The Book Of Judges :: essays research papers

The book of Judges is the sequel to Joshua. It is the seventh book of the Old Testament. It recounts stories and events from the death of the hebrew leader and prophet Joshua to the birth of the hebrew Samuel. That is roughly, from the end of the Israelite conquest of Canan in the 13th Century B.C to the begining of the monarchy in the 11 th century B.C. It tells about the hebrews from Joshua’s Death to the time of Samuel. It was written in about 550 BC, on tablets named the Ras Shamra tablets. The Ras Shamra tablets where later discovered in the early 20th Century, even though the stories and acountings of the judges where already known and written. The book of Judges belongs to a specific historical tradition which is called the Deuteronomic history. The author of the book of Judges, was in exile in Babylonia. While in exile he was deeply concerned with foreign domination. So he wrote many of his stories on the migration of the tribe of Dan to the North and the sins of the B enjamites. The author emphasized that Israel was being influenced by foreign powers and the loss of freedom and prosperity. Recurring throughout the book is the stereotyped formula: "The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the lord." Then after each period or subjection the author introduces another formula: " But when the people of Israel cried the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people. Through-out the book, the book of judges tells about prophets, rulers and influencial people such as: Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tilian and Samson. There are also many more minor people. The name of the book is very deceptive, because there weren’t any judges at all, nor any judges notified of this book been written. The word Judges was actually a translation for the hebrew word "Shofet" which signifies a ruler or a great military ruler, which through out the book, influencial people such as Samson and or even Joshua are described as the Judges. The book of judges is supprisingly part of the book of prophets, because many prophets are mentioned and reported apon.

A Comparison of the Merits of using Software or Hardware Transactional Memory, against Traditional ‘Semaphore’ Locking

1. IntroductionTransactional memory is poised to take parallel programming a step higher by making it more efficient and much easier to achieve, compared to traditional ‘semaphore’ locking. This is because transactional memory is easier to handle when tasks are divided into several free threads, especially when these threads do not have common access to data. This implies that each section can operate on a processor core and that there is no connection between cores. It can be challenging when different task sections are not totally free – that is, several threads are forced to upgrade a singly shared value. The traditional approach to this utilizes locks and every time that a thread changes a shared value, it requires a lock. In this case, it is not possible for any other thread to receive the lock if another thread possesses it. Instead, the thread must wait until the thread that has the lock can change the shared value. This is likely to require a complex comp utation, and to take an extended amount of time before eventually releasing the lock (Bright, 2011). The release of the lock allows the waiting thread to continue. While this is an effective system, it faces several major challenges. A key issues concerns updates to the shared value that occurs occasionally; therefore, making it rare for a thread to wait at ‘no time’ – the state in which the lock based system can be efficient (Alexandrescu, 2004). Nonetheless, this efficiency commonly disappears every time updates to the shared value are made. Threads take too much time waiting for a lock to appear and are unable to provide any use when in this state.2.Lock vs. Lock Free Data StructuresWhile it may seem easy to handle a singly shared value, locks are difficult to use correctly and this is a challenge faced in real programs. For instance, a program with dual locks 1 and 2 is likely to encounter a problem called a ‘deadlock’. A deadlock is a case wher eby two threads require two locks and only have the option of acquiring lock 1 then 2, or 2 followed by 1. As long as each thread needs the lock in the same order this will not present any issues; however, if one thread needs lock 1 and the other requires lock 2 at the same time, this can cause a deadlock. In this situation, the first thread waits for lock 2 to become free and the second waits for 1 to be free. This exchange makes it difficult for both to succeed and results in a deadlock. This issue might appear to be preventable and only likely to occur when a program has dual locks; however, it can become a challenge to ensure each section performs the right function when this becomes more complex.3. Transactional MemoryIt can argued that transactional memory can solve the problem of lock conflicts. In this case of a deadlock, the programmers could mark the sections of their programs which change the shared data, so that each of the marked blocks is implemented within a transact ion. This means that either the whole block executes, or none of it does. The program can therefore identify the shared value without locking it. This allows for the program to conduct all the necessary operations and write back the value, eventually committing the transaction (Bright, 2011). The key transaction occurs with the commit operation in which transactional memory system ascertains that shared data has been changed after the commencement of an operation. If this is not identified then the commit updates, allowing the thread to go ahead with its function. In case the shared value has not been modified, the transaction stops and the function of the thread is rolled back (Detlefs et al., 2001). In this instance, the program retries the operation. It can be seen, therefore, transactional memory has several merits over traditional semaphore locking. For example, transactional memory is optimistic; this infers that the threads are positioned to succeed and do not look forward to acquiring a lock. This is in case the other thread makes an attempt to conduct a concurrent operation (Detlefs et al., 2001). In an instance of concurrent modifications occurs when a single thread is forced to retry its function. In addition to this, there are no deadlocks in transactional memory. Transactional memory is a programming approach that programmers are familiar with; the transaction and rollback process is not new to those who have handled relational databases because they offer a similar set of features. Nonetheless, blocks facilitate the ease of developing large programs that are correct (Alexandrescu, 2004). Blocks with nested atomic blocks will perform the correct function, although this is not true in the case of lock-based data structur es.4.Merits of the HardwareThere has been little attention given towards hardware compared to software-based implementations. It has also been noted that most real processors seldom support transactional memory and, therefore, modifications are necessary (Maged, 2004). However, there are systems that use virtual machines to undertake their primary function and in this regard there are changes for the .NET and Java virtual machines (Bright, 2011). In other cases, systems use native codes that require certain special operations to allow access to the shared data. This enables the transactional memory software to ascertain that the right operations have occurred in the background. Such implementations have the advantages of ensuring that the programs that are produced are bug-free (Detlefs et al., 2001). The data in cache contains a version tag whereas the cache itself can maintain many versions of the same data. The software sends a signal to the processor to commence a transaction and performs the necessary action. This then signals the processor to commit the work. If other threads have changed the data, resulting in many versions, the cache will refuse the transaction and the software will be forced to try again. Should other versions not be created, then the data is committed (Bright, 2011). This facility is also applicable for speculative execution. A thread can commence execution with data available, whereas speculatively conducting important work – instead of waiting for upgraded versions of all data needed – might mean waiting for additional cores to complete computation (Alexandrescu, 2004). If the data was upgraded, then the work that is committed provides a performance boost; the work had been completed before the delivery of the final value. Should the data turn out to be stale, then the speculative work is rejected and re-deployed with the correct value (Bright, 2011).5.Logical FunctionsA significant advantage that transactional memory has over traditional lock-based programs is that it support is an extension of a load-link or store conditional. Load-link is an undeveloped operation that can be implemented to build many types of thread-safe constructs (Maged, 2004). This comprises both mechanisms that are known, such as locks, and unconventional data structures, such as lists that can be changed by many threads at the same time without locking at all (Alexandrescu, 2004). The creation of software transactional memory is possible through the use of load-link or store conditional. Load-link or store conditional contains two sections: firstly, it utilizes load link to recover the value from memory where it can then conduct the functions it needs to perform on that value. When there is a need to write a new value to the memory, this utilizes store conditional (Detlefs et al., 2001). Store conditional can only succeed if the memory value has not been changed after the load link. In case the value has been changed, the program has to return to the beginning and start again. These systems are restrictive because they do not follow writes to each memory bytes, but to the whole cache lines. This highlights the fact that store conditional has the potential to fail without modification of monitored value (Bright, 2011). Bright (2011) explains that store conditional is also most likely to fail if a context switch happens between the load link and store conditional. Transactional memory is a version of an enforced link load and store conditional; each thread can perform load link on several different memory locations (Maged, 2004). In addition to this, the commit operation does store conditional. This impacts on multiple locations at the same time, with each store either succeeding or failing (Bright, 2011).6.ConclusionIn conclusion, a lock-free procedure is sure to sustain the progress of a thread executing a procedure. While some threads can be put on hold arbitrarily, one thread is certain to progress each move. The whole system can then make progress despite the fact that some threads might take longer than others. It can be seen, therefore, that the use of software or hardware transactional memory presents better ways of ensuring consistency of stored data when accessed and manipulated by several concurrent threads than traditional ‘semaphore’ locking. Consequently, lock-based programs fail to provide any of the above mentioned guarantees7.ReferencesAlexandrescu, A. (2004) Lock-Free Data Structures. Available at: http://www.drdob bs.com/lock-free-data-structures/184401865 [Accessed 12th March 2014]. Bright, P. (2011) IBM’s new transactional memory: make-or-break time for multithreaded revolution. Available at: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2011/08/ibms-new-transactional-memory-make-or-break-time-for-multithreaded-revolution/ [Accessed 12th March 2014]. Detlefs, D., Martin, P.A., Moir, M. & Steele, G.L., (2001) ‘The Twentieth Annual ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing’, in Lock-free Reference Counting, ACM Press: New York. Maged, M.M. (2004) ‘Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 2004 Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation’, in Scalable Lock-free Dynamic Memory Allocation, ACM Press: New York.

The Electronic Cigarette Alternative

We live in a fast-paced world, and with each invention things speed up even more. And here it does it again. An electronic version of anything, from the e-book to the cloud technology, will continue to have rejoinders in the arrival of the e-cigarette. Fancy a drag? Why not try it through a healthier form of smoking in the medium provided by e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes are the latest crazes that were made in a bid to replace tobacco in a world that is becoming more aware about health hazards.The lectronic cigarette resembles the traditional cigarette in appearance but it works its magic by simulating the effect of tobacco once it hits the system. The e-cigarette can very well become the means that one can adopt to help them wean off smoking altogether although research questions remains to be framed and studied regarding how successful or common this optimistic attitude has resonated with smokers or aspiring quitters. However, as an alternative, the e-cigarette is said to be safer tha n real' cigarettes.The concept was formulated by a Chinese pharmacist, Hon Lik, in the period following the new millennium, allowing the continued inhalation of nicotine sans the cons of tobacco smoke. Although the e-cigarette was welcomed by a flurry of bans by different countries around the globe, the openness and inquisitive spirit of research has once again opened the way for real questions to be asked regarding the advantages of switching from ciggies to its electronic version. The e-ciggies are more ser-friendly.The user merely needs to take long drags to release the nicotine from the cartridge. That's the end of traditional lighters for you. Once no longer in use, the atomizer in the cylinder detects a change in air pressure and deactivates. It comes in different flavors so the user can take their pick. It is a safer option for newbie's. Some old timers say that the e-cigarette makes for a poor replacement because they feel that the ‘hit' is missing when they inhale the smoke released into the throat.Maybe it's not even about going away from ‘real' cigarettes. E-cigarettes exist as an option in a market that is driven by its ability to offer buyers with variety. Their pitch stands on the foundation that they are free from over 4000 chemical that are present in traditional fags. Finally, the user will benefit from the product because they will have more disposable income to spend on other products as e-cigarettes are way cheaper than their big brother.

Essay on CUSTOMER RETENTION STRATEGY AND CONTACT PLAN FOR ORANGE

Essay on CUSTOMER RETENTION STRATEGY AND CONTACT PLAN FOR ORANGE Essay on CUSTOMER RETENTION STRATEGY AND CONTACT PLAN FOR ORANGE Essay on CUSTOMER RETENTION STRATEGY AND CONTACT PLAN FOR ORANGEQuestion 1. Discuss the importance of a retention strategy during the customer lifecycle.For marketing products and services, it is important to study the stages of customer lifecycle and to interact with the customer accordingly at every stage. Managing customer relationships is especially important for services, since there is a greater element of interconnection between customers and service providers (compared to marketing products) (Sahaf 2008).There are different approaches to analyzing and managing customer lifecycle, but the most common model of customer lifecycle in marketing is the one suggested by Matt Cutler and Jim Sterne (Chung 2012).At the reach stage, the company focuses on attracting the attention of target customers. At the next stage, acquisition, the company works to engage its target customers and to bring them into own sphere of influence. Furthermore, at the conversion stage, those target customer s who have established a relationship with the company make a purchase. At the retention stage, the company is attempting to keep the customer and to increase sales volume in different ways. Finally, at the loyalty stage the customer turns into a partner and advocates the brand in his or her environment.Later on, this model of customer lifecycle was extended by the analysis of unsuccessful corporate attempts to attract customers at different stages of lifecycle. For example, failure at the acquisition stage leads to the abandonment of the product or service by customers. Failure to convert customers leads to attrition, and failure to retain customers causes high customer churn (Fig. 1).In the modern marketing environment, there is a change of focus from traditional marketing based on transactions to the new approach of relationship-based marketing (Hoffman 2007). While transaction-based marketing focuses on individual sales, the growth of sales volume and market share, relationship- based marketing emphasizes the role of customer retention, growing the share of customers and increasing individual customer satisfaction (Hoffman 2007). The former approach is good for short-term perspective, but leads to higher price sensitivity among customers and is associated with high marketing costs. Indeed, the cost of attracting new customers and generating new sales is on average 6 or 7 times higher than the cost of generating repeat sales (Lovelock, Patterson Wirtz 2014). Hence, relation-based marketing is therefore more cost-efficient; moreover, such approach helps to build brand loyalty and is more viable for the long-term perspective. In addition, such approach allows to avoid intensive price competition and to differentiate own products or services due to outstanding customer relationships. In particular, relationship-based marketing is highly efficient for services, since the role of interactions with customer is more important in the service sector (Reynolds Lanca ster 2007). Therefore, in order to differentiate its services among other competitors, Orange should adopt the relationship marketing approach instead of transaction-based marketing.In the context of relation-based marketing, a particularly valuable element of the customer lifecycle is customer retention. Customer retention can be defined as the number of customers doing business with the firm in the end of a financial year, expressed as a percentage of those who were active customers at the beginning of the year (Buttle 2008, p.258). Instead of year, any other reporting period might be chosen, depending on the rate of repurchasing of the specific product or service. For example, in the case of Orange, customer retention might be reviewed every month, since the payments are mostly monthly.Customer retention is an inverse of customer defection or churn the higher is customer retention, the lower is customer churn. Depending on the type of the product or service, customer-related dat a that might be used for identifying customer retention might be located in product silos, channel silos or in functional silos (Ferrell Hartline, 2012). In other words, customer information might relate to individual purchases, to group or channel purchases or to customer requests or queries instead of purchases (Piercy 2012). It is recommended to review different characteristics of customer retention: raw retention rate the characteristic defined in the previous paragraph, sales-adjusted retention rate sales volume generated by retained customers divided by the sales volume generated by all customers, and profit-adjusted retention rate the relation of profit from retained customers to the overall profit (Piercy 2012).There are numerous economic arguments illustrating the value of customer retention in customer lifecycle. First of all, retained customers tend to increase their purchases as tenure increases (Ferrell Hartline, 2012). Indeed, as customer trust and brand loyalty g row, customers have lower uncertainty associated with the product and the probability of repeat purchases increases. Secondly, customer retention helps to reduce the costs of customer management over time, both for individual customers and for B2B segment (Hoffman Bateson 2010). For most categories of customers, the costs of relationship maintenance are significantly lower than the costs of acquitting new customers. Furthermore, for large customers and B2B relationships, long-term partnership leads to automation of purchase processes and greater integration with customers. Such changes, in their turn, increase the chances of keeping such customers and turning them into brand advocates.Thirdly, customer retention is beneficial for marketing purposes. Loyal and satisfied customers tend to advertise the brand in their environment, post positive reviews on the web, etc. For example, customers in electronics industry who made one purchase will refer the company to their friends with 25% probability, while customers who made ten purchases with the same company, are likely to refer the company to their friends with 77% probability (Hoffman Bateson 2010). Therefore, customer retention creates advantages in terms of online, social and word-of-mouth marketing. Furthermore, loyal customers with high rate of satisfaction are more likely to pay premium prices for a particular product or service (Ellis 2012). For such customers, the value of a product or service is formed not only by the characteristics of the item purchased, but also by the relationships and trust in the company or the brand.Therefore, it is possible to state that customer retention is a highly important stage of customer lifecycle with notable economic and marketing value for the company. The profits from retaining customers are notably higher than the profits associated with acquiring new customers. According to Buttle (2008), a 5% increase in customer retention rate leads to the growth of net present value of customers between 25% and 95%, depending on the industry. Customer retention increases customer lifetime value and improves the company’s financial viability.Essay on CUSTOMER RETENTION STRATEGY AND CONTACT PLAN Â  FOR ORANGE part 2

Countable and Uncountable Nouns - Proofeds Writing Tips Blog

Countable and Uncountable Nouns Countable and Uncountable Nouns You might not have heard of countable and uncountable nouns before. However, it is useful to know the difference, as they work slightly differently with certain words. In this post, we explain how to use them correctly. Countable Nouns Quite simply, countable nouns are things that can be easily separated or counted. For example, we can refer to three apples, five people, or six guitars. These are also referred to as count nouns. When a noun can be counted, we can use words like number (e.g., a large number of eggs) and fewer (e.g., I have fewer eggs than you) with it. We can also say an egg or some eggs, depending on the number described. Uncountable Nouns Certain things, such as butter or water, cannot be counted as they are typically an undifferentiated mass. Other examples include sand, milk, and coffee. Many abstract concepts are uncountable nouns, too, including music, love, happiness and sadness. Uncountable nouns are also known as mass nouns. As with countable nouns, we have specific words we use with uncountable nouns. For example, amount (e.g., a large amount of sand) instead of number and less (e.g., there is less sand here than I thought) instead of fewer. We can also say some butter, refer to a certain weight, such as 100g of butter, or say the butter, but we never say a butter. Countable or Uncountable If in doubt about a particular word, ask whether it easily be counted or separated into distinct units. If it can be, it is probably a countable noun. Professional Proofreading To get your paper professionally proofread, upload it today at Proofed!

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE COUNSELOR-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP (HEALTH Essay

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE COUNSELOR-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP (HEALTH COUNSELING) - Essay Example 301-304). Although these discoveries have proven more than useful for developing a thorough understanding of such complicated processes, but they have failed to produce a significant breakthrough in ameliorating the maladies associated with the brain. For the only answer for all these problems, lies within the human’s brain itself. The therapy for these ailments, collectively known as mental stress, is based on verbal communication and finding possible and feasible solutions to the problem and is known as Counseling (Blonna, pp. 12-18). This technique aims to resolve an issue related to physical or mental health and avoid costly and arduous medical procedures. Counseling involves a counselor and a client. The counselor is a therapist and guides the client in exploring possible solutions to the problem at hand. The counselor must work together with client by understanding the problem and complications associated to introduce positive changes in thinking patterns of the client. The follo wing essay highlights the importance of counselor-client relationship and the factors involved with it. Understanding of the importance of counselor-client relationship is essential to have an idea about the significance of counseling. This assists in recognizing the need for developing a good relationship between the two parties. Although the word counseling comes in several different contexts like genetic counseling, health counseling and career counseling, the basic theme is the joint effort made by the counselor and client to bring about productive changes in the client’s life by verbal communication and to discuss the possibilities that may bring an improvement in the client’s life. The significance of counseling is evident by the fact that seeking this type of therapy may prevent treatments such as medication or surgery. This is not

How to Write a Thesis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

How to Write a Thesis - Essay Example The thesis proposal will show your thesis advisor the soundness (or the lack of it) of the thesis problem that you will pursue, the propriety of a research topic or the feasibility of the entire study, among others.One must never forget that in the whole process of thesis writing, constant communication with the thesis advisor is imperative. This thesis advisor is more in the position to suggest improvements, point out mistakes – in short provide invaluable insights that could increase your thesis’ chance of getting high mark. Moreover, the world may be impressed by outward show – neat typography and pretty layout - but assessors in higher education and professional people in your field should not be deceived by ornament. No amount of embellishments could hide the deficiencies in other respects. For instance, we have the inability to use language confidently and correctly, or from the use of inappropriate headings, or from the inclusion of information or ideas th at are inappropriate, irrelevant or out of place.For more resources about thesis writing, you may visit these pages: It is understandable that sometimes, due to time constraints, academic activities overload, a student could not single-handedly finish a thesis project. It may be a result of mistake in planning or adverse circumstances. However the case is, the consequences are quite unthinkable. For some researchers the thesis statement is the research question formulated in order to narrow a subject and give the thesis a direction.