how Is Helium Produced? :: essays research papers

"How Is Helium Produced?" Production: Although Helium is one of the most common elements in the universe it is a rare gas on earth. It exists in the atmosphere in such small quantities (less than five parts per million) that recovering it from the air is uneconomical. Helium is produced as a by-product of the refining of natural gas, which is carried out on a commercial scale in the USA and Poland. In these areas natural gas contains a relatively high concentration of Helium which has accumulated as a result of radioactive decay of heavy elements within the earth's crust. Helium is supplied to distribution centres throughout the world in liquid form in large cryogenic containers. The Helium is filled into liquid containers, gas cylinders and cylinder packs as necessary. History of Helium Production: Government involvement in helium conservation dates to the Helium Act of 1925 which authorized the Bureau of Mines to build and operate a large-scale helium extraction and purification plant. From 1929 until 1960 the federal government was the only domestic helium producer. In 1960, Congress amended the Helium Act to provide incentives to natural gas producers for stripping natural gas of its helium, for purchase of the separated helium by the government, and for its long-term storage. With over 960 million cubic meters (34.6 billion cubic feet) of helium in government storage and a large private helium recovery industry, questions arise as to the need for either the federal helium extraction program or the federally maintained helium stockpile. In a move which would take the federal government out of the helium business, Congress passed the Helium Privatization Act (H.R. 873) as part of the Seven- Year Balanced Budget Reconciliation Act of 1995 (H.R. 2491). Although the measure died when the President vetoed the Budget Act on December 6, 1995, the Administration has made a goal the privatization of the federal helium program. On April 30, 1996, the House suspended the rules and passed H.R. 3008, the Helium Privatization Act as agreed to in the House-Senate conference on the Budget Act. Subsequently, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee amended the bill to provide for the National Academy of Sciences to study how best to dispose of the helium reserve. On September 26, 1996, with limited time remaining for the 104th Congress, the House again suspended the rules and passed H.R. 4168, a new bill containing the Senate Committee language. This would avoid the need for a conference if the Senate would also pass the same bill. The Senate did so on September 28, 1996. This report reviews the origin and

Medieval Pilgrimage

Medieval Pilgrimage In this essay I will discuss how medieval pilgrimages were considered to be a cultural phenomenon. Overall there were many motivations for pilgrims to participate in the act of a pilgrimage. Elaborate excessive artwork led to competitions at pilgrimage sites. Medieval pilgrimages changed Christians along with other religious people, spiritually and emotionally. Pilgrims went on journeys that were over long distances that proved to be physical and mental hardships.Before they left they would receive a blessing after a full confession to a priest or Bishop, mostly if their pilgrimage was to be a journey of penance. Christians believed that these particular pilgrimages would help them in a number of ways. They believed that the journey would deepen his or her faith, would cure the impossible disease or illness, or just bring them closer to God. The beginning pilgrimages started off by traveling to the places where Jesus and the Apostles lived while on earth.Constanti ne was the first Roman emperor that believed in Christianity. With him believing, and respecting what the pilgrimage stood for, Constantine constructed three major sites designed for major pilgrimages; such as, the Basilica in Jerusalem at the place where Christ was crucified, the Holy Sepulcher which was the site of Jesus’ burial and resurrection, and finally in Bethlehem Constantine commissioned another church over the cave said to be Jesus’ birthplace. Sorabella) Even though the three sites said above were the most popular of pilgrimages, â€Å"Rome became another destination for pilgrims because it was easier access for European pilgrims than the Holy land. † (Sorabella) Rome had many relics of saints and martyrs which over a period of time became a reason to set foot on a pilgrimage. Many would flock to see a saint’s hand or the Virgin Mary’s veil. Art played a huge role in this cultural phenomenon. Having many relics all over Europe sparked m any opportunities for artists to create important works of art for the relics themselves. Sculptors and goldsmiths made reliquaries required to enshrine the holy objects. Jewelers produced small containers for sacred material for the faithful to wear. † (Sorabella) This was one of the better times to be an artist. Artists created different souvenirs for pilgrims to celebrate and remember their pilgrimage. Every relic and Holy place had a different souvenir for that location. The souvenirs ranged from simple badges, mirrors, or even miniature elaborate reliquaries.Churches would trade or even steal relics from their original resting place, which for at least one location was cause for immense celebration, and was often depicted in art. â€Å"It was customary for pilgrims to bring offerings to the shines they visited, and many of these, too, were works of art: costly liturgical vessels, elaborate priestly vestments, and other precious objects enriched the treasury of every pilg rimage church. † (Sorabella) In the later Middle Ages pilgrims traveled because churches would promise to consolidate with god about their sins over a whole lifetime to be forgiven.With this in effect, churches made extreme renovations to accommodate larger numbers of pilgrims at one time. A perfect example of this is the church Saint Denis which dramatically had undergone many changes in the early twelfth century. I have not experienced a journey of this magnitude in my lifetime. However, I think it would be a great experience from an emotional point of view. It may not be an exact pilgrimage but in the month of October I will be going on my own journey to Europe. I hope to gain a broader outlook on cultural differences.I am so used to living in the same place, so it will be an exciting new adventure to be thrown into a different world and experience Europe’s normal aspects of life. There are certain places that I am specifically going just to see, such as the Roman Co liseum, Saint Peter’s Basilica, and the Leaning tower of Pisa. I can imagine that these three destinations will bring a number of emotions out in me. I also can imagine that this is probably the same way a pilgrim felt on his or her journey once they finally saw what they had travelled so far for.I also see myself buying trinkets in memory of a particular destination just like a pilgrim buying a miniature relic once seeing Santiago de Compostela where Saint James was discovered. The concept and experiences of a pilgrimage were widely popular all throughout Medieval Europe. It sparked imagination and hope, and set the tone for travel of many different kinds. These basic concepts have not changed much in today’s time. Most travelers do not travel from a spiritual standpoint, however most travelers will travel far and wide for an emotional experience.

Cowen Case Study Essay

1 Introduction SG Cowen, located in the United States, is an industrial company established in July 1988. Orientated in the financial sector, SG Cowen constituted a hiring approach containing diverse steps with methods, approaches and decision criteria. To asses the job applicants and to make a decision about the most eligible candidates, we have created a standardized construct to quantify the criteria. 2 The recruiting process The recruiting procedure starts with an on-campus recruiting program by arranging team captains to these core business schools. Thereby students get the opportunity to know SG Cowen. To ensure that thoroughly, they assign one member who is the first contact person for interested students. SG Cowen certrainly tries to attract other students from noncore schools by accepting their resumes. Another resource to recruit new candidates is pre-existing, experienced analysts who get promoted without attending the university. Afterwards there is a process that supports the decision making approach of SG Cowen by going through the following steps: Informational interviews, On Campus round, and Super Saturday. 2.1 Informational interviews Chip Rae, the director of recruiting at SG Cowen is convinced that an ambitious student, compared to others, will emphasize his interest in the company to determine the attitude of a student. That’s the reason why SG  Cowen invites students to visit the workplace, to experience the entrepreneurial culture and to get a basic overview of the company and its atmosphere. This process is not evaluative but it’s a chance to create an initial perception about a potential candidate. Conversely, students get the opportunity to show themselves, to leave a positive impression and to be prepared for the feasible first round. Therefore this step is important to find out how serious or not a candidate is. 3 On-campus round The second step is the on-campus round which enables SG Cowen to learn a candidate’s requried set of skills and determine its surplus value to the company. For the final validation, various candidates participate in the on campus round. Rae estimates that experienced senior associates who have a profound knowledge of the necessary requirements needed for the jobs, should be integrated in the final interviews. They are able to appraise the candidate’s skills and requirements in an appropriate way. In addition Ray believes that success doesn’t come from defined methodologies, rather it’s more important to love the job and the challenge, so SG Cowen promotes longer working horurs and less outside distractions. 2.3 Super Saturday After a shortlist is created from the on-campus round, 30 candidates receive callbacks for the final interviews. Each of them gets five half an hour interviews with senior employees of SG Cowen with a list of goals needed. Gregg Schoenberg, team captain at Johnson School of Business at Cornell believes that selecting criteria about the right candidate should be the candidate’s personality, less what he has done. So it makes sense to look at candidate’s former job performance. The candidate’s attitude towards the company is important for the interviewer as well as for the company regarding the banking sectory, which discloses great turnovers. Kim  Fennebresque (CEO of SG Cowen) says that an employee should like the job he or she does. Concentraiting on technology and emerging markets, the potential associates of SG Cowen should have advanced knowledge in finance area and the ability to execute that. The job also demands high teamwork abilities, multiplicity, responsibility and flexibility. Therefore interpersonal skills are unalterable. Before this recruitment process begins, the company should determine the potential business schools to plan the presentation area on campus and also the positions that must be occupied. At long last, the company should know the time schedule and the amount of interviewers needed. SG Cowen has three different kinds of talent pools to find candidates that fit best in their company. The following chapter reviews and evaluates their recruitment process and describes the different types and sources of candidates they have. Candidates have the possibility either to complete three years at the firm as analysts or take part in the companies’ summer internships to be offered a vacancy. Candidates, who are promoted as analysts have for the most part no education from business schools. This source of internal recruiting offers the possibility to use internal job postings or just communicate the vacancy, instead of paying for on-campus presentations, recruiting events or advertising – therefore it is cheaper to promote people who are already familiar with the company and have already shown that they properly fit in it. The alternative is external recruiting, which focuses on the hiring of candidates from business schools. SG Cowen has multiple different core schools to which they have direct contact and offers them the possibility to communicate and provide possible hires with all the information they need, through company presentations or participating in the on-campus recruiting programs. The possibility to additionally take part in informational reviews is a good way for students to show their enthusiasm and how serious they are to get the job. At every school that SG Cowen recruits at on-campus, a team captain is assigned to provide students with a constant and familiar point of contact. The fact that these team captains are banking professionals and not human resource professionals makes them able to provide students with the information they are really looking for, but on the other hand they may be mainly looking for skills instead of personality and personal background of applicants. SG Cowen also accepts applications of candidates from non-core schools, but these candidates have a disadvantage in showing their interest and gathering information about the job. Schoenberg, who was not attending a core school described this as unfair, but describes them as great hires because they need to show more initiative, be more focused and invest more effort. All in all, the se internal and external resources provide SG Cowen with a good and wide pool of possible candidates, however there is the risk to have students with less variety when only focusing on core school applicants. After rà ©sumà ©s are collected and interviews are conducted the senior and interviewing associates have to reduce the amount of possible candidates, who can take further part in the process. This reduction could already lead to the loss of some very good applicants. Then the following on-campus round tests the cultural fit and is intended to preselect candidates for Super Saturday. On Super Saturday each applicant has multiple interviews with different bankers of the firm. These managing directors then decide for themselves whether the candidate is a good fit for the company, but this way of evaluating can result in big disagreements and disadvantages. One director may see the great attitude of an applicant as more important than his technical skills, while another would take the opposite opinion. The worst scenario for applicants would be the different personal opinions of the directors leading to a false estimation and result in disqualification of the candidate. Afterwards, there are group decisions. The biggest problem  of these decisions is that interviewers already have their impression of the applicant and it is often difficult to convince them of the contrary. Often the majority of directors vote similar, so there might be no way to discuss the outcome, if one thinks he has a candidate who is a perfect fit for the company. To summarize, it can be said that the hiring process of SG Cowen makes sure that new employees fit well and that they only want to get the best talents for their company. The evaluation of the candidate’s abilities in form of notes is a great way of remembering each candidate and to make sure everybody can participate in the following group discussions to represent his opinion about the applicant. Besides the disadvantages of non-core to core business schools this ensures that the recruiting process is fair because every applicant who participates on Super Saturday has equal chances to be offered the vacancy. The possibility to offer vacancies to people who completed an internship and analysts is also a very good alternative to hiring people from external resources because they know the company very well and have already proven to be a good cultural fit, they have learned a lot about SG Cowen and are acquainted with the current employees. In contrary SG Cowen has to contact previous employers to get to know external candidates and check if the provided information is accurate. We think the super Saturday is a bit hard for candidates as well as interviewers. The fact that there are multiple interviews distributed throughout the whole day seems very exhausting and we think it is hard to make the right decisions at the end of such a hard day of work. Also there is no guarantee that the applicant accepts the job offer. They might have other possible job offers, which they would rather like to accept and this would result in a high risk for SG Cowen regarding that they only have a fixed number of vacancies and try to fill all of them. SG Cowen declined candidates for low technical skills, so it is very important for candidates to have this skill. Therefore the knowledge of Finance & Accounting, Prioritizing, Creativitiy and Modeling are mandatory for our applicants. Our Group takes the same opinion as the company, because the training process after the recruiting would be long and expensive. Furthermore we support the decision that candidates with low skills can be eliminated earlier. In the present time work ethic is an important factor for employees, especially for a boutique Investment Bank like SG Cowen, where teamworking is invitable. This expects also a certain level of flexibility and work motivation. The statement of Fennebresque – â€Å"The type of person who does well here doesn’t want to be told what to do. He or she is far less regimented. This is not the Navy. We want the  self-starter† – shows that SG Cowen appreciates leadership. A candidate can show his/her leadership skills from previous work. Interpersonal skills are relevant in businesses, where there is a high level of contact to client and associates. Good verbal communition is especially necessary for the candidates, which should be taken with serious impact/presence. Like the most companies of the world SG Cowen wants to hire the candidates for the longterm. The best Investment banking talents are highly coveted and hard-fought in the job market. So there is a high probability that the employee could be courted from other banks. Thus it seems it is useful to estimate the commitment to the firm. The Bankers have to make a lot of decision through their professional life. The characteristics of judgment and maturity are an important criteria. In our Opinion is the utilization of this factor is appropriate. Nevertheless we have an improvement suggestion for the evaluation form. It is possible that all of the interviewer priotize the factors different. Therefore we recommend a strandarized model with fixed priotization for each skill. To Change from a subjective evaluation to a standardized and objective evaluation, we set the emphasis for the factors. The emphasis is based on our analysis of the recruiting process, the statement of Chip Rae and the evaluation form. The technical skills in the business of investment banking are a critical requirement. SG Cowen has a competitive advantage with their core competency from research. This is the reason that technical skills should get the highest   weight (35%). SG Cowen is a small boutique company, so the candidate needs to show good teamwork and also should have a high motivation to enter the company. From this reason we have given the factor work ethic 20%. Leadership is a very important criterion. As we can see in the last years, the market is changes fast and steadly. Therefore SG Cowen needs employees who can learn very fast and are self-starters. This could be picked up on the statements of Schoendberg and Fennebresque. Interpersonal skills  complement andsupport the factor Leadership. Because somebody, who can learn very fast and has also awfully good communication skills, could be assumed responsible. So we gave each of the criteria 15 %. At the end are the judgment/maturity criteria. The Banker has a lot of situations, where they have to decide. So it is also important to have a particular skill of judgment, but it is our opinion the least important criteria in this evaluation form. We gave these criteria a weight of 5 %. Further details to the criteria can be found in the Appendix. Evaluation of the four candidates Through the interviewing-process, four candidates were categorized as â€Å"maybes†, so their pros and their cons were pretty much balanced. Just two of these four candidates can be selected, because SG Cowen has only has two additional jobs left to offer. To make a reasonable decision we decided to rate them using the linear model. In this model we used the weights mentioned above according to different parameters to develop a scorecard for each of the remaining candidates.

Discussion questions Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Discussion questions - Coursework Example Information sharing helps management relate to their employees directly. Times are changing organization structures from the old vertical structural policies, to horizontal structures. As a result, there are little or no communication boundaries between managers and employees. Tasks are now given to empowered employees (Daft 41). This is a change from the customary, routine tasks. The structures provide precision on each tasks, and who is to perform the task. For an organization to remain economically sound, their cultures change from rigid to adaptive ones. The new culture advocates for openness, change, continuous improvement, and equality. Competition is reduced to collaboration between organizations to allow for horning of talent and skill (Daft 41). Differences expected among stakeholders’ expectations in a non-profit organization as compared to a for-profit organization exist. In most cases, stakeholders in a non-profit organization do not expect profit from their everyday business dealings. All the profit gained through business goes back to running the organization. Stakeholders in for-profit organizations, on the other hand, expect profit from daily business operations, for their own benefit (Daft 37). This is depending on how they may have invested in the organization. Non-profit managers do not need to pay more attention to stakeholders than business managers. This is because; business managers ensure the capital invested in the organization is spent as per the required standards. They are, therefore, considered parties that run the organizations. Stakeholders, on the other hand, only need to be filled in on the financial situation of the organization from time to time. This is to ensure that the capital in the organization is used properly. They monitor the fiscal activity in the organization (Daft 38). It is, therefore, the manager’s prerogative to watch business managers, more than the

The impact of internet payment systems upon the retail sector Essay

The impact of internet payment systems upon the retail sector - Essay Example One of the most classical and beneficial advancements of the internet, that has been critically beneficial for growing cross-border trade and commerce, has been the internet payment system or e-trading concept; some other titles for the same are e-shopping, e-business, e-marketing – where ‘e’ simply implies conducting transactions via electronic medium. Classically, ‘shopping’ or ‘purchases’ took place face-to-face i.e. purchase against cash. With the advancements of the banking system, some purchases moved against the cheque system, and then against credit cards – plastic money. However, the arrival of the ‘e’ age, it became critical to have a reliable source of payments since purchases technically took place over the internet. Such situation gave birth to the need of a medium of payment other than credit and debit cards. Subsequently, there came third-party payment systems such as PayPal, Bank-transfers, Alert-Pay, E -Gold, etc. With the advancements of ‘e’ purchases, such third-party systems have assisted in providing enhanced sales. The Impact of Internet Payment System on Retail Sector The retail sector has significantly benefited from the advent and advancements of the internet payment system. In particular, as the said system has eased the process of e-shopping with added security features. Initially, this turned out to be a huge competitive edge for the smaller retailers as they embedded e-shopping along with internet payment systems, providing the ease of shopping from home comfort to the customers, pushing the competing bigger names to adapt the same strategy. However, initially, the advantages of this internet payment system were not known to be gone as far as they are today. In the initial phase, it was just assumed to provide comfort and ease of shopping, reducing the cost of selling for the seller, increasing margins, reducing the waiting-line phenomenon to a higher degr ee. Today, the cross-functional advancement of the MIS has led the firms into realizing the long-run potential of the various aspects of such payment systems. Prior to such advancements, the concept of home delivery and cash-on-delivery prevailed, which was not very encouraged by the retailers across the world in all sectors and industries. Fake order placements and false addressing were common issues; but internet based payment systems have reduced such issues to a much greater extent, and also made the consumer market much more mature. As a buyer now knows that internet based payment system reveals complete identity and contact information, and with IP tracking facility over the internet, there are lesser chances of individuals involving themselves in such or similar activities. The first and foremost advantage of the internet payment system is the ease of marketing for the marketers; marketers rely solely on the information and crave for reliable and authentic sources of informat ion. When purchases are made through paper money, the buyer remains unknown to the seller. However, when plastic money and internet payment systems are involved, the buyer no more remains anonymous; rather the buyer along with the buying habits and practices becomes visible to the marketer, and thus, marketers can develop groups and strata and segments to ensure that they target the right audience with the right combination of products and services. When it comes to e-marketing, marketers need as accurate of a data as possible, primarily due to the fact that e-marketing relies heavily on reaching the right customer –

Health Economics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Health Economics - Research Paper Example This means that most firms sampled that remained in business lies below the mean rating of the ratio of current assets and current liabilities. The median is greater than the mean. Furthermore, it is noted that there is an outlier in the data with a firm showing a ratio of 0.23. The distribution is also spread wide as shown by low kurtosis value and longer range. On the other hand, the shape of the distribution for firms that failed is positively skewed. The data gathered showed that most firms that failed are above the mean. The distribution is also peaked and shorter ranged. b) To test the hypothesis that failed firms have a lower ratio of assets to liabilities, the statistical procedure conducted is t-test. A null hypothesis is first created. The null hypothesis would be that the ratio of current assets and liabilities has no effect on the success or failure of the firm. If the data departs from the null hypothesis, then our alternate hypothesis that failed firms have a lower ratio of assets to liabilities will be correct. Below are the data for the t-test. The results as shown by the table above indicated that there is a significant difference in the assets to liabilities ratio between the firms that remained and the firms that failed at the 0.05 level. ... The distribution is also peaked and shorter ranged. b) To test the hypothesis that failed firms have a lower ratio of assets to liabilities, the statistical procedure conducted is t-test. A null hypothesis is first created. The null hypothesis would be that the ratio of current assets and liabilities has no effect on the success or failure of the firm. If the data departs from the null hypothesis, then our alternate hypothesis that failed firms have a lower ratio of assets to liabilities will be correct. Below are the data for the t-test. t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Equal Variances Alpha = 0.05 Firms that Remained Firms that Failed Mean 1.73 0.82 Variance 0.41 0.23 Observations 68 33 Pooled Variance 0.35 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 df 99 t Stat 7.172 P(T

Evaluation of DHS's Ethics, Cooperation, Leadership, and Legal Research Paper

Evaluation of DHS's Ethics, Cooperation, Leadership, and Legal Decisions - Research Paper Example Investigations by the DHS are still ongoing, while other stakeholders in the incident representing the government have taken preventive measures. For example, Mungin & Brady (2013) write that Connecticut governor, Dannel Malloy signed a law increasing the number of guns banned by the state. In addition, background checks are to be conducted on all gun purchases, and schools allocated 15 million U.S dollars to improve their security. Parents of the murdered children, as well as other residents of Connecticut welcomed the law and called for tougher regulations to curb illegal gun possession (Mungin & Brady, 2013). On 16th April 2013, two bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston marathon, killing three people and injuring 100 others. Two brothers were suspected of being behind the bombings and one is in custody, while the other was shot dead in a shootout with police, when the latter were looking for the suspect. According to Homeland Security (2013), Mr. McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, the two brothers appear to have received help in planning the attack. The sophistication of the devices used and the timing of the attack led to this conclusion. Accordingly, investigations into the attack cover areas outside the U.S, particularly Pakistan and Afghanistan. On its part, the federal government pledged to get to the bottom of the matter, but president Obama avoided terming the attacks as â€Å"terrorism†. To the public, a day of celebrations turned tragic, especially considering that the marathoners had paid tribute to the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting at the beginning of the race. According to the Center for Public Integrity’s article by Fred Schulte on â€Å"ATF’s struggle to close down firearm dealers† (2013), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) does a shoddy job inspecting dealers. Apparently, ATF inspectors may delay to inspect a dealer for as long as eight years and when they do, the inspection is not thorough enough. In cases where inspectors find dealers to have violated gun laws and revoke the dealer’s licenses, the latter usually appeals revocation. This process drags in the courts for years and meanwhile, dealers pass their business over to relatives or turn them into â€Å"personal† collection, which does not require background checks. Probably, this is the reason why people like Adam Lanza owned guns capable of killing more than 26 people in 5 minutes. There is no telling how many more people own guns illegally, and how safe the U.S citizens are. A second article by Berlow on â€Å"current gun debate may not help beleaguered ATF† addresses how the congress has played a role in ATF’s failure to control weapon use, particularly in conducting investigations. It also addresses the fact that the agency lacks funds to run operations smoothly. In addition, the current laws are too weak to recognize the role of TF in cases involving gun trafficking. Leadership influences The leadership of DHS is hierarchical in structure, headed by the Secretary of Homeland Security, who is appointed by the President, with the consent of the senate. The Deputy Secretary comes second, followed by Under Secretaries and Assistant Secretaries who head different departments. This style of leadership allows for the formation of mechanism to assess risks, and allocate funds for countering terrorism.