Foundations of teaching and learning Essay Example for Free

Foundations of teaching and learning Essay I am going to deliver a lesson to my students, which will include the three main schools of learning, Behaviourism, Cognitivism and Humanism. I will incorporate these ways of learning into my lesson plans to ensure my students are offered a range of learning strategies. â€Å"The behaviourist learning theory suggests that we learn by receiving a stimulus that provokes a response. So long as the response is reinforced in some way that response will be repeated. † (Reece and Walker 2007) I think behaviourism is important within the classroom as it is controlled Education, where the teacher takes control of the class and the environment that the students are in. Behaviourism is the educational theory that is based on the underlying ideology that the environment has direct influence on behaviour. Aims and objectives must be shown at the beginning of the class, to ensure the students are aware of what is expected of them. Reinforcement should be used to strengthen behaviour that you want to encourage. Students should be rewarded immediately so it gives the student motivation and confidence to move on to the next stage. Rewards can be offered in a variety of ways e. g. praise, letting them take part in something they enjoy doing, and should be used often when starting a new subject. To ensure students are kept motivated. Behaviourists look for rewards from others such as teachers, family and peers etc. †¦ Some behaviour is inappropriate so a punishment is given to stop that particular behaviour occurring again. People learn by copying from others, for example, performing a demonstration (you are the model) students will learn behaviours from the model. Within my lesson plan I have covered behaviourism with discussing previous background knowledge of subject matter so I am able to gain the required information to move on to the next stage and by applying praise to give them confidence to be able to move on to the next stage. I will take control of the class; the environment within the class will be relaxed and non-threatening. I will offer encouragement and appraisal throughout my lesson, before the end of the lesson I have arranged practical session as a reward. The Cognitivist school believes that learning by doing, and asking students challenging questions, will help students make their own sense of what they era studying, and enable them to make use of their learning in real life† (Geoff Petty2009) The Cognitivist approach to learning focuses on students and how they gain and store knowledge. It looks into how students interpret information given to them and what technique is best for them to use to understand it. The information that is given to the students must be understood to ensure leaning is taking place. It should be presented in a step by step fashion and goals should be in place for each stage, Feedback is essential and should be given out promptly to ensure learning has taken place before moving on to the next stage. There are three modes of learning †¢ The Enactive mode – learning by doing †¢ The Iconic mode – imagery- depends on visual senses †¢ The symbolic mode – using codes to learn This approach should be used in an attempt to promote learning using the cognitive structure. Students learn more when they have a greater understanding of the knowledge within the subject matter. This information is taken and added onto existing information, which is known as deep learning. Deep learning is where new learning makes a connection to old learning so you are able to build on knowledge, Deep learning is good learning; students should be taught a way that encourage them to adopt a way of learning, so they have a deeper understanding. There is also surface learning where there is no connection at all from old learning to new. There is only a small amount of cognitive skills used, and the new subject material has no relevance to previous learning. Studies more recently have shown deeper approaches to learning are related to higher quality learning outcomes† (Ramsden 1992; Prosser and Miller 1989; Trigwell and Prosser, 1991). Learning takes place through individuals changing and processing information from their social and physical surroundings. The teaching strategies for this theory should include things such has class presentations, debates and lectures, videos, readings and case studies. Work material should always be clear to understand, and produced in an organised manner, precise objective feedback should be given to facilitate learning. The amount of knowledge and understanding already attained will influence the speed and capability to add subsequent learning. I have used the cognitivism school of learning within my lesson plan by using deep surface learning, I am going to be building students’ knowledge through learning new subject matter to add on to old. I will take into account the structure of the subject matter delivering it in a step by step manner that is meaningful and understandable to them so they can relate new information to what they already know. My teaching methods will emphasis common principles and transferable skills. I have set tasks so they will have to think for themselves and discover new ways of finding out things about themselves and finding answers within the tasks. There will also be class discussions throughout the lesson, so students have the opportunitiy to express themselves, the classroom environment will be pleasant and relaxed so the students do not feel afraid to speak out. I will be performing a demonstration for students so they will be able to understand exactly what I want them to learn† by doing â€Å". â€Å"The only way to learn how to do something is by doing it! † (Paul Ginnis 2002) Humanism is about the learner feeling good about him or herself and being able to determine their strengths and weaknesses. The learner should believe that able to have the ability to improve. It is important that students feel good about themselves so they are able to set goals that are achievable; this should be encouraged by the teacher to help develop student’s self-esteem. ] All topics should be relevant to the student so it keeps them interested and motivated. Students should not feel that they have done wrong, but use mistakes as an opportunity to learn. Hierarchy of Basic Human Needs [pic] Abraham Maslow 1962) It is essential that the lower needs are met before moving up to the next level in a step by step way. In a classroom setting, these needs must be fulfilled to ensure effective learning can take place. Starting with physical needs working up to self- actualisation. The teacher should make the classroom environment feel warm and friendly with a positive atmosphere, and give students the choice to work at their own pace and let them take responsibility to learn for themselves, so that they become highly motivated by working in an area of their own interests and curiosity. Humanistic teaching enables students to figure things out for themselves because over helping from the teacher will discourage and de motivate the student. Students are encouraged more by active learning than passive learning. It gives the student great motivation when they are able to solve their own problems. The prize for the humanistic theorist is through self-evaluation and self-direction humanists like to reward themselves. Self-assessment is a crucial skill it helps students to be responsible for their own improvements where tests set by teachers are thought of as discouraging – and lowering student’s self-esteem. I have incorporated humanistic teaching within my lesson plan through classroom environment; the layout of my class room is designed to suit the student’s needs. There will be adequate breaks, I will ensure comfortable surroundings, all students will be treated fairly and with dignity and confidentiality will be maintained at all times. I intend to promote interaction between students and show that I care. I will encourage independence and welcome ideas and offer prizes when appropriate, promote optimism and be enthusiastic and supportive and be positive about their future plans. So with this support I have applied basic needs within the classroom so my students will reach self-actualization I have set tasks where students will have to think for themselves and come up with their own conclusions. I have also included a practical activity where students will work in pairs and have to think between them to evaluate the outcome. We will be in an environment where the students are comfortable and the learning subject matter is relevant to the learner’s objectives. I think that the three main schools of learning should be incorporated within a lesson because I strongly agree with Maslow’s hierarchy of basic needs. You need to meet physical needs to be able to move up the ladder without these needs you are unable to achieve or reach self actualisation. I believe that the humanistic approach to teaching and learning is used through all ages of teaching but is more influenced with adult education. Whereas behaviorism I believe is for the younger generation. Behaviorism teaching starts from an infant they are influenced by reinforcements and that is how good behavior is determined from bad. I think this is more effective with school age children. It helps to promote learning when a child is praised. The cognitivist theory plays a big part in learning, learning should be a part of life humans have a natural urge to learn, discover and develop new skills. I agree that it is important that the learning that is taking place and the information is recognized. Marking and feedback is essential and plays a big part in student achievement, so you can evaluate where the students understood.

Corporate Culture of Toyota

Corporate Culture of Toyota Toyota is one of the worlds biggest automobile producers; trade over 9 million models in 2006 on all over the world. Top 10 wealth Global 500 project, Toyota grades among the worlds leading worldwide corporations and is superior to be the most well-liked automaker. A success of the company is to that they the commitment to customer happiness. Toyota has been created by a set of values and principles that have their line in the companys formative years in Japan. Toyota gives the new thought of cars is about dreams, feeling and motivation. They are a single ability for Toyota to say where the aim is heading, and to prove its customers what they map in the mind as well as in future, but the fact is that Toyota engineer theres a lot more too automotive design than dreaming up what you want your car to look like on the outside. Designers have to work closely with engineers, production plants, and marketing specialists to create a car that is not only beautiful, but that will sell and is practical to own. Toyota company changes their model in every 3rd year, whereas other companies changes their models in every 5th year. History: According to the internet website Sakichi Toyoda, a productive creator, formed the Toyoda Automatic Loom Company founded on his innovative designs, one of which was approved to a British concern for 1 million yen; this money was utilized to help found Toyota Motor Company, which was maintained by the Japanese government partly because of the military purposes. The Japanese relied on overseas trucks in the war in Manchuria, but with the hopelessness, money was limited. Domestic invention would decrease costs, offer jobs, and create the country more self-governing. By 1936, just after the first victorious Toyoda vehicles were manufactured, Japan demanded that any automakers selling in the country needed to have a majority of stockholders from Japan, along with all officers, and stopped nearly all imports. (Article by Konrad Schreier) Toyodas car operations were placed in the hands of Kiichiro Toyoda, Sakichi Toyodas son; they started experimenting with two cylinder engines at first, but ended up copying the Chevrolet 65-horsepower straight-six, using the same chassis and gearbox with styling copied from the Chrysler Airflow. The first engine was produced in 1934 (the Type A), the first car and truck in 1935 (the Model A1 and G1, respectively), and its second car design in 1936 (the model AA). In 1937, Toyota Motor Company was split off. From 1936 to 1943, only 1,7,57 cars were made 1,404 sedans and 353 phaetons (model AB), but Toyoda found more success building trucks and busses. (Some of these early details are from http://www.geocities.com/toyotageek/) The Toyota KB, a 44 produced starting in 1941, was a two-ton truck similar to the prewar KC; it had a loading capacity of 1.5 tons and could run up to about 43 mph. The GB was based on the peacetime, 1.5 ton G1 truck, which in turn was based on the Model A1 cars. (From global spec). The first Toyoda truck was roughly a one-ton to one and a half-ton design, conventional in nature, using (after 1936) an overhead valve six-cylinder engine that appears to have been a clone of the Chevrolet engine of the time: indeed, a large number of parts were interchangeable, and Toyoda trucks captured in the war were serviced by the Allies with Chevrolet components. There was also a forty-horsepower four cylinder model, very similar to the six cylinders in design but rather underpowered for a truck with a full ton of capacity. Corporate culture: Corporate culture is a culture in which a term used to describe the joint principles, appeal systems, and process that offer a company with its own limited flavour and way. Businesses of all sizes posses some type of corporate culture, in that every company has a set of principles and goals that help to define what the business is all about. Here are some examples of rudiments that go into creating and defining a corporate culture. At the establishment of several company cultures are the values that preside over the function of the trade. These principles are typically expressed in terms of the policies and measures that describe how the company will function. This will take in how altered departments or functions recount to one another in the manufacture process, the queue of communication well-known among management and departmental workforce, and rules leading satisfactory behaviour of each one who is part of the company. This essential managerial society makes it probable to build up other layers of business culture based on these foundational factors. Toyotas Corporate Culture: The basic reason for Toyotas victory in the worldwide marketplace lies in its corporate attitude the set of rules and manners that run the use of its possessions. Toyota have profitably penetrated international markets and recognized a world-wide occurrence by good worth of its efficiency. The companys approach to both product development and distribution is very consumer-friendly and market-driven. Toyotas philosophy of empowering its workers is the attraction of a human resources management system that promotes creativity, continuous improvement, and innovation by encouraging employee participation and that likewise creates high levels of employee loyalty. Knowing that a workplace with high spirits and job satisfaction is more likely to produce reliable, high-quality products at affordable prices, Toyota have institutionalized many successful workforce practices. Toyota has done so not only in its own plants but also in supplier plants those were experiencing problems. While a lot of car manufacturer have earned a reputation for building high-class cars, they have been not capable to conquer Toyotas reward in human resource management, dealer networks and sharing systems in the highly reasonable car market. Much of Toyotas success in the globe markets is certified in a straight line to the synergistic recital of its policies in human resources management and supply-chain networks. Managing people: Toyota has taken various steps to build high performance teams: Stage 1: Orientation. The group needs strong way from the manager and must recognize the essential task, policy of commitment, and tools the members will use. Stage 2: Dissatisfaction. After leaving to job, the members find out it is harder than they thinking to work as a group. In this phase, they go on with to need strong path (structure) from the boss but also need a lot of communal maintain to get through the tough social dynamics they do not recognize. Stage 3: Integration. The collected group starts to build up a clearer image of the roles of various side members and begins to bring to tolerate manage over group processes. The head does not have to give much duty direction, but the group still wants a lot of public sustain. Stage 4: Production. The group become a high-performing team by their own and no longer they dependent on the leader. In a meeting, people do the similar mindless task frequently and are accountable only for a minute piece of overall manufactured goods. Toyota has attempted to augment jobs in a variety of ways. Some of the quality that make the job more inspiring take in job revolution, a variety of kinds of feedback on how workers are undertaking at their jobs, the andon system and important work group independence over the tasks. Toyota became involved in job enhancement in the 1990s and redesigned its congregation appearance so that the parts that make up a subsystem of the motor vehicle are installed in one particular area on the assembly line. Rather than a work group assembling electrical systems and then putting in floor mats and then door handles, a work group strength focus almost wholly on the electrical system under the cover. For white collar employees, Toyota organizes teams approximately complete projects from start to come to an end. For example, the plan of the interior of the car is the blame of one team from the plan stage from side to side production. Participation in the project from start to end enriches and empowers the member of staff. People are encouraged by demanding but achievable goals and measurement of advancement toward those goals. Toyotas visual management systems plus policy consumption means that teams always know how they are doing and are always functioning towards stretch development targets. Policy deployment sets demanding, stretch goals from the top to the bottom of the company. Careful capacity every day let work teams know how they are performing. A learning organization: According to internet when processes are steady, squander and inefficiencies become openly able to be seen, there is a chance to learn continually from improvement. To be a learning group, it is essential to have constancy of personnel, slow encouragement, and very suspicious succession systems to defend the managerial information base. To learn means having the ability to construct on the history and move forward incrementally, rather than starting over and reinventing the wheel with new personnel with each new task. The Toyota philosophy emphasises that accurate problem solving requires identifying the root grounds which often lies hidden away from the source. The answer lies in digging deeper by asking why the trouble occurred. The hardest part to find out is grasping the condition thoroughly before taking place with five-why analysis. Grasping the situation starts with observing the condition with an open mind and comparing the genuine situation to the measure. To clarify the problem, one must begin by going to where the problem is (genchi genbutsu). For Toyota, trouble solving is 20% tools and 80% judgment. For most other companies, it seems to be 80% tools and 20% thinking. A key to learning and increasing, not only within Toyota but in Japanese civilization, is Hansei, which generally means reflection. Hansei means reflection on the development of developing the vehicle. Hansei is the check stage of PDCA. It is used most often at the end of a vehicle program, but is being now moved addition al upstream so there are quite a lot of Hansei events at key junctures in the program. Conclusion: Becoming a lean enterprise involves a lot of hard work. The company should follow the recommend the following steps: Start with achievement in the technological system; follow quickly with cultural change. The social and technical systems of TPS are intertwined. If a company wants to change the culture, it must also develop true lean leaders who can reinforce and lead that cultural change. The best way a company can develop this is through action to improve the companys core value streams, supported by committed leaders who reinforce culture change. Start with value stream pilots to demonstrate lean as a system and provide a go see model. Within a value stream that defined by a product family. The model line should become a singularly focused project with a great deal of management attention and resources to make it a success. Use value stream mapping to develop future state visions and help learn to see. The team members learn together as they see the waste in the current state, and in the future state they come together to figure out how to apply the lean tools and philosophy. Value stream mappin g should be applied only to specific product families that will be immediately transformed. Use kaizen workshops to teach and make rapid changes. Using a talented and experienced facilitator who has a deep understanding of lean tools and philosophy with a specific problem to tackle makes all the difference in what can be accomplished. However, the kaizen workshop should not become an end in itself. Kaizen workshops are best used as one tool to implement specific improvements guided by a future state value stream map. Organize around value streams. In most organizations, management is organized by process or function. In a factory, there may be the paint department, the assembly department, and the maintenance department. Value stream managers have complete responsibility for the value stream and can answer the customer. Someone with real leadership skills and a deep understanding of the product and process must be responsible for the process of creating value for customers and must be accountable to the customer. Make it mandatory. If a company looks at lean transformation as a nice thing to do in any spare time or as voluntary, it will simply not happen.

Cluster Computing: History, Applications and Benefits

Cluster Computing: History, Applications and Benefits Abstract This report will provide a detailed review of the cluster computing. In this report we look at the birth of cluster computing till the present and the future direction the technology is headed. After the literature review, we move on to the explanation of theories involved from the author’s point of view. The final section of the report covers the current trends and future evolution of the technology as perceived from the author’s point of view. The essence of the report would be a better understanding of the cluster computing and its many uses in today’s world. Introduction A computer cluster consists of a set of loosely connected or tightly connected computers that work together so that in many respects they can be viewed as a single system. The components of a cluster are usually connected to each other through fast local area networks (LAN), with each node (computer used as a server) running its own instance of an operating system. Computer clusters emerged as a result of convergence of a number of computing trends including the availability of low cost microprocessors, high speed networks, and software for high performance distributed computing. Clusters are usually deployed to improve performance and availability over that of a single computer, while typically being much more cost-effective than single computers of comparable speed or availability.[1] Computer clusters have a wide range of applicability and deployment, ranging from small business clusters with a handful of nodes to some of the fastest supercomputers in the world such as IBMs Sequoia. [2] Literature review In 1967 a paper published by Gene Amdahl of IBM, formally invented the basis of cluster computing as a way of doing parallel work. It is now known as Amdahl’s Law. It is a model for correlation between the expected speedup of parallelized implementations of an algorithm relative to the serial algorithm, assuming the problem size remains the same. [3] Types of Clusters Computer clusters are used in many organizations to increase processing time, faster data storing and retrieval time, etc. These computer clusters can be classified in three main types of clusters but these can be mixed to achieve higher performance or reliability. High performance clusters High availability clusters Load Balancing clusters High Performance Cluster: High performance computing sometimes refer to as high performance computing are used for computation-intensive applications, rather than handling IO-oriented applications such as web service or databases.[4] examples of HPCs can include the computational simulations of vehicle crashes or weather. Very tightly coupled computer clusters are designed for work that may approach supercomputing. The worlds fastest machine in 2011 was the K computer which has a distributed memory, cluster architecture.[5] High Availability Cluster: High availability clusters are commonly known as failover clusters. They are used to improve the availability of the cluster approach. In high availability clusters, redundant nodes are used which take over in case of component failure. It is used to eliminate single point of failure by having redundant cluster components.[6] High Availability clusters are often used for critical databases, file sharing on a network, business applications, and customer services such as electronic commerce websites. Load Balancing Cluster: Load balancing clusters, as the name suggests are the cluster configurations where the computational workload is shared between the nodes for better overall performance. One of the best examples of load balancing cluster is a web server cluster. It may use a round robin method to assign each new request to a different node for overall increase in performance. [7] Benefits of Clusters: There are numerous advantages to using cluster computing. Some of these are detailed below. Cost: Cluster technique is cost effective compared to other techniques in terms of the amount of power and processing speed being produced due to the fact that it used off the shelf hardware and software components as compare to the mainframe computers, which use custom build proprietary hardware and software components. Processing speed: In a cluster, multiple computers work together to provide unified processing, which in turn provides faster processing. Flexibility: In contrast to a mainframe computer, a computer cluster can be upgraded to a higher specification or expanded by adding extra nodes. Higher availability: Single component failure is mitigated by redundant machines taking over the processing uninterrupted. This type of redundancy is lacking in mainframe systems. Cluster Management: Message passing and communication The two most often used approaches for cluster communications are PVM and MPI. PVM stands for parallel virtual machine. It was developed around 1989 by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It is directly installed on every node and it provides a set of libraries that make the node a â€Å"parallel virtual machine†. It provides a run time environment for resource task management, fault notification and message passing. User programs written in C, C++ or Fortran can use PVM.[8][9] MPI stands for message passing interface. It emerged in 1990s and supersedes PVM. MPI design is based on various commercially available systems of the time. Its implementation typically uses TCP/IP and socket connection. Currently it’s the most widely used communication system enabling parallel programming in C, Fortran, Python etc.[9][10] Task scheduling Task scheduling becomes a challenge, when a large multiuser cluster needs access to huge amounts of data. In a heterogeneous CPU-GPU cluster, mapping tasks onto CPU cores and GPU devices provide quite a challenge because it’s a complex application environment and the performance of each job depends on the abilities of the underlying technologies. Task scheduling is an active area of ongoing research and there have been proposals to build an algorithms which combine and extend MapReduce and Hadoop. [11] Node failure management Node failure management is a technique used to handle a failed node in a cluster using strategies such as â€Å"fencing†. It isolates the node or a shared resource when it detects a malfunction. There are two types of fencing. First is to disable the node and the second is to prevent access to resources like shared disks. [12] The first method uses STONITH. Which stands for â€Å"Shoot The Other Node In The Head†. This method disables or power off the malfunctioning node. For example, power fencing uses a power controller to turn off the faulty node. [12] The second method uses the resource fencing approach, which prevents access to resources rather than to turn off the node. For example, fiber channel fencing can be used to disable the fiber channel port. [12] 1137395 Muhammad Khurram Shehzad Trends The demand for powerful computers that can be used for simulation and prediction are of great interest to both the public and private sector. Last decade, was the most exciting periods in computer development. As a result of Moore’s law, microprocessors have become smaller, denser, and more powerful. The result is that microprocessor based supercomputing is rapidly becoming the technology of preference in attacking some of the most important problems of science and engineering. A recent report from Intersect360 Research highlighted some interesting trends in HPC. Below are a few of the highlights. [13] More Memory with Multi-core: While memory usage per core is nearly constant in years past, the broader adoption of multi-core systems is creating a demand for more memory. This can be expected but the report also warns of additional system costs as the need for more memory rises.[13] Processors per Nodes: According to summary of the report, two-processors per node is still the preferred configuration with 60% of the market, with just 14% opting for four-processor nodes. These ratios have stayed about the same over the past five years.[13] Future Outlook High Performance Computing (HPC) is expected to increase with which Big Data is analyzed to address variety of scientific, environmental and social challenges, especially on very large and small scales. In order of magnitude more powerful than laptop computers, HPC processes information using parallel computing, allowing for many simultaneous computations to occur concurrently. These integrated machines are measured in â€Å"flops† which stands for â€Å"floating point operations per second.† [14] As of June 2013, Tianhe-2 (or, Milky Way-2), a supercomputer developed by China’s National University of Defense Technology, is the world’s fastest system with a performance of 33.86 petaflop/s. [15] HPC is expected to move into â€Å"exascale† capacity by 2020, developing computing capacities 50 times greater than today’s most advanced supercomputers. Exascale feasibility rests on the rise of energy efficient technology: the processing power exists but the energy to run it, and cool it, does not. Currently, the American supercomputer MIRA, [16] while not the fastest, is the most energy efficient thanks to circulating water-chilled air around the processors inside the machine rather than merely using fans. Applications of the technology High-performance computing (HPC) is a broad term that in essence represents compute intensive applications that need acceleration. Users of application acceleration systems range from medical imaging, financial trading, oil and gas expiration, to bioscience, data warehousing, data security, and many more. In the information age, the need for acceleration of data processing is growing exponentially and the markets deploying HPC for their applications are growing every day. The HPC expansion is being fueled by the coprocessor, which is fundamental to the future of HPC. 1137784 Samra Mohammad 8Future trends, outlook and applications of cluster computing: Computer plays an important role in the information age. Different countries have undertaken thorough studies on computing to improve the information level. I may observe some current trends and speculate a bit about the future of parallel programming models. As far as we can foresee today, the future of computing is parallel computing, dictated by physical and technical necessity. 8.1New trends in cluster computing: These days, there is a new computing paradigm as computer networks called the Grid. It becomes very cheap and very fast .What is a Grid? It is a big system of computing resources that provides to users a single point of access and performs tasks. It is based on the WWW (World Wide Web) interface, to these distributed resources[17] The Grid technology is currently in progress intensive development. The Grid is also the first tools which are already available for developers. In this type of application, we can use a high-speed network in regarding the interconnection between the parts of the grid via internet. Nowadays , the Grid is agree to enable for scientific collaborations to share resources on an unprecedented level and geographically distributed groups to collaborate together in a manner that were previously impossible by using scalable, secure, high performance mechanisms for discovering and negotiating access to remote resources. 8.2Future: In the future, the increase of industry support for low latency clusters will help in availability and performance, but restrictions may require a departure from the current multicast-oriented data distribution strategies. However, latency and bandwidth performance will continue to improve in the Ethernet with a very low cluster with multicast support. 8.3Application and outlook: Obviously, cluster computing is quickly becoming the architecture of choice. One of the categories of applications is called Grand Challenge Applications (GCA). It are defined as fundamental problems in science and engineering with broad economic and scientific impact whose solution can be advanced by applying high performance computing and communication technologies. The high scale of complexity in GCAs demands enormous amount of resources needs, such as processing time, memory space and communication bandwidth. A common characteristic of GCAs is that they involve simulations that are computationally intensive. Examples of GCAs are applied fluid dynamics, environmental modeling, ecosystem simulation, biomedical imaging, biomechanics, molecular biology, and computational sciences. [17] Other than GCAs, cluster computing is also being applied in other applications that demand high availability, scalability and performance. Clusters are being used as replicated storage and backup servers that provide the essential fault tolerance and reliability for critical applications. For example, the internet, search engine, Google uses cluster computing to provide reliable and efficient internet search services. Conclusion Cluster computing offers a comparatively cheap, alternative to large server or mainframe computer solutions. New trends in hardware and software technologies are likely to make clusters more promising. Statement of contribution Member 1: Muhammad Khurram Shehzad (1137395), Abstract, Introduction, Literature review Conclusion as a Group and Trends, Future Outlook applications as individual. Member 2: Samra Mohammad (1137784), Abstract, Introduction, Literature review Conclusion as a Group and Trends, Future Outlook applications as individual. Member 3: Muhammad Faheem Abbas (1137391), Abstract, Introduction, Literature review Conclusion as a Group and Trends, Future Outlook applications as individual. References: [1] Bader, David; Robert Pennington (June 1996). Cluster Computing: Applications. Georgia Tech College of Computing. Retrieved 2007-07-13. [2] Nuclear weapons supercomputer reclaims world speed record for US. The Telegraph. 18 Jun 2012. Retrieved 18 Jun 2012. [3] Amdahl, Gene M. (1967).Validity of the Single Processor Approach to Achieving Large-Scale Computing Capabilities.AFIPS Conference Proceedings(30): 483–485.doi:10.1145/1465482.1465560 [4] High Performance Computing for Computational Science VECPAR 2004 by Michel Daydà ©, Jack Dongarra 2005 ISBN 3-540-25424-2 pages 120-121 [5] M. Yokokawa et al The K Computer, in International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED) 1-3 Aug. 2011, pages 371-372 [6] Evan Marcus, Hal Stern: Blueprints for High Availability: Designing Resilient Distributed Systems, John Wiley Sons, ISBN 0-471-35601-8 [7] High Performance Linux Clusters by Joseph D. Sloan 2004 ISBN 0-596-00570-9 page [8] Distributed services with OpenAFS: for enterprise and education by Franco Milicchio, Wolfgang Alexander Gehrke 2007, ISBN pages 339-341 [9] Grid and Cluster Computing by Prabhu 2008 8120334280 pages 109-112 [10] Gropp, William; Lusk, Ewing; Skjellum, Anthony (1996). A High-Performance, Portable Implementation of the MPI Message Passing Interface. Parallel Computing. CiteSeerX: 10.1.1.102.9485 [11] K. Shirahata, et al Hybrid Map Task Scheduling for GPU-Based Heterogeneous Clusters in: Cloud Computing Technology and Science (CloudCom), 2010 Nov. 30 2010-Dec. 3 2010 pages 733 740 ISBN 978-1-4244-9405-7 [12] Alan Robertson Resource fencing using STONITH. IBM Linux Research Center, 2010 [13] http://www.intersect360.com/industry/reports.php?id=67 (Accessed 12/05/2014) [14] http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/futurium/en/content/future-high-performance-computing-supercomputers-rescue (Accessed 12/05/2014) [15] http://www.top500.org/system/177999#.U3ORpPmSzDs (Accessed 12/05/2014) [16] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Mira (Accessed 12/05/2014) [17] http://www.slideshare.net/shivakrishnashekar/computer-cluster (Accessed 14th May 2014)

Epilepsy Essay -- Neurology Disorders Seizures Papers

Epilepsy Epilepsy is a condition characterized by recurrent seizures which are unprovoked by any immediately identifiable cause (Hopkins & Shorvon, 1995). It is also known as a seizure disorder. A wide range of links and risk factors are associated with the condition, but most of the time the cause is unknown. Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders, affecting approximately two and half million people in the US and about 50 million worldwide. Though seizures can occur at any age, epilepsy is most commonly seen in children and the elderly. Most respond well to treatment and can control their seizures, but for some it is a chronic illness. A clinical diagnosis is the first step to finding a potential cure for the disorder. The diagnosis of epilepsy is usually made after the patient experiences a second unprovoked seizure (Leppik, 2002). Diagnosis is often difficult, however, since it is unlikely that the physician will actually see the patient experience and epileptic seizure, and therefore must rely heavily on patient’s history. An electroencephalography (EEG) is often used to examine the patient’s brain waves, and some forms of epilepsy can be revealed by a characteristic disturbance in electrical frequency (Bassick, 1993). The variations in frequency can take form as spikes or sharp waves (Fisher, 1995). The variations are divided into two groups, ictal electrograph abnormalities, which are disturbances resulting from seizure activity, and interictal electrograph abnormalities, or disturbances between seizures. The EEG can also give clues as to which region of the brain the disturbances arise from. Interictal temporal spikes will predict the side of seizure origin in 95% of patients if three times as ... ...sy (pp. 201-211). New York, Plenum Press. McIntosh, G. (1992). Neurological Conceptualizations of Epilepsy. In T. Bennett (Ed.), The Neuropsychology of Epilepsy (pp. 17-37). New York, Plenum Press. Shorvon, S. (1995). Drug Treatment of Epilepsy. In A. Hopkins, S. Shorvon, & G. Cascino (Eds.), Epilepsy (pp. 171-213). London, Chapman and Hall Medical. Thompson, P. (1991). Memory Function in Patients with Epilepsy. In D. Smith, D. Treiman, & M. Trimble (Eds.), Neurobehavioral Problems in Epilepsy (pp. 369-383). New York, Raven Press. Upton, A. (2002). Vagal Stimulation for Intractable Seizures. In W. Burnham, P. Carlin, & P. Hwang (Eds.), Intractable Seizures (pp. 233-239). New York, Kluwer Academic. Vining, E. (2002). The Ketogenic Diet. In W. Burnham, P. Carlin, & P. Hwang (Eds.), Intractable Seizures (pp. 225-231). New York, Kluwer Academic.

World War Two and Its Impact on the Role of American Women in Society E

World War Two and Its Impact on the Role of American Women in Society World War II is an event that has marked history like no other. Originating from a European struggle, war broke out in 1939 and continued for six years. From the years 1939 through 1945 more than half the earth's surface was battling in war. American society was greatly affected. People of every age, race and class were deeply affected. Women's place in society took a leap forward like it never had before. As an effect of the second world war women's traditional roles in society were drastically altered. The 1940's brought innovative opportunities along with hardships to American society. After the Depression it looked as though there was no hope for the traditional role of women to be changing. Women had very few job opportunities, especially married women. In William Henry Chafe's book The American Woman, he explains: Legislative bodies enacted laws restricting the employment of married women. Labor, government, and the mass media all joined in a campaign urging females to refrain from taking jobs. And the overwhelming majority of average citizens--including women--showed little interest in modifying the existing distribution of sexual roles. (Chafe 135) The role of women in society was unchanging. It was quite remarkable how stable their role remained for so long (135). While still recovering from the Depression, Europe managed to mark the beginning of the biggest war in history. They first took over Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. And after Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese, the United States entered the war. The main transformation World War II made for women in American society was there were man... ...o work, keeping the economy going while the men were fighting the war. Other women joined the army and navy out in combat. Organizations that are still present to this day were founded, such as the American Red Cross Association, the Women's Army Corps (WAC), the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), and the Army Nurse Corps. Overall, World War II changed the role of American women for the better. It marked the beginning of an ongoing advancement of women's economic position in American society. Works Cited Brokaw, Tom.  The Greatest Generation.  New York: Random House, 2004. Print. Chafe, William H. The American Woman; Her Changing Social, Economic, and Political Roles, 1920- 1970. New York: Oxford UP, 1972. Print. Daniel, Robert L.  American Women in the 20th Century. The Festival of Life. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987.

Dimensions of Diversity

There is much lip service given these days to the concept of diversity in the workforce. The reason that it is â€Å"lip service† is that many people only have a vague understanding of what a diverse workforce actually is and why diversity is highly important within the business world. There are a number of reasons why a diverse workforce is an effective workforce. On a baseline level, a workforce that incorporates various dimensions of diversity will never be a stagnant work force.That is, when the people who make up the work force come from a multitude of backgrounds, there will be a variety of different perspectives offered on various business decisions. For example, if there is a question regarding how to market a specific product to a specific group of people, would it not be wise to have individuals from that specific group of people part of the decision making process regarding the actual marketing plan? It is surprising that there will be a number of companies that wil l actually exclude the targeted group from the planning stages.This is terrible management and will only lead to a number of missteps and oversights that could have easily been corrected had a more diverse workforce been employed. Also, incorporating dimensions of diversity in the workforce is the moral thing to do. To have a workforce that is exclusionary is no different than a cancerous growth at the epicenter of the company. Lack of diversity will eat away at a company until it can not function and, in the modern era, a workforce that is not diverse does not belong in the modern era at all.

Immigration history Essay

It was in the early 19th century when immigration of Chinese started in US and the history witnesses both hardship and success for them. In the early years Chinese could get employment as laborers for construction of railroads and in mining industry. But these immigrants had to face the racial discrimination by the local people always. There had been lot of changes in the law of Chinese immigration and there were times when mixed marriages were also banned. There were all kinds of people in society but most of them were against these immigrants as they thought they have come to snatch their job pportunities. Those who were in need of cheap labor favored these immigrants and it was again in 1940s that Chinese immigrants started to come to US. Now the situation is that they are almost 1% of the total population although majority lives the life of middle class there. Most of the Americans treated Chinese as aliens and this discrimination made Chinese live with a distance from them They wore their traditional dress along with the little round hats. Usually these immigrants were poor farmers and in order to work and make money they left their wives and children in China and came to US. They even borrowed money from relatives or moneylenders to pay for the voyage to US. Some of the agencies that needed labors paid for their voyage and that was deducted from their wages later. In this way these immigrants reached US only for the need of a job to fulfill the requirements of their family members. As these were from rural China they faced many kinds of difficulties like language problem, as they didn’t even understand English along with the racial discrimination. The trade relationship of China with New York in the beginning of the nineteenth century rought many Chinese traders in US. The discovery of gold in California caught the main attraction and Wei Long, a small farmer set on a voyage to US. The first thing that came into Wei’s mind was to collect money for his voyage and for this he tried his relatives. Most of them had their own family problems or were already in debt. Lastly Wei had to go to a moneylender and borrow money for his voyage with a promise to repay him as soon as he gets a job. He left his wife with a small child in the village and went to California on the ship that sailed with many more Chinese men. Wei had a dream of aving his own gold mines and become rich as soon as he can. He dreamt of returning back to China with lots of money and solving all the problems in his family. When he reached California, he had to find any kind of work so that to support his living and also thought of saving some for his dream. After peripatetic search for job he got one in Central Pacific Railroad Company. Since the Union Pacific Railroad Company, the chief rival of Central Pacific, was heading fast and prospering, the Central Pacific started hiring Chinese laborers and this is how Wei got a job to carry on. He along with other Chinese laborers were paid quite less than the white laborers but no one had another choice than to accept the most difficult jobs that were offered to them. Wei was quite scared when he first saw the job but with the power of his dream collected and started working. He had to stand in wicker baskets that were lowered with the help of ropes and he had to drill holes in the granite rocks. Then put dynamite in the hole lit the fuse and immediately after this he was lifted up. So many times he thought if there was a few econds of mishandling or late in pulling him up he would have been blown into pieces with the rocks. He had seen many of his fellow workers who either died or lived handicapped. Days and months passed and Wei got employment because Chinese immigrants used to work hard in quite less money and they moved faster than the expectations of their employers. Wei was able to save some money and tried business many times but due to racial discrimination he lost all his money. After trying and loosing his money he thought of just saving some money and go back to his hometown. But this was a difficult task as he immigrants had to face a lot of difficulty to get legal permission for returning back home. However he had started living in Chinatown and was feeling a little bit comfortable with the feeling that he was with his countrymen. It was more than five years and he desperately wanted to go back to his family and his home in Guangdong. He could not buy a house apart from Chinatowns. It was not because there was any kind of law against it but the social discrimination never let him do so. He somehow managed to return back home but he had to sign on papers that he would come back and work for the man who helped him in returning.