Analysis Of The Mare Chicose Landfill Environmental Sciences Essay

Analysis Of The Mare Chicose Landfill Environmental Sciences Essay The purpose of this research was to have an overview of how a landfill is being managed. To be more knowledgeable of the techniques that is being put in practice for a good management. In addition, to identify the negative effects of landfill to workers, the population and environments. A site visit at Mare Chicose Landfill was conducted for that purpose. With the help of an Engineer the details were being explained and thus help in the refi nining of our checklist From the results, two important points were found: Landfill Gas and leachate pond which are major factors which need more attention to avoid negative effects. A Landfill which is not properly managed causes a lot of problems to the health, contamination of ground water, odours, and many health effects. 1.1 Objective of the research A site visit was conducted at Mare Chicose Landfill, in order to have an overview of how a landfill is managed. The purpose of the visit consists of identifying the hazards of the landfill present with evaluation and calculation of the risks. Furthermore, the control measures that are being adopted and to determine if the measures are adequate. 2. Literature Review 2.1 Definition of waste According to Taylor and Allen (1) any material which is of no further use can be regarded as waste. Human activities produced wastes materials. Waste management philosophies outlined that most wastes can be reused or recycled. Waste can be classified into solid, liquid, gaseous. Sources of solid wastes include residential, commercial, institutional, construction and demolition, municipal wastes, treatment plant sites, industrial, agricultural (Tchobanoglous 1993). With the increase in population rate during the last decades, the generation of waste has accelerated, due to industrialization and urbanization and furthermore, with the developments of technology and science also (Cardinali Richard, 2001). Increase in standard of living has given rise to waste generation and efficient and effective control measures need to be implemented so as not to deteriorate the health of people and the environment (Khalil Nadeem, Khan Mubashra, 2009). It has been a great concern and much attention ha s been given internationally on this issue. Each country has different waste hierarchy and options due to different geography, cultures, environment among others. (Pitt Michael, 2005). According to a recent study carried out in UK (reported in Recycling World, October 2000) Austria, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany growth in recovery and recycling exceeds the growth in waste. Followed by Denmark and Switzerland but in the slow lane are France, UK, and Norway where there use of landfill has increased. (Cardinali Richard, 2001). 2.2 Integrated Solid Waste Management and Waste Hierarchy Therefore in the light of these growing concerns many professionals have proposed theories and solutions as to how the pollution can be minimized (Halawani et al.1993).Also, in an attempt to reduce the final volumes of wastes and to have sufficient funds for waste management the recycling process and recovery material can be used to get funds for waste management; whereby, the Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) comes into the picture. Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) is a framework that helps us to understand waste management and most importantly how to reduce wastes. (1):http://www.Taylor and Allen Therefore, it proposes a Waste Management Hierarchy for the best solution that put waste management options in order of sustainability, from the most favoured option to the least desired one. (Shown in figure 1).The Waste Management Hierarchy is a list of approaches to managing waste, arranged in order of preferability. The Environmental Protection Acts of most Australian States treats the Waste Hierarchy as a core principle and the UK Environment Agency supports the Waste Hierarchy as a general guide to selecting the best option for dealing with waste.   However, despite the fact that it is widely used throughout the developed world, some critics have questioned the effectiveness of the model is actually implemented.   For instance, in Australia implementation of the hierarchy has been patchy, with most effort to date focused on recycling and composting (Gertsakis and Lewis, 2003).   Figure 1: Sustainability and The Waste Management Hierarchy (adapted from J.Gertsakis and H Lewis, 2003) Also in an attempt to reduce waste, the chairman of the US Senate Environment and Public Works committee, suggest that manufacturers must take full responsibility of their products from the whole life cycle of the products and when it becomes waste also thus reducing the burdens on the municipalities (Cardinali, 2001). Both the developed and developing countries have experienced accidents due to releases of hazardous wastes(UNEP,1994,FEPA,1991:Shaw,1992)At the international level, the awareness regarding waste began in 1992 with the Rio Conference, where efficient handling of waste was priority of the Agenda 21.The Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 focused on initiatives to accelerate the shift to sustainable consumption and production and the reduction of resource degradation, pollution and waste by giving priority to waste reduction recycling, reuse followed by the safe disposal of waste .Therefore, as a measure of precaution it is in the best interest for most countries to make landfill as the last resort and option. 2.3 Overview of Landfills Landfill is the cheapest method for disposal of waste: it is immensely used by many countries. Solid wastes, is any unwanted or discarded solid item. Municipal Solid Waste comes from homes, businesses and other urban areas. But the heavy dependency on the landfill has led to filling up of most landfill sites. Example in America before 1988, 80% of MSW were disposed of in landfills. By 2009 four or five landfills in operation will be full and the cost of a new one cost approximately $90 million (Anonymous, 1992). According to Dr. W.L. Rathje, a garbologist at the University of Arizona, he gave this shocking testimony to the scale of modern landfills at a governmental hearing, quoting that: I was told that the largest monument ever built by a New World civilization was the Temple of the Sun, built in Mexico about 2000 years ago. It occupied thirty million cubic feet. I can still remember my shock when my students told me that A San Francisco landfill, made up of two mounds compiled since 1977 solely out of cover dirt and the MSW from three cities, held seventy million cubic feet, a total of nearly five Sun Temples. Landfills are clearly the largest refuse heaps in the world. Since land is a scarce resource, therefore the European union has sensitized many countries on the need to use sustainable methods .In this context therefore, the waste hierarchy (consisting of waste minimization, reuse, recovery; recovery such as energy recovery from incineration and finally disposal to landfill) and the BPEO (Best Practicable Environmental Option) are widely encourage to be used. Even though the amount of waste has diminished still the amounts of waste disposed of to landfill have increased (Pitt Michael, 2005). 2.31 Zero landfill Zero waste is a philosophy that promotes the redesign of resource life cycles so that all products are reused. Any wastes sent to landfills are minimal. Zero waste is not only about recycling but also avoiding landfills and preventing from waste production itself. The paradox is that the proportion of waste going into landfill may decrease but the volumes of Municipal solid waste are increasing ant that too in excess of 3 percent yearly for many developed nations (Douglas, 1992). The concept of zero landfill can never be achieved fully because there will be still a minimum of waste generated therefore landfill will always continue to exist. 2.32 Landfill Management: After being landfilled the waste decomposes into chemical and biological processes normally taking more than 50 years. But during the degradation process the solid waste generates 0.2 m3 of contaminated wastewater known as leachate, which in turn depending on the climate (amount of rainfall) and types of waste its colour varies from black to brown .Rainfall plays a very important role in creating leachates. Factors affecting leachates are: age, precipitation, seasonal weather variation, waste types and composition. Leachate include several parameters such as COD,BOD5, organic carbon, ammonia nitrogen , chlorides, iron manganese, phenols and AOX but little or no phosphorus.(2).Therefore pretreatment of leachate is vital. Treatment of leachate constitutes of: Leachate chanelling: Combined treatment with domestic sewage, Recycling, Biological treatment: aerobic or anaerobic, chemical precipitation: to remove high strength of ammonium nitrogen. CW (constructed wetland) is, however, a rel atively new approach to eliminating environmental pollution, based on purification of waste waters with halophytes planted in an artificial wetland and employing the self-cleaning ability of ecosystems for its biological treatment process. Presently, some hundred CWs are in operation in Europe (Bulc et al., 1998) Capping: Once cell is filled to maximum of waste, it is covered to prevent the entry of precipitation (rainfall) and the escape of gas, odour and introduction of further leachate. Moreover, can place soil over the capping or covering for a better protection. Two types of sealing liner: polymeric geomembranes and geosynthetic clay liners. Caps should include a drainage layer above and a gas collection layer between the caps lining system. Leachate pond affect groundwater if leakage. More polluted groundwater will be discharged into streams wetlands and lakes. 2.33 Landfill Gas and Flaring It is formed from the biodegradation of wastes. It normally occurs at elevated temperatures and eventually it will be saturated with water vapour. The major components of LFG are methane and carbon dioxide. Methane is an odourless gas and travelling away from sites can cause landfills fires when combines with air in certain proportions. Three processes by which landfill gas occurs; Bacterial decomposition, volatilization, and chemical reactions. The volume of landfill gas produced at a site depends on these factors: waste composition, age of refuse, presence of oxygen in the landfill, moisture content, and temperature. Source (2): http:www.scitopics.com Figure 2: Typical Gas Composition at an engineered Landfill Site. (Adapted from Environment Agency November 2002) The purpose of landfill gas flaring is to dispose of the flammable constituents safely and furthermore to avoid negative effects caused by odours, Care must be taken in the management of LFG so as to; Reduce impact on air quality; Gas does not spread beyond the perimeter of the site, to avoid landfill fires, to permit energy recovery and also to avoid odour and health risks. 2.34 Important points to be considered in the design of a landfill and facilities required inside the landfill are: Nature and quantities of waste, water control, operational and restoration requirements, construction effects must be considered ,risk assessment, protection of soil and water, leachate management, gas control and Environmental nuisances. Moreover, the access of the landfill, the opening hours, types of wastes accepted should be marked and displayed at the entrance. In addition to that provision of an office plus the first aid area, bathing and toilet facilities, lockers, mess rooms, waste reception area ,store, parking area and a wheel clearer is essential for preventing mud from being carried out on the public road lastly the provision of adequate water supply in case of fire. 2.35 Health effects on Landfilling Landfills should be the last resorts due to the scarcity of lands and many health problems encountered through it. There is a large body of literature on the potential adverse health effects of different waste management options. Example in a research done by (Saffron Lisa, 2003) it has been found that 220 papers have been published about the health effects from landfill sites. Many studies have been made on human populations about the hazards to health from landfill sites (Pitt Michael, 2005) but 101 are based on health impacts of landfill sites and 23 about health impacts of contaminated drinking water. Six papers discovered the evidence linking health effects with landfill sites. (Vrijheid M, 2000), revealed that health problems associated include respiratory symptoms, irritation of the skin, nose and eyes, gastrointestinal problems, fatigue, headaches. Environmental (Vrijheid M, 2000).These studies was conducted in order to look for a link between landfill sites and the following health outcomes: Reproductive outcomes(31studies),Cancer(29), psychosocial impacts(19), health problem not specified in abstract(14),mortality(5), injuries poisoning(2).Also EPA, revealed that many problems which occurred are because of the poor management of landfills. Most often theses problems are long term and include possible contamination of the groundwater and surface water regimes, among others. According to recent research, it was found that women who live near landfill sites has an elevated risk of having a baby with congenital malformations and also suffers from stress, fatigues, headaches, eye infections or irritations, coughs, stuffy noise, dry throat, and nausea and spontaneous abortions.(www://bmj.com).Also the other health impacts associated according to another research done by an international journal (Saffron lisa et al. ,2003) revealed that there is an increased risk of contracting cancer and also it contribute to global warming and loss of biodiversity as well and the depletion of non-renewable resources. In addition, mentioned was made in this journal that people living near and far off the sites contracts nearly same types of health problems. Each people immune systems are different; one can be more resistant while the others can be less. Research on Landfill site in Nant-y-Gwyddon revealed that an increase rate in congenital abnormalities in residents near the site, but it has been challenged by (Roberts et al: 2000).They were also suffering from stress, fatigues, headaches, eye infections or irritation, coughs, stuffy nose, dry throat and nausea and spontaneous abortions. Also the birth prevalence of gastoschisis seems to be increasing internally and nationally. The main weakness of the studies about landfill health effects is the complete lack of exposure data. Where the hazards from landfill sites have been identified, as is the case in the National Priorities List sites in the USA, it is possible to estimate exposure using the EPA Human Exposure Model (Wolfinger, 1989). The results of this type of analysis are uncertain and are based on risky assumptions. These remain estimates, not data. Most often theses problems are long term and include possible contamination of the groundwater and surface water regimes, odour, noise and visual nuisances (EPA). In an international journal (Saffron lisa,2003) revealed that there is an increased risk of contracting cancer and also it contribute to global warming and loss of biodiversity as well and the depletion of non-renewable resources, mentioned was made in this journal that people living near and far off the sites contracts nearly same types of health problems. Each people immune systems are different; one can be more resistant while the others can be less. Figure3: Components of landfill (adapted from Department of Environmental Conservation New York) The above figure shows the components and how the landfill has been design considering the different layers from the top to the bottom. In order to promote rainfall run-off away from the landfill a 24-inch thick barrier protection layer composition of soil and overlying 6 inches of vegetation topsoil serve to prevent the underlying geomembrane. To avoid again infiltration of rainfall a 60 mm geomenbrane along with the underlying low permeability clay layer are placed, thus this is done to avoid generation of additional leachate. Sand or gravel together with pipe lines are being placed so as to collect landfill gasses generated by decomposition waste. It is then followed by the waste mass, where all the waste is stock till decomposition. It is obvious that waste which contains water generate leachate therefore a primary leachate collection with pipe in place, so as to prevent the contamination of deep water sources a 60mm thick geomembrane underlines the leachate collection system and on the bottom of landfill syrong textile component to make a composite liner. However, another secondary leachate collection pipe is present after structural fill to avoid completely the leachate underground contamination. The final is a plastic geomembrane is to protect again the soil and the deep water sources. This design serves to protect the environment from contaminants which may be present in the municipal solid waste. The landfill siting plan, which prevents the siting of landfills in environmentally sensitive areas, as well as on-site environmental monitoring systems, which monitor for any sign of groundwater contamination and for landfill gas, provide additional safeguard. 2.36 Specifically Engineered Landfill (Basel Convention UNEP) At the start of the project, proper planning shall be carried out considering that the landfill would not cause harm either to people or environment. Therefore high standard of controlling measures shall be put in place and establish control procedures which would monitor and even anticipate what to do after all cells have been filled. Hazardous waste must be disposed off before reaching the landfill and it can be done by either incineration or physio chemical processors. 2.37 Health and safety aspects associated with solid waste management All activities in solid waste management involve risk. From the place of collection to the final stage in landfill risk is directly associated. However, we need to quantify the risk and identify the main hazard which may cause harm to people thus having a direct impact on the business. Risk which exists and is liable to cause damage to our health safety and even welfare and can be categorized in the following context: Disease, injuries and accident Disease -Illnesses which comprise of infectious disease, allergies, respiratory damage and even cancer. Some disease is derived from direct injections of infectious micro-organisms, others involve infection through contamination of the food chain, whereby animals or other vectors have ingested infectious micro-organisms Injuries joint and spinal damage, fractures, puncture wounds, damage to eyes and ears and other part of the body Accidents- slides from unstable disposal piles, cave-ins of disposal site surfaces, fires, explosions, being caught in processing equipment, and being run over by mobile equipment The workers are greatly exposed to the various risk at the landfill are specially, those who get involves in the segagation process. This practice is good for the recycling processes but its health consequence is beard up by workers. Those workers are exposed to fecal matters, saturated toxic materials, bottle with chemical residues, metals containers with residues pesticides and solvents, needle and bandages from hospital, battery containing heavy metals, not to forget the pollution caused by the mechanical vehicles which is inhale by the workers. Moving into more details the occupational illnesses and health consequences which cause tremendous nuisance to the workers exposed in a landfill are:- The risk of vibration from heavy vehicles cause damage to the back and joint also the lifting of waste fill containers can damage our spine in the long run and if over- exposed very detrimental in the short run From our respiratory ingestion of particulates bio-aerosol, and volatile organic are penetrated in our system through our routes of entry Infection are being caused from direct contact with contamination material, dog and rodent bites, or eating of waste fed animals Wounds punctured or bruised can contribute or cause health problems like tetanus, hepatitis, and HIV infections. Frequent head and nausea are caused from anoxic condition where disposal sites have high methane, CO2 and carbon monoxide. The consequences of burning metals arise the risk of lead poisoning.(Sandra Cointreau,2006) 2.38 The need for risk assessment in a landfill Risk assessment is important in a landfill as it contributes in the planning process. Strategic goals are being evaluated based on the risk assessment carried out. The identification of hazards is essential so as to mitigate the various risks present in the landfill. Engineering and administrative control would be based on the risk assessment done and this show the gravity or severity of the hazard present in the landfill. This is done in order to mitigate the negative impact on environment. Risk assessment in a landfill would comprise of undergoing to find ways how to control or even reduce the deterioration of ecological system, As the analysis of two major areas: Adverse health and environmental effects of exposure to hazardous chemical and failure of complex technological system. The risk assessment of a landfill should take place well in advance before it is in operation and this analysis would identify the various problem which may crop up and predict or design ways how to mitigate risk and find appropriate control measure. Nevertheless, the ecological risk assessment and the engineering risk assessment must be combining under one main component which is the environmental risk assessment. Developing the risk assessment we should know:- What are types of waste we are dealing are they harmful? We must know who are exposed to those hazards(people, animals, aquatic life etc) (3)To what extent it is affecting environment (magnitude, frequency)? (4)Is there the need to provide corrective measures? Risk assessment involvement in the landfill would be a continuous process and it shall be carried out even after its closure. So, this evaluation exercise predicts and illustrates preventive measures for the environment. (TE Butt, 2008) 3 METHODOLOGY: HEALTH AND SAFETY TOUR AT MARE CHICOSE SANITARY LANDFILL 3.1 OBJECTIVE A site visit was organized on 29/09/10 at Mare Chicose sanitary landfill. The purpose of the visit was to see the geographical location of the landfill, understand the management operations, vehicular movement control, and plant installations requirements and identify the hazards with evaluation of the risks present in the landfill. A checklist was formerly prepared prior to the visit on the hazards. Most of the work was adopted from Hobart City Council/Environmental aspects register (3) 3.2 OBSERVATIONS The Mare Chicose sanitary landfill is the only engineered landfill of Mauritius and it covers an area of about 32 hectares of land. It is operational since November 2007 and is managed by sotravic ltee. The sanitary landfill has been constructed with a designed capacity of about 20,000 tons of solid waste. It was scheduled during design stage to receive about 300 tons of waste daily but actually receive 1200 ton per day. The five cells of the landfill as at to date are full. The construction of a 6th cell is under construction to respond to the increasing demand of waste disposal which include municipal waste, textile waste, tyres and papers. At the construction phase, precautionary measures have been taken not to contaminate underground water table. The bed is protected by a layer of high density polyethylene impermeable membrane followed by 400g/m2 three layers of non woven geotextile. Above it follows a thick layer of aggregates of size 32mm which is finally covered by another layer of 1.5mm geotextile. In between are located leachate pipes whose functions are to collect the liquid leachate to a leachate pond. In the design of the main pipes for leachate, the annual rainfall factor has been considered so that the accumulated rainfall on the bed is properly disposed off. Management of leachate is very important to ensure that there is no run out in drains and neighboring fields and cause environmental concern. Leachate also produce odour which is reduced with use of synthetic cover made of biodegradable plastic on top of the solid waste. (3): source http://www.risk assessement landfill The depth of the landfill is usually 4m. However the solid wastes are piled up to a height of 25 to 50m above ground level and are protected again on top with another layers of geotextile membranes, aggregates, sub soil and top soil which prevents infiltration of rain water in the disposed waste. Most of the disposed wastes in the landfill are organic and the settlement of the waste in the present cells will be about 6 metre over 15 years. It should be noted that methane gas is produced in dangerous concentration at bottom as a byproduct during decomposition of the waste in anaerobic condition. This gas has a green house effect and is managed through a flaring system: the gas is captured by aspiration from bottom of the landfill through a 460mm diameter slotted pipe to prevent its direct migration into the air. Methane is collected in a gas flare plant which has a capacity of 1500 m3 of gas per hour. It receives the gas through gas well chambers which are located on top of the capping. One gas well chambers cover a radius of 40m of the capped landfill. The captured methane gas is either used to produce electricity or is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide after the flaring process. The following analysis is done on monthly basis to prevent environmental problem: ,Leachate, Surface water for storm water monitoring, Underground water table and boreholes, air monitoring through gas analyser for CH4, CO2, and O2 (every three month), noise ,dust. The following health and safety measures have been taken at the landfill: The 50 workers posted are vaccinated against Tetanus and Hepatitis at intervals of six months. Regular health surveillance/medical checkup by a medical practitioner. Protective equipment provided: Earmuff, rubber boot, respiratory mask and eye goggle. All loaders/compacters in use are air conditioned and the machines are designed such that there is no risk of overturning. The landfill is a restricted area and access is authorized only with permission from Ministry of Local Government. All staff are trained in fire safety and first aid No work normally done inside waste- breathing apparatus is used if required. No radioactive waste, acids and medical waste are accepted. All liquid waste are directed to St Martin. All electronic waste are disposed off in separate concrete basin known as encapsulation. All asbestos are received only in sealed bags and disposed off deep in trenches and properly backfilled. A risk assessment was carried out during the health and safety tour at the sanitary landfill. The hazards identified have been evaluated in terms of its likelihood that a problem may occur and the damage it might cause. The consequences or potential severity of injury or damage, measured on a scale has also been assessed and a risk score given by multiplying the likelihood scale with the severity scale. The risk assessment carried out is quantitative and has been adapted from the five steps to risk assessment from the Health and Safety Executive. The steps are as follows: STEP ONE- Identifying the hazards STEP TWO Determine the risk or decide who might be harmed. STEP THREE Evaluate if the risk is tolerable. STEP FOUR Record the findings and prepare risk control plan. STEP FIVE Review the assessment if there is change in any work procedure/equipment. 3.3 RISK ASSESSMENT AT MARE CHICOSE For the purpose of this project, the following definition has been considered: HAZARD Hazard is defined as a source of inherent potential to cause harm or damage or injury. RISK Risk is defined as the likelihood/probability of the harm or damage or injury occurring. The risk assessment was carried out to evaluate the environmental and occupational hazards present on the landfill to determine the level of action required to reduce the risks to an acceptable level. When evaluating the risks imposed by the hazard, we have considered both the likelihood and severity of the event happening. LIKELIHOOD This is defined as the chance of an event actually occurring. When making an assessment of likelihood, we established which of the following categories most closely describes the likelihood of the hazardous event occurring: Very Likely Could happen frequently Likely Could happen occasionally Unlikely Could happen, but only rarely Very Unlikely Could happen but probably never will SEVERITY Severity is defined as a measure of the expected consequence should an accident occur. When assessing the consequences of an accident, the most severe category one could reasonably expect to result from that accident has been selected. The severity is categorized as follows: Major injuries irreversible injury and Death Moderate injuries a serious injury or damage to health requiring extended time off work to effect best recovery. Minor injuries a reversible injury or damage to health needing several days away from work to recover. Recovery would be full and permanent. Insignificant Injuries-require first aid only and may need the remainder of the work period or shift off before being able to return to work. Requires no action to control.When making the risk assessment, all aspects of likelihood and severity has been taken into consideration. The interrelated parameters of likelihood and severity has been defined as risk score and any score of 9 and above is rated as unacceptable or of significant risk requiring immediate action with implementation of important control measures. CONTROL MEASURES Control measures are defined as corrective measures already in place to reduce the risk at an acceptable level. Consideration shall also be taken that these control measures are either engineering or administrative. However, some other control measures do exists but it all depends on the financial position of the organization and also to what extent are the control measures appropriate for the hazard present. These control measure are adopted in order to either eliminate completely the hazard or to mitigate the hazards. Implemented by whom and when The health and safety officer shall propose to management the measure to be taken and who responsible to implement the control measure. Also, depending on the urgency and the degree of risk that the environment is exposed to, a time frame shall be established. Thus, in any work which has been delegated by the management to the department concern, the latter shall be responsible and also accountable in time limit proposed. VISIT TO MARE CHICOSE SANITARY LANDFILL SITE (Risk Assessment carried out on 29/09/10) LIKELIHOOD: 1=Very unlikely 2=unlikely 3=likely 4=very likely. SEVERITY: 1=Insigni

The Words And Works Of Jesus Christ Theology Religion Essay

The Words And Works Of Jesus Christ Theology Religion Essay The name Jesus (IÄâ€Å"sous) is the Greek form for the Hebrew Yeshua (Yahweh saves). Jesus is the realisation/fulfilment of the prophecies of Gods Messiah for his people. While on earth He spoke as no-one ever spoke and has done deeds no-one has done (John 3:2). In this assignment a broad chronological overview is presented of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ with some focus on his words and works. A chronological overview of His ministry of three years is undertaken with special attention to the first six months, the last six months and the last week. BEFORE THE FIRST YEAR The Gospel writers account of Jesus infant/childhood years vary. The Synoptic Gospels (Matt-Luke) contain some data (although Mark does not have anything on Jesus childhood) but the Gospel of John speaks only about the Logos who became a man (John 1:14). The conception of Christ was kept secret by Mary who à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦kept all thingsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦in her heart (Luke 2:19). In the Synoptic Gospels Matthew gives particulars about Jesus birth and his earliest childhood (Matt. 2) but Luke also has some information about Jesus twelfth year (Luke 2:41-52). Jesuss infancy is narrated in four incidents in Luke 2:8-40 and Matthew 2:1-23. (Anon., n.d.). Luke wrote about two events where an angel declared the birth of Jesus to the shepherds (Luke 2:8-14) and then the shepherds visit to Bethlehem (2:15-20). In the second event, the presentation of Jesus in Jerusalem (Luke 2:21-39) following the circumcision and the purification of his mother (2:22). Simeon had a revelation about Jesus, that he would see the Christ before his death (Luke 2:26), and by proclaiming it, the prophetess Anna overheard it and she praised God 2:38). Luke takes trouble to confirm that Joseph and Mary did everything required by the Law (circumcision, purification). Matthew recorded the visit of the Magi (wise men) (Matt. 2:1-12) who believed that the Deliverer was born. This is a dramatic narrative wherein Herods falsity and cruelty come to the fore (Matt. 2:7-18). It ends with the familys flight to Egypt to escape Herods command that in that region all boys up to the age of 2 must be killed. Luke recorded one incident from Jesuss childhood (Luke 2:40-52) in which His spiritual development is clear. During their visit to Jerusalem (Luke 2:41-50) for the Passover Jesus proved his proficiency in the Law. At age twelve He would have been bar-mitzvah and was responsible before the law for himself (Pentecost, 1984:76). At this occasion Jesus actively participated in the temple, listening and asking questions, which was customary for all Jews (Tenney, 1975) Before Jesus ministry started, several significant events took place: the preaching of John the Baptist (Matt. 3:1-12; Mark 1:1-8; Luke 3:1-17), the Baptism of Jesus (Matt. 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21, 22) which was the ultimate purpose of Johns work. The most important event in Christs preparation period that revealed His true character was the temptation (Matt. 4:1-11; Mark 1:12, 13; Luke 4:1-13). That concluded Christs life before the commencement of the first year of His earthly ministry (Tenney, 1975). THE FIRST YEAR The start of Jesus Judean ministry was recorded by John (John 1:35-4:42) although there is some historical uncertainty concerning this period (bron). Jesus and John entered Jerusalem for the Passover, marking the beginning of the first year of Jesuss ministry. During this visit, Jesus made contact with disciples to be. In Johns Gospel a selection (John 20:30-31) of Jesus signs (sÄâ€Å"meia) are told. The first of these that revealed His glory was at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-12). Through this sign Jesus began to move the disciples to put their faith in Him (John 1:11). Two significant other things Jesus did was the cleansing of the temple (John 2:13f), establishing the righteousness that belongs to the Lord and the conversation He had with Nicodemus (John 3). This very important discussion went over the kingdom of heaven (John 3:3, 5) and Gods standard for eternal life. John also recorded Jesus performing other miracles and signs (John 2:23-25) that revealed Him as the Messiah. Since Jesus started His public ministry, John the Baptists ministry waned and his followers began to follow Jesus. After Jesus baptism, He separated Himself from John, engaging in a countermovement. Johns intention was not to draw men to him, but to be a servant of God. Leaving Judea for Galilee, Jesus had to go through Samaria (John 4:4), and at Sichar he had a watershed conversation with a Samaritan woman, during which he presented Himself as the gift of God (John 4:10) ending in ministering to the Samaritans for two days (4:30f). Christ revealed Himself as the gift to the Jew and the gentile. Also during this conversation, Christs insight into mans nature was revealed, setting the pattern for personal evangelism. Christs first year of ministering ended with His withdrawal from Judea (Matt. 4:12; Mark 1:14; Luke 3:19-20; 4:14; John 4:1-4). The reason why Christ withdrew from Judea was to start His widespread ministry in Galilee. He was fully aware of the rising conflict the Pharisees wanted between His own and Johns disciples and to bring disunity amongst them. Another reason why Christ went to Galilee was the imprisonment of John by Herod. Luke recorded a third reason for Christ to leave Judea he was under the guidance of the Spirit of God (Luke 4:14). Since it was not Jesus time to die, He moved His ministry from Judea to Galilee. THE SECOND YEAR John recorded this period (John 4:43-54) as the second time of Jesus performing signs in Galilee. Knowing the miracle works Jesus did à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the Galileans welcomed Him (John 4:45), hoping to see and hear a repeat of the same signs. Yet, Jesus knew the rejection of Himself and His message lurking in them by telling them that a prophet has no honour in his own country (John 4:44). The Galileans believed in His name, but not in Himself. Christ then started a new way of ministering in Galilee by proclaiming a word of God, validating the message by accompanying numerous miracles and signs. About these signs Tenney fittingly wrote [t]he healing of the officials son at Capernaum serves as a fitting prelude for the whole Galilean ministry (Tenney, 1975). After Jesus pronounced Himself as the Messiah who came to fulfil Scripture (Isaiah 6:1-2a) He was rejected by the Nazarenes (Matt. 13;54-58; Mark 6;1-6a). Jesus then moved to Capernaum, starting His main message Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is near (Matt. 4:17). The first four disciples Peter and Andrew, James and John were called (Matt. 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20; Luke 5:1-11). Their mission was to be fishers of men. Jesus conducted the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7), teaching the people of ethics in a manner that even a child could understand it. Matthew summarised Jesuss words (teachings) and works (miracles) (Smith, 2012). During this period Jesus did many works of healing and feeding that Matthew grouped together (Matt. 8:1-9:8). Most of these healings were also recorded in Mark and Luke, but in different order (owing to each writers context). These miracles had two main effects, to draw crowds of people after Him and ensuing conflict between Himself and the Pharisees. Jesus criticised them of hypocrisy (Matt. 23) and they viewed him as a law breaker. There were many Sabbath controversies mainly due to Jesus healing on that day. Healing marks an important aspect of Jesuss ministry. All four gospels recorded Jesuss choosing the twelve disciples. They were people from all walks of life with specific instructions, not only for themselves but also for the Church of Christ. Christ was preparing them His crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus was based for 2 ½ years in Capernaum, conducting the ministry Himself and later by His disciples. Jesus used the Kingdom parables to explain His ministry, but also protecting it and introducing something new (Heb. 8:13). In the miracle of feeding the 5,000 the beginning of Christs third year of ministry ensued. THE THIRD YEAR The First Six Months Christ withdrew from Galilee arriving at Caesarea Philippi, where He asked them (the twelve) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦who do people say the Son of Man is? (Matt. 16:13). Although the recording of these words differ slightly, the effect thereof was the turning point in the Gospel of Christ (Smith, 2012). Simon Peter grasping the identity of Christ replied You are the Christ, The Son of the Living God (Matt 16:16). Christ was finally revealed and accepted by the twelve as the Son of God. Jesus revealed to the Apostles His mission (Matt. 16:21). Going to Jerusalem (appointed place of sacrifice) to suffer much from the elders, chief priests and teachers of law, eventually to die (Matt 1:21; Mark 10:45). But, He conquered death (John 11:25) and both person and work rose on the third day (Pentecost, 1984). Christ established instructions concerning discipleship, the cost thereof and demands to become a true disciple (Luke 9:23) (Pentecost, 1984). After Jesus separated Peter, James and John (Mark 9:2) coming down the mountain after a glorious experience of Gods glory, Jesus commanded them to tell no-one until Christs rising from the dead (Mark 9:9). The reason for this being entrusting the ministry to man and the fact that the people were already rejecting Him (Pentecost, 1984). No miracles and signs were performed and Christ was teaching them about Faith (Matt 17:20) and the fact that prayer is essentially an attitude of utter dependence on God (Pentecost, 1984). Nazareth was characterized by unbelief (John 7:5) and Jesus knew the plot of the Jews, His approaching death as the Feast of Tabernacles had arrived. Not only did Jesus foretell His death but revealed Gods plan. He remained and sent the twelve alone to the Feast of Tabernacles. The people hated Christ for exposing their sins (7:7), His condemnation of Pharisaism, rejecting His judgment of their unrighteousness and their denial of God (Pentecost, 1984). The Feast of Tabernacles marked an important turning point in the life and ministry of Jesus. Jesus turned to Jerusalem, facing His opposition that would culminate in His death and resurrection. Christ was rejected by the Samaritans and went to another village, not allowing to be defiled by circumstances, obeying Gods will, plan and timetable (Luke 9:53) (Pentecost, 1984). During this period, Christ taught the disciples about life in the Church, their role and in Matthew 18 establishing relationships in the Kingdom of God (Smith, 2012). The Last Six Months Jesus started His ministry in Jerusalem, evangelizing Judea and surrounding areas (Luke 10:1-13; 21) between the Feast of Tabernacles (Luke 9:51-61; John 7:1-10) and the Feast of Dedication (John 10:22-42) (Smith, 2012). When Jesuss life was endangered when the crowd wanted to stone Him, Jesus withdrew to Bethany beyond the Jordan, starting to teach in Perea until He was called to the home of Mary and Martha where He raised Lazarus from the dead (Pentecost, 1984). Due to the indication by the leaders of Israel to reject Jesus, Christ appointed seventy-two (Luke 10:1) as His representatives to deliver the message throughout Judea. Although His works and Words openly declared Him as the Christ, the Jews still tried to seize Him at the Feast of Dedication for not admitting and Jesus had to withdraw again (John 10:22-42) (Smith, 2012), continuing His Judean ministry. The second part of the Perean ministry stretches from the Feast of Dedication in December 32 A.D. to the last journey to Jerusalem in the spring of 33. Jesus was pressing towards the excruciating purpose for which He came to earth, and on the way His teachings was done on Discipleship (Luke 14), evangelism (Luke 15), stewardship (Luke 16) and servant hood (Luke 17) (Smith, 2012). Christ again demonstrated His status as the Son of God, the manner in which he handled the raising of Lazarus (John 11:4), not revealing this miracle publicly as with the sign of Jonah (Matt. 12:38-40). Jesus finally approached Jerusalem; still ministering on the way, with teachings on divorce (Matt. 19:1-12; Mark 10:1-12), children (Matt. 19:13-15; Mark 10:13-16; Luke 18:15-17), conversion (Matt. 19:16-30; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-30) and leadership (Matt. 20:20-28; Mark 10:35-45). During this six months Jesus continued to His final destiny, Jerusalem. He knew His end would be crucifixion, but he went on teaching, revealing Him as the Son of God and equipping His disciples for ministry and after His departure to continue. Jesus taught them much regarding moral, ethical and spiritual topics. To establish His Kingdom was His final call and purpose. He then finally returned, knowing that the Jews wanted to kill him, also revealing this fact to His disciples, but they did not understand. The last week of Jesuss life concludes the last six months starting at the Feast of Passover in Jerusalem. The Last Week Finally the time came that Jesus was preparing His disciples for to witness the slaying of the lamb at the Passover (John 11:55). These events began on the Sunday morning when Jesus entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. Through the triumphal entry Christ, fulfilling scripture (Zech. 9:9; Is. 62:11), was met with a mixed response. Some people saw Him as the King, who came to deliver them from the Roman oppression (Smith, 2012), and realizing Christs intention, turned against Him. Conflict arose and Christ had to leave, spending the night in Bethany. The Monday, on returning to Jerusalem, Christ cursed the fig tree (Mark 11:14), thereby revealing His authority. He proceeds on His journey and at the temple, finding the people trading there, He again cleansed the temple. He established Himself as the guardian of His Fathers House (John 12:20-50) (Pentecost, 1984). Tuesday was a day of controversy and various people tried to entrap Him, to silence and finally kill Him. During this time Christ gave His disciples His most comprehensive end-time teaching, the Olivet Discourse (Smith, 2012). The Wednesday was spent with His disciples (no recording in scripture) and the Thursday the Last Supper was held. At this event Jesus enacted what he said in Mark 10:45 that the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve when he washes His disciples feet (John 13:1). He revealed the betrayal (John 13:18) and encouraged the disciples with the farewell discourse (John 14-16). After the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane He was handed over for crucifixion. There were several stages up to the cross: an examining at the High Priest Annas house (John 18:12-14; 19-24) where Peter denied Christ three times before cockcrow (John 18:12). Before the Sanhedrin (Matt. 26:57) charges of a threatened destruction of the temple linked with blasphemy were brought in (Tenney, 1975). He was then brought before Pilates but he, finding no guilt in Him, handed Him back to Herod. Again Jesus was sent to Pilate who had him scourged and crucified. A dispute developed between the Jews and Pilate regarding the notice on the cross. The gospels record Jesus time on the cross, crowned with His last words it is finished (John 19:30). These terrible occurrences were overturned in the resurrection on the third day. Evidence about Jesus statement in John 11:25 (that He is the resurrection and life) was given on occasions where over 500 saw Him. Therefore, the Great Commission as recorded in Matthew 28 has its basis in Christ, His command and promise (Smith, 2012). CONCLUSION Christ came and offered Himself as Saviour, but His own did not acknowledge His revelation of the Father and King therefore rejected Him to be crucified. Jesus came to give us new life-everlasting life, revealing the nature of God the Father and God the Spirit and who wants to be worshipped, any place and any time. Throughout Jesus ministry He suffered rejection but in the end the triumph of the resurrection is the basis of faith, God showing the divine approval for Christs work upon the cross. That is the basis of the Gospel.

Science vs Aging Essay -- Research Papers Essays

Science vs Aging Thesis Statement: Health care and science resources should be conservatively allocated to our aging population, focusing on providing quality to the aging years without draining assets in a reckless attempt to extend life. Introduction: The demographic projections in the United Sates are significant. Between 1982 and 2030 the median age will move from 30.6 to 40.8 years and the proportion of the population over 65 will go from 11.6 to 21.1 percent (Committee on the Aging Society, 1985). Persons over 85 are the fastest growing age group, 21 times more numerous than in 1900 (Callahan, 1995). This is also an international issue; by 2040 most developed countries will have 30 percent of their population over 60 (Hanson, 1994). These figures demand our attention on issues of aging. Most elderly need economic assistance and are significantly dependent on lower age groups. In the 1930's most of the elderly lived below the poverty line. Social Security helped reduce this figure to 15.7 percent by 1980. 80 year-olds receive 50% percent of their yearly income from social security (Committee on the Aging Society, 1985). The rest of their income often comes from pension plans or family funds. Elderly populations consume significantly more medical resources than other age groups. In 1984 elderly were 12% of our population, but consumed 31% of medical resources; by 2040 they are expected to consume 45 %. The Federal Government currently spends approximately $200 billion on health care for the elderly, which still only covers 67% of the expenditures. The remaining 33%, or $100 billion, must be covered by elderly and their families (Callahan, 1995). These economic expenditures have social conseq... ...the Aging Society. (1985). Aging America: Health in a Older Society. Washington DC: National Academic Press. 7. Finch, C. E. (1978). The Brain and Aging. In The Biology of Aging (pp.301-309). New York: Plenum Press. 8. Fries, James F. (1986). The Compression of Morbidity. Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, 61: 3, 347-355. 9. Hanson, Mark J. (1994). How we Treat the Elderly. Hastings Center Report, 24:5, 4-8. PMID: 8002311 10. Harley, Calvin B. (1996). Telomeres. In Encyclopedia of Gerontology (Vol. 2, pp. 539-543). Washington DC: Academic Press. 11. Kirkwood, T. B. (1977). Evolution of Aging. Nature, 270:2, 301-304. 12. May, William F. (1996). Testing the Medical Covenant. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing. 13. Moody, Henry H. (1994). Four Scenarios for an Aging Population. Hastings Center Report, 24:5, 32-34. PMID: 8002308

Food Avenue :: Personal Narrative Writing

Food Avenue Saturday morning at Food Avenue It’s yet another Saturday morning, 7:20 a.m., and here I am driving to work. I wait at the front door to see if anyone will be willing to drop what they’re doing and respond to the annoying ringer that announces that someone is there. After about an endless minute a friendly night-crew member named Frank lets me in. As they pull the door back for me they ask, "So how are you this morning?" "Just fine thank you. If only I wasn’t so tired," I responded with a yawn. "I know how you feel." "Bye Frank." "See you later Amanda." I proceed onward in behind the mysterious "Employees Only" door to the time clock. As the clock turns to 7:25 I punch in. I pull my hair back and head my way towards the wonderful Food Avenue. On my way there I stop by the service desk and get my keys and the money for the till. 7:55 and my first guest arrives (he just happens to be an older gentleman that works on the pull team and doesn’t seem to realize that like the rest of the store, we don’t open until 8:00). "Good morning Rob," I say. "Well now your up early this morning." "I guess. If I were home right now I know I’d be sleeping," I replied. "Got that right. Say do you got any of those oatmeal raisin cookies out yet?" Rob asked. "Oh course. One of the first things I do. I don’t want you to get mad at me right away you know." "I couldn’t get mad at you." "I don’t know about that Rob. Do you want your cookie and senior coffee?" "I guess so since you’ve got them out all ready. Have a nice day Amanda." "You too." As I watch to see him sit down at the table I go through and make sure I didn’t forget anything. Nope. Remembered to unlock everything; all the grills, ovens, and warmers are on; washed all the tables and counters; pop machine is turned on; coffee is set out; and I even turned the fans on above the grill. As I could have predicted right at about 8:02 a rush of red and khakis from the pull team, they’re the people that get to move the merchandise from the stockroom onto the floor, come and order the big breakfast: scrambled eggs; toast; hashbrowns; and choice of sausage, bacon or ham.

paintball :: essays research papers

Paintball Misrepresented Sport When you here about paintball in the news, it's always a story of someone losing an eye or committing a crime. Is this what paintball is about? Definitely not! Lets first start off by saying, that accusing the sport of paintball, for criminals vandalizing property with paintball markers (They are actually classified as markers, not guns, because they mark people, like in a game of tag), is like blaming the sport of baseball, for people that fight or injure people with bats. It's like accusing football for encouraging people to fight. Of course though, football is never blamed for that. Some people also would like to say that paintball is too dangerous, and people get injured way too often because it's unsafe to play. The fact is, those people couldn't be more wrong. Paintball requires a mask to be worn on all public fields. Neck protectors and vests are also optional if you feel like it. Most people would probably be surprised to learn that players and referees take extra care to make sure that all the players are safe in a game. National averages even show that paintball has a lower injury rate than bowling and golf! So how did those kids in the news loose an eye? Simple, they didn't wear the right protection and were probably playing on their own field, without refs and proper marker testing. Playing paintball without masks is the equivalent of playing tackle football with pads and helmets, which means someone could get hurt. Is football ever criticized for severe injuries? Almost never. So why should paintball be any different? So, before you decide to criticize paintball, first go to you local field (here in Utah, you can go to Paintball Planet or Army Navy Surplus) and try a game. Then create your opinion. Most people who go actually find it very fun. It gets your adrenaline pumping and has a frantic (but fun) feel to it. It also has some value. Playing the game a lot develops excellent hand-eye-coordination, teaches teamwork, trust, and careful planning.

Business Intelligence Essay

1. Integration * 1.1 BI infrastructure * * All tools in the platform use the same security, metadata, administration, portal integration, object model and query engine, and should share the same look and feel. * 1.2 Metadata management * Not only should all tools leverage the same metadata, but the offering should provide a robust way to search, capture, store, reuse and publish metadata objects such as dimensions, hierarchies, measures, performance metrics and report layout objects. * 1.3 Development tools * The BI platform should provide a set of programmatic development tools and a visual development environment, coupled with a software developer’s kit for creating BI applications, integrating them into a business process, and/or embedding them in another application. The BI platform should also enable developers to build BI applications without coding by using wizard-like components for a graphical assembly process. The development environment should also support Web services in performing common tasks such as scheduling, delivering, administering and managing. In addition, the BI application can assign and track events or tasks allotted to specific users, based on predefined business rules. Often, this capability can be delivered by integrating with a separate portal or workflow tool. 1.4 Collaboration * This capability enables BI users to share and discuss information, BI content and results, and/or manage hierarchies and metrics via discussion threads, chat and annotations, either embedded in the BI platform or through integration with collaboration, social software and analytical master data management (MDM). 2. Information Delivery 2.1 Reporting * * Reporting provides the ability to create formatted and interactive reports, with or without parameters, with highly scalable distribution and scheduling capabilities. In addition, BI platform vendors should handle a wide array of reporting styles (for example, financial, operational and performance dashboards), and should enable users to access and fully interact with BI content delivered consistently across delivery platforms including the Web, mobile devices and common portal environments. * 2.2 Dashboards * This subset of reporting includes the ability to publish formal, Web-based or mobile reports with intuitive interactive displays of information, including dials, gauges, sliders, check boxes and traffic lights. These displays indicate the state of the performance metric compared with a goal or target value. Increasingly, dashboards are used to disseminate real-time data from operational applications or in conjunction with a complex event processing engine. * 2.3 Ad hoc query * This capability enables users to ask their own questions of the data, without relying on IT to create a report. In particular, the tools must have a robust semantic layer to allow users to navigate available data sources. These tools should include a disconnected analysis capability that enables users to access BI content and analyze data remotely without being connected to a server-based BI application. In addition, these tools should offer query governance and auditing capabilities to ensure that queries perform well. * 2.4 Microsoft Office integration * In some use cases, BI platforms are used as a middle tier to manage, secure and execute BI tasks, but Microsoft Office (particularly Excel) acts as the BI client. In these cases, it is vital that the BI vendor provides integration with Microsoft Office applications, including support for document and presentation formats, formulas, data â€Å"refreshes† and pivot tables. Advanced integration includes cell locking and write-back. * 2.5 Search-based BI * * This applies a search index to both structured and unstructured data sources and maps them into a classification structure of dimensions and measures (often, but not necessarily leveraging the BI semantic layer) that users can easily navigate and explore using a search (Google-like) interface. This capability extends beyond keyword searching of BI platform content and metadata. 2.6 Mobile BI This capability enables organizations to deliver report and dashboard content to mobile devices (such as smartphones and tablets) in a publishing and/or interactive (bidirectional) mode, and takes advantage of the interaction mode of the device (tapping, swiping and so on) and other capabilities not commonly available on desktops and laptops, such as location awareness. 3. Analysis * 3.1 Online analytical processing (OLAP) * * This enables end users to analyze data with extremely fast query and calculation performance, enabling a style of analysis known as â€Å"slicing and dicing.† Users are (often) able to easily navigate multidimensional drill paths. And they (sometimes) have the ability to write-back values to a proprietary database for planning and â€Å"what if† modeling purposes. This capability could span a variety of data architectures (such as relational or multidimensional) and storage architectures (such as disk-based or in-memory). * 3.2 Interactive visualization * This gives users the ability to display numerous aspects of the data more efficiently by using interactive pictures and charts, instead of rows and columns. Over time, advanced visualization will go beyond just slicing and dicing data to include more process-driven BI projects, allowing all stakeholders to better understand the workflow through a visual representation. * 3.3 Predictive modeling and data mining * This capability enables organizations to classify categorical variables and to estimate continuous variables using advanced mathematical techniques. BI developers are able to integrate models easily into BI reports, dashboards and analysis, and business processes. 3.4 Scorecards These take the metrics displayed in a dashboard a step further by applying them to a strategy map that aligns key performance indicators (KPIs) with a strategic objective. Scorecard metrics should be linked to related reports and information in order to do further analysis. A scorecard implies the use of a performance management methodology such as Six Sigma or a balanced scorecard framework. Market Leaders IBM. SAS. Oracle. 1 Oracle 1.1 Strengths * * In 2011, Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation Suite, with its principal component Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE), continued to execute on its stated top-to-bottom BI vision. This year, the products have the highest aggregate Ability to Execute scores. References depict a customer base that is Oracle through and through — 85% run Oracle Database as their data warehouse, nearly 75% run Oracle Applications, and a majority utilizes Oracle Fusion Middleware. Oracle is deployed most broadly (in respect of global deployment) of any vendor in this Magic Quadrant, with average user populations nearing 3,000 and data volumes of more than 5 TB, and it is considered the BI standard for nearly 70% of firms surveyed. While complex workloads are below average, the breadth of use scores in the highest quartile. * * During the Magic Quadrant evaluation process, Oracle announced and completed its acquisition of Endeca, a search-based provider of e-commerce and analytic capabilities. Customer surveys were conducted before the Endeca acquisition was completed; therefore, Endeca is not factored into the Magic Quadrant evaluation of Oracle’s execution, but was considered as part of its long-term product vision. Relatively low numbers of existing references access hybrid data types using OBIEE. Gartner believes that this is a forward-looking acquisition that will have significant impact on the company’s business analytics future (see â€Å"Endeca Buy Extends Oracle’s Ability to Support and Discover Diverse Data† for a more detailed opinion of the acquisition). * * In October 2011, the company announced an engineered system — Oracle Exalytics In-Memory Machine — that leveraged assets across the Oracle stack. The integrated hardware/software analytics solution features a package of OBIEE with new in-memory capabilities (based on Oracle’s acquisition of TimesTen), optimized Oracle Essbase to support the range of traditional BI (reporting, dashboards and analysis), and dynamic planning, what-if and scenario analysis, as well as interactive visualization and data discovery capabilities. The system is designed to support high-performance BI and performance management use cases with the intention of improving the performance, scale and speed of reporting, analysis and planning applications. It is now generally available. * * References select Oracle primarily for functionality, enterprise application integration, and data access capabilities. Additionally, customers indicated that they valued the products’ ability to support large numbers of users. Like other megavendors, the product road map plays an important role in the evaluation process. Ease of use and cost do not factor significantly into the selection process. * * Oracle Business Intelligence Applications (OBIA) are predefined analytic applications for horizontal business processes such as finance, procurement and sales analysis. Customers and prospects find this combination of analytic applications built using the OBIEE toolset appealing, with many buyers selecting both at evaluation time. Additionally, the company also delivers vertical-specific analytic data models for industries such as retail and financial services for IT buyers looking to establish a common data model standard as the foundation for analytics. 1.2 Cautions * References rate OBIEE as difficult to implement, with only SAS Institute considered more difficult. Also, the product was rated as having lower than average ease of use scores. As ease of use for both developers and end users takes on an even more important role in business analytic deployments and evaluations, Oracle must explicitly address these issues or risk being marginalized in user-driven projects. The company has been slow to respond to the data discovery trend. However, some functions are now available in the Exalytics In-Memory Machine, and the Endeca acquisition will add more capabilities in this important area. * * Product functionality evaluation scores remain below average again this year, a trend that appeared in last year’s report. Additionally, customer support and product quality issues are rated below the average (in the fourth and third quartiles respectively) for all vendors in this report. In fact, both support and product quality were also noted as issues that blocked further deployments within customer organizations. This represents a slip from last year’s scores. While not huge red flag items now, they may become more problematic without dedicated company attention to address client concerns. * * Oracle customers use the product mostly for static report viewing, parameterized reporting and scorecard capabilities, leading to below average user complexity ratings. Slightly more than 25% of customers Gartner surveyed for this report run the most current version of the BI suite, which is significantly below average for vendors in this analysis. * * More than 10% of survey respondents indicate that they plan to discontinue, or are evaluating a discontinuation of, software use in the next three years — a relatively high response rate given responses from the prior year. This is above the average for all vendors in this research. 2 SAS 2.1 Strengths * * SAS gets high marks for its global footprint and broad industry initiatives. Unlike some other BI platform vendors, SAS focuses on advanced analytical techniques, such as data mining and predictive modeling, where references acknowledge it as a leader of the pack. SAS’s clients also have above average complexity scores (for the depth of use of different BI use cases) on larger than average data sources. SAS customers also access and interpret unstructured internal and external data more often than any other vendor’s clients surveyed for this Magic Quadrant. * * SAS’s solution-oriented analytic application approach to the market is a differentiator, giving the company the advantage of having a wide variety of cross-functional and vertically specific analytic applications out of the box for a variety of industries, including financial services, life sciences and manufacturing. While others are also adopting this approach, SAS remains in the lead. Customers also report an above average sales experience. * * The primary drivers for customers choosing SAS remain functionality and data integration. In addition, references reported that they select SAS because of availability of skills. In the past, we have heard concerns over a lack of available SAS expertise; we suspect that this improvement is linked to the aggressive stance the company has taken to forge substantial partnerships with services firms, specifically Accenture. This broadened ecosystem also expands SAS’ sales channels with multiple partners positioning SAS-based solutions to their customers. * * On the software partnership front, SAS has partnered with a number of database vendors (such as Teradata) to push the execution of its models directly into the database management system without moving the data. Not only does this reduce data duplication and movement, it also allows SAS users to leverage the power and scalability features of the database to run predictive models against very large datasets with high performance. * Overall, SAS has a wide and loyal user base, many of whom have built careers around these products. References have a solid, positive outlook for SAS’s success within their organizations, as well as in the market as a whole. The company recently reported double-digit revenue growth for 2011. 2.2 Cautions * * References report that SAS is very difficult to implement — it was the No. 1 firm in this category. Companies also indicate that the product is considered difficult to use for business users (it was ranked No. 2 in this category). Its dashboard capabilities were rated lowest of all the vendors in this research. SAS is very much aware of these criticisms, and in 2011 embarked on a major development initiative involving hundreds of resources to improve usability and implementation activities. While it is too early to see the results of these efforts in surveys, we expect to see improvement in these areas in next year’s reference assessment. If no improvement is noted, this will directly impact SAS’s Ability to Execute scores for 2013. * * SAS’s dominance in predictive analytics and statistics continues to be challenged on many fronts. In addition to the SPSS suite, IBM also acquired Algorithmics in 2011 to bolster its portfolio; we are seeing greater adoption of open-source â€Å"R† in some products and embedded predictive and statistical capabilities in others. New entrants to the BI platform Magic Quadrant Prognoz and Alteryx accentuate these capabilities as core components of their product suites. While SAS still remains the acknowledged front runner, buyers have more options now, and SAS must continue to defend its franchise. The company recognizes this and, for example, has reinvigorated its emphasis on placing its software products in higher education settings for student and teacher use. * * Customer references report that cost is the most common factor blocking further adoption. In fact, verbatim responses to the survey mention cost in many ways — leasing terms, expensive to maintain, ongoing costs and so on — and, again, the company is very much aware of this criticism. With more options now available, SAS should also remain responsive to customers and prospects in these areas. The average tenure of SAS’s reference customers that participated in this survey was five years. Over 10% reported that they are planning to replace or are considering replacing the software in the next three years. Despite SAS’s success and awareness as a leader in the predictive analytics space, the company is still challenged to make it onto BI platform shortlist evaluations when predictive analytics is not a primary business requirement. While a little less than 60% of references indicated that SAS was their company’s BI standard, functionality used in traditional BI areas (reporting, dashboards, OLAP and so on) was lower than for other BI leaders in this report. Like last year, ad hoc query remains the one exception, with clients aggressively using SAS BI for that component. 3 IBM 3.1 Strengths * * IBM maintains its leading position on the Completeness of Vision axis for this year’s Magic Quadrant. The company takes a holistic approach to what it calls Business Analytics and Optimization (BAO), combining comprehensive software, hardware and services in a coordinated market offering. IBM’s business analytics software portfolio includes a unified BI, analytics and performance management platform, and is complemented by IBM information management software and appliances (Netezza, for example). Services are made up of a consulting line of nearly 9,000 people, which is a growing part of IBM Global Business Services (GBS). IBM can offer both a tools-based and/or a solution-driven offering, along with significant vertical expertise, to customers and prospects. * In 4Q10, IBM introduced its latest business analytics platform, IBM Cognos 10. Throughout 2011, additional capabilities have been released and customer adoption has begun in earnest. Cognos 10 references who responded to this year’s Magic Quadrant survey painted a very interesting snapshot — on average nearly 4,000 users, over 12 TB of data, broad functional use, and very high platform integration scores, all at or near the top of all ratings for all vendors in this report. Overall, Cognos 10 references were significantly more satisfied than Cognos 8 customers, who were the majority of IBM’s survey respondents. While some indicated that upgrading from Cognos 8 to Cognos 10 had some complexity, the majority rated it as straightforward or very straightforward. This bodes well for IBM’s future ability to execute, providing the firm delivers superior service and support and problem-free software. * * The average tenure of IBM respondents was seven years, second highest of all vendors in this survey. Gartner often hears this long-standing customer commitment in inquiry, and this represents a strong customer loyalty factor. This year, less than 7% of references noted that they are planning to discontinue use of the software in the next three years (or are considering doing so), which is significantly lower than last year’s result. * * Advanced analytics is a particular IBM strength. The company’s SPSS software continues to advance nicely, readily allowing IBM to bid for predictive analytics and statistical use cases. Customers rated IBM’s predictive capabilities in the top quartile of all vendors. A secret weapon at IBM’s disposal — IBM Research — delivers another level of research and development prowess to the overall IBM value proposition. For example, Watson, the Deep Question and Answer system that interprets natural language and scores possible answers based on probability, is a visible example of IBM Research at work. While not a part of the Cognos 10 platform, it demonstrates the depth and breadth that IBM can bring to clients’ advanced analytic scenarios. * The top reasons why customers select IBM are functionality, ease of use for end users, and data access and integration. IBM’s road map and future vision weighed heavily in reference decisions. In 2011, IBM delivered a new Cognos 10 mobile application for the iPad that is included free in existing user roles. In early 2012 the company will introduce Cognos Insight, a personal, desktop BI product that enables independent discovery and â€Å"what if† modeling, while also providing full interoperability with the larger workgroup and enterprise solutions. 3.2 Cautions * Twenty-three percent of Cognos 8 references indicate that performance continues to be problematic (a persistent problem for the last several years), nearly three times the average response for other vendors evaluated in this Magic Quadrant. In contrast, Cognos 10 references reported below average performance concerns. This is a sure signal that IBM must encourage upgrades to Cognos 10 without technical and/or financial disruption. * Again this year, references consider the Cognos products more difficult to implement and use than those of competitors. While Cognos 10 was rated slightly below average, other IBM products (Cognos 8, SPSS software and Cognos TM1) were deemed significantly more difficult. These are cited as two major reasons that limit expanded BI deployments with Cognos 8. As such, improved system administration and end-user usability were major development themes of the Cognos 10 release. References indicate that Cognos software is used largely by a consumer/casual user population. Reporting is the most extensively deployed component, followed by ad hoc query and OLAP analysis. * * IBM’s customers also continue to have less than optimal customer experiences, with support and sales interactions, along with product quality, rated in the bottom quartile of all vendors reviewed in this report. References also rate product functionality slightly below the average for all vendors. The bright spot is that Cognos 10 references rated product functionality near the top of all vendors, and support, sales and product quality were rated better than for Cognos 8. These issues remain IBM’s Achilles’ heel, and will limit its ability to raise execution scores next year unless action is taken quickly. * * License cost continues to be another source of customer concern across all products in the IBM business analytics portfolio. Gartner client inquiry also bears out this concern. Higher than expected costs to upgrade from Cognos 8 to Cognos 10 have stalled some projects, but changes in configuration, user roles, and/or support costs appear to drive the increase. As a counterpoint, existing Cognos 10 users did not identify license cost as a concern.

Trojan Ad

Magazine advertisements spend millions of dollars each year in order to develop ideas to convey their message or to sell their products in today’s society. The many different views and values in society lead to various marketing ideas that capture the attention of many individuals, otherwise known as, the consumers. It is important to remember that the diverse preferences of the audience are taken into consideration when devising a marketing plan that would appeal to a wide range of people. Trojan, a company that focuses on the sale of contraceptives, spends millions of dollars each year to sell their products.In their most current advertising campaign, Trojan is trying to sell their newest brand of condom, Evolve. For this particular campaign, the marketing individuals promoting this product decided to show the differences between men and pigs by implying that men who use Trojan are considered to be true gentlemen while men who do not are regarded as pigs. While it seems that Trojan is suggesting the message of cleanliness by the usage of their condom, nonetheless, they themselves are not â€Å"clean† because of the message that they are conveying.The message behind the Evolve advertisement is to show the perceptions of men when they use or do not use Trojan brand condoms. The message behind this advertisement is to show that if a male uses their brand name condoms, he is considered as a â€Å"clean† and respectable individual, unlike a pig, which is usually associated with â€Å"dirtiness†. The different characters in this campaign reveal the hidden meaning that the use of Trojan brand condoms would not damage or ruin a man’s reputation of being â€Å"honorable†. The setting of the advertisement is placed at a beach, with a rather warm weather; therefore attracting people to its warmness.The attendance of the beach consists of six females, one male, and ten pigs. The females, who are all wearing revealing bathing suit s, are each being prowled by pigs. In the foreground, a female is sitting on a folding chair reading a book entitled, No Time for Swine, whilst on her right side there is a naked pig which seems to be whispering something into her right ear. Also in the foreground, there is a female trying to get a natural tan by lying on a towel on the sand, as a naked pig is taking a photograph of her with his cellular phone.Behind her is another female who is preparing to serve a volleyball, and at the same time being watched by two naked pigs. On the left middle ground of the advertisement is another female and a naked pig squirting sunscreen onto her back. In the background, a naked pig is pursuing after a female in the water. There are several other naked pigs floating and surfing in the water. One other pig is sitting under an umbrella and spying on the females with a pair of binoculars. The expressions on each of the irritated and disgusted faces of the females show that the male pigs are no t welcomed.Finally, in the center of the image, there is a couple, a man and a woman, holding hands and walking on the sand. Their backs are facing toward the audience. The major difference between this couple and all the others is because of the female and male relationship. Below the image are the words: â€Å"Evolve. Use the most trusted name in condoms every time. † followed by the logo name, Trojan ® Brand Condoms. With this representation of their product, what first comes to mind? Most importantly, what is the precise message that Trojan is aiming at the audience with their advertisement?Trojan is portraying society and media in all stereotypes. As will be mentioned, Trojan is revealing the idea and image of a â€Å"perfect† body type. Their view of a perfect and beautiful person is portrayed in their advertisement as tall and skinny. Trojan portrays their consumers as only beautiful, when in fact today’s society consists of all shapes and body sizes. T rojan is promoting the idea that â€Å"sex sells†, by exploiting the women as objects of sexual behaviors, and promoting the idea of sex itself. They assume that their consumers all engage in sexual behaviors and therefore are required to purchase their product.They also assume that once you use their product, the male will gain the trust of the female. However, numerous interpretations can be drawn from this description of their advertisement. Is Trojan aiming to promote the usage of their condom, Evolve? Or are they exploiting women by means of their representation in the advertisement? Are men really â€Å"evolved† after the usage of their product? Each of these questions can be answered with multiple analyses. First of all, the advertisement portrays men as pigs if they do not use Trojan condoms.This can be seen by the representation of only one male versus the ten pigs in the whole of the image. The connotation of the word â€Å"pig† suggests that they are dirty, fat, lazy, perverted, and irresponsible. This is contradictory of the view of â€Å"man†, whom in this advertisement, is portrayed as clean, handsome, masculine, sociable, and responsible. Compared to the pigs, the man is welcomed and accepted by the female. The pleasant and content face of the female suggests that she is comfortable with holding hands with the male and welcomes his presence.The other females in this campaign have a miserable facial expression because they have a â€Å"dirty†, perverted pig prowling next to them and invading their personal space. The word â€Å"swine† from the title of the book, No Time for Swine, refers to stout and short-legged animals such as pigs. The title suggests that the female is not interested in committing her time to that type of person. She is more willing to spend her time with a real man, such as the one on the cover of the book. However, it is instinctual for the viewer to compare and contrast man and pig at first glance.What if the man in the advertisement encompasses the same intentions as the pig? Is it possible to detach the idea of a dirty sexual being to a separate and thoughtful individual? Another observation that can be made about this campaign is the manner in which the marketing individuals represent the women. The purpose of the women is to exploit them for the intention of the objectification of the product. Each female is wearing a revealing bathing suit in order to be used as an object to absorb the viewers in.The woman who is trying to get a tan is in a position that is similar to when one is preparing for sexual intercourse which gives the image of tenderness and readiness. Also, the female seems to be pulling on the knot of her bikini bottom, which gives the impression that she is ready to take them off. The woman who is being squirted with lotion by another pig also gives the impression of a sexual act, such as ejaculation. The facial expression that is being displ ayed on her face tells us that what the pig is doing is considered as revolting and unwanted.This represents a male who has discharged on a female when he did not use a condom; therefore the male is unable to protect her and is considered to be a pig instead of a man. The women epitomize the idea of safe sex. From previous observations, the women are discontent with the beings around them. The females do not trust the pigs because the pigs are not â€Å"safe†. In this case, not being safe means not using their condom. This brings in the question of the trustfulness of man and the product itself. A man who chooses to use a condom shows that he can be trusted and is believed to be responsible.The words that appear on this advertisement: â€Å"Evolve. Use the most trusted name in condoms every time. † is declaring a statement that if an individual uses condom, Evolve by Trojan, then he will be â€Å"evolved† from a pig to a man and is â€Å"trusted†. This in fers that if you use the trusted name brand of condoms then women would be willing to entrust them with themselves. The thought that they will be safe and unharmed from any type of sexually transmitted diseases makes the woman feel protected. However, the representation of the advertisement comes into question.If their product is â€Å"most trusted†, what is the validity in their product when they portray women and men in such a manner? As it can be seen in the advertisement, the women and man portrayed here are all considered to be beautiful, according to today’s standards. All of the females and male have approximately the same body shape and type, tall and skinny. Although the initial impression of the advertisement asserts the idea of becoming a beautiful being, Trojan also seems to be only marketing to a certain type of people. This conveys a message to the viewers that only people who are beautiful are allowed to use this product.Men, who are stout-like and short , as conveyed through the pigs, are not considered as real men who do use condoms. Consequently, this advertisement exposes the idea of body image: only beautiful people use the Trojan condoms. If Trojan portrays man as an animal, then it shows the implication that Trojan themselves have not yet â€Å"evolved† from their ideas. If they are able to come up with ideas such as these to convey to the audience, it shows that they have not yet evolved from being a â€Å"thoughtless seller† to a more evolved â€Å"inventor† to capture the attention of their consumers.Their idea of marketing to the audience is by using the theme of â€Å"sex sells†. If we are able to transform from such implications and move on to new ideas that better portrays society, then we are able to evolve into a new level. Every day, many industries are trying to develop new ideas to convey their messages or to sell their products to the consumers in the market. Some of these advertisemen ts are sold to numerous magazines and television stations. Whoever the viewers may be, they all range from different ages, cultures, and body types.In order for a company to be considered as â€Å"evolved†, such as understanding their own view and also the consumer’s view, they first have to discover their reasons as to why and whom they are portraying their message to. They have to first realize that their promotion will not be judged on a first look, but also pertaining to its hidden significance. If they claim their product is a certain way, such as Trojan has claimed, then they should be responsible to uphold their reputation as a well as to how they have portrayed their advertisement as a whole.