Chinese History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Chinese History - Essay Example Moreover, there was a system of training administration officials which was an innovative approach towards ensuring that the affairs of the state could be managed in an efficient and effective manner. The establishment of a bureaucracy helped to ensure the administration process in an effectual manner (Ebrey, 67). Confucianism was adopted as the major system for running the affairs of the state. Confucian system advocated the belief that each individual must obey the family and have devotion towards the rulers. This helped to instill a sense of discipline among the officials. The top officials of the dynasty were living in the capital where they provided valuable counsel to the emperor. The lower officials would be responsible for maintaining roads and canals. They were also entrusted with the duty of maintaining the process of storing grain. The emperors introduced a system of meritocracy where officials were chosen by their competency and ability. A rigorous test was needed so that they could become officials of the state (Ebrey, 67). Civil servants were evaluated after three years for their performance. Therefore punishment and reward were used in combination with other measures to ensure that officials could perform their duties. The Han dynasty was created when Liu Bang won a civil conflict against Xiang Yu. His model of governance was based upon reducing taxes and creating a centralized state. The harsh punishments were reduced in order win the loyalty of the people. The centralized state was a unique innovation as compared with the nomadic lifestyle of Chinese in previous years. This is because of the fact that the provincial officials had to report to the central government. This made them accountable and transparent which led to sound outcomes (Ebrey, 67). A basic local government was formed in different counties which led to efficiency. Han Wu Ti was the greatest ruler of the Han dynasty. He presided over military expansion while enhancing Chinese col onies as well as increasing influence over Central Asia. The creation of the Silk Road helped to increase the trade and prosperity of the empire. The system of governance that was in place helped the empire to provide more freedom to the people. Social mobility and freedom helped prevent rebellions and insurrections against the government (Ebrey, 67). The Han dynasty led China into an unprecedented era of economic expansion, military achievements, scientific discoveries, and powerful stability. The dynasty was able to achieve this through the development of a powerful centralized state. It was able to focus on ruling the empire in a centralized manner so that it could prevent disorder and anarchy within the empire. This was a significant achievement for the empire. B1 A Confucian system focused on the notion of community rights where each individual would be able to contribute towards its progress. A number of advantages existed for this system such as the fact that an individual wo uld contribute towards the development of society with an emphasis on duty and responsibility. Knowledge and spiritual growth would flourish in such a system while the emphasis would be on meritocracy so that an individual would gain social standing and status based upon their personal actions. Moreover, it encourages respect and kindness as a virtue that can create a humane society. The disadvantages of such a system are that it encouraged the development of a hierarchy which would lead to unfairness (Sinaiko, 91). Confucian system focused on family which had a negative aspect also such as the fact that it led to fights and conflicts in which the entire family was involved if a single member had been hurt or wronged. The system also encourages the subordination of females who must remain obedient to

Human resourse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Human resourse - Essay Example Greenway Industries has employed members of both the families and began to grow and made huge profits. Later some issues took place in the firm due to existing reporting process. One of the female members (Kate) in the family believed that male dominated operation will reduce her privileges. The firm has 45 female employees, most of whom work in lower-level clerical positions or on the assembly line. Practically none are in middle or senior or professional positions. Donna’s board membership stands out as an isolated example of female authority. Kate is the daughter of Bob’s and Donna, married to Peter who is the chief finance officer. Kate is not a board member and works in the company’s accounts section on a casual basis when her work at home allows. Kate worked in a big law firm that had enlightened policies in relation to its female workers. She believes that a wholehearted approach to the preparation of the Agency report is called for and her values would make some kind of tokenistic report unacceptable. Kate has begun an informal campaign—mostly through some gentle pressure on her husband Peter and her mother—to have the firm take the reporting process seriously. Robert Lim sees Kate’s move as an attempt to find a spot on the board for her. Kate denies this but believes that her daughters have a genuine interest in joining the firm when they are older. This creates pressure for the board of directors from Donna because of Kate. A family owned business involves one or more family in ownership and control of the business. It is the oldest form of business organization. It is â€Å"A  small or medium-sized business that is controlled and operated by members of a family. It may be organized as a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or limited liability company.† (Business definition for: Family business. 2009). Family owned

Academic performance of disabled students and their general education peers Essay Example for Free

Academic performance of disabled students and their general education peers Essay Calls for the evolution of the educational system to maintain an inclusive program for mentally, financially and physically disabled students have been supported by the arguments that inclusion will greatly benefit the academic and social performance of children with disabilities. This is true since academic learning is enhanced when a program expecting higher output and reinforcing higher standards exists for students. These opportunities allow them to work and study harder as it exposes them to what many believe are normal real-life standards. Friendly and Lero (1993) stress that a motivation to keep up and progress without outside assistance is a driving force of enhancing performance. They also note that the labels in homogeneous or ability groupings negatively affect student potential. Contrastingly, although the effects of the inclusive system of education are favorable for non-general students, Brackett (1994) stresses that the opposite might take effect for general education students. These children might experience boredom due to the considerations given to disabled students in terms of pace and activities. Special or disabled children may also experience frustration as they try to keep up with the normal learning pace in a heterogeneous mix of students. Despite these contentions, several studies also note the positive effects of inclusion to the academic performance of both general education children and special needs education students. Hines and Johnston (1997) reported that disabled students in an inclusive set up showed academic progress and performance and improved their behavior as well. Schattman and Benay (1992) attribute this to the wide exposure of the disabled children, in an inclusive set up, to creative teachers and the nature of the inclusion strategies to expose the children to social interactions with other students. The marks and learning abilities of disabled students on specific subjects were also positively affected by being in inclusive classroom situations (Barbetta et al, 1991). The effect of inclusion to regular classroom students has been extensively studied and Staub and Peck (1995) list the general outcomes of the exposure of this group to this new learning environment. It has been noted that regular class students, after being exposed to an inclusive situation, become more aware of existence of human diversity and have reduced fear of human differences. They have more social interactions which results in a keener awareness of self knowledge. In addition, they also learned to develop their personal principles at an early age and the increased frequency of social relationships allowed them to create more friends. Hollowood et al. (1994) also answers a thriving concern about the imbalance of time allotment for students by teachers when exposed to an inclusive environment. It has been observed that the presence of special needs students in a class does not interfere with the allocated time of teachers to regular class students. And although, interruptions have been observed in some cases, the downtime did not significantly alter the average instruction hours when compared to general education classes. Similarly, in a study of primary and secondary schools that adopted inclusion, Idol (2006) reports that in a four-year study of four elementary and secondary schools, most students are generally not affected by the presence of students with disabilities in their classes. Statistics on these schools show that the elementary students surveyed registered a 68% approval rating on student performance and the respective elementary and secondary students show a 36% and 24% rating that student performance in inclusive situations was higher. 32% and 34% of elementary and secondary students also agree that academic abilities remained constant. In the four elementary schools considered, only 6% of the educators responded that there were negative reactions brought out by the presence of disabled students in class, while the statistics in the secondary schools surveyed did not vary much at 8%. The teachers also reported that a larger chunk ( 50% ) of the students increased or retained their statewide test scores. Requirements for an effective strategy Dugan et al. (1995) reviewed several studies which have been published regarding the methods and strategies used in inclusive education. According to this paper, improved academic performance is assured (Kamps et al. , 1992; Madden and Slavin, 1983; Noonan Hemphill, 1984; Shores et al. , 1993; Stainback et al. , 1981) if the program consists of a 1. method to encourage and guide interaction among students with disabilities and their peers; 2. scheme where teachers employ adaptive measures of instruction for students with disabilities; 3. program of study that enjoins both disabled and normal children to equally participate in activities; and 4. training to improve the social interactions and abilities of a child that prepares him for the real world environment. One aspect of inclusive education that employed cooperative learning groups is also effective in enhancing the performance of students. Johnson et al (1990) notes that cooperative learning results in improved academic performance of children from different cognitive levels to be in a heterogeneous educational environment that promotes the mediation of groups for maximal learning. Inclusive education programs and strategies like the cross-age tutoring also resulted in improved performance of both students with and without disabilities (Barbetta et al. , 1991) and increased the reading and comprehension abilities of both normal children and children with autism (Kamps et al., 1994). Kamps et al (1994) also note that because of the drastic improvement in the confidence of the children in a cooperative learning set up, the time for interactions and social activities between children with autism and their peers also increased and adds to their improved learning abilities. According to Dugan et al (1995) cooperative learning groups improved student interaction through increased frequency of social activities. The effectivity of student learning also increased due to tutoring events and research activities. Hawkins et al (2001) explained that early social interactions between children create a deeper bond that acts as a defense for behavioral problems and, thus, strengthens the relationships of students. Strategies for improved academic performance Academic performance in an inclusive set up uses contemporary schemes in order to teach the lessons to students. Learning is boosted through techniques such as teams games tournaments or TGT, which allows the teacher to teach the lessons to students through games. The teams cooperate and learn from other group members by peer tutoring in order to increase their chances of winning in the tournaments. Another scheme called student teams and academic divisions or STAD allows individual members of a team to score points by adding their individual written scores, like in a quiz for example, to the total accumulated team points (Slavin, 1990). Another inclusion strategy that shows very promising results in increasing the academic fervor of children involves the use of class wide peer tutoring (CWPT). In a study of the performance of heterogeneously grouped children under the subject of reading and reading comprehension, CWPT was observed to increase the ability of students to read and pronounce words accurately and answer reading comprehension questions correctly. The technique was also found to improve the cognitive skills of elementary students with autism. It was also a tool for social interaction and learning with their classmates and showed better reading proficiencies for most students because of the relative ease in adapting this program to a normal classroom set up (Kamps et al.,1994). CWPT can also be incorporated in a team games tournament (TGT) scheme and are collectively referred to as class wide student tutoring teams (CSTT). This method employs tutoring and tests individual learning progress by competitions where individual scores comprise team scores. Reading can also be taught to elementary students through a cooperative integrated reading and composition technique or CIRC. In this strategy, students are paired and are allowed to read stories to each other while practicing and honing their reading abilities (Jenkins et al., 1991). Johnson et al (1984) reports that role playing is also a learning strategy to be employed, this technique, called circles of learning, employs group dynamics and allows students to complete assigned tasks and evaluate their performance through worksheets. In addition, the competitive atmosphere is reduced because of the nature of the activity. These techniques have been shown to improve the academic performance of a heterogeneous mix of students with different baseline aptitudes. The case of employing inclusion to disabled children and high-level students with autism can also be employed to children who are sickly, obese or those with high risks of cardiovascular diseases. Van Sluijs et al. (2007) have observed that the method of inclusion to obese adolescents shows strong evidence of improvement and increased physical activity. The effective strategies employed actively involve the school, the community and the student’s family in order to improve the physical disposition of the individuals in the study. Studies show that a key factor in the improvement of students in inclusive setups is the competency of educators handling the classes. However, every teacher has his own techniques, experiences and teaching strategies that he has developed over time. This difference in experience is especially large between teachers who handle exclusively special classes for disabled students and those who handle general education. Thus, in an inclusive setting, in order to expand the exposure of students to different teachers, collaborative teaching has been developed as a strategy for effective learning. This method is a big deviation from the previous pull-out system for partial inclusive settings. In co-teaching, both teachers complement and co-teach both disabled students and their peers (Gerber and Popp, 2000). Rea et al (2002), in a study on the teaching practices of Enterprise Middle School which handles grade school students at levels 6 to 8, show that co-teaching is an effective strategy for educating students. This mechanism involves daily class rotations with different teachers. Co-teaching also requires careful and synchronized planning on the part of the educators. Teachers actively and regularly discuss their activities and lessons and share methods of evaluating the progress of students. This way, different instructional objectives are met although by different individuals. This is necessary to coordinate and pace teachers in their work and lessons with their students as well as to share information on student development. Different schemes characterize the co-teaching method. Rea et al (2002) note that interactive teaching or taking turns observing and lecturing may be employed. The class may also be divided for parallel sessions or one teacher may be assigned for catch-up classes for some students. Nonetheless, any form taken by the co-teaching scheme aims to provide for the needs of the children, supplied variation in teaching techniques, and was seen as a healthy environment for student growth and learning. Many researchers have expressed support to the principle of including disabled students in general education practice. Among them, Villa et al. (1996) have observed that educators preferred teaching disabled students along with their non-disabled peers. This factor may have contributed to the increased academic progress of students within the inclusive education set up. On the other hand, Thousand and Villa (2000) stressed that teachers are not the only major contributing factor to student progress. In fact, they highlight the observation that inter-student relationships while in the confines of the classroom play a big role during learning, emotional and social development. As the needs of the children in an inclusive set up are congruent to the skill that must be possessed by the educators handling the classes, teacher training (Porter, 2001) is an essential part of the process that makes an inclusive set up work. Daniel and King (1997) refer to this skill as training for inclusionary practices and is a characteristic of teachers that must be developed in order to function effectively in an educational system following heterogeneous groupings. It should, therefore, be apparent that these special skills allow educators to adapt to the wide needs of different types of students and allow them to be creative in forming strategies for an efficient and effective learning experience for both disabled students and their peers. However, the great demands of the inclusive educational practice oftentimes result in work pressure among teaching personnel. For example, studies on all elementary physical education instructors from Israel show that the episodes of burnout in faculty members are related to the number of special or disabled students in their classes and the amount of assistance they get conducting these classes (Fejgin et al. , 2005). This relates the demanding work that is put in by the educators in order to make an inclusive program work. This study also stresses the chief role played by government support in the educational system, where episodes of teacher burnout are also dictated by poor quality of the workplace and inadequacy of the institution to provide sports facilities for the needs of the students, especially the disabled or special cases. Despite episodes of burnout, most teachers have expressed their support for inclusion as an appropriate program to teach disabled children (Idol, 2006) the statistics is expected to improve if more educational personnel were available to answer to the needs of all students. The necessity for improved and evolving programs that would answer the needs of students in inclusion also requires the involvement of many organizations, individuals and different types of educators, resulting in interdisciplinary interactions to improve current conditions (Robertson and Valentine, 1998). This brings about an atmosphere of community and exposes the teaching skills of effective teachers and allows room for growth and improvement. Equally important to the instructors are the provision of adequate health care safety facilities for different types of students which should be provided by the government and their policy makers. It is consequently very crucial that an educational program should be backed-up by community and policy driven education reform for a successful advocacy. Porter (2001) expresses that there is a need for legislators who understand that an inclusive community school is a method of reform that should be supported. For cases of students with severe autism and retardation, however, further studies both on the effective procedures that should be employed and on the qualitative measures of investigating the effects of peer-mediated activities and cooperative learning also require continuous evaluation (Kamps et al. , 1994). Nonetheless, Kamps and Carta (1989) note that strategies are successful if these improve or maintain the skills of non disabled students without compromising the learning of their disabled peers.

Path Planning Strategy For Line Follower Computer Science Essay

Path Planning Strategy For Line Follower Computer Science Essay This paper presents the development of a line follower wheeled mobile robot. In this project, ARM cortex-3 based microcontroller is chosen as the main controller to react towards the data received from infrared line sensors to give fast, smooth, accurate and safe movement in partially structured environment. A dynamic PID control algorithm has been proposed to improve the navigation reliability of the wheeled mobile robot which uses differential drive locomotion system. The experimental results show that the dynamic PID algorithm can be performed under the system real-time requirements. Keywords embedded system, wheeled mobile robot, PID control algorithm. Introduction Embedded system includes many areas of knowledge, microcontroller hardware and software, interfacing technologies, automatic control theory, and sensor technologies etc. To speed up the learning process and motivate students to learn actively, the project-based learning approach may be applied in the embedded system design laboratory [1-4]. The low-cost wheeled mobile robot building, which is proposed in this paper, serves as a good example on which students can learn embedded system design skills. It covers not only common embedded system peripherals, but also energy control and real-time control firmware implementation. The process of the construction of wheeled mobile robot can give students the idea that hardware circuits and software algorithms are both mandatory for a successful embedded system design. The competition between student groups in the racing contest can also encourage them to explore in depth the skills acquired in this laboratory as well as give them lots of fun [ 5-7]. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: The line follower robot structure and architecture issues and challenges along with their technical issues and problems are discussed in section 2. Programming details will be explained in section 3. Section 4 describes the integration of the complete system. LÄ ±ne follower wheeled MobÄ ±le Robot structure Generally, the line follower robot is one of the self-acting wheeled mobile mechanisms that follow a line drawn on the floor. The route can be a visible black line on a white surface or vice versa. The simple operations of the wheeled mobile line follower robot are shown below. Taking the line position data with optical sensors attached at the front end of the mobile robot. Most are using more than a few numbers of IR photo-reflectors. Therefore, the line sensing procedure needs high resolution and high robustness. Steering the wheeled mobile robot to track the line with any direction-finding mechanism. This is just a servo maneuver; actually, any phase recompense will be required to become stable following motion by applying digital PID filter or any similar servo algorithm. Monitoring the speed according to the path complaint. The speed is restricted during passing a turn due to the friction of the tire with the floor. From actually building the robot platform, to setting up, programming, and hardware or software fine tuning, everything needs to be taken into account when building a differential wheeled mobile robot. A mobile robot can be considered fundamentally as a combination of five main portions and subsystems. Chassis and body. Sensors and signal processing circuits. Microcontroller and interface circuits. Motor drivers Actuators (Motors and wheels) The Chassis and Body The Chassis would be the first part of a robots body. It is designed to handle all of the other components, transmission mechanisms, electronics and battery. It needs to be sufficiently large and provide adequate fixtures to furnish all necessary parts, as well as sturdy enough to cope with the weight of the parts along with additional loads which can appear in dynamic conditions such as vibrations, shocks or chassis torsion and actuators torque. There are some good materials for designing robots such as plastic, aluminum and carbon-composites. We must pay attention to the resistance, weight and mechanical ability for choosing one of them. In the designed robot, printed circuit board (PCB) has been used for chassis because of its lightweight and being strong enough for robot project. All components can be installed on the PCB to minimize the weight. It is noted that the performance is much more valuable than other issues. Sensors and Signal Processing Circuit Line follower robot uses Infrared Ray (IR) sensors to find the path and direction. IR sensors include an infrared transmitter and infrared receiver pair. IR sensors are often used to identify white and black surfaces. White surfaces effectively reflect well, but black surfaces reflect poorly. Hence, the distance between sensors and ground surface is important, and it is more valuable that how we put sensors near to each other. The distance between sensors and ground surface must be 2 to 10 mm, and the distance between each sensor is dependent on the line width. In the designed robot, we have used eight sensors, and they have a suitable distance between each other. If the line width is narrow, the distance between sensors must be reduced; otherwise, while curving the line, the robot will not be turned on time. Generally, the received signals from the sensors are analog and must be converted to the digital form. Therefore, the designed signal processing circuit can send the sensors signals to the microcontroller directly. Microcontroller We have used the TI Stellaris microcontroller LM3S811 in robot project. The LM3S811 microcontroller has a Reduced Instruction Set Coding (RISC) core. Internal oscillators, timers, UART, USB, SPI, pull-up resistors, pulse width modulation, ADC, analog comparator and watch-dog timers are some of the features [8]. With on-chip in-system programmable Flash and SRAM, the LM3S811 is a perfect choice in order to optimize cost. Motor Drivers A well-known and suitable motor driver is IC L298 which can be used to control two motors. It is a high voltage, high-current dual full-bridge driver designed to accept standard TTL logic levels and drive inductive loads such as DC and stepping motors [9]. Two enable inputs are provided to enable or disable the device independently of the input signals. L298 has 2 amperes per channel current capacity and it can support up to 45 volts for outputting. Moreover, L298 works well up to 16 volts without any heat sink. The Actuators (Motors and Wheels) There are many kinds of motors and wheels. Our choice depends on the robot function, power, speed, and precision. Actually, it is better to use gearbox motors instead of common DC motors because it has gears and an axle and its speed does not change towards the top of a hill or downhill. Motors are rated to operate at 1700 rpm at 7 volt nominal voltage. It is better to use wheels for line follower robots, instead of a tank system. We can use three wheels. Two of them are joined to the motors and installed at the rear of the robot and the other wheel is free and installed in front of the robot as a passive caster. To get better maneuver, robot uses two motors and two wheels on the rear and a free wheel on the front. The power supply is 7.6 V with a regulator. The designed robot has eight infrared sensors on the front bottom for detecting the line. Arm based microcontroller Stellaris and driver L298 were used to control direction and speed of motors. General view of the line follower robot that we built is shown in Fig. 1. The robot is controlled by the microcontroller. It performs the change in the motor direction by sending an appropriate signal to the driver IC according to the received signals from the sensors. Real Time Task Scheduling We built a light-weighted and high-speed robot because points are awarded based upon the distance covered and the speed of the overall robot. Therefore, we used two high speed motors and a highly sensitive signal conditioning circuit. The body weight and wheels radius have effects on the speed, too. The weight of the designed robot is around 300 gr. and it could be lighter. The photograph of the top and bottom views of the designed robot is shown in Fig. 1. The microcontroller sends instructions to the driver after processing the data received from sensors. The driver powers the motors according to the inputs. Actually the driver supplies positive voltage to one of the motor pins and negative voltage to the other. There are five states of movement: To move forward; both of the motors are turned on and rotate forward simultaneously. To move left; the right motor is turned on and the left motor is turned off. To move right; the left motor is turned on and the right motor is turned off. To move left fast; the right motor rotates forward and the left motor rotates backward. To move right fast; the left motor rotates forward and the right motor rotates backward. Most embedded system applications need to react to the inputs or environment changes in real time, which means that the accuracy of computations is as important as their timelines. Furthermore, digital control algorithms need a fixed sampling time interval for measuring inputs and delivering output commands. Therefore, the idea of applying interrupts for task scheduling is introduced in this work. IMAG0388 (a) IMAG0392 (b) Figure 1 Images show (a) top, (b) bottom views of the built line follower robot. The Quadratic Line-Detection Algorithm A better way of detecting the line position, compared to the other simple line-following robots, by using a quadratic interpolation technique is introduced. Eight reflective optical sensors were used, and the coordinate of the leftmost sensor was 0. To find out the correct position of the black line, we had to locate three consecutive sensors with higher output readings than the other five sensors as shown in Fig. 2. Assume that the coordinates of these 3 sensors are x1, x1+1, and x1+2, and the true shape of the sensor output values are in the range of [x1, x1+2] which can be approximated by a quadratic curve. One can then find the following relationships between the coordinates of the sensors and the output values: (1) (2) (3) The coordinate value, at which the output value of the quadratic curve is the maximum, is considered as the true position of the line. By using the basic calculus, one would know that the coordinate value is: (4) (5) (6) It is assumed that the coordinate for the center position of the line-following robot is 0. Therefore, the error e between the line position and the center position of the robot is e â‚ ¬Ã‚ ½Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  0â‚ ¬Ã‚ ­Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  x â‚ ¬Ã‚ ½Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ­x (7) Figure 2 The line detection algorithm via quadratic interpolation. PID Tracking Control Algorithm The popular proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller was introduced in this project to make the robot follow the racing track. The error between the center of the sensors and the track to be followed was then processed by the PID controller to generate velocity commands for the right and left wheels. First, the controller calculates the current position and then calculates the error established on the current situation. It will then send commands the motors to give a rigid turn, if the error is extraordinary or a minor turn, if the error is small. Basically, the amount of the turn given will be proportional to the error. Of course this is a consequence of the proportional control. Even after this, if the error does not decline approximately to zero, the controller will then growth the degree of the turn further and further over time till the robot centers over the line. This is the result of the integral control. In the process of centering over the line, the robot may overshoot the target position and move to the other side of the line where the above process is followed again. Thus, the robot may keep oscillating about the line in order to center over the line. To reduce the oscillating effect over time, the derivative control is used. The proportional term is only a gain ampli fier, and the derivative term is applied in order to improve the response to disturbance, and also to compensate for phase lag at the controlled object. Pseudo Code for the PID Controller; Kp = 10 Ki = 1 Kd = 100 offset = 45 ! Initialize the variables Tp = 50 integral = 0 ! the place where integral value will be stored lastError = 0 ! place where last error value will be stored derivative = 0 ! place where derivative value will be stored Loop forever LightValue = read sensors ! read sensors. error = -x ! calculate the error using equation (7). integral = integral + error ! calculate the integral derivative = error lastError ! calculate the derivative Turn = Kp*error + Ki*integral + Kd*derivative powerA = Tp + Turn ! power level for motor A powerB = Tp Turn ! power level for motor B MOTOR A direction=forward power=PowerA MOTOR B direction=forward power=PowerB lastError = error ! save the current error end loop forever ! do it again. PID controller requires the Kp, Ki and Kd factors to be set to match wheeled line follower robots characteristics and these values depends on robot structures, actuators, sensors and other electronic components characteristics. There is no equation given in the literature to calculate Kp, Ki and Kd factors. It requires experimental trial and error technique until you get the favorite behavior. We defined these factors according to following guidelines; Start with low speed and setting values of Kp, Ki and Kd to 0. Then, try setting Kp to a value of 1 and observe the robot. The goal is to get the robot to follow the line even if it is extremely wobbly. If the robot overshoots and misses the line, decrease the value of Kp. If the robot cannot navigate a turn or seems listless, increment the Kp value with small steps. Once the mobile robot is able to follow the path, set Kd value to 1 and then try growing this value until you see less shake. Once the robot is fairly stable at following the line, assign a value of .5 to 1.0 to Ki. If the Ki value is extraordinary, the robot will shake left and right rapidly. If it is too low, you wont see any perceivable alteration. Since integral is increasing, the Ki value has a substantial impact. You may continue to retuning process with adjusting Ki by .01 increments. Once the mobile robot is tracking the line with reasonable accuracy, you can increase the speed and see if it is still able to track the line. Speed disturbs the PID controller and will require rearranging as the speed fluctuations. Results And Discusion A line following robot is programed with simple (on/off) control as a comparison purpose in evaluating the performance of the dynamic algorithm controlled robot. The results of the experiment are summarized in Table-1. From the data in the table, it can be observed that dynamic PID algorithm controlled robot has better performance in every criteria listed in the table compared to simple (on/off) control robot. The dynamic algorithm controlled robot has higher velocity, consumes less time to complete one whole circuit, tracks the line smoother and has lower tendency to astray from line compared to uncontrolled robot. Therefore this system can be used in training undergraduate students on dynamic PID algorithm control system, its application and implementation in the real world and the advantages that it offers. Fig. 3 shows the designed robot during race pits test. Figure 3 The designed robot on the race pits. Table 1- Experimental result for Line Following Robot. Criteria Dynamic PID algorithm Simple (on/off) Time to complete one whole circuit 47.6s 71.4s Line tracking Smooth Not so smooth Velocity 0.2m/s 0.14m/s Tendency to astray from line Low High Conclusion The designed wheeled line follower mobile robot has eight infrared sensors on the bottom for detecting the line. The controller board includes Stellaris LM3S811 micro-controller and the motor driver L298 which were used to control the direction and the speed of motors. The proposed dynamic PID algorithm derives the line follower locomotion by adequately combining the information from sensor module. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can successfully achieve target following in various scenarios, including straight line and circular motion, sharp-turn motion and S-shape line tracking. We are working currently to develop a more sophisticated algorithm which can perform faster line tracking with less energy consumption.

Albert The Absurd Camus Essay -- Essays Papers

Albert The Absurd Camus â€Å"Albert Camus is one of the most likeable and approachable of the mid-twentieth-century French authors† (Brosman 10).This is quite a compliment for Camus, but most would agree. In France, Albert is known for his many books, two which have made the French best-sellers list. His works are often read and studied in French secondary-school class rooms, introducing a countless number of students to his pieces each year. Camus also holds the high honor of receiving the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957 (Boak 346). His wide popularity has made his name known in North America as well. Just what is Albert Camus so popular for one might ask? The answer would be his approach to his work— the underlying beliefs of Existentialism or the theory of the absurd that characterizes his pieces (Wyatt 1).1 All of Camus’ works incorporate this strong sense of the individual having freedom of choice, and thus complete control over his own outcome. He acknowledges no help or contr ol from higher powers, just simply focuses on the individual; consequently, creating a sense of alienation. Albert Camus’ attraction to and his use of Existential beliefs began from his own life circumstances. Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913 to his parents Lucien Auguste Camus and Catherine Sintà ¨s Camus. Albert was born in Mondovi, Algeria, a French colony until receiving independence in 1962. His father grew up an orphan due to being the youngest of five children. His mother sent him to an orphanage to lighten her load; Lucien never forgave his mother and family for this treatment (â€Å"Albert Camus† 113). Lucien served in World War I and was killed during fighting when Albert was still an infant (Lazere 72). After his father’s death, the ... ...Savage. Albert Camus. Vol. 8. Detroit: The Gale Group, 2001. 9 vols. â€Å"Albert Camus.† Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 30 Sept. 2004. 8 Oct. 2004. . Boak, Denis. â€Å"Camus.† The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Biography. 1973 Cruickshank, John. â€Å"Camus, Albert.† Britannica Biography Collection 1 – 3. MAS Ultra-School Edition. EBSCO. Lakeshore High School Lib., Stevensville, MI. 12 Oct. 2004. Lazere, Donald. The Unique Creation of Albert Camus. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973. MacDonald, Paul S. â€Å"Albert Camus.† The Existentialist Reader. Ed. Paul S. MacDonald. Routledge: New York, 2000. 144 – 183. Thody, Philip. Albert Camus 1913 – 1960. 2nd ed. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1962. Wyatt, C.S. Existentialism: An Introduction. 6 Jun. 2004. 16 Oct. 2004 .

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place Essay -- Literary Analysis

Ernest Hemingway developed his own style of writing and follows it in â€Å"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place†. Hemingway’s elegance in writing is such that he indirectly gives all of the information to the reader without making any judgment; thus allowing one to create an opinion about every minute detail of the story. Hemingway illustrates his foundations of writing in â€Å"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place† by providing small clues that provide an indirect view of the larger meaning. Hemingway illustrates one of his elements of writing, omission, by providing two waiters and their exchange of speech and actions with each other and their customer, the old man. By doing so, he provides all of the information for readers to create an assumption about the individual’s traits; the saintly and even wicked. In the story we are given a scene with the old drunken man and the younger waiter. The old man asks for another brandy while pointing to his empty glass. The younger of the two waiters brashly began his dialogue with â€Å"Finished,† he said, speaking with that omission of syntax stupid people employ when talking to drunken people or foreigners. â€Å"No more tonight. Close now.† â€Å"Another,† said the old man. â€Å"No. Finished.† The waiter wiped the edge of the table with a towel and shook his head. The old man stands to leave, counts his tab, pays for his brandy, even leaves a tip for the waiters, and then begins to walk awa y with dignity even for his drunken stupor. (153-154) In this passage the reader is provided with several concepts that help to create the depictions of the old man and the younger waiter. Foremost, the reader is struck with the incivility of the old man; but, before he leaves the cafà © one is forced to become a sympathizer for the fact that ... ...ith him, probably would drink all night with him too. This is very typical of Hemingway in the fact that he cannot help but to create a story where the reader must not only have background knowledge; but also, be completely immersed into the story and become an omnipotent reader. With all of Hemingway’s elements of writing these are the most becoming of his typical writing style. They create a very broad sense for the reader and make it very imperative for one to become a central part of the story. Though he is a very exemplary writer Hemingway employs very artistic and almost novel forms of writing to his works of literature. Works Cited Cover Page Hemingway, Ernest. â€Å"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place†. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Eds. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 11th ed. New York: Longman. 2010 152-155. Print.

Jk Cement Research Report

Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore PGP Program Term 1, 2012 Final Report for JK Cements – Group 2 Section 1 Business Description: JK Cements is one of the largest cement manufacturers in Northern India and the eighth largest overall India with net cement sales of 2545 crores in 2011-12. Itsmain productsinclude grey and white cement. It produced 53. 2 lakh tons of grey cement and 3. 77 lakh tons of white cement in the financial year 201112. Grey cement produced consists of Ordinary Portland Cement (â€Å"OPC†) and Portland Pozzolana Cement (â€Å"PPC†). Their cement products are marketed under the brand names J.K. Cement and Sarvashaktiman for OPC products, J. K. Super for PPC products and J. K. White and Camel for white cement products. JK Wall Putty and JK Water proof are its white cement based value-added products. Housing (74%), infrastructure (17%), commercial & institutional sector (13%) and industrial sector (6%) are the major customers of the cement industry [Refer Figure 1]. Housing constitutes a major chunk of the demand and hence rural and urban housing projects are a key resource generator. Key stock statistics and revenue/earnings data is included in the appendix [Refer Tables 1& 2]Section 2 Market Profile, Competition, Strategy, Risks A. Market Profile: The demand for cement mainly depends on the level of development and the rate of growth of the economy. The major demand drivers for the cement sector in India are housing, infrastructure and commercial construction. These are key components of the country’s GDP and hence, the average growth of the cement industry is approximately 1. 2 times the GDP growth. Significant impetus to both rural and urban housing as per capita income increases in a major driver of the industry.With the increase in national infrastructure investment, the industry is poised to expand further in spite of the worldwide economic recession. The housing sector contributes around 64% of the tot al cement demand. It also accounts for 80% of the total real estate developments in the country. Housing demand is expected to be robust backed by various measures adopted in the budget like continued interest subvention up to 15 lacs, exemption from service tax for low cost housing construction, and increase in investment-linked deduction of capital expenditure on low-cost housing from 100% to 150%.There has been a major push by the government in infrastructure development with the intended investment being US$ 1 trillion in the 12th five year plan period (2012-17), against an investment of US$ 514 billion in the 11th five year plan period. Massive investment in infrastructure would provide boost to Indian Cement industry. India is the second largest producer and consumer of cement in the world, accounting for 7-8% of the total global production with an installed capacity of over 300 Mtpa at the end of 2011-12. India’s cement industry performed better in 1 011-12, on back of robust demand revival in the second half of the financial year. The industry grew by 6. 4 per cent in 2011-12 as against less than 5 per cent in 2010-11. Total cement sales were 223. 02 MT compared with 209. 5 MT in FY11. For 2012-13, CRISIL Research estimates cement demand to increase 7-8 per cent yoy (Crisil). In the near term, demand could be a little weak because of the lower GDP growth. Given that a large part of the demand comes from the housing sector, high interest rates are not conducive to the urban real estate demand. However, in the long term, the industry is expected to grow at an average of 1. times the GDP growth rate. Growth rates of 8-9% can be targeted for the five year period given the increase in investment in infrastructure projects and increasing rural demand. Although India is one of the largest cement markets in the world, per capita consumption of cement is still low as compared to the world average as well as that of other large countries such as China and US. The Indian cement industry, thus, has a huge growth potential. Given the intense shortage of housing, this segment has been a major growth driver for the cement industry.The demand for residential real estate has only increased, fuelled by increasing urbanization, rising income levels, decreasing household sizes and easy availability of home loans. Bulk of the total shortage of 74 million units at the end of the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012), is expected to be generated by rural and below poverty line households. The government has launched various initiatives such as NREGS and Indira AwasYojana to improve rural income, which may increase demand for rural housing in the country. Increased infrastructure investments by the government as mentioned earlier is also likely to be a major growth area.Housing (74%), infrastructure (17%), commercial & institutional sector (13%) and industrial sector (6%) are the major customers of the cement industry. Housing constitutes a major chunk of the demand and hence rural and urban housing projects are a key resource generator. Overall industry margins and change in sales trends are mentioned in tables at the end. [Refer to Table 3 & 4]. Please refer to Table 5 for a picture of the industry growth rate based on the Free Cash Flow model where the average P/B was computed with the top 5 firms of the industry and different rates for cost of capital were assumed.This shows that the cement industry is poised for growth for whatever cost of capital that may prevail. B. Competition: Inter firm competition and rivalry in the industry is high. Large number of players, intermittent overcapacity, marginal product differentiation, high storage cost and high exit barrier in form of significant capital investment has led to high competition in the industry. Threat of new entrants is limited since it involves high capital investment, broad distribution network and oversupplied markets deter new entrants.However, given the high potenti al for growth, quite a few foreign transnational companies have made acquisitions and increased their stake in domestic companies to gain full control. There are no good substitutes for cement popular in India. However, there are eco friendly substitutes for cement which include fly ash and slag. Fly ash is the by product when coal is burnt to make electric power and slag is created when producing iron in blast furnaces. Coal fly ash, blast furnace slag and other mineral admixtures can substitute for cement, aving energy and reducing cost. Bitumen in roads and engineering plastics in building are some element of competition. Currently, the top players – UltraTech, ACC, Ambuja Cements, Jaiprakash Associates, India Cements and Shree Cement, collectively control more than half of the cement market in the country. Overall, there are 40 players in the industry across the country. (Source: ibef. org) The closest competitors for JK Cement are Shree Cements, Madras Cements, Birla Cor poration and Binani Cement. The industry has a 4-firm concentration ratio of 58. 18%. 2 C. StrategyDespite challenges, JK Cement has increased revenues and profits owing to higher realisation and volumes in both grey cement and white cement business. The company is in on its way to expanding its capacity in India to cater to the increase in cement demand. It has also diversified its product portfolio by not only limiting itself to varieties of grey cement but also extending to white cement and other value added products. Besides, the Company is also setting up a grey cum white cement plant at Fujairah in UAE to cater to GCC and African markets. The company is making efforts to reduce operating expenses which in turn would increase the ROE.Some of the efforts to reduce operating costs are: Grey Cement †¢ Implementation of CII Audit findings in phased manner to reduce power consumption. †¢ Installation of VFDs in fans to save power. †¢ Replacement of booster fans by hig h efficiency fans to save power. †¢ Installation of pfisterpump for coal firing in calciner. †¢ Replacement of Raw mill -1 separator by high efficiency separator. †¢ Dynamic separator in Coal Mill. White Cement †¢ Covered clinker storage facility for grey and white clinker. †¢ Grinding plant for dolomite for putty product. †¢ Installation of new SG Fan & Driver. The company is also making efforts to increase its capacity.The company is revisiting the size of proposed expansion plan at Mangrol, Rajasthan from earlier envisaged 3. 5 Million Tons to around 2. 5 Million Tons, on account of delay in allotment of new mining area to the Company. Viability study for 2. 5 Million Tons capacity plant is under preparation and a final decision will be taken during the course of the year. D. Risks Three most important risks: 1. Sustained economic slowdown The growth of cement industry is directly proportional to GDP growth rate. Absence of decision making at Governm ent level is affecting economic growth and may have adverse effect for the cement industry.If measures are not adopted against inflation, high interest rates, depreciating rupee, then it would impact the overall economic growth of the country resulting in dragging the sector down. 2. Unavailability of coal linkages Coal costs constitute 14-23% of cost of production of cement. The hike in coal prices is expected to hit the margins. Due to reduced supply of coal linkers from Coal India over the years; the company has to import coal at higher costs from South Africa and Indonesia. The depreciation of the rupee will also add to the increased cost of raw materials. 3.Adverse demand-supply mismatch In case, the additional capacities get commissioned ahead of schedule, then a state of oversupply would rise, consequently prices may head downwards and the sector may suffer a severe blow. Section 3 3 Trend Analysis The demand for the cement mainly depends on the rate of growth of infrastructu re, housing and commercial construction. In Indian context all these areas have been experiencing a significant growth as a result of constant growth in our GDP. As a result we can see that overall the total revenues for both the companies have been rising [Refer to Figure 2].JK Cement and Madras Cements basically cater to northern and southern India respectively. In year 2011, there is a dip in the total revenues of Madras Cement. This was result of a more acute fall in the capacity utilization observed in southern India due to low demands because of political instability in Andhra Pradesh and minimal pick-up in demand in Tamil Nadu and Kerala post elections. The two industries exhibit comparable trend as far as profit margins are concerned [Refer to Figure 4]. So, an overall analysis of cement industry in this period is required.In 2008, the dip can be attributed to reduced demands due to global recession, which reduced capacity utilization thus reducing profits. In 2011, there wa s marginally poor off take in cement demand due to passive construction activity, which lead to excess supply and utilisation fell to a 13-year low of 83. 9% for 2010-11. This has been coupled with rise in input costs, especially prices of coal and petroleum products. As a result, both the top line and bottom line have been affected. Hence this year the capacity utilization increased and the demand dropped. Section 4 Ratio Analysis [Refer Table 6] . Return on Equity : [Refer Fig. 5] ROE has been hovering around 17-20% throughout with some years seeing slight changes. Given that Index of Industrial Production(IIP) grew only by around 2. 8%, it appears that JK and Madras have both done well. However, 2010-11 was a bad year for JK Cements. Their Net Operating Profit plummeted by 39% when compared to the previous year while the same for Madras Cement was only around 27%. This was mainly on account of reduction in sales realisation and substantial increase in the prices of petcoke and fu el resulting in higher input costs (Annual Report 2010-11).This caused the ROE of JK to fall by almost 600% from the previous year. 2. Basic DuPont Model Analysis : [Refer Fig. 4,5 and 6] ROE = Asset Turnover * Profit Margin Asset Turnover of JK is consistently higher when compared with Madras Cements – 42. 46% higher in 2006-07 while this is 39. 87% in 2012. This is because JK’s total fixed assets is lesser than Madras’ by almost 50% while sales of Madras Cements is higher only by around 2025% on an average . However, the low profit margin throughout has been causing the Return on Equity of JK to be lower than that of Madras Cements.The profit margin has been very low in all the years from with the worst hit being in 2011 – reason explained in step 1. Also the Net Financial Rate has dinted the net profit due to expansion efforts coupled with the dim outlook in the industry. A ray of hope for JK would be to perform product differentiation with the white c ement – wall putty market ; it has done right by expanding the white cement units in overseas ; the demand for interior and decor is bound to increase in the near future. 4 3. Advanced DuPont Model Analysis with RNOA & Leverage : [Refer Fig. & 12] It can be seen that the Operating Spread of JK is going negative for 2010-11 & 2011-12 showing that their Financial Rate is on the rise which is due to debts from increased expansion plans. This, along with the increased leverage from high borrowing, has reduced the already low RNOA to yield a poor ROE value. In the same while, for Madras Cements the spread has been positive – in fact, it has never gone negative for them, despite their large debt. Madras Cements has been affected only by the overall increase in costs in the cement industry and not by the leverage effect which JK has suffered from.The leverage effect has beaten JK again in 2011-12 ; though their RNOA has increased by 177% from the previous year and long-term d ebt has actually reduced, the Interest Rates on loans have seem to have gone up – leading to a 117% increase in the NFR. Thus the negative operating spread has again caused JK’s ROE to fall below the RNOA – Madras Cements has remained stable in this period – registering a higher ROE than RNOA due to the positive spread. Again, this shows that Operating Margin of JK is low when compared with the cost of capital. 4. Analysis of Turnover ratios [Refer Fig. 9 & 0] Inventory Turnover and Debt Turnover of JK is considerably higher than that of Madras Cements leading to a better operating cycle. Low inventory holding and low receivables isa positive trend for JK Cements and it should continue this. 5. Analysis of Liquidity and Long-term Solvency : [Refer Fig. 8,11] The Quick Ratio of JK is consistently higher than Madras Cements for all the 5 years taken into consideration – hence the liquidity position of JK is better than that of Madras Cements. The cap ital structure seems more of debt financing in the recent years – owing to expansion plans.However increase in interest rates would make JK vulnerable to low margins which is already discussed in the advanced model. Section 5 – Conclusion – – – The cement industry is estimated to grow as can be seen from the CRISIL analysis quoted in section 1; housing and infrastructure demand are expected to increase – hence JK is bound to do well The cost reducing efforts of JK and the product differentiation into white cement are expected to increase profit margins. The Asset Turnover values of JK are also higher than its competitor. Hence increase in ROE is expected in coming years.The reduced operating cycle of JK shows a positive trend vis-a-vis its competitor. P/B value of JK is 1. 18 while industry average (top 5 firms) is 2. 76 (refer to table on Growth of Cement Industry). Hence JK stock seems to be undervalued [Refer Table 5] JK has declared 50% dividend for the current year and has consistently declared dividend for the past 5 years. However, the inherent risks in the industry – from global crises like the Euro crisis and flagging coal availability pose concerns for the successful implementation of plans.Further, the continuous expansion plans of JK leading to higher debt and hence higher interest rates (which can rise based on RBI measures to contain inflation) cause concern for the profit margins which can again reduce. The positives seem to be strong as JK is trying to stabilize its expansion plans. Hence an acute negative view point would not be correct. Hence we suggest a buy/hold after doing the above analysis. 5 References : – Crisil. (n. d. ). Retrieved August 21, 2012, from Crisil Web site: crisilresearch. com – Dion Insight. (n. d. ). Retrieved August 21, 2012, from Dion Insight Web site: https://insight. ionglobal. in/Insight/Industry. asp? pageLink=IndProfile&Ind=151 – equitymaster. com. (n. d. ). Retrieved August 21, 2012, from equitymaster. com: http://www. equitymaster. com/research-it/sector-info/cement/Cement-Sector-AnalysisReport. asp – Gupta, N. (n. d. ). Ernst & Young. Retrieved August 21, 2012, from Ernst & Young Web site: http://www. ey. com/Publication/vwLUAssets/cementing_growth/$FILE/cementing_growth. pdf – India Brand Equity Foundation. (n. d. ). Retrieved August 21, 2012, from India Brand Equity Foundation Web site: http://www. ibef. org/industry/cement. aspx – Jagdesh Sunku. 2006). Advantages of using fly ash as supplementary cementing material (SCM) in fibre cement sheets. 10th Int. Inorganic Bonded Fibre Composites Conference, (pp. 25-32). Sao Paulo. – JK Cement Annual Report 2010-11 & 2011-12. JK Cement. – moneycontrol. com. (n. d. ). – PlanningCommision. (n. d. ). Planning Commission. Retrieved August 21, 2012, from Planning Commission Web site: http://planningcommission. nic. in/plans/mta/11th_mta/c hapterwise/chap14_invest. pdf 6 Appendix A Division Figure 1: Division of customers of cement industry into major sectors Major Major customers of cement industryCommercial & Institutional 13% Industrial 6% Infrastructure Infrastructure 17% Housing 64% Figure 2: Total revenue for JK Cement & Madras Cements Ltd. (Revenue in crores)(Before 2005 financial financial statements for JK Cement wasn’t prepared. It was then treated as a division under JK Groups for financial purposes) Total revenue 3,500. 00 3,000. 00 2,500. 00 2,000. 00 1,500. 00 JK Cement Madras Cements Ltd. 1,000. 00 500. 00 0. 00 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 7 Figure 3: Change in sales % change in sales 60 50 JK Cement Madras Cements Ltd. 40 30 20 10 0 -10 -20 2003 2004 005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Figure 4: Profit Margin Profit margin 25. 0% JK Cement Madras Cements Ltd. 20. 0% 15. 0% 10. 0% 5. 0% 0. 0% 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Figure 5: Return on Equity ROE (%) 60 JK Cement 50 Madras Cements Ltd. 40 30 20 10 0 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 8 Figure 6: Asset turnover Asset turnover (%) 110 JK Cement 100 Madras Cements Ltd. 90 80 70 60 50 40 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Figure 7: Return on Net Operating Assets RNOA (%) 40 JK Cement Madras Cements Ltd. 30 20 10 0 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12Figure 8: Debt – Equity Ratio Debt – Equity Ratio 2. 5 JK Cement Madras Cements Ltd. 2 1. 5 1 0. 5 0 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 9 Figure 9: Spread Operating Spread 0. 5 JK Cement 0. 4 Madras Cements Ltd. 0. 3 0. 2 0. 1 0 -0. 1 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2010-11 2011-12 -0. 2 Figure 10: Holding period Operating Cycle (days) 120 JK Cement Madras Cements Ltd. 100 80 60 40 20 0 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 Figure 11: Quick ratio Quick Ratio 2 JK Cement Madras Cements Ltd. 1. 5 1 0. 5 0 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 10 Figure 12: Net Financial Rate NFR 0. 18 JK Cement 0. 6 Madras Cements Ltd. 0. 14 0. 12 0. 1 0. 08 0. 06 0. 04 0. 02 0 2010-11 2011-12 11 Appendix B: (Tables) Table 1: Key stock statistics Stock Report| 24 July 2012 |Symbol : JKCEMENT (NSE); JKCEM (BSE); ISIN NUMBER INE823G01014 J K Cements Stock Price (closing) Investment Style 213. 30 (as of 20 July 2012) Large CAP Sector Cement Summary : JK Cements is one of the largest cement manufacturers in Northern India ; it is the second largest white cement manufacturer by production capacity in India Key Stock Statistics 52 Wk Range 95. 80 to 219. 70 (BSE) 25. 36 8. 41 11,839 EPS (Twelve Month Trailing)P/E (Twelve Month Trailing) 10K investment 5 yrs ago Credit Rating Long Term Bank facilities Short Term Bank facilities Common shares outstg. 69927250 Market Cap Yield (%) Dividend rate per share 1491. 55 Crores 2. 34 5 A+(CARE) A1+(CARE) Table 2: Earnings per Share Earnings Per Share of 10 each ( ) June Q1 September Q2 2011-12 7. 14 0. 51 2010-11 4. 22 -2. 98 2009-10 10. 04 9. 35 December Q3 6. 22 0. 26 6. 65 March Q4 11. 49 7. 66 6. 28 Year 25. 36 9. 16 32. 32 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Table 3: Industry Margins OPM(%) GPM (%) NPM (%) Mar ‘12 21. 78 21. 49 9. 14 Dec ‘11 19. 65 18. 45 10. 13 Industry MarginsSep ‘11 15. 66 13. 6 5. 05 Jun ‘11 24. 41 22. 48 11. 76 Mar ‘11 22. 46 20. 9 11. 92 Dec ‘10 17. 18 15. 32 5. 84 12 Table 4: Industry sales Mar ‘ 12 Industry sales (in crores) % change Change in industry sales (quarter)(%) Dec ‘ 11 Sep ‘ 11 Jun ‘ 11 Mar ‘ 11 Dec ‘ 10 20841. 87 17953. 16 15649. 20 17017. 73 17388. 15 14201. 79 16. 09026 14. 72254 -8. 04179 -2. 1303 22. 43633 Table 5: Industry Growth Projections (for different values of ‘r’) using Free Cash Flow Model Company Name Ultratech Ambuja ACC Shree Cements Madras Cements India Cements JK Cement Average P/B ratio as on 26/08/2012 3. 66 3. 64 . 5 4. 55 2. 19 0. 68 1. 14 2. 765714286 ROE (from March 2012 BS) Cost of Capital (%) Growth (%) 19. 02 15. 28 18. 42 10. 55 18. 78 7. 21 13. 75 14. 71571429 10 11 12 13 14 7. 329288 8. 895631 10. 46197 12. 02832 13. 59466 Table 6: Ratio Calculations Ratios Profit Margin (%) Asset Turnover (%) ROE (%) Return on Assets (%) Net Operating Profit Margin (%) Net Operating Asset Turnover (%) Return on Net Operating Assets (%) = NOPAT/Avg. Net Operating Assets JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras CementJK Cement 2011-12 8. 154156 12. 06512 77. 80004 55. 62438 17. 04343 20. 87036 6. 343937 6. 711146 10. 83703 15. 17511 139. 8798 83. 81691 15. 15882 2010-11 1. 654139 7. 964254 79. 85371 47. 82047 3. 49563 12. 67786 1. 320891 3. 808544 4. 320325 11. 0728 126. 2029 68. 65512 5. 452374 2009-10 10. 84236 12. 59667 88. 57764 56. 65368 22. 29768 25. 09332 9. 60391 7. 136478 12. 51604 16. 10394 160. 5309 81. 84813 20. 09211 2008-09 8. 421552 14. 40591 94. 35595 63. 17162 16. 78291 32. 91344 7. 946235 9. 10 0446 10. 11265 17. 00776 212. 7993 93. 59998 21. 51965 2007-08 16. 62175 20. 30998 107. 4567 75. 2185 41. 51821 50. 27496 17. 86118 15. 31816 17. 88877 21. 64552 209. 9905 128. 6868 37. 5647 Madras Cement 12. 71931 7. 602044 13. 18078 15. 91926 27. 85493 13 Interest Coverage (%) Leverage – Measure 1 Debt-Equity Ratio Current Ratio Quick Ratio Debt Turnover Debt Collection Period (days) Inventory Turnover Inventory Holding Period (days) Operating Cycle (days) NFO NFE NFR Op. Spread FLEV*Spread ROE = RNOA + FLEV*Spread (Advanced Dupont Analysis) JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras CementJK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement 392. 0551 615. 8751 2. 686571 3. 109805 0. 837413 1. 0309 99 1. 197299 0. 601965 0. 833253 0. 343679 35. 22924 16. 62681 10. 21879 21. 65177 5. 924257 5. 223089 60. 76712 68. 92473 70. 9859 90. 57651 401. 46 1719. 03 68. 278 101. 808 0. 170074 0. 059224 -0. 01849 0. 067969 -0. 01548 0. 070076 13. 61077 19. 72691 254. 5852 468. 6705 2. 646419 3. 328794 1. 150731 . 609198 1. 367937 0. 931981 0. 916991 0. 599238 33. 11155 15. 49891 10. 87234 23. 22745 7. 497843 4. 941565 48. 01381 72. 85141 58. 88615 96. 07886 802. 04 2307. 32 62. 958 81. 466 0. 078497 0. 035308 -0. 02397 0. 040713 -0. 02759 0. 065515 2. 693658 14. 15354 666. 585 579. 4166 2. 321729 3. 516204 0. 939762 1. 647142 1. 144753 1. 00381 0. 764784 0. 639154 30. 43733 22. 88671 11. 82758 15. 72965 8. 619538 5. 233222 41. 76558 68. 79127 53. 59316 84. 52092 705. 23 2034. 43 34. 363 98. 455 0. 048726 0. 048394 0. 152195 0. 083413 0. 143027 0. 137394 34. 39482 26. 92014 619. 7696 717. 6917 2. 112058 . 616684 0. 580401 1. 954809 1. 968687 0. 982285 1. 675142 0. 628742 30. 17987 33. 40915 11. 92848 10. 77549 10. 69177 6. 127751 33. 67075 58. 74912 45. 59923 69. 52461 -143. 99 2006. 67 28. 147 65. 807 -0. 19548 0. 032794 0. 410675 0. 126398 0. 238356 0. 247085 45. 35528 40. 62774 851. 7743 1451. 897 2. 324494 3. 28205 0. 626681 1. 714777 1. 762163 1. 019801 1. 467784 0. 702189 26. 72182 31. 59228 13. 47214 11. 39519 10. 49671 6. 782897 34. 29647 53. 07467 47. 76861 64. 46986 37. 91 1183. 64 20. 216 26. 782 0. 533263 0. 022627 -0. 15762 0. 255922 -0. 09877 0. 43885 27. 68721 71. 73993 14