Designer’s Portfolio Essay

1. A brief summary of the play Two tramps named Estragon and Vladimir meet on the road, beside a sick looking tree. They are happy because they didn’t see each other for a long time. Estragon has a sore foot and is having troubles taking his boot off. The two men remember that they are supposed to wait for a man named Godot. In the play it shows that they do not remember the man named Godot really well, but they think he is going to give them an answer. But they cannot remember the questions. While they are waiting, estragon falls asleep. Vladimir suddenly fells lonely, so he wakes Estragon up. Tired of going nothing, they begin to talk about the tree and the wait. And they talk about their condition- homeless and lack of money. After a while, a master with his slave appears whose names are Pozzo and Lucky. Pozzo sits on a stool, relaxes a little and enjoys some chicken and wine. He is really rude to his servant. Eventually Lucky dozes off to sleep, but is weakened by jerks on the rope from his master. The master then tell the tramps that Lucky is pitiful and old, and he would like to get rid of him soon. On hearing all of these words, Lucky cries. Estragon tries to comfort him, but Lucky gives him a hard kick in the leg in return. Later, the master and slave leave the tramps, and they continue their wait of Godot. A litter later, a young boy brings in a message that Godot might seem them the nest day, at the same time and the same place. Meanwhile, night falls and the tramps decide to leave and come back the next day. Instead, they remain. The act ends. The next act begins in exactly the same set as the first one: the two tramps meet on the road beside a sick looking tree. Nothing has changed except that the bare tree has five or six leaves. Vladimir is singing a song about a dog that has been beaten. Estragon reveals that he has been beaten as well. They keep waiting for Godot, though Estragon seems to have forgotten the events of the day before. Vladimir tries to remind him about something happened yesterday. But Estragon’s only memory is about the bone that he was given to chew. Bored with waiting, Vladimir spots Lucky’s hat, and the tramps begin to play with it. But they still feel bored, they discuss suicide again, call each other names, and wait for Godot. After some time, Pozzo and Lucky appear again. Buut this time, Pozzo is blind and being led by lucky. They are still bound up by a rope. Pozzo falls to the ground and cannot get up. In the process of helping him, Estragon and Vladimir also fall to the ground. Finally they are able to get up. The suns sets and the moon rises. The same boy shows up with the same message that Godot will not come today but the day after. He leaves the two men again contemplate suicide. Later, they decide to come back tomorrow with a rope, and if Godot does not arrive, they will hang themselves. They decide to move on, but as in the previous act, they stay where they are and the act ends. The setting and the overall mood in the play. In this play, the setting actually is really simple. A country and a sick looking tree. No visible horizon exists. The setting is constant. The time frame is most likely two days. The only visible reference to the passage of time occurs at the end of Act II when the sun sets and the moon rises. After reading the play, we can feel that there is no horizon, no sign of civilization. For a moment, this play might be considered comic. But as the story unfolds and a mood of despair appears on the stage. Characters are beaten, cursed, and wondered-all without any sign of relief. But as we know that the tramps do not see the man that they are waiting for, it shows the eternal hopelessness of life. Based on the reasons, actually this play can be considered as a tragedy. 2. A serious of quotations that comments directly on the aspects of the design. 1) â€Å"The play opens on a totally surreal note, with a tramp trying to pull off his boot on a lonely road under a leafless tree.† ( From- Sam I Am – Beckett’s private purgatories† by Benjamin Kunkel in The New Yorker) 2) â€Å"But yesterday evening it was all black and bare. And now it’s covered with leaves.† (From- the play â€Å"Waiting for Godot† Act II, line 1, by Samuel Beckett) 3) â€Å"A country road. A tree. Evening. Estragon, sitting on a low mound, is trying to take off his boot. He pulls at it with both hands, panting.† (By Samuel Beckett at the beginning of Act I) 4) â€Å"A terrible cry, close at hand. Estragon drops the carrot. They remain motionless, and then together make a sudden rush towards the wings. Estragon stops halfway, runs back, picks up the carrot, stuffs it in his pocket, runs to rejoin Vladimir who is waiting for him, stops again, runs back, picks up his boot, runs to rejoin Vladimir. Huddled together, shoulders hunched, cringing away from the menace, they (By Samuel Beckett, Act I, line 359) 5) â€Å"Next day. Same time. Same place. Estragon’s boots front center, heels together, toes splayed.† ( By Samuel Beckett, the beginning of Act II) 6) â€Å"Lucky’s hat at same place. The tree has four or five leaves. Enter Vladimir agitatedly. He halts and looks long at the tree, then suddenly begins to move feverishly about the stage. He halts before the boots, picks one up, examines it, sniffs it, manifests disgust, puts it back carefully. Comes and goes. Halts extreme right and gazes into distance off, shading his eyes with his hand. Comes and goes. Halts extreme left, as before. Comes and goes. Halts suddenly and begins to sing loudly.† (By Samuel Beckett, Act II, line 5) 3. Props in the play 1) a sick looking tree 2) a pair of boots 3) a stool 4) a hat 5) a rope 4. A color scheme for the play —— Main colors used in the play 1. Grey In the play, we know that the tramps are waiting for Godot, but he never shows up. Grey in some point can represent their feelings. They keep waiting, but they cannot see the people they are waiting to see. They might be in great sorrow. It seems hopeless for them to see Godot. 2. Brown It is the color appeared in many settings in the play. Say, for instant, the road, the tree. —– Other colors used in the play 1. Dark blue and black These two colors represent day and night. From the two colors, we can have a clearly view in the changing of time. And for black, it also can represent the fact that the act of waiting is never over, and there is little hope that people can get. 2. Dark green It is the color of the leaves in the tree appeared in Act II. 3. Sienna It is the color of a stool that Pozzo used. 5. A visual collage for the play Explanations: 1. Wood The tree and the stool appeared in the play are both belonging to wood. 2. Wool The blanket that the two tramps used is made of thin wool. 3. Canvas The two tramps’ clothes are made from the canvas. In other ways, it shows the characteristics of tramps- homeless and lack of money, have to travel to many places, cannot settle down. 4. Hemp The rope that used in this play is made of hemp. 6. Photographs for the play 1. A circle When I finish reading this play, a circle suddenly appeared in my mind. As we know in the play, the act is never over, and yet it mysteriously starts again each day. But no one knows when the waiting is end. The action, in the same way, describes a circle. Each day is the return to the beginning. Nothing is completed because nothing can be completed. 2. A long road that you can never see the end The road belongs to the setting part of the play. The reason that I think the road is associated with the play is because it represent one of the themes of the play. In the play, we know that it talks about two tramps are waiting for man named Godot, but he never comes. No one knows whether he will come or not. All they can do is keeping waiting. Think deeper about the waiting; I think the play want to show us the two men are waiting for hope. Godot is symbolic. Back to the road, we can see from the picture the characteristic of the road is long and you can never see the end. It reflects on the play about waiting for hope. All they can do is waiting, but no one knows whether there is hope or the future is hopeless. The future is unknown. 3. A bright moon The concept of the passage of time leads to an irony. Each minute spent waiting brings death one step closer to the character s and makes the arrival of Godot lees likely. The moon in some point, actually represent the changing of time. When the moon comes up, it means one day is finished. And another is coming. But there is no sign of hope appeared for the two tramps. When you see them standing in the moon, a really sad and hopeless feeling will naturally comes out from my mind.

Race, Gender and Ethnicity Problems in Education Essay

Education has faced race, gender and ethnic problems for many years. This continuous problem in all most likelihood will not be solved. Educational issues involving race, gender, and ethnicity of all schools will always cause controversy in society as long as there is prejudice and hatred. Education should not look at ones race. We are who we are because that is the way that God intended us to be. Many blacks are prejudice and have hatred in their hearts for things that happen in the past that this generation has no control over. I believe that we all are equal and should be treated equal in every aspect. Every race has a right to the best educational opportunity available. Admittance in to a University should not be based on race; it should be based on the highest academic grade averages. Blacks, whites, Hispanics, and any other race should have the same opportunities. In my opinion if some, one of a certain race should not take priority over academic standings. However, on the other hand many black are very lazy and want to sit back and wait for the white society to give them every thing on a silver platter. Please do not take this comment in the wrong way, I am not a prejudice person, several of my best friends are black. In my opinion, this is why there is such a social and economical break down in the black society. Blacks have the same social and economical opportunities as whites or any other race or gender; it is just a matter of wanting to take advantage of opportunities and being willing to help their self. I totally disagree with the fact that students that come from an inner city school get the worse education. My children go to an inner city school and they are very much up to state standards for their grade level. In fact, Social Circle scored in the ninety percentile for the 2002 state graduation test. Social Circle City School is sixty-five percent black population. In conclusion, race, gender and ethic background should not make a difference in the type or quality of education that a child receives. All should be treated equal. If a black child earns a placement over a white child then give them the placement. The same if the roles where switched. We need to stop making a difference in race, gender, and the ethnicity of students and treat them all equal according to their ability.

Expanding Nation Essay

In the 1830’s and 40’s the westward movement of population left the valley of the Mississippi behind and penetrated the Far West all the way to the Pacific. Pioneers pursued fertile land and economic opportunity beyond the existing boundaries of the United States and thus helped set the stage for the annexations and international crises of the 1840’s. Some went for material gain, others for adventure, and a significant minority sought freedom from religious persecution. But whatever their reasons for migrating, they brought American attitudes and loyalties into regions that were already occupied or at least claimed by Mexico or Great Britain. Whether they realized it or not, these pioneers were the vanguard of American expansionism. The domestic controversies aroused by the Mexican War and the propaganda of Manifest Destiny revealed the limits of the mid-nineteenth century American expansionism and put a damper on additional efforts to extend the nation’s boundaries. Concerns about slavery and race impeded acquisition of new territory in Latin America and the Caribbean. Resolution of the Oregon dispute clearly indicated that the United States was not willing to go to war with a powerful adversary to obtain large chunks of British North America, and the old ambition of incorporating Canada rapidly faded. After 1848, American growth usually took the form of populating and developing the vast territory already acquired. The expansionists of the 1840’s saw a clear link between acquisition of new territory and other forms of material growth and development. In 1844 Samuel F. B. Morse perfected and demonstrated his electric telegraph, a device that would make it possible to communicate rapidly over the expanse of a continental nation. Simultaneous, the railroad was becoming increasingly important as a means of moving people and goods over the same great distances. Improvements in manufacturing and agricultural methods led to an upsurge in the volume and range of internal trade, and the beginnings of mass immigration were providing human resources for the exploitation of new areas and economic opportunities. After gold was discovered in newly acquired California in 1848, a flood of emigrants from the East and several foreign nations arrived by ship or wagon train, their appetites whetted by the thoughts of striking it rich. The gold they unearthed spurred the national economy, and the rapid growth of population centers on the Pacific Coast inspired projects for transcontinental telegraph lines and railroad tracks. When the spirit of Manifest Destiny and the thirst for acquiring new territory waned after the Mexican War, the expansionist impulse turned inward. The technological advances and population increased of the 1840’s continued during the 50’s. The result was an acceleration of economic growth, a substantial increase in industrialization and urbanization, and the emergence of a new working class (Billington, 1956). The first movement west aimed not for the nearby plains but for California and Oregon on the continent’s far shore. It started in the 1849 Gold Rush to California and in the next three decades perhaps as many as half a million individuals made the long journey. Some walked; others rode horses alone or in small groups. About half jointed great caravans, numbering 150 wagons or more, that inched across the 2000 miles between the Missouri River and the Pacific Coast. More often than not men made the decision to make the crossing. Wives either went with their husbands or faced being left behind. Four out of five men on the overland trail had picked up stakes and moved before, some of them several times. People moved west for many reasons. Some sought adventure; others wanted to escape the drab routine of factory or city life. Many moved to California for their health. What ever the specific reasons most people moved west to better their lot. On the whole their timing was good, for as a nations population grew, so did the demand for the livestock and the agricultural mineral and lumber products of the expanding West. Opposite to older historical views the West did not act as a major safety valve or an outlet for social and economic tensions. The poor and unemployed did not have the means to move there and establish farms. Most people moved West in good times, in periods of rising prices, of expanding demand, when the prospects for making money from this new land looked brightest; and this aspect characterized the whole pattern of settlement and greatly improved the whole of the economic growth for the U. S. In the last three decades of the nineteenth century a flood of settlers ventured into America’s newest and last west (Jones, 1960). The West became a great colonial empire, harnessed to eastern capital and tied increasingly to national and international markets. Western economies depended to an unusual degree on the federal government, which subsidized their railroads, distributed their land, and spent millions of dollars for the upkeep of soldiers and Indians. Regional variations persisted and Westerners remained proud of their hardy, individualistic traditions. Yet they imitated the East’s social, cultural, and political patterns. By the 1890’s the West of the buffalo and Indian was gone, and instead there were cities and towns, health resorts, Paris fashion and the latest magazines. The frontier line had reached the edge of the timber country of Missouri by 1840. Beyond lay an enormous land of rolling prairies, parched deserts, and rugged, majestic mountains. Emerging from the timber country, travelers first encountered the Great Plains. These lands were treeless, nearly flat, and an endless sea of grassy hillocks. The Prairie Plains, the eastern part of the region, enjoyed rich soil and good rainfall; it included parts of present day Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. To the west covering Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona were called the High Plains. They were rough, semiarid, rising gently to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains (Faragher, 1979). The original incentive to mechanize northern industry and agriculture came in part from a shortage of cheap labor. Compared with the industrializing nations of Europe, the United States of the early nineteenth century was a labor-scarce economy. Since it was difficult to attract able-bodied men to work for low wages in factories or on farms, women and children were used extensively in the early textile mills, and commercial farmers had to rely heavily on the labor of their family members. In the face of such limited and uncertain labor supplies, producers were greatly tempered to experiment with labor saving machinery. By the 1840’s and 50’s industrialization had reached a point where it could readily absorb a new influx of unskilled workers. Factories required increasing numbers of unskilled operatives, and railroad builders needed construction gangs. The growth of industrial work opportunities helped attract a multitude of European immigrants during the two decades before the Civil War (Fishlow, 1965). Between 1820 and 1840 an estimated 700,000 immigrants arrived in the United States, mainly from the British Isles and German-speaking areas of continental Europe. During the 1840’s this substantial flow suddenly became a flood. No less than 4,200,000 crossed the Atlantic between 1840 and 1860, and about 3 million of these arrived in the single decade between 1845 and 1855. This was the greatest influx in proportion to total population that the nation has ever experienced. The largest single source of the new mass immigration was Ireland, but Germany was not far behind. This massive transatlantic movement had many causes; some people were pushed out of their homes, while others were pulled toward America. The great push factor that caused a million and a half Irish to forsake the Emerald Isle was the great potato famine. Escape to America was made possible by the low fares then prevailing on sailing ships bound from England to North America. The million or so Germans who also came in the late 1840’s and early 50’s were somewhat more fortunate. Most of them were also peasants, but they fled hard times rather than outright catastrophe. What attracted or pulled most of the Irish, German and other European immigrants to America, was the promise of economic opportunity (Jones, 1992). By 1860 industrial expansion and immigration had created a working class of men and women who seemed destined for a life of low paid wage labor. This reality stood in contrast to America’s self image as a land of opportunity and upward mobility. Wage labor was popularly viewed as a temporary condition from which workers were supposed to extricate themselves by hard work and frugality. According to Abraham Lincoln in 1850 of the North’s free labor society, â€Å"there is no such thing as a freeman being fatally fixed for life, in the condition of a hired laborer. This ideal still had some validity in rapidly developing regions of the western states, but it was mostly myth when applied to the increasingly foreign born industrial workers of the Northeast. Both internal and external expansion had come at a heavy cost. Tensions associated with class and ethnic rivalries were only one part of the price of rapid economic development. The acquisitions of new territories became politically divisive and would soon lead to a catastrophic sectional controversy. From the late 1840’s to the Civil War, the United States was a divided society in more than one sense, and the need to control or resolve these conflicts presented politicians and statesmen with a monumental challenge (Gutman, 1976). Many have searched for the underlying causes of the crisis leading to the disruption of the Union but have failed to agree on exactly what they were. Some have stressed the clash of economic interests between agrarian and industrializing regions. But this interpretation does not reflect the way people at the time expressed their concerns. The main issues in the sectional debates of the 1850’s were whether slavery was right or wrong and whether it should be extended or contained. Disagreements over protective tariffs and other economic measures allegedly benefiting one section or the other were clearly secondary. It has never been clear why the interests of northern industry and those of the South’s commercial agriculture were irreconcilable. From a purely economic point of view, there was no necessity for producers of raw materials to go to war with those who marketed or produced them. The critical period of Civil War diplomacy was in 1861 to 1862 when the South was making every effort to induce foreign powers to recognize its independence and break the Union blockade. The hope that England and France could be persuaded to involve themselves in the war on the Confederate side stemmed from the fact that these nations depended on the South for three quarters of their cotton supply. In the case of Britain, the uninterrupted production of cotton textile appeared essential to economic prosperity (Stampp, 1950).

Security Issue s In Ecommerce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Security Issue s In Ecommerce - Essay Example acy of result, frankness and convenience of payment processes, loss of collateral information, globalisation, and rise of new commerce models (Laudon & Traver, 2008). Small firms seek to venture into ecommerce with the main aim of increasing revenue through reaching new markets and winning more clients. Ecommerce will enable the small business shorten procurement cycles through the use of on-line cataloguing, checking and payment, gain access to global markets at a smaller portion of traditionalcosts, ensure product, marketing information and prices are always up to date, allow them to compete with large businesses over a common platform, and increase sales opportunities. In addition, ecommerce will enable these small firms ease the audits they conduct on their systems because electronic data is easier to audit. It will also enable them reach out to clients in remote areas, and ensure the goods are available 24/7 for anyone to purchase. This will surely lead to increased generation of revenues. As we all know, fraudsters would aim on the big firms in the ecommerce business. Their enormousconsumer base is like mouth-watering bait for fraudsters. That may safe to think, however, it has been a big misconception.While the aim of fraudsters is to access money, they are not aiming at big ecommerce stores. They go for the small companies for the key reason that smaller e-commerce sites appear to have disregarded one important element – strict security measures. The easy access to critical information and the susceptibility of security systems trap these fraudsters to these smaller stores that are engaging into ecommerce. Campbell et al (2010, p.37) estimates that 90 per cent of credit card safety compromises in the ecommerce industry originate from Level 4 Merchants (ecommerce websites that process fewer than 1 million total card payment dealings and less than 20,000 ecommerce dealings in a year. As a small business, it is important to understand the reasons that

Tourism destinations in the digital and social media age Research Proposal

Tourism destinations in the digital and social media age - Research Proposal Example The growth of technologies and social networking has resulted in increasing importance of social media in tourism activities impacting destinations and businesses (Buhalis and Law, 2008). Easy access to internet and social media has changed the way information related to travel and leisure is shared. Social media provides a platform to tourists and travellers to share their travel experiences and emotions far more conveniently than that in the past (Jacobsen and Munar, 2012). The objective of this research is to evaluate impact of social and digital media on tourism destinations and role of information in improving the experience of consumer. Further, the study concentrates on role of tourism operators in educating consumers about destination engagement. According to various researchers, effect of social media is vital on the tourism industry as the web-based platform provides for real-time sharing of travel experiences, in addition to information available in guidebooks, news media and travel coordinators (Williams, Stewart and Larsen, 2011). Although a number of studies have been conducted to understand destination choice of tourists based on online information, there are still certain deficiencies related to impact of social media on travellers. So, the research objective is to establish significance of social media, especially social networks and blogs, in engaging consumers to tourist destinations ( Jennings, 2001). Advancement in technologies and increase in usage of internet has resulted in consideration of information search as a well-established segment of research. Moreover, various consumer and marketing studies reflect preference of individuals towards information search prior to any consumption decision (Gursoy and McCleary, 2004). Information related to a tourist destination emerges not only from experienced visitors, but

Discuss the windows 2000 Emergency Repair Process Essay - 1

Discuss the windows 2000 Emergency Repair Process - Essay Example The Emergency Repair Process can accomplish a number of tasks, it has the ability to repair and inspect the startup environment, it can swap the system volume boot sector, it can replace and verify system files, and replace the registry if it is badly corrupted or missing. For the successful use of the Emergency Repair Process it is necessary that you have an Emergency Repair Disk or an ERD. It is suggested that the Emergency Repair Disk is created after you install and customize your Windows operating system. This disk can be created using the ‘Backup’ utility from the System Tools. The Emergency Repair Disk can be used to fix a damaged MBR, a damaged boot sector, and replace or repair a damaged or missing NT Loader or NTLDR and ntdetect.com files. It is possible that the Emergency Repair Process can try to locate the Windows installation and then start fixing your system, incase you do not have the Emergency Repair Disk, however it is not always possible. The Emergency Process is generally used when you are unable to start your computer using the Last Known Good Configuration or the Windows 2000 Safe Mode. The successful completion of the Emergency Repair Process will repair your system and your computer will automatically restart itself and your system will start functioning as

Published Financial Statements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Published Financial Statements - Essay Example As the study stresses published financial statements are used by millions of people who depend on them for vital information. This information is, in most instances, on the financial health of the business concern in question. Tracy classifies these users as investors and financial analysts, vendors, or creditors, and the management. These users are the ones who make it necessary for financial statements to be published. Financial statements are published for the following reasons; To avail information and data concerning the company’s financial position and performance. This information includes the cash flow and profitability position of the company. This information allows financial analysts to assess the financial position and performance of the company and trends in the performance To avail information to outside investors who comprise people or organizations that may be interested in buying the company’s stocks or lend it money. Lenders need information about the company’s stability and cash flow. Publication of financial statements avails them with this information. To avail information concerning the likelihood of the firm to have enough cash to pay its debts in the immediate future. This information is needed by vendors and creditors in view of the fact that they advance funds to the company in form services and products. To avail information concerning the failures and successes in each of the many facets of running a business to the management. The management makes use of this information to identify relative strengths and weaknesses in operations and to find the areas to put effort to correct problems and enhance performance.

Cultural studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Cultural studies - Essay Example This ‘selective selfishness’, as the author calls it, is the essence of all great things that have happened in the world. The author also talks in detail about what he calls as historical men, men who take history as the basis of their future actions (p 65). The author debates that history should not be treated as a pure science and that it is neither a source for pure knowledge. Hence, he concedes to the theory that it can merely be used as a reference to take life forward. While total lack of history and too much of history are both derogatory, it is essential that human beings take the middle path and recognize its relevance in human life. According to the author, man should be able to selectively switch off and on his awareness and reverence for the past and must not fall a prey to delusions provided by historical anecdotes. In "On the Uses and Disadvantage of History for Life", Friedrich Nietzsche, analyses the importance of history in the guiding the modern generations. He lays out a path, a dogma, that is to be followed by all those who are desirous of attaining enlightenment in their lives. For example, he says that history that speaks of the past and provides nothing new, does not invigorate the mind (p 113). On the contrary, history shows its heroes and heroines as those who questioned a dogma is to be followed, if we are to make any sense of history and the future. Hence, Friedrich Nietzsche tells us that we need to be path finders in a world that is dominated by historical data that could be biased and one-sided and does not take into consideration information that has many perspectives to it. History, further can be conceived as a biased fabrication of an individual or a group of persons for furthering some rested interests. We have seen instances where historical information which ere believed to have been facts, had been challenged later on. Nietzsche, in particular,

Strategic Business Analysis - Case Study about Netflix Essay

Strategic Business Analysis - Case Study about Netflix - Essay Example This essay focuses on the business analysis of the Netflix company. The researcher aims to describe the strategic business analysis of Netflix, that is the wÐ ¾rld's lÐ °rgest Ð ¾nline DVD mÐ ¾vie rentÐ °l service, Ð ¾ffering mÐ ¾re thÐ °n three milliÐ ¾n members Ð °ccess tÐ ¾ 50,000 titles. It is stated by the researcher of the essay that the Ð °ppeÐ °l Ð °nd success Ð ¾f the cÐ ¾mpÐ °ny Ð °re built Ð ¾n prÐ ¾viding the mÐ ¾st expÐ °nsive selectiÐ ¾n Ð ¾f DVDs; Ð °nd fÐ °st, free delivery. The Netflix business mÐ ¾del is Ð °n Ð ¾rgÐ °nized rent Ð ¾f DVD Ð °dvertised thrÐ ¾ugh Internet Ð °nd delivered thrÐ ¾ugh the pÐ ¾stÐ °l mÐ °il. Te key drivers Ð °re the number Ð ¾f custÐ ¾mers, custÐ ¾mer quÐ °lity, prÐ ¾duct cÐ ¾sts Ð °nd fulfilment cÐ ¾sts. In the first pÐ °rt Ð ¾f the essay the researcher Ð °ssess the cÐ ¾mpetitiÐ ¾n in DVD industry. Using PÐ ¾rter’s Five FÐ ¾rces MÐ ¾del Ð ¾f CÐ ¾mpetitiÐ ¾n the researcher defi nes the kinds Ð ¾f cÐ ¾mpetitive fÐ ¾rces thÐ °t currently fÐ °ce Netflix. In pÐ °rticulÐ °r, the researcher also provides Ð °n Ð °nÐ °lysis Ð ¾f relÐ °tiÐ ¾nships between Netflix, BlÐ ¾ckbuster Ð °nd WÐ °l-MÐ °rt. SecÐ ¾nd pÐ °rt Ð ¾f reseÐ °rch is referred tÐ ¾ current pÐ ¾sitiÐ ¾n Ð ¾f Netflix in DVD industry. Using the grÐ ¾up mÐ °pping strÐ °tegy, key cÐ ¾mpetitÐ ¾rs Ð °re described Ð °nd cÐ ¾nclusiÐ ¾n Ð ¾f rivÐ °lry in the industry is mÐ °de. Further the study prÐ ¾vides mÐ ¾re discussiÐ ¾n Ð °nd less Ð °nÐ °lysis Ð °s the subject Ð ¾f DVD Ð ¾nline rentÐ °l industry Ð °nd its lÐ ¾w bÐ °rriers tÐ ¾ entry Ð °nd high bÐ °rriers tÐ ¾ prÐ ¾fitÐ °bility Ð °re mentiÐ ¾ned. In the cÐ ¾ncluding pÐ °rt the recÐ ¾mmendÐ °tiÐ ¾ns Ð °s fÐ ¾r the strÐ °tegies thÐ °t might bring grÐ ¾wth Ð °nd sustÐ °inÐ °bility tÐ ¾ Netflix Ð ¾ver the next five yeÐ °rs Ð °re presented.

Mass and Energy Balance Essay Example for Free

Mass and Energy Balance Essay Abstract The objective is to produce a proposal for a chemical process plant which will be able to produce 550,000 tonne/year ammonia using LPG as the raw material. Different processes where researched and then finally one was picked, steam reforming. This was decided to be the most viable and cost effective process using the raw materials we had available. The report explains in detail how the process works and all aspects of how the plant will work including the mass and energy balance across the plant. What is Ammonia Ammonia (NH3) is a stable compound and is used as a starting material for the manufacture of many important nitrogen compounds and can also be directly used as fertilisers. It is produced by reacting hydrogen and nitrogen. It is a colourless gas with a sharp odour. The boiling point is -33.35oC and its freezing point is -77.7oC.1 Care must be taken when handling ammonia as can cause deep burns in the skin; irritation in the eyes and nose and when inhaled can cause coughing, sore throat and headache.2 There are different methods for the manufacture of ammonia. The three main methods are steam reforming, partial oxidation and electrolysis. Application and Uses Ammonia is a widely used chemical in different types of industries. One of the main user of ammonia is the agricultural industries for fertilisers. Around 80% of ammonia produced is for fertilisers such as urea, ammonium sulphate and ammonium nitrate.3 It is also used as a building block for nitrogen containing compounds like nitric acid (HNO3). It is also used in the fibres and plastics industry for the production of acrylonitrile, melamine etc., and manufacture of explosives. Ammonia is also used in water treatment such as pH control and also in combination with chlorine to purify industrial and municipal water supplies. Less commonly uses include as a refrigerant in compression and absorption systems, manufacture of household ammonia, in the food and beverage industry 4. Figure 1: Pie chart showing the uses of Ammonia. Market Trends Globally ammonia prices have been headed up due the large demand of fertilisers that are needed in the crop production to obtain high yield6. The current selling price of ammonia in Europe goes up to $600 per tonne7. Figure 2: Shows the global demand for Ammonia (D.a.NH3- Direct application of Ammonia) As we can see from the chart the trend of ammonia demand globally is upward. It is said that the global ammonia market is to generate revenues of approx. US$102 billion in 2019. As there is continous growth in population in the developing countries the likely to cause demand for foodstuffs are to increase even further. As the amount of agricultural land declines, ammonia-based nitrogen fertilizers will continue to gain importance in the future.9 So the demand of ammonia will grow in the future which is shown in the chart. Processes There are many different processes involved in the ammonia production. The most common processes for ammonia are partial oxidation, steam reforming and electrolysis. From these 3 processes the best process route is then selected and that process would be most economical and that meetes the design brief. Partial Oxidation Partial oxidation involves the reaction of oxygen with fuel to produce hydrogen. The following equations represent the partial oxidation of ethane, propane, butane and pentane. 10 C2H6 + O2 2CO + 3H2, C3H8 + 1.5O2 3CO + 4H2, C4H10 + 2O2 4CO + 5H2, C5H12 + 2.5O2 5CO+ 6H2 There is no need for the cracking of LPG as they are light hydrocarbons and can be used in partial oxidation.11 See Partial Oxidation flow sheet (Reference 1: Partial Oxidation Flow Sheet) Hazards and Environmental Impact The main emission is carbon dioxide which is a greenhouse gas and Partial Oxidation process emits more carbon dioxide compared to Steam Methane Reforming. Carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced by recycling it and selling it to urea and nitro-phosphate plants.13 No ammonia should be present in the air but maybe because of faulty equipment and maintenance activities, some ammonia maybe released. Ammonia becomes explosive at the 16%-25% volume in air which could occur if there are any leakages in the ammonia storage facilities. It is also toxic by inhalation and pulmonary oedema can occur up to 48 hours after exposure and could be fatal.12 Nitrogen dioxide that is released is a toxic gas can be harmful when inhaled but can be avoided as can be detected because of the smell. The large amount of waste water from this process is another problem but there is a river near the Milford Haven site. Also water pollution is a concern which may occur because of the suspended and dissolved impurities. It could also affect the aquatic life. Therefore the water must be treated in a full three stage water treatment plant before disposing it. 13 The disadvantage of partial oxidation is that the capital costs are higher for partial oxidation compared to any other process. It is estimated to be  £100-120 million for an annual production of 7.7 million GJ while for SR it will only be  £70 million. 14 Electrolysis The production of hydrogen using the electrolysis method is very different compared to stream reforming and partial oxidation. Electrolysis produces hydrogen by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using volts of current to separate the hydrogen to one electrode and oxygen at the other in a cell. Oxygen is the by-product in the process of producing ammonia which is valuable because it can be used in other chemical processes or sold to other companies for profit. In electrolysis there is no CO2 produced therefore there is no pollution. Standard electrolytic ammonia production energy consumption historically has been about 12 megawatt-hour. The fuel cost alone of making ammonia is $600 metric ton, and including capital and operating expenses that metric ton of ammonia cost about $800 to make. Compare electrolytic and using uses of natural gas as raw material the economically, for the past 100 years the cost of natural gas has not been higher than $1 and the fuel cost for a metric ton of ammonia from natural gas has been $30-$40. Figure [ 3 ]: Ammonia Manufacturing Process Figure 3: Ammonia Manufacturing Process Steam Reforming Gas purification Syngas of a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and water can be broken down in to individual components and further cleansed through purification. The syngas will enter a shift reformer, which breaks down the carbon monoxide in to hydrogen and carbon dioxide using steam (H2O). Carbon dioxide is much more environmentally friendly than CO and can either be released in to the atmosphere or used in other steam reforming processes in the future. Desulphurisation Sulphur is a problem when carrying out steam reforming as it acts as a poison for the catalysts involved. It is important that this is removed prior to the syngas entering the system. The process is carried out in the presence of a catalyst, which is usually nickel. This nickel acts as an absorber for the sulphur, and so several catalyst-filled tubes within the system with a large internal surface area will allow the sulphur to collect to be disposed of suitably. The Process Hydrocarbons usually contain sulphur which needs to be removed. The purification section is the first bed of the whole steam reforming process. Feed is passed through tubes containing zinc oxide. The sulphur in the feed reacts with the zinc oxide to produce zinc sulphide. This is to ensure that the feed travelling to the steam reformer does not poison the catalysts in this section in any way. The catalysts used in the steam reforming process are nickel-based. These are easily poisoned by sulphur species. The purified feed is mixed with steam and then is passed to the primary reformer, which involves a nickel-based catalyst where the steam reforming process is carried out. Once the hydrocarbon is cleansed of sulphur, the reforming process can begin. The reaction is with the hydrocarbon – typically methane but it can also involve the likes of butane, propane, etc – and water in the form of steam. The reaction for methane (CH4) is shown below. CH4 + H2O 3H2 + COΔH = +251kJmol-1 C3H8 + 6H2O 3CO2 + 10H2 C2H6 + 4H2O 2CO2 + 7H2 C4H10 + 8H2O 4CO2 + 7H2 C5H12 + 10H2O 5CO2 + 16H2 Reactions for other hydrocarbons, such as ethane (C2H6), propane (C3H8), butane (C4H10) and pentane (C5H12) are also shown, with their respective steam amounts required and the products gained. Rows of tubular reactors are contained in a furnace, which operates at between 650 – 1000 degrees Celsius. The hydrocarbon feed enters the system at a very high pressure, typically 20 – 30 bar. The process is carried out in the presence of a nickel-based catalyst which is packed into cylindrical tubes through which the steam/hydrocarbon gas mixture is passed. The catalysts act as surface for which the hydrocarbon will absorb and the steam. (Reference 2: Steam Reforming Flow Sheet) Justification Steam reforming is the most viable proposition as we have all of the raw materials available within easy access, whereas if we were to use other processes, then we would have to source other materials e.g. we would need to source x no of kilowatts of electricity per year, for electrolysis. Mass Balance Cp Values Energy Balance Material Costs Simple Plant Cost Using a base of around  £410 per ton of ammonia, and output at 550,000 tonnes, it would be assumed that the plant would produce  £225,500,000 a year of ammonia. The Burrup plant in Australia was built at a cost of  £457 million and produces roughly 800,000 tonnes a year of ammonia. Using the 2/3 power rule, as follows, will allow the costs of the new 550k p/a plant to be shown. C = Cref(S/Sref)2/3 C = 457000000 * (550,000/800,000)2/3 C =  £355,984,702 The output of the new plant is  £225,500,000, but the plant costs  £355,984,702 to build, so it would take around a year and seven months for the plant to be profitable, based on an estimation without including the costs of the raw materials. Taylor Method Pay Back Time Sustainability The environment is constantly changing, whether by nature or by human led processes. Sustainability is about trying to manage this change through balancing social, economic and environmental needs, both locally and globally for present and future generations. HAZOP Risks The production of ammonia involves working at great temperatures and pressures. As such, it is vital that the equipment used in the plant is designed to withstand these conditions to function properly. The high temperatures and pressures involved in the production of ammonia can potentially put tremendous amounts of strain on the pipes and vessels used. The risks associated with this are: * Explosions from sudden release of pressurised gases from ruptured vessels * Fragmentation from rupture of the pipes * Fire * Poisoning from exposure to leaked materials * Chemical or thermal burns, again from exposure to leaked materials Not only are these hazards life-threatening, they would also be very expensive to put right for the production company. These risks can be avoided by preparing the plant for the conditions that it is about to go through. It is more economically viable to run the steam reformer at as high a temperature and pressure as possible. Magnesium oxide-lined furnaces, MgO, has a melting point of around 2800 degrees Fahrenheit, making it ideal for lining the furnaces used in the production of hydrogen. Hydrogen itself will cause some materials to become brittle and eventually break. Hydrogen features an active electron and thus will behave like a halogen, causing erosion in the metals that it comes into contact with. This can be avoided by using high-purity stainless steel in the sections of the plant which will come into contact with the hydrogen. This steel must have a maximum hardness of 80 HRB on the Rockwell Scale. Ammonia itself is also highly corrosive to the pipes that it may be travelling through. For this reason, it is recommended that stainless steel is also used here, at a similar hardness of that shown above. Most ammonia plants use centrifugally cast high-alloy tubing to hold the nickel-base catalyst in the primary reformer furnace. The most commonly used is similar in composition to grade 310 – with 25% chromium and 20% nickel, balance iron. This has a carbon content in the range of 0.35 – 0.45% for improved high-temperature creep and rupture stress. Thermal protection of piping involves fire brick owing to the high temperatures involved.

Dance And Ethics In The Traditional African Philosophy Essay

Dance And Ethics In The Traditional African Philosophy Essay Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW This section looks at various functions of dance in the Traditional African Society, especially its use for interpreting ideas such as ethics of (Twene KÃŽÂ µse) festival. 2.1 Dance and Ethics in the Traditional African Context Dance as a tool for perpetuating some simple ethics of the social values within the Ghanaian society has received some attention over the years. For example, an adowa  [1]  dancer begs his or her drummers to play a good rhythm for him or her to dance and thus seeks permission from the gods, elders and drummers before dancing.  [2]  By this, I am referring to simple gestures that portray a sense of respect and acknowledgement in the society. Dance is one of the effective tools for communication and nation building. These help in ensuring good behavioral change in the community.  [3]  According to Abà ­ÃƒÆ' °bà ¶là ¡ (2001), the term ethics as stated in the introductory section of this thesis are grouped into four areas; Normative ethics the basis and justification of moral rules and principles Meta ethics the meaning of moral terms Applied ethics the nature, content and application of specific moral guidelines Descriptive ethics accounts of how people actually behave in situations requiring moral action Abà ­ÃƒÆ' °bà ¶là ¡ points out that, contemporary thinking on ethics in African philosophy is concerned with normative and descriptive ethics. In justification to this, he argues that many African philosophers on the topic of ethics raise the question of the position of African ethics. The question is, do these ethics come out of religious doctrines (normative ethics), or are they results of reason (descriptive ethics). Ethics, as defined in the introduction of this thesis connote good human behavior in relation to other humans in a society. This is without the inclusion of a supernatural being or religion. It is humane, for every individual in a society to adopt positive characters to live peacefully in and out of the community without any religious intuition. On the other hand, the traditional African, by nature, is a religious being whose daily affairs are based on his or her relationship with divinities (God, gods, and or ancestral spirits, etc.). Therefore, the understandin g of ethics (which are found in the traditional beliefs and customs) will not depart from religion. The faith, trust, and fear for the divinity by the traditional African makes him or her submissive to the laid down rules and regulations of the community. In this contemporary era, many will perhaps appreciate the relevance of ethics, which is communicated through dance. Though, dance as a traditional activity, has suffered adulteration through the passing on from generation to generation, its usage in modern choreography with all the theatrical elements like sound, light, projections, costumes and make-ups, props and other technicalities makes it more educational and applicable to formal education. Realistically, some ethics in the traditional African context may not be applicable to the modern or contemporary society due to technological advancement, modernization, religious beliefs and disbeliefs and formal education. However, the attempt to use Ghanaian traditional dances creatively will shed light on old but yet beneficial traditional values. For example, the original benefit derived from the Dipo ceremony, may have lost its relevance to the Dangme girl today, because formal education has taken up some responsibility of the dipo rite. This is where choreography as a tool, can be used to promote some ethical values of the dipo rite and also serve as a preservative measure for the dipo dance as well. Some ceremonial dances positively affect the moral lives of people within the society when their themes are geared towards the endorsement of good conduct. The bragoro and dipo ceremonies and dance of the Dangme of Ghana is a typical example. Adinku (1994) notes that, dance for social ceremonies such as the dipo is restricted to girls in their puberty stage because the norms demand that, they must undergo initiation to inculcate in them the values of womanhood, and prepare them physically and emotionally to face their feminine responsibilities with confidence.  [4]  The performance of dipo and bragoro  [5]  help to simplify some of the ethical and moral lessons acquired in the entire ceremonies. The adowa dance of the Akan portrays some ethics. For example, a dancer may humbly plead with his or her drummers to play a good music as he or she dances by bowing and putting the right hand in the left hand, showing respect. The dancer bows to reverence a king in state and waves his right hand to greet and welcome spectators. These examples suggest that some dances are indicators and tools for bringing about ethical behaviors in the society. Dance as a non-verbal form of communication transcends ethnic and racial boundaries with fewer limitations.  [6]   Dance is fun, healing, joy, freedom, love, meditation, dynamic, an expression, emotional, magic and real and because of these qualities, it draws peoples attention when it is performed to an audience. These audiences are then exposed to and affected by the above irresistible qualities, thus, influenced by the symbolic movements carefully selected and used by the dancer or performer to express an emotional state.  [7]  This thesis uses the power of dance to address the findings of my research, which is the influence of the Twene KÃŽÂ µse festival on the practice of ethics. 2.2 The Relationship between Dance and Ethics Like ethical practices of the traditional African society, dance is one of the oldest traditions of man performed in all social gatherings such as festivals, naming ceremonies, funerals, puberty rites, and enstoolment and disstoolement of traditional leaders, because it graces every occasion in the life-circle of people. Within the life cycle of these people are their ethics and according to Nii-Yartey, a renowned Ghanaian choreographer, in Africa, dance serves as an index to the value systems that enable the community to interpret and express the various events of life.  [8]  Some of these events of life manifest the communitys reaction to areas such as work, to food and shelter, social and economic conditions, religious beliefs and disbeliefs, moments of joy and sadness. All these are captured in the dances of communities, thus, the Africans way of life in totality is reflected in his or her dance. To most Africans, dance is a habit formation, thus, one develops the interest and ability to dance as one participates in events associated with dance. He or she becomes familiar with the requirements and values of the dance, because the dos and donts of each dances learnt are also congruent to societal norms. For example, a fontonfrom,  [9]  nagila and adowa dancer, during state functions, will pay homage by bowing to the king, requesting for permission to dance. In the same way in our society, an Ashanti man will remove one of his footwear, lower the cloth on his left shoulder and bow to greet or shake hands with an Ashanti King. Furthermore, an $kyer1me will lower his cloth to the waist level, slightly place his right foot forward while stepping on the tail-end of his sandals before pouring libation. One is introduced to the societal moral requirements which form the ethical practices and principles of society as he or she studies through participation. Therefore, it is assume d that one becomes morally upright based on ones level of participation in dance, and his or her responds to its requirements. Morality is not ours originally, but learnt through socialization in the community. Hence, as the African grows, he or she learns through this habit formation to choose to do what is right from wrong. This is so because, to be morally right is not an in-born trait, but acquired with the choices one makes. One, consequently, bears the cost of the good or bad he or she purchases. One of the most important principles of the African is the family system the interdependency of the African. Thus, the challenge of one person is the challenge of all. This is not different in their dance performances. One does not perform in isolation because there will be no one to drum, sing, or hail the dancer and these are predominant in the African dance performance. Dancers mostly perform in groups at social functions, and admirers may hail them by clapping or walking into the dancing ring and fixing a coin on the forehead of the dancer. Gyekye (1996) opines that, the African is by nature a social being oriented towards others in a community of persons. Community life directly involves a person in social and moral roles, responsibilities, obligations and commitments that must be fulfilled. The Ghanaian is identified as a community member and therefore, seeks to uphold the values inherent in these obligations. These social obligations are the moral standards which sum up the e thics of the community. What Gyekye says is not different from the direction of this study because, the concern of the social being to live in an environment of peace, prepares him or her to adhere to ethical practices and principles of the community for posterity. Some of these ethical practices and principles can be found in the traditional dances and the festival activities of the African, while others are found in the day-to-day activities of people in the community, exist in isolation and therefore, are getting diminished. With changes that have occurred in our ethical life due to modernization, perhaps dance, through the medium of choreography can capture the essence of some of these values and bring them to attention of this contemporary community. The African lives for his community and Anthony Egan confirms this by his statement that If the foundation of African ethics is in the notion of humanness, what is to be a person, ubuntu sees this humanness as personhood in the community: a person is a person through other people. This confirms the earlier point raised that no one lives in isolation in the African system: a person life because others live; therefore, his or her activities affect the progress of the society. In light of the above, therefore, there is no doubt that the distinctive features which help recognize the African people are their cultural practices, social activities and values, religious and traditional beliefs, and principally their dance and musical traditions. 2.3 The Meaning of Ethics and Its Relevance to this Study In other to situate this research work within the context of ethics, some assertions by philosophical scholars such as Gyekye, Mbiti, Kant and others will be considered. According to Gyekye (1987), the Ghanaian equivalent word for ethics is suban. He explains that, ethics may be translated as suban ho nimdee or suban ho adwendwen, studies or reflections on character, a rendition which, in stressing the notion of character, agrees with the Akan conception of morality and hence can correctly be used, sometimes with an additional word or words to reflect modern usage, as the Akan equivalent for the word ethics.  [10]   In his contention, suban is so vital and for this reason, it is given a central place in the Ghanaian moral language and thought that it may be considered as summing up the whole idea of morality. For example, an Akan will say, He has no character (onni suban) instead of, He has no morals. That is, onni suban is mostly used if a person is describing the negative moral status of another person. The word pa or papa, meaning good is sometimes added to the sentence to make the meaning clearer in a moral sense. For instance, onni suban pa (he has no good character, or his conduct is unethical). The opposite of this statement is, owo suban pa (he has moral, or he is ethical, moral). That is a person with a praiseworthy character. This takes our discussion to the meaning of character and its relationship to ethics. Gyekye again defines character as a state or condition of a soul which causes it to perform its actions spontaneously and easily.  [11]  This presupposes that, the moral habit of an individual is innate and as he or she grows, the society teaches him or her to adopt good character to act positively at all times and in spontaneous situations. In support of this, Kant (1724-1804), states that, act as if the principle on which your action is based were to became, by your will, a universal law of nature.  [12]  Kants statement has bearing in the Akan proverb that says abaa a yÃŽÂ µde b4 Tekyi no, yÃŽÂ µde b4 Baah. This is literally translated as, do what you want others to do unto you or and therefore one should be mindful of his actions so as not to negatively affect other people. According to Kant, one must be fully aware of actions, whether good or bad, so that he or she will be fully responsible for the outcome thereafter. Bad people are not welcomed in social gathering such as festivals and therefore do not add up to the decision makers of the community. On the other hand, a person is believed to have the capability of changing from unacceptable behaviors to acceptable behaviors through the teaching of moral values embedded in proverbs, traditional dances and folktales. Such people become part of the society because, it is in living virtuously that human beings can give meaning to their social life and existence.  [13]   Johnsons (2004) article on Kants Moral Philosophy indicates his (Kants) substitution of ethics with morals and proposes that Once we seek out and establish the fundamental principle of morality a priori, then we may consult facts drawn from experience in order to determine how best to apply this principle to human beings and generate particular conclusions about how we ought to act.  [14]  Kant has observed that, to understand what ethics really is, an in-depth analysis of our moral concept must be sought. For example, Saint Augustine (354-430), as he sought to reinterpret the virtues of classical Greece says, Temperance, courage, justice and wisdom are expressions of Christian virtue.  [15]  In this direction, an action is regarded as right if it is in agreement with a moral rule or principle.  [16]  The understanding of the concept of good will, obligation, duty, and so on as well as their logical relationship to one another, is inevitably linked with the African concep t of ethics; thus, we can determine the rationality of ones actions; whether he does what is right or what is wrong. To buttress this point, Bantham Jeremy (1748-1832) positions that, correct actions are those that result in the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.  [17]  To live in a harmonious ON environment with one another, ones deeds must bring about the greatest degree of joy and happiness to him or herself as well as people around him. To Jeremy, ones happiness is quantifiable to units of pleasure, therefore less units of pain. However, Socrates (469-399bc) concepts of ethics that every person has full knowledge of ultimate truth contained within the soul and needs only to be spurred to conscious reflection in order to become aware of it.  [18]  The ultimate truth found within the soul of the African, as confirmed by Gyekye, is interpreted in the Akan proverb that says, no one shows the child where God is.  [19]  In other words, even a child knows what is right from wrong and this is because of the ultimate truth, which is an in-born-trait and is contained in the soul of the individual. While some African thinkers hold the view that, the punishment given to a person who has gone against an ethical rule may spur on others from committing the same crime, others hold a different view on the matter. For example, when a parent or guardian disciplines a child for insubordination, it spurs on other children from doing same. On the other hand, the idea of motivating people to do the right thing does not sit well with others. Since the ultimate truth is embedded in everyone, it presupposes that one does not need to be motivated to do what is right. Socrates ideology concerning ethics is to incite people to do the right thing and thus, without incentives people may not consciously reflect on the knowledge of ultimate truths. I agree with the two assertions because, from childhood one experiences moral virtues through habit-forming activities such as traditional dances, folk tales and others that include singing traditional songs and proverbs for socialization.  [20]  Furthermore, the society bears the responsibility of helping to discipline a child when he or she goes wrong, because of the collective perspective of society for the upbringing of its members. When a child goes wrong, the onus falls on the members of the community to discipline that child. One significant example observed during my research trip is my experience of the sacred atmosphere the Adjumako-Kokoben town experiences a month before the celebration of Twene KÃŽÂ µse festivities. People are required to eschew antisocial behaviors most especially during the festival season. Unethical behaviors such as stealing, gossiping, fighting and desecrating of sacred centers like the Twene KÃŽÂ µse shrines and mpusuban  [21]  are highly prohibited. This is because the period of the festival is considered holy, where spirits of departed ancestors come back home to prepare the grounds for the up-and-coming events. The community frowns on people who go contrary to this ethical rule and culprits are summoned and fined by their traditional council. During the festival, such persons are ridiculed with insulting songs to spur on others during the celebration of the Abangye which leads to the climax of the Twene KÃŽÂ µse festival. It is also a belief that, the spiritual entity that protects the community with it source from the deity, Twene KÃŽÂ µse, does not condone unethical people in the society.  [22]  This raises the question of whether or not the ethical rules or principles have a link with the supernatural or their traditional religion. However, John Mbiti (1969) agrees that ethical rule practiced worldwide may promote peace and tranquility among people. He points out that; As in all societies of the world, social order and peace are recognized by African people as essential and sacred. Where the sense of corporate life is so deep, it is inevitable that the solidarity of the community must be mentioned, otherwise there are disintegration and destruction.  [23]   He believes that, the African community is bound together with kinship relationship and therefore the unethical deeds of one person affect the entire community. This becomes sacrilegious during the holy periods of traditional festivals. For the purpose of this dissertation, the word suban will be adopted, thus, the required suban proposed by either the community or the gods (supernatural entities) to be practiced in socio-cultural and political activities. Theories of philosophers concerning the source of ethics in the traditional African society in relation to my research findings will be pursued in the next section. 2.4 Theoretical Framework 2.4.1 Ethical Concerns in African Cultural Standpoint Many scholars have written extensively on the ethical concerns in the traditional African societies. Some have attributed the Africans practice of ethics to their religious beliefs while others have disputed the fact and said that, ethics have less to do with religion. One of such philosophers who have suggested a relationship between the Africans way of life and religion is Kofi A. Opoku (1974). He notes; The phenomenon of religion is so pervasive in the life of the Akan, and so inextricably bound up with their culture, that it is not easy to isolate what is purely religious from other aspects of life. It may be said without fear or exaggeration that life in the Akan world is religion, and religion is life.  [24]   According to Opoku, the African cannot segregate himself from religion and hence religion affects his moral obligations, and therefore the Akan morality is based on religion. In other words, a persons moral standards are to a large extent dependent on his religion. Furthermore, Opoku (1978) writes on Akan morality and states that, Generally, morality evolves from religious considerations, and so pervasive is religion in African culture that ethics and religion cannot be separated from each other.  [25]  The traditional African is seen as a religious being through his daily reverence to divinities in his or her life circle; birth, puberty or initiation and death. When a child is born, libation is poured to ask for blessing for it and thank the gods for its save entrance from the supernatural to the natural world. In some cases, names of ancestors who led moral lives are given to the child to honor them. Puberty (a period that marks the beginning of adulthood in both men and women) , farming, fishing, hunting, enstoolment and distoolment of chiefs are not performed without the consent of a deity, so as the death rite of individuals. These activities are the customs and belief systems of the traditional people. Some of the customs and belief systems of the African community contain some ethics. The ideas behind their practices are beneficial and connote morality in the community. For example, it is unethical for one to whistle and sweep at night in the most Akan societies. Whistling may attract snakes, which can bite one to death. In the same way, precious tiny objects may be swept away at night. These are beliefs which when practiced becomes beneficial to the people. Can it also be said that the gods propounded these beliefs? Bishop Sarpong, in support of the above discussion states, Ethics here merges with religious practices, and assumes communal proportions. Among the Ghanaian, every ethical conduct may be said to be religiously orientated.  [26]  Busia (1969) a notable scholar of Ghanaian culture also declares that religion determines the moral duties for the members of a group or tribe.  [27]  Finally, Mbiti reinforces that, there exist, therefore, many laws, customs, set forms of behaviors, regulations, rules (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦), constituting the moral code and ethics of a given community or society. Some of these are held sacred, and are believed to have been instituted by Godà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.  [28]  All these assertions agree that ethics is hardly segregated from religion, and religion  [29]  has it source from Supreme Being (God or gods), not man. However, Kwame Gyekye, Segun Gbadegesin, Kwasi Wiredu and Polycarp Ikuenobe disagree with all the above claims. To them, moralities have less to do with religion where the source of this religion is God. Gyekye explains that, through his research in the Akan community, no one attributed rules of moral behavior to instructions from God. Nonetheless, Gyekye clarifies the relationship of Akan moralitys dependence on religion, and he provides two distinctions. He categorically states; It must mean or imply: (1) that moral concept such as good, bad, right, wrong, and ought are (to be) to be defined in terms of religious prescriptions or the commands of some supernatural being; (2) that moral beliefs, principles and ideas derive logically from those of religion and hence, (3) that religious prescriptions provide the necessary justification for moral beliefs, principles and judgments. Finally, (4) the moral conduct of individuals is determined or greatly influenced by their religious beliefs.  [30]   He distinguishes the above assertion of religion merging with morality and explains morality as referring, Either to a set of social rules and norms for guiding and regulating the conduct of people in a society, or behavior pattern, that is, responses or attitudes to such rules and norms. Thus, we speak not only of moral rules, beliefs, and prescription, but also of moral behavior, meaning behavior in conformity with accepted moral beliefs and rules: the moral person in one whose attitude or response to moral rule is satisfactory and commendable. So that the idea of the religious dependence on morality involves not only the sources of moral rules and principles, but also the influences that affect patterns of behavior.  [31]   Gyekye proves that there are visible distinctions with these two implications and for that matter, vivid analysis must be done in this aspect to avoid people from the mistake of given false conclusion on the issue of religion and morality in the African culture. According to Tufuhene Akorful IV and $kyer1ma Kwaku Aky1 from the Adjumako-Kokoben traditional Area, ethics are the morals values within the belief systems of the community that promote acceptable behaviors and were passed on from their forefathers unto them. Here, forefathers refer to the ancestors and traditional priests of the town. They believe that individuals do not accept acknowledgement for contributing to the welfare of the community, rather, wisdom is ascribed to people of old or ancestors, priest and gods. They therefore admit that, through the wisdom of the ancestor and the gods, ethical principles for moral behavior in the town, are propounded and communicated through their traditional priest unto the people. In this instance, one see two underlining features over here; the ancestors who were once human and the gods. Could it be that the provider of ethics is a shared responsibility of humans and the supernatural? Yes, because the traditional religion is a relationship b etween man and the supernatural, and though one is supreme over the other and may be the provider of ethics, the less supreme also has equal responsibility to make moral rules to protect his or her community. Yet, he or she does not take glory for his achievement, but ascribes it to the gods or ancestors. The Adjumako-Kokoben people believe that the traditional priest to the Twene KÃŽÂ µse god is the greatest priest of all times. He (the Twene Kese priest) protects his people by providing ethical rules. These are found within their belief systems. Table 1. The ethics found in some belief systems of the Adjumako-Kokoben people Examples Of Some Belief Systems In Adjumako-Kokoben The Ethics In Such Belief Systems Do not bring a whole bunch of Plantain called apim  [32]  to the house. Cut some fingers off first. By cutting some fingers off, it encourages sharing with others in the society. Do not bring a whole palm fruit to the house. Cut off some fruits first. Share some of the palm fruits with a neighbor. Do not pound fufu  [33]  at night. Eating heavy food at night may cause stomach upset. Insects or objects may fall in the fufu during pounding and cause harm to those who eat it. Do not go to the streams when menstruating or have a cut on your body. Diseases may be transmitted to other people. Do not bring dog to town. They are believed to carry bad spirit, which can affect the blessings of men. They can also bit and transmit diseases as well. Cut very long firewood into shorter pieces before bringing them home. They occupy lots of space. The carrier may hurt someone with it due to the length of the log. Unbalance may break the neck of the carrier. 2.5 Ethical Theories The fundamental principle of morality binds every individual in a community because ethics are about how to live a good life wherever one finds him or herself.  [34]  Meaning, harmonious life in a community depends on obeying the ethical principles therein. Richard T. Hull (1979), in his paper, The Varieties of Ethical Theories, explains various ethical theories and states the two fundamental types of ethical theory: those based on the notion of choosing ones actions so as to maximize the value or values to be expected as consequences of those actions (called consequentialist or teleological theories [from the Greek telos, meaning aim or purpose]; and those based on the notion of choosi

Concepts in Disaster Management

Concepts in Disaster Management CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Broader Views on Disaster Management 2.1.1 Definition of Disaster Disaster has been defined in some different ways. Indeed, there is no precise definition for a disaster (Eshghi Larson, 2008). In complete form, Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) defines disasters as â€Å"A situation or event which overwhelms local capacity, necessitating a request to the national or international level for external assistance, or is recognized as such by a multilateral agency or by at least two sources, such as national, regional or international assistance groups and the media† (Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), 2004). Below et al. (2007) propose â€Å"an accumulation of widespread losses over multiple economic sectors, associated with a natural hazard event, that overwhelms the ability of the affected population to cope† as a definition of a disaster. International Federation on Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) defines a disaster as â€Å"a sudden, calamitous event that seriously disrupts the functioning of a community or society and causes human, material, and economic or environmental losses that exceed the communitys or societys ability to c ope using its own resources†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (IFRC, 2008). van Wassenhove (2006) proposes â€Å"a disruption that physically affects a system as a whole and threatens its priorities and goals† as a definition of disaster, while Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC, 2008) defines disaster as â€Å"a serious disruption of the functioning of society, causing widespread human, material or environmental losses which exceed the ability of affected society to cope using only its own resources†, which is similar with Reliefwebs (2008) definition. Emergency Management Australia (EMA, 2008) defines disaster as â€Å"a serious disruption to community life which threatens or causes death or injury in that community and/or damage to property which is beyond the day-today capacity of the prescribed statutory authorities and which requires special mobilization and organization of resources other than those normally available to those authorities†, while emergency is defined as à ¢â‚¬ËœAn event, actual or imminent, which endangers or threatens to endanger life, property or the environment, and which requires a significant and coordinated response. (EMA, 2008). 2.1.2 Disaster Types With a wide variability of disaster definition, it is understandable to have different initial classifications for disasters (Eshghi Larson, 2008; Shaluf 2007a, b). Canadian Disaster Database (2008) categorises disasters into five different types as summarized in Table 1. Table 1. Disaster types (Source: Canadian Disaster Database, 2008) Disaster types Encompasses Biological Epidemic, infestation Geological Earthquake, landslide, tsunami Meteorological and hydrological Cold wave, drought, flood, hail/ thunderstorm, heat wave, hurricane/ typhoon, snow avalanche, storm surges, storm-freezing rain, storm-unspecified/ other, storm-winter, tornado, wildfire Conflict Terrorism, civil unrest Technological Accident-industrial, accident-other, accident-transport, fire, hazardous chemicals van Wassenhove (2006) proposes a metrics (see Table 2) to understand disasters. Table 2. Categorization of disasters based on van Wassenhove (2006) Natural Man-made Sudden-onset Earthquake, hurricane, tornado Terrorist attack, coup detat, chemical leak Slow-onset Famine, drought, poverty Political crisis, refugee crisis In general, Shaluf (2007a, b) categorises disasters into three types: Natural disasters, which are catastrophic events resulting from natural causes such as volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc. Man made disasters, which are those catastrophic events that result from human decisions. Hybrid disasters are those disasters that result from both human error and natural forces. In further detail, Shaluf (2007b) breaks down each type of disasters and gives examples and characteristics, as can be seen in Table 3. Table 3. Disaster types, taken from Shaluf (2007b) Disaster type Characteristics Sub-disaster Name of disasters Natural A natural disaster is a natural phenomenon; A natural disaster is an unplanned and socially disruptive event with a sudden and severe disruptive effect; A natural disaster is single event over which no human has control; The impact of natural disaster is localized to a geographical region and specific time period; The consequences of a natural disaster are felt at the place and time of its occurrence; The disaster can be a high-impact disaster (e.g. a flood) that has a greater direct effect on the community over a longer period; Rapid onset disasters include earthquakes, flash floods, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, tsunamis, slow onset disasters, droughts, floods, and epidemics Natural phenomena beneath the earths surface Earthquakes Tsunamis Volcanic eruptions Topographical phenomena Landslides Avalanches Meteorological/ hydrological phenomena Windstorms (Cyclones, typhoons, hurricanes) Tornadoes Hailstorms and snowstorms Sea surges Floods Droughts Heat waves/ could waves Biological phenomena Infestations (locust swarms, mealy bug) Epidemics (cholera, dengue, ebola, malaria, measles, meningitis, yellow fever, HIV/ AIDS, tuberculosis) Man-made Characteristics of socio-technical disasters: A socio-technical disaster is a man-made event; A socio-technical disaster occurs in an organisation due to the interaction between internal factors and external factors; It arises suddenly: when the disaster occurs it does so as a shock; A socio-technical disaster is a complex system of interdependence; The impact of a socio-technical disaster sometimes transcends geographical boundaries and can even have trans-generational effects (e.g. Three Mile Island, Bhopal, Chernobyl); Socio-technical disasters do not always have their worst consequences at the point of occurrence; the worst effects can occur long after the event; Socio-technical disasters are characterized by a low probability/ high consequences event; Sudden-impact disasters (e.g. air/road/rail accident) are usually of short duration and have a limited direct effect on the local community; Socio-technical disasters arise not because of a single factor but of accumulated unnoticed events; Disaster involves management procedures which must be maintained, and management problems must be coped with under the conditions of a major technical emergency involving threats of injury and loss of life; Rapid onset disasters include fires, technological disasters, industrial accidents, and transportation accidents; An inquiry report is required Socio-technical Technological disasters Fire Explotions (munitions explosions, chemical explosions, nuclear explosions, mine explosions) Leakage Toxic release Pollutions (pollution, acid rain, chemical pollution, atmospheric pollution) Structural collapse of physical assets Transportation disasters Air disasters Land disasters Sea disasters Stadia or other public places failures Fire Structural collapse Crowd stampede Production failure Computer system breakdown Distribution of defective products Warfare National Civil war between armed groups in the same country Civil strikes Civil disorder Bomb threats/ terrorist attack Inter-national Conventional war War between two armies from different countries Sieges Blockades Non-conventional war Nuclear Chemical Biological Hybrid The characteristics of a hybrid disaster can be the characteristics of both man-made and natural disasters Natural and man-made events Floods ravage community built on known floodplain Location of residential premises, factories, etc., at the foot of an active volcano, or in an avalanche area Landslides Slightly different from those, EM-DAT (2008a) classifies disasters into three groups: Natural disasters Technological disasters Complex emergencies Regarding its scope in terms of sufferer number and/ or geographic areas affected, Gad-el-Hak (2008) distinguishes disasters into five categories as can be seen in Table 4. Table 4. Disaster scope in terms of number of victims and/ or geographic area affected (Source: Gad-el-Hak, 2008) Scope Category No. of sufferers Geographic areas affected Scope I Small disaster Or Scope II Medium disaster 10-100 persons or 1-10 km2 Scope III Large disaster 100-1,000 persons Or 10-100 km2 Scope IV Enormous disaster 1,000-104 persons Or 100-1,000 km2 Scope V Gargantuan disaster > 104 persons Or > 1,000 km2 While the definition of natural disasters and technological disasters are principally the same as those proposed by Shaluf (2007a, b), complex emergencies need a further exploration. Alballa-Bertrand (see Alballa-Bertrand, 2000) proposes the following definition for a complex humanitarian emergency or, in short, complex emergency: ‘A purposeful and unlikely neutral response, intended mostly to counteract the worse effects of the massive human destitution that derive from an overt political phenomenon, which takes the form of a violent, entrenched and long-lasting factionalist conflict or imposition with ultimate institutional aims. On the other hand, ReliefWeb (2008) defines a complex emergency as â€Å"A multifaceted humanitarian crisis in a country, region or society where there is a total or considerable breakdown of authority resulting from internal or external conflict and which requires a multi-sectoral, international response that goes beyond the mandate or capacity of any single agency and/or the ongoing UN country program. Such emergencies have, in particular, a devastating effect on children and women, and call for a complex range of responses.† While Complex Emergency Database (CE-DAT) (2008) defines complex emergency as all crises characterized by extreme vulnerability that display the following features: There exist the unwillingness or incapability of the government to give effective response, leading call for external assistance; Political oppression or armed conflict; Displacement; Increased mortality. 2.1.3 The Increasing Trend of Disaster Occurrences Lichterman (1999) predicts that the frequency of disasters and their effects seem to be increasing. By reviewing various related published sources from 1900-2005, Eshghi and Larson (2008) confirm Lichtermans prediction. A disaster leads to a severe trouble of society, including extensive human misery and physical loss or damage (Davis Lambert, 2002). Both natural and man-made disasters are likely to raise another five-fold over the next fifty years (from the year 2005) due to environmental degradation, rapid urbanization and the spread of HIV/AIDS in less developed world (Thomas Kopczak, 2005). More than 250 million people in the world are affected by disasters every year (IFRC, 2008). In the sense of natural disasters which are then divided into biological, geophysical, climatological, hydrological, and meteorological disasters -, CRED (see Scheuren et al., 2008) reports that there were 414 natural disaster occurrences (excluding biological disasters) in year 2007 which killed 16 847 persons, affected more than 211 million others and caused over 74.9 US$ billion in economic damages. Until year 2004, over 90 percent of natural disasters occurred in developing countries (United Nations ISDR, 2004). By including biological disasters and regrouping natural disasters into three different categories, as follows: Hydro-meteorological disasters: comprising floods and wave surges, storms, droughts and related disasters (extreme temperatures and forest/scrub fires), and landslides avalanches; Geophysical disasters: earthquakes tsunamis and volcanic eruptions fall into this category; Biological disasters: consisting of epidemics and insect infestations; International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) (2008) provides data which shows that there is an increasing trend on the occurrences of natural disasters from 1900 to 2005, as can be seen in Table 5. Table 5. Distribution of natural disasters: by origin (1900-2005, by decades*) *) 2000-2005, six year period The increasing trends of the occurrences of natural disasters between 1900-June 2008 is also documented in EM-DAT (2008b). Regarding the victims, there were 3,470,162,961 people affected by natural disasters for the period of 1991-2005 with a total of 960,502 deaths. Most of the victims (98.1% of people affected and 92.1% of people killed) were located in developing countries and least-developed countries (IFRC, 2008). 2.1.4 Disaster Management Disaster management also known as emergency management (Reliefweb, 2008) is defined as comprehensive approach and activities to reduce the adverse impacts of disasters (Reliefweb, 2008), while disaster operations could be considered as the set of activities that are performed before, during, and after a disaster which are aimed at preventing loss of human life, reducing its impact on the economy, and returning to a normal situation (Altay Green III, 2006). Using the terminology of disaster relief operations (DRO) as substitute to disaster operations, Pujawan et al. (2009) state that DRO consists of a variety of activities such as assessing demands, acquiring commodities, finding out priorities as well as receiving, classifying, storing, tracing and tracking deliveries. Regarding its phases, disaster management could be divided into four phases (Altay Green III, 2006): disaster mitigation, disaster preparedness, disaster response, and disaster recovery. 2.1.5 The Importance of Logistics in Disaster Management Logistics could be defined as follows (see Sheu, 2007a: 655): â€Å"Logistics is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, effective flow and storage of goods, services and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption for the purpose of conforming to customers[] requirements at the lowest total cost.† Its system operation consists of network design, information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging (see Wu Huang, 2007: 429). There are several Operational Research (OR) techniques utilised in logistics context, including the use of transportation model to determine the location of warehouses and the use of assignment/ allocation model to locate production facilities (Slats et al., 1995: 12), to name a few. In particular, humanitarian logistics could be defined as â€Å"the process of planning, implementing and control ­ling the efficient, cost-effective flow and storage of goods and materials, as well as related information, from point of origin to point of consump ­tion for the purpose of meeting the end beneficiarys requirements† (Thomas Mizushima, January 2005). Similarly, Thomas and Kopczak (2005) define it as â€Å"the process of planning, implementing and controlling the efficient, cost-effective flow and storage of goods and materials, as well as related information, from the point of origin to the point of consumption for the purpose of alleviating the suffering of vulnerable people†. Whereas Sheu (2007a) proposes ‘‘a process of planning, managing and controlling the efficient flows of relief, information, and services from the points of origin to the points of destination to meet the urgent needs of the affected people under emergency conditions as a definition of emergency logistics. Moreover, disaster relief is usually put aside for sudden upheavals such as natural disasters (earthquakes, avalanches, hurricanes, floods, fires, volcano eruptions, etc.) and very few man-made disasters such as terrorist acts or nuclear disasters (Kovà ¡cs Spens, 2007). Relief itself could be understood as â€Å"assistance and/or intervention during or after disaster to meet the life preservation and basic subsistence needs. It can be of emergency or protracted duration† (Reliefweb, 2008). It has been already generally well-known that logistics play a vital role in emergency management. Sheu (2007a) declares that, due to the possibility of disasters occurrences anytime around the world with huge effects, emergency logistics management had appeared as a worldwide-noticeable subject matter. People which are affected by disasters and are uprooted from their rights for food, housing, livelihood and other means of supporting themselves need the delivery of food, medicine, tents, sanitation equipment, tools and other necessities (Whybark, 2007). The science of logistics and supply chain management is becoming more vital for humanitarians (van Wassenhove, 2006), and â€Å"the subject of disaster management is an absolutely fascinating one that is growing in importance† (van Wassenhove, 2003: 19). Oloruntoba (2005) states that, regarding the Indian Ocean tsunami context, the scale of damage and subsequent response lead to problems of coordination, transportation and dis tribution among responding groups. In other affected areas of the Indian Ocean tsunami, Thomas (summer/fall 2006) reports that, at the 60-day point, regardless of the enormous relief efforts, only 60% of the families reported receiving well-timed and sufficient aid. It is therefore acceptable to conclude that good logistics planning plays an important role to the success of an emergency program (Davis Lambert, 2002: 109). Humanitarian logistics is essential to disaster relief for some reasons (Thomas Kopczak, 2005): It is crucial to the effectiveness and speed of response for main humanitarian programs, such as health, food, shelter, water, and sanitation; It can be one of the most expensive elements of a relief effort as it includes procurement and transportation; Since the logistics department handles tracking of commodities through the supply chain, it is often the repository of data that can be analyzed to offer post-event knowledge. In his paper, McEntire (1999) states that the disaster studies must discover ways to improve the provision of relief after certain catastrophe hits. This statement is in line with Perrys (2007) finding which accentuates the availability of logistician cadres as a key element of disaster response, as part of needs assessment and for procuring, transporting, and distributing the relief provisions. Regarding the relief of the Indian Ocean tsunami, the humanitarian organizations providing those relieves acknowledged that relief can and needs to be faster and more efficient (Thomas, 2005). Together with hurricane â€Å"Katrina† disaster, the Indian Ocean tsunami lead to the gap of â€Å"the inability to connect the aid provided with the aid received† (Thomas, 2005) in spite of the unprecedented giving during those two misfortunes. It is also pointed out by Tolentino Jr. (2007) that the Indian Ocean tsunami has provided the will to radically improve disaster management and pl anning, an issue Trims (2004: 224) research agrees with, in a broader disaster relief context. Furthermore, the development of new technology for track/trace and disaster relief supply chains is proposed as one of ways to improve the delivery of humanitarian relief (Baluch, 2007). In the context of the participation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in worldwide emergencies (e.g. volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, war), Beamon and Kotleba (2006) point out that the capability of an NGOs supply chain and logistics operations directly influences the success of a relief effort. Whereas Pujawan et al. (2009) propose information visibility, coordination, accountability, and professionalism as successful requirements of logistics for DRO. 2.2 Some Previous Works in Logistics Management The following paragraphs will give a short overview on several aspects in logistics management, especially those which are perceived as having relevance with the current research. They include distribution network design problem, location-allocation problem (LAP), vehicle routing problem (VRP), and location-routing problem (LRP), respectively. 2.2.1 Distribution Network Design Problem Citing Chopra (2003), distribution can be seen as â€Å"the steps taken to move and store a product from the supplier stage to a customer stage in the supply chain†. While distribution networks can be defined as â€Å"networks that carry the flow of some commodity or entity, using a routing rule that is intended to be effective and even optimal† (Whittle, 2007), and distribution network itself could be viewed as similar with the terminology producer network (Ambrosino Scutellà  , 2005: 611). Distribution network design problem tackles the issues of optimizing the flows of commodities through an existing distribution network as well as improving the performance of the existing network by selecting the most appropriate setting of the facilities in the network aimed at satisfying the companys goal at one hand and minimising the overall costs at the other hand (Ambrosino Scutellà  , 2005: 611). It involves facility location, transportation and inventory decisions (Ambrosino Scutellà  , 2005: 611). In other words, the aim of distribution network design problem is on deciding the best way of moving goods or products from resource/ supply points to destination/ demand points which is performed by determining the structure of the network, in a such a way that the customer demands are satisfied and the total distribution costs are minimized (Ambrosino et al., 2009: 442). In Amiris (2006: 567-568) paper, distribution network design is stated as involving the simultaneous decis ions on the best settings of both plants and warehouses and on the best strategy in the sense of product distribution from the plants to the warehouses and from the warehouses to the customers, respectively. Meanwhile, the term â€Å"distribution system design† refers to â€Å"the strategic design of the logistics infrastructure and logistics strategy to deliver products from one or more sources to the customers† (Goetschalckx, 2008: 13-1) and similar to Ambrosino et al.s (2009) statement on distribution network design problem focuses on five phases of interconnected decisions, as follows (Goetschalckx, 2008: 13-2): Establishing the appropriate quantity of distribution centers (DCs); Setting up the location of each DC; Allocating customers to each DC; Allocating appropriate commodities to each DC; and Determining the throughput and storage capacity of each DC. Various models and approaches that have been built for designing distribution system or distribution network, to name a few, are (Goetschalckx, 2008: 13-8-13-15; Lapierre et al., 2004): K-median model, location-allocation model, warehouse location model, Geoffrion and Graves distribution system design model, models that focus on mathematical description of cost functions on each route in order to incorporate returns to scale, models of which concentration are in shipments on hub-to-hub routes regarding discounts, and models that aim at solving the freight transportation problem precisely. 2.2.2 Location-Allocation Problem (LAP) As previously stated in Goetschalckx (2008), LAP could be seen as part of distribution network design problems. Given the place of a set of customers with different demands, LAP is concerned with the selection of supply centres positions dedicated for serving the customers as well as the decision of the allocation of the customers to supply centres, with both of them are aimed at optimizing a given criterion (Hsieh Tien, 2004: 1017). It is also assumed that there is no interaction among supply centres. The criterion could be single such as transportation costs (see, for example, Goetschalckx, 2008; Zhou Liu, 2003; Manzini Gebennini, 2008) or it may comprises several aspects (see, for example, Mitropoulos et al., 2006). The following paragraphs provide some previous researches on LAP. The un-capacitated-type LAP with rectilinear distances could be found in Hsieh and Tien (2004). In this paper, the authors propose a heuristic method which is based on Kohonen self-organising feature maps (SOFMs). Sometimes distribution networks are built in hierarchies, where high-level distribution channels are constructed in straight lines from which low-level channels stem. Furthermore, destinations are allocated to branching facilities in high-level channels through low-level channels. Due to cost considerations, the number and locations of branching facilities as well as the allocation of the destinations to the aforementioned branching facilities need to be determined correctly. Eben-Chaime et al.s (2002) paper addresses this type of problem by formulating appropriate mathematical optimisation models and subsequently proposing heuristic solution methods. Capacitated LAP with stochastic demands is addressed by Zhou and Liu (2003). More specifically, they propose three types of stochastic programming models: (1) expected value model (EVM), (2) chance-constrained programming (CCP), and (3) dependent-chance programming (DCP). To solve these models efficiently, the authors develop a hybrid intelligent algorithm within which three type stochastic simulations are used. The proposed algorithm integrates the network simplex algorithm, stochastic simulation and genetic algorithm. In more recent paper, Zhou and Liu (2007) address the LAP with fuzzy demands by developing three types of fuzzy programming models fuzzy expected cost minimisation model, fuzzy -cost minimisation model, and credibility maximisation model with respect to different decision criterion. To solve these models, the authors apply a hybrid intelligent algorithm developed previously (see Zhou and Liu, 2003). Nonetheless, instead of using stochastic simulations, they are developing and employing fuzzy simulations. Similar with the abovementioned paper, Wen and Imamura (2008) also address LAP with fuzzy demands. For this type of problem, they build a fuzzy -cost model under the Hurwicz criterion. The problem is subsequently solved using the same algorithm as in Zhou and Liu (2007). The establishment of mixed integer programming optimisation models for multi-period, multi-stage LAPs could be found in Manzini and Gebennini (2008). In their paper, the authors develop optimisation models each for the following classes of multi-period, multi-stage LAPs: (1) single-commodity, multi-period, two-stage LAPs, (2) multi-commodity, multi-period, two-stage LAPs, (3) single-commodity, multi-period, two-stage open/ closed LAPs, and single-commodity, multi-period, three-stage LAPs. The application of various search methods to a generalised class of LAPs known as multi-facility location problem with generalised objects (MFLPO) is presented by Bischoff and Dà ¤chert (2009). The end of the paper gives comparison of the involved search methods for various sizes of test problem. Research on LAP in health service context could be found in Harper et al. (2005) and Mitropoulos et al. (2006). The former addresses the need to plan health services which takes geographical aspects into consideration. The problem is formulated as a stochastic LAP. The latter paper, on the other hand, develops a bi-objective model to solve the LAP arise in determining the location of hospitals and health centres and the allocation of the patients to those facilities. 2.2.3 Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) In its most basic form (e.g. Bulbul et al., 2008; Laporte, 2007), VRP is concerned with the optimal delivery or collection routes for a limited number of identical vehicles with limited capacities from a central depot/ warehouse to a set of geographically scattered customers. It assumes that the vehicles are at the central depot/ warehouse initially. It also requires the existence of the routes that connect the central depot/ warehouse to customers and customers to customers as well. In this type of VRP, a route must start and finish at the depot and a customer is visited by exactly one vehicle. The total demand of customers served by one vehicle could not exceed the vehicles capacity, and the ultimate goal is to minimise the total routing costs. Since its introduction by Dantzig and Ramser in 1959 (Bulbul et al., 2008), it has given rise to a rich body of works (Laporte, 2007). In 2008, searching the words vehicle routing problem by using Google scholar search results more than 21,700 entries (Golden et al. (eds), 2008). Laportes (1992) paper provides various exact methods and heuristics developed to solve the VRP. Several meta-heuristics intended to solve the classical VRP could be traced from his more recent paper (2007), while Toth and Vigos (2002) paper presents various existing exact algorithms for the solution of classical VRP. The comparison of descent heuristics, simulated annealing, and tabu search in solving VRP is addressed by Van Breedam (2001). Jozefowiez et al. (2008), on the other hand, give a survey on works that have been carried out on multi-objective VRP. A range of VRP variants can be seen in Crainic and Laporte (eds., 1998), Bulbul et al. (2008), and Golden et al. (eds., 2008). Other variants also exist: VRP with stochastic demands and VRP with backhaul. Different classification of VRP could be found in Pisinger and Ropkes (2007) paper. The following sub-sections mention examples of works on some of them, while new directions in modelling and algorithms for various types of LRP could be found in Part II of Golden et al.s (eds., 2008) edited book. 2.2.3.1 VRP with Time Windows In this type of VRP, customer i may only be visited within a time window [ai, bi] (see, e.g., Kontoravdis Bard, 1995; Badeau et al., 1997; Bouthillier Crainic, 2005; Fà ¼genschuh, 2006; Hsu et al., 2007; Kim, et al., 2006; Dondo Cerdà ¡, 2007; Kallehauge et al., 2007). 2.2.3.2 VRP with Pickup and Delivery When the vehicles need to deliver commodities to customers and collect items for example, defective products from them as well, then this is called a VRP with pickup and deliveries. Research papers by Nagy Salhi (2005), Wassan et al. (2008), Wassan et al. (2008), Gribkovskaia et al. (2008), Hoff et al. (2009), and Ai Kachitvichyanukul (2009) are several examples on it. 2.2.3.3 VRP with Backhaul In this type of VRP, the customers are separated into two mutually exclusive subsets so that the first subset of customers receives commodities whereas the second one sends back the products. Additionally, the second subset of customers are only served after the first one. The first subset is called line-haul customers and the second one is named backhaul customers. The f