Cross site scripting Essay Example for Free

Cross site scripting Essay Cross-site scripting is form vulnerability for computer security which mainly occurs in web applications that accept injection of code by web users who happen to be malicious; such users inject the code into various web pages that are used by other web users. The most common codes that are usually injected by malicious web users include scripts of client side and HTML codes. Cross site scripting (XSS) vulnerability which is exploited is usually used by attackers for by passing the certain access controls, a good example of such bypass is a policy of the same origin. XSS originated from the fact that it is possible for a malicious web site to be loaded into another window or frame and then write or read data using java script on other web sites (Rafail, 2001). Cross site scripting vulnerabilities XSS vulnerabilities have been well exploited to come up with very powerful browser exploits and phishing attacks. XSS performed on websites were about eighty percent of all the recorded securities as indicated by the 2007 statistics. In most cases of attack every thing looks to be in order as far as the end users are concerned, but they are finally subjected to access which is not authorized, financial loss and loss of sensitive data (Rafail, 2001). The cross site scripting can be primarily be categorized into two: reflected and stored. But there is another type of cross site scripting which is not widely known, called DOM. The stored refer to those codes that once injected are stored in the target servers permanently. They can remain permanently in the message forum, database comment field, or in the visitor log. The reflected XSS attacks, are the codes which when injected, the web server is reflected off as a search result, an error message or other forms of responses that may include all or some of the input that was sent to the various servers as request in part. Usually the reflected attacks are sent to the victims through other channels such as electronic mail messages, or through other web servers. Once a user is lured into clicking a link which is malicious or is tricked to submit a form which is specially crafted, the code that has been injected travels via the web server which is vulnerable, the reflected attack is in turn sent back to the browser and the code is then executed as if it originated from a valid server (Rafail, 2001). The consequences of cross site scripting attacks are primarily the same regardless of whether they are DOM based, reflected or stored. The main difference the manner in which the pay load enters the server. Cross site scripting is capable of causing various problems to the end users. The problems range in severity, they can cause annoyance to the end users as well as complete loss of accounts. The most serious attacks of XSS result into disclosure of the users information and data thus giving the attacker to actually hijack the session of the user and thus be in a position to comfortably take over the users accounts. The XSS expose the end users to other damaging attacks such as Trojan programs installations, disclosure of files belonging to the end users, redirecting the web user to other sites or pages, or modification of the contents. A cross site scripting vulnerability that allows the attacker to change certain news item or a press release is capable of affecting the stock price of an organization or decreasing the confidence of the consumer. For example a cross site scripting vulnerability on a site of a pharmaceutical can allow the attacker to alter the information of dosage which might result into over or under dosage (Rafail, 2001). Flaws in an XSS are at times very difficult to establish and get rid of them from web applications. In order to find such flaws, the best method to use is performing a review on the security code and also to perform a thorough search in all possible areas where HTTP input request can easily finds its way into output of the HTML. It is very important to note that various tags of HTML tags can be effectively used in transmission of java scripts which are malicious. Nikto, Nesus plus other tools which are currently available in the market can be used in scanning the websites but they are less effective since they are only capable of scratching the surface and are not capable of eliminating all the flaws in the system (Snake, n. d. ). Preventing XSS attacks Once a web site becomes victim of XSS attack the end user is likely too loose a lot of crucial data and information. It is therefore, very important for people to protect themselves against such attacks. One of the best ways of preventing your self of becoming a victim to an XSS attack is failing to respond to a request that is unsolicited by providing your personal details. Such information should not be provided whether it is over the internet or the phone. Users should know that the internet and e-mail pages that are usually used by the XSS attackers look similar to those used by the legitimate institutions and it might be quite hard to distinguish between the two. So if one believes that the contacts could be valid them they should contact the institution in question themselves. They can do so by either visiting the company’s website and instead of using the provided link one should actually type the address or use a page that you might have book marked earlier. One should initiate the contact using the information that you have verified (Naraine, 2009). Conclusion Cross site scripting is a serious fraudulent activity and once one falls prey to it can end up loosing significantly. It is thus good to increase awareness of such vices so that when people are targeted for such acts they can be able to identify them and subsequently be in a good position to protect them. The end users should also do all that is possible in order to conceal their vital information and ensure that it is only given to the relevant authorities when needed. It is also important to keep scanning their system regularly using valid tools. Reference: Naraine, R. (2009): Phishing without bait: The in-session password theft attack, Retrieved on 1st June 2009 from, http://blogs. zdnet. com/security/? p=2390. Rafail, J. (2001): Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerabilities, Retrieved on 1st June 2009 from, http://www. cert. org/archive/pdf/cross_site_scripting. pdf. Snake, R. (n. d. ): XSS (Cross Site Scripting) Cheat Sheet Esp. : for filter evasion, Retrieved on 1st June 2009 from, http://ha. ckers. org/xss. html.

Theories for Decision Making

Theories for Decision Making Introduction Nowadays, there are different kinds of management techniques among people, especially communicating within a group of people in particular discussion. During the discussion, process in making effective and credible decision is very important in order to draw a result without any conflicts generally. Many people are facing a problem about the usage of group progress, that good and bad decision making may be quite complicated towards some people. Good decision making means that every member will agree with each other in order to work together effectively among their jobs, while bad decision making will be made if people cannot firmly make their decision well and cause vicious effect on their work. Although there are many group members, especially leaders of group try their best to discover more ways to cooperate with colleagues, while conflicts still can be found everywhere due to different viewpoints and ideas are firmly held in someone’s mind (Collin et al., 2012).. However, no matter you are alone, or even being a part of group, your decision making may still be affected as own decision making can be easily affected by group’s opinion. Therefore being a group leader, they should know how to form good decision making, and how to prevent bad decision making during the discussion process. From past to now, many social psychologists have point out that good decision making can be drawn if well-organised and critical thinking should be found in group leaders, even members. In the essay below, some relevant theories and critical explanations will be combined in order to provide an informational discussion on how to making good and bad decision (Busenitz Barney, 1997). Moreover research evidences may also be used in supporting the process for good decision making, and the reason why people may draw such bad decision during discussions. This kind of organisations can provide a critical and informative essay in discussing the procedures within g ood and bad decision making in the group. Path to make good decisions (Relevant Theories) In the past few decades, there are many social psychologists point out that some personal mental behaviours may affect the discussion, especially making decision among team members. Zajonc claim that if there are any appropriate response or arousal, group performance and members can be enhanced (Zajonc, 1965). Therefor the Drive Theory of Social Facilitation (Zajonc, 1965) can welly explain the reason why people would like to generate better decision while group members can provide good environment and decision. Because this kind of way can evaluate apprehension during discussion, in order to reduce conflicts and worries, which can let group members be more relax to make good decision (Seo Barrett, 2007). Being a member in a group, many cases show that they cannot have effective communication among those team members as they will keep holding their own ideas or viewpoints, then it may cause lots of conflicts in arguing for decision making in particular issue. In this situation, facilitators and bystanders are required among disussion in order to provide another viewpoints, which is different from the insiders. According to Bibb Latane and John Darley (1970), People, especially bystanders among the situation may have higher chance to perform better behaviours and make good decision, when they are facing any emergency situation in the society (Latane Darley, 1968). Regarding to the Emergency Norm Theory, bystanders may have higher chance to help other people, which be pointed out that people will be persuaded to aid those needs. In similar, facilitators in a group take the role to identify those problems with a third-person view that may not suffer in any bias. Facilitators should not be directive in any ideas as they should stay outside and provide independent opinion. In the office environment, each team members, or colleagues should work together that without any bias. Then third-person view and special ideas may be made during particular discussion between each other (Bickman, 1971). Therefore people should ensure their own psychological status in order to maintain stable discussion behind conflicts. Before making good decision during a series of discussion, deep understanding of particular discussion topic is very important as pointed out by Kurt Lewin. Lewin said â€Å"You cannot understand a system until you try to change it†, it means that changing of mental and physical behaviour is useful for a team to draw effective and powerful decision among different kinds of conflicts. Moreover leaders who really want to form good decision within their own group, working environment should be well designed because behaviour is a combination of individuals and proper environment, which is proposed by Lewin (Brug et al., 2006). At the beginning of changes or even discussion, separate discussions within subgroups are required as it can provide sufficient spaces for members to discuss their own ideas in order to form a small conclusion. After that proper support and mind setting should be given towards group member or colleagues, therefore they can have more effective ways to mainta in and try their best to have new job or make any decision under harmonious decision making process. In order to provide more effectiveness of their own points of view, those social psychologists have already pay more efforts in generate several research and conduct different experiment to point out their power of theories. Path to make good decision (Relevant Researches) According to Zajonc’s cockroaches experiment which explain the behaviour of a group of cockroaches in tacking different level of tasks, in order to point out the changes of human behaviours during group processing. During the experiment, cockroaches are assigned a simple task and a more difficult task for them to complete while a group cockroaches will need to be do it together. Zajonc (1969) would like to find out whether a group can provide better results in these kinds of task or not. However, Zajonc found out that group of cockroaches can complete a simple tasks under the social facilitation while they cannot complete such difficult tasks in front of their peers under social inhibition (Zajonc et al., 1970). Generally, the basic concepts and usage of theory can be wisely applied into human being as these kinds of behaviours can also be found on a group of people during discussion, especially decision making. Because people would like to perform well in front of other people in order to gain confidence and recognition, however people cannot be compare with cockroaches due to higher intelligence ability can be on human being than that on cockroaches (Zajonc, Wolosin, Wolosin Sherman, 1968). Apart from Zajonc’s studies, Bibb Latene and John Darley (1970) have done an experiment in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of bystander intervention, which means people would like to help others who need helps. In real life situation, people definitely give a helping hand towards people who are suffering in distress, such as destruction caused by natural disasters and problems carried by human disasters. In addition, the experiment have also stated out that fewer people will help others in emergency if the group size become larger. Therefore leaders should prevent oversize of each group, and they may put two to four people in a group, while several subgroups should be used in order to maintain better communication and decision making (Petty et al., 1977). Although Latene and Darley pointed out that increasing in size of group while decreasing in percentage of helps generally, the results generated in experiment may not be suitable to be applied on people nowadays. The r eason is the experiment had been done in 1970s, which may be quite far from past to now, and the situation would not be well to compare with 21st century. People would like to help each other even the group size is greater than 6, such as most of the Hong Kong citizens would like to participate in helping re-construction of destroyed building after disasters, even donation of money, therefore it may not be possible to explain human behaviours nowadays (Latane, B., Darley, J. M., 1968). During the discussion, good decision making will not be the only products among group members, conflicts may be found within insufficient communication and impartial viewpoints of leaders. So bad decision making may be discovered and it has already been explained by several social psychologists with several theories in the past decades. Path to make bad decision (Relevant Theories) First of all, Solomon Asch had also pointed out that people would like to follow the other’s opinion, especially the majority ideas. During the discussion progress, group members are generally compelled by the authority in order to fit their expected results (Laughlin, 1988). In most of cases, team members would try their best to persuade themselves and pretend themselves to agree with the majority opinion, while throw their own personal ideas. This kinds of action stated that the reason why they would like to follow majority decision is they do not want to be such minority, which may be easily shamed by those eye contact from other team members. Therefore leaders should prevent team members agree with each other easily and shortly, as it means that they just follow others ideas and wish to form the results which fit the need of authority (Asch, 1951) In most of the discussion cases, it may be very strange that group members can only spend a few time to conduct their discussion, and decision can be made in such an easy way as they said to leaders. Because of this, good decision cannot be made wisely due to such inappropriate discussion method and it will not able to solve their own problems. As said by Irving Janis (1982), group members may not wish to point out their own ideas as they think that their opinion should fit the need of their leader, even boss. They will only filter such undesirable input in order to give out some results which may be similar to leader’s viewpoint. Within this situation, decision that made by those group members should not be the true opinion from themselves, these kinds of decision are just the expected result of leaders, therefore good and fair decision which are agreed with all members may not able to be made by the whole group (Janis, 1972). During the development of human being, they are born to obey norms, which is given out by any authorities. Stanley Milgram stated out that people will follow the instructions which are told by other people, especially those authorities such as government. Conformism can be the reason why those people would like to obey the rules or even instruction that proposed by other authorities agencies (Milgram, 1978). In the discussion, if the leaders or boss point out that they expect people to perform the particular results and decision, most of the group members would like to follow its information and form that expected decision. It may not be beneficial towards the whole group because decision making do not include any bystanders’ ideas, while the whole progress of decision making is based on the expected opinion from leaders. Therefore pre-decision should not be include in the discussion, even during decision making. Role and Rules are very important among the normal life, especially the situation of discussion and decision making as different people will take responsibility to act as particular role during the discussion. Stanley Zimbardo pointed out that great changes can be found if good people are put into bad environment. And it means that extreme changes in social environment can definitely affect the movement of everyone (Zimbardo et al., 2000). Within the working environment, if there are only a small amount of members who are willing to propose positive and effective ideas towards the group, even company, the proper decision also may not be made as they are being surrounded by those negative ideas. Because of the majority in the group is fulfilling negative mind of the discussion, it will affect the other who have positive ideas. Therefore those subordinate position would be summit to the authority, which is the leader or boss. Regarding to this kind of problems, good decision making should not be found because there will not have proper and non-directive discussion due to the power of such social situation is really affect the disposition of people and all of the members who hold positive idea will be compelled to agree with the majority. Then in order to have better process in making good decision, no matter leaders or boss should put more efforts on enhance colleagues’ attitude. Regarding to explain deeply about the related theories, several social psychologist have already done quite a lot experiment or researches in order to explain their viewpoints wisely. Path to make bad decision (Relevant Researches) In Asch’s research which was conducted in 1955, it can definitely point out that most of the people included in the experiment would like to follow the majority among the decision making within groups. Because they try their best to fit the expected answer that can truly explain with some real life example nowadays, there are still quite a lot of people would like to follow the majority among groups within the society generally. However, this experiment was conducted during the cultural environment of 1950s America, it still had a fluctuated changes in the results when it was applied in different time ranges. Therefore statistics in this experiment cannot be used exactly in 21st century, while its concept and basic information can be wisely apply into the daily life generally. Within both Zimbardo and Milgram’s experiments and researches, they have generally explained the concept of conformity of people. First of all, a large group of people are divided into two subgroups in order to act as guards and prisoners respectively for a period of time. The experiment can definitely point out the role and rules ideas, while heightening anonymity and dehumanization behaviours. However those people who act as prisoners have already been suffered in several kinds of psychological problems after six days, therefore the experiment was forced to be stopped (Zimbardo, Maslach Haney, 2000). Apart from this, Milgram’s shock experiment has stated that people would like to obey other authority, even they know that these kinds of decision may not be appropriate within their own personal mind. Although Milgram’s research pointed out many effective explanation in conformism, criticism can be found in his experiment. In this experiment, Milgram only use a group of American to conduct this shock experiment while it cannot represent the whole population in the world, because there will be a difference among other countries. America and European countries will be much obedience and similar described as Milgram’s result, while Asian and Muslim countries are less obedience as Milgram’s experiment. Both of the researches from Zimbardo and Milgram are very remarkable and supportive in the field of social psychology nowadays. Although some ethical concerns and cross-cultural validity may need to be aware, some ideas and concepts still have their value in conducting continuous studies in related studies. Conclusion To conclude, making a good decision is quite difficult during the particular discussion, because bad decision making may be easily found if leaders do not communicate and cooperate well with each other. In order to make good decision, leaders should not take all the responsibilities to make decision, while they are required to give out some power to colleagues, that can let them have their own ideas and opinion about own mission. Otherwise all of the group members will just follow the decision of leaders before such kind of discussion, and those expected results will be generate without any agreement between each other (Higgins, 2000). In order to enhance effectiveness in making good decision, different subgroups are required if the whole size of group is too large. Because every group member cannot communicate well within the oversize groups, and leaders may discuss with subgroups respectively before the whole meeting, even decision making (Øvretveit, 1995). These kinds of situation can prevent blindly obedience to that authority, which can provide more chance for leaders and members to communicate during discussion before making any decision. Therefore good decision making is the responsibility of group leaders, while each group members are needed to put more efforts in communicating between each other within every complicated progress (Gerrig, 2013). References Asch, S. E. (1951). Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgments. Groups, leadership, and men, 222-236. Bickman, L. (1971). The effect of another bystanders ability to help on bystander intervention in an emergency. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 7(3), 367-379. Busenitz, L. W., Barney, J. B. (1997). Differences between entrepreneurs and managers in large organizations: Biases and heuristics in strategic decision-making. Journal of business venturing, 12(1), 9-30. Brug, J., van Lenthe, F. J., Kremers, S. P. (2006). Revisiting Kurt Lewin: how to gain insight into environmental correlates of obesogenic behaviors. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 31(6), 525-529. Collin, C., Grand, V., Benson, N., Lazyan, M., Ginsburg, J., Weeks, M. (2012).The psychology book. (pp. 216-257). London, England: Dorling Kindersley Limited. Gerrig, R. J. (2013).Psychology and life. (20th ed., pp. 447-472). the United States of America: Pearson Education, Inc. Higgins, E. T. (2000). Making a good decision: value from fit. American Psychologist, 55(11), 1217. Janis, I. L. (1972). Victims of groupthink: A psychological study of foreign-policy decisions and fiascoes. Latane, B., Darley, J. M. (1968). Group inhibition of bystander intervention in emergencies. Journal of personality and social psychology, 10(3), 215. Laughlin, P. R. (1988). Collective induction: Group performance, social combination processes, and mutual majority and minority influence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(2), 254. Milgram, S. (1978). Obedience to authority. Petty, R. E., Harkins, S. G., Williams, K. D., Latanà ©, B. (1977). The effects of group size on cognitive effort and evaluation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 3(4), 579-582. Seo, M. G., Barrett, L. F. (2007). Being emotional during decision making—good or bad? An empirical investigation. Academy of Management Journal, 50(4), 923-940. Zajonc, R. B., Wolosin, R. J., Wolosin, M. A., Sherman, S. J. (1968). Individual and group risk-taking in a two-choice situation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 4(1), 89-106. Zajonc, R. B., Wolosin, R. J., Wolosin, M. A., Loh, W. D. (1970). Social facilitation and imitation in group risk-taking. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 6(1), 26-46. Zimbardo, P. G., Maslach, C., Haney, C. (2000). Reflections on the Stanford prison experiment: Genesis, transformations, consequences. Obedience to authority: Current perspectives on the Milgram paradigm, 193-237. Øvretveit, J. (1995). Team decision-making. Journal of Interprofessional care, 9(1), 41-51.

Effect of Weather on Construction Labour Productivity

Effect of Weather on Construction Labour Productivity Effect of Hot and Cold Weather on Construction Labour Productivity EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The research deals with the variation of labour productivity in extreme weather conditions in India. As we head more and more into the rural areas for construction the labourers are faced with unprecedented weather conditions as extreme cold and heat stress combined with other geographical factors. We compare the difference in productivity achieved in normal weather conditions with extreme cold locations as Kargil and hot regions as Ahmedabad. Further this is compared by the standards set by IS 7272 for ideal productivity. After studying the results recommendations are done specifically for domestic projects considering the situations prevailing in India and future weather uncertainties. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY An Industry ultimately thrives upon the physical input put in by the labourers and the construction industry is no exception, in fact the construction industry is one of the most labour dependent industries operating in India. It is the groundwork of the labourers, which ultimately runs this industry. Though lot of work has already been done to optimize labour productivity around the world, majority of the projects still stay behind schedule and are completed with cost and time overruns, though this might be due to multiple reasons but labour productivity still dominates the final output. With the increase in population the infrastructure and public wealth construction is being pushed more and more into the rural areas which are untouched in the last century. Thus are the studies, which prevailed in earlier times about the productivity, as these new regions put up new challenges of the working environment. Not much has been done to check the productivity changes in these regions, this often results in variation from the IS values which should be attained ideally. OBJECTIVES Our objective of this research is to study and outline the factors, which are, determinable in altering productivity outputs in adverse weather. To compare the factors stated in IS 7272 with actual ground data for productivity achieved on construction site and suggest methods to counter. This would further transform into meeting project milestones in time. SCOPE OF WORK The research work is based on actual site data collected from different construction sites in India. It aims to study the variations observed if any from the standards in the IS 7272 for labour productivity and the reasons leading to these changes. It covers both extremes of the temperature in its study hot and cold regions, finally suggesting the measures to be taken to optimize labour output in extreme weather conditions. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The methodology adopted to prepare this report ranged from reviewing work previously done in these areas of labour productivity along with site visits and collection of data. We reviewed papers from journals and tried to draw a few conclusions by correlating the studies and common factors in the research papers. Data collection was done by visiting sites of projects under progress across India. For the sake of comparison with other site data to keep maximum parameters same we worked on productivity for the activities which were common to both the sites. Data was collected over different periods of duration with respect to every project and analysed for their productivity calculations. These calculations were further compared with the standards set by the IS 7272. Further we attempt to outline the factors which may be the probable cause for the deviation and suggest remedial measures to counter them. LIMITATION OF STUDY Since the data was collected from sites in India and the observations made were from Indian gang of labourers, the results and study are limited to Indian subcontinent. Also ideally for comparison there should be similar situation of work with less variables such as work type and other conditions other than the weather, but due to the limitation of the projects the sites were not executing similar projects, thus the data cannot be said to be 100% precise. Although we have put in our best efforts to counter this by selecting similar activities of execution. Furthermore due to the limitation of availability of data the results achieved cannot be said to depict the conditions prevailing all through India as more work is awaited on this topic in India. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW To study the work previously done research in this area we studied numerous papers published on Productivity from various journals across the globe. Though it was out observation that the research work was more or less biased to the productivity concerns due to increasing temperature, and less about the colder conditions. India being a tropical country experiences both extremes of the climate through the year, thus we review work done in colder regions too, a few of our findings are as follows. Tord Kjellstrom, PhD; R. Sari Kovats, MSc; Simon J. Lloyd, MSc; Tom Holt, PhD; Richard S. J. Tol, PhD studied the changing pattern of temperatures across the globe, which will ultimately lead to a global climate change and an increase in heat load and will degrade the productivity of workers in the coming future. It was a region-based study where they established a relationship between the rise in temperature and loss of productivity as a percentage drop. The study was localized for a much accurate assumption, overall there was a loss in productivity with the increase in temperature. Meglan, Meglan Company Ltd. outlined in their publication Construction Claim Topics the loss of productivity due to effects of weather the reasons for loss. They subdivided their study into three subcategories Low temperature and Wind chill, high temperature and humidity Wind only effects. They stated that the loss of productivity occurs In all three conditions due to different factors in each conditions. They stated that a drop of as much as 50 % can be observed in extreme situations. They established a fact that humidity also played a detrimental role in the loss as at the same temperatures the change in productivity was evident with the change in humidity levels at the site. Adham Shahin, Simaan AbouRizk, Yasser Mohamed and Siri Fernando developed a simulation based framework for quantifying the cold weather region impacts on construction scedules, the framework composed of components that help in understanding and simulating construction projects. The basic aim of this framework is to enable the researcher to quantify the impact of weather alterations on project schedule. The process involves the creation of a basic discreet simulation model to simulate the activities on site. An article published in THE Monitor | Climate stated the economic impact of the increasing temperature uncertainty across the globe, they forecasted the future developments for the year 2030 where the prediction is of 450 hotspots from the 55 existent today. In 2030 the expected loss is 413 billion USD. In their country level impact analysis they have plotted a country wise loss index in which India comes under the Acute category forecasting a loss of 450,000 million US $ additional economic cost in 2030 only due to increase in temperature of working environments of labourers. They suggest adaptation to the new environment is the most cost effective measure, which can be taken against this. Yildirim, Kemal.à ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ª Koyuncu, Cuneyt. Koyuncu, Julide. In their paper does temperature affect labor productivity: cross- country evidence published in the journal Applied Econometrics and International Development. They established a relation between temperature and labour productivity and plotted a graph to depict it. The study done over 111 over a period of several years’ states that increase in temperature has a negative effect on labour productivity. Pieter Diedericksà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¨ Senior Project Director, Oil Sands Projects, Petro-Canada, Canada in his study OPTIMIZING WINTER CONSTRUCTION studied the effects of cold weather on construction industry. He used temperatures below 200 F as the basis of cold temperature. He stated that an average loss of labour productivity due to cold temperature is almost 50%. Thomas suggested the use of annual cycles to schedule activities most affected by weather. He suggested remedial measures as use of wind protective armour and setup of machinery when the conditions are adverse instead of physical labour-intensive work. Karin Lundgren1*, Kalev Kuklane1, Chuansi Gao1 and Ingvar Holmà ©r1 presented a paper on Effects of Heat Stress on Working Populations when Facing Climate Change, Their study relates o heat stress on workers and how it negatively impacts the productivity overall. They suggested the ideal temperature for physical work as 370C, any more beyond these results in physiological effects in the human body reducing its capacity to perform productively. CHAPTER 3: LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY THEORY WHAT IS LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY Labour productivity as defined as the amount of output received by the number of man hours or man days input by the worker. Labour productivity optimization is needed to get the optimum output from a projects workforce, thus is also termed as workforce productivity. In the construction industry which is predominantly labour intensive this factor plays a determinable role in deciding the fate of the project itself. And in a country like India where there is cheap and efficient labour available, if used properly the production costs can be brought down drastically, be it of any industry in this scenario. Labour productivity can be measured in number of ways depending on each industry but the thumb rule for calculation of labour productivity is Labour productivity = volume measure of output / measure of input use WHY MEASURE LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY? In the construction industry most of the contractors take careful note of variation in local and regional weather patterns, the norms andtrends, and based on these they schedule their construction projects. Well planned construction schedules are prepared to take advantage of favorableseasonal, local, or regional weather patterns and avoid the unfavorable ones. Thus, when a Project doesn’t start on time, or it gets delayed during the time of execution weather may become an all important factor in the overall delay, reducing planned productivity and efficiency. Most of the construction contracts allow excusable delay and time extensions at the time of abnormal or unusual weather conditions. When this kind of delay is encountered it incursenormous losses in the number of extra man hours spent, and further delays of the project and work. Hot weather and cold weather create efficiency and productivity losses which can be explained separately as follows: Cold Weather Workers productivity drops with the fall in temperature. The productivity of the manual labours drops gradually during extreme temperature conditions. This productivity losses can be best quantified by comparing productivity from cold weather effected work periodsto that measured during normal work periods, thereby determining the difference. It only requires man-hours data and weather data (can be obtained from internet), sorted by date. The man-hours and temperature data are entered into a spreadsheetprogram by date any their productivity is calculated. Hot Weather Just as the productivity decreases in cold weather, same losses also occurs when the temperature rises above twenty nine degree centigrade to thirty four degree centigrade and beyond. The inefficiencies can only be quantified by actual measurement of productivity in hot weather and then comparing with normal weather productivity. TYPES OF CONSTRUCTION LABOUR A construction project is dependent on different levels of work done by the workers. Thus generally the division is among the levels of labourers. Namely Skilled Labor Semi Skilled Labor Unskilled Labor SKILLED LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY Skilled Labours constitute operators, foremen, and machine operator’s i.e the labourers with give a higher output of work per hour of input. The skilled labourers usually are head labourers for a gang, operators for special equipment and are highest paid in the lot. SEMI SKILLED LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY Semiskilled labours are mediocre paid workers with somewhat lesser skills as compared to skilled ones, their productivity outputs are higher per hour though compared to unskilled labourers. Carpenters, Masons, Fixers constitute this list of semi-skilled labours UNSKILLED LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY This is the largest clan of labourers who are good for maximum physical exertion, and it’s their tireless efforts which ultimately proves detrimental in the project being on schedule. Their productivity depends on how efficiently they are managed by their foremen. It is this clan of people we need to optimize for the drastic change in overall timing schedules. DIFFERENT MODELS OF PRODUCTIVITY MEASUREMENT To serve different purposes there are different measures of productivity, one can choose the method which serves their purpose. Thomas et al. defined different models of measures to measure productivity which are as follows: Economic models The department of Commerce, and other governmental agencies use a productivity definition in the following form: Equation (a) Total factor productivity (TFP) =Total output / Labor + Materials + Equipment + Energy + Capital Project-specific models A more accurate definition that can be used by governmental agencies for specific program planning and by the private sector for conceptual estimates on individual projects is: Equation (a) Productivity=Output/ Labour+ Equipment + Materials Equation (b) Productivity = Square feet / rupees Design professionals use productivity data in this form. Activity-oriented models A contractor is more likely to define productivity using a narrowly defined version of(a)and(b), where the units of output are specific for generic kinds of work. Typical units are cubic yards, tons, and square feet. Various related activities, such as formwork, steel reinforcement, and concrete placement, can be combined using the earned-value concept (Thomas and Kramer, 1987, cited in Thomas et al., 1990, p. 706). Productivity is expressed as units of output per Rupee or work-hour. At the project site, contractors are often interested in labor productivity. It can be defined in one of the following ways (Thomas and Mathews, 1985 cited in Thomas et al., 1990, p. 707)[5]: Equation (4) Labour productivity=Output/Labour cost or Equation (5) Labour productivity=Output/Work-hour There is no standard definition of productivity and some contractors use the inverse of Eq.(5): Equation (6) Labour productivity=Labour costs or work-hours / Output Eq.(6)is often called the unit rate. Still other contractors rely on the performance factor as a measure of productivity Equation (7) Performance factor=Estimated unit rate / Actual unit rate FACTORS AFFECTING LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY Identification and evaluation of factors that impact labour productivity has become important to determine the key elements that can be changed to bring about optimization of the entire process of work. Due to the complexity of work involved one factor alone cannot be held responsible for the change rather it is a combination of multiple factors which results in the desired/undesired change in the productivity of an individual or the project as a whole. Some of the key factors are listed as follows. Work Schedule Labour Pool Native Place of the gang Temperature Type of project Project Location Time Allocated for activities Design factors Execution plan factors Material factors Equipment factors Labour factors Health and safety factors Supervision factors Working time factors Project factors Quality factors Financial factors Leadership and coordination factors Organization factors Owner/consultant factors External factors

Essay --

Introduction Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is refers to the enterprise to create profits, bear legal responsibility to shareholders, while also taking into account the impact on the result of the various stakeholders. Corporate social responsibility is an important way towards sustainable development, it is consistent with the reasonable expectations of the business community as a whole, not only will not divert energy companies, but also improve the competitiveness of enterprises and reputation. As a supplier of energy to approximately 5% of Americans and more than 40% of Californians, PG&E is the investor-owned utilities company, which provide natural gas and electricity and focus on Hydroelectric, Nuclear, Fossil fuels and Solar power. (PG&E, 2014) PG&E has a long-term strategy in environmental sustainability to addressing the climate change issue. Their economic vitality sustainability programmes focus on bringing economic benefits to the communities as part of corporate social respo nsibility. Like the PG&E company channelled $2.5 million to economic development charitable commitment in 2013.( PG&E, 2013) Economic benefit and social impact PG&E Company seeks to exceed the current standard of environmental protection. They decided to improve the standard of management system, which can help them to innovate some environmental protection programs. Moreover, PG&E train all the employees on sense of environmental protection. Facing with long-term sustainability environmental strategy, lots of investor will be willing to invest some new clean power that can both protect environment and raise the profit. Therefore, PG&E improve efficiency at the power like solar, bio energy and hydro energy. The ripple effect, which PG&... ...successfully achieved CSR in many ways. In order to meet a satisfactory CO2 output, such utility enterprise needed to create a strategy that can adapt different situation in climate change, PG&E is a responsible enterprise that obeying CSR development as well as any social impact while making profit. Win-win strategy is a really good example for pre planning the company strategy to face up coming challenge and also gives you a overview about the performance of the company itself. In the Win-win strategy, PG&E seek to find out some ways to create some renewable and clean energy like Hydro energy and solar power. This will be a huge step for PG&E to become more environmental friendly. In this action, investor, researcher, customer and environmentalist, all of them think that PG&E performing well. The position of PG&E in FT Global 500 will be rising in the future.

Jean Paul Sartres No Exit And Its Existentialist Themes Essays

Jean Paul Sartre's No Exit And Its Existentialist Themes I would like to take this opportunity to discuss Jean Paul Sartre's philosophy and it's integration into his play "No Exit". Embedded within the character interactions are many Sartrean philosophical themes. Personal attributes serve to demonstrate some of the more dominant ideas in Sartre's writings. Each of the three characters in the play show identifiable characteristics of sexual perversion, bad faith, and interactions of consciousness.This play takes an interesting setting, that of the afterlife. The plot centers around three main characters, Joseph Garcin, Estelle Rigault and Inez Serrano. Hell, as portrayed in this work, is no more than a room with three couches and Second Empire decorum. There are no mirrors, no windows, no books, generally no form of amusement. Some very human privileges that we take for granted have also been taken away: sleep, tears, and even momentary reprieves of blinking. Each of the three characters is introduced into the room by a surprisingly polite Valet. Initial confrontations are "uncomfortable", each person knowing that he/she is deceased, but they are not impolite. However, as the true reasons why each person has been sentenced to Hell are revealed, the true nature of the place takes shape. Rather than try to explain the chronological progression of the play, I would rather take each character and their opinions individually in an attempt to highlight what I believe are the important parts. The first person to appear in the play is Mr.Garcin. At first glance, he is a very polite, gentlemanly, and moral individual. However, the further into the play that we read, we find that he is none of these things. Instead, he represents some of the worst ails that afflict humankind (according to Sartre). He was graced with a wife that loved him unconditionally, and he loathed for no other reason. In fact, one the first memories that he has of her is how "she got on his nerves". There is one story that is obviously intended to shock the reader, and provide a good interpretation of Garcin's true character. He states:"Well here's something you can get your teeth into. I brought a half-caste girl to stay in our house. My wife slept upstairs; she must have heard - everything. She was an early riser and, as I and the girl stayed in bed late, she served us our... ...tolen away their ability to close their eyes. There is no way to turn off the sinks! Oaklander gives us a good description of the system, and how it applies to this situation:Rather it appears that the world has a kind of drain hole in the middle of its being and that it is perpetually flowing off through this hole. The universe, the flow, and the drain hole are all once again recovered, reapprehended, and fixed as an object. All this is there for me as a partial structure in the world, even though the total disintegration of the universe is involved. Moreover these disintegrations may often be contained within more narrow limits.. (Oaklander, pg. 284)In conclusion, Jean Paul Sartre takes less than fifty pages to materialize his existentialist ideas for the stage. He has given us interpretations of sexual desire, bad faith, and conscious interactions. As a note: I truly believe that this play could be analyzed on an even deeper level. Each comment could be dissected and applied to part of Sartre's theory. However, this scope was limited to stay within the bounds of this paper. Works Cited Sartre, Jean Paul. No Exit and Three Other Plays. 1944. NY: Vintage Books, 1989.

Play dough activity Essay

I discussed with my manager that i was going to carry out a play activity. The project i have chosen to do is the making of play dough. I have chosen this activity because i feel this is a great pastime and a great experience between me and the children. I say this because the children can actually take part in the making of the product. I think this activity will help them to learn about colours, shapes†¦ My manager confirmed the activity and she was really pleased with idea and she also thought this would be a great learning experience for the children. I already have a recipe on how to do play dough, but my manager confirmed one more time all the ingredients: flour, food colouring, salt, oil and water. I make the play dough activity with four Montessori children. The first thing i did it was to get all my materials ready: small basin, large spoon, flour, salt, oil, water, paint, shape cutters, rolling pin. In this activity children can develop Motor skills -Using play dough h elps a child practice using certain physical skills with the hands when they manipulate the dough with their fingers. Children can practice skills such as pinching, squeezing or poking while they play with the dough. Cognitive Development-Using play dough helps a child practice using imagination and other cognitive abilities such imitation, symbolism and problem solving. This helps the child learn more about his environment as he makes and mimics everyday objects with the play dough. Emotional Development-Using play dough may help a child to calm down when frustrated or angry. Holding and squeezing the play dough can produce a calming effect on the child and is useful for teaching anger management skills. Additionally, children may feel more comfortable expressing themselves in other ways while their hands are busy. Social Development-Using play dough may help a child develop social skills as she plays along with other children with the dough. Additionally, making play dough is an opportunity for a child to practice cooperation and sharing with a caregiver. Physical development. Using play dough may help a child to develop motor skills needed for writing and drawing. Language development. Because of the interactive nature of play dough use, children need to listen, understand the communication of others, speak, and practice their oral communication skills as they mold and manipulate their play dough  constructions. Science understandings. The tactile experience of manipulating play dough helps children develop a deeper understanding of how matter changes (physics) and encourages them to use scientific thinking as they observe changes, make predictions, and talk through differences in the materials they are using. Mathematics concepts. Mixing up a new batch of play dough with adults is one way in which play dough engages children in mathematical learning as they measure and count recipe ingredients. Discussions about shape, relative size (greater than, equal to, or less than), height, length, and weight provide additional opportunities for children to develop mathematical understandings. Literacy Learning. When paper and writing utensils are added to the play dough area, children can make signs, labels, and create stories related to their play efforts. Exploring and thinking- children used their senses, their minds and their bodies to find out about and make sense of what they see. They used the imagination to create new shape or different monsters from play dough; they are imitating in special the mothers in the kitchen when are cooking; are making gestures as adults ;are playing and talking about the experience. Identity and belongings-children build respectful relationships with others; they express their own ideas, preferences and needs, and have these responded to with respect and consistency; they feel that they have a place and a right to belong to the group; Well-being-i n the play activity children were happy and playful; they were interacting to each other; the group activity make them feel comfortable and contents. Communication-children used a range of body movements, facial expressions, and early vocalisations to show feelings and share information; they interact with other children by listening, discussing and taking turns in conversation; children used language with confidence and competence for giving and receiving information, they asked questions and request too. Through this activity i found the children had great fun. Children were very excited about the fact that they were going to help me make the play dough. They were full of all different questions. Over all i felt the activity went very well.

Family Identity Essay

David and Bar-Tal’s look at collective identity by incorporating a micro and macro level of research. The first level tells us the individual process of identification; which is important with the surrounding society for molding of one. There are many aspects of identification such as cognitive, motivational, and emotional. Macro is the second level it defines collective identity in a diverse way such as, a situation in which people in society identify themselves as collective and they also know there are other people that do this as well. In David and Bar-Tal’s article they claim that â€Å"collective identity† is an important implication for a group of people and its members as individuals and also as a whole; it can construct the sense of the group and how they are united together. They talk about how there is an emotional aspect of how we identify ourselves; people in a group feel attached with each other as love and care is expressed amongst them all and is shown. A family Identity I believe is â€Å"unique† and they show us that cultural beliefs, values, norms and such things make up uniqueness; a family usually is a â€Å"we† which makes it distinctive with unique characteristics. In my research paper I am going to address how â€Å"family identity† is seen as a â€Å"collective identity† and also I want to look at how a family becomes who they are, how they are not the same as each other. I first would like to explain what a â€Å"family† is. The main aspects that my paper is based on is going to be how change and family rituals can shape that identity, how a family theorizes themselves, not based on an actually theories that people assume about how they live. Lastly I will be talking about the togetherness of family- how families move and shift into different places and how families willingly spend time with each other even when there are many other better things to do in the outside world. What is a family actually? Have you ever wondered? A family is shaped by how we live our everyday lives with the members of our family; families constitute and manage their identities themselves (Epp, A & Price, L, 2008). We do not know what one is as a family, each family containes different everyday experience and consists of uniqueness within everyone. A  family is usually seen as a â€Å"we†; there may be a way to tell how a family sustains their identity and how they engage in consumption activities to manage those identities. Families build collective identity as they see it in media and what they inherit; their identity is the sense of it owns continuity over time, and the present situation and its characters. The authors Epp, A and Price, L (2008) go into figuring out exactly how family identity works; I believe that family identity builds from the day it has started and their identity does not just appear it has to be created. Change is a huge aspect of life, it can shape how we live; family rituals and traditions are abounded within change throughout lives. The value of assessing family ritual life is an aid to understanding how a family gets organized and the process of becoming an actual family. According to Giblin’s (1995) research that there if there was not any family rituals, the families were not satisfied in their marriage which would affect the kids as well. A relationship between family ritual meaning and marital satisfaction was demonstrated with good results. Families, like individuals, have identities; the family may have certain beliefs about themselves which are generally recognized and seen by others. Such beliefs may relate to the family’s achievement, career aspirations, wealth, poverty, physical appearance, communication styles or coping mechanisms. Each of these qualities or characteristics reflects the family identity (Friesen, J, 1990). Rituals are one of those things that make a family different from all the other families in the world; every family has a certain ritual or belief that they hang onto which also gets carried on throughout their generations of the family. A ritual does not have to be something that is based on one’s culture, a ritual can be something like having movie night every Friday of the month and everyone just sitting together and relaxing as family; a ritual can be as simple as that. Change can also how a families identity is, because in the place where they are known, they have a reputation that they have to live up to kind of and in a new place they have to build that again, which is an example of change like moving to a different place. Change can also be something like a divorce which is huge in a family; it can change many things throughout all the relationships that had been made already. Does one make a family based on what they have read about what a family should actually be? Specialist has their own theories about what a family should act like, but a family has their own theories about how they should work together as. Our own family and our everyday lives are by the complex intersections of many forces such as things like material health, moral and spiritual, temporal, spatial and relationship concerns (Daly, K, 2003). These concerns are both ordinary and persistent; they are not often apparent in our formal theories of families. The theories created by specialist have referred as the â€Å"elusiveness of family life†; everyday concerns such as the ones listed above are pervasive, however they are not often apparent in the formal theories created about families. There is a difference between theories that scholars create and what a family actually lives by. The author uses negative spaces to foreground the implicit theories created by scholars; negative spaces are the recessive areas that we are unaccustomed to seeing but that are every but important for the representation of the reality at hand (Daly, K, 2003). The three main negative spaces in a family include things such as the realm of belief and intuition which consists of emotions, religious and spiritual matter, the world of material things and the coordinate of time and space as means of everyday family experiences (Daly, K, 2003). Scholars theorize families differently than they actually are; on television we see examples of families that some scholars may have theorized to be the correct way of living as a family. These examples from the television can lead many of us wanting to have that kind of perfect family, and sometimes make us try too hard to create that picture-perfect family; but all we have to do is make our families the way we want them to be, not what we have seen. Families are created by people, they do not just occur. People begin a family with people they care about and also sometimes a certain place can make it easier to make a family happen. Miller, L (1995) explains that there is decline of intact families in the suburbs; once a promising place for a family to flourish, Family is not only a domestic alliance, it is a group of people that enjoy each other’s company. There doubts in many ways that the social and spatial structure of suburbia does promote family togetherness. Family was beginning to be redefined as a source of companionship and  emotional sustenance and the suburbs were a great place to begin according to Miller, L (1995). Family I believe is an alliance that creates a household to take care of its members’ basic necessities; but they are also a group of people who enjoy each other’s company. This is a vision of family togetherness, meaning that husband, wife and children choose to spend the time not c laimed by wage labor or school with one another, they prefer each other’s company instead of the things in the outside world that could be attractive. In conclusion the value of assessing family ritual life is an aid to understanding how a family gets organized and the process of becoming an actual family .A relationship between family ritual meaning and marital satisfaction was demonstrated with good results. Families, like individuals, have identities; the family may have certain beliefs about themselves which are generally recognized and seen by others. There is a difference between theories that scholars create and what a family actually lives by. Families are created with the thought that each and every one takes care of its members’ basic necessities; but they are also a group of people who enjoy each other’s company. This is a vision of family togetherness, meaning that husband, wife and children choose to spend. Families can have multiple identities that can be caused by divorce as well, also not having a ritual in a family actually affect their identity greatly. Everyone wants to create a family that works out with no problem and that everyone enjoys each other’s company when together no matter how busy their personal life may be or how much work they have to do at their jobs, giving time to their family should not be something they are forced to give, it should something they want to do. Bibliography David,O & Bar-Tal,D. (2009). A Socialpsychological conception of collective identity: The case of national identity as an example. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 13(4), 354-379. doi: 10.1177/1088868309344412 Daly,K. (2003). Family theory versus the theories families live by. Journal of Marriage and Family,65(4),771-784. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.proxy.ufv.ca: 2048/stable/3599889 Epp,A & Price,L. (2008). Family identity: A framework of identity interplay in consumption practices. Journal of Consumer Research, 35(n/a), 50-65. doi: 10.1086/529535 Friesen, J. (1990). Rituals and Family Strength. Direction Journal. (19(1), 39-48. Retrieved from http://www.directionjournal.org/article/?654 Giblin,P. (1995). Identity, change, and family rituals. The Family Journal: Counselling and Therapy for Couples and Families, 3(1), 37-41.doi: 10.1177/1066480795031006 Miller,L. (1995). Family togetherness and the suburban ideal. Sociological Forum, 10(3), 393-418. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/684782