Stellar Restoration And Home Improvement To Fulfill Your Dreams And Satisfy Your Budget Essay Example for Free

Stellar Restoration And Home Improvement To Fulfill Your Dreams And Satisfy Your Budget Essay Our highly trained experts are available to help you increase the value, appeal and comfort of your home or to restore it to its former beauty after a fire, flood or other disaster. Plus, our prices are unbeatable in the market, so contact us now and start on your way to a more beautiful home. Remodeling Our contractors have decades of experience installing plumbing, wiring, heating, cooling and other critical features of any well-crafted home. Plus our extensive knowledge and skill will provide you with the highest quality workmanship in gutting out damaged and outdated structures, and installing stylish hardwood floors, tiling, and dry wall. We also specialize in the installation of bathroom and kitchen fixtures, such as pedestal sinks, hot tubs, baths, granite countertops, appliances and tiling which add a critical level of value to your home. Additions Our solid workmanship offers you the most reliable foundation work and the hardiest structures built with the strongest wood and concrete materials. We are experts at the construction and installation of fencing, iron bars, decks, carpeting, garage doors, driveways and much more. Plus, our in-house landscapers are specialists and will give your yard a lush, manicured and well-kept feel. Fire Damage Fire and smoke can ruin plumbing systems and affect your ability to restore your home on your own. We have the expertise to remove the effects of wet and dry smoke, protein and hard-to-remove soot. Plus, we have the knowledge that lets us pre-test to evaluate the extent to which restoration is possible so you don’t waste money. Water Damage The contractors we represent have the ability to help your home recover from water damage so that it looks like the disaster never occurred. We use the most powerful submersible or portable pumps, dehumidifiers, and anti-microbial agents to remove micro-organisms that might cause harm to you. Plus, we have the know-how to tackle even the toughest mold problem.

Critique of The Day After Tomorrow Essay -- Movie Film Review Global W

Critique of The Day After Tomorrow   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The movie, The Day After Tomorrow, addresses the issue of global warming. The movie?s portrayal of the events caused by global warming was extreme and not very believable. Some of the information is backed up by science but most is completely off the wall and nonrealistic.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The movie cited the cause of the global climate change to be the rise in temperature due to greenhouse gasses. The warmer temperatures caused the polar ice caps to melt, and the increased amount of freshwater in the ocean disrupted the North Atlantic Current. The North Atlantic Current is what is responsible for the warm temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere. With the current disrupted the Northern Hemisphere went into an ice age. In real life, the polar ice caps are melting, but at a rate not even close to that of the one represented in the movie. Even if the ice was melting at a quicker rate, the chance that it would throw off the North Atlantic Current is slim to none. Also, there is no way that the ice would melt so quickly that a change that drastic would be made.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another major issue I had with the movie was its temperature inconsistencies. In the movie, scientists warned people about going outside. They say that if one was to go outside that they would freeze to death. The movie also showed a wooly mammoth which froze to death immediately at the time of the first ice age. These examples were placed in the movie to highlight the ext...

Fleet Management System Essay

ABSTRACT The current situation in Kenya demands a good fleet management due to the  rising factors of economy that needs to be addressed in order to have a flourishing economy. Vehicles aid in transportation of goods and services in government offices. Effective use of transportation resources especially in the government we help a great deal in keeping the country’s economy at per with other developing states around the globe. It also helps improve service delivery and good governance. Currently, there are no effective ways of monitoring and managing the government vehicles. In order to have a good method of controlling the vehicles in different government departments, we need a good fleet management system. Fleet management system is focused on maintenance management, and helps people to ensure that fleet assets are maintained properly and on schedule. The system controls the entire operations of a vehicle to enable effective utilization of the vehicles and more so to increase accountability among the civil servants. It is aimed at keeping drivers records, vehicle details and records of bookings made. The system goes beyond maintenance management to offer optional features such as fuel logging, personnel records, route logging and inventory tracking. The system enables you to establish a pre-emptive approach to fleet maintenance management. It helps you prevent costly, unexpected break-fix scenarios and downtime due to neglected fleet vehicles and equipment. It serves as a ready resource for fleet maintenance history, fuel usage, and all expenses associated with operating a fleet of motor vehicles and other mechanical assets. It also help significantly ease your reliance on a pen and a paper. The research adopted a questionnaire driven methodology to gather information and follow-up processes. CHAPTER ONE 1.0 Introduction. 1.1 Background information Fleet management is the management of a company’s transportation fleet. It includes commercial motor vehicles such as cars, ships, vans and trucks, as well as rail cars. Fleet (vehicle) management can include a range of functions, such as vehicle financing, vehicle maintenance, vehicle telematics (tracking and diagnostics), driver management, speed management, fuel management and health and safety management. It is a function which allows companies which to rely on transportation in business to remove or minimize the risks associated with vehicle investment, improving efficiency, productivity and reducing their overall transportation and staff costs, providing 100% compliance with government legislation (duty of care) and many more. These functions can be dealt with by either an in-house fleet-management department or an outsourced fleet-management provider. According to market research from the independent analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of fleet management units deployed in commercial fleets in Europe will grow from 1.5 million units in 2009 to 4 million in 2014. Even though the overall penetration level is just a few percent, some segments such as road transport will attain adoption rates above 30 percent (Maduro M, 2010). Fleet management system enables people to accomplish a series of specific tasks in the management of any or all aspects relating to a company’s fleet of vehicles. These specific tasks encompass all operations from vehicle acquisition to disposal. Software, depending on its capabilities, allows functions such as driver and vehicle profiling, trip profiling, dispatch, vehicle efficiency, etc. It can provide remote control features, such as Geo-fencing and active disabling. Current vehicle diagnostic information can also be related to a management site, depending on the type of hardware installed in the vehicles. New platform, based on Fleet management software, is fleet controlling with higher amount of information available for both drivers and dispatchers of a fleet. At this time (2012) online software platforms are very popular: users no longer have to install software and they can access the software through a web browser  (Lakhani, K. R., & Von Hippel, E, 2003). 1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT: Kenyan Government departments face a common challenge of controlling their fleet assigned to them to carry out various functions in the ministries. Vehicles record management is done manually and there is a need to computerize the whole process of assigning a vehicle to a driver, its maintenance and its daily operation. The project will be an online system which will take care of all the vehicles operations and maintenance and also provide security so that only the authorized users will be able to access the data. The system is aimed at improving or rather eliminating all these problems that are encountered during the operations of fleet management. 1.3 THE OBJECTIVES OF FLEET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM The objectives of the system will include: To enable accurate and complete data that will be stored in the database about all the government vehicles. To help keeping records of every vehicle i.e. The designated driver of every vehicle. The mechanics Fuelling and mileage Insurance cover To enable in keeping the drivers details i.e. Valid license number. Valid National ID number. Painting of the vehicle Changing of break fluids. Changing tires. To determine whether the vehicle is taking the government at a profit or loss. 1.4 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT The focus of this proposal is to analyse the how a fleet of vehicles have been managed in various government departments and how the current situation is in vehicles management in terms of their job allocation and general maintenance. There has been great controversy about the use of an online  management system. This study therefore wishes to analyse the effectiveness of the Online Fleet Management System. 1.5 PROPOSED SOLUTION Due to the advancement in technology the researcher will develop a computerized system that will be implemented to overcome the old system which the government have been using. 1.6 PROBLEM JUSTIFICATION Fleet Management System will be very appropriate when it comes to management of a fleet of vehicles government. It will help reduce misuse of vehicles and it will more accountability to the drivers and officials assigned to those vehicles. A report about each vehicle will be generated to rate the performance of the drivers and the vehicle itself. Security is also paramount. The system ought to have a controlled access so that no unauthorised persons is allowed to manipulate the data that is in the system. 1.7 CONSTRAINTS OF THE PROJECT Time constraints- time is a limiting factor in the study due the fact that lecturers are on. Limited funds- Finances to carry out an in-depth study are not available to me since am depending on somebody. Shortage of material related to the study- the sample is limited to government departments only. Longitudinal effects: unlike most professors who can take several years researching on a single research problem, the time available to investigate a research problem and to measure change or stability within a sample is constrained by the due date of my assignment making it difficult to carry a proper feasibility study. Lack of prior research on the topic: the fleet management system topic has not been thoroughly researched on making it difficult to find existing work. 1.8 SOLUTION STRATEGY Development of an Online Fleet Management System will find a solution to the problems associated in vehicle fleet management. The system will be developed using PHP, HTML, CSS and java script at the front end and MySQL at the backend. 1.9 WHY THE CHOICE The Kenyan government institutions have been facing so many challenges when  it comes to management of its fleet of vehicles. I considered this system to be appropriate to solving the existing challenges in effectively monitoring the vehicles. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Vehicle Fleet Manager 3.0 Fleet management system works more the same as Vehicle Fleet Manager 3.0 which has been developed by vinisoft through enabling you to record, manage and consult all information concerning your vehicle fleet quickly and efficiently. It is designed not just for large transport firms, but service companies and businesses, too. Whether you have a fleet of 3 or 1000 vehicles to look after, we have the solution to meet your expectations. In terms of functionality, fleet manager 3.0 works more less the same as Fleet Management System. It does the following: It tracks and manages the drivers information Get notified when insurance has expired. Creates group of vehicles. Monitors the petrol consumption Keep a record of the vehicles’ details. However, Vehicle Fleet Management 3.0 does not have a module to cater for the bookings of the vehicles made in different organisation departments. (Kanuka, 2003; Schwegler, 2000; Taylor, 2006) 2.2 Intelligent Fleet Management System This is a system that was developed to control the vehicles in a city. The routing plan of a delivery fleet is usually developed a priori and provides an optimal way of serving customers by taking into account certain constraints, such as delivery time windows. However, such plans may not cope adequately with the dynamics of a city logistics environment, in which unexpected events (e.g. traffic congestions) often occur during delivery execution. We present the development and evaluation of a real-time fleet  management system that handles such unforeseen events. The system monitors the delivery vehicles in real time, detects deviations from the initial distribution plan, and adjusts the schedule accordingly by suggesting effective rerouting strategies. The system has been tested in simulation environment and in real-life cases and the results show that delivery performance is enhanced significantly and customer satisfaction is improved. Gaps in the system: Unlike Online Fleet Management System, the Intelligent Management system, the system does not capture the details of the driver and also the bookings made to deliver commodities and staff members within the city. Online Management System will capture all this data and it will a far much better system as compared to the Intelligent Fleet Management System. 2.3 Fleet Management in defence The United Kingdom Government developed a system managed its army fleet. However, in the long, the government realized that the system had its own shortcomings. Due to these fact these drivers, in the UK the concept of Whole Fleet Management (WFM) was devised as a way of meeting all operational and training commitments with a reduced fleet and reduced equipment. It was proposed that the practice of issuing units and formations with their full establishment of vehicles would cease and instead, units would hold a reduced fleet of vehicles sufficient only for low level collective training. The plan was that their holdings would be augmented from a central pool for higher level training and operations. This process has the potential to improve availability, reduce maintenance costs and allocate diminished resources at the right time, in the right place and in the correct configuration. The operational benefits and efficiency of the WFM concept are such that the UK MOD proposes to extend it to all ground based equipment and vehicles across Defence. As such, the benefits are that there will be a reduction in the number of vehicles procured, which will result in a smaller Total Fleet Requirement (TFR). Quite simply, without WFM the UK MOD will not be able to meet future operational and training requirements. The Management Information System Requirement FM within expeditionary warfare, invariably demands short planning times, so to plan for future operations Commanders need precise and timely information on units, formations and fleets, including: Equipment location. What the state of repair of each asset is. How each piece of equipment configured. When each piece of equipment will be ready for use. Research Gaps: Poor visibility of: Land equipment configuration, locations, ownership, usage, maintenance, reliability and availability; Inefficient maintenance techniques and procedures, which did not implement Reliability-centred Maintenance (RCM) well and involved little data analysis. Few effective logistic support partnerships with Industry. 2.4 Sierra Wireless Fleet Management System Sierra Wireless defines Fleet Management Solutions (FMS) as a system designed for commercial or private vehicles, trailers or similar vehicles that incorporates data logging, satellite positioning and data communication to a back-office application. Within this definition we note the following areas of Fleet Management Solutions: Fleet management (trucking, local delivery, service fleets, utility companies, taxis, rental vehicles, public transit, school buses, emergency service vehicles, heavy equipment, etc.) Container/Trailer tracking User based insurance (Pay as you drive) Stolen Vehicle Recovery / Tracking Track and Trace Driver Behaviour Metrics Fleet Management systems allow companies that rely on transportation in their business to remove or minimize the risks associated with vehicle investment, improving efficiency, productivity and reducing their overall transportation costs. Fleet management can include vehicle financing, vehicle maintenance, vehicle telematics (tracking and diagnostics), driver management, fuel management and health and safety management. Advanced fleet management systems can easily connect to the vehicle’s on-board computer, and gather data for the user. Data collected can vary and can include details such as mileage, fuel consumption, and much more, which are then gathered into a global statistics scheme. Research Gaps Sierra Wireless Fleet Management System only to keeps log of the track of the vehicles without holding both the vehicles and drivers’ details. CHAPTER 3 SYSTEM MODEL 3.0 Introduction This chapter outline the online fleet management system model .It covers the following areas: implementation of the system, system analysis, project design DFDs, ER diagrams case diagrams, case scenarios and UML diagrams. 3.1 PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION The online fleet management system is to be developed using PHP scripts and MYSQL database. Java scripts will be used to validate the data captured from the interface as it is a client side scripting language. The system will be on windows platform but once hosted on a server, it can be accessed by anyone using any platform. 3.1 SYSTEM ANALSYSIS The task of system analysis is to establish in detail the proposed system requirements i.e. functional and Non-functional. It aims in understanding the input and output of a system and processing steps necessary to perform inputs into outputs. What interface will be provided for the users to interact with the system, based on the skills and computer proficiency of the intended users and what control measures will be undertaken in the system. 3.1.1 SYSTEM REQUIREMENT Hardware Requirements The online fleet management system should be hosted on a server which has Intel duo core processor of speed 3GHz and above, Ram of 2 GB, Hard disk of 160 GB and above. Functional Requirement These are statements of services the system should provide, how the system should react to particular inputs and how the system should behave in particular situations. The following are modules which aid in implementing  the system functional requirement: i) Security module This module performs login, logout from the system and privileges allocation depending on the type of user who is accessing the system. ii) Vehicle Registration This module captures the details of all the vehicles that are owned by government departments and institutions. iii) Driver Registration This module captures the details of the drivers that are assigned vehicles at department level. iv) Booking Vehicles This module captures the details of the vehicle bookings made by the different people. v) Duties assignment of vehicles. This module holds the assignment for all the vehicles available at department level. Non-Functional Requirement These relates to the behaviour of the system in its operation environment. The system should be safe and secure where it should operate without catastrophic failure and protect itself against accidental and intrusion. It should be reliable and available thus delivering services as specified and when requested for. 3.2 SYSTEM DESIGN Based on the nature of the project I chose the waterfall development model for software engineering. This model will be used to build the Online Voters Registration System. Its paradigm is as shown below.

Geography and Overview of Tsunamis

A tsunami is a series of ocean waves that are generated by large movements or other disturbances on the oceans floor. Such disturbances include volcanic eruptions, landslides, and underwater explosions, but earthquakes are the most common cause. Tsunamis can occur close to the shore or travel thousands of miles if the disturbance occurs in the deep ocean. Tsunamis are important to study because they are a natural hazard that can occur at any time in coastal areas around the world. In an effort to gain a more complete understanding of tsunamis and generate stronger warning systems, there are monitors throughout the worlds oceans to measure wave height and potential underwater disturbances. The Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific Ocean is one of the largest monitoring systems in the world and it is made up of 26 different countries and a series of monitors placed throughout the Pacific. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) in Honolulu, Hawaii collects and processes data gathered from these monitors and provides warnings throughout the Pacific Basin. Causes of Tsunamis Tsunamis are also called seismic sea waves because they are most commonly caused by earthquakes. Because tsunamis are caused mainly by earthquakes, they are most common in the Pacific Oceans Ring of Fire - the margins of the Pacific with many plate tectonic boundaries and faults that are capable of producing large earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In order for an earthquake to cause a tsunami, it must occur below the oceans surface or near the ocean and be a magnitude large enough to cause disturbances on the seafloor. Once the earthquake or other underwater disturbance occurs, the water surrounding the disturbance is displaced and radiates away from the initial source of the disturbance (i.e. the epicenter in an earthquake) in a series of fast-moving waves. Not all earthquakes or underwater disturbances cause tsunamis - they must be large enough to move a significant amount of material. In addition, in the case of an earthquake, its magnitude, depth, water depth and the speed at which the material moves all factor into whether or not a tsunami is generated. Tsunami Movement Once a tsunami is generated, it can travel thousands of miles at speeds of up to 500 miles per hour (805 km per hour). If a tsunami is generated in the deep ocean, the waves radiate out from the source of the disturbance and move toward land on all sides. These waves usually have a large wavelength and a short wave height so they are not easily recognized by the human eye in these regions. As the tsunami moves toward shore and the oceans depth decreases, its speed slows quickly and the waves begin to grow in height as the wavelength decreases (diagram) This is called amplification and it is when the tsunami is the most visible. As the tsunami reaches the shore, the trough of the wave hits first which appears as a very low tide. This is a warning that a tsunami is imminent. Following the trough, the peak of the tsunami comes ashore. The waves hit the land like a strong, fast tide, instead of a giant wave. Giant waves only occur if the tsunami is very large. This is called runup and it is when the most flooding and damage from the tsunami occurs as the waters often travel farther inland than normal waves would. Tsunami Watch Versus Warning Because tsunamis are not easily seen until they are close to shore, researchers and emergency managers rely on monitors that are located throughout the oceans that track slight changes in the height of waves. Whenever there is an earthquake with a magnitude greater than 7.5 in the Pacific Ocean, a Tsunami Watch is automatically declared by the PTWC if it was in a region capable of producing a tsunami. Once a tsunami watch is issued, PTWC watches tide monitors in the ocean to determine whether or not a tsunami was generated. If a tsunami is generated, a Tsunami Warning is issued and coastal areas are evacuated. In the case of deep ocean tsunamis, the public is normally given time to evacuate, but if it is a locally generated tsunami, a Tsunami Warning is automatically issued and people should immediately evacuate coastal areas. Large Tsunamis and Earthquakes Tsunamis occur all over the world and they cannot be predicted since earthquakes and other underwater disturbances occur without warning. The only tsunami prediction possible is the monitoring of waves after the earthquake has already happened. In addition, scientists today know where tsunamis are most likely to occur due to large events in the past. In March 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck near the coast of Sendai, Japan and generated a tsunami that devastated that region and caused damage thousands of miles away in Hawaii and the west coast of the United States. In December 2004, a major earthquake struck near the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia and generated a tsunami that damaged countries all over the Indian Ocean. In April 1946 a magnitude 8.1 earthquake struck near Alaskas Aleutian Islands and generated a tsunami that destroyed much of Hilo, Hawaii thousands of miles away. The PTWC was created in 1949 as a result. To learn more about tsunamis, visit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Tsunami Website. References National Weather Service. (n.d.). Tsunami: The Great Waves. Retrieved from: http://www.weather.gov/om/brochures/tsunami.htmNatural Hazards Hawaii. (n.d.). Understanding the Difference Between a Tsunami Watch and Warning. University of Hawaii at Hilo. Retrieved from: http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/~nat_haz/tsunamis/watchvwarning.phpUnited States Geological Survey. (22 October 2008). Life of a Tsunami. Retrieved from: http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/tsunami/basics.htmlWikipedia.org. (28 March 2011). Tsunami - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/tsunami