The Automotive Industry In the United States Essay

The Automotive Industry In the United States - Essay Example Fundamentally, the automotive industry is a textbook example of an industry where economies of scale pay a very important role. While there may be dozens of players around the world who produce, support and work with the industry, there are only a few producers who can claim to have a significant share of the market. Similarly, even though cars are produced in almost every developing and developed nation, only a few countries contribute in a significant manner to the global car production and consumption statistics.Market ConcentrationIn the automotive industry the big three (Ford Motor Company, General Motor Corporation, Chrysler) dominate the market. Ford motor Company (Ford) and General Motor (GM) are the two world’s largest car producers with a joint market share   between 21% and 25% (Guerzoni, 2001). Market concentration of Ford and GM can be measured using a precise concentration measuring tool. The H Index is obtained by squaring the market-share of the players, and then adding up those squares. The H index for Ford and GM is 1066. This figure is a sign of moderate market concentration of the two major producers. Rivalry in the industry is measured by Concentration Ratio. Like H index, this is another measure and is expressed in the terms CRx, which stands for the percentage of the market sector controlled by the biggest x firms. For example, CR2= 46% for Ford and GM. The automotive industry produces a higher level of output in the US than any other single industry, with the rate consistently growing.

Israel 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Israel 2 - Essay Example â€Å"In contrast to these sources which presuppose that the Omrides were strong rulers over an autonomous kingdom and in hostile relations with the Yahwistic prophets, the stories of the three battles with Ben-haded and the Elisha stories presuppose quite a different situation. Both of these narrative groups†¦depict the king or kings of Israel as international weaklings, bullied by the Syrian kings of Samaria.† (Miller and Hayes, 262) Therefore, as pointed out by Miller and Hayes, the sources relating to the Omride kings disagree over the political power of the Omrides. Similarly, the authors argue that there are significant conflicts in the sources relating to the Omride kings as the sources disagree over the sequence of Syrian kings during the period of the Omrides. The information about the sequence of Syrian kings during the period of the Omrides conflicts â€Å"with the biblical stories of the three battles with Ben-haded as well as with the Elisha stories, if one assumes that these two narrative groups are in proper context. That is, if the stories of the three battles with Ben-haded actually pertain to the last years of Ahab and the Elisha stories actually pertain to Jehoram’s reign, then we have a Ben-haded on the throne of Syria followed by Hazel rather than a Hadadezer followed by Hazel.† (Miller and Hayes, 263) Miller and Hayes provide an important picture of Omri and Ahab in international politics/affairs in the famous book A History of Ancient Israel and Judah and they give convincing evidences to establish and support their picture. According to the authors, Israel reached the zenith of its glory during the rule of Omri and Ahab. The readers are not able to gather a great picture about Omri from the documents, although he is the earliest biblical characters to be mentioned in ancient non-biblical documents and also the first king

IT 4076 Evaluation and Risk Assessment Research Paper

IT 4076 Evaluation and Risk Assessment - Research Paper Example All organizations are exposed to threats and vulnerabilities that have adversarial impacts on the companies’ operations. Information security professionals have the responsibility of helping the organizations’ management boards to comprehend and control these uncertainties. Threats Threats are the sources and means of particular types of attacks. Threat analysis enables information security experts to determine the most appropriate approaches of securing systems against systems attacks. Security professionals perform penetration-testing exercises to identify threat profiles, develop effective countermeasures against threats and mitigate all earlier signs of threats (Kaiya, Sakai, Ogata & Kaijiri, 2013). The primary focus of threat analysis should be on analyzing the resources of the attackers. It is crucial for all organizations to analyze threats to help them develop specific security policies, which they can implement together with policy priorities and comprehend imp lementation needs for securing organizational resources. Information security threats include accidental disclosure, alteration of software, electrical disruption, acts of nature, and telecommunication malfunction. Vulnerabilities Vulnerabilities are the security flaws that allow a threat attack to be successful in a system. Corporate organizations and private businesses should do vulnerability testing to resolve the vulnerabilities and provide data required to identify unexpected perils to information security. The management boards should realize that such vulnerabilities do not particularly belong to technology class, but also apply to social factors, for example, personal authentication and authorization policies. Vulnerability testing is of paramount importance in maintaining ongoing security and allows the professional responsible for security of the company’s resources to respond to new dangers as they arise (Kevin, Hackney & Edgar, 2010). Testing for vulnerabilities i s also invaluable in developing policy and technology and as part of the technology selection process. It is crucial for buyers to do effective vulnerability tests in order to select the right technology that can save time, money and other costs of business operations. My Encounter with an Information Security Threat I am the Managing Director a telecommunication company that offers postpaid communication services to the residents of Silicon Valley. Recently, I have realized that the costs of making calls were increasing abnormally among the callers. I communicated to my customers and requested from them some information concerning their communication expenditures. I found out that my customers were not really consuming these huge amounts of airtime to make calls. The information security professional made a follow-up and found out that there was massive phreaking and eavesdropping. Hackers were stealing services and using them while passing the costs of making calls to my customers . It was also found that these hackers had stolen credentials and contact information of my customers, which allowed them to control their voice calls, calling plans, billing information and call forwarding. Information is the cornerstone of the company, and its security is of paramount i

Personal Statement and Critical Reflection on Past Work Experience Essay - 1

Personal Statement and Critical Reflection on Past Work Experience - Essay Example This reporter declares that "as I look for a new, challenging position, I intend to use the existing experience and skills in tackling new challenges as well as improving my professional and personal development. Two of my strongest attributes that have shaped me into the person I am includes; determination and the ability to have a continuous self assessment and evaluation of my strength and weaknesses. This helps me to device ways of improving my weaknesses and strengthening my strengths. For an individual to be capable of facing new challenges, I have a strong belief that, he/she should first conduct self realization and assessment. Anita asserts that self realization is a crucial tool that helps one in self development and achievement of one’s goals and objectives in life. This realization through assessment and evaluation enables one to realize his/her strengths, weaknesses, capabilities and self potential. This tool has enabled me in formulating the efficient and informe d strategies in improving my weaknesses and strengthening my strengths. It has also enabled me devise measures to use in monitoring my improvements. Self awareness has enabled me to understand strengths and weaknesses. My strengths include; possession of exemplary interpersonal skills, persistence, consistency, determination, a teamwork spirit, just to mention but a few. Behind all the glitter, there lie some elements of weaknesses that includes; procrastination, being a perfectionist and lack of ability to follow schedules to the latter."

Progress of Women in Middle East Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Progress of Women in Middle East - Essay Example In fact Islamic culture never allows women community to develop as rapidly as the men community does. Even in the twenty first century, women in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain etc are facing huge challenges and oppression in their social life. In Saudi Arabia, women are not even allowed to drive their vehicles. The cases of women in other countries in Middle East are also not much different. Dominant male community is causing huge problems to the development of women community in Middle East. Many people believe that the living conditions of Middle Eastern women at present are far better than the Middle Eastern women in the past. The legal system, societal norms, development of science and technology, engineering etc are playing a vital role in the development of women any regions. The cases of Middle East are also not an exception. The call for democratization and the recent incidents in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia forced the Islamic dictators in Middle East to th ink seriously about democratization and giving more freedom to women. This paper analyses how legal system, societal norms, development of science and technology, engineering etc gave momentum to the progress of women in Middle East. In Kuwait, a decade and a half ago, the now late emir promised women suffrage. But that measure was defeated twice by the parliament, including by some liberals, and only passed late in 2005. It will likely take several years before any women actually get elected to the government (Women in the Middle East: Progress or Regress?). Many people have the illusion that the rulers (King or the Emir) are preventing women from getting freedom in the Middle East. In reality, even the so called liberal leaders are not much interested in giving enough freedom to the women community which is evident from the above facts. It should be noted that in most of the Middle Eastern countries, no woman yet to become a minister. In fact the legal systems in Middle East preve nt women from securing top spots in the government. However, the scenario has been changed a lot in the recent past. Sincere efforts are currently made by most of the Middle Eastern governments to give enough participation for women in critical positions. The following statistics give us a clear idea about the developments in legal systems to contribute to the progress of Middle Eastern women. In Morocco, a new family law makes it easier for women to get a divorce, keep custody of their children following a divorce, and puts restrictions on polygamy. Two businesswomen in Saudi Arabia won election to the chamber of commerce. Women hold about 20 percent of the seats in Iraq's national assembly --that's a higher percentage than in the U.S. Congress (Women in the Middle East: Progress or Regress?). It should be noted that even in most important democratic countries such as India or America, women community failed to hold more than 10% of parliament seats. In India, the law enforcing at least 35% women participation in parliament is still under discussion. Under such circumstances, 205 women participation in Iraqi parliament is not a mean act. Even family laws are changing in Middle East at present. Earlier, it was easy for the dominant male community to marry as much as women and divorce them whenever they wanted to do so. The divorced women

Case INCIDENT COMMAND SYSTEM Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Case INCIDENT COMMAND SYSTEM - Essay Example This is an investigative report on the effectiveness of community’s emergency management plan in reducing property loss. This paper is organized as follows. The first part will comprise a short investigative plan. The second part will look at the reasons why there was no implementation of a flood mitigation program. It will be concluded by an overview of the general principles governing the formulation and implementation of mitigation measures. â€Å"A more general definition that incorporates dynamic considerations is the To investigate and verify the emergency response to flooding incident and the consequential damage; To investigate the effectiveness of the emergency response and the sequence of events and actions taken during the flooding incident. During Superstorm Sandy, 70 % of the property in the flood prone area of Moonachie city was damaged. The aim of this section is to highlight the failures that led to the failure of the implementation of a flood mitigation program five years after the last flood. The residents of the city failed to hold the office of the mayor to account which contributed to laxity in the implementation of an effective policy of the flood mitigation program (Healy & Malhorta, 2009). Implementation of the flood mitigation program was hampered because there was no federal, state or city office or official that was willing to take responsibility of implementation (O’Sullivan et al, 2012). The voters of Moonachie city have never taken the political elite to task on disaster preparedness. Even when electing their leaders other issues take pre-eminence at the expense of disaster preparedness, this has led to little or no spending on disaster preparedness (Healey & Malhorta, 2009). The responsibility for disaster management cannot be the responsibility of the Federal government alone. As a result local leadership failed to take up its responsibility to steer the disaster preparation which affected their

Literature review Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Literature review - Dissertation Example Table of figures Figure 1 Evolution of materials used in structure construction (Balageas, et al., 2006) Figure 2 A schematic representation of coordinates and plate in lamb wave formation (Ryden, et al., 2004) Figure 3 propagation of Asymetric and Symetric lamb wave modes (NDT, 2012) Figure 4 Cross-section of a typical Contact transducer (Arnau & Vives, 2008) Figure 5 compact 3D laser vibrometer (Oliver, 2000) Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) Structural health monitoring can be defined as the process of implementing strategies aimed at identifying damages in engineering infrastructure. Damages, within the monitoring process, refer to changes occurring in the components and materials that could affect structural functioning adversely. The evaluation tools utilised ought to present non-destructive effects to the structures. In establishing the damage, past, present and future status of structures should be considered carefully (Farrar & Worden 2007). Changes with adverse effects to the functioning of the systems form the greatest concern referred as damages. The relevant changes should be quantifiable for classification as damages and their effects on the functioning of structures adverse. Motivations of SHM Structural health monitoring remains an essential process aimed at ensuring safety of engineering structures. Monitoring could be essential in identifying defects within structures, prompting appropriate corrective measure with the aim of rectifying the detected defects. This process might be carried out as part of routine maintenance procedures undertaken during the lifetime of engineering structures. Monitoring could therefore, precede planned maintenance procedures as it can assist in detecting changes within the structure that need rectification (Balageas et al. 2006). Necessary repairs to structures can be identified through monitoring before engaging the repairing teams. These processes can assist maintenance teams in identifying the required mainten ance procedures for different projects. The adverse effects of damages could escalate to a point where structures become classified as unusable. Slow accumulation of damage could drive structures to this stage referred as failure. The process of implementing monitoring strategies involves making structural observations, over period, using standardised measurements and analysis. The monitoring process should provide analytical information regarding the future functioning of the structure in relation to the anticipated ageing associated with time (Farrar & Worden, 2007). Since ageing of structures remain inevitable, monitoring the ageing process become crucial in minimising the possibility of structures collapsing unexpectedly. Monitoring the ageing process provides engineers with information that can be utilised when performing routine maintenance on structures. This information can also be utilised when constructing new structures through identification of problems that might occur as observed in existing structures (Fassois & Sakellariou, 2007). The ageing process could impose significant changes into materials; changing their characteristics. Modifications to materials can, however, be undertaken artificially through addition of relevant components. The general trend of modifying the materials shows changes from simple, natural materials to complex, auto-adaptive materials as indicated in the figure below. These adaptations remain essential in increasing adaptability of materials