History of the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp

History of the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp The 1920 Olympic Games (also known as the VII Olympiad) closely followed the ending of World War I, being held from April 20 to September 12, 1920, in Antwerp, Belgium.  The war had been devastating, with massive destruction and monstrous loss of life, leaving many countries unable to participate in the Olympic Games. Still, the 1920 Olympics went on, seeing the first use of the iconic Olympic flag, the first time a representative athlete took the official Olympic oath, and the first time white doves (representing peace) were released. Fast Facts: 1920 Olympics Official Who Opened the Games:  King Albert I of BelgiumPerson Who Lit the Olympic Flame:  (This was not a tradition until the 1928 Olympic Games)Number of Athletes:  2,626 (65 women, 2,561 men)Number of Countries: 29Number of Events:  154 Missing Countries The world had seen much bloodshed from World War I, which made many wonder whether the wars aggressors should be invited to the Olympic Games. Ultimately, since the Olympic ideals stated that all countries should be allowed entrance into the Games, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Hungary were not forbidden to come, they were also not sent an invitation by the Organizing Committee. (These countries were again not invited to the 1924 Olympic Games) In addition, the newly formed Soviet Union decided not to attend. (Athletes from the Soviet Union did not reappear at the Olympics until 1952.) Unfinished Buildings Since the war had ravaged throughout Europe, funding and materials for the Games was difficult to acquire. When the athletes arrived in Antwerp, construction had not been completed. Besides the stadium being unfinished, the athletes were housed in cramped quarters and slept on folding cots. Extremely LowAttendance Though this year was the first that the official Olympic flag was flown, not many were there to see it. The number of spectators was so low- mainly because people could not afford tickets after the war- that Belgium lost over 600 million francs from hosting the Games. Amazing Stories On a more positive note, the 1920 Games was notable for the first appearance of Paavo Nurmi, one of the Flying Finns. Nurmi was a runner who ran like a mechanical man - body erect, always at an even pace. Nurmi even carried a stopwatch with him as he ran so that he could evenly pace himself. Nurmi returned to run in the 1924 and the 1928 Olympic Games winning, in total, seven gold medals. The Oldest Olympic Athlete Although we normally think of Olympic athletes as young and strapping, the oldest Olympic athlete of all time was 72 years old. Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn had already participated in two Olympic Games (1908 and 1912) and had won five medals (including three gold) before appearing at the 1920 Olympics.   At the 1920 Olympics, 72-year-old Swahn, sporting a long white beard, won a silver medal in the 100-meter, team, running deer double shots.

Arthritis Example

Arthritis Example Arthritis – Coursework Example Arthritis Nursing Assignment February 15, Rheumatoid Arthritis versus Osteoarthritis Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune reaction that mainly occurs in the synovial tissue leading to phagocytosis and production enzymes inside the joint. RA mainly affects the synovium of joints but can extend to affect multiple organs (Smeltzer, Bare, Hinkle, & Cheever, 2010). RA may be acute in nature occurring at any age including children and is more common in women than in men.Osteoarthritis (OA), on the contrary, is a joint limited chronic arthropathy that presents with destruction of joint cartilage. OA is a degenerative disease that has a gradual onset causing joint pain, stiffness and rarely joint swelling. OA characteristically affects the older people and is more common compared to RA.Nursing CareNursing care (NC) in both conditions demands pain management using drugs. The NC also involves maintaining or improving joint mobility, implementing exercise programs to increase joint motion and muscle strength. However, in RA the NC aims at suppressing the inflammation and masking the autoimmune disorder that causes self-tissue attacks. To achieve the desired outcome, anti-inflammatory and disease-modifying agents are compulsory in RA.Factors that Increase Severity of ArthritisSeverity of RA depends on the genetic makeup of a person and run in most families with the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene. Advancing age of patients, excessive weight gain, cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption not only increase the risk of OA but also the severity of the disease.Role of Lifestyle Habits in the Development of ArthritisPoor dietary habits lead to excess weight gain that causes OA especially in obese patients. Obese individuals live sedentary kind of lifestyle and rarely exercise, which leads to high stress on the joints and decrease in joint mobility. Arthritis incidence is also high in individuals who also smoke and take alcohol (Porter & Kaplan, 2011).ReferencesPorter, R. S. & Kaplan, J. L. (2011). The Merck manual of diagnosis and therapy (19th ed.). White Station, NJ: Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.Smeltzer, S. C., Bare, B., Hinkle, J. L., & Cheever, K. H. (2010). Brunner and Suddarth textbook of medical surgical nursing (12th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Systems and operations management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Systems and operations management - Assignment Example The company employs more than 52,000 employees based in four countries at sixteen different sites. The four countries in which the 16 sites are set up are Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Spain. The final assembly of the aircraft is done in Toulouse (France). Also, the company has its subsidiaries in the United States, Japan, China and India. The company has built the world first commercially viable fly-by-wire airliner, the Airbus A320, and also the largest airliner, the A380. The Airbus A380 is a four engine double deck airplane is a double-deck, and is the largest airplane in the world. It took its first flight on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse, and the first commercial flight was operated on 25 October 2007 from Singapore to Sydney in alliance with the Singapore Airlines Corporation. The airplane design offers cabin size of 50% more than the Boeing 747 which is the second largest airplane in the world and provides for a seating space of 850 people as compared to only 525 in t he Boeing 727. Airbus 380 is available in both the passenger and freight models and is the first airplane to use the GTL-based fuel technology. This paper, divided into four section, will make a detailed study about the operations management of Airbus 380, use of Information technology, and soft system methodology to enhance the business and management operations of Airbus. SECTION 1 This section will study the role of operations management, the reasons behind its initiation at the company, and its effect on the business objectives. This section provides the detailed analysis of operations management at Airbus, and how it has been implemented with the help of various OM techniques to increase efficiency. The previous operations at Airbus were not in line with the new requirements of Airbus A380. The new system required higher efficiencies, with precision, and reliability of speedy data and decision making. The old manufacturing facilities were not able to support the requirements of a new and more complex engineering product. It was important that the management makes significant changes in the operational process and data handling system to improve efficiencies. Also the supply chain of the company was in dire need of modifications and up gradations to carry out all the requirements for the manufacture of airbus A380. The engineers were not able to identify the cause of frequent disruptions that usually occurred in the system, which resulted in fault decision making at most of the times. In order to cure the system of these problems, it was evident that operational management would be employed in the form of various techniques that would assist in managing the overall business in a more profitable manner. The company management decided to implement two operations management techniques in its manufacturing floors – Enterprise resource planning and SCOR. Airbus introduced a new oracle based ERP system which also consisted of integrated accounting and cos ting along with the regular purchase and inventory management, production planning, and logistics management systems. The implementation of the ERP made it mandatory that the system is centralized in nature required and the production chain assumes a â€Å"Pull type† formation instead of the existing â€Å"Push type† configuration, ( Chekland, 1981). With these two reforms in place, it became easier to share the data easily within the various manufacturing centers of Airbus and