System of Structuring Cities and Understanding Interactions between Essay

System of Structuring Cities and Understanding Interactions between Individual Components within Sets - Essay Example Jane Jacobs illustrates this point most clearly in her chapter in The Death and Life of Great American Cities, â€Å"Uses of Sidewalks: Safety.† In this chapter, Jacobs attempts to analyze the ways in which sidewalks serve as a safety network for various cities. They do this in several ways, from the most basic, elevating and separating pedestrians from bikes and cars which could be dangerous to them, to much more complex systems. It is incredibly important, however, that Jacobs recognizes that the sidewalks in and of themselves do very little to create or destroy a safe environment. Jacobs indicates that people are not merely â€Å"passive beneficiaries of safety or helpless victims of danger† on sidewalks (30), but rather, everyone who participates in the interactions involved on sidewalks, from people in houses and businesses bordering the sidewalk, to the cars bordering the other side, to the pedestrians actually on the sidewalk, all have an important part to play i n keeping these sidewalks safe. She then identifies the human factors that help to keep a feeling of safety or un-safety on sidewalks. Things like high turnover of housing, little community feeling and empty streets with occasional traffic but easy access all lead to feeling (and reality) of un-safety – people are not likely to intervene on each other’s behalf and there is not a high enough mass of people and inter-person respect to provide a feeling of safety. But Jacobs is quick to point out that this safety is not merely a reflection of population density, because if it was, Los Angeles, which is nearly entirely suburban, would have a low rather than high crime rate (32). She also makes it very clear that police cannot solve this problem, and that in fact places with high police presence tend to be the most dangerous – police cannot solve the problems of unsafe cities (31). So to Jacobs the problems of creating safety in cities must rest with people – how to create public spaces in streets and sidewalks that discourage feelings of un-safety while encouraging feelings of community that create a safer environment for everyone. The idea of people being the fundamental unit of architecture appears in the works of Christopher Alexander and Le Corbusier as well, though they take almost opposite tracks to understanding how to fascilitate people’s use of cities. Both recognize very clearly that the living, breathing city is created by people – not the physical spaces, but the people that inhabit them. Alexander takes a natural view of cities, using semilattice and set theory to describe the ways a cities parts interact, through people. He strongly dislikes artificial cities, saying that there is something necessarily missing from them, and that artificial cities tend to create a â€Å"tree† system, where each component is only interrelated to each other through its connection to the whole (80). Each leaf is only conn ected to each other leaf because they are connected to the tree – not because they have any particular relationship to each other.

Community College Issue Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Community College Issue Paper - Essay Example Later in the year 2000, the name of the educational institute was again changed to Atlanta Technical College (Atlanta Technical College, 2011). The purpose of the college since its establishment has been to generate awareness and facilitate access to better career opportunities through its contribution in the education sector, which can further facilitate the society to enhance lifestyle. The college thereby intended to benefit students by providing quality support services and programs that could ensure satisfaction among the learners assisting them with greater growth prospects. The college aims to develop the adult learners with efficient qualities to perform in the employment sector within the local, state, national and international contexts. It also aims to ensure the education quality of the institution with due regard to the external economic environment and the changes taking place in relation to the socio-cultural dimensions (Atlanta Technical College, 2011). The Campus Lay out The campus layout of the Atlanta Tech Area allows entrance from both the Southern Direction and the Northern Direction. The campus layout of Atlanta Technical College comprises the Cleveland L. Dennard Building and the Main Campus. The Cleveland L. Dennard Building further includes the Cleveland L. ... m. (Atlanta Technical College, n.d.). Undoubtedly, the university venue is spread in a vast area which increases the requirement of facilitating easy searching for buildings and classrooms. It is worth mentioning in this regard that the college directs its visitors through appropriate map of its buildings and the surrounding area in its official website enhancing the ease to find out the venue. Furthermore, students and visitors are also assisted with adequate information from the receptions which are present in almost every building of the college (Atlanta Technical College, 2011). The campus map has been illustrated below. Campus Layout of Atlanta Tech Area (Atlanta Technical College, 2011) Admission and Registration Processes Atlanta Technical College is open for all students who are eligible for admission in colleges and being devoted towards satisfying the needs of education in the modern society irrespective of racial, ethnic, and age based differences among others. The admissi on and the registration process practiced in the college can be identified as a multi-step procedure that attempts to examine the academic qualifications and competitiveness of passing high school degree to select the qualified candidates. The applicants for the admission procedure are therefore examined on the basis of certain criteria specified in the terms and conditions of the entrance tests. The college also practices transparency policies, in accordance to which, if applicants are found to obtain admission through false information, they would be terminated without the repayment of the admission fees. Additionally, as a punitive measure, the documents and related information of applicants are to be withheld by the college authority and restricting the

Retaining Customers Essay Example for Free

Retaining Customers Essay BT is one of the largest communications companies in the world. One of the services they offer is residential or personal communications solutions. Even though they now have competition from other companies offering consumers substitutes for their service, they still hold the largest market share of providing residential customers with telephone lines. For BT to maintain this market share, they must retain the customers they have. I will be recommending how they can retain their customer base as well as winning new customers. I will be looking at several models and theories in order to do this. * Making Customers into Champions * The case of the complaining customer * The tip of the Iceberg Model From BT a customer receives a core service. Telephony. The customer expects the telephone in their home to be working when they pick it up. They are not going to be wowed by the service if it is just working. However, when the customer makes contact with BT to enquire, change or add something they will use this opportunity to form a perception of BTs Customer Service. Most people who move to a different telephone provider do so because they perceive indifference in the people they do business with at their current company. Customer feedback tells BT that one of the biggest drivers of dissatisfaction is the difficulty in registering their complaint with BT. A large part of this dissatisfaction stems from a lack of promised callbacks and an initial difficulty in escalating their issue. This feedback has been substantiated by OFTEL in that the number of customers contacting them to complain that they have not received a promised call back has been increasing. OFTEL have given BT a very clear indication that they expect this situation to be addressed and therefore it is paramount that the following recommendations are implemented immediately. * Own, Decide, Do Training to be rolled out to all Customer Service Advisors. When a complaint is received in the 150 call centres the individual must own the complaint, make a decision about what to do with it and follow any promised action up with a call to the customer to let them know what happened. * Keeping the customer informed With some complaints resolution may not be speedy. There may be some technical difficulties, which hold resolution up. The customer does not know this and will perceive any periods of silence as the indifference of BT to their complaint. Keeping the customer informed of progress or news (good or bad) will enhance the customers perception of BT * EDCSMs (Event Driven Customer Service Measures), the service that BT offer customers must be analysed in order to measure its success. Through BTs sophisticated SMART datatbase, every contact with the customer is logged with the id of the advisor who took the call. This way trends can be spotted as well as training areas The barriers for the customer to successfully register their complaint are as follows: * The BT shunt BT is a huge business with over 20 large call centres taking in the freephone 150 (customer service) calls. It is very easy for complaints to get lost in the system. * The call steering system. There are many different numbers to press for different departments. It is difficult to speak to a human * The Call Handling Time that advisors are encouraged to adhere to. This measure the amount of time they are talkng with each customer in order to keep the Percentage of calls answered as high as possible. * Poor training and coaching target based coaching instead of skills based coaching In the longer term there are some other changes that should be implemented by BT over a period of time in order to instil enhanced behaviours in all employees. Traditionally employees of a company see a complaining customer as being a nuisance. BA challenged this when they introduced the Making Customers into Champions Model. This model can be directly applied to BT, who is, itself, striving to provide World Class Customer Service. This model labels different sectors of the customer base and how likely they are to contact BT with any dissatisfaction they may have and how easy it is to register this dissatisfaction. If the customer has a complaint and they cannot register this in any way, they may feel tempted to try a different provider. If the complaint is not registered then BT has not had a chance to resolve the complaint. If BT has a chance of resolving the issue, if it is resolved skilfully and well, research suggests that this could actually enhance the customers perception of BT. So, in short, a customer complaint can turn in to a glowing report for BT. Furthermore, if we make BTs customers in to champions, BT can learn from the mistakes they have made that might have caused complaints in order that they do not occur again. * A dissatisfied customer will tell between 10 and 20 other people about their problem * A customer who has had a problem resolved will tell 5 people about their situation The case of the complaining customer is a valuable study that BT should already have taken heed of. The problems experienced by Mr Shelton almost mirror the experiences some BT customers have when things go wrong and customer relations are tested to the full. It may be tempting for some employees working for such a huge cash cow as BT to believe that BT can afford to lose difficult customers. This study shows that whilst few customers actually take the time and energy that Mr Shelton did to complain, there are actually many other dissatisfied customers (Mr Shelton is just the tip of the Iceberg). These customers are the missing in action group and will just quietly take their custom elsewhere and thus impact significantly on BTs profit margins. The article points out that whilst it would be easy for us to read Mr Sheltons contacts with the company as neurotic, in actual fact Mr Shelton has responded very emotionally to the way he feels his complaint has been dealt with. Customers should be allowed to vent their feelings, feel listened to and valued before their problem is resolved. They are experiencing feelings of powerlessness and this will be compounded if they feel that an advisor is not listening to them. Paraphrasing can be a useful tool here, to show empathy and check for understanding. TARP published a graphic representing the Tip of the Iceberg Principle. It indicates that consumer complaints to a third party are only a small portion of those that exist. Theyre just the visible portion and reflect the much broader picture. This demonstrates how important it is for BT to be proactive in gaining feedback from customers at every possible opportunity. It was not the tip of the iceberg that sunk the Titanic, and it will not affect the business greatly if just those visible customers were dissatisfied with BTs service. Those that leave quietly will have the greatest impact and BT will have little or no information as to why they left. BT must strive to deal with any customer requests the first time every time. Here is a list of my recommendations for BT for implementing across the board over the next 12 months in order to retain customers. * A review of the training process all training should be underpinned with updated balance scorecard and appropriate coaching given by line managers * Quality must come before quantity. If all customers were dealt with the first time they called, there would be less calls * Approach customer complaints as a chance to dazzle and delight customers and enhance a customers perception of BT through a training programme * Work together with different departments and not as adversaries. Promote teamwork * Introduce an incentive scheme for teams and individuals who achieve excellent customer relations * Use customer feedback more effectively (EDCSMs)- find out what customers want/expect then exceed this * Give staff more responsibility and authority to deal with complaints. Allow then to be flexible when it comes to procedural rules. Stop quoting BT policy. * Allow a measure of redress such as goodwill payments and compensation payments In implementing the above and re-training staff, BT will retain greater numbers of customers. Existing customers (especially those we have information about) are an ideal group to market new products to as well gain information from about how to improve on the products and services BT has.

HIV/AIDS And Stigma | Essay

HIV/AIDS And Stigma | Essay HIV/AIDS is one of the challenges to human life and dignity. It affects all levels of society and has a massive impact on global economic and social development, (Rowden, 2009). Studies have been conducted on its impact on human life and how it could be controlled. This review was conducted by exploring literature from a variety of sources for published articles on HIV/AIDS and its stigma. Literature from research covering a period of 8 years from 2002-2010 was extracted from Assia, PubMed, Sage, British Medical Journal, Cochrane and Absco-host, and reviewed for the study, objectives, methodology and key findings. Relevant books, journals, documents and reports from organisations such as UNAIDS, and the World Bank were also reviewed. Both qualitative and quantitative data was used to present the information. Despite facing a lot of criticism on its top-down approach, the biomedical model remains the dominant concept in health and illness. Its credibility lies on its scientific methods and expert knowledge used to diagnose or understand illness and treatment. This model views the body as a machine composed of different parts working together for it to function. If one part is not functioning properly, the aim is to find what is wrong with it through diagnosis and fix it by prescribing medicine, (Taylor Hawley 2010:12). Focus is therefore restricted to the physical illness of an individuals body and the scientific understanding of disease, making the approach heavily based on pharmacology. While pharmacology is beneficial in the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS, it is criticised for promoting the privilege of the biomedical model, further enhancing undermining of alternative approaches to health and healing. The biomedical approach may be inappropriate to some communities and create fe elings of helplessness and vulnerability therefore affecting the success of the intervention. (Global Health Watch, 2008, Farmer, 1999). Lay concepts of health and illness are diverse and complex than those of the medical model. They focus on peoples experiences of health and illness in relation to their overall life experiences and are embedded within local social and cultural structures. Unlike in the biomedical approach, indigenous approaches seek to heal the whole person by linking the illness with the persons social and economic background, (Taylor, 2003). However critics of this model argue that lay concepts are difficult to evidence and research hence they remain marginalised and scarcely recognised as legitimate knowledge, (Taylor Hawley, 2010:13). On the contrary, Taylor, (2003) argues that lay perspective is crucial knowledge for public health as it identifies roots of illnesses for possible long term prevention and treatment for the larger population as compare to individually focused interventions. Influence of power systems such as the dominance of the medical model hinder progress on preventions and treatment of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and stigma as they govern relationships between health structures and lay people. Goffman, (1990), and Parker and Aggleton, (2003),s theories of stigma in helping us to understand how stigma is constructed and its influence in peoples lives view stigma and discrimination as functional systems which maintain boundaries between those in power and those without. Through such power, social inequalities are developed leading to creation of social norms. These formulate stigma by governing interactions between people and reinforce power structures that serve to maintain control of the powerless, (Farmer, 2005). Both theories have been widely used in HIV related stigma to highlight how prejudice, negative attitudes, abuse and maltreatment directed towards PLWHA have hindered the progress of prevention and treatment. Research highlights that stigma and discrimination in health care settings deriving from social power imbalances contribute a great deal in keeping people away from accessing HIV/AIDS treatment and care. Patients felt greatly affected by health workers feeling uncomfortable with them and treating them in an inferior manner. In Tanzania, some discriminatory and stigmatised practices such as gossiping about patients HIVs status, neglect, verbal abuse, testing and disclosing HIVs status without consent were noted, (D.C Synergy, 2005). Similarly in India, health workers were disclosing patients HIV status to their families without patients consent, (Mahedra et, al, 2007). Harassment, avoiding and isolation of HIV-positive patients and testing without counselling are common features of stigmatisation in most studies. Some health workers wore protective clothing even if there was no physical contact during interactions. Fear of being identified as infected with HIV also influenced people t o prolong testing for HIV and only accessed services when their illness was at an advanced stage, (Bond and Aggleton, 2002; Kinsler et al, 2007; Varga et al 2006; Kalichman and Simbayi, 2003). In Zambia, HIV-positive health workers were hiding their HIV status from their colleagues in fear of being stigmatised, (Dieleman et al, 2007). While most of the literature on HIV/AIDS and access to health services is negative, there is evidence of the value of supportive and de-stigmatising HIV services in some parts of the globe. Brazil has been hailed as a model by PLWHA. They reported supportive inclusive structural systems that create healthy environments that promote active participation of different groups in society and the government, (Caltado, 2008). In South Africa where most people believe in traditional healing, Aids Activism has made a positive significance in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment by translating and mediating the biomedical approach within local ideological frameworks which are easily understood and acted on by the locals, (Colvin, Robins, 2010). Literature reveals that collaboration between lay perspectives and biomedical approach is essential for successful control of HIV/AIDS and stigma. There is no cure for AIDS but Anti-retrovirals (ARVs) can prolong life by lowering levels of HIV in the body therefore delaying the process between HIV and AIDS, (Robin, 2009). Although ARVs are now readily available in most countries, numbers of newly infected people are rising. According to the World Bank, 60 million people are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. Access to treatment has increased dramatically but for every 100 people on treatment, 250 become newly infected, (World Bank, 2010). As such, pressure is now rising on the effectiveness of only relying on the biomedical approach for treatment and care of HIV/AIDS. While lay perspectives are considered effective, this cannot be confirmed as true with HIV/AIDS care. In South Africa, despite people heavily relying on traditional healing approaches, HIV prevalence continued to rise. Significance towards effective control of the epidemic has been noted with the increase in accessibility of ARVs, (Colvin, 2009). In the UNAIDS Report On The Global AIDS Epidemic 2010, in 7 countries, five of them in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, HIV incidences increased by more than 25% between 2001 and 2009. Sub Saharan Africa, although still remaining the most highly affected by the epidemic, figures either stabilised or showed signs of decline owing to positive behaviour due to increased services that are embedded in local culture. The report affirms that stigma and discrimination, lack of access to services and bad laws can make the epidemic worse, (UNAIDS, 2010). Due to the challenges presented by HIV/AIDS to global public health, Baum. (2008:241) calls for collective participation of all sectors in the fight against this deadly disease. She asserts that community level mobilisation where there is partnership between lay people and structures is the effective way of combating HIV/AIDS and stigma. This is further supported by Farmer, (1999:90), who does not condone the dominance of the biomedical perspective in health and healing. He believes that lay people have a significant role in the process of health improvements and emphasises on the importance understanding lay peoples experiences as essential knowledge for successful interventions. He holds that health care services should be accessible to PLWHA without fear of being stigmatised. Educating health care professionals about the impact of stigma on patients and policies that encourage inclusion of PLWHA in decisions that affect their lives are some of the key factors of effectively tackli ng the epidemic. Parker and Aggleton, (2003) also claim collective participation between lay people and health structures as key to successful anti-stigma services. Relationships between health structures and PLWHA could also be improved by engaging lay people through advocacy. The Greater Involvement of PLWHA, (GIPA) principle emphasises the need for involvement of PLWHA at all levels in combating HIV/AIDS because they understand their situation better. Therefore their voices could be heard well if their needs were presented by people in the same situation, (UNAIDS, 2007). In the Zambia study, professionals living with HIV/AIDS are in a better position to advocate for people accessing services. Baum, (2008:550) affirms that advocacy involving public health practitioners is an effective way of influencing structural barriers in public health. Literature has highlighted the contested nature of concepts of health and healing underpinning access to services providing treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS and its stigma. The biomedical approach conceptualises health and illness through science and expertise with focus on the individual. Lay concepts view health and healing as embedded within local social and cultural structures and therefore seek to address public health for a wider population. Literature suggests that neither approach in isolation is effective in prevention and care for HIV/AIDS. Arguments have centred on the importance of collaboration of the models. Therefore there is need for intervention programmes to develop holistic approaches that are underpinned by the two models but it is also important to understanding each of the concepts in its own right.

High School Drops Outs Essay -- Education

The number of people dropping out of high school is on the rise. A high school drop out is more likely to be subjected to poverty. The high school drop out will historically be less likely to obtain a high paying job. Many high school dropouts will be less likely to become a productive or beneficial member of society, but will instead create a burden for the community for which he or she is a member. According to the National Center for Education, in 2001 the dropout rate was approximately, 10.7 percent for people between the ages of 16 to 24. Studies showed that dropout rates were higher for people in the 10th grade, due to the fact that children over the age of 16 were no longer required to stay in school. Upon completion of the `Leaver Survey', many students said the leaving school was a process, no a sudden decision. Over 20 percent of all dropouts interviewed indicated a preference for working over school, as the most important reason for dropping out. Several other reasons were pregnancy, marriage, and boredom. A staggering 30 percent of all high school dropouts had an A or...

Adrian is currently running Gunner Pass with no other employees. So he :: Business and Management Studies

Adrian is currently running Gunner Pass with no other employees. So he does not need to use ICT to communicate between departments. Gunner Pass. 2 Describe the type of work done in functional areas of Gunner Pass. 2 Describe how ICT is used within these functional areas of Gunner Pass. 3 Explain how the functional areas help to achieve the aims of Gunner Pass. 3 Explain how ICT helps Gunner Pass work together 4 Analyse how effectively the functional areas work together to achieve the aims of Gunner Pass 4 Suggest how and possible improvements or developments in ICT might help the functional areas work together more effectively. 5 Cummins UK.. 6 Describe the type of work done in the functional areas of Cummins. 6 Describe how ICT is used within these functional areas of Cummins. 7 Explain how the functional areas help to achieve the aims of Cummins. 7 Explain how ICT helps Cummins work together 8 Analyse how effectively the functional areas work together to achieve the aims of Cummins 8 Suggest how and possible improvements or developments in ICT might help the functional areas to work together more effectively. 8 Gunner Pass Describe the type of work done in functional areas of Gunner Pass A function in a business is the area of activity in the business. Adrian is a sole trader. As Adrian currently doesn’t employ anyone, he must run all the functions in a business. The functions in business are: marketing and sales, customer service, production and operations, human resources, finance, administration and ICT. Some sole traders will have an employee who in specialised or skilled in a certain area, such as a sole trader may have a marketing and sales manager. Adrian works on his own so he as to do work in all these areas of his business. In a normal working day, Adrian does work in more than one function of his business. He writes out adverts, designs new leaflets, this would be marketing and sales. When he pays cheques into the bank, or pays out insurance on his vehicle, that is in the Finance department. When Adrian receives a call from a new customer, and the customer wants to know the services and prices he offers. Then that is in the Customer Services department. All the areas are needed to keep Gunner Pass running. Finance: Consists of paying bills and receiving payments. Adrian must keep a record of his expenditure and his incomings. He does this because he never earns the same amount of money each month. He receives a tax statement at the end of each year. By doing this he will be able to calculate his net profit per month/year.

Analysis of Sherwood Anderson’s Hands Essay

Sherwood Anderson’s short story, Hands, revolves around the themes of being grotesque and being lonely. The author illustrated these themes through the story’s main character, Wing Biddlebaum, who was driven out of his original hometown after he was accused of molesting a young boy in the school which he used to teach in when he caressed the boy’s hair and shoulders using his hands. In short, Wing’s seemingly â€Å"uncontrollable† hands symbolized his grotesqueness. Although Wing had pure intentions in everything he did, his own fear that he might repeat the incident at the school forced him to live in isolation, which also shows that he is lonely. His only friend was George, who was depicted as his â€Å"pupil† and who exhibited the same passion in writing as Wing did in teaching. Basically, from the themes that the author presented in the story, it can be deduced that even though Wing had problems controlling his hands, he still was in fact a normal person as shown in his friendship with George. This was best illustrated when Wing was about to touch George the same way that he touched the boy at the school using his hands but was able to refrain from doing so. He also gave George advice in his career as a reporter for a newspaper, which showed that he wanted to help the boy and not harm him or sexually harass him In addition, the author portrayed that throughout the whole story that when Wing caressed the young boy’s hair and shoulders at the school, he never meant to sexually harass him. His actions were only misinterpreted by the parents of the boy as sexual in nature which eventually led to his isolation. Moreover, the author depicted Wing as a person who still desired human connection but feared doing so because of his â€Å"uncontrollable hands. † In other words, Wing’s apparent â€Å"grotesque† nature, which was symbolized by his hands, was not his fault but the fault of the people and the world around him. It was their perception of Wing that made him grotesque and not his own hands. Works Cited Anderson, Sherwood. 2004. Hands. 14 April 2008 .