IMPACT OF INCORPORATION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS Essay

IMPACT OF INCORPORATION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS - Essay Example Apparently, it also during this time that information technologies were introduced into organizations and as a result they have come with numerous advantages and limitations for that matter. However, information technology has also incorporated some of the existing organizational features in a bid to maximize on the efficiency. On that note, with information systems innovations which serve to control the manner in which information is handled, it has also created a number of opportunities and consequently leads to the growth of the industry over and improved on the service delivery. On that note, this paper majorly focuses on the manners in which information systems have been able to revolutionize the manner in which we work (Willmott, 1995). Evidently, it is clear that information systems have been able to change the way we work and improved the efficiency. In addition to that, this paper will also document in the subsequent sections some of the limitations of employing information systems in our society. First and foremost, information technology has been able to change the fabric of organization. Apparently, information technology was mandated with the task of automating the operations that existed in a bid to improve the effectiveness of service delivery (Grant&Willcocks, 1995). Furthermore, another task of information systems in organization was to speed up and increase the communication channel of an organization (Willmott, 1995). On that note, automation of the organization entailed that the collection, storage and transmission of information within an organization employed information systems innovations as opposed to the traditional forms which required paper and individuals since they were more effective and accurate. On that note, every functional organ in an organization held information relevant to the activities they do (Willmott, 1995). For instance, the marketing department held and stored information pertaining to sales, accounting department h eld and stored information pertaining to the financial statements of the company. In addition to that, the functional organization was changed with incorporation of information systems. On a similar theme, the management of the organization entailed the separate management of the various organs of the company (Grant&Willcocks, 1995). In the case that more than one organ were required to work hand in hand, information technology has been able to facilitate this through creation of communication channels through which information from the various organs in the organization can be exchanged with other organs within the company. On that note, research has been able to establish since the incorporation of information technology into industries, the growth of the sector has been phenomenal (Pollock, 2003). Furthermore, productivity of industries has increased rapidly and this has been attributed to the various innovations and incorporation of information systems into industries. This is a ttributed to the decentralized manner of running the organization through the use various organs of the company, efficient job training strategies and the redesigning of the organization structures (Grant&Willcocks, 1995). In addition to that, information systems have been successful due to the fact that with the improvement in the information technology for instance communication by increasing the bandwidth in communicational channels, more information has been exchanged and on the long run decreasing the expense of communication. Consequently, this has led to the increase in the thriving of the information system sector and fostered more investment opportunities in this sector

Hotel Revenue Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 153

Hotel Revenue Management - Essay Example The assessment should be done from different perspectives, which include customers, organisation, and from the human resource point of view. Evaluation strategy enhances acceptability of the changes and has the potential of improving a quality of services offered. Hotel revenue management is fundamental to success in the competitive hospitality industry. Hotels revenue management implies selling the appropriate room to the best client at the most competitive price on the right supply channel. Hotel rooms are considered as perishable products owing to their limited number. Hence, the satisfaction of customer needs and settling for the right price are the main variables to be considered. Revenue management will strive to achieve equilibrium of demand and capacity by predicting and setting prices that ably maximise the utility of all the resources in the hotel (LegoheÃŒ rel, Poutier and Fyall 2013: 96) Emphasis has to be placed on two very important concepts in hotel revenue management. These are rooms’ revenue per available room (RevPAR) and gross operating profit per available room (GOPPAR). RevPAR is used in analysis as a reflection of revenue accrued per available room. The parameter is got from dividing the net revenue collected from a hotel room and the total number of rooms present in the particular hotel. Besides, the value can be arrived at by multiplication of the daily average room rate (ADR) the occupancy of the room. It is, therefore, able to monitor the performance of the system inventory management of the hotel room. Maximisation of RevPAR is the main objective of hotel managements, thus the trade-off between average rate and occupancy. It is very evident that revenue collected from rooms in the hotel constitutes a large portion of the overall revenue generated. Thus, more emphasis should be placed on revenue management in regards to rooms.

Essay questions Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 6

Questions - Essay Example Hence the Palestine had to be kept in the hands of Arabs as they hoped that the Arab unity would help forge war against common enemy. However the movement experienced a major setback in the defeat of Arabs in the Arab Israeli war of 1967 and death of Abdul Nasser in 1970. Jewish nationalism also caused the conflict due to the numerous persecutions and massacres they faced. They were also expelled in most European countries and hence had to look for their own land free from persecution that they believed was Israel. Another reason for this was the British decision to end mandate that made Arabs perceive it as breach of the agreement that made them furious as the British support for their independence was broken. The Arab treatment by the Israeli denied them basic political rights and freedom as they were seen as threat to Israeli. They imposed policies that hurt the Palestinians hence the revolt against the military administration that was set to govern their resident in the West Bank and Gaza. The rise of the Palestinian nationalist movement against state formation led to the 1948 Arab –Israeli war termed as the war for independence. The Arab resistance against giving part of their land to the Jewish without being informed was viewed as a threat to the independence of Palestinian nation. The Israeli also took better part of the land leaving them with worst lands and this angered them leading to conflicts and subsequent formation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization that used terrorism to frighten the Jews to return their land. Zionism was formed as a national movement with an aim or goal to create and support the Jews national state in Palestine that was the ancient home to the Jews. It originated from the eastern and central Europe in the late 19th century. The centre of this movement was established in Vienna. It therefore strived to create a home in

Hotel Revenue Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 153

Hotel Revenue Management - Essay Example The assessment should be done from different perspectives, which include customers, organisation, and from the human resource point of view. Evaluation strategy enhances acceptability of the changes and has the potential of improving a quality of services offered. Hotel revenue management is fundamental to success in the competitive hospitality industry. Hotels revenue management implies selling the appropriate room to the best client at the most competitive price on the right supply channel. Hotel rooms are considered as perishable products owing to their limited number. Hence, the satisfaction of customer needs and settling for the right price are the main variables to be considered. Revenue management will strive to achieve equilibrium of demand and capacity by predicting and setting prices that ably maximise the utility of all the resources in the hotel (LegoheÃŒ rel, Poutier and Fyall 2013: 96) Emphasis has to be placed on two very important concepts in hotel revenue management. These are rooms’ revenue per available room (RevPAR) and gross operating profit per available room (GOPPAR). RevPAR is used in analysis as a reflection of revenue accrued per available room. The parameter is got from dividing the net revenue collected from a hotel room and the total number of rooms present in the particular hotel. Besides, the value can be arrived at by multiplication of the daily average room rate (ADR) the occupancy of the room. It is, therefore, able to monitor the performance of the system inventory management of the hotel room. Maximisation of RevPAR is the main objective of hotel managements, thus the trade-off between average rate and occupancy. It is very evident that revenue collected from rooms in the hotel constitutes a large portion of the overall revenue generated. Thus, more emphasis should be placed on revenue management in regards to rooms.

17- Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

17- - Coursework Example To explain the former, this decision gives House the hope to prove his innocence in the lights of the new evidance, that is if he is innocent in the first place. Unlike as in an appeal, in habeas corpus federal court, DNA samples can be produced in this case as a new evidence which can greatly influence the decision of the Judges if the evidence goes in Houses’ favor. Now to see the effect of this decision on the society as a whole, a common citizen would have more confidence in the Judicial System and would know that he has a great chance of proving his innocence if convicted wrongly. The Judicial System over the years has been adversely affected by the cold war between the conservative and liberal governments. This trend has not allowed consistency to prevail in the Judicial System. This new decision gives a hope that the judgments made by the judiciary would neither be conservative nor liberal, but rather would be just. This decision by Justice Kennedy would be referred to by legal experts while solving cases of such nature. To those convicted wrongly, this decision would appear to them as a ray of light leading to a free life. Whether House makes his way out or not because of this decision, it certainly would give convicted people a chance to prove their innocence presenting new evidences in the future. In my personal view, the less-conservative decision made by the conservative judge is the right one, as it might not be possible in certain cases to gather and produce all or the vital evidence during the trial period. Giving the convicted a second chance for producing new evidence and arguing his way out constitutionally, cannot be termed a lenient decision on part of the convicted, but rather a fair one. Though this would lead to additional burden on the courts, but it would ensure that justice is served. Provisions have been made in the law to give a

Spanglish & Linguistics Essay Example for Free

Spanglish Linguistics Essay Spanglish is a well-known term that describes the linguistic behaviors on Spanish speakers, who’s Spanish is uniquely influenced from the English language. Spanglish can also be defined as a â€Å"mixed-code vernacular that includes a range of linguistic phenomena, most notably code-switching†. Despite the fact that Puerto Rican linguist, Salvador Tio, coined the term ‘Spanglish’ in the late 1940’s, this language contact phenomena has actually been used over the past 150 years, since the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed. Some would consider Spanish a 3rd language and some would dismiss it as unorganized slang. In modern society, Spanglish is classified as a popular term, not a technical one. Although many variations of Spanglish do exist and is widely denounced for being a form of slang, Spanglish has proven, to hold its own flexible syntax, grammar interface, and switching rules. Spanglish can be found in the speech of the Hispanic population of the United States, especially in communities located near the border, such as Southern Texas, and communities with significant Latin influence, like Miami and New York City. Every Hispanic group has its own variant of Spanglish (Cuban, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Boricuan, Mexican,  e. t. c) and can differ depending where the region is located. San Diego, for example, borders Mexico where many Spanish and Spanglish-speaking citizens currently reside. Historically, the United States and Mexico were both seeking land near the border during the mid 1800’s, but both countries spoke opposing languages (English and Spanish). â€Å"They were TWO RADICALLY DIFFERENT COUNTRIES IN TERMS OF SOCIAL CONDITIONS, ECONOMICS, POLITICS, AND CULTURE. † (5. JESUS VELASCO-MARQUEZ). AMERICAN AND MEXICAN POLITICIANS WERE FORCED TO USE CODE SWITCHING TO COMMUNICATE WITH ONE ANOTHER AND EACH SIDE. ATTEMPTED TO ACQUIRE THE OPPOSING COUNTRY’S LANGUAGE. EVENTUALLY, THE TREATY OF GUADALUPE, SIGNED IN 1848, ENDED THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR AND BEGAN AN ERA OF PEACE BETWEEN BOTH COUNTRIES. THE PEACE TREATY ALSO ESTABLISHED THE BORDER BETWEEN BOTH COUNTRIES, ATTRACTING COLONIES TO VILLAGES ALONG THE BORDER FOR TRADE AND STOCK ROUTES. THE CULTURE OF THESE VILLAGES, WHOSE RESIDENTS HAIL FROM BOTH AMERICA AND MEXICO, CREATED ‘SPANGLISH’ AS A RESULT. DURING THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE PANAMA CANAL IN 1881-1914, AMERICANS NOW HAD ACCESS TO TRAVEL DEEPER INTO SOUTH AMERICAN, WHICH MADE SPANGLISH AND CODE SWITCHING A  VITAL FORM OF COMMUNICATION. ASIDE FROM THE MEXICAN BORDER, SPANGLISH HAS ALSO FOUND ITS WAY ONTO THE TONGUES OF CUBAN-AMERICANS AND CUBANS, WHO’VE MIGRATED FROM CUBA during the 1953-1959 Cuban Revolution. During the early to mid-1900s, New York City was also experiencing a similar wave OF MIGRATION, AS MANY PUERTO RICANS WERE SETTLING IN NEW YORK FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL REASONS. †¢Spanglish can be divided into three subdivisions: 1. Adapting lexical items (â€Å"loan words†) from one language into the other on a phonological or morphological (roots/affixes) level. (e. g, ‘saying updatear’ [to update]  instead of the Spanish alternative â€Å"actualizar†). Borrowed verbs tend to carry the borrowing language’s inflections (e. g. parquear [to park]). 2. Calques: Words or phrases in one language whose semantic components are directly translated from another language. (e. g. â€Å"to call back† becomes â€Å"llamar para atras† which is the literal word-for-word translation. Although the translation was entirely in Spanish, the grammar influence was due to English. 3. Code-switching: The phenomenon that occurs when adapting loan words from one language into the other in the same utterance or conversation. Two main types of code switching can be identified. Internsentential code-switching occurs when the switch is made at a clause boundary (e. g. I’m extremely tired, me voy a domir), Intrasentential code-switching occurs when the switch is made within a clause (e. g. Mi abuela le gusta cooking). Intersentional code switching tends to be more popular than Intrasentential code switching, as speakers tend to â€Å"alternate among multiple CONSTITUENTS WITHOUT ERROR (TORRES 330)†. THE FLEXIBLE, YET RULE GOVERNED, LINGUISTIC PHENOMENA OF SPANGLISH INCLUDE SIMILAR (YET MORE COMPLEX) COMPONENTS OF SPANISH-ENGLISH CODE SWITCHING. ANGLICISMS/LOAN WORDS ARE BORROWED WORDS (OR PHRASES) FROM THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND INCORPORATED INTO SPANISH (OR ANY LANGUAGE). AN EXAMPLE OF THIS BEHAVIOR IN SPANGLISH WOULD BE THE TERM â€Å"TROCA† (WHICH TRANSLATES TO â€Å"TRUCK† IN ENGLISH AND â€Å"CAMIONETA† IN SPANISH) OR THE WORD â€Å"PARQUEADERO† (WHICH TRANSLATES TO â€Å"PARKING LOT† IN ENGLISH AND â€Å"ESTACIONAMIENTO† IN SPANISH). NEITHER ONE OF THESE WORDS CAN BE CLASSIFIED AS CODE SWITCHING NOR CAN BE PROPERLY DEFINED AS ENGLISH OR SPANISH. IN FACT, SOME LINGUISTS BELIEVE THAT IN ORDER TO  USE PROPER CODE SWITCHING, THE SPEAKER MUST ATTAIN A HIGH COMPETENCY IN EITHER LANGUAGE, AND THEREFORE SHOULD NOT EVEN BE COMPARABLE TO SPANGLISH. THESE LOAN WORDS TEND TO FOLLOW A SET OF LINGUISTIC PATTERN IN SPANGLISH, SUCH AS ADDING THE SPANISH INFINITIVE ENDING OF â€Å"-AR† TO ENGLISH WORDS, LIKE: MAPEAR (TO MOP), TEXTEAR (TO TEXT), CHANGEAR (TO CHANGE), LINKEAR (TO LINK), AND RELESEAR (TO RELEASE). ‘FREE MORPHEME CONSTRAINT’ AND ‘EQUIVALENT CONSTRAINT’ ARE TWO LINGUISTIC CONSTRAINTS IN SPANGLISH. FREE MORPHEME CONSTRAINTS STATE THAT SWITCHING BETWEEN BOUND MORPHEMES IS  PROHIBITED (E. G. ESTAMOS TALK-ANDO OR YO ESTOY EAT-IENDO). EQUIVALENT CONSTRAINTS STATE THAT NO SWITCH CAN BE MADE IF THE RESULT IS UNGRAMMATICAL, AND MUST BE GRAMMATICAL TO BOTH LANGUAGES (E. G. I SAW LO INSTEAD OF I SAW HIM). IN NEW YORK CITY, PUERTO RICANS HAVE BEEN OBSERVED TO SWITCH FORM CLASS WORDS, SUCH AS NOUNS AND PRONOUNS, AND RARELY SWITCH AUXILIARIES AND ADJECTIVES. MANY SOCIOLINGUISTS, SUCH AS ILLANA STAVANS), ARGUE AGAINST ‘FREE MORPHEME CONSTRAINTS’ BY USING LEXICAL WORDS LIKE â€Å"JANGEAR† EVEN THOUGH â€Å"-EAR† IS A BOUND MORPHEME IN SPANISH USED TO CREATE VERBS. STAVANS ARGUMENT DECLARES THAT EVEN THOUGH ‘FREE BOUND MORPHEME’ RULES STATE THAT SWITCHING BETWEEN BOUND MORPHEMES IS PROHIBITED, EXCEPTIONS CAN BE MADE IF THE LEXICAL WORD IS PHONETICALLY INTEGRATED INTO THE BOUND MORPHEME’S LANGUAGE. CALQUES, OR LOAN TRANSLATIONS, GO FURTHER THAN JUST BORROWING WORDS OR PHRASES. THE SPEAKER CREATES A LITERAL TRANSLATION OF THE SENTENCE WITHOUT CHANGING THE GRAMMAR FORMAT; UNGRAMMATICAL TRANSLATION. ‘FALSE COGNATES’ FOLLOW A SIMILAR FORMAT AS THEY BORROW WORDS FROM ENGLISH TO SPANISH BUT PROVIDE A ROOT WORD THAT TRANSLATES INTO A DIFFERENT MEANING (E. G.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"CARPETO† IS INDEED A SPANISH WORD, BUT THE SPEAKER WOULD BE INCORRECT IF THEY WERE USING IT TO DESCRIBE A â€Å"CAR PET†, AS â€Å"CARPETO† ACTUALLY MEANS â€Å"FOLDER† IN SPANISH. BECAUSE ROOT WORDS TEND TO BRANCH ACROSS MULTIPLE LANGUAGES, ‘FALSE COGNATES’ ARE THE MOST COMMONLY USED DEVICES IN SPANGLISH. Based on public literature, specifically Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language (2003) by Illan Stavans, each Spanglish speaker has their own regional dialect depending on their heritage, social lass, and age. Some of these include, â€Å"Cubonics† (Cuban-Americans), â€Å"Nuyorrican† (Puerto Rican spoken in New York  City) and â€Å"Dominicanish† (Dominican-Americans). Stavans explains that there’s no such thing as one Spanish, and each group has its own speech pattern. His view on â€Å"Chicano Spanish†, (which he considers Mexican-American Spanglish), contrasts opposing views from another sociolinguist, Carmen Fought. Fought studies Chicano Spanish, and believes that is â€Å"neither Spanglish nor a version of nonstandard Spanish but, rather, is a unique dialect used by speakers who are typically not bilingual. † Fought even challenges Chicano Spanish stating the speakers are likely to not even know  Spanish at all, and because of their high vowel pronunciation on the letter â€Å"I† (words like â€Å"going† are spoken as â€Å"go-WEEN† or â€Å"talking† becomes â€Å"talk-EEN†) other people might believe what they’re hearing is â€Å"the accent of a native Spanish speaker†, which is false. Cubonics however, uses many loan words like ‘pulover’, which is literally almost spelled the same as the English word it borrows from (‘pullover’), but the Cubonics definition is referring to a â€Å"shirt† whereas â€Å"camiseta† would be the proper Spanish translation. Social motivation for code switching

Role of Training and Development in Employee Empowerment

Role of Training and Development in Employee Empowerment Research Objective The main objective of my dissertation is to analyse how training and empowerment assist organization in the hospitality industry in general and the Hilton Group in particular gain the much needed strategic advantage over their competitors and help them gain and sustain market share in the long run. The dissertation will also demonstrate the various actions that are may be initiated by organizations in the hospitality industry to achieve higher levels of empowerment within its workforce without compromising on its internal controls. Research Questions What is the role of training and development in employee empowerment at the Hilton Hotels? Why is empowerment necessary in the running of Hotels, with particular reference to the Hilton Hotel Chain? What strategies or policies are pursued by organizations to enable them improve the level of skills and knowledge of their employees to meet emerging challenges? The dissertation will also attempt to answer the following questions: Does active implementation of training and learning policies lead to the empowerment of employees? What is the meaning of empowerment of employees within an organizations setting? What are the likely benefits of empowered workforce to the organization? Even though a lot of research may have been done in related or similar topics, this dissertation will objectively examine the findings of other researchers on similar topics, critique their findings and arguments and build a neutral position that may stand the test of thorough independent analysis and that is in line with the current theories of HRM and management in general. The Context(s): The hospitality industry in the UK has often been faced with many challenges which on one hand, prompted employees to be more responsive to the challenges they face and on the other hand, challenged industry players to remain competitive in the wake of aggressive competition from competitors. This industry, in particular, benefits and integrates their employees and other human resources (providing the industrys services) with the structural and integral part of the organizational strategy as a strategic partner. This allows companies such as the Hilton plc. to invest in people, train them in order to prosper and survive within the competitive environment. Other challenges for this industry include the ever changing demands of consumers tastes and preferences, rising demand for extra services, thus hard to accommodate. Additionally these customers preferences has made it practically unviable to continue with the old ways of doing business as it present many obvious risks of losing clients to more dynamic competitors. Thus training and empowering employees will help reduce these risks in some way or another. The Hilton Group Plc. is made up of some 500 hotels located in some 50 countries across all regions of the world (DAnnunzio-Green, Maxwell Watson, 2004). The Hotel presently employs over 60,000 employees in its worldwide operation and has a management structure divided in to the key regions of its operations, with each region headed by a president, all answerable to the board of directors (DAnnunzio-Green, et al, 2004). The terms training, education, development and learning may appear synonymous and be used interchangeably in other applications, but from HRD point of view, they are different but also mutually inclusive (Buckley Caple, 2007). Whitener (2003) in her paper titled Impact of Human Resource Activities on Employee Trust emphasizes the role of training in providing more knowledge and skills to employees to enable them perform their respective jobs better. Thus the primary role of training according to whitener is the enhancement of skills, while it may also serve the purpose of motivating the employees if offered in recognition for exemplary performance (Whitener, 1997) The aim of the training program would be to enable the organization gain sustainable strategic advantage that would not be easily replicated among competitors (Porter, 1985 as cited in Clardy, 2008). To be earmarked for enhancement through training and development would be the skills that add value to the organization commonly referred to as core competencies (Clardy, 2008). In this dissertation I will also show how training and empowerment are related. In the Barret and OConnel article of 1999, found in the journal of The Institute of Study of Labour, the authors assert that despite the challenges so far faced, training has gained prominence in the recent past as a key tool for empowerment for improvement in productivity and operational efficiency (Barret OConnell, 1999). According to Barret OConnell, (1999), there are two forms of training; general and specific training. General training is that form of training which boost productivity in the firm where it was provided and all firms, while specific training only raises productivity in the firm where it was provided. Organizations thus would seem to favour specific training and would readily pay for it for it since it is likely to give them a competitive advantage in their business (Barret OConnell, 1999). Since the main focus of the dissertation is empowerment of employees through training and development of a learning culture, it would be important to address the theoretical background information relating to the research topic. Case in point is training and learning, which must be properly understood in order to authoritatively argue about its role in empowerment of employees. According to Buckley Caple, (2007), training refers to imparting new skills or reinforcing previously known skills and knowledge on employees for a positive change in behaviour that would change the way they work and behave. This will also be illustrated in literature review as I intend to show why Buckley thinks that training is a relevant activity that need to be pursued by all organizations in order to achieve their long term mission and objectives. Research design (including methods) or critical approach: Research Methodology: In order to achieve the main objectives of the study, it would be inevitable to collect and analyse data and other information so as to enable arriving at a conclusion. One method that would be used would involve the collection of information and data from secondary sources such as the library, internet sources, journals, newspaper articles to collect as much information as possible relevant to the research topic. This would also involve using available data from credible sources such as hotel industry regulated websites, journals and magazines or from previous peer reviewed and published works by other researchers and comparing the information there on to establish a common pattern that would guide the discussion and the conclusion of the research questions. For this particular dissertation, the bulk of the information and data will be obtained from peer reviewed and published research articles in similar research subjects. The main reasons for adopting this methodology are that it is generally simple to undertake and does not require a lot of time and resources to undertake. This is because the research does not involve field based data collection which is often more time consuming and expensive. This makes the approach ideal in situations where there is limited time and researches to undertake the research, which is indeed applicable to this dissertation. Further the data and information collected would be generally accurate since it would be based on published peer reviewed researches and other papers on the same topic which have stood the test of rigorous scrutiny by HR professionals and other management researchers over the years and found to be authentic. The books and other materials that may be used would generally also bear accurate information and would provide useful insights in to the theoretical background of the research subject. Research Strategies In order to effectively carry out the research assignment, it would be important to identify the appropriate research strategies that would be acceptable and help in answering the research questions conclusively. This dissertation would use both deductive and inductive research strategies to achieve this aim. Norman Blaikie in his book titled, Designing Social Research published in 2009 define inductive research strategies as those strategies that help in answering the what research questions and are generally explorative and descriptive in nature (Blaikie, 2009). Deductive strategies would also be used in order to address the why research questions that form part of the dissertation. Blaikie (2009) also describes deductive strategies as those research strategies that assist in answering the why questions and are most suitable for pursuing the purpose of explanations Ethical issues: There should not be any ethical issue related to my research. Special resources required: No special resources will be required for my dissertation.