Psychological, Philosophical and Religious Elements of Heart of Darknes

Psychological, Philosophical and Religious Elements of Heart of Darkness      Ã‚   Heart of Darkness is a kind of little world unto itself.   The reader of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness should take the time to consider this work from a psychological point of view. There are, after all, an awful lot of heads and skulls in the book, and Conrad goes out of his way to suggest that in some sense Marlow's journey is like a dream or a return to our primitive past--an exploration of the dark recesses of the human mind. Looking at the book from a psychological viewpoint, there are apparent similarities to the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud in its suggestion that dreams are a clue to hidden areas of the mind, and that at the heart of things--which Freud called the Id--we are all primitive brutes and savages, capable of the most appalling wishes and the most horrifying impulses. Through Freud, or other systems of thought that resemble Freud's, we can make sense of â€Å"the urge Marlow feels to leave his boat and join the natives for a savage whoop and hollar† (Tessitore, 42). We might even, in this light, notice that Marlow keeps insisting that Kurtz is a voice--a voice who seems to speak to him out of the heart of the immense darkness--and so perhaps he can be thought of, in a sense, as the voice of Marlow's own deepest, psychological self. Of course, we must remember that it is doubtful Conrad had ever heard Sigmund Freud when he set out to write the book. Although a psychological v iewpoint is very useful, it does not speak to the whole of our experience of the book. Heart of Darkness is also concerned with philosophy and religion.   This concern manifests itself in the way Conrad plays with the concept of pilgrims and pilgrimag... ...f Darkness 3rd ed.   Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York:   Norton Critical, 1988. Meyers, Jeffrey.   Joseph Conrad.   New York:   Charles Scribner's Sons, 1991. Sarvan, C. P. [Racism and the Heart of Darkness.] Heart of Darkness. By Joseph Conrad 3rd ed. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York: Norton Critical 1988. Tessitore, John. "Freud, Conrad, and Heart of Darkness." Modern Critical Interpretations." Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 91-103. Tripp, Rhoda Thomas.   Thesaurus of Quotations.   New York:   Thomas Y. Crowell, 1970. Kristeva, Julia. "Within the Microcosm of 'The Talking Cure.'" Interpreting Lacan. Eds. Joseph Smith and William Kerrigan. New Haven: Yale UP, 1983. Zizek, Slavoj. "The Truth Arises from Misrecognition." Lacan and the Subject of Language. Eds. Ellie Ragland-Sullivan and Mark Bracher. New York: Routledge, 1991.   

Graduation Speech: The Future is Now :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Good evening parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, and friends. I would like to thank you all for coming to this very special day. I know how proud you must be. As we have grown over the years, there are many stages we all have gone through. From learning our shapes and colors, to getting our first kiss in middle school, or how about explaining to our parents why we skipped school because the principal called home. As we remember these days, things that we've done will be with us forever. But this is only the start of our journey. The day has come where we say goodbye to the big yellow buses, assemblies, assigned seating, and attendance policies. Are you really gonna miss it? For some of us maybe not right away. But eventually we will so for us to be here it is not necessarily an achievement, but a privilege. All of us have been in school over half our lives. To graduate is one more step we've taken in our lives. Now I would like to take the time to thank everyone who has helped me get this far. First of all, thank you to all the teachers. None of us would be here without you always pushing our academic abilities to the fullest. Jessica Parker a.k.a. my partner in crime as Mr. Tri would refer to us. You made everyday coming to school worthwhile. Hillary Laswell, who would leave third period to go steal flowers from horticulture and give them to Mrs. Granillo with me. My brother Jeramie who always said, "If anyone is mean to you, I'll take care of it." My Mom, thank you for always believing in me and putting up with me when I was a real jerk.

Depression Essay -- Health, Diseases

This essay explores the development of services for young Asian women who are suffering from depression in Southall, part of the London Borough of Ealing. There is a discussion of why this need was identified and the rationale for choosing the area, the circumstances and the chosen group, it’s association with mental health, management (including implications of management strategies) and recommendations for improvement; this may refer to the strengths and weaknesses of the inter - professional team. This essay will closely look at the effects that cultural and social diversity have on health, the use of effective communication within health settings in order to avoid potential barriers that would have a negative effect on nursing practice, as well as the use of beneficial health promotion. It will further discuss the ranges of social policy and its initiative to the government. Being young Asian woman involves coming from a highly structured family. The welfare and integrity of the family are of great importance. The individual is expected to submerge or repress emotions, desires, behaviours, and the individual is obligated to save face so as to not bring shame onto the family. The incentive, therefore, is to keep problems within the family. In order to overcome a problem that may arise in a particular area it is important to grasp it and solve it at the earliest stage. By enabling this area to have a specific community mental health team to work with young Asian women to support them in various ways such as being help with the management of their medication, help with social issues or practical problems relating to their mental health problems, individual and group therapies, including alternative therapies, practical aids and... ...uld only be effective when it involves the social networks of patients. So through the effective use of promoting positive mental health it is of great significance for the young Asian women as well as the Asian community in Southall. Through the careful exploration about this mental health necessity it has made the author aware that the cultural understanding of mental illnesses is a vital contribution to an accomplishment of overcoming or decreasing this issue. Other significant achievements include the recognition of how significant effective communication is as well as the active involvement of the actual individual, parents or carers as well as the understanding of dealing with this matter from different perspectives and dealt with different strategies – mainly referring to individual differences and as people’s strengths and limitations varying.

Capturing the Value of Supplementary Services

A brief note on Supplementary service verses standard service: The service as a product is essentially described as a package or bundle of different services, tangibles and intangibles, which all together form the total product. The package is divided into two main categories: the first one is the main service, which is called the ‘core service' or ‘substantive service'. The other one is ‘auxiliary services' or ‘extras', which are often referred to as ‘peripherals' or ‘peripheral services'. These are also known as supplementary services. The core service is the basic value provided by the service product.It is the reason to purchase or consume services. This is the reason for which any company is in business too. Supplementary services are those that facilitate and enhance use of the core services. These are services other than core that companies offer to their customers to give additional value to their products or to encourage customer loyalty. Flexible Services Offering: It has been observed through research that most suppliers typically provide customers with more services than they want or need at prices that often reflect neither the value of those services to customers nor the cost of providing them.Too many times the manufactures continue to let sales people give away whatever services they think it will take to land a deal, even if those freebies dramatically reduce the profitability of business. To overcome the cost associated with the above issues, the author has suggested the ‘flexible service offering’ model to enable manufacturing and service companies reduce the number and cost of services they use to augment their core products.This approach enables the company to identify a naked solution or a naked system (which is the bare-bones-minimum number of services uniformly valued by all customers in a given segment at the lowest possible price that yield a profit). These naked solutions are then wrapp ed with options – particular services valued by individual customers within the segment. The steps to achieve flexible service offering are, ? Understand the supplementary services portfolio.If the company compiles the complete inventory of supplementary service, then it can assess the value of each service and the cost of providing it. ? Assess the value of the service rather than just measuring the customer satisfaction. Results indicate that while customers determine their re-purchase intention based on both core and supplementary service quality, mediated by value and satisfaction there is a direct and positive relationship of involvement between customer satisfaction and value of supplementary service provided. Extend the activity-based-costing technique to supplementary services as well. If the manufacture can break down costs on segment-to-segment and customer-to-customer basis, then it is viable to determine the value/price of the service being offered. This helps ind ustries to target those market segments where their products or services provided the greatest value to customers and thus held the greatest potential for profit. Identify the existing standard services that can be done away with or specialized services that can be part of standardized services.Identify the existing optional services that can be discontinued. The benchmark here is simple: if the cost of the optional service exceeds the customers’ willingness to pay for it, the service should be discontinued. ? Apart from identifying the standard or optional services, to stay ahead in competition a manufacture has to continually innovate and produce new value added services. *For example in a survey taken by Hong Kong mobile phone industry to gauge the benefits of the supplementary services among the customers, it was reveled that the only one of the supplementary services (both optional and standard like pricing policy, staff assistance, customer service and transmission qual ity and network coverage) factor in the satisfaction determinants among the mobile phone users.The results suggest that network providers should focus more on transmission quality and network coverage as the core attributes of their service offerings and formulate appropriate ricing policy, rather than competing or focusing more on supplementary services like varied customer services. Benefits: When the supplementary services are offered with all the above attributes discussed in the flexible services offering section, there are lot many benefits the service providers gain and it also establishes the fact that trimming the supplementary services to what is required and beneficial to the manufacturer has benefits that far outweigh the benefits of keeping all the supplementary services just so as to satisfy the customer and keep the market share.Flexible service offering provides suppliers with a powerful means of retaining and expanding business with their most valuable customers. ? Helps customize the packages of products and services to meet more precisely the requirements of its spectrum of customers. ? Enables managers to be more adaptive and responsive in their pricing. ? Flexible service offering helps companies to revamp their sales force philosophies and practices. More control is given in the hands of the sales team there by enabling sales team to be more persuasive in explaining the value of services to the customers. #Case Study: Credit Card Marketing in Indian Industry The case study below deals with managing perceived risk for credit card purchase through supplementary services. Supplementary services can play a significant role in controlling functional and psychological perceived risk associated with credit card services. Marketers of credit cards can enhance the value of services to customers and can thus enhance purchase possibilities by reducing perceived risk through supplementary services that are controllable.Perceived risk is defined as th e uncertainty that consumers face when they cannot foresee the consequences of their purchase decisions. The supplementary services recognized in this case were, ? ATM access, cash advance, and cash withdrawal and other facilities to meet financial requirements effectively. ? ATM access, cash advance, and cash withdrawal facilities with credit card. ? Through add-on card other family members can also use the credit card. ? Buying airline/railway tickets by using credit card at special counters save time. Additional facilities with credit card increase its usage value. In a study done by the author (Dr. Anita Goyal), it was revealed that 79. 26% agree with the idea that supplementary services provide operational value. It was also inferred that there were significant differences in the frequency of perceptions towards the statements indicating the functional utility of supplementary services available with credit cards. 70. 64% agree that supplementary services with credit cards help them to take care of psychological risk.There is a favorable perception of supplementary services in controlling the psychological risk. Respondents feel mental satisfaction to have supplementary services with credit cards. Thus, consumers while deciding for a credit card purchase consider facilitating services and supplementary services as significant in providing help to consumers for pre-purchase evaluation of credit cards and to make credit card purchase decisions in the Indian environment.References: 1. * Customer Satisfaction in the Hong Kong Mobile Phone Industry. – Service Industries Journal; Jul99, Vol. 19 Issue 3, p162-174, 13p, 3 charts http://search. ebscohost. com/login. aspx? direct=true&db=bth&AN=2514451&site=ehost-live 2. ## Managing perceived risk for credit card purchase through supplementary services. – Journal of Financial Services Marketing; Mar2008, Vol. 12 Issue 4, p331-345, 15p, 6 charts. http://search. ebscohost. com/login. aspx? direct=true&d b=bth&AN=31227169&site=ehost-live

Individual Vlan

Individual VLAN IT/242 Bob Anderson Adam Moneypenny Why Create a VLAN Due to the changes happening within the company, expansion of the call center, employees moving around within the building, and employees moving off site there is a need for change to the network. Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) is the most obvious choice because â€Å"the VLAN solution can help reduce costs by allowing us to purchase fewer router ports. It also gives us the flexibility of physically placing and moving our clients anywhere in the organization, while still including them virtually within their own subnet.We can also contain broadcasts within the network, thereby freeing up network resources. From a security perspective, it allows us very granular control of the network. † (McIntire, 2001) The Plan In order to accommodate the changes the network needs due to expansion and relocation the Local Area Network (LAN) must be segmented into different broadcast domains through the use of the VLAN. I ncorporating the VLAN will reduce the number of router hops and increase the apparent bandwidth for the user. SecurityTo improve security, separating systems that have sensitive data from the rest of the network decreases the chances that people will gain access to information they are not authorized to see. VLAN Memberships VLAN membership will be of the Dynamic type. The Dynamic VLANs switch automatically assigns the port to a VLAN. Because there are changes happening quickly and employees being added and moved to new locations this membership type would work best. It can be assumed that with the growth of the company that there will be more employees being moved and location changes continuing.Switches A layer 2 switch will be used on the VLAN. With a layer 2 switch multiple layer 3 networks can be created from the same layer 2 switch. This layer 3 is the same layer that IP subnets are created on. Trunking Trunking will be used to allow for multiple VLANs and multiple switches to communicate via a single link between the switches. The type of trunking configured on the switches will be VTP Server mode which is the default mode for all Cisco switches. â€Å"The VTP server controls VLAN creation, modification, and deletion for their respective VTP domain.Synchronizes VLAN configuration with latest information received from other switches in the management domain. Switches that operating in VTP server mode store the VLAN database in NVRAM and advertise VTP information to all other switches within the VTP domain. † (Leahy, 2011) Backup Plan As a backup to the VLAN operating model to ensure continued operation of the network during a VLAN fault or outage, the network should be physically laid out to provide a star topology in the absence of the VLAN while the VLAN and VTP are reconfigured or repaired.Summary As can be seen from all the information above the VLAN will satisfy all the needs of the company and its struggle with growth. VLANs allow for growth to the network without adding excessive hardware. Mobility of users can be easily solved and security can be increased. The VTP is an excellent way to allow all the VLANs to communicate effectively. It can also easily be backed up with a star topology physical layout. In conclusion the VLAN will be the perfect solution for the company. References Leahy, E. (2011, July 22).VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP). Retrieved October 28, 2012, from The World of Networking: http://ericleahy. com/? p=644 McIntire, R. (2001, September 4). VLANS and Switching Technology. Retrieved October 28, 2012, from TechRepublic: http://www. techrepublic. com/article/vlans-and-switching-technology-why-and-how-to-implement-vlans-in-your-cisco-switched-network-environment/1055541 Stallings, W. (2009). Business Data Communications. Prentice Hall. Tyson, J. (n. d. ). How LAN Switches Work. Retrieved October 28, 2012, from How Stuff

Tilting Trains

Vishveshwaraya Technological University, Belgaum TILTING TRAINS DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING [pic] GUIDE : VINAY B U PRESENTED BY : ARUN USN : 4SF09ME014 SYNOPSIS With the invention of new technologies in various features of the railway transportation the human beings are more benefited. One of the technology that the railway engineers thinking is about the â€Å"THE TILTING TRAINS†, which provide the passengers and the goods to reach the destination with a minimum time.The technology involved in TILTING TRAIN is that when ever the trains pass over the curves and turnings of the railway tracks the compartments of the train is tilted to a certain angle by which the trains can travel with no reduction in speed. By adopting this technology of TILTING TRAINS the fuel consumed by the trains can be saved ,the passengers can feel comfort and also time can be saved. CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Problem with corners 3. What is tilting train? 4. Why tilting helps? 5.How do trains tilt? 6. Problems associated in tilting the track 7. Passenger comfort ness 8. Countries who developed the tilting technology 9. Advantages and Disadvantages of tilting trains 10. Summary 11. Bibliography INTRODUCTION Train is a mass transporter, which transports humans and goods from one place to another place. We have trains, which run by diesel and electricity. Among goods and passenger trains the most concerned one is passenger trains. The passenger train should move quickly with high speeds.The rail road will not be always straight it should pass through curves and turns. We all know that if you are driving in your car and you take a turning at speed you feel centrifugal forces. Well it is no different from trains, if a train takes a turning at speeds centrifugal forces will be experienced. The major problem for any trains is to pass over the curves and turns of the railroads. If the train moves with the same speed at the curves and turns the train may slip from the track, so the speed of the train will be slowdown drastically to avoid slip.This results in wastage of fuel and in turn reduces the speed of the train, which is main consideration for the passenger trains. One of the solution found to avoid this situation is the tilting trains. PROBLEMS WITH CORNERS We all know that if your driving in your car and you take a corner at speed you feel centrifugal forces. Well it is no different from trains; if a train takes a corner at speed then centrifugal forces come in. Often train operating companies face a decision for building a high speed railway transport system†¦ hey can either invest money in the train to make it tilt but use existing railway lines, or they invest money in a new railway but don't need to spend money on expensive tilting mechanisms. This is why TGV, and ICE and bullet trains do not tilt, because they have their own dedicated high speed railway lines where curves are built with very high radii. It is worth pointing out that the ce ntrifugal force is a function of v2/r where v is the velocity and r is the radius. This means if you double the velocity, you quadruple the centrifugal force.Similarly, if you want to triple the velocity but keep the centrifugal force the same, you must increase the radius by a factor of nine! Something not always possible. This is why even apparently gentle curves can be much more of a problem with high speeds than one might thing, because the force rises with the square of velocity. WHAT IS TILTING TRAIN ? Tilting train consists of a tilting mechanism that enables increased speed on regular tracks. In the upper part of the tilting trains that is in which the passengers are seated can be tilted sideways.During the motion of the train if the train has to steer to left in a left turning the coaches of the train will be tilted to the left in order to compensate the centrifugal push to the right and conversely during the right turn. These trains are constructed such that inertial force s which cause the tilting can be controlled by a computer. If the trains travel at speeds more than the specified speeds at the turnings of the railway tracks their will be centrifugal forces acting on the train. Due to these centrifugal forces the train may slip and push out of the tracks.But in case of tilting trains which will not happen, because of the reason that centrifugal forces will be compensated by tilting mechanism. WHY TILTING HELPS? When sitting on a corner going at speed there are two forces acting on you, gravitational force and the centrifugal force which is accelerating you into the corner. In physics when two forces act, then this causes a resultant force. The resultant force will push you into your seat and to the side. However if the train is tilting, then the normal contact force of you on your seat will be the same as the resultant force you are experiencing.This means as far as the passenger is concerned he or she is just being pulled into his or her seat, an d he or she is used to that so no discomfort is felt. This is true also of aero planes, commercial planes tilt a large amount, up to 30 degrees when going around corners in some cases to cater for passenger comfort. As the tilting of the aero plane is to get rid of the problem of centrifugal forces, or more accurately to disguised the centrifugal forces as a part of gravity as far as the passengers are concerned. The only way you know if the aero plane is tilting is to look out of the window.Trains that tilt can go up to 25% to 40% faster around curves than conventional trains without upsetting the passengers, and as mentioned before this can significantly increase average speeds and cut journey times. HOW DO TRAINS TILT? Carriages have tilting mechanisms. Obviously the bogies cannot tilt because they ride on the track and must follow the path of the track. So the coaches have to tilt on the bogies. The way they do this is simple, the bogie acts a fulcrum in the center and it is fre e to tilt either side. Then pistons control how much the coach tilts. The pistons are controlled by a small computer, which uses a spirit level.The spirit level is used to check if things are horizontal remember, i. e. at right angles to the resultant force acting. Normally this force is gravity, but when going round a corner the resultant is a combination of gravity and centrifugal forces. This means the spirit level indicates it is no longer horizontal, so the computer adjusts the pistons until horizontal is read. Again this will not be horizontal to the ground, but as far as anyone on the train is concerned it will be horizontal, keeping the passengers happy. In the early days they tried to use inertial force to let the trains tilt†¦ i. e. hey would have no mechanism to make them tilt but the carriages would have a low center of gravity so centrifugal forces on the carriage would cause them to tilt. This proved unsuccessful. PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED IN TILTING THE TRACK Well on h igh speed lines the track in the UK is heavily banked up on corners, although going in a high speed train you don't notice it at all. Occasionally when a high speed train in the UK comes to a stop because of a red signal or something on a curve you can really notice how much its slanted, on a stop on a curve put a bottle on the floor and will slide across to the other side.However there are limitations with tilting tracks, first of all the banking has to be designed with a specific speed in mind. A banked up track meant for 125mph trains is going to cause discomfort to passengers in a local 75mph train, as when a slower train goes round a banked corner it will make passengers feel like they are falling to a side. Of course you could build dedicated high speed lines, but then you would engineer them without tight curves. This limits the extent to which tracks can be banked up. If the rack is banked too much for really fast trains, then if any train comes to a stop on the curve due to a red signal the slant will cause discomfort to passengers. Also arranging for the overhead pantrograph to make proper contact with a wire above a banked curve is a little tricky. Clearly trains themselves need to tilt, then you get the double benefit of tilted track and tilting train, and the train can tilt to exactly suit the speed it is going at. PASSENGER COMFORTNESS One might think it is not safe to push a train round a corner at high speed. Indeed that is true. However the crucial thing is that the speed at which it becomes unsafe, i. . the speed at which there is enough force to push the train off the track is incredibly high. In fact the force needed would be enough so that all passengers on the train couldn't move and would be stuck to the sides of the train. This implies that there is scope for increasing the speed of a train round corners a great deal without it becoming unsafe, however passengers will object. There are two reasons why it is bad for passengers. I have be en on a late running Inter City 125 and it took a corner at some speed although only about 90mph and the corner wasn't tight enough to say see the train at the other end by looking out of the window.The corner wasn't tight enough to notice turning either. However you could feel the forces definitely, and empty cups rolled across tables, bags creaked and I felt pushed against the wall. Any faster and it would be extremely uncomfortable for passengers and they would rather the train slowed down and take a little longer. Also companies don't like to run trains at speed round corners because it upsets passengers, as when exposed to turning forces they may become worried the train is going to fly off the tracks (which incidentally has never happened). This might make people nervous about traveling on high speed trains.The reason no one is ever nervous about traveling at nearly 200mph on a train is because it is smooth and constant. If it was doing corners at these speeds people wouldn't like it. People get freaked out doing 50mph on a roller coaster which involves tight curves, imagine how they feel when serious speed is involved! Its all down to the forces a passenger feels, if a passenger feels a lot of strong forces then he or she is going to be nervous, and may avoid traveling on the train, or just choose a slow train. COUNTRIES WHO DEVELOPED THE TILTING TECHNOLOGY BritainThe UK was interested in developing the advanced passenger train for quite a while France The development of the tilting train in France began in 1956 when eng. Mauzin built and experimented a single car unit that used inertial (non-assisted) tilting. This experiment were suspended because a natural tilting proved too difficult to accomplish. France preferred to built a vast network of high speed lines and the development of TGV started in the early seventies with a two-car modified turbo train. Today GEC-Alsthom has decided to start the development of a tilting TGV that has been delivered few weeks ago for testing and trials.Spain With the ETR-401 Fiat delivered in 1976 a wide-gauge version to Spain that was designated Tren Basculante (RENFE Type 443). However like its Italian sibling it remained a single vehicle. Later Spain developed a tilting version of its own Talgo train (talgo pendular) that so far has proved itself the only successful example of natural tilting and has met with a huge success. USA/Canada The first experiments were carried over in the thirties with non-powered cars (called pendulum), but the first successful tilting train in the USA was the Sikorsky Turbo Train which incorporated an inertial tilting mechanism.Later, in 1973 Amtrak tested an active tilting train called LRC (Light – Rapid – Comfortable) made of ten cars, that unfortunately had no success. Today Amtrak is trying again with the American Flyer built by Bombardier using some TGV-derived technologies. Sweden ABB developed in the early seventies an active tilting mechanism t hat was alternative to the Italian and British ones. This was tested in the X15 vehicle and implemented in the X2000 series train that so far has had a good success. One curious feature of this trains is that the tilting mechanism is applied only to the passengers cars and not to the driving motor units.Switzerland As a part of the IC-2000 project the Swiss railways are developing a tilting train that has the provisional designation ICN-2000 and will be built by SIG. Germany Germany has adopted tilting technology on its 610 and 611 class series EMU and will built the ICT for long-range intercity services ADVANTAGES 1. Fuel consumed by the trains can be minimized. 2. Speed of the trains can be maintained constant and hence time to reach the destination is minimized 3. Their will be Comfort ness for the passengers. DISADVANTAGES 1. Very costly to manufacture these kind of trains. . If the coaches do not tilt then it is dangerous. SUMMARY While the Very high speed trains like the TGV c ould be regarded as the Rolls Royce of trains, tilting trains could be thought of as the cheep and cheerful mini metro. The price differential is fairly similar too, it costs about 20 times more per unit distance to build a dedicated high speed line than it does to upgrade existing lines for tilting trains. This is what makes tilting trains extremely attractive. However there are disadvantages. 140mph or 230km/h is about as fast as trains go when not on dedicated lines.And then they have to be fitted in with slower moving traffic. With rail travel growing all over Europe, the problems of railways reaching saturation point has forced new lines to be build. This is why despite the success of the Italian Pendolini a new high speed line with 300 km/h trains is being built, because existing lines are at saturation. BIBILOGRAPHY Theory of machines KHURMI . R. S Railway Engineering PROFILLDIS . V. A www. goggle search. com TILTING TRAINS [pic] TILTING OF TRAINS WHILE TAKING RIGHT TURN IN T HE TRACKS [pic] TILTING OF TRAINS WHILE TAKING RIGHT TURN IN THE TRACKS

Online Hotel reservation Essay

INTRODUCTION Over the years, the internet has greatly changed the way people use computers and communicate today. Many Internet terms have become part of people’s everyday language and e-mail has added a whole new means through which people can communicate. By the turn of the century, information, including access to the Internet, will be the basis for personal, economic, and political advancement. The popular name for the Internet is the information superhighway. Whether you want to find the latest financial news, browse through library catalogs, exchange information with colleagues, or join in a lively political debate, the Internet is the tool that will take you beyond telephones, faxes, and isolated computers to a burgeoning networked information frontier. The pace of change brought about by new technologies has had a significant effect on the way people live and work worldwide. New and emerging technologies challenge the traditional process of teaching and learning, and the way education is managed. Information technology, while an important area of study in its own right, is having a major impact across all curriculum areas. As internet technology has improved, so have online reservation systems. Today, it is possible through online, to make a reservation for a hotel anywhere in the world. Hotels can create Web site and post new content on it every day. Technology has gone a long way, improving the lives of people. These technological breakthroughs have lots to offer, making great things in the easiest, fastest and efficient possible ways you can think of. Online hotel Reservation is very useful for the people especially for socials that they can now easily reserve a room in a hotel through online Internet. Easy worldwide communication provides instant access to a vast array of data. Project Overview Project Statement The hotel reservation system will provide service to on-line customers, travel agents, and an administrator. On-line customers and travel agents can make searches, reservations and cancel an existing reservation on the hotel reservation’s web site. Administrator can add/update the hotel and the room information approve/disapprove a new travel agent’s account application and  generate a monthly occupancy rate report for each hotel. Literature review The design of travel and tourism websites has received substantial attention by scholars (e.g.Schegg et al., 2002; Law and Leung, 2002; Law andWong, 2003; Scharl, Wà ¶ber and Bauer, 2003; Landvogt, 2004; So and Morrison, 2004; Essawy, 2005; Jeong et al., 2005; Law and Hsu,2006;Zafiropoulos and Vrana, 2006; Schmidt, Cantallops, and dos Santos, 2007).Landvogt (2004) evaluates several online booking engines over 23 differentcriteria, like overall user friendliness, payment method, instant confirmation,reliability, and invoicing function among others. These criteria present some ofsystem’s functions and design principles discussed furtherin current paper.In their study Jeong et al. (2005) find that only two characteristics ofhotel websites (information completeness and ease of use) are importantdeterminants of perceived website quality. These results are bewildering asmost studies identify more dimensions of perceived service quality to besignificant for website users. Law and Hsu (2006), for example, assess thedimensions of hotel websites (information regarding the reservation, hotelfacilities, contact details of the property, surrounding area and websitemanagement) and attributes in each dimension mostly valued by online users.Some of the most important website attributes are found to be the room rates,availability and security of payments (in the reservation informationdimension), the location maps, hotel and room amenities (in facilitiesinformation), telephone, address and e-mail of the hotel (for contactinformation), transportation to the hotel, airports and sights (for surroundingarea information), and up-to-date information, multilingual site and shortdownload time (for website management). So and Morrison (2004) applysimilar criteria for website evaluation as the preceding study but they groupthem into technical, marketing, consumer perspective and destinationinformation perspective criteria.Essawy (2005) focuses on website usability and shows that severeusability problems with interface quality, information quality, and servicequality affect negatively the purchase and revisit intentions of website users.The author identifies some of the practical tools/activities for increasing users’perceived satisfaction, purchase intention, and potential relationship building –exchanging links  with local points of interest, shorter/simpler pathways toleisure breaks, greater depth of information for room facilities and pricing,providing proactive interactions, and avoiding third-party reservation systems. In similar vein, Scharl, Wà ¶ber and Bauer (2003) assess the effectiveness ofhotel websites. Authors identify personal, system and media factors thatcontribute to hotel website adoption. In the system factors group, that is morecontrollable by the hotel management compared to personal and media factors,they identify the perceived utility of the product, speed of the system,intelligence, layout, services, languages, navigation, interactivity, reliability ofthe system.Research has also shown that trust is an important dimension of websitedevelopment (Fam, Foscht and Collins, 2004; Chen, 2006; Wu and Chang, 2006). If consumers do not trust the website they will not visit it, or will nottransform their visits into real purchases.Although much effort has been put towards evaluating the design oftourism websites and the identification of website attributes highly valued bycustomers, there is a gap in the research in the OHRS design and its specificproblems have not received enough attention in previous research with fewnotable exceptions. In series of reports Bainbridge (2002, 2003a, 2003b)discusses the practical aspects of the OHRS design (the search option in thesystems, the booking process and the date format), while Ivanov (2002, 2005)discusses the types and main characteristics of OHRSs and the major marketingdecisions to be taken by the marketing managers in their design. The review of available literature on the tourism / hotel website and OHRS design reveals the following conclusions:  · Website users are interested in easy navigation through the system.  · They want abundance of information for the services offered in textand pictures.  · Trust is vital for the usage of the system.  · Website design can significantly influence the online experience of theusers and their purchase intentions.  · Website design itself does not guarantee online purchases but it is theperceived utility of the product that attracts customers. Demographic characteristics and Internet Usage Behaviour Education level, age, income,and occupation have been found to be significantly different among Internet users. Bonn etal.(1998)[15] study showed that those who use the Internet as a travel information-gathering tool are likely to bemore educated, younger, with higher household incomes, use commercial lodging accommodations while traveling, tend to travel by air and spend more money on travel-related expenses. Weber and Roehl’s (1999)[16] study shows similar results. They found that online travel purchasers are more likely to be people who are aged 26-55, with higherincomes, with higher status occupations, and have more years of experience with the Internet than those who do not search or purchase online. The Asian demographic patterns of online purchasers tend to mirror their Western profiles. According tostudies carried out by Technowledge Asia in 1999 and 2000, cybershoppers in the four Asian regions (Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia) were found to be mainly males, in the age group of 26 to 35 years and better educated. Hence, it has been shown that an individual’s educational level may affect their susceptibility to attitude change. Intelligent people understandcomplex messages better, and as a result, persuasion by complex messages is more likely. In addition, an individual’s educational level is alsopartially a measure of their socioeconomic status. Weber and Roehl (1999)[16] study found that Internet â€Å"bookers† were more likely to have used the Internet for 4 years. Other researchers confirmed that Internet bookers spend more time online per week than those booking offline (Weber and Roehl ,1999)[16]. Finally, the intention to shop online is also influenced by consumers’ Internet shopping history (Shim et al., 2001)[17]. It is demonstrated by pastresearch findings that prior online shoppingexperiences have a direct impact on Internet shopping intentions (Weber and Roehl, 1999)[16]. There have been other studies that have supported online experience or tenure as key determinant of onlinebuying behavior (Bellman, Lohse, and Johnson, 1999[18] and Beldona et al, 2004)[19]. Findings indicate that the greater the number of years the user spent online combined with higher frequency of Internet usage; the greater was the likelihood of buying (Bellman et al., 1999[18]; Weber and Roehl, 1999[16] and Beldona et al 2004)[19]. Alwitt and Hamer (2000)[20] posit that consumers increase  their control with more time spent on the Internet, and in turn develop finer expectations of their interactions with businesses in general. Hammond, McWilliam, and Diaz (1998)[21] of users’ attitudes towards the Web. Based from the literature review of the Internet users,it is noticeable that Internet users are better educated, higher incomes, higher status occupations, have more online experience, use commercial lodging accommodations while travelling and tend to travel by air. In Malaysia, one of the profiles that had an early exposure to the culture of using the Internetfor personal and professional reasons was university residents. These may consist of students, administrators and lecturers. However, university staffs are more likely to fit the profiles of the Internet users (in terms of purchasing) due to their financial capability and mobility. Consequently, this leads to: H1 : There is a relationship between the university   staffs’ demographic factors and the determinants of  online hotel reservation H2 : There is a relationship between the university   staffs’ Internet usage behavior and the determinants of online hotel reservation