Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 32

Case Study Example Talent and succession planning has become an important area of focus as far as organizational leadership is concerned. Many business organizations are coming up with ways of ensuring that they develop among their current staff, which is able to steer them through the changing times to make the organizations successful. This paper examines how the process of talent and succession planning in organizations is taking shape, using the case study of Apple inc., a technology giant in the United States and the world at large. Talent management as used in most multinational organizations refers to the process of implementing systems and strategies that are properly designed and integrated in order to create and enhance the productivity and efficiency of employees. This process can only be achieved through attracting, developing, retaining employees that have aptitudes and skills for meeting current needs and those in future for the business. Talent management can also be described as the chief driver of organizational performance and success by ensuring that the top management is able to have employees that can take on the changing roles and functions in the company. Research reports have indicated that about 85% of all human resource managers in organizations are of the view that one of the greatest obstacles to effective workforce leadership and management is the creation and maintenance of an organisation ability to compete for talent (Cohn, Khurana & Reeves 276). This understanding means that talent management is being ranked as a practice that bears a strategic advantage for companies, especially in these changing times for businesses. Therefore, one of the main functions of effective leadership is to ensure that businesses are better placed create a workforce that will always be there for the present and future success of the company. In response towards the rapidly changing business environment, organizational leaders are supposed to have a

Management Report and Proposal Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Management Report and Proposal - Dissertation Example While discussing on the lines of fast diffusion of the internet connectivity in various corners of the world, it can be said that the emergence of the internet has been tremendously accelerated on the basis of fast acceptance and penetration of various kinds of technological gadgets like the I-pads, I phones by the masses around the world. With the rapid acceptance of the internet connectivity in both the developing as well as the developed countries, the entire world has become globally connected through the virtual and digital platform. It is of considerable importance to mention that because of this global interconnectivity there has been a tremendous shift in the power balance in the market. The internet connectivity has brought forward the power of knowledge to the consumers around the world. The easy access of knowledge by the consumers of both the developed as well as the developing regions is increasingly paving the way for trends related to digitization. Because of the trend s of digitization, there has been a tremendous amount of cross border demand for various products and services that are increasingly emerging from multiple small and big points around the world. It needs to be mentioned that these new kinds of demands are increasingly creating a shift of power balance in the market dynamics all around the world. Previously what used to be a market that is dominated by the power the sellers has paved the roads for the market that is being dominated by the buyers and consumers. Because of this new modification and shift on the lines of consumer demand, many new as well as existing companies are sensing tremendous amount of business opportunity for various kinds of new as well as innovative business products and solutions. In order to tap the business opportunities that are brewing in the markets of the developing as well as the developed region, the companies that are located in various geographies around the world are seriously considering on the opt ions related to entering into newer markets. It is utterly relevant to mention that the internet is playing a tremendously catalytic role in regards to providing the information that is highly necessary for the purpose of entering these new markets. Since, more and more companies of multinational as well as international and transnational nature are slowly starting to enter into the market of a particular region of a new country or location, the level of competition in the market of that particular region is starting to rise. This is in return creating a pressure on the already existing companies to stay tremendously competitive in the marketplace. In an attempt to stay competitive in the market place, the companies in many markets around the world are increasingly trying to sport a lean structure, while cutting organizational costs. Because of the trimming down of organization related operating expenses, there has been a direct impact in regards to the amount of manpower that will be maintained by the company as an asset. Thus, it is creating the trends of

Perovskite Electrocatalyst for CO2 Reduction Design

Perovskite Electrocatalyst for CO2 Reduction Design Theoretical design of efficient perovskite electrocatalyst for CO2 reduction Summary This project aims to engineer perovskite materials as efficient electrocatalysts for CO2 to fuel conversion. Perovskite are appealing candidates because of their wide ranging and complex electronic structures. There is a scope to break some of the limitations of metallic catalysts to come up with new efficient electro catalyst. The endless varieties of electronic properties oxides’ show are truly astounding. We would like to search this large materials space systematically for possible catalyst with improved activity for CO2 reduction. However, they should also be active, stable and conductive at relevant potentials to meet application targets. Identification and establishment of design principles for efficient oxide catalyst for CO2 reduction will mark the scientific part of this project. Efforts to be made for predicting molecular pathway of CO2 reduction reactions and develop unified search criterion like descriptors regarding these reactions. Then this knowledge to be appl ied for high throughput computational search for best perovskite electrocatalysts. In this project we plan to utilize the latest simulation methodologies developed based on density functional theory (DFT) towards understanding the molecular mechanism of CO2 to fuel conversion on oxide surfaces. Further on, we will explore kinetic barriers using nudged elastic band (NEB) method to come up with possible efficient electro catalyst. Introduction and perspective on impact Global energy consumption will increase manifold in a few decades as larger fraction of world population achieves higher quality of life. This demand could be met from fossil fuels, particularly coal. However, in recent time, carbon dioxide level in the air has reached the highest (>400 ppm) of the last 20 million years, causing radical and largely unpredictable changes in the environment. Thus to maintain sustainability for human kind, it will require invention, development, and deployment of carbon-neutral energy production at a scale larger than, the entire energy supply in modern civilization. To support high penetration of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power it would require a commensurate increase in energy storage capacity to integrate them into the electrical power grid. This is to facilitate reliability in power delivery by smoothing out the large fluctuations. Electrochemical conversion of CO2 and H2O into liquid fuels is the holy grail where high density renewable energy storage and CO2 capture meet each other. However, no electro-catalyst known to man can catalyse this reaction efficiently. Copper (Cu) is the only metal with considerable activity, but its efficiency and selectivity for liquid fuels are far too low for practical use. Ruthenium dioxide can convert CO2 to methanol at a low overpotential, however, the process is rather unselective and ruthenium is extremely scarce. It is of utmost importance to discover efficient electro catalyst with low over potential, high faraday efficiency and most importantly, made of earth abundant elements. Recent success obtained in photo electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 on SrTiO3 surfaces and electrocatalytic reduction of the same on Lanthanum Strontium Cuprate perovskite leads us towards selecting oxides especially perovskite as the most promising class of materials to study. The potential phase space of (mixed metal at A and B site) perovskite materials is very large, thus experimentally testing all compounds is not practically feasible, but has to be narrowed down through computational screening. Simulation science has taken up a key role in development of new energy materials in the last couple of years, through computation of materials properties, which are difficult to measure experimentally. Development in computer power has enabled large-scale materials screening and design at atomistic scale. Within catalyst design, simulations can identify restrictions on catalyst activity and selectivity caused by scaling laws, and these laws enable efficient prediction of activity or selectivity for possible new catalysts. Background Hori did seminal work on electrochemical reduction of CO2 on pure metals. Cu is the only metal that does not desorb CO and can uniquely reduce CO2 to significant quantities of hydrocarbons (mainly CH4 and C2H4). Reduction of CO2 on Cu is accompanied with a very high over-potential that hinders this reaction from being energy efficient. Recently, a mechanism that explains coppers unique ability in reducing CO2 to hydrocarbons and the origin of the high over-potential for the reduction of CO2 was identified by DFT calculations in conjunction with computational hydrogen electrode (CHE) model. Since electrochemical CO2 reduction to methane is an eight electron-proton transfer step that has seven intermediates, finding the best catalyst in principle demands understanding of a seven-dimensional molecule surface interaction space. Fortunately, the binding energies of carbon bounded species and oxygen bounded species scale with the binding energies of CO and OH, respectively. These correlati ons reduce the dimensionality to two binding energies but make it difficult to change the binding energies independently. Based on different reaction pathways and scaling relations Peterson and co-workers constructed volcano plots for different metals. It was shown that regardless of the reaction pathway, changing the metal surface marginally changes the over-potential. This helped to move the focus on other class of catalysts e,g, rutile oxides (Ru/Ir/Ti) can catalyze the conversion of CO2 to alcohols. However, very little is known about the reduction of CO2 to alcohols on oxide electrocatalysts. As the binding energies of OH/CO vary much widely on oxides than metals, it is possible to have different pathways and thermodynamic limiting steps on oxide surfaces than metallic ones. That makes template based computational search much more challenging, at the same time opening up possibilities of adsorbate-surface binding energies away from the established scaling laws. In general, there are three criteria that should be fulfilled by a newly proposed catalyst material: The catalyst should have high selectivity towards desired product It should have high energy efficiency, i.e. low reduction over-potential It should be stable at potentials of interest so that the activity does not degrade over time It should have sufficient electronic/polaronic conductivity Research plan For the thermodynamic pathway of the reactions, computational hydrogen electrode model will be followed to calculate the potential dependent reaction free energies from density functional theory based calculations using BEEF-vdW functional and PAW method as implemented in VASP. Corrections for zero point energy, heat capacity, entropic contribution and other energy correction for free molecules will be taken into account. Usage of BEEF-vdW functional will enable the estimation of errors in first principles calculations and describe proper long range van der Waals interaction between adsorbates and surfaces. Statistical tools will be used to calculate corrections from vibrational modes of the adsorbates. In addition, to describe correctly the electronic structure of late transition and rare-earth metals, Hubbard U correction method will be employed as and when required. To know atomic structure of the catalyst surface, which is key to these calculations, potential dependent surface Po urbaix diagrams will be constructed. Kinetic barriers for individual reaction steps will be searched with the climbing image nudged elastic band (CI-NEB) method. This method lets us find saddle points and minimum energy paths between two atomic configurations and works by optimizing a number of intermediate images along the reaction path. Using this methodology to study CO2 reduction over a handful of well-known perovskite materials, we will be able to establish activity descriptors for favorable catalysts. Through Brà ¸nsted–Evans–Polanyi relation between the activation energy and the reaction energy extends scaling laws to kinetic barriers as well. Using thermodynamic and kinetic scaling laws, it will be feasible to define most critical descriptors of the many electron reactions. These descriptors along with selectivity based parameters (e.g. suppressed hydrogen evolution) will be used to screen through a really large phase space of perovskite structures constructed in a 2x2x2 supercell (40 atoms) by using a large number of different elements in A/B or anion site as well as vacancies which are common in many perovskite materials. Significant fraction of these hypothetical structures will be discarded through simple rules like oxidation number sum, Goldstein’s rule and Valence Bond models. In th e screening process, the stability of possible structures are assessed using an accurate scheme of comparing the total energy of each compound to a pool of reference systems using a linear programming algorithm, to determine whether the material is stable or not. The further level of screening will include looking for materials with small or no bandgap using GLLB-sc functional. This is a crude approximation for screening purpose. For few selected structures, other conduction mechanism such as quantum tunneling or polaron hopping will be studied in more detail using Marcus theory for polaron hopping and non-equilibrium Green function based transport modelling. Even with the large reduction in search space through simple rule based screening, it will be impossible to perform DFT calculation for all of the possible structure. A genetic algorithm based search will enable us to effectively get the fittest candidates with existing computational resources. The parameters for the fit function will be similar as discussed above. Concepts of mutation and crossover will be used for quick searching. The project will be carried out in collaboration with experimentalist from DTU Energy Conversion (Prof. Nini Pryds and his group) and DTU Physics (Prof. Ib Chorkendorff and group). This will enable rapid experimental validation of predicted materials as effective CO2 reduction electrocatalyst. Work package and milestones WP1: Establish reaction mechanism (Jan 2015 – Aug 2015) 1.1 Calculate atomistic structure of SrTiO3 and NaNbO3 (100) and (110) surfaces from surface Pourbaix diagram 1.2 Study wide variety adsorbates to confirm reaction pathway to alkane and alcohols 1.3 Estimate kinetic barriers for the reaction paths WP2: Search for Descriptor (Sept 2015 – Feb 2016) 2.1 Calculate thermodynamic and kinetic barrier for CO2 reduction reactions for larger number (~50) of well-known perovskite. 2.2 Study these barriers for identifying best descriptors for the reactions 2.3 Do micro-kinetic modelling of the system considering different final products both carbonaceous and hydrogen based of the descriptors of reactions, to define region of selectivity and low over-potential requirement. WP2: High throughput computing based catalyst search and validation (Mar 2015 – Dec 2016) 3.1 Setup Computational infrastructure (e.g. software framework working in unison) required for screening methodology over billions of structures. The layers in the screening (rule based and calculation based) as well as the genetic algorithm based evolutionary search tool has to work in tandem. 3.2 Perform the large scale search for optimum binding energies, kinetic barrier, conductivity and selectivity through GA based exploration of the phase space. The fit criterion for a specific product to be defined based on the results of the micro-kinetic modelling. 3.3 Synthesize and run experiments for measuring activity of a handful of selected candidates for different end products Resource requirement The scale of the computational search and complexity requires tier0 type supercomputing infrastructure. I expect to be able to use ~8 million cpu hours in the DTU HPC resource – NIFLHEIM. Applications have also been made for another 20 million cpu hours under the European supercomputing program – PRACE. Scientific dissemination The fundamental insight developed, catalyst predicted and validated throughout this project will generate utmost interest in the catalysis for sustainable energy field internationally. Thus findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals with a high visibility. Such publications can be expected during 4Q of 2015 and 2016. Preliminary results will be presented at relevant conferences within the fields of electrocatalysis, computational electrochemistry and surface science. Besides contributing to fundamental insight the project is focused on specific catalyst design and it is therefore an objective that one or more patents will be filed for at the end of the period.

Smoking Cigarettes Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Example Essays

Smoking The first article for review is titled Self-efficacy, Health Locus of Control, and Smoking. This article studies how the participants confidence levels and health locus prior to entering treatment predicts results of the quitting program. The program is called "Fresh Start" and was conducted in Victoria, Australia. It consisted of three groups: (A) those who made an attempt (Stop for one day), (B) those who met criteria in A, and did not smoke for duration of program, (C) those who abstained for six months. Confidence was tested by questionnaires (post, during and at 6-month period). Health Locus is defined by how the participant attributed health outcomes (internal, external or by chance). The results of this experiment showed that those individuals across the three groups who had high levels of self-efficacy was related not to the number of attempts to quit, but the success of the attempts, while "the role of Health Locus of Control [was found to be] complex needing further investigation" (Stuart, Borland, & McMurray, 1994, p. 1). The second article for review is titled, Sensation Seeking, Nicotine Dependence, and Smoking Motivation in Female and Male Smokers. This study was conducted using a sample of French smokers (36 F, 60 M) and non-smokers (23 F, 45 M). The goal of the experiment was to study "the relationship between sensation seeking and smoking" (p. 221). The objectives of the study was (a) to see if smokers are higher in sensation seeking than their non-smoking counterparts, (b) to see if there are any gender forces in smoking and sensation seeking, and (c) to examine "in each sex, the nature of the relationship between sensation seeking and smoking" (p. 221). These three items were measured on four sub-scales, they are: 1) The Disinhibition subscale (DIS) - shows desire to be socially open, extroverted 2) The Thrill and Adventure Seeking subscale (TA... ...s, 19(3), (p. 219- 227). Pergaman Press Ltd., Oxford, England. Crittendens, K.S., Manfredi, C., Lacey, L., Warnecke, R., & Parsons, J. (1994). "Measuring Readiness and Motivation to Quit Smoking among Women in Public Health Clinics" in Addictive Behaviors, 19(5), (p. 497-507). Pergaman Press Ltd., Oxford, England. Garvey, A.J., Hitchcock, J.L., Heinold, J.W., Rosner, B. (1992). Addictive Behaviors, 17, (p. 367-377). Pergamon Press Ltd., Oxford, England. Grove, R.J. (1993). "Attributional Correlates of Cessation Self-Efficacy Among Smokers" in Addictive Behaviors, 18(3), (p. 311-320). Pergaman Press Ltd., Oxford, England. Parrott, A.C. (1993). "Cigarette Smoking: Effects Upon Self-Rated Stress and Arousal over the Day", in Addictive Behaviors, 18(4), (p. 389-395). Pergaman Press Ltd., Oxford, England. Stuart, K., Borland, R., McMurray, N. (1994). "Self-Efficacy, Health Locus of Control, and Smoking Cessation" in Addictive Behaviors, 19(1) (p. 1-12). Pergaman Press Ltd., Oxford, England.

Horror of Holiday

This summer I went to camp with my friends. It was one day and night trip. There were about 12 children. We put up our tent near the river to hear river flows and swim. To me beginning was extremely nice. But suddenly it rained so heavily. Because of the rain we all got wet and cold. Although we knew there were no branches that didn’t wet, we decided to collect branches to make a fire. Also it was getting darker. So I climbed the forest with my 5 male friends. The one of them was climbing more higher and higher.Suddenly he came down so quickly and said that a drop of water dropped on his head from tree. He surprised and looked around there was nothing except that tree. His face was looked pale and frightened. Because of that we were so afraid. However, we started collecting branches. When I sat down to collect few branches, something hit my back. So I asked my friends who was he that threw branch at me? They all said they are not except only one friend of mine who was smiling secretly. So I asked him. He also said â€Å"I’m not†. I got goosebumps and about to cry.But he said â€Å"I threw only cone of pine at you†. That was really relief. When we finished and went back, I was walking in front of them. They called me loudly and made me to stop walking. They run to me quickly, said there was something behind me and following my steps. I was really afraid and began to cry. Suddenly they all comforted and hugged me warmly, and said â€Å"it was only joke† with big smile. Altough they told me it was joke, I couldn’t talk anymore about 4 hours. That was the worst holiday in my life†¦ Anartsetseg. E

How does Tim Butcher emphasise the problems and possible dangers faced on his journey during this passage?

There are many ways in which Tim Butcher emphasises danger during this passage; he does this through his language and through using other techniques such as using triplets. One example of danger is at the very start of the passage (bottom of page 59) and this is where we see the first use of a triplet – using this technique emphasises just how dangerous the Congo can be: â€Å"Thoughts of assassination, acid baths and dismembered bodies† This triplet is used to show the possible, brutal ways of facing death in the Congo – the fact that these are Butchers thoughts imply that he is worrying about facing his death in this way, the horror of it is something no one wants to experience. Butcher also uses an accumulative effect with this list of three as the next situation appears to be worse than the previous. Regardless of this, these three horrific examples are murders which are clearly planned and they show no respect for the dead. An assassination is usually an intentional act aimed at specific subject. As for the other two, acid baths and dismembered bodies seem to be two ways of hiding evidence and getting rid of a body. Neither of these three acts are accidents; all of them are intentional and done on purpose. Following on from this sentence, he mentions that the list of three were the only dark images on his mind. By saying that they weren’t the only images shows that there are many other situations he could be faced with, all of the same sort. The word ‘dark’ conveys the idea of how negative each of his thoughts are as it has connotations liked with is such as death and violence. Already from this first paragraph in the passage, we can see how much potential danger Tim Butcher could be faced with. Another way in which Tim Butcher presents danger is by using an anecdote of a friend who came close to death at the exact same airport he is at now – this makes the potential danger towards Butcher seem higher. The fact that his friend came close to death at the same place as him shows just how high the chance of him also facing death is. What really puts more emphasis on how dangerous the area is is when Butcher mentions his friend covers international crisis. This shows that he will have experienced many types of problems in his past – but none as bad as the Congo. Tim Butcher during this passage shows the majority of danger and problems through his choice of diction and emotive language. During the anecdote, he mentions that troops loyal to Mobuto were becoming increasingly desperate and were hoping to escape. Desperate’ shows how much troops wanted to escape from the power of Mobuto and the phrase ‘hoping to escape’ makes us think that the troops know escaping may be hard or even impossible, but they still try. The Congo is evidently a dangerous place especially for Journalists, as journalists are suspected to be Spies – Congolese people have no time to waste and judge this very quickly, we can tell this as Butcher tells us his friend was Seized. Being seized shows that an arrest was sudden and there was no hesitation in doing it. It comes across as forceful and out of the blue. After being seized, journalists are also stripped at Gunpoint – this shows a sense of danger as stripping someone to their underpants is immediate humiliation and shows vulnerability. Being held at gunpoint means that his friend was facing death, but to make this situation worse, the guards had him in this way for several terrifying hours. We can see here that the experience was being prolonged over seven hours; this makes the situation tenser for the victim as they could be shot at any minute – this is what makes it so terrifying. This section of the passage instantly tells us that the Congolese people are willing to kill. Shortly after this it is mentioned that it took hours of desperate pleading to convince the guards they were simply journalists. Desperate pleading shows how innocent the journalists are as they know having tapes gave the Congolese people the wrong impression. By the use of the word convincing, it implies that the guards weren’t taking their word for it and genuinely believed they were spies. Tim Butcher has again used the idea of the situation being prolonged over a long period of time to emphasise how serious it was. By mentioning they were ‘simply journalists’ it shows how strict the guards are in the Congo; it must have been obvious that the visitors were just journalists and the Congolese people should know they get visitors but they take things too far. During this passage, there is another example of vulnerability being shown; this occurs when an Asian lady lands into the airport and has her luggage taken off her and she has to auction for it to given back to her.