Term Paper About Sports Essay Example for Free

Research paper About Sports Essay The game datesback to the Egyptians, who messed around including the kicking of a ball. Presently, the game has developed to a worldwide side interest, including men s and ladies steams, and the World Cup (which is played like clockwork). The game is likewise known by different names in certain pieces of the English-talking world, typically affiliation football and its withdrawal, soccer. These names are frequently used to recognize the game from different codes of football, since the word football might be utilized to allude to a few very various games. Football is a group activity played between two groups comprising of eleven players each. It is a ball game played on a rectangular grass field with an objective at each end. The target of the game is to score by moving the ball into the contradicting objective. Other than the goalkeepers, players may not utilize their hands or arms to push the ball as a rule play. The champ is the group which has scored most objectives toward the finish of the match. Football is played at an expert level everywhere throughout the world, and a huge number of individuals normally go to football stadia to follow their preferred group, while billions all the more energetically watch the game on TV. An enormous number of individuals likewise play football at a novice level. As per a review directed by Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), footballs administering body, distributed in the spring of 2001, more than 240 million individuals normally play football in excess of 200 nations in all aspects of the world. Its straightforward guidelines and negligible gear necessities have no uncertainty helped its spread and development in notoriety. In numerous pieces of the world football summons extraordinary interests and assumes a significant job in the life of individual fans, nearby networks, and even countries; it is in this manner frequently professed to be the most famous game on the planet. On account of this it is regularly named as the Worlds Favorite Pastime. 1. Football is more unpleasant than a great many people really think. Individuals for the most part dont see whats occurring outside the TV camera’s see or off the field. Off the screen, you have players kicking one another, trading words, or in any event, pushing each other around. Dont feel terrible, however, on the grounds that the refs dont see it a fraction of the time either. At that point, during the game you have players slide handling and taking each other out for ownership of the ball. These players are wearing nothing to shield them from genuine wounds. As indicated by a review directed by Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), footballs administering body, distributed in the spring of 2001, more than 240 million individuals consistently play football in excess of 200 nations in all aspects of the world. Its straightforward guidelines and insignificant gear prerequisites have no uncertainty supported its spread and development in ubiquity. In numerous pieces of the world football brings out incredible interests and assumes a significant job in the life of individual fans, nearby networks, and even countries; it is in this way regularly professed to be the most well known game on the planet. Due to this it is regularly named as the Worlds Favorite Pastime. 2. II. History of Football (Soccer) During the 1800s the individuals of England played a game like soccer. Numerous guidelines changed and every individual deciphered the principles in an unexpected way. The cutting edge rendition came to fruition in the mid nineteenth century,in England. It began as a game including kicking and giving, yet later this fan out into two separate games: rugby and football (which is the thing that the English call soccer). In 1848 a gathering of school agents met at Trinity College in Cambridge and drew up the first of soccer rules. In 1863 English soccer clubs established the Football Association. By the late 1800s soccer started to spread to the remainder of the world. The Canadian Soccer Association was set up in 1912 while the United States Soccer Federation was set up in 1913. The primary World Cup Championship was in Montevideo, Uruguay. From that point forward it has been played at regular intervals with the exception of during WWII. The North American Soccer League (NASL) was framed in 1968 and the game started to pick up notoriety in the 1970 s. Current Game and Rules The cutting edge round of soccer has a basic objective: kick or head the ball in to the objective of your adversary s group. Essentially, there is likewise one basic principle: No one aside from the goalkeeper may utilize they rehands to play the ball. Soccer is an oversimplified sport. Eleven individuals from each group guard their side of the field to keep the ball from being constrained into their objective, which brings about a point scored by the group kicking the ball. There are just three authorities required during play: The arbitrator, and two linesmen. The gear utilized in soccer is additionally straightforward. Notwithstanding the field itself, all that is required for a game is two objectives (eight feet high and eight yards separated) and a ball. Every player wears hard plastic or cushioned shin protector, secured by long socks, for insurance during play. Spikes are alsoworn for footing on the field. A goalie may likewise wear an uncommon cushioned shirt,and gloves to ensure their hands. A standard field, as managed by the Federation International de Football Association (or FIFA), has a length somewhere in the range of 100 and 130 yards,and a width of somewhere in the range of 50 and 100 yards. The guidelines of play for soccer have intentionally been kept basic. The ref settles on the vast majority of the choices, and endeavors to energize reasonable play. A soccer or football match-up starts with an opening shot in the focal point of the field. A coin is turned to choose which group will the opening shot. The other group commences toward the beginning of the second half when the groups switch sides or nets. 3. III. Nature of the game The game is played as per a lot of rules known as the Laws of the Game, which are summed up beneath. Two groups of eleven players each contend to get this show on the road round ball (itself known as a football) into different groups objective, in this way scoring an objective. The group which has scored the most objectives at the finish of the game is the victor; on the off chance that the two groups have an equivalent number of objectives, at that point the game is a draw. The essential principle for this goal is that players, other than the goalkeepers, may not deliberately contact the ball with their hands or arms during play (however they do utilize their hands during a toss in restart). In spite of the fact that players principally utilize their feet to move the ball around, they may utilize any piece of their bodies other than their hands or arms. The physical contact between players is confined: holding, stumbling, kicking or unnecessarily pushing rivals isn't permitted. Such activities (alongside taking care of the ball) are called fouls and are deserving of a free kick (or an extra shot if commited in the region of the wrongdoers objective; see underneath for subtleties). In normal game play, players endeavor to move towards an objective through individual control of the ball, for example, by spilling (running with the ball near their feet); by passing the ball from colleague to partner; and by going after the objective. Resistance players may attempt to recover control of the ball by catching a pass or through handling the rival who controls the ball. Football is commonly a free-streaming game with the ball in play consistently aside from when the ball has left the field of play by completely traverse a limit line (either on the ground or noticeable all around), or play has been halted by the ref. At the point when play has been halted, it recommences with a predefined restart (see underneath). At an expert level, generally a couple of objectives are scored during a match. For instance, during 2004-05 period of the FA Premier League, a normal of 2. 57 objectives for each match were scored, and 88% of the coordinates finished with not multiple objectives scored. Be that as it may, just 8% of the matches completed goalless. 4. IV. Playing Area Anâ association football pitchâ (also known as aâ football pitch,â football field[1]â orâ soccer field) is the playing surface for the game ofâ association footballâ made of turf. Its measurements and markings are characterized by Law 1 of the Laws of the Game, The Field of Play. [2] All line markings on theâ pitchâ form part of the territory which they characterize. For instance, a ball on or above theâ touchlineâ is still on the field of play; a ball on the line of the objective zone is in the objective territory; and a foul submitted over the 16. - meter (18-yard) line has happened in theâ penalty zone. In this manner a ball should totally cross the touchline to be out of play, and a ball should completely cross the objective line (between the goal lines) before an objective is scored; if any piece of the ball is still on or over the line, the ball is still in play. The field depiction s that apply to grown-up matches are portrayed beneath. Note that because of the first detailing of the Laws in England and the early matchless quality of the four British football relationship inside IFAB, the standard components of a football pitch were initially communicated inâ imperial units. The Laws currently express measurements with approximateâ metricâ equivalents (trailed by conventional units in sections), yet utilization of the royal units stays normal in certain nations, particularly in the United Kingdom. 5. V. Physical (Soccer/Football) Conditioning Soccer is a game requiring elevated levels of physical wellness. It is one of those uncommon games which requests speed as well as readiness, quality, force and continuance. Players at top levels can run more than 14 km in a game while not overlooking the incessant increasing velocities, decelerations, alters of course and hops they should attempt. Wellness is significant at all degrees of the game, while being basic for top level players, it is advantageous for learners who will improve both their adequacy and satisfaction through great norms of wellness. The point of wellness preparing in football is to empower a player to adapt to the physical requests of the game just as permitting the effective utilization of his different specialized and strategic skills all through the match. Wellness might be depicted as a lot of

Buddhism Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Buddhism Reflection - Essay Example It is a result of this development and fluctuating ways of thinking that creates turmoil with regards to better understanding the fundamental elements associated with the mission of man to accomplish self-salvation. In any case, the greater part of the ways of thinking are joined in the possibility that there are 4 Noble Truths that can direct the lifestyle of an individual who is wanting to accomplish Nirvana or a Buddha like status of self-salvation. These four realities incorporate (â€Å"Buddhas Four Noble Truths†) : Recognizing the previously mentioned facts of Buddha is the start of illumination of an individual. Through contemplation, self-assessment, and self-reflection, one can find when of life he is at comparable to the four realities and simultaneously, assist him with dissecting how he may push ahead from his present purpose of being. Just by developing as an individual, through the accomplishment of the four facts can an individual case to have accomplished self-salvation. Notwithstanding which way of thinking you buy in to in Buddhism, be it the India or Chinese based school of proselytyzing, the objective of each school is the equivalent, individual salvation. A feeling of salvation that originates from inside an individual who, through the adjusting of his lifestyle, has at last figured out how to liberate himself from the imperatives of the material world so as to accomplish a higher feeling of scholarly and otherworldly accomplishment. This specific feeling of salvation must be reached by the individual once he acknowledges that our reality isn't lasting and subsequently, ought not be clung to. This will at that point permit an individual to clean his musings and activities with an end goal to accomplish a Zen like status throughout everyday life. The Four Noble Truths that manage the way of a Buddhist is the thing that likewise encourages him unravel how he can develop himself so as to profit others. Buddhism, as I would see it, once saw from the perspective of a harmonious, conscious connection between people, drives us to

Tips to Overcome Homebound Agoraphobia

Tips to Overcome Homebound Agoraphobia Panic Disorder Coping Print How to Cope With Agoraphobia By Katharina Star, PhD facebook linkedin Katharina Star, PhD, is an expert on anxiety and panic disorder. Dr. Star is a professional counselor, and she is trained in creative art therapies and mindfulness. Learn about our editorial policy Katharina Star, PhD Medically reviewed by Medically reviewed by Steven Gans, MD on August 05, 2016 Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital. Learn about our Medical Review Board Steven Gans, MD Updated on June 03, 2019 Jeremy Woodhouse / Holly Wilmeth Blend Images / Getty Images More in Panic Disorder Coping Symptoms Diagnosis Treatment Related Conditions Panic disorder is a type of anxiety disorder that is marked by recurrent and typically unanticipated panic attacks. Panic attacks are characterized by a combination of many frightening physical symptoms and upsetting thoughts. For instance, during a panic attack, a person may experience physical sensations, such as shortness of breath, shaking, accelerated heart rate, and chest pain. Additionally, the person may become afraid that they are having a medical emergency, experience feelings of depersonalization and derealization, and even fear that they are dying. In spite of these disturbing symptoms, most people with panic disorder will learn strategies to overcome panic attacks. There are many safe and effective treatment options that can assist in recovering from this condition. However, some will cope with the illness through unhealthy means. Approximately one-third of people diagnosed with panic disorder will develop a separate mental health disorder known as agoraphobia. What Is Agoraphobia? Agoraphobia involves intense fear and anxiety about your panic attacks. You may worry that you will have  a panic attack in a place or situation in which escape would be difficult. You may also be afraid that you will humiliate yourself in front of others.  Additionally, many people with agoraphobia are fearful of having panic attacks in places where no one would be available to help them. The extreme fear and anxiety associated with agoraphobia often lead  to avoidance behaviors. This occurs when you choose to stay away from various places and situations that you fear will trigger a panic attack. Avoidance behaviors vary from person to person and may include distancing yourself from means of transportation, open spaces,  and large crowds. Avoidance behaviors can greatly limit your quality of life. It is possible for these fears and avoidant behaviors to become so extreme that you become completely homebound out of fear. Does Avoidance Lead to Agoraphobia? How to Reduce Symptoms of Agoraphobia If you are afraid to leave your home due to agoraphobia, you are most likely experiencing feelings of loneliness and isolation. However, there are some steps you can take to manage your symptoms. The following explains ways to cope with and overcome your avoidance behaviors. Seek Professional Help Agoraphobia is a treatable condition. There are many mental health specialists who will be able to review your symptoms, diagnose your condition, and develop a treatment plan. These specialists will be prepared to provide you with a safe and effective recovery plan. Agoraphobia typically develops within the first year that a person begins having persistent and unexpected panic attacks. Therefore, it is important to seek out professional help as soon as symptoms arise. However, people with disabling and long-term agoraphobia typically have positive results and improvements through professional help. Learn Relaxation Techniques Relaxation techniques are self-help strategies that can help alleviate your feelings of anxiety. These techniques can assist in easing tension throughout the body and relaxing any nervousness of the mind. Relaxation techniques can be easily learned from home and at your own pace. Start practicing these strategies to manage panic attacks, reduce negative thoughts  and elicit your relaxation response. Take a Few Deep Breaths and Calm Panic Disorder Practice Desensitization Desensitization is a popular coping technique that can be learned on your own or through therapy. It involves the use of your imagination to help overcome triggers associated with your panic attacks and feelings of anxiety. Desensitization works by helping you gradually unlearn your fears. Desensitization begins by gradually imaging yourself in anxiety-provoking situations while learning how to relax through your feelings of apprehension. While picturing yourself in places or situations that typically trigger panic attacks, you will use a relaxation technique to work through your fears and anxieties. Over time, you may be able to visualize yourself in feared situations and yet feel in control of your anxiety. By learning to relax through panic-inducing visualizations, you will eventually be able to reduce panic and avoidance behaviors. Reduce Your Stress Stress can be a major source of anxiety. Stress has been known to contribute to many physical and mental health problems. Additionally, too much stress can potentially trigger some of your symptoms. To reduce your panic and anxiety symptoms, learn some stress management techniques.

An Issue Of Medical Tattoos - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2091 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2019/04/26 Category Culture Essay Level High school Tags: Tattoo Essay Did you like this example? Abstract This paper is a comprehensive look on medical tattoos, particularly do not resuscitate order (DNR) and No Cardiopulmonary resuscitations (CPR) tattoos. The main objective of this project was to examine and to dissect cases to discover the ethical or legal issues surrounding tattoos for the basis of medical treatment or lack thereof. The principles of ethics: beneficence, respect, non maleficence, medical equity and the application of principles: informed consent, optimization, medical confidentiality, value of life were used to study the case. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "An Issue Of Medical Tattoos" essay for you Create order In essence, the validity of these tattoos were under review to note whether they were legally binding as DNRs are a critical step between life and death and should not be taken lightly. Introduction Tattoos have been present from around 3170 B.C. to depict various meanings. It first began as a representation of tribal markings, religious belief and magical practices. They were also used on young girls to show puberty and then marriage and on boys to show accomplishments and ranks. Around the 1950s, tattoos were worn by the outcasts of society and prisoners and so persons opted not to get tattoos in this time because of the stigma. Then, in the 1970s it was the beginning of its use for adornment and to depict personal stories. These are just a few of the meanings tattoos portrayed over the years. However, a new purpose has immerged for tattoos, persons are using them for medical alert notifications to healthcare professionals. A wide array of tattoos are seen such as no CPR, DNR order, diabetic, organ donor, allergies and blood types. Medical records and medical alert bracelets carry this information but, they are being tattooed for cases of emergency when a patient doesn’t have a bracelet and is incapacitated or unconscious. The medical profession is of paramount importance because often time it is a life or death situation therefore there are laws and regulation in place that must be followed to ensure that each setting is of optimum result to protect both patient and physician and to avoid legal battles. For a DNR order to be signed off the principles of ethics must be considered autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and medical equity. Autonomy is the basis for informed consent and means that the patient has the capacity to understand and communicate effectively and an understanding of the consequences of his or her decisions. Non-maleficence means that patients should not be put in a position where they may experience unnecessary harm. Beneficence means that the care given to patients should benefit the patient. Medical equity means that patients are treated fairly and equally. The DNR and no CPR is an advanced directive or they are ordered by a physician in the case that resuscitations will not help the underlying condition that is, it cannot be cured or managed. DNR orders are given when a person stops breathing or the heart stops beating or a patient that has a terminal illness and has instructed on record that it is there wish not to be resuscitated. DNR orders can be included in a will because it is a legal document or mentioned in medical records. DNR orders are considered as passive euthanasia and having a tattoo which can be done without regulation, is not a legal document it is merely ink placed on the body whenever and however without regulations. Key terms According to the Oxford dictionary CPR: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation DNR: Do not resuscitate, denoting an instruction not to attempt the resuscitation of a terminally ill patient after a cardiac arrest in hospital. Tattoos: Mark (a part of the body) with an indelible design by inserting pigment into punctures in the skin. Discussion A 70 year old man was brought to the emergency room with a very elevated blood alcohol level. He had a tattoo that read, Do Not Resuscitate with â€Å"Not† underlined and his signature below the tattoos. However, other than the signature they had no identification for this individual. He had a pulmonary infection which lead to septic shock which resulted in multiple organ failure (MOF) and a low blood pressure. He was difficult to revive, so the question was, should they try to resuscitate? Do they have to follow the DNR that was tattooed in large print? This was a case that presented in Miami, Florida in 2017 at the Jackson Memorial Hospital, the doctors were baffled at this ethical issue not only because the patient’s unconsciousness and DNR tattoo but years before in 2012 there was a similar incident with a 59-year-old man with diabetes, peripheral vascular disease, dyslipidemia and hypertension who had the initials D.N.R on his chest but subsequently he wanted to be resuscitated, he had gotten the tattoo when he lost a poker bet to a fellow colleague while he was drunk. Dr. Holt a critical care physician, was called in and he made the decision not to honor the tattoo based on the principle of not choosing an irreversible path. The patient was then treated with antibiotics, IV fluids, blood pressure medication and a breathing mask to buy time so they could have an ethics meeting to discuss the patient’s tattoo ethically and legally with an ethics professional. After the consult the ethics review decided to honor the tattoo, he passed away the next morning. His identity and official records of DNR was also discovered by social workers. But in the case of emergency was it ethical to follow this tattoo? or if there wasn’t an official do not resuscitate order (DNR)? Below are the arguments supporting and opposing medical tattoos as legally binding. Based on the Florida case and the 2012 case there is significant debate surrounding medical tattoos. Regarding the argument for honoring the tattoo, firstly there are medical alert bracelets and necklaces but they are expensive especially for the persons that are allergic to cheaper materials, they are broken often and professions such as electricians cannot wear jewelry and in the case of emergencies the proper paperwork might not be close to the individual or lost whether it may be in a purse or in a wallet so having a tattoo will be permanent and present with the individual. Also, having a tattoo would not cause emergency physicians great emotional and moral stress resulting from resuscitating a patient to find out after that the patient had a legal DNR document that was not available in the emergency department, in other words, wasting time when this time could be used on other patients. Additionally, some healthcare professionals think that a DNR tattoo expresses an authentic pr eference because for someone to sit and get a tattoo with do not resuscitate they must have greatly considered the seriousness and consequences of this action. The defensive against medical tattoos being legally binding is plenty. Firstly it’s argued that medical alert necklaces and bracelets or medical records carry all the relevant information so why are they being tattooed. Tattoos are expensive to be removed therefore it is not easily reversed so if a patient changes his or her mind it cannot be changed or cancelled like with a legal document or medical record that can be deleted or burnt. Also, if the tattoo is simply DNR, there is no way to positively know that it means â€Å"do not resuscitate† while it might seem obvious, medical decisions should never be made by guessing alone because the initials could stand for something else. Another issue is having a DNR tattoo is that it lacks specificity. It is an ambiguous term which could mean a patient wants chest compressions, but not a breathing tube, respirator or drugs, a tattoo cannot show this so physicians cannot understand the full meaning. Even DNR tattoos with a sig nature do not signify that it is a legal contract, this signing has to be witnessed to make it valid and a physician would not know that by just looking at the tattoo. Then there is the fact that anyone can get a tattoo whether they are sane or healthy, young or old, joking or serious, there is no strict regulation and standardization for tattoos based on DNR orders, as seen in the 2012 case where the tattoo was done while the individual was inebriated and had lost a bet. Additionally, it would be difficult to find medical tattoos on a person with multiple other tattoos. For a DNR to be legally binding the principles of ethics should be followed. The patient should be in full control of his or her choice and understand completely the risk of survival and possible treatment and make the decision that they do not want to be resuscitated, so they have full autonomy and have give informed consent. The usual conditions for DNR orders are when it will not restart the heart or breathing, when there is no benefit or when the DNR order outweighs the burdens. This means the respect and value of life is evaluated also. It cannot be known if all these principles are followed while getting a tattoo as it is not authorized by a doctor. Another disadvantage is that DNR tattoos and no CPR tattoos may lead to premature death because which cause of death that is not resisted is not on the DNR tattoo. This means if an individual had a car accident and their heart stopped the DNR and no CPR tattoos would cause the patient to die when a simple resuscitating efforts could recover the patient or say a patient was accidentally electric shocked would he or she wants to be revived if they could? Or would they want all forms of life support and medical aid to be provided? These questions are not answered by DNR tattoos. Persons randomly getting a tattoo do not ponder on these other situations that can occur so provisions are not made which inadvertently would lead to premature death and one of the aim of a doctor is to prolong life so it is not ethical to blindly follow a tattoo. Conclusion Medical tattoos for example, DNR orders and no CPR are not legally binding, this is because the tattoos do not follow the criteria and ethics principles of autonomy, medical equity, beneficence and non maleficence, therefore if a DNR tattoo is ignored there cannot be any legal ramifications for the medical staff. Honoring these tattoos can cause legal issues because it is a path of irreversibility so to be on the side of caution medical personnel’s should not follow these tattoos when they are encountered. Tattoos on the body can however, be used as a medium to covey the information or message to search for the medical records and follow up on the patient’s wishes but the tattoo cannot be used for the basis of treatment or lack of treatment. Medical tattoos such as No CPR and DNR, even though there are only a few cases, are becoming more prevalent and the only thing that can be done if medical tattoos are found is to educate emergency personnel and medical staff to search for the tattoos and then gather the relevant information to support the tattoo. The best way as a patient to ensure that the wishes of DNR or no CPR is followed is to have a medical bracelet or necklace or a wallet card that clearly states name, medical preference and any diseases, allergies and blood type. The DNR order should be clear to the type of resuscitation that is prohibited or to the resuscitation that are allowed, in what conditions and it should be approved by a licensed physician who has had a discussion outlining all the consequences and benefits with or without resuscitation. In the future medical tattoos may be used as a way of treating patients but for this to occur medical tattooing would have to be standardized, meaning they could only be done by medically approved tattoo artists after the DNR or no CPR is approved by a doctor in order to follow the principles of ethics and assigning case number so that there are not forgeries. Bibliography Cooper, L. Aronowitz, P. J GEN INTERN MED (2012) 27: 1383. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-012-2059-8 Ober, V. and Cambron,C. (2005). Legal Implications and Ethical Considerations of â€Å"Do Not Resuscitate†. [Archive] Florida. www.ems1.com/paramedic-chief/articles/372711048-DNR-tattoos-Are-they-legal-and-is-EMS-bound-to-comply/ https://en.oxforddictionaries.com https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/12/01/a-man-collapsed-with-do-not-resuscitate-tattooed-on-his-chest-doctors-didnt-know-what-to-do/?utm_term=.86f96da86eff https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/euthanasia/overview/dnr.shtml https://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/dnr.html https://www.usalaw.com/blogs/dnr-tattoos-legal-ethics/

Twelve Angry Men Juror 8 Analysis - 1084 Words

Justice or Freedom In the drama Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose, juror 8 does a good job in persuading the other jurors to listen and reconsider the evidence. He uses his rhetorical appeals to captivate the other jurors attention. He gains an authority towards the other jurors which makes them trust him more. Juror 8 deconstructs the testimony and evidence with his rhetorical appeal to make the other jurors consider the innocence of the defendant. First, Juror 8 establishes his credibility to support his arguments. He becomes the authority to the other jurors. â€Å" I want to call for a vote. I want eleven men to vote by secret ballot. I’ll abstain. If there are still eleven votes for guilty, I won’t stand alone† ( page. 11 ). This is the†¦show more content†¦Now No.8 tells No.9 he can say what he wants to say about the old man for the reason he lied. No.9 say, â€Å" This is a quiet, frightened, insignificant man who has been nothing all his life, who has never had recognition - his name in the newspapers. Nobody knows him after seventy-five years. That’s a very sad thing. A man like this needs to be recognized. To be questioned, and listened to, and quoted just once. This is very important† ( page.16 ). Juror 8 tells juror 9 it is okay to say your own opinion. All the other jurors feel comfortable saying their own opinions because juror 8 voiced his own. â€Å"Look this boy†™s been kicked around all his life. You know, living in a slum, his mother dead since he was nine years old. That’s not a very good head start. He’s a tough, angry kid. You know why slum kids get that way? Because we knock’em on the head once a day everyday. I think maybe we owe him a few words. That’s all.† ( page. 5 ). No.8 is trying to make people feel bad for the boy. He’s trying to say that they shouldn’t convict him because he hasnt had the best life so he needs to have the opportunity to live the rest of his life doing something that makes him happy. Juror 8 is so powerful he can make all the other jurors say their own opinions. Because of his pathos and his strong ethos the other jurors will listen to his logical appeal about the case. Third, juror 8 uses his logical appeal in the case to show the other jurorsShow MoreRelated12 Angry Men Movie Analysis Essay1174 Words   |  5 PagesAssignment: Twelve Angry Men Movie The movie Twelve Angry Men is about the twelve jurors that could adjust their influence in a decision-making process for conviction an eighteen years-old boy, whether the boy guilty or not guilty in murdering of his father. It represents a perfect example for applicable of a work group development framework. It also has examples of influence techniques among a group’s members. This paper is looking at those specific examples in the movie and focusing in analysis theRead MoreGroup Communication In 12 Angry Men935 Words   |  4 Pages12 Angry Men: Group Analysis Paper In 1957, the producers H. Fonda, G. Justin and R. Rose collaborated with the director S. Lumet to create the film, 12 Angry Men. In this paper, I will provide an analysis of the small group communication displayed by the main characters in the motion picture. I will discuss group communications, group development, group membership, group diversity, and group leadership. These topics will be dissected in order to properly examine the characters’ behavior. TheRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie Twelve Angry Men 890 Words   |  4 PagesTwelve Angry Men Introduction The movie â€Å"Twelve Angry Men,† portrays the story of twelve jurors from different walks of life and how they came to a difficult decision regarding the life of an eighteen year old Puerto Rican defendant. The defendant is on trial for premeditated first degree murder of his father. The scene takes place in a New York City jury room. The evidence presented to the jury alleged the youth murdered his father with a switchblade the night of the murder. The story began atRead MoreAnalysis on Twelve Angry Men1086 Words   |  4 PagesAnalysis on Twelve Angry Men The movie Twelve Angry Men portrays an array of group dynamics by including the structure and functioning of groups, as well as the different types of roles each character plays along with their conflicts. The film displays these elements through a jury deliberation and the joint effort and the functioning of several minds together to search for the truth. These are just a few characteristics of group dynamics at work that is seen throughout the film. Group Purpose andRead More12 Angry Men Movie Analysis782 Words   |  4 PagesTwelve Angry Men Analysis BA 321 Reaching a unanimous vote, beyond a reasonable doubt, was a difficult task for the jurors represented in the film, 12 Angry Men. All but one were convinced the boy on trial was guilty of first degree murder based on eye witness testimony and circumstantial evidence. Uncomfortably hot and sweaty, one intent on getting to a ball game, eleven of the twelve jurors had no intention to stop and think about the life contingent on their verdict. The entireRead MoreUse of Persuasive Argument in 12 Angry Men Essay1037 Words   |  5 PagesThe movie â€Å"12 Angry Men† examines the dynamics at play in a United States jury room in the 1950’s. It revolves around the opinions and mindsets of twelve diverse characters that are tasked with pronouncing the guilt or innocence of a young man accused of patricide. The extraordinary element is that their finding will determine his life or death. This play was made into a movie in 1957, produced by Henry Fonda who played the lead role, Jur or #8, and Reginald Rose who wrote the original screenplayRead More12 Angry Men Analysis909 Words   |  4 PagesPerspective: Heads or Tails The 1957 film 12 Angry Men is based around a group of twelve jurors as they decide the fate of a boy accused of murdering his father. From the very beginning the group is divided between those that think he is guilty, and those that don’t know. Every juror has their own opinion and reasoning behind their position, but there are two men that seem to become the backbones of their respective arguments. For the majority voting guilty, Juror #3 is the the critical thinker who triesRead MoreGroup Decision-Making, Leadership, Influence and Power: Illustrations from the Film â€Å"12 Angry Men†1703 Words   |  7 PagesThe film â€Å"12 Angry Men (1957)† present a diverse group of twelve American jurors brought together to decide the guilt or innocence of a teenaged defendant in a seemingly open-and-shut murder trial case. The film illustrates the advantages and disadvantages of group decision-making, group developmental stages, leadership personality and models, socia l influence tactics and outcomes, and the bases of social power. The following advantages of group decision-making were demonstrated in this approximatelyRead MoreMovie Analysis : 12 Angry Men1639 Words   |  7 PagesSummary The movie 12 Angry Men is a depiction of a jury deliberation in the 1950’s involving the trial of a teenager that is accused of murdering his father. These twelve men were brought together by a random selection process to make a unanimous decision. In the beginning, all jurors believed the boy to be guilty without a doubt, except for one. Juror 8 continues to raise questions pertaining to the facts presented, while slowly convincing the other jurors to take another look before determiningRead More12 Angry Men - Analysis3445 Words   |  14 PagesIntroduction 12 Angry Men (1957) is one of the most acclaimed feature films of all time. It was produced at a time when the United States was just twelve years out of World War II and â€Å"Leave It To Beaver† and â€Å"Father Knows Best† broadcast across television airwaves the perfection, conformity and affluence of American life that had been generated by the Great War. Additionally, this film was listed on the university syllabus as one of three films to see in regard to this course, Management 610 – Contexts

How GMOs Created Free Essays

How GMOs created? A genetically changed organism may be associate animal, plant, or micro-organism (e.g. bacteria) whose sequencetic makeup is altered through gene splice, genetic modification, or transgenic technology. We will write a custom essay sample on How GMOs Created? or any similar topic only for you Order Now This manipulation of genes and DNA has the potential to make combos of animal, bacterial, plant, and infective agent genes that either don’t or wouldn’t naturally manifest in nature through ancient crossbreeding strategies. It’s the unstable qualities created by these scientific manipulations, and a scarcity of long study and analysis on the impact such manipulations will produce, that has several scientists and members of the overall public involved.How genetically changed foods created?When genetically modifying plants that square measure used for food, scientists take away specific genes from the DNA of another organism, like associate animal, bacterium, plant, or virus and so add those genes into the DNA of the plant they require to change. This method is usually mentioned as sequence splice. By adding completely different genes, scientists hope the plant can inherit the characteristics contained inside the spliced section of DNA.ZUCCHINIWhat Is Zucchini? Also known as courgette, zucchini has its origin in America and is obtainable in yellow, lightweight inexperienced, and inexperienced color. the form of this tiny summer squash resembles that of a ridged cucumber and options various seeds. Some cultivators conjointly manufacture zucchini in rounded or bottle shapes. Today, the most important producers of this squash embody Japan, China, Romania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and Argentina. it’s adult year-around and may be eaten raw, sliced or in lyonnaise kind. It may be cut in an exceedingly cold dish and is additionally lyonnaise in hot salads. Even though zucchini could be a fruit, it’s sometimes lyonnaise as a vegetablebecause it’s best once eaten in lyonnaise dishes. it’s picked once it’s below 8in/20cm long and also the seeds square measure soft and young. a totally developed zucchini is sometimes 3 feet long and contains an excessive amount of fiber and isn’t smart to eat. Young zucchini incorporates a delicate style, soft covering, and buttery white flesh. it’s obtainable in its best kind throughout might and July. the majority the elements of this squash square measure edible, together with the flesh, seeds, and even the skin.Varieties of zucchini: Some widespread varieties are: Golden zucchini options brght golden-yellow skin that retains its color even once preparation. Round sorts square measure dense, heavy, and nearly seeded with a swish surface. Tatume, that is common in Mexico, has similar options of spherical selection however has the big oval form. Costata Romanesco conjointly called Cocozelle could be a long, slender sort with a small bulge at very cheap finish. It options pale, raised ribs with dappled inexperienced skin. once sturdy and young, this squash is juicy and sweet. Middle-Eastern sorts square measure fat, lightweight inexperienced, tapering ends with a thick greenish stem. they need swish, shiny skin and firm, crisp and flavourous flesh. Yellow Crooknecks have thick unsmooth skin with a markedly falcate neck. they’re fresh in texture with sweet, delicate flavor. Health Edges Of Zucchini: Health edges of zucchini embody the following;Weight Loss: You might be shocked to grasp that overwhelming zucchini can assist you melt off significantly. it’s very low in calories, however it provides you the sensation of being full. Therefore, it’s a good thanks to satisfy your appetency while not grabbing calories or beginning a crash diet set up. with the exception of the low-calorie count, it’s high water content and is made in fiber. Hence, once you eat it, your abdomen isn’t empty, thereby creating zucchini recipes excellent if you’re on a diet.Maintains Best Health: Already being an impressive supply of metal and ascorbic acid, zucchini is additionally the most effective supply of dietary fiber that may keep your body within the best form for the end of the day. It conjointly contains axerophthol, magnesium, folate, potassium, copper, and phosphorus. This summer squash conjointly incorporates a high content of omega-3 fatty acid fatty acids, zinc, niacin, and macromolecule. Moreover, vitamin B1, vitamin B6, vitamin B2, and atomic number 20 in zucchini assure best health. it’s most likely the most effective squash having associate array of nutrients, together with sugar, carbohydrates, soluble and insoluble fiber, sodium, minerals, amino acids, and more. The B-complex vitamin ingredient of this squash is very suggested for pregnant girls additionally.Promotes Men’s Health: Many researchers have taken extracts from this squash to conduct sure studies associated over that this fruit has sure properties that effectively treat an ill in men known as benign prostatic hyperplasia or Benign endocrine Hypertrophy. Benign prostatic hyperplasia could be a condition wherever the ductless gland becomes enlarged in associate odd form and size, that then will cause hassle with each sexual and urinary operate. an honest treatment of this is often seen together with different foods that contain phytonutrients; zucchini is claimed to be very helpful in decreasing benign prostatic hyperplasia symptoms.Prevents Diseases: Your overall health can for certain improve if you consume zucchini frequently. It helps forestall all types of diseases in an exceedingly general sense. Studies have already declared that fiber-rich foods facilitate alleviate cancer conditions by laundry away cancer-causing toxins from cells within the colon. The ascorbic acid, folate, and carotenoid in zucchini facilitate to safeguard these cells from the harmful chemicals that may result in carcinoma. carotenoid and ascorbic acid even have medicine properties, thereby naturally solidification ailments like arthritis, asthma, and arthritis, wherever swelling is vastly painful. The copper proportion in it conjointly helps in reducing the symptoms of arthritis.Protects vascular system: It is made in organic process worth, particularly throughout the summer, once it delivers unnumbered benefits to the body. The food ranking systems in zucchini-rich countries have declared that this squash has extensive levels of metal and ascorbic acid that facilitate to stay the center robust. During the analysis, most of those nutrients were found effective within the bar of diabetic cardiovascular disease and induration of the arteries. The metallic element content notably reduces the danger of heart attacks and strokes. together with K, metallic element conjointly helps in reducing high force per unit area. The ascorbic acid and carotenoid found in summer squash facilitate in preventing the oxidization of cholesterin. change cholesterin builds au courant vas walls, however these nutrients cut back the event of induration of the arteries. The nourishment B-complex vitamin is needed by the body to eliminate associate unsafe metabolic byproduct known as homocysteine, which may lead to attack and stroke if the degree rise too high. Its fiber content lowers high cholesterin levels additionally, thereby serving to to scale back the danger of induration of the arteries and heart diseases thanks to polygenic disease.Immunity: Our body USually|is often} actively engaged within the defense against several microorganisms that may hurt us. At times, this process gets weak, and would possibly want reinforcements. feeding foods made in antioxidants like ascorbic acid will strengthen our system, and obtain it up and dealing like ne’er before. Zucchini is one food that may give you with vital doses of this nourishment.Vitamin C acts to spice up immunity by stimulating the assembly of white blood cells. These cells square measure concerned in protective our system against invasive harmful microorganisms like viruses and microorganism. ascorbic acid conjointly helps fight the activities of free radicals, whose interaction with different body cells might lead to neoplasm growth.Zucchini’s Benefits: Zucchini belongs to the Cucurbita pepo species that was the topic of associate India-based study. because it seems, this species of summer squash protects against the event of lesion of the abdomen and also the small intestine, that is that the section of the little viscus that connects it to the abdomen. within the study, same ulcers were elicited in laboratory rats by giving them Empirin. once fourteen days of administering the extract of ripe Cucurbita pepo, membrane thickening of the abdomen and duodemun was determined, confirming the gastroduodenum-protective and overall anti-ulcerogenic mechanism of Cucurbita pepo. Squash has conjointly been found to contain measurable amounts of cellulose, a sort of sugar that shows potential for dietary medical aid for polygenic disease. The dicot genus species of squash, of that zucchini belongs to, has been studied in Slovak Republic, and it’s been found that the cellulose during this species of squash has medicinal drug effects. within the study, coughing was elicited in guinea pigs by administering acid. Afterwards, cellulose polysaccharides got orally to the themes and their coughing reflex remittent. The results were then compared to the medicinal drug effects of pain pill, a sort of narcotic, and cellulose polysaccharides had comparable, and in some cases even higher cough-suppressing activity than pain pill. Phytonutrients square measure extensive in zucchini additionally and continuing analysis has brought forth discovery of assorted phytochemicals gift in Cucurbita pepo. These compounds have shown multi-targeted bar of cancer by scavenging and killing free radicals and preventing chronic inflammation additionally.Zucchini’s Risks: Zucchini has oxalates, compounds that naturally occur in our body and that tend to crystallize once in excess amounts. people with impaired urinary organ and vesica functions should initial visit their doctors before incorporating zucchini in their diet to avoid exasperating their several medical conditions. Zucchini is one in all the fifty fruits and vegetables with dreadful levels of insecticide residue additionally, this per the Environmental social unit. Minimizing exposure to petrochemicals is crucial as it’s been shown to create birth defects and varied sicknesses like cancer. Cultivation:Sow seeds in pots†¢Seed may be seeded in pots from March to the top of might. Fill a 7.5cm (3in) pot with compost and firm gently. Sow a seed vertically two.5cm (1in) deep and canopy. Label, water and place in an exceedingly propagator or on a sill. When roots begin to point out through very cheap of the pot, place into a twelve.5cm (5in) instrumentality. Plant out into growing baggage, soil or an outsized pot in late spring or early summer.Sow seeds in soil Seed may be seeded directly into the soil from late-May to early summer. Choose a sunny, secure spot and improve the soil by dig in some well-rotted manure or compost. Sow 2 seeds on their aspect two.5cm (1in) deep and once the seedlings have germinated, remove the weakest one.Aftercare Plenty of water is important, particularly once the plants square measure in flower and so once the fruits have began to swell. Mulch to lock in wet. If you dig in lots of manure before planting, further feeding is senseless on significant, fertile soil. On sandy or lightweight soil, regular drenches with a liquid feed can facilitate boost production.Harvesting and storage To keep plants productive you would like to reap courgettes regarding thrice every week at the peak of the season. The correct size to choose depends on selection, however as a rule, harvest courgettes once they are 10cm (4in). Use a pointy knife to sever the fruit from the plant. Courgettes square measure best eaten recent or may be keep for a number of days within the refrigerator. Squashes square measure a lot of variable in form and size, thus browse the seed packet for gathering and storage info. Marrows square measure typically thought of to be courgettes adult giant, and need constant growing conditions. When growing marrows, harvest frequently once they are 20cm (8in) long, or leave them to mature for winter use. Marrows may be keep for a protracted amount of your time if unbroken at a temperature between seven.5C to 10C (45F to 50F). How to cite How GMOs Created?, Papers

Small Systems Essays - Computer Storage Media,

Small Systems Research Paper Hard Drives In this day and age of faster computers and high-speed processors, it should only stand to reason that hard drives meet the same requirements as the rest of the computer technology world. A technological look and some tips on maintaining or troubleshooting hard drives is included below. By keeping up with the standard of needs of the industry we can be assured that our personal computers will have all the necessary space and the ability to access and save the data as required and in an efficient manner. The new DiamondMax? Plus 40 series from Maxtor can unleash your computer power with advanced technology and performance. Available in capacities up to 40 GB, these 7,200 RPM drives include Maxtor's unique DualWave? twin processor technology for a 10x boost in host command processing speed. Coupled with 2 MB of high speed 100 MHz SDRAM for the cache buffer and an UltraDMA 66 interface, give our DualWave-equipped hard drives superior benchmark performance and maximum throughput. As a result, they're an ideal choice for consumers working with large files, including audio and video applications. No matter how demanding your application, the new DiamondMax Plus 40 series delivers the ultimate in performance and capacity. With the popularity of multimedia, Internet and audio/video applications, more performance is demanded from desktop PC systems than ever before. System vendors are looking at all sub-components, including hard drives, as critical elements in increasing system speed and performance. As we go forward every part of the system will be called upon to improve throughput. The hard drive is a critical element in system performance, influencing how fast windows or Mac OS boots, how quickly applications launch, and the speed of loading large data or graphics files. Any operation that involves moving large amounts of information on or off the disk will reveal the importance of a high-performance hard drive. Many top PC manufacturers are expanding the use of 7200 RPM drives across all platforms and market segments. The performance achieved by 7200 RPM IDE drives also have made these drives a viable alternative to SCSI in traditional SCSI applications such as server and entry-level RAID. According to analysts at IDC, total worldwide shipments of 7200 RPM IDE drives is expected to be 16% of all IDE drives by the end of this year. This number is expected to be approximately 75% by the year 2002. The newly introduced DiamondMax? Plus 40 hard drives feature a 7200 RPM rotational speed along with other performance-enhancing features that generate faster overall system response times and performance. A Viable Alternative to SCSI,IDE 7200 RPM drives have made their way into the storage-intensive environment of graphic and video applications. The ability to achieve fast-sustained throughput is essential in high-end graphics and digital video content creation. 7200 RPM drives establish a new price/performance ratio in the professional graphic and digital video marketplace when compared to the SCSI alternative. Maxtor's 7200 RPM IDE drives incorporate a larger buffer to provide high-sustained data transfer rates that are important when working with large files such as multimedia and video. Maxtor is a leader in caching technology, employing sophisticated algorithms similar to those found in high-end SCSI drives. Maxtor's drives feature a 2 MB cache buffer incorporating a high-speed 100 MHz SDRAM memory, the same sort of memory found on today's high performance systems. Maxtor's 7200 RPM drives were the first IDE drives to be featured in a RAID level 5 configuration in an uncompressed nonlinear video editing system. The drive's high storage capacity, reliability and performance are well suited for this application. RAID level 5 provides protection against drive failures because in the event of a failure, the drive can be replaced without loss of data. This is especially critical in the video editing process, where 1 GB of storage typically holds approximately 1 minute of uncompressed video. The new DiamondMax Plus 40 drives include Maxtor's MaxSafe and ShockBlock reliability feature set for added protection against surface scan errors and shock and handling damage. This reliability set, when incorporated into a RAID level 5 configuration provides users in this market with unsurpassed protection against drive failures and potential loss from expensive downtime and data loss. The editorial community is taking notice of the SCSI-level

The True Nature of the Private Sector in Nigeria

The True Nature of the Private Sector in Nigeria Free Online Research Papers The True Nature of the Private Sector in Nigeria By Ikechukwu A. Ogu. Generally, every free market economy is divided into two sectors, the public sector and the private sector. The former is â€Å"the portion of a nation’s affairs, especially economic affairs, that is controlled by government agencies†, while the latter is â€Å"the part †¦ that is made up of companies and organizations that are not owned or controlled by the government.† Despite this distinction, instances exist where the state invests in private sector concerns and becomes part-owner thereof, in addition to floating new companies or commercializing existing ones to compete with private sector organizations in economic activities. The above distinction between the two sectors is upheld in Nigeria on paper. But a scrutiny of the composition and modus operandi of most ‘private sector’ organisations and the intricate connection between them and ‘public sector’ institutions and officials in Nigeria reveals something quite contrary to the commonplace understanding of the two expressions. This distortion is rooted in the pervasive corruption and mal-administration which give every principle a different colouration and meaning in the country. As a result, we have the Nigerian version of almost every concept, such as the amusing Nigerian â€Å"home-grown democracy† which is nothing but a pervert of the generally accepted principles of democracy. As we shall soon see, many ‘private sector’ outfits in Nigeria are actually owned by public officers, their relations or fronts. This creates the impression that such organisations are extensions of the public sector and makes it difficult to know, in real terms, what constitutes the ‘public sector’ and ‘private sector’, respectively, in Nigeria. However, I will present my perception of the true nature of the Nigerian private sector, by looking at the actual structure and operations of the organisations which are passed off as such in Nigeria. This analysis does not pretend to be exhaustive. In the first group, we have corporations and institutions built and operated with public funds which are privatized and sold, under suspicious circumstances, to persons or companies fronting for high-ranking government officials, and thereafter presented as ‘private sector organisations’. Often, these government institutions are first run down by the officials who are bent on privatizing them, in order to justify their privatization. Then they are undervalued and sold at a discount, with no store set by the value of their assets and government’s investments therein. The funds used to purchase them, which were initially looted from public treasury, are further looted after their ‘remittance’ by the ‘buyers’ to government coffers. Till date, no one can point to any specific, genuine project to which the proceeds of the privatization of public institutions in Nigeria were channelled. The new owners may liquidate the company, merge or combine it with existing companies to form a monopoly or cartel for the exploitation of poor Nigerians. For instance, it was alleged that the ‘core investor’ who ‘bought’ the Ajaokuta Steel Company was busy cannibalizing and taking outside Nigeria the raw materials and products found within the complex. The next group is made up of companies incorporated by serving government officials, either using their names or (often) those of family members and friends as members/directors. What do these government officials do? They channel almost all juicy contracts in their organizations to such companies, while exploiting their links in other government institutions to secure more lucrative jobs for them. Such contracts are hardly ever executed according to specifications; most times, from the outset, the intention to do a shoddy job is shared by the parties, yet the company gets paid handsomely and continues to earn patronage from public institutions. Closely related to the above is another group consisting of companies owned by retired high-ranking government officials who corruptly enriched themselves while in service. These persons become contractors immediately upon leaving public office, use their ill-gotten wealth to establish blue chip corporate outfits and continue the looting of government funds in a private capacity. Where they have a good rapport with their successors-in-office, they easily secure very lucrative contract awards based on quid pro quo basis, and also exploit their connections in other government agencies to the same effect. The fourth group comprises private companies or organizations that depend solely on government patronage in order to remain afloat; they have no other customer(s) outside the government and its officials. These corporate outfits do everything – including bribing and blackmailing influential government officials – to secure contract awards from governments, its ministries and agencies. Thereafter, they supply substandard goods, render low-quality services, fail to execute jobs or execute same poorly, and then share the windfall with their benefactors. The companies here could be owned by politicians-cum-contractors, retired or serving public servants and their private fronts. From the proceeds of such corrupt contracts, some of these people make a public show of acts of philanthropy and arrogate to themselves the appellation ‘philanthropist’. The fifth class consists of companies owned by expatriates and their Nigerian collaborators. Here, we have the multi-national companies which have acquired the status of sovereign nations, being treated as extensions of their countries of origin. These outfits, whether owned solely by expatriates (which Nigerian law permits) or in association with their Nigerian fronts, create the impression of being in the country to do genuine business. The reality is that their mission is profit maximization, even at the loss and pain of their host nation. Aided by their local fronts and collaborators, they do everything to milk the country dry and contravene its laws. The recently unearthed bribery scandal involving the USA company Halliburton and some Nigerian officials is a case in point. In the sixth type are banks which depend heavily on deposits by the government and its agencies. Although they complement this with unwholesome, sharp banking practices against innocent depositors, most of these banks will soon collapse should state funds be withdrawn from them. Under the dubious ‘public private partnership’ (PPP) arrangements, these banks collude with public officials in a sham sponsorship of public projects by applying government funds in their custody thereto, which moneys are then presented as coming from the banks and to be repaid by the government with high interest charges. Also within this group are some private estate developers. Rumour has it that, based on underhand deals between them and some government officials, they easily get land allocations from the government and funds from public institutions like the National Housing Fund (NHF) with which they execute mass housing projects. These low-quality houses are then offered for sale to Nigerians at cut-throat prices, under the guise that the funds came from the private estate developers. This may explain why the NHF hardly ever gives housing loans to civil servants who are entitled to same, being legally bound to make monthly contributions to the Fund. At this juncture, I commend President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to give housing/land loans directly to public servants. In the seventh group are some prominent Nigerians who are granted oil blocs by the government or granted licences to lift crude oil or import refined petroleum products. These select few undeservedly feed fat on our common wealth and short-change Nigeria and Nigerians. In a country with more than 80% of its citizens in the throes of abject poverty, where successive governments ascribe their abysmal failure to ‘paucity of funds’, one is dumbfounded that few persons are given official licence to amass immense wealth from what belongs to all. Where is the sense in an oil-producing country, with four refineries, importing refined petroleum products? Some past rulers, after defrauding Nigeria, use their loot to build refineries in other countries to which our crude oil is now sent for refining! Again, allegations are rife that the licensed importers lift refined petroleum from Nigeria, move some nautical miles away, return to the country and make claims on government for impo rting same! This unchecked fraud accounts for the huge money successive regimes in Nigeria since the middle 1980s claim to be spending as ‘subsidy’ in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry! The eighth category is made up of companies which, apparently, may not depend much on government patronage in the real sense of it for their operations, but rely on the complicit indifference of regulatory agencies to their unwholesome business activities whereof they rip off poor Nigerians. The telecommunications and transport outfits are some very handy examples. These companies subject Nigerians to subhuman treatment and untold exploitation, while the authorities exhibit inertia. For instance, it is certain to the average Nigerian that the Nigerian Communications Commission, National Assembly and Ministry of Information and Communications are apathetic to the exploitation of Nigerians by the providers of mobile telephony. These companies impose whatever tariffs that suit their fancy, and arbitrarily review same upwards. The use of the expression ‘private sector organisations’ here includes the supposed non-profit oriented NGOs and companies limited by guarantee. A common characteristic of almost all these ‘private sector’ concerns is their penchant to do everything to frustrate any form of regulation in their relevant industries. The government agencies charged with their regulation easily become victims of regulatory capture, willingly or owing to blackmail, enabling the companies to feed fat on corrupt contract awards and profiteer at the expense of Nigeria and poor Nigerians. Without prejudice to the pervasiveness of this version of ‘private sector’ in Nigeria, one does not deny the existence of some private sector concerns in the real sense of the expression. Granted that some of the proprietors here may be fraudulent and predatory, others eke out an honest living in the midst of epileptic power supply, high expense on alternative power supply, bad roads, insecurity of lives and properties, high cost of transportation and other militating factors. Most of these people sold their family lands, buildings or other choice assets or even borrowed money from shylock-like money lenders to establish their businesses, and have no connection with public funds in terms of inflated, poorly executed or unexecuted contracts and corrupt deals through which public funds are embezzled in Nigeria. In my humble view, the foregoing is the true nature of the Nigerian private sector. It is this ‘private sector’ that successive Nigerian governments since the middle 1980s claim is duty-bound and best positioned to provide and manage basic amenities such as motorable roads, potable water, hospitals, schools, housing and electricity for the citizenry! But how organizations and proprietors that depend solely on government patronage, corrupt deals with public officers, shady contract awards from government agencies, the inertia of regulatory agencies, and who hardly deliver on such jobs are considered better placed to carry out this alien ‘duty’ remains a mind-boggling puzzle to me. Against this background, it is no wonder that despite huge annual budgetary allocations to capital projects and overheads, no appreciable progress has been made in Nigeria over the years. Almost the entire funds meant for capital projects and overheads end up in the pockets of serving or retired government officials, their fronts and private persons who are parasites on government funds. The much talked-about Public Procurement Act has not changed anything, for it is still business as usual in the award of government contracts. Government contracts are still awarded to the categories of ‘private sector’ organisations whose modus operandi we have seen above. Contrary to the accusing fingers the government points at the impoverished civil servant who earns less than N18,000 monthly, it is the incidence of corrupt contract awards, other corrupt deals, outrageous salaries and allowances of Federal legislators and political office holders, wastage of huge resources on white elephant projects, Nigeria’s sponsorship of several ventures which benefit foreign countries, etc, that deplete government funds. Within a space of four years, the salaries of political office holders have been reviewed upwards twice because same is no longer realistic under the prevailing economic conditions, while poorly paid civil servants are not considered equally entitled! It is not large workforce but misappropriated capital and overhead budgetary votes that greatly account for Nigeria’s stagnation. Is it the poor civil servant that awards contracts or disburses overhead votes? By induction from the foregoing, one can confidently say that Nigeria serves both the privileged public servant and the ‘private entrepreneur’ and nobody serves the country. If this ugly, unfortunate and dangerous trend is not checked, Nigeria will never move forward. In the midst of these corrupt practices, whatever lofty plans the government may have will certainly come to naught. May the merciful God salvage Nigeria and poor Nigerians from evil Nigerians in Jesus’ name, amen. Ikechukwu A. Ogu, a legal practitioner, writes from Central Business District, Abuja, Nigeria (ikechukwuogu@yahoo.com). Research Papers on The True Nature of the Private Sector in NigeriaPETSTEL analysis of IndiaTwilight of the UAWDefinition of Export QuotasThe Project Managment Office SystemUnreasonable Searches and SeizuresMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductStandardized TestingIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalBringing Democracy to AfricaInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married Males

Anyone vs. Everyone

Anyone vs. Everyone Anyone vs. Everyone Anyone vs. Everyone By Maeve Maddox A promotional announcement for an end-of-year review on NPR set me thinking about the difference between anyone and everyone: The year 2014 has been no fun for just about everyone. The construction struck me as odd because the negative â€Å"no fun† led me to expect anyone, not everyone. Anyone means anybody or any person. It refers to an individual in a group; which one doesn’t matter. Anyone is the usual choice in negative statements and in questions: There wasn’t anyone in the lobby. I didn’t see anyone in the street. The year 2014 was no fun for anyone. Does anyone remember his name? Can anyone learn how to sing? In addition to its use with negatives and questions, anyone is used for emphasis: Anyone could do it, even a caveman. Everyone means everybody or every person. It refers to all the members in a group. Everyone worked late today. Everyone is welcome at the meetings. Her mother asked everyone to contribute to the food drive. The year 2014 was miserable for just about everyone. In some contexts, there is very little difference between anyone and everyone: Correct: Everyone benefits from a just government. Correct: Anyone benefits from a just government. Sometimes they are not interchangeable: Incorrect: The new CEO knows anyone in the business. Correct : The new CEO knows everyone in the business. Note: One could say, â€Å"The new CEO knows everyone who is anyone in the business.† The NPR sentence sounds unnecessarily convoluted to me, but then, it did catch my attention. Some idioms with anyone: anyone’s guess Something that can’t be known until it happens. â€Å"It’s anyone’s guess who will win the election.† anyone’s game An evenly balanced contest. â€Å"Tied in the seventh inning, it was still anyone’s game.† not give anyone the time of day Ignore someone, out of dislike or boorishness. â€Å"The new employee won’t give anyone the time of day.† Idioms with everyone: everyone who is anyone Anyone of any importance. â€Å"We talked with everyone who is anyone in the world of cycling, starting with urban mobility expert Mikael Colville-Andersen.† can’t please everyone No matter what you do, someone will object to it. â€Å"I stopped worrying about what people thought about my art. You can’t please everyone. everyone and his brother an especially large number of people. â€Å"Everyone and his brother had diplomatic representatives there.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Is She a "Lady" or a "Woman"?The Six Spellings of "Long E"Careful with Words Used as Noun and Verb

Multivariate Data Analysis (Short computational exercise) Essay

Multivariate Data Analysis (Short computational exercise) - Essay Example The coefficient of linear correlation was found to be -0.154. From the frequency descriptions, the number that is willing to give at least  £75 is 39.7%. The hypothesis therefore, scores 39.7% positive response. The remaining percentage (60.3%) is the score for the willingness to pay less than  £75. There is a positive linear correlation coefficient of 0.394. This indicates that the gender group positively influences the willingness to pay is positively influenced by the gender. It therefore leads to a conclusion that females are willing to pay more than the males. This is against the hypothesis. The coefficient of linear correlation between the two variables is 0.492. This is a strong positive linear correlation, indicating that the willingness to pay increases as the net income per week increases, as per the hypothesis. The multiple regressions shows the three plots for net weekly income, occupational status and the gender factor in a single regression model. The two variable linear regression on the other hand shows a single plot between the dependent and independent

DECA- Commissary Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

DECA- Commissary - Research Paper Example The particular organization operates in the context of the US Department of Defense. Since its first appearance, DECA Commissary had to face the following problem: ethics related to the organization’s activities were often not appropriately promoted. For addressing this issue effectively, the organization’s managers decided to establish an ethical environment for others and introduce a plan for developing Positive Ethos across the organization. These efforts are described below using relevant literature, where necessary, for evaluating the appropriateness of the measures taken. It is proved that the organizational initiatives for the incorporation of ethics in the organizational culture have been successful but minor improvements would be made so that the high performance of the organization in regard to ethics is standardized. DECA Commissary - investigation of practices Company Overview DECA Commissary is an organization aiming to promote a particular plan: the provis ion of grocery to American Military, not only to the active members of the Military but also the retirees, at cost prices (DECA Commissary Overview). In this way, the Commissary helps the members of the Military to make a plan of living and to be released from stress related to the costs related to the particular type of food. According to the organization’s website, ‘the authorized patrons purchase items at cost plus a 5 percent surcharge’ (DECA Commissary Overview). As a result, the members of American Military and their family can enjoy a life of high quality, as possible, a fact that helps them to increase their readiness towards the challenges that they have to face daily (DECA Commissary Overview). The organization’s success up today is highly based on its ethical environment, which is based on certain principles, such as ‘excellence in quality, sense of urgency, high standards and innovation’ (DECA Commissary Mission, Vision, Values). E stablishing an Ethical Environment For Others The promotion of ethics within organizations has a series of benefits for stakeholders; reference is made in particular to those individuals who support the organization’s plans, i.e. employees, suppliers and shareholders, but also to those affected by the organization’s activities, such as the state and the public in general (Brown 2005). In practice, it has been proved that establishing an ethical environment in organizations can result to a series of benefits, such as ‘the improvement of society, the increase of productivity and teamwork and the promotion of ethical education as part of the organization’s strategies’ (Fernando 393). For Collins (2009) the criterion for considering a behavior as ethical is the following one: the particular action needs to have ‘an ethical motive and ethical consequences’ (Collins 5). In the context of organizations the above view would be translated as fol lows: a business plan would be ethical if the motives of its designers are ethical and if the consequences of the plan are expected to be ethical. In business environment, ethics is a concept related not just to society, i.e. morals, but also to business, i.e. ethical conduct. DECA Commissary has managed to establish an ethical environment for others through the following practices: a) at a first level, the organization tries to ensure that the members of the

Personal Narrative - Bicycle Crash Essay -- Personal Narrative

Personal Narrative- Bicycle Crash I used to bike often with my friend Juan in my hometown of Aguascalientes, Mexico. In the narrow streets, a heavy flow of traffic make biking treacherous. Certain streets have traffic signs saying, "CEDA EL PASO A UN VEHICULO" which means "Let one vehicle go through at a time." I biked on the right side of the street and my friend Juan biked on the left side. On our trip to buy tamales Juan and I were supposed to cross an intersection with a "CEDA EL PASO A UN VEHICULO" sign. As we approached the intersection, I gleamed my chance to cross at the same time as the car in front of me. Since Juan and I were racing to cross the intersection, I sped up to reach the red vehicle. As I crossed the intersection I failed to see an approaching blue car on my ...

Cross-Docking: State of the Art

Omega 40 (2012) 827–846 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Omega journal homepage: www. elsevier. com/locate/omega Review Cross-docking: State of the art Jan Van Belle n, Paul Valckenaers, Dirk Cattrysse KU Leuven, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Celestijnenlaan 300B, B-3001 Heverlee (Leuven), Belgium a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 23 June 2011 Accepted 17 January 2012 Processed by Pesch Available online 25 January 2012 Keywords: Cross-docking Logistics Classi? cation abstractCross-docking is a logistics strategy in which freight is unloaded from inbound vehicles and (almost) directly loaded into outbound vehicles, with little or no storage in between. This paper presents an overview of the cross-docking concept. Guidelines for the successful use and implementation of crossdocking are discussed and several characteristics are described that can be used to distinguish between different cross-dock types. In addition, this paper presents an extensive review of the existing literature about cross-docking. The discussed papers are classi? d based on the problem type that is tackled (ranging from more strategic or tactical to more operational problems). Based on this review, several opportunities to improve and extend the current research are indicated. & 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. 2. 3. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827 When and how to use cross-docking? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 829 Cross-dock characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 830 3. 1. Physical characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831 3. 2. Operational characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831 3. 3. Flow characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831 Literature review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832 4. 1. Location of cross-docks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832 4. 2. Layout design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833 4. 3. Cross-docking networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833 4. 4. Vehicle routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 834 4. 5. Dock door assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 834 4. 6. Truck scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 837 4. 6. 1. Single strip and stack door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 837 4. 6. 2. Scheduling of inbound trucks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839 4. 6. 3. Scheduling of inbound and outbound trucks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840 4. 7. Temporary storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 841 4. 8. Other issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 842 Conclusion and research opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 843 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 844 4. 5. 1. Introduction Cross-docking is a logistics strategy nowadays used by many companies in different industries (e. g. retail ? rms and less-thantruckload (LTL) logistics providers). The basic idea behind crossdocking is to transfer incoming shipments directly to outgoing Corresponding author. Tel. : ? 32 16322534; fax: ? 32 16322986. E-mail addresses: jan. [email  protected] kuleuven. be (J. Van Belle), paul. [email  protected] kuleuven. be (P. Valckena ers), dirk. [email  protected] kuleuven. be (D. Cattrysse). 0305-0483/$ – see front matter & 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10. 1016/j. mega. 2012. 01. 005 n vehicles without storing them in between. This practice can serve different goals: the consolidation of shipments, a shorter delivery lead time, the reduction of costs, etc. The role of cross-docking in industry even seems to increase [1–4]. In a traditional distribution center, goods are ? rst received and then stored, for instance in pallet racks. When a customer requests an item, workers pick it from the storage and ship it to the destination. From these four major functions of warehousing (receiving, storage, order picking and shipping), storage and order picking are usually the most costly.Storage is expensive because of the inventory holding costs, order picking because it is labor 828 J. Van Belle et al. / Omega 40 (2012) 827–846 intensive. One approach to reduce costs could be to impr ove one or more of these functions or to improve how they interact. Crossdocking however is an approach that eliminates the two most expensive handling operations: storage and order picking [5–8]. A de? nition of cross-docking provided by Kinnear [9] is: ‘‘receiving product from a supplier or manufacturer for several end destinations and consolidating this product with other suppliers’ product for common ? al delivery destinations’’. In this de? nition, the focus is on the consolidation of shipments to achieve economies in transportation costs. The Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) de? nes cross-docking as ‘‘the process of moving merchandise from the receiving dock to shipping [dock] for shipping without placing it ? rst into storage locations’’ [10]. The focus is now on transshipping, not holding stock. This requires a correct synchronization of incoming (inbound) and outgoing (outbound) vehicles. However, a perfect synchronization is dif? cult to achieve.Also, in practice, staging is required because many inbound shipments need to be sorted, consolidated and stored until the outbound shipment is complete. So, this strict constraint is relaxed by most authors. Cross-docking then can be described as the process of consolidating freight with the same destination (but coming from several origins), with minimal handling and with little or no storage between unloading and loading of the goods. If the goods are temporally stored, this should be only for a short period of a time. An exact limit is dif? cult to de? e, but many authors talk about 24 h (e. g. [5,7,11,12]). If the goods are placed in a warehouse or on order picking shelves or if the staging takes several days or even weeks, it is not considered as crossdocking but as (traditional) warehousing. However, even if the products are staged for a longer time, some companies still consider it cross-docking, as long as the goods move fr om supplier to storage to customer virtually untouched except for truck loading [3,13]. Many organizations use a mixture of warehousing and cross-docking to combine the bene? ts of both approaches [1].A terminal dedicated for cross-docking is called a cross-dock. In practice, most cross-docks are long, narrow rectangles (I-shape), but other shapes are also used (L,T,X, . . . ) [5]. A crossdock has multiple loading docks (or dock doors) where trucks can dock to be loaded or unloaded. Incoming trucks are assigned to a ‘strip door’ where the freight is unloaded. Then the goods are moved to its appropriate ‘stack door’ and loaded on an outbound truck. Mostly, there is no special infrastructure to stage freight. If goods have to be stored temporarily, they are placed on the ? oor of the cross-dock (e. . in front of the dock door where the departing truck is or will be docked). However, it is possible that the cross-dock contains for instance a pallet storage, ce rtainly if cross-docking is combined with warehousing. Fig. 1 presents a schematic representation of the material handling operations at an I-shaped cross-dock with 10 dock doors. Incoming trucks are either directly assigned to a strip door or have to wait in a queue until assignment. Once docked, the freight (e. g. pallets, packages or boxes) of the inbound truck is unloaded and the destination is identi? ed (e. g. y scanning the barcodes attached to the goods). Then, the goods are transported to the designated stack door by some material handling device, such as a worker operating a forklift or a conveyor belt system. There, the goods are loaded onto an outbound truck that serves the dedicated destination. Once an inbound truck is completely unloaded or an outbound truck is completely loaded, the truck is replaced by another truck. Cross-docking corresponds with the goals of lean supply chain management: smaller volumes of more visible inventories that are delivered faster and mor e frequently [14].In the literature, several other (possibly intertwined) advantages of cross-docking compared with employing traditional distribution centers and point-to-point deliveries are mentioned (e. g. [2,3,6,15,16]). Some advantages compared with traditional distribution centers are:  cost reduction (warehousing costs, inventory-holding costs,       handling costs, labor costs); shorter delivery lead time (from supplier to customer); improved customer service; reduction of storage space; faster inventory turnover; fewer overstocks; reduced risk for loss and damage.Some advantages of cross-docking compared with point-to-point deliveries are:     cost reduction (transportation costs, labor costs); consolidation of shipments; improved resource utilization (e. g. full truckloads); better match between shipment quantities and actual demand. Fig. 1. Material handling at a typical cross-dock. These advantages make cross-docking an interesting logistic strategy that can give companies considerable competitive advantages. Wal Mart is a well-known example [17], but also several other companies have reported the successful implementation of cross-docking (e. . Eastman Kodak Co. [14], Goodyear GB Ltd. [9], Dots, LLC [18] and Toyota [13]). Although cross-docking has already been applied in the 1980s (e. g. by Wal Mart), it has only attracted attention from academia much later and mostly during the recent years. For instance, more than 85% of the academic papers found by the authors are published from 2004 on. During these years, a considerable number of papers have been published and because of the growing interest from industry [1–4], the authors expect that still more research on this topic will be performed the coming years.The objective of this paper is to present an overview of the cross-docking concept. First, guidelines for the successful use and implementation of cross-docking will be discussed. Further, several characteristics will be de scribed to distinguish between different types of cross-docks. Next, the paper will provide a review of the existing literature about cross-docking. The discussed papers are classi? ed based on the problem type. These problems range from more strategic or tactical to more operational problems. This review can help (future) cross-docking J. Van Belle et al. Omega 40 (2012) 827–846 829 practitioners to ? nd the correct literature to start or improve their cross-docking operations. Without a proper implementation, it is impossible to bene? t from the above-mentioned advantages. Based on the provided review, the authors try to identify gaps of knowledge and interesting areas for future research. The term cross-docking usually refers to the situation in which trucks or trailers1 are loaded and unloaded at a cross-docking terminal. However, the operations to handle freight at a harbor or airport are sometimes very similar.At a harbor for instance, containers are unloaded from a shi p and temporarily placed onto the quay until they are loaded onto another ship or onto a truck. An airport can also be seen as a kind of cross-dock for transferring passengers and their baggage. In the literature, several papers can be found that deal with similar problems as encountered in crossdocking, but speci? c for harbors or airports (e. g. how to determine the layout of an airport terminal [19,20], how to assign airplanes to gates [21], etc. ). These papers are not taken into account for the literature review presented here.The paper focuses on the typical cross-docking in which goods are transferred between trucks at a cross-dock. The speci? c application or industry (e. g. less-than-truckload (LTL) or courier, express and parcel (CEP) industry) is not important, as long as the applied material handling can be considered as cross-docking. To the best of our knowledge, only two papers present a review of cross-docking papers. Boysen and Fliedner [2] discuss papers about the truck scheduling problem and provide a classi? cation of the considered problems. The approach taken ere is however more general and several problem types related to crossdocking are discussed, including the truck scheduling problem (see Section 4. 6). Agustina et al. [22] provide a general picture of the mathematical models used in cross-docking papers. These models are classi? ed based on their decision level (operational, tactical or strategic) and then subdivided by problem type. However, another classi? cation is presented here as the authors do not completely agree with the proposed classi? cation (the considered problem types and the assignment of papers to problem types).For instance, Agustina et al. [22] do not consider vehicle routing and temporary storage and the papers about cross-dock networks are discussed in two different sections (transshipment problems and cross-docking network design). Also, some papers about dock door assignment are discussed in the section about cross-docking layout design. In addition, the review presented here is more extensive; more papers are included and the papers are discussed in more detail. This paper also includes a general overview of cross-docking and describes several cross-dock characteristics. The paper is organized as follows.The next section discusses in which situations cross-docking is a suitable strategy and deals with the requirements for a successful implementation. In Section 3, the characteristics are discussed that can be used to differentiate between alternative cross-docking systems. The literature review is presented in Section 4. The discussed papers are classi? ed based on the problem type they deal with. The conclusions with opportunities to improve and extend the current research are summarized in Section 5. Fig. 2. Suitability of cross-docking (adapted from Apte and Viswanathan [1]). 2.When and how to use cross-docking? Although cross-docking is nowadays used by many companies, it is probabl y not the best strategy in every case and in all circumstances. This section brie? y describes the existing 1 In the following pages, the terms truck, trailer and vehicle will be used interchangeably. literature that gives some guidelines for the successful use and implementation of cross-docking. Apte and Viswanathan [1] discuss some factors that in? uence the suitability of cross-docking compared with traditional distribution. 2 A ? rst important factor is the product demand rate.If there is an imbalance between the incoming load and the outgoing load, cross-docking will not work well. Hence, goods that are more suitable for cross-docking are the ones that have demand rates that are more or less stable (e. g. grocery and regularly consumed perishable food items). For these products, the warehousing and transportation requirements are much more predictable, and consequently the planning and implementation of cross-docking becomes easier. The unit stock-out cost is a second importan t factor. Because cross-docking minimizes the level of inventory at the warehouse, the probability of stock-out situations is higher.However, if the unit stock-out cost is low, the bene? ts of cross-docking can outweigh the increased stock-out cost, and so cross-docking can still be the preferred strategy. As shown in Fig. 2, cross-docking is therefore preferred for products with a stable demand rate and low unit stock-out cost. The traditional warehousing is still preferable for the opposite situation with an unstable demand and high unit stock-out costs. For the two other cases, cross-docking can still be used when proper systems and planning tools are in place to keep the number of stock-outs to a reasonable level. Some other factors that can in? ence the suitability of crossdocking are the distance to suppliers and customers (higher distances increase the bene? ts of consolidation), the product value and life cycle (a larger reduction in inventory costs for products with a highe r value and shorter life cycle), the demand quantity (a larger reduction in inventory space and costs for products with a higher demand), the timeliness of supplier shipments (to ensure a correct synchronization of inbound and outbound trucks), etc. [1,23,24]. Some authors use a more quantitative approach to study the suitability of cross-docking. For instance, Galbreth et al. 6] compare the transportation and handling costs between a situation in which a supplier has to ship goods to several customers with only direct shipments and a situation in which also indirect shipments via a cross-dock are possible. For the second situation, a mixed integer programming (MIP) model is proposed to determine which goods should go directly from supplier to customer and which goods should be shipped via a cross-dock to meet the (known) demands. The transportation costs are modeled in a realistic way: ?xed for truckload shipping, while the less-thantruckload shipping costs are modeled using a modi ? d all-unit discount (MAUD) cost function. The holding costs at the customers are proportional to the quantity and the holding time between arrival time and due date. The costs for the two situations are compared under varying operating conditions. The authors conclude that cross-docking is more valuable when demands are less 2 It is assumed that the demand quantities are small, otherwise point-to-point deliveries are more suited. 830 J. Van Belle et al. / Omega 40 (2012) 827–846 variable and when unit holding costs at customer locations are higher.On the other hand, it is less valuable when the average demands are close to truck load capacity. Other quantitative approaches make a comparison between a situation with a cross-dock and a situation with a traditional distribution center. For instance, Kreng and Chen [25] compare the operational costs. Besides the transportation and holding costs, the production costs (more speci? c the setup costs) of the goods at the supplier a re taken into account. When a cross-dock is used, more frequent deliveries to the cross-dock are required and the batch size needs to be smaller, which causes higher setup costs.Waller et al. [26] look to both situations from an inventory reduction perspective. Schaffer [8] discusses the successful implementation of crossdocking. When a company wants to introduce cross-docking, the introduction should be prepared very well. If the necessary equipment is already available and because cross-docking seems simple, one easily assumes that cross-docking can be implemented without much effort. However, cross-docking itself is quite complex and requires a high degree of coordination between the supply chain members (e. g. the timing of arrival and departure).So, the requirements for successful cross-docking should be understood thoroughly and the implementation should be planned carefully. In [8], Schaffer elaborates on six categories of requirements for a successful implementation. Accordi ng to Witt [13] and to Yu and Egbelu [27], software to plan and control the cross-docking operations (e. g. a warehouse management system or WMS) plays an important role in the successful implementation of cross-docking. The required (automated) hardware for a cross-docking system (material handling devices, sorting systems, etc. ) might come off the shelf and is easily available today.But the software needs to be tailored to the speci? c requirements and is in general relatively less developed, although it is as important as hardware to cross-docking success. This is also con? rmed by a survey among professionals who are involved in cross-docking and who denote IT system support as a key barrier to effective cross-docking [3,4]. Hence, the system requirements need to be carefully de? ned and studied in order to prevent installing the physical system to discover afterwards there is no information and communication system in place for successful operation.This software system can onl y work correctly if it is fed with accurate and timely information. Compared with regular distribution, the information ? ow to support cross-docking is signi? cantly more important [24]. For instance, to coordinate the inbound and outbound trucks to the appropriate docks, the arriving time and the destination of the freight need to be known before the physical arrival of the goods (e. g. via advance shipping notice (ASN)). Several information technology tools are available to realize this information ? ow, e. g. lectronic data interchange (EDI), shipping container marking (SCM), bar-coding and scanning of products using universal product code (UPC) [1]. Regardless of which technology is chosen, the supply chain partners must be able and willing to deliver the required information via this technology. A good cooperation across the supply chain can make or break the cross-docking implementation [8,13,24]. docking [1,29]. In a two-touch or single-stage cross-dock, products are receive d and staged on the dock until they are loaded for outbound transportation. Usually, the goods are put into zones corresponding to their strip or stack door (see Fig. 3).In the case of a multiple-touch or two-stage cross-dock, products are received and staged on the dock, then they are recon? gured for shipment and are loaded in outbound trucks. In a typical con? guration, the incoming freight is ? rst put in zones corresponding to the strip doors. The goods are then sorted to the zones corresponding to the stack doors (see Fig. 4). Another distinction can be made according to when the customer is assigned to the individual products [30]. In predistribution cross-docking, the customer is assigned before the shipment leaves the supplier who takes care of preparation (e. g. labeling and pricing) and sorting.This allows faster handling at the cross-dock. On the other hand, in post-distribution crossdocking, the allocation of goods to customers is done at the cross-dock. Still some othe r distinctions are possible. The German supermarket retailer Metro-AG for instance distinguishes sourceoriented and target-oriented cross-docking based on the location Fig. 3. A single-stage cross-dock in which the products are staged in zones corresponding to the stack doors (adapted from Gue and Kang [28]). 3. Cross-dock characteristics Several characteristics can be considered to distinguish between various types of cross-docks (and cross-docking).A common distinction made in the literature is based on the number of touches [3] or stages [28]. In one-touch cross-docking, products are touched only once, as they are received and loaded directly in an outbound truck. This is also called pure cross- Fig. 4. A two-stage cross-dock in which the products are staged in zones corresponding to the strip and stack doors and are sorted in between (adapted from Gue and Kang [28]). J. Van Belle et al. / Omega 40 (2012) 827–846 831 of the cross-docking terminals relative to suppliers and customers [31].Napolitano [32] distinguishes several types of cross-docking based on the intended use and in [29], eight different crossdocking techniques are listed. In this section, several characteristics are described that can be used to distinguish between different cross-dock types. 3 Note that real world characteristics of the cross-dock are considered, and not the properties from a speci? c decision problem related to cross-docking. For the papers included in the literature review (Section 4), the characteristics of the considered cross-docks will be listed in tables according to the characteristics described here. However, the structure of Section 4 is not based on these characteristics, but on the considered problem type. The characteristics can be divided into three groups: physical characteristics, operational characteristics and characteristics about the ? ow of goods. 5 In the next sections, these groups will be described in more detail. 3. 1. Physical characteristics The physical characteristics are characteristics of the crossdock that are supposed to be ? xed (for a rather long time). The following physical characteristics are considered. Shape: Cross-docks can have a large variety of shapes.The shape can be described by the letter corresponding to the shape: I, L, U, T, H, E, . . . Number of dock doors: A cross-dock is also characterized by the number of dock doors it has. In practice, cross-docks range in size from 6 to 8 doors to more than 200 doors, and even a cross-dock with more than 500 doors exists [33]. In the literature, sometimes the number of dock doors is limited to only 1 or 2. In these cases, the idea is not to model a realistic cross-dock, but to gain some insight by studying a simpli? ed model. Internal transportation: The transportation inside the crossdock can be executed manually (e. . by workers using forklifts) or there can be an automated system in place (e. g. a network of conveyor belts). The available infrastructure will of course be dependent on the type of freight that is handled in the cross-dock. For instance, LTL carriers handle mostly palletized freight and so make use of forklifts. Conveyor systems on the other hand are among others used by parcel carriers, as they deal with many (small) packages. A combination of both transportation modes is also possible. 3. 2. Operational characteristics Some operational decisions can in? uence the functioning of the cross-dock.These operational constraints lead to the following characteristics. Service mode: According to Boysen and Fliedner [2], the service mode of a cross-dock determines the degrees of freedom in assigning inbound and outbound trucks to dock doors. In an exclusive mode of service, each dock door is either exclusively 3 Some of the characteristics described here are similar to the characteristics used by Boysen and Fliedner [2] to make a classi? cation of truck scheduling problems. However, they [2] consider not only real world chara cteristics, but also characteristics of the (mathematical) models. At least for the papers in which these characteristics are described, i. e. , in which real world details of the cross-dock are considered (Sections 4. 5–4. 8). 5 This classi? cation is rather vague. For some characteristics, it is not clear in which group they ? t best or they can be assigned to multiple groups. For instance, temporary storage is considered as a ? ow characteristic. However, temporary storage can also be seen as a physical characteristic (storage is not possible because of space constraints) or operational characteristic (it can be an operational decision that storage is not allowed, e. . to avoid congestion inside the cross-dock). dedicated to inbound or outbound trucks. If this service mode is used, mostly one side of the cross-docking terminal is assigned to inbound trucks and the other side to outbound trucks. A second mode is mixed mode. In this mode, inbound and outbound trucks can be p rocessed at all doors. These two modes can also be combined. In this combination mode, a subset of doors is operated in exclusive mode while the rest of the doors is operated in mixed mode. Pre-emption: If pre-emption is allowed, the loading or unloading of a truck can be interrupted.This truck is then removed from the dock and another truck takes its place. The un? nished truck has to be docked later on to ? nish the loading or unloading. 3. 3. Flow characteristics The characteristics of the ? ow of goods that have to be processed by a cross-dock can be very different. The following characteristics are distinguished. Arrival pattern: The arrival times of the goods are determined by the arrival times of the inbound trucks. The arrival pattern can be concentrated at one or more periods if the inbound trucks arrive together at (more or less) the same times.For instance, a cross-dock in the LTL industry serving a certain geographical area usually receives freight at two periods. Goods that have to be transported from inside that area to another area are picked up during the day and all pickup trucks arrive in the evening at the cross-dock. The goods are then sorted during the night and the outbound trucks leave in the morning. To simplify the problem, several papers assume that the inbound trucks arrive together (at the beginning of the time horizon). On the other hand, freight from outside the region but destined for that area arrives in the early morning and is then istributed during the day. Another possibility is that the arrival pattern is scattered and the inbound trucks arrive at different times during the day. The arrival pattern has an in? uence on the congestion of the cross-dock and on the scheduling of workers and resources. Departure time: The departure times of the trucks can be restricted or not. In many cases there are no restrictions and the trucks leave the cross-dock after all freight is loaded or unloaded. However, it is also possible that the trucks have to depart before a certain point in time, for instance in order to be on time for a next transportation task.In this case, there can be restrictions imposed on the departure times of the inbound trucks only, so that these trucks have to be unloaded on time. In a similar way, it is possible that only the outbound trucks have to leave the cross-dock before a certain moment. 6 For instance, in the parcel delivery sector, the outbound trucks usually leave at a ? xed point in time. Parcels arriving late have to wait until another truck departs for the same destination. It is also possible that both inbound and outbound trucks have restricted departure times.Product interchangeability: The freight handled at a cross-dock is in general not interchangeable. In this case, all products are dedicated to a speci? c destination7 or a speci? c outbound truck (pre-distribution). Information about the destination or the dedicated truck is normally known before the products arrive at th e cross-dock. It is however also possible that interchangeability of products is allowed (post-distribution). In this situation, only the type of products to be loaded on the outbound trucks and the corresponding quantity is known (see footnote 7).When the products are interchangeable, usually some value-added activities (e. g. labeling) need to be performed. 6 This point in time can be dependent on the (due dates of the) actual load of the truck. 7 The assignment of the products to a speci? c outbound truck is then an operational decision. 832 J. Van Belle et al. / Omega 40 (2012) 827–846 Temporary storage: In pure cross-docking, the arriving freight is directly transported to outbound trucks, so no storage is needed. In practice however, this is rarely the case. In general, the goods are temporarily stored on the ? oor of the cross-docking terminal (e. . in front of the stack doors) or even in a (small) warehouse. However, it is possible that goods are not allowed to be sto red. For instance, if refrigerated products have to be cross-docked in a non-cooled terminal, these products have to be directly moved from a cooled inbound to a cooled outbound truck. 4. Literature review Cross-docking practitioners have to deal with many decisions during the design and operational phase of cross-docks. These decisions can have a serious impact on the ef? ciency, so they have to be carefully taken. In the literature, several decision problems are studied.Some of these problems are more concerned about decisions with effects on a longer term (strategic or tactical), while others deal with short-term decisions (operational). This section gives a review of the existing literature about crossdocking problems. The literature review is structured according to the basic planning process a manager, wanting to start with cross-docking, is confronted with. The ? rst decisions that have to be taken during the planning process are strategic decisions: where will a cross-dock ( or crossdocks) be located and what is the best layout of a cross-dock.Once the cross-dock is available, it will be part of a supply network (with one or more cross-docks). A tactical decision that has to be made then is how the goods will ? ow through the network to minimize the costs, while making supply meet demand. Next, the manager is faced with the operational decision (although it has also tactical aspects) of vehicle routing: before arriving at the cross-dock, freight has to be picked up at various locations, and the goods have to be delivered to multiple locations after consolidation at the cross-docking terminal.Other operational decisions deal with the assignment of trucks to dock doors or the scheduling of the trucks, and with the location where goods will be temporarily stored. Of course, the manager will also be confronted with problems that are not speci? c for cross-docking: the scheduling of the internal resources for the loading and unloading of the freight (e. g. t he workforce), choosing the best staging strategy and determining an optimal truck packaging sequence. The next sections describe the cross-docking problems dealt with in the literature.Only the problems that are speci? c for cross-docking are considered. First, the strategic decisions are discussed: the location of cross-docks and layout design. The tactical problem of cross-docking networks is described next. Further, the operational decisions are handled: vehicle routing, dock door assignment, truck scheduling and temporary storage. Finally, some papers that study other issues related to crossdocking are discussed. 4. 1. Location of cross-docks The location of one or more cross-docks is part of the design of a distribution network or supply chain.An important strategic decision that has to be made concerns the position of these crossdocks. This problem cannot be handled isolated from the decisions that determine how the goods ? ow through this network. The determination of the ? ow of goods is discussed in Section 4. 3, but problems that also involve a decision about the location are considered here. The problem where to locate facilities (e. g. distribution centers or plants) has attracted a considerable amount of attention. 8 The papers discussed in this section determine additionally the optimal ? ow of goods through the network.Moreover, they regard the facilities to be cross-docks because they explicitly take individual vehicles into account or because temporary storage is not allowed. A ? rst study about the location of cross-docks is performed by Sung and Song [34]. In the considered problem, goods have to be transported from supply to demand nodes via a cross-dock (direct shipments are not allowed). The cross-dock can be chosen from a set of possible cross-dock locations, each with an associated ? xed cost. The demands are assumed to be known and there are two types of vehicles with a different capacity and cost. The aim is to ? d which cross-docks should be used and how many vehicles are needed on each link in order to minimize the total cost. This total cost consists of the ? xed costs of the used cross-docks and the transportation costs. The authors present an integer programming model of the problem. This model is very similar to the model presented by Donaldson et al. [35] and Musa et al. [36] (discussed in Section 4. 3) and similar simplifying assumptions are applied. Compared with these two papers however, the approach of Sung and Song [34] does not consider direct shipments but does include the location decision.Because the problem is NP-hard, a tabu search-based algorithm is proposed to solve the problem. The solutions determine how the goods ? ow through the network. Based on this ? ow, the number of vehicles can be derived by solving a subproblem. Some computational experiments are performed on generated test instances and indicate that the proposed algorithm ? nds good feasible solutions within a reasonable time. S ung and Yang [37] extend this work and propose a small improvement to the tabu search algorithm.The authors also present a set-partitioning-based formulation of the problem and propose a branch-and-price algorithm based on this formulation to obtain exact solutions. The computational results show that this algorithm gives better results in terms of the number of (smallscale) problem instances solved and the required computation time compared with the results obtained by solving the integer programming model with the optimization software package CPLEX. ? ? Gumus and Bookbinder [38] study a similar problem, but now direct shipments are allowed and multiple product types are considered (multicommodity).The facility cost for each crossdock consists of a ? xed cost and a throughput cost charged per unit load. The transportation cost also has two components: a ? xed cost for each truck and a variable cost per unit load per unit distance. A last cost that is taken into account is the cost for intransit inventory. In this approach, the synchronization of inbound and outbound trucks is not taken into account. The authors provide a mixed integer programming model of the problem. By solving several smaller problem instances optimally (with the optimization software packages LINGO and CPLEX), the in? ence of several cost parameters is studied. The authors conclude that the optimal number of cross-docks is an increasing function of the ratio between the (? xed) truck cost and the (? xed) facility cost. A different approach is taken by Jayaraman and Ross [39]. They study a multi-echelon problem in which goods (from multiple product families) have to be transported from a central manufacturing plant to one or more distribution centers. From there, the goods are moved via cross-docks to the customers. The problem is tackled in two stages. In the ? st stage, a strategic model is used to select the best set of locations for the distribution centers and cross-docks. The authors provide an integer programming formulation that aims to minimize the ? xed costs associated with operating open distribution centers and cross-docks and the 8 Several references can be found in the papers discussed in this section. J. Van Belle et al. / Omega 40 (2012) 827–846 833 various transportation costs. Demand splitting is not allowed: customers have to be assigned to single cross-docks while crossdocks have to be assigned to single distribution centers only.In the second stage, an operational model decides upon the quantities of each product type that need to be transported via distribution centers and cross-docks. The model tries to minimize the transportation costs while satisfying customer demand. This model is less restrictive than the ? rst model (it relaxes for instance the demand splitting assumption) and can be executed once the open distribution centers and cross-docks are determined with the help of the ? rst model. Both models are more simpli? ed compared with the previous approaches.For instance, individual vehicles are not considered and the transportation cost is proportional to the quantity to ship. The authors propose a simulated annealing approach to solve larger problem instances. The computational experiments on generated problem instances indicate that the heuristic gives results with a deviation of about 4% of the optimal solution (obtained with LINGO), but 300–400 times faster. In [40], the same authors present two other heuristics to tackle the problem. Both heuristics are based on simulated annealing but use an extra mechanism to avoid locally optimal solutions.The ? rst heuristic makes use of a tabu list, the second heuristic allows a sudden re-scaling of the ‘system temperature’. For both heuristics, the solution quality and computational performance are tested for different ‘cooling schemes’. The experimental results indicate that the simulated annealing heuristic combined with tabu se arch gives better solutions in slightly more time. Bachlaus et al. [41] also consider a multi-echelon supply chain network, including suppliers, plants, distribution centers, crossdocks and customers. The goal is to optimize the material ? w throughout the supply chain and to identify the optimal number and location of suppliers, plants, distribution centers and crossdocks. The problem is formulated as a multi-objective optimization model that tries to minimize the total cost and to maximize the plant and volume ? exibility. Because of the computational complexity of the problem, the authors propose a variant of particle swarm optimization (PSO) to design the supply chain. Some computational experiments are conducted and the results show that the proposed solution approach gives better results than a genetic algorithm and two other PSO variants. his at the cost of additional corners which reduce the labor ef? ciency (two inside and two outside corners for T, four inside and four out side corners for X). An inside corner renders some doors unusable, while doors around an outside corner have less ? oor space available to stage freight. So, these additional corners are a ? xed cost, which begins to pay off for larger docks. It is however not always easy to predict which shape is better, because this also depends on e. g. the freight ? ow pattern. Other papers deal with the design of the storage area where the freight can be temporarily staged (on the ? or or in racks). In many cases, the freight is placed in several parallel rows and the workers can move between these rows. Vis and Roodbergen [16] deal with the operational decision where to temporarily store incoming freight (see Section 4. 7). The proposed algorithm can also be used during the design phase to determine the optimal number of parallel storage rows and their lengths. The (single-stage or two-stage) storage area can also be organized in parallel lanes directly next to each other which can only be acc essed at both ends.Gue and Kang [28] make use of simulation to study the behavior of these so-called staging queues. The results suggest that, for a single-stage storage area, it is better to have more short lanes than fewer long ones, at least when the workers follow a rational approach. The results also indicate that two-stage cross-docking has a signi? cantly lower throughput than single-stage cross-docking. 4. 3. Cross-docking networks Some authors do not study problems concerning a single cross-dock, but consider a network that contains one or more cross-docks.The aim is to determine the ? ow of goods through such a network in order to reduce costs, while making supply meet demand. The research of Lim et al. [42] extends the traditional transshipment problem. The transshipment problem consists of a number of supply, transshipment and demand nodes. The arcs between these nodes have different capacity limits and costs. The objective is to ? nd a minimum cost ? ow that meets all d emands and the capacity constraints. In the extended transshipment problem, storage is allowed at the transshipment centers.These centers can be considered as cross-docks because the aim of the model is to minimize or eliminate holdover inventory. Moreover, this problem takes supplier and customer time windows into account and considers the capacity and holding costs of the crossdocks. All shipments have to pass via a cross-dock, so no direct shipments are considered. Similar to the original problem, the objective is to minimize the total cost (transportation costs and holding costs) while meeting demand and respecting the time windows and capacity constraints.If multiple departures and deliveries within a time window are allowed (multiple shipping– multiple delivery), the authors show that a time-expanded network can be used to formulate the problem as a minimum cost ? ow problem (MCFP) which can be solved in polynomial time. For other cases, the authors prove that the probl em is NP-hard. For the special case when only one delivery or departure is allowed within a time window and the departure and arrival times are ? xed (single shipping–single delivery with ? xed schedules), a genetic algorithm is developed by Miao et al. [43].This heuristic gives better results (in terms of solution quality and computation time) than solving the integer programming formulation of the problem with CPLEX (with a time limit). Chen et al. [44] study a similar problem which they call the multiple cross-dock problem. The major differences are that supplies and demands are not-splittable and that different products can be considered (multicommodity ? ow problem). Also, transportation time is in this approach not taken into account. 4. 2. Layout design Once the location of a cross-dock is determined, another strategic decision that has to be made is to choose the layout of the cross-dock.The layout is interpreted as the dimension and shape of the cross-dock, as well a s the dimension and shape of the internal cross-dock areas and their arrangement. Bartholdi and Gue [5] focus on the shape of a cross-dock. Most existing cross-docks are long, narrow rectangles (I-shape), but there are also cross-docks shaped like an L, U, T, H or E. The crossdock shape is sometimes determined by simple constraints (e. g. size and shape of the lot on which it will stand), but in this paper the focus is on how the shape affects cross-dock performance.Several experiments are performed in which the labor costs (estimated by the total travel distance)9 are measured for different shapes. The experiments suggest that an I-shape is the most ef? cient for smaller cross-docks (fewer than about 150 doors). For docks of intermediate size, a T-shape is best and for more than 200 doors (approximately) an X-shape is best. Cross-docks with a T or X-shape have a greater ‘centrality’. However, they achieve 9 Here and in the following pages, the travel distance is the di stance traveled (by workers, forklifts, . . ) in order to transfer the goods internally from the inbound to the outbound truck. 834 J. Van Belle et al. / Omega 40 (2012) 827–846 An integer programming formulation of the problem is provided, together with a proof of its NP-completeness. The authors propose three heuristics (simulated annealing, tabu search and a combination of both) to solve the problem. These heuristics provide better solutions than those obtained by solving the integer programming formulation with CPLEX, within only less than 10% the time used by CPLEX.Among the three heuristics, tabu search seems to give the best results. The previous studies represent the shipment of goods as ? ows. Individual transportation units are not considered and the transportation cost is proportional to the quantity to ship. However, to take advantage of consolidation, the vehicle transportation cost should be taken into account. A ? rst approach that does consider the transportat ion vehicles explicitly (and this is why the authors regard it as cross-docking) is taken by Donaldson et al. [35].In the considered problem, the goal is to determine whether to route freight directly from suppliers to customers or via a cross-dock and how many vehicles should be scheduled on each transportation link in order to minimize the transportation costs. Compared with the previous approaches however, this problem is more simpli? ed, e. g. storage at the cross-docks is not considered and the synchronization of inbound and outbound trucks is left out of the problem. The authors eliminate links with a large transportation time in an attempt to consider time windows.However, when the due dates at the destination nodes can vary for the different goods, it is possible that the vehicle allocation of an obtained solution violates the due dates in practice. The authors present an integer programming model of the problem. Because the problem is dif? cult to solve with branch-and-boun d algorithms, an alternative approach is proposed. In this approach, an iterative procedure is used in which either the integrality restrictions on the links from origin nodes to the cross-docks or on the links from the cross-docks to the destination nodes are relaxed.This relaxation heuristic provides near optimal solutions in an acceptable time. The authors used this approach to compare several scenarios (with a different number of cross-docks at different places) for the network design of a postal service company. The same problem is also studied by Musa et al. [36]. They propose an ant colony optimization (ACO) heuristic to solve the problem and show that this heuristic gives in a short time slightly better results than a branch-and-bound approach (with the optimization software package LINDO) that requires a much longer time.The approach of Ma et al. [45] takes most of the above-mentioned concerns into account. The so-called shipment consolidation problem (SCP) considers suppli er and customer time windows and also the transportation times between the network nodes. Moreover, storage at the transshipment centers (cross-docks) is taken into account, shipments can be transported directly to their destination or via a cross-dock and the transportation cost accounts for the number of trucks. However, only one type of products is considered (single commodity).Again, the objective is to minimize the total cost (transportation and inventory cost) while satisfying the constraints imposed by the time windows. The authors present an integer programming model of the problem and show that it is NP-complete in the strong sense. Therefore, the authors propose a (two-stage) heuristic algorithm to solve the problem. The basic idea of the algorithm is to consider ? rst trucks that can be fully loaded and then to ? nd solutions that combine several smaller loads that are not considered yet. In the ? st stage, a full truckload plan (TL plan) and an initial less-than-truckloa d plan (LTL plan) are constructed. In the second stage, this initial LTL plan is improved iteratively by using a metaheuristic (squeaky wheel optimization or genetic algorithm). The computational experiments indicate that the proposed heuristic gives competitive results compared to CPLEX (with a time limit) within a much shorter time. 4. 4. Vehicle routing Freight destined for a cross-dock needs in many cases to be picked up at various locations, and has to be delivered to multiple locations after consolidation at the cross-dock.Both the pickup and the delivery process can be seen as a vehicle routing problem and some studies consider cross-docking and vehicle routing simultaneously. A ? rst approach is taken by Lee et al. [46]. The aim is to ? nd an optimal routing schedule for pickup and delivery (within the planning horizon) that minimizes the sum of transportation cost and ? xed costs of the vehicles. It is assumed that split deliveries are not allowed and all pickup vehicles sh ould arrive at the crossdock simultaneously to prevent waiting times for the outbound trucks. While this can be a valid constraint for some cases (see Section 3. ), this is not generally true. The authors present an integer programming model of the problem, which however seems unsatisfactory to solve the described problem. A tabu search algorithm is proposed to ? nd solutions. This approach corresponds to the solving of two vehicle routing problems (one for pickup and one for delivery). The second routing problem can only start when the ? rst one is ? nished and the complete process has to be ? nished within a certain planning horizon. Liao et al. [47] propose another tabu search algorithm to solve the same problem. Wen et al. 12] study the so-called vehicle routing problem with cross-docking (VRPCD). In this problem, orders from suppliers have to be picked up by a homogeneous ? eet of vehicles. These orders are then consolidated at a cross-dock and immediately delivered to customer s by the same set of vehicles, without intermediate storage at the cross-dock. During the consolidation, goods are unloaded from the inbound vehicles and reloaded on outbound vehicles. The unloading must be completed before reloading starts. The authors assume that the duration of the unloading consists of a ? ed time for preparation and a duration proportional to the load size. It is also assumed that if the delivery will be executed by the same vehicle as used for pickup, the unloading is not necessary (independent of the sequence in which the vehicle is loaded during the pickup tour). A time window is de? ned for all suppliers and customers and orders are not splittable. In the case without consolidation, the solution of this problem can be found by solving two vehicle routing problems (one for pickup and one for delivery). Because of the consolidation however, the pickup and delivery routes are not independent.Only trying to minimize the distance of the pickup and delivery route s is not suf? cient, the exchanges of orders at the cross-dock also have to be taken into account. These two aspects usually con? ict with each other. The authors present a mixed integer programming formulation of the problem in which the objective is to minimize the total travel time of all vehicles. This formulation contains many variables and constraints, so the authors propose to use tabu search embedded within an adaptive memory procedure. This method is tested on realistic data involving up to 200 supplier–customer pairs.Experimental results show that the algorithm can produce solutions less than 1% away from the optimum within short computing times (less than 5 s) for small problem instances. For larger instances, the gap with a lower bound is less than 5% while the computation time stays below 5 min. 4. 5. Dock door assignment When an inbound or outbound truck arrives at the cross-dock, it has to be decided to which dock door the truck should be assigned. A good assig nment can increase the productivity of the cross-dock and can decrease the (handling) costs. So, the dock door assignment problem tries to ? d the ‘optimal’ assignment of inbound and outbound trucks to dock doors. It is assumed that there are at least as much dock doors as trucks, so each truck will J. Van Belle et al. / Omega 40 (2012) 827–846 835 Table 1 Characteristics of the papers discussed in Section 4. 5. An ‘n’ indicates that not a single value of the characteristic is valid, but that all values can be used, ‘ns’ indicates that a characteristic is not speci? ed. Paper(s) Shape No. of doors n n n n n n n n n n n n Internal transport Manually Manually Manually Manually Manually n Service mode Exclusive Exclusive Exclusive Exclusive Exclusive ExclusiveExclusive Exclusive Mixed Exclusive Mixed Exclusive Interchangeability Temporary storage Yes No ns ns ns Yes ns Yes Yes ns ns ns Peck [48] Tsui and Chang [49,50] ? Bermudez and Cole [5 1] Cohen and Keren [52] Oh et al. [53] Bartholdi and Gue [54] Gue [33] Brown [55] (semi-permanent) Brown [55] (dynamic) Bozer and Carlo [56] (semi-permanent) Bozer and Carlo [56] (dynamic) Yu et al. [57] I I n I I I I n n n n n Manually Manually Manually Manually Manually Manually Truck Destination Destination Destination Destination Destination Destination Destination Truck Destination Truck Destination e assigned to a different door and time aspects are not taken into account. If this condition is not ful? lled, the dock doors can be seen as (scarce) resources that have to be scheduled over time. This is the so-called truck scheduling problem. Both problems can be quite complex due to the number of doors and the dynamic nature of the problem. This section deals with the dock door assignment problem, while truck scheduling problems are discussed in Section 4. 6. The assignment of dock doors can be executed on a mid-term or short-term horizon [2].Several papers solve the assignment problem on a mid-term horizon. Then, each dock door serves a speci? c inbound or outbound destination for a longer period of time (e. g. 6 months). 10 All trucks coming from the same origin or having the same destination are assigned to the same dock. Such a ? xed assignment is easier for workers because they know exactly to which dock door they need to ship each load, but it comes at the expense of a reduced ? exibility. Even if a ? xed assignment is used, it is important that the dock doors are reassigned when there is a signi? cant change in the shipping pattern.When data about the inbound trucks are known far enough in advance, the assignment of the trucks can be solved on a shortterm horizon. The trucks itself are assigned to the dock doors based on the actual freight ? ow. This ‘? oating dock’ concept is put forward by Peck [48] who studied the material handling operations in an LTL terminal. Such an assignment implies that the workers are every day confronted wit h a different door for the same destination and have to take care that the freight is loaded into the correct truck. The use of modern information technology (e. g. ar code or RFID scanning together with a WMS) can be useful for this end. A combination of both is also possible. Several papers consider a cross-dock in which destinations are assigned to stack doors (so the outbound trucks are assigned on a mid-term horizon), while the assignment of the inbound trucks is done on a short-term horizon. The characteristics of the cross-docks considered in the following papers are summarized in Table 1. As time aspects are neglected and there are enough available dock doors, the preemption, arrival pattern and departure time characteristic are not relevant here and are not shown.In his dissertation, Peck [48] develops a detailed simulation model of an LTL terminal and tries to assign the trucks to dock doors in order to minimize the travel time11 of the shipments. It is assumed that the tr avel time to transport the products between This includes that the cross-dock operates in exclusive service mode. Here and in the following pages, the travel time is the time required to transfer the goods internally from the inbound to the outbound truck. 11 10 two trucks can be expressed as a function of the distance, based on the actual contents of the trucks and the required means of transport (2-wheeler, 4-wheeler or forklift).The designation of doors as either strip or stack doors is ? xed beforehand. The problem is formulated as an integer programming model and because of the computational complexity, a heuristic (greedy balance algorithm) is provided to solve it. Simulation shows that his heuristic improves an assignment based on experience and intuition. Another early study about the assignment of trucks to dock doors is performed by Tsui and Chang [49]. In this paper, a crossdock is considered in which no storage is provided; all shipments go directly from inbound to outbo und trucks.The problem is solved on a mid-term horizon, so the origins and destinations have to be assigned to dock doors, not the trucks itself. The designation of doors as strip or stack doors is ? xed. The assignment problem is formulated as a bilinear programming problem that tries to minimize the travel distance of the forklifts (the number of forklift trips required to carry a certain load is assumed to be known). To solve it, the authors propose a simple heuristic method to ? nd a local optimum.The authors do not provide test results, but conclude that the found solution can serve as a good starting point for the cross-dock manager. There exist exact algorithms to solve bilinear optimization problems, but these are not very suited for this problem as the same authors mention in Tsui and Chang [50]. In this paper, a branch-and-bound algorithm is proposed to solve the dock door assignment problem exactly. The numerical tests show that this algorithm is however computational exp ensive. ? Bermudez and Cole [51] deal with a very similar problem, but now there is no ? ed designation for the doors. All doors can have assigned either an origin or a destination. The mathematical model of Tsui and Chang [49] is adapted to take this into account. The objective function minimizes the total weighted travel distance instead of the real travel distance. A genetic algorithm (GA) is propose