Monday, September 30, 2019

Disabled Monologue

Disabled Monologue Setting: [Fruit Man walks to the center of the stage] Fruit Man:I remember the day he left and the day he returned. Crowds cheered him off but only a few welcomed him home. The fact was that nobody had cared enough to go out of their way to see the negative aspects of the war they once had encouraged. I saw them return, one by one, leaving the ships, almost all of them broken in a way, physically or mentally. They deserved thanks, so I gave them fruits, an action that would mean little when they left, but means the world to them now.This soldier, I was there as he went and came, and I have seen everything. Today, unlike a year ago, no big welcome home for them. They were not welcomed home as they had expected they would be. Thousands came to send them off and cheer them on. Soldiers happily marching down the streets, waving to cheering crowds, accepting flowers from pretty girls. Some cheeky soldiers may even steal a kiss here and there. It was so joyous, proud and honourable. Everything was rosy and good. Everyone thought it would be a short war and a happy one and of course we will win.No one gave a thought about anyone getting hurt or killed. He had once been so young and virile. Now he is crippled, unattractive. He had been foolish when he was young; the media persuaded him that the war was glorious, fun and glamorous. It was cool wearing an army uniform and carrying a rifle. It was exciting, an adventure and maybe returning a hero with a medal. AAH, the pretty girls and the kisses, the good things to come. The young soldier isn’t thinking about getting hurt or killed. Then, the reality! It is wrong that society does not appreciate the hardships and sacrifices that were made on their behalf.Almost none of the soldiers’ work was grand, glorious or fun. Their work was necessary. Most of this work goes against what we cherish in our society. We were taught that ‘life is valuable’ and ‘violence is bad’. This war, a war nobody wants. He was such a handsome man, a ladies man before he joined the army. Now, broken, haggard and older than his real age. No women will look twice at him. They much prefer healthy ones. Heroes are strong and big. Heroes do not get injured. Girls do not want to be with cripples. How he must hate this.He used to get so much attention from the girls. What a hopeless life. He does not want pity or disgust. He wants admiration and love. Memories can be so cruel. It is quite depressing to see that he will be sent to an army hospital. I am sure experiments after experiments will be done trying to fix him until they decide that they are nothing they can do for him. He will be discharged and live alone on government handouts. What a terrible life lies ahead. He will be alone, helpless and he will never experience the love of a woman or have a family. The poor man, how much he has LOST.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Detergents Case Essay

A detergent is a surfactant or a mixture of surfactants with â€Å"cleaning properties in dilute solutions.†[1] These substances are usually alkylbenzenesulfonates, a family of compounds that are similar to soap but are more soluble in hard water, because the polar sulfonate (of detergents) is less likely than the polar carboxyl (of soap) to bind to calcium and other ions found in hard water. In most household contexts, the term detergent by itself refers specifically to laundry detergent or dish detergent, as opposed to hand soap or other types of cleaning agents. Detergents are commonly available as powders or concentrated solutions. Detergents, like soaps, work because they are amphiphilic: partly hydrophilic (polar) and partly hydrophobic (non-polar). Their dual nature facilitates the mixture of hydrophobic compounds (like oil and grease) with water. Because air is not hydrophilic, detergents are also foaming agents to varying degrees. Contents [hide] 1 Chemical classification of detergents 1.1 Anionic detergents 1.2 Cationic detergents 1.3 Non-ionic and zwitterionic detergents 2 Major applications of detergents 2.1 Laundry detergents 2.2 Fuel additives 2.3 Biological Reagent 2.4 Soapless soap 3 See also 4 References 5 External links [edit]Chemical classification of detergents Detergents are classified into three broad groupings, depending on the electrical charge of the surfactants. [edit]Anionic detergents Typical anionic detergents are alkylbenzenesulfonates. The alkylbenzene portion of these anions is lipophilic and the sulfonate is hydrophilic. Two different varieties have been popularized, those with branched alkyl groups and those with linear alkyl groups. The former were largely phased out in economically advanced societies because they are poorly biodegradable.[2] An estimated 6 billion kilograms of anionic detergents are produced annually for domestic markets. Bile acids, such as deoxycholic acid (DOC), are anionic detergents produced by the liver to aid in digestion and absorption of fats and oils. Three kinds of anionic detergents: a branched sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate, linear sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate, and a soap. [edit]Cationic detergents Cationic detergents are similar to the anionic ones, with a hydrophobic component, but, instead of the anionic sulfonate group, the cationic surfactants have quaternary ammonium as the polar end. The ammonium center is positively charged.[2] [edit]Non-ionic and zwitterionic detergents Non-ionic detergents are characterized by their uncharged, hydrophilic headgroups. Typical non-ionic detergents are based on polyoxyethylene or a glycoside. Common examples of the former include Tween, Triton, and the Brij series. These materials are also known as ethoxylates or PEGylates. Glycosides have a sugar as their uncharged hydrophilic headgroup. Examples include octyl-thioglucoside and maltosides. HEGA and MEGA series detergents are similar, possessing a sugar alcohol as headgroup. Zwitterionic detergents possess a net zero charge arising from the presence of equal numbers of +1 and −1 charged chemical groups. Examples include CHAPS. See surfactants for more applications. [edit]Major applications of detergents [edit]Laundry detergents Main article: laundry detergent One of the largest applications of detergents is for cleaning clothing. The formulations are complex, reflecting the diverse demands of the application and the highly competitive consumer market. In general, laundry detergents contain water softeners, surfactants, bleach, enzymes, brighteners, fragrances, and many other agents. The formulation is strongly affected by the temperature of the cleaning water and varies from country to country. [edit]Fuel additives Both carburetors and fuel injector components of Otto engines benefit from detergents in the fuels to prevent fouling. Concentrations are about 300 ppm. Typical detergents are long-chain amines and amides such as polyisobuteneamine and polyisobuteneamide/succinimide.[3] [edit]Biological Reagent Reagent grade detergents are employed for the isolation and purification of integral membrane proteins found in biological cells. Advancements in the purity and sophistication of detergents have facilitated structural and biophysical characterization of important membrane proteins such as ion channels,[4] transporters, signaling receptors, and photosystem II.[5] [edit]Soapless soap Soapless soap refers to a soapfree liquid cleanser with a slightly acidic pH.[6] Soapless soaps are used in an array of products.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Social Formations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Social Formations - Essay Example Anti-consumer activist, therefore, seek to have these brands put the welfare of the consumer first. They seek to instill adherence to the highest ethical standards rather than spending money on sanitizing substandard products for the sake of protecting a brand. Andrew Ross adds another dimension to their mandate. He says a call on the consumers to leverage their buying power and use it effectively to help raise the starvation wages of the individuals employed in the sweatshops (Ross, 107). The focus here is that the compromised quality of products coming out of factories is more the result of the maltreatment of the employees who work in these industries. It is a logical argument that a maltreated employee will have much less incentive to consider the customer as deserving any better. The company, therefore, might lose its core customer base because of a substandard product. The anti-consumer activists also call on the consumers who are demanding value for their money not to wait for structured negotiations between different governments to bring about change (Ross, 105). Using the illustration of the influx of harmful toys from China, the movement says that structured solutions to such unscrupulous business practices will likely take a lon g time before reaching the owners of these sweatshops. In the meantime, the consumers will continue getting exposed to the harmful and substandard products from these companies. For a wholesome product quality, the anti-consumerists aver that there is need to focus on total quality adherence in the entire production chain. Companies should ensure that they guarantee adequate protections and benefits to even their smallest supplier. Just like the factory worker, a supplier who feels unfairly treated will have less incentive to guarantee consistent quality of products. According to Ross, the anti-consumerist activists, and the anti-sweatshop activists have

Friday, September 27, 2019

The Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North Essay

The Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North during the 1900's - Essay Example There seems to have been two instances where the African Americans migrated. First was between 1910-1940, following which it is considered that there was a second Great Migration, which was between 1940 and 1970. Most of the people seemed to have moved to California from places like Texas and Louisiana. This move is considered mainly due to the availability of jobs in the defense industry. The years 1965 until 1970, had seen a high number of people migrating from places like Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi to other regions of the United States which fell under the Census. However the following year brought about a number of people moving back to their original destinations due to family reasons, or kinship ties. However post 1995 until 2000, places like Georgia, Texas and Maryland, attracted the highest number of college graduates. California was considered to be one of the highest and most gaining states for the black migrants however the later 1990s led California to loose more than gain African Americans. With the Emancipation Proclamation that had been signed earlier on in 1863, left merely 8 percent of the African American population left in Northeast and Midwest. Later on in 1900, almost ninety percent of the African American was seen to have moved out of the slave holding states to move into newer and better lives (Wesley, 1927). A number of the people had moved into places like Boston, New York, Baltimore, Chicago and many other smaller industrial cities. People wanted to take the cheapest rail ticket possible and for this they moved from places like Mississippi to Chicago. The years of 1910 until 1930s saw a rise in the African American population in Northern States and there was a rise of almost forty percent, this lead to a high level of urban tension, majorly because of the number of migrants of the African American and

Thursday, September 26, 2019

What is DNA Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

What is DNA - Research Paper Example Scientists have played a great role in this progress as it is due to their efforts that the understanding of the human body has become possible. DNA which is a biochemical substance in the human body is one such example. Following the understanding of DNA, it has become an important tool used by forensic experts and it has become an important part of the criminal justice system. DNA which stands for deoxyribonucleic acid is a biochemical molecule that is basically made up of two DNA chains that are complementary to each other. These chains are interwoven polynucleotide chains whose basic units are four nucleotide subunits. The DNA molecule is a helical structure with the stands being attached to each other via hydrogen bonds. DNA carries the genetic information of every individual. The strands of DNA separate and each strand is utilized for the purpose of transferring of genetic material. Any living organisms including the human beings only synthesize those proteins in their body whose information is present on their DNA (Alberts 2002). The work for the discovery DNA started towards the end of the nineteenth century. The Swiss chemist Friedrich Miescher recognized DNA as a chemical molecule in the late nineteenth century. Research work on DNA continued and other scientists who included Phoebus Levene and Erwin Chargaff worked hard for finding out its structure and chemical bonding. They laid down the scientific foundation which was then followed by Watson and Crick who finally discovered the helical structure of DNA and explained the functioning of DNA and its genetic coding (Pray 2008). Testing of DNA on biological materials which included body fluids, hair and the skin started in the year 1985 in U.S.A. This procedure is the most reliable clinical investigation and is of utmost importance in the inquiries of rape cases. This is because DNA is a biochemical molecule which consists of the entire unique genetic pattern of an individual. The efficacy of these results of DNA testing from the biological materials is even above 99 percent. The first criminal who was awarded punishment following DNA testing was a rapist, Tommie Lee Andrews in the year 1987 in Florida (James 2009). There are many uses of DNA . Its usage in the criminal investigation procedures is its most common use. Biological materials are tested for DNA and this provides for the conviction of criminals in cases which include murder as well as sexual assault. DNA testing is also used for confirming the relationship status of individuals. It can assist in finding lost people. This was true following the September 11 attacks in the United States when DNA testing was performed to identify and tell the families of the victims regarding the deaths of their loved ones. Furthermore, paternity DNA testing can also help solving cases related to property as well as custody related issues. Apart from the legal and criminal field, DNA testing has been extremely crucial for providing with breakthroughs in the medical field for the discovery of new pathological conditions. It has also been helpful for anthropologists to understand evolution and human existence (Lamb 2007; James 2009). The criminal justice system has greatly changed and progressed following the usage of DNA testing procedures. DNA databases have been created in many countries across the globe for the purpose of assessment and identification of offenders. In the United States, by the year 2009, the FBI had the DNA samples of all the criminals who had been convicted as well as the sexual wrongdoers from all the states of the country. Maintenance of such criminal records is one of the breakthroughs in

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Enterprise resource planning Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Enterprise resource planning - Literature review Example Taking into account all the necessary precautions described in this review, readers can develop an accurate and effective ability to choose the correct ERP to fulfil their company’s needs. Enterprise Resource Planning The development of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) packages has evolved the software market in the most valuable segments of modern organizations. They have transformed over the past decade, every aspect of organisational process including sales, marketing, manufacturing and staffing. The first ERP systems that emerged were very expensive for small and medium companies and also required complex processes and maintenance to incorporate them. The detrimental effect that ERPs possess over the entire organization is deemed important for the development and prosperity of a business (Livermore & Ragowsky, 2002). As, such a combination of human and technical expertise is required in order to make a correct selection of vendor, implement the system accordingly and p rovide adequate support and maintenance. The instances of companies going bankrupt due to implement failure of an ERP system include prestigious firms, such as Mobil Europe, Nike, Reebok and Hershey. The continuous failures of the ERP system have raised the question of their viability and the risks involved with incorporating such practices (Chen, 2001). Based on available literature and real-life examples, this review will analyse the tasks needed in order to choose the correct ERP system, the implications that need to be considered, important procedures needed for implementation and future directions for research are proposed. History of ERP The predecessors of modern ERPs were made in the 1960’s with the manufacturing of early Material Requirements Planning (MRP) software by the partnership of J.I. Case with IBM.. However these solutions were big and expensive because they required a large technical staff to support the mainframe computers. In 1970’s the developme nt of faster and higher capacity storage enabled the development of a more integrated business information system. The introduction of COPICS concepts for IBM computers and subsequent birth of software companies such as SAP (Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung) and Oracle among others, lead to increased technological advancements in MRPs. Its functions included scheduling and releasing manufacturing work orders and purchase orders (Chen, 2001). The MRP II system was created in the early 1980’s by J.D Edwards was later named manufacturing resource planning rather than its original acronym and adopted the MRP-II term to conjoin with the newer capabilities, such as integrating primary functions (production, marketing and finance) and personnel and engineering to improve the efficacy of the enterprise. During the late 80’s the update of CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) framework offered a strategy to help integrate information in a consistent manner across the e nterprise, which was the key to the migrating path between MRP and ERP systems (Chung & Snyder, 2000). The term enterprise resource planning (ERP) was named in the early 1990s by the Gartner Group and included certain criteria to asses the extent of integration across many functional areas such as production from raw materials to work-in-process (WIP) to finished goods inventory (FGI), shipping and receiving

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Conclusion for management project Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Conclusion for management project - Term Paper Example The time-bound goal was a specific goal of our team. Our group’s most frequently used style was the collaborative approach style. We had no conflicts except for a minor conflict about matching the schedules we had prepared. However, our frequent communication with the emails enabled us to understand one another’s viewpoints and eliminate the misunderstandings. The email was a powerful tool in our communication as we used it to share ideas and other group related materials with one another. We all got along really well and respected each other. Maintaining the schedule and finishing the project upon time was a big challenge for our group. We mutually decided to split the project up. The thinking of the group members was not affected by the groupthink. Our leader had very good social skills. The leader’s behavior was people-oriented. The leader was friendly and approachable, and treated everybody equally. With mutual effort, we were able to finish the project in

Monday, September 23, 2019

Inclusionary Practices in Science Classrooms Research Paper

Inclusionary Practices in Science Classrooms - Research Paper Example There they are given additional help and special instruction in the classroom. Full inclusion is one where there is no segregation between general and special students, and they work together (Hub Pages). Richard Lange, is a gifted expert, and he talks about his experience and about the international gifted programs. He talks about his visit to Taipei, Taiwan, where he saw that these students had to take extensive rigorous placement tests in order to get them admitted in these schools. These schools have large focus on science and laboratory experiments at an early age. When inclusive practices are cultivated in schools, the school academics must make sure that the teachers they hire have a focus on disabled students beyond that they have on normal students. The way instructions are given is an important factor, as it can serve as solid foundation for inclusive classroom (Dukes & Dukes) However, there are a lot of challenges that comes across in inclusive classrooms. The teacher has to be more inclusive and identify challenges by providing practical activities, ideas and approaches (Inclusive Science). One obstacle which everyone comes across is the common attitude of teachers. It has been observed that the attitude of general student teachers is different towards the disabled students. Their idea of inclusion and acceptability differs in respect to the two types. This eventually leads to a creation of ‘yours not mine’ sort of an hostile environment between both the students and the staff. A second obstacle is that most of the time the leaders are unable to recognize the needs of the inclusive classrooms, and therefore, due to this lack of support from the staff and administrators, success is unlikely (Green). Science has been considered as the most valuable subject to be taught to the disabled students. Mostly general student teachers have training pertaining to teaching students with disabilities. Special student teachers

Sunday, September 22, 2019

History of nonprofit organizations Essay Example for Free

History of nonprofit organizations Essay The history of the nonprofit organizations in the US is dated back to the mid of 19th century. They came as important tools to look after the effects of the slavery activity. Generally, a non-profit organization is an organization with a legal constitution whose creation is by private people/persons or elsewhere organizations without any fundamental representation within the government activity. At the epochs of globalization effect in early 20th century, the subject matter of nonprofit organization became yet a more featured activity. This was at the realization that the central government could not serve to solve most of the people’s problems. Even the existing national and international organizations had their roots to serve the interest of capitalists more than the general human population. To strike a counterbalance to this irrationality, development of these organizations was biased in fostering development, providing humanitarian support and aiding in development sustainability. Their development came inform of various types with interest in different areas of humanity. Depending on the purpose and role to serve and play in the society, development of these organizations is fundamentally made to provide an environment for support into different spheres of humanity. At one view, they engage in designing and implementing projects which are related on development. This provides the conventional understanding of them in providing development support to the community. Their classification within US is in terms of development oriented, international, community based or even national organizations. Their purposes are different and mainly depend on the kind of service they provide to the society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Nonprofit organizations in the US can as a refuge to the long suffering of human beings at different levels. They came to bridge the gap of inefficiency which was provided by the political and governmental structures within the US governance system. Their basic aim is to provide various conditions which are solemn to providing various support structure to improve the human population. Their method of activity is also diverse coming in form of lobby groups, initiative programs above community-based activities for service to the people. The basic rule with all non-profit organization in US and the general world is that they are strictly not made to make profit benefits in their foundations. They should service the interest of the community in line with their activity to ensure high standards of service output. The nonprofit and non-benefit nature of these organizations is provided by the legal structure of the Federal Legal system which recognizes their presence and roles before instituting various legal parameters. At the individual/internal capacity, they are guided by various legal autonomies within  Ã‚   constitutional framework that embody their activity. They are free from the authorities of international laws. (Hall, 22)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Generally, their role and purpose is diverse and depends on the basic purpose for their formation. However, the basic purpose is to provide service to humanity by confronting various issues that affect the human population. Either, their development is only made to serve the interest of a specific population of the people in which they are instituted. In the US, nonprofit organizations come in a huge number making more than 600, 000. In regard to their functional outlay, they are instituted for environmental conservation, human rights encouragement and observance, taking care and improving the inequalities within the disadvantaged societal population, or even having an agenda on corporate representation to the society. They rise as corporations to provide refuge to the human population by acting on provision of the basic inequalities allied to the society. They aim at providing structures that provide support in the well-being of the society. It seeks to provide autonomy in the observation of well-founded societal image before driving the society to attainment of its mission. Key guiding principles.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Due to the diversity of culture and operations by these organizations, some principles help as guide for their activity. At one point, the principles provide rationality in the support of equality in the basic corporate governances which help to ensure observation of the conventional purpose allied to their formation. Firstly, all non profit organizations are to be guided by the principle of optimal costing. This is in the realization of their nonprofit nature which provides support for the most adequate costing system. Costing is observable in the budgeting systems which help to provide a support for the best cost parameter.   Budgeting involve the control of funds to ensure the most adequate use of their financial authorities. Costing principle is guided by their non-profit/benefit nature which prevents any financial advantage in terms of profit or benefits to any party. The Federal Law recognizes the importance of costing principle in these organizations before instituting various laws and regulations to guide them in their support for the most optimal interest to the community in service.   This principle is fundamentally obliged in internalizing the cost parameters in the organizations financial outlay in terms of their grants, cost of contracts, financial utilization and allocation and any other fundamental activity allied to the costing system. The aim of the principle is to provide a concrete share of the cost liberation by federal government in the administration process of the non-profit organizations within its framework. Either, the principles help to define in the standards of approach and use in providing structures for adequacy in the financial management and quotations of their costs in activities and processes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Either, all non-governmental organizations are to be guided by adequate public relations standards. With their role and activity outlay within the society, these organizations should always provide structures for standard relationships with the general public population. This is a basic factor if their role of meeting the societal goals is not to be compromised. Public relations are the basic tools with which various organizations such as charity organizations and foundations use to capture the relative interest of the general public. Through sophistication in the public relations activities, many organizations are able to raise their funds. They use various lobbying techniques to seek financing from the government and other statutory sources. Either, high public relations to interest groups help to provide importance of benefits with their fundamental influences to the social systems and political standards. Either, their public relations support helps to campaign adequately among the human population to achieve their basic missions and goals. (Dimagio, Anheir, 152)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   With the diversity in the activities and mission statement, all non-profit organizations are provided with support by high standards of monitoring process and control of activities. Controlling and monitoring is a basic principle which helps to ensure a coordinated approach in all their activities. All activities and processes are controlled and monitored in order to ensure a support of the basic activity and fulfillment of their service to the general public. This principle provides an oversight into the basic fundamentals that help to ensure a logical collaboration between the various structures of the organization. At one point, controlling and also monitoring seeks to provide accountability for the character and effect of the process and activities. It seems to provide a sanction of coordinated approach with which activities are done according to their optimal requirement.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Non profit organization are free from jurisdiction and control by the federal government unless of very explicit legal controls. As a basic and conventional principle, these organizations are supposed to be out of the federal legal system. The guiding force and regulations should be based on the specific standards and requirements of specific organization. This is by conventional due to the role played by the organizations as a bridge towards the rigidities found in the federal legal system. Either, they should not be allied to the international legal process. The principle of free government control should therefore prevail. Otherwise, any interaction and control by he federal government would betray their mission since majority are founded as lobby groups to act against the federal system legal inequalities.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As an ethical parameter, the funding process and activities should fundamentally be authentic. This should seek to provide an atmosphere for the most adequate income flow. The funding principle is a subject of the costing principle with which the size and scale of funding is to be determined and evaluated in a conventional costing system.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Democracy should always prevail in all activities of these organizations. There foundations are aimed at providing support for the general interest of the public population. They are interest groups which serve stop the basic loopholes and rigidities of the federal legal system. Democracy helps to provide equity and equality in service provision to the public. It seeks to ensure that the interest of the public is seldom at par with the good of the society. This is a preferential requirement which gives the community an optimal opportunity of enjoying basic interest in the community development process. They should invite for free contribution, comment and exercise of the members allied to them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Either, the performance of their work should be at peaceful and harmonious grounds where no external harassment, intimidation, reprisal and discrimination is to support their basic activities. This helps to formulate standards of activity where they are to act and perform at their most discretional and willing capacity without any external effect. Either, there should be no external influence by the federal governmental which is to provide support for the well being of the society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Elsewhere, they should be provided with conditions for seeking, managing, receiving and administering their activities in the support of international, domestic and foreign activities and entities.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Equally, individual joining, formations and participation in such organizations should be at the discretion guided by their freedom and rights of expressions, associations and peaceful assembly. This helps to provide standards with which the governmental regulations are not to shape the interest and nature of the organizations.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Since the principles are to provide support for the authenticity and the well being of the society, the governments of democratic countries are to act adequately in the effect of the strong withstanding of these organizations from the inadequate influence of the national systems. The violations of their basic principles should therefore call for a close action by the national government in their effective defense.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The concept of ethics is fundamentally critical in analyzing the management system of the non profit organizations. The Alliance for Nonprofit Management Standards (ANMS) is the movement allied to setting and establishing ethical standards for use and applications by the organizations. Ethical management is closely allied and synonymous to adequate management. Ethical management is a subject of nonprofit organizations leadership which help to ensure a conduct within the gross corporate requirement. It’s a basic support that provides harmony in the institutional framework of these organizations. They help to provide a peaceful coordination in implicit formality to ensure ways and means to safeguard the interests of the stakeholders. At one edge, it helps to provide responsibility and either set the respective ideals in the professional outlay of the organization. On the extreme end, unethical management is what violates the basic principles of nonprofit organizations. Its operations are to provide for a continued inequality in the role they play in the society. Such unethical management is a way of administration and organizational leadership which provokes the legal authenticity of the nonprofit mission statement. Generally, every ethical management is to provide solid protection for the organizations clientele and professional system. Either, such management does not compromise structure for acceptance into adequate system of administration and also the will of guidance to the people. It does not compromise on improving the consistency and also the quality of the life of the individual human population with which it provides service to. Ethical management provides a standard collaboration in the activities of the organizations. Every ethical management is aimed at rationalizing the quality, support and formulating high integrity for capacity building within the organization’s activities. Due to the fragility and the developing nature of the capacity building within these organizations, every epoch of the legitimate leadership standards to provide support for the mission statement of these organizations. Ethical behaviors in the leadership autonomy, helps to provide effectiveness and promotion of capacity building in the functional outlay of these organizations. Ethical management equals ethical standards which ensure a support for standardized capacity building.   Ethical managing is a tool for promoting a better clientele service and activity within the organizational framework. It is an approach which seeks to ensure control of the interest conflict within the organizational function. (Waden, 715)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, unethical management is subject to providing inadequacy in the standards of the organizations activity. This is the leadership activity which destabilizes the functional capacity of the organization. It is a leadership activity (management appraisal) which brings conflict to the organization. Elsewhere, unethical management does not focus on maintaining the basic principle allied to nonprofit organizations. This is the management system which down looks major rules and processes within the organizations which ensure a collaborated approach in service delivery and promotion of efficiency in the organization’s activities. Legal framework   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Generally, non-profit organizations have a lot to do with its legal status. At one level, many states have well provided laws which govern the activity of the organizations. Either, these laws help to regulate the management system and formulate the various requirements for their establishment. The nature of these laws is to provide standards of support for management process which does not overlook the systems of corporate governance. Above the state laws, their internal systems is driven and monitored by authorities which provide support for basic organizational coordination. Above the many legal requirements, these organizations should provide well detailed support of their financial activities. This should have a clear picture in the level of expenditure and also income flow within their transactions. The legal system requires them to have a full support for the governance and management system by providing a layout of their organizational management staff. The legal structure under the federal system also provides the level of structural formulation. It pronounces the legal terms with which these organizations are made to follow in the pursuit of their administration from the legal status portfolio as the tax exemption clause. This provides that the organizations are to enjoy income tax free activities. Tax exemption in US is through Internal Revenue Service (IRS). However, this exemption is only enjoyed by organizations which meet specific statutory requirements which includes, limited spending, safeguard for charity interest in its internal affairs above specifity in its purpose. Tax exemption is required a full commission to the requirement of the nonprofit organization’s activities. (Walden, 719) Deviations from this standard requirement will lead to the withdrawal of the tax exemption requirement.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, the Federal Law has a weak force in providing for charity and non-governmental operations. It fails to substantially provide the basic requirements for what should be done by the organizations. However, lack of strong legal concern does not mean that the state government should run these organizations.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, the basic legal authority of the non profit organizations is bound to be self regulatory without operational influence of both the state and the international laws. The organizations are made to provide their own management system which should not go by the standard of approach and regulation by the state law. However, private control by these organizations is the foremost influence of inadequacies in the fundamental activities. Due to their solidary private control and governance, these organizations will at many a time endure inefficiencies in the administrative prospects. Their private nature is the basic initiative for mismanagement and rebel over many interests at the expense of the federal system laws and regulations. (Til, 54) Governance and board development strategies. With the fragility allied to the activities of the non-profit organizations, governance and board development posits an important factor. Consideration for the most optimal governance and development within such organization should not be compromised. However, essential of board development should provide strategies which helps to ensure the most adequate board system. Firstly, the choice in strategy should not overlook the role of the board. However, the achievement of the goals and missions of the organization should be promoted. This helps to ensure high standards of achieving the standards of the organization. Either, adequate support by the board helps to facilitate a comprehensive support for the roles of the organization. However, supported training to board members should seek to ensure the most adequate governance structure within the organizations. (Axelrod, 142)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Nonprofit organizations come as fundamental bodies that seek to refuge the problems allied to the current regime where such organizations have risen falsely with even non-functional activity and performances. The board should therefore reclaim the specific roles they are made to play within the organizations. This is to ensure a richly state of practices. Either, the board has a sublime role to play in the governance of the organization. Unless the society is provided with clarity of the authenticity in the activities within the organization, various stakeholders may not have the will to participate fully in the organization’s activities. The board is allied to a functional capacity which helps to provide strength of the weaknesses born in the institutional and also management capacities.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The boards’ development should therefore provide various strategies which help to give a comparative impression for adequate activities within the organization. This should seek to give directions on strategies and goals for facilitating control on organizational issues. Every governance structure will therefore help to provide a strong coordination of the internal outlay of the organization. The rules of many boards reduce shortly after the registration of the organization where such boards disintegrate out. There functional layout is mostly seen at the growth stage and emergent stage of these organizations. However, they normally posses unclear or even poor definition in the goals of the organization. There is lack of understanding of the governance requirements. The next aspect is the modality of conflict among them and the organizations management.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Therefore, every strategy in board development should perpetuate a board which ensures effective board’s activity. Adequacy in such board should not compromise training of the board members. Training is therefore an important strategy which should be used to overcome the inequality born by the weak board systems.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The board development process helps to ensure a board which helps to coordinate adequately the activity of the organization. For adequacy in the leadership and governance styles within the organization, the board provides an authentic support for the organizational activity. The development process of the organization’s board should use various developmental initiates as strategies with which it will be able to adjust its board development process.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Either, the mission of the organization should be a basic fundamental aspect when defining the nature of the board development. The organizations mission should be the basic tool which helps to shape the nature of the board. Through the mission statement, the characters and the nature of the board will thus be shaped. Elsewhere, the organization program should a basic guiding strategy towards a better coordinated approach for the governance.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A coherent plan of its strategies should guide the organization in developing its board. Since organizational strategies vary with its mission and activity, the package of strategies should seldom be the guiding factor towards the nature of its board.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Governance structure system of the organization plays an important role in defining the nature of activities it plays within the community. Sound governance is very important in defining the scale of attainment of the mission statement. Either, the governance system borrows its authority from the management and the board outlay. Adequacy in the governance plays a predominant role in defining the level with which the organization is able to achieve its goals. Either, the structure of the board defines the standards with which the governance of the organization is to be. (Silk, 76)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   By their nature, non profit organizations are formed on private grounds to overseer the interest of the people. Every good relationship between such organizations and the community /public should fundamentally be provided for. Generally, the relationship between these organizations and the community is ideally rationally close. It seeks to create an incentive of participation between the community and such organizations. Elsewhere, lack of adequate relationship between the two would definitely mean standards of high activity and a reasonable state of coordination and surveillance for the community. The interest of the organizations is in the provision of service to the general public. Adequate attempt of coordination between them and the community should be provided as the best initiative which provides grounds for service to the human population. Financial and human resource management A package of basic principles in the financial management, human resource management and fund development act as the guiding rule for these organizations. Financial management is an approach of administration in which the financial inflow and outflow is monitored considerably .This is to ensure that the financial transactions are at the most optimal discretion to provide support for the community. Either, this is aimed at providing the closest relationship between the community and the organization . However, the basic principle is the optimal costing principle which is applied to provide the most adequate system of financial use in the financial system .Optimal costing implies that the financial inflow and outflows is at the greatest capacity to provide support for the use of the finances. Generally poor financial use has been the benchmark in lack of trust to many of the organizations by the community, government and private financiers .Therefore every optimal costing should seek to serve the interest of the stakeholders in the organization. Either, like any other organization, these organizations should provide financial management systems which ensure the right perception by both the internal and external environments. Accountability provides a support for financial management .The internal financial position, standards and figures are used by the internal management to make decisions about the organization .Through adequate disclosures of the financial documents, and the management is able to make the relevant decisions (Linnel, Radoserich, Spack, 48) Generally, these organizations are to maintain their financial accounting in the principle provided by the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Such provide that financial accounting follow the international standards in support of the financial documents Either all non profit organizations ought to have a system of internal control. This is to ensure that the financial transactions abide by the conventional system of management Elsewhere non profit organizations are supposed to have full provision of reports to the finance management and to be provided to the relevant stakeholders such as financiers. Adequate financial reports are important to every activity of management within the organizations Generally the management should use systems of adequate control on their budgets which ensures adequate control in their budgetary system .Budgeting is very important for every activity allied to the organizations. Financial management also provide a requirement in which the governance structure has clarity in its role play to the organization,s financial management . Adequacy in the role play by individual members provides accountability support for it’s   individual persons. Elsewhere, financial management seeks to provide the basic requirements which may be required by the different donors in the use and the allocation process of the funds .Above all, financial records are to be submitted to any stakeholder in use and control of the organization if need be for effective management. Due to the importance attached to the human capital in these organizations various principles are applied to provide a support for the most functional human capital. Many of the organizations are involved in the provision of service to the human population. To many organizations, the human workforce is large with professionalism and competence provided for all. Therefore, the organizations should not look down to the nature in which the human capital support can be provided to the service output. However, depending on the organization, various principles embody there activities. (Hall, 26) Firstly training and human force development is never compromised. This is in the realization of role played by every upright and experienced work force. They ensure various training programs for their workforce. Within the scope of the workforce management, aspect of planning and design of work for them is highly vigilant. Proper planning and design of work is important in every attempt to reduce conflict between them. Planning is made according to some preferential attributes. Time and again, the organizations provide an adequate support in the employee recruitment process and the selection for new staff. This is via the use of modalities of high competence and management. In all the activities, the rights of employees are never overlooked. This is a principle which applies to all employees of these organizations. It ensures providing support for the workers in enjoying and exercising their contribution to the organization. This is an attempt to provide support for ensuring that workers are not exploited of their resource capital. (Jeavons, 218) Workers exploitation is the main cause of conflict at the working environment. Also, the principle of performance management holds true in these organizations. Performance management involves monitoring of the role played by the workers through surveys and study activities. Performance management provides support for adequacy and optimal performance by these workers to ensure the most optimal output by the workers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Fund development is an important tool in the non profit organizations. Such organizations are allied to formulating various fund development strategies. Fund development implies the system of approach in creating funds and using supporting tools for creating their donation. This helps to provide support for fund raising and using methods to attract funds from the donors and finances. Fund development uses the tool of public relations to create fundamental environment with which such financiers can be motivated to run the organization. Fund development is a management attribute which seeks to investigate the financial support system so that adequacy in the organizations funds can be ensured. Since this is a management process, it uses basic tools and approaches which provide support for the highest funding. Fund development will help to provide the organization with a relieved workload and hence avoid not meeting financing deadlines. This is an important aspect in the management structure since it is the driving force of the organization towards its goals achievement is the level of funds.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Financial and human resource management, and also fund development are closely interrelated. Firstly, these are system of management and governance of the organization which provide the most adequate corporation in the organizational structure to provide an authentic goal and mission achievement. The success of each implies and promotes the success of the other. At one level, good fund development is allied to financial management where the tools of financial management are used to adequately apportion and budget for the collected funds. Either, all the activities that include financial management and fund development are provided by an adequate structure of human resource. This provides a support for the adequacy into the activities of the organization. Human resource package is fundamental in defining the nature of performance of all the organizations activities. Emerging practice in non profit organizations.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Currently, the non profit organizations’ activities have had a diverse state of practices that are emerging out from the conventional outlay of the organizations in the US and the world in general. These practices have been key pillars in providing a support for the most authentic system of support for the future of the organizations. The sector is perhaps having a brighter future when its activities and processes are under a good system of practices.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Firstly, policy and framework on the legal parameter guiding the organizations have been developed on fountain grounds. Adequacy in the legal policies is a fundamental subject in providing adequate support for their performance. Policies ensure a coordinated approach in the standards of the organization legal framework which ensures that conflict is reduced between the organizations activities in terms of its structures and stakeholders. Through a support for strong legal modalities that act as pillars of the organization, the management process of the organizations is highly strengthened with little or no conflict in their governance process. Strong legal framework has ensured that the organizations act within the basic legal requirements that promote the best relation with the community. Either, adequate structures above programs as well as services ensure a coordinated link between the organization. Every organization is accompanied by a structure of specific programs, and structure which help to ensure a strong personal activity.   Adequate programs and high maintained and supported structural authenticity has ensured a continued high activity and dominance of the organizations in the society. Program system is the nature of the activity support for the organization. Strong program and services outlay provide a support for a continued rationality of organizations within the society. (Til, 53) Generally, the organizations act within the human capacity.   This is synonymous to capacity-building by the human populations.   Human capacity has been a basic tool for leading to changes in the social structures and hence provides conditions for the most adequate human life potential in the global portfolio. Their nature is in service to humanity. Within the changing nature of the social structures, capacity building remains an important aspect in rationalizing the societal activities. Providing adequate outcomes in their performance and the measures in their activity is also an emerging practice. There has been an increased activity in the analysis of their activities.   Performance outcome seeks to study the scale with which the activities described to the organizations provide the most adequate and profitable benefits. Summarily therefore, the aspects of nonprofit organizations is fundamentally critical and capturing an enormous scale of activities within its jurisdiction.   They does a lot in support the human population.   Their adequacy depends on the manner with which management is done in due course. Work cited Axelrod, Nancy R. (2005). Board leadership and development. In. R.D. Herman, Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management, pp. 142, San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publications. Dimaggio, Paul J. and Anheier, Helmut K. (1990). The sociology of nonprofit organizations and sectors. Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 6, pp152. Hall, P. H (2005). Historical perspectives on nonprofit organizations in the United States, In. R.D. Herman, Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management, pp. 22, San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publications. Jeavons, T. H. (2005). Ethical Nonprofit Management. In R.D. Herman, Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management, pp. 218. San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publications. Linnell, D, Radosevich, Z, Spack, J, ( 2001). Executive Director’s Guide: A Guide for successful Nonprofit Management. Pp.48. Boston: United Way of Massachusetts Bay. Silk, T. (2005). The legal framework of the nonprofit sector in the United States. In. R.D. Herman, Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management, pp.76, San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publications. Til, V. (2005). Nonprofit Organizations and Social Institutions, In. R.D. Herman, Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management, pp.53, San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publications. Walden, G. (2007). Who’s watching us now? The nonprofit sector and the new government by surveillance. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Vol. 35, 719

Saturday, September 21, 2019

J & J Automotive Sales Essay Example for Free

J J Automotive Sales Essay Replicate business and referrals from pleased clients are fundamental to success in selling. The longer you work in sales as a professional person committed to treating your customers right, the higher and higher will be the proportion of your business emanating from repeat business and customer referrals. By contrast, think about the stereotype of the person we would generally consider the antithesis of professionalism in selling, the used-car salesperson. Of course, there may be some used-car salespersons out there that are professional businesspeople, but by and large their reputation is not exemplary. The reason? We believe it has a lot top do with the fact that the person selling in the used-car lot sees the prospect as an opportunity for a one-time transaction. Seldom will a customer return to that same used-car lot for a repeat purchase, and the used-car dealer virtually never has service facilities for developing an ongoing relationship after the sale. Used-car buyers rarely refer friends and colleagues to the dealer they bought from. When they do, it’s because of the availability of a particular vehicle rather than the dealership per se. Compare that with successful new-car dealership, especially those at the high end, who want you as a long-term customer that will refer friends and colleagues to the store and its salespeople. If you’ve ever dealt with a dealership like that, you’ve enjoyed a personal relationship with your salesperson and the service department reps, which is well worth paying for. You’d certainly agree that your salesperson does not fit the stereotype of a used-car salesperson. It’s just one illustration of a business which appreciates the fact that its survival is contingent upon repeat business and customer referrals. Joe luckily has good dealing relationships with his customers which is a good start in countering this stereotype. Not only must he be aware of the features associated with a variety of models, he must also be familiar with mileage, modifications, rebuilds, and the quirks of each car on the lot. As such, he could work against the stereotype as a slick con artist looking to make a quick buck. Part of this, may be due to the larger commissions used car salespeople like Joe make on each sale, thus encouraging them to complete as many sales possible. While stereotypes abound regarding used car dealerships, it is unfair to cast a negative light on the entire used car industry. The bonded dealers behave like other principals; some are up front and cooperative; others disappear or simply refuse to cooperate. Now while you consider you have seen and heard it all, a new claim presents novel and astonishing facts. For example, you are looking for a second-hand care and Joe activates your stereotype of ‘used-car dealer’. However, the car looks quite good buy. Is he lying to you or is he offering a good deal? If additional information seems to fit your initial judgment then you have category confirmation. You are confirmed, in your view of the salesman and leave it at that. If, however, the category is not confirmed, then you engage in re-categorization, and attempt to find a category that is a better fit – maybe the Joe is re-categorized as ‘helpful assistant,’ who sold cars honestly. Since Joe has this characteristics of passion in cars and the sincere concern to his customers, having this kind of stereotype would not hinder him from obtaining good customers, because he will, of course, gain their trust and as such, would gain good relationship with them. As a customer on the other hand, having Joe as a salesperson of used cars, I would definitely come back to him and get another good deal in buying his cars. The stereotype wouldn’t definitely affect my relationship with Joe as his customer and surely would come back for another deal. AutoNation created a huge business by exploiting the public’s perception of used-car dealers. Middle-volume dealerships with less expensive cars try to increase sales volume by getting uncertain customers the larger dealers ignore. They track sales workers to make sure they follow a prescribed script with customers. Smaller suburban dealerships also concentrate on uncertain customers but some also give special services like loaner cars and pick-up and delivery service in hopes of repeat and referral business. Reference: Kimball, Bob, and Jerold Hall. Selling in the New World of Business. Binghamton, New York: Haworth Press, 2004.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Theories of Growth, Loss and Stress

Theories of Growth, Loss and Stress Theories are used to explain the characteristics and circumstances of individual. Theories look at human growth and development; managing loss and change; managing stress and behaviour Psychoanalytical Theory This approach looks at the underlying unconscious processes in individuals. Ideas developed by Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud he stated the belief that the child is born with basic animal instincts that operate at the unconscious level of thought. These instincts require immediate gratification. Development depends in part on transforming these animal needs into socially acceptable, rational behaviour. The range of potential behaviour is very broad at birth and then becomes increasingly reduced in scope, fixed in form and shaped to conform to social norms (Boundless, 2017). Eriksons Psychosocial Theory Eriksons theory is based on the psychoanalytic approach to human development, founded by Sigmund Freud. Erikson believed that the process of socializing the child into a given culture occurs as the person passes through eight innately determined, sequential stages. Although he recognized the individuals instinctual drives, Erikson emphasized the childs interaction with the environment (Erikson, 1959). For Erikson, the events of later childhood can undo the personality foundations built earlier in life (Boundless, 2017). Behaviourist theory This is used to describe human behaviour. The concept is that all human behaviour can be understood as a result of learning. There are two types of learning; Classical conditioning; inducing a natural reflex response to a stimulus and Operant conditioning: using reward and punishment to modify behaviour (McLeod, 2017).   Behaviourism helps to modify behaviour by using operant conditioning. E.g. if a client does something wrong, they should be told of so that they do not repeat their wrong doings. At the same time we offer some rewards for good behaviour to reinforce those behaviours. Humanistic Theory This theory tries to understand human development according to how the self develops. Sense of self in terms of self-concepts, and self-esteem is developed right from childhood. Self-concept is about how we see ourselves.eg(female, tall, brown-eyed, skills and competences, being kind, shy outgoing, lively, thoughtful, honest etc., fire fighter, doctor, brother sister etc. Self-esteem refers to how we fell about ourselves. How much value we give to ourselves and how lovable and likeable we believe ourselves to be. The self-esteem can be shattered depending on how individuals are treated. If discriminated against, ridiculed, neglected criticised, individuals will develop a low self-esteem (AQA,2017). Nature This account of behaviour and personality development focuses on what we are born with. This include characteristics like Left-handedness, intelligence, susceptibility to certain illnesses, temperament (shy, withdrawn, or outgoing and confident). Nurture Refers to all that happens within the environment. It involves the way someone is brought up and the way they are treated by parents, teachers and peers. All these influence behaviour and development and goes towards building a personality.Piagets Cognitive-Developmental Theory Cognitive theory: is involved with aspects on an individuals cognitive processes that are involved with learning, thinking, knowing about, reflecting on, and understanding the world. It involves the study of our thinking, memory, intelligence, perception, problem solving and reasoning. Piaget described that in different stages of a person life they would develop skills in reasoning and comprehension. The stages he compiled are as follows (Learning-theories, 2017); a. Sensorimotor development (0-2 years). As an infant the person exercises rudimentary sensory (seeing touch, hearing, tasting, smelling) and motor (kicking, punching, moving around, hitting objects) awareness and functions almost exclusively by means of reflexive responses. The child cannot think abstractly. b. Preoperational thought (2-7 years). The person is now a child and demonstrates an increase in language abilities and concepts become more elaborate. However, the child can only view the world from its own perspective. Their intellectual state is immature. c. Concrete operations (7-11 years). As an older child the ability to consider the viewpoints of others and understand relational concepts is evident. However, the child cannot will struggle to solve problems of an abstract nature (Learning-theories.com, 2017). d. Formal operations (11-15). Now an adolescent the person is able to demonstrate abstract thinking and scientific problem-solving strategies emerge. This theory informs health and social care professionals to understand the level of thinking of individuals with learning difficulties who may have a lower mental age   in relation to their physical aid. Appropriate communication techniques are required to reach out to them. Managing loss and change Change management is a basic skill in which most leaders and managers need to be competent. This theory looks at the basic principles of change management, and how to apply them People react differently to change when it occurs because of differences in our personality and our inner conflicts as proposed by Erikson in his theory of psychosocial development. Change often involves a loss, and people go through the loss curve. Expectations need to be managed realistically. Fears have to be dealt with by giving people honest information and also to be opened about the facts (North West NHS Academy, 2017). Avoid speculation and meet their unrealistic expectations. Major changes in our lives may have a positive impact depending on the ways of coping. On the other hand, major change in our lives can lead to stress and loss of self-confidence depending on our abilities to cope with them. Managing stress and behaviour From the biological point of view, stress causes the release of adrenalin and noradrenalin and cortisol (hormones). Adrenalin and noradrenalin make us feel agitated and uncomfortable, while prolonged secretion of cortisol is associated with depression. However 2 people can be exposed to the same stressful event and react differently. This can be explained by the cognitive approach. For example if a negative event happens, the stress response if mild for someone whose thoughts are along the lines of positive thinking. For example if they think it is an opportunity or a challenge, rather than a threat. The stress response will be severe for someone who thinks that this is the end of the line (Schneiderman et Al, 2017). Choice and Interaction This focus on the belief that people can take control of their own lives base on the choices they make. Nonetheless, others believe that everything in life is fixed by nature and nurture. In most cases, people believe that human life course involves an interaction of nature, nurture and the decisions and choices we make. For instance, if performing prayers (5) times daily is part of your environment, your genes may make you urge to do your prayers. However your choice and interaction depends on your reaction (Pearson Education, 2017). Health care professionals need to know these theories in order to understand different personalities and understanding of how individuals may react differently to life situations. References   AQA. (2017). The Humanistic Approach | AQA B Psychology. [online] Available at: http://aqabpsychology.co.uk/2010/07/the-humanistic-approach/ [Accessed 4 Feb. 2017]. Boundless. (2017). Freudian Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality. [online] Available at: https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/personality-16/psychodynamic-perspectives-on-personality-77/freudian-psychoanalytic-theory-of-personality-304-12839/ [Accessed 4 Feb. 2017]. Development through the life stages. (2017). 1st ed. [ebook] London: Pearson Education. Available at: http://www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk/AssetsLibrary/SECTORS/Trade/Sample%20pages%20(for%20Ed%20Supplier%20sites)/Newsamplecontentfor2010/BTECNationalHealthandSocialCare-SampleStudentBookMaterial.pdf [Accessed 4 Feb. 2017]. Erikson, E. H. (1959) Identity and the Life Cycle. New York: International Universities Press. Learning-theories.com. (2017). STAGE THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT (PIAGET). [online] Available at: https://www.learning-theories.com/piagets-stage-theory-of-cognitive-development.html [Accessed 4 Feb. 2017]. Managing Change Five Basic Principles. (2017). 1st ed. [ebook] NHS North West Leadership Academy. Available at: http://www.nwacademy.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/0f_1722011_managing_change_5_basic_principles.pdf [Accessed 4 Feb. 2017]. McLeod, S. (2017). Behaviorism | Simply Psychology. [online] Simplypsychology.org. Available at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/behaviorism.html [Accessed 4 Feb. 2017]. Schneiderman, N., Ironson, G. and D. Siegel, S. (2017). STRESS AND HEALTH: Psychological, Behavioral, and Biological Determinants. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 1, pp.607-628.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Nadine Gordimers A Soldier’s Embrace Essay -- essays research papers

A lion, apartheid, South Africa and racism. What do these things have in common? They all play a part in Nadine Gordimer’s collection of short stories called A Soldier’s Embrace published in 1980. This book is based around the lifestyle of South Africa, and the law separating the different cultures at that time (South Africa no longer has these laws of apartheid as of 1991).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the recent news, there was a story about South Africa and its quarrels. What happened was there was a black man who tried to enter South Africa illegally, and he was caught. As a punishment, the white South African police let their dogs attack the black man and rip him apart. Just because the racist laws of South Africa have been rewritten less than a decade ago, does not mean that the people of different races have forgotten about that ordeal. It is these problems that Nadine Gordimer writes about.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  She is a South African novelist and short story writer, who wrote about many of the issues there, such as the clash of races. In her short stories, she explores human behavior and unjust authority which was forced not only upon the native Africans, but also upon the people from the Middle East and the Chinese. She is a founding member of the Congress of South African Writers and won the Nobel prize for literature in 1991 (notice that is the same year the racist laws of South Africa were changed). She writes devotedly about South Africa and even ...

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Aristotle Essay example -- essays research papers

y does Plato believe that only Philosophers are fit to rule? Rather than the practical pursuit we are accustomed to, for Plato, Politics is an intellectual faculty. Governance by non-philosophers is to be governed by opinions, beliefs and self-interest; in contrast the philosopher ruler will govern with virtue and justice with no hidden agenda. The philosopher is in love, in love with learning, knowledge and truth. It is important to make a distinction here between the acquisition of knowledge and the acquisition of truth, because knowledge is not necessarily the truth. With the help of an allegory, Plato explains the sensible world of illusion and belief, the place where most people reside. The philosopher has stepped outside this world, into a world of knowledge and truth. Plato makes use of a cave to explain this; I will use another means. A child believes in the myth of Santa Claus, a child has good reason to suppose this myth is true, it is inculcated when he receives Christmas presents, the media, family and friends consolidate the belief, the child even writes to Santa Claus and receives a reply. On Christmas Day this belief becomes a ‘reality’. Through education and maturity, the child will have doubts as to the truth of this illusion. At some stage during the transition from childhood to adulthood he will acknowledge the illusion, and further, during parenthood the myth really comes home to roost as knowledge and absolute truth. (He now has a choice; he can put an end to the myth or continue the cycle) What is distinctive regar ding each stage, is how far they have come out of the cave. Through illusion and belief to knowledge, or from artisan to auxiliary to philosopher. The fundamental prerequisite to becoming a philosopher ruler is to have knowledge of the forms, therefore knowing the truth. The forms do not exist in the sensible world, they can only be found in the super-sensible world. Platos‘ theory of the forms is partly logical and partly metaphysical. The logical part is, take for example a dog, there will be many types of dog, and general particulars regarding a dog. The form of a dog is universal and eternal it has no position in space or time, it is not born when a dog is born, nor does it die when a dog dies. The metaphysical part of the theory is the form of a dog is a perfect, unique dog, created by God. The dog is real, pa... ...ft of the preeminently "excellent" citizen to protect the state's constitution by making him the ruler of the state. Aristotle further justifies his position by stating that a citizen should not be made the ruler of a state because of his wealth or his ancestry. Unless by some chance wealth or ancestry affects the ability of a citizen to work towards the interests of the constitution. Of course the wealthy citizens and those citizens of glamorous ancestry should not be denied the chance to rule the state, for the ruler should be chosen for his "excellence" alone. Even in modern democracies like our own Aristotle's ideas hold true. When we vote in the election of the ruler of our country we, theoretically, are voting for the single most "excellent" citizen of our nation. That is we are voting for that citizen who can do the best job of working towards our common interests. The citizen of a state who has the greatest ability to work towards the salvation of the constitution has a gift that all citizens can benefit from. It only makes sense to beseech that citizen to lead the rest of the citizens in working towards the common interests of the state.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Jean Watson theory Essay

Jean Watson’s Philosophy of Nursing NUR/403-Theories and Models of Nursing Practice August 9th, 2010 Introduction Jean Watson’s theories of nursing are instrumental in today’s structure of nursing. Watson’s theories are being practiced in various health care setting all over the world. One of these theories in the nursing process. This entails first assessing patient, planning, intervention and evaluation. There is multitude of research proving these theories to be effective in treating and caring for patients with this consistent approach. In this paper I will dissect her different carative factors learned and that is being practiced. I will discuss different examples of Watson’s theories of caring and its application. This will depict the level of importance and how valuable this approach certainly is. Nursing is also being based on more scientific approaches that Watson’s bases some of her theories. This is consistent with the changing nature of the philosophy of science and history, and the numerous methods for the advancing knowledge of nursing. Watson (19 99) Watson’s Theories Watson’s research is more focused on the caring aspect of it all. Caring is viewed as the moral ideal of nursing where there is utmost concern for human dignity and preservation of humanity as stated by Watson (1999). This focal point of her theory is the foundation in the science of nursing. Watson believed the center idea for nursing are based on various carative factors. These factors include humanistic- altruistic values, systematic use of the scientific problem-solving method for decision making, gratification of human needs, promotion of interpersonal teaching and learning. They also include qualities such as sensitivity to self and others, the need to instill faith and hope, creating trusting relationships, and promoting acceptance, positive feelings, making provisions for a supportive, protective and corrective mental, physical, socio-cultural and spiritual environment. Watson, J., & Foster, R. (2003). One imperative factor is the development of different transpersonal caring relationship. This is the concept of professional involvement with the participation of one’s entire self, using every dimension of a person as a resource in the professional relationship, This depicts a special kind of human caring relationship, a connection with another person, in high regard for the whole person and their sense of being. Human care begins when the nurse enters the space or field of another person, and is able to detect the other person’s condition, spiritually and emotionally, and can feel this condition within themselves, and responds in a way which the recipient feels open enough to convey and share those feelings longing or needed to be shared. (Watson, 1999). She believed that nurses should have and also further develop an approach of humanism, simply being able to convey common human feelings. Her teachings proves that effective caring promotes health in each individual and their well being. Conducive to health is also what a person’s perception of health is, as states by Watson, (1999). Watson believed that everything around us should be conducive to our wellbeing, whether it being creating a wholesome environment or nursing to our specific needs. For example just simply being in a clean environment can improve a person’s overall mood and thus enhancing chances for recovery. The act showing compassion and empathy is also pertinent to for one to achieve wellness. In experience, just the simple act of smiling conveys the feeling of caring. Cara (2003). For example, upon assessing a patient, just greeting them with a warm smile with direct eye contact can be a comforting feeling. It conveys sincerity and starts the process of a trusting nurse-patient relationship. Cultivating sensitivity to oneself and to others. This carative factor explores one’s ability to self assess as well assessing others. This explores the need of the nurse to feel or to begin to feel an emotion as it presents itself. If one’s own feelings aren’t properly developed or one does not know how to channel their own feelings, showing sensitivity to others may not be very successful. These feelings should be developed for one to interact with others on a genuinely sensitive level. Showing sensitivity among one another creates a higher level of  functioning within transpersonal relationships. Watson (2009). An experience I had with a patient comes to mind. A young man admitted to the hospital with multiple infections. He is observed to be very rude, sarcastic and shows a very negative attitude towards himself and his care providers. Upon receiving report about the patient, I felt reluctant in caring for him. The nurse stated he was unappreciative, obnoxious, demanding, and seemed very bitter. Upon greeting him and physically assessing him, I was cautious to thet kinds of questions I asked him. I was especially cautioushow I asked any questions and also my tone of voice. Upon making sure he had all his comforts and all requests were met I offered to share with him some details about my life. He listened keenly and I felt his interest. Soon after, he started sharing with me very personal details of his life as well. As Watson (1999) explained, nurses should spend uninterrupted time with your patients, commonly referred to as â€Å"caring moments.† He was depressed from being in and out of the hospital every other week. He was newly married and had a newborn baby, which he never got to spend time with or was able to help take care of. That quickly gave me insight to why he had such a negative disposition and also enlightened me to the sensitive manner in which he needed to cared with . Self awareness and actualization is an important component in having meaningful intrapersonal relationships. We should all strive to become more sensitive. This makes us as nurses, more authentic, evoking self growth and awareness to others. The nurse promotes health along with a higher level of functioning when meaningful person to person relationships are created. Humanistic/Altruistic system These values begin at a very early age in human beings. These are from shared experiences and lessons taught by ones parents or the environment. Altruism is a selfless concern for the wellness of others. If one is truly selfless in a humanistic manner, it comes from a place of sincerity. Individuals sometimes give of themselves hoping to get in return but the true approach which Watson teaches wishes nothing in return. Watson, J., & Foster, R. (2003). One’s ability to be altruistic is also  dependent on the level of selflessness. For example, working with ill and sometimes demanding patients day in and day out, one can become weary and can feel no need to go the extra mile for the small comfort of an individual’s need. For example, a individual comes in the hospital newly diagnosed with a fatal illness. The patient comes into the hospital alone, he is poorly dressed and does not seem to take very good care of himself hygienically. He does not requests much help. Even when in pain he did not ask for any pain medication. Upon doing my general assessment, it was easy to assess him emotionally as well. He had no family members with him for any support needed. He was weak from the disease process, he just could no longer take care of himself as he normally does. I thoughtlessly help him to get shaved and washed up before getting comfortable in bed. I also lent a listening ear as I asked him necessary questions about his health. I knew having someone help me out in this manner would make a difference in how I felt, so automatically and selflessly I did the same for him. If there is anything I am able to do for others that takes nothing but a simple effort, then I think the gratitude should be from bringing comfort and satisfaction where needed. This philosophy of offering selflessness to others is pivotal in the nursing role. Establishing a helping and trusting relationship. This factor in nursing has been in use for decades. The element of nursing and trust cannot be divided. Watson believed that different modes of communication establishes rapport and brings forth a caring relationship. She believed in the dynamics associated with a helping trust relationship, congruence, empathy and warmth. This means coming together in agreement, being able to put yourself in ones shoes and showing compassion. Communication varies from verbal to nonverbal ways of conveying messages and feelings. This includes actively listening in a warm manner that connotes empathetic understanding. As nurses we must especially listen to the demands of our patients no matter how big or small the need is. It is especially important to deliver on promises to patients. As it is often stated, it is better to under promise and over deliver. As simple as promising a patient to get them a meal and delivering it in a timely manner is a key example for building and maintaining a trusting relationship. Faith/hope The faith and hope factor can be a sensitive area when providing care. To many, It essential for patients to maintain a level of faith and hope. When a patient has nothing else to hold on to in the recovering process, having faith and being hopeful helps them to hold on to life. This is based on each individual’s belief and their perception of faith and hope, as well as the nurse’s understanding. I believe one has to properly assess the individual to whom this advice is being offered. This is imperative to know how well it will be accepted. It also depends on one’s cultural background. We should all be aware and be respectful of each individual’s beliefs and limitations. As stated by Suliman, Welmann, Omer & Thomas (2009), respect is easily acquired until there is a disagreement with what is recommended, at this point respecting the opposing persons choice becomes complex. In the instance that a patient or an individual can no longer rely on modern science for comfort it help to be able to hold on to your thoughts and beliefs otherwise known as hope. When a patient is given a death sentence from a disease process this may be the only thing that brings some peace of mind. For someone to look to you for your opinion at such a vulnerable moment in life means to me that my job is important to say the least. I have had different opportunities to carefully assess my patient and their life situations. This gave me the chance to divulge my opinions in the best acceptable manner suitable to my patients understanding. Conclusion Watsons’s theories has personally broadened my horizons personally and professionally. Researching her theories and concepts of nursing has given me immense insight on how to view and treat my patients in various situations. I find that her concept of caring is truly what the core element of nursing should be, or as she states it is the† true essence of nursing.†Watson, J. (1999). The nursing concepts developed by Watson have been tried and proven both professionally and personally. She provides many useful concepts  for the overall practice of nursing and the overall element of proving care for any individual. Watson ties together common theories in nursing education and thus the caring approach entity emerged. These carative factors can be implemented in any level of health care settings. It gives simple guidance to nursing and provides for better and more quality patient outcomes. Her approach unites all humanistic entities of the mind, body, and spirits for this caring, unique realm of nursing. Watson, J., & Foster, R. (2003). * * * * * * * * * * * * * * References * * Cara, C. (2003). A pragmatic view of Jean Watson’s caring theory. International Journal for Human Caring, 7(3), 51-61. * * Suliman, W., Welmann, E., Omer, T., & Thomas, L. (2009). Applying Watson’s NursingTheory to Assess Patient Perceptions of Being Cared for in a Multicultural Environment. Journal of Nursing Research (Taiwan Nurses Association), 17(4), 293-300. * * Watson, J. (1999). Nursing: Human science and human care, a theory of nursing. Sunbury, MA: NLN Press, Jones and Bartlett * * Watson, J., & Foster, R. (2003). The Attending Nurse Caring Model: integrating theory, evidence and advanced caring–healing therapeutics for transforming professional practice. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 12(3), 360-365. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2702.2003.00774.x.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Introducing New Coke

In this case of Coca-Cola changing their well established Coke formula and introducing an new one in 1985 for the purpose of gaining more market share; the reason why such decision was made by Coke’s executives was mainly because of a series of marketing campaign conducted by their major arrival – Pepsi. During mid 1970s, Pepsi has ran a the famous â€Å"Pepsi Challenge† of blind taste tests on all the commercials to show that the majority preferred Pepsi than Coke based on its teste. By 1977, Pepsi had exceeded Coke’s market share in major restaurant chains and food stores.Under the threat of being taken over by Pepsi and losing the industrial leader position, Coke released their new formulated coke on April 23th, 1985. While the Coke’s new formula was preferred in the blind taste tests, consumers especially loyal consumers across the country had a strong and negative reaction to the fact that Coke was going to replace the original formula with thi s new. In the end, Coke had to reintroduce the original Coke under the name Coke Classic, and the new coke quickly faded away. And the once leading Pepsi during Coke’s transactional period, fell back to the second market place again.In my opinion what Coca-Cola got it wrong was that they focused too much on the taste of the Coke and neglected the emotional attachment that consumers had to the original flavour. Coca-Cola could have simply changed the direction of its campaigns by giving Coke a brand new image to attract the â€Å"new generation† if they felt they were losing market share to Pepsi in that specific consumer group because image is probably more important than taste in selling soft drink based on Pepsi’s success of their â€Å"New Generation† campaign . But if Coke was determined to change the recipe, it could probably have done it without letting anyone know.Alternatively, the new Coke could have been introduced without knocking out the origi nal Coke off the shelves. Simply adding an new flavour to the Coke family and giving consumers one more option to choose from could have resulted a better outcome, for example, Coca-Cola’s launch of Vanilla Coke. But the company considered, and rejected, planed to keep the old-formula drink in circulation under the name â€Å"original† Coke. The taste question was crucial to Coke. But what Coca-Cola executives failed to realize was that there is more to marketing soft drinks than winning taste tests.More than any other product consumers had an emotional attachment to their soft drink brand. I believe from Americans’ point of view, Coke discovered fiddling with the formula of the 99-year-old beverage was probably an assault to their patriotic pride. Here I can quote a saying from Coca-Cola’s President Donald R. Keough to summarize what Coca-Cola has learned: â€Å"We did not understand the deep emotions of so many of our customers for Coca-Cola. † I think any marketer who plans a noticeable revision of a product must consider the loyalty of its consumers and the possibility that the change will be rejected.To prevent this possibility, marketers should realize that balking at change is a customer characteristic of specific product preferences. Also, in this case, a more sophisticated qualitative and quantitative research could have been conducted and prevented Coke from this mistake. Consumers resist changes for many reasons – brand choice results from a complex set of beliefs, buyers associate products with themselves, buyers do not fit into clear segments. I think the key to all the marketers is to realize the involvement of what a product actually does for the user, and what emotional attachment that links the user to the brand.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Electric Bike

Our Electric Bicycle Project I have added an electric power assist onto a GT mountain bike. With a 3 HP peak motor, it is much more powerful than typical electric bicycles. The basic motivation to build an electric bike was to have a fun and efficient and environmentally friendly way to stay out my car for short trips around town, and also as a silent trail bike for exploring the hills. I wanted to get some exercise – this bike  can still be pedaled. When I first put this together it was even more of a blast to ride than I had envisioned.I have seen 70 year old people get on this bike and laugh like little kids – it's like a magic hand is silently boosting you along. This website will describe the background of this little electric vehicle, offer some reflections on the electric and hybrid vehicle scene, and detail  most of the design and motor and batteries should you be interested in making one yourself. Though it's a bit of a project, a number of people have actu ally made very similar bikes based on my basic design. The Beauty of the Electric BikeNo noise – no vibration – no smog – no smog checks – no registration – no insurance – no driver's license No gasoline – no oil – no tune-ups – no parking hassles – no car payments – no more exercise (use the pedals)  Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚  no brainer Background: Why build an electric bike? Why use such a big motor? I love the idea of electric vehicles in general and would love to have a pure electric car. I have a Prius, currently just about the closest thing available. However, battery technology hasn't advanced enough to make a pure electric car affordable yet.I do think, however, that light-weight, low-speed, short-range vehicles are wellt within the limits of current battery-electric technology, so I set out to see what could be done to make a more powerful and longer-range motorized bike. Since I live about 3 miles from my fav ourite grocery store and my house is at the top of a fairly long and steep hill, biking and walking is just strenuous enough to be discouraging to me on a spur-of-the-moment basis. However I love biking. I have mountain bikes and folding bikes.In looking for a motor to add to one of my bikes, I rode some ready-made bikes and noticed that they are really fun to ride. The silence and effortless cruising along is just  magical. But the electric bikes and motor kits for sale at the time, such as the Curry USProDrive, the eBike, etc. were fairly low power and really aren't that much faster up a steep hill than an unassisted bicycle. The Wave crest was the first decently powerful ready-made bike, though the company didn't last long. (Electric vehicle companies seem to have a curious habit of making a big splash – and then vanishing beneath the waves.   Now you can buy decent electric motor kits from Wilderness Energy and Crystallite, among others, but I was curious about the nu ts and bolts of things, and wanted to learn more about exactly what it takes to drive a vehicle with pure electric power. I am a great fan of all electric vehicles and watch the new technologies closely. Hybrid cars are a tremendous technology that in my opinion is the first step on the road to all-electric vehicles. Hybrids will necessarily drive the development of better and cheaper batteries, which is the only missing link to the puzzle.Hybrids of today that are only charged by their gasoline engines will lead to ‘plug-in' hybrids that can be partially recharged at home or at charging stations. This will lead to astonishingly frugal use of fuel, but these cars will need much  larger battery packs, which means  better and cheaper batteries will have to be produced. This  will  happen and is probably happening right now. Eventually batteries will become so much better that the auto companies will start to produce cars that simply leave out the combustion engine altoge ther – the pure battery electric vehicle.Don't get me started on fuel cells and the much hyped future ‘hydrogen economy. ‘ This is interesting technology, but suffice it to say that there are so many technical breakthroughs and logistic problems yet to be solved, that I simply don't see it happening within the next ten or fifteen years. In other parts of this website and in the Electric Bicycle FAQ, I elaborate a little more on the near and far term technology, where I see it going, and what the most promising developments are. This is not really a build manual, however. . Experienced tinkerers may glean a lot of ideas and solutions from my pages if they want to use them and adapt them. There are parts lists and plenty of photos. This driveline is now extremely robust and probably suitable for larger electric vehicles, not just bikes, up to three to five horsepower. Over the course of this project I've made many interesting discoveries, encountered issues and prob lems which all electric vehicle builders must face, and finally figured out some fairly simple solutions.I've fitted a number of different driveline systems which range from simple single vee-belts to the present double reduction using a  heavy-duty  toothed belt and chain. Earlier versions are shown on following pages. This bike performs well, is stone-reliable and nearly silent, and all the major components are available online or at power transmission supply houses. Note that I had to weld and machine key components like the jackshaft mount using ball bearings, and the chain sprocket that clamps on to the spokes at the wheel hub.The right components and design solutions to this project were hard to come by, and I just want to share what I've learned to promote what I consider a pretty amazing form of transportation. V1. 5 – Dual Reduction Belt/Chain Drive The current  version is what I am calling v1. 5, which is the same bike as v1. 4 but with some basic changes: a n ew timing belt drive system with a chain final drive. Basically, the motor drives a belt that spins an intermediate shaft or ‘jackshaft' mounted next to the motor and spinning on ball bearings. This shaft then drives a chain going down to the rear bike wheel. Same motor and all other components. Earlier versions are documented on following pages. ) BASIC SPECS OF V1. 5Scott 24 V DC, 1 hp motor (3 hp max) – still available from cloudelectric. com   * Gates Power Grip GT2 belt primary drive * 1/2†³ steel jackshaft on custom shaft ball bearing mount – 3:1 reduction * #35 chain final drive to rear wheel – 2. 77:1 reduction * 8. 44:1 overall gearing gives top speed of about 27 mph * 2 x 12V Hawker AGM-type lead acid batteries, 13 Ah each; later replaced by B&B 12v 16Ah batteries (also AGM) * 4QD â€Å"Scooter 180† speed controller – 180 amp with optional regenerative braking * 24 V charger charges in 2-5 hours typically pedal in all 18 spee ds * batteries and motor removable in 10 minutes * range 15 miles on the flat depending on pedal assist * weight 85 lbs. Motor The Scott motor is 24 V DC, brushed, and is rated at 1 hp (746 watts) continuous power and draws 41 amps. It cost about $250, however in 2008 I see the price is closer to $350. This model no. 4BB-02488. This motor is available still from cloudelectric. com. Don't let the rating fool you, this motor will put out 2. 5HP peak and can even be over-volted (judiciously) to 36V where it will put out 1. 5 HP continuous and around 4HP peak.If you're crazy enough to gear it up, it would propel a bike to around 50mph (please don't do this. ) So the Scott is pretty heavy and suitable for slightly larger vehicles; for a bicycle, a better alternative might be one of the motors at evdeals. com such as the 500 watt 36V motor for only $60. Cloud electric also has a selection of motors from $80 to $170 that would be very suitable according to your budget and power desired. A very interesting choice is their ‘Motor 36 Volt 1000 Watt' model that has an integral freewheeling clutch. This can also be run at 24V to get 535 watts of power. I may have to switch over, these sounds like an ideal motor for a project like this. )   You cannot just use any old motor to drive a bike. People often ask me, can I use a motor from an electric drill, or a starter motor from a motorcycle or a car. The short answer is no, these motors are generally not suitable at all. The efficiency is poor, they will overheat, they are not powerful enough, the speed is too high, they're too noisy, or any number of other reasons. The Scott is a very high quality motor with high efficiency, good cooling, and ball bearings.At 16 pounds it is pretty heavy but motors in this power range were hard to find five years ago. If I were doing this today I would undoubtedly use a lighter motor of the type that has subsequently become available. There has been a tremendous influx of scooters a nd smaller electric vehicles, and many of the motors on these vehicles would be suitable for a bike. There are also a number of motors used by people making combat robots or battelbots. These are generally high power and  quite tough. However battlebots don't really need efficiency so this is something to look out for.Efficiency of greater that 80% should be looked for at a wide range of speeds and currents. In my opinion, a bike needs a motor of at least 400 watts and probably not more than 1000 watts. Any less and you might as well not bother, and any more and the motor will probably be large, heavy, expensive, deplete your batteries in a flash, or all of the above. The reason for a motor this powerful is simple: hills. I live on a steep hill. While a Zap or a US ProDrive bike rated at 400 watts goes a decent 17 mph on flat land, they slow to 3 to 5 mph on a decent hill. I can pedal that fast.I have ridden a Schwinn with the Currie US Pro drive. It was actually great, I would re commend it to anyone as a very good turn-key kit solution. However I wanted to go faster and be able to get up a hill. The simple fact is that you need from 5   to 10 times as much power to go a given speed on a decent grade. This is why a car that only needs 12 hp to go 60 mph on flat roads has an engine that can put out 100 to 200 hp. The Scott motor was used in many go-carts and Electrathon vehicles. (Electrathons are efficiency competitions using ultralight closed-course battery electric vehicles carrying one person.The point is to go the farthest distance in a given amount of time. ) So the efficiency is obviously pretty good. The motor cost $269 total shipped, and weighs about 16 pounds. It has ball bearings and massive cooling fins and is built to last. Brushes do not wear out very fast at all, this is not really a concern. It draws around 41 amps while producing a continuous 1 hp. Put a greater load on it and will draw well over 100 amps and produce up to 3 hp. This is why it needs a 180 amp controller. More about controllers later. Speed Reduction and Gearing: a big issueI will spend quite a bit of time here describing the speed reduction scheme, as this is the most difficult problem to solve in fitting a motor to a bike or other small EV. The big issue with all motorization schemes on bikes is this: how to reduce the speed of a typical motor, which may turn at upwards of 3000 rpm, to the necessary speed of a bicycle rear wheel. A 26†³ mountain bike wheel at 20 mph is turning only about 265 rpm. The overall reduction required is therefore between roughly 8:1 and 11:1 depending on what top speed you wish to achieve.Now it is certainly possible to simply bolt, say, a 130-tooth chain sprocket to the rear wheel and drive it with a 13-tooth drive sprocket off the motor. But this is a very large wheel sprocket (about 15†³ in diameter) and, critically, the chain would be unbearably noisy. My basic observation about chain drive is that if any chai n sprocket turns faster than about 750 rpm, it will start to make a racket. If only there were a good quiet 3:1 gearbox you could bolt on to the Scott, the final 3:1 or 4:1 ratio could be easily achieved with a chain and sprockets to the rear wheel.However I don't know of such a gearbox ready made, and a gear box is very difficult to machine from scratch. Straight cut gears also tend to make a whining noise. This big problem of gearing down the motor has lead to the development of the hub motor. This is simply a bicycle wheel hub with a motor built in, which can then be spoked to a rim. Such hub motors either have gears built in, or they are very particularly designed to just turn at a very low speed while still having good power and torque. This is a difficult trick. It's much easier to make a motor that derives its power from spinning at higher rpm.At any rate, at the time I could not find many hub motors, and the few that were available were expensive, made a gear whine, and were underpowered. Also, a hub motor has one set gearing by design, and you can't alter it. I wanted something where I could experiment with different gear ratios, top speeds, and hill climbing ability. I have come up with this belt drive to achieve the primary speed reduction of 3:1. The dual-reduction drive system is much more solid than anything I have tried before. It's a little more complicated but slippage is absolutely eliminated and I feel confident that this system would be able to take even more power.This is important because the Scott motor is often bumped up to 36 volts rather than 24 and I may eventually switch over. Why belt primary drive? Wouldn't two chains be easier? Basically, as I say, belts are much quieter at high RPM. At 3000 rpm a chain would be about as loud as many small gas engines. An electric bike should be whisper quiet, and this belt drive is. Many electric go-carts use a single straight chain drive; however, they go faster while having smaller wheels, so they  need less speed reduction,  and the wind and tire noise and speed tend to mask the racket the chain makes. Plus, carters don't really care much about noise.I used a Gates PowerGrip GT2 belt. This timing belt has rounded teeth so it's quieter than other belts. The teeth are closely spaced for better grip on small sprocket wheels. This is the 5mm pitch type. At 25mm wide, the short belt is much less likely to stretch and is easily tensioned by pivoting the jackshaft mount slightly – three of the mounting holes are slotted, so the mount can pivot around the un-slotted fourth hole. Does this wide belt seem like overkill? The Gates Co. has  very nice simple little engineering software they give away on their website that will tell you what size and type of belt you will need.You plug in the power, gear reduction, speed, and a couple of other things and the program will give you some recommendations. I used the program and this was one of the recommendations and what do you know, it has been great. Has never been adjusted and and has never slipped or worn. The jackshaft itself is a 1/2†³ steel shaft running on two R8 sealed ball bearings. The mounting plate and bearing housing is welded aluminum. Sorry that I don't have a diagram of this but hopefully you get the general layout from the photos. If belts are so great, then why chain final drive?Since the jackshaft is now speed-reduced to 1000 rpm max, running a chain down to the rear wheel now makes sense. There is a reason so many bikes and motorcycles still use steel chain final drive. It makes sense here because the run is longer and the available space narrower, and chain is much stronger and less stretchy than a long narrow belt. At this speed the chain may be slightly audible at top speed, but not noisy, and the wind and tire noise while riding will actually be louder. A chain doesn't need to be tensioned nearly as tightly as a belt.Finally, chains have a master link which makes assembly and removal much easier, like when changing tires and repairing flats. (Belts are endless. ) The #35 chain is a very common American size. It has a shorter pitch than bicycle chain but is much stronger. (Bicycle chain is made flexible to allow for the side to side misalignment resulting from different derailleur gear combinations. ) You will notice the extra bar running in between the chain, from the jackshaft to the axle. This is a reinforcement and has an adjuster nut at the lower end to establish proper chain tension.The bar acts to maintain proper driveline rigidity – the Scott motor can put out a tremendous amount of torque and the motor mount and bicycle frame will twist and compress under heavy power loads without this bar. Actually it attaches to the bike frame near the axle using the stock rack mount on the dropout. The driveline parts are as follows They were ordered from Bearing Belt Chain in Las Vegas at  Ã‚  www. bearing. com. * belt:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   GATES POW ER GRIP GT2 5MR-400-25  Ã‚   Gates part # 9390-8080  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   $11. 35 * motor sprocket:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   GATES P21-5MGT-25-MPB  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Gates part # 7709-5021  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   $17. 0 * jackshaft sprocketGATES P64-5MGT-25-1610  Ã‚  Ã‚   Gates part # 7709-2064  Ã‚  Ã‚   $30. 52 * sprocket hub mount   for above:   GATES 1610 1/2†³ TAPER LOCK BUSHING part # 7858-1608 * jackshaft ball bearings:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   MRC part # R8Z  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   $11. 56 ea. (2) * jackshaft:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   machined from 1/2†³ stainless steel stock * jackshaft chain sprocket:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   #35 chain, 13 tooth   MARTIN 35BS13HT 1/2†³ bore  Ã‚  Ã‚   $6. 91 * rear wheel chain sprocket:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   #35 chain, 36 tooth MARTIN 35B36  Ã‚  Ã‚   $11. 56   (modified on my lathe to fit) * chain:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   #35 chain that I had lying around – length is 50 links (100 rollers) – 37-1/2†³ longA number of machining, fabrications,  and modification s I had to do myself. The jackshaft mount is the most elaborate part to make and took some time. The jackshaft and motor need to be very rigidly connected and aligned, yet adjustable to set the belt tension. I used a 1/4†³ aluminum plate and welded a 1-1/4†³ alum. tube to this. There are two diagonal braces welded to these – you can only see the upper one in the photos. The braces just clear the motor. Then the tube was bored in the lathe for the two ball bearings. It also has ring grooves for retaining rings to hold the bearing in place.The 1/2†³ shaft is about 5†³ long, also with ring grooves. There are a total of 4 stainless steel 1/4-20 allen bolts holding the whole thing to the face of the Scott motor using the existing tapped holes. As I mentioned, three of the holes in the jackshaft plate are actually curved slots to allow for adjustment to tension the belt, the whole thing pivoting a little around the fourth bolt. The 21-tooth motor sprocket was bo red to 5/8†³ on my lathe. It is fixed to the motor shaft with a 1/8†³ steel split pin or ‘roll pin'. I had to drill a hole for this pin through the sprocket and motor shaft.Roll pins are much stronger than set screws, and they are pressed or driven in, so they don't come loose. They're also easier to machine than Woodruff key-ways. The large 64 tooth belt sprocket arrived in solid steel and was ridiculously heavy. Aluminum was not available. So I drilled it out extensively to lighten it as you can see. The chain sprocket bolts to the hub of the belt sprocket with two 10-32 allen screws, the holes for which I drilled and tapped. The motor is mounted to the bicycle frame on a specially made 1/8†³ thick stainless steel bracket. The whole bracket bolts to tabs welded to the bike frame with three allen bolts.The chain, drive belt and motor can be removed from the bike in about 3 minutes. Finally, I had to attach a sprocket to the rear wheel. I finally decided to just try clamping a sprocket to the spokes. This may seem like a clumsy solution but I have seen it done on a number of other applications. It has been reliable and has not damaged the spokes at all. Sometimes simple and direct wins the day. For those of you familiar with the Currie US ProDrive, a very popular electric drive kit for bikes, this is basically the same way they bolt their motor plate to the bike wheel.Looks somewhat unsophisticated? Fine, but it works, bolts quickly to a completely unmodified bike wheel, and has been  trouble free. I started by boring out a standard type-B 36-tooth sprocket (the kind with an integral offset hub) to where the hole would just fit around the protruding wheel hub. This locates the sprocket nicely on the hub center. Then I basically faced the hub down to nearly nothing on the lathe, just enough to space the sprocket out away from the spokes. Then I drilled 9 holes for 10-32 screws. The screws go through the spaces where the spokes cross.I mad e three curved clamp plates with three holes each for the inside of the wheel. For off-road use I intend to get a different wheel with a knobby tire and a larger sprocket to lower the gearing for better hill climbing. A couple of extra chain links will make it easy to switch out. The net of all this is that finally I have got it really right. I can whack the throttle open and closed at any speed and there will be no belt slippage of any kind. The first thing I did was to go down the street and climb this steep rocky trail that gave the old bike problems. Even with the relatively igh gearing, the new driveline shot me right up the thing. I even popped a little wheelie over the top of it. That sure never happened before. Now I can finally use all of the torque this Scott motor can put out.DESIGN & COMPONENT DETAILS BATTERIESThere is no question that the battery is the single thing,  the one and only, overriding thing, that is holding back the development and mass proliferation of el ectric vehicles. At this point in time most of us are still stuck with using lead acid batteries. I am now using B&B 16 Ah batteries, made in China.Originally I used Hawker Odyssey batteries model PC545, 12 lbs. each, which are basically the same as the Hawker Genesis G13EP. All of the batteries I have used are deep-cycling, AGM (Absorbed Glass Matt) sealed lead acid batteries (SLA) and are about the best quality lead acid battery available. They can be mounted in any position except upside down and they are sealed and maintenance free. They are much like the Optima batteries used in many advanced electric vehicles like the EV-1 and the Sparrow but are available in a wider variety of smaller sizes. I got them at Thunderstruck-EV. com.They now run about $50 each. It is nice that there is some competition now in this type of battery and the prices are coming down by about half from what I paid for my first set. Of course lithium ion batteries of some kind would be the great enabler. L ithium is just now entering the market, they are still quite expensive and something of a question mark. Conventional lithium cells, as used in laptops, have a thermal runaway potential – meaning they tend to catch fire, in some cases like a Roman candle. New materials and chemistries based on lithium are attempting to address the safety problem.I have seen batteries called LiFePo4 – lithium iron phosphate – offered for sale at various websites selling electric bikes and accessories. They are claiming no fire problems, At this point, it looks like a decent battery pack for a bike like this would cost around $1000 or more. That is a lot of money to spend on a battery with a 1-year or 2-year warranty. In my opinion, these batteries need to come down to the sub-$300 range before I would really be interested. A battery is rated in voltage and amp-hours. Voltage times amps times hours equals watt-hours and this is the total energy available from the battery.So my bat tery pack has 2 x 12V x 16Ah = 384 watt hours. In other words it will give 384 watts for an hour. But actually, it won't. The â€Å"16 Ah† is a rating to be taken with a very large grain of salt. An essential thing to know about batteries is that  they give a lesser amount of total energy when discharged at a high rate. Read that last sentence again and absorb it, it's important. A battery's electrical power is not like a glass of water. If you drain that glass quickly or slowly, it contains the same amount of water. Batteries, not so. Draw high amperage, and your total amount of energy is less!Because of this, batteries are often rated nominally at a slow 10-hour discharge rate, in which case they will give more total energy and thus seem like a better battery. Bikes and all electric vehicles use energy at a very high rate. A bike can easily draw enough current to discharge a battery pack fully in under half an hour, so batteries will not give their rated output under thes e conditions. Another tempting choice for cheap batteries might be Panasonic or Powersonic or Sonnenschein gel-cell /lead acid batteries. Gel cells are the typical batteries that come with most stock electric bicycles and kits.They are not AGM. Longevity is not as good, though the stated juice per weight ratio seems better, and they are available in a variety of smaller sizes if weight were more of an issue than range. Hawker makes slightly larger AGM batteries such as the G16EP like my B&B which have a little more juice but are also heavier. The Hawkers are very well made. Another great thing about AGM type batteries is that they can be charged quickly at much higher amps than other kinds of lead acid batteries. Likewise they have the ability to give high current with no problems.AGM batteries are also unique among almost all battery types in that they retain a full charge for months with no ‘charge leakage. ‘ One of the big drawbacks of of NiMH batteries is that they d ischarge about 1% to 2% per day. Regular lead acid batteries will just go dead in a few months as well. Because of this, AGM batteries are also marketed to people with antique cars and snow plows – vehicles that aren't used very often and are likely to have a dead battery when you finally want to start it up. All lead acid batteries have two big drawbacks. They are quite heavy for the total amount of power they deliver.And even these so called â€Å"deep cycle† batteries really should not be deep-cycled too often, as repeated deep discharging dramatically shortens their useful lifespan. This is where NiCads have lead acid beat, as they are more power dense and can be run down pretty much all the way without much damage. Of course large NiCads are much more expensive and must be recycled carefully due to the toxic cadmium. So until better batteries like NiMH or Lithium Ion are more widely available in vehicle sizes and less expensive, Hawkers and other AGM type lead aci d are about the best we can do.More ruminations on the Great Battery Quest below. Batteries and 120 amp speed controller mounted in the main frame space. SPEED CONTROLLER A speed controller or motor controller is essential in applying the voltage and power that is delivered to the motor from the batteries. All decent electric vehicles need a motor controller of some kind. On a bike with a very small motor it might be possible to just have an on-off arrangement, and I suppose there are other less expensive and much cruder ways to control speed but I feel that a decent controller is absolutely necessary with a powerful motor like this.The controller is a rather expensive electronic black box with no moving parts. A modern PWM or ‘pulse width modulation† controller is very reliable  as long as it's current limit is not exceeded. Unfortunately a high ampere capable controller is not cheap and may cost about as much as the motor. Curtis controllers are well known in golf ca rts and other industrial vehicles, however I am using a Scoota 180 amp speed controller from 4QD. –  www. 4QD. co. uk  . This is a small company in England, that specializes in smaller and cheaper controllers for light electric vehicles. The controller with a matching thumb-lever throttle was $248.It is capable of regenerative braking, thought you can easily disable this function. Previously I tried a Scoota 120 amp model that was nearly identical. It failed after a few months. I was just working it too hard and the output connections overheated and melted. The 4QD factory has a nice policy of repairing their controllers and exchanging them for different ones if you want, with a very fair exchange allowance. The new 180 amp model gets a little warm but has been quite dependable for well over three years now. I originally used an Eagle 80 amp controller from the same company. It was $120.It failed due to overheating but that was completely my fault for using a much too-sma ll controller. If I lived on flat terrain I think it would have been fine and would have lasted a long time, especially since I added a finned aluminum heat sink from an audio power amplifier – try a decent electronics store, maybe even Radio Shack. You need to size your controller at about 3 times the rated power of your motor. My motor is rated at 41 amps continuous, HOWEVER it will draw a lot more than that at full throttle under load. Manufacturers tend to state their controllers at intermittent current limits.For example a Scoota 120 will put out 120 amps  for a short time  but should not be run that high continuously. Regenerative braking – nice idea but . . . A lot of people inquire about regenerative braking. Hybrid car manufacturers often tout the ability to reclaim electrical energy when the car is going downhill. I don't know how much energy they are getting back in a car, but on a little electric bicycle, it is almost certainly never worth the added tro uble, expense, and operational hassles. You would be much better off with a freewheeling setup. Let me explain how I've come to this conclusion.The speed controller I use  has regenerative braking available. After trying it out for a while, adjusting it and testing it every which way, I ended up  disabling it. Regenerative braking means that as you brake or coast downhill the controller will use the motor in reverse as a generator to re-charge the batteries. On my route to the market, for instance, I am on flat terrain for a while and then go downhill for about a mile to reach the store. Conceivably this could mean that I arrive at the store with nearly full batteries, which would make the ride back less likely to drain the batteries completely.However, the regenerative braking is a function of the speed controller. If you have the region set up for maximum regeneration, the throttle can be quite touchy. And if you just suddenly release the throttle, which is fairly normal behav iour, the braking effect would be full. It is really not very good to have the throttle set up to brake that hard. I found myself about launching over the handle bars every time I lost forgot and snapped the throttle off. Also, this is a good way to have other people ride your bike and crash it. Note there is no freewheel on the electric side of my bicycle.A custom freewheel is yet another surprisingly difficult mechanical part to machine or to buy. Of course the pedal-drive freewheel still works, which means that you can motor without the pedals being forced to turn. However, it  you pedal the motor will necessarily be turning, which is a drawback if the batteries die. The regenerative braking function requires a solid connection to the wheel. However, after some time with this bike, using the regen function of the special speed controller, I came to a surprising conclusion  against  using regen. As I say I bought a controller with regenerative braking.With this set-up, I cou ld basically use the thumb-throttle carefully as a fairly powerful rear brake. The amount of braking could be adjusted to make it less grabby, but I never could get it to the point where I liked it at all. It was obtrusive and difficult to control. I suppose if you could hook it up to a pressure sensitive brake lever, it would work better, however, that is a bit beyond the level of sophistication I think is really necessary on a little electric bike. Luckily the regen function can be defeated which is what I finally decided to do. Realize, all vehicles are â€Å"regenerative† going down a hill.Turning the engine off down a long hill in your car and coasting – this is reclaiming the energy spent to climb the hill. Unless the vehicle is very heavy and/or has great aerodynamics, most of the energy going down a hill will just be used to overcome air resistance, with little left over to recharge the batteries. Normally on a bicycle, very little braking is ever necessary, an d top speed down most hills is quickly limited by poor aerodynamics. The net result, I felt, is that the regen on my ebike was just slowing me down and creating heavy backloading on the drive train needlessly.It would be better to put the motor on a freewheel and adopt a method of getting up to speed and coasting as often as possible with the motor shut off. This riding technique is apparently very effective at extending your range, probably more so than having regen. Many people who deal even with larger EVs and hybrids have also formed the opinion that a pure freewheeling function would be better in many instances than regenerative braking. The regenerative braking function of hybrid cars, for instance, is vastly overstated. Hybrids work by generating their lectric power onboard using the gas engine; they have a power generation function built-in, it is central to the entire concept. So why not use it for braking as well? Sure, but in reality this produces very little in the way o f reclaimed power. The batteries in hybrid cars are charged at least 95% by the using the gas engine as a generator; and the reason they are so efficient in city driving is simply because they can run at slow speeds very efficiently on predominantly electric power. It is only while driving at higher speeds down long steep grades that any decent power is truly regenerated to the batteries.How much of this describes typical driving conditions? Coasting with minimal drag from the motor is actually much more efficient. While coasting the vehicle uses no juice whatsoever. It is common practice during mileage or efficiency runs with a hybrid like the Honda Insight, to accelerate to speed, then go into neutral and coast for a ways. This actually produces the greatest mileage and efficiency. On an electric bike it is undoubtedly most efficient to pulse the motor on till you get up to speed, and coast on downhills, or pedal on the flat to maintain speed. Having the motor freewheel would be a big advantage.Unfortunately, a decent ready made right-hand drive doesn't seem to be available, at least for a reasonable price. A minor drawback. THROTTLE At first I simply got a $2. 00 10K potentiometer from Radio Shack, wired it up to the 4QD wiring and mounted it on a plastic spacer beneath the right-hand hand grip. There was no spring return, you had to turn it down to slow down, but on the other hand it was cheap and simple and the brakes can easily overcome the motor in an emergency stopping situation. Also, it worked perfectly as a cruise control. Then with the new larger motor controller I got a box-mounted thumb lever throttle.This is just a short-throw 10k pot with a return spring and lever mounted on the end. There are now motorcycle-style twist grip throttles with built in pots widely available at scooter shops for about $50, such as the Magura. The Scoota controller requires an on-off switch – I got a small rocker thumb switch from an electronics store, and mou nted it in the throttle box. thumb-lever throttle and on-off switch BATTERY CHARGER I found a great 24-volt 5 amp automatic charger made for the now-defunct e-bike EV Warrior from All Electronics surplus in LA. It was 20 bucks, it's compact and works wonderfully.What a bargain – I got two. These may not still be available but there are a few sites that deal with scooters and electric bikes now that have similar chargers for $50 to $80. When I was first building this bike, in the new world of electric vehicle hobbyists, a good non-12V charger (or any decent component for that matter) was hard to come by cheaply. For instance, I scoured the surplus electric suppliers looking for a decent, powerful, cheap 12V or 24V motor and basically came up empty. Before this I used a Sears 12V auto battery charger, charging each battery separately.This worked fine but remembering to go out and switch the charger between batteries was very inconvenient. The EV Warrior charger shuts off automa tically, the bike is always charged and ready to ride.COST AND CONSTRUCTION DETAILSI used high quality parts and the total cost of all the added components including charger came to about $950. Not cheap, but my new mountain bike cost more than that – and you have to pedal it. You can get a turn-key electric motor kit for around $400-700, or a readymade e-bike for $1000-2000, but of course the motors and batteries are all only 1/3 as powerful as this. WeightAt 85 pounds, this is pretty heavy for a â€Å"bicycle,† but I think of it more as an ultra light moped. And it is a true â€Å"mo-ped† in that you can still meaningfully pedal it. Plus I can still lift it into my pickup or my car trunk if needed. My old Peugeot moped weighed twice as much at 150 pounds with similar speed capability, and pedalling it was a joke – the pedals were geared really low, purely for starting the motor. Brakes The old brakes on this bike were okay for 12 mph but hair-raising at 30 mph. A new side pull â€Å"vee brake† as used on decent Modern Mountain bikes luckily bolted right onto the old brake mount posts.Regular bicycles are too light and top heavy to use the front brake as the main squeeze, but as any motorcyclist can tell you, on any heavier two wheeler the front brake does 90% of the work. The vee-brake kit was about 25 bucks on sale at a bike dealer, and came with a new lever for the handle bar. I only replaced the front brake, as the rear posts are in the wrong place. A number of people have written to ask me where the rear brake is – it looks like there is no rear brake at all. Look closely in the photos: the rear brake on this GT mountain bike in mounted down low, on the chain stays, just aft of the pedal crank.Frame I would encourage people doing this kind of conversion to use a heavy duty steel mountain bike frame. The components can take the added force and weight of the motor system. Mountain bike components now are amazingly strong and durable – they are made to take off-road abuse. The wider wheels especially are much better for the additional weight and power. Also, a steel frame is easier to weld or braze motor and battery mounts onto. Stay away from aluminum unless you can figure a way to bolt or clamp everything on without welding. Welding onto an aluminum frame will likely ruint the tempering and severely weaken it.It's quite difficult to weld on thin aluminum. My old GT was too heavy for a good mountain bike these days but just the ticket for an electric motor project. The peculiar geometry of the GT rear frame design actually makes a perfect place for the motor. Construction I had to weld a motor mount onto the rear frame behind the seat. The chain just clears the wheel and frame and it was critical to get the motor solidly mounted. With such a powerful motor,   the motor mount must be strong, and it's really pretty important to have a ball-bearing motor. The motor mount is removable fr om the frame with three allen head screws.I have a TIG welder and lots of metal working tools so it was not a big deal for me but I don't see why all this couldn't be done on a steel bike frame with silver solder or brazing rod and a gas torch. The batteries also have a very solid welded-on mount with a screw-down top retaining rail. The batteries are heavy and need a good solid mount with shock padding. These batteries are narrow and don't interfere at all with pedalling. In this arrangement they are also low and keep the center of gravity down. LEGAL ISSUES OF ELECTRIC BICYCLES At 20 mph this bike is basically legal as an unregistered motorized bicycle in Calif.I believe the Federal laws now allow up to a 750 watt motor, which is what the Scott is (1 horsepower = 746 watts. )   Also, the Federal Law limits such bikes to 20 mph. I fully expected the Feds to cripple these vehicles with a something like a 400 watt limit, but for once was pleasantly surprised – it's actually a rational and reasonable law and probably promotes good electric bikes rather than underpowered toys that no one will buy. Geared for 30 mph this would technically have to be registered and insured as a motorized cycle or possibly as a full motorcycle.Not sure exactly what the difference is but I believe there is a technical distinction. However, used judiciously, most people are still going to assume that it's just a particularly fast bicycle, especially if it's being pedaled. Actually I have no problem with a legal limit of 20 mph. Slow is not bad. The wind noise is less and you can actually hear the world. A bike limited to 20 with no registration and no insurance and no driver's license (and no noise and no vibration and no gasoline and no mechanics and no smog checks and no smog and no parking hassles and no car payments . . . )   Not a bad tradeoff, to put it mildly.I would not recommend riding on bike paths or foot trails. Most of these bar motorized vehicles of any kind, even if it's not posted. It is tempting since the bike is silent and by pedaling, most people will not even notice that you've got a motor. I think speed is the key. If I must ride on a bike path, I use the pedals and just don't go any faster than a gently pedaled bicycle. It is hard to argue with that, and no one ever has. I think eventually there will be a lot more electric bicycles and other small powered vehicles and it will probably become a problem competing with pedestrians, roller bladers, etc.The advent of affordable lithium batteries will mean that electric vehicles of all kinds will be become radically better, and immensely popular. It's just inevitable. There's already enough friction between these groups on crowded paths and trails. This is another reason why keeping maximum speeds under 20 mph is probably a good idea. FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS, VARIATIONS AND POSSIBILITIES It's the batteries, stupid. This bike is great fun right now but I can see a lot of room for improvemen t. Ah, batteries, ever the Achilles' heel of the electric vehicle.Oh how I hate lead acid batteries but – still stuck with them. NiMH, Lithium Ion, or Nickel Zinc batteries would improve the juice-to-weight ratio enormously, and would probably double the range, which is the single least satisfactory thing about this and all electric bikes. The batteries now weigh over 25 pounds and are the heaviest single component. There are some reasons for hope. The increasing numbers of hybrid cars are generally using NiMH batteries which should trickle down eventually and be very suitable for electric bikes.Other battery chemistries as well have made it to market, though success always seems elusive. The biggest promise right now is that GM and Toyota are really pushing to put lithium batteries in the next generations of hybrid cars and plug-in hybrids. GM's Chevy Volt, due out by 2010, will only work if they succeed in mass producing lithium ions, and getting the cost down. It's kind of a chicken and egg problem: huge mass production will bring the cost down, but until they're cheaper, there isn't enough demand to mass produce them.The soaring price of motor fuels and the resulting demand for more and better hybrid cars is probably what will convince manufacturers to bite the bullet and build the factories. The promise of lithium ion. Certainly the lithium battery has the greatest potential of all the next-generation chemistries. It has the most energy per pound and is well proven in smaller applications like cell phones and laptops. A practical battery with this capacity would almost instantly put battery vehicles on a competitive footing with gasoline powered ones.Current conventional lithium ions have a serious weakness – they die completely after about 2 to 3 years, no matter what. But again, if GM and Toyota succeed in getting lithium batteries into hybrids, as they say they will within the next two years, it will mean that they have largely eliminated or minimized these drawbacks. Progress with this battery seems to be steady. They are now being used in some cordless power tools, which use bigger cell sizes and draw heavier loads than electronic devices. They don't use any heavy metals. There re a number of new types of lithium cells that don't burst into flames when overheated or pierced. A123 has some of the most successful new cells, and Toshiba has even demonstrated cells that can be recharged almost fully in just a few minutes. Chinese cells are now on the market especially for bicycles called LiFePo4. These cells are available in a battery pack for small electric vehicles called the Eonyx, as well as from other packagers. They are still something of an unknown quantity. Once these get into more people's hands, we will be able to get a reading on their longevity and performance.Right now they are still about  ten or fifteen times as expensive as lead acid batteries. Well, what about fuel cells? Of course the concept and d emonstrations of this still-experimental technology is very compelling, but there has been so much hype on the subject that it is still hard to say if this is all just incredibly successful marketing spin by the FC developers. I also think that in the early 2000's there was an element of clever subterfuge by the auto industry to take the heat off the fact that average fuel economy in this country was decreasing due to ever more popular and larger SUVs.It is so much easier and cheaper for an auto company like GM to run a relatively small early research project on fuel cells, than it is to do serious engineering on real live production-ready hybrid development. Even in 2006 there are still basically no economically practical fuel cells in actual use and even their promoters say that any commercially viable model is at least 5 years off and maybe 10. It is the running joke that the day of widespread fuel cells and the hydrogen economy always seems to be 20 years off –   no mat ter when the question is asked.And then, where do we get all the hydrogen? Seems to me hydrogen is and will remain way more expensive than any petro fuel and I have never seen any realistic ideas to overcome this problem. And we store it in 10,000 psi cylinders in the trunk? Uh, OK . . . Believe me I would love to be proved wrong and initially was excited about this technology like everyone else, but increasingly I am thinking the emperor has no clothes. Maybe a loincloth. Motors are already pretty much perfected, right? Well, yes and no. My Scott motor is starting to look like a dinosaur, it ould stand to lose some weight. The power is actually about right for a bicycle but just look at it, it's too big and heavy. There are tons of little scooters out there and it would be possible to get a 500 watt or 750 watt scooter motor, which is would undoubtedly work well. Currently (July 2009) I see that a 24V Currie 600 watt motor is available for around $130. It is compact and powerful. T he MAC 600W motor might be a better choice but is $279. Try evdeals. com for an updated motor availability. I would love to get a Lemco pancake motor, www. lemcoltd. om   – they are light, powerful, and efficient but expensive. This company is now making even smaller motors that would be perfect for high-powered bikes but $800 for a motor is a bit much. And of course my whole motorization scheme, with the belt and chain, is not terribly clean or elegant. I personally think  the â€Å"hub motor†Ã‚  is the obvious solution for electric bikes, as used on Lee Iacocca's E-bike and the Wavecrest (which seems to have died and resurrected as the E+) and others. Heinzmann of Germany seems to still be making a variety of hub motors, as are other companies.Try Heinzmann's site www. estelle. de for some pretty interesting ideas – I guess they are now selling bikes, complete kits, motors, batteries and controllers. However, at this point they are still only about 300 wat ts = 1/3 HP which is about 1/3 of what they ought to be. Also, Heinzmann motors tend to be a little noisy and expensive. A hub wheel motor replaces the normal wheel hub and obviously needs no other transmission, chain, or belt which is a huge simplification – although of course this can also be a slight drawback in that the gear ratio can't be changed.A very popular and reasonably priced hub motor made in China seems to be the  Crystalyte, though I haven't used one myself. There is a similar system sold by  Wilderness Energy. These are  sold in kits where the hub motor is basically spoked to a bike wheel rim  of your choice and you just replace your old wheel with the motorized one. They tend to go on the front wheel but can also be installed at the rear. The kits include a pretty slick speed controller, throttle, and brake-switches to cut the power. Often batteries are a separate purchase.The hubs themselves are made in various voltages, powers, and rotational speeds to match various wheel sizes and top speed requirements. This seems to be a decent site with links to dealers in the US and Canada – www. evsolutions. net. The gearing, for my use, could certainly benefit from a nice simple  two-speed transmission. One speed for the hill and the other for the flat. Electric motors have such great torque throughout the RPM range that more than two speeds just isn't necessary unless the motor is severely underpowered. The obvious thing to me would be a hub motor with two or three speeds built in. I have never seen such a beast.I think with better batteries and motor, this bike could easily weigh 25 pounds less or have twice the range, maybe both. The frame and wheels are no lightweights either, at 36 pounds. That's a good 10 pounds more than my new mountain bike, and it's got a suspension fork. So in short with modern components this type of bike could easily weigh less than 50 lbs. Performance would improve, it would be easier to pedal and you could even carry it on a car roof rack. How about a  solar cell battery charger? They sell these to RV owners. Actually there's no reason why you couldn't throw a solar cell on your roof and charge the batteries all day.Imagine – this is real-world fully solar powered transportation, doable today. As further work on the existing bike, I would love to put a suspension fork on the front and maybe a suspension seat post. Lights would be nice. At this point this bike would be an amazing transportation unit by any standards, not just electric vehicles. Also, this starts to become a pretty intriguing possibility for a trail bike. I used to have dirt bikes but they are dirty and noisy and environmentally a big problem. A dirt bike is a blast but you're not exactly communing with nature.A completely silent electric trail bike would be much more like hiking aesthetically, and would open up long-range trails – can't wait to get some better batteries and go up to the mounta ins. I can also see going to a  higher voltage system. 36 or even 48 volts  would be a lot better and keep the current draw down. I started with a 12 V system for simplicity's sake but the power was low and the current draw was high. I won't go into the basics of electric power except to say that lower voltage is bad because it leads to higher current which creates more heat and requires a much bigger motor controller.Controllers are basically sold by amperage or current capacity, and high amperage controllers are much more expensive than lower amperage ones. The same controller can put out twice as much power at the same amperage level if the system voltage is doubled. I have even considered simply adding another battery on this bike and just over-volting the motor to 36 volts. The motor is probably able to take it (though I'm sure the manufacturer wouldn't recommend it) and my controller can easily be switched to 36 V. The bike would be heavier, faster, and have better range.I t's just a trade off. Intriguing. (Note that most controllers have voltage limitations and must be altered or jumpered to make system voltage changes. )   That's what's neat about electrics for the tinkerer – you can change motors, change batteries, change controllers, change gearing – it's all so easy and interchangeable compared to an internal combustion vehicle. Imagine a having an old Vespa scooter, and you think one day â€Å"Gee, wouldn't it be interesting to put a nice new Honda 200cc engine in that thing† – you'd have to be half nuts to even consider it.Turnkey solutions. So you don't have a TIG welder and a metal lathe? You just want to bolt something onto your bicycle? As I've mentioned the turnkey kits made by Wilderness Energy and Crystalyte seem to be the simplest and cleanest ways to electrify a bicycle. Since I made this bike there have been some developments in the electric bike world. The popular Curry USProDrive bolt-on kit that I esch ewed as too undepowered was always a decent kit but I don't think it's available at all anymore.The batteries were not AGM quality, the stock controller was jerky and mounted inside the motor where it's hard to keep cool, and the drive train was not terribly robust, but all in all a decent kit, and they sold quite a few of them. A similar concept called Lashout seems to be available. This kit has a built-in freewheel on the motor which is nice. MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS Here in 2008, with the cost of gas now at $4. 50 a gallon, true pain is being felt by almost everyone at the fuel pumps, and by the sellers of old fashioned gas burning vehicles. Big cars and SUV's are sitting on dealers lots. There are 4 month waits  .There is now tremendous pressure to come up with solutions. This should, finally, lead to some real improvements in pure electric transportation. I love the idea of electric vehicles but the practical electric car is still not quite a reality. The electric bike to me is now a real-world, affordable and practical solution. The limited range is not a big deal for errands around town and short commutes. Given that really nice batteries are going to be expensive for the foreseeable future, it makes so much more sense to use a couple of small ones on a bike than try to pay for 300 big ones for a car.Most people won't justify a limited range full-size electric car just for groceries and errands, but many people could throw an e-bike or two in their garage without thinking twice. Grown adults giggle when they ride my bike. It is very quiet –   it's like some genie is pedaling for you. The silence is very important – it just completely changes the whole picture. You can actually hear things and stop and pull up onto the sidewalk and talk to your neighbors when you ride down the street. I have pulled up directly into my ATM booth and people hardly give me a second glance – not even thinkable on a motorcycle.Electrics are not intimida ting like a motorcycle or even a scooter – to most people, they're just a bicycle you don't have to pedal. Theres no clutch, no gears to shift, no kickstarter. They aren't just environmentally friendly – they're neighborhood and people friendly. Another amazing thing to me: this is not rocket science technology. This is lead acid batteries powering a DC motor on a steel bike frame –  this bike could pretty much have been made 80 or 100 years ago! Those new-fangled high pressure pneumatic tires may be the most modern component! Why has it taken so long for e-bikes to take off?I offer these design and component ideas to anyone who can make use of them and encourage anyone with a garage and some tools to make an electric bike or buy a kit or a ready-made. At my house we have a very fast motorcycle, a hybrid car and a pickup, but the e-bike is the most fun – I use it almost every day. And the most amazing thing that I have learned after all of this   â₠¬â€œ you really don't need 4000 pounds of gasoline powered steel-rubber-plastic-and-glass, $30,000-120-mph marvel-of-modern-transportation-engineering to go a mile and a half for a quart of milk, a loaf of bread and a newspaper.EARLY VERSIONS V1. 0   had just one long vee-belt from the motor to the rear wheel. It had a top speed of around 30 which was great but slowed to about 12 mph on the steep hill near my house. However, other people building their own have asked about using the single vee-belt because it is easier to put together without machine tools, and it works pretty well on the flat. The goals were these: * gear reduction from a 3000 rpm motor – in the neighborhood of 8:1 to 10:1 * retain existing pedal function – derailleur and freewheel * rear wheel drive * simplicity * quiet operation * use available parts can be grafted onto the existing bike wheel * power transmission efficiency * stay away from friction tire-drive – too much slippage and tire wear * stay away from chain drive – at 3000 rpm a chain is too noisy The single belt reduction runs from a 1. 75†³ drive wheel on the motor directly to a 16†³ driven pulley mounted to the left side of the rear wheel. This is actually a 20†³ bicycle rim mounted to the wheel hub using half of the rim's spokes through additional spoke holes drilled into the wheel hub. This setup gives a reduction of about 8 to 1. ^ The vee-belt setup, giving a reduction ratio of 8:1 V1.   Ã‚  Ã‚  After using the single vee-belt reduction for a while, it seemed   that I needed to gear the bike down some more. At full throttle the belt would slip on really steep hills off-road. Also it was overheating on my hill and ended up burning out my 80 amp controller. So after some thought I added an idler shaft or â€Å"jackshaft† for an initial belt reduction. I have a metal lathe and fabricated a bearing housing for a 1/2†³ shaft running on ball bearings. This is mounted on a pivoting system in order to get the belt tensioned correctly. With the pulley combination pictured below I have an overall reduction of 17 to 1.This translates into a top speed of 13 mph and good hill climbing ability. The most critical thing on a setup like this is to mount the jackshaft very solidly so that it stays parallel to the motor shaft under belt tension and during high power loads. This required a lot of reinforcement of the mounting bracket, as the whole thing mounts to the motor   face using two bolts, and flex was a problem. Double reduction using toothed belt to a jackshaft running on ball bearings I suspected the ideal gear ratio for my needs lies somewhere in the middle. I will probably settle on a top speed of about 20 mph. The good thing about his setup is that I can change the gearing fairly easily with just a couple of different toothed belt wheels and possibly a slightly different length belt. The primary belt I added is a Gates Powergrip XL belt. I actual ly had a bunch of belts and wheels lying around from other motorization projects but these are available from ball bearing and rubber belt industrial suppliers. This belt is really way too small and narrow for a motor this size at full throttle, but hey it was free. 80 AMP CONTROLLER Controller with added heat sink mounted to the top tube This is the previous Eagle 80 amp controller from 4QD.It melted down from driving over 100 amps for extended lengths of time. It is really too small for the Scott 1hp motor but worked surprisingly well for quite a while. Like the Scooter 120, it has adjustable acceleration and deceleration curves, but no regenerative function. V1. 4  Ã‚  Ã‚  had a single long timing belt. After experimenting with a single vee-belt and an earlier two stage belt reduction, I tried to simplify in the name of efficiency. I especially wanted to get rid of the vee-belt completely, which would slip on really steep hills and also is less efficient than a timing belt.This setup was less than ideal because the belt is so long. There was not enough room for a wider belt and this belt was simply not strong enough for the amount of power being delivered. Also, this Type L timing belt was noisier than I had expected. The trapezoidal tooth shape is noisy, and the idler tensioning wheel added a surprising amount of racket even though it was running on the â€Å"flat† side of the belt. I. WHAT IS MEANT BY â€Å"POWER ASSIST†? A power assist is any vehicle with any number of wheels that is primarily or partly human powered, and assisted by a small motor.An electric bicycle is probably the most common such vehicle. Power assist enthusiasts are typically interested in simple human-scaled transportation that is earth-friendly, fun, non-intimidating, and affordable. Transportation that either extends the range of their bicycling, allows them to arrive at work without needing a shower, or allows them to leave the car at home more often. Many people are somewhat familiar with old-style mopeds, which are technically power assists. However they are too heavy to really be pedalled more than to start the engine.Mopeds are really lightweight scooters with pedals and limited top speeds which allow them to qualify in most parts of the world for lesser registration and insurance classifications. Many people feel that  a more useful set of pedals is important. This means the vehicle must be light enough to pedal meaningfully, either with or without the motor energized. Practically speaking it should weigh less than 75 lbs. or 35 kg and of course the lighter, the better. A power assist is not meant to entirely replace human power. The exact amount of assist desired, however, is really up to the individual.Today electric vehicles are becoming more popular, but there are still internal combustion engine (ICE) power assists that perform well. They both have their adherents, but really they each have their place as their strengths and weak nesses are in different areas. ELECTRIC ASSISTS  Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚  today’s practical electric vehicle The practical electric car has become a kind of Holy Grail and is the subjec