Thursday, December 26, 2019

Present Progressive vs. Present Participle Verb Forms

Though both end in -ing, the present participle form of a verb isnt the same as the present progressive aspect. These terms can be a little confusing, but the verb forms themselves should be familiar: we use them all the time in speaking and writing. What They Are What is a present participle?The present participle is a verb form (made by adding -ing to the base) that can do the job of an adjective: Carl signed up for the singing competition.  (Note that singing modifies the noun competition.)   But wait,  as the infomercials say:  theres more that it can do! What is the present progressive aspect?The present progressive aspect is a  verb  construction made up of a present form of the verb  to be  plus  . . . a  present participle: Carl is singing his heart out.  (Note that the present tense is signaled by is, not by the participle singing.)  The progressive  usually conveys a sense of ongoing action (and is sometimes called the present continuous). What They Do A present participle by itself cant serve as the main verb of a sentence. For instance, Sadie, tapping her cane to the music is incomplete. In this example, tapping begins a present participial phrase that tells us something about the noun Sadie. One way to make this word group into a sentence is by adding a subject  (I) and a predicate  (remember): I remember Sadie, tapping her cane to the music.  But theres another way to turn this fragment into a complete sentence. A verb in the present progressive aspect may itself serve as the predicate of a sentence: Sadie is tapping her cane to the music. As weve seen, the present progressive is used for continuing activities—that is, for actions taking place at the moment of speaking and for actions that go on for a short period of time. A Quick Review We could easily have a sentence that contains both a present participial phrase (tapping her cane to the music) and a main verb in the present progressive (is singing): Tapping her cane to the music, Sadie is singing loudly and out of key. In this sentence, tapping is a present participle (unaccompanied by a form of the verb to be) while is singing (a form of the verb to be plus a present participle) serves as the main verb in the present progressive aspect. A Little Practice For each of the sentences below, decide if the -ing word is simply a present participle serving as an adjective or part of a present progressive construction. Youll find the answers at the end of the exercise. The clown is crying.The children laugh at the crying clown.A flying squirrel landed on the porch rail.Stray dogs are barking tonight, and the Rowland boy is lighting firecrackers.Our neighbors barking dog keeps us awake at night.  The Hendersons are moving to the mountains of Washington state.Happiness, Kinky said, is a moving target: were not happy until youre not happy. Answers: 1. present progressive (is crying); 2. present participle (crying clown); 3. present participle (flying squirrel); 4. present progressive (are barking and is lighting); 5. present participle (barking dog); 6. present progressive (are moving); 7. present participle (moving target)

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

The Rise And Fall Of The Oslo Accords Essay - 1505 Words

Article Review: The Rise and Fall of the Oslo Accords According to an apocryphal story, Pope John Paul once said that he believes there are two possible solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict, the realistic and the miraculous. The realistic being divine intervention, and the miraculous being a voluntary agreement by both parties. On September 13th, 1993, it looked like the miraculous had happened when the Oslo Accords were signed by Prime Minister Rabin and PLO Chairman Arafat on the White House South Lawn. However, the objectives of the accords were never fully implemented and the Palestinians remain stateless. Further steps toward peace, including Oslo II and Camp David, have fallen short of the goals of both sides. In the book International Relations of the Middle East the chapter titled â€Å"The Rise and Fall of the Oslo Peace Process† details the slow process of the formation of the Oslo accords, as well as attempts at implementation and the fall of the Declaration of Principles. The author outlines the events betwe en 1990 and 2001 and makes the argument that Oslo failed because: (1) it had a bad foundation, (2) the accords did not account for the core issues of the conflict, (3) Israel did not complete of their side of the agreement, (4) Palestinian violence, (5) Israeli West Bank settlements, and (6) the failure to create a Palestinian state. According to the chapter, getting to the White House lawn that day in 1993 was an arduous process that took many twistShow MoreRelatedThe Arab Israeli Conflict Essay1263 Words   |  6 PagesSeptember 13th, 1993, it looked like the miraculous had happened when the Oslo Accords were signed by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat on the White House South Lawn. However, the objectives of the historic accords were never fully implemented and the Palestinians remain a stateless nation. 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Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Customer versus Employee Perceptions

Question: Discuss about the Customer versus Employee Perceptions. Answer: Introduction Oz Supermarket is one innovative retail chain that has started their business process aiming at the reduction of exit queues at the check points of retail shops. In contrast with these facts, in order to manage these functional decisions they have implemented PayWave technology within their organizational structure. Henceforth, this report is elaborating about various business operations in order to investigate about proper business operation that would recommend operational improvement within supermarket with respect to their goals and concerned objectives. Additionally, this report is also elaborating about the policies of Oz Supermarket that helps in improving customer service within their business processes. Business Operations of Oz Supermarket Oz Supermarket is one of innovative retail shops that are aiming at reducing the exit queues introduced within the retail shops. The supermarket is also planning to implement some of the technological advancements within their organizational structure in order to manage their objectives and goals. In accordance with goals the organization has implemented PayWave within their organizational structure. This technology is dependent on the cash payment therefore the card holders are allowed to enter the shopping center. The Supermarket has placed RFID readers on each of their trolleys and customer easily check out there for shopping purposes. Therefore, after one selection of goods the product is made queued for payment and after the payment is completed the product is removed from the payment queue. In contrast with these facts, this entire process is done with respect to the RFID readers involved within their organizational structure. Additionally, the total amount is calculated when t he customer is going to exit the supermarket and the calculated amount is deducted from the card of the users. There is one alarming system that indicates the users if they do not have minimum balance in their cards. Apart from these the customers those do not have cards, they can go to the counter and pay an amount and they can get alternative cards for their shopping purpose. The alternate card holders are capable of exiting the shopping markets as well as they are able to operate their operability options involved within the supermarket. In addition to this, there are shopping summary stations available within the supermarket that helps the customers in viewing their shopping summary with respect to their selected products and shopping outcomes. The shopping summary statement makes the shopping process easy with respect to demands and needs of the customers within the supermarket. Recommendations for improving the Business Process In accordance with the study of system development features and functionalities of Oz Supermarket, it is found that the organization is planning for reducing queues involved within the system architecture of the organization. This part is providing some recommendations for managing the reduction in exist queues within supermarket. These are given as follows: Use of Infrared Camera: Oz Supermarket has to implement new software package within the system architecture of their retail stores. The infrared cameras are capable of providing various directional statements to the customers as well as organizational members in order to keep check on their sales (Balaji Rao, 2013). The cameras will guide the customers in selecting their products and they easily check offers with respect to various offers included within the shopping malls. The IT heads implements these cameras within the supermarket for managing the usages of customers going on within the supermarket. These cameras are capable of managing the operations involved within the supermarkets. Utilization of GPS trolleys: The GPS trackers are mainly inserted on the trolleys in order to manage tracking activities as well as the GPS trackers are utilized in order to highlight the offers introduced within the supermarket in order to attract the customers (Connell et al., 2013). The devices shows the customers the way free of crowd as well as this device shows the offer zones involved within the supermarket. The devices are mainly embedded into the trolleys these are location setting devices for different users. The GPS tracking devices are manageable with respect to significant approaches that are incorporated by the supermarkets in order to manage their reduced exit queues involved within the market. Use of self scanning options: Self-scanning options are helpful in managing the exit queues involved within the supermarket with respect to various functional areas of operation within the supermarket. Self- scanning makes the users capable of providing fast operational measures involved within the supermarket. Option for improving Customer Service Smart mobile phone application for shopping within supermarket: Mobile phone application is one of the best solutions for reducing the queues involved within Oz Supermarket. There are various organizations and retail shops that are using mobile applications for managing their functional blocks such as presentation offers to customers, guiding the customers to free sites within the supermarket. There are options within the mobile application that can be used as the replacement of cards for the users as they can update or change their status by changing the mode of operation within their mobile application (Such as shopping, entering to market or exiting the market etc.). Therefore, these can be used as one effective tool for managing the reduction of queues within supermarkets. Suggestions for improving Business Service or Operation In accordance with the functional measures involved within Oz Supermarket, this is aspect is highlighted that the market needs improvised services in order to manage the organized and improvised customer service operations within the organization. Therefore, some of the recommendations are provided within this part of the assignment. These are given as follows: Review of customer queries in website: The customer queries are managed with respect to websites in case of advanced and smart websites designing. Oz supermarket should develop one functional website in order to manage the customers queries with respect to their functional measures and needs within the supermarket (McWilliams et al., 2016). There are website that highlights options for recording customer needs and queries. Therefore, this system will be helpful in solving and managing various issues. The websites should provide some innovative features with respect to the customer satisfaction perspective. Therefore, this type of technological innovations makes the customers satisfied and happy with the providences of Oz Supermarket. The customers can easily make interaction with available customer representatives involved within the business process. A database server needs to be implemented within Oz Supermarket that will be collecting the customer queries and will transfer it to t he organizational members those are managing these queries. This data base server will also be helpful for managing the past data sets involved within the business process. Customer prioritization: Oz Supermarket has planned to reduce queues involved within the exit options available within the supermarkets. In addition to this, there are various functional areas that need customer prioritization. The value adding rules and regulations within Oz Supermarket allows the organizational members in responding various important perspectives that helps the organization in making their system architecture developed with respect to their organizational goals and objectives. Customer prioritizations are managed with respect to the functional specifications mentioned within Oz Supermarket. This customer prioritization process brings loyal customers in to the business process of the organization. Launching sessions and meetings are considered as the prioritizing aspects involved within the shopping markets of Oz Supermarket. In addition to this, the perspectives and concept of CRM system implementation and applications can be implemented within Oz Supermarket in or der to manage the system effectiveness and this information system provides customers as well as organizational members identifying the functional areas of operations and also helps in managing customer interactions involved within the supermarket. Digital innovation acquiring improved customer services: The communication among staffs of Oz Supermarket can increase their operational performance with respect to digitized system architecture implementation. In addition to this, there are mobile applications and other internet connectivity which helps in managing the communication measures among the employees (Pantano, 2014). Good communication measures are helpful in solving issues of the concerned customers who are attached with the operational process of shopping. Conclusion This can be concluded that PayWave is considered as the effective and innovative advancement that is offered by Oz Supermarket in order to reduce the exit queues involved within their retail shop. In addition to this, there are various suggestions and recommendations are provided within this report that will be helpful to the organization with respect to their objectives and goals involved within their organizational structure. In addition to this, these suggestions and functional advises to the organization helps the Oz Supermarket in achieving their goals and objectives. References Balaji, M., Rao, G. S. V. (2013, May). An adaptive implementation case study of apriori algorithm for a retail scenario in a cloud environment. InCluster, Cloud and Grid Computing (CCGrid), 2013 13th IEEE/ACM International Symposium on(pp. 625-629). IEEE. Budree, A., Williams, K. H. (2013). Factors influencing the uptake of mobile banking in developing countries: a case study of M-pesa in South Africa. InProceedings of 22nd International Business Research Conference, Madrid, Spain, World Business Institute, Melbourne, available at: www. wbiworldconpro. com/pages/paper/spain-conference-2013/647 (accessed March 5, 2014). Connell, J., Fan, Q., Gabbur, P., Haas, N., Pankanti, S., Trinh, H. (2013, March). Retail video analytics: an overview and survey. InIST/SPIE Electronic Imaging(pp. 86630X-86630X). International Society for Optics and Photonics. De Sanctis, G., Kohler, J., Fontana, M. (2014). Probabilistic assessment of the occupant load density in retail buildings.Fire Safety Journal,69, 1-11. Gao, L., Alam, B. M., Randolph, B. W., Nims, D. K., Martinko, R. S. (2016). Information point and saturation flow at signalized intersections.Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering (English Edition),3(4), 336-344. Hassan, H., Rahman, M. S., Sade, A. B. (2015). Contemporary Healthcare Experience in Malaysian Hospitals.The Journal of Applied Business and Economics,17(4), 89. McWilliams, A., Anitsal, I., Anitsal, M. M. (2016). Customer versus Employee Perceptions: A Review of Self-Service Technology Options as Illustrated in Self-Checkouts in US Retail Industry.Academy of Marketing Studies Journal,20(1), 79. Pantano, E. (2014). Innovation drivers in retail industry.International Journal of Information Management,34(3), 344-350. Quintana, M., Menendez, J. M., Alvarez, F., Lopez, J. P. (2016). Improving retail efficiency through sensing technologies: A survey.Pattern Recognition Letters,81, 3-10. Sojitra, S., Patel, G. (2016). A Review of Smart Shopping Systems. Wang, Y., Yang, J., Chen, Y., Liu, H., Gruteser, M., Martin, R. P. (2014, June). Tracking human queues using single-point signal monitoring. InProceedings of the 12th annual international conference on Mobile systems, applications, and services(pp. 42-54). ACM. Yin, Y., Song, Q., Ranchhod, A. (2016). An exploratory investigation into senior customers' supermarket shopping experiences in China.Journal of Retailing, 1-52.

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Essays - Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was more than just an author. He was a knight, a soldier, a spiritualist, a whaler, a doctor, a journalist, and most of all, he was adventurous. He was not the quiet type of person, so he enjoyed expressing himself. Arthur Conan Doyle was born on the 22nd of May 1859 in Picardy Place, Edinburgh. The second child of Charles Altamont and Mary Foley, he was thought t have been named after the legendary medieval king, Arthur, of the Round Table. Doyle was also named after his granduncle, Michael Edward Conan. He was a descendant of the Irish, and was of the Roman Catholic religion. Doyle had a grandfather, John Doyle. He was political cartoonist, who, financially supported the family.1 Doyle had a pretty rough home life because his father was an alcoholic. As he grew up, Doyle had to take more of the responsibilities around the house into his own hands, because his father was either too sick or drunk to fulfill his daily work at home. Doyle's mother, Mary Foley, wa s a homemaker who took care of her son Arthur and his brothers and sisters, and also worked and cleaned the house everyday.2 Doyle's early education started when he was about seven years old. His mother spent lots of time reading with him and tutoring him, because this is what she thought he needed to become a cultured gentleman. When Doyle was ten years old he left home and went to the Jesuit Preparatory school named Hodder House. This was a boarding school for young boys. Arthur hated this school. Doyle once stated that Hodder House was a little more pleasant than being confined in a prison. While attending Hodder House, he studied chemistry, poetry, geometry, arithmetic, and grammar. After his experiences at Jesuit Preparatory school, he left and applied for Stonyhurst Academy. Doyle was accepted for enrollment into Stonyhurst and remained there for about five more years. While at Stonyhurst, Doyle, who excelled in cricket, demonstrated some very early signs of literary talent. A t the academy, he became quite good at telling stories and reading aloud.3 Doyle started reading his old favorite books from his childhood. His favorite childhood writer was Mayne Reid, who wrote The Scalp Hunters. This was his favorite book while he was progressing through life.4 During his last year before attending medical school, Doyle went to Feldkirch, a school in Austria. While attending Feldkirch, he began to question his faith in the Roman Catholic religion.5 Doyle decided finally to become a doctor and went to Edinburgh University. While attending the university Doyle met a Dr. Joseph Bell, upon whom the character Sherlock Holmes was based. Also, he met the anatomist Professor Rutherford, who was eventually made into the model for Professor Challenger in Arthur Conan Doyle's writings.6 While at Edinburgh University, Doyle took a part-time job helping out another doctor. This was only one of the many jobs that he had while he was a learning pupil during his school time.7 Fo r one of his assignments as a paid student at Edinburgh University, he became the doctor on a whaling ship in the Arctic Ocean during a seven-month voyage. When he returned to the University after his long trip, Doyle received his Bachelor of Medicine degree in 1881. After his graduation, Doyle decided to go back and make a second voyage as a whaling ship's doctor in the Arctic Ocean. While on the second voyage, he nearly died of a high fever.8 When Doyle left Edinburgh University, he told his family that he had changed his religion, and was no longer of the Catholic faith.9 Doyle began his writing career and the public loved his first professional work. The editor of the Cornhill Magazine approved of the story and the author, accepting the story Habakuk Jephson's Statement for publication. Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novels were huge successes in North America.10 The people enjoyed them so much that Doyle wrote even more novels for the United States to publish, such as The Sign of Four. Doyle's first short story to be published was The Mystery of Sasassa Valley in 1879.11 While he paid more attention to his