Database: Entity-relationship Model

Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling Il-Yeol Song and Kristin Froehlich College of Information Science and Technology Drexel University Philadelphia, PA 19104 Abstract The Entity-Relationship (ER) model and its accompanying ER diagrams are widely used for database design and Systems Analysis. Many books and articles just provide a definition of each modeling component and give examples of pre-built ER diagrams.Beginners in data modeling have a great deal of difficulty learning how to approach a given problem, what questions to ask in order to build a model, what rules to use while constructing an ER diagram, and why one diagram is better than another. In this paper, therefore, we present step-by-step guidelines, a set of decision rules proven to be useful in building ER diagrams, and a case study problem with a preferred answer as well as a set of incorrect diagrams for the problem.Database Management System a nd DataThe guidelines and decision rules have been successfully used in our beginning Database Management Systems course for the last eight years. The case study will provide readers with a detailed approach to the modeling process and a deeper understanding of data modeling. Introduction Entity relationship diagrams (ERD) are widely used in database design and systems analysis to represent systems or problem domains. The ERD was introduced by Chen (1976) in early 1976. Teorey, Yang, and Fry (1986) present an extended ER model for relational database design.The ERD models a given problem in terms of its essential elements and the interactions between those elements in a problem domain. The ERD can serve as the basis for databases, which store data about the problem domain, and which use, manipulate, and constrain that data. Experts in systems analysis and database design are adept at identifying user requirements and then translating them into corresponding components of the model. Many books and articles just provide a definition of each modeling component and give examples of pre-built ER diagrams. Beginners in data modeling have a great eal of difficulty learning how to approach a given problem, what questions to ask in order to build a model, what rules to use while constructing an ER diagram, and why one diagram is better than another. 213 Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling Ahrens and Song (1991) present a set of requirements elicitation template sentences, structured English template sentences, and some decision rules for database modeling. This paper presents a set of heuristic rules which improve upon those presented by Ahrens and Song (1991), together with a detailed case study analysis.We include step-by-step guidelines, a set of decision rules proven to be useful in building ER diagrams, and a case study problem with a preferred answer as well as a set of incorrect diagrams for the problem. These guidelines and decision ru les have been successfully used in our beginning Database Management Systems course for the last eight years. The case study will provide readers with a detailed approach to the modeling process and a deeper understanding of data modeling. The Entity-Relationship Diagram The entity relationship diagram is a graphical representation of a conceptual structure of a problem domain being modeled.The ERD assists the database designer in identifying the data and the rules that will be represented and used in a database. The ERD is an implementation-independent representation of a problem domain and it facilitates communication between the end-user and the analyst. ERDs can be easily converted into a logical database structure that can be readily implemented in a particular commercial database management system. The basic components of the ERD are entities, properties of entities called attributes, and relationships between entities. Entities Entities are PRIMARY THINGS of a problem domain about which users need to record data.Ross (1988) provides a list of candidate entity types which could be included in the model. (1) People: humans who carry out some function Employees, Students, Customers (2) Places: sites or locations Cities, Offices, Routes (3) Things: tangible physical objects Equipment, Products, Buildings (4) Organizations Teams, Suppliers, Departments (5) Events: things that happen to some other entity at a given date and time or as in an ordered sequence Employee promotions, Project phases, Account payments (6) Concepts: intangible ideas used to keep track of business or other activities Projects, Accounts, Complaints 214 stepsAppendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling These candidate entity types need to be evaluated against a particular domain being modeled. Some decision rules are discussed in a later section of this paper. Attributes Attributes are properties of entities or relationships. Entities have two types of properties: identi fying attributes and descriptive attributes. Identifying attributes uniquely determine each instance of an entity type. They are called entity identifiers or keys. For example, the attribute social security number would uniquely identify each member or instance of the entity type student.Descriptive attributes of student might include year, advisor, and grade point average. Each instance of an entity has a value for each attribute. Values for grade point average might include 2. 5, 3. 45, and 4. 0. Values for year might include 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994. Only attributes that are meaningful in terms of modeling the problem under consideration are included in the ERD. For example, we would not include eye color in a student database. Relationships Relationships are another basic component of the ERD. A relationship is an association between or among things or entities.A relationship describes a meaningful interaction that needs to be remembered by the system. The degree of a relation ship indicates how many entities are participating in the relationship. A unary relationship describes an association of an entity with itself. A binary relationship, the most common instance, describes an association between two entities. A ternary (or n-ary ) relationship is an association between three or more entities. The ER methods that allow only unary and binary relationships are called binary models, while ER methods that allow any type of relationship are called n-ary models.For more thorough treatment of ternary relationships, see Jones and Song (1995, 1996) and Song and Jones (1995). Cardinality and Participation Constraints Cardinality is a constraint on the relationship between two entities. Specifically, the cardinality constraint expresses the maximum number of entities that can be associated with another entity via a relationship. For example, in a binary relationship (a relationship with two participating entities), we can have three possible cardinalities: oneto-o ne (1:1), one-to-many (1:N), or many-to-many (M:N).One-to-one cardinality says that, for entities customer and account, one customer can have at most one account and one account cannot be owned by more than one customer. One-to-many cardinality says that one customer can have many accounts, but one account cannot be owned by more than one customer. Many-to-many cardinality says that one customer can have many accounts and one account may be owned by many customers. 215 Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling Participation is also a relationship constraint.Participation expresses the minimum number of entities that can be associated with another entity via a relationship. There are two values for participation: total or mandatory participation and partial or optional participation. If every instance of an entity must participate in a given relationship then that entity has total participation in the relationship. But if every instance need not participate in a g iven relationship then the participation of that entity in the relationship is partial. Given the relationship employee works for epartment, an employee has partial participation in that relationship if he or she need not work for a department. An employee has total participation in the relationship if he or she must work for at least one department. Similarly, a department has partial participation in the relationship if it can exist without having any employees. A department has total participation in the relationship if it must have at least one employee. Cardinality and participation constraints are business rules in the problem domain being modeled. These constraints represent the way one entity type is associated with another entity type.These constraints are also integrity constraints because they help to ensure the accuracy of the database. These constraints limit the ways in which data from different parts of the database can be associated. For example, let's say the cardin ality of the relationship between Customer and Account is one-to-one, as in Figure 1(a) below. If customer C1 is associated with account A3, then C1 cannot be associated with any other accounts and A3 cannot be associated with any other customers. 216 Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling (a) One – to – One (1:1):One customer can have at most one account. One account cannot be owned by more than one customer. Customer 1 CA 1 Account ER Diagram C1 C2 C3 A1 A2 A3 Occurrence Diagram (b) One – to – Many (1:n): One customer can have many accounts. One account cannot be owned by more than one customer. Customer 1 C1 C2 C3 CA n A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 Account ER Diagram Occurrence Diagram (c) Many – to – Many (n:m): One customer can have many accounts. One account may be owned by many customers. Customer n C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 CA m A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 Account ER Diagram Occurrence Diagram Figure 1.CARDINALITY: The expression of the maximum numb er of entities that can be associated to another entity via a relationship. Occurrence Diagrams show the relationships between occurrences or instances of each entity. 217 Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling Taxonomy in ER Modeling In an ER model, an entity is represented as a rectangle containing the name of the entity. The names of attributes are enclosed in an oval connected to the rectangle of the entity they describe. Attributes may be omitted from the diagram to avoid cluttering it and also in the early stages of development.Relationships are represented by diamonds between entities. The notation of the ERD, however, varies according to the modeling approach used. Binary models do not use the diamond to indicate a relationship, do not represent attributes of relationships, and do not allow ternary relationships, that is, relationships between three or more entities. Martin (1989), Bachman (1992), ERWin and IDEF1X (Bruce, 1992) use the binary modeling approach. Most text books use n-ary modeling, including Elmasri and Navathe (1994), Hawryszkiewycz (1991), Teorey (1994), Batini, Ceri and Navathe (1992), and McFadden and Hoffa (1994).A few notations are illustrated below. n Employee 1 Department a) Chen Employee Department b) Teorey n Employee 1 Department c) Elmasri ; Navathe Employee (0,1) works_for is_worked_for Employee works_for Employee p ——————–works_for Employee c has (1,n) Department d) MERISE Employee Department e) IE Department f) Bachman Department g) IDEF1X Department h) Shlaer & Mellor Figure 2. Various notations for ER Diagram representing â€Å"one employee works for zero or one department and one department has one or more employees†. 218 Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship ModelingEach diagram in Figure 2 contains two entities: employee and department. In diagrams a, b, c, and d, the diamond indicates the relationship between the entities. T hese diagrams use n-ary modeling. Diagrams e through h are examples of binary modeling. They do not represent the relationship with the diamond shape. Instead, diagrams e, f, and h label the line between the entities with the relationship name. Attributes were not represented in the diagrams for simplicity. The various circles, lines, arrows, and letters on the diagram indicate cardinality and participation constraints.For a more complete treatment of various ER modeling methods, see Song, Evans, and Park (1995). ER Modeling How does one begin creating an entity relationship diagram? In this paper, we present step-by-step guidelines to build an ERD using n-ary modeling using Elmasri and Navathe's notation (see 2. c). In Table 1, we summarize a sequence of steps of database design using an ER model. Note that these steps are iterative. 1. Understand the problem domain. Analyze database requirements. †¢Write a summary specification in English, if not created yet. †¢What do w e need to store into the database? What queries and reports do we need to generate? †¢ What are important people, places, physical things, organizations, events and abstract concepts in the organization? 2. Design a conceptual schema by creating an ER diagram. (a) Identify entity types. Assign a singular noun to each entity type. (b) Identify relationships between (among) entities. Use a meaningful verb for a relationship name. (c) Draw an ERD without attributes. (d) Identify relationship cardinalities. †¢Mapping constraint (1:1, 1:N, N:M) †¢Participation constraint (Total, Partial) (e) Assign attributes to entity types and relationship types.Usually attributes come from nouns, adjectives or adverbs. (f) Select identifiers (primary keys) for entity types. †¢Weak entity: composite primary key. †¢Regular entity: choose/create a single attribute primary key. (g) Select the PKs of relationships. †¢If 1:1, then the PK of either side entity type may be select ed. †¢If 1:N, then the PK of N-side entity type must be selected. †¢ If M:N, then a composite PK consisting of PKs of two entity types must be used. †¢ If ternary, then a composite PK consisting of the PKs of at least two entity types.The actual PKs selected will vary depending on the cardinality. 3. Design a logical schema. (a) Translate the ERD into a relational schema 219 Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling †¢If a relationship cardinality is likely to be changed; use stable method. †¢If a relationship cardinality is not likely to be changed; use mapped method. †¢ If a relationship cardinality is not likely to be changed and null values of foreign keys are significant; use mapped with total/partial method. (b) Check normalization (at least 3NF). (c) Create data dictionaries. A schema table †¢One table for each relation created in step (a) – Assign a domain type for each attribute. – Explain the meaning of a ttributes, if not intuitive. – Note other values such as range, null, PK, FK, indexed, source, owner (d) Do database prototyping & modify the design if necessary. (e) Summarize the design assertion (integrity, security). 4. Verify the design with users. Iterate the steps, if necessary. Table 1. Steps to DB Design Using ER Modeling First, it is important to study the problem domain at hand. Analyze database requirements.Write a summary paragraph for the problem domain, considering what data need to be stored and what queries and reports need to be processed. All the information necessary for the identified queries and reports must be included in the summary paragraph. Revise the summary paragraph considering database requirements. Second, from the summary paragraph, find nouns. They are candidates for entity types. To determine whether a noun should be designated as an entity, the following decision rules may be applied. Rule 1 Every entity type should be important in its own right within the problem domain.Rule 2 IF an object type (noun) has only one property to store THEN it is an attribute of another entity type ELSE it is an entity type. Rule 3 IF an object type has only one data instance THEN do not model as an entity type. Rule 4 IF a relationship needs to have a unique identifier 220 Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling THEN model it as an entity type. The first three rules are used to evaluate object types or nouns, and the fourth rule is used to evaluate relationships or verbs. Example 1 Address is usually a property of another object type, like customer, vendor, or company.Its existence is less important and not meaningful in its own right within the problem domain. Address should be modeled as an attribute. Example 2 Suppose we are modeling the customers of a company and we want to include the city where each customer resides. If the name of the city is its only attribute, then, following Rule 2, model city as an attri bute not an entity. Similarly, consider the case of modeling employees and their departments. If the only important property of the department is its name, then Rule 2 tells us to model it as an attribute.However, if we need to store additional properties of each department such as projects or total sales, then we should consider modeling it as an entity. Example 3 Consider modeling the activities of a trucking company. Since there is only one instance of the trucking company, then, according to Rule 3, it is not necessary to represent it in our model as an entity. We note that it is not wrong to model this single instance noun as an entity type. We simply do not model it as an entity type at the conceptual level because it does not add any modeling power.We need the fourth rule because one fact can be stated in many different ways in English. In the fourth rule, distinguishing between entities and relationships depends on the function the component plays in the problem domain and h ow data will be stored about it. Example 4 Consider the three statements customer orders products, customer pays bills, and reviewer reviews papers. Even though orders and pays appear to represent relationships, we model them as entities since each instance would need a unique number for identification in real-world situations.Information would be stored in the database for each order and payment. Each review is not likely to need a unique identification number. Instead, we identify each review activity by a combination of Paper# and Reviewer#. Thus, by Rule 4, we model reviews as a relationship type. Once entities have been assigned, we proceed to identify relationship types between those entities. Verbs are useful candidates for relationships. The following question is useful for identifying relationships: â€Å"What sentences can be constructed of the form Entity Verb Entity? † For example, 221Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling †¢Employee ha s children (Existence relationship) †¢Professor teaches students (Functional relationship) †¢Customer places order (Event relationship) Note that a relationship is not an action of a flow of data as in data flow diagrams. They are important interactions, between two or more entities, that need to be remembered by the system. In the above examples, we want to remember the facts that who is a child of which employee, which professor teaches which students, and which customer places which order. Also keep in mind that all relationships are bi-directional.We should be able to state the relationship in both directions. Expressing the relationships above in the opposite direction yields the following statements: †¢ Children belong to employee †¢ Students are taught by professor †¢ Order is placed by customer After an ERD has been built, the following rule can aid in validating the diagram. Rule 5 IF any verb refers to nouns which are not selected as entity types T HEN do not model it as a relationship type. If any verb in the ERD fails to follow Rule 5, then consider it again carefully before including it in the diagram.When entities and relationships have been identified, then the cardinality and participation constraints of the relationships can be analyzed. The following rules can help determine the cardinality and participation constraints for a given binary relationship. A B Rule 6 For each A, what is the maximum number of Bs that may be related to it? Rule 7 IF A can exist without being associated with a B THEN A has partial (optional) participation ELSE A has total (mandatory) participation. 222 Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling Example 5 Consider the relationship Supplier Supplies Account.For each Supplier, what is the maximum number of Accounts that may be related to it? Let's say that in our problem domain, each Supplier may have many Accounts but each Account may have only one Supplier. By Rule 6, the ca rdinality constraint for Supplier:Account is 1:N or one to many. Figure 1 illustrates the cardinality constraints. Example 6 In determining the participation constraint of Supplier Supplies Account, we follow Rule 7: If Supplier can exist without being associated with Account, THEN Supplier has partial participation, ELSE Supplier has total participation.In our problem domain, Supplier may exist without being associated with Account. Therefore, Supplier has partial participation in the Supply relationship. However, since Account cannot exist without a Supplier; Account has total participation in the Supply relationship. Some basic naming conventions have been established to maintain accuracy and consistency in the database and to avoid redundancy. All entity names should be unique. Use singular nouns in the diagram for both entity and attribute names. Use verbs in the present tense for relationship names. Verbs should be meaningful.For example, avoid verbs like is, has, and do whene ver possible. Additionally, well-defined ERDs should satisfy the following basic rules: †¢ All entities and relationships should be connected. †¢ All entity names should be unique. †¢ Each entity must have at least one relationship. †¢ A relationship cannot be directly connected to another relationship. †¢ Every entity must have at least one unique attribute, which serves to identify each instance of that entity. Case Study The following example will illustrate our guidelines for modeling requirements of the problem domain with entity-relationship diagrams.Using the summary paragraph of the problem description below, we will progress through the steps described above. The nouns in the problem description appear in boldface and the verbs are italicized to aid in the following analysis. Summary Paragraph of Problem Description A database specialist wants to design a part of the database for a small drug store owner as follows: The owner wants to keep track of all the suppliers who supply anything to the store. For each supplier, the owner assigns a unique supplier number, and wants to keep the 223Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling company name, address (number, street, city, state, zip), contact person's name, phone number, fax number, and a comment for each supplier. For each supply activity, an account is established to keep track of the date incurred, the total cost of the activity, due date for payment, outstanding balance after some payments, and any special comments related to the account. For each account, the owner may pay at several different times and in different ways (e. g. , cash, check, credit card).For each payment activity, the owner wants to keep the date of payment, amount of payment, method of payment (check: check number; credit card: credit card name, type, and number). Note that one supplier can supply many times and one payment can pay for several accounts of the same supplier. Entity Ana lysis After reading and understanding the problem statement, our first step is to identify entities for the ERD. To do that we examine the nouns in the problem statement. Nouns appear in boldface. We test each noun against our four criteria to determine whether or not it should be included as an entity type.Our first noun is owner. Recall that an entity type has more than one instance and more than one property. Since there is only one instance of owner, we do not model it as an entity type. Similarly, there is only one store, so we need not represent store as an entity type. The next noun, supplier, can be classified as an entity type. Several properties of supplier are listed in the problem statement. The statement also refers to more than one supplier. Therefore, according to Rules 1, 2, and 3, we model supplier as an entity.For each supplier, the owner wants to store the following properties in the database: supplier number, company name, contact person, address, phone number, f ax number, and comment. Each of these attributes except address has only one property to store so we model them as attributes. Address has its component properties number, city, state, and zip so one might be tempted to model it as an entity type. However, the role of address as a property of supplier supersedes the fact that address has properties of its own. In other words, address itself without supplier is not important in its own right.Therefore, by Rule 1, we model address as an attribute. Account is the next noun. Account has several properties to be stored in the database: date incurred, total cost, due date, account balance, and comments; and we will store information about numerous accounts. Therefore, we designate account as an entity. Its properties are modeled as attributes of account. Payment is clearly an entity, with multiple instances and various properties. The properties of payment: date of payment, amount of payment, and method of payment, are modeled as its attr ibutes.Cash, check, and credit card appear to be attributes of payment, but actually, they are not attributes themselves, but simply different values for the attribute method of payment. This distinction becomes clearer if we think about 224 Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling storing data in the database. For each payment, one of the values cash, check, or credit card will be stored in the location containing data about the method of payment. Check number and credit card name, type and number may be modeled as attributes of Payment. Supplier Account Payment Figure 3. Entities to be included in the ERD.Relationship Analysis Our analysis of nouns in the problem statement has produced three entities: Supplier, Account, and Payment (Figure 3). Keep these entities in mind as we identify relationships between them. Let's examine the verbs in the problem statement as candidates for relationships in the diagram. Verbs appear in italics. Of the verbs in the problem statement: keep track, assigns, supply, established, and pay, only supply and pay are possible candidates for relationships between the entities account, supplier, and payment. Keep track and keep appear several times in the problem statement.These terms refer, not to a relationship between entities, but generally to storing data in the database. In other words, they are used to describe the problem domain, not an interaction that needs to be remembered by the system. Therefore, we do not model them as relationships. Established, in the statement an account is established, is an activity performed by the owner or the system itself. Similarly, owner assigns a unique supplier number reflects an activity by the owner. These two verbs do not represent relationships between any of our three entities. Thus, we are left with the verbs supply and pay.A supplier performs a supply activity. The result of a supply activity is an account. Therefore, a good candidate for the relationship betwee n supplier and account is supply. Stated in both directions, the relationship is Supplier supplies account and account is supplied by supplier. Rule 4 states that if a relationship needs to have a unique identifier, then model it as an entity. Each supply activity is unique, so we may be tempted to model supply as an entity. However, the data for each activity is stored using the entity account, so it is not necessary to create another entity which stores the same information.Each payment credits an account so pay is the relationship between payment and account. Expressing the relationship pay in both directions, we can say account is paid by payment and payment pays account. 225 Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling Now we can draw the basic ERD (Figure 4). We include the entities Supplier, Account, and Payment, and the relationships Supply and Pay. Attributes may be added to the diagram at this point or omitted to avoid clutter. Supplier Supply Account Pay Payment Figure 4. ERD without attributes and constraintsAnalysis of Cardinality and Participation Constraints In order to identify the cardinality and participation constraints of each relationship in the ERD, we follow Rules 6 and 7 looking at the relationship first from the point of view of one entity and then from the other entity. In our ERD above, to determine the cardinality constraint of the relationship Supply, we begin by asking, â€Å"For each Supplier, what is the maximum number of Accounts that may be created? † From the problem statement, we know that one supplier can supply many times and an account is established for each supply activity.Viewing the relationship in the other direction, we ask, â€Å"What is the maximum number of Suppliers for which each Account may contain information? † From the problem statement we can assume that each account carries information for a single supplier, since accounts are established for individual supply activities. Th us, for each supplier, there may be many accounts and each account may have only one supplier. The relationship Supplier Supplies Account is a one-to-many relationship. The diagram is marked with a 1 on the side of the relationship Supply nearer to Supplier, and an N (for many) on the side nearer to Account (see Figure 5).To identify the cardinality of the relationship Payment Pays Account, we look at the relationship from both directions. We ask, â€Å"What is the maximum number of Payments we can accept for each Account? † The answer is clearly stated in the problem statement: For each account, the owner may pay at several different times and in different ways. From the opposite direction, â€Å"For each Payment, what is the maximum number of Accounts for which it may pay? † Again, we find the answer in the problem statement: One payment can pay for several accounts of the same supplier. In sum, each account 226Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Mod eling may receive many payments and each payment may pay for many accounts. Therefore, the relationship Payment Pays Account is many-to-many. This time, we mark our diagram with an M on one side of the relationship Pay and an N on the other side. (Note that the use of M or N is completely arbitrary. ) We go through a similar process to determine the participation constraint of each relationship, looking at the relationship from each direction. For the Supply relationship we ask, â€Å"Can a Supplier exist without generating Accounts? In the other direction, â€Å"Can an Account exist without having Suppliers supply merchandise? † The answers to these questions are not explicit in the problem statement. In a real world situation, the database designers would clarify questions like these with the owner. In this case, we will make assumptions from what we understand about the problem domain. Suppliers are generally fairly stable entities. A company maintains relationships with several regular suppliers regardless of whether they have outstanding accounts. On the other hand, an account is only created when a supplier supplies merchandise.Since suppliers can exist without having current accounts, Supplier has partial participation in the Supply relationship. Accounts, however, depend on suppliers for their existence. Thus, Account has total participation in the Supply relationship. To determine the participation of the entities Payment and Account in the Pay relationship, we ask, â€Å"Can a Payment exist without paying for an Account ? † and â€Å"Can an Account exist without receiving Payments against it? † A payment which pays for nothing is absurd. It cannot exist without an account. An account, however, may exist without receiving payments against it.Therefore, Payment has total participation and Account has partial participation in the relationship Pay. In representing the cardinality and participation constraints described above in our ERD, we will employ Elmasri and Navathe's (1994) notation. If an entity has partial participation in the relationship, then a single line is drawn on the line between that entity and the relationship. A double line indicates total participation. The cardinality constraint is represented by Look Across convention, while participation constraint is represented by Look Here convention.Figure 5 illustrates the final ERD with cardinality and participation constraints. 227 Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling 1 Supplier Supply N Account M Pay N Payment Figure 5. ERD with cardinality and participation constraints. Errors in Modeling A common error that novice designers make is failing to recognize the boundaries of a problem domain. They fail to make a distinction between elements that comprise the content of the database and elements that are outside the scope of the database. For example, in the problem statement bove, a novice might want to model the verbs keep track or assigns or established as relationships (see Figure 6(a)). These verbs refer to implementing the database and not to its content. Keep track refers to storing data in the database, established refers to adding an instance of an entity to the database, and assigns refers to giving a value to an attribute of an entity. In deciding which elements to model, it is valuable to keep in mind the real world situation. Novice designers also frequently confuse entities with their attributes or properties, as in Figure 6(b).Occasionally, if properties are complex and play a significant role in the problem domain, then they may be modeled as entities. More often, however, properties of an entity should be modeled as attributes. In our problem statement, a novice user may decide to model address, a property of the entity supplier, as an entity. Modeling Address follows Rules 2 and 3 about identifying entities: it has more than one property and it has more than one occurrence. However, ad dress does not follow Rule1 in that it is not important in its own right.The role of address in the database is more accurate as an attribute of supplier, than as an entity with its own relationships. Other errors are modeling indirect or redundant relationships and inappropriately modeling object types as relationships rather than as entities. Given our problem statement, one may be tempted to model the relationship Payment Pays Supplier as in Figure 6(c) or Supplier Pays Account as in Figure 6(d) rather than Payment Pays Account. Figure 6(c) represents the association between payment and account indirectly. This indirect relationship can only exist after we have all the direct 228Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling relationships as in Figure 5. In this case, the indirect relationship simply becomes redundant. Without the direct relationships, the indirect relationship cannot be added, because it cannot explain how a particular payment is distributed to mu ltiple accounts. Figure 6(d) represents the relationship Pay rather than the entity Payment. In either of these two cases, it is difficult to explicitly represent the fact that one payment can pay for several accounts of the same supplier. We can only tell implicitly by reading the check number for the various payments.If the payment is made in cash, there is no way to identify that it paid for more than one account. If the representation used in Figure 6(d) is used, then the attributes related to payments: date of payment, amount of payment, and method of payment, are now attributes of the relationship Pay. This representation can add unnecessary complexity to the model. Ordinarily, a relationship is uniquely represented by the identifiers of one or more of the entities which participate in it. If the relationship includes a time-dependent attribute like date of payment, then that attribute must also be included in the primary key for that relationship.Additionally, instances of da te of payment and amount of payment will require redundant representation because they will have to be included for each account covered by a payment. Finally, in business practice, each payment activity usually requires a unique identifier. Therefore, following Rule 4, it is more appropriate to model payment as an entity than as a relationship. As an entity, the representation is more straightforward and less likely to include redundant or inaccurate information. 229 Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling a) Selection of wrong verb as relationship Owner (b) Attribute as entity Supplier Located_at Address Keeps_track Payment (c) Indirect relationship Payment Pays Supplier Establishes Account (d) Payment as relationship instead of entity Establishes Supplier Pays Account Figure 6. Errors in ERD Modeling. Limitations of Guidelines and Rules Two limitations of our guidelines are that they don't account for incomplete requirements analysis or for ambiguity in the problem description. If the problem description is incomplete, then the resulting analysis based on this approach will also be incomplete.We assume that the analysis is complete. If the problem specification is modified, the analysis and resulting ERD should be modified as well. In English, one concept can be represented in many different ways. For example, we can say that customer orders products or customer places an order to buy products. Order is used 230 Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling as a verb in the first sentence and as a noun in the second. We minimize this problem by adopting Rule 4, which states that if a verb needs to have a unique identifier, we model it as an entity type rather than a relationship type.Conclusion We have discussed a set of decision rules which are useful in building ERDs and have illustrated the application of these rules using a single example. ERD constructs discussed here include Entities, Relationships, Attributes, Ca rdinality constraints and Participation constraints. To simplify our discussion, we didn't include other constructs such as Weak Entity, Ternary Relationship, and Generalization/ Specialization. Our rules are heuristics which we have found useful for most cases to build ERDs in the early stages of analysis.However, these rules may need some refinement in some problem domains and the rules should be adapted to the problem domain under consideration. References Ahrens, J. and Song, I. Y. (1991). â€Å"EER Data Modeling Aids for Novice Database Designers†. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conferences of the Information Resources Management, Memphis, TN, May 19-22, 1991, pp. 99-114. Bachman (1992). Bachman Analyst, Bachman Information Systems Incorporated. Batini, C. , Ceri, S. , and Navathe, S. (1992). Conceptual Database Design: An EntityRelationship Approach, Redwood City, CA: Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc.Bruce, T. (1992). Designing Quality Databases with IDEF 1X Information Models. New York, New York: Dorset House Publishing. Chen, P. P. (1976). â€Å"The Entity Relationship Model – Toward a Unified View of Data†. ACM Transactions on Database Systems, 1 :1, pp. 9-36. Elmasri, R. and Navathe, S. (1994). Fundamentals of Database Systems, 2nd ed. , Redwood City, CA: Benjamin/ Cummings Publishing Company, Inc. Hawryszkiewycz, I. T. (1991). Database Analysis and Design, 2nd ed. , MacMillan Publishing Company. Jones, T. H. and Song, I. -Y. , (1995). Binary Representation of Ternary Relationships in ER Conceptual Modeling,† in 14th Int'l Conf. on Object-Oriented and EntityRelationship Approach, December 12-15, 1995, Australia, pp. 216-225. (Object- 231 Appendix A: A Practical Guide to Entity-Relationship Modeling Oriented and Entity-Relationship Approach, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer-Verlag, Vol. 1021). Jones, T. H. and Song, I. -Y. , (1996). â€Å"Analysis of Binary/ternary Cardinality Combinations in Entity -Relationship Modeling,† Data & Knowledge Engineering Vol 19, No. 1, pp. 39-64. Martin, J. (1989).Information Engineering: Book II: Planning and Analysis, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. McFadden, F. , and Hoffa, J. (1994). Modern Database Management, 4th Ed. , Redwood City, CA: Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc. Ross, R. G. (1988). Entity Modeling: Techniques and Application, Database Research Group, Inc. Shaler, S. and Mellor, S. J. (1988). Object-Oriented Systems Analysis: Modeling the World in Data, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Yourdon Press. Song, I-Y. , Evans, M. , and Park, E. K. (1995). â€Å"A Comparative Analysis of EntityRelationship Diagrams,† Journal of Computer and Software Engineering, Vol. , No. 4 (1995), pp. 427-459. Song, I. Y. and Jones, T. H. (1995). â€Å"Ternary Relationship Decomposition Strategies Based on Binary Imposition Rules,† in 11th Int'l Conf. on Data Engineering, March 610, 1995, Taipei, Taiwan, pp. 485-492. Teorey, T. J. (1 994). Database Modeling ; Design: The Fundamental Principles, 2nd. ed. , Morgan Kauffman Publishers, Inc. Teorey, T. J. , Yang, D. , and Fry, J. P. , (1986). â€Å"A Logical Design Methodology for Relational Databases Using the Extended Entity-Relationship Model†. Computing Surveys, 18:12, June, pp. 197-222. 232

Clothing Store Businnes

————————————————- Outline Clothing Store Business Topic Clothing Store Thesis Statement Designing a clothing store business could be a good opportunity for both consumer and owner. Body 1. Consumer a. Human’s basic needs b. Human’s fashion needs c. Existence 2. Owner d. Enjoyable job e. Trendsetter f. High profit Introduction People need cloth. Cloth is used to meet human’s basic needs. It is also can indicate people’s personality, because every people is free to decide what they want to be like.However, most people personally judge others based on what they wore. In other word, cloth is one of the things that determine people’s social status. This phenomenon is a big business opportunity. When people need cloth then there must be others who can satisfy that need. Clothing store is the perfect solution for businessman to meet peopleâ€℠¢s need of cloth. In addition to get an enjoyable job, businessman can also get high profits. So, designing a clothing store business could be a good opportunity for both consumer and owner. ConclusionTo sum up, designing clothing store is, indeed, a good opportunity for both consumer and owner. For the consumer, clothing store is a place where they can meet one of their basic and fashion needs. It also can show people’s social status and their existence. For the owner, designing clothing store is an enjoyable job that could make them become a trendsetter and get high profit. Essay Clothing Store Business People need clothes. Cloth is used to meet human’s basic needs. It is also can indicate people’s personality, because every people is free to decide what they want to be like.However, most people personally judge others based on what they wore. In other word, cloth is one of the things that determine people’s social status. This phenomenon is a big busin ess opportunity. When people need cloth then there must be others who can satisfy that need. Clothing store is the perfect solution for businessman to meet people’s need of cloth. In addition to get an enjoyable job, businessman can also get high profits. So, designing a clothing store business could be a good opportunity for both consumer and owner.People have a lot of needs that must be fulfilled. But only some of them cannot be deferred. People’s need that must be met is called human’s basic needs. Manfred Max-Neef, Chilean economist-environmentalist and mainly known for his human development model, call it â€Å"Fundamental Human Needs†. He classifies the fundamental human needs as subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation, leisure, creation, identity, and freedom. In the first row of fundamental human needs listed the subsistence.It means the parts of subsistence needs are the most important needs. One of the parts of subsisten ce needs is a cloth. Clothing needs exist from the need to protect the body from climate and weather conditions. However, now clothes are not only considered as a human’s basic need, but also as an identity and social’s status. Clothes are a fashion. People love fashion and be fashionable. Fashion makes an important contribution to society. It creates jobs and products that satisfy fundamental human needs. A fashion piece cannot in itself create sustainability.This is created by the way in which people design, make, wear, discard and reincarnate it. People need to design in a way that means that they engage in fashion in a way that is sustainable. Center for Sustainable Fashion from London Collage of Fashion suggest that people re-connect with fashion as a tool for human flourishing and a source of creative employment and productive work by working in two areas. First, critically appraise the role of fashion in our culture, mean people have a deep need for adornment, d iscovery and novelty. Fashion can help them meet these needs.By recognizing and engaging with fashion’s central role in human culture, they build towards more sustainable solutions that meet needs. Second, put human well-being at the heart of fashion production and consumption, mean changing fashion practices to improve well-being of workers, consumers, designers, and producers is central to a more sustainable future. Nowadays, every people wants to be acknowledged about his or her existence. People show their best to get more attention than others. If people are  getting a lot  of attention  from others  it will be  easy for them  to gain recognition of  their existence.Every people has different ways to get it. One of the easier ways to get attention from others is to wear different style of clothes. More eye-catching or fashionable people’s style of clothes, the easier they become the center of attention. To get eye-catching or fashionable clothes, peo ple have to go to a place that provides various types and models, so they can choose the type of clothes that suit them. As described in the first paragraph, people’s clothing needs is big business opportunity. Businessman can design clothing store, as a place to satisfy people’s clothing needs.People can channel their hobby and passion in designing clothes. As Confucius said, â€Å"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life†. Steven Jobs also once said, â€Å"People with passion can change the world for the better. † Asked about the advice he would offer would-be entrepreneurs, he said, â€Å"I'd get a job as a busboy or something until I figured out what I was really passionate about. † That's how much it meant to him. Passion is everything. All of the businessmen do not  have to  come  on time  in the morning  to  work  and  sit  for hours in front of the  computer.They make they own rules. It a lso happens to clothing store’s businessman. Fortunately, there are no  rules  in  fashion. People are free to design and determine various types of clothes that they want to sell. Some statements above already approved that designing a clothing store is really an enjoyable job. Each clothing store has their own characteristic. It can be seen from the type of clothes that its sell. People who design clothing store will be the first people who know and publish the different new styles to public based on their characteristic.Therefore, they can be trendsetter. They must know a fashion  that will be  popular  or  even create  a  new fashion mainstream  society. The fashion lovers, sometimes called fashionita, will  always follow  the latest trends  created by  the trendsetters. It is  a  pride for  the owner of clothing store as people  who  has created  these trends. Besides  getting  the pride,  the  owner of  clothing  store s  are also  getting  high profits  from the  clothing  store  business. It is because the fashion  always change  every time  and the  fashionista  will  always  follow the  newest  trend.So,  the procurement of  new  fashion items  are very  promising  because it  will most likely be  sold. Therefore, the  clothing  store  will  always get the  benefit goes  along with the  change of  fashion. To sum up, designing clothing store is, indeed, a good opportunity for both consumer and owner. For the consumer, clothing store is a place where they can meet one of their basic and fashion needs. It also can show people’s social status and their existence. For the owner, designing clothing store is an enjoyable job that could make them become a trendsetter and get high profit.

The Aims of the Arts and Crafts Movement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

The Aims of the Arts and Crafts Movement - Essay Example Because of the name and the overall focus of the movement, it might at first be imagined that this artistic vision could only barely touch the architectural styles of the day; however, the Arts and Crafts movement had a profound effect upon the architecture of the latter 1800s. One of its primary aims was to â€Å"render all branches of art the sphere no longer of the tradesman but of the artist. It would restore building, decoration, glass painting, pottery, woodcarving and metal to their right place beside painting and sculpture.† Working within the rather loose boundaries of the Arts and Crafts, Voysey, Baillie Scott and their contemporaries began developing new means of approaching design that hadn’t been considered previously, generating three results that almost immediately impacted the architecture of the time. â€Å"First, and the most obvious, the Arts and Crafts emphasized the artistic potential of everyday objects. Second, vastly higher standards of craftsma nship were applied to these objects, and the ideal of craftsmanship was realized much more widely than had been possible before. †¦ Third, new stress was given to the importance of function in the creation of forms.† Morris’ ideas in promoting this movement included an architectural independence from imposed style in favour of a naturally growing concept. This natural concept emerged from consideration of the surroundings and the needs of the average person. The idea was to keep the form simple and to incorporate and preserve .

The differences Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

The differences - Assignment Example There is an increase of feminist movements who are ready to speak on behalf of the oppressed through civic education and constituency awareness (Serano 20). This is being manifested as a women revolution in the realization of one’s identity. How are you going to ensure the movements succeed in their aspirations? According to Sheryl Sandberg in Why we have too few women leaders, there is an imperative need for women to balance their professions and family life without allowing any compromise (Serano 34). Therefore, in your capacity as president, what will you do to help women find an effective balance to help them in advancement? In the Combahee River Collective, Black feminists make recollections of their persistent struggle since 1974 in the definition and clarification of the country’s politics (Serano 39). They also recollect their creation of coalitions and promotion progressive movements and organizations. What is your presidency planning to do advance such earlier efforts? Since the 1880s till the present, different women have attempted their chances at the presidency both in America and other nations to change their nations (Serano 45). They include Blanca Rojas Echaverry of Nicaragua, Dr. Heide Schmidt, Austria and Hillary Clinton among others. How will you ensure women have better chances of clinching top leadership positions to bring change? Various studies reveal that men have better negotiation skills than women. In the view of Sheryl Sandberg in Why we have too few women leaders, this is has been caused by a culture that demeans women and makes them look inferior in fighting for equal opportunities in the workforce (Serano 13). What is your presidency planning to do to mitigate on this worrying trend? There is also the problem with a majority of women of color in Women and Family that lack skills, experience and education that prevents them from attaining excellence in several

Conclusion of online contract Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Conclusion of online contract - Research Paper Example Nowadays, more and more people turn to online agreements, sometimes even preferring them to the traditional written ones. However, consumers cannot help concerning about the validity of the online contracts versus the common written contracts. Yet, â€Å"Electronic contracts and electronic signatures are just as legal and enforceable as traditional paper contracts signed in ink.†1 This fact was established by the Electronic Signatures in Global and International Commerce Act (ESGICA) in 2000, which has updated the status of online agreements, considering them just as legal and enforceable as the written ones. This topic has been chosen due to the growing popularity of the online agreements among the ordinary users and other interested people. The term paper is focused on revealing the essence of the online agreements. The author believes that such a paper is necessary, because of the ascending number of concluded online agreements. Sometimes, a user is not even aware of the fact that he is binding himself to a contract in the online jungle. The online contracts are mostly governed by the same legal traditional principles as the written contracts, consisting of the same elements. The majority of the electronic agreements is reduced to the click through and click wrap agreements. These types of contracts require that the user should scroll through the terms and conditions on a website and confirm that he or she has accepted the terms and conditions of the agreement by taking some sort of action, such as clicking an "I accept" button or by taking some similar action. It is very often that the enforceability of the forum selection clause in these "click-wrap" agreements is at issue since these clauses may force the plaintiff to bring his or her action in a particular jurisdiction, which may be located far away from the plaintiffs home jurisdiction, in order to settle all disputes. The author intends to

Violence and conflict Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Violence and conflict - Essay Example The review of the relevant literature has lead to an important finding: violence against women has been based on many factors; there is no single fact that leads to the specific behaviour against women. Therefore, addressing the problem requires a carefully designed plan. The change of traditional social beliefs in regard to women’s role in society would help to control the expansion of the phenomenon; however, such change could be achieved only gradually and with the support of the government. For example, schemes for informing the members of communities on the effects of violence against women would be preferred instead of programs addressing the issue at personal level. In other words, the resolution of the problem could be planned only through long-term initiatives and not through temporary measures. In general, the phrase ‘violence against women’ is used for showing specific actions that threaten women’s mental or physical health. In a relevant study, the violence against women is described as related to ‘the use of force/coercion with an intent of perpetuation/ promotion of hierarchical gender-relations in all social structures’ (Wahed and Bhuiya 2007, p.342). The development of violence against women has been closely monitored by relevant Bodies/ organizations both at national and at international level. According to a relevant report of the World Health Organization (WHO) the violence against women is usually developed into two forms/ modes: ‘a) as partner violence and b) as sexual violence’ (WHO 2013, par.1). In the same report it is noted that about 35% of women around the world have experienced, even once, one of the two types of violence (WHO 2013, par.2). Moreover, statistics published by Statistics Canada revealed that in 2011 about 173,600 women across the country suffered violence (Statistics Canada 2013, section 1, par.6). Worldwide, the problem seems

Life on Mars Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Life on Mars - Essay Example Mars is the fourth planet of the solar system. It is in direct contrast to Venus with its hot and opaque atmosphere (Chambers 1999). Mars is a barren desert. It is covered with red dust that is why Mars is also called the Red Planet. There is no water on Mars. It is 1,524 A.U away from the sun (McKay, et. al 1996). Mars orbits the sun once after every 687 days (Baucom 2006). Its equatorial diameter is 6,787 km. In terms of radius, Mars as compared to Earth is nearly half of the Earth. Mars has two moons, called Phobos and Deimos (Chambers 1999). In terms of climate, Mars resembles Earth. The seasons of the planet Mars are nearly double as compared to the Earth’s seasons (Tosca, et. al 2008). In winter season, the temperature falls to -140 degree centigrade and in the summer season, the temperature reaches maximum at 20 degree centigrade (Krasnopolskya, et.al 2004). The atmosphere of Mars is unable to store solar heat because it is thin as compared to Earth’s atmosphere (Sagan 1980). The water that is present on the surface of Mars is in forms of water ice. Dry ice (carbon dioxide) is also present on the surface of Mars due to which, the ratio of carbon dioxide is maximum of the surface of Mars (Chambers 1999). There are no seas on Mars. Mount Olympus, the highest mountain of the whole solar system is located on Mars. As compared to Mount Everest, it is three times higher. It has many volcanoes in it. The atmosphere of Mars is able to protect the planet from the meteorites that try to enter its atmosphere (McKay, et. al 1996). Viking conducted several experiments for discovery of presence of life on Mars. Martian soil was accessed by means of experiments in order to evaluate the existence of microorganisms (Krasnopolskya, et.al 2004). After analyzing the results of the experiments, no organic molecules were found from the conducted experiments. In the year 2003, there were traces of

Medicare corruption in the United States Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Medicare corruption in the United States - Essay Example receiving red lights from various media like the New York Times and the Federal agents searching for illegal documents that might have translated to fraud. Eventually, Columbia/HCA confessed to committing criminal and civil fraud that amounted to fines of $1.7 billion. The company was forced to change its name to HCA Incorporation in 1999. In 2009, 94 people were charged with cases of fraudulent Medicare claims by the Medicare Fraud Strike Task force. It was the largest number ever charged by the Agency and a total of $251 million was involved in the fraud (WEISER, 2013). In 2011, the same agency charged 91 defendants for taking part in Medicare fraud schemes which involved $259million in false billing. In 2012, the same agency convicted two people for participating in Medicare fraud schemes which involved $1.9 million. Last year, the same agency charged 89 people which included the doctor’s nurses and other medical professions for involving themselves in Medicare Fraud scheme s which totaled to $223 million. Apart from this single cases other drug agencies like GlaxoSmithKline. In June 2nd 2012, the company was on the spotlight again and was forced to pay a fine of $3 billion after it emerged that the company was selling unfit drugs. This is also the largest drug scandal in the world. Just recently, four GSK staff in China was detained after it emerged that the four were engaged in fraud. According to the BBC News, the four had been channeling the money to a traveling agency to influence and bribe doctors to prescribe their company’s drugs. It is imperative to hear this and although you cannot control how doctors prescribe these drugs it became a big scandal when it was discovered (Tom Holland, 2013). It is argued that increased government participation into the Medicare services is leading to massive corruption. This paper therefore recommends that the government of US privatize Medicare services to avoid cases of corruption. Various changes to the

Fashion Marketing and Promotion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Fashion Marketing and Promotion - Essay Example As maybe part of my artistic inclinations, is my personal quest to be highly fashionable and trendy, always up to date with the latest styles in fashion and beauty. I have a watchful eye towards the latest clothing designs, keeping track of famous brands and its new clothing lines. I am as interested in creating designs as well as finding the right strategy to market it, thus my current course fits me perfectly. At the moment, I feel like I am being molded into the profession that I eventually wish to embark in. I do not only practice my creativity, but also learn the science behind it. I get to understand the marketing concepts, create marketing ideas and be in touch with every aspect that makes up a really good brand. I am geared towards brand and product management, marketing and design all at the same time. And I feel that I am ready to learn more by advancing to the next step, which is being hands on in real company, with more tasks and greater responsibilities to handle. Moving from China to London has been inevitable, yet the crossover proved to be beneficial, as I am now exposed to another culture, with relatively other ways to execute creative concepts, and a totally different perspective to look from. The new opportunities fueled my desire to pursue a career in this field. I have met new people, explored new grounds and realized many other abilities that I have. This even prompted me to look beyond my initial goals and saw a whole lot of other opportunities for me to conquer. As a Marketing student, I have moved on to find interests in media and communications as a whole. Having spent the last few years being immersed in retail operations, I now understand that it takes a good communication plan and media connections to be able to successfully market my products. Â  

Managing Cultural Diversity Essay Example for Free

Managing Cultural Diversity Essay The following paper brie y debates the rhetoric of managing diversity and considers whether managing diversity is a distinct approach to managing people or a means of diluting equal opportunities in UK organizations. With respect to the realities of the concepts in UK organizations, empirical data from a survey of sixty UK human resource professionals and general line managers is presented. We pose a number of cautionary questions, including what does it matter and to whom? By doing so we intend to encourage further critique and challenges in respect to the concept of managing diversity in organizations. Keywords: Managing diversity, equal opportunities, HRM/D, rhetoric, reality Introduction Today the workforce does not look, think, or act like any workforce of the past, nor does it hold the same values, have the same experiences, or pursue the same needs and desires (Jamieson and O’ Mara 1991). The composition of today’ s workforce has changed signi cantly in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, culture, education, disabilities, and values. Running parallel to these changes is the shift in thinking by human resource theorists and practitioners with regard to addressing equality in the workplace (Cooper and White 1995; Liff and Wacjman 1996). This shift is underpinned by the emergence of the business case argument for equal opportunities, as opposed to the persuasive debate for social justice or equal opportunities as ‘ correcting an imbalance, an injustice or a mistake’ (Thomas 1990). There is now a view that, after twenty years of the ‘ stick’ of legal compliance (which has achieved little), the ‘ carrot’ of underpinning the business case for equal opportunities will perhaps achieve more (Dickens 1994). The business case argument for equal opportunities in organizations is often termed ‘ managing or valuing diversity’ , but, as with most contemporary Human Resource Development International ISSN 1367-8868 print/ISSN 1469–8374 online  © 2000 Taylor Francis Ltd http://www. tandf. co. uk/journals 420 Peer-Reviewed Articles anagement issues, the underlying principles and interpretation of this concept are open to mass interpretation, criticism, and indeed misunderstanding. D. Miller (1996) argues that the significant widening of the meaning of equal opportunities has brought with it more complex and confusing messages for employers and practitioners. By drawing on literature and empirical data, we consider whether mana ging diversity is a distinct approach to managing people or a means of diluting equal opportunities in UK organizations and pose a number of cautionary questions, including: what does it matter and to whom? By doing so, we intend to encourage further critique and challenges in respect to the concept of managing diversity in organizations. What is managing diversity? Thomas (2000) argues that, with the growing number of mergers and acquisitions, workforce diversity will become more of a priority for organizations and, therefore, in the future, people will become clearer on what diversity is and how to manage it. As with the debates surrounding de nitions of human resource management and development (HRM/D), managing diversity as a concept means different things to different people. It can relate to the issue of national cultures inside a multinational organization (Hofstede 1984); it can relate to the further development of equal opportunities or to a distinct method of integrating different parts of an organization and/or managing people strategically. Much of the literature regarding managing diversity relates to the US experience, where the concept is particularly popular; a re ection perhaps of the more pronounced diversity of workforce composition (Cassell 1996). In a recent report 1999), a Department of Education in America described managing and valuing diversity as a key component of effective people management, arguing that it focuses on improving the performance of the organization and promotes practices that enhance the productivity of all staff. Their dimensions of diversity include gender, race, culture, age, family/carer status, religion, and disability. The de nition provided also embraces a range of individual skills, educational quali cations, work experience and background, languages, and other relevant attributes and experiences which differentiate individuals.

Airline Supply Demand Curve

Airline Supply Demand Curve Airline industry provides us air transportation that improves our lives by shortening the time it takes us to reach a destination and also deliver goods. Airline industry undergoes oligopoly market, where only a few sellers that provide similar products or services but differentiated in the branding and the promotion method. Basically, there are four main categories in the airline industry, which is international, national, regional, and cargo. International flights provide services between countries; both national and regional flights are domestic flights within a country, but regional flights have shorter distance compare to national flights; cargo is mainly for the use of transport goods. In this assignment, we are going to briefly explain the determinants and the changes in market condition that affect the demand and supply of the airline industry. There are few determinants that will cause a change in the supply demand curve in the airline industry. Determinants on demand curve. The first determinant is income. When a country experiences a growth in the economy, the average income of citizens will increase. In this case, air ticket plays a role as a normal good, this is because an increase in the income will lead to an increase in the demand of air ticket purchased, one example is families might travel more often as they are in good economic condition. The second determinant is prices of related goods, where a change in price of a good might affect the demand of the other good. In the airline industry, the price of fuel has a direct influence to the demand of air ticket. When the price of fuel increases, airline industry has to increase the price of air ticket to maintain its revenue. Therefore, the fuel price and the demand of air ticket have a relationship of complements, where increase in the fuel price leads to a decrease in the demand for air ticket. However, in some special cases especially during a decline in the economy, the airline industry will not raise the price of air tickets because the customers would scare away. Therefore, the demand of air tickets is also quite dependent to the condition of economy. The third determinant is number of buyers. The more the buyers in the airline industry, the demand of air ticket will be higher. When a promotion is held by the industry airlines, there will be more buyers on the purchase of air ticket. This is because the air tickets normally sell at a lower price to attract more customers especially during a not-so-peak season. Thus, the demand or air tickets will increase and the airline industry will gain more profits even though the air tickets are selling at a lower price. The last determinant is expectation on future income and future price, which means the prediction of consumers on how much they will earn and the value of a good in the future. For example, if the economy has a positive development, where people expect a higher income in the future, they might go for a vacation and shift the demand curve of air ticket to the right. However, if they realize there will be an increase in price of air ticket in the future probably due to peak season, they will choose to purchase now then later and cause the demand curve to shift to the right. For the other variable like tastes that can affect demand curve, we will ignore it because it is based on personal behavior and is uncertain to the airline industry. Determinants on supply curve. The first determinant is input prices. When the cost of producing goods increases, the supply will decrease. In airline industry, one of the main input prices is the fuel price. As other variables are constant, when the price of fuel increases, the number of flight per day will decrease to reduce the cost of airline industry. The second determinant is technology. A better technology can shift the supply curve to the right. Technology advancement plays a very important role in airline industry. Airline industry is trying their best to seek for better technology in fuel conservation. Besides, they also work with airframe and engine manufacturer in designing the components of aircraft to reduce the fuel consumption of each flight. Thus, with the improvement of technology, airlines can provide more flight then before using the same amount of fuel. The third determinant is weather. As this is air transportation, weather often becomes a big issue to the airline industry. A heavy snow during winter, or a bad pollution, often disrupts the takeoff and landing of aircraft. Unfortunately, weather is not control by humans, the airline industry only can do their best in providing complete and safety facilities to protect their users. Although bad weather does not last very long, it does bring some effect on flight for short periods. The last determinant is expectation on future price. When a firm expects there is a raise of price in future, they will supply less today until the price of the product increase. In the airline industry, when they expect the price of air ticket to rise in the coming peak season that brings higher profits, they will reduce or maintain the number of flights now. Thus, when comparing the number of flights for two periods, the supply for now can said to be less compare to future. Since airline industry undergoes the oligopoly market, the determinant of number of sellers will be excluded. Other variables like taxes and subsidies will also be excluded as they are not uncertain. Conclusion As we can see from above, airline industry has to concern many determinants that can affect the airlines demand and supply. Besides, they have to observe carefully on the changes in market condition and take immediate action if there is any unexpected issue. According to the Air Transport Association (ATA), labor is the largest expenses of the airline industry, followed by fuel cost. Other variables like weather and technology also have to put well attention to ensure the safety and revenue of the airline industry. The study of economics may help the airline industry when making a decision and better choice by providing knowledge on the efficiency use of resources.

political ideology Essay -- essays research papers

Position Paper: Political Ideology   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Upon entering my first semester at Southern Nazarene University I could not have told you my political ideology. I knew what my opinions, observations, expectations, and ideals were, but did not know the proper ideology that would define them. Through several courses that I have taken, I have become more informed as to the role that I would like to see the government take throughout society as a whole and in the economy. Upon reading the section of ideology in American Government and Politics Today: the Essentials I learned that the correct term for my ideology is right-wing Conservatism. I would like to see the government take action if necessary in the economy, yet let capitalism and the economy regulate itself if possibl...

Essay --

Gary Paolini CS333 Final Project 12/01/13 Privacy Preserving Location Tracking of Lost or Stolen Devices: Cryptographic Techniques and Replacing Trusted Third Parties with DHTs By (Thomas Ristenpart, Gabriel Maganis, Arvind Krishnamurthy and Tadayoshi Kohno) Introduction We tackle the problem of building privacy-preserving device-tracking systems—or private methods to assist in the recovery of lost or stolen Internet-connected mobile devices. This system is for the privacy of internet user and finding the location of the mobile device should it become lost or stolen. The main goals of such systems are seemingly contradictory: to hide the device’s legitimately-visited locations from third-party services and other parties (location privacy) while simultaneously using those same services to help recover the device’s location(s) after it goes missing (device-tracking). We propose a system, named Adeona, that nevertheless meets both goals. It provides strong guarantees of location privacy while preserving the ability to efficiently track missing devices. The system Adeona allows the user to have browsing privacy and also the ability to track a missing device. We build a version of Adeona that uses OpenDHT as the third party service, resulting in an immediately deployable system that does not rely on any single trusted third party. The system uses Open DHT which is a third party service which gives a immediately deployable system We describe numerous extensions for the basic design that increase Adeona’s suitability for particular deployment environments. With numerous extensions for the design to increase deployment environments †¢ Provide a 1-2 page summary for each of the papers. †¢ What is the ... ...y and privacy, but one can do so in practice for real systems. We implemented Adeona, a full privacy-preserving tracking system based on OpenDHT that allows for immediate, community-orientated deployment. Its core module, the cryptographic engine that renders location updates anonymous and unlinkable, can be easily used in further deployment settings. To evaluate Adeona, we ran a field trial to gain experience with a deployment on real user’s systems. Our conclusion is that our approach is sound and an immediately viable alternative to tracking systems that offer less (or no) privacy guarantees. Lastly, we also presented numerous extensions to Adeona that address a range of issues: disparate deployment settings, increased functionality, and improved security. The techniques involved, particularly our tamper-evident FSPRG, are likely of independent interest.

Constantinople :: essays research papers fc

This essay will attempt to analyse and explain all the causes and factors that lead to the choice of Constantinople as eastern capital of the empire. From the very outset the reasons for such a catalytic â€Å"move†, which provided the impetus for the creation of a new era, will be examined as lucidly as possible. To conclude, having appraised the above, much light will be thrown on the choice of Constantinople, amongst other locations, as the eastern capital of the empire in terms of geographical position, religious and economical factors. Numerous were the reasons that gradually led to the movement of the empire to the East. Initially, Rome was very far from the regions of the shores of the Bosphorus and the river Euphrates and thus unable to confront effectively the empire’s most significant enemies (the Goths and the Persians) that had made their appearance from the 3rd century. Additionally, Rome, a centre of paganism, with its memories of municipal traditions and â€Å"republican sentiment, with its aristocratic, educated and fiercely traditionalist senators †, had begun to annoy the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (337-362). He, himself, was a vigorous supporter of Christianity and especially after the prolonged period of his successful confrontation with Licinius (314-323), he was convinced that the future belonged to the Christians and for that reason, he decided to turn decisively towards the East, which was the main source and origin of the new religion. Furthermore, from the 3rd century onw ards, most of the emperors originated from provinces and did not share significant bonds with Rome. What Constantine visualised instead of sacrifices to pagan deities and four emperors with irregular courts and capitals, was an empire with one emperor and one established capital, along with a splendid innovative church devoted to the glory of the one true God . He therefore regarded the foundation of a new city as the most important symbol of his deeper aim, the renewal of the empire. In 324, the old Greek trading city of Byzantium (modern Istanbul) was chosen by Constantine the Great as the ultimate spot for the new city that would form the headquarters of the empire in the East and was renamed after his own name, Constantinople (Constantinou-polis). It is a fact that among the fundamental criteria for choosing this specific location were its strategic geographical position between Europe and Asia, its strategic value for the command of the seas and of the main routes over-land from East to West and from North to South, as well as the right connection between the centre and the periphery of the Empire.

The History and Colonization of Libya and it’sIndependence

Approximately ninety percent of Libya is roofed with desert. That desert is mostly the vast Sahara Desert; the worlds largest hot desert. Although most of the region is very barren, Libya's northern border is a stunning coastline. Its healthy, luscious fields and beautiful beaches extend along the Mediterranean Sea for approximately a thousand miles. Phoenician sailors, who are now located in the area now named Lebanon, built ports on Libya's Mediterranean coast in Tripolitania beginning in 1300 B. C. Their vessels were constructed from cedar trees, which they used to sail across the Mediterranean transforming them into some of the greatest traders of their time. Phoenicians sailors had a different reason for establishing ports than then the usual economic gains. The reason for them establishing ports was because they wanted places along their trade route from Phoenicia to Spain where their cedar vessels could dock. Even though the Phoenicians continued doing this, they did little to take over the area. What the Phoenicians did do was establish the city of Carthage, which was in today's Tunisia. By themselves, Carthage grew into a prosperous seaport and became an autonomous power with no help. Carthage built up a burly military force and soon Carthaginians started ruling areas like Tripolitania. Unlike the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians established numerous colonies, which they ruled with force. The Libyans disliked the Carthaginians due to the fact that the rulers stipulated that the Libyans have to give up to half of their crops each season and how the Carthaginians â€Å"sacrificed their own first-born children to their implacable gods† (Isichei 161). The Libyans found that despicable and appalling. Carthage was getting attacked by Rome and battling went on and off for more than a hundred years. Finally, Rome defeated Carthage in 146 B. C. In 146 B. C. Romans gained control over the Carthaginian Empire. The Roman Empire used Tripolitania's coastal area as one of their main sources of grain and other provisions. The Greeks ruled Cyrenaica but it soon fell under Roman rule. The Greek stronghold was in Cyrenaica. Greek explorers and warriors constantly explored the region for centuries. First, they tried to use the area as a route to overrun Egypt. Later, Cyrenacia became an abundant Greek fishing area. Seeing that no one had colonized the only port in North Africa the Greeks took better management of the land. Now that the Romans were in power the region continued to flourish for several hundred years, and the inhabitants escalated. When the empire was growing weaker, the Romans lost control of North Africa. The next groups in Libya were the Vandals, who came from an area that is now occupied by Germany. Their minds were fascinated by North Africa's wealth, so they arrived in the area in about 435. Among the invaders, the Vandals made the first serious effort to settle in some of Libya's mountains and desert areas. But the nomadic people who resided in the regions often fought them off. The Vandals lost authority after about a century of decree. When the Arabs arrived in 643, they brought the new religion of Islam with them. The people in the region quickly adopted Islam but they resisted Arab political rule. Within four hundred years most people in Libya were Muslims. The Aghlabids were amongst the most thoughtful Islamic leaders of Libya; the area was back in order, and reinstated the irrigation systems that the Romans left back, which brought opulence to the region from the surplus being produced. A minor colonization was by Spain in 1510 when they captured Tripoli but soon the Ottoman Empire took over all of Libya. Like all the other groups that had invaded Libya, the Ottomans faced the resistance of the Libyan people. The Libyans â€Å"were proud and did not easily accept foreign rule† (Willis 50). Throughout history, groups of Libyan rebels often tried to resist the invaders. Many of the opposition leaders had ties to a religious organization called the Sansui Brotherhood. As the Ottomans lost grip of their colony, the Italians moved in. Italy had major reasons for colonizing Libya. First of all, Italy thought that if they had control over Tripoli, they would have greater trading power in the Mediterranean Sea. Also Italy just wanted to have the feel for having a colony in North Africa. Another major reason was the fact that the British already had control over Egypt and so Italy feared that France would seek after Libya. After months of engaging in warfare against the invading Italian forces, the Ottomans finally gave up their colonized land of Libya in 1911. When Italy decided to enter WWI on the side of the allies, this move weakened Italy's grip on Libya in 1915 because they couldn't focus against the rebellions in Libya while trying to help the Allis win WWI. Some of the things they did to ease the rebellions was in 1917, when â€Å"Italy signed a peace agreement with the leader of the Sanusi, Idris al-Sanusi, recognizing him as the emir of Cyrenaica† (Miller 32-33). But when fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini's rose to power in Italy in 1922 he gave Italy its willpower to gain control over their colony once again. Libya was not finally freed from Italian rule until 1943, when Italy was crushed in WWII. After the war, the UN decided that Libya should become a constitutional monarchy and in 1951 the Kingdom of Libya was officially formed. The national assembly elected Libya's first king, Muhammad Idris al-Sanusi, who had been a leader of the Libyan resistance movement against Italy. After decades of monarchy, Libyans are again fighting for their independence and freedom even though they became independent in 1951. They are now in an internal struggle against a tyrannical government. The country's dictator Muammar Gaddafi, once revered as a great colonel has promised not to leave his reign of terror until he dies. With the help of other countries the Libyan people are achieving the true freedom that every person in this world is entitled to.

Deception Point Page 56

â€Å"He's breaking the law,† Gabrielle said. Isn't he? â€Å"Or so Marjorie Tench would have you believe. Candidates accept behind-the-scenes donations all the time from big corporations. It may not be pretty, but it's not necessarily illegal. In fact, most legal issues deal not with where the money comes from but how the candidate chooses to spend it.† Gabrielle hesitated, feeling uncertain now. â€Å"Gabs, the White House played you this afternoon. They tried to turn you against your candidate, and so far you've called their bluff. If I were looking for someone to trust, I think I'd stick with Sexton before jumping ship to someone like Marjorie Tench.† Yolanda's phone rang. She answered, nodding, uh-huh-ing, taking notes. â€Å"Interesting,† she finally said. â€Å"I'll be right there. Thanks.† Yolanda hung up and turned with an arched brow. â€Å"Gabs, sounds like you're off the hook. Just as I predicted.† â€Å"What's going on?† â€Å"I don't have a specific yet, but I can tell you this much-the president's press conference has nothing to do with sex scandals or campaign finance.† Gabrielle felt a flash of hope and wanted badly to believe her. â€Å"How do you know that?† â€Å"Someone on the inside just leaked that the press conference is NASA-related.† Gabrielle sat up suddenly. â€Å"NASA?† Yolanda winked. â€Å"This could be your lucky night. My bet is President Herney is feeling so much pressure from Senator Sexton that he's decided the White House has no choice but to pull the plug on the International Space Station. That explains all the global media coverage.† A press conference killing the space station? Gabrielle could not imagine. Yolanda stood up. â€Å"That Tench attack this afternoon? It was probably just a last-ditch effort to get a foothold over Sexton before the President had to go public with the bad news. Nothing like a sex scandal to take the attention away from another presidential flop. Anyhow, Gabs, I've got work to do. My advice to you-get yourself a cup of coffee, sit right here, turn on my television, and ride this out like the rest of us. We've got twenty minutes until show time, and I'm telling you, there is no way the President is going Dumpster-diving tonight. He's got the whole world watching. Whatever he has to say carries some serious weight.† She gave a reassuring wink. â€Å"Now give me the envelope.† â€Å"What?† Yolanda held out a demanding hand. â€Å"These pictures are getting locked in my desk until this is over. I want to be sure you don't do something idiotic.† Reluctantly, Gabrielle handed over the envelope. Yolanda locked the photos carefully in a desk drawer and pocketed the keys. â€Å"You'll thank me, Gabs. I swear it.† She playfully ruffled Gabrielle's hair on her way out. â€Å"Sit tight. I think good news is on the way.† Gabrielle sat alone in the glass cubicle and tried to let Yolanda's upbeat attitude lift her mood. All Gabrielle could think of, though, was the self-satisfied smirk on the face of Marjorie Tench this afternoon. Gabrielle could not imagine what the President was about to tell the world, but it was definitely not going to be good news for Senator Sexton. 65 Rachel Sexton felt like she was being burned alive. It's raining fire! She tried to open her eyes, but all she could make out were foggy shapes and blinding lights. It was raining all around her. Scalding hot rain. Pounding down on her bare skin. She was lying on her side and could feel hot tiles beneath her body. She curled more tightly into the fetal position, trying to protect herself from the scalding liquid falling from above. She smelled chemicals. Chlorine, maybe. She tried to crawl away, but she could not. Powerful hands pressed down on her shoulders, holding her down. Let me go! I'm burning! Instinctively, she again fought to escape, and again she was rebuffed, the strong hands clamping down. â€Å"Stay where you are,† a man's voice said. The accent was American. Professional. â€Å"It will be over soon.† What will be over? Rachel wondered. The pain? My life? She tried to focus her vision. The lights in this place were harsh. She sensed the room was small. Cramped. Low ceilings. â€Å"I'm burning!† Rachel's scream was a whisper. â€Å"You're fine,† the voice said. â€Å"This water is lukewarm. Trust me.† Rachel realized she was mostly undressed, wearing only her soaked underwear. No embarrassment registered; her mind was filled with too many other questions. The memories were coming back now in a torrent. The ice shelf. The GPR. The attack. Who? Where am I? She tried to put the pieces together, but her mind felt torpid, like a set of clogged gears. From out of the muddled confusion came a single thought: Michael and Corky†¦ where are they? Rachel tried to focus her bleary vision but saw only the men standing over her. They were all dressed in the same blue jumpsuits. She wanted to speak, but her mouth refused to formulate a single word. The burning sensation in her skin was now giving way to sudden deep waves of aching that rolled through the muscles like seismic tremors. â€Å"Let it happen,† the man over her said. â€Å"The blood needs to flow back into your musculature.† He spoke like a doctor. â€Å"Try to move your limbs as much as you can.† The pain racking Rachel's body felt as if every muscle was being beaten with a hammer. She lay there on the tile, her chest contracting, and she could barely breathe. â€Å"Move your legs and arms,† the man insisted. â€Å"No matter what it feels like.† Rachel tried. Each movement felt like a knife being thrust into her joints. The jets of water grew hotter again. The scalding was back. The crushing pain went on. At the precise instant she thought she could not withstand another moment, Rachel felt someone giving her an injection. The pain seemed to subside quickly, less and less violent, releasing. The tremors slowed. She felt herself breathing again. A new sensation was spreading through her body now, the eerie bite of pins and needles. Everywhere-stabbing-sharper and sharper. Millions of tiny needle-point jabs, intensifying whenever she moved. She tried to hold motionless, but the water jets continued to buffet her. The man above her was holding her arms, moving them. God that hurts! Rachel was too weak to fight. Tears of exhaustion and pain poured down her face. She shut her eyes hard, blocking out the world. Finally, the pins and needles began to dissipate. The rain from above stopped. When Rachel opened her eyes, her vision was clearer. It was then that she saw them. Corky and Tolland lay nearby, quivering, half-naked and soaked. From the looks of anguish on their faces, Rachel sensed that they had just endured similar experiences. Michael Tolland's brown eyes were bloodshot and glassy. When he saw Rachel, he managed a weak smile, his blue lips trembling. Rachel tried to sit up, to take in their bizarre surroundings. The three of them were lying in a trembling twist of half-naked limbs on the floor of a tiny shower room. 66 Strong arms lifted her. Rachel felt the powerful strangers drying her body and wrapping her in blankets. She was being placed on a medical bed of some sort and vigorously massaged on her arms, legs, and feet. Another injection in her arm. â€Å"Adrenaline,† someone said. Rachel felt the drug coursing through her veins like a life force, invigorating her muscles. Although she still felt an icy hollowness tight like a drum in her gut, Rachel sensed the blood slowly returning to her limbs. Back from the dead. She tried to focus her vision. Tolland and Corky were lying nearby, shivering in blankets as the men massaged their bodies and gave them injections as well. Rachel had no doubt that this mysterious assemblage of men had just saved their lives. Many of them were soaking wet, apparently having jumped into the showers fully clothed to help. Who they were or how they had gotten to Rachel and the others in time was beyond her. It made no difference at the moment. We're alive.

Problem and its Background Essay

Man’s progress is measured through the advancement of Science and Technology in different fields especially in business arena. Through the years, many business establishments were built and organized to boost their business operation. Almost all types of business may it be small, medium or large scale are trying to take advantage of this technology. This means less paper works for office employees and even fewer employees for some organization seems to depend on its ability to utilize computer technology at its fullest. Presently, automation is one of the leading industry in the country today. Since technology changes rapidly and demands for machines are rising. There is a need for a basic understanding of computer technology , this understanding enables us to be comfortable in an increasing computer oriented environment by removing the fear with the unknown that many people have about the computer. One of the benefits of the system is it provides a prompt computation and accurate enough within a certain design space, especially for time-consuming manual process. New users often fret over the potential for lost data due to system malfunctions with a well designed and tested backup scheme and disaster recovery system, a computer-based record is much more reliable and less prone to data loss than conventional paper-based records. Record access can be restricted and monitored automatically. Provided that data are structured and coded in an unambiguous fashion, programs can continuously check and filter the data for errors, summarize and interpret data, and issue alerts and/or reminders. Once in electronic form a data can be linked to reference information stored and maintained locally or, via the internet. If the electronic record is integrated, then all data is immediately available to all practitioners regardless of their physical location as soon as the data is entered into the computer. The health care environment is currently undergoing a revolution. A rapidly growing cost of providing medical care are forcing hospital to merge at an increasing rate in order to consolidate the types of services offered. The cost of the new technology is also requiring a hospital to reevaluate their mission to the communities they serve. Originally no specialized users were contented with common tasks such as paper, ball pen, typewriter and file cabinet to perform their jobs. These people could satisfactorily accomplish their tasks without computer technology, but these situations have change dramatically. With the new technology, hospitals provide faster more accurate and more convenient services to their patients. Background of the study San Juan District Hospital is the only government hospital in this part of Batangas. It is a 25 bed capacity secondary government hospital that was established by virtue of Republic Act 3956. A Puericulture Center has been offered by concerned citizen of the town headed by Mrs. Marietta O. De Villa as the first hospital building. It is a two story building with a floor area of roughly 200 square meters which was . approved by the Department of Health. The National Aid Budget was first released under TW# 804-039288 dated June 11, 1975 and received on June 20, 1975 in the amount of P 105,645. 00. With this financial source, organization of the hospital was immediately approved of about 13 hospital items/positions. The hospital was opened to the public on July 1, 1975 for consultation services only, headed by Dr. Marciano Marcellana as Chief of Hospital. The catchment areas of this hospital are San Juan Rural Health Unit I & II, Rosario and Taysan. In the year 1982, the Trivino family donated one hectare of farm lot for the construction of new hospital building at Barangay Talahiban 2nd, San Juan, Batangas. The hospital then transferred to the new site year 1988. In April, 1993 with the implementation of Republic Act No. 7180, otherwise known as Local Government Code of 1991, San Juan District Hospital was devolved to the Provincial Government of Batangas under the immediate supervision of the Provincial Health Officer. In 1999 as part of the government’s computerization program the San Juan District Hospital received computers from the local government. The hospital had a payroll system on 2001. MISSION: Development of health conscious and healthy families and communities thru partnership with the people by the provision of the four ACES: availability, accessibility, affordability, acceptability and omnipotently guided health care services. VISION: A socialized medicine for the Batanguenos especially the underpriviledge. GENERAL OBJECTIVE: Further uplift the health of the people particularly Batangenyos through curative, promotive and preventive aspect of health care delivery. Conceptual Framework Feedback Fig 1. Conceptual Paradigm Examination of Conceptual Paradigm The system is â€Å"San Juan District Hospital Management System†. It is intended for the operations inside the hospital which caters Billing and Record Keeping of patients. The users include the administrator who has full access of the system. The cashier, one who receives the payment of the patients. The Billing Clerk computes for the bill of patients, Chief of Billing verifies and updates records in case invalid data was inputted and also verifies the eligibility for discount of the patients. The encoder, one who adds record concerning billing. The nurse gathers the information from the patient including the patient’s picture then it is turned over to the record officer for storage and safekeeping. The encoder is the one to add patient records. The record officer verifies and update the records of the patient. The nurse in each station could only view the information regarding the patient. In Patient’s Information the users gather the patient’s record such as the patients name, disposition, diagnosis and etc. On the other hand in Billing, the user entails the medical Transactions as well as the medical supplies consumed by the patient. All of the medical transactions as well as medical supplies consumed by the patient are submitted to the billing section. The adoptability of San Juan District Hospital Management System: Reliability-refers to the dependability and precautionary measures of the system. -The system provides accupate information on the billing of patients – The system provides useful information regarding the patient’s record – The system provides accuracy and consistency in the patient record – The system provides an accurate computerized print out of records – The system minimizes the work load of the users Security-refers to the accessibility of the users to the system. – The system provides log in and log out forms for an improved security – The system provides the ability of the admin to access all the functions of the system – The system provides user level like the administrator, record officer, cashier, etc. – The system provides restrictions appropriate for the type of user – The system provides system management the user account by using add, edit and delete functions. User Friendliness-refers to the simplicity and understandability of the system. – The system provides an easy to understand visual user interface – The system provides an interactive help system for easy usage – The system makes use of shortcut buttons for easy system navigation – The system makes use of proper colors and fonts suitable interface environment – The system provides a confirmation message for the confirmation of the action. Efficiency-refers to the competence of the system. – The system Provides a search engine for fast retrieval of informatio – The system Makes use of the add, edit, delete functions for easy information updates. – The system Speeds up the work of the users – The system Simplifies the record keeping and record handling of the hospital. – The system Speeds up the patient and hospital transactions The data gathered from the devices is then processed by the system. The devices include printer which is use to produce hard copy of receipts as well as reports. Since it is an integrated system it needs a LAN Card for networking. WebCam to input pictures of the patients. This leads to gathering of Timely reports for Billing. It also generates Patient’s Record by request. The system is insignificant if it has no benefit. The system Accelerates work in generating Bill Reports as we all know that waste of time effort in every business means a lost in their assets. It could easily keep track of information regarding the patients bills since it is presented timely and it also enhances the quality of work since the production of inaccurate reports would be lessened. It also lessens time and effort in looking for the patient’s record in a logbook and filling cabinet. The users could easily manipulate the system because it is presented in a user friendly environment. Statement of the Problem 1. What are the profile of the respondents? a) Position b) Computer Literacy 2. How do the respondents perceived the current way of retrieving information? a) Filling Cabinet b) Index Card 3. How do the respondents perceive the current way of generating bill reports? a) Manually generated receipts 4. How do the respondents perceived the idea of having â€Å"San Juan District Hospital Management System† based on the ff: a) Reliability b) Security c) User Friendliness d) Efficiency 5. How do the respondents perceive the applicability of San Juan District Hospital Management System? Scope and Limitation of the study The system consists of computerized billing and record keeping system. Only authorized persons is able to access these processes through the use of passwords. The nurse of each workstation has limitation in using a system due to the hierarchy of authority. Each of these has data storage, data entry and report generation. It is in LAN Based. Billing System consists of the invoices of the patient. It generates timely reports as well as printing of receipts. This incorporates the laboratory charges and medical supplies used. Provided that the medicines are bought inside the hospital. It also computes for the discounts such as PhilHealh, insurance and etc. This does not include monitoring of the profit earned by the hospital. It does not include payments with the use of credit cards. Record Keeping System encloses only the In-patient and out-patient’s personal information that would be needed for the diagnosis such as the name, ailment, gender,picture and etc. It also encompasses the laboratory results of the In-patient which is attached to nurse records through the availability of computer in the laboratory. Importance of the Study Giving latest innovation with the use of computer integration, the proponents have arrived in the best possible computer integration assets by the creative minds in achieving optimum success. The system provided a design model for the better, effective and efficient processing of the system. This system intends to help the San Juan District Hospital in the processing of the needed data and documents. This system can perform tasks of an individual in an accelerated manner so it could increase job performance. It reduces manual process and so it could minimize human errors. This system is made easily for the user, so they can easily adopt. It minimizes the paper works of the person in charge in monitoring. It enhances the quality of work, since the production of inaccurate reports would be lessened if not eliminated. The processing can change the way the user operates. In addition, the system solves time and labor, the processing can lead to benefits such as improve services and control flow. The system can improve the processing of the hospital. The data can be access easily and the reports could be made available anytime the clients need it. The importance of the system primary focuses to meet and satisfy the given objectives of the system. This system is undertaken by proponents in order to adopt in a more advance techniques that are currently use in some offices and institutions. The finding of the system should be able to be of great help to the billing section as well as to other departments to take a direction towards modern computerization. Therefore, a lot of effort and time would be saved. It is a great advantage for San Juan District Hospital for the reason that the client could avail a good service and marks for the reason to help more organize and punctual to their tasks so they could do their responsible well. Definition of Terms Administrative Department- responsible for the operation of the entire institution. Anesthesiologist- a doctor who supervises the use of drugs for the relief of pain during surgery. Charge Nurse – A registered or licensed practical or vocational nurse assigned to be in charge of a nursing unit. Custodial Care – Basic care provided on a 24 hour basis that meets an individual’s basic physical needs; simple assistance or total care may be needed. District or Community Hospital- serves larger population centers such as towns and large cities. Geriatric Hospital- hospital that accommodates the older population segment. Hospital – A health care facility that has a governing body, an organized medical and professional staff, and inpatient facilities and provides medical, nursing, and related services for injured patients. Inpatient – A person who has been admitted at least overnight to a hospital or other health facility. Intensive Care Unit- unit where an intensive monitoring and nursing is provided for seriously-ill patients. Laboratory- hospital unit where tests are conducted to help doctors in the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses. Level of Security Password Access-the persons who can only access one computer. Maternity Units- hospital unit that help protect mothers and infants from infection. Medical Units- units for patients who are required treatment by drugs. Medication-treatment of an illness using drugs. Medicine card-patient medication with corresponding time. Medical Prescription-covers the doctors medical prescription to his patient. Medical Records Department- keeps records on every patient. Networked-A state of being physically connecting 2 or more computers to create a communication and data exchange system. Nurse-somebody trained to look after sick and inured people,especially somebody who works in a hospital or clinic,administering the care and treatment that a doctor prescribes. Nurse note -a form a sheet which nurses ask to record their observation and report. Nursing staff- form the largest group on the patient care system. Outpatient – a patient who is receiving ambulatory care at a hospital or other facility without being admitted to the facility. Patient Record System-covers the processing of the information pertaining to the patient. This system stores all the details about her patient. Radiologist- directs a hospital X-ray and other imaging services. Surgical Unit- hospital unit for patients necessitating surgery. Ward- a room where a patient stays while receiving treatment. Acronyms CVD- Cardiovascular Disease CBC- Complete Blood Count DR- Delivery Room FBS- Fasting Blood Sugar ICD- International Code of Diseases ID- Once Daily LAN-Local Area Network MGH- May Go Home OPD- Out-Patient Department OR- Operating Room ORT- Oral Rehydration Therapy PC- Platelet Count QID- Four times a day RBC- Red Blood Cells RHU- Rural Health Unit RX- Prescription SE- Stool Exam UE- Urinalysis SWO-Social Welfare Office CHAPTER II Review of Related Literature and Study Local Study A study states that â€Å"It generates multiple reports for every department of Kolin Plant†. (Comia, 2005) The system concentrates and focused on the development of computer-based system. The system also includes generating of reports. In relation to this study, the researchers provide a computerized Monitoring System for J07 construction supply and services. The system includes the monitoring of the incoming ; outgoing raw materials ; updating of raw materials. The system also features the capability to print out file information like the available and consumed stocks. It monitors the total number of product that are sold ; unsold ,; update sales ; record of accurately . It also serves as a feature of assigning of prices to a particular item ; automatically detecting the required products for recording . It also has features of monitoring the daily sale of market. In relation to this study, the researchers developed a computerized Monitoring System for J07 construction supply ; services. The system includes the monitoring of the incoming and outgoing raw materials and updating of raw materials. A study (Edralin, 2003) states that small company as we can see majority of the business uses computers with also included the use of computerized system in order to achieve their goal and to lessen in the manual process in the business. As they believe using computer makes the business flow smooth and faster and we can’t regret for what they believe because as far as we know it has been proven for many times in many aspects of business. It provides the data needed for automation and computerization of its sales monitoring system. It also supplies the company a better system that benefits each and everyone on the company as a whole. According to Lee (2004) In this hospital Admitting and Centralized Billing System aims to develop a system that would monitor the room availability, speed up the processing of readmittance and would decentralized the exchange of patient’s record. Included in the system is a work area that provides a faster and easier method of adding, viewing, modifying and deleting of reports. This study focuses in admitting and billing system of patient. It has own data entry and report generations. Reports include the following. In-patient bills, in-patient information and last of patient. LAN setup is notr tackled in this study. According to Rogelio D. Rivera (2006) I usually design a system design requested when there is some dissatisfaction present in the system. In the system in this book Analysis of Data Management stated that â€Å"No system can be devised which is full proof against personnel which do not know or make property in developing a system, a process is set to meet the dissatisfaction of the present system, on the part of the beneficiaries such as the personnel and applicant, the new system should at least give them the ease of maintaining a fast and better procedure on handling records. A study (Augusto ,2003) wrote in this national press academic entitled â€Å"Reduce medical error requires Computerized Patient Information System† stated that to significally reduce the tens of thousands of deaths and injuries caused by medical errors every year, health care organizations must adopt information technology system that are capable of collecting and sharing essential health information on patients and their care, says a new report by the institute of medicine of the national academics. These systems should operate seamlessly. As part of the national network of health information that is accessible by all health care organization and that includes electronic records of patient’s care and secure platforms for the exchange of information among providers and patients and data standards that makes health information uniform and understandable to all. Foreign study A study (Monlb, 2002) states that the reality of today’s medical world is that cost effective, efficient management of receivables is a major challenge. Successful relationship with their client have Medical Data Systems an industry leader in revenue management Services. Specializing in secondary collection of hospital allow end professional fee billing, medical net-System has the solutions to today and tomorrows challenges. It has maintained an excellent reputation through out its 14 year history currently employing over 150 staff members at 6 locations throughout the Southeast and Southwest. We pride ourselves on or seminar-oriented, peer cooperative working relationship with a clients. The ultimate goal is to design a unique management services package to match the needs of our practice of facility. They work closely with you to assess your intimations, analyze and evaluate your specific requirements and faster solution to your need. Through over 14-year history of medical billing they have observed that professional fee-components billing is time-consuming laborious process that detracts the hospital billing staff that detracts the hospital billing staff from their more comprehensive compliance issues required for the much lower value professional claims is often not a cost effective undertaking for a medical facilitating they have developed an intermediate information system, which is utilized as a holding database between the hospital and their billing system, which screens information for discrepancies and incomplete data prior to exportation into their billing system. This yield information into their staff to concentrate on the aged receivables. The Resident Care System is a computerized medical record system designed to reduce the amount of hand written paper works required to maintain resident and nursing center records. (Moshida, 2004). It is a computerized medical record that prevents lost of productivity, improve clinical accuracy and charge captures. Experts are taking its institution’s paperless and tell the benefits of the next level of efficiency that are being delivered to the HIPAA V. DRUG Info today. All stakeholders in healthcare organization and caregivers, consumers, purchasers, payers and policy making are focused in the orientation of medical errors and weighing the health care providers involve. Thousands of people did it every year as a result of Adverse Drug Event (ADE). The result is efficient, high-quality care. In relation to this study, the system reduced paper works and avoids loss of files or manipulation of medical information/records. A study (Peters,2004) wrote the System Analysis and Design refers to the process of examining a situation and deciding whether improvements is deserved or feasible. The intent of the system investigation is to study a business process and evaluating it. Manage should be a result, not an â€Å"intent†. In developing a system, a process is set to meet are the dissatisfaction of the present systems on the part of the beneficiaries, such as the personnel and the applicant, the new system should at least give then the ease of maintaining a fast and better procedure on handling records. According to William, (2002) A system is combined with a function or purpose and each person thinks in terms of the job he or she is trying to accomplish. It is necessary to explore alternative ways of some changes to be made. Manage should be a result, not an intent. † It is impossible to set standard for handling applicant and employees records. The only matter to be considered is simply developing the best system which is set to meet the requirements of file handling and management. In this book the way of doing something to see if the method should continue as is modified slightly completely revised. A study Henry F. Korths (2003) states that: â€Å"The system should produce meaningful results quickly. This usually means action reports an a basic on immediate responses to inquiries. It does not eliminate entirely the traditional historical aspect, but it does not mean, that such reports most supplement with current oriented reports† Local Literature According to the article â€Å"Asian Hospital uses new info system for faster, efficient transactions â€Å"(Veroy Robert,2006) states that the system, called Hospital 2000, is highly-specialized software that integrates the hospital’s various systems into a single platform and one database. Hospital 2000 takes account on specially-designed programs that will facilitate the hospital’s internal transactions to better serve the inpatient and outpatient populations. â€Å"Running a modern hospital requires proper data facilitation and accurate system management to deliver efficient and real time transactions particularly between doctors and patients. That’s why with this new system, we are now at par, if not better, than any other hospital in the Asia-Pacific region,† said Pamela Robinson, Asian Hospital CEO and President. The system, according to Asian Hospital Director for General Services Joel Garcia, has three major components covering administrative, clinical and imaging activities. Furthermore, the system takes care of the hospital’s financial records, purchasing, recording functions, and on-line ordering system for the nurse’s station. Hospital 2000 was specifically made for Bumrungrad Hospital, a Bangkok-based healthcare facility, in 1998. Asian Hospital recently sealed a partnership with Bumrungrad International in an effort to upgrade its existing facilities including the hospital’s information and communications technology system. The need for efficient records management and information service in the administration of justice in the Philippines, may be addressed through IT. It is interwoven into almost every hand of the country’s social fabric and the judiciary is not exempted Chief Justice Andres Narvasce said that â€Å"the benefits of using an Information Technology in judicial system is readily apparent†. An article in Metropolitan times, Volume No. 27, states that the high court created the computerization committee tasked with the automation of the Supreme Court. The committee’s first task include the installation of a Case Administration System (CAS). The CAS links the different offices with are primary concerned with the supreme counts judicial work through a Local Area Network. According to Sacobel (2004) the progress is significant because it is capable of decongesting the back loss of cases in the courts. The chief justice believes that if the case is available and the system prepared to use it, then it becomes simply a matter of you providing the necessary logistical support. The high tribunal is currently proposing revisions in the laws in production with the objective of simplifying procedure. Though there will be substantial changes. They are intended to harmonize the rules in this area of the law and simplify the work of lawyer and judges. This would translate into faster more efficient case disposition and overall improvement of justice system. A popular author of Accounting Parsin (2005), states in his book that business organization are using computers to improve their efficiency and reduce their cost of operation. Reports are more timely and accelerate computer have manipulate and recall data to the form , all users wishes to use with the introduction of microcomputers computation of business is more affordable. He also stated that computers are beneficial to the improvement of the company. Reduce time, effort and money. Computers play a major role in every company for their improvement and giving quality service to their respective customers. According to Chua (2003) it pervades every aspect of our lives. Ti has become ubiquitous and essential for developments. The information technology embarks the passage of our time. It is necessary to adapt to response our changing needs. It corresponds to the unfolding body of knowledge which is now being sensible anywhere. Information Technology nowadays becomes a necessity, OLE to the beneficial aspect it brings in human life. It tends to keep daily routines efficient, accurate and timely to the needs depending to the needs of people. According to Simons (2006) as Information Technology continues to burst, it gives attention to different aspect of the needs of the user. â€Å"In this tech-driven age, scientific break through made practically everyday as a science and technology march forwards to the proverbial leads and bonds†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . The prolongation of this breakthrough gives convenience life to the users, which signifies the progress of computerization. It comes in different aspects in offices, hospital, establishments, even at home. Thus, computerized information system is a phenomenon to handle, for it adapts to relevant needs to different people. Foreign Literature An article entitled China’s Computer-aided Hospital Management System( Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang Washington,2004) states that China – Computer Hospital Management System 11/30/94 BEIJING, CHINA, 1994 NOV 30 — A computer-aided hospital management system has been developed by Xinyuan Electronic Corporation, a subsidiary of the First Research Institute of the Electronic Industry Ministry of China. The company claims that, with its user-friendly interface and flexible networking the system is suitable for almost for all kinds of hospitals. The developed system is being used by several civil and military hospitals in Beijing, China. Currently, a complete system consists of nine subsystems, including clinic management, medical record management, in-patient department management, statistic department management, price management, dispensary management, preparation manufacturing management, and general manager information system. An application system for a specific hospital can be constructed by using some or all of these subsystems. The overall system software is developed in the C programming language on Novell networks. Its database files are claimed to be compatible with Xbase’s. All departments in the hospital can input their information at workstations and share information with other members on the network. The system offers menus and help information in Chinese. The system also uses advanced multimedia techniques. For example, the system gives voice output for price information and touch-screen- operation at pharmacy departments. An article entitled â€Å"With a Sharp focus on Pharmacy Medicine Shoppe posts double –digit gains† (Earl Smith, 2001) states that medical shoppe posts double digit gains narrates that part of its success is due to the number of Pharmacy specific innovations implemented over the past year. According to Ronald Hofmeister, R. Ph executive vice president of pharmacy operations. These innovations includes automation and work flow efficiencies, a program and an enhanced prescription compounding program. Looking at the retail pharmacy today and the challenges to making a profit, Hofmeister stated â€Å"Retail Pharmacy has a tremendous opportunity to properly position and fulfill our role as the provider of true, efficient, effective and accessible health care in any government prescription drug program for seniors, if we fail to do it correctly, retail will be challenged to remain profitable with only dispensing fees related to such programs. With this, the study should put into consideration the role of the Pharmaceutics Company in rendering services to the people fulfilling its commitments to give quality services by providing the right prescription drug will also result into a true and efficient health care to its customers. According to Flamholtz (2003) still defined that records would prove continuing records for system. These records reflect the result of the â€Å"cycle play sick record†. The computerization of record means agreement is beyond reducing operating cost mean agreement is beyond reducing operating cost of bill. It cannot make a decision for the user. It only shows what is happening. It is a management system that provides records usability throughout bound, receiving, order processing, storage and shipping. This system generates loading instruction and view release orders. Almost 500 companies information a series of standard software pack as compatible software packages from the company are designed to interface automated and manual materials storage system. Millar(2003) stated in his article entitled â€Å"New Technology will enhance patient care† the Calgary health region has entered into an agreement to purchase an innovative new health information system to better manage patient information support the delivery of high-quality care and enhance patient safety in its hospital. He said that patient care information system would provide timely access to information critical for clinical decision making, help reduce the potential for clinical decision making, help reduce potential for medical errors and speed up the flow of information that can be critical to saving lives. Having access to a complete and consiste