MediaSpark Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

MediaSpark - Case Study Example The estimated target market left the company with no choice, but to choose America and Canada due to the large number of elementary schools. The major problem on the marketing strategy to be used in selling and distributing the product was the main concern. Georghiou felt that it was going to be difficult to convince the educators about the product without trial; they needed to see and try the product before making decisions. The market price of the product was; however, going to vary depending on the country and the user. Further to this, they identified various distribution channels that would handle the distribution and advertising duties (Lionais et al. 24). Although the product sell was successful, the solutions came with various advantages and disadvantages. The use of educational catalogue enabled selling several products to the educational institutions through online catalogues and publications; however, they would not sell Go Venture Entrepreneur in North America through any other channel because he had reached the teachers he had wished to reach. The use of software distribution as an indirect distribution channel was going to give the product a high profile than the text books and catalogues; however, the software distribution channel was highly fragmented with no companies operating in both the U.S. and Canada market. The choice of MarkED was disadvantaged because it lacked a sales force that would complement the catalogue. Furthermore, Georghiou was not sure if it was going to reach the teachers. On the other hand, IBM was technology-based and was already making distributions to schools (Lionais et al. 26). They then made an ag reement on a distribution that would last two years. He also had the choice of using an in-house distribution channel. He was going to hire sales representatives in the two countries to conduct sales, email campaigns, CD demos, public speaking, direct mails, seminars, and catalogue sales. Here, he would make a much

Hybrid and electric cars Essay Example for Free

Hybrid and electric cars Essay Several types of vehicles which use alternative sources of energy have already been developed. These are mainly aimed at controlling the levels of air pollution and to provide a cheaper means of technology, especially with the increasing oil prices. With today’s current economic situation, many money saving cars have hit the road, such as hybrids from Toyota and Honda. However, our society thinks that the hybrid or electric car is a recent advancement, when in fact there were actually more electrics than gas fueled cars on the road in the 1800s. The aim of this research paper is to find out why the society is oblivious to this fact. The history of the electric car The history of the electric vehicle started from the first successful attempt to store electrical energy made by Alessandro Volta in Italy in 1800. The next event of major significance was in 1921, when Michael Faraday demonstrated that wire rod carrying electric current supplied by a Volta pile would rotate around a fixed magnet of one end and was unconstrained by allowing it to hang in a bath of mercury. He also showed that the magnet would rotate around the wire if the fixed and moving elements were reversed. Furthermore, the direction of rotation was reversed if the polarity of the electric current was reversed. This was the principle of the electric motor. In 1832, an electric motor was operated by having a bar magnet mounted on a shaft rotating inside stationary coils of wire in which the electric current was successfully switched by contacts on the shaft. The first electric motor was first constructed in 1968, but it was not until 1973 that the first road vehicles were driven. Interest had also developed in competitions between internal combustion-engine vehicles to show which was superior in speed and reliability. Leitman etal, pg 62-67) While all these developments in electric vehicles were going on, the gasoline fueled internal combustion engine vehicles were also being rapidly developed, so that by 1900, the market for automobiles was almost equally divided between the three contenders of steam, electricity and gasoline. Enthusiasm of the electric vehicle was strong at this time; primarily because of its ease of starting without tiresome need to hand crank the engine. The12 years from 1900 to 1912 was the golden age for electric vehicles, although gasoline-powered vehicles were developing rapidly over this period. In 1903, there were more electric vehicles in London than these powered by the internal combustion engine, but this situation did not last for long. By 1909 when the model T was launched it was already clear that the race for personal transport had been won by internal combustion engine This did not stop the number of electric vehicles in use in the USA increasing to a peak of 30,0000 in 1912. However, by this date, there were 900,000 gasoline engine vehicles on the road in that country, and comparable numbers in Europe. Slowly, the electric car manufacturers went out of business, or started manufacturing gasoline powered vehicles. Leitman etal, pg 62-67) Pollution in the modern era From the 1970s, the interest in electric cars began to appear again; air pollution caused by gasoline engines was beginning to be of concern and a number of small firms were set up to try and met the new demand of electric vehicles. The Ford Motor Company of Britain was asked to look at the possibility of designing a small electric car for urban use which was small enough to occupy minimum road and parking space, had high maneuverability, minimum pollution, was simple to operate and had low initial and running costs. Plant etal, pg 234) The 1990 mandate At the beginning of the 1990s, the electric vehicle had already been improved. They became more marketable, and people preferred them more than the other vehicles. One of the reasons that people preferred to use these vehicles was the fact that they did not use fuel. It was also cheaper and easy to recharge them. These cars were more effective in the 1990s, when the concerns for the environment were on the rise. This forced most car manufacturing industries, being led by General Motors to start manufacturing the electrical vehicles. Since the rate of emissions from gas fueled cars was increasing, the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 was enacted. This Act required a reduction in the vehicle emissions (so called Tier 1 controls) by the 1994 model year. It also authorized even stricter Tier II controls on a contingency basis, which was to be imposed by 2004 by the EPA administrator, if further studies showed that they needed, technically feasible, and cost effective. The 1990 Act also put up standards to check the evaporative emissions (emissions that occur after engines are shut off. ) (Collantes etal) California, being the leading state in air pollution, was required by the 1990 law to impose stricter vehicle emissions standards. The state therefore made it a requirement that the manufacturers achieve in stages, fleet-weighted average emissions that would have been lower than the ones mandated by the federal Tier I regulations, beginning with the 1994 model year. All The car manufacturers were authorized to manufacture several zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs, effectively electric-powered cars) by 1998. They were also required to have achieved a total market share of at least 10% by the year 2003. The Clean Air Amendments Act of 1990 also stated that other States should opt to voluntarily set the Environmental Conservation standards that had been set by California. Some of the North Eastern States, including New York and Massachusetts imposed similar rules in their states. The Ozone Transport Commission, through another provision of the 1990 Act, was also persuaded by some of its members to ask the EPA to pass the auto technology measures on the whole region. The imposition of the laws was required because some of the states had no intention of passing the Californian standards voluntarily. If EPA had passed these auto technology measures on all the states, then the electric cars would have taken over 40% of the entire U. S auto market. (Collantes, etal) However, this petition was debated on a lot. It was said that the technology then was not ready to meet such high targets. Another reason the proposal was rejected was due to the fact that the battery technology could only give a little range to the vehicles, besides this, the infrastructure to meet them was inadequate. The industry instead proposed an alternative to the Californian standards, which was to market a national low-emitting vehicle (NLEV) in 49 states. This alternative was tougher than what the law had required the automakers to do, and could meet only the first two levels of the Californian standards. It is clear that the industry was definitely opposed to the idea of an electric vehicle, because it passed the alternative laws, which required all states to ignore the zero emissions Act. For several years, the EPA was unable to make an agreement with between the thirteen jurisdictions and the industry. Also, California was successful in delaying the implementation if the zero electric vehicle mandate until model year 2003. Of all the states, only Massachusetts, Mine, Mew York and Vermont adopted the Californian requirements and refused to accept the NLEV as a substitute to the law, and the industry would not produce it either, unless they did. In the beginning of 1998, there was stiff competition among the â€Å"Big Three† U. S. and three major Japanese companies manufacturing cars. This therefore pushed them to pledge voluntarily to market the NLEV vehicles in the forty-five states which had not mandated Californian cars. This shows that the auto industry was among the reasons why the electric car was not so successful in the market. Collantes, etal) Were it not for the fact that the U. S. levels of air pollution are increasing every day, the industry would not have realized the need to manufacture the electric vehicles. Although the gasoline-electric cars were also a way to reduce the air pollution, the electric cars would have been more effective. This also shows the extent to which people and the auto industries disliked the electric car. Benefits of the electric cars Although the electric cars are a bit inferior compared to the petrol engine or diesel engine vehicles, they have several attributes. They are quiet, and therefore provide an appealing driving feel to the user. The major benefits are however on air pollution, the cars reduce the energy use and the green house emissions; they are zero emitting. The pollution benefits are also large, considering the amount of pollution generated at the power plant. The electric vehicle batteries have the capability to practically eliminate the carbon monoxide emissions and volatile the unburned hydrocarbons and hence diminish the nitrogen oxide emissions regardless of how electricity is generated. (Nakamura etal, pg 223-228) The pollution benefits would be greatest in places like California where most of the electricity comes from tightly controlled natural gas plants and zero-emitting hydroelectric and nuclear plants. They could also be of help to a country like France, which gets most of its electricity from nuclear power. Highly populated cities like Mexico City, Beijing, Bangkok, and Kathmandu, which also source their electricity from nucleus power, could also take advantage of the electric vehicles. Another advantage is that with an electric vehicle, all you have to do is to recharge the battery at home. You don’t have to worry of the increasing fuel prices or that you have to pass through the gas station on your way to work. In the 1990s, people used to worry that their batteries will run out of charge and cause them inconveniences. However, this has changed, as there are new and better batteries nowadays, with the ability to store charge for longer periods. The battery powered vehicles should be effective today, especially with global warming on the increase. With all these benefits, the electric vehicle needs to be marketed and manufactured in large scale. The government and the manufacturers need to promote the car, as much as they do to the fuel powered vehicles. A former employee of general motors in the 1990s said that one of the reasons why the electric vehicles did not sell well is because enough advertising was not done. The government has greatly contributed to the low popularity of the electric vehicles. Realizing that cars manufactured in foreign countries could attract more demand than those produced in the U. S. , it opted to support the manufacture of the fuel powered cars, which were more preferred by the public, to the electric powered vehicles. It was also ineffective because it failed to enact the 1990 Clean Air Enforcement Act. Fuel manufacturing companies, on the other hand, fearing that they would lose the market for fuel, sided with the government in the support for the manufacture of the fuel powered vehicles. The lack of vigorous campaigns to market the electric vehicles is one of the reasons why they are so unpopular today. The fact that the electric cars were once crushed to pieces shows the extent to which their popularity was. Americans have also been ignorant to the idea of promoting the electric car. They have preferred the hybrid cars to the electric cars, ignoring the fact that they have more benefits. (Paine) Conclusion For the past few years, General Motors has been trying to revive the popularity of the electric vehicles. One of the reasons that brought the realization that there was a need to bring back the electric car was the attack of the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon, and the plane that clashed in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. All these instances showed that complete reliance on imported oil is a big threat to the financial and the national security. Also, the onset of the global economic crisis, which resulted to an increase in the oil prices, made Americans realize the importance of the electric car. America faces the challenge of energy security, reduction of its reliance on imported oil and the ways in which global warming can be reduced. Electric cars could be the solution to these challenges. The ironic twist of events about national security, oil and the climate change has at last brought the understanding that to stabilize our economy; we need to use the electric cars.

Agents of Socialization Essay -- essays research papers

Agents of socialization in short are the people, groups, and social institutions, as well as the interactions within these groups that influence a person’s social and self-development. Agents of socialization are believed to provide the critical information needed for children to function successfully as a member of society. Some examples of such agents are family, neighborhood, schools, peers, religion, sports, the workplace, and especially the mass media. Each agent of socialization is linked to another. For example, in the media, symbolic images affect both the individual and the society, making the mass media the most controversial socialization agent. One of the most obvious places agents of socialization lay is in the malls of America. Malls are filled with advertisements and consumed by the mass media touching on all levels of society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  No one is immune from the affect of the agents of socialization that exist in malls. Anyone and everyone who is part of a society is a product of socialization. Within every advertisement, clothing store, toy store, arcade, music store, etc, there is a gender preferred subliminal message being sent. The way toys are divided into male sections and female sections and the way advertisements portray all men and women in a certain way contribute to societies â€Å"norm† of gender roles. The mass media is one of the most influential agents of socialization and malls are surrounded by it. The messages given through the media act as the teachers of gender roles, values, ideologies, and beliefs, and individuals who pick up on these messages eventually take on, whats thought to be, the normative roles of society. Both boys and girls rely on society’s expectations in regard to both masculinity and femininity in order to interpret interaction and to develop exp ectations for themselves and those around them. It is because of these agents of socialization, that gender roles are created. Advertisements portray both men and women in characteristically stereotypical fashions that support the various institutions and socialization agents. The women depicted in these advertisements fit the stereotypical roles related to sexuality by focusing on beauty, body image, and physical attractiveness. They are skinny and tan, with teeth as white as paper and hair looking healthy and fresh. Girls in society look up to th... ...re much more scarce. For the more adult cards, those for women all had jokes pertaining to looks, weight and/or sex life, while the men’s cards had jokes pertaining to hair loss, blindness, beer belly’s etc. One card I noticed entailed for women had a picture of a gorgeous, tan, and muscular male with the â€Å"washboard stomach†, and on the inside was a joke saying something along the lines of how one would love this as her present. This send the message to guys that to be a desirable man, they need to be the typical â€Å"tall, dark, and handsome† prince of their dreams, and vise versa for the men’s cards. One card for a male had a picture of a â€Å"Bay Watch Babe† assuming that any typical guy would want a woman like that. This tells women that in order to be desirable to men they need to be skinny, gorgeous, and have a high sexual appeal. Wrapping paper is available to â€Å"fit† both sexes. In one bin there’s a collect ion of wrapping paper with trucks, tractors, bulldozers etc, and in the other there is a collection of wrapping paper with Barbie and friends, dolls, butterflies etc for girls. Anyone would get the message that one bin is entailed for males, and the other is entailed for females.

Enterprise Data Storage Essay

Data Storage is generally divided into two; one is customer storage, which only uses typical disk drives, flash drives or local hard disk in PC or in laptop. While Enterprise Data Storage is the mainly use for large enterprise storage for big industry or company. The data that is being stored in this centralize storage comes from a variety of source, it can either come from customer transactions, that can come from the different parts of the globe, it can also include local data storage for development purposes, like these storage can hold data samples for integration testing and Users Acceptance Testing by both the development team and the customers respectively. Enterprise Data Storage is much prevalent in huge data centers, where amount of data running around the clock and these data are carefully stored and even backup properly. Data in these call centers is the most important one, more than anything, like the transaction report that happen between the customers and the call center agent, which in every end of each transaction, it will be stored in central database, where another team will automatically gets the information based on certain business process of the system, to actually addressed the issue, and so on and so forth. So this means that data in call centers are interconnected to many groups and that is why not even a small downtime is acceptable in their operation. To better implement effective enterprise data storage, there are four important factors must be considered: (1) storage, (2) backup, (3) archiving and (4) disaster recovery. In storage, this means that there should be enough storage capacity for all the transaction needed to run for all the entire systems and with ideal buffer systems in case there will be immediate need for additional space, next one is backup, it is already a common to all industries whether it is running in one server or in enterprise large type, backup plays a vital role in enterprise data storage, it does not only mean that regularly, based on scheduled task by the infrastructure team that the system will automatically backup it every 12MN of every day, but most importantly the importance of backup is to provide confidence to the company that data and information can be rolled back anytime if needed. Archiving is somehow, is something important for keeping both historical information, actually archiving does not work like as backup, archiving only happens in a certain period agreed by the management, and at this point not everything is being archived only those of high risk informat ion are being archived. Lastly, Disaster Recovery, these is also one of the most important use of enterprise data storage, that is to give confidence to the management and the whole company itself, that the company can still perform and no expectation of stop operation will happen, if problems encountered in the systems used by the company or faced with some unexpected events like fire, earthquakes, etc. (Enterprise Data Storage, n. d. ). Data Storage Industry and where it is going Data Storage Industries have earlier predicted that there are five most important information management and data storage trends for 2006. The first one was compliance; compliance talks more on the process side on how technically and procedurally things should be done, in order to avoid misbehavior of the company systems. It also provides a better deal of quality and reliability for the system to work better, since there are already set guidelines, and these guidelines where set after a series of study made and those where also the important input to the compliancy requirements of each processes, that is why if everything will just be followed according to plan, there should be no problem. Secondly, is Security, you can say it can be both physical and data security, for physical security these are the tangible component of your data systems, from the smallest valued mouse or keyboard up to the most critical enterprise servers that you keep in the company, which is important to secure these physical component of your company systems. Data security is still one of the most prevalent problems nowadays, with network access given to everyone, which definitely needs anyway in performing their job, there will still be problems about data security, the only way to combat this problem is to have a constant monitoring daily, actually if possible there should be either systems that will monitor this problems like firewalls, data encryption systems, and even tailored made mapping system fro each users or teams must be strictly be applied. Third, is Integrated backup, here it is simply better backup procedure and archival must be well implemented, like better naming convention and other systematic practices must be applied, Fourth is Virtualization, which also one of the top priority in 2006, this actually means the implementation of state of the art network system that will provide a smooth and faster networking from all the different locations where the company is operating, factors like bandwidth, virtual memory and transfer rate of speed, which is vital in transferring data within the network. Lastly is ECM or Enterprise Content Management, which continues to be one of the biggest challenge to all industry or company, because here we are actually looking at the importance of documentation and keeping it within the company systems, from the simplest how the different systems works, customer manual and up to company policies and procedures that in order to have a better grip of their job, these should be well stored in central repository and from there anyone can easily gets it through the network. (Top Five Information Management & Storage Trends for 2006, n. d. ). Actually, Enterprise data storage industries are continually giving big impact for the company, with the growing demand for data storage, most especially at this point we are now working globally like the existence of call centers worldwide, and that makes enterprise data storage becomes vital. Because in Data Centers, we are not only talking about one server but multiple servers running around the globe, which you can see, setup is like per country, but if you have purchased a enterprise data storage server that are really huge, the implementation can be by geographical zone, like one for Asia Pac, North America, Europe, etc. Lynx Technologies is one of the well known companies that specialize in enterprise data storage products, includes backup/recovery and business continuity implementation which is important for compliancy of the company. The main focus of the company is combining effective networking infrastructure and enterprise data storage solutions. From data storage hardware requirement, data storage management software, secure data storage. Some of the main data storage, for its disaster recovery includes on-line backup and data backup software. And lastly for its compliance service it includes HIPAA/ Sox Data Security. Limitation of local data center that only safe keeps the data storage that runs in the local network, the trend that was being look on to and continue to be a strong importance in the future is more on not only Total data Storage Backup but also must include and prepare to have the recovery solutions, which uses Enterprise Level Onsite Data Storage, and Remote Offsite Data Storage Solutions. Remote or Offsite data storage is one of the best service for data storage by enterprises that works very often outside their company network, and since you are detached and you need to be connected to your company network, this product provides you immediate access and with that, because of the speed of transfer on your data, it can provide your customer and yourself better appreciation on the system. It is also a very cost effective solution for all business partners, staffs and other stakeholders because they can easily work even not connected to their local company network. And with the big capacity and networking efficiency of this solution, which is the most critical part of the business at this time. In the future, what the industry looks onto is more on convenience and accessibility is being look onto, where people can work at home and students can attend to open university, and with that they only need to securely connect online through wireless connection and from there they can easily get a grip of the information needed. Upon using online data storage or remote data storage, it will not just easily be implemented right away because there should be compliance check on this before it will be implemented. The compliance is being conducted by HIPPA or Sarbanes Oxley. The following major impact to the industry is reliable and immediate availability to data and information in different strategic location, as well as easy deployment of application for the target customer. (Enterprise Level Onsite (Online) Data Storage, & Remote Offsite Data Storage Solutions, n. d. ). HP also has provided a good support on the future requirement of enterprise data storage. HP it is the primary storage or data deduplication will be the future of most industry. Active research and study for these technology movers in the future of data storage is being conducted at the company, and this will be the common data storage trend for all data storage industry in 2009-2010. Alongside with it there will also be encryption process that would separately take place, which will also be the part of the feature for data storage on the future. Another HP prediction is the integration of its high end applications with data storage, meaning putting their application on a high scale level. Specific integration like in search engines for faster processing. And since data warehousing is also gaining popularity and great acceptance by most companies at the present the need for scalable data storage will also be an immediate need, because having to implement that would make presentation and downloading of reports in a front end-system like with that of using portal technology will be faster and easy. Since the creation of application, development of databases and managing business intelligence tool and datawarehosuing will be in one very powerful enterprise data storage also includes the effective implementation of networking infrastructure, you can say that customers will no longer ask for more and sure enough satisfaction rating will really be high. (Pariseau, Beth, 2007). Next is CISCO, and this time, it will be how the look of a large call centers see how enterprise data storage works. Data Centers for Call Centers have greatly impacted the change in the industry not only storage requirements, which obviously increasing, but almost every factors in Information Technology it is impacted a lot. Actually there are two important aspects, Technology applied, and Data Centers Storage and Servers. To start with, Technology applied, for CISCO as one of the most well known and trusted name in their field, the implementation of VOIP, which makes it very effective and convenient in combining data and voice in one cable. One of its products SRST or Survival Remote Site Telephony which is used to protect the voice in case of server network failure. Data Centers Storage and Servers, in a typical data center, it is actually almost different types of server and data storage running for a typical call center that runs global support. For SAN or Storage Area Network, Most of the well trusted storage used is EMC and HP. The data center has production servers, where all application is installed for the customer to use and access. It also connects to hundreds of host to their data storage server. Which means that, many applications on the web or in client server applications that are being hosted by the enterprise data storage server and with that the enterprise data storage server hold critical data which all of the application gets and stored or even backup. The SAN is made up of CISCO’s MDS multi layer switches. SAN has greatly improve and utilize the storage resource. And, since it is used for large data centers, with multiple servers, it hold 2 Petabytes or a huge 2 quadrillion bytes of data, which even the numbers are hard to count. With this capacity you can say that it is a good example and direction for all enterprise data storage industries should be. Another one is the Tape Backup Storage, this is used for backup of important and necessary records or data. It’s primary purpose if to be on standby backup. This is actually designed to support the critical systems, that whenever there will be problem in the main site, this will be placed as the data storage to be used. (Data Center Storage and Servers, 2004).

Casablanca †Hollywood Essay

It is certainly undeniable that â€Å"Casablanca† is one of the best known Hollywood classics of all time. But its illustrious reputation does not make it one of the best Hollywood classics in history. There are mainly two points to that claim, one is that Casablanca did not land a tasteful ending, and second is that the protagonist of the Richard â€Å"Rick† Blaine, considered as one of the greatest lovers in history, did not actually love Ilsa. The ending of Casablanca is obviously far from classic Hollywood endings, in which all the major conflicts are resolved. It is not that the ending was poorly written, as stated earlier, it is just lacking some elements of classic Hollywood endings. In the concluding part of the film, Rick and Ilsa had to part ways for second and final time. They had split up without the knowledge of what the other person truly feels. This particular aspect of the ending somehow creates a static noise in the readers because things remain unresolved, not to mention heart-wrenchingly tragic. Moreover, it is just ironic that event though Casablanca is one of the most loved love stories in film history, the protagonist of the story Richard â€Å"Rick† Blaine seems to be incapable of genuine love. There are several possible reasons why he had left Ilsa in the ending. One of which is that he had an insecurity that he cannot compete against someone like Laszlo for the affection of Ilsa. The second possible reason is much worse, he could have left Ilsa because he wanted to get back at her for leaving him in their first split up. Again, this paper does not state that Casablanca is bad film. It just does not fit the stereotypes of classic Hollywood films and love stories. Perhaps its unconventionality had made it one of the most popular films to be ever shown in the big screen. Moreover, the ending of the film and Rick’s inability to genuinely love makes the film realistic, thus less fictional.

Free Essays on Wood As A Building Material

Wood as a Building Material Wood is one of mankind’s oldest construction materials. Wood continues to be used widely for residential, and commercial construction, and industrial buildings. It is also used to construct such things as piers, bridges, retaining walls, and power transmission towers. 90% of houses are constructed of wood. There are several properties that influence its use in a construction application. Wood has several advantages over other building materials such as steel or concrete. It is a renewable source we can chop down as many trees as we want and just plant more. Wood is light weight and easy to handle and ship. The physical and chemical properties of it allow us to work it into different shapes to suit our needs. Wood is very strong for its weight and is easy fastened with nails, screws, staples, or glue. Another strong point of wood is that wooden structures can easily be altered or repaired. It has low heat conductivity and resists damage from weather fairly well. There are three different classifications of wood we use; hard wood, soft wood, and treated wood. Hard and soft wood refer to the type of tree it comes from and treated wood is either soft or hard wood with some chemical treatment to resist decay and insects, and where it comes in contact with masonry or concrete. Hardwoods are deciduous trees that shed leaves annually. Some common types are found around this part of the country: walnut, maple, cherry, oak, and mahogany. Softwoods are conifers or evergreens, which are cone or needle bearing trees. Some common types of those are pine, fir, cedar, and redwood. The terms soft and hard wood do not necessarily refer to the woods strength properties. In fact some soft woods are actually harder than hardwoods, such as southern yellow pine, which is a very popular choice for construction grade lumber. A tree is made mainly of the sapwood and heartwood, but there are other pa... Free Essays on Wood As A Building Material Free Essays on Wood As A Building Material Wood as a Building Material Wood is one of mankind’s oldest construction materials. Wood continues to be used widely for residential, and commercial construction, and industrial buildings. It is also used to construct such things as piers, bridges, retaining walls, and power transmission towers. 90% of houses are constructed of wood. There are several properties that influence its use in a construction application. Wood has several advantages over other building materials such as steel or concrete. It is a renewable source we can chop down as many trees as we want and just plant more. Wood is light weight and easy to handle and ship. The physical and chemical properties of it allow us to work it into different shapes to suit our needs. Wood is very strong for its weight and is easy fastened with nails, screws, staples, or glue. Another strong point of wood is that wooden structures can easily be altered or repaired. It has low heat conductivity and resists damage from weather fairly well. There are three different classifications of wood we use; hard wood, soft wood, and treated wood. Hard and soft wood refer to the type of tree it comes from and treated wood is either soft or hard wood with some chemical treatment to resist decay and insects, and where it comes in contact with masonry or concrete. Hardwoods are deciduous trees that shed leaves annually. Some common types are found around this part of the country: walnut, maple, cherry, oak, and mahogany. Softwoods are conifers or evergreens, which are cone or needle bearing trees. Some common types of those are pine, fir, cedar, and redwood. The terms soft and hard wood do not necessarily refer to the woods strength properties. In fact some soft woods are actually harder than hardwoods, such as southern yellow pine, which is a very popular choice for construction grade lumber. A tree is made mainly of the sapwood and heartwood, but there are other pa...

The Point Sample Method of Timber Cruising

The Point Sample Method of Timber Cruising Ed. Note: The first essential step toward selling timber or timberland is an inventory. It is a necessary step which enables the seller to set a realistic price on both the wood and the land. The inventory and methods used to determine volumes are also used between sales to make silvicultural and management decisions. Here is the equipment you need, the cruising procedure and how to calculate the cruise. This report is based on an article written by Ron Wenrich. Ron is a sawmill consultant and has extensive knowledge on how to inventory your forest using the point sampling method. All links included were chosen by the editor. Equipment For a timber cruise, other equipment besides the angle gauge will be needed. Some like to do a systematic cruise where plots are taken at regular intervals throughout the stand. In addition to an angle gauge, a compass, and a property map, something to accurately determine diameter should be taken along. Plots Each plot will represent a 1/10 acre sample. Its a good idea to do a 10% sample and take point samples at 200 ft intervals. This is a little better than a 10% cruise, but it is easy to plot on a map and is easy to locate on the ground. For a 10% sample, every acre will need 1 plot. A 5% cruise can be taken by taking point samples at 300 ft intervals. There is no need to run cruise lines through fields or other treeless areas. It is also best to cruise when leaves are not a factor - spring and fall are best. Each plot will take about 5 to 10 minutes to locate and record, depending on conditions of both the area and the cruiser. Paces For point location, use a compass and pace system. But before starting it is important to know how many paces you take to make 100 ft. To do this, measure 100 ft on a level surface. Simply walk the distance to find how many paces it takes to complete 100 ft. (some people use 66 ft. or a chain to compute their grid using a chain length). When pacing it is important to remember that you are measuring level distances. On slopes, you will have to take a few more paces to find your level point. The more severe the slope, the more paces that are necessary. Brushy conditions will also make it necessary to slip a few paces, since your gait will be altered. Walking downhill will cause your gait to be longer, so not as many paces will be needed to compensate as walking uphill. Accuracy is not a factor in plot location, so if youre off, it wont impact your results. Point Samples Before the cruise, you will need to establish where your points are to be placed. Make a map of the property or you can use aerial photos. From a known starting point that can be found on the ground, start to run north-south and east-west lines in a grid at every 200 ft. for a 10% sample. Where the lines intersect is where the point samples are to be taken. Successive plots do not have to be all in one line. Turning to get a plot is helpful and should be used where there are natural obstacles, such as wet areas, etc. For the actual cruise, it may be useful to take some sort of staff along to keep track of your plot center. Ribbon can also be used. I always take it down when done with the plot. Cruising Starting at your known point, run your line to your first point. Along the way, you can mark on your map, anything that is of notice, such as a stream, road, fence, or timber type change. This will help if you are making a type map or are writing a management report. At the first point, take your angle gauge and count the number of trees that fall into your plot. For each plot, take note of each counted tree by species, diameter, and merchantable height. Diameters should be tallied by 2 diameter classes. Tree form may also be noted. Any pertinent information should be noted before moving on to your next plot. Also note any trees that you would remove at each point. This can be used as a preliminary cruise for harvesting. Keep each plot information separate. After all the lines are run, you will have a complete map of your property. Just connect where roads, fences and other occurrences intersect. Ronald D. Wenrich is a sawmill management consultant from Jonestown, Pennsylvania, USA. This Penn State graduate has logged timber, inspected treated forest products, been a mill foreman, procured wood, and is now a sawmilling specialist and consultant.