Engineering - Anaerobic Digestion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Engineering - Anaerobic Digestion - Essay Example Leading in the Go Green, campaign is biogas. Biogas is defined as a mixture of carbon dioxide and methane gas, which is sourced from the breakdown of organic matter, usually waste, in a process referred to as anaerobic digestion. The process is a method by which raw biogas is converted into cleaner, efficient and easier used energy sources. Planning a biogas plant Designing a biogas plant is an engineering problem that has to be approached by considering all the operational, economic, environmental and sustainability conditions. Before designing the biogas plant in the Middle East, the engineer has to first engage in plans, which are conceptualized ideas, but not suited for any one given application. In planning, some of the considerations to look into include the naturally occurring resources, agricultural development, social conventions, customer energy requirements and possible construction site. Careful planning is necessary to eliminate present and cumulative or multiplier effec ts on the design. As a biogas digester (production unit) is a costly investment, it cannot be simply set up as a temporary station. Design The design of the biogas unit is dependent on the conditions a given society poses to the objective. A biogas unit is affected by numerous conditions such as the environmental conditions, design and socio-economic conduct of the people of that region. The choice of the design is determined by the conditions of the chosen site. Designing a biogas unit in the Middle East is a generalized idea, to come up with a perfect unit, the engineer has to analyse the conditions and challenges a given site provides. Just as any system, the biogas production plat is affected by the input and any additional disturbances, which are reflected in the output (which in our case is biogas). Physical conditions Physical conditions are one of the most influential factors when it comes to designing and setting up a biogas digester. Since the anaerobic process of biogas p roduction is quite sensitive to temperature, then care should be taken in considering the climate of a given locale. Other conditions apart from the climate of a location that may be put to test include the soil conditions, the feedstock or substrate for digestion, and the available building material. The design considerations in terms of the substrate and size of the digester are determined by the consumers as well as the available building material. Insulation of the digester happens to be the main consideration in setting up the plant. The anaerobic process operates at temperatures of between 30 and 60 C. keeping the temperature between these limits is of great necessity to ensure that the bacteria involved in the digestion process lives, for high or low temperature leads to their death. Skills and labour Another requirement in designing is skills and labour. The technology involved in setting up a biogas plant is sophisticated and requires skills from both the constructors and d esigners. The complexity of the design usually dictates the type and level of skill involved in the construction process. Depending on the size, distance and costs, the biogas digester may be prefabricated or made in-situ. Standardization Although plants may be designed to fit the needs of a given consumer, there is a need for standardizing the design.

Since the early 20th century, ideologies such as Arab nationalism Essay

Since the early 20th century, ideologies such as Arab nationalism Ba'thism and pan-Islamism have enjoyed varying degrees of su - Essay Example Confronted with the obvious failure of Arab ideologies, specifically Arab nationalism, Ba’thist Arab Socialism, and pan-Islamism, to achieve wider Arab unity, several intellectuals resorted yet again to religion. An unnamed writer in Jordan described the experience of the Arab world in the ideological domain throughout the 20th century, and concluded that the Arab world â€Å"never enjoyed a comprehensive ideology except under the State of the Prophet Muhammad and his great Caliphs, Abu-Bakr and Umar† (Rejwan, 1974, p.32). This essay discusses why ideologies such as Arab nationalism, Ba’thism, and pan-Islamism have failed to achieve a wider Arab unity. Arab Nationalism and Arab Unity It was only at the end of the First World War that the relevant concept of the ‘Arab nation’ surfaced and Arab nationalism slowly became a political movement. Intellectuals instead of political figures were at the vanguard of the movement. They adopted the ideology of na tionalism from Europe and they utilised it to break new ground for the Arab nation (Young, Zuelow, & Sturm, 2007). However, Arab nationalism was an utter failure. There were challenging, overwhelming hindrances along its route. Primarily, there were rivalling allegiances to religion, faction, and tribe, as well as opposing identities. Moreover, there was persistent conflict between Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and other regional states and the bigger, inclusive Arab identity. The other, and possibly most unexpected, barrier to the idea of a united Arab world was linguistic differences in the region (Choueiri, 2005). However, the most influential rival of the notion of a secular Arab world was the idea of a unified Islamic community. Islam was one of the grand cosmopolitan ideologies with a right to the loyalty of most Arabs. Islam is more encompassing than pan-Arabism for it did not set apart Arab from non-Arab. The Islamic community was a union wherein ethnic background is irrelevant. Given these profound and persistent rifts and differences, it was an almost unachievable mission to attain the two core goals of Arab nationalism—sovereignty and unity. Another goal was created at the end of the Second World War—to protect Arab ownership of Palestine. The 1948 Arab-Israeli War was the critical stage in the fight for Palestine (Joffe, 1983). It was expected that Arab unity would be built on the combat zone against a single adversary. It was the most important ordeal for the newly autonomous Arab states, but they did not pass the test. The failure of these states to synchronise their military and political campaigns was one of the main reasons for the defeat of Palestine (Podeh, 1999). The hopeful possibilities that emerged once the Arabs conducted war against the Zionist enemies raised disenchantment and anguish over the miserable destruction of Arab Palestine. A very unique aspect of modern-day Arab nation is the startling discrepancy between vision and rea lity. Pan-Arabism is the declared ideology among the powerful elite and the dominant belief among the Arab people, but the Arab nation still struggles with the decline of civil life and deep-rooted disunity. Attempts at political and social unity have been prevented by oppressive situations,

W3HIAEffective project management in an organizational context Assignment

W3HIAEffective project management in an organizational context - Assignment Example 4. Outline Methods That You Would Consider In Building an Effective Project Team 6 References 7 Q.1. Evaluate How the Different Project Interface (I.E., With Rest of the Organisation and With the Outside World) Are Different When Managing A Virtual Project Team Compared To Managing A ‘Collocated’ Project Team Project management is regarded as one of the crucial activities of an organisation which tends to plan, organize and execute available resources towards the attainment of organisational targets. This particular approach can also be seen in Starbucks Corporation wherein the company develops both virtual and collocated teams for ensuring smooth conduct of effective project management related practices within the organisation. However, the organisation has the need to develop different strategies in order to maintain the two aforementioned teams. In managing virtual project team, the organisation needs to manage goals, build effectual communication and keep people moti vated in a diverse way. Setting clear goals is important in managing virtual teams for the purpose of facilitating the teams to clarify any sort of doubt. Additionally, proper communication is also a key variable which can be used in managing virtual teams in the context of project management. ... The company manages these teams through analyzing their daily activities (Trautsch, 2003). Q. 2. Synthesize Views from Your Wider Academic Reading on How You Might Best Communicate and Coordinate Your Virtual Project Team As mentioned in the above discussion, proper communication is one of the vital variables which is quite useful in managing a virtual project team effectively. It can be affirmed in this similar concern that proper communication can be possible with the adherence of certain useful approaches in dealing with virtual project team. One of the approaches is the implementation of electronic communication which includes e-mail and telecommunication among others. Through this approach, the organisation needs to interact periodically with virtual team members which will ensure building proper communication. Furthermore, the approach of communication will also include building greater relationship of trust with the virtual team members along with clearly stating them about th e expectations of the organisation. Apart from this, the organisation will also need to adopt effective communication techniques that involve less time. Coordination is a problem in virtual project team as the team is not located close to the organisation on a regular basis. In order to strengthen this aspect, the organisation needs to design its project clearly and precisely. It is also important that virtual team understands what the actual needs of the project and how to proceed for the same. This will ensure forming greater coordination amid every member of the virtual project teams (Witthaus & et. al., 2008). Q.3. Comment in Your Paper on the Relevance of the Problems and Suggestions Shown On Page 232. Show How Your Wider

Leadership management assignment 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Leadership management assignment 1 - Essay Example This is in line with the company’s recruitment policy to help them get the most qualified at affordable remuneration (Luecke 2003). This is therefore done to ensure that the selected individual to fill the position of the manager is the best across the region. They received several applications for the position of the managing director; the group underwent a rigorous recruitment process and finally was left with an individual to negotiate with their starting salary on the job. The remaining individual was from Mexico. In the negotiation process different negotiation skills were outlined that resulted into a successful with a few instances of messing up. Its Human resource manager represented the company on the salary negotiation table while the other side was the individual whose starting salary was to be negotiated (Jacks 2011). Person Position Character A Human resource Manager He is a highly Sociable, Extrovert and democratic B Newly recruited employee Also quite extroverte d, friendly, polite, and highly conscious For new employees of any given firm it is normally safe to negotiate for higher starting salaries before accepting the job offer because after this the new employee will be subjected to the normal salary increase payment plans of the company, which depends on extraordinary performance (Young 1975). The new recruit therefore needed to negotiate for a higher pay than what they used to earn in their former position hence the need for the negotiation skills. The HR manager of company X also needs to be a good negotiator to make sure that they provide the company with manageable expenses and it is willing to negotiate the starting salary of the employee as a whole. The employee is though considering the option of first negotiating the basic pay because given their character they are likely to be confused if they combined the negotiations together with those for the other benefits. This would be to the disadvantage of the employee if the pre-deter mined salary were already advertised (Zartman 1978). A â€Å"Hello Mr. F, this is X company as we talked over the phone, I gaze you are here to talk about the remuneration package of the job offer that we just shortlisted you for the other day. According to the company policy, we would be glad to offer you a salary package of $60,000 yearly plus the benefits, which would vary depending on several variables. Would you be ok with that?† B :I am interested in the job yes but I would not mind if you offered me a salary package of $68,000 per year plus the packages as we would negotiate if it is at the best interests of the company,† A â€Å"$68,000 is not even the average industry rate leave alone what we normally start offering our employees. However, because of your skills and presumed competence, we would not mind offering you a $65,000 package yearly and the benefits as it would be negotiated. How about that?† B "Thank you for your offer and I am certainly intere sted in the position and Company. Can I get back to you later this afternoon or first thing in the morning" A â€Å"You are most welcome and highly appreciate the time that you took to present yourself for interviews. Please make a point of communicating tomorrow given that we need to fill the position immediately. Anyway, your positive response will be highly appreciated. Nice time.†

Philosophy and Its Branches Essay Example for Free

Philosophy and Its Branches Essay The study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline. Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. It is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. Origin: Middle English: from Old French philosophie, via Latin from Greek philosophia love of wisdom. Philosophy comes from the Greek for love of wisdom, giving us two important starting points: love (or passion) and wisdom (knowledge, understanding). Philosophy sometimes seems to be pursued without passion as if it were a technical subject. Although there is a role for dispassionate research, philosophy must derive from some passion for the ultimate goal: a reliable, accurate understanding ourselves and our world. Branches of philosophy: The following branches are the main areas of study: †¢Metaphysics is the study of the nature of being and the world. Traditional branches are cosmology and ontology. †¢Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge, and whether knowledge is possible. Among its central concerns has been the challenge posed by skepticism and the relationships between truth, belief, and justification. †¢Ethics, or moral philosophy, is concerned with questions of how persons ought to act or if such questions are answerable. The main branches of ethics are meta-ethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. †¢Political philosophy is the study of government and the relationship of individuals and communities to the state.

Plato and Mill on the relationship between individual and society Essay Example for Free

Plato and Mill on the relationship between individual and society Essay Plato was born around 428-7 BC, he lived for the most part of his life in Athens, and had much to say about Athenian democracy. Mill was born much later in London in 1806, but although over two thousand years of political philosophy divide the two, much of the same issues and concerns arise in both their work though often with very different outlooks. Despite their differing opinions Plato and Mill are both antithetical, or in other words believe that the tyranny of the majority is to be feared. Plato believes that individuals are selfish and pursue their own self-interests at the expense of the rest of the population, and follow their own moral path. The philosopher individual is epitomised by the Gadfly. The gadfly is referred to by Plato in the Apology, to describe Socrates relationship with the Athenian political scene. Socrates believed he irritated for the purpose of leading people closer to the truth to sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of truth. The gadfly describes a person who upsets the status quo by posing lots of questions. Plato states that while the gadfly is easy to swat, the cost to society of silencing an individual simply because of his irritancy could be extremely high. This seems to contradict some of what he has to say on his republic, as he stifles the lower class citizens in the Kallipolis, counting their opinions as obsolete in comparison to the philosophers. The gadfly is also mentioned in the Bible in the Book of Jeremiah also relating to political influence Egypt is a very fair heifer; the gadfly cometh, it cometh from the North. Plato believes that Democracy fosters the wrong kind of individual, hence the Kallipolis, which is the inverse of Democracy, designed to bring about the right way of living. In Platos view, an individual is fulfilled by the contribution that he or she makes to the overall functioning of the community, and the Kallipolis is designed to make this possible for everyone. Platos state also respects the individuality of its members and treats them equally. In Platos republic, the state limits the freedom of its individuals, but only to ensure that all the members receive the same amount of freedom. In effect, Plato believes that the repression of individual freedom results in equal freedom for the society as a whole. This is contrasted to Mill, whose view is that, excluding children, the individual is sovereign over himself, his body and his mind. Interference in an individuals beliefs or actions is wrong. Unless it is known that one is inflicting harm upon another, interference is not justified. Mill has three liberties that are the hallmark of a free society- the first is the freedom of thoughts and sentiment on all subjects, including freedom of expression and publication. The second liberty is the freedom of taste; the fact that others may disapprove of an individuals actions or beliefs, is not justified by Mill as the basis of interference, for example homosexuality. The third and final liberty necessary for a free society is the freedom of individuals to unite as long as the resulting union does not lead to others being harmed as a result. Mill forbids coercion and deception within the union, as he believes it is unjustified to have a direct negative impact on the utility of others (this does not involve doing something which someone else does not agree with). Mill encourages individualism and self-development or human flourishing as he believes that it will only benefit society, as the individuals will be able to contribute more if they reach their full potential and are allowed to develop their own ideals and opinions. Mill has concerns over the limits of which power can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual. Safeguards are necessary to ensure that the majority does not suppress the minority. Mankind would be no more justified in silencing one person, than that one person; if he had the power would be justified in silencing mankind. Plato believes that false opinions could be dangerous to society, whereas Mill would say they were necessary in order to help obtain the truth, something that we as humans so desperately strive to obtain. Plato believes that satisfying our desires is something scarcely worth caring about, whereas Mill would encourage us to do so as long as it brings utility rather than harm. Free discussion in Mills opinion will only aid us in getting closer to the truth, as who is to decide what is true if there is no proof? A combination of views, questions and opinions are better than one view or opinion that is decided to be true, and not questioned. There are always people who will disagree with something that others agree with, so who is right? Plato believes that in order to have a productive and harmonious society, conditioning or training is necessary to ensure that the members actual desires coincide as far as possible with their real desires, thus reducing conflict. Mill would argue that this is in a sense brainwashing the individuals to believe that they are happy and that they are fulfilling desires, when in fact they are only fulfilling what the Philosopher Kings have told them they desire. Plato believes in critical freedom, which the Kallipolis is intended to provide to its members as much as their nature permits, Mill however believes in actual freedom in which all is permitted but harm (The Harm Principle). Mills rejection of social contracts is accompanied with the acceptance of certain rules of conduct in our dealing with others in return for the protection we receive from society. For example, we are bound to observe and respect the rights of others and according to him As soon as any part of a persons conduct affects prejudicially the interests of others, society has jurisdiction over it. Otherwise Mill states that foolish actions do not deserve penalties, and that mature individuals should be left to develop and coagulate their own views and act on their own impulses. All society can do is help educate its members as to what is moral and immoral before they reach the state of maturity and therefore the freedom they have a right to. Platos similes are used to demonstrate the negative aspects of democracy and Athenian politicians. The simile of the cave is used to show how politicians will conceal the truth from the people (represented by the prisoners). The people are ignorant and do not possess the knowledge that they deserve. The prisoners are bound and only have a view of the wall in front of them, there is a fire behind them, between them and the wall is nothing. All that the prisoners can see are shadows of themselves, and of the objects behind them. The prisoners naively believe that the shadows are real as they have nothing else upon which to base their knowledge. One of the prisoners manages to escape from the cave, and in the light of the sun sees the real world for the first time. He realises that all this time he was deceived by shadows. This man, if according to Plato is in possession of the capacity for knowledge and wisdom will feel it is his duty to go back to the cave, release his fellow prisoners and enlighten them. The other prisoners are hard to persuade however, as his exposure to the sunlight renders him unable to see the shadows as clearly as before, and so the prisoners just think that he is less intelligent than when he was trapped. Plato justifies the Philosopher Kings lying to the people in order to protect them. Plato argues the necessity of a structured organised society separate from the outside world in which every individual reaches their maximum potential and has a fundamental part to play in contributing all they can to their community as a whole. Education is available to all members of the Kallipolis regardless of gender. Mill states in his introductory chapter to On Liberty that the struggle between liberty and authority is the most conspicuous feature. Mill developed a principle to counteract what he calls the interference of collective opinion on an individuals independence, this principle was called the Liberty principle. Mill and Plato have different styles of communicating their points, Mill expresses his ideas in the form of discursive arguments, Plato however expresses his ideas in the form of dialogue, something which Mill praises Plato for regardless of their conflicting conclusions. Platos Kallipolis, or utopia is designed as a hierarchical state consisting of three different classes, the Producers, the Auxiliaries, and the Guardians. These three different classes will have very different experiences of life, and which one they will lead depends on their capacity for knowledge. The three classes experience different upbringings, and receive different levels of education. Plato contradicts himself, he says that all people in the Kallipolis should be friends and equals yet he also unashamedly states that the Producers will not be able to choose how they wish to live their lives, and that their opinions are the least worthy. The Producers are in effect not free, but rather slaves to their senior ranking class, the Guardians. The Producers are thought to be the least intelligent mass of the population, and they are therefore expected to trust and believe their rulers. This is justified by Plato because it is better for them to be under the control of divine wisdom something that the minority of the population possess, and what makes those that do worthy to rule over all others. Platos belief is that if these less intelligent people are allowed to think freely, then they will make the wrong choices, and an individual is only worth what they contribute to their community as a whole. This means that personal desires are not as important as the overall functioning of the community, which is immaculately ruled by the Philosopher Kings who have the ability to learn and retain the knowledge leaded to rule and guide the citizens of the Kallipolis. Mills views contradict these of Platos; his liberalist view is that the individual is important in creating the desired environment within the state and is worthy of reaching their full potential in all areas. Mill considers freedoms of opinion and of actions necessary, and his Harm Principle was made to help protect other individuals from being hurt. Mill believes that individuals have a fundamental right to discover and develop their knowledge to their maximum capacity with the absence of a priori constraints. Platos view on the freedom of individual development of knowledge is that it is the despotism of custom. Mill prioritises the freedom of thought and expression; he believes that unless we push an argument to its absolute limit, then we cannot claim to fully understand it. Mill says that we must listen to everyone, even those that offend us, or those who we believe to be irrelevant. Mills justification for this is that if one person speaks out against an otherwise unanimous society about a certain topic, and they are right, then they could enlighten the mass to the truth. If they speak out and are found to be wrong, then they have simply helped the mass come closer to the truth by falsely opposing it. Platos analogy of the Beast shows how politicians will keep society happy in the short term, while not regarding what is best for them in the long term. It works on the basis of keeping the people satisfied rather than truly doing what is best for them (according to Plato). The keeper of the Beast manipulates it with what is wants at the time by giving it treats, with no regards for its health. It is made clear however that the Beast is manipulating the keeper too, by getting what it currently desires out of him. For this reason Plato says that freedom to do what one wants when ignoring the absolute truth, or the long term real effects of certain action or decision can be damaging to the inward domain of consciousness. Similarly, his analogy of the Ship of State depicts his attitude on Athenian democracy. The captain of the ship is stronger than any of the crew, but he lacks the skill of working on and handling the boat. The crew argue over who should be in control, and beg the captain to allow them to take control of the ship. Those who succeed turn the voyage into a drunken pleasure cruise. The true navigator or star-gazer is overlooked by his fellow men although he is the only one skilled enough to actually guide the ship, he possesses the art of navigation, and seamanship. He is unable to gain the control needed to steer the ship to safety. The captain represents Athenian citizens responsive only to the rhetoric of the crew, the crew represent the politicians, they are manipulative and are not concerned with the truth, but rather power. Plato says that eventually the crew will ask the navigator for help, sacrificing their freedom and control for their safety and social benefit. The navigator is capable of using his knowledge of astronomy (knowledge of Being) to help guide the ship and those on it through a world of constantly changing and sometimes-dangerous weather conditions (the world of Becoming). The crew must surrender to the navigator, as he possesses not opinions or beliefs, but facts. The crew have to recognise his superior knowledge and therefore his authority, although they would fail to do so if it did not ultimately benefit them. Mill would argue that this analogy is incomplete, for the crew are able to be taught the skill of navigation themselves and do not need to rely solely on the star-gazer, wouldnt a crew of capable navigators be better than just one? Mill would argue that it is vital for the well being of the state to be able to argue against the truth. He argues the positive value of blasphemy as it challenges assumptions that are established as being right or wrong. We can criticise Mill for assuming that all individuals are capable of being rational and having rational thoughts and discussions. Equally, Plato fails to recognise the need for questioning and testing and assumes that people will accept sacrificing their freedom because he tells them too. If the tyranny of the majority is to be feared then why would Plato put the minority in power, and deprive the majority of control over their lives and the lives of their children? Mill and Plato hold the same or similar views on the issue of gender. Plato says that all citizens of the Republic, male or female will have access to equal education, as gender is obsolete when knowledge is the main focus, although a woman could never become a Philosopher Ruler. In 1869 Mill wrote The Subjection of Women, in which he encouraged and supported equal rights for both genders. Mill encouraged the equal rights for women on the basis of utility. He argued that we could not criticise women for being less skilled than men if we did not give them equal opportunity to try. He also said that society could not be at its best when half the population could contribute nothing to society outside of the home. Plato had a number of conditions that he says will help maximise the usefulness of all members of society, the stories which children are told must be authorised, and there is the censorship of music and the restriction of meat and fish unless it is roasted. Children are to be removed from their parents and are not to know who their parents are and visa versa. They are to call all males old enough father and all females mother, the purpose of this was to minimise private possessive emotions therefore reinforcing their focus on their relationship with their community. Deformed children and children of inferior breeding will be put away in some mysterious unknown place as they ought to be. The works of Homer and Hesiod, two of the earliest Greek poets are banned, as they encourage their readers to fear death, and depict the heavens as being filled with the inextinguishable laughter of the blessed Gods. Plato on the other hand banned loud laughter. Mill would argue that this repression is an infringement of basic human rights, and the suppression of individual development and human flourishing will do nothing but hinder the development and progression of mankind. How can society benefit if most individuals are at a disadvantage as to developing their own unique skills? Plato classifies people in three groups, as gold, the best members of society fit to be guardians, as silver members fit to be soldiers, and the common herd of brass and iron, fit only to be the producers. This is what Plato describes as the one royal lie used to deceive both the rulers, and the rest of the city, if he can justify lying about Gods creation of the three differing classes of people then why is he justified in choosing which one they belong to? Breeding is organised with the strongest members of society used simply to keep the population constant and as best bred as they can be. The strongest of sires are allowed to have the most children and the weaker ones less. The fundamental difference between Mill and Plato is that while Plato wished to radically change the structure of society in order to condition and force the people to behave and think in a certain way, Mill would leave the people to develop naturally, yet offer them all the education and teaching needed to steer them away from negative things and intervene only when one is inflicting harm upon another. Mills two main criticisms of Platos republic are that the proper function of the state is to regulate behaviour, not to encourage one or anothers set of belief or values. The second is that tolerance should be restricted to cases where it does not undermine the moral foundations of the community. He would argue that social bigotry should be restrained for the sake of encouraging freedom of thought and expression. Mill endorses Grotes admiration of Athenian tolerance, as tolerance is a necessity and encourages genius as a society may have persons of talentbut genius in such a soil is fatally stunted in its growth. Plato on the other hand criticises Athenian tolerance on the basis that the maintenance of public emotions requires repression by both law and by non-legal sanctions. He held the belief that Athenian tolerance undermines civic spirit required for the furtherance of the tolerant society itself. Aristotle, a student of Platos born in 384BC stated that it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. It is interesting that somebody taught by Plato would recognise the need for the self-development of opinion, something that Mill believes to be essential for a progressive society. Mill states that his father taught him to value Plato and his contributions to philosophy, and he says that he does just that. He called himself a pioneer when he began his translations of Platos work. Perhaps this was because he believed that the time that separated the two philosophers had made way for changes albeit dramatic, to Platos ideas that would concur with the modern world. Mill criticised Plato for trying to show that virtue is in the individuals interest, but also for attempting to give justification that virtue should be preferred at all. Neither Plato nor Mills work is flawless, so criticisms can be made on their errors and self-contradictions, yet both of these men helped advance philosophy immensely, and provided the basis of much discussion and debate. For Mill, freedom is necessary and desirable by both the individual and society. For Plato however freedom is not of fundamental concern; it is far more important to live according to the eternal and immutable truths. Herein lays the biggest contrast in the works of these two influential philosophers as regards the relationship between the individual and society.

Data Mining techniques

Data Mining techniques ABSTRACT Competitive advantage requires abilities. Abilities are built through knowledge. Knowledge comes from data. The process of extracting knowledge from data is called Data Mining. Data mining, the extraction of hidden predictive information from large databases, is advance technique to help companies to highlight the most important information in their data warehouses. Data mining tools predicts future trends and behaviors. Data mining tools can answer business questions that traditionally were too time consuming to resolve. Data Mining techniques can be implemented rapidly on existing software and hardware platforms to enhance the value of existing information resources, and can be integrated with new products and system as they are brought online. A Data warehouse is a platform that contains all of an organizations data in one place in a centralized and normalized form for deployment to users, to fulfill simple reporting to complicated analysis, decision support and executive level reporting/archiving needs. Physically, a data warehouse is a repository of information that businesses need to thrive in the information age. Analytically, a data warehouse is a modern reporting environment that provides users direct access to their data. In the information age, data warehousing is a powerful strategic weapon. Not only does it let organizations compete across time, it is also a rising tide strategy that can elevate the strategic acumen of all employees in a fields. This paper presents an overview of the data mining and warehousing, their basic definitions, how they are implemented and their pros and cons. DATA WAREHOUSING In todays competitive global business environment, it is crucial for organisations to understand and manage enterprise wide information for making timely decisions and respond to changing business conditions. With the receding economy, enterprises have changed their business focus towards customer orientation to remain competitive. Consequently, CRM tops their agenda and many companies are realizing the business advantage of leveraging one of their key assets data. Many research reports indicate that the amount of data in a given organization doubles every five years. As said earlier, the most fundamental aspect affecting the successful functioning of a business enterprise is the crucial decisions taken in this regard by the management. The cardinal entity that helps them in taking these decisions is the business critical information. This information can only be reliable and accurate if all the business related data is properly analyzed and further a thorough analysis is only possible if all the data affecting the enterprise is present at one place. The solution a data warehouse! Data Warehouse is a single, complete consistent store of data obtained from a variety of different sources made available to end users in what they can understand use in a business context. Today, data warehousing is one of the most talked-about business technologies in the corporate world. DATA MINING Data mining is a powerful new technology with great potential to help companies focus on the most important information in the data they have collected about the behavior of their customers and potential customers. It discovers information within the data that queries and reports cant effectively reveal. The amount of raw data stored in corporate databases is exploding. From trillions of point-of-sale transactions and credit card purchases to pixel-by-pixel images of galaxies, databases are now measured in gigabytes and terabytes. Raw data by itself, however, does not provide much information. In todays fiercely competitive business environment, companies need to rapidly turn these terabytes of raw data into significant insights into their customers and markets to guide their marketing, investment. Fig: Data Explosion Data mining, or knowledge discovery, is the computer-assisted process of digging through and analyzing enormous sets of data and then extracting the meaning of the data. Data mining tools predict behaviors and future trends, allowing businesses to make proactive, knowledge-driven decisions. Data mining tools can answer business questions that traditionally were too time consuming to resolve. They scour databases for hidden patterns, finding predictive information that experts may miss because it lies outside their expectations. Data mining derives its name from the similarities between searching for valuable information in a large database and mining a mountain for a vein of valuable ore. Both processes require either sifting through an immense amount of material, or intelligently probing it to find where the value resides. Frequently, the data to be mined is first extracted from an enterprise data warehouse into a data mining database or data mart .The data mining database may be a logical rather than a physical subset of your data warehouse. DATA WAREHOUSING 1. DEFINITION: A data warehousing (DW) is a subject-oriented, integrated, time variant, non-volatile collection of data in support of managements decision making. A data warehouse is a relational database management system (RDMS) which offer organizations the ability to gather and store enterprise information in a single conceptual enterprise repository and is designed specifically to meet the needs of transaction processing systems. Data Warehousing deals with the organizing collecting data into database that can be searched mined for information through the use of intelligence solution. 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF A DATA WAREHOUSE 1) Subject-oriented The data in the database is organized so that all the data elements relating to the same real-world event or object are linked together; 2) Time-variant The changes to the data in the database are tracked and recorded so that reports can be produced showing changes over time; 3) Non-volatile Data in the database is never over-written or deleted once committed, the data is static, read-only, but retained for future reporting; and 4) Integrated The database contains data from most or all of an organizations operational applications, and that this data is made consistent. 3. ARCHITECTURE OF DATA WAREHOUSE The architecture for a data warehouse is given below. Building this architecture requires four basic steps: 1) Data are extracted from the various and internal source system files and databases. In a large organization there may be dozens or even hundreds of such files and databases. 2) The data from the various source systems are transformed and integrated before being loaded into the data warehouse. Transactions may be sent to the sources system to correct errors discover in data staging. 3) The data warehouse is a database organized for decision support. It contains both detailed and summary data. 4) User access the data warehouse by means of a variety of query languages and analytical tools. Results (e.g. prediction, forecast ) may be fed back to data ware house and operational databases. Information integrated in advance Stored in warehouse for direct querying and analysis Fig: Architecture of typical data warehouse ,and the querying and data-analysis support Architecture in Conceptual View Single-layer Every data element is stored once only Virtual warehouse Two-layer Real-time + derived data Most commonly used approach in industry today Three-layer transformation of real-time data to derived data really requires 2 steps 4. ISSUES IN BUILDING A WAREHOUSE 1) When and how gather data In a source driven architecture for gathering data, there data sources transmit new information. In a destination -driven architecture, the data warehouse periodically sends request for new data to the data source . 2) What Schema To Use Data sources that have been constructed independently are likely to have different schemas, part of data warehouse is schema integration, and to convert data to the integrated schema before they are stored .as a result data stored in warehouse are not just a copy of the data at the source 3) Data Cleansing The task of correcting and preprocessing data is called data cleansing data sources often deliver data with numerous minor inconsistencies that can be corrected. 4) How To Propagate Updates Updates on relations at the data sources must be propagated to data warehouse, if the relations at the data warehouse are exactly the same as those data source, propagation is straightforward 5) What To Summarize The data generated by the transaction-processing system may be too large to store online .we can maintain summary of data obtained by aggregation on a relation. 5. DATA WAREHOUSE MODEL Data warehousing is the process of extracting and transforming operational data into informational data and loading it into a central data store or warehouse. Once the data is loaded it is accessible via desktop query and analysis tools by the decision makers. The data warehouse model is illustrated in the following figure:. The materialized views contain summary data compiled from several data sources. The auxiliary views in the picture are not mandatory, and are used to contain additional information needed to support the synchronization of the materialized views with the data sources. Fig: Data ware house model The data within the actual warehouse itself has a distinct structure with the emphasis on different levels of summarization as shown in the figure below. Fig: Structure of data warehouse 6. STAGES IN IMPLEMENTATION A DW implementation requires the integration of implementation of many products. Following are the steps of implementation:- Step1: Collect and analyze the business requirements. Step2: Create a data model and physical design for the DW. Step3: Define the Data sources. Step4: Choose the DBMS and software platform for DW. Step5: Extract the data from the operational data sources, transfer it, clean it load into the DW model or data mart. Step6: Choose the database access and reporting tools. Step7: Choose the database connectivity software. Step8: Choose the data analysis and presentation software. Step9: Keep refreshing the data warehouse periodically. 7. DATA MARTS A data warehouse is the sum of all its data marts. A data mart is a complete pie-wedge of the overall data warehouse pie, a restriction of the data warehouse to a single business process or to a group of related business processes targeted toward a particular business group. Data marts can be customized for the end users ,and can present data in different formats for the end-users benefit. Data marts can employ OLAP , which is a method of database indexing that enhances quick access to data, specially in queries of data or viewing the data from many different aspects. DATA MINING 1. DEFINITION Data Mining, or Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) as it is also known, is the nontrivial extraction of implicit, previously unknown, and potentially useful information from data. Data mining refers to using a variety of techniques to identify nuggets of information or decision-making knowledge in bodies of data, and extracting these in such a way that they can be put to use in the areas such as decision support, prediction, forecasting and estimation. The data is often voluminous, but as it stands of low value as no direct use can be made of it; it is the hidden information in the data that is useful. A data mining is also defined as A new discipline lying at the interface of statistics, data base technology, pattern recognition, and machine learning, and concerned with secondary analysis of large data bases in order to find previously unsuspected relationships, which are of interest of value to their owners. 2. PROCESS The data mining process can be divided into four steps: Data Selection Data Processing Data Transformation Data Mining Interpretation Evaluation Fig: Process used in data mining 3. WORKING While large-scale information technology has been evolving separate transaction and analytical systems, data mining provides the link between the two. Data mining software analyzes relationships and patterns in stored transaction data based on open-ended user queries. Several types of analytical software are available: statistical, machine learning, and neural networks. Generally, any of four types of relationships are sought: Classes: Stored data is used to locate data in predetermined groups. For example, a restaurant chain could mine customer purchase data to determine when customers visit and what they typically order. This information could be used to increase traffic by having daily specials. Clusters: Data items are grouped according to logical relationships or consumer preferences. For example, data can be mined to identify market segments or consumer affinities. Associations: Data can be mined to identify associations. The beer-diaper example is an example of associative mining. Sequential patterns: Data is mined to anticipate behavior patterns and trends. For example, an outdoor equipment retailer could predict the likelihood of a backpack being purchased based on a consumers purchase of sleeping bags and hiking shoes. 4. MODELS RELATED TO DATA MINING There are two types of model or modes of operation, which may be used to discover information of interest to the user. 1) Verification Model: The verification model takes input from the user and tests the validity of it against the data. The emphasis is with the user who is responsible for formulating the hypothesis and issuing the query on the data to affirm or negate the hypothesis. 2) Discovery Model: The discovery model differs in its emphasis in that it is the system automatically discovering important information hidden in the data. The data is sifted in search of frequently occurring patterns, trends and generalizations about the data without intervention or guidance from the user. 5. TECHNIQUES USED IN DATA MINING Artificial neural networks: Non-linear predictive models that learn through training and resemble biological neural networks in structure. Decision trees: Tree-shaped structures that represent sets of decisions. These decisions generate rules for the classification of a dataset. Specific decision tree methods include Classification and Regression Trees (CART) and Chi Square Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID). Genetic algorithms: Optimization techniques that use processes such as genetic combination, mutation, and natural selection in a design based on the concepts of evolution. Nearest neighbor method: A technique that classifies each record in a dataset based on a combination of the classes of the k record(s) most similar to it in a historical dataset (where k  ³ 1). Sometimes called the k-nearest neighbor technique. Rule induction: The extraction of useful if-then rules from data based on statistical significance. 6. TWO STYLES OF DATA MINING There are two styles of data mining. Directed data mining is a top-down approach, used when we know what we are looking for. This often takes the form of predictive modeling, where we know exactly what we want to predict. Undirected data mining is a bottom-up approach that lets the data speak for itself. Undirected data mining finds patterns in the data and leaves it up to the user to determine whether or not these patterns are important. 7. POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS Data mining has many and varied fields of application some of which are listed below. Marketing: Identify buying patterns from customers Market basket analysis. Banking: Detect patterns of fraudulent credit card use Identify `loyal customers. Insurance and Health Care: Claims analysis, Predict which customers will buy new policies Identify fraudulent behavior. Transportation: Determine the distribution schedules Analyze loading patterns. CONCLUSION: Organizations today are under tremendous pressure to compete in an environment of tight deadlines and reduced profits. Legacy business processes that require data to be extracted and manipulated prior to use will no longer be acceptable. Instead, enterprises need rapid decision support based on the analysis and forecasting of predictive behavior. Data-warehousing and data-mining techniques provide this capability. A data warehouse is a modern reporting environment that provides users direct access to their data. A Data warehousing is the sum of all its Data Marts. Data warehousing strategy allows organizations to move from a defensive to an offensive decision-making position. The purpose of data warehouse is to consolidate and integrate data from a variety of sources and to format those data in a context for making accurate business decisions. Data mining offers firms in many industries the ability to discover hidden patterns in their data patterns that can help them understand customer behavior and market trends. The advent of parallel processing and new software technology enable customers to capitalize on the benefits of data mining more effectively than had been possible previously. REFERENCES 1) www.geekinterview.com/Interview-Questions/Data-Warehouse 2) www.datawarehousing.com/ 3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_warehouse 4) www.megaputer.com 5) www.research.microsoft.com