Management and Workbook Process Essay

As a leading pioneer in outdoor retailing and a company at the forefront of the movement for environmental sustainability, we write this letter in response to your request to evaluate your current Workbook Process and appraise the advantages as well as the drawbacks to the system. We are not in favour of the current Workbook Process for reasons that we will list for you. We feel that a company with such a reputation as Patagonia, Inc., needs to adopt a less sophisticated but progressive system. MAIN FINDINGS With the research we carried out it was very clear and apparent to us that the Workbook Process was ineffective. However, it did open up communication among employees, and it also encouraged employees to share their ideas with some upper level management. We do feel that the process can be improved upon. OVERVIEW OF THE WORKBOOK PROCESS The Patagonia Workbook Process in our view was designed to make information about the company’s planning, budgeting and quality improvement flow more fluently amongst all the employees. The Process was also designed to encourage the employees to take a more active role in the company’s planning, operating review and decision making process. We will start our analysis by critiquing and listing what we feel are major concerns of the workbook process. CONCERNS OF THE WORKBOOK PROCESS * The Process of sharing information could weaken the managers’ powerbase, because selective disclosure of information can be used to control and to manipulate employees to do their work. * Expensive system because training is required for the employees to learn and to understand the system. In addition, training is time consuming. * The poor deliverance of financial information, due to the fact that some employees did not want to participate in the Process. * The one to two months lag behind of paperwork. Thus information was never relevant for that specific time period. * Large proportion of employees refused to engage in the Process because they found it tedious. * The plan was not accepted by all levels of management. * The Workbook Process focuses mainly on planning in advance for the longer term rather than on a day by day basis. * The Workbook Process had difficulty in judging environment, quality and distribution objectives, which are crucial success factors for Patago nia, Inc. * The Workbook Process is very complex and time consuming. The level of planning and the enormous amount of meetings needed to discuss company plans leaves very little time for constructive work to be done. * The Process could be limiting in the sense that it does not promote innovations; if anything it encourages people to just stick to a set plan and nothing else. * The profit sharing plan that was introduced was not based on merit; it was just allocated in equal percentages of the base salary. On the contrary, the workbook process also has some benefits. Although, the concerns outweigh the benefits, it is for your benefit and to give you a better perspective of the Process. BENEFITS OF THE WORKBOOK PROCESS * The Workbook Process has been significantly embraced amongst the employees at Patagonia, Inc. * A significant amount of the employees feel that the Process is worthwhile and that it has given everyone an opportunity to bond; and also optimized better solutions for the company. * The Workbook Process being a much longer term strategy can detect problems or issues before they arise, which is a more proactive approach, rather than waiting for an issue to arise before it gets attended to. * The Workbook Process gave a chance for employees at the top of the hierarchy a better understanding of what lower ranked employees where up to, therefore it created an atmosphere whereby everyone was interested in what was happening within the company. EVALUATION On the basis of our evaluation, we would like to recommend that Patagonia, Inc. discontinues with the Workbook Process. We are of the view that the Process has served its intended purpose. The Process has worked in the sense that it has educated the employees on how the company operates and how their jobs interface with each other. A control system is applied to ensure that an organization strategy is implemented which is not the case with the Workbook Process. The Workbook Process focuses on long term rather than looking at each scenario as it arises. In looking back at the time dedicated to achieving company objectives is lacking, which we feel is a key component of the future success of the company. A value driver is an objective which can indicate future success. An example would include product design, quality and design, quality and customer service, which are all qualities that Patagonia, Inc. values. MAIN RECOMENDATIONS AND MODIFICATION Our recommended replacement for the Workbook Process is a Balanced Scorecard. A Balanced Scorecard is a less sophisticated and more grounded evaluation method. A Balanced Scorecard not only focuses on financial but also non-financial contributors to the success of the company. Management can set objectives that involve different areas of the business. For example the production and distribution could qualify as efficiency objectives, research and development would focus on innovations, and the human resources would look after the quality of life for the employees. We are of a strong view that these aspects are key elements to the success of the company. The Balanced Scorecard will not guarantee success for Patagonia, Inc. but, we see it as a step in the right direction. The Balanced Scorecard does have some drawbacks as well as advantages. The drawbacks are, a Balanced Scorecard can add a new type of reporting without necessarily improving quality or financial numbers; it could be viewed as a non-value adding report method and a distraction for achieving actual goals. One more disadvantage is that Balanced Scorecard goals are easy to reach but hard to quantify. The advantages of the Balance Scorecard are that, it caters for employees who are both financially and non-financially literate, a Balanced Scorecard is less technical and easier to understand, and the last advantage is that the Balanced Scorecard is less time consuming and will allow workers to focus more on their real tasks. CONCLUSION In concluding, we feel that the time and effort required to keep the Workbook Process operational are too costly. The staff within the organization are only partially committed, which in our view is causing complications with the success of the Workbook Process. The level of training required is exhaustive. The employees who are not financially literate regardless of how much training they receive might never fully grasp the concepts of the Workbook Process. When an organization focuses all its efforts on financial results, other tasks that cannot be measured objectively are neglected. We hope that you will take all of our advice and recommendations into consideration and, we wish you and Patagonia, Inc. all the success in your future endeavours.

What is the role and purpose of the inspector in Priestley’s ‘An inspector calls’?

John Boynton Priestley was born within the city of Bradford on the 13th of September 1894. His childhood consisted of many major historical events, including the First World War in the period of 1914 – 1918, within this period he would have been 20, he served on the front line, and this life experience could have left Priestly with long-term mind like effects. Before the war his mother died, and collectively these two major events could have made him unstable or unsure of position within the world. You could describe his life as war, marriage and tragedy. Throughout his lifetime priestly wrote a number of novels, plays and other texts, mainly containing and expressing his own beliefs and experiences. As an individual he believed very much in capitalism and everybody living within there own success, benefiting from their own profits. Priestley was very left wing, whereas he disagrees with the right wing policies and prefers policies that are of a different extreme. This left wing attitude made up his main and general characteristic, which was that of someone expressing their views, his membership of the socialist party allowed him to do exactly this and share in other people's societal beliefs and views. This idea of Priestley's expression of beliefs, views, emotions and feelings of the world and society are shown clearly through the characters of Priestley's play â€Å"An inspector Calls†. Prior to the arrival of the inspector Mr. Birling appeared to be very confident in what he spoke, making his beliefs shown to his surrounding family. He made it clear that he was powerful and a strong believer of capitalism where oneself would benefit from all working efforts. From the opening scene Mr. Birling's characteristics started to be shown to the audience, he says, â€Å"I speak as a hard headed, practical man of business†, this shows that he considers himself of a high class and somewhat intelligent, however there is an understanding of his arrogance, self satisfaction and complacency. The idea of him being a man of business also suggests his obsession for money and power. Mr. Birling's confidence is shown in furtherance when he says, â€Å"the titanic-she sails next week forty-six thousand eight hundred tons- New York in five days and every luxury and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable†. This to the audience shows irony as we know that the titanic went onto sink, however in context to the characteristic of Mr. Birling it becomes clear that he is a very confident and arrogant man. When the inspector arrives it is made clear that the family are tense, uneasy and uncomfortable with the arrival of an unexpected visitor. When the inspector asks any questions, very blunt and subdued responses are given. The family regard themselves as class which should receive no such suspicion of any crime or any police related incident. Mr. Birling believed that the inspector must be calling regarding his â€Å"Knighthood† or a warrant, however in actual fact there are questions to be answered, and this scenario shows the arrogance of Mr. Birling, alongside his self satisfaction and his complacency. The inspector at this time plays a vital role in the implementation of fear, worry and guilt. In furtherance Mr. Birling becomes victim to a thorough scrutiny by the visiting inspector. Before the inspector begins his questions Mr. Birling shares information which highlights his importance within the local community, His mellow minded approach to the scenario has no huge effect and instead suggests and expresses his personal characteristics to the audience. The way that Mr. Birling says, â€Å"I was an alderman for years and lord mayor two years ago and I'm still on the bench so I know the Brumley police officers pretty well†. This shows his eagerness to express his importance and destroy any of the inspector's suspicions or questions. As the questions carry on being delivered by the inspector, Mr. irling's level of impatience increases. He also shows an eagerness to complete the interview and carry on with the evening celebrations. At this stage of the play the inspector is staging a battle, where he has to bring Mr. Birling down to reality and try to extract information regarding the death of Eva Smith. As the inspector continues to reveal the horrific happenings, Mr. Birling continues to defend his position, expressing a query regarding the role in which he plays as a high class business man in connection to the death of an ‘unknown' person. Mr. Birling says, â€Å"Yes, yes. Horrible business but I don't understand why you should come here, inspector? † In relation to human nature in general it highlights people's arrogance, directly what is being shown through the character of Mr. Birling. It is made clear at this point that it was the idea of J. B. Priestley to express peoples characteristics and show them to the reading audience, probably intended to support the main theme of the play which is to extract information using certain techniques which are used in order to allow people to face their actions and relate it to guilt, making people realise the consequences of their actions. As more details become revealed by the inspector and as Mr. Birling realises that he has previously employed Eva Smith, tension starts to build, Mr. Birling begins to give very blunt, sharp and self centred, with the inspector interrupting with a very abrupt manner, suggesting that he wants answers and will not let Mr. Birling's attitudes and beliefs stand in the way. In relation to the real world, people often have to use appropriate manners and techniques to show that they are important and will not let anything slip away from the matter in hand, regardless of a person's attitudes and characteristics etc. Although Mr. Birling accepts that he has once employed Eva Smith, and in furtherance sacked her, due to a protest over the smallest increment of pay, which solely adds to and shows his arrogance, business man like ways and higher class ignorance. He stills shows denial, he says, â€Å"Oh – that's it, is it? Well we've got several hundred young women there, y'know, and they keep changing†. This clearly shows that Mr. Birling has no care for anybody other than himself and his family, this is also shown within the following quotation, he says, â€Å"A man has to make his own way – has to look after himself – and his family of course, when he has one†, Small details which are given off by Mr. Birling relate to a major or important and meaningful thing. Mr. Birling's actions and characteristics are very important towards the main theme of the play, as they separate truth from reality, just as many defensive people within today's society would also contemplate, it shows in general how people will withhold information for the sole purpose of preventing a leakage of information which could be potentially harmful lot themselves, there business or there social dealings. Within the context of ‘An Inspector Calls', Mr. Birling makes every possible attempt to prevent a scandal which would involve himself, he repeatedly says to the inspector, â€Å"I don't see where I come into this†. The use of the word ‘I' shows his belief in a society where oneself looks after themselves and there surrounding family only. Mr. Birling continues this self satisfied and self belief attitude as he continues to use words which refer to himself, this is recognised by the audience and the inspector who are now in realisation of his full characteristics. Mr. Birling is faced with the realisation of responsibility and how it is affected by small and simple actions which in context to the guilty party may appear harmless. The inspector says, â€Å"What happened to her then may have determined what happened to her afterwards, and what happened to her may of driven her to suicide†, this makes Mr. Birling think and realise fully what his actions could have caused, however instead of simple straight confession he replies to the inspector with the following comment, â€Å"oh – well put it like that, there's something in what you say, still I cant accept any responsibility. If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we'd had anything to do with, it would be very awkward†. At this moment in time Mr. Birling demonstrates once again his strong and clear attitudes, however the inspector makes his first challenge, questioning his use of vocabulary, he asks more questions, forcing more related detail. The inspector starts to be shown as a strong character who is unwilling to take blunt and meaningless responses, however the inspector needs to be shown as strong, otherwise Mr. Birling would express no relevant detailed information, and instead only the bare minimum. Priestly made this idea significant by showing that so called superior high class citizens are not entitled to withhold and ignore information which links and directs to a plea of guilt. The Inspector asks very probing and searching questions, which have great significance, his role becomes much more exposed, the inspector as a character becomes someone who is confid ent, wise and possibly someone who is an advisor like person who is warning of a future event. He is seen as someone who can adapt to an individual to extract the highest quality of information. He acts as a catalyst, wanting to change something in the case of the Birling family, this is to turn their attitudes away from uncaring to somewhat sympathetic. The inspector says, â€Å"But after all it is better to ask for the earth than to take it†. This quote is significant because it shows a man of wisdom, and knowledge, but it also shows Priestley's perspective of life, showing that it is better to ask for something rather than just taking it. In relation to the general world it shows how people will just take something or do something without thinking of the consequences, this is exactly the point that the inspector is making when he makes this comment to Mr. Birling. Mr. Birling continues to show his arrogance as he begins once again to relate to his superiority and importance he says, â€Å"How do you get on with our chief constable, Colonel Roberts? † The way that he gives names is supposed to impress the inspector, and release himself from any further suspicions, even though at this stage he does realise that he has played a part in the death of Eva Smith. However it makes the inspector more eager to move on and away from the situation, leaving Mr. Birling beginning to realise his wrong doings which had consequences eventually leading to a death. Sheila enters and her interview begins. When she enters she appears totally oblivious to the presence of the inspector, although all is about to be changed as her true doings and actions are about to be exposed changing her high class status into a guilty, responsible and conscious citizen. Although Sheila is totally oblivious to the scenario and situation, she is eager to find out exactly what is going on, the complete opposite to her father, showing a difference in character. Sheila appears much more subtle and sympathetic, personally asking questions to entice more information. It becomes clear that the inspector will play up to Sheila's nature and play a different game, using different techniques. It appears at the outset that Sheila has driven herself into the situation and dragged herself in purely because of the many questions which she is posing. It appears that priestly wanted to make the play more interesting to the audience by introducing from the outset a mix of characters, creating conflict, opposition and contrast, however it is soon to be made clear that only from the outset the family are different, and in fact very similar within their ‘unintentional' actions. Gerald and Mr. Birling soon realise potentially what Sheila could be doing to the family, too much information can be never to good! Gerald intervenes with the following comment to the inspector, he says, â€Å"And I don't see that this inquiry gets you anywhere, inspector†. This shows Gerald's desperation to release Sheila from the scenario, and save the families from a public scandal. Gerald and Mr. Birling at this stage seem to have at least one thing in common, and this is the matter of business. Sheila starts to turn against her father, precisely what the inspector is trying to do, she says, â€Å"I think it was a mean thing to do†, this conflict starts to draw tension, totally obliterating the happy followings from the earlier evenings, Priestley's idea of creating conflict is the basis for the revealing of the truth, in relation to the general world it often takes a simple disagreement or argument for people to confront there guilt. Shelia has won the gold award for drawing attention to herself, asking many questions has eventually led her to be faced with the truth, the inspector appears to know more than he is letting on, and instead of showing it he allows the family to expose there corrupt ways themselves. Priestly made this idea of self exploitation significant because it shows how uncaring, unsympathetic people in general will expose themselves is correctly probed, in the case of the Birling family they are turned against each other, which makes them face to an extreme guilt and true reality. The inspector keeps the photograph to himself and only one family member at a time, refusing access to no one other than the interviewee. Could the photograph be someone different each time he shows it to somebody, the way that priestly keeps the audience guessing and allowing for them to draw there own conclusions on the situation is very cleverly done. Slightly coincidental but the inspector keeps the photograph very secret, just like the Birling family with there secret's, kept hidden from anyone other than themselves. The inspector has taken a very different approach to the interview with Sheila, this approach to Sheila is to extract information, however with the rest of the family members it is seen to be inappropriate and somewhat intrusive. With the continuation of the Inspectors questions and Sheila's subtle approach, she realises that she has some responsibility for the happenings of Eva Smith. She realises that the inspector had his suspicions and admits her responsibility, a total contrast to her fathers approach. As is shown in the following comment, she says, â€Å"I've told my father, he didn't seem to think it amounted to much – but I feel rotten†. It just shows there contrasting attitudes to life. Priestly made this idea of contrast significant because it shows how people on the outside can be very different, but inside can be very similar. As Sheila continues to expose her conduct, the audience starts to understand her character from a different angle, her innocent early impressions change as she tells of a story of jealousy. It becomes clear that Sheila was jealous of the girl, her looks and her position within the world. She says, â€Å"She was a very pretty girl†, this shows her jealousy of other glamorous threats within her society, she went onto to misuse her power, by using a threat to the manager, she says, â€Å"If you don't get rid of that girl, I'll never go near the place again†. This is significant because it shows how people's actions can be solely driven by jealousy and power, without thinking of the consequences, this is exactly the case of Sheila, the audiences perceptions of Sheila have suddenly changed, and as an audience we begin to understand that people shouldn't judge on first appearances as there is usually more to be told. The inspector says, â€Å"Well, we'll try to understand why it had to happen? And that's why I'm here, and why I'm not going until I know all that happened†, this quote is significant because it shows the inspectors determination to change the family, to extract and make them face reality and guilt, making them confess to all of there wrong doings, making them realise that actions have consequences. Sheila's interview takes less time than Mr. Birling's, possibly because of co-operative manner, showing a willingness to become involved and share all that she knows, accepting reasonability. Now that Sheila accepts what she has done, she casts her suspicions to Gerald, who is next for the hot seat. Gerald is confronted on his own honesty, Sheila realises that the inspector knows about each person, this is imprinted on her mind and she confronts Gerald about his own doings with Eva Smith, he admits a relationship only to Sheila expressing no real details, however not with an Eva Smith but instead with a Daisy Renton, the change in name suggests confusion and deliberate separation to attract no links between the very secretive family members. As Gerald's interview begins he again starts the routine where he tries to excuse his rather fragile Sheila. He protests that she must leave, escaping the following disturbing details which are to be revealed by Gerald. This is significant because it continues to show the families rather secretive motives, relating and sharing to nothing with the possibilities of exploitation leading to a public scandal. Gerald says, â€Å"I think Miss Birling ought to be excused any more of this questioning. She's nothing more to tell you†. From this comment he shows to the audience that he is hiding something, which appears to be his affair with the dead girl. The inspector makes a very interesting comment when he says to Gerald, â€Å"And you think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things†, which is closely followed by, â€Å"we know one woman who wasn't†, this comment is an attempt to hit Gerald with guilt in the face, it is yet another revelation from the part of the inspector. The inspector wants Sheila to stay with Gerald throughout his interview, he says, â€Å"She feels responsible. And if she leaves us now, and doesn't hear any more then she'll feel she's entirely to blame†, this quote is significant because it relates to an idea of sharing guilt and not just accepting as a sole being, however in relation to the general world, people are prepared to burden guilt onto a sole being to save themselves from any shame of guilt. As the interview of Gerald continued there were numerous interruptions, possibly planned, possibly coincidental, Mrs Birling made her first appearance who also tries to expel Sheila from the ‘damaging' scenario. Sheila continues to defend her case and manages to stay for the remaining of Gerald's story. There is an element of surprise when the inspector directly asks Gerald when he started seeing Daisy Renton, Gerald plays down the claim by saying, â€Å"where did you get the idea that I know her? † However the inspector continues to say, â€Å"I knew already! â€Å", this tactic used by the inspector is interesting as it shows the ignorance and arrogance of Gerald and Mr. Birling, who are unwilling to take and accept responsibility. The inspector is getting Gerald to reveal and expose his secret life, which prior to this interview no other person was aware of. Gerald reveals that he felt sorry for the girl and he was acting to save her from an atrocious womaniser, surely this shows a caring side to Gerald, yes, this other side to people is significant because it shows that people are made up of a mixture of personalities and characteristics, what would the world be like if we only had one mode? Gerald says, â€Å"We went along to the country hotel, which I knew would be quiet at that time of night† this suggests that he has been there before and possibly has a habit of taking in women for short petty affairs, this in relation to the real world shows how people have secret lives behind the backs of there supposed family. Gerald is exposed almost to be as bad a Muggerty, although he had saved someone from an extreme sexual relationship from an intense womaniser, he himself took advantage of the situation, turning a simple refuge campaign into a secret affair, although he did implement thoughtful and caring measures to make sure that she was well looked after, and free of trouble, you could say he was only helping a weak, vulnerable and deprived person. He said, â€Å"It was inevitable. She was pretty and warm hearted†, Priestly made this idea significant because it shows in relation to the world how people will take advantage of a weak and vulnerable person to benefit themselves in some way, In the era of priestly it was common for high profile men to take advantage of weak lonely women for the sole purpose of making there reiterating lives into something more exciting with a bit more entertainment. Gerald eventually puts into context what he has done and realises that elements were unscrupulous and inappropriate, Gerald explains that the relationship ended a few months after it begun, it was clear to the audience that the affair wouldn't of continued for a long period of time, because back then within the days of Priestly it was totally expelled that only people of the same class could have a relationship, and not a mixture in the case of Gerald and Daisy. In furtherance Gerald offered Daisy money to keep her sustainable and out of trouble, however she refused as she wanted the relationship to be meaningful and representative, she also wanted to take away the idea that Gerald was paying her for her services, this idea is significant because it shows that a proud person does not have to be of a social high class, and instead should be respected whatever there actions or beliefs. Gerald appears to have moved by the story in which he has told, he asks politely to be excused, the inspector allows for this to happen, the upset of Gerald is significant because it shows even a high class man of business with unsympathetic feelings for others in the world can and does feel emotion for tragedy's that occur within the world, I believe that it was the idea of priestly that characteristics must be shown and covered from every angle, in accordance with the main theme of the play which is the expressing of emotions, feeling guilt for the of consequences caused by an unintentional action. Gerald leaves and Mrs Birling now becomes accustom to settling routine of interview. Mrs Birling is very assertive showing that there should be no such suspicion hanging over her. She answers very sharply being very inconsiderate, when the inspector poses a question she immediately without thought gives such an answer which releases no such relevant information. The inspector says, â€Å"You're not telling me the truth! â€Å", which is followed abruptly with the following comment from Mrs Birling, she says, â€Å"I beg your pardon! already just seconds into the interview Mrs Birling and the inspector are having major clashes of personalities, Mrs Birling's attitudes are shown very strongly and she repeatedly makes the point that she has no point to play in this charade. As tension continues to grow, and as the inspector continues to fire questions which antagonise Mrs Birling, Sheila makes a point which brings the family back down to mother earth, she says, â€Å"We've no excuse now for putting on airs and that if we've any sense we won't try†. This allows Mrs Birling to realise that there is no escape as the inspector has already uncovered information from three characters, finally the inspector can resume his questioning to a more subtle level. Priestly made this point significant because it shows how people will act without full information to save themselves from suspicion or scrutinising. Still a little hesitant but more cooperative, Mrs Birling responds to the inspectors questions, it is revealed that she is a volunteer working for women's charity, she says, â€Å"We've done a great deal of useful work in helping deserving cases†. From this the audience starts to understand that she must be very caring, but indeed we are very wrong, our perception of a volunteer would be a caring person, but in the case of Mrs Birling it is non existent, it appears that she only carries out the volunteer work to gain status within her community, showing that she is prepared to be caring and work for free, to serve and aid the needy. Priestly gave the audience this idea because it is very true throughout the world, Mrs Birling represents the snobs of the world who participate in such events which gain them credentials within the community's perceptions. The inspector reveals that Mrs Birling was in fact one of the last people to see the girl before she died, she had appealed for help to the women's organization, however due to Mrs Birling's bitterness and prejudice she influenced the decision that no help would be given, Mrs Birling says, â€Å"I didn't like her manner†, jealousy and prejudice are shown. Priestly made this significant as he showed that a snobbish like person will feel no such remorse for somebody else's misery or wrong doing. In my own personal opinion Mrs Birling is the worst character out of them all, she had the opportunity to help this harmless, vulnerable, friendless, penniless, desperate victim but instead because she was dissatisfied with her initial case she dismissed her and made sure that the other members gave a unanimous vote to refuse help, it should be Mrs Birling who feels the most sympathy, but instead she probably feels the least amount of compassion from the overall spectrum of the Birling family. Tensions continue to rise as Mrs Birling's attitudes towards the inspector change, as she begins again to give responses which suit herself and not that of the inspector. More details are revealed which will eventually link back into the remaining character, Eric. The inspector Wants Mrs Birling to release more information to make her face the consequences of her actions, repeating and exploring the avenues more of the incidents will hopefully help Mrs Birling realise what she has done. The family begin to realise that Eric plays a role in the death of the girl, and his scrutinising will begin shortly, just as Mrs Birling's interview comes to a firm conclusion. The family sit and wait in anticipation for the return of Eric. Priestly made this idea of time significant, because it changes the way that we as the audience interpret the play, somebody who read the play twenty years ago will have different interpretations of the meanings than somebody who reads the play today. Eric enters and is sharply questioned, he enters with a realisation that the inspector knows about his traits, and actions, His realisation that his family are also aware of what he has done creates a rather subdued atmosphere, arguments arise and there is an overall feeling that Eric has committed such an act that jeopardises the family's status. With the family firing questions wanting to know why and what possessed him to do such a thing, the inspector becomes increasingly angry and frustrated. Eric says, â€Å"Could I have a drink first? â€Å", this is answered with a ‘No' from Mr. Birling and a ‘Yes' from the inspector, this conflict of interests between the two is increasingly apparent with a case of rivalry implemented. Is alcohol the answer to all problems? Priestly wanted to show how different people deal with their own problems in there own ways, this varies videly throughout the world. Suspicion and guilt hits Eric straight in the face, He tells of the secret meetings with the girl, and he explained how he made love to her on more than one occasion, it is suggested that himself and Gerald both took advantage of the girl, for her good looks, and her vulnerable position within life. Eric says, â€Å"She told me she was going to have a baby†, Eric then replies with, â€Å"I was in a hell state about it†, this shows that only consequences hit certain people in the face when they are confronted with reality, a baby for Eric created by accident with somebody he didn't love would have catastrophic and disastrous. Priestly wanted to show exactly how some high class families were humiliated back then within his era, when such events occurred it was common that the families would banish the perpetrator, and escape any disgrace from the local community, for the Birling family it would have been cataclysmic if any such news escaped of there corrupt wrong doings, this would have been followed by a public scandal. Eric's integrity is severely questioned by his fathers somewhat raging temper and annoyance. It is revealed that that he stole money from his own family business, as the truth is revealed, it becomes clear that Mr. Birling is more concerned about the money, than the pregnancy of the girl. He says, â€Å"He's admitted he was responsible for the girls condition†, Mr. Birling burdens total blame onto the Eric, as his secret life unfolds, for the position that the girl was left in. Priestly made this idea significant because it shows how people will prioritise things to there own aptitudes and attitudes of life, in the case of a business man (Mr. B) he is putting money and theft before family and pregnancy. This is shown by Mr. Birling when he says, â€Å"I've got to cover this up as soon as I can†. A childhood revolt begins to occur as Sheila continues to blame her mother and father for all of the endeavours committed by the younger generation. Eric blames his mother for the final death of the girl, saying, â€Å"You killed her – she came to you to protect me – and you turned her away†. This idea of a childhood revolt is significant because it shows how disrespect on the child's part occurs within a family, in the time of priestly it was unheard of a child questioning there parents, in the case of the play it was the inspectors job to remove such disrespect. The inspector continues to assert his authority, interrupting and taking charge, He gives a summary of events, hitting each perpetrator directly in the face with guilt and realisation of there true given consequences, he burdens the main blame onto Mr. Birling, who is left with a moment of thinking to reiterate what has just been said, this idea of repeating what has been done is allowing for the family members to understand the extent of there actions, coming to terms with the consequences, realising what they did then was unacceptable and a feeling of guilt should be felt. The interviewing of the family draws to a conclusion, he leaves the family divided, with opinions against each other, they are allowed to reserve judgement and come to terms within there own hemisphere just exactly what they have done. The inspector leaves giving a rather meaningful speech

Mass Hysteria on Salem Witch Trial

What is mass hysteria? Mass hysteria is when most everybody develops a common fear that often spirals into a panic. The tragic story of the Salem Witch Trial contains mass hysteria back in 1692. In my two articles â€Å"Salem Witch Craft Trial† and â€Å"Mass Hysteria in Upstate New York† have similar problems. In both articles I will be explaining how mass hysteria played a key role in both of these issues. In the article â€Å"Salem Witch Craft Trial† it tells the history of the mass hysteria behind the whole Salem witch craft trials.The mass hysteria occurred from 1692-1693 and lead to many people dying. There were one hundred and forty arrests, nineteen hangings, one rock crushing and several people dying in jail while awaiting their trial. Everything that Salem had was to get rid of their witches in the city. In January 1962 two girls named Elizabeth and Abigail had fell out in church and start writhing on the floor. The doctor was convinced that it was witc hcraft.The pastor was asked â€Å"Who did this† and the two daughters said â€Å"Tituba the slave, Sarah Good a homeless woman and Sarah Osborn. † Tituba confess that she was a witch and was order to hurt girls. Tituba also told that were more witches in the town of Salem. The two girls start pointing people that could be witches who would spend months chained in jail. Over a hundred of Salem's prominent people would be incarcerated and suppose witches would visit the girls and torture them.Overall, nineteen people were hanged, one pressed to death and four others died in prison awaiting trial. What I learn from the articles that the people was scared of witchcraft. After Rev. Parris daughters were hurt, they start to kill people that were supposed to be a witch. Over hundred people were being killed during this time because of witchcraft. The mass hysteria in this article was the fear of having witches in Salem. With that being the mass hysteria a lot of people died.

The Man, the Message, the Mission Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Man, the Message, the Mission - Article Example Walker focused in his undertakings and at the age of twelve became an organist at the Providence Baptist Church. Charles concentrated on participation in numerous musical activities in the church, because of his family’s close affiliation with the church. His collaboration with the churches intensified as he matured into adulthood leading to his appointment as the revival leader and a pianist in the churches. At the positions served Dr. Charles Walker maintained high level of integrity that earned him respect and love from many people. After High school graduation in 1953, he won a scholarship to study with Alexander and Ming Tchere prin at the Chicago’s DePaul University, School of music. He graduated from the university with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in music with specialization in piano music. Walker studied song coordination with Paul Stassevitch, organ with Herman Pedtke and coached with Rudolph Ganz of Chicago College of Performing Arts. He became the first Black American student, to become president of Beta Pi music fraternity at the University. He succeeded in the position because of the leadership skills peers saw in him. Reverend Dr. Charles Walker extended his musical studies in Paris France at L’ecole Magda Taliaferro and performed many concerts in France, Germany, and Hungary. He also played with the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra, while serving as an artist-in-residence at Southern University in Barton Rouge, Louisiana. He kept displaying and performing his art in music in other concerts where he excelled. While globally performing his arts, DR. Walker finally accepted a call to the ministry and joined Colgate Divinity School to finish his studies. He later attained ordainment as a minister and served as a pastor of the Nineteenth Street Baptized Church for 40 years. As an internationally celebrated concert pianist, composer, conductor, and musicologist, Dr. Walker, had the opportunity to merge

Colonialism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Colonialism - Essay Example Unfortunately this was not Lumumba and he had to go. Patrice Lumumba was assassinated on 17 January, 1961. His assassination was ploted by the U.S and Belgian governments in conjuction with some Congolese accomplices. A Belgian execution squad was set up to kill him. Foreigners invaded Africa in the late 1800s and early 1900s for many reasons. Various African countries were colonised by different countries who were in pursuit of different agendas. For instance, Kenya was colonised by Britain who wanted to conduct slave trade. The following are some of the reasons why African countries were colonised: i. Search for raw materials. While carrying out their excursions, the European realised that Africa was a very rich continent and its inhabitants were yet to realise this. The continent was rich in raw materials for instance; the Beligium invaded Congo partly for its rubber and ivory. Upon colonising these African countries, the European nations acquired labour from the Africans themselves then exported the materials to their homeland. iii. ‘Western civilisation’. King Leopold was the Belgian King at the time Congo was colonised. He claimed that he wanted to bring western civilisation to African countries for instance Congo. However, this was a mere ruse meant to distract from his real intentions. The King wanted to amass personal wealth in Congo. Most African countries reacted to their colonisation through violent means, however some countries chose not to oppose their reign for instance Burundi who instead collaborated with the foreigners. Congo was one of the countries who responded through violent means. The Congolese resisted colonisation for many years, killing very many of King Leopold’s soldiers. One of the famous uprising was led by a chief in the lower Congo rapids, Nzansu. Leopold however retaliated through the use of even severe means of cruelty. Whoever opposed his

Heathcare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Heathcare - Essay Example On top of that he is further indulging in alcohol abuse on weekends which should ideally be totally banned in his case as his SGOT and SGPT levels are raised. Moreover he has existing Staphylococcal urethral infection. As he is presently suffering from acute respiratory distress, his habit of smoking is not going to help his case in any way. He has taken erratic medication for aids and that too using AZT and Zidovudine which has been administered in unaccountable time spans and compliance is also not known for sure. His musculo skeletal and cardiovascular systems however show some signs of integrity and proper functioning. The patient should be guided to change his food habits drastically and stick to high energy cereals and fresh fruit juice in the morning. He should be encouraged to have breakfast as the heaviest meal which should include citrus juices and vegetarian protein diet. Curd, yoghurt and milk should be used liberally and he should avoid coffee and sodas altogether. He should have a light lunch and have his dinner in the evening before 7 PM. He should desist from having late meals and should drink hot milk at night before going to bed. He should be assisted and encouraged to follow this schedule by his partner or any other well wisher. As the patient is into intellectual pursuits like poetry, he should be made to realize the gravity of his problem by a psychologist. The diet supplementation and pattern should be prepared by a qualified nutritionist. 1. Anxiolytics for reducing anxiety: A low dose of Alprazolam could be started in consultation with a psychiatrist to alleviate his desperation. This is one of the safest anxioltics and minimum dosage of 0.25 milligrams should be started initially. However, the selection of the anxiolytic should be made by a qualified psychiatrist after careful assessment of the patient’s EEG and other parameters. 2. To check acute coughing

Calvins View of the Biblical Doctrine of the Fall of Man, Resistence Essay

Calvins View of the Biblical Doctrine of the Fall of Man, Resistence to Tyrannical Government and argument for Limited Governmen - Essay Example Irresistible Grace†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..5 D. Perseverance of the Saints†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 6 E. Limited Atonement †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 6 III. Christian Community and the Christian Government †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 7 - 9 IV. Conclusion †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢ € ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦9 Introduction The Reformation was a religious movement intended to rectify the teachings of the Catholic Church on human salvation. It abolished the systematized view on attaining salvation by emphasizing on human faith alone. Thus, for the Reformists, it is enough for man to believe in order to be saved. One of the most influential theologians during the Reformation period was John Calvin. Claimed by many as the founder of Calvinism, he shared some definitive teachings on the nature of man and on the significance of a Christian community. His lectures greatly contributed in the establishment of some religious and socio-political ideologies of today. In this light, we will examine the teachings of John Calvin by highlighting on two important aspects: firstly, his view on the nature of man in relation to the divine intellect; and secondly; his notion of the ideal socio-political community. I. Human Sin and Salvation All of the teachings of John Calvi n are grounded on his unique conception of human nature, which according to him, is corrupt and wicked. 1 As underscored in most of works, the spiritual downfall of man was caused by the sin of Adam and Eve. As a result of this sin, man became spiritually dead. Thus, John Calvin believes that the spiritual downfall of man has made him unworthy to go to heaven, thus, he has to be essentially chosen by God to be saved. The choice, however, depends not on his actions on earth but on the destiny that has been arbitrarily assigned to him by God. In this light, the salvation of man rests heavily on the arbitrary and preordained judgment of God, for He has the right, the power, and the wisdom to do whatever he pleases. This sets forth the central tenet of Calvinism, which is predestination. The catechism of Calvinism is summarized into Five Points (Christ Covenant Sunday School 2009). An examination of each point will help elucidate some of the key issues related to Calvinism: firstly, the inherent nature of sin in relation to the work of Satan; secondly, the justification for the selection of the Elect; and lastly, Calvary and notion of limited atonement. 1. Total Depravity As described earlier, the whole being of man has been tainted by sin—his body, soul, intellect, will, and emotions. And because of this, man has lost his direct relation to God. Sin is deemed to be the activity of Satan. According to the bible, Satan is a fallen angel who lost his status due to perversion. His rebellion to God caused him to become the irreconcilable enemy of God. It can be stated, moreover, that Satan’s nature is marked by lies.2 His basic strategy of falsehood is intended not only to injure God, but also to destroy man. According to Calvin, however, the fall of man is his own responsibility. Although the conception of sin is formed by Satan, it is man that ultimately executed the act. As a result, man now bears the image of Satan and is now

Ulcers and You Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ulcers and You - Research Paper Example Proteins comprise of amine and the acid groups in their structures. If a protein-rich food for instance, fish overstays under unfavorable conditions of temperature and pressure, the amino acid structures in it may alter and become toxic. The non-fresh foods jeopardize the gastric system and might worsen with time. Dr Heddy’s family situation might have incorporated the consumption of toxins on the non-fresh fish. Dr Heddy should know the causes and remedies of ulcers before taking the kids to the hospital. Ulcers closely relate to the colitis, an infection characterized by swellings in the large intestine wall. Ulcers and colitis possess a critical relationship since they are both result from the gastrointestinal wall infections. This exercise will employ the logic to describe the scientific reasoning behind the stomach infections. The ethos will strive to impart an absolute understanding of the topic amongst the audience. The emotional involvement will attain a consideration since the matter affects an individual’s family. Causes of Ulcers Ulcers are caused by bacterial infections that compromise the structure of the internal lining of   digestive tract. The bacteria can reach the stomach when the food consumed by an individual contains the bacteria or its eggs. The digestive tract comprises of the esophagus, the duodenum and the stomach. The esophagus is the path followed by the food taken into the stomach. The duodenum refers to the region between the esophagus and the stomach. The bacterium responsible for the ulcer development in an individual is called helicobacter pylori. The bacterium has the capacity to habit the stomach lining and administers its effects on the stomach walls. The bacteria infect the stomach walls and multiply to increase its chances of survival. The condition can also result from the intake of drugs, which are nonstreidal, and averts inflammations such as asprin and nuprin. The drugs disable the functionality of the go blet cells to secrete the mucus on the duodenal and the stomach linings. Once there are inadequate amounts of mucus in the tract walls, the hydrochloric acid and the digestive juices corrode the stomach walls. The corrosion then results into inflammations and wounds. Consumption of hot and spicy foods may also increase the amounts of the acids in the stomach enhancing the intensity of the hydrochloric acid actions on the gastric mucosa. There are other causes of ulcers such as smoking, alcohol and caffeine, which there will be no emphasis on in this scenario. The significance of focusing on the other causes is because Dr Heddy’s family developed the stomach problems after the consumption of food they expected of being stale. Symptoms of Ulcers The condition victims experience severe abdominal pains around the navel and the breastbone. The victims may also vomit foods they eat and intensive nausea. Among children, a significant weakness may be experienced because of anemia. Th e pains encountered emanate from the inflammations and the sores in the stomach. Diagnosis of Ulcer Endoscopy This invasive test entails insertion of a long-narrow tube through the mouth to the esophagus. The tube runs through duodenum and into the stomach. The tube is fitted with a sharp light and a camera. The tube examines the walls and detects the presence of the helicobacter pylor

Why did the U.S. government target Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 Research Paper

Why did the U.S. government target Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 - Research Paper Example Why did the United States choose to bomb Japan, and what factors led to the targeting of these particular cities, and the consequential high loss of human life? One argument for this use of deadly force is that the United States wanted to end the war with Japan quickly, before the planned invasion which was to occur a few months later. The bombs acted as a show of strength, as well as devastating the resources of the cities that were targeting and dealing a severe blow to the morale of the Japanese people. Understanding the factors that influenced the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is important, as the world is currently in a nuclear age, where many countries have nuclear capability but other countries do not. Additionally, understanding the behavior of the United States, and what influenced the decisions that occurred during this period is crucial, as the United States currently exists as the primary world superpower. This essay discusses the factors that drove the United States to use nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with the focus that these attacks were focused on the nuclear weapons in Japan, rather than the citizens. How are nuclear weapons currently perceived? Nuclear weapons are extremely powerful, and have the ability to decimate cities, destroying buildings and killing people with no prior warning and no method of defense (Krieger 2003, 3) The devastation that occurred from Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Obligation Definition Essay Example for Free

Obligation Definition Essay The question presented in this discussion is definitely one that has no easy answer. I will start by saying, a obligation is defined by what a person is bound to from either tradition or law. If I took a relative approach I would say that morals and ethical obligation are subjective. I personally believe that to a extent humans do have a obligation to animals. To go out of your way to depict cruelty to any creature illustrates a flaw in your own character. However, humans dont have to have a diet that includes meat but most do. Even in these cases the way that the livestock is going to be treated does not have to be treated cruelly, or put in discomfort. I remember watching a show in which the farmer said, that his cows tasted so good because they lived a happy life. In many ways he treated the cows akin to a pet, by feeding them properly, making sure their living quarters are clean, and showing them affection. His belief was that by doing this his cows meat was more tender, then if he hadnt done these practices. Do I believe this maybe, maybe not. However, this does illustrate that the livestock that we consume does not have to be treated in a cruel manner. Yet, in theory in our society animals do not perform any function but companionship and food, which means humans really dont have a obligation to them. However, I feel it is boorish to depict cruelty to any creature or anyone.

Sustainable Public Procurement vs Green Public Procurement

Sustainable Public Procurement vs Green Public Procurement This section provides the background to the research and overview or outlines the overall framework of the dissertation. It describe the research process that include research problem, problem statement, aim, and objectives of the research, the scope of research being investigated, methodology adopted and finally the summary of the overall research structure undertaken. 1.0.2 Background Sustainability have become a widespread issue in developing countries as the effort to develop the country and conserving the Mother Nature at the same time increased. This effort is also due to the commitment agreed after United Nation Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 established Agenda 21. The Agenda 21 which contains blueprints on sustainability in 21st century was agreed by most of the governments to incorporate the sustainability concept in developments and economic area but still preserving the environment and natural resources. The construction industry is in no exception. Construction industry contributes 3.5 per cent to the countrys gross domestic product in 2011 (Jabatan Statistik Malaysia,2011) . These consist mainly of public sector projects under governments development programme. This indicates that the government have a big role to encourage the sustainability concept since they are the client with the biggest purchasing power. The sustainability developments by the Malaysian Green Technology Policy 2009 are the development of products, equipment and systems used to conserve the natural environment and resources, which minimizes and reduces the negative impact of human activities. While procurement is defined as a process that produces, manages and fulfils contract relating to various works such as construction, leasing properties, discarding properties or give permission for a project (Watermeyer,2004). The local government have the power to incorporate sustainability in its project through sustainable procurement. Sustainable procurement ensures that the project tendered by contractor have the element of sustainability incorporated inside the documents. By using their leverage to opt for goods and services that also respects the environment they can influence the contractor to include more energy efficient building system (Walker H., Brammer, 2009). This give a clear signal to the procurement parties to use environmental efficient technologies in the buildings as stated in the contract. Among the local government in other country that used sustainable procurement system is the Dutch Ministry for Economic Affairs. Their agency, Senter Novem defined sustainable procurement as applying environmental and social aspects in all stages of the procurement process to ensure that it results in the actual delivery of product, service or work in line with such environmental and social aspects. It is also defined as construction that brings about the required performance with the least unfavourable ecological impacts while encouraging economic, social and cultural improvement at local, regional and global level. (Taipale, 2010) 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT Sustainability is one of the five main areas of the Government Transformation Programme. Therefore, in order to achieve this, the policies need to be enforced. This is to ensure the implementation will take place and change can be seen. However, sustainable procurement is also important which are not well known in Malaysian construction industry. There is a need to know the level of awareness of this procurement so that it can help policy makers to do policies that are applicable to Malaysian environment. This is because Malaysia have a strong foundation in the sustainability issue but still lacking in implementation level. As stated by Perera et. al (2007), law and policies are not enough to change the usual traditional procurement system which are based on value for money rather than the whole life of value of the project. According to CIMP 2006-2015, road to sustainability is expected to come by 2015. However, 2015 is getting near and the changes are still yet to be seen. 1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 1.2.1 AIMS This paper aims to discover the awareness of construction industry players of the sustainable procurement. It is can be used to discover the problems that hinder or cause the industry players hesitant to incorporate sustainability in procurement even though there are various policies available nowadays. By using natural materials in the design does not mean the building is sustainable. Everything that came from the Mother Nature does not necessarily sustainable to begin with. For example, tyres which made out of 100% natural ingredient which is rubber. Therefore, it is hoped that the understanding of sustainability itself and the ability to incorporate sustainable into procurement can be done. 1.2.2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES a. To identify the awareness of the construction industry players about sustainable procurement. b. To identify the problems in implementation level. c. To find appropriate recommendation to encourage the use of sustainable public procurement in public projects. 1.3 SCOPE OF RESEARCH The scope of this paper will limit on the procurements for public projects as the projects in Malaysia are mostly from the Government development programmes. The scope will limit for government projects in Sarawak only. 1.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The research methodology will explain how the objectives of this study can be achieved. This chapter will show the flow and the method used to gather the data and information to achieve the objective of study. The data and information will be adopted by specific approach depend on the nature of the investigation. It can be categorized into two stages: Data collection methods are an integral part of research design in any research. Data can be collected in variety of ways and in different setting. Data can be obtained from primary and secondary data. The primary data refer to information which gathered from first hand experiences in the specific of studies. Then, the secondary data is the data which are collected from the publish data or the data collected which are already existed. Primary Data Questionnaires Questionnaires will be given out to Quantity Surveyors, Engineers and other construction industry related job such as contract administrators and others. The questionnaires are intended to assemble all the information that needed to prove the objective of the research paper. Secondary Data The Literature Review was carried out to establish some general knowledge of the research topic. A clearer framework of the research was established for secondary data. These are all obtained from: Journals Articles Information from internet Dissertation Publisher research work Books 7.0 TENTATIVE CHAPTER HEADINGS Chapter 1: Introduction The introduction will discuss on issues relating to sustainable construction and sustainability in procurements. Other items included under this heading are problem statements, aim and objectives and scope of the study. This chapter will also line out the research methodology of the research paper and its significant to the construction industry. Chapter 2: Literature Review Chapter 2 will review on the sustainable procurement principles, the distinction between sustainable and green procurement. The chapter will also review the other countries that have taken steps to implement sustainable procurement in the public projects. The characteristics, benefits and the procurement practices in Malaysia will also be reviewed under this heading. Chapter 3: Sustainable Procurement This heading will further discuss on the integration of the sustainability into procurement. The chapter will also discuss the application of sustainable procurement in other countries such as United Kingdom. The National policies on sustainability issues will also be discussed in this chapter. This is to show that Malaysia have strong foundation on policy but lack in implementation. The roles of Government in implementing sustainable procurement will also be discussed. Chapter 4: Data Analysis And Findings This chapter will discuss on the data obtained and findings on the research. Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations This chapter will conclude on the overall issues and recommend the suitable solution. CHAPTER 2:Â  LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 INTRODUCTION Nowadays, the consumption of goods and services causes the emission of chemical substances, mass use of natural resources and other activity generates waste and pollution. Sustainable procurement ensure the environmental, social and economic objective is achieved. The construction industry uses a lot of natural resources, waste and pollution. In order to control these problems, the solution must start from the procurement itself. Malaysian construction industry has no problem in adopting and implementing the sustainable practices however, due to lack of knowledge and due to financial constraints the progress are slow (Othman R., 2008). 2.1 SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT: AN OVERVIEW 2.1.1 Principle According to United Nation, sustainable principle is based on environmental, social and economic consideration. These three objective must be combined together to produce a sustainable procurement. The procurement strategy must consider the life cycle value of the project, social impact and the economic benefits. The life cycle value of the project does not means the value in terms of financial value only. The life cycle value of the project in sustainable procurement also means the project have lower environmental impact. This ensures that the building is not only green initially, but also after end of use. The building components must consist of materials that are Eco labelled. Among the energy rating label on product is Energy Star. Energy Star is an international recognized standard for electrical product. A procurement officer can check whether the product such as air conditioner have an Energy Star label. Other than that, the procurement officer can refer to the specification i n Energy Stars website. This is to ensure the product is energy efficient and have lower environmental impact. Sustainable procurement gives impact socially by supporting the local businesses. Supporting businesses by single mother is also considered helping the social level to progress. When support is given to these local businesses, their business will eventually grow and job opportunity created. Economically, if there is a demand for green innovative product the market will try to supply more of the similar products and probably more competitive price can be obtained from the market. This opens up a bigger market for sustainable products. More variety of products with reasonable price will be available. The assessment of economic sustainability considers not only the initial investment in land and construction, but also questions such as the cost of maintaining and operating a building over a longer period of time. Social and societal sustainability covers issues which are often closely linked with economic and environmental ones, such as access to basic services, upgrading poor housing conditions, creating decent jobs, fair trade of construction materials, transparency. of tenders for contracts., cultural values embedded in old buildings, and accessibility to buildings. (Taipale, 2010). 2.1.2 Sustainable VS. Green Although the term green and sustainability used interchangeably, there is a difference of green and sustainable construction. For green buildings (the middle-size box), common phases of the life cycle for the building are incorporated into construction. Indoor environmental quality is a variable added into the green building model compared to the conventional building model. In green building, the stage of incorporating green character of a building only started during design stage. While for sustainable, the concept are incorporated since the pre-design stage. During pre-design stage, all the design team, owners and all other parties involved need to establish and understand the objectives on sustainability. They also need to share their opinions on sustainability and agree on common priorities including the potential challenges on reusing and refurbishing the building. They need to learn lessons from best practices on other projects to examine possible changes or innovations for th e proposed building. (Taipale, 2010) In sustainable buildings (the bigger box), the numbers of variables and stages of the building life-cycle considered are even larger. Based on the figure 2.1, the concept of sustainability comprises of whole building life cycle value. Variable such as site selection, project planning and urban design, service quality, social and economic aspect and cultural and perceptual aspect are added to this model. In pre design stage, site selection is considered important. Selection of site must not give negative impacts to the surrounding environment. Impacts on groundwater, natural resources, decrease in accessibility, pollution to soil and orientation of sun and wind are several items that need to be considered for site selection. 2.1.2 Why sustainability need to be integrated with procurement? Through procurement that requires sustainability to be incorporated in the construction, the market will see a signal to supply more sustainable products to meet the criteria. This is because where there is demand, there will be supply. Laymans checklist shows that procurement is one of the issues that need to be taken account during construction of sustainable buildings. 2.1.3 Sustainable Procurement: A Global Issue Sustainable procurement is already enforced in New Zealand, United Kingdom..___. The Marrakech Project is a task force formed to do the framework on sustainable procurement as a result from Agenda 21. According to Marrakech Force, Japan According to Shohei Yamada from Ministry of Environment Japan, the key Japans success in green purchasing is due to the law in green purchasing that are strictly enforced and implemented in by Japans government. Switzerland Marrakech Task Force United Kingdom Sustainable Procurement Action Plan 2.2 National Policy On Sustainability Issue Malaysia had taken a step towards sustainability after Rio Summit in 1992. The summit requires various countries to commit on the sustainable development issue. There were 27 principles of sustainable development identified during the conference. During Rio Summit, there is also a guideline on sustainable development which is known as Agenda 21. After Rio Summit in 1992, Malaysian government introduced the Malaysian National Environment Policy. (elaborate) The development of various initiatives and policy of sustainable development in Malaysia started since the Kyoto Declaration in 2002 is signed by various countries. Benefits of Sustainable Procurement There are several benefits listed by Kennard (2006) for sustainable procurements. Among them are: Control costs by adopting a wider approach to whole life costing. When wider approach to whole life costing is adopted, the once considered expensive item will be seen as cost saving in long term. This is through the efficient use of the sustainable material and products. Several research and best practices proved that by evaluating the life cycle value of the building, positive social and environmental impact can be achieved. For example in choosing the type of bulb to be used in a building. The energy saving bulb initial cost is expensive. But it uses less energy which brings to less electricity current. The bulb also long lasting therefore it does not require change regularly. This reduces the maintenance cost of the building operation. Comply with environmental and social legislation. There are various tools implemented by the Government in environmental and social legislation to improve sustainability such as transforming Ministry of Communication, Water and Energy to Ministry of KETTHA. There are also guidelines in developing a sustainable development in National Urbanization Policy. Incentives are also given such as exemption from tax if a developer achieves the Green Building Index certificate. There is also a Green Technology Funding Scheme (GTFS) where the construction fulfils the criteria in Table 2.0. No. Criteria Elaboration Requirement 1 Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy By using the building orientation as a method to optimise the consumption of energy. For example to get good natural lighting, the orientation of the building must be towards the sunlight. The building also need to use building services that use renewable energy, ensure proper testing made to the services and do regular maintenance. Minimum Energy Efficient Performance Compliance to minimum requirement of MS1525:2007 Renewable Energy 2 Indoor Environmental Quality Good indoor air quality, acoustics, visual and thermal comfort. This includes using a low volatile organic compound materials, use a quality air filtration system, proper control of air temperature, movement and humidity. Minimum IAQ Performance Minimum indoor air quality (IAQ) performance to enhance indoor air quality in building, thus contributing to the comfort and well-being of the occupants. Low indoor air pollutants, mould prevention 3 Sustainable Site Planning and Management Selecting appropriate sites with planned access to public transportation, community services, open spaces and landscaping. Avoiding and conserving environmentally sensitive areas through the redevelopment of existing sites and brownfields. Implementing proper construction management, storm water management and reducing the strain on existing infrastructure capacity. Environment Management Conserve existing natural area Restore damaged area to provide habitat Promote biodiversity Maximize open space by providing a high ratio of open space to development footprint to promote biodiversity. Earthworks Construction activity pollution control and Reduce social impact to surrounding. Public transportation access Reduce pollution and land development impacts from automobile use. Storm water design to limit the disruption of natural hydrology Reduce heat island effect. 4 Materials and Resources Use products that are from environmental friendly and recyclable source. Implement a proper waste management system, with storage, collection and reuse of recyclables and construction waste and formworks. Materials reuse and recycle content materials and construction waste management. Use of environmentally-friendly Refrigerants and Clean Agents. 5 Water Efficiency Practices rainwater harvesting, water recycling and water saving fittings Rainwater Harvesting to reduce potable water consumption. Water Recycling to reduce potable water consumption. Water Efficient Irrigation/ Landscaping Encourage the design of system that does not require the use of potable water supply from the local water reticulation. Water Efficient Fittings Encourage reduction in potable water consumption through use of efficient devices. Metering Leak Detection System Encourage the design of systems that monitors and manages water consumption. 6 Innovation Use an innovative design and initiatives in promoting energy efficiency that meets the goal of Green Building Index Innovation in design environmental design initiatives that contribute to reduce impact to the environment. Green building accredited facilitator To support and encourage the design integration required for green / sustainable building rated buildings and to streamline the application and certification process. Table 2.0 : Criteria and Requirements for obtaining Green Technology Funding Scheme (GTFS) (Source : http://www.gtfs.my/page/criteria-building-and-township-sector) There are also rebates for those who procure the air conditioning, refrigerator or chiller which are rated 5-star by Suruhanjaya Tenaga. The Government are encouraging the consumers to use energy efficient appliances by listing the 5-star rated products in the website. They also provide a savings calculator to show how much saving the consumer can get if they use an energy efficient electrical appliances. This is to help create a culture of efficient use of energy into consumers and business entities. Manage risk and reputation. In order to implement the sustainable procurement, an organization needs to fully change its policies and procedures. It is vital that the sustainability criteria are integrated into the management itself before it is applied to other areas such as procurement. The existing procurement practice and policies need to be evaluated to clarify what the organization really needed to purchase. The procurement policies need to adopt sustainable strategies in order to manage unnecessary consumption and demand thus reducing the impact of energy use to environment. By producing a guideline of the procurement policy, the performance of sustainable procurement can be measured in future. Thus sustainable procurement goals can be developed from time to time. This process will provide a measurement for re-evaluating the sustainability of the supply chain and build a reputation for the organization as an organization that practices good ethical value of sustainable in procurement. (Kennard, 2006) CHAPTER 3 3.0 INTRODUCTION According to Kallet (2004), a studys validity is judged based on the method section of a research paper which provides all of the information in a study. Therefore, a solid research methodology planning precise description of each action must be prepared prior to the commencement of a particular research study. The credibility of the outcome of the research and how the research can be applied in a general population interest is referred as validity (Kallet, 2004). Therefore, the authenticity of content in a research paper are depending on the degree of the validity of its outcome to the overall population and ability of the research paper to be used as future reference. Hulley et.al (1988) as cited by Kallet (2004), stated that the credibility of a study is solely determined by the degree to which conclusion drawn from a research correctly what actually transpired during a study, known as Internal Validity. Moreover, Kallets 2004 study (Hulley et.al, 1988) stated that as for External validity refers to whether the result of a study depending on the degree of the study can be generalized to a larger population. Planning a research methodology before the execution of a research study is essential in ensuring that the outcome of the study which was based on its objectives can be reached and its degree of validity is credible for future reference. 3.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY OF THE TOPIC 3.1.1 Objectives of the Study The research on the has three most important goals or objective which comprises of the following: To identify the awareness of the construction industry players about sustainable procurement. To identify the problems in implementation level of sustainable procurement in construction industry. To find appropriate recommendation to encourage the use of sustainable public procurement in public projects. These three main objectives were set out as a guideline in executing the research study on the topic. The methodologies used in order to obtain valuable information for this research study are based on sources from both Primary and Secondary Data. Primary Data for this research study was obtained by means of interviews with numerous individual and site visits. Among the barriers in obtaining the primary data was the restriction due to governmental policies, availability of the person in- charge, communication barriers, bureaucracy hassle, public transportation breakdown, financial limit, time constraint, and weather condition. As for the Secondary Data, the information was obtained from journals, articles, electronic information, dissertations, publisher research work, and book of related topic. 3.1.2 Summary of Research Methodology 3.1.2.1 Primary Data Due to the effect of degree of validity of a research study to the credibility of the outcome of the study, the data obtained for executing the study is scrutinized and filtered in order to obtain only the worthy information. Primary data can be defined as the first hand data that was obtain by the researcher prior to the commencement of the research, it is the foremost sources of information which was obtained from both interviews and site visits. Prior to the these data gathering can commence, a letter of consent for request of approval for using the project as a case study was submitted to the responsible being for approval and official notification. The interviews were carried out largely at the mentioned public department. Among the individual interviewed was the Head of the Developers, Quantity Surveyors, Civil Engineers, Architects, and Contractor and also other parties that involved and understand the procurement content. 3.2.2.2 Secondary Data According to Stacks (2002), secondary data can be defined as report on the outcome of the primary data. It is not as authoritative as the primary data as it often provides broad background and readily improves ones learning curve. Therefore, obviously the secondary data is not as reliable as the primary data. The secondary data used in this research is obtained from books related to the research topic, articles, journals, electronic information, dissertations, and public works research. 3.2 SOURCE OF RESEARCH DATA 3.2.3 Primary data Primary data obtained for the purpose of the study consist of interviews and site visits. Interviews The interviews carried out for the purpose of this study can be divided into two, namely : Semi structured interviews. Informal interviews. 3.2.3.1.1 Semi Structured Interviews Rashid (1998) suggested that it is more desirable to conduct a semi-structured interview which is closer to the qualitative research method in order to be balanced and attempt to obtain additional information that would enrich the quantitative data obtained through questionnaire survey. As the nature of the investigation is a combination of qualitative and quantitative that seek for the answer for open-ended and close-ended questions of why and how therefore, it is more appropriate to conduct semi-structured interview in which it provides opportunities to researcher to capture both data. To ensure the smoothness and to facilitate the respondents in answering the questions, the following guides and procedures were followed: The main instructions were clearly explained during the beginning of interview sessions. Each respondents were requested to discuss on one or more specific projects that has been selected during content analysis prior to the interview in which they were directly involved in the strategic briefing process. The respondents were allowed to express their opinion freely in the future outlook of sustainable procurement in construction industry, in order to explore potential variables and concepts that may have been overlooking during literature review. The questions were design to be short and simple, which developed from objectives of the research. A five-point rating scale were used for close-ended questions with choices of responses of : 1 Not at all aware 2 Slightly aware 3 Somewhat aware 4 Moderately aware 5 Extremely aware 3.2.3.1.2 Informal Interviews Informal interviews were carried out by means of telecommunication such as telephone calls, emails, and Short Messaging System or better known as SMS. This type of interview were conducted in order to acquire basic information such as the availability of the person in charge, hardcopy information for appendix purposes, and other related references. 3.2.3.1.3 Questionnaires The final stage of data collection is a postal questionnaire survey. The primary objective of postal questionnaire survey is to measure the level of clients practices during briefing. It also carried out to measure the level of project success based on perception of the architects in-charged for the selected project. Responses and variables on clients practices during briefing and level of project success obtained from the survey were used to validate findings on semi-structured interview on the previous stage of data collection, in order to have reliable, unbiased and meaningful data. Given that the location of the respondents were relatively remote, financial limitation and constrained by timeline of the study, a postal questionnaire survey was observed as the most appropriate method to collecting data from the respondents. According to Sekaran (2003), the main advantage of mail questionnaire is that a wide geographical area can be covered in the survey. Naoum (1998) added it is more suited to assembling a mass of information at a minimum expense in terms of finance, human and other resources. A set of question was developed for the purpose of the survey in which divided into several sections that covered background of the respondents, level of knowledge and concept of sustainable development and construction, application of sustainability in procurement, barriers to implement sustainable procurement in construction industry and future outlook of the sustainable procurement in construction. To encourage high response rate and to ensure the required information were obtained, the following guides and procedures were followed: The questions were design to be short and simple, and were formatted on A4 sizes paper. The main instructions were clearly printed in the front page of the questionnaire form. The questionnaire was divided into several sections, according to research objectives and category of information required. Refer to Appendix 1 for copy of questionnaire used in the postal questionnaire survey. Secondary Data According to Ober (2008), secondary data is not as good as the primary data , however, it is not the worst kind of data that can be used in completing a research study. Moreover, there are many advantageous in applying the secondary data as a method in completing a research study, this is due to the facts that it is low in term of cost and less time consuming than gathering primary data, therefore, secondary data will help save money, energy, and time. However, it also holds its own disadvantages in terms of the quality of the available data and its availability for a particular topic of a research study. Most of the secondary data gathered in this study was obtained from construction journals and articles. The secondary data for this research was also gathered from the electronic

Mesos and Kubernetes : A Comparative Analysis

Mesos and Kubernetes : A Comparative Analysis Abstract Containers and application containerization have fast gained traction as the most promising aspects of Cloud Computing. A massive increase in the number and variety of applications has created a need for smooth integration between developer and live environments with quick service time. The amount of user data being handled by todays applications requires heavy computing resources which further require large clusters of hosts. Management of these large clusters is very challenging and containers provide a viable solution. Containers provide an operating system level virtualization for deploying and running applications in a distributed node topology, eliminating the need for configuration of a complete VM per application. Open source technologies like Docker have developed a method that provides better portability for containers. This paper presents a proposal for performance evaluation of two of the most widely used open source orchestration systems Kubernetes and Mesos for cloud native applications. We also provide a brief overview of the importance of choosing the right container orchestration tool to deploy and manage cloud-native applications. Keywords: Kubernetes, Mesos, Cloud native applications, Locust, GCE. With the fast spread of internet hegemony, the conventional and niche web applications are increasing in number. Deployment and maintenance of each of such applications requires a myriad of hardware and associated software designed to perform several generic activities. Rapid progress of cloud computing technologies have aided in decentralizing the implementations, leading to distributed systems. Docker technology provides containers for easy deployment and management of applications. Carefully managed by cluster management tools like Kubernetes and Mesos, replication, failovers, as well as APIs can automate integration and lead to a seamless deployment over clusters of host machines, thereby eliminating disruption of service caused by inherent downtime. Kubernetes: Kubernetes is an open source cluster manager project that integrates cluster management capabilities into a system of virtual machines. It is a lightweight, portable, modular, responsive and fault-tolerant orchestration tool that is written in Go and comes with built-in service discovery and replication utilities. Fig 1.1 shows the architecture and important concepts of Kubernetes. Fig 1 Kubernetes Architecture Important components of kubernetes are : Pods : Pod is the building block for schedul- ing, deployment, horizontal scaling and replication. It is a group of tightly coupled containers that are located on the same host and sharing the same IP address, ports, resources and the same localhost.[7] Kubelet is the agent that runs on the worker nodes that manages Pods, their containers, container images and the volumes if any. Replication Controllers : They control and monitor the number of running pods for a service, and provide fault tolerance.It is the high availability solution of Kubernetes. Kubectl : The command to control the kubernetes cluster once its running. Kubectl runs on the master node. Kubernetes has a policy driven scheduler (Kube-scheduler) which considers availability, performance and capacity constraints,quality of service requirements, and workload. kubernetes can also work with multiple schedulers. Users can add their own schedulers if other constraints are required.[7] Mesos: Apache Mesos is an open-source cluster manager, developed by Benjamin Hindman, Andy Konwinski, and Matei Zaharia at the University of California, Berkeley as a research project along with professor Ion Stoica. Its designed to scale to very large clusters involving hundreds or thousands of hosts such as hadoop tasks, cloud native applications, etc. It enables resource sharing in a fine-grained manner thus improving cluster utilization.To deploy and manage applications in large-scale clustered environments more efficiently, Mesos plays role between the application layer and the operating system and makes it easier. It can run many applications on a dynamically shared pool of nodes. The major components in a Mesos cluster are: Fig 2 Mesos Architecture [6] Mesos follows 2 level scheduling. Each framework asks Mesos for a certain amount of resources it requires, in response Mesos offers a set of resources. Framework scheduler evaluates the offered resources based on its own criteria and accepts or refuses.[7] Apache ZooKeeper acts as a central coordination service to achieve high availability. The design comprises multiple masters, where one is an active leader and ZooKeeper handles the leader election. For high availability setting, a minimum of 3 master nodes is needed. Marathon is a framework that is designed to launch long-running applications, and serves as a replacement for a traditional init system. It provides many features such as high availability, application health checks, node constraints, fault -tolerance and an easy to use web UI for long running application. Marathon Framework is composed of executor and scheduler. The UI of marathon provides an option to start, stop and scale the long running applications. Kubernetes and Mesos makes the process of setting up multiple virtual clusters simpler, allowing for stack management to shed unwanted layers of software which bog down systems. Using Kubernetes and Mesos for cluster management allows for high-level task monitoring, resource allocation and application scaling, whilst offering the control needed to ensure applications run smoothly. Setting up of either Mesos or Kubernetes on Windows means developers and organizations that work between Linux and Windows platforms may use their own tools without requiring heavy resource management. A. Container Orchestration tools and its importance: With the usage of containers, running cloud-native applications on physical or virtual infrastructure is made easy. Containers facilitate easier application management to dynamically adapt to the changing needs of service. It also enables seamless migration of application instances to different environments. Multiple containers need effective management utilities that manage the resources and enable running of containers on different environments, over multiple hosts. Orchestration tools manage applications of different complexities that are distributed for computing over cluster of machines. These tools abstract the cluster systems as a single entity for deployment of application and managing the resources. Orchestrations tools can handle configuration, scheduling and deploying of applications, along with maintenance and support for automatic failovers and scaling. Kubernetes acts primarily as a container orchestration tool whereas Mesos provides a platform to run orchestration frameworks like Marathon or Aurora to manage applications, which may or may not be containerized. Comparing the stand alone Kubernetes orchestration and Marathon with Mesos is effective in understanding the right choice for implementation. B. Proposed solution on Google Compute Engine: There are no synthetic benchmarks that exist to evaluate the performance of Kubernetes and Mesos. This paper aims at evaluating orchestration methods on Google Compute Engine (GCE) for hosted cluster installation and management. A single cluster in GCE for all purposes will have a master VM and four worker VMs. Setting a baseline comparison through a simple cloud application deployment . This is the first proposed benchmark which analyses user experience with minimal containers on Kubernetes cluster and Mesos . Having a Google Cloud Platform account and installing Google Cloud SDK is the first step for this. Cloud application is then deployed on the created cluster to compare their respective processes of deployment. Streaming Engine using Docker clusters on GCE to check the delivery speed , scheduling , and scalability of container orchestrations. This is also to test the feature of pods on Kubernetes where all containers in a pod have single networking point. Standalone analysis using existing tools to test performance and known limitations of both these systems. cAdvisor that collects data about running containers, Heapster which gives the basic resource utilization metrics on Kubernetes and marathon-lb tools on Mesos marathon. This paper aims to provide qualitative as well quantitative metrics to compare and contrast the working of Kubernetes and Mesos. The objective is to compile a substantive list of criteria analysing the performance of both the orchestration tools. The study intends to bring to light comparative results that hitherto do not exist in related literature and also to build upon the existing knowledge through the results of the experiments in this paper. Some of the comparative points are:Load balancing, Scalability, User experience . Kubernetes Mesos Distinctive features Offers a combination of pods which are controlled by replications controllers . IPC between pods systemv semaphores or posix shared memory . Do not support colocation of multiple containers on same mesos. Application distribution Supports master-worker nodes , where the applications are deployed on pods on worker nodes. Supports master-agent nodes , and applications are deployed on different agent nodes. Resource schedulers Has a policy driven scheduler (Kube-Scheduler) Has a 2 levels scheduling approach. Scalability Kubernetes 1.3 supports 2000 node clusters Mesos has been simulated to scale up to 50,000 nodes [9] Load Balancing Supports both internal and external load balancing.. Mesos DNS (rudimentary load balancer), Marathon-lb (haproxy based load balancer for Mesos marathon) Monitoring tools Heapster, cAdvisor and Google Cloud Monitoring .InfluxDB and Grafana as backend tools for visualization. Sysdig and Sysdig Cloud (full metrics and metadata support for Apache Mesos and Mesosphere Marathon framework) The implementation was done on Google cloud platform, using the Google Compute Engine (GCE). Under the scope of the account setup for implementation, following are the details of the resources available. For this implementation, two of the available 4 machines have been used. Resource Machine Names n1-standard-1 n1-standard-2 Virtual CPU 1 2 Memory (GB) 3.75 7.50 Max No of Persistent Disks (PD) 16 16 Max PD Size (TB) 64 64 A. Kubernetes ecosystem Kubernetes ecosystem is spread over two setups as shown below. Two Node Setup Four Node setup Master node VMs 1 1 CPU 1 1 Machine type N1-standard-1 N1-standard-1 Worker nodes VMs 1 3 CPU 2 each 2 each Machine type N1-standard-1 N1-standard-1 Table 3 Kubernetes ecosystem Production grade kubernetes is available open source and can be installed from its official page [10]. After the installation of kubernetes , start up script kube-up.sh can be used to spin up a cluster. A cluster consists of a single master instance and a set of worker nodes each of which is a Computer engine virtual machine.This process takes about ten minutes to bring up a cluster and once the cluster is running , IP addresses of all the nodes can be obtained from the computer engine. Cluster specifications can be specified using environment variables like NUM_NODES , MASTER_SIZE, NODE_SIZE or can also be specified in config_default.sh. kubectl is the command line interface for kubernetes clusters. It supports command types like create, apply, attach , config, get, describe, and delete and resource types like pods, deployment, and services. B. Mesos ecosystem Different approaches were used to implement a Mesos cluster system as per the available resources. The procedure followed for each implementation and the associated complexities are described briefly. The third implementation method, which was incorporated into this project, is described in detail. Single master Single Slave In the first method that was tried for setup, the system was formulated as a single node cluster consisting of zookeeper, marathon, a single master and a single agent processes. The images for these were pulled from the Docker hub, using Docker installed on the GCE shell. Four containers, one each for the process listed were started. The Mesos master UI was accessible through the browser on its designated IP address, at port 5050. Marathon UI was accessed through its external IP address at port 8080. This implementation posed two constraints for successful implementation. The set up used up all the available CPU and a multinode configuration could not be implemented. Further, a public Docker image poses trust issues for a system implementation. It was, therefore, decided to explore other options. Datacenter / Operating System (DC/OS) DCOS is a product of a company called Mesosphere which makes applications and solutions based on Apache Mesos. DCOS is designed as a distributed operating system with Apache Mesos serving as its kernel. The intent is to abstract the different functionalities of multiple machines so as to club them as a single computing resource. DCOS can offer container orchestration as it has Marathon scheduler built into its design at the backend. [11] Installation of DCOS on the Google Compute Engine requires the setting up of a primary bootstrap node on which the GCE scripts shall be run to create the cluster nodes. A yaml format installation file is to be run via Ansible playbook to create and configure the cluster nodes with DCOS running on them. Several environment variables have to be customized such as setting up RSA public/private key pairs that shall allow for a SSH based login into the cluster nodes. The team was unsuccessful in setting up a DCOS running cluster on GCE. The support community for DCOS is not very mature and the installation issues faced by the team could not be resolved. Exploring the services of DCOS has been included as one the future work possibilities in this paper as DCOS promises great potential in terms of effective container orchestration. Installing VMs on GCE In this method, Mesos ecosystem implementation is over 6 virtual machines, using four n1-standard-1 and two n1-standard-2 machine types. The system consists of 3 master nodes and 3 agents, with the Marathon and Zookeeper processes running on VMs 1, 2 and 3, as shown in the figure below. The VMs with two CPUs indicates n1-standard-2 machines. Fig 3 Mesos Implementation Diagram The following processes are run on each of these VMs to establish a self sufficient ecosystem. Marathon Marathon runs as a scheduling framework on Mesos and is deployed over VM1. Zookeeper Zookeeper is a process that manages which master process to run as active and which to keep as standby. Zookeeper processes are run on VM1, VM2 and VM3, to keep a backup zookeeper process running to facilitate automatic failover of a master process. Mesos Master Three mesos master processes are run, each in VM1, VM2 and VM3. The quorum associated with Zookeeper selects one of these three masters to be active and the rest to be standby. Mesos Agents Mesos Agents processes run on VM4, VM5 and VM6. Mesos agent on VM6 runs on an n1-standard-1 machine, as compared to agents on VMs 4 and 5. The Kubernetes and Mesos Cluster systems were set up as described in the implementation section. Each ecosystem was evaluated in different scenarios and the behaviour of the systems were analysed for each of the scenarios in terms of scalability, load balancing and failover capabilities. Kubernetes System: Creating and deploying the application on kubernetes is primarily carried out by the specifications on pod.yaml , deployment.yaml , and service.yaml files. pod.yaml deployment.yaml service.yaml Operations Group of containers tied together for networking Used to schedule the creation of pods and check their health. To expose the created deployment to the outside of clusters. arguments specified -docker image -shared volumes -CPU restrictions on single pod -LivenessProbe -ReadinessProbe -replicas : to ensure the minimum number of pods that needs to be running at all times. -loadbalancer -clusterIP Table 4 Kubernetes :application deployment components Kubernetes Scalability : Setup used for understanding scalability in kubernetes is described in the kubernetes ecosystem section. This process is aimed at gauging kubernetes scalability against the CPU resource utilization of clusters, auto scaling of pods , and API responsiveness. Web based WordPress application was chosen for this purpose. Scaling in kubernetes is achieved by horizontal auto scaling of pods .It dynamically adjusts the number of pods in deployment to meet the load/traffic. Horizontal Pod Autoscaler(HPA) can be created via the kubectl command kubectl autoscale deployment wordpress cpu-percent=14 min=1 -max=10 . This means that the horizontal autoscaler will increase and decrease the number of pods to maintain an average CPU utilization of 14% across all Pods. It also facilitates automatic failover of pods. Locust was used for creating load on WordPress application. Locust is an easy-to-use python based load testing tool which is used to find out how many concurrent users a system can handle . It swarms the web applications with a number of users which is specified by using the web UI. Once the application was hosted by kubernetes , load was initiated to its load balancer ingress IP using locust .The intention was to learn how the auto scalers react on the load as generated by locust. The results of the experiment can be better explained using the tabular format as below. The parameters like minimum and maximum number of pods , target CPU utilization were kept similar to both the setups. Number of requests in the table suggests the total number of users created by locust. Two node setup (Total 7 CPUs) Number of Pods 10 50 150 Target CPU 14 14 8 Max Number of requests 575 966 3158 Failure % 23% 23% 41% Table 5 Kubernetes: Scalability in two node system Four Node setup (Total 3 CPUs) Number of Pods 10 50 150 Target CPU 14 14 8 Max Number of requests 611 1433 7513 Failure % 24% 20% 2% Table 6 Kubernetes: Scalability in four node system Observations from the above tabulated results : The number of pods from 1-10 did not have any significant impact on the failure percentage . The significant difference in the results were spotted as the number of pods were increased. As number of requests increased , the increase in the number of pods was witnessed. And with the load going down pods were downsized automatically. Fig 4 Kubernetes pods in running and terminating states The failure percentage was drastically reduced between the two setups with high load and higher number of pods . The failure percentage is almost similar between the two setups with less load. Setup was benchmarked at 150 for maximum number of pods. It was observed that going beyond this value left many pods in pending state for longer than seven minutes. Starting a pod takes lesser than four seconds in other cases . More number of pods will be created when the target CPU percentage specified in the horizontal auto scaler command is less. CPU resource utilization of four node cluster is as shown below .This shows that the newly created pods were allocated equally across the worker nodes.The below graph is as seen from stackdriver utility. Fig 5 CPU usage of a Kubernetes cluster Fig 6 Load distribution over the worker nodes. Mesos System: Application scalability, in terms of Mesos using Marathon is represented as number of instances that are created and successfully run on the active agent nodes. Marathon provides an option to simulate application instances to be distributed over the agent nodes through the Scale option in the User Interface Dashboard. Applications are specified as JSON files, either through the Create Application option of the Marathon UI or through a JSON file in Git which is imported, built and deployed over Marathon for distribution and scheduling, through the use of continuous integration tool called Jenkins. Deploying an application: Mesos using Marathon forms an orchestration tool for managing application instances on the different active agent nodes. These nodes are managed by a master instance, which is effectively managed by the Zookeeper processes. Distribution of application instances on agent nodes depends on the resources allocated to each of the agents. For this implementation, we consider an application that is not CPU intensive. This application abstracts any data intensive application, that is based on a request response model. Following table summarizes the different scenarios simulated to test scalability of the application, each with the different configurations employed. Cluster configuration represents number of active agent nodes, as number of masters remain at 3. Sl No Cluster Configuration Effective CPUs available CPU Usage per instance (%) Memory usage per application instance (MB) Maximum instances scaled for the CPU available 1 2 Agents 4 10 32 40 2 3 Agents 5 10 32 50 3 2 Agents 4 2 10 200 4 3 Agents 5 2 10 250 Table 7: Scalability analysis with a Data Intensive application The tabulated results indicate the effective operation of Mesos cluster with Marathon scheduling framework, which suggest the easy scalable property of a Mesos cluster system. When there are more number of instances of application that need servicing, a mesos cluster starts new agent process and effectively distributes the application load over the running agents. Load Balancing Increase in number of application instances require more number of agent nodes running to service all the requests. However, the request handling is not efficient, if all of the requests are directed to a single agent. The workload is distributed effectively among all the agent nodes. For the scaling test scenarios described in the previous section, CPU usage was monitored using Google Stack Driver utility. The graph below shows CPU usage at different timelines. The rapid rise or fall of the usage attributes to the increasing/decreasing number of application instances that need servicing. Fig 7 CPU usage of a Mesos cluster with changes in application instances The distribution of workload on all the processes is tabulated, using the Stack Driver utility, as illustrated by the figure below. Fig 8 Load distribution over the six processes There is a significant workload over master node 3, as the marathon process utilizes the core of VM3, even though the process is run on VM1. Master nodes have least CPU usage, owing to the fact that the only operation performed by the nodes is distribution of application tasks over the agents. The agents are represented as three processes named mesos-slave-1, mesos-slave-2 and mesos-slave-3. The workload distributed on these appear even. However, the agent-3 runs only on a single core and it uses 22.9% of the total allocated core. This summarizes the effective load balancing that a Mesos system incorporates. Failover Mesos Cluster system runs additional master processes as standby to facilitate automatic failover of the system. In this experiment, as an initial condition, the quorum of Zookeepers elected Mesos-master-2 to be primary and Mesos-Master-1 and Mesos-Master-3 as secondary. Application deployment was initiated as per the previous procedure, using a JSON file through Marathon. The active tasks on Mesos-master-2 were checked at port 5050 of the master-2 external IP address to check the delegation of tasks to the active agent nodes. To test failover, the mesos-master-2 process was killed. It was observed that the presence of Zookeeper effectively switched the application deployments over the agents through mesos-master-1. The delegation of tasks to slave was now observed through the browser on the external IP address of mesos-master-1 at port 5050. With this project, the implementation and experimentation enabled a better understanding of the concepts related to orchestration, containerization, scalability and load balancing properties of a cluster based environment. This will ease the initial understanding of deployment and management of cloud native applications, and to better setup and environment that houses them. With the help of this documentation, along with the link provided through github, it would be easier to setup an orchestration environment, as the team has tried to collate the steps involved in implementing a cluster with orchestration tools. Through research and experimentation, the team was able to put together enough literature to understand, compare, contrast and conclude on various aspects of orchestration systems and understand the major difference between Kubernetes and Mesos based systems. Lack of resources for implementation of Mesos based systems, and equivocal distinction among the several example implementation required for a better compilation of materials, which was achieved through this project work. In a survey conducted by P Heidari et al [7] on some of the well known orchestration tools with a primary focus on QoS capabilities, the authors have concluded that not all of the solution tools provide a guaranteed healthy running replicas to effectively maintain the quality of service. They have cited that tools like Marathon and Fleet tend to go into a state of unprecedented wait due to the need for appropriate resources. There is a need of an elasticity e