Liability and a Environmental Liability Essay

A liability is a present obligation of the enterprise arising from the past events, the settlement of which is expected to result in an outflow from the enterprise of resources embodying economic benefits whereas An environmental liability is an obligation to pay future expenditures to remedy environmental damage that has occurred because of past events or transactions, or to compensate a third party that has suffered from the damage. An environmental liability exists when there is a requirement, based on statute, regulation, or legal agreement to perform cleanup (i.e., removal, containment, disposal) from federal operations that resulted in hazardous waste. Environmental liabilities must be recognized on the financial statement for probable and measurable future outflows or expenditure of resources for environmental cleanup, closure, and/or disposal actions. Obligation based on the principle that a polluting party should pay for any and all damage caused to the environment by its activities. In some countries, this is a strict liability if the damage can be attributed to a specific party. The principle of liability applies to environmental damage and imminent threat of damage resulting from occupational activities, where it is possible to establish a causal link between the damage and the activity in question. The essential characteristic of a liability is that the enterprise has a present obligation. Therefore , an environmental liability is probable if for example : 1. A legal obligation is exists 2. The management wants to prevent, reduce or repair substantial environmental impacts 3. A company in the US has been named by the US EPA as a potential responsible party to clean up as US Superfund site.

How Can Building Surveyors Efficiently Differentiate Asr and Attack

Contents 1. Introduction2 2. Concrete attacks2 3. Alkali-Silica Reaction – ASR3 4. Sulphate Attack5 5. Reference List8 1. Introduction This report was issued in order to provide an in depth understanding of how a surveyor can differentiate between Alkali-Silica Reaction and Sulphate attacks in concrete when inspecting a building. In order to satisfy the requirements for this report, the author will give a detailed description of both kind of attacks, different study areas, experiments, diagnosis and forms of repair.To be able to define and analyse this topic, the author of this report has used different sources of reference such as books, academic journals, World Wide Web and several British Standards. By the end of this report, the writer will be able to demonstrate that the questioned concrete attacks can be differentiated by any professional surveyor when inspecting the concrete in a building. 2. Concrete attacks Chemical attacks usually occurs when using poor quality cemen t although good concrete has been known to be subjected to conditions that can lead to its deterioration.The environment â€Å"supplies† several physical and chemical forces which can contribute to concrete deterioration. BRE (2005) delivered a full list of chemical attacks that can arise both land contaminated by human and natural ground. There are several rarely occurred chemical attacks that are mainly caused by contaminated land; these are chemical species such as ammonium or chromium, but also organic such as phenols. The higher the quantity of these chemicals is, the higher the concrete attack.The most known forms of concrete attacks are: * Chloride penetration leading to corrosion of steel and spilling of the concrete cover; * Inadequate cover of reinforcing steel. Less common causes of concrete deterioration caused by chemicals or chemical reaction are: * Cycles of freezing and thawing; * Carbonation resulting in an increase of steel corrosion; * Sulphate attack; * Sh rinking aggregates; * Alkali-aggregate reactions. . Alkali-Silica Reaction – ASR It is believed that there are three types of alkali-aggregate reactions that will affect the condition of concrete: alkali-silicate reaction, alkali-carbonate reaction and alkali-silica reaction. It is believed that the alkali-silica reaction â€Å"may be found in the concrete because microcrystalline quartz or stained quartz is often present in aggregates contacting phyllosilicates† (Hobbs D. W. , 1988).The Institution of Structural Engineers (1988) described Alkali-Silica Reaction as being a chemical process in which the alkalis, found mostly in cement, when combined with specific types of silica found in aggregates, particularly in moist condition, will produce an alkali-silica gel that eventually will absorb the moisture from concrete, causing cracking and disruptions of concrete. British Cement Association (1993) advised that in order to determine that the inspected concrete cracking is a result of Alkali-Silica Reaction, the surveyor should sample and test the area â€Å"before any definite interpretation can be attempted†.Because of poor workmanship, shrinkage, weathering or differential stresses, the concrete can produce characteristics that will often be confused with Alkali-Silica Reaction. BCA (1993) are aware that â€Å"it is not always easy to distinguish these features from those indicative of ASR†. Their recommendation is that if suspected the sample should be taken into laboratory and further investigated. Because of the damping characteristics, the surveyor should allow dry weather when inspecting a suspected Alkali-Silica Reaction area.The degree of wetting should be recorded by the surveyor as this might be due to rain, condensation, leaking pipes, water run-off or poor detailing of construction. A second inspection is recommended if damp patches at the junction of the cracks are observed. It is known that Alkali-Silica Reaction will form a mapping crack at the surface of the concrete. Fig 1 is and extreme example of macrocracking found at the Hoover Dam, USA. Fig1. Example of cracking due to ASR at the Hoover Dam, USA Image taken from Hobbs, D. W. (1988, pp. 16)As it can be seen from the image, there are specific signs that this is an Alkali-Silica Reaction such as damp patches at the junction of the cracks and the edges of the cracks often appearing to be light in colour. Cracking like this will often be confused by surveyors as being caused by an expansion or contraction. As it was said before, one major feature of Alkali-Silica Reaction in concrete is cracking. In order to record data for further investigations, the surveyor should sketch or photograph the crack pattern. One other characteristic of Alkali-Silica Reaction is discoloration.This occurs along the cracks and although similar to rust caused by reinforce bars within the concrete, the surveyor is advised that colour photographs are to be taken for a n off-site second investigation. If occurred in reinforced concrete, the cracks caused by Alkali-Silica Reaction will tend to follow the lines of the reinforcing bars. Although often confused with the cracks produced by the corrosion of the reinforcements, in order to provide a definite confirmation of ASR, the surveyor should enforce a microscopic examination of a sample taken from the interior of the concrete.It is often that the surveyors confuse the cracking pattern of the affected cement. Other characteristics of Alkali-Silica Reaction are discoloration, efflorescence, exudations and pop-outs. 4. Sulphate Attack â€Å"Sulphate attack is the term used to describe a series of chemical reactions between sulphate ions and the components of hardened concrete, principally the cement paste, caused by exposure of concrete to sulphate moisture† ( Skalny et al. 2002, p. 3) It is well known that sulphate attack mainly affects the brickwork and concrete by creating a disruption of t he mortar. The sulphate attack can create expansion, bowing and/or cracking of affected material. The chemical and mineralogical compositions of Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) are the most vulnerable to sulphate environments (Bonshor 1996, Amin et al. 2007). OPC is one of the most common cement used in construction industry. Its main composition is ground limestone and clay.When burned, these components form the basis of most concretes. According to Ramson (1993, p. 19) if bauxite is used instead of clay, a high-alumina cement is produced. The main characteristic of this cement is its rapid rate of strengths developed and also if not ‘covered’ the high resistance to sulphate attacks. This can be one of the first evidence for surveyors that the concrete is not affected by sulphate attack. The main idea of sulphate attacks is simple.Bonshor and Bonshor (1996) describes that the sulphate salts migrating from neighbouring building materials, or sometimes even enclosed in th e groundwater react with elements of the OPC to produce ettringite or thaumasite. The most common circumstance of sulphate attack is when the unprotected concrete contains sulphate based materials or is exposed to sulphate groundwater. There are three main requirements necessary for sulphate attack to occur: (i) soluble sulphate salts such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium.It is important to specify that attacks from different sulphates will have different result. Mortars or concretes attacked by sulphates such as calcium or sodium will have a soft mush; on the other side when attacks form magnesium sulphate occurs, this being considered the most aggressive, the main feature of this attack are the salts that sometimes crystallize out or near the surface of the attacked material; (ii) tricalcium aluminate consisted in ordinary or rapid hardening cement; (iii) a persistent wetness on the material.To understand the main manifestations of sulphate attacks in building component s, the author will describe the visual characteristics that a surveyor will look for, in order to distinguish and recognise when sulphate attack has occurred. * The mortar in the brickwork is considered by Addleson and Rice (1995) to be under sulphate attack from as early as two years after construction. One of the main visual appearances of the attack is the white colour of the cement. The mortar subjected to sulphate attack will become loose at the surface, sometimes presenting cracks along the bed joists.It is important to mention that surveyors often confuse the horizontal cracking from rendered walls caused by corrosion of strip ties in cavity walls with the sulphate attack. Bonshor and Bonshor (1996) recommend that if not confident with the diagnosis from visual inspection, the surveyor should sample the affected mortar and further examine in a specialist laboratory. University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol (2006) advice that sulphate attacks occurs where saturation is greatest and usually around parapet walls and chimney.This is due to the large exposer to rainfall. UWE believe that although in some cases repairs are possible, in most instances once started, the sulphate attack is impossible to stop therefore the only option is the re-building. * When the sulphate attack is detected in rendered brickwork there are several visual signs for a surveyor to distinguish the type of attack. Wide horizontal and vertical cracks will appear in the rendering. Outward curling of the rendering in the cracks might appear as a result of sulphate attack. Fig2. Example of Sulphate Attack on chimney brickworkImage taken from University of the West of England, Bristol, (2006) The adhesion of the rendering on the brickwork may fail; this can result in rendering falling off either from one brick or even a large portion this depending on the seriousness of the attack on brickwork. If untreated, the brickwork may be exposed to efflorescence. * There are several occasi ons when the sulphate attack occurs on the underside of the ground slabs. If not isolated by a damp proof membrane, the salts in the ground will react with the Portland cement causing a map-pattern of cracking.Bonshor and Bonshor (1996) recommend that BRE Digest 363 will provide guidance in the case of a sulphate attack on concrete. Generally sulphate attack in ground-bearing slabs will form cracks in a solid ground floor mainly if the recycled colliery shale has been used as capping layer for the ground underneath the slab. Because the sulphate attack in ground bearing slabs, the surveyor will have to investigate further whether the slab has a damp proof membrane and if possible what sort of material has been used as colliery shale fill.WRAP Organisation (2011) recommends colliery shale should be tested for sulphates especially if it is to be used in proximity to concrete. As building professional, a surveyor will be able to differentiate between Alkali-Silica Reaction and Sulphate attacks in concrete. There are several visual differences between these two chemical attacks. One of the major confusion made by surveyors is when inspecting a cracking pattern in a building. It is highly recommended that if suspected, the surveyor should take samples for laboratory examination. There are numerous chemical reactions that are likely to produce disruptive cracking in buildings.This is the reason why a professional surveyor should not rush and give diagnosis unless entirely sure about the cause. Word count: 1759 5. Reference List Addleson, L. and Rice, C. (1995) Performance of materials in buildings. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Alan Wood & Partners (2012) Sulphate attack . Available at: http://www. alanwood. co. uk/pdf/Sulphate-Attack. pdf (Accessed on 5th October 2012). Amin, M. M. , Jamaludin, S. B. , Pa, F. C. & Chuen, K. K. (2008) ‘Effects of magnesium sulphate attack on Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) mortars’, Portugaliae Electrochimica Acta, (26) , pp. 235-242. Bonshor, R. B. and Bonshor, L.L. (1996) Cracking in buildings. London: Construction Research Communication. British Cement Association (1993) The diagnosis of alkali-silica reaction. Available at: http://homepage. tudelft. nl/n89v3/LinkedDocuments/1992-DiagnosisOfASR. pdf (Accessed on 5th October 2012). Cook, G. K. and Hinks, A. J. (1992) Appraising building defects: perspectives on stability and hygrothermal performance. Essex: Longman Scientific & Technical. El-hachem, R. , Roziere, E. , Grondin, F. & Loukili, A. (2012) ‘New procedure to investigate external sulphate attack on cementitious materials’, Cement & Concrete Composites, (34), pp. 57-364. Farny, J. A. & Kosmatka, S. H. (1997) Diagnosis and control of Alkali-aggregate reactions in concrete. Available at: http://www. nebrconcagg. com/assets/PromotionPages/Mix%20Design/ASR1. PDF (Accessed on 6th October 2012). Giaccio, G. , Zerbino, R. , Ponce, J. M. & Batic, O. R. (2008) ‘Mechanical behavi our of concretes damaged by alkali-silica reaction’, Cement and Concrete Research, (38), pp. 993-1004. Hobbs, D. W. (1988) Alkali-silica reaction in concrete. London: Thomas Telford. Mittermayr, F. , Bauer, C. , Klammer, D. , Bottcher, M. E. , Leis, A. Escher, P. & Deitzel, M. (2012) ‘Concrete under sulphate attack: an isotope study on sulphur sources’, Isotopes in Environmental and Health Studies, 48 (1), pp. 105-117. Ransom, W. H. , (1993) Building failures: diagnosis and avoidance. 2nd edn. London: E & FN Spon. Sachlova, S. , Prikryl, R. & Pertold, Z. (2010) ‘Alkali-silica reaction products: Comparison between samples from concrete structures and laboratory test specimens’, Materials Characterization, (61), pp. 1379-1393. Sarkan, S. , Mahadevan, S. , Meeussen, J. C. L. , van der Sloot, H. & Kosson, D. S. 2010) ‘Numerical simulation of cementitious materials degradation under external sulphate attack’, Cement & Concrete Composites, (32 ), pp. 241-252. Skalny, J. , Marchand, J. & Odler, I. (2002) Sulphate attack on concrete. London: Spon Press. The Concrete Society (1985) Alkali-silica reaction: new structures-specifying the answer existing structures-diagnosis and assessment. London: Concrete Society. The Institution of Structural Engineers (1988) Structural effects of alkali-silica reaction: interim technical guidance on appraisal of existing structures. London: the Institution of Structural Engineers.University of the West of England, Bristol, (2006) Durability of clay bricks. Available at: https://environment7. uwe. ac. uk/resources/constructionsample/Conweb/walls/bricks/section6. htm (Accessed on 20th October 2012). WRAP, (2011) Burnt and unburnt colliery spoil, Available at: http://aggregain. wrap. org. uk/applications/wrap_pdf/aggregain/pdf_material. cfm? id=2910 (Accessed on 22th October 2012). Zerbino, R. , Giaccio, G. , Batic, O. R. & Isaia, G. C. (2012) ‘Alkali-silica reaction in mortars and concre tes incorporating natural rice husk ash’, Construction and Building Materials, (36), pp. 796-806.

Helpful and intelligent Essay

From his hovel, the monster notices a nearby cottage occupied by the De Lacey family. He observes them cautiously from a safe distance as he now recognises man’s potential to be cruel. This shows us again that the monster is constantly developing, and experiencing a variety of different emotions, such as love. Love is portrayed in ‘Frankenstein’ after he watches the daily routine of the De Lacey’s (through a small gap in the wooden panes, previous to where the window was. This is a sign that they were not very wealthy). He discovers the sound of music through the old, blind man playing his recorder. This enchants him and he begins to admire this family. After this point his mixed emotions are so strong when watching Agathe and the old man, so strong that he cannot bear to watch the family anymore. (the music touched his heart and he felt a mixture of both pain and pleasure with love) He gradually learns more about them and increases his intelligence while doing so. He knows that they live in poverty and so his admiration grows for them, also for their wonderful appearance, as he is unaware of ugliness and deformity. He shows a caring side of himself when he became devoted to help the De Lacey’s by cutting wood. ‘This monster’ becomes generous, helpful and intelligent. He also decided to ‘satisfy himself with berries, nuts and roots’ instead of eating tastier food that they ate. This implies that this so called brute was also thoughtful. The monster’s narrative tells us that he is determined character who would do anything to belong, he attempted to learn the English language to hopefully reason with the De Lacey’s and make them realise that he wasn’t a wretched evil brute but a kind-hearted being. He was doing well until he saw his reflection in a pool of water. This part of the story (Chapter 12, page 109) is significant in tracing the change of his character because he was mortified with his appearance and became miserable. He now knew entirely why he was hated in the previous village; it was for his monstrous, alien appearance. He became aware of all the racial prejudice in the world and realised that this was the source of all his problems. Knowing this made the monster bitter at man, however he still thought of the De Lacey family as wonderful and still he wanted ‘to restore happiness to these deserving people’.  Other experiences the monster undergoes during Chapter 12 are his first realisations of the four seasons. This happens when he found that different flowers grew at different times of the year. This is another example of his developing intelligence. The next vital point in the development and change of the monster is the arrival of Safie, an Arabian woman not knowing the English language. This immensely profited him because during Safie’s stay with the De Lacey’s she began to take lessons to speak English. The monster therefore also learned the language at a rapid pace. Also in Chapter 13 we see a very sensitive side of the Monster when he is describing the nature surrounding him. (‘innumerable flowers, sweet to the scent and the eyes, stars of pale radiance among the moonlight woods’) While Safie remains in the De Lacey household the monster begins to learn more about human nature, especially involving the love between a man (Felix) and a woman (Safie). He could not believe the ecstatic joy that Felix was in when meeting Safie, when before he seemed to be so miserable. He realises that they were both ‘affected by different feelings’, Felix by the way ‘his cheeks flushed with pleasure’ and Safie by how she ‘wiped tears from her lovely eyes.’ The monster observes more involving human nature when he heard ‘of the difference of sexes and the birth and growth of children’, he also heard of the different relationships between humans such as mother, father, brother and sister. This is the first stage of his life when he asks himself, ‘where are my friends and relations?’ To his recollection he has had no one to care for him and remembers nothing before his first account in his narrative story. He genuinely questions what and who he is and so again we feel sympathy. The monster emotionally develops from what he learns of human nature, this occurs when Safie sings to Agatha and the old man. This deeply moves him as her voice ‘at once brought tears of delight and joy from his eyes.’ He described the music as ‘a rich cadence, swelling or dying away like a nightingale of the woods’.’ His reaction to her singing again brings out his sensitivity.  The monster while constantly developing his knowledge of English, (now with the help of Safie’s lessons) still longs companionship with the De Lacey’s. He feels that he needs to be part of this ‘wonderful family.’ Although he understands that he has been previously rejected and seen as an ‘ugly wretch’, he believes that the power of language can overcome the deformity of his face. However much he hopes that he will be accepted, he still remains conscious of his previous encounters with man. The monster remains fearful of how the De Lacey’s’ will react to him.  The next part of the monster’s narrative (Chapter 14) relates little to himself but his knowledge increases of the De Lacey’s history, before they moved to Germany. The monster discovered such information from several letters written from Safie to Felix. Here we find that he has learnt more skills, the skills to read and write. The monster later decides to copy these letters himself to bring truth to his tale, for Victor Frankenstein. From these letters we learn an awful lot about the De Lacey’s, such as that previously they led wealthy lifestyles in Paris. He learnt that their wealth was lost when a Turkish merchant was condemned to death for becoming obnoxious towards the French government. This affected the De Lacey’s because Felix vowed to help the Turk escape and did so. (In return he was offered a reward but he declined; however he agreed to marry the merchants daughter, Safie) When learning from the De Lacey’s he also confirmed the relationship between the family. The old man is known as De Lacey and is father to Felix and Agatha. It was of course illegal to do this and so this resulted in the De Lacey’s being exiled. Knowing all this improved the monsters understanding of why the De Lacey’s seemed so unhappy and he now fully realised the poverty they were in.

Financial Analysis of Blue Scope Steel Company Ltd and One Steel Essay

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Chicano studies - Essay Example These movies need close introspection and a thorough cognition would definitely enable us to deep delve into some of the important socio-economic and cultural discourse of the time with a good taste of aesthetic operating throughout the film. Comparison of two films occurs from some mutual paradigm. Portrait of Teresa by Pastor Vega and Salt of the Earth by Herbert J. Biberman both the films are contemporary and are based on contemporary socio-economic issue of a similar geographical terrain. Both the films encapsulate a strong feminist discourse and centres round the deconstruction of archetypal stereotype traditional and conventional role of woman in society. Portrait of Teresa directed by Pastor Vega was released in the year 1979 and apparently seems a trajectory of women with much dramatic presentation. But the language of camera pushes its limit beyond the initial portrayal of Teresa overwhelmed with her family which comprise of her husband Ramon and three children and her job as a crew leader in the textile factory to a realm where she moves beyond the ordinary role of a household woman trying to seek the attention of her husband and becoming expert in mere domestic duties to a revolutionary and a dominant motivating factor in labour movement (The Internet Movie Database, â€Å"Retrato de Teresa (1979)†). Teresa moves beyond the parameters of odd jobs and dirty dishes and her husband failing to accept her in the new role get separated and start an affair. When her husband wishes to reconcile, Teresa asks him what if during the time of separation she also had an affair. Block-headed Ramon fails to pass Teresa’s test with his chauvinist reply â€Å"But men are different† and with if he loses Teresa forever who with her head held high in self-esteem courageously wishes to move beyond the limits of an ordinary woman performing only her household duties (Rich, â€Å"Portrait of Teresa Double Day, Double Standards†). On the other hand, the film Salt of the

Some Say I Was Poor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Some Say I Was Poor - Essay Example This brought some joy of happiness in my life as we no longer had to dwell out for a bath. Like every rich child I did not receive bacon, sausage and eggs in my breakfast but rather settled for an oat meal which i never missed upon. My childhood had good memories of receiving good clothes from my elder siblings who stopped wearing them after a while. Again the clothes were not new but they were enough to make me happy for a while. All these problems arose because i belonged to a family who was not much educated. My father and mother both dropped out from their school at an early age and could not strive for a better job to earn their family a nice living. As i grew up in life i realized that i belonged to a lower class family in the United States. When i was a child there were certain times when i used to witness rich children and envy them because of their way of living but now at this age when i think of it i consider it as a blessing in disguise. Christmas was a time which i looke d forward to during my childhood as that was the time when i used to get presents. Some of my wishes did not come true during my childhood but i still don’t regret them. Altogether we were ten siblings living under one roof and being together was a pleasure for me as we always had the company of each other. We used to get along well and played games together which helped us to pass our time in a nice manner. Like every child we also had wished to have a big feast and in order to fulfil our wishes we used to play games in which we pretended as to we all were eating a large feast. At the age of eleven we all were required to go to the cotton field so we could earn for our family. On Friday we were all paid and this money would go to our parents so they could manage the house. Many people would consider this act to be a harmful act for the children but we were happy to do this for the cause of our family. As my father was not much educated himself he did not give specific direct ions to us so that we could study. My father preached us about God and helped us to know that he is the supreme being in the world. Success does not come instantly in life but it can be achieved on different levels. Growing up in a small town called Ferris located in Texas was not hard but one thing that i must admit is that we belonged to a poor community as a whole. In those times the neighbours had great respect for each other and in our town all our neighbours used to share things with each other. I still remember this as a positive gesture during my childhood which helped me to learn more about life and care. Gradually with time all of my siblings including me started walking on a path which led to a better future. We all have grown up to get used to the culture of the world today. Some of my siblings joined school whereas some went to trade schools only to become successful. With struggle and hope all of us have become professionals in the world today to lead a better life tha n we had when we were children. Although we can still not be classified in the upper class of the American Society today but we are happy with all that we have. All of us have become financially stable to earn a better future and now that we sit together we remember the times that we had during our childhood. I have learned on every step of life that we can become successful if we try. Education in my

War on Drugs and Prison Overcrowding Analysis Essay Example for Free

War on Drugs and Prison Overcrowding Analysis Essay The war on drugs is not just a catch phrase; it is a current way of life for everyone involved in our criminal justice system. It does not mean the elimination of drugs, nor is it about decreasing drug use or drug supplies. It is just about control and money, thus leading to higher prison rates and overcrowding. There are millions of offenders who are being caught, arrested and jailed based on mandatory minimum sentencing for each particular state. Whether they have a drug related charge, or a crime related charge, these minimum sentencings are providing profits to more privatized prison corporations where everyone in society plays a particular role. Advocates of social justice might be concerned with incarceration rates that show racial differences while the financially conservative taxpayer would be worried about the costs (The Cost of a Nation of Incarceration, 2012).† It is apparent that our states legislature needs new ideas and solutions in order to prevail, considering that they have the ability to make or break policy changes. The causes of what makes up our American prison system are known, however there aren’t many solutions for decreasing the costs being placed on our nation’s taxpayers. This writer has come up with three possible solutions to this answer. The first solution is to release first time and or non-violent offenders on the basis that they will serve a reasonable amount of time conducting community service. This idea can shorten prison sentences as well as the costs. The second solution is to shorten or lower sentences for less severe violent crimes so that the offender doesn’t become a long term prisoner or â€Å"lifer.† The third solution is to transfer inmates with mental illnesses over to a reasonable mental health institute. By implementing these solutions we can see a decrease in the prison popul ation with hardly any extra cost to us, the tax payers.

Conditional Statement Strategies for Code Obfuscation

Conditional Statement Strategies for Code Obfuscation Chandan Kumar Behera, Pawan Kumar, D. Lalitha Bhaskari Abstract Obfuscated code syntax has been set intentionally unclear. Different obfuscation techniques may have different impacts on the source code. In the presented paper, the ‘if condition’ has been used several times with the purpose to make the code obfuscated one, but in the mean time, the code should look like very simple. The idea behind this concept is to make feel the reader a simple code and ignore the code basically as it looks straightforward. Keywords: Software code protection, code obfuscation, conditional statements, malicious code Introduction Software protection is increasingly becoming an important requirement for software development according to industry. The software protection problem is fundamentally harder than other security problems. When one has the adversary for full access to the chosen software or hardware and can examine, or modify it, then no piece of software can be protected for the long period of time. An example of very common form of protection against reverse engineering attacks is obfuscation, which modifies a program to make it harder for the adversary to understand or analyse. At the beginning this techniques is developed for automatically creating multiple transformations of same program, by that each version will be difficult to analyse and modify for some more time. That means code obfuscation makes it more laborious and troublesome for understanding completely, because of that it will be not advisable to go for code tampering. The technique obfuscation helps for manipulating source code to make it harder to analyze and more difficult to understand for the attacker. Obfuscation is a common technique used to protect software against malicious reverse engineering. This approach could focus on changing a specific aspect of the code (e.g., complexity). But, the aim of code obfuscation is to prevent malicious users by disclosing the properties of the original source program. Typical code obfuscation techniques include splitting of codes into smaller pieces, merging pieces of unrelated codes, randomizing the code placement, mangling of data structures, field assignment, obfuscates the literal strings of a program, merging local integers, use of random Dead Codes, inserting dead variables, reordering of instructions, parameter reordering, transparent Branch Insertion, variable renaming, variable reassigning, aggressive methods renaming, renaming of registers, duplication of registers, promoting primitive registers, reorders the constants in the bytecode and assigns random keys to them, randomly marks all basic bytecode blocks in the program with either 0 or 1, array folding, array splitting, constant unfolding, Control flow obfuscation, flattening or introducing bogus control flow, breaking abstraction boundaries, false refactoring, mapping of bytecode instructions to source code line numbers, removal of local variable tables in the bytecode that store the local variable names in the source code, also various techniques using Opaque Predicates (Ex: branch insertion) etc. Some more techniques can be used in higher level languages, mostly in object oriented are splitting or merging of classes, finding of inner classes ( if available or not and then use obfuscation there even), new obfuscated names for methods and classes in a random fashion, encrypts class files and causes them to be decrypted at runtime, converting functions into inline methods at runtime, Interleave Methods by that will have the same signature, use of more methods having same names (overload names), takes a class and replaces all the fields with fields of the objects belong to the same class, converting the fields of a class to public, splits all of the non-static methods into a static method, open all the classes for modification, group the classes for modifying the original structure, selects a random method from the class or a random basic block from a method (i.e. a copy of the basic block will be created and some additional malicious code will be added in the new basic block, by which the values of local variable might be changed and the basic blocks will be bypassed from execution) etc. In this paper, the discussion is basically about the conditional statement. There are different ways of different obfuscation techniques by using conditions. Like, reversing the ‘if’ and ‘else’ conditions, using negation of the condition, introducing ‘if condition’ which will never true, breaking of the condition into nested. Conversion form ‘if- else if’ conditions to switch cases, etc. Proposed strategy Generally, use of conditional statements in a program is common. Mostly, for optimizing a program, the writers give the stress towards the loops. According to this thought the obfuscation also can be done on conditions, where ever it is used. Normally, after obfuscating a program, the code will be lengthier as well as difficult to understand. But, in the proposed logic, neither the code will be lengthier nor the code will look difficult to understand. Therefore, the malware witters may ignore the code. Actually the modified code will give some undesired result, by which may surprise the reader. Here, in place of â€Å"if else† or â€Å"if else if – else† conditions, we use several times the ‘if’ condition. In the proposed method if the use of ‘if conditions’ several times is replaced by ‘if- else or if-else if-else’ condition, then output will be totally different and the logic is going to change totally. Figure 1: Proposed code obfuscation logic by using ‘if condition’ several times In this paper, some proper fractions have been used for generating different patterns. Those patterns with bit wise represented and by rounding-off the values, sometimes the result will be undesirable. But, actually this is not at all undesirable, and properly calculated. So before execution of the code, it can be identified the condition which is going to be satisfied and with that the function, which is going to be executed. As the result is not undesirable and looks very simple, by and large readers may ignore the conditional statements with high percentage. The second concerned point is the repetition of patterns. As the remainder will be not zero, during the conversion of the proper fractional number into binary format, because of the infinite string of zero’s and ones. Obviously, the string will be getting a repetition of a kind of pattern. But, the visualization of the value in a variable is not possible, because of limited bytes are allowed to the variables. Fig. 2 Function execution for different values, while the fraction is 2/3 Fig. 3 Function execution for different values, while the fraction is 2/3 Because of the proper fraction, there are several repetitions of the pattern of 10 in case of rational number 2/3. Then we try to store that infinite value in a double variable and a float variable. After that the both numbers are compared. According to the result shown in the graph in figure 2, more than 88% of times functionC is executed. Here, for the values, functionC is not executing, to be uncovered. This concept can be used in several ways, like comparing two numbers or comparing a variable with a constant. Any type of program, if that consists of at least one condition is there, then that can be modified in the proposed method to obfuscate the program effortlessly. This strategy can be used in place of or with inserting some dead code or XOR operation or as well as doing some bit wise operations. In the above code, in figure 1, if the rational number 2/3 is replaced by 3/7, then the functionB will be not executed at all. The functionA will be called, when the value will be in between 1 to 2 or 27 to 31 or 251 to 255 and so on. Here the pattern is 001. i.e. the functionA executes, when the value will be with the range as follows: Fig. 4. Function execution for different values, while the fraction is 3/7 Similarly, if the proper fraction number 2/3 is replaced by 1/7, then the functionA will not execute. But, the functionB will be called, when the value will be from 3 to 7 or 59 to 63 or 507 to 511 and so on. Here, the pattern is 011. Fig. 5. Function execution for different values, while the fraction is 1/7 Conclusion Many times the code seems to be very simple and understandable, but actually not, and because of this, anybody can be confused more. This paper mostly discusses similar to that by using ‘if’ condition. In the paper, it is discussed about code obfuscation by using ‘if condition’ several times. Simply looking to the program, it is very difficult to guess that whether the program is obfuscated. Because, neither the size of the program increases nor the program looks difficult as compare to the original code. The use of several ‘if’ conditions is not at all looking different than that of ‘if –else if-else’ conditions. Most of the cases the values will be same. The important thing is when exactly the values will differ and if they differ, then which function is going to be executed. This need to be understood and bring into play in the code and the obfuscated code should give the desired output. There are several software engineer ing code techniques to measure the effect of code obfuscation, in terms of the complexity, the modularity and the size of obfuscated code. This methodology will not affect much in complexity or in size of the code. Even the original code and the obfuscated one will be not having much difference according to the modularity. This proposed obfuscation scheme may not be able to satisfy any strong definition of obfuscation, but the combination with any other obfuscation techniques to the same program, can go for a much better result. References The Effectiveness of Source Code Obfuscation: an Experimental Assessment, Mariano Ceccato, Massimiliano Di Penta, Jasvir Nagra,, Paolo Falcarin, In Proceedings of the17th IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC 2009),Vancouver, Canada, 17-19 May 2009.IEEE, pp-178-187, A Large Study on the Effect of Code Obfuscation on the Quality of Java Code, Mariano Ceccato, Andrea Capiluppi, Paolo Falcarin, Cornelia Boldyreff. Empirical Software Engineering, Springer, Towards experimental evaluation of code obfuscation techniques, Mariano Ceccato, Massimiliano Di Penta, Jasvir Nagra, Paolo Falcarin, Filippo Ricca, Marco Torchiano and Paolo Tonella..InQoP `08: Proceedings of the 4th ACM workshop on Quality of protection,Alexandria (Virginia), USA, 27 October 2008. ACM pp. 39-46 (2008). A family of experiments to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of source code obfuscation techniques, Mariano Ceccato,Massimiliano Di Penta,Paolo Falcarin,Filippo Ricca,Marco Torchiano,Paolo Tonella, Empirical Software Engineering, August 2014,Volume 19,Issue 4,pp 1040-1074 A New Code Obfuscation Scheme for Software Protection, 8th International Symposium on Service Oriented System Engineering (SOSE), 2014, Oxford, IEEExplorer, pp 409 – 414, DOI:10.1109/SOSE.2014.57 A taxonomy of obfuscating transformations , Collberg C, Thomborson C, Low D (1997). Technical Report 148, Dept. of Computer Science, The Univ. of Auckland Protecting software code by guards. Chang H, Atallah M (2002) In: ACM workshop on security and privacy in digital rights management. ACM Program obfuscation: a quantitative approach., Anckaert B, Madou M, Sutter BD, Bus BD, Bosschere KD, Preneel B (2007) In: QoP ’07: Proc. of the 2007 ACM workshop on quality of protection, ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp 15–20. doi:10.1145/1314257.1314263 Locating features in source code. Eisenbarth T, Koschke R, Simon D (2003) IEEE Trans Softw Eng 29(3):195–209 Deobfuscation: reverse engineering obfuscated code, Udupa S, Debray S, Madou M (2005). In: 12th working conference on reverse engineering. doi:10.1109/WCRE.2005.13 Obfuscated Malicious Code Detection with Path Condition Analysis, Wenqing Fan, Xue Lei, Jing An, Journal of Networks, Vol 9, No 5, May 2014, doi:10.4304/jnw.9.5.1208-1214 Static analysis of executables to detect malicious patterns, M. Christodorescu and S. Jha, In Proceedings of the 12th conference on USENIX Security Symposium Volume 12, Berkeley, CA, USA, 2003, pp. 12–12. Software protection technology research based on code obfuscation, Song Yaqi, Northwestern University, 2005 Hong Luo, Jiang Jianqin, Zeng Qingkai. Code obfuscation techniques based on software protection, Computer Engineering, 2006, Vol 32 No. 11 A. Balakrishnan and C. Schulze,†Code Obfuscation: Literature Survey†, Technical report, Computer Science Department, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, 2005. B. Anckaert, M. Madou, B. D. Sutter, B. D. Bus, K. D. Bosschere, and B. Preneel. †Program obfuscation: a quantitative approach†, In QoP ’07: Proc. of the 2007 ACM Workshop on Quality of protection, pages 15-20, New York, NY, USA,2007. ACM. Intellectual property protection using obfuscation, S. Drape et al. Proceedings of SAS 2009, 4779:133–144, 2009

History and overview of mass customization

History and overview of mass customization Mass Customization is an idea of bring mass production economics to further more value in customers satisfactory than before with just deliver one unit which is unique. David J. Gardners declare that he been helping manufactures implement mass customization since the early 1980s before Stanly Davis bestselling book in 1987 written about mass customization more in high-level business strategy for implementing mass customization to a manufacturing company.[1] Mass Customization have become standard now in the 21st century. Lets have some quick view for the evolution of the different business paradigms over the time: In above diagram, we can see that in the 19th -20th century many manufacture are inventing their business with the method of craft production, mass production and engineer-to-order technology by producing end product in profit and speed. When nearly the end of 20th century most manufacture try to revolute their businesses to mass customization paradigms which is more to distinct business paradigms by producing an product on demand and more in customers preference fit.[2] 1.2 Introduction to Mass Customization Mass Customization term was become well-known since Joseph Pine published his book Market of One- Creating Customer Unique Value through Mass Customization. In this book he defined Mass Customization as producing, developing, marketing and delivering affordable low cost and high quality of goods and services that give customer nearly what they want. In other words, the goal is provide end product that meet exactly what they want. [1][2] In Mass Customization business paradigms it must be dynamic or flexible enough to provide customer to design needed products themselves. Thus, it must be quick responsiveness to what customer needs, quantity supply, time of deliver and etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ In order to provide customer satisfaction the pricing cost and quality of products are important to be improved. [1] In this 21st century the most popular industry that success implements the Mass Customization and made a great benefit providing economic price to customer is Dell. Dell has become the world leader for PC markets in direct sales via Internet. In the way Dell site sell its computer is simply using the concept build-to-order which other words are for mass customization. They provide an arrangement of products and explain clearly to their customer what options the customer can select by their individual needs. The excellent job that Dell has done is build the on demand customize end product after customer proceed the order at their site and ship to customer less than 24hour. This is how Dell success in their business strategy by organized easy customized product across the enterprise and become the extended enterprise that the whole world known. Even though there are many companies in different kind of industry was success implementing the Mass Customization but there is also many of them fail. In the case study of business and economic research team with the title Failure of the Automobile Industry in Mass Customization Practices they mention that Mass Customization is not feasible for all companies or industries. Thus, in order for a company to success in implement Mass Customization strategy they need some key success factor require of strategy. [1] This will further discuss later chapter in the subject Key Success Factor. 1.3 Mass Customization (MC) toolkit Many companies in different kind of industries started to offer customer opportunity to customize their own products online. The companies provided a web-based mass customization (MC) toolkit that allow customer who prefer to have individualized products just like PCs and Laptops (Dell.com), T-Shirt (CustomInk.com), Sneakers (Nike.com), Kitchens (IKEA.com), Skis (Edelwiser.com) or Cars (Mini) to their specific preferences. MC toolkits defined as a set of user-friendly design tool which allow user to trial and experience of the design process and it deliver simulated immediate feedback on the outcome of design idea. Once a satisfactory design are made and paid, the products specification will be transferred to manufacture production system to be produced and delivered to the customer. Below have some of the existing web-based MC toolkit examples from different kind of industries: Figure 1.0 An Overview of MC toolkit examples from (www.mass-customization.de/mc07/) Mass Production Vs Mass Customization 2.1 Characteristics of Mass Production Mass production development process in to produce large amounts of standardized products in the arrangement of assembly lines.[4] Typically use large-scale production lines moving tracks or conveyor belts moving down the object of various workers.[4] Usually mass production is suitable for large and semi-homogeneous consumer groups. [4] Mass production is a large-scale capital-intensive production process: Although low labor costs and production efficiency, but through large-scale production machinery itself requires a lot of money and skilled labor to install equipment in large quantities.[4] Advantages Reduce the possibility of human error, improve product quality, reduce labor costs and reduce non-productive work. [4] Disadvantages Assembly line products are difficult to change once implemented and hard time of establishment. [4] Figure 2.0 Ford factory, first moving assembly line, 1913. 2.2 Characteristic of Mass Customization According www.madeforone.com, declare that mass customization enable customers to determine the exact product or service specification, and have the product or the price available to them closer to a general public for such services have replaced. [4] Mass customization often rely on production output, is customized for each user the use of flexible computer-aided manufacturing system. [4] Mass customized products in minimizing the cost of using the build-to-order method, in which a project is not constructed until the receipt of the order, is an important factor. [4] The product is built to meet the needs of individual customers. [4] It is a software-based product configuration that allows it to add / change a core product features. [4] In many cases, if a company offers individual products, the products are not made separately, but the emergence of mass production and variants or become personalized. [4] The interface or configure the system, is one of the important part that mediates between consumers and manufacturers as a key success of mass customization without a friendly-user interface and ease of use, the company will be difficult to be successful. [4] 3.0 Benefits and Drawbacks of Mass Customization (MC) 3.1 Benefits of MC Since the increase in number and variety of custom device by increasing the efficiency of reducing low-profit. Mass customization is a way to improve profits and reduce costs strategy of species. Whether your company is looking for incremental improvements or take your business next level, your company can not thrive as a custom, if the number and / or types are increasing. Mass customization is an enterprise-wide business model to improve efficiency across the enterprise, increase efficiency, expand your sales channels. Accelerate collaborative mass customization, the correct implementation of, and created a real excitement. 3.1.1 Benefit in the perspective of manufacture May help to gain a competitive advantage Lower costs (storage costs, costs related to Product is not for sale) Higher income the amount of profit agency manufacturers are likely to fall into account, and customers willing to pay customized products at higher prices. Build customer loyalty Better needs analysis customers through design their own products to provide a number of information about their preferences. Manufacturers and less endangered by demand changes in preferences (market turmoil) 3.1.2 Benefit in the perspective of customer Products more suited to customer preferences Greater opportunity to evaluate alternatives Whether it is possible to buy at any time and any place (In the case of purchase through the Internet) Convenience of customers 3.2 Drawbacks of MC 3.2.1 Drawbacks in the perspective of manufacture As for the management of high demand and production systems. Sometimes costly investment in IT, a flexible manufacturing system and the necessary training. The risk of failure in addition to mass customization success stories, there are some cases of failure are too many. 3.2.1 Drawbacks in the perspective of customer Takes longer deliver period Cannot experience the final product Before buying More complex buying process Usually anonymous purchase 4.0 From Mass Production to Mass Customization In according to the journal Cracking the Code of Mass Customization the researcher has come out with the factors that needed in order to emerge from Mass Production to Mass Customization. The factors are Three Fundamental Capabilities (solution space development, robust process design and choice navigation) and also with several approaches and tool to help companies to develop those capability.[2] 4.1 Three Capabilities Required (Fundamental Capabilities) 4.1.1 Solution Space Development Identify the product attribute differences along these customers. [2] Innovation Toolkit: This software enabling customers to the large pool into a unique product change their preferences, so that each customer stressed that the demand may not be happy. Virtual Concept Testing: An effective through the creation of virtual prototyping and evaluation of submitted scores differentiated products approach the concept of potential customers. Customer Experience Intelligence: A tool for continuous collection of customer data transactions, behavior or experience and analyze information to determine customer preferences. 4.1.2 Robust Process Design Reuse or reorganization and value chain of existing resources to meet the different demands of customers streaming [2] Flexible automation: Automation is not fixed or rigid, and can handle custom tangible or intangible goods Process modularity: Split into reusable or re-performance of the module differentiated customer value chain of existing organizations and resources. Adaptive human capital: Developing the management and staff who can handle the new and ambiguous tasks. 4.1.3 Choice Navigation Support customers in defining their own solutions, while minimizing the burden of complexity and choice [2] Assortment matching: Software solution to match an existing space charactenstics (is a set of options) with the customer demand model, and then make product recommendations Fast-cycle, trial-and-error learning: Is a way to enable customers to build their demand model and test the interaction between the model and the available solutions to match Embedded configuration: Products that understand how they should adapt to the customers and then reconfigure itself accordingly 4.2 The Mass Production-Mass Customization Continuum In order for a business from mass production to mass customization they must go through the process of building the organizational capabilities (solution space development, robust process design and choice navigation). During the process company might need to improve all three capabilities at the same time. Dell, has done developed their personal organizational capability toward mass customization that suitable for them and bring ford great result of sales and customer satisfactions. [2] Figure 3.0 Dell define it solution space and build a very robust processes, choice navigation still improving. 5.0 Key Success Factors Mass customization is that manufacturers able to produce customize product on demand, large-scale and lower costs.  But how can we do this?  Most experts believe that mass customization will success depends on the following factors: [1] 5.1 Modular Product Design Each module retains its specific processes (or work) business authority.  Without this, personalized products will be very difficult, time consuming, the terms of the slow and very expensive.  In modular product design, product designs are under some module or process so that able to produce any type of customization. [1] Requirements When necessary preparatory work (which requires an effective supply network), skilled and qualified staff of highly educated investment. High standardization of components For organizational structure, improve the coordination between modules Benefits Standard components maximize in number of forms used in all products. Shorten production time: because all the modules can be done simultaneously (and not in a sequence) to complete, and therefore greatly reduce the time needed for the production. Easy to diagnose production problems (quality, defective products and etc.), resulting in a special isolation control potential quality issues 5.2 Flexible Manufacturing Process Mass Customization produces a variety of different products.  This requires a high degree of flexibility in manufacturing systems.  This factor reflects the capacity to adapt to the differences in the products as a result of the lead time, cost in changing the system and small sum of ordered products. Usually if a company is to effectively organize its modular product design, flexible manufacturing system, so it provides the type and characteristics of time reducing costs. [1] 5.3 Sophisticated Order Management Mass customization is based on deep understanding of customer needs.  Because individual needs are very different, order management system is critical to enhance the manufacturer and customer relationships.  It (the system) to provide such a database, each client works open a wide range of profiles, and manage the large number of orders for many customers and clients the breadth, and through tracking, and allows easy access to the status of each order in anytime. [1] Requirements Close the relationship with customers High system capacity to handle large amounts of information (databases, transactions, etc.) Along the value chain (through the order management system) is highly integrated: a high degree of customer participation in the means of product configuration, marketing, sales, manufacturing, distribution, customer requirements also need to know accurate information. An order management system, a typical example is Dell Computer.  The site (www.dell.com) allows customers to interact directly with the companies presented their demands.  Customers from a number of options, select with the products, just click on the screen to order these products.  As the inventory and manufacturing, integrating all the departments Dell sales, marketing, finance, billing, logistics, such as through the website, order processing, all of these sectors at the same time, the result is that customers can immediately know, in a very fast and accurately all  conditions of purchase. 5.4 Integrated information system Information systems role in mass customization is the key to success.  The main features of mass customization the uncertainty of the requirements plus the requirements of flexible manufacturing, short delivery times, flexibility and rapid response capacity accurately, for an efficient information system to ensure that the information mobile phone is smooth and accurate  between customers and manufacturers, has become the companys segments.  In order to manage this small to minute, and more to multiple decision-making, decision support systems, integration of all participants in the organization of information, as well as with customers and manufacturers is essential. [1] 5.5 Postponement of assembly The uncertainty of demand for mass customization is a production operating costs are a major obstacle.  The system run-time requirements than low production capacity point of view is a fear of sleep, because the manufacturers have closed down days operating on fixed assets, inventory management costs, salaries of maintenance work, heavy, etc., but these costs can be eliminated if the company solutions to lower demand for delay operations.  However, it can still ensure that the operation will restart quickly, if demand suddenly rose.   A solution to address this challenge is generated by externalities.  For example, Nike does not produce itself and its partners in Asia, responsible for the production through the contract.  Nikes investment in assembly, material inventory of machines, workers, and factory management is essentially zero.  So, when demand falls, Nike just to adjust the contract delivery schedule.  In this way, the burden of fixed costs is no longer Nike.  For some products, its packaging division is the foundation, the company can outsource packaging steps to reduce the uncertainty of demand fluctuations. [1] 6.0 The Evolution to Mass Customization Mass Production Craft Production Mass Customization Engineer-to-Order Craftsmanship Time 18th century 21st century 6.1 Craftsmanship Craftsmanship is the oldest thousands of years the only methods of production.  It is based on a few handmade commodities and delivery of services in a small workshop manual production.  At the end of 18th century and in the beginning of 19th century there was a breakthrough and started move in to craft production. 6.2 Craft Production Craft production or (One-off production- individual article or a large-scale production prototype) is the process of manufacturing by hand with or without aid of tools. [5] Therefore, hand tools begin to display by machine and the craftsmanship productions goods and services important reduce from time pass though process in moving to craft production. In term of craft production it refers to parts of the handmade production is automated, but through human factors (skills, experiences and traditions) remains is significant. Craft production was move in at 19th century. 6.3 Mass Production Mass production  (also called  flow production,  repetitive flow production,  series production, or  serial production)  is production of large number of standardized products, including in particular on the assembly line.[6] In different way of production goods and delivery services simultaneously with manufacturing machine is mass production. In craft production one shop craftsmen busy get parts and assembly together, but in mass production one or more duplicate each worker using the same tools to perform the same consistent product flow or near the action-related tasks.[6] In the starting of 20th century Mass Production was being a standards for many companies. So, what is the improvement from craft production to mass production then? See below advantages and disadvantages of mass production. Advantages Shorter time to production (exact tool or parts always on hand cut short assembling time) [6] Human error are reduce cause mostly process carry by machinery. [6] Reduction labour cost and increase production speed per unit carry out by machinery in large-scale. [6] Disadvantages Inflexible or difficult to change the production line and takes long time to implement it. [6] Difficult to satisfy individual taste by the similar production.[6] 6.4 Engineer-to-Order Engineer to order (ETO) is a manufacturing concept, the finished product built to unique customer specifications. General Assembly and the raw materials inventory, but may not go to the product assembly, until the receipt of customer orders and part of the design.  ETO products may require a project number, a unique set of materials, as well as routes, and usually a very long time and complexity.  Active participation and engineers throughout the design process of ordering products. [7] ETO same time may refers to Build-to-Order (BTO) which is also a production approach of waiting the order confirm and build it. BTO and ETO are the approach that is most nearer to Mass Customization approach because it waited customer to confirm their order that they choose and produce it. In the middle of 20th century ETO was being implemented. 6.5 Mass Customization Mass Customization is an approach that combination with mass production, but is delivering customize product to individual. According to Frank Piller et al said in the business of consumer-focused line of creative strategy, mass customization can be seen as first elaborated the concept, with more than twenty years (the term was created in 1987, Stan Davis) history.  [8] Mass customization, it seems becoming the 21st-century standards.  It offering customize product that meet individual demands and still remain the efficiency of mass production. To achieve these efficiency requirements, mass customization system is defined by a fixed solution space in order to stabilize but still flexible, the characteristics of the reaction process.  [8] Therefore, the costs associated with mass customization should allow for a price level that does not mean the market as a switch.  The solution is the use of space, who is in the process of the manufacturers comprehensive definition of value creation, configuration or modify the options in a given choice of their respective solutions.  If you do not deeply involve in the customer, the manufacturer will not be able to fully fill the needs of each individual product.  Special tools package should enable customers to perform their tasks in this configuration. [8] From the evolution from craftsmanship to mass customization, we can see how business flow comes through started focus on individual, then to many consumers and lastly come back again to focus back on individual needs to gain competitive advantages. Mass customization can be categories into three type (Sung Park) said: Digital Front End/Digital Back End: Described it as like the Amazon based on your interest in a fully digital fashion unique pages. [8] Digital Front End/Physical Customization and Assembly: Most businesses will fall into this bucket of mass customization.  You design Web-based CAD interface stuff, and some of its factories for the production of improved traditional manufacturing process.  E.g. NikeID, fashion Playtes, or Paragon Lake. [8] Sensor based Front End/CAD-CAM Back End: This is a relatively passive experience, the best description of the Bronte sisters.  In their case the sensor, so that your mouth model, and automated equipment (three-dimensional printer) produces a scanned copy of the physical.  There is little human intervention or interference. [8] 7.0 The Effects in Mass Customization Through the research of Mass Customization (MC), I found a very good journal that support MC effects that generate value to customer which title The I Design It Myself Effect in Mass Customization. Many companies has offer their website that enable customer to customize their own individual customize product which manufacture can produce once confirm order. To this matter, MC toolkits was the significant and roles to gain competitive advantages to generate economic value to customer. There were four factors for MC toolkits needed to achieve: [3] Preference fits: achieved by self design products (should be as high as possible) [3] Design effort: which is refers to cost (should be as low as possible) [3] The awareness of being the creator of the product design: a feeling of accomplishment from the process of self designing in subject value of the product. [3] Willingness to pay: when the feeling of accomplishment of the self-design are high then the WTP will be high also and generate value to the creator. [3] Above factors are important for companies to develop MC toolkits generate values to the consumer. Therefore, the user-friendly interface, innovative and design of MC toolkits should be good enough to gain customer satisfaction in term of the effects that mention above. 8.0 Critical Evaluations 8.1 Why I choose Mass Customization for FYP project? For explain question above, first we need to know now normally most people can sell things online within just 15min or less than 30min, then they can create a website and start their businesses from (ebay, blog and free siteà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦etc). So, what is my purpose to implement Mass Customization approach in my FYP project? It is to gain competitive advantages and innovative of web design to attract people come to my site. As now ecommerce have been commonly heard and become a traditional way for businesses online. So, what will makes it different? Lets see the answer below: Picture 1: This is the traditional way of T-shirt selling online from (www.t-shirts.com) Picture 2: This is the site that implemented mass customization method that selling T-shirt by customer own design from (www.rainbowsports.com) Now, we can clearly see the answer of implementation of mass customization in online business is important and some strategies and factors to success in mass customization as I have discussed above at Chapter 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 and 7.0. 8.2 What is the way to create Mass Customization Site? Well, there is no fix way or range of making a mass customization site as long as we can develop the MC toolkits. As we study in IT in TARC College we learn a lot of technology, software tools and programming languages that can help us to design and come out with our own toolkits by the range our knowledge and effort we put in. I have decide some several ways to create a T-shirt Customization tools with using Asp.net (visual basic code) for the Web pages, Oracle database (Oracle Express 10g free version), Silverlight or Adobe Flash CS3 Professional (Flash which use to create the MC toolkits for T-shirt customization). 8.3 Does MC make your FYP project applicable to real business? Yes, it will be possible if my project been successfully meeting those requirements in the key success factors and achieved the effects that mention above chapter 7.0 and 5.0. Thus, also include with the advanced of programming code and tools being used to develop a standard website that can probably compete against other companies website. MC website can be in three type of categories that mentions at the 6.5 mass customization to make our site in specific area focus on customer. Thus, to create a uniqueness MC website we need to refer to 4.1 Three Fundamental Capability that needs to be continuously improved for goods and services provided using MC toolkits. 8.4 Will your complete your FYP with what you have planned? For this matter, it will be possible done but in term of time given maybe is a bit rush and hard to complete fully with myself alone. So, this is where the challenge I should face and to wisely spending the time in researching coding and designing user-interface. Therefore, I may look forward to my friend in other courses to help in different area such as flash in action script 3.0 and designing. Lastly, I hope this project would be successful completed in time and in future work it may possible for me to look forward 3D customization in web design. Harvard Reference [1] Pollard, D. and Shirley, C. and Brian, L. 2008. Journal of Business Economics Research: Strategies For Mass Customization. Vol. 6, No.7, pp.77-86 [2] Salvador, F. and Holan, P.M. and Piller, F. 2009. Cracking the Code of Mass Customization. MIT SLOAN Management Review. Vol.50, No.3, pp.71-78 [3] Franke, N. and Schreier, M. and Kaiser, U. 2010. The I Designed It Myself Effect in Mass Customization. Management Science. Vol. 56, No. 1, pp.125-140 Online/ Others Resources [4] Seaman, K. 2007. Mass Production versus Mass Customization. Viewed on 24 October 2010. Available from: [5] Wikipedia, 2010. Craft Production. Viewed on 30 October 2010. Available from: [6] Wikipedia, 2010. Mass Production. Viewed on 30 October 2010. Available from: [7] BigMachines, 2010. Engineer-to-Order (ETO). Viewed on 30 October 2010. Available from: [8] P2P Foundation Wiki, 2009. Mass Customization. Viewed on 30 October 2010. Available from: [9] David J. Gardner. 2009. Some Benefits of Mass Customization. Viewed on 30 October 2010. Available from:

The Physiology and Psychology of Bulimia Essay -- Eating Disorder Weig

The Physiology and Psychology of Bulimia Bulimia is a disorder centered around an individual’s obsession with food and weight. This obsession involves eating large quantities of food, feeling guilty about the food consumption, and taking drastic measures to prevent caloric/fat absorption. Measures vary with each individual and include one or all of the following: forced vomiting, abuse of laxatives or diuretics, or excessive exercise. This disease affects one to three percent of adolescent and young women in the United States, and bulimic behaviors are displayed by ten to twenty percent of adolescent and young women in the United States (http://dcs.engr.widener.edu/galla/gal la.htm). In the studies of bulimia nervosa there is a continuing debate concerning the underlying cause of the disease - whether it is physiological or psychological. Studies have found convincing results for both theories. Numerous links have been found between eating regulation and neurotransmitters. However, there is no clear evidence that neurotransmitter dysfunction is the underlying cause of bulimia nervosa. Of the neurotransmitters that have been tested, serotonin has had one of the largest roles in the regulation of food intake among patients with bulimia. Progress has also come through treating bulimia as a psychological disorder. Treatment under this theory often involves psychotherapy and the use of antidepressants. However, it is widely accepted that the path to the best results involves the combination of both physiological and psychological methods of treatment. First, the physiological aspect will be explored. Assuming that eating regulation is controlled primarily by the brain, disturbances could exist in several places: (1) the br... ... Kaye, Walter H. and Harry E. Gwirtsman, eds. (1985). The Treatment of Normal Weight Bulimia, Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press. Pope, H.G., Jr. and Hudson, J.I. (1982). "Treating Bulimia with Antidepressants." Psychopharmacology, 78, 176-179. Stunkard, Albert J. and Eliot Stellar, eds. (1984). Eating and Its Disorders: Research Publications, 62, 84; 259-260. Walsh, Timothy B. (1988). Eating Behavior in Eating Disorders, Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press. Winik, Myron, ed. (1988). Control of Appetite: Current Concepts in Nutrition, 16, 27-34; 82-83. Wurtman, J.J. and R.J. Wurtman, et al. (1981). "Carbohydrate Craving in Obese People: Suppression of Serotoninergic Transmission." International Journal of Eating Disorders, 1, 2-14. Wurtman, J.J. and R.J. Wurtman, eds. (1979). Disorders of Eating: Nutrition and the Brain, 3, 121. The Physiology and Psychology of Bulimia Essay -- Eating Disorder Weig The Physiology and Psychology of Bulimia Bulimia is a disorder centered around an individual’s obsession with food and weight. This obsession involves eating large quantities of food, feeling guilty about the food consumption, and taking drastic measures to prevent caloric/fat absorption. Measures vary with each individual and include one or all of the following: forced vomiting, abuse of laxatives or diuretics, or excessive exercise. This disease affects one to three percent of adolescent and young women in the United States, and bulimic behaviors are displayed by ten to twenty percent of adolescent and young women in the United States (http://dcs.engr.widener.edu/galla/gal la.htm). In the studies of bulimia nervosa there is a continuing debate concerning the underlying cause of the disease - whether it is physiological or psychological. Studies have found convincing results for both theories. Numerous links have been found between eating regulation and neurotransmitters. However, there is no clear evidence that neurotransmitter dysfunction is the underlying cause of bulimia nervosa. Of the neurotransmitters that have been tested, serotonin has had one of the largest roles in the regulation of food intake among patients with bulimia. Progress has also come through treating bulimia as a psychological disorder. Treatment under this theory often involves psychotherapy and the use of antidepressants. However, it is widely accepted that the path to the best results involves the combination of both physiological and psychological methods of treatment. First, the physiological aspect will be explored. Assuming that eating regulation is controlled primarily by the brain, disturbances could exist in several places: (1) the br... ... Kaye, Walter H. and Harry E. Gwirtsman, eds. (1985). The Treatment of Normal Weight Bulimia, Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press. Pope, H.G., Jr. and Hudson, J.I. (1982). "Treating Bulimia with Antidepressants." Psychopharmacology, 78, 176-179. Stunkard, Albert J. and Eliot Stellar, eds. (1984). Eating and Its Disorders: Research Publications, 62, 84; 259-260. Walsh, Timothy B. (1988). Eating Behavior in Eating Disorders, Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press. Winik, Myron, ed. (1988). Control of Appetite: Current Concepts in Nutrition, 16, 27-34; 82-83. Wurtman, J.J. and R.J. Wurtman, et al. (1981). "Carbohydrate Craving in Obese People: Suppression of Serotoninergic Transmission." International Journal of Eating Disorders, 1, 2-14. Wurtman, J.J. and R.J. Wurtman, eds. (1979). Disorders of Eating: Nutrition and the Brain, 3, 121.

Epic of Beowulf Essay - Beowulf and the Hero Myth :: Epic of Beowulf Essay

Beowulf and the Hero Myth Beowulf contains a myriad of different heroic ethical and social values. Most of these values are ingeniously rooted within, or made evident by the opposing forces of the poem. The initial opposing force arrives in the form of Grendel, a vile creature who's rampages mirror that of a modern serial killer. As the poem draws toward the conclusion, it focuses on the dragon, a creature developed by the poet to solidify the rise and fall of the archetypal hero. After Adolf Hitler failed in his artistic studies at Vienna, he began to develop what would become a reign of terror on those who were not like him. His backlash towards a society that rejected him as an artist spawned his anti-Semitic and political beliefs. The same anti-societal anger has found its way into the minds of countless other killers, both past and present. Take for example Theodore (Ted) Bundy, who in 1978, after watching students drink and dance in a college bar, witnessed "a healthy ritual of joy from which we know he forever felt exiled". Shortly thereafter, Bundy left the bar and traveled to the Chi Omega sorority house where he watched from outside, entered, and then killed two girls and wounded two others. Just as Bundy had done, Grendel watched and surveyed from the distance. He waited outside the great hall, listening to the mirth and celebration from within. He hated them. The revelers inside felt no "misery of men." They were not uninvited, outcast, and below the social class of Hrothgar's company. These feelings of inadequacy propel Grendel to slaughter those who oppress him. For "twelve winters" he smashes bodies and eats his victims, creating a bloody rampage and a dire need for a savior. The question of Grendel's origin is difficult to trace. The author remains ambiguous throughout the poem, referring to Grendel as biblical, but also suggesting that he is human. The original manuscript often refers to Grendel as "man", but man" with a long vowel meant evil, whereas "man" with a short vowel literally meant a man. It cannot be certain which pronunciation the author intended, what has been butchered in the translation, or whether this was meant to be a crafty play on words.

Pros and Cons of green technology Essay

Green technology is a term that is being was from the time when Mother Nature started to reflect the consequences of the human’s actions. Since the global population start to grow rapidly, the demand of services and products have grow as well, so the human have to had to think more about how to do a better use of the nonrenewable resources. This problem has carried the continuous development of methods and materials that do not affect the environment. Nowadays expertise, companies and government are working hard on the generation of mechanisms and techniques to avoid and diminish environmental contamination. However, green technology has some disadvantages that do not allow people to afford it, and support more this environmental cause. The origin of the use of green technology start when according to Walsh, Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried to force those drivers to go hybrid before New York City ever had its yellow fleet of gas-guzzling taxis. There was a thriving electric-taxi company at the turn of the 20th century that served the entire metropolis, and green technology was considered something of the future. By that time there to clean up an economy that has been inexorably built on fossil fuels on coal, oil and gasoline-powered automobiles. However, today big businesses do care about the future of the world if any measurable actions are not taken care, and executed. The first advantage of using green technology is that with the use of renewable resources future generations are not going to be threatening for the lack of natural and clean resources, like clean air and clean water. Implementing sustainable materials and methods that meet society needs in manners that do not deplete natural resources, guarantee the life of the planet. This new kind of technology brings the creation of sustainable materials that reduce the impact on the environment. These materials improve indoor air quality, energy efficiency, water conservation, and affordability. Talk about sustainable materials includes green buildings. The requirements that build green building includes energy efficiency, renewable energy water, water efficiency, environmentally building materials and specifications, waste reductions, toxics reduction,  indoor air quality and smart growth and sustainable development. Stated in (Energy in Green Building) buildings in United States involve 35 percent of direct energy use, of that 35 percent, 64 percent goes into heating, ventilation, and air conditioning; 24 percent heats hot water; 13 percent provides lighting; and electrical appliances are beginning to cut a significant wedge into the pie. In terms of carbon dioxide production, in total, buildings are responsible for 48% of all greenhouse gasses. Strategically placing windows and skylights can eliminate the need for electrical lighting during the day and reduce from 20 to 30 percent the energy use. The creation of sustainable materials is one of those challenges of the companies nowadays. In fact all the products of manufacturing companies need to have a conformity certification, and that guaranty to the costumer a product with quality. This is an job of Underwriters Laboratories (UL) is one of the labs that awards manufactured products to be within the standards parameters, now is bestowing a sustainable materials certificate. Supplies such as pencils of reforested certified wood by Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) assure people that this pencil was from a renewable resource, also the crayons made petroleum free. Environmentalists suggest using paper rolls and paper pad recycled. Also using paper bags from recycle paper helps the environment. Besides there are different supplies made from organic cotton that are free of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. Eco friendly paints are a good option not only for the environment but also for the people that live in this house or apartment. Paint free of VOC will reduce the pollution in the house due to the poisonous gases that the paint gives off even when is dry, and cause an immense destruction to the environment. Another good decision is a cork floor is an inexpensive and durable material. Green technology has carried a lot of innovation of technology that does not affect the environment, and also has cause changes in patterns of production and consumption. Going green is also an advantage in a difficult economy when the recycle is place in practice, for example, According to NRDC, Bank of America reduced the weight of its ATM receipts from 20 pounds to 15 pounds, saving paper, transportation, storing and handling costs, to the tune of $500,000 a year. Coca-Cola’s efforts to cut down on packaging saved it $100 million. The use of renewable energy is economically and environmentally viable. In the United States, wind farms are going up across the nation, providing electricity at the competitive wholesale rate of three to five cents per kilowatt-hour (Energy in Green Building). Shell Oil estimated that for the â€Å"by 2010 commercial energy from biomass could provide five percent of the world’s power.† The value of that energy production could be over $20 billion. The environment pollution in the use of fossil fuels is causing sicknesses and diseases in the human health. â€Å"Air pollution is causing more deaths than HIV or malaria combined,† Kandeh Yumkella, director general of the U.N. Industrial Development Organization said. A 2012 World Health Organization (WHO) study found that 3.5 million people die early annually from indoor air pollution and 3.3 million from outdoor air pollution. Toxic particles shorten lives by causing diseases such as pneumonia or cancer. â€Å"Still, it means more than 6 million deaths every year caused by air pollution,† said Neira. â€Å"The horrible thing is that this will be growing† because of rising use of fossil fuels. On the contrary part green technology has some disadvantages. The first reason why no many people or industries choose green technology is for the highest production cost that this represents. Eco-friendly products need new research and technology that might be invested in the searched of new materials and ways of production that do not affect to the nature. The higher cost is due to the small amount of eco-friendly products on the market, so for the manufacturers complicated the cost-cutting. For example Consumer Search estimates that you will pay about $1,000 more for a furnace that’s 90 percent efficient than one that’s 80 percent efficient. Over the life of the furnace however, you will likely save much more than $1,000 in fuel costs if you choose the more efficient unit. According to MSN, a fuel-efficient vehicle costs up to $4,000 more upfront than vehicles with standard fuel efficiency. Even though more efficient vehicles can lower fuel costs for years and help protect the environment, many buyers are just not willing to invest in efficient (Cost of Going Green). Stated by Jon Kaplan, owner of Greenworks Cabinetry, a Florida company that manufactures eco-friendly furniture products, he must get many of his building materials from the West Coast and even Asia, which  leads to higher prices for the consumer. Since the 2008 a company named Nstar initiated a program that supplied energy coming from wind farms in Maine and upstate New York. At the beginning of the program customers decided to paid 1.4 cents more per kilowatt per hour, increase the price of the kilowatt from 12.5 to 13.9. At the beginning the number of customers was 8,368 customers in January 2010, but this number that decreased to 6,163 people using the NStar Green service. Some green alternatives like environment-friendly toiletries, wood furniture and organic materials cost more than non-green products. The use of bio-fuel can provide a number of advantages over conventional forms of energy. Meanwhile using fossil fuel increase the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and in the United States (GHG) represent about a third of total U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide, the use of bio-fuels can reduce significantly the greenhouse effect. On a full fuel-cycle basis, corn ethanol has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 52% over petroleum-based fuels using bio-fuels such as coal, natural gas, and biomass will reduce however this can represent a problem due to the raise of the prices of certain kind of food. Using food crops to produce ethanol will raise the nutritional problems (â€Å"Environmental Benefits of Bio-fuels†). According to the World Health Organization, nearly 60 percent of the people on earth are currently malnourished. This means that the use of corn for ethanol production will increase the price of the beef, eggs, white meat and fish. Pimentel States that the hungry problem rise in the mid –century from 8 to 9 million because the lack of food because it was burned more grain as fuel. Another fact that can be attributing to the use of bio-fuel is the inconsistence of some of the available renewable options of fuels is inconsistent. For example if it is wanted to produce energy from the wind, the space require to install wind turbines need to be large, this will reduce the space dedicated for harvest and food production, and cattle. Moreover there are certain places where the wind is not as good for energy production, as if the turbines are installed near the ocean, this will restrict the tourism growth, and at least 16 feet waves are required for the turbines’ efficiency. Wind energy is also noisy and that’s the reason why they are constructed in areas far away of human life. This is a threat to the wild life. The use of solar energy is very expensive and only works during the day. Photovoltaic batteries can be used,  but the price of them are increasing, and also the location of the solar panels is very important, so they must be installed in areas where the shadows of other buildings do not affect its efficacy. The third con of going green is in put up in green buildings. Likewise green buildings have a high cost in its construction, it is contradictory that the main purpose of it it is the money saving. Thus this is because most of the materials are not available in America, so the importations increase the price of them immediately. Nevertheless not only this, green buildings do not affect directly to the environment but for the people inside the building it does. This is because basically all the recycle materials used have harmful chemical products that emit toxins and affect the indoor air. For example the fluorescent lights used emit radiations which affect the health. Work Cited Beach, Emely â€Å"Cons of going green† Apr 29, 2011, Web. Apr. 17, 2013. Doyle, Alyster. â€Å"Air pollution scourge underestimated, green energy can help: U.N.† Web Apr 17, 2013 < http://www.reuters.com> Walsh, Bryan. â€Å"The Surprisingly Long History of Green Energy† Apr. 06, 2011 http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-are-the-disadvantages-of-green-buildings.html The Disadvantages of Going Green for a Corporation by Chris Joseph, Demand Media http://smallbusiness.chron.com/disadvantages-going-green-corporation-3318.html The high cost of going green Premium for NStar wind program rises sharply BY: Bruce Mohl November 29, 2012 Greening Business Earthshare.org. http://www.earthshare.org/greening-business.html