BIM (BUILDING Information Modeling ) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

BIM (BUILDING Information Modeling ) - Essay Example The two kinds of BIM software are authoring software and coordination software (Solibri, n.p). BIM process involves building design that require collaboration through computer models and not disjoints drawing sets. Through the use of BIM, digital representations of buildings are made available and used for decision making, first class production of construction documents, building planning, and predictions of performance and cost estimates (Solibri, n.p). BIM is employed in modeling and not drawing (Solibri, n.p). Modeling permits the designers to see the building and its parts from numerous angles. In addition, clash detection in the design phase allows designers to identify faults and correct them prior to commencement the building (McNell, 9). Early errors detection implies that costs involved in on-site correction are eliminated. Coordination is emphasized and facilitated by BIM through the use of a data repository where team members easily access information to confirm questiona ble aspects like building elements’ compatibility with the rest of the building. Through BIM cloud, BIM models by different team members can easily be viewed and edited and the consequences of each action made accessible to all model users (McNell 9). BIM is used to provide precise inclusion and modeling of prices and upgrading of bids and project pricing accuracy. Through the visualization designs, clients can verify design intention and sharedknowledge through virtual design and construction then strengthens client’s satisfaction. 2.0. BIM management Although BIM reinforces construction team members’ collaboration through the use of a shared information database to create a virtual model, there is heated debate over the management of BIM (AUGI, n.p). The ownership of BIM is left to DDC or the department of Design and construction. The model ownership is extended to include all inventions, designs, ideas, and methods contained inside the model. DDC reveals that peripheral users like contractors and consultants are only granted short lived use of BIM which terminates with the completion of the project and all copies of BIM copies have to be returned to DDC (AUGI, n.p). Basically, the project models contained in BIM from pre-conception to completion belong to DDC while project team owns just the idea. BIM teams include architects, designers, engineers and contractors and owners. The owner submits his or her request for service to the architect (AUGI, n.p). The architect then validates the request before designing the building. The architect provides the engineer with the building model and the engineer then uses computer aided design 3D visualization and modeling through Revit and creates 3D design or imports ordinary 2D drawings that have 3D information to establish perfect renderings from 3D (McNell, 15). Using BIM, designers investigate substitute notions; carry out value engineering and come up with finest designs. The contractors then revise the documented construction before commencement of physical construction. From the model, project owners are then involved in project aspects since they gain immediate and vast information which is formatted to satisfy their needs. 3.0. BIM practice BIM process involves four main stages which are design, build, operation and maintenance. The BIM model life cycle begins with the request from the owners. At first, the owners do not have sufficient information on what the final product will have (Eastman, Teicholz, Sacks and Liston,

Research Is Like Cooking Essay Example for Free

Research Is Like Cooking Essay Research is like cooking isn’t anyone can learn the skills needed for great research, for many college students, cooking is like research in another way, instead of cooking great homemade meals who is sometimes take shortcuts and sell for what is quick easy in familiar, sort of like when we use our old familiar tools like google and Wikipedia for our research. Why do we take shortcuts and settle for males of ramen noodles and pop tarts, there a lot of reasons, sometime were just too busy don’t have enough time to cook a formal meal, sometimes we leave things to the last minute anymore stuck making a meal with whatever we have on hand, with research we found that students advise others students to start early. So that they are stuck writing a research paper with only the resources they can find the night before the papers did many of the same guidelines that apply to cooking apply to doing research, in cooking as in research you have to plan ahead and know what you want to make, good cooking and good research both depend on quality ingredients, to write a great research proposal you will need to find high quality resources and just like you can create a full meal out of only a few ingredients you need a variety of resources to craft a convincing research proposal. Finally just like the best restaurants in the city, such as Altavista or/and Altagracia restaurant make meals that they themselves would want to eat, you will find you do your best research when you pick a topic that you care about, a big part of planning ahead is knowing what you are making, you have to have a recipe, the same is true for writing a research proposal, you have to have a topic in a general plan for what kind of paper you want to write an outline of your research argument can serve as your recipe and it will have the added value of telling you what kinds of resources and ingredients you need to write your proposal. The next step to follow is to go shopping, just like you turn your recipe into a shopping list, you need to turn your research outline into a list of the type of resources you need, by creating a shopping list you are taking control of the kinds of resources that you will use in your research proposal; instead of just settling for what you can find a way you have on hand and remember that the researcher doing is likely to require more than just books, you may need newspaper journal articles or you may want to consult some items in your library. One very important step in both cooking and research is the taste testing stage. Great chefs do lots of taste testing so that they can find just the writing the ingredients, but in the older making you need to do the same for your research, you should plan in looking at plenty of books articles in abstracts before you settle on the resources that you actually need. Now you have your recipe and all the ingredients you need, it is time to create your meal. Remember that a great recipe calls for the chef of mix the ingredients together, just right so that they work together to create the final product, the same is true with the research proposal, you can’t just throw your resources into your paper, you need to suit the size them and relate them to one another and you need you to put your own garnish on your meal, put your own voice in your research proposal, so that is not just a summary of all your sources, if you remember the research is like cooking and then a requires a planning a recipe and great ingredients, you will produce research that is like the equivalent that you do a great meal. Bon appetit The studied topics help me to understand and have a broader idea about what we have to do at the moment to write a research proposal, because de resources used for a good research is not to go at any school and see what happen only, you need to have a preconception about what you are going to do or search, besides that, is important to identify the kind of research are you going to do and all the studied topics give me the stages and the instructions in order to do a good research proposal.

Sympathy for the Tragic Hero of Shakespeares Macbeth :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Sympathy for the Tragic Hero of Macbeth      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A tragedy according to Aristotle within ‘Poetics’ is; ’†¦Imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself...in a dramatic, not narrative form; with incidents arising pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions’ In Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, the character of Macbeth murders his king, Duncan, for personal motives, there appears to be little subjective reasoning for the murder.   This perhaps encapsulates the notion of an incident which has the potential to arise pity from an audience. The reader pities Macbeth despite the obvious character flaws of greed and corruption.   Shakespeare manipulates the audience to react sympathetically towards Macbeth through the use of Macbeth's actions, dialogue, and passion.   Throughout the story, there is a feeling of animosity toward Macbeth in response to his deleterious actions.   However, scenes revealing Macbeth's more admirable side balance and even abet that negative feeling.   One particular instance where the reader has the potential to feel pity for Macbeth appears in the dialogue immediately before Macbeth decides whether or not to kill King Duncan.   Macbeth is unsure of the morality of the murder.   During much self-deliberation, he agonizes in the monologue, "I am his kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed" (I.vii.14-15).   While Macbeth contemplates whether murdering Duncan is feasible, Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth that he would murder Duncan if he were truly brave and masculine.   Lady Macbeth goes on to remark that if he murders Duncan, Macbeth "would be so much more the man" (I.vii.58). A weak Macbeth gives in to his wife's badgering and manipulation and reluctantly agrees to participate in the murder. The audience feels sympathy for an insecure Macbeth as he begins his spiral into ultimate destruction. It appears that without the push of Lady Macbeth the deed would have been unlikely to have taken place.   Another instance in which Macbeth seems weak and pitiable is at the banquet held in his honor.   Before the dinner party begins, Macbeth orders the assassination of his friend Banquo.   After Banquo is killed, his ghost attends Macbeth's banquet, visible only to Macbeth.   The chain of events that occurs at the party lends sympathy to Macbeth.   His deteriorating mental state becomes known to all when he first beholds the ghost.   He cries out to the guests, inquiring who has played the cruel trick.

War: Effect on the Economy

Shomoi Francis Mr. Joseph English 12 26 November 2012 War: Effect on Economy War has influenced economic history profoundly across time and space. Winners of wars have shaped economic institutions and trade patterns. Wars have influenced technological developments. Above all, recurring war has drained wealth, disrupted markets, and depressed economical growth. Wars are expensive (in money and other resources), destructive (of capital and human capital), and disruptive (of trade, resource availability, labor management). Large wars make up severe shocks to the economies of participating countries.Despite some positive aspects of short-term stimulation and long-term destruction and rebuilding, war generally impedes economic development and undermines wealth. Several specific economic effects of war recur across historical eras and locales. Next inflation, the most consistent short-term economic effect of war is to push up prices, and consequently to reduce living standards. This war-in duced inflation was described in ancient China by the strategist Sun Tzu: â€Å"Where the army is, prices are high; when prices raise the wealth of the people is exhausted† (Tzu Sun, c. 00 BCE) His advice was to keep wars short and have the money in hand before assembling an army. Paying for wars is a central problem for states (see War Finance). This was especially true in early modern Europe (fifteenth to eighteenth centuries), when war relied heavily on mercenary forces. The king of Spain was advised that waging war required three things – money, money, and more money. Spain and Portugal imported silver and gold from America to pay for armies, but in such large quantities that the value of these metals eventually eroded.One way governments pay for war is to raise taxes (which in turn reduces civilian spending and investment). U. S. revolutionary Thomas Paine warned in 1787 that â€Å"war †¦ has but one thing certain, and that is to increase taxes. † Anot her way to pay for war is to borrow money, which increases government debt, but war-related debts can drive states into bankruptcy as they did to Spain in 1557 and 1596. A third way to fund war is to print more currency, which fuels inflation. Inflation thus often acts as an indirect ax on a national economy to finance war. Industrial warfare, and especially the two World Wars, created inflationary pressures across large economies. Increasingly, governments mobilized entire societies for war – conscripting labor, bidding up prices in markets for natural resources and industrial goods, and diverting capital and technology from civilian to military applications. World War I caused ruinous inflation as participants broke from the gold standard and issued currency freely. Inflation also accompanied the U. S.Civil War, World War II, and the Vietnam War, among others. War-induced inflation, although strongest in war zones, extends to distant belligerents, such as the United States in the World Wars, and, in major wars, even to neutral countries, owing to trade disruption and scarcities. Present-day wars continue to fuel inflation and drive currencies towards worthlessness. In Angola's civil war (1975-2002), for example, the government currency became so useless that an alternative â€Å"hard† currency – bottles of beer – came to replace it in many daily transactions.In addition to draining money and resources from participants' economies, most wars create zones of intense destruction of capital such as farms, factories, and cities. These effects severely depress economic output. The famine and plague that accompanied the Thirty Years' War (1618-48) killed as much as one-third of Germany's population, as mercenaries plundered civilians and civilians became mercenaries to try to survive. World War I reduced French production by nearly half, starved hundreds of thousands of Germans to death, and led to more than a decade of lower Soviet outp ut.One estimate put World War I's total cost at $400 billion – five times the value of everything in France and Belgium at the time. Battle casualties, war-induced epidemics, and other demographic disruptions have far-reaching effects. World War I contributed to the 1918 influenza epidemic that killed millions. Military forces in East Africa may have sparked the outbreak of what became a global AIDS epidemic. Quincy Wright estimates that â€Å"at least 10 percent of deaths in modern civilization can be attributed directly or indirectly to war† (Wright, 1942).The U. S. â€Å"baby boom† after World War II continues decades later to shape economic policy debates ranging from school budgets to social security. Wars also temporarily shake up gender relations (among other demographic variables), as when men leave home and women take war jobs to replenish the labor force, as in the Soviet Union, Britain, and the United States during World War II. Countries that can fig ht wars beyond their borders avoid the most costly destruction (though not the other costs of war).For example, the Dutch towards the end of the Thirty Years' War, the British during the Napoleonic Wars, the Japanese in World War I, and the Americans in both World Wars enjoyed this relative insulation from war's destruction, which meanwhile weakened their economic rivals. Also, just as wars' costs and outcomes affect economic conditions and evolution, so too do economic conditions and evolution affect war. Causality runs in both directions. For example, Dutch economic strengths in the early 17th century allowed fast and cheap production of ships, including warships.The resulting naval military advantage in turn supported Dutch long-distance trade. The wealth derived from that trade, in turn, let the Netherlands pay and train a professional standing army, which successfully sheltered the Netherlands from the ruinous Thirty Years' War. This protection in turn let the Dutch expand thei r share of world trade at the expense of war-scarred rivals. Thus the evolutions of warfare and of world economic history are intertwined. War is the proximal cause of the recurring inflationary spikes that demarcate 50-year â€Å"Kondratieff waves† in the world economy.Those waves themselves continue to be controversial. However, they may have some predictive value to the extent they clarify the historical relationships between war and military spending on the one hand, and inflation and economic growth on the other. The 1990s mainly followed a predicted long-wave phase of sustained low inflation, renewed growth, and reduced great-power military conflict. If this pattern were to continue, the coming decade would see continued strong growth but new upward pressures on military spending and conflict, eventually leading to a new bout of inflation in the great-power economies.Since scholars do not agree on the mechanism or even the existence of long economic waves, however, such projections are of more academic than practical interest. The relationship between military spending and economic growth has also generated controversy. Despite its pump-priming potential in specific circumstances, as during the 1930s, military spending generally acts to slow economic growth, since it diverts capital and labor from more productive investment (such as in roads, schools, or basic research). During the Cold War, high ilitary spending contributed (among other causes) to the economic stagnation of the Soviet Union and the collapse of North Korea, whereas low military spending relative to GDP contributed to Japan's growth and innovation. During the 1990s, as real military spending worldwide fell by about one-third, the United States and others reaped a â€Å"peace dividend† in sustained expansion. However, effects of military spending are long-term, and sharp reductions do not bring quick relief, as Russia's experience since 1991 demonstrates. The global North-Sou th divide – a stark feature of the world economy – is exacerbated by war.The dozens of wars currently in progress worldwide form an arc from the Andes through Africa to the Middle East and Caucasus, to South and Southeast Asia. In some of the world's poorest countries, such as Sudan and Afghanistan, endemic warfare impedes economic development and produces grinding poverty, which in turn intensifies conflicts and fuels warfare. To conclude, you have read about the good and bad things of war effects on the economy. War has drained wealth, disrupted markets, and depressed economical growth. But, the winners of these wars often were rewarded from these wars.War is bad overall; I feel that war should be the last option for any country. Works Cited Washigntonsblog. â€Å"Proof that war is bad for the economy. † 24 Feb. 2012. < http://www. washingtonsblog. com/2012/02/debunking-the-myth-that-war-is-good-for-the-economy-once-and-for-all. html>. Symonds, Peter. â€Å"U S wages over war†. 7 Oct. 2012. < http://www. globalresearch. ca/us-wages-economic-war-on-iran/5307485. > < http://www. joshuagoldstein. com/jgeconhi. htm. >

Principles of Marketing Exam Notes

Principles of Marketing Study Guide Mid-term Exam Fall 2012 Chapter 1 1. What is Marketing? a. The activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, capturing, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. It requires thoughtful planning with an emphasis on the ethical implications of any of those decisions on society in general. 2. Marketing requires Product, Price, Place and Promotions decisions. b.The four Ps, or marketing mix, are the controllable set of activities that the firm uses to respond to the wants of its target markets. 3. What is value-based marketing? a. Value reflects the relationship of benefits to costs, or what the consumer gets for what he or she gives. In a marketing context, customers seek a fair return in goods and/or services for their hard-earned money and scarce time. They want products or services that meet their specific needs or wants and that are offered at competitiv e prices. 4. Marketing Impacts Various Stakeholders . Supply chain partners, whether they are manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, or other intermediaries like transportation or warehousing companies, are involved in marketing to one another. Manufacturers sell merchandise to retailers, but the retailers often have to convince manufacturers to sell to them. 5. Marketing Enriches Society * Our people: Committed to excellence, passionate about achieving our goals, eagerly embracing new challenges. * Our strategy: Focused and consistent, delivers sustainable and dependable performance. Our business model: Resilient and proven, relevant in all economies, drives long-term health of the company. * Our brands: Recognized and loved around the world, in strong categories, responsive to advertising and brand building. Chapter 2 6. What is a Marketing Strategy? d. Identifies (1) a firm's target market(s), (2) a related marketing mix—its four Ps—and (3) the bases on which the fi rm plans to build a sustainable competitive advantage. 7. Building a Sustainable Competitive Advantage e. An advantage over the competition that is not easily copied and thus can be maintained over a long period of time.A competitive advantage acts like a wall that the firm has built around its position in a market. This wall makes it hard for outside competitors to contact customers inside—otherwise known as the marketer's target market. 8. The Marketing Plan f. a written document composed of an analysis of the current marketing situation, opportunities and threats for the firm, marketing objectives and strategy specified in terms of the four Ps, action programs, and projected or proforma income (and other financial) statements.The three major phases of the marketing plan are planning, implementation, and control. g. Step 1 of the planning phase. The part of the strategic marketing planning process when marketing executives, in conjunction with other top managers, (1) define the mission or vision of the business and (2) evaluate the situation by assessing how various players, both in and outside the organization, affect the firm's potential for success. , marketing executives, in conjunction with other top managers, define the mission and/or vision of the business. (Step 2). In the implementation phase.The part of the strategic marketing planning process when marketing managers (1) identify and evaluate different opportunities by engaging in segmentation, targeting, and positioning (see STP) and (2) implement the marketing mix using the four Ps. , marketing managers identify and evaluate different opportunities by engaging in a process known as segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP) (Step 3). They then are responsible for implementing the marketing mix using the four Ps (Step 4). Finally, the control phase. The part of the strategic marketing planning process when managers evaluate the erformance of the marketing strategy and take any necessary corrective actions. Entails evaluating the performance of the marketing strategy using marketing metrics and taking any necessary corrective actions (Step 5). 9. Growth Strategies h. A market penetration s growth strategy that employs the existing marketing mix and focuses the firm's efforts on existing customers. Such a growth strategy might be achieved by attracting new consumers to the firm's current target market or encouraging current customers to patronize the firm more often or buy more merchandise on each visit. i.A market development growth strategy that employs the existing marketing offering to reach new market segments, whether domestic or international. International expansion generally is riskier than domestic expansion because firms must deal with differences in government regulations, cultural traditions, supply chains, and language. j. Product development growth strategy that offers a new product or service to a firm's current target market. k. A diversification gr owth strategy whereby a firm introduces a new product or service to a market segment that it does not currently serve.Diversification opportunities may be either related or unrelated. In a related diversification growth strategy whereby the current target market and/or marketing mix shares something in common with the new opportunity. In other words, the firm might be able to purchase from existing vendors, use the same distribution and/or management information system, or advertise in the same newspapers to target markets that are similar to their current consumers. l. In an unrelated diversification growth strategy whereby a new business lacks any common elements with the present business.Unrelated diversifications do not capitalize on core strengths associated either with markets or with products. Thus, they would be viewed as being very risky. Chapter 3 10. Why People Act Unethically m. All of us vary in the way we view more complex situations, depending on our ethical understan dings. 11. Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility n. Corporate social responsibility refers to the voluntary actions taken by a company to address the ethical, social, and environmental impacts of its business operations and the concerns of its stakeholders. o.This notion goes beyond the individual ethics that we've discussed so far, but for a company to act in a socially responsible manner, the employees of the company must also first maintain high ethical standards and recognize how their individual decisions lead to optimal collective actions of the firm. Firms with strong ethical climates tend to be more socially responsible. 12. A Framework for Ethical Decision Making p. 13. Integrating Ethics into Marketing Strategy q. Marketers can introduce ethics at the beginning of the planning process simply by including ethical statements in the firm's mission or vision statements. . In the implementation phase of the marketing strategy, when firms are identifying potential markets a nd how to successfully deliver the 4Ps to them, firms must consider several ethical issues. Chapter 4 14. The Immediate Environment s. t. In the immediate environment, the first factor that affects the consumer is the firm itself. Successful marketing firms focus on satisfying customer needs that match their core competencies. Competition also significantly affects consumers in the immediate environment.It is therefore critical that marketers understand their firm's competitors, including their strengths, weaknesses, and likely reactions to the marketing activities that their own firm undertakes. Few firms operate in isolation. For example, automobile manufacturers collaborate with suppliers of sheet metal, tire manufacturers, component part makers, unions, transport companies, and dealerships to produce and market their automobiles successfully. Parties that work with the focal firm are its corporate partners. 15. Macro-environmental Factors u. Macro environmental factors Aspects o f the external environment that ffect a company's business, such as the culture, demographics (age, gender, and race), social issues, technological advances, economic situation, and political/regulatory environment. 16. Corporate Social Responsibility v. Chapter 5 17. The Consumer Decision Process w. x. 18. Factors Influencing the Consumer Decision Process y. The consumer decision process can be influenced by several factors. First are the elements of the marketing mix, which we discuss throughout this book. Second are psychological factors, which are influences internal to the customer, such as motives, attitudes, perception, and learning.Third, social factors, such as family, reference groups, and culture, also influence the decision process. Fourth, there are situational factors, such as the specific purchase situation, a particular shopping situation, or temporal state (the time of day), that affect the decision process. 19. Involvement and Consumer Buying Decisions z. Consumers engage in two types of buying processes/decisions depending on their level of involvement: extended problem solving for high-priced or risky goods; and limited problem solving, which includes impulse buying and habitual decision making. {.Involvement is the consumer's interest in a product or service. Chapter 6 20. B2B Markets |. 21. The Business to Business Buying Process }. 22. Factors affecting the Buying Process ~. The Buying Center i. The buying center is a group of people typically responsible for the buying decisions in large organizations. Participants can range from employees who have a formal role in purchasing decisions (i. e. , the purchasing or procurement department) to members of the design team that is specifying the particular equipment or raw material needed by employees who will be using a new machine that is being ordered.All these employees are likely to play different roles in the buying process, which vendors must understand and adapt to in their marketing an d sales efforts. ii. One or more people may take on a certain role, or one person may take on more than one of the following roles: (1) initiator: The buying center participant who first suggests buying the particular product or service. , the person who first suggests buying the particular product or service; (2) influencer: The buying center participant whose views influence other members of the buying center in making the final decision. the person whose views influence other members of the buying center in making the final decision; (3) decider: The buying center participant who ultimately determines any part of or the entire buying decision—whether to buy, what to buy, how to buy, or where to buy. , the person who ultimately determines any part of or the entire buying decision—whether to buy, what to buy, how to buy, or where to buy; (4) buyer: The buying center participant who handles the paperwork of the actual purchase. the person who handles the paperwork of t he actual purchase; (5) user: The person who consumes or uses the product or service purchased by the buying center. , the person who consumes or uses the product or service; and (6) gatekeeper: The buying center participant who controls information or access to decision makers and influencers. , the person who controls information or access, or both, to decision makers and influencers. . Organizational Culture iii. ———————————————— A firm's organizational culture reflects the set of values, traditions, and customs that guide a firm's employees' behavior. The firm's culture often comprises a set of unspoken guidelines that employees share with one another through various work situations. . Buying Situations In a new buy a purchase of a good or service for the first time; the buying decision is likely to be quite involved because the buyer or the buying organization does n ot have any experience with the item.A modified rebuy refers to when the buyer has purchased a similar product in the past but has decided to change some specifications, such as the desired price, quality level, customer service level, options, or so forth. Straight rebuys refers to when the buyer or buying organization simply buys additional units of products that have previously been purchased. A tremendous amount of B2B purchases are likely to fall in the straight rebuy category. Chapter 9 23. The Marketing Research Process . The first step is to define objectives and research needs, which sounds so simple that managers often gloss over it.But this step is crucial to the success of any research project because, quite basically, the research must answer those questions that are important for making decisions. In the second step, designing the research project, researchers identify the type of data that is needed, whether primary or secondary, on the basis of the objectives of the project from Step 1, and then determine the type of research that enables them to collect those data. The third step involves deciding on the data collection process and collecting the data.The process usually starts with exploratory research methods such as observation, in-depth interviews, or focus groups. The information gleaned from the exploratory research is then used in conclusive research, which may include a survey, an experiment, or the use of scanner and panel data. The fourth step is to analyze and interpret the data and develop insights. The fifth and final step is to develop an action plan and implementation. Although these steps appear to progress linearly, researchers often work backward and forward throughout the process as they learn at each step. 4. Secondary Data and Primary Data . Primary: Data collected to address specific research needs. . Secondary: Pieces of information that have already been collected from other sources and are readily available. 25. Explor atory Research . Attempts to begin to understand the phenomenon of interest, also provides initial information when the problem lacks any clear definition. 26. Conclusive Research . Provides the information needed to confirm preliminary insights, which managers can use to pursue appropriate courses of action.