Saturday, May 23, 2020

Short Story - 812 Words

â€Å"Alright Jack, it’s matching making day, time to find out who’s butt you’ll be kickin’ this time† said Jack’s coach, Thomas, who’s always been a huge supporter for Jack Day. He’s been his teacher since the day Jack first decided he wanted to make a career out of fighting. â€Å"We both get our butts kicked in the fights Thomas, I just happen to not be the one who ends up unconscious on the floor† Jack said with a smirk. Jack tended to be worryless when it came to finding out who his opponent would be. He never had much fear when he got into the ring, he knew that fear was what kept you from winning. One of the biggest parts of martial arts is learning to control your adrenaline, and Jack had that down quite well. â€Å"Either way it goes, my fighter†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"That’s the way to go about it Jack!† Thomas said please with his fighter’s answer. â€Å"Let’s get in th ere and get this done, alright?† â€Å"Alright.† said Jack. They started to head in with smiles on their faces hoping for a good fight. Two rounds passed with Jack and Colt going at it, throwing punches at each other left and right. Both fighters were bloodied up with their movements drastically slower than they were when they had first began their brawl. They were both sitting in their corners waiting for the last round with Jack panting much harder than Colt was. â€Å"You’re doing great in there Jack but I’m gonna need you to kick it up a notch if we’re gonna win this thing† Thomas said trying to get a little more effort out of Jack. Jack nodded showing he understood what his coach needed. â€Å"Okay Jack, get back in there and show me some muscle.† The next round began and Jack and Colt touched gloves. They went straight back to exchanging blows and with everything seeming to go towards Jack’s favor. But Jack soon took a heavy uppercut straight to the bottom of hi s chin that sent him crashing backwards. He tried to quickly return to his feet but Colt was already on him. Colt began slinging quick blows to Jack’s head and Jack quickly got in full guard to protect himself. He was already tired but if he didn’t push through this struggle he wasn’t going to win this fight. He found an opening and threw Colt off of him andShow MoreRelatedshort story1018 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿Short Stories:  Ã‚  Characteristics †¢Short  - Can usually be read in one sitting. †¢Concise:  Ã‚  Information offered in the story is relevant to the tale being told.  Ã‚  This is unlike a novel, where the story can diverge from the main plot †¢Usually tries to leave behind a  single impression  or effect.  Ã‚  Usually, though not always built around one character, place, idea, or act. †¢Because they are concise, writers depend on the reader bringing  personal experiences  and  prior knowledge  to the story. Four MajorRead MoreThe Short Stories Ideas For Writing A Short Story Essay1097 Words   |  5 Pageswriting a short story. Many a time, writers run out of these short story ideas upon exhausting their sources of short story ideas. If you are one of these writers, who have run out of short story ideas, and the deadline you have for coming up with a short story is running out, the short story writing prompts below will surely help you. Additionally, if you are being tormented by the blank Microsoft Word document staring at you because you are not able to come up with the best short story idea, youRead MoreShort Story1804 Words   |  8 PagesShort story: Definition and History. A  short story  like any other term does not have only one definition, it has many definitions, but all of them are similar in a general idea. According to The World Book Encyclopedia (1994, Vol. 12, L-354), â€Å"the short story is a short work of fiction that usually centers around a single incident. Because of its shorter length, the characters and situations are fewer and less complicated than those of a novel.† In the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s DictionaryRead MoreShort Stories648 Words   |  3 Pageswhat the title to the short story is. The short story theme I am going conduct on is â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ by James Thurber (1973). In this short story the literary elements being used is plot and symbols and the theme being full of distractions and disruption. The narrator is giving a third person point of view in sharing the thoughts of the characters. Walter Mitty the daydreamer is very humorous in the different plots of his dr ifting off. In the start of the story the plot, symbols,Read MoreShort Stories1125 Words   |  5 PagesThe themes of short stories are often relevant to real life? To what extent do you agree with this view? In the short stories â€Å"Miss Brill† and â€Å"Frau Brechenmacher attends a wedding† written by Katherine Mansfield, the themes which are relevant to real life in Miss Brill are isolation and appearance versus reality. Likewise Frau Brechenmacher suffers through isolation throughout the story and also male dominance is one of the major themes that are highlighted in the story. These themes areRead MoreShort Story and People1473 Words   |  6 Pagesï » ¿Title: Story Of An Hour Author: Kate Chopin I. On The Elements / Literary Concepts The short story Story Of An Hour is all about the series of emotions that the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard showed to the readers. With the kind of plot of this short story, it actually refers to the moments that Mrs. Mallard knew that all this time, her husband was alive. For the symbol, I like the title of this short story because it actually symbolizes the time where Mrs. Mallard died with joy. And with thatRead MoreShort Story Essay1294 Words   |  6 PagesA short story concentrates on creating a single dynamic effect and is limited in character and situation. It is a language of maximum yet economical effect. Every word must do a job, sometimes several jobs. Short stories are filled with numerous language and sound devices. These language and sound devices create a stronger image of the scenario or the characters within the text, which contribute to the overall pre-designed effect.As it is shown in the metaphor lipstick bleeding gently in CinnamonRead MoreRacism in the Short Stor ies1837 Words   |  7 PagesOften we read stories that tell stories of mixing the grouping may not always be what is legal or what people consider moral at the time. The things that you can learn from someone who is not like you is amazing if people took the time to consider this before judging someone the world as we know it would be a completely different place. The notion to overlook someone because they are not the same race, gender, creed, religion seems to be the way of the world for a long time. Racism is so prevalentRead MoreThe Idol Short Story1728 Words   |  7 PagesThe short stories â€Å"The Idol† by Adolfo Bioy Casares and â€Å"Axolotl† by Julio Cortà ¡zar address the notion of obsession, and the resulting harm that can come from it. Like all addictions, obsession makes one feel overwhelmed, as a single thought comes to continuously intruding our mind, causing the individual to not be able to ignore these thoughts. In â€Å"Axolotl†, the narr ator is drawn upon the axolotls at the Jardin des Plantes aquarium and his fascination towards the axolotls becomes an obsession. InRead MoreGothic Short Story1447 Words   |  6 Pages The End. In the short story, â€Å"Emma Barrett,† the reader follows a search party group searching for a missing girl named Emma deep in a forest in Oregon. The story follows through first person narration by a group member named Holden. This story would be considered a gothic short story because of its use of setting, theme, symbolism, and literary devices used to portray the horror of a missing six-year-old girl. Plot is the literal chronological development of the story, the sequence of events

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Meaning of Saku in Japanese

Saku is a Japanese word meaning to bloom or to come out. Learn more about its pronunciation and usage in the Japanese language below. Pronunciation Click here to listen to the audio file. Meaning to bloom; to blossom; to come out Japanese Characters å’ ²Ã£   㠁•㠁  Example Translation Nohara ichimen ni kosumosu no hana ga saiteita.野原ä ¸â‚¬Ã©  ¢Ã£  «Ã£â€š ³Ã£â€š ¹Ã£Æ' ¢Ã£â€š ¹Ã£  ®Ã¨Å  ±Ã£ Å'å’ ²Ã£ â€žÃ£  ¦Ã£ â€žÃ£ Å¸Ã£â‚¬â€š or in English: The cosmos bloomed throughout the whole field.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Strategy and Analysis Free Essays

As the case explains, economic changes are a big concern for Danaher’s success. The following topics will be analyzed in addressing those concerns: Business-Level Strategy, Corporate-Level Strategy, External Analysis, Internal Analysis, Recommendations. Business Level Strategy Danaher uses mainly a Cost Leader Strategy with a few qualities of Product Differentiation. We will write a custom essay sample on Strategy and Analysis or any similar topic only for you Order Now Details of this can be found by looking at their DBS system. The system is designed to increase productivity and reduce costs. This gives them a learning curve and technological advantage. We will further discuss each of these advantages. The Learning Curve advantage is very valuable to the Danaher Corporation. The DBS was created based on the study of Toyota’s lean manufacturing process. The DBS system has been in use since 1988, but has been added to along the way. They have created and modified this system for not only continuous improvement, but also a system for implementing changes and operation of their corporation. This is what gives it its rarity and makes it costly to imitate. The learning curve is a form a temporary competitive advantage, because it can at some point be imitated. Even with the right technological system in play, what makes Danaher stand out is their technological advantage, especially their software. Their management teams are put through trainings, what they refer to as â€Å"boot camps†. These training courses for their employees, along with the tools that allow each level of the corporation to make improvements, create great relationships between labor and management. This empowers the employees with the know-how to get things done more efficiently. This adds tremendous value, and is rare and not seen in many corporations. This type of dedication to training is very costly to imitate. This has allowed them a sustained competitive advantage through the years. Corporate-Level Strategy Danaher Corporation uses the Merger and Acquisitions and a Diversification corporate level strategies. They have been identified as using a conglomerate merger strategy. Since their creation they have been acquiring other firms to further expand their business. They were not so much interested in vertical integrations, but in seemingly unrelated diversification. Their strategy for this has been to identify companies with growth rates between five and seven percent, along with other criteria. By imiting the growth size they were able to acquire large enough companies to be worth their time, but small enough companies to allow for great improvements and implementation of their DBS process. This strategy allowed them to reach economies of scale in their new company partly by their shared activities. This is what gave their strategy real value. They wanted room to improve the companies. Th ey did not attempt to take over the biggest companies, like many corporations have done. They typically aimed for companies in a segmented market, allowing them to consolidate the market. This gave this strategy the rarity for a competitive advantage. Their strategy has become costly to imitate because of their history and success with implementing their DBS in their corporate strategies. External Analysis One of the main threats to Danaher Corporation is the Threat of Rivalry. The private equity firms have been adopting the conglomerate merger strategy quite rapidly. The appeal of this strategy has opened the doors for the private equity firms and increased the threats of new entrants and rivalry. This increase in threats has made it very difficult for corporations to compete and survive with this type of strategy, because of the aggressiveness of the private equity firms. Danaher Corporation has to recognize this threat and make the appropriate changes. Even though these threats can be harmful to a corporation, it can also become an opportunity for them as well. Danaher is faced with the options of increasing the number of acquisitions, making larger acquisitions, or simply selling out to the private equity firms. These options also give Danaher the chance to adjust their strategy and to focus on the competitive advantages they have gained over their competitors. Most of their competitors do not have the organization and systems in place to maximize their profits. Internal Analysis One of Danaher’s biggest strengths is their DBS. The DBS has been the core of their operating model and acquisition strategy. This system has been with the company for over 20 years and has been perfected along the way. This has given them a sustained competitive advantage with both business-Level and Corporate-Level strategies. As explained above, this system is rare and costly to imitate. Not only that, but they have the organizational structure to use this strength to their advantage. Continuous improvement has been a strength, but seems to be losing the competitive advantage as the limitations to improvements are achieved. Recommendations * Shift to a more product differentiation strategy by focusing on Danaher’s reputation and linkages between firms. This shift will separate Danaher as the leader in the declining industry. * Decrease the threats of rivalry and new entrants into the market by divesting their underperformed companies. The increase in cash flow will allow for more growth through rapid acquisitions. * Focus on reducing operating costs by expanding the shared activities between companies within the corporation. How to cite Strategy and Analysis, Essay examples

Friday, May 1, 2020

reservation blues Essay Example For Students

reservation blues Essay Gloria Bird realizes that for generations Native Americans have had drinking problems, and she also realizes that it is difficult for native writers to accurately represent our communities without exploiting them.(G. Bird) However, Bird criticizes Alexie of embellishing or exaggerating the Native Americans despair. Alexie cannot ignore the alcohol situation when describing Native American culture, but Alexie does not need to make alcoholism a common trait amongst almost every Indian on the reservation and other reservations. Birds statement concerning Alexies embellishment of Native American despair due to alcoholism is an accurate interpretation of Reservation Blues. In Reservation Blues, almost every Native American is an alcoholic. Two of the main characters, Victor and Junior, spend all of their money on booze and get wasted on a regular basis. After the tavern had closed, Junior and Victor climbed into the water truck and passed out.(p.24) It is reasonable for there to be a few drunks, but Alexie introduces or makes references to too many Indians who either lost everything or their lives because of alcohol. When Thomas father Samuel is introduced he is drunk, and Alexie explains that this is normal, for Thomashad lost count of the number of times hed saved his father Once, a month, he bailed his father out of jail for drunk and disorderly behavior.(p.95) Even though Thomas didnt drink, he was always around drunks for even his father was a drunk. Even Thomas mother drank for most of her adult life. Chess asked Thomas if his mother drink when she was alive, and Thomas responded with She did. Bu she quit. She was sober when she died.(p.118) Thomas goes on to say that she quit because of an incident during a New Years Eve party. Dad got real drunk, kicked everybody out, and then took all the furniture out on the front lawn, and burned it.(p.118) Alexie does not just mention that Samuel is a drunk; he goes further to say that Samuel was an extremely talented ba sketball player, but alcohol caused Samuel to throw his basketball future away. Even when Samuel was a young man he was drinking, when the tribal cop, Wilson, asked Samuel and Lester, You two been drinking?(p.102) Lester responds with Ive been drinking since I was fiveKindergarten is hard on a man.(p.102) Lester is another secondary character that is introduced who happens to be a drunk, for that is how he got his name Lester FallsApart. Lester FallsApart, the most accomplished drunk on the Spokane Reservation,(p.151) However, It could be worse for Thomas, because both Victors and Juniors fathers were not just drunks but were also dead. In Reservation Blues, not much information is given about Victors parents; there are only references to the death of Victors father in Arizona and the simple fact that his mother is dead. The reason his father died in Arizona is that he could not bear any longer to live on the Spokane Reservation after what he did. One night he got drunk and accidentally set the house on fire and not everyone could be saved. Juniors parents didnt just come home drunk; once even they drove to the tavern with their children in the backseats. They would then go in the tavern for hours drinking while their children were still in the car. Finally, Juniors parents were at a party, and on their ride home they got in a car wreck and died. Alcoholism was not just a Spokane problem; it was part of every Native Americans life, because even the Native Americans that werent drunks themselves had either a close relative or a close friend that was a drunk. Chess and Checkers were Flathead Indians, and though they w ere not alcoholics their father was. Hed come home all drunk and screaming. Be talking about how he was a radio man during World War II.(p.119) Chess and Checkers father was neither old enough nor of the right tribe to have been in World War II. .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2 , .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2 .postImageUrl , .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2 , .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2:hover , .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2:visited , .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2:active { border:0!important; } .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2:active , .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2 .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u72672b55b9476b03b3ab4048d94cd9a2:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Clinton period EssayIt is understandable that Native Americans would have a higher percentage of Alcoholics than other Americans because that has been the trend for generations. It would be wrong for Alexie to avoid the subject, because alcohol plays a major role on reservations

Saturday, March 21, 2020

The Unexpected Essays (1203 words) - 9, , Term Papers

the unexpected The Unexpected by It was a Saturday morning, and I thought it would be a good time to go to the beach with my friends since I had nothing to do for the rest of the week. So I decided to call my best friend Sarah to see if she wanted to drive with me down to the beach Unfortunately, she had a wedding to go to, so she was not able to make it. I was a little disappointed, but I decided to go to the beach by myself. I left home at 3:30 p.m. and arrived at 5:00 p.m. to the beach house. Everything looked the same wa as it did last summer when I came with my sister. The only difference was now I was alone, and that was little scary. The next morning I went to one of my favorite cafes The Italian Coffee. This Cafe held good memories since last summer I worked there. The owners Mr. Roger and Mrs. Roger told me that a job was available if I wanted to work. I thanked them, but e lained that I had other plans for the summer. I told them that the restaurant looked great since it had been renovate d. It was very noisy and crowded, yet it had a wonderful atmosphere that customers like. Perhaps, it was the Italian music and the w derful smell of fresh coffee that attracted them. Suddenly a lady came over to my table and asked, '' How are you, Raquel?'' I told her, '' I'm sorry Maam I don't recognize you!. She replied, ''Oooh, Raquel , I'm Elizabeth's aunt''. I said, ''Of course, excuse me''. We started talking about h the place was crowded, and she told me that she had to meet a friend here, but she had not shown up. I told her that it was nice seeing here, but I was expecting a call and I had to go. She promised me she was going to tell Elizabeth to call me so w could get together for lunch soon. When I got home to check the answering machine, the telephone rang. It was mom. She said that Sarah was planning to come Monday, and if I needed anything to give her a call. I thanked her and said,'' You are not going to believe where I just came fr ?. She quickly replied, ''Don't eve n ask it '' The Italian Coffee''. '' You are right '' I giggled. '' The Rogers are doing great, working like crazy trying to make everything perfect '', I added. She said, '' Honey, I'll give you a call Friday n ht OK!. Good bye!''. So far my day was going great. I sat down and watched MTV. It was a re-run of '' The Real World''. I quickly fell asleep on the couch for two hours and was awakened by the door bell. It was Claudia Roger explaining that her mother had told her that was in town, so she decided to drop by. I told her , '' I'm glad you came by. Are you doing anything for lunch?''. When Claudia told me that she was available, we decided to go to the Dixie to get a cheese burger. On the way to the Dixie , we made a quick stoop by the shoe store to ask Mr. Edwards to tell his daughter that I was going to meet her at 5 o'clock so we could play volley ball with my friends. Mr. Edwards was concerned because he had eard rumors about a kidnapper in town. Since Elizabeth and I were running late , we didn't really pay munch attention to what he was saying. When we got home, Claudia left to go to work. Feeling in the mood for going to the beach, I packed all my th gs and drove there. When I got to the beach I couldn't find my friends, so I grabbed a magazine and all of the sudden felt asleep. Waking from my nap, I had a premonition that something bad was going to happen. I went back to the shoe store in the mall to tell Mr. Edwa s that I

Thursday, March 5, 2020

The Chernobyl Nuclear Accident

The Chernobyl Nuclear Accident The Chernobyl disaster was a fire at a Ukrainian nuclear reactor, releasing substantial radioactivity within and outside the region. The consequences to human and environmental health are still felt to this day. The V.I. Lenin Memorial Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station was located in Ukraine, near the town of Pripyat, which had been built to house power station employees and their families. The power station was in a wooded, marshy area near the Ukraine-Belarus border, approximately 18 kilometers northwest of the city of Chernobyl and 100 km north of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station included four nuclear reactors, each capable of producing one gigawatt of electric power. At the time of the accident, the four reactors produced about 10 percent of the electricity used in Ukraine. Construction of the Chernobyl power station began in the 1970s. The first of the four reactors was commissioned in 1977, and Reactor No. 4 began producing power in 1983. When the accident occurred in 1986, two other nuclear reactors were under construction. The Chernobyl Nuclear Accident On Saturday, ​April 26, 1986, the operating crew planned to test whether the Reactor No. 4 turbines could produce enough energy to keep the coolant pumps running until the emergency diesel generator was activated in case of an external power loss. During the test, at 1:23:58 am local time, power surged unexpectedly, causing an explosion and driving temperatures in the reactor to more than 2,000 degrees Celsius- melting the fuel rods, igniting the reactor’s graphite covering, and releasing a cloud of radiation into the atmosphere. The precise causes of the accident are still uncertain, but it is generally believed that the series of incidents that led to the explosion, fire, and nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl was caused by a combination of reactor design flaws and operator error. Loss of Life and Illness By mid-2005, fewer than 60 deaths could be linked directly to Chernobyl- mostly workers who were exposed to massive radiation during the accident or children who developed thyroid cancer. Estimates of the eventual death toll from Chernobyl vary widely. A 2005 report by the Chernobyl Forum- eight U.N. organizations- estimated the accident eventually would cause about 4,000 deaths. Greenpeace places the figure at 93,000 deaths, based on information from the Belarus National Academy of Sciences. The Belarus National Academy of Sciences estimates 270,000 people in the region around the accident site will develop cancer as a result of Chernobyl radiation and that 93,000 of those cases are likely to be fatal. Another report by the Center for Independent Environmental Assessment of the Russian Academy of Sciences found a dramatic increase in mortality since 1990- 60,000 deaths in Russia and an estimated 140,000 deaths in Ukraine and Belarus- probably due to Chernobyl radiation. Psychological Effects of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident The biggest challenge facing communities still coping with the fallout of Chernobyl is the psychological damage to 5 million people in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. The psychological impact is now considered to be Chernobyls biggest health consequence, said Louisa Vinton, of the UNDP. People have been led to think of themselves as victims over the years, and are therefore more apt to take a passive approach toward their future rather than developing a system of self-sufficiency.† Exceptionally high levels of psychological stress have been reported from the regions around the abandoned nuclear power station.   Countries and Communities Affected Seventy percent of the radioactive fallout from Chernobyl landed in Belarus, affecting more than 3,600 towns and villages, and 2.5 million people. The radiation-contaminated soil, which in turn contaminates crops that people rely on for food. Surface and ground waters were contaminated, and in turn plants and wildlife were (and still are) affected. Many regions in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine are likely to be contaminated for decades. Radioactive fallout carried by the wind was later found in sheep in the UK, on clothing worn by people throughout Europe, and in rain in the United States. Chernobyl Status and Outlook The Chernobyl accident cost the former Soviet Union hundreds of billions of dollars, and some observers believe it may have hastened the collapse of the Soviet government. After the accident, Soviet authorities resettled more than 350,000 people outside the worst areas, including all 50,000 people from nearby Pripyat, but millions of people continue to live in contaminated areas. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, many projects intended to improve life in the region were abandoned, and young people began to move away to pursue careers and build new lives in other places. In many villages, up to 60 percent of the population is made up of pensioners, said Vasily Nesterenko, director of the Belrad Radiation Safety and Protection Institute in Minsk. In most of these villages, the number of people able to work is two or three times lower than normal. After the accident, Reactor No. 4 was sealed, but the Ukranian government allowed the other three reactors to keep operating because the country needed the power they provided. Reactor No. 2 was shut down after a fire damaged it in 1991, and Reactor No. 1 was decommissioned in 1996. In November 2000, the Ukranian president shut down Reactor No. 3 in an official ceremony that finally closed the Chernobyl facility. But Reactor No. 4, which was damaged in the 1986 explosion and fire, is still full of radioactive material encased inside a concrete barrier, called a sarcophagus, that is aging badly and needs to be replaced. Water leaking into the reactor carries radioactive material throughout the facility and threatens to seep into the groundwater. The sarcophagus was designed to last about 30 years, and current designs would create a new shelter with a lifetime of 100 years. But radioactivity in the damaged reactor would need to be contained for 100,000 years to ensure safety. That is a challenge not only for today  but for many generations to come.

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

EPI in MRI Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

EPI in MRI - Essay Example Notably, the boundaries existing between fat and compact bone are affected by the rapid de-phasing of the transverse magnetic field as well as distorts the signal. Resultantly, this leads to the wrong positioning of the frequency in the phase direction. K-space line is another parameter that could be optimized so as to change the EPI. A shift in the k-space line from its normal line leads to geometric distortion (Amin & Afzal, 2009, p.232). Such a shift may be resulting from field in-homogeneities. However, this artefact is reduced by spin echo sequences, which do rephrase the spins each time a 180-degree pulse is applied. On the other hand, gradient echo structures of the refocusing of the artefact. Undeniably, EPI makes use of a gradient echo sequence, thus leading to the accumulation of the effect with no radiofrequency (RF) pulse to correct the same. It is worth noting that any accumulation of errors arising from phase encoding will be wrongly registered, thus exposing EPI to thi s artefact. In the event that the duration of the EPI trajectory if considerably long, the EPI itself gets to be affected even by small field in-homogeneities (Ye et al, 1996, p.219). Change in the parameter can be so achieved through increasing the bandwidth. Such an action will lead to a reduction in the echo time (TE). So as to realize more ramp sampling, the dwell time can be increased. In optimizing EPI, the frequency of the phase encoding can be increased using a zero filling. The end result of this is an increase in resolution. On the other hand, TE can be increased so as to increase the transverse magnetization, thus giving a greater T2 and T2*. Moreover, a gradient with a relatively high performance can be used in optimising EPI (Ye et al, 1996, p.220). Bandwidth represents the frequency range resulting from the already read gradient across the field-of-view (FOV). This measure is quite imperative in the determination the