An Investigation Into the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Among Veterans Essay

Introduction There are numerous issues facing American veterans returning home from war, both past and present. They are taught how to transform themselves into different people who are better adept at performing under severe war-zone stressors. They are prepared physically and sometimes mentally for what they will be entering into on foreign territory but not often enough for the challenge of re-entering civilian life. Soldiers are falling through the cracks in our system upon returning home, shown through an increase in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse among veterans. Two theories that I will be exploring in this paper are Conflict Theory and Phenomenology Theory. There is more conflict everyday over what our troops should be doing and why. Any doubt of following the path to become a soldier is critiqued as going against the protection of our country, yet once they come out the other end of this journey the supported soldier is gone and in its place is either the glorified hero or sympathized victim. The phenomena of PTSD can create confusion for everyone involved. There is rarely a great understanding of a soldier’s mind and how it interprets their experiences into reactions after war. These experiences have a real effect on their lives and how they care and handle themselves after war. The way society has constructed what a soldier should represent does not include asking for help and makes them appear weak when if they show vulnerability. This issue is important because even today with easier access to treatment, many veterans today won’t or can’t seek out help. To many it is easier to turn to substance abuse to self-medicate and erase confusion from past experiences. Book Examination In the book Fields of Combat, stories are told of how soldiers are trained to kill and understand that to be a true soldier you must accept you own death. Author Erin Finley describes what it is like for soldiers who came home and developed PTSD, and puts their experiences into a social and cultural perspective. She paints a portrait of PTSD to reveal to readers that there is no comprehensive way to understand or experience it. â€Å"As an anthropologist, I find the web of tangled arguments over PTSD fascinating because these conflicts are in many ways about the nature of war-related suffering itself† (Finley, 2011). She describes how to understand PTSD, we must listen to the experience and concerns of the veterans before we can begin to help them. Theory Exploration The Conflict Theory can be applied to many aspects of a veteran’s life, the individual, their families, communities, and organizations around them. These troops return home without knowing how to integrate back into society. The families who should be overjoyed about the safe return of one of their members are displaced without having proper resources to help their loved ones mental health. They are not given the same stress and trauma training the soldiers is given, nor do they know of the experiences causing change in the soldier. There is not often enough knowledge available to the family of what it will be like for the family to have a soldier return home and can be caught off guard by what the soldier will experience upon return. Communities are affected by having one of their members experiencing side effects of war form attempting to re-enter the work force to social events and even the death of such troops of veterans. There is much debate about how war is handled in t he United States. It is generally agreed upon that protection of American citizens is of importance, but from there on out there is little agreement among groups. When thinking about this debate I cannot help but recall driving up to an intersection in my hometown and seeing picketers on either side of the street. Pro-war protesters held signs on one hand that said â€Å"FREEDOM IS NOT FREE† while anti-war protesters fought back with signs that reminded drivers of the ever-growing death toll of soldiers and civilians. Each side questioning the motives behind the other, from wasting America’s resources to question one’s loyalty to America. While these groups have different interests about sending our troops off to war, they should be able to come together when the troops return in order to offer services to help return to a life as normal as possible. From a Marxist view, veterans can be seen as an exploitation of the government by using the troops to their advantage and profit. While the troops are deployed the government basically owns them, but when they return they must often fend for their own mental and physical well-being. Capitalism has created a class division in this case. The bourgeoisie of our government sit back passively and brush off the symptoms of PTSD as a common experience expected after war. The most common symptoms of PTSD for veterans are thoughts of suicide, domestic violence, substance abuse and panic attacks. These symptoms would cause concern from anyone else but they are brushed under the rug for veterans because it is simply assumed that war experiences will have these kid of severe affects on those exposed. To critique the theory that a small elite group is responsible for deploying troops, we must acknowledge that many groups with similar interests come together to enable war to take place. Propaganda is imposed among society from interest groups on either side of the fence on war. Troops do not simply decide to pack up and head overseas to kill people, nor are they currently forced into deployment; it is their choice to enlist. The people in higher government position who can declare war do not just wake up in that position, they are elected there by the people of this country knowing, for the most part, what views they stand behind. This theory is consistent with social works ethics because it represents the working class and wants to bring consciousness to those who hold power and how we can reduce conflict, ignorance, and inequality. Article Examination In the book, David Grossman tells readers how soldiers killing patterns have changed over time. During previous wars years ago soldiers were more reluctant to kill and fired their weapons more as a warning instead of a kill shot. The Army has since taken steps to increase the percentage of shorts fired to be directed at the actually enemy. Since it was shown to have be easier to get soldiers to kill from a distance instead of up close, machines were provided to allow for distance physically and mentally. The soldiers are basically be dehumanized to be better weapons to the government. He refers to this as Acquired Violence Immune Deficiency, where people have such a fear of what they are experience that their brain reverts to classical and operant condition, which the government has replaced by weakening the part of the soldier that does not want to kill and inserting the actions they prefer. Theory Exploration This action represents yet another way that higher ups are using soldiers as their own material resource, in context to the Conflict Theory. The exploitive subordination of soldiers allows the government to profit by actually influencing how the soldiers think. The government understands that changing the social behavior of a soldier will lead to more power over them and their actions. This theory would show clear winners being the government who benefits from soldiers subordination and the soldiers who suffer. In contrast, you cannot presume that every action the ruling government takes over soldiers is for their benefit alone. The actions, while not always moral, are taken to protect the entire country. Treatment is provided for returning soldiers, even if it is not know or easily accessible to all. The emphasis is not solely social control but consensus and conformity. To go to war is a decision made by different group, not only elites, and a general agreement must be reached before actions are taken with soldiers or deployment. Soldiers are not forced into employment; they conform to the position because their attitudes, beliefs and behaviors are similar to those around them in the Army. Article Examination In the article by David Zucchino, it tells about a soldier who opened fire from his home without warning because he felt he was under attack. This event took place after he received inadequate treatment for PTSD after being diagnosed at â€Å"high risk† for the disease. He was sent to a prison that did not offer him any further treatment for PTSD since they were not affiliated with the military. He is one of the many veterans that has not being given proper treatment after being diagnosed to be at rick for PTSD and ending up in civilian prison where they cannot access further help. He is now left in prison where his symptoms and condition will only worsen. Theory Exploration From the Phenomenology standpoint we would look at expectations of his experience to understand and describe this phenomena. Looking at what appears to be instead of reality, his subjective experiences show emotions he is not fully aware of. His actions, like those of other veterans, stem directly from past and present sensory experiences and cannot defined the same way for each person. The appearance of returning veterans is seen as this joyous moment where they step off a plane in to the loving arms of family and are then forgotten about by most of the culture. Families and communities are left to deal with the veteran’s actions without knowing the driving forces behind their appearance of their actions. The government sees what it wants to see and transfers that to the public. We are shown this ideal soldier who is deployed to protect us and comes home a hero, which our consciousness retained as a singular memory of a soldier. That is what society wants to believe about war because our consciousness does not want to identify killing, death, and destruction with our freedom or it would not be as easy to ship off members of our own community to their impending death. Once they return they are given a pat on the back for a job well done and turned over with the intention of re-entering a community as a normal member once again. We define the content of our consciousness as making this place, America, better by using an object, the soldier, to do so. â€Å"Central Prison has done a good job of treating Eisenhauer’s physical wounds† (Zucchino, 2012). We treat what we can see, but leave what we do not understand unattended. In this theory we can only see one side of the situation at a time, and we are stuck on this glorified soldier but cannot combine with him the vulnerability and confusion he returns home with. In critique to this theory, there are things outside of our memory and consciousness that do exist. Just because we cannot fully grasp what is happening to these veterans does not mean that it is not happening. They are sent essentially sent to another world to deal with hardships and are thrown back into reality without being reprogrammed. There are not always theoretical structures that will allow us to understand the phenomena of what the veterans will go through. References Carter, A. C., Capone , C., & Eaton Short, E. (2011). Co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder and alcohol use disorders in veteran populations. Journal of Dual Diagnosis, 7(4), 285-299. Finley, E. P. (2011). Fields of combat: Understanding PTSD among veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Grossman, D. (2009). On killing: The psychological cost of learning to kill in war and society. New York: Back Bay Books. Levinson, N. (2012). What really happened to america’s soldier, The Nation. Retrieved November 20, 2012 from http://www.thenation.com/article/168652/what-has-really-happened-americas-soldiers# Litz, B., & Orsillo, S. M. (2010). Iraq war clinician guide . (pp. 21-32). Department of Veteran Affairs. Retrieved December 1, 2012 from http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/manuals/manual-pdf/iwcg/iraq_clinician_guide_ch_3.pdf Stecker, T. (2011). 5 Survivors: Personal stories of healing from PTSD and traumatic events. Center City: Hazelden Foundation. Zucchino, D. (2012, June 24). Accused soldier is a prisoner to ptsd; believing he was under attack by insurgents, he started firing from his home. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on December 1, 2012 from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.uvm.edu/docview/1021854523/13AE8FF837D23A623BE/7?accountid=14679

Sub Level Caving

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

Personal Statement Essay

Paragraph 1: interests which inspired me to choose the certain course, describe myself. Paragraph 2: what I am studying at school and how it relates to my picked subject course in university. Paragraph 3: extracurricular activities and outside events, what experiences that are relevant. I am very hard working, love getting a job done to the specified standard and I use my own initiative effectively. Although I am not very confident I have the confidence to speak up for myself and get my opinion across. I would very much like to study a degree in marketing and computing, this is because my interests have always been in computers and looking at different things that would look and sell for on the market today. Someday when I have earned enough money I would love to go and travel around the whole world, this has been one of my dreams for a long time and I think this type of degree will give me that opportunity. I have looked into much more detail in what type of course to do with these things I have mentioned above and I would like to go into computer science and marketing (combining the two). My dad has also inspired me because he has been working hard all of his life in the business and insurance industry, I have been to a few open days of his work place and I really liked the look of it. I am a very open minded person and love to work in a team of people to get a job done quickly and efficiently. During the course of the school terms I chose certain things in my options that would really give me in depth opportunities when I leave school to go to university. At the moment I am currently studying: ICT, Photography, Financial studies and BTEC Sport. These subjects I really enjoy and that’s the reason why I chose both of them. My favourite subject of them all is definitely ICT because I have excelled in it and have finished the year 12 work well before the deadline that it needs to be in by. My other subject photography I really enjoy because taking picture s with high quality camera’s gives you the chance to capture moments which you see in everyday life. These subjects which I have picked relate to the courses which I have been looking at because financial studies will give me the knowledge which I would need if I was going to go into marketing. Also my capabilities in ICT are obvious from my grades which I have achieved from this year already and would aspire to get into a course which involves both of these. ICT has given me the opportunity to explore the ins and out of a computer and learnt how to solve things. It gives me the knowledge to know how to do things when they go wrong and gives me experience in all situations in the technology world. I do not do any extracurricular activity in my spare time; I have tried all different sports but it did not work out for some of them. In my life I have not had any experiences in my life which are relevant to my subject choice; the only experience which I have had was given the opportunity to run an eBay shop for one day. This made me think of what it is like to be under pressure in the business world and the study of my subjects enhances my knowledge of what has to be done to achieve the job. I have a part time job with my Mum and her partner; they run two eBay shops on the internet and make a lot of money. I have the responsibility of printing out the orders in bulk to be sorted through and processed to be posted. It is a very hard work job because you are always standing up bending down and picking things up. Throughout my schooling life, my com puting skills and techniques which I have learnt allow me to process information and analyse them making money at the same time. These skills which I have learnt in the 7 years studying ICT I am going to put into the subject and university course which I have chosen. The reason why I want to apply to go to university is because I have always wanted to enhance my skills and learn in much greater detail what I have learnt. I also want to experience the university life because everyone who I have spoken to says it’s the best thing that they have ever done. My brother is at university at the moment and he is studying advertising, this is something also which I will look. Not only do I want to enhance my learning in great detail but I want to learn new life skills and learn how to live on my own, I rely on my family at the moment and would like to start to live and look after myself. At the minute in my personal life cycle where I can learn more in a certain job, going to universi ty will let me do that. I want to make the most of my education which I am allowed to, I have been going through school for 12 years for free so it wouldn’t make a difference if I have to pay or not.

Pharmacokinetics of the seroteninergic anorectic agent, Essay

Pharmacokinetics of the seroteninergic anorectic agent, dexfenfluramine - Essay Example Serotoninergic anorectic agent, dexfenfluramine acts to increase the serotonin level in extracellular space of the brain causing reduced appetite. This effect promotes its use in obesity treatments. Its ability to, dissolve in lipids provide easier transportation across blood brain barrier. Scientists developed dexfenfluramine, dextrorotary stereoisomer of fenfluramine to reduce the side effect of fenfluramine, developed in 1960s and marketed as pondimin. Approval of dexfenfluramine by FDA took place in 1976 but its introduction to market took place later in 1995 by Wyeth since fenfluramine had shown to cause hypertension in some people using it to fight obesity. Later withdrawal on September 15, 1997 from US market was due to side effect associated with heart problems. Dexfenfluramine is a synthetic anti-obesity chemical with molecular weight of 267.7, white crystalline powder, with high solubility saline solution, alcohol and chloroform. Dexfenfluramine has a solubility of 100nm in water. It also acts to decrease the growth hormones such as leptin and insulin but lead to increase in gherlin. Dexfenfluramine is more potent in inhibition of serotonin reuptake than active metabolite nordexfenfluramine. However, it is less potent in acceleration of serotonin release into the synaptic cleft. Administration of dexfenfluramine is mainly through oral, inhalation routes and lesser extent intravenous infusion in compound called dexfenfluramine hydrochloride (C12H16F3N,HCl)1. Oral administration of compound under the name of ‘redux’ was in capsules enclosing white crystalline powder weighing 15mg. The oral route is favoured due to resistance of dexfenfluramine to acidic media in the stomach. In addition, the hydrophobic nature of the drug is favours diffusion through the gastro intestinal walls. In some cases though rare,

Applying a leadership theory to the Qatar Fencing Federation Essay

Applying a leadership theory to the Qatar Fencing Federation - Essay Example Organisational culture is best defined as a set of beliefs and group values which serve as the underpinning for behavioural norms that drive actions of organisational members. Attitudes of employees and managers alike determine the culture of an organisation. When a group has established an organisational culture where all group members share similar sets of convictions, it is easier to create a team-focused organisation. When there is a culture where there is disparity in thinking and values, it can obstruct the achievement of goals and objectives. This is why transformational leadership is the most effective solution for the Federation. With the President, coaches, managers and players all having different personal objectives for what drives their actions, there is no ability to get everyone in the group to begin thinking and behaving along a set of established norms. Cohesive culture development requires routine communications between all group members, regularly remind the group of the organisation’s vision and mission, which in turn creates loyalty and support for the transformational leader. This is the essence of transformational leadership: ensure active participation and consultation among all group members, establish and consistently reiterate a mission and vision for the team, and use inspirational dialogue to motivate others to work cooperatively as a team; rather than just as a group.  The individual within the Qatar Fencing Federation that would be most viable as a transformational leader is one of the coaches.

Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) - Essay Example The clear-cut linkage between ASD in these instances notwithstanding, the causes of ASD remain unclear in higher than 90% of all instances, but in the current studies, a lot of focus is directed to proving the genetic linkages by identifying the specific genes allied to autism. Meanwhile, in the absence of concrete genetic evidence for autism, documented empirical data concerning autism cases provides a basis for the estimation of recurrence risk, which has been found to be about 5% when only one child in a family is affected but considerably higher than that to about 25% when more than one child is affected. Rate of recurrence risk is also determined by sex of the foetus because a male foetus has been found to be about 3-4 times more likely to develop autism than a female foetus; in this respect, the recurrence risk in accordance to sex is about 2% for a female foetus but close to 8% for a male foetus. In understanding the etiology of ASD, professionals in the field of medicine have proposed several theoretic frameworks; for instance, Gerrad and Rugg 2009 propose the development of a standardized framework for analysing autistic characteristics to facilitate the identification of subgroups and the location of biological markers for genetic variation (Gerrad and Rugg 2009, p.1449). The two also support the neuroconstructivist model that contends that peripheral sensual defects interrupt compilation of complex skills, influence synapto-genesis, synaptic pruning and myelination, and manifests themselves as autistic conducts. Of all the cognitive-developmental disorders, autism is perhaps the most clearly genetically determined and by combining universal rates of autism and sibling recurrence, there emerges a simple genetic model that categorizes... This essay stresses that Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) represents a group of neurodevelopmental disorders that manifest in infants less than 3 years of age and lasts for a lifetime; autistic children present with impairments in social interaction, communication and repetitive patterns of behaviour. Cases of infantile autism are prevalent in the world today with males being overrepresented with a rate of sibling recurrence risk that is nearly 4 to 5 times higher than females in families. The etiological foundation of autism is highly elusive to clinicians in the world, but the genetic explanation prevalent in current research is attributable to the observations that the rate of recurrence of autism in the siblings of autistic individuals is much higher than the rate of recurrence in the general population. This paper makes a conclusion that one of the most influential theoretic models in existence insofar as autism is concerned, the neuroconstructivist model, posits that compilation of complex skills, synapto-genesis, synaptic pruning and myelination are disrupted by peripheral sensory abnormalities. In the educational settings, autistic children mainly struggle with communication and social interaction problems, with difficulties particularly in both verbal and non-verbal communication, in addition to the ability to interact with peers in leisure or play activities. Autistic children present a myriad of challenges to educational settings because unlike neurotypical children, autistic children require special interventions.

Yz Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Yz - Coursework Example Marla believes that her classmate Bernadette is lazy and does not believe that this personality is changeable and therefore judges her. Additionally she has limited information and ignores the fact that there could be other circumstances and hence she is more likely than Jane to develop prejudices. Jane at least tries to relate Bernadette’s academics to the trauma brought about by her divorcing parents. The book gives an example of Joey, an older child, who keeps a stray kitten despite having been cautioned by her mother not to. She does this because her enhanced perspective taking and emotional understanding. She believes that the kitten might end up dying if she does not keep it and hence empathizes. By being able to take more information, children’s moral understanding is developed. For instance, a child may pretend to be sick only to avoid participating in a singing competition because he or she is a bad singer. However, this is done with the best of intentions because he/she does not want to be the one to hinder the team’s chances of winning the competition. I attended an integrated elementary school, and it is from the school that I noted how vital integration is in reducing ethnic and racial prejudice. Despite having had the notion that white children were superior to children from other races, no racial prejudices emerged from the children in the school. This is because teachers treated all equally and did not behave in a way that endorsed group status

STRONG LETTER Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

STRONG LETTER - Essay Example Without education, it will be impossible for me to get a suitable job that can help me in paying back my loan. I do not want to be dismissed from the university after coming this far. I assure you that I will focus more on my studies now as I have more time for studies now as compared to before. Earlier, I was the only source of income for my family due to which I did not have much time to spend on studies. However, my life has changed recently. My wife has started working due to which I have more time to study now. It will be difficult for me to cut off from studies at this point of time when I have completed the major portion of my degree. I have completed all of my courses and have met all the requirements of becoming a physician. All I need to do is to pass the board exam to complete my medical degree. I understand the consequences of failing my board exam. I know that I will have no chance for residency in this country without this degree. I also know that without this degree, I will not be able to get any job here in the United States. I may have hard time to practice in the United States, but I can return home where my degree will be very valuable. I am taking this exam very seriously. It was just a mistake that I made a wrong choice by writing the clinical skills (CS) part before writing the critical knowledge (CK) part in the board exam. I assure you that I will not repeat this mistake if given a chance to continue my study. I have also registered for a program that I think will be very helpful for doing CK, CS, and NYCSPrep. The program director, Dr. Lakshman Somasundararam, is a practicing physician and he has promised to help me. He wants me to complete CK before doing CS. He has also assigned a mentor who will help me in studying CK for the next two months. He can be contacted on my behalf at (917) 349-2605. Please, I am asking for a chance to allow me to pursue my degree. Having come to this point and

Management in Robin Hood band Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Management in Robin Hood band - Essay Example He selected four lieutenants, where one was placed in charge of intelligence and scouting, the other one responsible for maintain discipline among the members of the band, the third one entrusted with the role of managing the finances of the band and the last lieutenant authorized to undertake the provisioning of the ever increasing band. The purpose/value statement of the band was â€Å"Rob the rich and give to the poor† (Lampel, 1). However, the band did not live up to its mission and eventually wanted to change from confiscating of goods to start taxing the people. This was a point of failure, since the band lost its purpose and mission, a fact that served to weaken its fight against the Sherriff. The key stakeholders were the members of the band, the enemy who was the Sherriff, the political allies and friends of the Sherriff, the rich merchants and traders and the not so well-up village people. Each of the stakeholders had their expectations. The band members expected to defeat the Sherriff, the village people expected their interests to be fought for by the band, the Sherriff expected to defeat the band and the allies of the Sherriff expected to remain in power. ... le, when the leader suggested the taxation of the people in order to make enough finances to fund the bands operation, the band members opposed to the taxation of the people, whom they considered their allies. The threats to the band were the decline in the sources of supplies for their food and finances, as well as the increased growth in strength of their enemy, the Sherriff. The opportunities open to the band was its collaboration with the barons who were against Prince John, a conspiracy that would earn the band future amnesty. The key issues arising from the analysis is the inappropriateness of the leadership style applied by the bandleader. A one-man leadership style did not seem to work, especially as the number of the band grew to enormous. Lack of commitment to the mission and purpose of the band is yet another issue. Another issue is that the band lacked a plan and a projection of the future growth crisis of the band, as well as the decline in their financial and food resou rces. The underlying question for the bands organization then becomes, can the band overcome all the challenges facing it and stay committed to its course of fighting the Sherriff? Applying the five-factor model on the management of the band, there is a perceived fulfillment of the requirements of some elements of the model. For example, there is a high degree of sociability in the bands management, a high level of thoughtfulness as indicated by the deep thinking portrayed by the bands leader, emotional instability and anxiety is also present, as demonstrated by the anxiety that the leader has. Openness is yet another trait portrayed by the leader of the band, in terms of his imagination and insights (Lampel, 2). However, one element, as required by the five-factor model is missing in the

The Attendance to Five Art Events Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 440

The Attendance to Five Art Events - Essay Example An example is the Inventing Impressionism event that was earlier this ye\r displaying various portraits with an example below.The commencement of the tour was on November 7, and 8 of 2015 with gates open from 9 in the morning and close at 5 in the evening. The visit to the small cottages and the towns tend to bring a new perspective of the local cultures of the cities and villages as well as the art and the cuisine. The best place to visit was the Bradbury Museum of Science that showcases the development stages of the atom bombs. Another important feature was the Bandelier National Monument that represents the cliff dwellings of ancient man and the Indian ruins as well as the petroglyphs. The date of the event was October 9 with the place open from 5 in the morning to 8 in the evening. The organizers were the CU Department of Fine Arts whose display was mostly the art facilities, the viewing of the BFA and the MFA students working in the studio and the discovery of new talents. The admission was free, and there was the message to encourage upcoming artists to develop more techniques and abilities. The Admission was also free, and the place had many people touring the various exhibitions. The event had the duration of four days that would commence on October 8 and end on the 11th of the same month. The locations of the event were between San Francisco and the Silicon Valley at the San Mateo center for events. The showcase was mainly a feature of the great artistic works of the 21st and the 20th centuries with a conjunction of works from other art galleries and art institutions. The work was a reflection of the high standards and the expectations of the Miami population in the display of the post-war blue-chip plus the works in the modern times. Other features in the exhibition were courtesy of emerging artists practicing new media. Below indicates a painting for the Armory show that was a particular event in the Silicon Valley.

Historical Perspectives on motivation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Historical Perspectives on motivation - Essay Example Motivation, the drive to satisfy a need, ultimately comes from within an individual. The job of a manager is to find each worker's commitment, encourage it, and focus it on some common goal.2 Huit (2001) cites that there is a general consensus from a variety of psychology textbooks that motivation is an internal state or condition (sometimes described as a need, desire, or want) that serves to activate or energize behavior and gives it direction. The following are Huit's description of motivation: (1) internal state or condition that activates behavior and gives it direction; (2) desire or want that energizes and directs goal-oriented behavior; and (3) influence of needs and desires on the intensity and direction of behavior. Frank (1994) also adds to Huit's list of descriptions by quoting that the arousal, direction, and persistence of behavior. However, Huit notes that many researchers are now beginning to acknowledge that the factors that energize behavior are likely different from the factors that provide for its persistence. Early studies on management include the book written by the so-called "Father of Scientific Management" himself Frederick Taylor, entitled The Principles of Scientific Management, published in 1911. ... This is in line with the dogma of scientific management, which posits that the way to increase productivity is to look into the most efficient ways of doing things and then teaching workers these methods. Jobs are detailed in such a way that each worker has a specified, well controlled task that can be performed as instructed. Specific procedures and methods for each job must be followed with no exceptions.3 Scientific management viewed people as machines that needed to be properly programmed and had little concern for the psychological or human aspects of work. Presently, much emphasis in some companies is still placed on conformity to work rules rather than on creativity, flexibility, and responsiveness. 4 Taylor's approach in his method included the following: time, methods and the rules of work. In progress to Taylor's efforts, time-motion studies involved breaking down the tasks needed to do a job and measure the time needed to do each task. One of Taylor's famous experiments includes increasing the output of a worker loading pig iron to a rail car. Taylor broke the job down into its smallest constituent movements, timing each one with a stopwatch. The job was remodeled with a decreased number of motions as well as effort and the risk of error. Rest periods of specific interval and duration and a differential pay scale were also used to improve the output. With scientific management, Taylor increased the worker's output from 12 to 47 tons per day! The Taylor model gave rise to dramatic productivity increases.5 Henry L. Gant, on of Taylor's followers, developed GANTT CHARTS by which managers plotted the work of employees a day in advance. It consists of a table of project task information and a bar chart that graphically displays project schedule, depicting

Economics School-Based Assessment Essay Example for Free

Economics School-Based Assessment Essay Introduction LIME, an acronym for Landline, Internet, Mobile, Entertainment, is owned by the British based Cable Wireless Communications. The company formed from the integrated businesses of Cable Wireless in the Caribbean which adopted the LIME name on 3rd of November 2008. With people spending a lot of time accomplishing tasks and doing researches, the internet has becomevery important to individuals nowadays. Without the internet some individuals think that they cannot survive because of how it is used to provide a variety of information and communication facilities in order to get the work done quickly and/or enjoy one’s self with family and friends. People are becoming very lazy and find it difficult to open a book to find information, so instead they use the internet to gather the information quickly. Businesses also use the internet to do market researches and many other activities. The internet has basically any and every thing. More than 50% of homes in Jamaica has internet and for those that cannot afford the internet, the Government has provided facilities to them. With people wanting to send or receive emails, use search engine to gather information, looking for hobby or interest on the web.I have decided to do an investigationof the Internet Service industry within Jamaica with reference specifically to LIME . Acknowledgement I would like to thank everyone who would have contributed to the completion of this School-Based Assessment. First of all I would like to thank God firstly for the opportunity to do such a project and also for the wisdom, strength and understanding to complete this assignment. Other people who I would like to thank are: My Economics teacher for her constant advices and willingness to help. All those who answered the questionnaires distributed. My family for helping and supporting me during the execution of this project. Objectives of research The aims of this investigation are: 1. To establish the type of relationship there is between price and quantity demanded for internet service at LIME. 2. To examine of the principal factors affecting the demand of LIME and Flow 3. To examine the price elasticity of demand of internet service at LIME and Flow 4. To determine whose internet service can mainly be found in form 5 of the St. Martins secondary school. 5. To briefly examinethe market structure for internet service in Jamaica. 6. To briefly examine the market conditions affecting the supply of internet service at LIME and Flow in Jamaica. Methodology:The SBA was conducted in my community. Primary Sources: 1. Questionnaire: Twenty questionnaires were shared out to students in form 5 of the St. Martin’s secondary school. 2. Interview:The managers of LIME and Karib Cable were interviewed to obtain information such as how they attract customers to their business. Secondary Sources: 1. Textbooks: Economics textbooks were used to have a clear understanding of the Laws of Demand and Supply. 2. Internet: The websites listed in the bibliography were used to further clarify economic concepts to enhance the school-based assessment. 20 questionnaires were given to the students of form 5 in the Community of. Two interviews were conducted with the managers of LIME and Flow outlets inOchi rios. The internet service industry in Jamaica is one of an Oligopoly market structure. Thus, there are only a few large firms, Homogeneous or differentiated products, imperfect knowledge of the market, they are price makers with price rigidity and also have many buyers. As such, there are little competition levels which ideally lead to the producers satisfaction and welfare. After the data were collected from the questionnaire, I discovered that all the participants were between the ages of 16-17. The study as shown that LIME’s internet service was the most  demanded internet service in Guys hill. Question 1 )10 of the students who were given questionnaires had access to the internet at their homes. This may due to the addiction to social networking or the need of having the internet to gather information. Since the internet is the quickest way of gathering information and communicating with others the demand for internet would be high. Question 2: In question (2) 60% of the students said that they have LIME’s internet service while 40% have Flow internet service. The fact that more students preferred LIME’s internet service shows that some method of attracting customers that Flow is lacking. Based on the supply information gained from the interviews, these methods include the sponsoring of events and other methods. Effective use of these methods can increase the demand for internet, lower production cost, will result in a decrease cost price and lead to an extension of demand, all of which increases a firm’s profits. Question 3: The question â€Å"Who pays for the internet you have access to† was asked in question 3. Majority (80%) of the students said that they parents pays for the internet while the other 20% said that their grandparents pays for the internet. This shows that even students may have the desire and the willingness to pay for the internet service; they are not backed by t he ability to pay for it. Question 4: All (20) of the students said that the person who pays for the internet at their home currently has a job. This shows that persons who have jobs are the ones who have ability to pay for internet service at their homes. Question 5: In relation to question 5 responses, 16 of the persons who pay for the internet are full-time employees while the other 4 are part-time. The 16 full-time employees who might be eligible for benefitshave LIME’s internet service and this might be so maybe because of personal preference and wanting top quality service. Question 6: 16 students said that the person who pays for their internet occupational classification is white collar while the other 4 said its blue collar.The 4 blue collar workers internet service provider is Flow, which shows that people who receive less income prefers Karib Cables internet service maybe because of the price of the service. Question 7: In relation to question 8, 18 of the students use the internet mostly for social networking while the other 2 uses it for information. Sites like facebook  and twitter are social networking sites that enable users to communicate with each other by posting information, comments, messages, images, ect and these sites have become the most popular website on the internet. So therefore students may have a deep desire to have internet service to use these sites. Question 8: According to question 7 90% of the students use the internet on a daily basis. Based on the questionnaire this is due to addiction to social networking by these students. The other 10% uses it weekly and this is due to the need of gathering information. Question 9: In question 9 the question was asked â€Å"What is the main factor of choosing your internet service provider?† Many factors affect the demand for a specific internet service such as preference, price of the internet and advertisement. 60% of the students said that it’s because of preference while the other 40% said that it’s because of price of the internet service. This may be so because people may have a greater liking for a certain internet service because of its reliability. No onewants to be experiencing difficulties with the internet while surfing. Question 10: 8 persons said that they pay a price range of $800-$1000 while12 persons said that they pay from $1300-$1500 According to the information on the questionnaires the 12 persons who pays at the price range of $1300-$1500 internet service provider is Lime, which shows that flows rates are a little cheaper than LIME’s rates. Question 11: All of the students internet speed is 1 megabyte per sec. Although LIME and flow provides 4mbps, which is a lot faster than 1mbps shows that people only have the ability to pay for 1mbps a month. Question 12: According to question 12, 60% of these students don’t experience any problems at times, while the other 40% experiences problems. The 60% of students who don’t experience any problems internet service provider is LIME. This means that even though LIME’s rates are a little more expensive, they provide better service than Flow and that is why LIME attracts more customers to their services. The fact that LIME’s internet service is more expensive may due to the cost of production. Question 13: 6 of the students who experience problems said that they experience slow internet at times, while the other 2 students said that at times they don’t have internet at times. Question 14: In relation to question 14 these problems were experienced daily by 25% of these student, 25% weekly and 50% of the students who experience problems experiences monthly. Question 15: The question â€Å"If the price for your internet was $1000 a month for 1MBPS (Mega Bytes per Second), you would purchase â€Å"20% of the students said that they would purchase 2mbps at $1500 per month. This shows that persons have the desire and willingness to purchase 2mbps but they don’t have the ability to do so. Question 16: 50 % of the students showed willingness to purchase 2mbps at $1500 per month. As price increases from $1500 to $2000 for 2mbps, the quantity demanded decreased thus, the law of demand stands (as prices increase, demand decreases). The P.E.D was calculated as -0.15, indicating price inelasticity. As the price increases from $1500to $2000, demand also decreases and the Law of demand is also obeyed. The P.E.D. in this case was -0.3, thus indicating in another price inelasticity. Findings 1. There is a negative relationship between the prices of internet service and the quantity demanded. This simply means as price increases, quantity demanded decreases and as price decreases, the quantity demanded increases. 2. The principal factor affecting for internet service is one’s preference. 3. Internet service is price inelastic, therefore the quantity demanded is unresponsive to changes in price. 4. The existence of foreign firms (LIME) in the local economy can create good competition and result in higher consumer satisfaction. Recommendations Both LIME and Flow can endeavor into improving in the following areas if they haven’t already done so in order to boost sales and have a better competitive stance: Flow should use suggestion boxes to get feedback from customers about problems they face. Increase advertising to make the customers to have a greater liking for their internet service since preference is the factor affecting demand. The government should open up the market for internet service further. This would add to competition. Competition would lower prices and also keep money in the country since LIME is owned by the British base money is most likely exported out of the country. Sponsor more events that are taken place in the country. Sell 2MBPS at cheaper rates since more people are demanding 2MBPS. Conclusion In this investigation between LIME and Flow, I have come to realize the major role that economics plays in the operation of a business. It was deduced that LIME is a better internet service provider than Flow since bigger consumer market and their customers experience no problems. Bibliography Book: Websites: http://www.time4lime.com/vc/internet.jsp http://www.Flow.com

An Overview Of Indian Bank Base Rates Finance Essay

An Overview Of Indian Bank Base Rates Finance Essay Abstract The paper deals about the issues arising out of implementing base rate for Indian banks. With effect from July 1st, 2010, all banks are supposed to lend at base rate or minimum level of interest rate to customers. The net impact of this for retail customer will not be much as cost of funds for banks are not going to change much and cost of funds determine base rate. Big corporates will be biggest losers as they had advantage of getting loans at sub-base rates. Biggest gainers will be small and medium firms who were getting raw deal earlier from banks. Banks may lose market share in short term but there is going to be greater transparency and trickling down of policies made by RBI across banks due to base-rate system. Game theory has been applied to explain the base rate transition scenario in the paper. Keywords- Base Rate, Private Bank, BPLR, Game Theory, Net Income Margin(NIM) Biographical Notes- Debasis Kumar Dash is a post Graduate from IIT Madras in field in Micro-electronics and VLSI. He is currently doing his MBA from IIM Kozhikode with Majors in finance. His major areas of interest are financial derivatives, Valuation models, risk management and banking sector. He has undertaken several finance projects in field of risk management, corporate finance and financial services. He worked as an intern in KPMG Global Services where he developed a model for Customer acquisition strategy for a financial services firm Introduction The base rate will be the new reference rate for determining lending rates for banks, and will be implemented three months later than earlier planned. It was implemented from July 1 across banks in India. What is the base rate- If you borrow money to buy a Mercedes car or computer or plush bungalow in Mumbai suburbs, you need to pay interest rate that you have to pay to the lender. The base rate is the minimum rate that a bank will offer money at. It is like a floor below which RBI will not allow banks to lend to you. Previously, banks used to give the loans based on a complex system called benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR). Each bank has its own BPLR calculation system which made it difficult for borrowers to compare rates across banks. Why Base Rate Was Introduced- Banks in India charge their largest corporate borrowers less than published prime rates, which they cannot do on new loans from July 1st,2010. The RBI had expressed concern over banks offering short-term loans well below their prime rates to companies and mortgage borrowers. Similar pattern had given rise to Sub-prime crisis in 2008 which had led to financial downturn. Due to competition, banks have been offering loans to first class borrowers with high credit rating at rates much below the BPLR in a non-transparent manner. Banks were charging higher rates from small borrowers in the retail, small business and agriculture segments. This resulted in cross- subsidization.RBI has been concerned about the lack of transparency in BPLR setting. There have been cases when SMEs faced discrimination due to credit policies of Private Banks. Trend has been whenever RBI raises policy rates and reserve ratios, banks are quick to increase their loan rates. But, when RBI reduces policy rates and reserve ratios, banks respond very slowly. This leads to downward stickiness in rates. It adversely impacts the monetary transmission mechanism in the banking system. One important aspect also is BPLR was set on historical market rates. It was backward looking rather than forward looking. It was not able to capture the present market condition and interest rates. Cost of Deposits prevalent in current market scenario was neglected in fixing the rate. Standardization of rates was another issue for RBI .The 3 major players in Banking Industry in India are- Public Banks, Private Banks and Foreign Banks. The Public banks were lending in range of 11-12 %, private players were lending at 14-17% whereas foreign banks used to lend in the range of 14-16%. Now major corporates were still prefering private banks due to better customer service, credit policies and sub-prime lending for big projects. One huge reason with the introduction of BRS as explained by experts is that it will help the Reserve Bank of India to transfer the changes in policy rates (Repo and Reverse Repo under LAF) in a better manner to banks. Under the BPLR, monetary policy transmission is weak due to lack of transparency. This has been detailed out elaborately by Deepak Mohanty Committees Report. Now, with the BRS, RBI expects that banks will respond immediately to RBIs policy rates Base Rate Implementation and Impacts- After the implementation of the new loan pricing system, existing borrowers would continue to pay at existing rates, while the base rate would apply to new customers. The actual lending rate charged to borrowers would be the base rate+ borrower-specific charges including operating costs, according to draft guidelines on the RBI website. The base rate will be more transparent in so far as it will be a function of the banks costs on its capital (or cost of deposits), operating costs, statutory requirements (CRR, SLR etc), credit-risk of the borrower, and the allowable profit margin. The graphs below give trends across the various players in banking sector with respect to cost associated with deposits. Fig-1- Variation of Cost of Deposits Fig 2- Variation of Cost of Funds The trend clearly shows that Cost of deposits is highest for old private banks. Thus by logic, the base rate should be highest for these banks. Similarly, the base rate can be expected to be low for foreign and public banks. The biggest impact is that the new Base Rates from private banks may be lower than the existing Benchmark Prime Lending Rates (BPLR). Due to heavy competition in the industry, some aggressive public banks, whose cost of deposits/funds is lower compared to industry levels, may peg their Base Rates very low. However the RBI Governor as well as several Banks heads are of the opinion that base rate is not going to vary much for retail customers from BPLR. The following graphs show the base rate, BPLR and differences between the rates for the 3 major players. Fig-3- Variation of Rates across Private Banks Fig-4- Variation of Rates across Public Banks Fig-5- Variation of Rates across Foreign Banks Effects on Banks The major categories of Banks mentioned above are expected to be expected in different ways. The graphs shown above indicate that the difference between BPLR and Base rate is maximum for Private banks. Clearly they are at a loss compared to Public and foreign Banks. The problem for private banks is their high cost of Funds and Deposits. So ideally their base rates should be higher compared to Public banks. But if they would have set base rates higher, it would have resulted in loss of customers. So the Net Interest Margin(NIM) for private banks will be affected in short term. The biggest gainers definitely are foreign banks who have the least difference between BPLR and Base rate. Customer attrition should be at a minimum for these banks as change is not significant. Public Banks normally have lower cost of funds and thus can afford low base rates. There is not much change in NIM expected for them due to changing rates. Private Banks can cut competition by offering premium service levels. They can attract corporates by offering value added services and concessions. The other strategy can be to give priority to clients who are financing for projects for national importance and concessions to pay in smaller installments for longer duration. Effects of Base-Rate Loans for Customers- Let us see three major players in customer segment- Retail, Corporate and SME . The critical thing is interest rates are not going to change much for retail customer. The method of calculating interest rates will be clearer to a retail customer but not much effect on EMI for a retail customer. There will not be much impact on banks interest spreads. Banks will have flexibility in controlling loan-pricing elements, like credit risks premium and product specific operating costs. As per various analysis done by experts, Cost of borrowing for Retail customer may decrease in short term but not significantly. Large private corporates will be biggest losers in this process. They were able to get away with sub-prime lending rates in the past due to higher negotiating skills. But with BRS, the corporate might have to go for Bond markets in short term. The other alternatives before them are ECB which have lower borrowing costs. Use of Commercial paper has shown significant growth in the first quarter of this year. It clearly indicates banks losing high networth customers to cheaper sources of finance. Long term impact will be that higher rating companies will have more negotiating power. Let us say Bank A offered loans at 6% previously to Corporates. Now base rate becomes 7.5%. So they now cant be given short term loans below say 8% for a period of 2 years. Previous loans which were given before base rate stays. Now say in money market, CP( Commercial Paper) is being offered at rates of 6.5%. So big corporates will move towards debt market. It will result in loss of market share and credit loans for banks. It will also lead to intense competition. SMEs will be biggest beneficiaries of this project. SMEs will be better compensated than before. They were getting short-changed because of better deals for big corporates. Now they will be willing to go to banks for getting loans. As SMEs form substantial market, so market share of banks will increase. Game Theory Applied to Base Rate Implementation- Below are Payoff Matrix applied to 3 categories of Bank and 3 categories of Customer. 1. Customer Retail Corporate SME BPLR 10,8 10,10 10,5 Public Bank Base 10,9 8,5 8,10 The retail customer is having higher payoff but it is not significant. SMEs are largest beneficiary. Corporates are leaving public bank, thus payoff of banks decreasing whereas larger base rate means lesser payoff for corporate. 2. Customer Retail Corporate SME BPLR 10,8 10,10 10,5 Private Bank Base 8,9 5,5 5,10 The retail customer is having higher payoff but it is not huge. Significantly, there is lower payoff for Private banks due to high cost of funds and rising competition from debt market. SMEs are largest beneficiary. Corporates are looking for alternatives to higher base rate , thus payoff of corporate decreases. 3. Customer Retail Corporate SME BPLR 10,8 10,10 10,5 Foreign Bank Base 10,10 7,7 10,5 The retail customer and SME are not affected.SME are not big market-share holders of foreign banks and hence do not affect payoff. Corporates are leaving foreign bank, thus payoff of banks decreasing whereas larger base rate means lesser payoff for corporate who are staying with public banks. The decrease however is not as significant as of private banks due to reasons explained earlier in the paper. Main advantages of Base rate syatem- Greater control for RBI in transferring effects of Repo rates to banks More transparency for customers in knowing about base rate as it is based on cost of funds. Stoppage of sub-prime loans to bigger corporate. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) may get better rates. The SMEs and small borrowers are subsidizing the corporate loans. Deregulation of interest rates as banks will stop lending at lower rates to loans below Rs 2 lakhs. RBI has given freedom to banks to charge commercial rates for loans below Rs 2 lakh at rates linked to base rate. With this, RBI wants to increase the credit flow to small borrowers. Increase in liquidity of banks. As loans are not doled out on sub-prime rates, more money is left with banks. Conclusion Banks have to adjust to new system as quickly as possible. Cost of funds will play huge role in determination of base rates. Banks also need to look into new avenues for service quality in order to retain old customers. Old private banks face stiff competition from foreign and public banks. The need of hour for bank is product innovation and better customer service to differentiate itself from the rest of banks.

Impact of Directly Observed Treatment on Tuberculosis

Impact of Directly Observed Treatment on Tuberculosis Description of the condition Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) is defined as Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains with in vitro resistance to at least both isoniazid (INH) and rifampicin (RFP) (Johnston 2009;WHO;WHO 2013). Emergence of this strain since the 1980s has represented a major barrier towards successful TB control (Johnston 2009;WHO 2013). Among the newly diagnosed TB patients in 2012, 3.6% had MDR TB while the percentage was approximately six times higher among those previously treated cases (20.2%) (WHO 2013).In 2012, it was estimated that 450000 incident cases and 170000 mortality cases of MDR TB occurred globally (WHO 2013). Compared with drug-susceptible strains, treatment of MDR TB is much more complex. According to the WHO guidelines, MDR TB treatment regimen requires a minimum duration of 18 months with two treatment phases, the intensive and the continuation phase (WHO). The first six months of treatment is usually considered the intensive phase since a patient needs to receive both oral and injectable drugs (WHO). After this period, the injectable agent is discontinued and patients receive the oral drugs for another 12-18 months (termed as the continuation phase) (WHO). Management of MDR TB is challenging for that patients are normally in advanced stages of disease with thick-walled cavities and chronic lung lesions which are hard for the drugs to penetrate (Orenstein 2009). Also, the longer treatment duration, high out-of-pocket cost, together with the more frequent adverse reactions that are associated with second line drugs are all contribution factors to poor treatment adherence (Bassili 2013;Toczek 2012;Volmink 2007). As a result, treatment success rate of MDR TB was much lower compared to drug sensitive strains. According to the WHO, the pooled treatment success rate of MDR TB patients diagnosed in 2009 was about 48%, whereas it exceeded 85% among non-MDR TB patients (Johnston 2009). Description of the intervention Directly observed treatment (DOT) refers to the use of an appointed agent (a professional health worker, a community volunteer, or a family member) to directly monitor people taking their anti-tuberculosis drugs (Mukherjee 2004). Initially, this concept was proposed as a key component of Directly Observed Therapy, Short Course (DOTS) by the WHO in 1994 to ensure cure of TB (WHO). In addition to the provision of standardized 6-8 months short-course directly observed chemotherapy regimen, other components of DOTS include: political commitment, case detection through quality-assured bacteriology, maintenance of an effective drug supply and management system, and evaluation of performance and impact (WHO). Implementation of DOTS in non-MDR TB treatment demonstrates significant effectiveness, as the strategy has helped to treat 37 million TB cases and cured more than 80% of them by 2007(WHO 2013). However, the standardized short-course chemotherapy is usually not applicable to cases of MD R TB. To improve patients’ adherence to MDR TB treatment, in 2000, WHO and its international partners further developed DOTS-Plus strategy by adding the components of MDR-TB diagnosis, treatment and management into the DOTS (WHO 2008;WHO 2011). In this DOTS-Plus strategy, DOT is highly recommended by the WHO to be delivered to all MDR-TB patients (WHO 2008;WHO 2011). However, treatment of MDR-TB patients requires at least 18 months, therefore, delievering DOT to MDR-TB patients would be more challenge than for drug-suspectible TB patients. There are two types of DOT according to its implementation length. In full DOT, anti-TB drugs were administered under direct observation throughout the treatment duration (including both the intensive and continuation phase) whereas it is directly observed only during the intensive phase for partial DOT (WHO 2008;WHO 2011). Effectiveness of DOT is commonly demonstrated through comparison with SAT, a traditional management modality in which anti-TB drugs were self-administered by patients without any observation (WHO 2008;WHO 2011). Currently, many countries have incorporated full DOT into their national TB control programs (NTPs) according to suggestions from the WHO guidelines (Bassili 2013). However, there are still countries that adopt partial DOT or even self-administrated treatment (SAT) as the management modality in their NTPs. How the intervention might work A better understanding of how DOT improves treatment outcomes of MDR TB could have important management implications. First, knowing the type(s) of DOT provider and location that is associated with a higher treatment success rate could allow one to make evidence-based decisions when designing DOT for MDR TB treatment. Second, studying the influence of other characteristics on successful treatment outcomes of MDR TB could provide a conservative yet more objective conclusion of the effectiveness of DOT. Third, comparing DOT with other strategies for the improvement of treatment adherence could advise policy makers to balance resources between DOT and these other strategies so that treatment could be delivered in a more cost-effective way. Why it is important to do this review Impact of DOT on successful TB treatment has been controversial throughout the years. Previous observational studies suggested that DOT ensured timely adherence management as well as day-to-day monitoring of adverse effects (Orenstein 2009). One meta-analysis revealed that treatment completion rate among pulmonary TB patients could exceed 90% when DOT was implemented throughout the treatment course(Bassili 2013). However, results from a recent meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials showed no significant difference in treatment success rate between DOT and SAT among drug-susceptible TB cases(Mukherjee 2004). Moreover, previous meta-analyses almost exclusively focused on the role of DOT in the treatment of non-MDR TB; little has been examined systematically regarding its role in effective MDR TB treatment.

Self-Reflective :: essays research papers

As I was flipping through my weekly subscription of US Weekly, I noticed a crossword puzzle featuring my favorite superstar, Britney Spears. The crossword was offering a $1 million prize to the 25th correct entry received. Breezing through the questions, I quickly mailed in my entry. About three weeks later, I received a check in the mail for $1 million! I decided to spend my prize money wisely by sharing with my family, investing it in a small business, and spending the rest for myself.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First and most importantly, I gave my parents $300,000 so they can retire, put my brother through college, and maybe take a long vacation. I also gave both my brother and sister $50,000 each, so they can pay bills, or buy whatever they want. My extended family is also very important to me, so I gave each family a $10,000 Visa Gift Card, totaling $100,000 for 10 families.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After my family was taken care of, I thought very carefully about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I decided to open a beauty salon because cosmetology interests me and it can be good money. With the building costs, supplies, and licenses, I spent about $95,000.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Finally, after my financial situation and family has been taken care of, I could then concentrate on myself. The first thing I did was sold my car, which got me $6,000 cash. With this money and about $86,000 more, I was bought myself a silver BMW 745i, with black leather interior and a V8 engine. I moved out and purchased a condominium in Highlands Ranch that was well furnished for $250,000. Of course with my new car and a new home, I had to go shopping for a brand new wardrobe and accessories. After five rough days of shopping, my expenses totaled out to $40,000. At this point, I was left with $29,000, which I put in a savings account for emergency purposes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although it’s sad that most of the million dollars is now gone, and I was once considered a â€Å"millionaire,† the things I spent the money on turned out to make everyone who is important to me happy.

A History of the Treatment of Insanity Essay examples -- Exploratory E

A History of the Treatment of Insanity Over the course of history, insanity has been subjected to a wide variety of treatments. Attempts to cure the mentally ill or simply relieve "normal" society of the problems caused by insanity have ranged from outright cruelty to higher degrees of humanity in today's society. This paper gives a brief overview of insanity--its believed causes and subsequent treatments--from primitive times up to the nineteenth century. There are two known traditions for diagnosis and treatment of mental illness: spiritual/religious and naturalistic/scientific. According to the spiritual/religious tradition, supernatural forces are the cause of insanity. One of the earliest examples of spiritual/religious treatment is a practice called trephining. Archeaologists have discovered skulls exhibiting this primitive form of psychiatric surgery. Trephining involved chipping holes in a victim's skull to release the evil spirits that were responsible for the person's mental illness. Other ancient peoples attributed insanity to the mischief of demons or the anger of the gods, namely the Chinese, Egyptian, and Hebrew societies. The Greek phisician Hippocrates believed insanity to be rooted in a lack of balance within the body. More specifically, he argued that a balance of four body fluids (or the four humors) was the key to mental health. An excess or deficiency of blood, phlegm, black bile, or yellow bile could lead to psychopathology. Those trained in the Hippocratic tradition were instructed to treat the mentally ill with attempts designed to restore the balance of the bodily fluids. These treatments were called "heroic" because they were drastic and often painful. Among them were bloodletting, purging, an... ...can Institutions for the Insane (AMSAII) was founded in 1844. It later became the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Its purpose is to designate the criteria to diagnose a patient as mentally ill (the current list of criteria is called the DSM-IV) and commit the person to an institution or design a course of treatment suited to the problem. Sources 1. Bankart, C. Peter. Talking Cures: A History of Western and Eastern Psychotherapies. Albany: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, 1997. 2. Emery, Robert E., and Oltmanns, Thomas F. Abnormal Psychology. New Jersey: Simon & Schuster, 1998. 3. Foucault, Michel. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. New York: Pantheon Books, 1965. 4. Rosen,. George. Madness in Society: Chapters in the Historical Sociology of Mental Illness. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1968.

The History of Intel

THE HISTORY OF INTEL The microprocessor has changed our lives in so many ways that it is difficult to recall how different things were before its invention. During the 1960’s, computers filled many rooms. Their expensive processing power was available only to a few government labs, research universities, and large corporations. Intel was founded on July 18,1968 by engineers, Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce, Andrew Grove, and Arthur Rock. Rock became Chairman, Moore was President, Noyce was Executive Vice President in charge of product development and worked with Moore on long range planning, and Grove headed manufacturing.The purpose of the new company was to design and manufacture very complex silicon chips using large-scale integration (LSI) technology. Moore and Grove’s vision was to make Intel the leader in developing even more powerful microprocessors and to make Intel-designed chips the industry standard in powering personal computers. Moore and Noyce wanted to seek In tel because they wanted to regain the satisfaction of research and development in a small growing company.Although the production of memory chips was starting to become a commodity business in the late 1960’s, Moore and Noyce believed they could produce chip versions of their own design that would perform more functions at less cost for the customer and thus offer a premium price. Intel’s unique challenge was to make semiconductor memory functional. Semiconductor memory is smaller in size, provides great performance, and reduces energy consumption. This first started when Japanese manufacturer Busicom asked Intel to design a set of chips for a family of high-performance programming calculators.Intel’s engineer, Ted Hoff, rejected the proposal and instead designed a   Single-chip, a logic device that retrieved its application instruction from semiconductor memory. Buying Back the Cash There was a problem with this new chip Busicom owned it. Intel was convinced to repurchase the rights to the product. Intel then offered to return Busicon’s $60,000 investment in exchange for the rights of the product. The Japanese agreed after struggling with the financial troubles. The Microprocessor Hits the Market Intel’s first microprocessor, the 4004, was introduced in 1971.This $200 chip delivered as much computing power as the first electronic computer, the ENIAC. After the 4004, Intel introduced the 8008 microcomputer, which processed eight bits of information at a time. The 4004 and 8008 began to open new markets for Intel products. Today, affordable computing power is available to designers of all types of products, producing creativity and innovation. Turning Point: IBM PC In 1981, Intel microprocessor family had grown to include the 16-bit 8086 and the 8-bit 8088 processors. These two chips created 2,500 winning designs in the year.A product from IBM was one of those designs, which became the first PC. Intel was convinced IBM to ch oose the 8088 as the brains of its first PC. Because of IBM’s intelligent decision, the PC business grew to tens of millions of units every year. In 1982, Intel introduced the 286 chip. It contained 134,000 transistors and provided 3 times the performance of other 16-bit processors during the time. The 286 were the first microprocessor that offered software compatibility with its predecessors. The Microprocessor Machine In 1985, the Intel 386 hit the market.The 386 could perform more than five million instructions every second. Compaq’s DESKPRO 386 was the first PC based on the new microprocessor. In 1989, Intel 486 processor was ready to hit the market. This new chip resulted in 1. 2 million transistors and the first built-in math coprocessor. This chip was faster than the original 4004. In 1993, Intel introduced the Pentium processor, which set new performance standards with up to five times the performance of the Intel 486 processor. The Pentium processor uses 3. 1 million transistors to perform up to 90 MIPS, about 1,500 times the speed of the original 4004.In 1995, Intel’s first processor in the P6 family, the Pentium Pro processor, was introduced. It included 5. 5 million transistors and contained a high-speed memory cache to accelerate performance. The Pentium Pro processor was a popular choice for multiprocessor sewers and high performance workstations. Intel introduced the Pentium II processor in May 1997. It contains 7. 5 million transistors packed into a unique Single Edge Contact Cartridge and delivers high performance. Intel offers Pentium II processors for Mobil PC, carrying new levels of performance and computer capabilities. In April 1998,Intel introduced the Celeron processor. This is the latest Intel processor created to meet the computing needs of Basic PC users. Intel’s recent introduction is the Pentium II Xeon processor. This is the newest addition to Intel’s Pentium II brand. It is Intel’s first microprocessor designed for mid and higher server workstation platforms. The company’s success in memory chips was built from the resources involved in working on projects to design and develop the world’s best microprocessor. INTEL’S STRATEGY Intel's primary business into the mid 1980s was memory chips, which accounted for 70 percent of revenues.In 1985 and 1986, Intel closed eight memory chip plants. They were fighting a never winning battle with the Japanese produces of memory chips. Gordon Moore and Andrew Grove refocused the company on advancing the technology of microprocessors. Intel decided to create a new vision and strategy for the company. Their vision was to make Intel-designed chips the industry standard in powering personal computers. Intel supplies the computing industry with chips, boards, systems, and software. Intel's products are used as â€Å"building blocks† to create advanced computing systems for PC users.Intel's mission is to be th e preeminent building block supplier to the new computing industry worldwide. Intel has several objectives in order to pursue their vision. The objectives include PC and server management advances through new Intel hardware and software products, alliances with other industry leaders, education and development programs, and industry standards efforts. Most importantly, Intel's greatest objective was making the PC an indispensable and persuasive appliance, which would ultimately compete with the TV, VCR, and telephone.Andy Grove crafted a series of strategies in order to reach Intel's objectives: 1. Introduce innovative products quickly. Andy Grove's vision of making the PC tomorrow's information appliance required the company to do more than be a leader in advancing microprocessors. Intel tries to bring innovative products to the market as quickly as possible. In 1995, Intel introduced the new high-end Pentium Pro processor. This came less than three years after the introduction of the Pentium processor, which is now the processor of choice in the mainstream PC market.Together, these products provide computer buyers with a wide spectrum of computing choices. Due to the growing popularity of the Internet, Intel programmers developed a software product called Streaming Media Viewer that software developers could incorporate into their products and allow users to view video as it arrived from the World Wide Web. Also, Intel developed hardware based cryptographic technology that provided increased levels of security for data communicated over the Internet. Intel's strategy of bringing innovative products to the market quickly has proven to be costly.In 1996, Intel spent $500 million on R&D projects to develop products (other than microprocessors). Even though other producers were using joint ventures to build the extremely expensive fabrication plants, Intel chose to go alone. Beyond their primary task of making microprocessors, Intel invests in a range of computi ng and communications applications that support their core business. Intel's supercomputer and network server efforts take advantage of the flexibility and power of Intel architecture, while their flash memory business supports booming communications applications, such as, cellular phones.Intel executives saw the future PCs equipped with new features, such as, digital video, stereo sound, 3-D graphics, fax, and data communications. Intel decided to add these features into its next generation microprocessors. Intel decided to compete with the Taiwanese computer industry. They felt that the Taiwanese were too slow to adapt their products to the latest Intel innovations. By producing motherboards, it would enable Intel engineers to integrate new functions. 2. Promote the Intel brand. Intel invests in education and marketing programs that describe the benefits of genuine Intel technology.In 1990, Intel initiated a marketing program to build the Intel brand and make PC users aware of the benefits of genuine technology and products. Intel asked PC makers to put the Intel logo on their machines. The company also sponsored television and print advertising campaigns stressing that by choosing an Intel-based PC, users got the ultimate in quality, reliability, software computability, and value. The marketing program was a success and had become a prominent element in Intel's strategy ever since.Not only did Intel continue to sustain its dominant market share, but also customer feedback revealed that PC buyers, not just computer techies, really cared about their computer's chip and performance capabilities. Instead of assigning its two new chip generations numbers like 286, 386, and 486 chip generations, Intel named them Pentium and Pentium Pro. This helped Intel build their brand name by allowing PC buyers to become familiarized with their products. Experts believed that Intel was spending over $100 million annually on promoting their name among consumers. . Alliances wi th other industry leaders. The breakup of the old computer industry is what gave Intel its chance and made the mass-produced computer possible. The old computer industry was vertically aligned. Industries used to build their computers from bottom up. Now, these companies purchase products from other industries to build their computers. Because PCs contained components from so many different vendors, Grove believed industry participants in different horizontal specialties had to develop new products in parallel.Intel works with other industry leaders to develop new PC technologies, such as the PCI â€Å"bus†, which has been widely adopted. This technology removes bottlenecks to provide greatly enhanced capabilities. They incorporate their chips into PC building blocks, such as, PC motherboards, to help computer manufacturers bring their products to the market faster. Intel also works closely with software developers to create rich applications, such as, PC video conferencing a nd animated 3D Web sites, that make the most of the power of Intel processors. Also, Intel is working with the U. S.Department of Energy to build the world's fastest computer supercomputers. As Intel introduced new generations of microprocessors, it was beneficial for Microsoft and other developers of operating systems and software to be ready to go to market with new software systems and products that capitalized on the speed of Intel's new processors. Andy Grove and Bill Gates began meeting in the 1980s to explore how their organizations can share information. Intel believes that if computers work better, do more, and are easier to use, more PCs will be sold and more Intel processors will be needed.As with any other strategy, it is necessary to evaluate performance and initiate adjustments in vision, long term direction, objectives, strategy, or implementation in the occurrence of changing conditions, new ideas, and new opportunities. For example, in 1994, a mathematics professor found a flaw in how Intel's new Pentium chip did division in certain situations. The media got a hold of this and there was negative publicity about Intel floating around. Intel explained to its consumers that the chances of this happening were minute. Intel admitted the flaw, but Andy Grove felt that it shouldn't concern nyone except the most demanding scientists. Intel wanted to stand behind there â€Å"Intel Inside† campaign, so they had to reevaluate their strategy. Within days of the incident, Intel offered all owners of Pentium based computers a free replacement of their Pentium chip and took a $475 million write off to cover the costs. Even though it was considered a disaster, only a few owners took a replacement chip. Intel focuses on being a best-cost provider. Their strategic target is the value conscious buyer. They want to give customers more value for their money.Intel's product line carries good-to-excellent attributes, several to many upscale features at low co st to the PC buyer. Overall, their focused strategies have kept them on the right track. However, Intel continues to attract competition, both from makers of software-compatible microprocessors and from makers of alternative-architecture chips. SWOT ANALYSIS To provide a good overview of Intel’s business position and whether it is healthy or unhealthy, a SWOT analysis was conducted. This analysis will show if there is a good fit between Intel’s resource capability and its external situation.STRENGTHS Intel is one of the most profitable companies in the world. It is a leader in its industry with over 80 percent of the world’s 250 million personal computers powered by Intel microprocessors and over 90 percent of all new PCs currently being assembled with â€Å"Intel Inside†. Intel is a recognized market leader with an attractive customer base and a good reputation of creating an advanced quality product. Some of Intel’s strengths are its financial co ndition, brand-name image, good management skills and technical expertise. Financial ConditionOne of Intel’s major strengths is the ability to fund for research & development. The company has a high degree of profitability, cash flows from depreciation, and low dividend payout. Therefore, Intel can provide the financial resources and use their financial strength to fund the capital requirements associated with refurbishing existing plants and building new ones. Intel’s strategy to maintain a leader status in the industry and to accommodate expected demand is necessary for them to stay ahead of competitors by producing more advanced products and building new plants or refurbishing existing plants.In recent years, Intel has built a new fabrication plant about every 9 months and announced that its goal is to reduce that to every 6 months. Also, for the past 6 years, it has led the semiconductor industry in new capital investments. Brand Name Image In 1990, Intel initiated a marketing program to build the Intel brand and show PC users the benefits of Intel technology and products. The reason for the program was to increase sales of the Intel brand and lower sales of AMD’s cloned microprocessors. Their marketing strategy was to ask PC makers to put a distinctive â€Å"Intel Inside† sticker on their machines.They also sponsored television and print advertising campaigns promoting that an Intel-based PC provided customers with ultimate quality, reliability, software compatibility, and value. This was a major success and created a good brand name image for Intel. Management Skills and Technical Expertise Talented and skilled individuals from the beginning managed Intel. They had the expertise to manage Intel by choosing the right individuals that had the technological know-how to bring it to the top. Intel’s skill and expertise proved to be a strength back in 1985 when Intel’s primary business was the memory chip.Japanese comp etitors started producing and marketing their memory chips at lower costs than Intel. However, Intel had the skills and expertise to abandon the memory chip business and put their full energies into a secondary microprocessor business. They wanted to become leaders of the industry and they proved that they knew what needed to be done to accomplish their vision. WEAKNESSES Diversity Intel is one of the most successful companies and it is hard to find a weakness in such an established firm. Intel is known for its strengths, competencies, and capabilities. However, one of Intel’s weaknesses is the focus on primarily microprocessors.The diversification of companies into other industries allows them to be less risky in case a rival developed a better product. For example, Microsoft is expanding into the Internet business to become more diversified. America Online and Netscape are merging to enhance their core business. Intel could become even more successful if it were to diversif y into other industries. The company can be in grave danger if another firm was to rise to the top with the manufacturing of microprocessors or if technology promoted a more efficient product than the microprocessor. Leadership After GrovesAndrew Groves has been the backbone of Intel for many years. Under Grove, Intel was very aggressive in protecting its technology. He is a hands-on manager whose high level of involvement and attention to detail inspired and intimidated subordinates. A big part of Intel’s success is Groves’ leadership style, competitive ability, and innovative mind set. Eventually, Groves will retire and the question will be what will happen to Intel? Will Groves’ successor lead Intel to remain on top. Andrew Groves has proved to be an excellent leader, but the leadership after him is questionable. OPPORTUNITIESMarket opportunity is a big factor for shaping Intel’s strategy. Intel is equipped with the right resources and has the capabili ty to pursue many opportunities that exist. The company’s innovation has helped build alliances to expand the firm’s market coverage and competitive capability. Intel also has the ability to grow rapidly because of strong increases in market demand. Innovation Andrew Groves has a vision of the PC as tomorrow’s information appliance. He wants to have televisions, VCRs, game players, cable boxes, and telephones to be pushed to the background and bring PCs to be in the spotlight.Groves does not want to just lead in advancing the microprocessor, he wants to fully utilize the capability of the microprocessor and introduce a number of PC-based communications products to meet the broad range of consumer needs. Some of the products that Intel has available are chip products used for keyboards, printers, copiers, and fax machines. These chip products are used to enhance cellular phones, pagers, digital cameras, and personal digital assistants. Intel is also manufacturing universal Serial Bus- single type of connector to attach printers, modems, CD-ROM drives, and other peripherals.Other innovative products include Intercast plug-in cards, a ProShare line of conferencing products,   And an I960 RP processor. Intel has a software lab in Shanghai developing multimedia and 3-D content in Chinese. They have created software to help popularize long-distance telephone calls on the Internet and a hardware-based cryptographic technology that provides levels of security for data communicated over the Internet. Intel is introducing new products and technologies on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis. They are gradually increasing their R&D budget to look for valuable ways to broaden their product line.Their reputation for innovation is among the best in the U. S. In fact, Intel was ranked third for its innovation in 1997. Strategic Alliances Alliances expand the firm’s market coverage and competitive capabilities. It is essential that Intel develop a cl ose relationship with other PC component producers, manufacturers, software developers, cable TV companies, media and telecommunications companies, and entertainment companies. Before the mid-1980s the structure of the old computer industry was aligned vertically, in which each company sold their products based on their own proprietary technology.They designed and built their computers themselves. Buyers had to commit to the whole package of one manufacturer. Since then, the computer industry is growing horizontally. Each product depends on another product. This is why it is important to collaborate with others. Products within each horizontal specialty should be compatible with other specialty products to make a powerful PC or other PC-based product. Growth Intel has the ability to grow rapidly because of strong increases in market demand. The process of making PCs has changed with that of the past. Only a few PC makers produced the components inside of the PCs.Therefore, the deman d for Intel’s products increased. Intel had the ability to grow rapidly because it responded quickly to market demand and had the capital and expertise to develop advanced powerful products faster than competitors. THREATS Looking at Intel’s external environment, there are some factors that create a threat to the company. Some of the threats Intel is facing are competition, slowdowns in market growth, and the bargaining power of consumers. Competition In 1997, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Cyrix were the two major competitors that challenged Intel by cloning Intel’s microprocessors and marketing them at lower prices.This created a major threat to Intel’s market share. A third competitor was developed by the partnership among Motorola, IBM, and Apple Computer. They were producing and marketing Power PC chips for Apple’s line of PCs and certain IBM PCs. For example, the Power PC offered a reduced instruction-set computing (RISC) processor which ha d a simpler instruction set and higher computing speeds than Intel’s chips. This was an attractive feature for the end user, which also threatened Intel’s market share. The competitors mentioned above are just three of the major companies that are a threat to Intel.There is also the possibility of other companies making a technological breakthrough by developing a more powerful and cheaper product that will outlive Intel. For such reasons, Intel has to be innovative and ready for any possible external threat. Slowdown in Market Growth Intel is always planning ahead of things. They refurbish or build plants two years before the new product ever is produced. This could be considered an advantage or disadvantage. It is an advantage to Intel because they are constantly developing technologically advanced and more powerful products, which allows them to compete and be a leader of the industry.However, the major disadvantage is the possibility of the PC market slowing down. Intel could be hurt tremendously if the market growth slows down because they have already planned ahead and invested a lot of capital into the plants. Bargaining Power of the Consumer Cost pressures are also a threat to Intel. Consumers are demanding lower prices on products or higher quality for the prices they are paying. If a consumer can get the same product at a lower price from competitors, it can be a major threat to the company.Intel can influence bargaining power of the consumer by making sure the prices are low based on cost efficiency and the quality is maintained. The SWOT analysis provided the opportunity to view the company’s overall position. An evaluation of Intel’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats support the fact that above all Intel has established a healthy position in the industry. TESTS OF A WINNING STRATEGY Test 1: Goodness of Fit The goodness of fit test determines if a company’s strategy is suitable for its internal and external situation in order to obtain market success.Intel is a member of the technology sector and in the semiconductor industry. Firms involved with technology must deal with the quick obsolescence that is inherent when dealing with computers. An example of this is Moore’s Law coined after Gordon Moore, Intel’s founder, who truthfully stated that â€Å"the power and complexity of silicon chips would double every year with proportionate decreases in cost†. This external environmental situation causes two problems for companies in the industry. One problem is that a company must constantly innovate to stay on top and secondly, the company will need capital in order to create new technology.Does Intel’s strategy adequately deal with the constant change that is prevalent in its business environment? The Intel’s strategy is to cannibalize its own products. In other words Intel strives to make its own products obsolete. A Company’s profits and market position can be severely undermined if another company offers a faster chip with more capabilities. Intel is able to do this because of its internal situation. Intel has vast amounts of capital, â€Å"†¦a ‘war chest’ of about $10 billion†. This is useful when the average plant costs will be about $2. 5 billion dollars around the year 2000.Test 2: Competitive Advantage Test The competitive advantage test ascertains if a company’s strategy leads it to have a sustainable competitive advantage over its rivals. The competitive advantages that Intel has are its brand image and research prowess. Intel’s brand name is a competitive advantage because it helps keep the sale of silicon chip clones from rivals down so that these companies do not erode Intel’s profitability and market share. If a company had a clone of equal performance, it would be easier for consumers to switch over if not for the power of brand name and awareness that keeps customers loyal.The strategy that Intel has is to increase the awareness and preference for its products. Research prowess is a competitive advantage for Intel. It has large amounts of capital compared to its competitors. For example, next year Intel will spend $3 billion on research and development, â€Å"which is more than AMD generated in sales in 1998†. Intel continues to produce innovative products faster than its rivals do in order to receive the lion’s share of profits so as to keep itself able to acquire the capital to produce these innovations. Test 3: Performance TestThe performance test ascertains if the company’s strategy is helping the company become profitable and help obtain long-term market position. Located in the Appendix are several profitability ratios for Intel from 1983 until 1998. In Appendix A-E are graphs representing this data? In Appendix F are the actual numerical data. After 1986 is when Intel changed its strategy to what it is pres ently. The data used to compute these ratios was from the Intel case in Strickland and Thompson’s Strategic Management 10th Edition. The 1997 and 1998 were compiled from data obtained from Intel’s homepage located at http://www. ntel. com. Appendix A shows the gross profit margin. The gross profit margin has, since 1986, been steadily increasing and since 1990, has remained above fifty percent. This profitability ratio shows the amount of money that remains after making a product that is available for the company to utilize. This shows that the company is strong in this aspect. Operating profit margin is shown in Appendix B. This shows the profit of the company prior to interest payments and taxes taken out. The ratio was negative for the years 1985 and 1986. After 1986, the operating profit margin has been strong reaching a peak of 39. 4% in 1997. Appendix C displays the net profit margin, which is the profit the company realizes. After posting a loss in 1986, the net profit margin of Intel has steadily improved and strengthened. Since 1990, Intel has been positing profits higher than fifteen percent. It reached a profit peak in 1997 with a net profit margin of 27. 7%. Intel has at the present time has a dominant 75. 7 % market share. This is a dominant position since its next closest rival, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), has merely fifteen and one-half percent of the market share. Its other competitor Cyrix has only 5. 6%.This data is represented in pie chart form in Appendix G. The data has shown that Intel’s strategy has successfully completed all of the tests and is thus a winning strategy. Its present strategy is allowing it to respond to the business environment and maintain its competitive advantages while raking in profits. Andy Grove’s Performance as CEO It is imperative to acknowledge Gordon Moore, his mentor, before discussing the performance of Andy Grove. Gordon helped to set the Intel culture as being one of low bureau cracy and set the standard of holding one-on-one meetings with his subordinates in order to help the flow of information.Moore has is own ‘law’ which stated that the power and complexity of the chip would double every eighteen months with proportional decreases in costs. This helped Intel from the onset set its sights on innovation and being a leader. Appendix F shows the numerical numbers for the return on stockholders’ equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA). Appendix D and E show their values graphically. These ratios are used to gauge how effective management is. Andy Grove became President in 1979 and was given more total control in 1987 when Gordon Moore served only as chairman.To adequately ascertain how well Andy Grove has been as CEO, an examination of the following these ratios are necessary. The ROE since 1987 has been strong with most years above twenty-percent as displayed in Appendix D. The highest value being in 1997 with 35. 99%. This ratio is put into perspective when one compares the ROE with that of the industry. The ROE-to-Industry ratio taken from Daily Stocks website which is 131. 4%. The ROA since 1987 has also been steadily increasing into the teens and lower twenty’s. The ROA-to-Industry for Intel is large 140. 4% from Daily Stocks website.This analysis shows that Andy Grove has done a superb job at Intel. Other factors concerning Andy Grove speak well of his performance as the CEO of Intel. His views have permeated into the corporate culture of Intel and have helped it become the dominant force in its industry. The strategy-making style that Grove uses is that of a master strategist. The master strategist exerts strong influence over the strategy of the company. Andy Grove’s own view, which is his ‘law’, of â€Å"only the paranoid survive† has helped keep Intel on its toes and looking ahead to what is happening.This is shown by the fact that Intel builds factories years before they are needed in order to stay on top of the market. Andy Grove’s leadership has helped Intel not fall into the pitfall of becoming stagnated by its own success. The shortcoming that Andy Grove has in being a manager is he is too good. As stated in the SWOT analysis, Andy Grove’s permanent retirement from Intel could set the company floundering unless the company finds someone as well qualified and with an analogous approach to management style. INDUSTRY ANALYSIS The U. S. icroprocessor industry comprises of more than 100 companies that design, manufacture, and market semiconductors to original equipment manufacturers and personal computer end users. The following information is a profile of the dominant economic characteristics of the microprocessor industry. Market Size: $300-$350 billion worldwide consumption. Scope of Competitive Rivalry: Global. Market Growth Rate: 15-20 percent annually. Stage in Life Cycle: Rapid growth and takeoff. Number of Companies in Industry : About 174 companies. Customers: 80 million microprocessors for use in PCs and network servers.Degree of Vertical Integration: Mixed; forward and backward integration. Ease of Entry/Exit: High entry barriers in the form of capital requirements. Technology/Innovation: Rapid technological changes microprocessor production. Product Characteristics: Highly standardized. Scale Economies: Companies can realize economies of scale. Learning and Experience Effects: Strong. Capacity Utilization: Manufacturing efficiency is higher when capacity is increased. Industry Profitability: Above par. 1995 Industry Usage 1997 Industry Usage Error! Not a valid embedded object.The two pie charts above display the industry usage in 1995 and 1997. As shown, the computer sector is the main user of the microprocessor. Within two years, the computer sector increased its usage by 11% and is expected to continue increasing over the next several years. Computers are the main focus in the microprocessor industry , which is why many rivals are competing for market share in that sector. THE FIVE FORCES MODEL OF COMPETITION Rivalry among competing manufacturers in this industry is a strong force of competition. It is focused on such factors as performance features, new product innovation, quality, and brand image.New product innovation plays a major role in the microprocessor industry because it determines the intensity of rivalry among competing firms. Companies are trying to gain better market position and competitive advantage. Threat of potential entry is a weak force due to the fact that it is hard for a newcomer to break into the market. Moreover, economic factors put a potential entrant at a great disadvantage because of the learning and experience curve effects. The existing microprocessor companies have advantageous positions in the industry from the experience they have gained from being in the industry longer than new entrants have.Leaders of the industry, like Intel, have verticall y integrated their manufacturing to make products at low efficient costs that entrants would not be able to compete and be exposed to fierce competition. Other entry barriers are economies of scale, brand preferences and resource requirements. Competition from substitutes is a weak force because there are no substitutes in the industry. The microprocessor is needed to manufacture many types of equipment, such as, TV sets, VCR’s, cameras, wristwatches, kitchen appliances, mobile phones, and stereo equipment.There is no other product that can be used in place of the microprocessor. Power of suppliers is moderate. Some companies rely on suppliers to supply a component more cheaply than industry members can make themselves. This can increase their leveraging power. However, suppliers also tend to have less leverage to bargain over price and other terms of a sale because the industry they are supplying is a major customer. A microprocessor company usually orders in large quantitie s, which in turn decreases suppliers leverage. Also, major companies are integrating backwards to self-manufacture the component.Backward integration allows companies to negotiate favorable terms with suppliers. Power of customers is a strong force in the industry primarily because buyers are large and purchase much of the industry’s output. Purchasing in large quantities gives a buyer enough leverage to obtain price concessions and other favorable terms. For instance, PC makers have a substantial bargaining leverage when deciding to use Intel’s chips in their computers. International Competitiveness Due to fierce international competition, the microelectronics industry has become highly globalized. To compete effectively, U. S. icroelectronics suppliers must sell to all domestic and foreign markets. The profit margins for certain products are so slim that only through international sales can a supplier generate profits adequate to remain in business. Survival in this highly international industry requires microelectronics manufacturers to be first to market with leading-edge products that focus on high-end technology. Only those suppliers who introduce the breakthrough products can maintain profit margins that will support research, development, and the purchase of new equipment for manufacturing the next generation product. COMPETITOR ANALYSISIntel's rivals: Advanced Micro Devices, Cyrix Corporation, Motorola, IBM, Apple Computer, and the Power PC are favorably positioned, but not in the same leading position as Intel. Intel dominates the computer industry. Intel works closely with alliances to introduce many innovative products that give them a leading edge over their rivals. Intel’s products are distinguished from their competitors, which make it difficult to clone. In 1997, Intel's two biggest competitors were Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Cyrix, both of which made â€Å"Intel-clone† microprocessors and marketed them at pric es below those charged by Intel.A partnership among Motorola, IBM, and Apple Computer to produce and market Power PC chips for Apple's line of PCs and for certain IBM PCs represented a third competitor. Sun Microsystems was a fourth competitor, producing and marketing a microprocessor line that competed against Intel chips in a limited number of computing applications. These competitors can possibly take some of the market share away from Intel. Therefore, Intel needs to maintain market dominance by continuing to make a high quality microprocessor with process technology improvements.These factors will help Intel stay ahead of their competitors. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) had carved out a niche providing less expensive microprocessors than Intel's mainstream offerings. AMD, confident that NexGen had strong technology despite its low sales, promptly scrapped its own design for a chip to compete with Intel's Pentium Pro in favor of a design (subsequently named K6) that NexGen had un der development. Whereas previous generations of AMD chips had been clones of Intel's designs, AMD and NexGen engineers had designed the K5 and K6 from scratch.AMD hoped that its K6 chip would be an attractive alternative to Intel's higher-priced Pentium Pro chip. AMD was planning to introduce 180, 200and 233 MHz versions of its K6 chip during 1997 and a 300 MHz version was the plans for 1998. AMD expected that 5 of the top 10 PC manufacturers would be using the K6 in some of their models during 1997; analysts projected that AMD could sell up to 5 million K6 chips in 1997. The K6 was expected to sell for about 25% less than Intel's Pentium   Pro chips. IBM and Compaq announced in 1997 that they would use AMD's K6 processors in their low-end machines.During the first three weeks of September, nearly half of all the desktop computers sold through retailers used the AMD K6 microprocessor, according to market researcher PC Data Inc. That is a dramatic improvement from last year when 9 2% of those same machines had Intel chips inside. Today, only 43% of retail PCs sold use Intel. Industry analysts expected Cyrix to be more successful in marketing its M2 against Intel's MMX Pentium in the price-sensitive home computer and notebook segments. The stigma of a non-Intel chip posed a high barrier for Cyrix to hurdle in, penetrating the high-end desktop and notebook segments.Motorola, Apple, and IBM initiated a partnership in 1991 to develop the Power PC chip as an alternative to Intel chips. After production delays and disagreements over design, IBM and Apple finally agreed to a common design in 1995. The Power PC along with Sun Microsystems' UltraSPARC chip was a reduced instruction-set computing (RISC) processor, whereas, Intel, AMD, and Cyrix chips were complex instruction-set computing (CISC) processors. Chips incorporating RISC designs used simpler instruction sets to achieve higher computing speeds than CISC processors. Also, RISC designs had better floating-point performance.KEY SUCCESS FACTORS Technology-Related KSFs Intel has many key success factors that helped it prosper in the market place. Intel has product innovation capability and the funds available to invest in research and development. Intel's reputation for innovation was among the best of any U. S. company, it ranked third on innovation among all U. S. companies. Besides investing in R&D, Intel had to gut and refurbish its existing fabrication plants every three years to produce the new chips and sometimes build a new plant to accommodate the expected   demand.Year after year, building new plants became very expensive because they used exotic tools and equipment to etch finer and finer lines on a silicon chip. Finer etching also required more labor and production time. Intel estimated that each succeeding generation of microprocessors required more than twice the capital and manufacturing capacity for production. Intel intended to be among the handful of chip producers that c ould afford to build top-of-the-line chip fabrication plants. Manufacturing-Related KSFs Intel has the flexibility to manufacture a range of models and sizes.Besides the products already in the market, it has additional products in various stages of development. For instance, Intel has a segmented brand including the Celeron, Pentium II, and Merced chip which is expected to be available in 2000. Distribution-Related KSFs Intel works closely and distributes to PC component producers, PC manufacturers, software developers, cable TV companies, media and telecommunications companies, entertainment companies, and information-communications appliance for both the home and the workplace.Intel is involved with Microsoft, Pointcast, America Online, IBM, Cisco Systems, and others to develop and promote Internet software. Marketing-Related KSFs To diminish the sales of clones of Intel microprocessors marketed by AMD, Cyrix, and others, Intel initiated a marketing program in 1990 to build the I ntel brand and make PC users aware of the benefits of genuine Intel technology and products. Intel asked PC makers to put a distinctive â€Å"Intel Inside† sticker on their machines. Manufacturers who used Intel microprocessors in their PCs also used the logo on their packaging and in their ads and brochures.The company also sponsored many television and print advertising campaigns to promote the Intel’s brand name image. Skills-Related KSFs Intel has the ability to develop innovative products and product improvements. Also, it has the ability to get newly conceived products past the R&D phase and out into the market very quickly. They are always ahead of their competitors and always find new ways to improve their product. Intel’s team consists of many experienced employees using top of the line technologies. Organizational CapabilityIntel has the ability to respond quickly to shifting market conditions and customer needs because of its many years of experience and the ability to invest in R&D. Andy Grove’s management style also plays a major role in organizational capability. His concern for the flow of information helped instill Intel’s corporate culture and allows every employee to contribute to the company. INDUSTRY PROSPECTS AND OVERALL ATTRACTIVENESS The factors that make the industry attractive are the large use of computers at home, work, libraries, coffee shops, and bookstores. Computers allow easy access to Internet, e-mail, and research.PC’s use up-to-date technology, which makes life easier and daily tasks simpler. The fastest growth was expected to occur in Asia outside Japan, where use of PCs was still relatively limited and where the market potential was largely untapped. The Chinese market was the largest in the Asia-Pacific region (with projected growth of 25-35 percent annually over the next several years), followed in order by Korea and Japan. Also, PC sales in Europe were expected to grow 8% annuall y. The profit outlook seems favorable because a computer at home or work will be a necessity.The factors’ making the industry unattractive was that Intel was producing new products too quick for the market to catch up. New developments were occurring at such a fast and furious pace that the end result was unpredictable. There was a lot of competition going on. The Internet was central to most of the forthcoming developments in information technology. This is the reason why Intel is mainly focused on the computer sector. As Andy Grove put it, â€Å"The Internet is like a 20-foot tidal wave coming thousands of miles across the Pacific, and we are in kayaks. It’s†¦ gaining momentum, and its going to lift you and drop you.It affects everybody†¦the computer industry, telecommunications, the media, chipmakers, and the software world. † FUTURE PROSPECTS Their commitment to R&D creates future generations of products and the manufacturing processes they use to make them, while their capital expenditures ensure the availability of state-of-the-art factories that allow them to deliver high-volume, high-performance microprocessors efficiently. Looking into the future, they will continue to manufacture quality microprocessors that will live up to the Intel name and strive towards perfecting their existing ones.