Initial personal goals and explain how you achieved them throughout Essay

Initial personal goals and explain how you achieved them throughout the semester.( second part need as jazz dance perforner in dance class) - Essay Example They will boost my performance quality and meet the demand of the audience in entertainment or competitive platform. The goals would also serve to help me achieve my potential in entertainment industry. The goals will help me adhere to the professional codes of conduct and dressing in this dance style, remain physically fit and sustain mental alertness that is influential in attaining pattern of body movement during performance. I have had significant improvement in my endeavor through increased physical fitness practice and dance moves. I have gained significant fitness and mastered dance moves with unique acrobatic techniques that accomplish my efficiency. However, all this was not without challenges. I faced significant huddles in reconciling dance moves with my weight and height. It also took me time to understand the emphasis of my trainer on dress code and consistent physical exercise due to fatigue. Despite such obstacles, I could not believe that I have potential in acrobatic moves that blends well with Jazz dance. I have gained much inspiration through increased mental alertness, physical fitness and personal discipline. This has taught me to remain focused on set goals but also reminded me to incorporate time in regard to set goals. My next challenge would be to overcome fear of the crowd and realize the goal of confidence during

Leadership Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Leadership - Research Paper Example intelligent guidance that an exceptional leader can provide, the employees and shareholders are motivated towards achieving the goals which management sets out. Likewise, when low standards are set, the employees will not strive to go above and beyond because little is expected of them. As such, expectation has a great deal to do with the differences between good and exceptional leadership. A good manager gets the job done according to schedule, according to the metrics assigned, and follows an ethical process in order to achieve these goals. A great leader not only meets and fulfills the assignment requirements, but inspires his/her employees to such a degree that they are able to accomplish more and greater feats than they previously believed possible. This instillation of belief and success within the team, coupled with the previously mentioned timeliness and ethics, is what powerfully sets apart a great leader from merely a good manager. In regards to question three and the choice offered by two differing styles of management, I would be hesitant to pursue the job with the charismatic leader and would be more drawn to the job of a transformational leader. The reason for this is the fact that I have personally witnessed too many charismatic leaders whose own unique viewpoints ran against the grain of the culture or against the wishes of more senior leadership. Even though these â€Å"rogue† and charismatic leaders sometimes have exceptionally good ideas and ingenious ways to present them and to motivate the employees who work for them, the issue is that at the end of the day, the employee is judged by the quality of the management that represents him/her. If this management is seen as a free spirit, one who is not necessarily a team player, and one who is often so charismatic as to not ascribe to the company culture, the employee’s value within the firm is diminished and as such his/her job security com es into question. Schachter, H. (2012, August

Metadeta Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Metadeta - Essay Example To be precise, metadata refers to the descriptive set of information, which is used to explain or clarify the meaning of a particular data resource. The presentation further clarifies that metadata provides information that defines when, how and by whom a specific set of computer was put together or collected. In addition to this, metadata further defines how that data is formatted. In this sense, it can deducted that metadata simply entails a well-designed set of computer data that explains or provides additional information about another data. This information is very important in aiding computer scientists, software engineer and other professionals in getting a thorough understanding of what the content of a particular data set is. A good example metadata is a set of information about an author, title and size of data contained in a particular file. Among the areas where metadata has been increasingly in use is in data warehouses. In addition, XML web applications have also been widely applying the use of metadata in their web content (Turner 88). Chen, Ruey-Shun and Yu, Shien-Chiang. â€Å"Developing an XML framework for metadata system†. ISICT 03 Proceedings of the 1st international symposium on Information and communication technologies (2003): 267-272 print.

Research Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Research Paper - Essay Example To understand how these processes can be automated and what steps should be taken in order to increase the organizational efficiency, we need to understand the business processes and the key performance indicators that affect the organizational efficiency. The key performance indicators for the organization are listed below: Pricing: The interest rates fluctuate rapidly and the organization should quote newer rates whenever they are updated. These quotes are then quoted to the customer of the organization: mortgage brokers and real estate agents. Accommodating these quick changes and updating quotes is painstaking with current manual system of making an excel file (with pre-build calculations) and then printing and faxing them to the customers. Management of Interest Rate Locks: Interest Rates are to be booked or locked by the customer for the loan they are borrowing. Customer normally follows the interest rates market before making a decision to borrow or not. They may order a loan when the interest rate is the lowest; therefore, those bookings are very spontaneous and sudden in nature but needs to be accommodated. The locking is generated through an Information System but the records are stored and distributed to the borrower manually. Broker Relationship Management: The record of each broker’s performance is recorded in Excel files. ... Proposed changes for Information Technology Infrastructure After considering all the requirements and the modus operandi of the business, following changes are proposed: Implementation of a financial and accounting ERP that would record all the customer’s financial transactions in a centralized manner. This ERP will work in parallel with the Loan Origination software Implementation of a data warehouse that will be further aided with a reporting Business Intelligence Tool Implementation of a CRM that will provide all statistics about the customer Implementation of advanced Information Security mechanisms such as Honeypots and intrusions detection systems Improvements in current social marketing and networking mechanisms Case for ERP A financial small – scale ERP is a dire requirement for the organization since the loan origination software is not a complete package and cannot record transactions in totality. An ERP will be centralized software that will integrate operati ons of all the four branches namely Annapolis, Columbia, Towson and downtown Baltimore. In the initial phase, financial and accounting modules will be implemented that can be followed by other modules, if required. This ERP will use the same SQL Server 2005 database that is used for Loan Origination Application. At the start, the plan is to do pilot testing and use these implemented modules with the Loan Origination Application. For testing purposes, we will take a backup of this database and use it with the ERP. After the unit tests are successful we will use the live database with the ERP. The ERP will be a centralized application catering to all the four branches (more branches can

The Possibility of Evil, Creative Dialogue Essay Example for Free

The Possibility of Evil, Creative Dialogue Essay Mrs. Foster stepped into the elevator and gave Miss Strangeworth a nod. Miss Strangeworth glance at her with embarrassment, knowing that that was the first time people had ever seen her after the operation. Without saying a word, she quietly turned and looked sideways. It had been two months since her transgressions circulated around the town. When she was about to sigh, the cart started shaking unexpectedly. Most of the elevator lights flickered and went off eventually. They could barely see each other’s faces. Dead stillness ruled the whole world, as though the elevator crashed down to a grave. Lovely day, Mrs. Foster,† Miss Strangeworth ventured, â€Å"People should have examined this elevator regularly. Don’t you think so? † Since she knew no one would pay any attention to her anymore, she was getting frustrated. â€Å"I think people will be coming soon to fix it. † Mrs. Foster paused, and then comforted her amicably, â€Å"We will be all right. † Miss Strangeworth intended to start another conversation, Mrs. Foster’s operation, for instance. But the words wouldn’t come out. â€Å"All right,† she loosened her hand that was holding the handle tightly, trying to maintain her dignity, and lowered her voice, â€Å"all right. Silence ensued. Miss Strangeworth could see Mrs. Foster out of the corner of her eye, wondering if she had recovered from the illness. Mrs. Foster was not as energized as she used to be, she thought. The shadow of Mrs. Foster’s face was casting on the wall, her plain face cracked into a smile. Miss Strangeworth was feeling like she was in a coffin, and the phrase from her letter kept coming to her mind, saying â€Å"the knife accidently slipped†. She was drawing back unconsciously until she was against the wall. She cried out suddenly, â€Å"Forgive me Mrs. Foster! I promise I would ever write the anonymous letters again! Forgive me, please. † â€Å"It is all right, every single person makes mistakes. † Mrs. Foster said gently with joy, â€Å"Did you hear that? People are fixing the elevator. † The elevator door was opened, the world were lightened. Miss Strangeworth and Mrs. Foster were surrounded by townsfolk. Everyone was concerned about their safety. â€Å"It is virtue to realize your mistakes and try your best to correct it. † Mrs. Foster whispered as she walked out of the door. Miss Strangeworth began to cry with a mix of joy and regret.

The Model Building Approach To Value At Risk Finance Essay

The Model Building Approach To Value At Risk Finance Essay The investment of any nature financial or physical assets comes with reward and risk. In order to prosper a company or an individual has to take risk. Generally, investors are risk averse. The risk can be estimated and managed in certain way such that the expected future earnings can be obtained while reducing potential future distress. The key to any investments is pursuing calculated risk path and achieving balance between risk and expected return. The question presented in this assignment also highlights one of the important tools in the risk assessment called Value at Risk. Value at Risk (VaR) is simple but more powerful tool to understand the impact of risk on the portfolio over the period of time. The second part of the assignment explains the stress and back testing covering up some of VaRs shortcomings. (1) Question: Explain and critically evaluate the model building approach to Value at Risk (VaR). To what extent may the weaknesses of this approach be addressed by stress testing and back testing? A variety of approaches to this essay may be adopted. For example, a case-study or quantitative based essay are equally appropriate. Answer: The investors are risk average. They want to minimise the risk and achieve expected profit out of their investment. The risk can be calculated and managed so that financial benefits can be maximised out of the investments. Value at Risk ( VaR) is one of simple and powerful tool to provide a single number summary of the total risk in a portfolios. The tools are being widely used by senior management corporate treasures and fund managers of a financial institution as well as monetary regulators. The VaR declaration is mandatory for the banks as per the Basel Accord ( Hull, 2011). VaR tells the investors, managers or regulators in a summary statement, how bad things might get. VaR enable companies or investors to consistently produce risk measures and risk management across all financial investments (Durham MBA). The VaR enable an analyst to make a statement that he/she is X percent certain that there will not be a loss of more than V dollars in the next N days (Hull, 2011). Here the V is the VaR of the portfolio and it is function of Time (N) and confidence level (X). The key advantage of the VaR statement is, it shows the aggregate risks faced by a financial institution or investor. This simple statement allows senior management to assess the situation and understand how bad things can get (Whitfield, n.d.). There are two approaches in computing VaR namely a) Historical Simulation approach 2) Model-Building approach (Durham MBA) Model-Building approach It is a main alternative approach to historical simulation approach. It is also known as variance-covariance approach (Hull, 2011). An important component in the calculation of VaR is the daily volatility of the asset. Usually the volatility of an asset is in volatility per year. While calculation of VaR using model-building approach, time is expressed in days and volatility of an asset is expressed in volatility per day (Hull, 2011). Therefore, volatility quoted annually can be converted in daily by à Ã†â€™day = à Ã†â€™year/ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ 252. Where, à Ã†â€™day = Daily Volatility à Ã†â€™year = Annual Volatility 252 = Assumption about 252 trading day in year. ( Source Hull, 2011). Single Asset case The single asset case is the simple situation of calculating VaR using model-building approach, where the portfolio of asset contains a single stock. For example, we can consider portfolio of $10M in shares of ABC Inc. The other assumption are N =10 and X=99. We want to estimate loss level over 10 days with 99% confidence level. We can assume that the volatility of ABC Inc. is 2% per day with 32% per year (Hull, 2011). Standard deviation of daily changes = à Ã†â€™ = 2% of $10 million = $200,000 We say that value change in portfolio over a one-day period is $200,00 with mean Zero and we can assume that the change is normally distributed. Using cumulative normal distribution table, N(-2.33) = 0.01. We can say that there is 1% chances that a normally distributed variable will decrease in value by more than 2.33 standard deviation (Hull, 2011). It is safely assumed that the expected change in a market variable over the period can be considered to be zero for calculation VaR. Therefore the one-day VaR is = 2.33 x $200,000 = $466,000 We can calculated 10 day VaR at 99% confidence level as = $466,000 x à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ 10 = $1,473,621 Therefore, we can say that with 99% confidence, we will not lose more than $1,473,621 off the value of portfolio in next 10 days (Hull, 2011). Two Asset Case The risk reduction can be achieved through diversification of the portfolios. There are two types of risk associated with investment namely systematic and unsystematic. Unsystematic risk is company or industry specific risk. It can be reduced using appropriate diversification. For understanding two Asset case, we can consider price example with one more company. Lets consider we have $5million positions in XYX Inc and the daily volatility is 1%. (Hull, 2011). Change in value of portfolio in one day = 5,000,000 X 0.01 = $50,000 And 1-day 99% VaR is = $50,000 x 2.33 = $116,500 10-day 99 % VaR is = $116,500 x à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ 10 = $368,405. Now the combine portfolio with $10 Million Shares of ABC Inc and $5 Million positions in XYZ Inc. will have standard deviation of à Ã†â€™ X+y = à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ (sq(à Ã†â€™ X) + sq(à Ã†â€™ y) + 2 à Ã‚  à Ã†â€™ X X à Ã†â€™ y ) ( source. Hull, 2011). Where à Ã‚  correlation coefficient on return on two asset we assume it is 0.3. à Ã†â€™ X ( ABC Inc. ) = 200,000 and à Ã†â€™ X ( XYZ Inc. ) = 50,000 Therefore, the standard deviation of total portfolio over one-day period is à Ã†â€™ X+y = à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ (sq(200,000) + sq(50,000)+ 2X0.3X 200,000 X 50,000 à Ã†â€™ X+ y = 220,227 Hence, the 1-day VaR at 99% of total portfolio is = $ 220,227 X 2.33 = $ 513,129 Hence, the 10-days VaR at 99% of total portfolio is = $ 220,227 x à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ 10 = $ 1,622,657. We can conclude as 10-days 99% VaR of ABC Inc. only is $1,473,621 10-days 99% VaR of XYZ Inc. only is $ 368,405 10-days 99% VaR of a portfolio combining ABC Inc. and XYZ Inc. is $ 1,622,657 The difference in addition of two individual versus combine value represents the benefit of Diversification. In this case, it is  £219,369 (Hull, 2011). Stress Testing There are several shortcomings in VaR calculation. The main critic is that the tool underestimates the potential losses and the actual loss could be much higher (Whitfield, n.d.). Therefore, financial institutions also carry out other techniques called stress testing along with VaR calculation. The stress testing involves study how a portfolio would have performed in case of extreme market conditions. The extreme condition can be a scenario provided by senior management or from historical situation (Whitfield, n.d.). For example, stress testing can be conducted by setting the percentage change in all market variables equal to those on 19th October, 1987, when SP 500 moved by 22.3 standard deviation. Similarly, many such historical events can be found out by analysing historical data and depending upon risk assessment levels, those scenarios can be applied to portfolio to estimate how it behaves under extreme conditions (Hull, 2011). Depending upon type of portfolio, suitable events from the historical data can be found out and better understanding of portfolio can be derived by applying stress test. For example Dot.com bubble busts scenario, Oil price extreme scenario, change in interest, higher commodity price scenarios and natural calamities. All these scenarios percentage changes in all market variable can be found by analysing historical events and then simulating scenario effect on portfolios (Hull, 2011). Stress testing enables the financial institutions to consider the extreme events that can occur from time to time but the chances of such events are very less. After credit-crisis of 2007, the regulators are insisting of stressed VaR test from all financial institutions considering all market variables present during one of the stress period like year 2008(Hull, 2011). Back testing Back testing is an important reality check on the portfolio. Whatever method used for calculating VaR but the back testing remains important. It analyze the past performance of the portfolio and its calculated VaR. It consists of testing how good the VaR estimates were correct in past. For example, if we calculated a one-day 99 % VaR, back testing would analyze how often the loss in a day exceeded the one-day 99% calculated VaR corresponding to that day. If the exceeded loss is in the range of 1% of that day, it can be reasonably considered that the methodology is working and correctly predicting the loss. However, the loss are above 7% of the day and for many days, there is doubt about methodology and someone has to analysis the methodology to fix it (Hull, 2011).

LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) Technology

LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) Technology LIDAR (Light detection and ranging) is a method of determining the topography of the surface using a laser. These pulses generated are recorded which provide precise three-dimensional information about the surface. Today various platform LIDAR is available in the market and those are chosen based on the project requirement. E.g. terrestrial LIDAR, which is fixed in ground, airborne LIDAR, which is placed on a flying platform like an airplane or helicopter and space borne Laser which is fixed on satellite platforms. Two types of LIDAR are available, topographic, and bathymetric. Topographic LIDAR use near infrared laser, whereas bathymetric LIDAR us green light which penetrate the water. The use of airborne laser (LIDAR) for measuring the depth of near shore coastal waters and lakes from an aircraft is getting more popular in surveying industry. The demand for faster and cheaper coastline survey can be replaced by using airborne LIDAR technology. The Airborne LIDAR bathymetry was successfully tested by US, Canada, and Australia in the early 1970s. The system built by Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) in 1986, the LARSEN 500 system was the first operational airborne LIDAR bathymetry system. Airborne LIDAR bathymetry has proven to be more accurate, cost effective, efficient, and fast method of collecting shallow water bathymetry data than the sonar technology which is less efficient and hard to operate in many cases. The airborne laser bathymetry involves the pulse laser transmitter which emits green and infrared beams. The wave length of green laser is 532 nm which can penetrate coastal water with less attenuation and can be used for coastal bottom detection. The infrared (IR) cannot penetrate the water and can be used for sea surface detection. The bathymetry sensors consist of four major components, the GPS receiver which records the aircraft position, the inertial measurement unit (IMU) which gives the roll, pitch and yaw of the aircraft, the laser scanner which emits the signal and the receiver sensor which read the returning signal. The LIDAR system can record the accurate measurements by knowing the position and orientation of all these components. These sensors c an measure thousands of points per seconds The transmitted laser pulse from the aircraft partially reflected from the water surface and the seabed back to the receiver. By recording the time taken from the laser to reach the surface and back to the receiver and speed of the light in air and in water, the distance to the sea surface and sea bed can be calculated. This information is used to calculate the water depth. The bathymetric LIDAR system also includes RGB cameras which acquire better color photo which is used as a quality check tool in identification of bathymetric features and aids to navigation. Airborne LIDAR bathymetry has various  Ã‚   advantages over other traditional water borne surveying techniques. It has tendency to perform survey quickly, efficiently within small operational window. This can cover a very large area and all those areas where it would be difficult to survey using traditional surveying methods. The ability of the airborne LIDAR to operate from the air gives the surveyor a flexibility that sur vey vessel surveyors could hardly imagine. The modern airborne LIDAR now comes with oblique digital photography which can be merged with point cloud. These georeferenced images are used during the validation process. There are numerous limitations of an airborne LIDAR bathymetry system. The maximum depth the laser can penetrate depends on the clarity of water. The maximum surveyable depths depend on several systems used and the environment condition. The green laser penetrates and travel maximum depth if the water is clear water. The maximum surveyable depths ranges from 50 meters in clean water to less than 10 meters in murky water. The use of airborne LIDAR system is not appropriate for small target detection. The spatial resolution obtained from the airborne LIDAR is not as good as for modern high frequency sonar. Small target detection using airborne LIDAR may be possible by significantly increasing the survey density which becomes more expensive. Various environmental factors like rain, fog, clouds, high winds, high waves, etc. can cause problem when carrying airborne LIDAR survey. Surveying in rain cause laser beam to backscatter to the receiver bye raindrops. The backscatter signal by the mist, fog can result in false surface heights.   Airborne survey in high wind can pose a danger when flying near a coastal mountain and cause changes in survey density. Airborne LIDAR bathymetry technology can be used for many applications like charting, environmental mapping, flood plain and coastal mapping etc. https://www.gim-international.com/content/article/technology-in-focus-bathymetric-LIDAR-2