Literary Devices Essay

While attending my course on â€Å"War and Literature†, and listening to the conversation, I found myself struck by an intellectual question presented by another student. This student asked, â€Å"When does paradox become hypocrisy? † Immediately afterwards I wrote the response, â€Å"A good war is a war that teaches it’s mistakes without one having to live with them. † At first I didn’t know if I had truly responded to the question. I analyzed both the question and response carefully through the literary devices and found myself satisfied with the responses standing. When analyzing the response I first had to return to the question. â€Å"When does paradox become hypocrisy? † Referring to this question I had to ask if my response held a paradox. â€Å"A good war is a war that teaches it’s mistakes without one having to live with them. † Considering that a paradox is a statement that seems self- contradictory, and that â€Å"a good war† is the introduction to the response, suggested that â€Å"a good war† is a paradox. However, why is it that â€Å"a good war† is a paradox? War can best be defined as active hostility. Good can also be best defined as being well behaved. Considering these definitions and the response, â€Å"a good war† would certainly be a paradox  because active hostility is contradictory to being well behaved. However, most would assume that â€Å"a good war† was the responses paradox, and to assume otherwise would be insulting to someone’s intellect. So then one has to ask how it is so commonly understood that â€Å"a good war† is a paradox? To conclude this question, one must consider that most of everyone was raised with the developmental understanding of good and bad. Most of everyone also would commonly agree that war is not good. So why do people still go, and why do we not learn from â€Å"it’s mistakes without someone having to live with them†? From statistics taken in the year two thousand fourteen, seven percent of America’s society is a veteran, and in that year there were near three hundred eighteen million citizens. That means that over twenty two million American citizens are veterans of foreign war. So how is it that we can convince over seven percent of our citizens to go risk their livelihood? We determined that war is wrong so how do we replace the ideas of good and bad? To better answer that question, it is better to replace the employment of a soldier with a painter. In order to make someone who is  not a painter become a painter, one would have to go through a series of tasks. First, cut off access to other mediums. Do not allow that person to work with anything other then painting. If they want to write a letter home, they paint it. If they want to create something three dimensional, they paint it. If they want to tell a story, they again, will paint it. Now there is no difference between the painter with their paintbrush, and the recruit with their rifle. Second, apply influences to praise the ideals. The same recruited painter now needs to be surrounded with people who share the same ideals. The painter cannot have the influences of sculptors, graphic designers, or any other ambassador of other art form. The painter needs the overall support of peers with the subject matter. This again, is no different from the soldier and their peers. Third, discourage all other ideals. The facilitator, who is regulating the transition between non-painters to painters, needs to openly degrade the ideals of all other art forms. The facilitator needs to make sure that the recruits hear their passionate opinions about how other art forms are â€Å"wrong†. This will guide the recruits to also share the same ideals. This relationship resembles the relationship between Drill Instructors and their recruits. Fourthly, revival the title has a distinguished history of renowned individuals. For a painter, there are many distinguished individuals that made a dramatically difference within the realm of art. For some examples, there is Vincent Van Gough, Pablo Picasso, and Leonardo De Vinci. It is up to the facilitator to idolize these individuals in front of the forth-coming painters. This will give the recruited painters the expectations they need to become idolized into their new profession. This will  also make the recruited painters strive to achieve the same honor. For the recruited soldier, they hear about the selfless actions of the Medal of Honor, Prisoners of War, and Purple Heart recipients. For them, they also strive to achieve that honor. Lastly, provide the graduate with a quote that brands them with honor. For instance, EARTH, Semper Fi, or Army of One. This will give the graduate something to display as pride and unite them forever with the other individuals who also have endured the same training. Now returning back to the question, â€Å"when does a paradox become a  hypocrisy†, the response needed to be evaluated for the literary device of hypocrisy. Is â€Å"a good war is a war that teaches it’s mistakes without one having to live with them†, a response of hypocrisy. Through the development of good and bad, we have concluded that war is wrong. To suggest otherwise would propose a state of insanity. Insanity is a derangement of the mind or not conforming. Since we have conclude that the popular choice is tosay that war is wrong suggests that people who desire to go to war, miss war, or idolize war are insane. So are they insane? If the response,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"war teaches it’s mistakes without one having to live with them† is true, than yes. However, the statement is hypocrisy and hypocrisy is the pretense of having. So reverting back to the practice of transitioning from non-painter to painter, the recruit became a painter. Now what if, during the transition, the recruit never got the opportunity to paint. The entire time the recruit was given black ink to practice the techniques of painting, but never received oil or acrylic paints. The recruit sat through sessions where they viewed images of others painters and their colorful  paintings, only to never receive color to paint with. After the transitions period, after the recruit was given the title of painter and hope to finally paint with color. However, the restriction continues and they again were never given oil or acrylic paints. They had practiced the trade for years without actual execution. The outcome is apparent. They will forever long to paint. This is the situation with the soldier. The soldier practices with blank ammunition for years, views images of warfare, practices the techniques of warfare, and never gets to execute their practices in war. The outcome is apparent. They will forever long for warfare. So in regards to the response, from the soldiers perspective, they would disagree because war cannot â€Å"teach it’s mistakes without one having to live with them. † They themselves desire warfare. However, for sanities sake, they would suggest the response to be true in the company of other American citizens. This is the pretense of having and concludes the statement to be hypocrisy; at least from the soldiers perspective. So does the statement apply to other citizens of America? Again, the response  to the initial question suggests that war is wrong and a sane response is to agree with the statement. This implies that American citizens do not see the statement as hypocrisy. However, how much money is accumulated over the showing of one Hollywood movie about warfare? How much money and time is spent reading through the stories about warfare? How often do people find excitement when sharing a conversation with a veteran where they can ask personal questions about their experiences? As peaceful people who agree with the statement, American citizens curiously find something compelling about war. It is not my position to accuse the masses of being warmongers. However, to defend the integrity of my response, the response is hypocrisy. It cannot â€Å"teach it’s mistakes† if people live vicariously through the experiences of war. Without war that satisfaction is taken away and the entertainment lost, suggesting that the mistakes aren’t learned; they’re idolized. To propose other wise is the pretense of having or also known as hypocrisy. So can war teach â€Å"it’s mistakes†? Can the statement ever become true? Lets again look at the question, â€Å"when does paradox become hypocrisy? † and compare it  to the response, â€Å"a good war is a war that teaches it’s mistakes without one having to live with them. † In order to make the response true we would have to rephrase the question. This time we will ask, when does paradox become integrity? We have concluded that the response to the initial question is both a paradox and hypocrisy, but we have overlooked one literary device. Personification. Personification is the representation of an abstraction in the form of a person. In the response we suggested that â€Å"a good war† is a paradox, and if â€Å"war teaches it’s mistakes without one having to live with them† is hypocrisy. However, the response also suggests that we have personified war. So in order to make the statement, â€Å"a good war is a war that teaches it’s mistakes without one having to live with them† true, we have to remove the personification and rephrase the response to â€Å"a good person is a person that teaches their mistakes without one having to live with them†. By removing the literary device of personification we have successful removed the other literary devices of paradox and hypocrisy, and gave the response integrity. If a good person were to teach others about their life’s mistakes, maybe others could  learn from them. It is the gift from the veteran of foreign wars to express to others the mistakes of warfare. From that point forward, it is up to the recipient of the gift to learn from the veteran’s mistakes. War cannot teach it’s mistakes because war as a whole removes the personal aspect of warfare. It gives the individual a number instead of a valued story. However, the individual’s personal story, the veteran, includes the emotional toll of warfare. From that personal story, the audience can now begin to understand the dysfunction of warfare and that personal story can be identified as the gift.

Television Does More Harm Than Good

Television does more harm than good When the TV was invented, it impressed the whole world, so everyone since then seeks to buy a one. In the past TV was only has less than ten channels and it were locked in the latest hours of night. But now there is thousands or millions of satellite channels are broadcasted on TV. As a result the number of TV owners has risen until 98% of American households have a TV set and the same is true of most developed countries.In fact, television channels should be boycotted by the public because most of these channels broadcast valueless programs and sometimes telecast programs that have a negative effect on the spectator and society, so television does more harm than good. Supporter of television argue that TV plays an important role in the educational field by presenting science, geography, history and news programs. It also presents useful programs for children like â€Å"Sesame Street†.However TV viewing is essentially a passive activity that discourage critical thinking as it shows one side of view and does not show the other opposing views, so this makes people use to fanatic for their opinions and do not listen to other points of view. As a result of continuous actions the watcher does not have much time to think of what he watch, so most viewers especially children watch television indiscriminately. Unfortunately this matter does not stop on that, there is a research suggests that TV can slow down young children's speech development.There is a link between literacy problems and frequent TV viewing; similarly there is a link between TV and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Those in favor of TV claim that, it is an innocent form of entertainment, especially for housebound elderly people and the physically handicapped. On the other hand television interferes with conversation, for example visitors often end up staring at â€Å"the box in the corner† instead of programs that spread fear and depression by focusing on violence, war, crime and various disasters.There is some evidence that seeing on-screen violence makes us less sensitive to the real thing. Proponents of TV sometimes suggest that TV makes the world a small village as it closes the gap between different nations and cultures, for example satellite TV news reaches people simultaneously all around the world, as result cultures approached from each other, so the understanding and respect rose between them.However the satellite channels are controlled by powerful western corporations and the culture of the programs is predominantly North America, European or Australian, so they service the interests of these corporations, as a result of that there is not an equal sharing of information, opinions or cultural expressions. Television is often used as a propaganda tool way to enter everyone's home and brain, so the powerful western corporations used it in a very subtle way to encourage materialism by developing a desire in developing cou ntries for Coca-Cola, Big Macs, fast cars and western fashion.In conclusion, television has become a tool in the hand of the western world by which they can control the rest world, so everyone should stop for seconds before switching on a TV and think of what he is coming to do, he must deduce that TV viewing accelerate the process of â€Å"Coca-colonization†, destroys the art of conversation, healthy, optimistic view of life and turns people into unthinking, illiterate â€Å"couch potatoes†. Just a drug addict must be fought in order to avoid an early death, so the world must switch off its TVs if it wishes to produce active and intelligent citizens.

Case Of Location Choice For Existing Organisation Business Essay

Case Of Location Choice For Existing Organisation Business Essay for an organisation. One of the key features of a conversion process manufacturing system is the efficiency with which the products services are transferred to the customers.This fact will include the determination of where to place the plant or facility.The selection of location is a key-decision as large investment is made in building plant and machinery. It is not advisable or not possible to change the location very often. So an improper location of plant may lead to waste of all the investments made in building and machinery, equipment. Before a location for a plant is selected, long range forecasts should be made anticipating future needs of the company. The plant location should be based on the company’s expansion plan and policy, diversification plan for the products, changing market conditions, the changing sources of raw materials and many other factors that influence the choice of the location decision. The purpose of the location study is to find an optimum locati on one that will result in the greatest advantage to the organization. The need for selecting a suitable location arises because of three situations. When starting a new organisation, i.e., location choice for the first time. In case of existing organisation. In case of Global Location. In Case of Location Choice for the First Time or New Organisations Cost economies are always important while selecting a location for the first time, but should keep in mind the cost of long-term business/organisational objectives. The following are the factors to be considered while selecting the location for the new organisations: Identification of region: The organisational objectives along with the various long-term considerations about marketing, technology, internal organisational strengths and weaknesses, region specific resources and business environment, legal-governmental environment, social environment and geographical environment suggest a suitable region for locating the operations facil ity. Choice of a site within a region: Once the suitable region is identified, the next step is choosing the best site from an available set. Choice of a site is less dependent on the organisation’s long-term strategies. Evaluation of alternative sites for their tangible and intangible costs will resolve facilities-location problem. The problem of location of a site within the region can be approached with the following cost-oriented non-interactive model, i.e., dimensional analysis. Dimensional analysis: If all the costs were tangible and quantifiable, the comparison and selection of a site is easy. The location with the least cost is selected. In most of the cases intangible costs which are expressed in relative terms than in absolute terms. Their relative merits and demerits of sites can also be compared easily. Since both tangible and intangible costs need to be considered for a selection of a site, dimensional analysis is used. In Case of Location Choice for Existing Org anisation In this case a manufacturing plant has to fit into a multi-plant operations strategy. That is, additional plant location in the same premises and elsewhere under following circumstances: Plant manufacturing distinct products. Manufacturing plant supplying to specific market area.

Porject 4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Porject 4 - Essay Example Numerous forms of tropes usually exist including film, fiction, and poetry and different companies usually apply different form of the same in their advertisement. For instance, Adidas AG, a German multinational corporation that is known for the designing and manufacturing clothing, sport shoes, and accessories have been using different tropes in advertising its products. The main competitor of the Adidas Corporation is Nike. It is worth noting that these companies are having nearly the same market strength and conditions. However, it was once noted that Nike never captured the interest of the customers exhaustively. Nonetheless, Nike had brilliant executions in the market that influenced the targeted customers greatly (Diehl and Terlutter 150). They had numerous Television advertisements among other advertising campaigns. The main storyline of the Nike’s ads was pegged on it heritage of technology and innovation among other big success stories of the company. To counter interact the Nike’s poor ads and marketing strategies, Adidas created a meaningful ad with the messages including â€Å"We know then – we know now† (Adidas). Later it came up with â€Å"There is nothing between you and success, so exceed your own expectations and limitations† and finally they had the message â€Å"Earn it† (Adidas). This rhet oric message led to the obvious success of Adidas and followed by its hard work, the company bounced back into the business earning a top position above its main competitor, Nike. Other than the rhetoric messages, Adidas also uses Television Commercials that may be classified as the film trope. The television commercials are considered to the most effective and far-reaching advertising format that Adidas uses to reach mass market. In the commercial TV ads, Adidas usually uses jingles or songs that make listeners to relate to its products effectively. It should

Macroeconomics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 9

Macroeconomics - Essay Example atus as a quality manufacturer, but also need to make way for the financing of individual initiatives taken by small time entrepreneurs (Cohen & Beranek 4). Manufacturing has always constituted the real backbone of the American economy. Manufacturing particularly had a percolating impact on the American economy, which means that creation of one manufacturing job led to the creation of multiple associated jobs in the economy. There is no dearth of skilled and semi-skilled workers in the nation who are competent enough and willing to support a thriving indigenous manufacturing sector. However, the shift in the dynamics of American economy in the past few decades, turning America from a manufacturing centric to consumption centric economy, thereby allowing the firms to shift their manufacturing operations to low wage hubs like China and India, has really negatively impacted the health of the American economy (Moore 113). American manufacturing is not mainly about big manufacturing hubs, but rather a network of large manufacturing units, supported by a web of smaller ancillary units. Hence, no wonder a shifting of the thrust of manufacturin g operations to low wage Asian and Latin American countries, has weakened the overall framework of the American economy. As a beginning, President Obama should withdraw the tax and policy benefits to the corporations locating their manufacturing operations to low wage nations. When it comes to manufacturing, the restoration efforts not only need to be focused on the large manufacturing units, but rather also include the small manufacturers and businesses, which create jobs and sustain communities, while bolstering the overall fabric of the economy. The other thing is that since many large corporations have shifted their manufacturing operations overseas, this has created the opportunity and scope for many small time manufacturers that compensate for the dearth for resources by imbuing their products with the attention to detail and

E-Bussines Technologies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

E-Bussines Technologies - Essay Example At the present, more and more companies are making use of the internet to carry out business tasks. Thus, seeing the importance of electronic commerce in today’s business environment Servue Corporation has decided to implement a new online business arrangement. In fact, web based business has transformed the map of the world. Now people can access any product or information by sitting at home using web links. The same simple and automated business technology is now required at the Servue business. In this scenario, this report will discuss some of the important aspects regarding implementation of this new technology. BUSINESS OVERVIEW Servue Corporation is specialized in offering a range of decorated crockery. They have before sold their goods with word of mouth to local customers as well as tourists, by means of their shop window, as well as with mail order from their catalogue or website. From the current business technology point of view the corporation has been making use of early 1990s computerised information system as well as makes use of their website mostly for marketing purposes. However, the current business website is not much dynamic to handle and manage the tasks of the business working through the web. Thus, the online management of business operations turns out to be a problematic job for the business. In this scenario there is need for efficient business and corporate management arrangement. BUSINESS ISSUES Currently, Servue Corporation is running its business using physical stores, email and telephonic order system. Though, the business as well uses products ordering system through phone calls from distant customer. The business is using 90s web based arrangement for capturing orders. However, such business arrangement is not much effective for ecommerce marketplace. Additionally, the business is facing a lot of problems in attracting the customers and targeting the products. The business main concern is to attract whole UK’s com munity towards the business and provide a better opportunity of attracting a wide variety of customer classes. The main issues here are lack of customer loyalty. The current business arrangement is based on a traditional legacy system for managing the orders. So it does not attract a great deal of customers. On the other hand, Servue Corporation has a lot of market contenders those are offering much superior customer support and online shopping capabilities to business customers. ONLINE BUSINESS WEBSITE FOR SERVUE BUSINESS In this section I will present the possible solution for Servue Corporation in order to improve their business productivity and corporate working through the web based channel. Here the main recommendation is about the establishment of web based business platform for possible business development and enhancement. This will be an online automated ordering and retailing system. In addition, business and market studies showed that the expansion rate of the Internet p urchases has been extremely high all through the previous years, as well as in spite of the circumstances of the real world financial disaster that affected the online orders registration, things still look extremely brilliant for the Internet. From this viewpoint, people who encourage a service or product as an element of an Internet trade have plenty

Impact of Capital Structure on Financial Performance of Real Estate Essay

Impact of Capital Structure on Financial Performance of Real Estate Firms Listed In Chinese Stock Exchange - Essay Example Since the real estate industry is capital intensive, a firm’s capital structure greatly impacts on its financial performance. Capital structures dictate the financial ratios of these companies and subsequently these ratios are used to determine a firm’s performance. In addition, the capital structure of these real estate firms also determines the extent of ownership by different shareholders. The study determined that the profitability and the debt levels of the twenty selected firms have an inverse relationship. It can as well be concluded that the capital structure affects the growth rate of these firms. This means that real estate firms in China that post high profits in their financial statements have financial debts that are lower that the industry’s average. In this regard, managements of real estate firms in China prefer capital structures that attract low costs of debt and will have minimal adverse effect on the firms’ performance in terms of profi tability and capitalization. According to the results of the analysis, high debt means high interest payments and this has a direct effect on the firms’ profitability and subsequently the firms’ Earnings per Share. The major factor that influenced capital structures of the twenty firms under this study is that the real industry shifted to the Chinese capital market for capital sourcing since privatization of state owned corporations. This study used an inductive approach on the twenty selected listed real estate companies in the methodology section. The quantitative methods objectively determine the impact of capital structure on the performance of the 20 selected and listed real estate firms. The reason for was because listed firms are regulated and they represent the best samples that would give reliable results for this study. However, the study would have given better results if a larger sample was used for this study and more time allocated for analysis. These

International finance Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

International finance - Assignment Example This could lead to reduced investments of the government or organizations involved in the debt, thus leading to adoption of compensatory mechanisms such as increased taxation by governments and increased product prices by organizations in order to cater for the cost. On the other hand, devaluation is likely to discourage investors from foreign countries, as governments that devalue their currency are perceived as weak. This would lead to decreased revenue and thus high rates of inflation. An increase in national income in Japan as compared to the US, with floating rates of exchange would lead to the depreciation of the rate of current exchange for Japan, and thus appreciation of the US dollar. An increase in the prices in both Japan and the US would ensure that the two countries maintain their purchasing power parity. As such, the US dollar would remain the same relative to the Japanese yen. High real interest rates in Japan would lead to appreciation in the value of their currency and subsequent depreciation in the value of the US dollar. As such, global investors would wish to hold financials in the Japanese yen. For them to buy Japanese stocks or bonds, the Japanese yen must be bought, causing it to appreciate. The fixed exchange rate system guards countries from exchange rate uncertainties by allowing countries that experience deficits in the payment balance to use their dollar reserves to finance such deficits (Arnold 891). With the decline in the number of dollars, the supply of money in the country is reduced. The interest rates thus increase in response to the reduced prices. The reduction in price results in the goods of the nation becoming more competitive at the international level, increasing capital flow into the nation. As such, the fixed exchange rate system allows different nations to establish equilibrium through balancing payments. The fixed exchange rate systems place the exchange risk

Marketing assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Marketing - Assignment Example for this car therefore needs to target the middle class in the society, as they are the people most concerned about the environment and prices of fuel (Becker, 2010). To reach this target group, the advertisement for the hybrid cars needs to be in television at prime times. The middle class are working people and are not available to watch television during the days. However, most of them are keen followers of the evening news. Placing the advertisement at such a time is there fore likely to catch their attention. The middle class are also keen followers of sports in the weekend. In the United States, the follow American football and baseball, in Europe, the most popular sport is football. Therefore, it would be productive to advertise the car during sports or by sponsoring team kits such that a popular team plays in labeled kits (for instance Juventus is a big soccer club in Europe and play in kits marked ‘jeep’) (Becker, 2010). Such advertisements may work wonders, as the audience is relaxed when watching the game and more likely to notice the advert (Becker, 2010). Inclusion of impressive statistics about the car is also helpful as the target group is interested in a car that offers them comfort as well as power on the road. This target group is also knowledgeable and is bound to know the limitations of a ‘green car’. These limitations include short refueling mileage (electric cars should recharge after between 100 and 160 miles) (Fort Bend Toyota in Richmond, par 3). This distance is too small a hybrid car covers more distance, more than 300 miles. Inclusion of this kind of information in the adverts is likely to persuade potential buyers with reservations about the refueling mileage to change their minds. The advertisements should also show the amount of money that the user would save on fuel by using the hybrid cars. The main advantages of use of television and sports endorsements are a wide area of coverage as well as the discounts related to

Law & Ethics Essay Example for Free

Law Ethics Essay BB General Partnership Dracca is able to seek recover from Silva Gray individually on the judgment for BB partnership because the partnership has not been incorporated. In a general partnership each individual can be sued for the full amount of the business debt. The partners cannot have personal interest within the partnership (Bagley Savage, 2009 p. 729). If one partner incurs all of the debt, they can then sue the other partners for their parts of the debt. Within a Limited Liability Partnership these three items would differ from the general partnership. 1. Limited partners do not play an active role in the business 2. Limited partners are not personally liable 3. Limited partners face slightly different tax rules (NOLO) BB is not a formalized company under the laws of corporation and taxation, so in turn each individual can be held liable for the debt legally. However, Dracca should not have gone after Ms. Grey solely on a tip of her wealth. Business Judgment Rule The Business Judgment Rule states that as long as the board members have acted in good faith and meet the basic standards, there should not be a fear of prosecution when making decisions (Bagley Savage, 2009 p. 801). To insure that the board of directors did not fault their duty of care and the Business Judgment Rule several items must be analyzed. 1. â€Å"Were the directors interested in the transaction?2. Did the directors act in good faith? 3. Did the directors act in a manner that cannot be attributed to a rational purpose? 4. Did the directors reach the decision by a negligent process?† (Bagley Savage, 2009 p.801). The board must also consider their duty of care and duty of loyalty. Duty of care requires people involved in the company to make informed and reasonable decisions for the business. Duty of loyalty requires employees to act in good faith and in good interest of the company (Bagley Savage, 2009 p. 799). In the case of Dracca vs. BB, the board did not act in good duty of care, duty of loyalty or use the Business Judgment Rule appropriately. The overall concept to obtain the debt from BB was an action of duty or care and loyalty to the company. However, the way the board of directors went about the retrieval of the debt was not the best method. By pursuing Ms. Gray off a ‘tip’ the fund backfired and the company incurred a lot of fees that might not of occurred if the pursue was planned correctly. The process of pursuing the money was neglected, fault number three in the Business Judgment rule. Employment Discrimination The accounting manager for Dracca overseeing the BB account, Martin Long had his pay and responsibilities decreased by Accounting Director Mary Smith. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was developed to help employees against discrimination of age, sex, race, gender, national origin, disability, and religion (Bagley Savage, 2009 p.466). In Martin Long’s case he left the company because Ms. Smith’s visual and vocal opinions. The opinions turned into harassment and eventually Long left the Firm. By vocalizing and placing visual signs Ms. Smith was creating a harsh work environment for employees. Long will be able to sue Dracca for employment discrimination and argue constructive discharge because there must be evidence of unpleasant working condition that it forces the employee to resign and the employer has not taken care of the complaint within 15 days of being informed of the issues. The harassment must be worse than Title VII (Runkel, n.d.). Dracca is responsible for Ms. Smith’s actions/discrimination against Long. Kate was fired after reporting to the EEOC the harassment from Ms. Smith. Kate should not of been fired for reporting the discrimination. Due to Dracca’s action upon firing Kate, the company seems to approve of Ms. Smith’s actions. The EEOC Compliance Manual states that the person filing the complaint is â€Å"protected against retaliation by a respondent for participating in the statutory complaint proceedings even if that complaint involved a different covered entity† (Igasaki, 1998). From the EEOC, Dracca would be held liable for Hernandez’s actions within the court system. Hernandez violated the EEOC Title VII discriminatory actions. The Title VII makes two theories clear to businesses. 1. The theory of disparate treatment and 2. The theory of disparate impact. Disparate treatment means that the plaintiff has to prove that the employer intentionally discriminated against him/her denying a benefit of employment (Bagley Savage, 2009 p.471). Disparate impact is when employers make employment decisions based on selection, making employers complete test and evaluations. BFOQ stands for Bona Fide Occupational that an employer must prove that the type of person is not able to perform the job position. In this case, women with children were hired in order to sell the product. Dracca would have to prove that men were not able to perform the job. The BFOQ cannot be used as a defense when there is a preferred gender within the company. The following also apply. Usually BFOQ is not based on color and gender will not qualify when the 1. â€Å"Assumptions of the comparative employment characteristics of women in general, 2. Stereotyped characteristics of the sexes, and 3. The preferences of coworkers, employers or customers for one gender or the other (Bagley Savage, 2009 p. 485). Conclusion After reviewing the case, I recommend the following 1. Dracca hire new board members with a focus on the business, and not a focus on money. The Board of Directors should be compiled of people that are business savvy and care about the firm and about the financials in a legal and ethical manner. By the Board leaning on a tip and not fact, the business incurred a lot of debt that could have been spent somewhere else within the firm. 2. Dracca should have a firmer hiring process where the prospects are asked to observe and manage for a day, or write out a list of goals, or how to hire people for certain positions. This could show some speculation to discrimination. Also, Dracca should be stricter on company policy regarding religion, politics, and harassment. If need be the company can have classes on what is and is not harassment within the workplace. In this case, it seems that Dracca turned a blind eye on Mr. Long. References Bagley, Savage (2009 Feb. 5). Managers and the Legal Environment: Strategies for the 21st Century, Retrieved from: http://online.vitalsource.com/books/1111439885/S3.2/25 Igasaki, P., (1998), The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC Directives Transmittal, Retrieved from: http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/retal.htm Runkel, R. (n.d.), Constructive Discharge #9, Law Memo: First in Employment Law. Retrieved from: http://www.lawmemo.com/101/2005/12/constructive_di.html

Competition among airlines: Air Mauritius

Competition among airlines: Air Mauritius CHAPTER 1 1.0 Introduction The Air Mauritius was created in the year 1967 which helped connecting our small island to the rest of the world. The company now has direct flights throughout Africa, Australia, Asia and Europe which sums up to around 20 regional and international destinations (Air Mauritius, 2013). Voted best Airline in the Indian Ocean (according to the World Travel Awards, 2013), the company represents Mauritius and is the only airline company of the country till date, hence its flag carrier. The latter boasts to give unique, high quality services and a special attention to its customers (Air Mauritius, 2013). According to its Annual Report 2012/2013, the company currently has 2,340 employees, 12 aircrafts in their fleet serving 19 destinations. Having had a turnover of EUR 450 Million, Air Mauritius offered 1.8 Million seats but carried only 1.3 Million passengers and had only 10,080 number of flights during the 2012-2013 period (Air Mauritius Annual Report 2012-2013). These statistics show that 500,000 seats remained unsold which might be due to the recession affecting our main tourist market; Europe. However, Air Mauritius has slowly recovered from major losses in the previous years. In the 2011-2012 period, the company accounted for a net loss of EUR 29.4 Million but for the current period of 2012-2013, there was only a net loss of EUR 2.5 Million (Air Mauritius Annual Report 2012-2013). Making losses is always bad for business but the recovery was amazing and we hope to see more of it in the upcoming years. Even though Air Mauritius recovered from losses, the company was not able to match the sales and revenue of previous years which proves the fact that the company is losing some of its customers. The company is partly owned by the government with 51% shares and 41% going to the shareholders. They all have a major role to play in order to protect the national flag carrier from stiff competition and the current economic crisis. It is very crucial for Air Mauritius to preserve its customers and attract new markets because the tourism industry heavily depends on it. The tourism industry is the main revenue generating industry in Mauritius and by being the only flag carrier; Air Mauritius plays an important role in the success of this economic pillar. Most of the tourists come to the island by air and we all want them to use Air Mauritius instead of coming through our fierce competitors like Air France, British Airways and Emirates. Air Mauritius is currently negotiating with Air France for a strategic partnership since the negotiations have failed with Emirates (BusinessMega.mu, 2013). Now that the company is focusing more on the Asian market, Air Mauritius is developing new strategies to increase the capacity of passengers to and from China, Singapore and Kuala Lampur (CAPA, 2013). The company also increased the frequency of flights mainly to China and India in order to attract tourists from the current profitable target market of the tourism industry. In February 2013, the government of Mauritius and the Republic of Maldives have both signed a bilateral agreement which aims to target the Chinese market, especially with destinations like Beijing and Hong Kong where both the Air Mauritius and Mega Maldives Airlines will offer direct services (Gov.mu, 2013). In mid-2012, Air Mauritius has formed a codeshare partnership with Air Austral which has had some financial difficulties just likes our own flag carrier. Th e codeshare partnership helped to restoring the Mauritius-Perth route several times per week (CAPA, 2013). Both Air Mauritius and Air Austral agree that Australia is a great potential destination for growth. A flag carrier is very important for countries that have it. It represents the image of the country but most importantly, it provides preferential rights, privileges and facilitates certain agreements with other countries. The government of Mauritius has recently decided to go towards an open sky policy for its flag carrier instead of sticking with the old limited sky policy. They are trying to imitate Emirates which has its success thanks to the open sky policy (Hough, 2013). This will prove to be successful for Mauritius only when sales at Air Mauritius are boosted again and there are more tourist arrivals. The local government has a forecast of 1 million tourist arrivals for the current year of 2013, which represents an increase of about 2.5% compared to last year (BusinessMega.mu, 2013). However this will not be possible without the help of Air Mauritius since most of these tourists will rely on air travel to come here and they may opt for other rival airline companies because of flight prices. Air Mauritius plays a major role in the economy of Mauritius and helped the tourism industry grow throughout its operational years and this is still an on-going process despite the company is suffering an economic turmoil (Prayag, 2007). The company’s fleet consists only of Airbus aircraft fitted with modern equipment and is it approved by the European Aviation Safety Agency. On-board the Air Mauritius, there are many services like the inflight entertainment, meals, duty free sales and magazines. The on-board menu consists mainly of the Mauritian cuisine but draws its inspiration from all around the world offering Asian, Indian and European flavours. The company also has certain strict no-pork and no-beef policies and even have special meals for needy people, like the diabetic meal for example (Air Mauritius, 2013). On its official website, the company describes the various types of meals that it can offer to its passengers. Some of these are the vegan meals, vegetarian meals, kosher meals, low-fat meals, child meals, baby meals and much more. This is quite an interesting strategy to satisfy customers and make them feel that they are well taken care of at Air Mauritius. Furthermore, the on-board entertainment includes popular Hollywood and Bollywood movies and documentaries to watch. There are various types of music to listen to and there are also some games for avid gamers or children. There exist two classes of travel with Air Mauritius; the Economy class and the Business class. In the economy class, the company boasts to have large passenger space with a 79cm pitch which provides a comfortable and relaxing flight experience (Air Mauritius, 2013). It is not an important factor which customers are concerned about but it is good to know that the economy class has a seating configuration of 2-4-2 layout with two final rows of 2-3-2 for a total of 265 economy seats (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2010). This setting is mainly for the Airbus A340E and of course there are certain various depending on the model of the aircraft. Seating arrangements in the business class have recently been upgraded with new lie-flat seats on the Airbus A340 and A330 (Air Mauritius, 2013). These seats provide the passengers with some privacy and better comfort than the previous ones. They are large enough to accommodate any type of person. Its functions are well in grasp of the passenger thank s to a remote control. The lie-flat seats also come with a massage option. Air Mauritius offers different flight check-in options for its customers. One may check in online on their official website and at the Sir Seewosagur International Airport or at various other airports like the Paris Charles de Gaulle, London Heathrow, Beijing Capital International Airport and much more. They also have a premium check-in reserved for business class passengers available at every airport. On its website, the company offers adequate accurate information about the check-in process and offers even FAQs to help out lost customers. These customers will also get help from Air Mauritius staff either at the head office found in Port Louis or at the SSR International Airport whenever they feel the need to. The Amà ©dà ©e Maingard Lounge is the principal lounge of Air Mauritius at the airport terminal. The lounge offers assistance from staff, books magazines, TV, business centre with computers, WIFI, children’s play area, and a bar buffet area offering a wide array of food and beverages. Surely, all these come at a price. Business class passengers and Kestrelflyer Elite members have free access to the lounge. However an economic class passenger may get access as well depending on availability and at some prices. Normally an adult will pay MUR 2000, MUR 1000 for a child and free access for an infant (Air Mauritius, 2013). But these tariffs are subject to change anytime. Recently, the SSR International Airport underwent major upgrades and introduced its new terminal which came into operation on 12 September 2013. The new terminal consists of three levels where the ground level where domestic arrivals and departures are taken care of. Then, level 1, where the Air Mauritius Lounge is situation alongside check-in counters and finally level 2, where international arrivals are taken care of. The Air Mauritius has been waiting for this upgrade eagerly and expects to increase customer satisfaction through a newer servicescape (Air Mauritius, 2013). With all these said, Air Mauritius expects to increase its number of customers while retaining the current ones and start making more profit again, in the years to come. One of the biggest advantages of travelling with Air Mauritius is that the company holds a perfect flight safety record and is the safest company to fly with in the Indian Ocean (World Travel Awards, 2013). This perfect record contributed into our flag carrier winning the Indian Ocean’s Leading Airline Award for 9 consecutive years. The record suggests that an Air Mauritius plane never crashed or killed anyone on-board due to safety issues. However, some planes experienced some technical faults whether in flight or on ground which also lead to delays in departure or arrivals. Just recently, in October 2013, the MK 034 flight had some major technical issues when leaving Plaisance for Paris. Only ten minutes after taking off, one of the engines blew out and caught fire mid-air causing the plane to lose speed and altitude. The pilot informed the passengers about the incident and decided to drop fuel at sea in order to be able to land back at the SSR International Airport. The pro cess took hours but MK 034 landed safely with panicked passengers. The plane was then grounded for repairs and replaced by another one to get the passengers to destination, Paris. It all occurred between 22h50 and 02h22 which caused a huge delay and a series of other flight delays the coming days because of a grounded aircraft (L’express.mu, 2013). These technical issues occur with almost every airline company in the world. The positive point for Air Mauritius here is that the pilot was able to get the passengers back on land safely. 1.1 Problem Statement Air Mauritius holds a strong leading position in Africa among the competition, however many airlines have surpassed the company, globally speaking (Prayag, 2007). Nowadays, we have companies like the Emirates, Air France, British Airways, Etihad Airways, Air Seychelles, Condor, Thomas Cook and Lufthansa who have become great examples of successful airlines which are currently in direct competition with Air Mauritius (Business Excellence, 2013). They started small-time somewhere, just like the Air Mauritius but are now leaders of the skies ahead of our flag carrier. However, the company is going to show that it is still a competitor to look out for among its competitors since Air Mauritius is planning to increase flight frequencies of certain destinations like Johannesburg and Beijing which will help reinforcing their connectivity across the globe. Since Europe has been affected by the economic crisis lately, the numbers of tourist’s arrivals have largely decreased. This is why the government of Mauritius has decided to re-orient the tourism industry towards a new market in order to increase demand. That new market is no other than Asia, targeting most precisely India and China. Thanks to this change, we can now clearly see why the Air Mauritius has increased flight frequencies towards these destinations and is constantly bombarding the general population with promotional packages to Beijing, Hong Kong or Mumbai. The â€Å"limited sky policy† and â€Å"no charter flights† helped boosting sales of the company in the past but recently in order to increase tourist arrivals and due to stiff competition, the local government is considering an â€Å"open sky policy† for a better future of the economy of the island (Prayag, 2007). This is being implemented because the government aims to boost touristâ€℠¢s arrivals and expects millions of tourist arrivals every year. If this proves to be a successful step, the main economic pillar of the island; the tourism industry, will prosper and eventually increase the revenue of the country. Having an excellent customer satisfaction is a great asset for an airline company as it will help with customer retention and the company will keep on achieving its primary goal; that is, making profit. But it seems that the Air Mauritius has not been able to satisfy all the customers lately. According to a reliable website that provides real customer reviews and much more information about airlines, Skytrax.com 2013, the service at Air Mauritius has worsened. Customers are complaining about poor food quality, rude on-board staff, uncomfortable seats, boring entertainment and the fact that the company is still using old aircraft with old technology while every other airline are investing on newer planes. These comments affect service quality and perception of customers in a negative way. Word of mouth may worsen the case and people will tend to think twice before buying a ticket at the Air Mauritius in the near future. Of course, whether they are true or not, these are just statement s and it is my duty to carry out this research in order to find out what is really happening about the service given to customers at the Air Mauritius. In today’s competitive airline environment, the on-board services of an airline are one of the aspects that customers lookout for before purchasing an airline ticket (Namukasa, 2013). Having poor inflight services will push these customers away from the airline company and they will tend to opt for another rival company. This is why the level of service quality must stay high at all times for an airline company or else it will not survive the stiff competition (Archana and Subha, 2012). There have been so many studies which examine the influence of airline service quality on passenger satisfaction and loyalty, for example, Archana and Subha (2012) in India, Huang (2009) in Taiwan and Munusamy et al. (2011) Malaysia but none for Mauritius, this is why this study is important. Aims and Objectives of the study The principal aim of this case study is to analyse how service quality has a major influence on passenger satisfaction and loyalty specifically at the Air Mauritius. This will be done by carrying out several in-depth data analysis and the collection of customer feedback as well. The study will help to identify areas where customer expectations are not being met at Air Mauritius and find recommendations to tackle these flaws. The specific objectives are: To understand the importance of Air Mauritius for the Mauritian economy. To examine the relationship between pre-flight service quality and passenger satisfaction together with passenger loyalty. To analyse the relationship between in-flight service quality and passenger satisfaction together with passenger loyalty. To assess the relationship between post-flight service quality and passenger satisfaction alongside passenger loyalty. To assess whether airline service quality has an impact on passenger satisfaction and loyalty and what are the positive and negative impacts, if any. To make recommendations, based on the results of the study. Outline of study Chapter 1 introduces the subject matter including the tourism industry, the airline industry and the airline company involved in this research. It also describes the economy of Mauritius and how dependant the island is on its flag carrier for the survival of the tourism industry which is the main source of income for the country. The aims and objectives of this researched are also given in this introductory chapter. Chapter 2 is the bulkiest of all and lays the foundations of this research with definitions, empirical studies and examples from other studies. It covers service quality in the tourism industry and in airline companies and describes the instrument used for this study. This chapter also defines the service quality in pre-flight, in-flight and post-flight services related to customer loyalty and satisfaction. Chapter 3 gives enough detail about the methodology used for this research and how the sample size, the questionnaire and the whole research was designed. Chapter 4 lays emphasis on the results of the survey carried out, together with appropriate discussions to interpret these results. This chapter makes good use of charts and tables to interpret the results of the study. Chapter 5 is the final chapter of this research and is all about the conclusions and recommendations of the study. It proposes different approaches that Air Mauritius might take in order to improve its services and attract more customers. This chapter also includes the recommendations made by the survey participants and also depicts the survey limitations and what can be done in future researches in order to tackle these limitations.

Living With Different Customs, Practices, and Values Essay -- Immigrat

Living With Different Customs, Practices, and Values One of the greatest aspects of people from anywhere in the world is culture. Customs, practices, and values are all apart of culture that identify who we are as a person and where we come from. Being a stranger in a strange land has its basis of showing where you have come from and what your cultural backgrounds are. It is just as important to express the culture from where you have come from as it is to practice the culture to where you have immigrated. It is 1988 and it is time to say to goodbye to all my friends in Russia. The long and awaited day has come for me when I would be immigrating to America. The different customs, the different language, the different practices, and values are amongst the major differences that I was so worried about yet so anxious to experience. Upon my arrival to the United States it was like nothing I have ever seen before. There really wasn’t much of this middle men in education where a student would just do â€Å" average â€Å" in school. It was basically all or nothing. Life was very difficult to come by for most people. Even though some people such as my mom’s parents were both doctors the average starting salary for them would be around $1,500 dollars a year. And most prices were the same as they are in America. However education in Russia even through college was free. However it was very difficult to be accepted to a fine state college. Only the richest people were able to af ford to purchase a car and those people were considered to be the richest of the rich being well of. Going into business was what made many very successful in life however it was very risky. Many times what is known as the Russian Mafia would come into business and d... ...rought up with. Through Randal Bass’s essay, and my own personal experience I have realized that all people are different than others. Especially myself who has immigrated to a foreign country. Each person has his/her own values, customs, practices, and way of life. According to Randal Bass, although language barrier can be a great problem it should never let any one not be able to live their own life. The English language can have several meanings to certain words and people have to work with each other to be able to understand each other. America is all about working hard and striving to achieve. It is a place of freedom and opportunity and that should not be taken away from any person. Works Cited: Bray Randall. â€Å" Borders as Barriers: Otherness and Difference, â€Å" Bordertexts: Cultural Readings for Contemporary Writers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.

The Yellow Wallpaper -- essays research papers

The Yellow Wallpaper   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the short story 'The Yellow Wallpaper'; by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator and her husband move to a colonial mansion for three months in order to help the narrator get better. She moves upstairs in this horrid room with yellow wallpaper. Throughout the story she studies the wallpaper because she isn't allowed out of the room that much because her husband, John, a physician, says that it is best that she stays inside. As she learns more about the wallpaper she realizes that she sees a woman inside it and she spends a lot of time plotting how to free the woman. She locks her room and tears off most of the wallpaper and frees the woman. At the end John comes into the room, sees what she has done and faints. Everyone deals with their personal obstacles differently and 'The Yellow Wallpaper'; is a perfect example because there are many different obstacles throughout the story. The narrator and John both handle them differently and a result of which, is an essential change by both of them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First of all, John handles everything to an extent but he doesn't solve the problem at hand. He tends to run away from it. For example, when the narrator asks, 'why the house had stood so long untenanted,'; he just laughs at her and doesn't even investigate about it, which proves that he just let it go and does nothing about it. And that is what he does throughout the whole story. Also he 'scoffs openly at any talk.'; This means that he doesn't talk about his problems and he would prefer to keep things bottled up then to express how he is really feeling. He is also always 'going into town for more serious cases.'; This is another way in which John deals with his problems, he runs away from them. He also avoids the actual subject by calling his wife a cute name like, 'bless her little heart,'; and, 'my blessed little goose.'; These quotes just make it so he doesn't have to answer the question and then he has relinquished himself from the situation. Another thing th at he does to handle obstacles is he lies. When the narrator says that she doesn't feel any better, and this happens often, then he just says, 'you are getting better, you are eating more and you have more color today.'; So john handles his obstacles in an inefficient and ineffective matter.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The... ...hing normally, but she is restricted to a limited amount of socialization. This gives her time to analyze her obstacle and overcome it quicker than John does.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Both the narrator and John undergo an essential change. The narrator begins the story as a woman who is somewhat mentally distraught. Throughout the story you can see her become different through her thoughts and actions. By the end of the story she has become clinically insane and is in desperate need for help. John on the other hand does not come to the realization that at the beginning of the story, the narrator has some issues that have to be dealt with and he just ignores them for the most part. Finally at the end of the story he comes to the realization that in fact, his wife is nuts.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In conclusion, everyone experiences obstacles in their life, and all have a different approach in which they attack the obstacle. Some are more effective than others are. The narrator was much more effective than John was because she had time to analyze the problem and then do something about it. Where as John would pretty much just leave it be and hope it eventually went away.

What Is Religion Essay -- essays research papers

What Is Religion What is religion? According to an Oxford dictionary, religion is the belief in the existence of a supernatural ruling power, the creator and controller of the universe, who has given to man a spirtual nature which continues to exist after the death of the body. Religion appears to be a simple idea on the surface, but in reality it is a very complex system of ideas that many base their lives upon. There are many religions in the world. Christianity seems to be the one religion believed widely in the modern world. However, this is not the case in a group of five people in a World Religion class. These five people share common knowledge on several aspects of religion, yet they have some major conflicts. The focus of this paper is to explore the ideas and beliefs of the group, analyze the importance of religions dialogue, and to discuss the challenge of religious pluralism in the contemporary world. The first group member states her firm Christian views. Melissa recognizes all the religions of the world, but she holds Christanity to be the only true religion. To her, Christianity is the only way one person can attain salvation. All other religions are false and those who do not follow Christanity are misguided and will not attain salvation. It is only through Jesus Christ's death on the cross that one can repent, be forgiven, and attain salvation. Melissa feels that others who are non-Christians believe that their religion is true. Afterall everyone is brought up to believe in the faith or religion they are taught. If this was not the case, no one would have any beliefs. Although their religions are not true religions Melissa respects their views of being true. Quite similar to Melissa's opinion, Jason feels that there is only one true religion in the world, which is Christianity. However, he recognizes that there are many other religions in the world in which their followers believe are true. He does not believe that one should criticize others for their beliefs, and that they should respect each person's beliefs even if they are different from his. For Jason, Christianity is the true religion. It is the only religion that he believes Has the right answers for... ...ecially if their views do not necessarily agree with someone else's views. We think trying to understand different religions takes compassion and understanding. Often, people fear the "unknown." So, another way to meet the challenge of religious pluralism is through education. People can learn about different religions and respect the diversity that exists. Further, to help understand a different religion, our group thinks that going to check out different religion services will give people personal experience of that different faith. People do not have to feel they have to accept the other religion, but going to visit another service will broaden their horizons. We believe that if society can respect the religious diversity in the world, the challenge of relgious pluralism can be met. W.C. Smith says it best, "Unless men can learn to understand and to be loyal to each other across religious frontiers, unless we can build a world in which people profoundly of different faiths can live together and work together, then the prospects for our planets future are not bright" ("The Christian in a Religiously Plural World" 11).

Security Analysis & Portfolio Management

1. Introduction Before Fama and French question it, most business schools taught their student CAPM is the means of describing the relationship between expected return and risk in stocks. In 1992, Fama and French hade a study on stock market decision factors of differences between stock returns, they found the beta (sensitivity to the market return) of the CAPM cannot explain all the differences between the stock returns, and the market value, book value ratio, p/e ratio of listed companies can explain the differences between the stock returns.The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) by Sharpe (1964), Lintner (1965), Black (1972), believe that stock returns just relative to the risk of the whole stock market. But in fact, only measures the risk cannot explain all the variation in expect returns, the sensitivity to the market return is more complicated. This article will show the different between Capital Asset Pricing Model and Fama & French Model, and the way to analysis the stock ret urn. 2. Comparison of Value versus Growth Stock 2. 1 Value Stock & Growth StockIn this article, the researchers define the value stock as those stocks that have low ratios of book value to market value, the growth stocks as those that have low ratios of book value to market value. 2. 2 Findings of Value versus Growth Stock on Investing Most investors think the growth stocks can bring a better return, because they think those are good company, and the returns will be high. But the researchers find the growth can bring a better return, the value stocks got a high price by the market, which make their returns be low.In fact, the growth stocks have low ratios of book value to market value, it make the growth stocks get good return. 3. Determinants of stock return Fama and French founding that the market risk factor and the value-growth risk factor can explain average return of this set of large international stocks. The market risk factor is the return on an international market portfol io of stocks, and the value-growth factor is the difference between he return on an international portfolio of high book-to-market stocks and the return on an international portfolio of low book-to-market stocks. 4. Capital Asset Pricing Model vs. Fama & French Model 4. 1 CAMP and Its Importance The CAPM is built on a single measure of risk that explains asset returns. The CAPM helps investors determine how much they will earn by taking into account the risk of investments and the time value of money. With higher risk, the investor will want a higher rate of return for his investment.Although most researcher question CAMP, but this model still used widely in investing. Use beta to forecast single stock is different, but the investors still believe that, when the stocks’ portfolio of beta is small, it means the stock change small than the volatility of the market; when the stocks’ portfolio of beta is large, it means the stock change more than the volatility of the mark et. For the fund managers, this is important, they can use the CAMP, and no matter the market price is rising or falling.When the market price is falling, they can invest the portfolio of beta is low, and vice versa. 4. 2 Fama and French Explanation about Stock Return Compared with the CAMP, Fama and French use more complicated way to explain the stock return. They use three risk factors to design a more perfect model. It often used by the finance professionals to explain the risk and return of equity portfolios. In this model, the beta still is the most important risk factors.The second risk factor is the size, it compare the weighted average market value of stocks in the market. Small stocks have a different activity than big stocks in ever market. In the long run, the big stocks have low returns than small stocks. But this return is not free, the small stock have more risk. The third factor is comparing the amount of value stock exposure in relation to the market. In most compani es, the value stock rend have lower earnings growth rates, higher dividends, and higher book-market value.In the long run, the value have higher return. 4. 3 Implications of the Two Models for Investors This tow models had implications for investors, although the CAPM is not accurate,but it still can help people to get investing idea for the market. First of all, the CAPM thinks the market too simple, it only considers the risk, and there are at least two additional dimensions of risk, no matter it is a domestic or international portfolios of stock, it is get rewarded in average returns.Secondly, another implication is that, it makes the investors believe the value stocks have higher returns than growth stocks in markets around the world. Looking at book-to-market equity, Fama and French found that value stocks outperformed growth stocks in 12 of 13 developed countries from 1975 to 1995, and that the difference between average returns on global portfolios of high and low book-to-mar ket stocks was 7. 6 percent per year. Furthermore, when earnings-to-price, cash flow-to-price and dividend-to-price were examined, the value premium continued to be evident.Conclusion Although the CAPM stills an important mean to describe the relationship between expected return and risk in stocks. But CAPM has some serious flaws, especially with the assumptions of the risk-free rate and the market rate. Investors must consider current market conditions before deciding what numbers to use. Additionally, CAPM ignores taxes and transaction costs, lower returns on higher risk and adequate risk measurement. Fama and French think more about the stock return, this model use more risk factors to analysis the change of the stock price.

Fresh Direct Business Intelligence

Case Summary FreshDirect is the largest online grocery firm in the New York market, and one of the largest in the country. With more than 250,000 customers ordering over 8,500 products every day, the company faced severe logistics and management decision making issues. To solve these issues, FreshDirect adopted a comprehensive enterprise data base system from SAP which utilized a number of business intelligence applications to track orders and customers. SAP AG is a German  multinational  software  corporation that makes  enterprise software  to manage business operations and customer relations.Headquartered in  Walldorf, Baden-Wurttemberg, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software. The company's best-known software products are its enterprise resource planning application (SAP ERP), its enterprise data warehouse solution – SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW), SAP BusinessObjects software, and most recently, Syb ase mobile products and in-memory computing appliance  SAP HANA. SAP is one of the  largest software companies  in the world. 1.How is it possible, as Braddock noted, to have a great deal of data but little information? How does the SAP data base and business intelligence component change this? Answer: ‘To have a great deal of data but little information’ is only possible when there is a lot of data but none of it is sorted or organized properly. If we distinguish between ‘data’ and ‘information then we’ll see that; Data is raw, unorganized facts that need to be processed. Data can be something simple and seemingly random and useless until it is organized.Whereas when data is processed, organized, structured  or presented in a given context so as to make it useful, it is called Information. FreshDirect has to deal with thousands of customers, their order, delivery time and place and the required human resource for the business to run. B ut this required huge amount of data collection in a very organized way, which they lacked. While the end goal was to deliver fresh food to thousands of customers everyday on schedule, the exact location of orders at any moment was not understood, or who was in charge of them.Mistakes were happening routinely, but there was no record of how orders were moving through the logistics chain. Mr. Braddock knew that FreshDirect needed a system of continuous feedback, a real-time database that would follow every step and misstep of each business day, so that minor gaffes could be resolved before they turned into big problems. SAP ERP  is the corporation's  Enterprise Resource Planning, an integrated software solution that incorporates the key business functions of the organization.Enterprise resource planning  (ERP) systems integrate internal and external  management information  across an entire organization, embracing  finance/accounting,  manufacturing, sales and service,à ‚  customer relationship management, etc. ERP systems automate this activity with an integrated  software  application. The purpose of ERP is to facilitate the flow of information between all business functions inside the boundaries of the organization and manage the connections to outside stakeholders.Today, if a truck goes out 15 minutes late or if a container of jalapeno hummus is left off an order, the problem can be traced to its source. Also, the real-time data reports allow FreshDirect to shift its resources to areas of customer demand, beefing up capacity based on the popularity of delivery zones and time slots, anticipating which products might sell out and stocking up on them in advance. Thus by using SAP’s business intelligence software ERP FreshDirect changed their weakness into strength. . What is meant by â€Å"visibility into the workflow† and why is it important to FreshDirect’s success? What are exception screens and how are they used? Answe r: Business process is the set of activities that run the business. Business process visibility allows end users to gather business information to improve non-IT related issues, helps enable fast determination to see if business issues are truly IT-related, ensures that IT is aligned with the business and helps improve overall business efficiency.Business process visibility plays very important role in FreshDirect’s success. It is such type of business organization which required highly efficient workflow with rapid response ensuring best quality. It has to deliver fresh food to thousands of customers daily on a pre-fixed schedule and in different location. As there was no visibility of workflow before lots of mistakes were happening, the exact location of orders at any moment was not understood, or who was in charge of them.Mistakes were happening routinely, but there was no record of how orders were moving through the logistics chain. But after installing a business intelli gence software FreshDirect ensured its visibility in business process. FreshDirect was profitable for the first time in 2008. The key to profitability has been improving their execution of the initial concept. In recent years, they have introduced the following â€Å"customer centric† ideas: 1 Produce: Employed experts to rate the freshness of all produce and set prices accordingly.This reduces customer concerns about not being able to feel the product. 2 Packaging: Eliminated the use of foam, and reduced the number of cardboard boxes by 1. 5 million in response to customer complaints. 3 Favorites: Developed a customer relationship management system that tracks each customer’s past purchases, and presents them on-screen for re-ordering. Increased order size by 10%. 4 Recommender system: Added a YMAL (You-Might-Also-Like) cross-selling tool, which recommends products that other customers purchased. Added 5% to total revenue.Now in control of its logistics, and with powe rful business intelligence tools, FreshDirect increased customer loyalty and reduced its churn rate (the number of customers who leave the service). Currently, 65% of its total customer base are repeat, loyal customers, whose average order size is over $100, and who contribute 80% of FreshDirect revenues. According to a recent SEC filing, in 2011 FreshDirect has raised $50 million in additional equity from outside investors. FreshDirect now has almost 2,000 employees, 250,000 customers, and has delivered more than 6,000,000 orders.

Managing Outbreaks of an Infection Essay

NICE and Department of Health Guidelines NICEandDepartment of Health guidelines set the standards for high quality healthcare. It encourages a healthy lifestyle for people. The NICE and Department of Health guidelines are also used by the NHS, Local Authorities, employers, voluntary groups and anyone else involved in delivering care and promoting wellbeing. The recommendations that are given provide guidance on infection control and taking precautions. These should be applied by all healthcare personnel, and other carers, to the care of patients in all healthcare settings. For example, hands must be washed immediately before each and every episode of direct patient contact or care, and after any activity or contact that could potentially result in hands becoming contaminated. Another example is, when handling and disposing sharp objects. Sharps must not be passed directly from hand to hand and handling should be kept to a minimum. Also needles must not be recapped, bent, broken or opened before use or disposal. This is to ensure that infections do not spread and no one gets hurt with the needles. When it comes to precautions then these guidelines say that precautions should be taken with care. Health care professionals should ensure that these precautions benefit the patients who have TB and also prevent anyone else from getting these ill. For example, isolation nursing. The guideline says that this should be done to prevent anyone else from catching the infection and to stop the infection from spreading. What is Tuberculosis (TB)? Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection that is spread through inhaling tiny droplets from the coughs or sneezes of an infected person.It is a serious condition but can be cured with proper treatment. TB mainly affects the lungs but it can also affect any part of the body, including the bones and nervous system. In some cases the bacteria infect the body but do not cause any symptoms which are known as latent TB. It is called active TB if the bacteria causes symptoms.  A TB infection of the lungs is known as pulmonary TB but TB can occur outside the lungs, which is known as Extrapulmonary TB. What are my Concerns? My concerns are that the TB infection can spread from four patients to more. TB is caused by a type of bacterium called mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB is spread when a person with the TB infection in their lungs coughs or sneezes. Someone else needs to inhale and take in the droplets containing the TB bacteria. To catch it from someone else you would usually have to spend a long period of time in close contact with the infected person for you to catch the infection. For example, TB is more likely to spread between family members who live in the same house. This is because family members are living and are around the infection person mostly. This means they are at more risk of catching the infection. It would be very unlikely for someone to become infected by sitting next to an infected person on a bus. It is my concern that some of my other patients will be able to catch the infection from the four patients who already have TB. This is a concern because we do not want all the patients within our ward being infected with TB. TB is a serious infection. Why I need to prevent an outbreak? I need to prevent this outbreak because TB is an infection which could harm the person who has it. If untreated the patients can become worse. Also we need to prevent it from spreading. This is done to ensure that other people do not catch the infection. Also when one person has the infection then it will keep spreading and everyone in the hospital will be sick. This will be done by isolation. This is when we isolate the patient away from the other patients. This ensures that this infection is not able to spread to anyone else. This means the infection will keep spreading. The bacteria enters our body and once it has entered our body it starts to multiply and because it is a bacterial infection it does not need to attach to another cell to multiply. It is able to multiply on its own. After multiplying it starts to cause mycobacterium infection. Our immune system cannot stop the TB bacteria from growing and spreading after the infection has started to spread into our body. Medication and treatment is then needed for the body to then recover. Preventing an outbreak is important because it can spread and start  to infect other people. If a person is around someone that has been infected then they need to make sure that you stay away from them. This is because the individual is able to catch the infection from affected items and affected people. The NICE guidelines:â€Å"It has long been recognised that people who are sputum microscopy positive from spontaneously expectorated sputum are those cases with the highest infectivity, and pose a risk to household and other close contacts such as workplace contacts. For these reasons, traditionally, patients with pulmonary disease in whom tuberculosis is suspected are isolated in a single room.† Isolation nursing is one way in which an outbreak of infection can be prevented. The Department of Health guidelines:â€Å"This section discusses the evidence and associated recommendations for the use of person al protective equipment by healthcare workers in general care settings, including aprons, gowns, gloves, eye protection and face masks. Where appropriate, in addition to the grade of the evidence underpinning the recommendations, there is an indication of a Health and Safety requirement. The decision to use or wear personal protective equipment must be based upon an assessment of the level of risk associated with a specific patient care activity or intervention and take account of current health and safety legislation.† Using personal and professional equipment is another way in which an outbreak can be prevented. The doctors, nurses and other professionals working in a hospital should make sure that they do everything that prevents the infection from spreading to the workers, all the patients and visitors. Preventing an outbreak is important because we do not want other people getting ill. TB is a serious bacterial infection. Preventing other people from getting it is important. What are the risks and damage of an outbreak on staff, patients, visitors and their families? The risks of this are that staff, patients, visitors and their families are able to catch the TB illness. This is a risk because we will have more patients in the hospital with TB. Once a person is infected with TB bacteria, the chance of developing TB disease is higher if the person; has HIV infection, has been recently infected with TB bacteria (in the last 2 years), has other health problems, like diabetes, that make it hard for the body to fight bacteria, abuses alcohol or uses illegal drugs; or was not treated correctly for TB infection in the past. The damage of  this is that it then damages the individual’s body. This is because they go into getting further illnesses in the future. The department of Health Guidelines: â€Å"The incidence of TB is influenced by risk factors such as exposure to, and susceptibility to, TB and levels of deprivation (poverty, housing, nutrition a nd access to healthcare), and differs in different parts of England and Wales. Where scientific evidence supports it, this guideline makes recommendations on service organisation, as well as for individual teams of healthcare professionals. The guideline aims to focus NHS resources where they will combat the spread of TB, and some sections deal with high- and low-incidence areas separately. The NICE guidelines: â€Å"Anyone exposed to TB bacteria can become infected but people at particular risk are those that are less able to fight infection. Those at risk include: Household and frequent contacts of infectious cases, those who have lived in, travel to or receive visitors from places where TB is still very common, those who live in ethnic minority communities originating from places where TB is very common, those with immune systems weakened by HIV infection, the very young and the elderly, as their immune systems are less robust, those with chronic poor health and nutrition because of lifestyle problems such as homelessness, drug abuse or alcoholism, those living in poor or crowded housing conditions, including those living in hostels. Other conditions that suppress immunity such as renal failure and chemotherapy and diabetes increase the likelihood of reactivation of TB.† What precautions do we need to take? Personal and Professional Equipment is a regulation which protects the person at work from any risk/harm to their health and safety. We need to make sure that we use the right equipment. This will ensure that we are safe. It will also ensure that everything is done well while at work. Wearing/using personal and professional equipment prevents contact with a infectious agent of a bodily fluid that may contact an infectious agent by creating a barrier between the potential infection and then the worker. For example, if we wear a duck mask then it blocks our nose and mouth. These are two portals in which infections can come into a person. That I why blocking these two portals of entry is important so the infection is not able to get into people. If a nurse or doctor does go into the room to then they need to make sure they use personal and professional equipment. This will ensure that they are protected from the infection. The NICE guidelines: â€Å"Healthcare workers caring for people with TB should not use masks, gowns or barrier nursing techniques unless: MDR TB (multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis) is suspected or aerosol-generating procedures are being performed. When such equipment is used, the reason should be explained to the person with TB. The equipment should meet the standards of the Health and Safety Executive which is mentioned in section 9.3.†The Department of Health Guidelines: â€Å"This section discusses the evidence and associated recommendations for the use of personal protective equipment by healthcare workers in general care settings, including aprons, gowns, gloves, eye protection and face masks. Where appropriate, in addition to the grade of the evidence underpinning the recommendations, there is an indication of a Health and Safety requirement. The decision to use or wear personal protective equipment must be based upon an assessment of the level of risk associated with a specific patient care activity or intervention and take account of current health and safety legislation.† Isolation is one more thing which health and social care professionals need to take care of. By isolated patients who have TB is another precaution which needs to be taken. TB is able to spread to other people who do not have TB. That’s why it is important to make sure that we keep the patients who have TB away and isolate them. This needs to be done to ensure that the patient is isolated to prevent illness from spreading. We need to isolate the micro-organism and make sure that the person stays isolated until the TB infection is not treated. The NICE guidelines:â€Å"This isolation has been recommended until three separate sputum tests have been analysed on the patient. If these tests are negative, the patient is usually considered to cause a significantly lower infection risk. They may then be moved from the single room to a shared ward, provided there are no HIV-positive or other patients with major issues on the same ward. If patients are tested positive for tuberculosis, and need to be admitted to hospital, isolation is required until treatment makes the person non-infectious.†The Department of Health Guidelines:â€Å"It is recommended that patients with suspected or confirmed pulmonary TB who are admitted to hospital should remain isolated in a negative pressure room with airborne precautions applied, until discharge criteria are met. In principle these criteria include: a reduction in or  absence of cough, reduced smear burden or smear negativity, assured treatment and an appropriate discharge plan.† Also some other precautions that need to be taking are making sure that everything is clean and looked after. Cleanliness is very important because it prevents infections from spreading. Another precaution which needs to be taken it to make sure that all of the things which the patient with TB has used are disposed and cleaned properly. Also the patients clothes and linen should be washed separately from the other patients linen and clothing. This will ensure that infections do not spread. Taking all of these precautions is important because it ensures that patients, staff and visitors are safe and do not get any infections. The NICE guidelines: â€Å"Linen, Waste and Cleaning for bed linen, books, crockery or washing up facilities should be washed separately. Disposal of infected material should be as clinical waste per hospital policy. Rooms should be cleaned as normal/regularly and a normal full clean after discharge. Extra cleaning is unnecessary.† The department of Health Guidelines: â€Å"There are three levels of TB infection control: Administrative (managerial) control measures/ work place policy, environmental control measures, and personal protective equipment (respiratory protection). Administrative control measures are the most important since environmental control measures and personal protective equipment (respiratory protection) will not work in the absence of solid administrative control measures. Each level operates at a different point in the transmission process: administrative control measures reduce HCW and patient exposure; environmental control measures reduce the concentration of infectious droplet nuclei, personal protective devices (respiratory protection) protect HCWs in areas where the concentration of droplet nuclei cannot be adequately reduced by Administrative and environmental control measures.† How would we educate staff, visitors and patients? Education is vital for people. If we educate staff, visitors and patients about TB then they would be more aware of what TB is, how it affects the body and how to prevent yourself from getting TB. We could do this through putting up posters around the ward and hospital. We could also make leaflets and hand them out to patients and visitors around the hospital. Also doctors and  nurses could speak to family members and friends and tell them about TB. Doing all of this will make people more aware of TB and the risks of it.The Department of Health Guidelines: â€Å"It is recommended that service providers aim to improve awareness of TB among the public, the professions and local authority agencies. Experience suggests that targeted campaigns tailored to the local population work better than national campaigns. Examples include: keeping local GPs informed about local TB services and reminding them of the importance of screening new entrants on arrival and on an ongoing basis. Keeping GPs aware of prompt referral systems. Resourcing TB services adequately so that they are not only involved in teaching clinical colleagues, but also in raising awareness of TB, particularly among high-risk groups; and informing clinicians of peer group networks and encouraging them to seek advice on treatment where appropriate. The NICE guidelines:â€Å"During the development of the guideline, patient and carer representatives on the GDG highlighted these suggestions: a single national source of high-quality TB information in relevant languages, and formats for vision- or hearing-impaired people. TB services to assess local language and other communication needs, and accordingly make information from the national source available locally. Clear discussion between healthcare professionals, people with (or at risk from) TB and their carers about tests, treatment, contact tracing and infection control measures, to enable understanding. People with both HIV and TB to be provided with information about the different specialties who may provide care during and after their treatment for TB. Contact tracing explained and handled sensitively to avoid misunderstanding and stigma. Information set out so as not to medicalise the patient. TB services providing each patient completing anti-tuberculosis treatment with clear ‘inform and advise’ information.† D1: ASSESS HOW THE SUGGESTED MEASURES TO MANAGE AN OUTBREAK OF INFECTION MEET LEGAL REQUIREMENTS AND GUIDELINES OF THE PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF INFECTION IN A HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE SETTING One of the measures that we will use to prevent the outbreak of TB is by using personal and professional equipment. By usingpersonalandprofessionalequipmentit ensures that we are safe. It makes sure that we are trying our best to prevent ourselves from getting any infections. Doing this is important because we need to make sure that the bacterial infection does not get into us.Personal and Professional Equipment  protects a person in hospital from any risk/harm to their health and safety. We need to make sure that we use the right equipment to ensure that we are safe. Wearing/using personal and professional equipment prevents contact with an infectious agent of a bodily fluid that may contact an infectious agent by creating a barrier between the potential infection and then the worker. The NICE guidelines say about Personal and Professional Equipment: â€Å"Healthcare workers caring for people with TB should not use masks, gowns or barrier nursing techniques unless: MDR TB (multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis) is suspected or aerosol-generating procedures are being performed. When such equipment is used, the reason should be explained to the person with TB.†The Department of Health Guidelines say about Personal and Professional Equipment: â€Å"This section discusses the evidence and associated recommendations for the use of personal protective equipment by healthcare workers in general care settings, including aprons, gowns, gloves, eye protection and face masks . The decision to use or wear personal protective equipment must be based upon an assessment of the level of risk associated with a specific patient care activity or intervention and take account of current health and safety legislation.† The strengths of this measure are that by using personal and professional equipment it protects the person at work or visitors from any risk/harm to their health and safety. We need to make sure we use the right equipment. PPE prevents contact with a infectious agent or a bodily fluid that may contact an infectious agent by creating a barrier between the potential infection and the worker. This is important because it prevent the infection from getting into other people. We need to make sure that we prevent the infection from getting to anyone else. It ensures people are safe. Also teaching this to people who do not know e.g. visitors and family members of the patient is also important. This gives them an understanding of how serious the illness is and what should be done to prevent it. It makes them more aware and next time if someone else they know catches TB then they will know what personal and professional equipment to use and the important of them. A weakness of this is that sometimes people might forget to use them. They might go into the patient’s isolated room and not realise that they have forgot to put on equipment. This is a weakness because if people forget to put on protective equipment then they are more likely of catching the TB infection. Also when visitors come into  the hospital then they might not know that they have to use personal and protective equipment, especially children. The nurses or doctors need to make sure that they are there at the ward and are telling visitors about the importance of personal protective equipment. This is another weakness. This is because nurses and doctors might be busy with many other patients within the hospital. They might not always be there to tell the visitors. Meanwhile the visitors might go into the isolation room without realising. Isolation is one more thing which health and social care professionals need to take care of. By isolated patients who have TB is anothe r precaution which needs to be taken. TB is able to spread to other people who do not have TB. That’s why it is important to make sure that we keep the patients who have TB away and isolate them. This needs to be done to ensure that the patient is isolated to prevent illness from spreading. We need to isolate the micro-organism and make sure that the person stays isolated until the TB infection is not treated. The NICE guidelines say about Isolation:â€Å"This isolation has been recommended until three separate sputum tests have been analysed on the patient. If these tests are negative, the patient is usually considered to cause a significantly lower infection risk. They may then be moved from the single room to a shared ward, provided there are no patients with major issues on the same ward. If patients are tested positive for tuberculosis, and need to be admitted to hospital, isolation is required until treatment makes the person non-infectious.†The Department of Health Guidelines say:â€Å"It is recommended that patients with suspected or confirmed TB who are admitted to hospital should remain isolated in a negative pressure room with airborne precautions applied, until discharge criteria are met. In principle these criteria include: a reduction in or absence of cough, reduced smear burden or smear negativity, assured treatment and an appropriate discharge plan.† Strengths of isolation are that it protects the patient from getting any other infection from other people. Isolation nursing also protects staff, visitors and families/friends that have come into the hospital. This is very important because the patients are protected from getting any other illnesses which will make their TB. Also another benefit of isolation is that it gives time for the patient to recover. The patient is alone and isolated which lets them rest and recovery time. This is important for the patient. On the other hand if they were on a shared  ward with other patients then they might not get time to rest and also with visitors as well. Weaknesses of isolation are that the patients might feel socially and emotionally isolated. This is not good for them. They might not like the fact that they are isolated and could feel restricted. This could then lead to them refusing to go into isolation. It is important that they go into isolation because if they don’t then it leads to their infection getting worse as their body is vulnerable and could catch other illnesses. Also they could infect other people with their illnesses which then make them ill. It might make the people isolated moody and depressed. This is not good for them. The aim of isolation nursing is to isolate the micro-organism and not the patient even though the patient is still being isolated. Also some other precautions that need to be taking are making sure that everything is clean and looked after. Cleanliness is very important because it prevents infections from spreading. Another precaution which needs to be taken it to make sure that all of the things which the patient with TB has used are disposed and cleaned properly. Also the patients clothes and linen should be washed separately from the other patients linen and clothing. This will ensure that infections do not spread. Taking all of these precautions is important because it ensures that patients, staff and visitors are safe and do not get any infections. The NICE guidelines say: â€Å"Linen, Waste and Cleaning for bed linen, books, crockery or washing up facilities should be washed separately. Disposal of infected material should be as clinical waste per hospital policy. Rooms should be cleaned as normal/regularly and a normal full clean after discharge. Extra cleaning is unnecessary.† The department of Health Guidelines say: â€Å"There are three levels of TB infection control: Administrative (managerial) control measures/ work place policy, environmental control measures, and personal protective equipment (respiratory protection). Administrative control measures are the most important since environmental control measures and personal protective equipment (respiratory protection) will not work in the absence of solid administrative control measures. Each level operates at a different point in the transmission process: administrative control measures reduce HCW and patient exposure; environmental control measures reduce the concentration of infectious droplet nuclei, personal protective devices (respiratory  protection) protect HCWs in areas where the concentration of droplet nuclei cannot be adequately reduced by Administrative and environmental control measures.†