Tread on the Trodden Path

You want to walk? You want to jog? You want to run? But you don’t have outdoor opportunity? Or your exercise mood time doesn’t match the going out hours? Or you are too lazy to start any exercise? Treadmill is the all in one solution of these situations. Treadmill offers exercise routine that offers stronger bones & muscles while improving overall health.    

Treadmill offers efficient exercise

Having a treadmill routine is one of the easiest aerobic and cardiovascular exercises. It is a weigh bearing exercise that keeps bone strong, maintains bone density, boosts stamina, conditions the body and reduces sleeplessness. Walking or jogging on a treadmill can reduce hypertension, diabetes risks and cholesterol level.

Be safe as you tread

It’s crucial to have an understanding of your physical limits while using any fitness equipment like treadmill. Abort at once if you feel dizziness, pain anywhere or short of breath. Seek medical attention if necessary. Don’t jump on to the treadmill without proper planning. Wear proper exercising outfit & foot wear. Abiding by the rule ‘prevention is better than cure’, use the safety clip that is generally provided with the treadmill. In case of sudden fall, the clip detaches from the machine and the treadmill stops automatically.

Remember to stay hydrated!

What to do before treading?

If you take few measures before any sort of workout, your workout will be productive and effective. You will feel less tired and you will stay motivated, satisfied and contented.

Choose a time that is meant for exercise. Know that the most appropriate time for any exercise is early in the morning before breakfast. Chances of weight loss increase when the stomach is empty. Empty stomach doesn’t mean that you are starving. Have a light drink or chew few nuts or dry fruits to stay active and strong during treading. If you can’t tread before breakfast, then treading after two hours or hour and a half of mealtime is also a good option. The food can boost stamina and you can perform well during treading.   

Warming up first as you start treading is the most important step. You must warm up for at least 5 to 8 minutes on the treadmill at low speed or you can choose any warm up exercise before you sprint on to the treadmill.

A piece of advice while you tread

Don’t worry much about calories. Worry about concentrating while you tread. How can you concentrate positively? Watching the technology? Listening to anything that is mind rusting? No.

Listen to something that is naturally meant to soothe your mind. And if you know what I mean, listen to or recite yourself mind calming & soul comforting things. You must strive to tread on the trodden path that leads to peace of mind in order to stay focused instead of finding your way through dark track. When your mind is healthy, it will let you make decisions about your body’s well-being too.  

Remember you cannot achieve your body’s fitness goals unless you try to achieve your soul’s tranquility!    

Even 10 minutes of moderate jogging if done on daily basis can cause positive effect on your health.

See 10 minutes exercise

Its good to have a proper diet plan as you take out time for your workout daily.

See Which diet can keep you healthy, smart, & trimmed?

Happiness is in treading mindfully!

Remember

Before any exercising routine or high-impact exercise or before using any fitness equipment or treadmill, you must know your body’s capability of coping with the same. If you are not sure about your body’s condition, consult your health care provider. 

Trying to tread on the trodden path,

Engr. Ayesha Alam Khurram

LiDAR – The Technological Glaze

LiDAR is a remote sensing technology which is used to measure elevation of objects from a specified level. This technology uses laser to detect the objects. LiDAR can be used from ground, air or space. When collecting LiDAR data from an aircraft, the system mounted in the aircraft scans the ground or any required surface. A GPS (Global Positioning System) is also integrated with LiDAR that keeps track of aircraft’s location and attaches the locational parameter with the collected data. Since the elevation and position of the aircraft changes during the flight, the system calculates precise location of aircraft and with respect to it, locates the rest of the data. This information is continuously recorded in the computer automatically.

Airborne LiDAR

What are pulse and return?

When the light is emitted towards the ground from an airborne LiDAR system, one single dispatch of light is called a pulse. When the light hits the respective object, it reflects back towards the LiDAR system, that reflected light when it reaches and detected by the system is called a return.

What is LiDAR output?

High-resolution maps are the output of LiDAR procedure. LiDAR technology provides fine-scale and spatially defined three-dimensional landscape information and map structural components like elevation, dimension and density of the structures. At the start, LiDAR data is stored as a series of points. LiDAR data can also be stored in the form of contours lines. The most fascinating form of output of LiDAR is DEM or digital elevation model. DEM is made when the scanned surface is represented with continuous elevation values in 3D format along with the values’ co-ordinates.      

DEM

How the height of the object is calculated?

When the light is emitted from the LiDAR system, the time is recorded. The time is again recorded when the light reaches back after hitting the object below. Using the speed of light and the time difference between pulse & return, the distance between the LiDAR system and the top of that object is calculated. Then the distance between the aircraft and the ground surface is determined. The ground elevation is also calculated using GPS.

Is LiDAR data accurate?

The turbulence of the aircraft during flight and its tilt are incorporated into the system so that accurate data can be recorded. The angular measurements of pulse & return are taken into account as well when calculating the elevation that gives precise elevations of the objects and ground surface.

Where are applications of LiDAR?

LiDAR is used to monitor, record, store, quantify, classify, predict, and manage data in the fields of surveying, construction site selection & evaluation, large scale land use planning, terrestrial elevation modeling, flood modeling, hydrographic models, power lines management, piping networks, forestry, archeology, agriculture, urban modeling, transport planning, environmental monitoring & modeling, climate change, atmospheric physics, geosciences, geography, geology, tectonic activity mapping, and glacial data recording etc.

What are the benefits of using LiDAR technology?

LiDAR increases humans’ capability to gather data, represent data, and to respond to that data.

Greater efficiency, faster results.

Automatic 3D modeling.  

Automatic locational tag.

Large scale topographic maps are achievable.

Making night time data collection possible.

Urban and even rural areas are quicker to survey.

Cost effective.

References:

Into the Third Dimension: Benefits of Incorporating LiDAR Data in Wildlife Habitat Models. (WWW)

LiDAR applications in surveying and engineering. (WWW)

A meta-analysis of terrestrial aboveground biomass estimation using lidar remote sensing. (WWW)

A review of the role of active remote sensing and data fusion for characterizing forest in wildlife habitat models. (WWW)

What is LIDAR? (WWW)

Lidar remote sensing of laser-induced incandescence on light absorbing particles in the atmosphere. (WWW)

Assessing the transferability of statistical predictive models for leaf area index between two airborne discrete return LiDAR sensor designs within multiple intensely managed Loblolly pine forest locations in the south-eastern USA. (WWW)

By LiDAR geek:

Ayesha Alam Khurram

Harvard Style Writing Guideline

General

1. Initials should be used without spaces or full points.

2. Up to six authors may be listed. If more then list the first three authors and
represent the rest by „et al.‟ rather than write them out in full.

Text citations

All references in the text and notes must be specified by the authors‟ last names and
date of publication together with page numbers if given.

Do not use ibid., op. cit., infra., supra. Instead, show the subsequent citation of the
same source in the same way as the first.

Note the following for the style of text citations:

1. If the author‟s name is in the text, follow with year in parentheses:
... Jones (2003) has argued ...

2. If author‟s name is not in the text, insert last name, comma and year:
... a recent study (Smith, 2009) has described ...

3. Where appropriate, the page number(s) follow the year, separated by a colon:
... it has been noted (Jones, 2003: 36–42) that ...

4. Where there are two authors, give both names, joined by „and‟; if three or more
authors, use et al.:

... it has been stated (Jones and Smith, 2004) ...

... some investigators (Brown et al., 2005) ...

5. If there is more than one reference to the same author and year, insert a, b, etc. in
both the text and the list:

... it was described (Jones, 2007b: 103–22) ...

… a series of studies (Smith et al., 2008a, 2008b) produced …

6.Enclose within a single pair of parentheses a series of references, separated by
semicolons:

... and it has been noted (Jones and Brown, 1998; Price et al., 1999; Smith, 2003) ...

Please order alphabetically by author surnames.

7. If two or more references by the same author are cited together, separate the dates
with a comma:

... the author has stated this in several studies (Smith, 2005, 2009) ...

Please start with the oldest publication.

8. Enclose within the parentheses any brief phrase associated with the reference:

... several investigators have claimed this (but see Thompson, 2001: 21–34)

9. For an institutional authorship:

... a recent statement (Department of Education, 2008: 7) ...

... occupational data (ABS, 2004: 16–18) reveal ...

10. For authorless articles or studies, use the name of the magazine, journal,
newspaper or sponsoring organization, and not the title of the article:

... it was reported (The New York Times, 1998) that ...

11. Citations from personal communications are not included in the reference list:
... has been hypothesized (David Smith, 2008, personal communication).

Reference styles

Book:

Author A and Author B (year) Book Title. Place: Publisher name.

Crouch C, Le Gales P and Trigilia C (2001) Local Production Systems in Europe:

Rise or Demise? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Denzin NK (1989) The Research Act: A Theoretical Introduction to Sociological
Methods, 3rd edn. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Hollingsworth JR and Boyer R (eds) (1997) Contemporary Capitalism: The
Embeddedness of Institutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chapter in a book:

Author A (year) Chapter title: Subtitle. In: Editor A (ed.) Book Title. Place: Publisher,
00–00.

Author A, Author B and Author C (year) Chapter title: Subtitle. In: Editor A and
Editor B (eds) Book Title. Place: Publisher, 00–00.

Author A and Author B (year) Chapter title: Subtitle. In: Editor A, Editor B and
Editor C (eds) Book Title. Place: Publisher, 00–00.

Gumley V (1988) Skin cancers. In: Tschudin V and Brown EB (eds) Nursing the
Patient with Cancer. London: Hall House, 26–52.

Binns T, Bek D and Ellison B (2007) Sidestepping the mainstream: Fairtrade rooibos
tea production in Wupperthal, South Africa. In: Maye D, Holloway L and Kneafsey
M (eds) Alternative Food Geographies: Representation and Practice. Oxford:
Elsevier, 331–349.

Article in a journal:

Author A and Author B (year) Article title: Subtitle. Journal vol(issue): 00–00.

Author A, Author B and Author C (year) Article title: Subtitle. Journal vol(issue):
00–00.

Author A, Author B, Author C et al. (year) Article title: Subtitle. Journal vol(issue):
00–00.

Winter M (2003) Embeddedness: The new food economy and defensive localism.
Journal of Rural Studies 19(1): 23–32.

Hoskins C and Mirus R (1988) Reasons of the US dominance of the international
trade in television programmes. Media, Culture and Society 10(4): 499–515.

Brossard D, Shanahan J and McComas K (2004) Are issue-cycles culturally
constructed? A comparison of French and American coverage of global climate
change. Mass Communication and Society 7(3): 359–377.

Article in a journal published ahead of print:

Author A and Author B (year) Article title. Journal 00: 1–00 (accessed 00 month
year).

Author A, Author B and Author C (year) Article title. Journal 00: 1–00 (accessed 00
month year).

Author A, Author B, Author C et al. (year) Article title. Journal 00: 1–00 (accessed
00 month year).

Bakker AB, Emmerik HV and Riet PV (2008) How job demands, resources and
burnout predict objective performance. Anxiety, Stress and Coping 00: 1–10 (accessed
6 January 2010).

Note: volume is given as “00”.

Website

National Center for Professional Certification. (2002) Factors Affecting
Organizational Climate and Retention. Available at:
www.cwla.org./programmes/triechmann/2002fbwfiles.

Unpublished thesis

Kramer B (2008) Employee ownership and participation effects on firm outcomes.
Unpublished doctoral dissertation, City University of New York.

Newspaper

Clark JM (2006) Too close to call. The Independent, 21 May, p. 10.

Working paper

Freeman RB, Kleiner MM and Ostroff C (2000) The anatomy of employee
involvement and its effects on firms and workers. National Bureau of Economic
Research Working Paper 8050, Cambridge

The Pink

The pink sky.

Paint art by,
Hafsa Khurram

The Greedy Man

Paint art & Ms Word design by,
Asma Khurram

Long nose man

Paint art by,
Hafsa Khurram

The Flag

Paint art by,
Asma Khurram

5 marvelous constructors & architects in nature – Labors of Love

The nature encompasses spectacular configurations that are intelligently brought into existence with calculated and accurate engineered techniques. These arts of designing are part of our planet long before mankind knew how to configure or construct. These architectural wonders are created by the animal kingdom. Insects like honey bees, spiders, ants, termites, many species of birds, fish species, and mammals build the shelter to socialize and to take care of the nestlings. Take a look at following few out of millions of animal species who are excellent constructors naturally.

Birds

Nearly all the birds weave their nests. Some birds just put the twigs together so that their eggs stay stable in the nest. Others are more specific about how to artistically weave the nest using twigs, feathers, threads, leaves, petals, cotton, or whatever they can find that is light and appropriate for their little shelter. The male satin bowerbird constructs a standing nest made up of simple twigs and then decorates it with blue items. It uses any blue item it finds like blue feather, blue straw, blue key chain, blue paper, blue note, blue pen, blue toothbrush, or blue bottle cap. The whole purpose of this decoration is to lure a female bird to get to the nest.    

Bowerbird

Fish

Male pufferfish architects its dazzling and symmetrical seabed structure that looks like peaks and valleys. It wiggles around the fine sand, sea shell fragments, and coral fragments to make its nesting place called ‘crop circles’. Like birds, pufferfish is thrilled to make these circles and works day in and day out to offer the most alluring nest to the female pufferfish. These structures are highly engineered as they can nest the eggs efficiently without being scattered or getting destroyed by water current.   

Pufferfish

Mammals

Beavers are water rodents and are about size of dogs. Beavers make dams to survive in winters, to access and to stock food for winters, and to stay protected from predators. The food stock is the trees’ wood that beaver has chopped down into pieces. They construct dam in big and deep lakes. These dams are high-tech that even have underwater refrigerators for food storage. They use mud, stones, wood and rocks to make dam. A beaver can bring building material much heavier than its weight and larger than its size. A beaver can also dig feet & feet of the lake bed. Their dams are water tight. Their multi-chambered dam construction is deep and also many feet high above the lake’s level. These dams can stretch up to more than a thousand feet.     

Beaver

Beaver dam

Insects

Ants

There are 10,000 or more species of ants that exist in nature. Ants structure their complex nests by piling soil particles together. Ants’ nests can be found in grounds and in trees. Some species of ants are capable to construct super colonies that have many queen ants rather than one. These super colonies have various levels that are connected via helical ramps. Ants’ ingenious chambers and galleries are ventilated and interconnected. Black garden ants mark their construction plan into their nests while they are constructing. 

Ants' nest 

Spiders

Spiders weave the web in order to get other insects as their food.  Spiders’ silk has its own flexibility and strength. Generally a single material is either flexible or has strength but spiders’ web has both. Spiders’ silk has capability to vibrate to pass on information to the spider in order to locate its prey that sticks on the woven silk.  

Spider web 

What humans need to construct a spectacular structure?

We need architects, engineers, constructors, planners, managers, hired labor, site evaluation, drawing sheets & sheets, software & technology, cash, good grades, start-ups, medals, certificates, prizes, degrees, research, and what not to construct a small building. 

Are we genius or are we genius? 

Look at these brilliant creatures that fashion such flawless 

architectonics. We think we can conquer the world? We think we can do anything? We need to re-think and ponder upon what and why we should be doing at any given time and place.

After all;

A piece of construction matters at the time it matters! 

By,

Engr. Ayesha Alam Khurram

SUPPLY CHAIN RISK MANAGEMENT-2

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              iii.        RISK EVALUATION

Acceptable risk levels will be unique to each organization and supply chain. They may vary by commodity, product, or service, as well as over time. Different risk-tolerance levels may be set for different levels of the organization. While generally tied to financial impact, through which risks may best be understood and compared, risks may also be tied to other corporate assets such as reputation.

One means of evaluating risk is to use a “heat-map” showing risk-events on a matrix defining likelihood and consequence levels. This technique allows managers to easily see the relative likelihood and consequence of differing risks. To use this method effectively it is critical to have well-defined and consistently used criteria for the different likelihood and consequence levels.

              iv.        RISK TREATMENT

When an enterprise understands its supply chain and analyzed its potential risks, it can implement an effective supply-chain risk management program with its partners, that is, its suppliers, carriers, and logistics providers. Such a program should have at least three elements: protecting the supply chain, responding to events, and continuing business operations while recovering from events. We discuss each of these below. An effective supply-chain risk management program must ensure that an enterprise and its partners implement appropriate measures to fully secure goods and their components from the point of origin to final destination.

Protection of Supply Chain includes:

ü  Physical Security

ü  Access Controls

ü  Personal Security

ü  Education and Training

ü  Procedural Security

ü  IT Security

ü  Business Partner Security

ü  Conveyance Security

Crisis Management comprises the overall strategic and tactical responses of an organization to recognize and respond effectively, efficiently and comprehensively to actualize threats. It involves proactive measures to detect, respond to, and recover from a crisis event. Crisis Management preparation and response activities are characterized by several phases:

ü  Preparation

ü  Response (consisting of Risk Assessment, Critical Incident Planning, Risk Mitigation, Emergency Response and Communications to Internal and External Stakeholders and Media Relations)

ü  Recovery and Business Resumption

ü  Testing, Training and Plan Maintenance

     To be effective, business-continuity planning (also referred to as business-continuity management) should be an integrated management process supported from the top levels and managed at both organizational and operational levels. A business-continuity planning team should also establish company risk-tolerance levels and recovery priorities, validate business-recovery strategies, designate team members from each critical business function, ensure planning and documentation meets established timelines, and conduct periodic evaluation of the business-continuity planning program as based on performance objectives. 

SUPPLY CHAIN RISK MANAGEMENT-1

1.  DEFINITION:

Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) is the implementation of strategies to manage both everyday and exceptional risks along the supply chain based on continuous risk assessment with the objective of reducing vulnerability and ensuring continuity. (Source: Cranfield University, School of Management).

Risk= Probability of Occurrence x Consequences

2.  Risk Management Process:

The process begins with identifying internal and external environments. Mapping its supply chain can help an enterprise identify the risks it faces and how best to prioritize and address them. Once a firm understands how to identify risks, it may undertake risk identification and assessment, which includes risk identification, risk analysis, and risk evaluation. If a firm has identified and prioritized the risks that it faces, it can devise risk treatment plans. This includes measures to protect the supply chain from risks, plans to respond to events that these risks may cause, and plans to continue operations in the face of disruptions and fully recovering from them. This may also involve determining ways to measure risks and the effectiveness of plans to limit them or to respond to disruptions.

              i.        RISK IDENTIFICATION

Risk identification might begin with brainstorming sessions, previous risk assessments, surveys, or still other efforts to identify and list potential risks within supply-chain processes. In any project risk can be categorized as:

-        Supply Risk

-        Process Risk

-        Demand Risk

-        Network/ Control Risk

-        Environmental Risk

-        SUPPLY RISK

Supply risk comes from dependency on key suppliers. It includes quality of supplied raw material, management of raw material and delay in provision due to transport, environmental or other accidental issue.

-        PROCESS RISK

Process risk comprises of productivity issues of both material and man power. A faulty equipment or machinery will affect the manufacturing process. Similarly ineffective staff or work crew will delay the process. Electric power failure, problem in computers or software and capacity shortage is classified as Process Risk.

-        DEMAND RISK

Inaccurate forecasts and unrealistic deadline may lead into quality issues which may cause loss of major customers. Innovative competitors in market may also lead a firm at shortage of demand.

-        NETWORK/CONTROL RISK

Lack of communication and collaboration, poor planning and security risk can be referred as Network/ Control Risk. Wrong administrator or rule maker and hierarchy levels in a firm/team create communication gap between employee and team player. Loss of data whether electronic or hard copy file can risk a firm a long time loss.

-        ENVIRONMENTAL RISK

Natural disasters and calamities are considered as Environmental Risk. Earthquake, hurricane or snow may cause destruction as well as long term delay of a project. Changes in government policies, economic recession and unavailability of technology are also categorized as Environmental Risk.

              ii.        RISK ANALYSIS

The risk analysis process should estimate the likelihood and consequence of risks facing a firm and accordingly prioritize them for ultimate treatment. Once an enterprise has identified its top risks, it may use more sophisticated methods, such as the bow-tie method, to fully understand the nature of the risk and to rate the likelihood and consequence of inherent risk (i.e., risk in the absence of any treatment) and residual risk (i.e., level of risk remaining after treatment).

Probabilistic studies of disaster such as earthquake or wind snow help out in planning. For example, we have charts for percentage increase of earthquake event over 50 years or 100 years. Also we have charts for maximum capable earthquake for an area. Similarly, we have charts for winds available.

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