Operating Systems Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Operating Systems - Research Paper Example Programs are set of instruction stored on a disc. Programs are passive entities while process is active (Dhamdhare, 2006, p. 84). A single program may have different executions. Each execution is termed as a separate process (Tanenbaum, 2009, p. 84). E.g. MS Word is a program. When we open several files in Word, each file would form a separate process. In this case, the text section would be common, but each process would have its own program counter, data, stack and heap. When a process executes, it changes its state. A state depicts the current activity of the process (Halder & Aravind, 2010, p. 96; Silberschatz et. al, 2005). There are five states a process can be in: In a multiprogramming environment, in order to maximize CPU utilization, the CPU is never allowed to stay idle (Sharma et al., 2010, p. 123). It is made to run some process or the other at all times. Time sharing means that the switching of processes from CPU at such a speed that the user can interact with any of them at any time without having to wait. Operating system has a process scheduler that selects a process to run by CPU from the available processes. In a single processor system, only process will be running at a time. In case of several processes, they will have to wait till the CPU is free from running the current and only can it be rescheduled. In the last two cases, the status of processes is eventually changed from waiting to ready and so are brought back to the ready queue. These events keeping happening till the process ends. In that case, the process is removed from all of the queues. It’s PCB and the allocated resources are also de-allocated. A process passes through various queues during the course of its lifetime (Dhotre, 2008, p. 2-8; Silberschatz et. al, 2005). The operating system provides schedulers for managing the selection of processes and appropriate queues. The two basic schedulers are: Long-term

Formal Analysis of Gao Jianfu (1879-1951)s Buddhist Pagodas in Burma Essay

Formal Analysis of Gao Jianfu (1879-1951)s Buddhist Pagodas in Burma - Essay Example In 1939, Gao Jianfu was one of the Chinese artists who founded the Awakening Art Academy. The main purposes of the academy were to produce skilled artists who could document the war crimes in form of paintings, and to host art exhibitions in the southern cities of Macao and Hong Kong (Hung 148). During his time, Jianfu not only spearheaded establishment of national art academies, but also produced iconic paintings of ruined cities and buildings. Succeeding sections of this paper contains formal analysis of two paintings on the theme of ruins and destruction by Jianfu. In one painting on page 151 of the chapter The Birth of Ruins, Jianfu uses ink and color on paper to depict a Chinese city in ruins. On page 153 of the same chapter, there is a painting by Jianfu depicting the burning of the Afong Palace. With respect to the painting of a city in ruins, Jianfu work shows the architectural remains of two adjacent buildings, clustered debris on the ground, and white and orange smokes soaring up to the skies. The city in ruins painting contains diagonal lines. Edges of the destroyed walls are diagonally aligned with respect to the ground. In addition, debris and smoke streams are tilted with respect to the ground’s horizontal and vertical planes (Hung 151). Similarly, the painting of Afong Palace depicts dust, ashes and smoke rising in a tilted manner. In both paintings, Jianfu employed the use of diagonal lines to convey a feeling of instability. Diagonally represented structures means they are either unstable, or are wobbling from the effect o f instability (Whitney 58). By using diagonal lines, Jianfu wanted to concisely represent the destroying effects of Japanese invasion in the city painting, and the detrimental state of the Afong Palace in the second painting. With respect to the formal analysis concepts of shape and form, Jianfu depicted both paintings in three dimensions. By viewing the city ruins and the Afong Palace painting, one

Annotated bibliography Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Annotated bibliography - Assignment Example rch, I have examined various sources that contain valuable insights about the business model and management structure of Wal-Mart, one of the most successful companies in the world. One of the best journals done on this company, which I have found to be very reliable as far as understanding the company include, â€Å"Wal-Mart and Values: Painting the Town Red?,† which was done by Carden Art, Charles Courtemanche and Jeremy Meiners. This journal gives an analysis into the business empire developed by Wal-Mart. It examines the values and principles that have made the Wal-mart business, enabling it to become of the most successful companies in the world. The journal gives the business model that the company boosts of, which has helped the company in its business growth and expansion across many countries in America and Europe. According to the authors of this journal, the company has a wide clientele, appealing to both the high end and low end citizens. The company offers goods that are affordable coming in various ranges like electronics, food items among others. The journal gives the strategies and approaches being used in the company’s expansion program. Hellen has taken time to explain about the growth path which Walmart has taken in its growth in Canada as well as in most other countries not only in America but across Europe. Hellen explains that Walmart has embarked on establishing 11 new departmental stores that will help improve its competitive advantage and market position. The Canadian market has been thought to be quite productive, considering that the country does not have many large stores that can match those that Walmart has established in the United States. The author explains that the branches that had been established earlier have continued to perform outstandingly because of the effective management. One of these retail stores includes Bentonville, which is the Arkansas-base retail shop that is part of the first to be established by the

Formal Analysis of Gao Jianfu (1879-1951)s Buddhist Pagodas in Burma Essay

Formal Analysis of Gao Jianfu (1879-1951)s Buddhist Pagodas in Burma - Essay Example In 1939, Gao Jianfu was one of the Chinese artists who founded the Awakening Art Academy. The main purposes of the academy were to produce skilled artists who could document the war crimes in form of paintings, and to host art exhibitions in the southern cities of Macao and Hong Kong (Hung 148). During his time, Jianfu not only spearheaded establishment of national art academies, but also produced iconic paintings of ruined cities and buildings. Succeeding sections of this paper contains formal analysis of two paintings on the theme of ruins and destruction by Jianfu. In one painting on page 151 of the chapter The Birth of Ruins, Jianfu uses ink and color on paper to depict a Chinese city in ruins. On page 153 of the same chapter, there is a painting by Jianfu depicting the burning of the Afong Palace. With respect to the painting of a city in ruins, Jianfu work shows the architectural remains of two adjacent buildings, clustered debris on the ground, and white and orange smokes soaring up to the skies. The city in ruins painting contains diagonal lines. Edges of the destroyed walls are diagonally aligned with respect to the ground. In addition, debris and smoke streams are tilted with respect to the ground’s horizontal and vertical planes (Hung 151). Similarly, the painting of Afong Palace depicts dust, ashes and smoke rising in a tilted manner. In both paintings, Jianfu employed the use of diagonal lines to convey a feeling of instability. Diagonally represented structures means they are either unstable, or are wobbling from the effect o f instability (Whitney 58). By using diagonal lines, Jianfu wanted to concisely represent the destroying effects of Japanese invasion in the city painting, and the detrimental state of the Afong Palace in the second painting. With respect to the formal analysis concepts of shape and form, Jianfu depicted both paintings in three dimensions. By viewing the city ruins and the Afong Palace painting, one

Nucor at Crossroads Essay Example for Free

Nucor at Crossroads Essay In 1986, three distinct segments defined the U.S. steel industry; integrated steel mills, mini-mills, and specialty steel makers. The integrated mills have the capacity to produce a maximum of 107 million tons of steel per year, mini-mills produced a maximum of 21 million tons of capacity a year, and the nation’s specialty steel makers could produce a maximum capacity of 5 million tons of stainless and specialty grades of steel. This leads to a total capacity of 133 million tons of production per year. In 1986, the market consumed only 70 million tons of steel, leaving 33 million tons unused. Nucor is at a crossroads. It faces a saturated market suffering from significant overcapacity. Nucor’s only opportunity for growth seems to be to expand into the production of flat sheet metal. However, to compete in that area, Nucor would need to invest in a very risky new technology, a thin-slab casting plant that, if successful, would allow Nucor to manufacture flat sheet metal with a low minimum efficient scale and a low marginal cost of production. This case will examine Nucor’s history, the impacts of entering the thin-slab casting business, the advantages Nucor would reap, and whether they should build the new thin-slab casting plant. Looking at the business landscape of the steel industry, it is amazing to see how well Nucor has done considering the industry is so competitive and has relatively low profitability. Using Porter’s model, the threat of rivalry is high due to weak domestic demand, excess global capacity, a maturing industry, low switching costs, high exit barriers, rising operating costs (increasing raw material prices), and more than 5 comparable competitors. The threat of entry is low due to high barriers to entry (economies of scale have been achieved and high capital requirements), growth and profitability are modest at best, and most viable candidates are already present in the industry and are looking to expand into other markets. The threat of substitutes is moderate because buyers have the option of choosing other materials (aluminum, plastics, ceramics, etc.), and new materials technologies are currently being developed and sought after. The threat of suppliers is moderate because iron ore and scrap metal prices are currently high, energy prices are increasing, Nucor pays for transportation of its raw materials to its plants, there is no easy substitute to take the place of iron ore/scrap metal, and there is currently an overabundance of buyers of scrap metal and iron ore. Lastly, the threat of buyers is weak to moderate, because there is excess capacity, low switching costs, few high volume buyers, many low volume customers, strong demand from China, and rising feedstock prices. With the difficult business landscape in the steel industry, Nucor had to develop competitive advantages over its rivals to achieve its success. These advantages included differentiating itself by being an early adopter of computerized order tracking and allowing customers to make short time orders thus reducing their inventory. Second, it invested in modernization of its plants at an average of 2.9 times its depreciation expenses vs. an ave raged of 1.6 of its competitors through the 1970s and 1980s, and refurbished on average a plant a year. Third, Nucor strategically located its plants closer together to share orders for minimal cost and maximum sales, and building new plants in smaller rural areas with access to railroads, low energy costs, and a plentiful water source allowed Nucor to keep labor costs relatively low and made sure that COGS remained competitive. Fourth, base wages were lower but incentives were higher than average, and direct communication on expectation vs. performance provided feedback on compensation. Also, during down times, officers and CEO pay dropped dramatically while average workers did not. This led to lower employee turnover 1-5% vs. 5-10% for competitors. Fifth, Nucor’s hiring practices focused on making sure that they focused on hiring people based on potential, not experience. Finally, Nucor’s business hierarchy was different- mostly flat, resulting in less bureaucracy and more productivity per worker. In short, many of these advantages led to Nucor becoming the second most productive steel maker per employee in the world due by 1985. Thin-slab casting was a proposed technique for mini-mills to fill orders for flat sheet steel, a segment that accounted for approximately half of the U.S. steel industry. To expand its steel market share, Nucor needed to enter the flat sheet segment. In the thin-slab casting business, Nucor would initially compete with international firms from Canada and Japan that provided high quality flat sheet steel, and cheap flat sheet steel providers in newly industrialized nations. Barriers to entry would include large capital expenditures making new entrants cost prohibitive, but not impossible as the barrier is small comparative to the overall costs for steel manufacturing. While new rivals may not pop up immediately, new entrants from existing rivals will dilute Nucor’s competitive advantage. Nucor needed an innovative technology to be profitable in this segment as a new entrant. However, innovative technologies are risky due to development costs, unknown long-term operating costs, and the unknown quality of future products. Also, as a first mover, increased costs will be realized. Increased maintenance above forecasts, the risk that production will not keep pace with the small-scale model, the risk that the new tech will not be fully understood by the employees and harder to run. Also, an increased likelihood that other companies will benefit from their mistakes as SMS has not made any offer to keep information gleaned from a large-scale operation confidential. However, the benefits of being a first time mover would be realized as well. The expected profit from the thin slab minimill would be $81.50 per ton, which is 26% higher than from a modernized hot rolled sheet produced in an integrated mill and 226% higher than the margin from an unmodernized integrated mill. For cold rolled sheet, the expected profit advantage remains with minimills, with an expected profit of $107.50 per ton, which 1.9% greater than a modernized integrated mill and 115% higher than an unmodernized integrated mill. If Nucor enters the thin-slab casting business the lasting advantages may be reduced over time as others in the industry may imitate them so long as the model is proven to deliver the targeted results. If Nucor works out the kinks, then other companies will join up and the competitive advantage window will shrink, making the overall scheme too costly. If the program does not work, it is likely the other companies will not follow suit, while Nucor pays the cost for other companies â€Å"RD† offsite. However, if the investment into the new technology proves successful, Nucor would have a significant cost savings over integrated mills initially, both in terms of entry costs and in terms of operating costs and profit margin. This will provide Nucor with a significant competitive advantage over the integrated mills, which already provide flat-rolled steel products, but will not provide sustainable competitive advantage over the long term, as it will be easy for competitors to duplicate this technology. Many of the companies that do steel would imitate the path that Nucor is taking. They have done an excellent job of lowering cost while leveraging their competitive advantages. Furthermore, CSP is a step in the ultimate industry goal of direct casting of sheet at strip. However, it seems as though Nucor would only gain a head start of two to three years since SMS held the CSP technology and Nucor couldn’t block others from using it. This head start doesn’t seem very advantageous as it would require almost 5 years to break (see attached chart) even and the other companies would be able to use lessons learned from Nucor’s first mover and apply it to lower their breakeven point. Overall this would be a very risky undertaking for Nucor to undertake at this time as the technology is not at an adequate tech readiness level, the initial cost to implement, as well as it could move Nucor away from its competitive advantages.

Challenges for HRM in Internationalized SMEs

Challenges for HRM in Internationalized SMEs 1. Introduction The international SMEs have some problem in human resource management structure, the mobility of personnel is fast, the salary compensation is weak, the employee education, training and teamwork management is not enough. In the international market, these problem need to be solved as soon as possible, therefore, some international SMEs have to make a revolution in its management structure, as some international SMEs often focus some process that can profitability immediately, and dont care about the future benefit, and their management structure is overstaffed and complex. So the international SMEs have to develop the new management structure to adapt the competitive in the international market, decentralization is the trend, which can motivate the employee and managers active and responsible, decentralization firstly requires the manager who have good knowledge and skill in management. The motivation system can raise the employees motivation, the equalitarianism is not appropriate, so the international SMEs need a change in their management structure. 2. The variation in the organization structure Most international SMEs have the problem in organization structure, the variation is quite big. Usually, the organization structure is line, the result of which can cause the overstaffed, bureaucracy, and the low efficiency. Therefore, the organization structure has to simplify the organization structure, reduce the hierarchy. A flatten of an organization is one of the solution, but not the only one, and it could not be enlarged forever. The purpose of the flatten is to reduce the cost of the management, more communication between up layer and down layer, it is necessary in the international SMEs, the company originally has the problem in the management, so this method of management can increase the efficiency, it is convenient to the top manager. 3. The globalization of HRM In term of the element of the law and policy, the international SEMs should make a completed investigation on the policy environment, including the characteristic of the labor organization, and it is necessary to make a survey in the law and regular of the employment. If it does not do like these, it will suffer from the criminal charge upon the labor discrimination and the right of the labor, and the labor dispute also need to pay more litigation cost, which damages the reputation of the company in labor market. In the part of culture, the international SMEs have to integrate in the business process, due to the different cultures in the different countries, the international SMEs have to adapt the cultureà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s differentiation, except respect their culture, it also need to understand and study the local custom and culture. This is the long à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½term program, the conflict will happen in the future, but the company should pay more attention on the culture, and base on it, creating its own corporate culture in the globalization market. In the aspect of economic, the achievement of the international SMEs depends on the labor cost, the fluctuation of the currency. In the international market, the corporate need to consider which countryà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s employees should be employed, the home national, the local people or the expatriate, and the benefit of the company and the labor cost balanced. 4. Government intervention in the HRM As the international company, no matter the size of the enterprise is big or small, when the market has some movements or the policy changed. The international SMEs should adapt the different situation and then make a right decision at the right time, but this process is quite hard for them. Because the government in order to protect the right of the labor, which sets a lot of policy or regular to limit the behavior of the corporate. The government intervention in HRM will increase the cost of transaction between the employee and the employer, at the same time, in order to cut the cost, the international SMEs need to recruit the professional personal who studies the governmentà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ labor policies and labor law as the law consultant to manage the HR. if the company can react the government policy as soon as possible, it will achieve the great successful. 5. The reputation of the company in the HR marketing In the HR marketing, many candidates want to find a company which has good reputation in the market, and it has comfortable work environment, high salary, excellent management experiences and future development opportunity. But all of the above, the Small-Medium enterprises cannot afford to the employees. Because of it is lack of enough capital, and successful human resource management experience and the capability of the executive. Without enough capital, the SMEs just only can employed the candidates who are lack of the professional skill and professional knowledge, as they have no money, so they also donà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½t want to waste more money on training these employees, or the opportunity for training is not regular. And then the employees who have not accepted the opportunity of training, they will lose working motivation, so the work efficient will be down. And the other hand, the employees who have more experiences want to leave the company, because the company cannot provide excellent working treatment. So the SMEs are easier to lose their good human resource. The successful human resource management experience and the capability of the executive are very important to the enterprise. But the Small-Medium Enterprises are weak in these, their management experience is quite limited and obsolete, most of that is traditional management approach. As we know, the excellent leader can change the life of the company, so the executive capability is the standard of measuring a good or bad leader. If the good leader will set up the strategy objective, during the process of the strategy, he or she will lead his or her company go in the right direction and make a right decision immediately according to the different changes, which can attract their employees, and work hard for the company.

American Law Essay -- essays research papers

Throughout the United States there are many different laws among the fifty states that make up this union. The laws are different throughout the states because of the need of the laws. Living in one state and not having the advantages or disadvantages of a law in another state would not be that unfair or unequal. This is true because if you don’t like a law in your state you could always fight it and try to change it or you could always move out of that state and go to one that has the laws that you like. One of the big issues in life today is gun safety. Due to the recent high school shootings many legislatures are pushing for stricter gun laws. In Montana you can’t carry a concealed weapon inside city, town or logging camp limits but if you have a permit you can carry a concealed weapon in many instances. Where as in Wisconsin the state does not give permits that give a person the right to carry a concealed weapon, if caught with a concealed weapon it is a misdemeanor. Now looking at these two cases would you say that this is unfair to the people in Wisconsin because they can’t walk around the streets with a concealed gun. I don’t think that it is unfair but in fact a precaution that Wisconsin has, and they are actually looking out for the safety of their citizens. Another law that we can look at is drinking and driving. All the states have different laws on how high your blood alcohol level can be. After reviewing some of the laws I found that in Vermont if your are pull...