Graphic Design Industry and the Willingness to Foster Creativity for Dissertation

Graphic Design Industry and the Willingness to Foster Creativity for People with Fine Motor Skills Disability - Dissertation Example In the past, the design discipline belief for the traditional graphic design professionals was aligned to serve only able-bodied students and professionals. Evidently, this was due to the belief that all design starts from traditional drawing skills. The teaching strategies of the past were mostly structured in a way that favored physical exertion from a full bodied person while significantly ignorant on the needs of people with disabilities. However, in the contemporary world, there have been increased efforts and innovation to accommodate the needs of persons with disabilities.(Needs cited from original paper or from writers notes) In this regard, there have been an increased acceptance and adaption to suit the needs of people with disabilities in different sectors such as education, production, athletics and many more. For example, in the world of athletics, persons with disabilities have been able to compete on an equal footing with other full bodied athletes. A perfect example i s the former athletics champion with most medals, Heinz Frei from Sweden. former 200m paralympic champion, Oscar Pistorius, also known as the ‘blade runner’ for his use of prosthetic legs in racing (Edington, & Duffy, 1996). In order for learners to make an impact in the world, it is foremost the prerogative of the educators to teach and guide them in the correct process. In this regard, educators are the foundational block for students affording them the ability to go out and give voice to those who need it. (AIGA & Chap, 2006, p.1) Consequently, it creates a critical issue between education and complementing laws and policies such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Individual Final Project Essay Example for Free

Individual Final Project Essay When it comes to the topic of diversity and what is has taught me I really think of a few things. Diversity has really taught me a lot about myself as well as tolerance to others around me. Really there is nowhere in the world today that diversity is not present or has not had some sort of effect on our society as a whole. All in all I think that diversity really just means being different than others in various ways. I think if the United States never had any instances of diversity we would be a pretty boring and simple society. Many of our great minds of today as well as the past where very unique and diverse individuals. Without any type of diversity we would be exactly alike there would be nothing different about each other. The world would be plain and boring as well. I like to think that without any type of diversity the world would be without any type of color or texture as if we were in a 50’s TV show. We are different in race, gender, age, sexuality, religion and a whole lot of other things. There will be certain things that we have in common and some things that we don’t have in common. In order to understand someone I believe you need to get to know them better. You need to understand what makes them happy and what really works their nerves. There are so many cultures out here that we really don’t know anything about. It is good to learn about the different cultures that are out here. By learning from the different cultures we are able to see the things that we do that are in common with our culture and the things that are done differently from us. Some things that we do for fun might be something that they don’t approve of. Nowadays people take certain things for granted while in another culture they enjoy it and not abuse it. There are a lot of different things that I have found out about my race. As I was reading back over some of the chapters I see that â€Å"the marriage of a White person and an African American would have been illegal in 22 other states† back in the 1960’s. (Chapter 1 Racial and Ethnic Groups) That is something that I really did not know and was really shocked to find out as well. I did learn an interesting fact about African Americans however. It was interesting to lear n that not all African Americans were brought over here to the United States as slaves or that they were the only slaves. It is a common mistake made that America had only Black† slaves. There were many Europeans sent here as indentured servants. They had to work off the trip to America and also some were sent here because of debts and had to work them off. Irish Immigrants were also thought of as lower than slaves. The Japanese and Chinese were both used as slaves and many lost their live building our railroad system. You also must remember there were Blacks who owned slaves. One of the largest Plantation houses in the South was owned by a Free Black Woman. Not all blacks were slaves it is just the way it has been portrayed in History books. As far as trends in the area of immigration I would have to say I agree with the info in the reading material. After looking over the reading material from Chapter 1 there is a pie chart of the population for the years 2010 and 2050. In the chart the prediction for the U.S. population for 2050 states that there will be more Hispanics than there was in the 201 0 chart. There will be a decrease in the White Non-Hispanics and the African Americans stays about the same percentage. Although the United States is heavily populated I say that the Hispanics will have overpopulated many of the other races. The United States really has a lot to deal with in the area of diversity and its people. Discrimination is one of the major challenges that we will face because we can’t seem to get along and treat others like we are supposed to be or want to be treated ourselves. I think that the United States will be a lot better if we could all get along and really have a better understanding of the others around us and those who came before us. Like I stated earlier the United States was built on a premise that we are the ultimate dream and welcome people from all over the world. Hopefully maybe one day that will come true but that remains to be seen today and in the future years as well. Prejudice is another challenge that the United States faces due to the diversity of the people and those set in their ways. Stereotyping is another challenge that we face today as well as the past years as well. These things are in my opinion very much taught and passed down from generation to generation. All three of these challenges are serious and need to be stopped because they are all inappropriate in many ways and just plain mean and spiteful. There are plenty more challenges out here that we face on a day to day basis but we have to start somewhere. When it comes to having a diverse society I think there are really several benefits. There really are so many different benefits that we can have. Being that we are so diverse we will inherit a lot of things such as the different foods that all the different cultures have to offer. Each culture has something different than what the other cultures have. Each individual has something different to offer to our society. Being diverse is something special because we can each learn something new from one another. There are different dances, music; we all celebrate different holidays and a whole bunch of other things. The society that we live in has so much to offer and we are too blind to really see what is happening. At times I think the media does a good job of portraying people wrongly and it teaches us to stereotype them as well. We are so quick to judge others rather than getting to know them based on what we have seen or have heard from others. We really need to do a better job and find the best way to foster a good climate of acceptance for those around us and different than we are. It all starts with simply acting in a good civilized manner at all times. â€Å"Cultural pluralism is a term used when smaller groups within a larger society maintain their unique cultural identities, and their values and practices are accepted by the wider culture.† I think as long as we treat everyone they way that we want to be treated then we would be better off. It is really as simple as that and there is no better way to put it. We mainly need to learn to get along and stop all this bickering in addition to the other altercations that are currently going on in this world. The media can be a great to ol when it comes to teaching about diversity as well as a way to portray people in the wrong sense as well. The media perpetuates stereotyping and prejudice a lot sometimes whether it be on the radio or on the television set as well. An example of stereotyping would be portraying all black males as being in different gangs or some type of hoodlum. In Reality the percentage of blacks that are in gangs is not as high as told. In fact not all young black males are in a gang or even gang affiliated for that matter. Take the Treyvon Martin case for example. The thing was so blown out of proportion due to the fact he was a young black male walking around at night with a hoodie on. The media portrays this as a gang member and to some degree it could be the reason he was killed. The hysteria created simply caused Mr. Zimmerman to overreact thus causing him to shoot this teen and cause outrage in the black community. Usually when the television portrays blacks or even Hispanics for that matter it is usually a story about either murder or. You hardly see them advertise anything about a Caucasian doi ng anything unless it is some sort of celebrity or perhaps some weird random story taking place in Alabama or any of the southern states. You really have to do a search for them because I assume they don’t think it is important. It is so much prejudice going on out here in this world until it really doesn’t make any sense. I wish we could all get alone but sometimes that seems impossible. The media really needs to do a better job of providing a better sense of diversity and how we perceive others. I think that the media should help the viewers to understand that not everything you hear or see is really true. If there was a course for everyone to take to let them know that they need to investigate on what they hear or see. Television stations and radio stations need to start appreciating diversity. Diversity is beautiful and needs to be recognized more often. If it was not for diversity we would be all plain and boring. We as a country really need to do better when it comes to the topic of diversity. I wish that we could all get along and be treated as equals but that is simply not going to happen anytime soon. There are still a lot of prejudiced people out here in this world and sadly not a lot has changed over the years. I have had the displeasure of being around some people that were prejudice and it really makes me sad for them. To think that people are so single minded and set in their ways is pretty sad. I don’t really know how we as individuals and the United States work together to reduce prejudice but we need to start somewhere. I think classes such as cultural diversity are a good way to start but there is no way to make people think outside the box. We need to have more educational television shows that will increase the appreciation for diversity. We also need more television shows that can help us to reduce prejudice because it is a serious subject that needs to be addressed. I think when it comes to changing my ways or my behavior there is a few things I can do. I think that if I change my behavior to be more inclusive and pluralistic I would need to think about certain things before I act on them. By simply putting a little more thought into things can simply create a better outcome. I think that I need to get to know other people in different cultures and learn more about what they do and how they function. By getting to know other people in the other cultures will really help me to understand them rather judging them before actually knowing what they are about.

Religion In America, 1492-1790 :: essays research papers

Religion in the New World exploded into the land with the colonization of thousands of immigrants. It played an important role in the development of thought in the West. Religion was one of the first concepts to spark the desires of people from other countries to emigrate to the new lands. While many religions blossomed on the American shores of the Atlantic, a basic structure held for most of them, being predominantly derived from Puritanism. Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement, showed the link the new settlers had to God when Sir Thomas Dale said the following in 1610: Be not dismayed at all For scandall cannot doe us wrong, God will not let us fall. Let England knowe our willingnesse, For that our work is good; Wee hope to plant a nation Where none before hath stood. (Morison, pg. 89) Originally, when Christopher Columbus landed on the shores of America en route to Asia, he was not interested in discovering new lands. Most Europeans at the time were looking for a way to get at the oldest part of the Old World, the East Indies. An ocean route was sought to the countries that were believed to contain riches beyond European comprehension, thus avoiding having to pay hundreds of miscellaneous middlemen involved with trade, also making for a shorter journey. These motivations were accompanied by the desire to convert the heathen to Christianity, which had been declining since the rise of Islam. By uniting some of the Western Asian countries with Christianity, Europeans hoped to form a formidable team against the Turks and recover the valuable Holy Land (Morison, p.55). Columbus was sure that God had sent him to complete this task and that he was destined to carry the good Christian ways to heathen lands. A Spanish settlement was made in 1609 named Santa Fe in what is now New Mexico (Curti, p.167). Hundreds of thousands of Pueblo Indians were then converted to Christianity. At the same time, across the country, England was establishing its first settlement at Jamestown. Originally the English, who colonized alongside the French, saw settlements in the New World as strictly trading posts, but they soon realized the valuable opportunities that lay in the virgin lands of America, such as cotton, tobacco, and several other agricultural products that could not be found anywhere else. Many of England’s problems could be solved in America, and so colonization began. When the earliest settlers came, England had the responsibility to continue the Protestant Church, and prevent the Catholic Church from converting the entire Native American population of North America (Morison, p.105) A potential Protestant refuge could be based there in the threat of civil wars or a change of religion. Religion In America, 1492-1790 :: essays research papers Religion in the New World exploded into the land with the colonization of thousands of immigrants. It played an important role in the development of thought in the West. Religion was one of the first concepts to spark the desires of people from other countries to emigrate to the new lands. While many religions blossomed on the American shores of the Atlantic, a basic structure held for most of them, being predominantly derived from Puritanism. Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement, showed the link the new settlers had to God when Sir Thomas Dale said the following in 1610: Be not dismayed at all For scandall cannot doe us wrong, God will not let us fall. Let England knowe our willingnesse, For that our work is good; Wee hope to plant a nation Where none before hath stood. (Morison, pg. 89) Originally, when Christopher Columbus landed on the shores of America en route to Asia, he was not interested in discovering new lands. Most Europeans at the time were looking for a way to get at the oldest part of the Old World, the East Indies. An ocean route was sought to the countries that were believed to contain riches beyond European comprehension, thus avoiding having to pay hundreds of miscellaneous middlemen involved with trade, also making for a shorter journey. These motivations were accompanied by the desire to convert the heathen to Christianity, which had been declining since the rise of Islam. By uniting some of the Western Asian countries with Christianity, Europeans hoped to form a formidable team against the Turks and recover the valuable Holy Land (Morison, p.55). Columbus was sure that God had sent him to complete this task and that he was destined to carry the good Christian ways to heathen lands. A Spanish settlement was made in 1609 named Santa Fe in what is now New Mexico (Curti, p.167). Hundreds of thousands of Pueblo Indians were then converted to Christianity. At the same time, across the country, England was establishing its first settlement at Jamestown. Originally the English, who colonized alongside the French, saw settlements in the New World as strictly trading posts, but they soon realized the valuable opportunities that lay in the virgin lands of America, such as cotton, tobacco, and several other agricultural products that could not be found anywhere else. Many of England’s problems could be solved in America, and so colonization began. When the earliest settlers came, England had the responsibility to continue the Protestant Church, and prevent the Catholic Church from converting the entire Native American population of North America (Morison, p.105) A potential Protestant refuge could be based there in the threat of civil wars or a change of religion.

? Analyses and Compare the Physical Storage Structures and Types of Available Index of the Latest Versions of: 1. Oracle 2. Sql Server 3. Db2 4. Mysql 5. Teradata

Assignment # 5 (Individual) Submission 29 Dec 11 Objective: To Enhance Analytical Ability and Knowledge * Analyses and Compare the Physical Storage Structures and types of available INDEX of the latest versions of: 1. Oracle 2. SQL Server 3. DB2 4. MySQL 5. Teradata First of all define comparative framework. Recommend one product for organizations of around 2000-4000 employees with sound reasoning based on Physical Storage Structures Introduction to Physical Storage Structures One characteristic of an RDBMS is the independence of logical data structures such as  tables,  views, and  indexes  from physical storage structures.Because physical and logical structures are separate, you can manage physical storage of data without affecting access to logical structures. For example, renaming a database file does not rename the tables stored in it. The following sections explain the physical database structures of an Oracle database, including datafiles, redo log files, and control f iles. Datafiles Every Oracle database has one or more physical  datafiles. The datafiles contain all the database data. The data of logical database structures, such as tables and indexes, is physically stored in the datafiles allocated for a database.The characteristics of datafiles are: * A datafile can be associated with only one database. * Datafiles can have certain characteristics set to let them automatically extend when the database runs out of space. * One or more datafiles form a logical unit of database storage called a tablespace. Data in a datafile is read, as needed, during normal database operation and stored in the memory cache of Oracle. For example, assume that a user wants to access some data in a table of a database. If the requested information is not already in the memory cache for the database, then it is read from the appropriate atafiles and stored in memory. Modified or new data is not necessarily written to a datafile immediately. To reduce the amount of disk access and to increase performance, data is pooled in memory and written to the appropriate datafiles all at once, as determined by the  database writer process (DBWn)  background process. Control Files Every Oracle database has a  control file. A control file contains entries that specify the physical structure of the database. For example, it contains the following information: * Database name * Names and locations of datafiles and redo log files * Time stamp of database creationOracle can  multiplex  the control file, that is, simultaneously maintain a number of identical control file copies, to protect against a failure involving the control file. Every time an  instance  of an Oracle database is started, its control file identifies the database and redo log files that must be opened for database operation to proceed. If the physical makeup of the database is altered, (for example, if a new datafile or redo log file is created), then the control file is autom atically modified by Oracle to reflect the change. A control file is also used in database recovery. Redo Log FilesEvery Oracle database has a set of two or more  redo log files. The set of redo log files is collectively known as the redo log for the database. A redo log is made up of redo entries (also called  redo records). The primary function of the redo log is to record all changes made to data. If a failure prevents modified data from being permanently written to the datafiles, then the changes can be obtained from the redo log, so work is never lost. To protect against a failure involving the redo log itself, Oracle allows a  multiplexed redo log  so that two or more copies of the redo log can be maintained on different disks.The information in a redo log file is used only to recover the database from a system or media failure that prevents database data from being written to the datafiles. For example, if an unexpected power outage terminates database operation, then data in memory cannot be written to the datafiles, and the data is lost. However, lost data can be recovered when the database is opened, after power is restored. By applying the information in the most recent redo log files to the database datafiles, Oracle restores the database to the time at which the power failure occurred.The process of applying the redo log during a recovery operation is called  rolling forward. Archive Log Files You can enable automatic archiving of the redo log. Oracle automatically archives log files when the database is in  ARCHIVELOG  mode. Parameter Files Parameter files contain a list of configuration parameters for that instance and database. Oracle recommends that you create a server parameter file (SPFILE) as a dynamic means of maintaining initialization parameters. A server parameter file lets you store and manage your initialization parameters persistently in a server-side disk file.Alert and Trace Log Files Each server and background proces s can write to an associated trace file. When an internal error is detected by a process, it dumps information about the error to its trace file. Some of the information written to a trace file is intended for the database administrator, while other information is for Oracle Support Services. Trace file information is also used to tune applications and instances. The alert file, or alert log, is a special trace file. The alert file of a database is a chronological log of messages and errors. Backup Files To restore a file is to replace it with a backup file.Typically, you restore a file when a media failure or user error has damaged or deleted the original file. User-managed backup and recovery requires you to actually restore backup files before you can perform a trial recovery of the backups. Server-managed backup and recovery manages the backup process, such as scheduling of backups, as well as the recovery process, such as applying the correct backup file when recovery is needed . A database  instance  is a set of memory structures that manage database files. Figure 11-1  shows the relationship between the instance and the files that it manages.Figure 11-1 Database Instance and Database Files Mechanisms for Storing Database Files Several mechanisms are available for allocating and managing the storage of these files. The most common mechanisms include: 1. Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) Oracle ASM includes a file system designed exclusively for use by Oracle Database. 2. Operating system file system Most Oracle databases store files in a  file system, which is a data structure built inside a contiguous disk address space. All operating systems have  file managers that allocate and deallocate disk space into files within a file system.A file system enables disk space to be allocated to many files. Each file has a name and is made to appear as a contiguous address space to applications such as Oracle Database. The database can creat e, read, write, resize, and delete files. A file system is commonly built on top of a  logical volume  constructed by a software package called a  logical volume manager (LVM). The LVM enables pieces of multiple physical disks to be combined into a single contiguous address space that appears as one disk to higher layers of software. 3. Raw device Raw devices  are disk partitions or logical volumes not formatted with a file system.The primary benefit of raw devices is the ability to perform  direct I/O  and to write larger buffers. In direct I/O, applications write to and read from the storage device directly, bypassing the operating system buffer cache. 4. Cluster file system A  cluster file system  is software that enables multiple computers to share file storage while maintaining consistent space allocation and file content. In an Oracle RAC environment, a cluster file system makes shared storage appears as a file system shared by many computers in a clustered env ironment.With a cluster file system, the failure of a computer in the cluster does not make the file system unavailable. In an operating system file system, however, if a computer sharing files through NFS or other means fails, then the file system is unavailable. A database employs a combination of the preceding storage mechanisms. For example, a database could store the control files and online redo log files in a traditional file system, some user data files on raw partitions, the remaining data files in Oracle ASM, and archived the redo log files to a cluster file system. Indexes in OracleThere are several types of indexes available in Oracle all designed for different circumstances: 1. b*tree indexes – the most common type (especially in OLTP environments) and the default type 2. b*tree cluster indexes – for clusters 3. hash cluster indexes – for hash clusters 4. reverse key indexes – useful in Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) applications 5. bi tmap indexes – common in data warehouse applications 6. partitioned indexes – also useful for data warehouse applications 7. function-based indexes 8. index organized tables 9. domain indexesLet's look at these Oracle index types in a little more detail. B*Tree Indexes B*tree stands for balanced tree. This means that the height of the index is the same for all values thereby ensuring that retrieving the data for any one value takes approximately the same amount of time as for any other value. Oracle b*tree indexes are best used when each value has a high cardinality (low number of occurrences)for example primary key indexes or unique indexes. One important point to note is that NULL values are not indexed. They are the most common type of index in OLTP systems. B*Tree Cluster IndexesThese are B*tree index defined for clusters. Clusters are two or more tables with one or more common columns and are usually accessed together (via a join). CREATE INDEX product_orders_ix O N CLUSTER product_orders; Hash Cluster Indexes In a hash cluster rows that have the same hash key value (generated by a hash function) are stored together in the Oracle database. Hash clusters are equivalent to indexed clusters, except the index key is replaced with a hash function. This also means that here is no separate index as the hash is the index. CREATE CLUSTER emp_dept_cluster (dept_id NUMBER) HASHKEYS 50; Reverse Key IndexesThese are typically used in Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) applications. In this type of index the bytes of each of the indexed columns are reversed (but the column order is maintained). This is useful when new data is always inserted at one end of the index as occurs when using a sequence as it ensures new index values are created evenly across the leaf blocks preventing the index from becoming unbalanced which may in turn affect performance. CREATE INDEX emp_ix ON emp(emp_id) REVERSE; Bitmap Indexes These are commonly used in data warehouse app lications for tables with no updates and whose columns have low cardinality (i. . there are few distinct values). In this type of index Oracle stores a bitmap for each distinct value in the index with 1 bit for each row in the table. These bitmaps are expensive to maintain and are therefore not suitable for applications which make a lot of writes to the data. For example consider a car manufacturer which records information about cars sold including the colour of each car. Each colour is likely to occur many times and is therefore suitable for a bitmap index. CREATE BITMAP INDEX car_col ON cars(colour) REVERSE; Partitioned IndexesPartitioned Indexes are also useful in Oracle datawarehouse applications where there is a large amount of data that is partitioned by a particular dimension such as time. Partition indexes can either be created as local partitioned indexes or global partitioned indexes. Local partitioned indexes mean that the index is partitioned on the same columns and wit h the same number of partitions as the table. For global partitioned indexes the partitioning is user defined and is not the same as the underlying table. Refer to the create index statement in the Oracle SQL language reference for details. Function-based IndexesAs the name suggests these are indexes created on the result of a function modifying a column value. For example CREATE INDEX upp_ename ON emp(UPPER(ename((; The function must be deterministic (always return the same value for the same input). Index Organized Tables In an index-organized table all the data is stored in the Oracle database in a B*tree index structure defined on the table's primary key. This is ideal when related pieces of data must be stored together or data must be physically stored in a specific order. Index-organized tables are often used for information retrieval, spatial and OLAP applications.Domain Indexes These indexes are created by user-defined indexing routines and enable the user to define his or h er own indexes on custom data types (domains) such as pictures, maps or fingerprints for example. These types of index require in-depth knowledge about the data and how it will be accessed. Indexes in Sql Server Index type| Description| Clustered| A clustered index sorts and stores the data rows of the table or view in order based on the clustered index key. The clustered index is implemented as a B-tree index structure that supports fast retrieval of the rows, based on their clustered index key values. Nonclustered| A nonclustered index can be defined on a table or view with a clustered index or on a heap. Each index row in the nonclustered index contains the nonclustered key value and a row locator. This locator points to the data row in the clustered index or heap having the key value. The rows in the index are stored in the order of the index key values, but the data rows are not guaranteed to be in any particular order unless a clustered index is created on the table. | Unique| A unique index ensures that the index key contains no duplicate values and therefore every row in the table or view is in some way unique.Both clustered and nonclustered indexes can be unique. | Index with included columns| A nonclustered index that is extended to include nonkey columns in addition to the key columns. | Full-text| A special type of token-based functional index that is built and maintained by the Microsoft Full-Text Engine for SQL Server. It provides efficient support for sophisticated word searches in character string data. | Spatial| A spatial index provides the ability to perform certain operations more efficiently on spatial objects (spatial data) in a column of the  geometry  data type.The spatial index reduces the number of objects on which relatively costly spatial operations need to be applied. | Filtered| An optimized nonclustered index especially suited to cover queries that select from a well-defined subset of data. It uses a filter predicate to index a portion of rows in the table. A well-designed filtered index can improve query performance, reduce index maintenance costs, and reduce index storage costs compared with full-table indexes. | XML| A shredded, and persisted, representation of the XML binary large objects (BLOBs) in the  xml  data type column. | SQL Server Storage StructuresSQL Server does not see data and storage in exactly the same way a DBA or end-user does. DBA sees initialized devices, device fragments allocated to databases, segments defined within Databases, tables defined within segments, and rows stored in tables. SQL Server views storage at a lower level as device fragments allocated to databases, pages allocated to tables and indexes within the database, and information stored on pages. There are two basic types of storage structures in a database. * Linked data pages * Index trees. All information in SQL Server is stored at the page level. When a database is created, all spaceAllocated to it is divid ed into a number of pages, each page 2KB in size. There are five types of pages within SQL Server: 1. Data and log pages 2. Index pages 3. Text/image pages 4. Allocation pages 5. Distribution pages All pages in SQL Server contain a page header. The page header is 32 bytes in size and contains the logical page number, the next and previous logical page numbers in the page linkage, the object_id of the object to which the page belongs, the minimum row size, the next available row number within the page, and the byte location of the start of the free space on the page.The contents of a page header can be examined by using the dbcc page command. You must be logged in as sa to run the dbcc page command. The syntax for the dbcc page command is as follows: dbcc page (dbid | page_no [,0 | 1 | 2]) The SQL Server keeps track of which object a page belongs to, if any. The allocation of pages within SQL Server is managed through the use of allocation units and allocation pages. Allocation Pages Space is allocated to a SQL Server database by the create database and alter database commands. The space allocated to a database is divided into a number of 2KB pages.Each page is assigned a logical page number starting at page 0 and increased sequentially. The pages are then divided into allocation units of 256 contiguous 2KB pages, or 512 bytes (1/2 MB) each. The first page of each allocation unit is an allocation page that controls the allocation of all pages within the allocation unit. The allocation pages control the allocation of pages to tables and indexes within the database. Pages are allocated in contiguous blocks of eight pages called extents. The minimum unit of allocation within a database is an extent.When a table is created, it is initially assigned a single extent, or 16KB of space, even if the table contains no rows. There are 32 extents within an allocation unit (256/8). An allocation page contains 32 extent structures for each extent within that allocation unit. Each extent structure is 16 bytes and contains the following information: 1. Object ID of object to which extent is allocated 2. Next extent ID in chain 3. Previous extent ID in chain 4. Allocation bitmap 5. Deallocation bitmap 6. Index ID (if any) to which the extent is allocated 7. StatusThe allocation bitmap for each extent structure indicates which pages within the allocated extent are in use by the table. The deallocation bit map is used to identify pages that have become empty during a transaction that has not yet been completed. The actual marking of the page as unused does not occur until the transaction is committed, to prevent another transaction from allocating the page before the transaction is complete. Data Pages A data page is the basic unit of storage within SQL Server. All the other types of pages within a database are essentially variations of the data page.All data pages contain a 32-byte header, as described earlier. With a 2KB page (2048 bytes) this leaves 2016 bytes for storing data within the data page. In SQL Server, data rows cannot cross page boundaries. The maximum size of a single row is 1962 bytes, including row overhead. Data pages are linked to one another by using the page pointers (prevpg, nextpg) contained in the page header. This page linkage enables SQL Server to locate all rows in a table by scanning all pages in the link. Data page linkage can be thought of as a two-way linked list.This enables SQL Server to easily link new pages into or unlink pages from the page linkage by adjusting the page pointers. In addition to the page header, each data page also contains data rows and a row offset table. The row-offset table grows backward from the end of the page and contains the location or each row on the data page. Each entry is 2 bytes wide. Data Rows Data is stored on data pages in data rows. The size of each data row is a factor of the sum of the size of the columns plus the row overhead. Each record in a data page is assi gned a row number. A single byte is used within each row to store the row number.Therefore, SQL Server has a maximum limit of 256 rows per page, because that is the largest value that can be stored in a single byte (2^8). For a data row containing all fixed-length columns, there are four bytes of overhead per row: 1. Byte to store the number of variable-length columns (in this case, 0) 1 byte to store the row number. 2. Bytes in the row offset table at the end of the page to store the location of the row on the page. If a data row contains variable-length columns, there is additional overhead per row. A data row is variable in size if any column is defined as varchar, varbinary, or allows null values.In addition to the 4 bytes of overhead described previously, the following bytes are required to store the actual row width and location of columns within the data row: 2 bytes to store the total row width 1 byte per variable-length column to store the starting location of the column wi thin the row 1 byte for the column offset table 1 additional byte for each 256-byte boundary passed Within each row containing variable-length columns, SQL Server builds a column offset table backward for the end of the row for each variable-length column in the table.Because only 1 byte is used for each column with a maximum offset of 255, an adjust byte must be created for each 256-byte boundary crossed as an additional offset. Variable-length columns are always stored after all fixed-length columns, regardless of the order of the columns in the table definition. Estimating Row and Table Sizes Knowing the size of a data row and the corresponding overhead per row helps you determine the number of rows that can be stored per page.The number of rows per page affects the system performance. A greater number of rows per page can help query performance by reducing the number of ages that need to be read to satisfy the query. Conversely, fewer rows per page help improve performance for c oncurrent transactions by reducing the chances of two or more users accessing rows on the same page that may be locked. Let's take a look at how you can estimate row and table sizes. Fixed-length fields with no null values.Sum of column widths overhead- The Row Offset Table The location of a row within a page is determined by using the row offset table at the end of the page. To find a specific row within the page, SQL Server looks in the row offset table for the starting byte address within the data page for that row ID. Note that SQL Server keeps all free space at the end of the data page, shifting rows up to fill in where a previous row was deleted and ensuring no space fragmentation within the page.If the offset table contains a zero value for a row ID that indicates that the row has been deleted. Index Structure All SQL Server indexes are B-Trees. There is a single root page at the top of the tree, branching out into N number of pages at each intermediate level until it reaches the bottom, or leaf level, of the index. The index tree is traversed by following pointers from the upper-level pages down through the lower-level pages. In addition, each index level is a separate page chain. There may be many intermediate levels in an index.The number of levels is dependent on the index key width, the type of index, and the number of rows and/or pages in the table. The number of levels is important in relation to index performance. Non-clustered Indexes A non-clustered index is analogous to an index in a textbook. The data is stored in one place, the index in another, with pointers to the storage location of the data. The items in the index are stored in the order of the index key values, but the information in the table is stored in a different order (which can be dictated by a clustered index).If no clustered index is created on the table, the rows are not guaranteed to be in any particular order. Similar to the way you use an index in a book, Microsoft ® SQL Serverâ„ ¢ 2000 searches for a data value by searching the non-clustered index to find the location of the data value in the table and then retrieves the data directly from that location. This makes non-clustered indexes the optimal choice for exact match queries because the index contains entries describing the exact location in the table of the data values being searched for in the queries.If the underlying table is sorted using a clustered index, the location is the clustering key value; otherwise, the location is the row ID (RID) comprised of the file number, page number, and slot number of the row. For example, to search for an employee ID (emp_id) in a table that has a non-clustered index on the emp_id column, SQL Server looks through the index to find an entry that lists the exact page and row in the table where the matching emp_id can be found, and then goes directly to that page and row. Clustered IndexesA clustered index determines the physical order of data in a table . A clustered index is analogous to a telephone directory, which arranges data by last name. Because the clustered index dictates the physical storage order of the data in the table, a table can contain only one clustered index. However, the index can comprise multiple columns (a composite index), like the way a telephone directory is organized by last name and first name. Clustered Indexes are very similar to Oracle's IOT's (Index-Organized Tables).A clustered index is particularly efficient on columns that are often searched for ranges of values. After the row with the first value is found using the clustered index, rows with subsequent indexed values are guaranteed to be physically adjacent. For example, if an application frequently executes a query to retrieve records between a range of dates, a clustered index can quickly locate the row containing the beginning date, and then retrieve all adjacent rows in the table until the last date is reached. This can help increase the perf ormance of this type of query.Also, if there is a column(s) that is used frequently to sort the data retrieved from a table, it can be advantageous to cluster (physically sort) the table on that column(s) to save the cost of a sort each time the column(s) is queried. Clustered indexes are also efficient for finding a specific row when the indexed value is unique. For example, the fastest way to find a particular employee using the unique employee ID column emp_id is to create a clustered index or PRIMARY KEY constraint on the emp_id column.Note  Ã‚  PRIMARY KEY constraints create clustered indexes automatically if no clustered index already exists on the table and a non-clustered index is not specified when you create the PRIMARY KEY constraint. Index Structures Indexes are created on columns in tables or views. The index provides a fast way to look up data based on the values within those columns. For example, if you create an index on the primary key and then search for a row of data based on one of the primary key values, SQL Server first finds that value in the index, and then uses the index to quickly locate the entire row of data.Without the index, a table scan would have to be performed in order to locate the row, which can have a significant effect on performance. You can create indexes on most columns in a table or a view. The exceptions are primarily those columns configured with large object (LOB) data types, such as  image,  text,  and  varchar(max). You can also create indexes on XML columns, but those indexes are slightly different from the basic index and are beyond the scope of this article. Instead, I'll focus on those indexes that are implemented most commonly in a SQL Server database.An index is made up of a set of pages (index nodes) that are organized in a B-tree structure. This structure is hierarchical in nature, with the root node at the top of the hierarchy and the leaf nodes at the bottom, as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1: B-t ree structure of a SQL Server index When a query is issued against an indexed column, the query engine starts at the root node and navigates down through the intermediate nodes, with each layer of the intermediate level more granular than the one above. The query engine continues down through the index nodes until it reaches the leaf node.For example, if you’re searching for the value 123 in an indexed column, the query engine would first look in the root level to determine which page to reference in the top intermediate level. In this example, the first page points the values 1-100, and the second page, the values 101-200, so the query engine would go to the second page on that level. The query engine would then determine that it must go to the third page at the next intermediate level. From there, the query engine would navigate to the leaf node for value 123.The leaf node will contain either the entire row of data or a pointer to that row, depending on whether the index is clustered or nonclustered. Clustered Indexes A clustered index stores the actual data rows at the leaf level of the index. Returning to the example above, that would mean that the entire row of data associated with the primary key value of 123 would be stored in that leaf node. An important characteristic of the clustered index is that the indexed values are sorted in either ascending or descending order.As a result, there can be only one clustered index on a table or view. In addition, data in a table is sorted only if a clustered index has been defined on a table. Note:  A table that has a clustered index is referred to as a  clustered table. A table that has no clustered index is referred to as a  heap. Nonclustered Indexes Unlike a clustered indexed, the leaf nodes of a nonclustered index contain only the values from the indexed columns and row locators that point to the actual data rows, rather than contain the data rows themselves.This means that the query engine must t ake an additional step in order to locate the actual data. A row locator’s structure depends on whether it points to a clustered table or to a heap. If referencing a clustered table, the row locator points to the clustered index, using the value from the clustered index to navigate to the correct data row. If referencing a heap, the row locator points to the actual data row. Nonclustered indexes cannot be sorted like clustered indexes; however, you can create more than one nonclustered index per table or view.SQL Server 2005 supports up to 249 nonclustered indexes, and SQL Server 2008 support up to 999. This certainly doesn’t mean you should create that many indexes. Indexes can both help and hinder performance, as I explain later in the article. In addition to being able to create multiple nonclustered indexes on a table or view, you can also add  included columns  to your index. This means that you can store at the leaf level not only the values from the indexed column, but also the values from non-indexed columns. This strategy allows you to get around some of the limitations on indexes.For example, you can include non-indexed columns in order to exceed the size limit of indexed columns (900 bytes in most cases). Index Types In addition to an index being clustered or nonclustered, it can be configured in other ways: * Composite index:  An index that contains more than one column. In both SQL Server 2005 and 2008, you can include up to 16 columns in an index, as long as the index doesn’t exceed the 900-byte limit. Both clustered and nonclustered indexes can be composite indexes. * Unique Index:  An index that ensures the uniqueness of each value in the indexed column.If the index is a composite, the uniqueness is enforced across the columns as a whole, not on the individual columns. For example, if you were to create an index on the FirstName and LastName columns in a table, the names together must be unique, but the individual n ames can be duplicated. A unique index is automatically created when you define a primary key or unique constraint: * Primary key:  When you define a primary key constraint on one or more columns, SQL Server automatically creates a unique, clustered index if a clustered index does not already exist on the table or view.However, you can override the default behavior and define a unique, nonclustered index on the primary key. * Unique:  When you define a unique constraint, SQL Server automatically creates a unique, nonclustered index. You can specify that a unique clustered index be created if a clustered index does not already exist on the table. * Covering index:  A type of index that includes all the columns that are needed to process a particular query. For example, your query might retrieve the FirstName and LastName columns from a table, based on a value in the ContactID column.You can create a covering index that includes all three columns. Teradata What is the Teradata R DBMS? The Teradata RDBMS is a complete relational database management system. With the Teradata RDBMS, you can access, store, and operate on data using Teradata Structured Query Language (Teradata SQL). It is broadly compatible with IBM and ANSI SQL. Users of the client system send requests to the Teradata RDBMS through the Teradata Director Program (TDP) using the Call-Level Interface (CLI) program (Version 2) or via Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) using the Teradata ODBC Driver.As data requirements grow increasingly complex, so does the need for a faster, simpler way to manage data warehouse. That combination of unmatched performance and efficient management is built into the foundation of the Teradata Database. The Teradata Database is continuously being enhanced with new features and functionality that automatically distribute data and balance mixed workloads even in the most complex environments.Teradata Database 14  currently offers low total cost of ownership in a simple, scalable, parallel and self-managing solution. This proven, high-performance decision support engine running on the  Teradata Purpose-Built Platform Family offers a full suite of data access and management tools, plus world-class services. The Teradata Database supports installations from fewer than 10 gigabytes to huge warehouses with hundreds of terabytes and thousands of customers. Features & BenefitsAutomatic Built-In Functionality  | Fast Query Performance  | â€Å"Parallel Everything† design and smart Teradata Optimizer enables fast query execution across platforms| | Quick Time to Value  | Simple set up steps with automatic â€Å"hands off† distribution of data, along with integrated load utilities result in rapid installations| | Simple to Manage  | DBAs never have to set parameters, manage table space, or reorganize data| | Responsive to Business Change  | Fully parallel MPP â€Å"shared nothing† architecture scales linearly across data, us ers, and applications providing consistent and predictable performance and growth| Easy Set & G0† Optimization Options  | Powerful, Embedded Analytics  | In-database data mining, virtual OLAP/cubes, geospatial and temporal analytics, custom and embedded services in an extensible open parallel framework drive efficient and differentiated business insight| | Advanced Workload Management  | Workload management options by user, application, time of day and CPU exceptions| | Intelligent Scan Elimination  | â€Å"Set and Go† options reduce full file scanning (Primary, Secondary, Multi-level Partitioned Primary, Aggregate Join Index, Sync Scan)| Physical Storage Structure of Teradata Teradata offers a true hybrid row and Column database.All database management systems constantly tinker with the internal structure of the files on disk. Each release brings an improvement or two that has been steadily improving analytic workload performance. However, few of the key player s in relational database management systems (RDBMS) have altered the fundamental structure of having all of the columns of the table stored consecutively on disk for each record. The innovations and practical use cases of â€Å"columnar databases† have come from the independent vendor world, where it has proven to be quite effective in the performance of an increasingly important class of analytic query.These columnar databases store data by columns instead of rows. This means that all values of a single column are stored consecutively on disk. The columns are tied together as â€Å"rows† only in a catalog reference. This gives a much finer grain of control to the RDBMS data manager. It can access only the columns required for the query as opposed to being forced to access all columns of the row. It’s optimal for queries that need a small percentage of the columns in the tables they are in but suboptimal when you need most of the columns due to the overhead in a ttaching all of the columns together to form the result sets.Teradata 14 Hybrid Columnar The unique innovation by Teradata, in Teradata 14, is to add columnar structure to a table, effectively mixing row structure, column structures and multi-column structures directly in the DBMS which already powers many of the largest data warehouses in the world. With intelligent exploitation of Teradata Columnar in Teradata 14, there is no longer the need to go outside the data warehouse DBMS for the power of performance that columnar provides, and it is no longer necessary to sacrifice robustness and support in the DBMS that holds the post-operational data.A major component of that robustness is parallelism, a feature that has obviously fueled much of Teradata’s leadership position in large-scale enterprise data warehousing over the years. Teradata’s parallelism, working with the columnar elements, are creating an entirely new paradigm in analytic computing – the pinpoint accuracy of I/O with column and row partition elimination. With columnar and parallelism, the I/O executes very precisely on data interesting to the query. This is finally a strong, and appropriate, architectural response to the I/O bottleneck issue that analytic queries have been living with for a decade.It also may be Teradata Database’s most significant enhancement in that time. The physical structure of each container can also be in row (extensive page metadata including a map to offsets) which is referred to as â€Å"row storage format,† or columnar (the row â€Å"number† is implied by the value’s relative position). Partition Elimination and Columnar The idea of data division to create smaller units of work as well as to make those units of work relevant to the query is nothing new to Teradata Database, and most DBMSs for that matter.While the concept is being applied now to the columns of a table, it has long been applied to its rows in the form of partitioning and parallelism. One of the hallmarks of Teradata’s unique approach is that all database functions (table scan, index scan, joins, sorts, insert, delete, update, load and all utilities) are done in parallel all of the time. There is no conditional parallelism. All units of parallelism participate in each database action. Teradata eliminates partitions from needing I/O by reading its metadata to understand the range of data placed into the partitions and eliminating those that are washed out by the predicates.See Figure There is no change to partition elimination in Teradata 14 except that the approach also works with columnar data, creating a combination row and column elimination possibility. In a partitioned, multi-container table, the unneeded containers will be virtually eliminated from consideration based on the selection and projection conditions of the query. See Figure Following the column elimination, unneeded partitions will be virtually eliminated fro m consideration based on the projection conditions.For the price of a few metadata reads to facilitate the eliminations, the I/O can now specifically retrieve a much focused set of data. The addition of columnar elimination reduces the expensive I/O operation, and hence the query execution time, by orders of magnitude for column-selective queries. The combination of row and column elimination is a unique characteristic of Teradata’s implementation of columnar. Compression in Teradata Columnar Storage costs, while decreasing on a per-capita basis over time, are still consuming increasing budget due to the massive increase in the volume of data to store.While the data is required to be under management, it is equally required that the data be compressed. In addition to saving on storage costs, compression also greatly aids the I/O problem, effectively offering up more relevant information in each I/O. Columnar storage provides a unique opportunity to take advantage of a series of compression routines that make more sense when dealing with well-defined data that has limited variance like a column (versus a row with high variability. ) Teradata Columnar utilizes several compression methods that take advantage of the olumnar orientation of the data. A few methods are highlighted below. Run-Length Encoding When there are repeating values (e. g. , many successive rows with the value of ‘12/25/11’ in the date container), these are easily compressed in columnar systems like Teradata Columnar, which uses â€Å"run length encoding† to simply indicate the range of rows for which the value applies. Dictionary Encoding Even when the values are not repeating successively, as in the date example, if they are repeating in the container, there is opportunity to do a dictionary representation of the data to further save space.Dictionary encoding is done in Teradata Columnar by storing compressed forms of the complete value. The dictionary representatio ns are fixed length which allows the data pages to remain void of internal maps to where records begin. The records begin at fixed offsets from the beginning of the container and no â€Å"value-level† metadata is required. This small fact saves calculations at run-time for page navigation, another benefit of columnar. For example, 1=Texas, 2=Georgia and 3=Florida could be in the dictionary, and when those are the column values, the 1, 2 and 3 are used in lieu of Texas, Georgia and Florida.If there are 1,000,000 customers with only 50 possible values for state, the entire vector could be stored with 1,000,000 bytes (one byte minimum per value). In addition to dictionary compression, including the â€Å"trimming†8 of character fields, traditional compression (with algorithm UTF8) is made available to Teradata Columnar data. Delta Compression Fields in a tight range of values can also benefit from only storing the offset (â€Å"delta†) from a set value. Teradata Co lumnar calculates an average for a container and can store only the offsets from that value in place of the field.Whereas the value itself might be an integer, the offsets can be small integers, which double the space utilization. Compression methods like this lose their effectiveness when a variety of field types, such as found in a typical row, need to be stored consecutively. The compression methods are applied automatically (if desired) to each container, and can vary across all the columns of a table or even from container to container within a column9 based on the characteristics of the data in the container.Multiple methods can be used with each column, which is a strong feature of Teradata Columnar. The compounding effect of the compression in columnar databases is a tremendous improvement over the standard compression that would be available for a strict row-based DBMS. Teradata Indexes Teradata provides several indexing options for optimizing the performance of your relati onal databases. i. Primary Indexes ii. Secondary Indexes iii. Join Indexes iv. Hash Indexes v. Reference Indexes Primary Index Primary index determines the distribution of table rows on the disks controlled by AMPs.In Teradata RDBMS, a primary index is required for row distribution and storage. When a new row is inserted, its hash code is derived by applying a hashing algorithm to the value in the column(s) of the primary code (as show in the following figure). Rows having the same primary index value are stored on the same AMP. Rules for defining primary indexes The primary indexes for a table should represent the data values most used by the SQL to access the data for the table. Careful selection of the primary index is one of the most important steps in creating a table.Defining primary indexes should follow the following rules: * A primary index should be defined to provide a nearly uniform distribution of rows among the AMPs, the more unique the index, the more even the distrib ution of rows and the better space utilization. * The index should be defined on as few columns as possible. * Primary index can be either Unique or non-unique. A unique index must have a unique value in the corresponding fields of every row;   a non-unique index permits the insertion of duplicate field values. The unique primary index is more efficient. Once created, the primary index cannot be dropped or modified, the index must be changed by recreating the table. If a primary index is not defined in the CREATE TABLE statement through an explicit declaration of a PRIMARY INDEX, the default is to use one of the following: * PRIMARY key * First UNIQUE constraint * First column The primary index values are stored in an integral part of the primary table. It should be based on the set selection most frequently used to access rows from a table and on the uniqueness of the value.Secondary Index In addition to a primary index, up to 32 unique and non-unique secondary indexes can be def ined for a table. Comparing to primary indexes, Secondary indexes allow access to information in a table by alternate, less frequently used paths. A secondary index is a subtable that is stored in all AMPs, but separately from the primary table. The subtables, which are built and maintained by the system, contain the following; * RowIDs of the subtable rows * Base table index column values * RowIDs of the base table rows (points)As shown in the following figure, the secondary index subtable on each AMP is associated with the base table by the rowID . Defining and creating secondary index Secondary index are optional. Unlike the primary index, a secondary index can be added or dropped without recreating the table. There can be one or more secondary indexes in the CREATE TABLE statement, or add them to an existing table using the CREATE INDEX statement or ALTER TABLE statement. DROP INDEX can be used to dropping a named or unnamed secondary index.Since secondary indexes require subtab les, these subtables require additional disk space and, therefore, may require additional I/Os for INSERTs, DELETEs, and UPDATEs. Generally, secondary index are defined on column values frequently used in WHERE constraints. Join Index A join index is an indexing structure containing columns from multiple tables, specifically the resulting columns form one or more tables. Rather than having to join individual tables each time the join operation is needed, the query can be resolved via a join index and, in most cases, dramatically improve performance.Effects of Join index Depending on the complexity of the joins, the Join Index helps improve the performance of certain types of work. The following need to be considered when manipulating join indexes: * Load Utilities  Ã‚  Ã‚   The join indexes are not supported by MultiLoad and FastLoad utilities, they must be dropped and   recreated after the table has been loaded. * Archive and Restore  Ã‚  Ã‚   Archive and Restore cannot be us ed on join index itself. During a restore of   a base table or database, the join index is marked as invalid.The join index must be dropped and recreated before it can be used again in the execution of queries. * Fallback Protection  Ã‚  Ã‚   Join index subtables cannot be Fallback-protected. * Permanent Journal Recovery  Ã‚  Ã‚   The join index is not automatically rebuilt during the recovery process. Instead, the join index is marked as invalid and the join index must be dropped and recreated before it can be used again in the execution of queries. * Triggers  Ã‚  Ã‚   A join index cannot be defined on a table with triggers. Collecting Statistics  Ã‚  Ã‚   In general, there is no benefit in collecting statistics on a join index for joining columns specified in the join index definition itself. Statistics related to these columns should be collected on the underlying base table rather than on the join index. Defining and creating secondary index Join indexes can be create d and dropped by using CREATE JOIN INDEX and DROP JOIN INDEX statements. Join indexes are automatically maintained by the system when updates (UPDATE, DELETE, and INSERT) are performed on the underlying base tables.Additional steps are included in the execution plan to regenerate the affected portion of the stored join result. Hash Indexes Hash indexes are used for the same purposes as single-table join indexes. The principal difference between hash and single-table join indexes are listed in the following table. Hash indexes create a full or partial replication of a base table with a primary index on a foreign key column table to facilitate joins of very large tables by hashing them to the same AMP. You can define a hash index on one table only.The functionality of hash indexes is a superset to that of single-table join indexes. Hash indexes are not indexes in the usual sense of the word. They are base tables that cannot be accessed directly by a query. The Optimizer includes a has h index in a query plan in the following situations. * The index covers all or part of a join query, thus eliminating the need to redistribute rows to make the join. In the case of partial query covers, the Optimizer uses certain implicitly defined elements in the hash index to join it with its underlying base table to pick up the base table columns necessary to complete the cover. A query requests that one or more columns be aggregated, thus eliminating the need to perform the aggregate computation For the most part, hash index storage is identical to standard base table storage except that hash indexes can be compressed. Hash index rows are hashed and partitioned on their primary index (which is always defined as non-unique). Hash index tables can be indexed explicitly, and their indexes are stored just like non-unique primary indexes for any other base table.Unlike join indexes, hash index definitions do not permit you to specify secondary indexes. The major difference in storage between hash indexes and standard base tables is the manner in which the repeated field values of a hash index are stored. Reference Indexes A reference index is an internal structure that the system creates whenever a referential integrity constraint is defined between tables using a PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE constraint on the parent table in the relationship and a REFERENCES constraint on a foreign key in the child table.The index row contains a count of the number of references in the child, or foreign key, table to the PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE constraint in the parent table. Apart from capacity planning issues, reference indexes have no user visibility. References for Teradata http://www. teradata. com/products-and-services/database/ http://teradata. uark. edu/research/wang/indexes. html http://www. teradata. com/products-and-services/database/teradata-13/ http://www. odbms. org/download/illuminate%20Comparison. pdf

English Romanticism

English Romanticism 1798-1832 Historical Background Industrial Revolution 1776 American Revolution 1789 – 1815 Revolutionary and Napoleonic Period in France 1789 storming of the Bastille 1793 King Louis XVI executed Political unrest in Britain, harsh repressive measures against radicals Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution of France 1790 Tom Paine, Rights of Man 1791 Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman 1792 1793 Britain at war with France The Regency 1811-20 George, Prince of Wales acts as Regent for George III 1815 Waterloo; first modern industrial depression 819 Peterloo, St. Peter's Fields, Manchester 1832 First Reform Bill Social and economic changes Industrialisation – the age of the machine Social philosophy of laissez-faire ‘let alone' urbanisation Literature Lyrical poetry Two generations of poets First generation: WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, S. T. COLERIDGE Second generation: BYRON, SHELLEY, KEATS Keats ‘Great spirits now on ear th are sojourning' William Hazlitt – the new poetry ‘had its origin in the French Revolution. It was a time of promise, of renewal of the world – and of letters. ‘ Wordsworth, The Prelude France standing on the top of golden hoursAnd human nature seeming born again! Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven†¦. The poet as a ‘bard' or ‘prophet' Poetic spontaneity and freedom Poetry – subjective; it expresses the poet's own feelings (lyric poetry) Rebellion against the Neo-classical ‘rules' Keats: ‘if poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had not come at all' The importance of ‘the heart' – instinct, intuition, INDIVIDUALISM, NONCONFORMITY The human mind – IMAGINATION Turning to NATURE THE INTEREST IN THE SUPERNATURAL, and DREAMS 1798 Wordsworth & Coleridge LYRICAL BALLADS 770 born at Cockermouth, The Lake District Educated at Cambridge 1791-2 France â€⠀œ Annette Vallon 1795, reunited with his sister Dorothy meets S. T. Coleridge 1797 moves with his sister Dorothy to Alfoxden to be close to Coleridge, who lives at Nether Stowey (Somerset) The role of friendship with Coleridge 1798/1799 Goslar, Germany 1799 settles with Dorothy in the Lake District, first at Grasmere 1802 marries Mary Hutchinson 1813 appointed stamp distributor for Westmoreland – becomes patriotic, conservative public man, abandoning radical politics and idealism 1843 Poet Laureate Lyrical Ballads 1798Coleridge on composition of Lyrical Ballads in Ch. XIV of Biographia Literaria During the first year that Mr. Wordsworth and I were neighbours, our conversations turned frequently on the two cardinal points of poetry, the power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by a faithful adherence to the truth of nature, and the power of giving the interest of novelty by the modifying colours of imagination. The sudden charm, which accidents of light and shade, which m oon-light or sun-set diffused over a known and familiar landscape, appeared to represent the practicability of combining both.These are the poetry of nature. The thought suggested itself (to which of us I do not recollect) that a series of poems might be composed of two sorts. In the one, the incidents and agents were to be, in part at least, supernatural; and the excellence aimed at was to consist in the interesting of the affections by the dramatic truth of such emotions as would naturally accompany such situations, supposing them real. And real in this sense they have been to every human being who, from whatever source of delusion, has at any time believed himself under supernatural agency. For the second class, subjects were to be chosen from ordinary life; the characters and incidents were to be such, as will be found in every village and its vicinity, where there is a meditative and feeling mind to seek after them, or to notice them, when they present themselves. In this idea originated the plan of the ‘Lyrical Ballads'; in which it was agreed, that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic, yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for hese shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith. Mr. Wordsworth on the other hand was to propose to himself as his object, to give the charm of novelty to things of every day, and to excite a feeling analogous to the supernatural, by awakening the mind's attention from the lethargy of custom, and directing it to the loveliness and the wonders of the world before us; an inexhaustible treasure, but for which in consequence of the film of familiarity and selfish solicitude we have eyes, yet see not, ears that hear not, and hearts that neither feel nor understand.Wordsworth's Advertisment to Lyrical Ballads 1798 The majority of the followin g poems are to be considered as experiments. They were written chiefly with a view to ascertain how far the language of conversation in the middle and lower classes of society is adapted to the purposes of poetic pleasure. Wordsworth, Preface to Lyrical Ballads 1800, 1802The principal object, then, proposed in these Poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible in a selection of language really used by men, and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect; and, further, and above all, to make these incidents and situations interesting by tracing in them, truly though not ostentatiously, the primary laws of our nature: chiefly, as far as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement.Humble and rustic life was generally chosen, because, in that condition, the essential pas sions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language;[†¦. ] and, lastly, because in that condition the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature.The language, too, of these men has been adopted (purified indeed from what appear to be its real defects, from all lasting and rational causes of dislike or disgust) because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language is originally derived; and because, from their rank in society and the sameness and narrow circle of their intercourse, being less under the influence of social vanity, they convey their feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated expressions. †¦ For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: and though this be true, Poems to which any value can be attached were never produced on any variety of subjects but by a man who, being possessed of more than usual organic sensibility, had also thought long and deeply. †¦I have said that Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity: the emotion is contemplated till by a species of reaction the tranquillity gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind.In this mood successful composition generally begins, and in a mood similar to this it is carried on; but the emotion, of whatever kind and in whatever degree, from various causes is qualified by various pleasures, so that in describing any passions whatsoever, which are voluntarily described, the mind will upon the whole be in a state of enjoyment. What is a Poet? To whom does he address himself? And what language is to be expected from him?He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endued with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind; a man pleased with his own passions and volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him; delighting to contemplate similar volitions and passions as manifested in the goings-on of the Universe, and habitually impelled to create them where he does not find them.The Man of science seeks truth as a remote and unknown benefactor; he cherishes and loves it in his solitude: the Poet, singing a song in which all human beings join with him, rejoices in the presence of truth as our visible friend and hourly companion. Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all Science. Emphatically may it be said of the Poet, as Shakespeare hath said of man, ‘that he looks before and after. ‘ He is the rock of defence for human nature; an upholder and preserver, carrying everywhere with him relationship and love.In spite of difference of soil and climate, of language and manners, of laws and customs: in spite of things silently gone out of mind, and things violently destroyed; the Poet binds together by passion and knowledge the vast empire of human society, as it is spread over the whole earth, and over all time. †¦. I should mention one other circumstance which distinguishes these Poems from the popular Poetry of the day; it is this, that the feeling therein developed gives importance to the action and situation, and not the action and situation to the feeling. WE ARE SEVEN' ——–A SIMPLE Child, That lightly draws its breath, And feels its life in every limb, What should it know of death? I met a little cottage Girl: She was eight years old, she said; Her hair was thick with many a curl That clustered round her head. She had a rustic, woodland air, And she was w ildly clad: Her eyes were fair, and very fair; –Her beauty made me glad. â€Å"Sisters and brothers, little Maid, How many may you be? † â€Å"How many? Seven in all,† she said And wondering looked at me. â€Å"And where are they? I pray you tell. She answered, â€Å"Seven are we; And two of us at Conway dwell, And two are gone to sea. â€Å"Two of us in the church-yard lie, My sister and my brother; And, in the church-yard cottage, I Dwell near them with my mother. † â€Å"You say that two at Conway dwell, And two are gone to sea, Yet ye are seven! –I pray you tell, Sweet Maid, how this may be. † Then did the little Maid reply, â€Å"Seven boys and girls are we; Two of us in the church-yard lie, Beneath the church-yard tree. † â€Å"You run about, my little Maid, Your limbs they are alive;If two are in the church-yard laid, Then ye are only five. † â€Å"Their graves are green, they may be seen,† The little Maid repli ed, â€Å"Twelve steps or more from my mother's door, And they are side by side. â€Å"My stockings there I often knit, My kerchief there I hem; And there upon the ground I sit, And sing a song to them. â€Å"And often after sunset, Sir, When it is light and fair, I take my little porringer, And eat my supper there. â€Å"The first that died was sister Jane; In bed she moaning lay, Till God released her of her pain; And then she went away. So in the church-yard she was laid; And, when the grass was dry, Together round her grave we played, My brother John and I. â€Å"And when the ground was white with snow, And I could run and slide, My brother John was forced to go, And he lies by her side. † â€Å"How many are you, then,† said I, â€Å"If they two are in heaven? „ Quick was the little Maid's reply, â€Å"O Master! we are seven. † â€Å"But they are dead; those two are dead! Their spirits are in heaven! „ ‘Twas throwing words away; for s till The little Maid would have her will, And said, â€Å"Nay, we are seven! The Prelude 1799, 1805, 1850 Plan to write a greate philosophical poem The Recluse or views of Nature, Man, and Society, encouraged by S. T. C. ‘a poem to Coleridge' ‘a poem on the growth of [the poet's] mind' The main hero THE IMAGINATION †¦ Not Chaos, not The Darkest pit of lowest Erebus, Not aught of blinder vacancy, scooped out By help of dreams – can breed such fear and awe As fall upon us often when we look Into our Minds, into the Mind of Man– My haunt, and the main region of my song Prospectus to The Recluse ll. 35-4

Free Essays on Revenge In Hamlet

, the ghost puts the play in motion, for the rest of the story will be governed by Hamlet’s quest for revenge. But for Hamlet, this is not such an easy undertaking. He sees revenge as his moral obligation, but external obstacles and inner conflicts prevent him from carrying it out successfully. Hamlet delays his revenge of his father’s death not because he is a coward but because his psychological feelings and need for a perfect revenge cause him to delay in order to wait for the perfect moment to kill Claudius. Before Hamlet can even begin to enact a plot to kill Claudius, he must first have proof that he is in fact a ... Free Essays on Revenge In Hamlet Free Essays on Revenge In Hamlet Revenge as a main in theme in Hamlet Someone once stated, â€Å"Revenge proves its own executioner†. It has caused the downfall of many people throughout history, for its consuming nature causes one to act recklessly through anger rather than reason. In Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy, Hamlet, this dominant theme of revenge saturates the play and is the manipulative influence behind the actions that make the play a tragedy. In discussing Hamlet and its themes, Patrick Cruttwell describes Hamlet as being â€Å"†¦almost nothing but an embodiment of revenge† (â€Å"Patrick† 235), which ends in the deaths of almost everyone involved. Usually, revenge is seen as an easily rationalized emotion; one turn deserves another. On paper, it seems a simple and easy task to carry out, but the actions of Hamlet and the problems that arise as he attempts to avenge his father’s murder prove otherwise. The ghost of Hamlet’s father, the old King, introduces the first ideas of vengeance into Hamlet’s mind. The ghost tells Hamlet that he was wrongfully killed at the hands of his traitorous brother, the present King Claudius. He urges Hamlet that he must take revenge for his murder and kill Claudius, and says, â€Å"If thou didst ever thy father love/...Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder† (I.v: 29, 31). With these words, the ghost puts the play in motion, for the rest of the story will be governed by Hamlet’s quest for revenge. But for Hamlet, this is not such an easy undertaking. He sees revenge as his moral obligation, but external obstacles and inner conflicts prevent him from carrying it out successfully. Hamlet delays his revenge of his father’s death not because he is a coward but because his psychological feelings and need for a perfect revenge cause him to delay in order to wait for the perfect moment to kill Claudius. Before Hamlet can even begin to enact a plot to kill Claudius, he must first have proof that he is in fact a ... Free Essays on Revenge In Hamlet Revenge in Hamlet According to Webster’s, â€Å"Revenge† means to inflict punishment in return for injury or insult (1245). Throughout the history of literature, the theme of â€Å"Revenge† has been used to portray a critical moment in a character’s life. The outcomes that result are often devastating and mostly, in one way or another, fatal. A Revenge Tragedy is a drama in which the dominant motive is revenge for real or imagined injury. Most Revenge Tragedies end with a scene of carnage that disposes of the avenger as well as his victims (Britannica 538). Revenge Tragedy is a dramatic form made popular on the English stage by Thomas Kyd, a contemporary of Shakespeare, whose Spanish Tragedy is an early example of this type. Such a play calls for the revenge of a father by a son or vice versa, an act that is initiated by the murdered man’s ghost. Other devices found in a Revenge Tragedy include hesitation by the hero, real or feigned madness, suicide, intrigu e, and murders on stage (Girard 160). Without a doubt, the play Hamlet, can be classified as a Revenge Tragedy. It has all of the credentials that are needed to fulfill the requirements in order for it to be recognized as a Revenge Tragedy. â€Å"The play is, in effect, as much about revenge drama as about revenge itself or about Hamlet†(Ray 277). The essence of any tragedy of revenge is that its hero has not created the situation in which he finds himself and out of which the tragedy arises (Gale 225). Therefore, â€Å"Revenge† is a major theme in Hamlet because this theme is developed throughout the entire play and through many characters. For example, Hamlet avenges his father’s death; Laertes seeks revenge on Hamlet for killing his father and abusing his sister; and Claudius seeks revenge on Hamlet because he is aware that Hamlet knows who has killed his father. Thus, the theme of â€Å"Revenge† is repeatedly used throughout the play Hamlet. Although ...

Freedom Caucus Definition and Membership

Freedom Caucus Definition and Membership The Freedom Caucus is a voting bloc of about  three dozen Republican members of the House of Representatives who are among the most ideologically conservative in Congress. Many of the Freedom Caucus members are veterans of the  Tea Party  movement that took root following the bank bailouts of the Great Recession and the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008. The chairman of the Freedom Caucus is U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina. The Freedom Caucus was formed in January 2015 by nine members whose mission is to â€Å"advance an agenda of limited, constitutional government in Congress.† It has also argued for a more decentralized power structure in the House, one that allows rank-and-file members a greater voice in deliberations. The mission of the Freedom Caucus reads: â€Å"The House Freedom Caucus gives a voice to countless Americans who feel that Washington does not represent them. We support open, accountable and limited government, the Constitution and the rule of law, and policies that promote the liberty, safety and prosperity of all Americans.† The coalition has been described as a splinter group of the Republican Study Committee, the conservative group that serves as a watchdog on the partys leadership in Congress. Founding Members of the Freedom Caucus The nine founding members of the Freedom Caucus are: Rep. Justin Amash of MichiganRep. Ron DeSantis of FloridaRep. John Fleming of LouisianaRep. Scott Garrett of New Jersey  Rep. Jim Jordan of OhioRep. Raà ºl Labrador of IdahoRep. Mark Meadows of North CarolinaRep. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina  Rep. Matt Salmon of Arizona   Jordan was elected the first chairman of the Freedom Caucus.   Members of the Freedom Caucus The Freedom Caucus does not publicize a membership list. But the following House members have also been identified in various news reports as being members of or affiliated with the Freedom Caucus. Rep. Brian Babin of TexasRep. Andy Biggs of AlabamaRep. Rod Blum of IowaRep. David Brat of VirginiaRep. Jim Bridenstine of OklahomaRep. Mo Brooks of AlabamaRep. Ken Buck of ColoradoRep. Warren Davidson of OhioRep.  Scott DesJarlais of TennesseeRep. Jeff Duncan of South CarolinaRep. Trent Franks of ArizonaRep. Paul Gosar of AlabamRep.  Morgan Griffith of VirginiaRep.  Andy Harris of MarylandRep.  Jody Hice of GeorgiaRep. Darrell Issa of CaliforniaRep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia  Rep. Alex Mooney of West VirginiaRep. Gary Palmer of AlabamaRep.  Steve Pearce of New MexicoRep.  Scott Perry of PennsylvaniaRep. Ted Poe of TexasRep. Bill Posey of FloridaRep. David Schweikert of AlabamaRep. Mark Sanford of South CarolinaRep. Joe Barton of TexasRep. Randy Weber of TexasRep. Ted Yoho of Florida Why the Small Freedom Caucus Is a Big Deal The Freedom Caucus represents but a small fraction of the 435-member House. But as a voting bloc, they hold sway over the House Republican Conference, which seeks support from at least 80 percent of its members for any move to be considered binding.   â€Å"Choosing their fights carefully, the Freedom Caucus has certainly made an impact since its formation,† wrote the Pew Research Center’s Drew DeSilver. DeSilver explained in 2015: â€Å"How does such a small group get to have such a big say? Simple arithmetic: Currently, Republicans have 247 seats in the House to 188 for the Democrats, which would seem to be a comfortable majority. But if the 36 (or more) Freedom Caucus members vote as a bloc against the GOP leadership’s wishes, their effective strength falls to 211 or fewer- that is, less than the majority needed to elect a new speaker, pass bills and conduct most other business.† While the makeup of the House has changed since then, the strategy remains the same: to maintain a solid caucus of ultraconservative members who can block action on legislation they oppose even if their own party, the Republicans, control the House. Role in John Boehner Resignation The Freedom Caucus rose to prominence during the battle over Ohio Republican John Boehner’s future as speaker of the House in 2015. The caucus was pushing Boehner to defund Planned Parenthood even if it meant forcing a government shutdown. Boehner, tired of the infighting, announced he would abandon the post and quit Congress altogether. One member of the Freedom Caucus even suggested to Roll Call that a motion to vacate the chair would pass if all of the Democrats were to vote in favor of ousting Boehner. â€Å"If the Democrats were to file a motion to vacate the chair and were to vote for that motion unanimously, there probably are 218 votes for it to succeed,† the unnamed member said. Many in the Freedom Caucus later supported Paul Ryan’s bid for speaker. Ryan was to become one of the youngest speakers of the House in modern history. Controversy A handful of Freedom Caucus members defected because they were unhappy with the group’s tactics, including its willingness to side with Democrats on votes that would undermine mainstream or moderate Republicans, including the effort to oust Boehner through a Vacate the Chair motion. U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble of Wisconsin quit after the leadership coup. â€Å"I was a member of the Freedom Caucus in the very beginning because we were focused on making process reforms to get every Member’s voice heard and advance conservative policy,† Ribble said in a written statement provided to CQ Roll Call. â€Å"When the Speaker resigned and they pivoted to focusing on the leadership race, I withdrew.† U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock of California quit the Freedom Caucus nine months after it formed because, he wrote, of its â€Å"willingness- indeed, an eagerness- to strip the House Republican majority of its ability to set the House agenda by combining with House Democrats on procedural motions.† â€Å"As a result, it has thwarted vital conservative policy objectives and unwittingly become Nancy Pelosi’s tactical ally,† he wrote, adding that the Freedom Caucus’ â€Å"many missteps have made it counterproductive to its stated goals.†

Self-Publishing Tips from one of the UKs Bestselling Authors

Self-Publishing Tips from one of the UKs Bestselling Authors Self-Publishing Tips from one of the UK's Bestselling Authors For those of you who are still  skeptical  about the extent of self-publishing's promise, Adam Croft is all the inspiration you need. With 150,000 copies sold in the first quarter of  2016 and a book deal with Amazon, things are only looking up for this new indie giant.  In this post, he shares his top tips for self-publishing.When you’re first starting out as an author, it can be incredibly daunting. I remember the feeling well. Back when I started self-publishing in 2011, there really wasn’t much information or tips out there on how to market your books and be successful at it. I had to find my own way, and along the way I learnt a lot.  Since then, I’ve gone on to sell more than half a million books, with my latest becoming the biggest-selling self-published book of the year and landing me a huge publishing deal with Amazon. That took five years of working out what works and what doesn’t. Separating the wheat from the chaff is difficult, espec ially with so many people professing to be self-publishing experts.  Even today, there’s a lot of rubbish out there in the industry. People with barely a few hundred sales put themselves up as gurus to tell others what works and what doesn’t. The signal to noise ratio is low. I hope to cut through that. Here are my top tips based on five years of experience, half a million sales and the biggest-selling indie book of the year.Treat your writing as a businessThis is absolutely paramount. You’re creating a product and selling it to customers. If that makes you uncomfortable, stop reading now and find a traditional publisher. You need to be business-minded and thinking about profit margins. Otherwise, you’re not after self-publishing; you’re after vanity publishing, which is a whole different ball-game.Always think about the long-termYou won’t release your first book and get big sales. You just won’t. In fact, once you’ve self-published your first book, pat yourself on the back and get on with writing another two. New readers simply aren’t going to flock to your one single book - they like to stick with a certain author. Give them a reason to want to invest in you.Likewise, don’t concern yourself with getting sales straight away. You need to be thinking about future-proofing your business and your career, which leads me on to†¦Get a mailing listSign up for a MailChimp account and get yourself a mailing list. Simply having readers buy your book and then disappear into the ether is not what you want. You need to be able to get in touch with them and let them know when you’ve got a new book out. Trust me: they won’t be searching your name on Amazon every couple of weeks to see if you’ve got a new one. They won’t even remember your name once they’ve put the book down. They’ll be straight onto the next author who’s marketing his or her books better than you.This is my number one tip in terms of marketing, and I really can’t overstate it enough. For more information on how to make mailing lists really work, check out Nick Stephenson’s books - Reader Magnets, in particular, or even his exhaustive interview on the Reedsy blog. You can get your own copy of Adam's latest thriller, Her Last Tomorrow  here.Agree with Adam's methods? Do you have your own secret self-publishing tips? Share them here, or ask Adam any question in the comments below!

Shipping Industry Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Shipping Industry - Case Study Example Once this is approved by the commission, the bookbuilding process begins, in which the company is introduced to potential investors, who then explicitly express their interest in the venture. At this point, the investment bank proposes a price to the company, and later the trading begins (Ljungqvist, 2005). This process is often very complicated and very costly. The costs are generated by auditing and underwriting, plus legal fees. Ongoing costs are also associated with public offerings, such as those connected with supplying information and dividends to investors (Ritter, 1998, p. 1). Another cost related to going public may come from underpricing, which is a risk that grants initial investors less than the market value of the securities through offering it at too low a price (Clementi, 2005; Ljungqvist 2005; Ritter, 1998). The theories that explain why a firm might do this are several. They include the desire of entrepreneurs and/or investors to lower capital cost and to broaden the firm's ownership base (Brau et al., 2005, p. 5). Other theories suggest that firms decide to go public for reasons of legitimacy and growth (Cohen, 2002). Still others posit the theory that initial public offerings usually occur as a normal stage in a firm's lifecycle (Brau et al., 2005, p. 13; Maug, 2001, p. 1; Ritter, 1998, p. 18). Small firms are usually run by a limited amount of capital. ... argue that the rationale for choosing this is strengthened by the fact that the benefits of liquidity is more desirable for entrepreneurs than compensating investors for the non-liquidity that usually exists in privately owned firms (Ritter, 1998, p. 1). This might be viewed in terms of the desire to reduce a firm's capital costs. A major part of capital costs comes from debt. This is concretised roughly by the interest rate payable on the amount of debt incurred in the financing of the firm. When liquidity is necessary, rather than incur this (or additional) debt, firms might choose to raise capital by selling is equity in the form of securities to the public (Ritter, 1998, p. 1). The same might be done to its debt via an initial public debt offering (Ritter, 1998, p. 1). The life-cycle theory has been propounded by several financial theorists. It states that the IPO occurs within the normal process of a firm's evolution and maturity (Ritter, 1998, p. 1; Brau, 2005, p. 13). The small business is usually at first financed by the owners' limited capital. When growth beyond this capacity is necessary, and all other private avenues (friends and family) have been exhausted, capital is sought from non-affiliated financial sources, such as banks and venture capitalists. However, entrepreneurs and investors will likely not agree on all decisions to be made within the firm. At this point firms consider it desirable to offer its securities to a highly diversified public (Ritter, 1998, p. 18; Boehmer & Ljungqvist, 2004, p. 28). Firms are interested obtaining financing at the cheapest cost. The cost of capital theory can be invoked here as well, since equity does generate a cost (though one much more difficult to calculate than that of debt). When a firm offers i ts shares to