Managing Cutbacks at the Washington State Department of Social and Essay

Managing Cutbacks at the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services - Essay Example 97) affecting DSHS are as follows: (1) the program of reforms (cutting of expenses by 25%) instituted by President Reagan through the Economic Recovery Program; (2) Washington state’s tax system based on consumption and narrow economic base; (3) citizen legislatures that do not include potential leeway for increased taxes; (4) the increase in the state’s financial support for elementary and secondary education; and (5) state legislations ordering the recent cutbacks in spending for the last six months ending June 30, 1981. These are formal mandates of the DSHS since these rules, laws, legislations imposed by the federal government and other stakeholders (education sector) dictate the organization to design strategies to meet these mandates. Through the Economic Recovery Program that instituted diverse budget cuts across all federal and state funding programs, all agencies being governed are expected to adhere to these enactments, as proposed. The tax system of Washingto n State has been focused on sales and business tax that contribute to fluctuating revenues depending on the economic cycle. However, due to the conservative stance that persists, state legislators continue to support tax cuts despite the poor economic conditions that prevailed. There have been apparent favoring business establishments by giving concessions to deferred sales during economic difficulties which decrease state revenues while expenditures for social programs are expected to increase during these periods. The state opted to cut spending, instead, rather than increase taxes. On the other hand, the key informal mandates are: (1) no personal income tax; (2) shunned federal money; (3) advocated less dependence on federally funded social and health programs; (4) parallel spending patterned after federal grant funding patterns; and (5) the conservative

Stage 3 Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Stage 3 - Case Study Example In addition, integrating of technological solution in the center will aid in attracting many youths who are the center’s targeted group in the market, hence maintaining client’s loyalty. The center ought to establish a secure and free WI-FI system in the premises as well as improvise a membership database, which is digital. Therefore, coordination and timesaving in the center would be easier to suit both the clients and the center’s staff. In addition, usage of smart cards and key chain rings for store vital information will make clients feel comfortable in the center. To attain this, the center ought to embark on intensive advertising of its products and services via the internet besides employing personal trainers especially for clients with special needs. Hardware: The essential hardware aspects associated with e-commerce are server, input as well as output tools and database management system. This server will contain critical information and will act as a backup for information preservation system. Input devices such as mouse and keyboards are efficient tools in the e-commerce system (Carter, 2008). Software: Software is the other vital aspect of e-commerce business process. The most essential software for e-commerce is the database management system, which can store vital information in the form of text and images. The database for UMUC Healthy Fitness Centre can be located in the central server or multiple workstations (Carter, 2008). Internet accessibility in the center is very important thus ranked â€Å"high† because it was not there before. It is very important because the clients will be accessing center’s membership database to deposit their payments and view advertisements by the Fitness Center. The technology system ought to be available always to both prospective and initial clients. Its rank is â€Å"high† because the center being a 24-hour enterprise must enable essential systems

Double Jeopardy Clause of the U.S. Constitution Research Paper

Double Jeopardy Clause of the U.S. Constitution - Research Paper Example Many instances of confusion had risen from the interpretation of the words â€Å"same offense†, where at times the Court casually applies the Clause to offenses that are not the same but obviously different (Dibianco, 1995). For example, â€Å"premeditated murder is not the same as attempted murder or manslaughter; armed robbery is not the same as robbery; and yet under the so-called Blockburger test, the Court generally treats a greater offense as the same as each of its logically lesser-included offenses† (Amar, 1997). With lawyers, judges and juries expressing a wide range of opinions pertaining to the Double Jeopardy Clause, arriving at a robust framework of decision making is near impossible. Nevertheless, for cases of murder of a single person, the proper application of the Clause with regard to multiple trials at state and federal levels is relatively easier to ascertain. The following passages will illustrate this point by citing suitable scholarly sources. The words "life or limb" in the Clause connote all criminal sanctions but seldom covers a petty civil suit about money. Similarly, the words â€Å"same offense" should be taken literally - murder means murder, not attempted murder. And the time period in ‘Jeopardy’ effectively starts with an indictment and concludes with a suitably error-free verdict. As law expert Akhil Reed Amar observes, â€Å"the Double Jeopardy Clause itself does not exhaust the scope of constitutional principle involved in multiple prosecution and multiple punishment cases. Rather, the clean and simple rules of the Double Jeopardy Clause must be supplemented by several broader but more flexible commonsense principles protected by the Due Process Clause - and by certain other rules and principles rooted in the Sixth Amendment Jury Trial Clause.† (Amar, 1997) One of the mechanisms through which the judiciary ensures to provide the

Conducting situational analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Conducting situational analysis - Assignment Example They have had some failures such as targeting to kids; however, they have managed to take that in their stride and now are a bigger and better company than before. Conducting a situational analysis A marketing plan is used to convey the attributes and benefits of a product or service to its potential customers. It comprises of seven steps and one of them is conducting a situational analysis after the introduction stage. This step is one of the essential steps in creating a long term and successful relationship with customers. (Cohen, 1995) Introduction Introduction comprises of the company’s products, prices, placement etc. and what sort of products or services a company sells; essentially the background of the company and what it stands for. (Cohen, 1995) ASOS.com is a UK based website which is the largest online store for beauty and fashion products. It is only online, and it sells its own goods as well as branded goods. Sales have been on the rise since the company started, with profits before tax jumping from 15.7 million pounds to 30.3 million pounds in May 2012. The target market is mainly men and women between the ages of 18 and 34. ASOS headquarters is Camden Town, located in the North of London in a building called the Greater London House. It offers 500,000 product lines ranging from menswear, women’s wear, jewellery, beauty products, accessories and even footwear. The websites target not only UK though, they target other areas such as USA, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Spain and Australia as well and ships these products to many more countries from UK, which is its central distributor and origin and that is where the headquarters are located. A 2011 report shows that 13.6 million different visitors visit the website every month and there are registered users as well as active users and customers. The fulfillment centre for ASOS is in Yorkshire. ASOS was developed in 2000 in June and its founders are Quentin Griffiths and Nick Robertson . It is UK’s biggest retailer of fashion and beauty products online with more than 2000 employees. The acronym ASOS stands for ‘As seen on Screen’ and it changes stylistically to showcase the image of the brand. It has faced some issues as well, but overall the website has seen success stories. It also developed holdings in 2001 which became part of London Stock Exchange and 2006; it was also the pioneer of online stores launching a catwalk. In 2007, ASOS introduced its ASOS Magazine and it grew to become a lifestyle, and a store as well as launching a mobile and expanding to other areas and eventually opening a new office in Australia. One of the features that ASOS provides its customers is the facility of looking for content on their website with videos of catwalks and pictures and videos of the clothing items. It also runs a fashion blog simultaneously which have articles posted which are related to fashion and beauty topics; such as celebrities and their live s as well as entertaining news and the clothes which they are wearing and available on the site are then provided with links on the blog which leads customers to the main retail page. ASOS also has an outlet which is the discount portion of ASOS and the products that are coming at the end of a line or are from a previous season are at glorious discounts of up to 75%. It is connected to the main site and it is basically a competitor outlet with E-tailers and other discount stores. ASOS also provides the

The Effect of Media Type on the Message of Pakistan and the United Essay

The Effect of Media Type on the Message of Pakistan and the United States - Essay Example The story has seen widespread coverage across both newspaper and television media. This report will examine one television presentation and two newspaper presentations of the story and analyze how these differ in the way that they portray the information, the impressions they give, their focus, and the effect of the medium itself on the content. The television report was aired on CBS news, titled Terrorist cell phones link Pakistan to attacks. The two newspaper treatments were by the New York Times and USA today titled Pakistan’s spy agency is tied to attack on U.S. Embassy, and Admiral accuses Pakistani agency of backing terrorists respectively. Neil Postman was an American critic as well as being an author and media theorist. He produced a number of books, with several concerning the idea of mass communication being used to share ideas, how this has declined and the role that television plays. Finally, the results will be compared to the claims of Neil Postman, who proposed that different media had the potential to shape the news that we see. He argues that the method in which news is communicated can substantially impact what is communicated, and that television news is not an effective method of providing information, as it does not provide a complete or informative picture of what is happening. The results from my comparison agree with this, with the television news producing a more sensationalized picture that left out some key information, while the newspaper reports went in to more detail about the causes and effects of the event. The Television Perspective The CBS broadcast of the story was titled Terrorist cell phones link Pakistan to attacks, however the cell phones were mentioned only at the start of the three minute report. The attack on the US embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan was carried out by a group known as Haqqani, who have ties to the Taliban. While all those involved in the attack were killed, information from their cell phones, includi ng calls made and times, was able to be recovered. This led to the determination by US intelligence that both before and during the attack the cell phones were used to call Pakistani intelligence. This discovery has lead to Mike Mullen claiming that the Haqqani network acts is a ‘veritable arm’ for Pakistani intelligence As a consequence of this link, the US claims that all activities of the Haqqani network, which includes a string of high profile attacks, has been connected to the Pakistani intelligence, with them both protecting and funding the group. They claim that the Haqqani network, which has several thousand fighters, operates from within Pakistan, and is involved in raids that cross into Afghanistan. Furthermore, Pakistan uses the network to sell violence in an effort to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a stable and strong country. The CBS story also has a large focus on a truck bombing attack that occurred a few days prior. The truck was involved in the injur y of more than 70 American soldiers, and was known about prior to entering Afghanistan through an intercepted Haqqani transmission. The commander of US troops in Afghanistan General Allen called the commander of the Pakistani Army, General Kayani, asking him to head off the attack. Kayani promised to make a call, but the truck made

Feet Descriptive Essay Essay Example for Free

Feet Descriptive Essay Essay My Feet By Chris Grace Resting on the floor when I look down is one of the least favored parts on my body, my feet. The marble-like color of pink and tan blended together and the almost engraved looking marks around my ankle from wearing socks all day make them just make up some of the characteristics I hate about my feet. From the bottom of them being as rough as sandpaper and flowing into the top where it is smooth as a baby’s face to the tops of my toes coming to a ball shape like an aliens fingers there is just something weird about them. Another thing that characterizes them as weird would be all of the odd shapes and curves they contain. There are the shapes of the muscles of each toe almost shaped like straws under your skin. Along with them are the toes. They vary from being very plump and roundly shaped like the big toe to the long slender shape of the toes next to it or even to the short mangled shape of the pinky toe. I would also characterize my feet as being gross. The dark black hair sprouting out of the tops of my toes is very unappealing. Along with that is the smell of my feet after a long day of work. It is almost as if somebody let a dead animal rot in my shoe and I smell that. Another thing that makes my feet gross to me is the way that they sweat when it is scorching hot outside. I take off my shoe and they remind me of how my feet would be after just stepping out of a shower. The last thing I would characterize my feet as would be amazing. Although they can be gross and weird they are an amazing part of my body. The way you can see all the muscles tighten up and release while walking along with the tendons pulling on your toes is very interesting when you watch it. It makes you wonder how something so odd, disgusting, and very useful is never taken to notice in our lives.

Energy Performance of Curtain Wall

Energy Performance of Curtain Wall Introduction Building envelope is used to separate the conditioned and unconditioned environment, the material used in envelop will affect the indoor environment of the building. For a commercial building, the electricity consumption of HVAC system and lighting system is related to the features of the curtain wall system, such as U-value, shading coefficient and visible transmittance. The energy performance of each curtain wall system will be studied in this chapter and it can separate into three sections: 1) U-value and Energy Consumption of HVAC system, 2) Shading Coefficient and Energy Consumption of HVAC system and 3) Visible Transmittance and Energy Consumption of Lighting system. U-value and Energy Consumption of HVAC system According to Bougdah (2009), U-value, a thermal transmittance coefficient, is used to measure the insulation property of a building element. As thermal insulation of curtain wall may affect the energy consumption of the building, the relationship between U-Value and energy consumption of HVAC systems is studied in order to analyze the energy performance of various curtain wall system. Based on table 6.2.1, the relationship between U-value and energy consumption of HVAC systems can be shown. The U-value of curtain wall system is directly proportional to the annual energy consumption of HVAC system. With higher values of U-value, the energy performance of the curtain wall system becomes poorer and it requires more electricity as the heat can more easily transfer from outdoor to indoor. On the contrary, the lower in U-value, curtain wall system can perform better energy consumption in HVAC system. Table 6.2.1 U-value and Energy Performance of HVAC System of Targeted Curtain Wall Figure 6.2.1 Relationship between U-Value and Energy Consumption of HVAC System Figure 6.2.1 demonstrates the directly proportional relationship between U-value and energy consumption of HVAC system obviously. With the saw-tooth pattern of the line chart, there are some types of curtain wall system which have three layers of glazing require more energy than two layers one. It means that there are other factors, such as shading coefficient, which may also affect the energy performance of the HVAC system. The relationship between shading coefficient and annual energy consumption of HVAC system will be discussed in the next section. Shading Coefficient and Energy Consumption of HVAC system According to Ander (2014), the shading coefficient of glass is a measure to determine the solar heat gain through the glazing. Radiation is a method to transfer heat from the outdoor environment to the indoor environment. For commercial buildings with curtain wall system, shading coefficient becomes another major factor that affects the amount of heat transferred to the building. The external envelope of the building is glazing which has lower insulation for heat transmission through radiation. Since the shading coefficient will affect the energy consumption, the relationship of shading coefficient and energy consumption of HVAC system is studied. Based on the table 6.3.1 below, the shading coefficient of curtain wall is directly proportion to the energy consumption of HVAC system. It means that the amount of annual energy consumption of HVAC system becomes higher with a relatively high shading coefficient of curtain wall system. With the lower of the shading coefficient, the lower the energy consumption of HVAC system, less heat transfer from external environment to internal environment. The major factor affected the shading coefficient of curtain wall system is the type of glazing. In this study, clear glasses and tinted glasses are used in various types of curtain wall. Tinted glass is a common glazing that used to construct the curtain wall system and Pfrommer (1995) stated that the tinting can produce various colours, such as green, bronzer and tinted glass can absorb solar radiation and reduce those heat and light transmission. Tinted glass can perform a better energy saving performance compared with clear glass which do not contain any chemicals to absorb radiation. However, the price of curtain wall system with tinted glass is more expensive than clear glass. Besides, the number of layers of curtain wall system is another reason affected the shading coefficient of that curtain wall system. It is easy to understand that the radiation transmission becomes lower with a higher number of layers of curtain wall system. Therefore, triple glazed curtain wall with tinted glass has the lowest annual energy consumption while single glazed curtain wall with clear glass has the highest annual energy consumption. Table 6.3.1 Shading Coefficient and Energy Performance of HVAC System of Targeted Curtain Wall Figure 6.2.1 Relationship between shading coefficient and Energy Consumption of HVAC System From the figure 6.2.1 above, a straight proportional relationship between shading coefficient and annual energy consumption of HVAC system can be identified. Type I triple glazed curtain wall system with spectrally low-e tinted glass which has the lowest shading coefficient has the best performance in annual energy consumption of HVAC system. However, Type A single glazed curtain wall system with clear glass which has the highest shading coefficient has the poorest performance in annual energy consumption of HVAC system. Visible Transmittance and Energy Consumption of Lighting System Apart from the attractive appearance, a high portion of natural lighting is another characteristic of curtain wall system. Unlike other external wall construction, curtain wall systems are constructed by glazing elements and more daylighting can pass through to the indoor environment of the building. Efficient Windows Collaborative (2014) stated that visible transmittance is the amount of light in the visible portion of the light spectrum that passes through glasses and it will be influenced by the glazing type, the number of panels, and any glass coatings. Based on the table 6.4.1 and figure 6.4.1, lighting transmittance is inversely proportional to the annual energy consumption of the lighting system. With a higher value of lighting transmittance, the amount of annual energy consumption of lighting system becomes lower. It means that more visible light transmitted from the external environment to internal environment and the target building can save more energy in lighting system. However, more energy is used in lighting system in case the value of lighting transmittance is in a small value. In this study, two factors affect the lighting transmittance of curtain wall can be identified. The first reason is the number of layers. More layers can increase the thickness of curtain wall, thus less visible daylighting can pass through curtain wall. This is easy to understand that triple glazed curtain wall system blocks more lighting than single glazed curtain wall and double glazed curtain wall system. The second reason is the type of glazi ng. From table 6.4.1, clear glasses always have higher lighting transmittance than tinted glasses. As mentioned above, tinted glasses can reduce light transmission. Although it performs good energy saving in HVAC system, it consumes more energy in lighting system. Table 6.4.1 Visible Transmittance and Energy Performance of Lighting System of Targeted Curtain Wall Figure 6.4.1 Relationship between Visible Transmittance and Annual Energy Consumption of Lighting System From the above figure 6.4.1, the inversely proportional relationship between visible transmittance and annual energy consumption of lighting system is shown. Type I triple glazed curtain wall system with spectrally low-e tinted glass which has the lowest visible transmittance has the poorest performance in annual energy consumption of lighting system. Nevertheless, Type A single glazed curtain wall system with clear glass which has the highest visible transmittance has the best performance in annual energy consumption of lighting system. Overall Performance in Energy Performance After assessment, the performance of each curtain wall system can be assessed. Using the ranking as the score to calculate the performance of curtain wall, curtain wall system with a higher performance score means they perform better in energy consumption of Building A. The performance ranking is converted to score from 1 (the poorest performer) to 10 (the best performer). As around 70% of electricity is consumed by HVAC system normally, the over score is equal to â€Å"HVAC System Score x 70% + Lighting System Score x 30%†. Based on the following table, Type J obtains the highest score in this study, whereas type B obtain the lowest score in this study. Table 6.5.1 Score of Targeted Curtain Wall System Type A Curtain Wall System Type A curtain wall is constructed by single glazed with clear glass. As there is only one layer of glass, the U-value of curtain wall is the lowest. Clear glass used in Type A cannot absorb radiation but it can provide more visible lighting to Building A. From the above reason, Type A obtains the highest score in lighting system and the lowest score in HVAC system. Type B Curtain Wall System Single glazed with tinted glass curtain wall system is similar to Type A curtain wall system. Nevertheless, tinted glass is used in this curtain wall system. Type B curtain wall system has a relatively low shading coefficient and visible transmittance compared with Type A curtain wall system. Type C Curtain Wall System Type C curtain wall system is double glazed with low-e tinted glass. The low-e coating can minimize the amount of ultraviolet and infrared light that pass through glass. As there is air space between two glasses, the U-value of curtain wall is lower than curtain wall system with one layer. And less heat can be transferred from the external environment to the internal environment since tinted glasses can reduce the heat transmittance through radiation. Type D Curtain Wall System Type D curtain wall system is double glazed with low-e clear glass. Compared with Type C, it has better performance in annual energy consumption of lighting system as it has a higher value in visible transmittance. However, clear glass has a poor performance in thermal insulation in which the amount of heat transmitted through radiation is higher than Type C. Type E Curtain Wall System The emissivity level of Type E curtain wall system is lower than 0.1. With a spectrally low-e value, U-value and shading coefficient of the curtain wall system will be reduced and the energy consumption of HVAC system also can be reduced. However, the visible transmittance will be reduced because of the low-e coating. Type F Curtain Wall System Like Type E curtain wall system, it performs a better performance than Type D in saving energy of HVAC system because of spectrally low-e coating. On the contrary, the annual energy consumption of Type F curtain wall system in lighting system is higher than Type D which has the same number of layers as Type E curtain wall system Type G Curtain Wall System Type G curtain wall system is constructed by three layers of tinted glass and its U-value is higher than previous curtain wall systems. It has a better thermal insulation compared to one layer and two layers because of increasing in thickness and number of air space. It ranks no.3 in this assessment because of its low value of shading coefficient and U-value. Type H Curtain Wall System Triple glazed with low-e clear glass has same U-value as Type G. Nevertheless, the visible transmittance of Type H curtain wall system is higher than Type G since Type H curtain wall uses clear glasses which cannot absorb radiation. As mentioned before, the thermal insulation of clear glass is relatively lower than tinted glass used in Type G. Type I Curtain Wall System In this assessment, Type I has the highest score. The emissivity of Type I curtain wall system is lower than 0.1. The U-Value and shading coefficient of Type I are lower than Type G system and it has the best performance in annual energy consumption of HVAC system. Type J Curtain Wall System Triple glazed with spectrally low-e clear glass has a better performance than Type I in the energy consumption lighting system. However, more heat can be transferred to indoor as shading coefficient of clear glasses is higher than Type I. It still ranks no.2 in energy consumption because of three layer glass and spectrally low-e coating of curtain wall. In figure 6.5.1, U-value and shading coefficient are direct proportion to the annual energy consumption of HVAC system and it means that both of them may affect the energy consumption directly. For energy consumption of lighting system, visible transmittance can influence the curtain wall performance. However, an interesting results is identified. The influence of shading coefficient is more obvious compared to U-value. Using Type B and Type D curtain wall system as an example, although Type B and Type D have similar amounts of annual energy consumption in lighting system, the U-value of type B is much higher than type D. It shows that the shading coefficient of curtain wall system is in the first priority during making decision on the types of curtain wall system. Figure 6.5.1 Overall Performance of targeted building in HVAC System