The Battle of Guilford Court House was fought on March 15, 1781, during the American Revolutionary War, at a site, now in Greensboro, the seat of Guilford County, North Carolina. A 2,100-man British force under the command of Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis defeated Major General Nathanael Greene's 4,500 Americans; the British Army, lost a considerable number of men during the battle. The battle was "the largest and most hotly contested action" in the American Revolution's southern theater, led to the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Before the battle, the British had great success in conquering much of Georgia and South Carolina with the aid of strong Loyalist factions, thought that North Carolina might be within their grasp. In fact, the British were in the process of heavy recruitment in North Carolina when this battle put an end to their recruiting drive. In the wake of the battle, Greene moved into South Carolina, while Cornwallis chose to march into Virginia and attempt to link up with 3,500 men under British Major General Phillips and American turncoat Benedict Arnold.

These decisions allowed Greene to unravel British control of the South, while leading Cornwallis to Yorktown and eventual surrender to General George Washington and Lieutenant General Comte de Rochambeau. The battle is commemorated at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park and associated Hoskins House Historic District. Following the Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina, Lt. General Charles Cornwallis was determined to destroy Greene's army, but the loss of his light infantry at Cowpens led him to burn his supplies so that his army would be nimble enough for pursuit. He chased Greene in the "Race to the Dan", but Greene escaped across the flooded Dan River to safety in Virginia. Cornwallis established camp at Hillsborough, foraged for supplies and recruited North Carolina Tories. Both the bedraggled state of his army and Pyle's massacre, deterred Loyalists from turning out. Due to the fighting, thousands of slaves had escaped from plantations in South Carolina and other southern states, many joining the British to fight for their personal freedom.

In the waning months of the war, the British evacuated more than 3,000 freedmen to Nova Scotia, with others going to London and Jamaica. Northern slaves escaped to the British lines in occupied cities such as New York. On March 14, 1781, while encamped in the forks of the Deep River, Cornwallis was informed that Greene was encamped at the Guilford Court House. With him was a body of North Carolina militia, plus reinforcements from Virginia, consisting of 3,000 Virginia militia, a Virginia State regiment, a corps of Virginian eighteen-month men, recruits for the Maryland Line, totaling between 4,000 and 5,000 men. Cornwallis decided to give battle, he detached his baggage train, 100 infantry, 20 cavalry under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton, to Bell's Mills further down the Deep River. Before breakfast could be eaten, Cornwallis set off with his main force, arriving at Guilford at midday; the advance guard met near the Quaker New Garden Meeting House. Dragoons from Banastre Tarleton's British Legion were engaged by Light Horse Harry Lee's Dragoons about 4 miles from the Guilford Court House.

The British 23rd Regiment of Foot sent reinforcements forward and Lee withdrew, ordering a retreat to Greene's main body. Cornwallis found the Americans in position on rising ground about one and a half miles from the court house, he was unable to gain much information from his prisoners or the local residents as to the American disposition. To his front he saw a plantation with a large field straddling both sides of the road, with two more further over on the left separated by 200 yards or so of woodland. To his right beyond the fields the woodland extended for several miles. On the far side of the first field was a fenced wood, 1-mile in depth, through which the road passed into an extensive cleared area around the court house. Along the edge of this woodland was a fence forming the American first line of defense and a six-pound cannon on each side of the road. Greene had prepared his defense in three lines. North Carolina militia formed the first line, with backwoods riflemen on the left and right flanks to harass the advancing British.

In the second line, he placed the Virginia militia. Two more six-pound cannons were sited on the center of the line, his third and strongest line consisting of his regulars, included the Virginian regiment, Delaware infantry, the 1st and 2nd Maryland regiments were 400 yards further on, though placed at an angle to the west of the road. While superficially resembling the deployment used by Daniel Morgan at Cowpens, the lines were hundreds of yards apart and could not support one another. Since the east side of the road was open, Cornwallis opted to attack up the west side and, following a short barrage of cannon shot on the cannon positions of the first line, at 1:30 p.m. Cornwallis moved his men forward; when they were about 150 yards short of the fence, a volley was fired from the Americans, but the British continued until they were within musket shot fired their own volley in return. On a command from Webster, they charged forward, coming to a halt 50 paces from the American lines because the North Carolina militia, as noted by Sergeant Lamb of the 23rd Regiment "had their arms presented and resting on the picket fence...they were taking aim with nice precision".

Urged onward by Lieutenant Colonel James Webster of the 33rd Regiment of Foot, the British continued to advance. Though the North Carolina militia, to the west of the road, had been instructed to fire two to three volleys, they fired their muskets turned and fled back t

Upwood Meadows is a 6 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Upwood in Cambridgeshire. It is a National Nature Reserve and a Grade I Nature Conservation Review site, it is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire. The site has three fields on calcareous clay with poor drainage, a type of pasture now rare, was described by Derek Ratcliffe as having "an outstandingly rich and diverse flora". Other habitats are mature hedgerows and scrub. One of the fields is agriculturally unimproved, the evidence of medieval ridge and furrow still survives. Flowering plants include pepper green-winged orchid. There is access by a footpath from Bentley Close in Upwood. Great Fen Woodwalton Fen

Masaaki Imai is a Japanese organizational theorist and management consultant, known for his work on quality management on Kaizen. Born in Tokyo, Imai obtained his BA from Tokyo University in 1955, where he continued to do graduate work in international relations. Late-1950s Imai worked for five years in Washington DC at the Japanese Productivity Center, where he was responsible to accompany groups of Japanese businessmen on visits to American plants. In 1962 in Tokyo he founded his own Employment agency for the recruitment of management and research personnel. In 1986 he founded the Kaizen Institute Consulting Group to help western companies to introduce the concepts and tools of Kaizen. In the same year he published, in Japan, the book on business management "Kaizen: Japanese spirit of improvement", which helped popularizing the Kaizen concept in the West. Kaizen, Japanese for "improvement" or "change for the best", refers to philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing and business management.

It has been applied in healthcare, life-coaching, government and other industries. Imai acknowledged that Kaizen starts with detection of needs and problem definition: The starting point for improvement is to recognize the need; this comes from recognition of a problem. If no problem is recognized, there is no recognition of the need for improvement. Complacency is the archenemy of KAIZEN. Ishikawa and Imai both defined the Seven Basic Tools of Quality. Looking back on the impact of Kaizen, Imai stated:'Kaizen' means ongoing improvement involving everybody, without spending much money. When'Kaizen' was first published here in 1986, many U. S. products were of poor quality, Japanese-made products were gaining market share. Since American companies have made great strides in improving product quality, much of, attributable to their implementation of kaizen principles, which incorporate TQM. Imai, Masaaki. Kaizen: The key to Japan's competitive success. New York, itd: McGraw-Hill. Imai, Masaaki. Gemba Kaizen: A Commonsense, Low-Cost Approach to Management.

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