change is another component needed in an organization. New ways to creativity thinking about the world and learning about health and wellness for ourselves can positively penetrate the world around and ultimately impact diversity in organizations. American Academy of Ambulatory Nursing (AAACN 2006), pp.242-243 Tajfel, H. (1978). â€Å"Social Categorization, Social Identity and Social Comparison.† In H. Tajfel (Ed.), Differentiation Between Social Groups, London: Academic Press, pp. 61–76. Bell â€Å"Diversity in Organization† (2007) pp.62

Aging Workforce in Singapore Essay Example for Free

Aging Workforce in Singapore Essay Populations in many developed countries are ageing, and Singapore is no exception. The first batch of post-war baby boomers will reach 65 years of age by 2012. The number of seniors will increase from 8.4% in 2005 to 18.7% in 2030 (refer to Table 1). According to the 2010 Population Report,  The proportion of residents (i.e. citizens and PRs) aged 65 and above increased from 7.0% of the resident population in 1999 to 8.8% in 2009. Correspondingly, the number of younger residents aged 15-64 for every resident aged 65 and above (i.e. the old-age support ratio) fell from 10. 1 in 1999 to 8.3 in 2009 (refer to Table 2). (Singapore Department of Statistics, 2010, p. 4) Today, one out of every 12 Singaporeans is aged 65 or above. By 2030, this ratio will become one out of five. On January 2011, the parliament has passed down the new employment law of changing to retirement age from 62 to the age of 65 from January 2012. This is a good news to many Singaporeans who felt that they are still capable of working beyond the retirement age of 62 (Nayak, 2011, para. 3). An ageing population brings both challenges and opportunities, having tremendous effect on all parts of our society – individuals, families, communities, businesses and government. Therefore, we ought to prepare early for the challenges of an ageing population to ensure the well-being of our seniors and their families to provide the first line of support. At the same time, we must be ready to seize the economic opportunities that will emerge from the demographic shift. Aging Workforce in the Hotel Industry With relevance to the major demographic trends, aging population, this revolution will change the face of our labour market. Correspondingly, the workforce is not only ageing, but also growing at a much slower pace. Increasingly, companies are facing problems in recruiting replacements for retiring employees. This is a reality that companies have to grapple with and adapt to. Nevertheless, not all companies are being affected equally nor are they moving at the same rate to identify and address how the ageing trend will be impacting their businesses. Impacts In the hospitality industry, service is the factor that differentiates hotels from its competitors. Therefore with a large amount of aging workforce in the frontline, it will bring down the image of the hotel in terms of appearance; a younger worker would look fresher and have a better appeal to guests. As a guest of a hotel overseas, he or she would be preferred to be served by younger workers than people of an old age. As older employees are naturally more prone to illnesses, they would tend to take more medical leaves thus decreasing the manpower. When one gets sick, it affects the employees’ mood to work and thus less concentration when working. This in turn reduces the efficiency of the operations of hotels. In addition, the needs and interest changes with aging workforce. According to the study by Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices (TAFEP) (2010), â€Å"rising health and insurance costs, concern about physical abilities, and adaptability/willingness were ranked as the top three challenges† (p. 3). With the ever changing preferences and needs of the society, hotels have to constantly upgrade their standard of services. However, older employees may not be equipped with latest skills and knowledge needed to achieve the hotel’s competitive advantage. Thus, there is a need to constantly upgrade the skills of their older employees. Older employees are more resistant to changes and improvements. This may be mainly due to their thinking of already having the appropriate experience and knowledge and there is no need for further training, especially in the situation of â€Å"leapfrogging†, where a younger worker is put in charge of a more experienced worker. Many hotels will have an advantage by having a large pool of elderly employees. It is mainly because there are many job positions which young employees would be unwilling to take up. Most time, foreigners would be hired to fill up the rest of the job vacancies that do not appeal to the young employees; however, hotels can have another avenue of recruitment – the elderly workforce. This will give hotels a great advantage to handpick the best candidates out of the pool of elderly workforce. In hotels, there are certain positions that elderly employees occupy, for example managerial positions. Being loyal to the company, they would not want to leave their positions easily as compared to the younger workforce who usually job hops for a better pay. This relieves the hotel’s need to constantly recruit and train new workers, thus helping to cut the costs during the process of recruitment and training. Challenges A) The Human Resource (HR) unit has a challenge to allocate the older employees in suitable positions that is beneficial for both the hotel and the aging workforce. The HR unit also has to ensure that the hotel would maintain a good image and increases their productivity. There is also a need for the HR unit to create a supportive culture for the older workers in order to manage such diverse workforce. B) Keeping older employees motivated at work along with the right attitude is important when serving their customers. In addition, with the older employees being more prone to illnesses, hotels have to struggle with ways to keep their costs low and at the same time provide adequate medical benefits for them. During such periods it is more crucial for managers and supervisors to show them care and patience. C) Values tend to change from one generation to another as well as during different life stages. The thinking of the older generation is more conservative than those of the younger generation. It would thus be a challenge for the hotels wanting the older employees to improve their values in their job scope. With a more conservative mindset and thinking, they would be afraid to try new things and be more innovative. In turn, the hotel will lose its competitiveness if new changes are adopted. Hence, the HR unit in a hotel has to place their older employees in the most relevant training to help them prepare for changes in their current jobs. Besides that, older employees would normally take a longer time to adapt to changes, thus the management has to work out appropriate schedules to help their employees to have a proper balance with their job and trainings. D) Older employees tend to have more skills and knowledge in the industry due to the experiences they have gone through. Retaining this skills and knowledge is critical for hotels to ensure that the younger generation will also have these basic skills and knowledge as a platform for them to have an advantage over their competitors. E) Although there is a need to retain these skills and knowledge, there will definitely be a time when one has to retire. However, the aging workforce is usually reluctant to leave their positions as they are emotionally attached to the hotel. This would be a challenge for the hotel to find ways to recruit younger employees, without resulting in excess manpower and high costs, especially for positions in the higher management. If the hotel were to retain most of the older employees, they may miss opportunities on recruiting young employees who can be a more valuable asset to the hotels which helps to bring their standards to a higher level. Solutions It is time for employers to start responding to the potential consequences of the ageing workforce on their businesses. If not well-prepared, employers may find themselves suddenly faced with labour loss, experience and expertise that will be difficult to offset, given the relatively small pool of new employees. With many companies facing the same problem, competition for new talents is likely to surface. A) Hotels can have interviews to know which areas older employees would prefer to work in and the languages they can speak. With the information gathered, hotels will be able to know their strengths and weaknesses which help to determine where to allocate each individual. With the proper job assignment, hotels will be able to maintain a good image, by reassigning the older employees with language barriers to the backhouse such as room attendant. This allows them to be in their comfort zone and after getting used to their task, the productivity will be maximized in both the frontline and backhouse. B) In order to keep older employees engaged and motivated, it is vital for the HR department to maintain constant communication with the older employees and understand any problems, issues and concerns that they are encountering. By treating their employees like family members, it may be a major job happiness-driver for them and thus motivating them to do better for the hotel. Besides that, communication and treating each other with respect ensures that the spirit of their employees is always high. Through job empowerment, employees will have more decision making responsibilities and hence they will feel more respected as an employee as they are given a chance to handle more difficult situation on their own. As for medical benefits, hotels can pay a certain percentage of their medical fees. For example, the hotels will pay 50% of their employee’s medical fees while the other 50% is paid by the employees. C) Facing the challenge that older generation is more conservative, companies can focus on creating a positive work environment for older employees by allowing flexible hours, more communication and constantly motivating them. Some of the actions can be allowing the older employees to have an option to consider different jobs and different sets of responsibilities. Some older employees may wish to devote their later career years to jobs that allow them to develop new competencies. Others may want jobs that are less demanding, these older employees may be interested in making transitions to different jobs within the company or make lateral moves or even to lower positions with a pay reduction. Other than that, the hotel can allow them to have a choice over the number of hours worked and provide them with flexible schedule for trainings. For example, older employees work on reduced-hours such as part-time or job sharing, so as to schedule the rest of their time for trainings that are a rranged for them. D) To retain the skills and knowledge, the older employees can train and guide the younger employees before they retire to ensure that the skills and knowledge are passed down. After retirement, they can come back and help out by overlooking and having workshops to give further training that is needed. E) To attract the younger people, creative ways are needed. For example, the hotel can come up with a program like the popular show â€Å"The Apprentice† by Donald Trump to search for the best employee. However, we must ensure there is no excessive pool of manpower and costs are kept low. The hotels can allow their older employees to be on-call workers or have flexible work schedules. On-call workers are employees who are called to work only when needed, although they can be scheduled for work for several days or weeks in a row. In days when the hotels need a massive number of employees, the on-call workers will be called back. By providing flexible work schedules, older employees are allowed to plan their work schedules with the choice over the number of hours worked. This will prolong the retirement period for older employees by allowing them to work but at a lesser duration, so that younger employees have the chance to excel and there will not be a surplus or shortage in th e manpower. Case Study: Royal Plaza on Scott The Royal Plaza on Scott is a 5-star leading hotel in Singapore. 50% of the hotel 300 employees are classified under the mature and older category. The company recognized the importance of mature employees and has sets out strategy as Singapore faces human capital challenge of managing a mature and older workforce. According to Fiat (2010), The mature employees are valuable assets to the organization as they are able to share their wealth of experience with the younger employees. The hotel taps on their expertise by pairing the mature employees with the younger generation of new hires to provide guidance and encourage cohesiveness. The hotel also implemented a buddy system where a new mature employee is paired with a younger co-worker or vice versa to work together and learn from each other. For example, younger employees may learn from mature and older employees on how to handle difficult customers while guiding their older colleagues on the effective usage of technology at the workplace. (TAFEP, p. 45) Royal Plaza on Scott has developed recruitment strategies like implementing Flexible Working Arrangements (FWA), where there is a flexible work arrangement which includes flexi-time, part time, job shares and compressed workweeks. Health benefits and programmes will also be implemented including regular health screening, health talk, yoga courses, sushi-making classes and others. This is to encourage for a healthy work life balance. Another great strategy used is to set up a Recreational Committee that was assigned to take care of the well being of co-worker. This committee will be in charge of organizing health awareness events, initiatives to create awareness of healthy lifestyle as well as to bond employees of difference generations (TAFEP, 2010, p.46).

Tcp Congestion Control Methods Tutorial Information Technology Essay

Tcp Congestion Control Methods Tutorial Information Technology Essay Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the two core protocols of the Internet protocol suite. Together with IP, they constitute the backbone stack of many internet applications like the World Wide Web, the e-mail and file transfer (FTP). Its main function is to provide a reliable stream service utilizing an unreliable packet delivery system inherited by its underlying IP layer. By the term reliable, we mean the reliable ordered delivery of a stream of bytes from one peer to another that runs the same TCP protocol stack. To add this substantial functionality and reliability, TCP imposes complexity. It is a much more complex protocol than its underlying IP protocol. The main mechanism TCP uses to offer reliability is the positive acknowledgement and retransmission scheme. Transmitted segments must be acknowledged and if there is a loss, a retransmission takes place. To make the network utilization more efficient, instead of transmitting each segment only after reception of an acknowledgement for the previously transmitted segment, TCP uses the concept of a window. The window includes all those segments that are allowed to be sent without waiting for a new acknowledgment. TCP allows end to end adjustment of the data flow a sender introduces to the network by varying the window size. How can a sender know what is the suitable window size? A receiver indicates it in a window advertisement which comes to the sender as part of the acknowledgment. Since modern internet applications are hungry for bandwidth, there is a high possibility that network becomes congested at some time. Routers have a finite storage capacity for handling IP packets. If the packet flow rate becomes excessive, routerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s queue buffers will become full and their software will start to discard any new packets arrived. This has a negative impact in the TCP operation and performance in general. Increased delays and losses will impose retransmissions and hence increased traffic. In its turn, increased traffic will make congestion more severe and in this way, Internet will experience what is known as congestion collapse, exhibiting a performance fall of several orders of magnitude. To overcome this problem, TCP uses many mechanisms-algorithms to avoid congestion collapse and achieve high performance. The main idea behind these algorithms is to control the rate of data entering the network and keep it below a threshold rate. If this threshold we re to be crossed, a new collapse phase could be triggered. Data senders can infer from an increasing number of delays that the network is congested and so adjust the flow in order to mitigate the phenomenon and give the network the necessary time to clear the queues and recover from congestion. TCP Congestion Algorithms RFC5681 describes four congestion control algorithms. Slow start, congestion avoidance, fast retransmit and fast recovery. All these algorithms work with the admission that sender infers network congestion by observing segment losses. As mentioned above, in TCP, receiverà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s buffer capability can be advertised backwards in the acknowledgement messages. This helps the sender to adjust its window size. Congestion algorithms introduce a second limit which is named congestion window. This new window is used for restricting the data flow of sender below the limit that main window determines. Actually, in a congested phase, the TCP window size used is the minimum value between the normal and congestion windows sizes. Reducing the congestion window reduces the injecting data flow to the network. Congestion avoidance algorithm reduces the congestion window by half upon each segment loss. For those segments that remain in the window, it also backs off the retransmission timer exponentially. In this way, quick and significant traffic reduction is achieved. Upon loss of successive segments, the algorithm uses an exponential rate to drop the data flow and increase the retransmission timers. This gives enough time for the network to recover and become stable again. Slow start algorithm is used when the network has recovered from the congestion and the windows start to increase again. To prevent oscillation between network congestion and normal conditions coming immediately after recovery, slow start indicates that congestion window must start at the size of a single segment and increase by one segment for each acknowledgement arrived. This effectively doubles the transmitted segments during each successive round trip time. To avoid increasing the window size too quickly, once congestion window reaches one half of its size prior to congestion, TCP enters a congestion avoidance phase and the rate of increment is abruptly slowed down. During this phase, congestion window increases by just one segment and only after all segments in the current window have been acknowledged. Upon detection of a duplicate acknowledgment, sender cannot deduce if there was a loss or a simple delay of a segment. If ordinary out-of-order conditions are present, one or two duplicate acknowledgements are typically expected. If however, sender receives three or more acknowledgements, it can infer that there is loss of segments due to congestion and so it retransmits the segment (indicated by the position of the acknowledgement in the byte stream) without waiting for the retransmission timer expiration. This constitutes the fast retransmit algorithm. Fast recovery follows fast retransmit algorithm and in the real TCP implementations these two algorithms are usually working together. Since reception of duplicate acknowledgements is a clear sign that data is still flowing in the receiver, fast recovery algorithm puts the sender in the congestion avoidance phase instead of the slow start phase. Therefore, if losses are not due to congestion, there will be a faster recovery of data flow without the penalty experienced by the use of slow start. However, fast recovery only works well for moderate congestion conditions. Newer algorithms Although the aforementioned four algorithms offer substantial congestion control, newer techniques have emerged in the bibliography as a result of extensive research in this specific area. These new algorithms try to build upon the old methods, enhancing TCP performance and increasing the responsiveness to congestion. One limitation of normal TCP operation is that if a transmitted segment is lost but subsequent segments in the same window are delivered normally, the receiver cannot send acknowledgements for these last segments. The reason for this is that receiver can acknowledge only contiguous bytes that it has received. Sender will be forced, once retransmission timer for the lost segment expires, to resend not only the lost segment, but all subsequent segments in the window too. This was identified as a potential case for improvement which led to the creation of the selective acknowledgments (SACK) algorithm (Jacobson and Braden, Oct. 1988). The algorithm helps to reduce the number of unnecessary retransmissions by allowing the receiver to send some feedback to the sender about the contiguous byte stream blocks it has already received. In order to take advantage of the new technique though, the two TCP endpoints must agree on using SACK upon negotiation (by using the option field of the TCP he ader). Two TCP original software implementations in the BSD Unix environment were named Tahoe and Reno. Tahoe includes the slow start, congestion avoidance and fast recovery algorithms whereas Reno includes all four basic algorithms described in the second section of this tutorial. NewReno is a slight modification of the Reno implementation and aims in boosting the performance during the fast retransmit and fast recovery phases. It is based on the notion of partial acknowledgements. In the case where multiple segments are dropped from a single window, sender enters fast retransmit phase and gets information about the retransmitted segments in terms of the first acknowledgment it gets. If only a single segment was dropped, then the acknowledgment will probably contain all segments previously transmitted before entering fast retransmit phase. If on the other hand, there were losses of multiple segments, the acknowledgment will be partial and will not contain all segments transmitted prior to fast retransmit phase entry. Using partial acknowledgements, fast recovery performance is enhanced as described in RFC2582. NewReno also improves round-trip and back-off timer calculations. In the literature, it is found that its main drawback is the poor performance in bursts of losses of segments within the same window (Wang and Shin, 2004). Non-TCP congestion control There are also some non-TCP techniques that can indirectly affect congestion control performance of TCP. These methods are not directly implemented in TCP software. The most popular technique of this kind is Random Early Detection (RED). In order to understand the method, one first has to consider what is called the global synchronization problem (D. Comer, 2000). Routers in the global Internet use the tail-drop policy for handling datagrams. When their input queue is full, any incoming datagram is discarded. Since datagrams are usually multiplexed in the Internet, severe problems can occur regarding congestion. Instead of dropping many segments of one TCP connection, tail-drop router policy actually causes single segment drops from many TCP connections. This, in turn, put the senders of these connections in slow start mode at almost the same time causing the global synchronization problem, which degrades performance considerably. To overcome this problem, RED (which is implemented in router software) defines two different thresholds that are associated with its internal queue, Tmin and Tmax. The following three rules govern the operation of RED It the queue size is less that Tmin, add any new incoming datagrams to it If the queue size is bigger that Tmax, drop any new incoming datagrams If the queue size is between Tmin and Tmax, randomly discard incoming datagrams with the help of a probability p. The main reason for this approach is to drop datagrams as congestion increases so as to avoid a queue overflow and a subsequent transition of many TCP connections to the slow start phase. As it is obvious, success of RED algorithm is based upon careful selection of the two thresholds Tmin and Tmax along with the probability p. Tmin must ensure high network utilization whereas Tmax must take into account the TCP round trip time so that it can accommodate the increase in queue size. Usually, Tmax is at least twice large as Tmin, or otherwise the same global synchronization problem may occur. Probability p computation is a complex task that is repeated for every new datagram. Non-linear schemes are used for this calculation in order to avoid overreacting to short bursts and protect TCP from unnecessary discards. These schemes usually take into account a weighted average queue size and use that size for determining the probability p. Details of RED are described in (S. Floyd and V. Jacob son, Aug. 1993). Research simulations show that RED works pretty well. It successfully handles congestion, eliminates the global synchronization problem that results from tail-drop policy seen before, and manages to allow short bursts without the need for extensive discards that could compromise TCP performance. When implemented by routers together with the TCP congestion control methods already built in the various network software implementations, it provides the necessary protection for network performance, securing its high utilization. Conclusions TCP performance is essential for providing true experience to single users, enterprises and everyone connected to the global Internet. One of the biggest challenges TCP faces as years come by, is congestion control (along with security which is another hot topic for TCP and other protocols). The original TCP standards described four methods that succeeded to almost eliminate congestion. As Internet increases in size and applications are becoming bandwidth hungry, new techniques that enhance inherent limitations of the four original algorithms are introduced and overall performance is kept in acceptable levels. Ongoing TCP research still focuses on congestion control and many new methods or variations are coming to fill any gaps that are gradually discovered by the ever-increasing Internet utilization.

Life, Death, and Cancer :: Essays Papers

Life, Death, and Cancer The vast majority of people go though life taking things as they are; they seem to never want to know how things work or why something happens the way it does. Think about it, how does a plan fly, or how does an engine run. These innovations were discovered many years ago and took much time and effort to discover and perfect. If a person were to look at the world, there is not much that they could say â€Å"I know how this works†, rather they say â€Å"I wonder why this happens as it does†. Well one of the most important things in the world is medicine, or the medical world. Without the past works of doctors, surgeons, and those who have helped pave the way, the world would be devastated. One of the most important and dangerous areas of surgery is that of the brain. The brain is one of the most complex parts of the body and takes much time and effort to understand. If a part is so complex that is controls actions, thoughts, feelings, contains knowledge and facts , just think about how hard it would be to really understand what this part is capable of doing. Such complex things such as the brain require more effort and time to understand than any engine or plane could ever have. Without the dedication that these people had, the information that we have today would never be possible. The technology that was present back in the day was nothing more then steel, a mirror, paper, and a pen. The way that this information was received is amazing; to just imagine what the possibilities are for the future is going to be outstanding and the risks will become nothing of the past. The past generations have set a standard for excellence and a need of knowledge; what the future holds is even greater. History is one of the most important things in success of surgery but to be better educated on the topic of cancer one must know what cancer is, the types of cancer, and the solution s to eliminate cancer in general. One of the most exciting things about the discovery brain cancer is the history behind the complex operation. To think that back in the eighteen hundreds physicians and doctors had the capability to open the human brain and surgically remove the tumor in the brain.

We Can End World Hunger Essay examples -- Argumentative Persuasive Ess

     Ã‚  Ã‚   In the past ten years the world population exceeded six billion people with most of the growth occurring in the poorest, least developed countries in the world. The rapidly increasing population and the quickly declining amount of land are relative and the rate at which hunger is increasing rises with each passing year. We cannot afford to continue to expand our world population at such an alarming rate, for already we are suffering the consequences. Hunger has been a problem for our world for thousands of years. But now that we have the technology and knowledge to stamp it out, time is running short. Food security is one of the largest problems facing our world today. To be "food secure" a country must have enough food to feed its population and be capable of feeding its growing population in the future. About 700 million people today do not have enough food available to keep themselves healthy. They are plagued by hunger, malnutrition, disease, and death. One reason that many third world countries are not food secure is that they do not have the technology to keep up with the growth in population. For example, in many countries crop fields cannot be worked to their full potential. One way to help solve this problem is to bring unused machinery, which has been exceeded by our technology to these countries. But it takes more than just bringing the technology to them; we need to teach them to use it and to grow from it. Everything that grows begins with a foundation. But likewise, if we try to build something without a foundation, it won't grow. If we help other countries build a foundation for themselves, they can grow into independent self-sufficient countries of their own. But if we simply do... ...inds to address the food for the future. Helping people help themselves is the only lasting help.    Works Cited Barraclough, Solon L. An End to Hunger? The Social Origins of Food Strategies. London: Zed Books Ltd., 1991. Boucher, Douglas M. The Paradox of Plenty: Hunger in a Bountiful World. Oakland, California: Food First Books, 1999. Asimov, Isaac. "Borlaug, Norman." World Book Encyclopedia. 1979 ed. Brown, Lester R. Who Will Feed China? Wake-Up Call for a Small Planet. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1995. Lobo, Vinay. http://www.selfhelpinternational.org/about.html. September 29, 2001. McGovern, George. The Third Freedom: Ending Hunger in Our Time. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. http://www.heifer.org/end_hunger/index.html. September 29, 2001. http://www.cartercenter.org/agriculture.html. September 29, 2001

The Story of Lot and His Daughters Essay examples -- Religion Theology

The Story of Lot and His Daughters As discussed in class, the Old Testament is a story of the constant struggle between the Lord and his authority, and humans and their rebellion. God brings down punishment upon Man, but saves a few righteous individuals. It is within the framework of this constant struggle that the rules of an evolving society are laid down and recorded. In the story of Lot and his daughters, we see the taboos of disobedience to the Lord, incest and poor hospitality condemned. The pericope begins in Genesis 19, when the Lord tells Abraham that he will destroy Sodom unless he can find ten righteous men in the city. The angels of the lord come to Sodom to find its righteous men, and Abraham’s nephew, Lot, receives them. He treats them as honored guests, washing their feet and feeding them. A crowd of overly curious Sodomites harass Lot, demanding to see his guests. Lot protects his guests, even offering his two virgin daughters up in their stead. This can be read in two ways. One sees this as an act of pandering his daughters out. This calls into question Lot’s values. His good treatment of the angels, and God’s subsequent protection of Lot, shows him to be righteous, so this must not be the case. I choose to go with the chain of thought that this is meant to be an example of the Sodomites’ lack of interest in women. They ignore the offer and try to attack Lot and his household. Lot’s actions stress the importance of being a good host at a time when the only things that mattered were one’s family or tribe name, and one’s fair treatment of those one came in contact with. In Dante’s Inferno, in the Ninth Circle of Hell, traitors to guests are second only to traitors to benefactors as far ... ...ventually attempting to curse and rule over them. In Deuteronomy 2:8-21, we see that the Lord had the Israelites leave both tribes alone, showing a small amount of favor for Lot and his descendants. In fact, the Moabites resurface throughout the Old Testament, at times even subjugating the Israelites (Judges 3:12-29). It is possible that the Lord used the Moabites to teach the Israelites the importance of staying true to him, again echoing the constant struggle between the benefactor and his family. This rebellion and punishment simply repeat the cycle of the power struggle between God and Mankind that the Old Testament is based on. It is a book of lessons for living a life in a time when societies were still learning how to function. Through the story of Lot, three rules of society are re-stressed. They are to obey authority, be hospitable, and avoid incest.

Life Cycle Analysis of Aviation Products

INTRUDUCTIONIt is very easy to question a nation for its decision to retire seemingly useful aircraft, but there are many economic factors that need to be taken into account.  We often hear about how much it costs to buy any particular model of plane, but people often underestimate just how expensive it is to operate and maintain aircraft. Not only do you have to consider the direct costs of flying the plane (pilot pay, fuel, and other consumables), but also the costs of pilot training, the costs of parts and labor to perform routine maintenance, the costs of training ground crew to perform that maintenance, the costs of obtaining and maintaining support equipment needed to service the planes, and the costs of the facilities needed to perform this service and maintenance. We often lump all these factors together into the â€Å"life-cycle cost† of an airplane.GENERAL DISCUSIONLife Cycle Cost is extremely important when determining whether to retain or replace aircraft, acquir e new or used aircraft, and in evaluating the total economics of competing aircraft whether purchasing, financing, or leasing. With this program you can predict Cash Flows and Net Present Values and compare different forms of ownership.As aircraft have become increasingly complex, the life-cycle costs associated with maintaining sophisticated equipment and training crew to operate and service that equipment have grown substantially. For this reason, we see a trend in militaries around the world to standardize on as few types of aircraft as possible. By operating only a couple types of planes, a military can consolidate its training and servicing activities thereby minimizing the amount of money needed for aircraft operations and maintenance.This motivation is likely a major factor in the business decision to eliminate their old aircraft. The business can instead focus its maintenance and training budgets on a few designs, which tend to share much in common, as opposed to siphoning o ff a large chuck of that money to support a completely different design. Understanding and modeling factors related to learning, economics, marketing, risks, and uncertainty can enable designers to design more cost-effective systems. The importance of developing comprehensive life cycle cost models cannot be over emphasized with reference to affordable systems. Particular areas of concern include production cost, estimating, organizational learning, pricing and marketing, sub-contracting production, and predicting competitors’ cost.In addition to the component of the cost estimation, usually the focal point of most cost models, accurate modeling of all factors related to the production, operations, and support is necessary to generate calibrated life cycle cost profiles. Basic engineering economics can be used for determining price once the cost has been estimated. Interest formulas are available for predicting rates of return and other indicators of profitability. However th e complex models used for life cycle cost prediction must utilize algorithm for stimulating additional factors as organizational learning and manufacturing processes.The three primary component f the system life cycle are non recurring costs, recurring costs, and operations and support costs. According to Apgar, H. (1993) there are two principal objectives for an life cycle cost trade study as the identification of the design and production process alternatives which meet minimum performance requirements; both at the lowest average unit production cost, and   at the lowest operation and support cost per operating hour.A full range of cost models exists today, from detailed part-level models, based on direct engineering and manufacturing standard factors, to conceptual design level life cycle models. While most of the conceptual design level models are parametric and weight/complexity-based, much research is being conducted to develop feature-, activity-, and/or process-based model s. Many of the detailed models use measured data from the shop floor for the regression analysis and algorithm development. At the other end of the spectrum are the top-level, parametric cost estimating models for life cycle estimates. Few models exist between the two ends of the modeling spectrum; no suitable methods have been demonstrated for a model that accepts multifidelity data from multiple levels of product analysis within an integrated design environment.Detailed estimates of direct materials and hours used for fabrication and assembly of the aircraft major structural components (accommodating the many and varied material types; product forms such as sheets, extrusions, fabrics, etc.; and construction types utilized in advanced technology aircraft structures) will replace the weight/complexity-based algorithm for estimating the aircraft cost in the top-level, parametric life cycle cost model. These differentials in the aircraft cost estimates due to fabrication and assembly alternatives will propagate via the system roll up cost through the life cycle for production, operation, and support for the entire system.With such a tool/model, the designer will be able to determine sensitivities in the top-down life cycle cost model to changes or alternatives evaluated in the bottom-up cost model. It will be possible to calculate sensitivities and design for robustness with the life cycle cost model due to perturbations of some factors such as entities external to the manufacturer; functions internal to the manufacturer, but external to manufacturing; and processes internal to the manufacturer.The manufacturer cannot control certain factors external to the enterprise. For instance, the number of aircraft ordered, the times of the orders and the corresponding payment schedule, interest rates, and projected inflation rates are not variables over which the manufacturer has complete control. The monthly or annual production rates; sub-contracting decisions; learni ng curve effects; and manufacturing, and sustaining costs are factors that are internal to the enterprise, but can be categorized in a higher level than the actual material purchasing, processing, fabrication, and assembly. The sequences of activities and processes used for fabrication and assembly are assumed to be internally controlled by the manufacturer.The lowest level of the life cycle cost model consists of the cost estimation for the aircraft, based upon the direct engineering and manufacturing estimates for its major structural components. The highest level includes determination and distribution of the non-recurring and recurring production costs, as well as the operations and support costs over the entire life cycle of the aircraft.According to Febrycky, W.J., and Blanchard, B.S. (1991) that a through understanding of certain economic theories must be achieved before any reasonable life cycle cost analysis can be undertaken. Alternative instruments can be compared against each other or a fair basis only if their respective benefits and costs are converted to an equivalent economic base, with appropriate consideration for the time value of money. Three factors are involved when determining the economic equivalence of sums of money. They are the amounts of the sums, the times of occurrence of the sums, and the interest rate. Interest formulas are functions of all three. These functions are used for calculating the amounts occurring at different periods of time.The life cycle cost analysis of aircraft comprises the following capabilities. The unit production costs are estimated with a series of experimental equations for generating airframe component manufacturing costs for specific classes of aircraft. According to Lee, P. (1994) that a theoretical First Unit Cost is generated by summing the respective component costs of the airframe, propulsion, avionics and instrumentation, and final assembly. Most of the structural component cost equations are weig ht-based. Engine costs are based on the thrust, the quantity produced, and the cruise Mach number.Alternatively, the actual price/cost of the engine can be specified as input parameters. Another series of exponential equations is used to calculate the production costs based upon the total number of vehicles produced. The average unit airplane costs, either including or excluding airframe and engine spares, are also calculated. A comparison of the average aircraft manufacturing costs versus the quantity of aircraft produced is provided. The elements of the total vehicle cost can be reduced with user-specified learning curves for the airframe, avionics, propulsion, assembly, and fixed equipment. For a specified production rate, ship set, and average aircraft selling prices, the manufacturer’s cumulative and annual cash flows are calculated.The annual and cumulative aircraft deliveries are calculated first, based upon an input production rate schedule. The manufacturing cost is the sum of the production costs of all operational vehicles produced each year. The cost to manufacture one vehicle includes airframe cost, propulsion cost, avionics and instrumentation cost, and the cost of final assembly. The manufacturer’s sustaining costs are the total production costs minus the cost of the operational vehicles and the manufacturer’s profit fee. Ten elements constitute the total sustaining costs: airframe and engine spares, facilities, sustaining engineering, sustaining tooling, ground support equipment, training equipment, initial training, and initial equipment. The sustaining costs are distributed equally for each aircraft over the same months in which each aircrafts manufacturing costs are distributed.CONCLUSIONThere is normally a conflict between cost-effective choices and affordable choices for alternative designs. Today, the desire for cost-effectiveness is often sacrificed to the practical considerations of the available funding with the de velopment of more complexes and comprehensive life cycle cost modes that can accept and process multifidelity data within an integrated design environment, it will be possible to better calculate the cost-effectiveness and affordability of future systems. Then it may be possible to have a system that is ultimately cost-effective, yet still affordable.REFERENCEApgar, H. (1993). Design-to-Life-Cycle-Cost in Aerospace, Aerospace Design Conference, Irvine CA.Febrycky, W.J., and Blanchard, B.S. (1991). Life-Cycle Cost and Economic Analysis, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.Lee, P. (1994). A Process Oriented Parametric Cost Model, Aerospace Design Conference, Irvine CA.

Foundation’s Edge CHAPTER THIRTEEN UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY Pelorat wrinkled his nose when he and Trevize re-entered the Far Star. Trevize shrugged. â€Å"The human body is a powerful dispenser of odors. Recycling never works instantaneously and artificial scents merely overlay – they do not replace.† â€Å"And I suppose no two ships smell quite alike, once they've been occupied for a period of time by different people.† â€Å"That's right, but did you smell Sayshell Planet after the first hour?† â€Å"No,† admitted Pelorat. â€Å"Well, you won't smell this after a while, either. In fact, if you live in the ship long enough, you'll welcome the odor that greets you on your return as signifying home. And by the way, if you become a Galactic rover after this, Janov, you'll have to learn that it is impolite to comment on the odor of any ship or, for that matter, any world to those who live on that ship or world. Between us, of course, it is all right.† â€Å"As a matter of fact, Golan, the funny thing is I do consider the Far Star home. At least it's Foundation-made.† Pelorat smiled. â€Å"You know, I never considered myself a patriot. I like to think I recognize only humanity as my nation, but I must say that being away from the Foundation fills my heart with love for it.† Trevize was making his bed. â€Å"You're not very far from the Foundation, you know. The Sayshell Union is almost surrounded by Federation territory. We have an ambassador and an enormous presence here, from consuls on down. The Sayshellians like to oppose us in words, but they are usually very cautious about doing anything that gives us displeasure. – Janov, do turn in. We got nowhere today and we have to do better tomorrow.† Still, there was no difficulty in hearing between the two rooms, however, and when the ship was dark, Pelorat, tossing restlessly, finally said in a not very loud voice, â€Å"Golan?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"You're not sleeping?† â€Å"Not while you're talking.† â€Å"We did get somewhere today. Your friend, Compor†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Ex-friend,† growled Trevize. â€Å"Whatever his status, he talked about Earth and told us something I hadn't come across in my researches before. Radioactivity!† Trevize lifted himself to one elbow. â€Å"Look, Golan, if Earth is really dead, that doesn't mean we return home. I still want to find Gaia.† Pelorat made a puffing noise with his mouth as though he were blowing away feathers. â€Å"My dear chap, of course. So do I. Nor do I think Earth is dead. Compor may have been telling what he felt was the truth, but there's scarcely a sector in the Galaxy that doesn't have some tale or other that would place the origin of humanity on some local world. And they almost invariably call it Earth or some closely equivalent name. â€Å"We call it ‘globocentrism' in anthropology. People have a tendency to take it for granted that they are better than their neighbors; that their culture is older and superior to that of other worlds; that what is good in other worlds has been borrowed from them, while what is bad is distorted or perverted in the borrowing or invented elsewhere. And the tendency is to equate superiority in quality with superiority in duration. If they cannot reasonably maintain their own planet to be Earth or its equivalent – and the beginnings of the human species – they almost always do the best they can by placing Earth in their own sector, even when they cannot locate it exactly.† Trevize said, â€Å"And you're telling me that Compor was just following the common habit when he said Earth existed in the Sirius Sector. – Still, the Sirius Sector does have a long history, so every world in it should be well known and it should be easy to check the matter, even without going there.† Pelorat chuckled. â€Å"Even if you were to show that no world in the Sirius Sector could possibly be Earth, that wouldn't help. You underestimate the depths to which mysticism can bury rationality, Golan. There are at least half a dozen sectors in the Galaxy where respectable scholars repeat, with every appearance of solemnity and with no trace of a smile, local tales that Earth – or whatever they choose to call it – is located in hyperspace and cannot be reached, except by accident.† â€Å"And do they say anyone has ever reached it by accident?† â€Å"There are always tales and there is always a patriotic refusal to disbelieve, even though the tales are never in the least credible and are never believed by anyone not of the world that produces them.† â€Å"Then, Janov, let's not believe them ourselves. Let's enter our own private hyperspace of sleep.† â€Å"But, Golan, it's this business of Earth's radioactivity that interests me. To me, that seems to bear the mark of truth – or a kind of truth.† â€Å"What do you mean, a kind of truth?† â€Å"Well, a world that is radioactive would be a world in which hard radiation would be present in higher concentration than is usual. The rate of mutation would be higher on such a world and evolution would proceed more quickly – and more diversely. I told you, if you remember, that among the points on which almost all the tales agree is that life on Earth was incredibly diverse: millions of species of all kinds of life. It is this diversity of life – this explosive development – that might have brought intelligence to the Earth, and then the surge outward into the Galaxy. If Earth were for some reason radioactive – that is, more radioactive than other planets – that might account for everything else about Earth that is – or was unique.† Trevize was silent for a moment. Then, â€Å"In the first place, we have no reason to believe Compor was telling the truth. He may well have been lying freely in order to induce us to leave this place and go chasing madly off to Sirius. I believe that's exactly what he was doing. And even if he were telling the truth, what he said was that there was so much radioactivity that life became impossible.† Pelorat made the blowing gesture again. â€Å"There wasn't too much radioactivity to allow life to develop on Earth and it is easier for life to maintain itself – once established – than to develop in the first place. Granted, then, that life was established and maintained on Earth. Therefore the level of radioactivity could not have been incompatible with life to begin with and it could only have fallen off with time. There is nothing that can raise the level.† â€Å"Nuclear explosions?† suggested Trevize. â€Å"What would that have to do with it?† â€Å"I mean, suppose nuclear explosions took place on Earth?† â€Å"On Earth's surface? Impossible. There's no record in the history of the Galaxy of any society being so foolish as to use nuclear explosions as a weapon of war. We would never have survived. During the Trigellian insurrections, when both sides were reduced to starvation and desperation and when Jendippurus Khoratt suggested the initiation of a fusion reaction in†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"He was hanged by the sailors of his own fleet. I know Galactic history. I was thinking of accident.† â€Å"There's no record of accidents of that sort that are capable of significantly raising the intensity of radioactivity of a planet, generally.† He sighed. â€Å"I suppose that when we get around to it, we'll have to go to the Sirius Sector and do a little prospecting there.† â€Å"Someday, perhaps, we will. But for now†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Yes, yes, I'll stop talking.† He did and Trevize lay in the dark for nearly an hour considering whether he had attracted too much attention already and whether it might not be wise to go to the Sirius Sector and then return to Gaia when attention – everyone's attention – was elsewhere. He had arrived at no clear decision by the time he fell asleep. His dreams were troubled. They did not arrive back in the city till midmorning. The tourist center was quite crowded this time, but they managed to obtain the necessary directions to a reference library, where in turn they received instruction in the use of the local models of data-gathering computers. They went carefully through the museums and universities, beginning with those that were nearest, and checked out whatever information was available on anthropologists, archaeologists, and ancient historians. Pelorat said, â€Å"Ah!† â€Å"Ah?† said Trevize with some asperity. â€Å"Ah, what?† â€Å"This name, Quintesetz. It seems familiar.† â€Å"You know him?† â€Å"No, of course not, but I may have read papers of his. Back at the ship, where I have my reference collection†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"We're not going back, Janov. If the name is familiar, that's a starting point. If he can't help us, he will undoubtedly be able to direct us further.† He rose to his feet. â€Å"Let's find a way of getting to Sayshell University. And since there will be nobody there at lunchtime, let's eat first.† It was not till late afternoon that they had made their way out to the university, worked their way through its maze, and found themselves in an anteroom, waiting for a young woman who had gone off in search of information and who might – or might not – lead them to Quintesetz. â€Å"I wonder,† said Pelorat uneasily, â€Å"how much longer we'll have to wait. It must be getting toward the close of the schoolday.† And, as though that were a cue, the young lady whom they had last seen half an hour before, walked rapidly toward them, her shoes glinting red and violet and striking the ground with a sharp musical tone as she walked. The pitch varied with the speed and force of her steps. Pelorat winced. He supposed that each world had its own ways of assaulting the senses, just as each had its own smell. He wondered if, now that he no longer noticed the smell, he might also learn not to notice the cacophony of fashionable young women when they walked. She came to Pelorat and stopped. â€Å"May I have your full name, Professor?† â€Å"It's Janov Pelorat, miss.† â€Å"Your home planet?† Trevize began to lift one hand as though to enjoin silence, but Pelorat, either not seeing or not regarding, said, â€Å"Terminus.† The young woman smiled broadly, and looked pleased. â€Å"When I told Professor Quintesetz that a Professor Pelorat was inquiring for him, he said he would see you if you were Janov Pelorat of Terminus, but not otherwise.† Pelorat blinked rapidly. â€Å"You – you mean, he's heard of me?† â€Å"It certainly seems so.† And, almost creakily, Pelorat managed a smile as he turned to Trevize. â€Å"He's heard of me. I honestly didn't think†¦ I mean, I've written very few papers and I didn't think that anyone†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He shook his head. â€Å"They weren't really important.† â€Å"Well then,† said Trevize, smiling himself, â€Å"stop hugging yourself in an ecstasy of self-underestimation and let's go.† He turned to the woman. â€Å"I presume, miss, there's some sort of transportation to take us to him?† â€Å"It's within walking distance. We won't even have to leave the building complex and I'll be glad to take you there. – Are both of you from Terminus?† And off she went. The two men followed and Trevize said, with a trace of annoyance, â€Å"Yes, we are. Does that make a difference?† â€Å"Oh no, of course not. There are people on Sayshell that don't like Foundationers, you know, but here at the university, we're more cosmopolitan than that. Live and let live is what I always say. I mean, Foundationers are people, too. You know what I mean?† â€Å"Yes, I know what you mean. Lots of us say that Sayshellians are people.† â€Å"That's just the way it should be. I've never seen Terminus. It must be a big city.† â€Å"Actually it isn't,† said Trevize matter-of-factly. â€Å"I suspect it's smaller than Sayshell City.† â€Å"You're tweaking my finger,† she said. â€Å"It's the capital of the Foundation Federation, isn't it? I mean, there isn't another Terminus, is there?† â€Å"No, there's only one Terminus, as far as I know, and that's where we're from – the capital of the Foundation Federation.† â€Å"Well then, it must be an enormous city. – And you're coming all the way here to see the professor. We're very proud of him, you know. He's considered the biggest authority in the whole Galaxy.† â€Å"Really?† said Trevize. â€Å"On what?† Her eyes opened wide again, â€Å"You are a teaser. He knows more about ancient history than – than I know about my own family.† And she continued to walk on ahead on her musical feet. One can only be called a teaser and a finger-tweaker so often without developing an actual impulse in that direction. Trevize smiled and said, â€Å"The professor knows all about Earth, I suppose?† â€Å"Earth?† She stopped at an office door and looked at them blankly. â€Å"You know. The world where humanity got its start.† â€Å"Oh, you mean the planet-that-was-first. I guess so. I guess he should know all about it. After all, it's located in the Sayshell Sector. Everyone knows that! – This is his office. Let me signal him.† â€Å"No, don't,† said Trevize. â€Å"Not for just a minute. Tell me about Earth.† â€Å"Actually I never heard anyone call it Earth. I suppose that's a Foundation word. We call it Gaia, here.† Trevize cast a swift look at Pelorat. â€Å"Oh? And where is it located?† â€Å"Nowhere. It's in hyperspace and there's no way anyone can get to it. When I was a little girl, my grandmother said that Gaia was once in real space, but it was so disgusted at the†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Crimes and stupidities of human beings,† muttered Pelorat, â€Å"that, out of shame, it left space and refused to have anything more to do with the human beings it had sent out into the Galaxy.† â€Å"You know the story, then. See? – A girlfriend of mine says it's superstition. Well, I'll tell her. If it's good enough for professors from the Foundation†¦Ã¢â‚¬  A glittering section of lettering on the smoky glass of the door read: SOTAYN QUINTESETZ ABT in the hard-to-read Sayshellian calligraphy – and under it was printed, in the same fashion: DEPARTMENT OF ANCIENT HISTORY. The woman placed her finger on a smooth metal circle. There was no sound, but the smokiness of the glass turned a milky white for a moment and a soft voice said, in an abstracted sort of way, â€Å"Identify yourself, please.† â€Å"Janov Pelorat of Terminus,† said Pelorat, â€Å"with Golan Trevize of the same world.† The door swung open at once. The man who stood up, walked around his desk, and advanced to meet them was tall and well into middle age. He was light brown in skin color and his hair, which was set in crisp curls over his head, was iron-gray. He held out his hand in greeting and his voice was soft and low. â€Å"I am S. Q. I am delighted to meet you, Professors.† Trevize said, â€Å"I don't own an academic title. I merely accompany Professor Pelorat. You may call me simply Trevize. I am pleased to meet you, Professor Abt.† Quintesetz held up one hand in clear embarrassment. â€Å"No no. Abt is merely a foolish title of some sort that has no significance outside of Sayshell. Ignore it, please, and call me S. Q. We tend to use initials in ordinary social intercourse on Sayshell. I'm so pleased to meet two of you when I had been expecting but one.† He seemed to hesitate a moment, then extended his right hand after wiping it unobtrusively on his trousers. Trevize took it, wondering what the proper Sayshellian manner of greeting was. Quintesetz said, â€Å"Please sit down. I'm afraid you'll find these chairs to be lifeless ones, but I, for one, don't want my chairs to hug me. It's all the fashion for chairs to hug you nowadays, but I prefer a hug to mean something, hey?† Trevize smiled and said, â€Å"Who would not? Your name, SQ., seems to be of the Rim Worlds and not Sayshellian. I apologize if the remark is impertinent.† â€Å"I don't mind. My family traces back, in part, to Askone. Five generations back, my great-great-grandparents left Askone when Foundation domination grew too heavy.† Pelorat said, â€Å"And we are Foundationers. Our apologies.† Quintesetz waved his hand genially, â€Å"I don't hold a grudge across a stretch of five generations. Not that such things haven't been done, more's the pity. Would you like to have something to eat? To drink? Would you like music in the background?† â€Å"If you don't mind,† said Pelorat, â€Å"I'd be willing to get right to business, if Sayshellian ways would permit.† â€Å"Sayshellian ways are not a barrier to that, I assure you. – You have no idea how remarkable this is, Dr. Pelorat. It was only about two weeks ago that I came across your article on origin myths in the Archaeological Review and it struck me as a remarkable synthesis all too brief.† Pelorat flushed with pleasure. â€Å"How delighted I am that you have read it. I had to condense it, of course, since the Review would not print a full study. I have been planning to do a treatise on the subject.† â€Å"I wish you would. In any case, as soon as I had read it, I had this desire to see you. I even had the notion of visiting Terminus in order to do so, though that would have been hard to arrange†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Why so?† asked Trevize. Quintesetz looked embarrassed. â€Å"I'm sorry to say that Sayshell is not eager to join the Foundation Federation and rather discourages any social communication with the Foundation. We've a tradition of neutralism, you see. Even the Mule didn't bother us, except to extort from us a specific statement of neutrality. For that reason, any application for permission to visit Foundation territory generally and particularly Terminus – is viewed with suspicion, although a scholar such as myself, intent on academic business, would probably obtain his passport in the end. – But none of that was necessary; you have come to me. I can scarcely believe it. I ask myself: Why? Have you heard of me, as I have heard of you?† Pelorat said, â€Å"I know your work, S. Q., and in my records I have abstracts of your papers. It is why I have come to you. I am exploring both the matter of Earth, which is the reputed planet of origin of the human species, and the early period of the exploration and settlement of the Galaxy. In particular, I have come here to inquire as to the founding of Sayshell.† â€Å"From your paper,† said Quintesetz, â€Å"I presume you are interested in myths and legends.† â€Å"Even more in history – actual facts – if such exist. Myths and legends, otherwise.† Quintesetz rose and walked rapidly back and forth the length of his office, paused to stare at Pelorat, then walked again. Trevize said impatiently, â€Å"Well, sir.† Quintesetz said, â€Å"Odd! Really odd! It was only yesterday†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Pelorat said, â€Å"What was only yesterday?† Quintesetz said, â€Å"I told you, Dr. Pelorat – may I call you J. P., by the way? I find using a full-length name rather unnatural† â€Å"Please do.† â€Å"I told you, J. P., that I had admired your paper and that I had wanted to see you. The reason I wanted to see you was that you clearly had an extensive collection of legends concerning the beginnings of the worlds and yet didn't have ours. In other words, I wanted to see you in order to tell you precisely what you have come to see me to find out.† â€Å"What has this to do with yesterday, S. Q. ?† asked Trevize. â€Å"We have legends. A legend. An important one to our society, for it has become our central mystery†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Mystery?† said Trevize. â€Å"I don't mean a puzzle or anything of that sort. That, I believe, would be the usual meaning of the word in Galactic Standard. There's a specialized meaning here. It means ‘something secret'; something only certain adepts know the full meaning of; something not to be spoken of to outsiders. – And yesterday was the day.† â€Å"The day of what, S. Q. ?† asked Trevize, slightly exaggerating his air of patience. â€Å"Yesterday was the Day of Flight.† â€Å"Ah,† said Trevize, â€Å"a day of meditation and quiet, when everyone is supposed to remain at home.† â€Å"Something like that, in theory, except that in the larger cities, the more sophisticated regions, there is little observance in the older fashion. – But you know about it, I see.† Pelorat, who had grown uneasy at Trevize's annoyed tone, put in hastily, â€Å"We heard a little of it, having arrived yesterday.† â€Å"Of all days,† said Trevize sarcastically. â€Å"See here, S. Q. As I said, I'm not an academic, but I have a question. You said you were speaking of a central mystery, meaning it was not to be spoken of to outsiders. Why, then, are you speaking of it to us? We are outsiders.† â€Å"So you are. But I'm not an observer of the day and the depth of my superstition in this matter is slight at best. J. P. ‘s paper, however, reinforced a feeling I have had for a long time. A myth or legend is simply not made up out of a vacuum. Nothing is – or can be. Somehow there is a kernel of truth behind it, however distorted that might be, and I would like the truth behind our legend of the Day of Flight.† Trevize said, â€Å"Is it safe to talk about it?† Quintesetz shrugged. â€Å"Not entirely, I suppose. The conservative elements among our population would be horrified. However, they don't control the government and haven't for a century. The secularists are strong and would be stronger still, if the conservatives didn't take advantage of our – if you'll excuse me – anti-Foundation bias. Then, too, since I am discussing the matter out of my scholarly interest in ancient history, the League of Academicians will support me strongly, in case of need.† â€Å"In that case,† said Pelorat, â€Å"would you tell us about your central mystery, SQ. ?† â€Å"Yes, but let me make sure we won't be interrupted or, for that matter, overheard. Even if one must stare the bull in the face, one needn't slap its muzzle, as the saying goes.† He flicked a pattern on the work-face of an instrument on his desk and said, â€Å"We're incommunicado now.† â€Å"Are you sure you're not bugged?† asked Trevize. â€Å"Bugged?† â€Å"Tapped! Eavesdropped! – Subjected to a device that will have you under observation – visual or auditory or both.† Quintesetz looked shocked. â€Å"Not here on Sayshell!† Trevize shrugged. â€Å"If you say so.† â€Å"Please go on, SQ.,† said Pelorat. Quintesetz pursed his lips, leaned back in his chair (which gave slightly under the pressure) and put the tips of his fingers together. He seemed to be speculating as to just how to begin. He said, â€Å"Do you know what a robot is?† â€Å"A robot?† said Pelorat. â€Å"No.† Quintesetz looked in the direction of Trevize, who shook his head slowly. â€Å"You know what a computer is, however?† â€Å"Of course,† said Trevize impatiently. â€Å"Well then, a mobile computerized tool†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Is a mobile computerized tool.† Trevize was still impatient. â€Å"There are endless varieties and I don't know of any generalized term for it except mobile computerized tool.† † – that looks exactly like a human being is a robot.† S. Q. completed his definition with equanimity. â€Å"The distinction of a robot is that it is humaniform.† â€Å"Why humaniform?† asked Pelorat in honest amazement. â€Å"I'm not sure. It's a remarkably inefficient form for a tool, I grant you, but I'm just repeating the legend. ‘Robot' is an old word from no recognizable language, though our scholars say it bears the connotation of ‘work.† â€Å"I can't think of any word,† said Trevize skeptically, â€Å"that sounds even vaguely like ‘robot' and that has any connection with ‘work.† â€Å"Nothing in Galactic, certainly,† said Quintesetz, â€Å"but that's what they say.† Pelorat said, â€Å"It may have been reverse etymology. These objects were used for work, and so the word was said to mean ‘work. ‘ – In any case, why do you tell us this?† â€Å"Because it is a firmly fixed tradition here on Sayshell that when Earth was a single world and the Galaxy lay all uninhabited before it, robots were invented and devised. There were then two sorts of human beings: natural and invented, flesh and metal, biological and mechanical, complex and simple†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Quintesetz came to a halt and said with a rueful laugh, â€Å"I'm sorry. It is impossible to talk about robots without quoting from the Book of Flight. The people of Earth devised robots – and I need say no more. That's plain enough.† â€Å"And why did they devise robots?† asked Trevize. Quintesetz shrugged. â€Å"Who can tell at this distance in time? Perhaps they were few in numbers and needed help, particularly in the great task of exploring and populating the Galaxy.† Trevize said, â€Å"That's a reasonable suggestion. Once the Galaxy was colonized, the robots would no longer be needed. Certainly there are no humanoid mobile computerized tools in the Galaxy today.† â€Å"In any case,† said Quintesetz, â€Å"the story is as follows – if I may vastly simplify and leave out many poetic ornamentations which, frankly, I don't accept, though the general population does or pretends to. Around Earth, there grew up colony worlds circling neighboring stars and these colony worlds were far richer in robots than was Earth itself. There was more use for robots on raw, new worlds. Earth, in fact, retreated, wished no more robots, and rebelled against them.† â€Å"What happened?† asked Pelorat. â€Å"The Outer Worlds were the stronger. With the help of their robots, the children defeated and controlled Earth – the Mother. Pardon me, but I can't help slipping into quotation. But there were those from Earth who fled their world – with better ships and stronger modes of hyperspatial travel. They fled to far distant stars and worlds, far beyond the closer worlds earlier colonized. New colonies were founded – without robots – in which human beings could live freely. Those were the Times of Flight, so-called, and the day upon which the first Earthmen reached the Sayshell Sector – this very planet, in fact – is the Day of Flight, celebrated annually for many thousands of years.† Pelorat said, â€Å"My dear chap, what you are saying, then, is that Sayshell was founded directly from Earth.† Quintesetz thought and hesitated for a moment. Then he said, â€Å"That is the official belief.† â€Å"Obviously,† said Trevize, â€Å"you don't accept it.† â€Å"It seems to me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Quintesetz began and then burst out, â€Å"Oh, Great Stars and Small Planets, I don't! It is entirely too unlikely, but it's official dogma and however secularized the government has become, lip service to that, at least, is essential. – Still, to the point. In your article, J. P., there is no indication that you're aware of this story – of robots and of two waves of colonization, a lesser one with robots and a greater one without.† â€Å"I certainly was not,† said Pelorat. â€Å"I hear it now for the first time and, my dear SQ., I am eternally grateful to you for making this known to me. I am astonished that no hint of this has appeared in any of the writings†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"It shows,† said Quintesetz, â€Å"how effective our social system is. It's our Sayshellian secret – our great mystery.† â€Å"Perhaps,† said Trevize dryly. â€Å"Yet the second wave of colonization – the robotless wave – must have moved out in all directions. Why is it only on Sayshell that this great secret exists?† Quintesetz said, â€Å"It may exist elsewhere and be just as secret. Our own conservatives believe that only Sayshell was settled from Earth and that all the rest of the Galaxy was settled from Sayshell. That, of course, is probably nonsense.† Pelorat said, â€Å"These subsidiary puzzles can be worked out in time. Now that I have the starting point, I can seek out similar information on other worlds. What counts is that I have discovered the question to ask and a good question is, of course, the key by which infinite answers can be educed. How fortunate that I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Trevize said, â€Å"Yes, Janov, but the good SQ. has not told us the whole story, surely. What happened to the older colonies and their robots? Do your traditions say?† â€Å"Not in detail, but in essence. Human and humanoid cannot live together, apparently. The worlds with robots died. They were not viable.† â€Å"And Earth?† â€Å"Humans left it and settled here and presumably (though the conservatives would disagree) on other planets as well.† â€Å"Surely not every human being left Earth. The planet was not deserted.† â€Å"Presumably not. I don't know.† Trevize said abruptly, â€Å"Was it left radioactive?† Quintesetz looked astonished. â€Å"Radioactive?† â€Å"That's what I'm asking.† â€Å"Not to my knowledge. I never heard of such a thing.† Trevize put a knuckle to his teeth and considered. Finally he said, â€Å"S. Q., it's getting late and we have trespassed sufficiently on your time, perhaps.† (Pelorat made a motion as though he were about to protest, but Trevize's hand was on the other's knee and his grip tightened – so Pelorat, looking disturbed, subsided.) Quintesetz said, â€Å"I was delighted to be of use.† â€Å"You have been and if there's anything we can do in exchange, name it.† Quintesetz laughed gently. â€Å"If the good J. P. will be so kind as to refrain from mentioning my name in connection with any writing he does on our mystery, that will be sufficient repayment.† Pelorat said eagerly, â€Å"You would be able to get the credit you deserve – and perhaps be more appreciated – if you were allowed to visit Terminus and even, perhaps, remain there as a visiting scholar at our university for an extended period. We might arrange that. Sayshell might not like the Federation, but they might not like refusing a direct request that you be allowed to come to Terminus to attend, let us say, a colloquium on some aspect of ancient history.† The Sayshellian half-rose. â€Å"Are you saying you can pull strings to arrange that?† Trevize said, â€Å"Why, I hadn't thought of it, but J. P. is perfectly right. That would be feasible – if we tried. And, of course, the more grateful you make us, the harder we will try.† Quintesetz paused, then frowned. â€Å"What do you mean, sir?† â€Å"All you have to do is tell us about Gaia, S. Q.,† said Trevize. And all the light in Quintesetz's face died. Quintesetz looked down at his desk. His hand stroked absent-mindedly at his short, tightly curled hair. Then he looked at Trevize and pursed his lips tightly. It was as though he were determined not to speak. Trevize lifted his eyebrows and waited and finally Quintesetz said in a strangled sort of way, â€Å"it is getting indeed late – quite glemmering.† Until then he had spoken in good Galactic, but now his words took on a strange shape as though the Sayshellian mode of speech were pushing past his classical education. â€Å"Glemmering, S. Q. ?† â€Å"It is nearly full night.† Trevize nodded. â€Å"I am thoughtless. And I am hungry, too. Could you please join us for an evening meal, S. Q., at our expense? We could then, perhaps, continue our discussion – about Gaia.† Quintesetz rose heavily to his feet. He was taller than either of the two men from Terminus, but he was older and pudgier and his height did not lend him the appearance of strength. He seemed more weary than when they had arrived. He blinked at them and said, â€Å"I forget my hospitality. You are Outworlders and it would not be fitting that you entertain me. Come to my home. It is on campus and not far and, if you wish to carry on a conversation, I can do so in a more relaxed manner there than here. My only regret† (he seemed a little uneasy) â€Å"is that I can offer you only a limited meal. My wife and I are vegetarians and if you are meat-eating, I can Only express my apologies and regrets.† Trevize said, â€Å"J. P. and I will be quite content to forego our carnivorous natures for one meal. Your conversation will more than make up for it – I hope.† â€Å"I can promise you an interesting meal, whatever the conversation,† said Quintesetz, â€Å"if your taste should run to our Sayshellian spices. My wife and I have made a rare study of such things.† â€Å"I look forward to any exoticism you choose to supply, S. Q.,† said Trevize coolly, though Pelorat looked a little nervous at the prospect. Quintesetz led the way. The three left the room and walked down an apparently endless corridor, with the Sayshellian greeting students and colleagues now and then, but making no attempt to introduce his companions. Trevize was uneasily aware that others stared curiously at his sash, which happened to be one of his gray ones. A subdued color was not something that was de rigueur in campus clothing, apparently. Finally they stepped through the door and out into the open. It was indeed dark and a little cool, with trees bulking in the distance and a rather rank stand of grass on either side of the walkway. Pelorat came to a halt – with his back to the glimmer of lights that came from the building they had just left and from the glows that lined the walks of the campus. He looked straight upward. â€Å"Beautiful!† he said. â€Å"There is a famous phrase in a verse by one of our better poets that speaks of ‘the speckle-shine of Sayshell's soaring sky.† Trevize gazed appreciately and said in a low voice, â€Å"Vie are from Terminus, S. Q., and my friend, at least, has seen no other skies. On Terminus, we see only the smooth dim fog of the Galaxy and a few barely visible stars. You would appreciate your own sky even more, had you lived with ours.† Quintesetz said gravely, â€Å"We appreciate it to the full, I assure you. It's not so much that we are in an uncrowded area of the Galaxy, but that the distribution of stars is remarkably even. I don't think that you will find, anywhere in the Galaxy, first-magnitude stars so generally distributed. – And yet not too many, either. I have seen the skies of worlds that are inside the outer reaches of a globular cluster and there you will see too many bright stars. It spoils the darkness of the night sky and reduces the splendor considerably.† â€Å"I quite agree with that,† said Trevize. â€Å"Now I wonder,† said Quintesetz, â€Å"if you see that almost regular pentagon of almost equally bright stars. The Five Sisters, we call them. It's in that direction, just above the line of trees. Do you see it?† â€Å"I see it,† said Trevize. â€Å"Very attractive.† â€Å"Yes,† said Quintesetz. â€Å"It's supposed to symbolize success in love – and there's no love letter that doesn't end in a pentagon of dots to indicate a desire to make love. Each of the five stars stands for a different stage in the process and there are famous poems which have vied with each other in making each stage as explicitly erotic as possible. In my younger days, I attempted versifying on the subject myself and I wouldn't have thought that the time would come when I would grow so indifferent to the Five Sisters, though I suppose it's the common fate. – Do you see the dim star just about in the center of the Five Sisters.† â€Å"That,† said Quintesetz, â€Å"is supposed to represent unrequited love. There is a legend that the star was once as bright as the rest, but faded with grief.† And he walked on rapidly. The dinner, Trevize had been forced to admit to himself, was delightful. There was endless variety and the spicing and dressing were subtle but effective. Trevize said, â€Å"All these vegetables – which have been a pleasure to eat, by the way – are part of the Galactic dietary, are they not, SQ. ?† â€Å"Yes, of course.† â€Å"I presume, though, that there are indigenous forms of life, too.† â€Å"Of course. Sayshell Planet was an oxygen world when the first settlers arrived, so it had to be life-bearing. And we have preserved some of the indigenous life, you may be sure. We have quite extensive natural parks in which both the flora and the fauna of Old Sayshell survive.† Pelorat said sadly, â€Å"There you are in advance of us, S. Q. There was little land life on Terminus when human beings arrived and I'm afraid that for a long time no concerted effort was made to preserve the sea life, which had produced the oxygen that made Terminus habitable. Terminus has an ecology now that is purely Galactic in nature.† â€Å"Sayshell,† said Quintesetz, with a smile of modest pride, â€Å"has a long and steady record of life-valuing.† And Trevize chose that moment to say, â€Å"When we left your office, SQ., I believe it was your intention to feed us dinner and then tell us about Gaia.† Quintesetz's wife, a friendly woman – plump and quite dark, who had said little during the meal – looked up in astonishment, rose, and left the room without a word. â€Å"My wife,† said Quintesetz uneasily, â€Å"is quite a conservative, I'm afraid, and is a bit uneasy at the mention of – the world. Please excuse her. But why do you ask about it?† â€Å"Because it is important for J. P.'s work, I'm afraid.† â€Å"But why do you ask it of me? We were discussing Earth, robots, the founding of Sayshell. What has all this to do with – what you ask?† ‘Perhaps nothing, and yet there are so many oddnesses about the matter. Why is your wife uneasy at the mention of Gaia? Why are you uneasy? Some talk of it easily enough. We have been told only today that Gaia is Earth itself and that it has disappeared into hyperspace because of the evil done by human beings.† A look of pain crossed Quintesetz's face. â€Å"Who told you that gibberish?† â€Å"Someone I met here at the university.† â€Å"That's just superstition.† â€Å"Then it's not part of the central dogma of your legends concerning the Flight?† â€Å"No, of course not. It's just a fable that arose among the ordinary, uneducated people.† â€Å"Are you sure?† asked Trevize coldly. Quintesetz sat back in his chair and stared at the remnant of the meal before him. â€Å"Come into the living room,† he said. â€Å"My wife will not allow this room to be cleared and set to rights while we are here and discussing – this.† â€Å"Are you sure it is just a fable?† repeated Trevize, once they had seated themselves in another room, before a window that bellied upward and inward to give a clear view of Sayshell's remarkable night sky. The lights within the room glimmered down to avoid competition and Quintesetz's dark countenance melted into the shadow. Quintesetz said, â€Å"Aren't you sure? Do you think that any world can dissolve into hyperspace? You must understand that the average person has only the vaguest notion of what hyperspace is.† â€Å"The truth is,† said Trevize, â€Å"that I myself have only the vaguest notion of what hyperspace is and I've been through it hundreds of times.† â€Å"Let me speak realities, then. I assure you that Earth – wherever it is – is not located within the borders of the Sayshell Union and that the world you mentioned is not Earth.† â€Å"But even if you don't know where Earth is, S. Q., you ought to know where the world I mentioned is. It is certainly within the borders of the Sayshell Union. We know that much, eh, Pelorat?† Pelorat, who had been listening stolidly, started at being suddenly addressed and said, â€Å"If it comes to that, Golan, I know where it is.† Trevize turned to look at him. â€Å"Since when, Janov?† â€Å"Since earlier this evening, my dear Golan. You showed us the Five Sisters, S. Q., on our way from your office to your house. You pointed out a dim star at the center of the pentagon. I'm positive that's Gaia.† Quintesetz hesitated – his face, hidden in the dimness, was beyond any chance of interpretation. Finally he said, â€Å"Well, that's what our astronomers tell us – privately. It is a planet that circles that star.† Trevize gazed contemplatively at Pelorat, but the expression on the professor's face was unreadable. Trevize turned to Quintesetz, â€Å"Then tell us about that star. Do you have its co-ordinates?† â€Å"I? No.† He was almost violent in his denial. â€Å"I have no stellar co-ordinates here. You can get it from our astronomy department, though I imagine not without trouble. No travel to that star is permitted.† â€Å"Why not? It's within your territory, isn't it?† â€Å"Spaciographically, yes. Politically, no.† Trevize waited for something more to be said. When that didn't come, he rose. â€Å"Professor Quintesetz,† he said formally, â€Å"I am not a policeman, soldier, diplomat, or thug. I am not here to force information out of you. Instead, I shall, against my will, go to our ambassador. Surely, you must understand that it is not I, for my own personal interest, that request this information. This is Foundation business and I don't want to make an interstellar incident out of this. I don't think the Sayshell Union would want to, either.† Quintesetz said uncertainly, â€Å"What is this Foundation business?† â€Å"That's not something I can discuss with you. If Gaia is not something you can discuss with me, then we will transfer it all to the government level and, under the circumstances, it may be the worse for Sayshell. Sayshell has kept its independence of the Federation and I have no objection to that. I have no reason to wish Sayshell ill and I do not wish to approach our ambassador. In fact, I will harm my own career in doing so, for I am under strict instruction to get this information without making a government matter of it. Please tell me, then, if there is some firm reason why you cannot discuss Gaia. Will you be arrested or otherwise punished, if you speak? Will you tell me plainly that I have no choice but to go to the ambassadorial height?† â€Å"No no,† said Quintesetz, who sounded utterly confused. â€Å"I know nothing about government matters. We simply don't speak of that world.† â€Å"Superstition?† ‘Well, yes! Superstition! – Skies of Sayshell, in what way am I better than that foolish person who told you that Gaia was in hyperspace – or than my wife who won't even stay in a room where Gaia is mentioned and who may even have left the house for fear it will be smashed by†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Lightning?† â€Å"By some stroke from afar. And I, even I, hesitate to pronounce the name. Gaia! Gaia! The syllables do not hurt! I am unharmed! Yet I hesitate. – But please believe me when I say that I honestly don't know the co-ordinates for Gaia's star. I can try to help you get it, if that will help, but let me tell you that we don't discuss the world here in the Union. We keep hands and minds off it. I can tell you what little is known – really known, rather than supposed – and I doubt that you can learn anything more anywhere in these worlds of the Union. â€Å"We know Gaia is an ancient world and there are some who think it is the oldest world in this sector of the Galaxy, but we are not certain. Patriotism tells us Sayshell Planet is the oldest; fear tells us Gaia Planet is. The only way of combining the two is to suppose that Gaia is Earth, since it is known that Sayshell was settled by Earthpeople. â€Å"Most historians think – among themselves – that Gaia Planet was founded independently. They think it is not a colony of any world of our Union and that the Union was not colonized by Gaia. There is no consensus on comparative age, whether Gaia was settled before or after Sayshell was.† Trevize said, â€Å"So far, what you know is nothing, since every possible alternative is believed by someone or other.† Quintesetz nodded ruefully. â€Å"It would seem so. It was comparatively late in our history that we became conscious of the existence of Gaia. We had been preoccupied at first in forming the Union, then in fighting off the Galactic Empire, then in trying to find our proper role as an Imperial province and in limiting the power of the Viceroys. â€Å"It wasn't till the days of Imperial weakness were far advanced that one of the later Viceroys, who was under very weak central control by then, came to realize that Gaia existed and seemed to maintain its independence from the Sayshellian province and even from the Empire itself. It simply kept to itself in isolation and secrecy, so that virtually nothing was known about it, anymore than is now known. The Viceroy decided to take it over. We have no details what happened, but his expedition was broken and few ships returned. In those days, of course, the ships were neither very good nor very well led. â€Å"Sayshell itself rejoiced at the defeat of the Viceroy, who was considered an Imperial oppressor, and the debacle led almost directly to the re-establishment of our independence. The Sayshell Union snapped its ties with the Empire and we still celebrate the anniversary of that event as Union Day. Almost out of gratitude we left Gaia alone for nearly a century, but the time came when we were strong enough to begin to think of a little imperialistic expansion of our own. Why not take over Gaia? Why not at least establish a Customs Union? We sent out a fleet and it was broken, too. â€Å"Thereafter, we confined ourselves to an occasional attempt at trade – attempts that were invariably unsuccessful. Gaia remained in firm isolation and never – to anyone's knowledge – made the slightest attempt to trade or communicate with any other world. It certainly never made the slightest hostile move against anyone in any direction. And then†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Quintesetz turned up the light by touching a control in the arm of his chair. In the light, Quintesetz's face took on a clearly sardonic expression. He went on, â€Å"Since you are citizens of the Foundation, you perhaps remember the Mule.† Trevize flushed. In five centuries of existence, the Foundation had been conquered only once. The conquest had been only temporary and had not seriously interfered with its climb toward Second Empire, but surely no one who resented the Foundation and wished to puncture its self-satisfaction would fail to mention the Mule, its one conqueror. And it was likely (thought Trevize) that Quintesetz had raised the level of light in order that he might see Foundational self-satisfaction punctured. He said, â€Å"Yes, we of the Foundation remember the Mule.† â€Å"The Mule,† said Quintesetz, â€Å"ruled an Empire for a while, one that was as large as the Federation now controlled by the Foundation. He did not, however, rule us. He left us in peace. He passed through Sayshell at one time, however. We signed a declaration of neutrality and a statement of friendship. He asked nothing more. We were the only ones of whom he asked nothing more in the days before illness called a halt to his expansion and forced him to wait for death. He was not an unreasonable man, you know. He did not use unreasonable force, he was not bloody, and he ruled humanely.† â€Å"It was just that he was a conqueror,† said Trevize sarcastically. â€Å"Like the Foundation,† said Quintesetz. Trevize, with no ready answer, said irritably, â€Å"Do you have more to say about Gaia?† â€Å"Just a statement that the Mule made. According to the account of the historic meeting between the Mule and President Kallo of the Union, the Mule is described as having put his signature to the document with a flourish and to have said, â€Å"You are neutral even toward Gaia by this document, which is fortunate for you. Even I will not approach Gaia.† Trevize shook his head. â€Å"Why should he? Sayshell was eager to pledge neutrality and Gaia had no record of ever troubling anyone. The Mule was planning the conquest of the entire Galaxy at the time, so why delay for trifles? Time enough to turn on Sayshell and Gaia, when that was done.† â€Å"Perhaps, perhaps,† said Quintesetz, â€Å"but according to one witness at the time, a person we tend to believe, the Mule put down his pen as he said, ‘Even I will not approach Gaia. ‘ His voice then dropped and, in a whisper not meant to be heard, he added ‘again.† â€Å"Not meant to be heard, you say. Then how was it he was heard?† â€Å"Because his pen rolled off the table when he put it down and a Sayshellian automatically approached and bent to pick it up. His ear was close to the Mule's mouth when the word ‘again' was spoken and he heard it. He said nothing until after the Mule's death.† â€Å"How can you prove it was not an invention.† â€Å"The man's life is not the kind that makes it probable he would invent something of this kind. His report is accepted.† â€Å"And if it is?† â€Å"The Mule was never in – or anywhere near – the Sayshell Union except on this one occasion, at least after he appeared on the Galactic scene. If he had ever been on Gaia, it had to be before he appeared on the Galactic scene.† â€Å"Well?† â€Å"Well, where was the Mule born?† â€Å"I don't think anyone knows,† said Trevize. â€Å"In the Sayshell Union, there is a strong feeling he was born on Gaia.† â€Å"Because of that one word?† â€Å"Only partly. The Mule could not be defeated because he had strange mental powers. Gaia cannot be defeated either.† â€Å"Gaia has not been defeated as yet. That does not necessarily prove it cannot be.† â€Å"Even the Mule would not approach. Search the records of his Overlordship. See if any region other than the Sayshell Union was so gingerly treated. And do you know that no one who has ever gone to Gaia for the purpose of peaceful trade has ever returned? Why do you suppose we know so little about it?† Trevize said, â€Å"Your attitude seems much like superstition.† â€Å"Call it what you will. Since the time of the Mule, we have wiped Gaia out of our thinking. We don't want it to think of us. We only feel safe if we pretend it isn't there. It may be that the government has itself secretly initiated and encouraged the legend that Gaia has disappeared into hyperspace in the hope that people will forget that there is a real Star of that name.† â€Å"You think that Gaia is a world of Mules, then?† â€Å"It may be. I advise you, for your good, not to go there. If you do, you will never return. If the Foundation interferes with Gaia, it will show less intelligence than the Mule did. You might tell your ambassador that.† Trevize said, â€Å"Get me the co-ordinates and I will be off your world at once. I will reach Gaia and I will return.† Quintesetz said, â€Å"I will get you the co-ordinates. The astronomy department works nights, of course, and I will get it for you now, if I can. – But let me suggest once more that you make no attempt to reach Gaia.† Trevize said, â€Å"I intend to make that attempt.† And Quintesetz said heavily, â€Å"Then you intend suicide.†