Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Medical Education Essay

Working together as an interdisciplinary team, many highly trained health professionals besides medical practitioners are involved in the delivery of modern health care. Examples include: nurses, emergency medical technicians and paramedics, laboratory scientists, pharmacists, physician assistants, podiatrists physiotherapists, respiratory therapists,speech therapists, occupational therapists, radiographers, dietitians, and bioengineers. The scope and sciences underpinning human medicine overlap many other fields. Dentistry, while considered by some a separate discipline from medicine, is a medical field. A patient admitted to hospital is usually under the care of a specific team based on their main presenting problem, e.g., the Cardiology team, who then may interact with other specialties, e.g., surgical, radiology, to help diagnose or treat the main problem or any subsequent complications/developments. Physicians have many specializations and subspecializations into certain branches of medicine, which are listed below. There are variations from country to country regarding which specialties certain subspecialties are in. The main branches of medicine are: ââ€" ª Basic sciences of medicine; this is what every physician is educated in, and some return to in biomedical research. ââ€" ª Medical specialties ââ€" ª Interdisciplinary fields, where different medical specialties are mixed to function in certain occasions. [pic] ââ€" ª Anatomy is the study of the physical structure of organisms. In contrast to macroscopic or gross anatomy, cytology and histology are concerned with microscopic structures. ââ€" ª Biochemistry is the study of the chemistry taking place in living organisms, especially the structure and function of their chemical components. ââ€" ª Biomechanics is the study of the structure and function of biological systems by means of the methods of Mechanics. ââ€" ª Biostatistics is the application of statistics to biological fields in the broadest sense. A knowledge of biostatistics is essential in the planning, evaluation, and interpretation of medical research. It is also fundamental to epidemiology and evidence-based medicine. ââ€" ª Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that uses the methods of physics and physical chemistry to study biological systems. ââ€" ª Cytology is the microscopic study of individual cells. ââ€" ª Embryology is the study of the early development of organisms. ââ€" ª Endocrinology is the study of hormones and their effect throughout the body of animals. ââ€" ª Epidemiology is the study of the demographics of disease processes, and includes, but is not limited to, the study of epidemics. ââ€" ª Genetics is the study of genes, and their role in biological inheritance. ââ€" ª Histology is the study of the structures of biological tissues by light microscopy, electron microscopy and immunohistochemistry. ââ€" ª Immunology is the study of the immune system, which includes the innate and adaptive immune system in humans, for example. ââ€" ª Medical physics is the study of the applications of physics principles in medicine. ââ€" ª Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, including protozoa, bacteria, fungi, and viruses. ââ€" ª Molecular biology is the study of molecular underpinnings of the process of replication, transcription and translation of the genetic material. ââ€" ª Neuroscience includes those disciplines of science that are related to the study of the nervous system. A main focus of neuroscience is the biology and physiology of the human brain and spinal cord. Some related clinical specialties include neurology, neurosurgery andpsychiatry. ââ€" ª Nutrition science (theoretical focus) and dietetics (practical focus) is the study of the relationship of food and drink to health and disease, especially in determining an optimal diet. Medical nutrition therapy is done by dietitians and is prescribed for diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, weight and eating disorders, allergies, malnutrition, and neoplastic diseases. ââ€" ª Pathology as a science is the study of disease—the causes, course, progression and resolution thereof. [pic] Ever wonder why physics is important in the field of medicine? Well, there are numerous reasons why it is very vital to this field. One reason is â€Å"medical physics†, it is one of the branches of physics. Medical physics is a branch of applied physics concerning the application ofphysics to medicine. It generally concerns physics as applied to medical imaging and radiotherapy. And what is medical imaging? Medical imaging refers to the techniques and processes used to create images of the human body (or parts thereof) for clinical purposes (medical procedures seeking to reveal,diagnose or examine disease) or medical science (including the study of normal anatomy and function. Under this are the following: – An MRI scan – Diagnostic radiology, including x-rays, fluoroscopy, mammography, Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, angiography and Computed tomography – Ultrasound, including intravascular ultrasound – Non-ionising radiation (Lasers, Ultraviolet etc.) – Nuclear medicine, including SPECT and positron emission tomography (PET) – Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and other methods for functional neuroimaging of the brain. For example, nuclear magnetic resonance (often referred to as magnetic resonance imaging to avoid the common concerns about radiation), uses the phenomenon of nuclear resonance to image the human body. – Magnetoencephalography – Electrical impedance tomography – Diffuse optical imaging – Optical coherence tomography Through Physics we nurses are able to treat diseases. Treatment of disease: – Defibrillation – High intensity focussed ultrasound, including lithotripsy – Interventional radiology – Non-ionising radiation Lasers, Ultraviolet etc. including photodynamic therapyand LASIK – Nuclear medicine, including unsealed source radiotherapy – Photomedicine, the use of light to treat and diagnose disease – Radiotherapy – Sealed source radiotherapy – Terahertz radiation Through physics we are also able to understand the part of the body especially the brain. ECG trace Used to monitor and measure various physiological parameters. Many physiological measurement techniques are non-invasive and can be used in conjunction with, or as an alternative to, other invasive methods. – Electrocardiography – Electromyography – Electroencephalography – Electronystagmography – Endoscopy – Medical ultrasonography – Non-ionising radiation (Lasers, Ultraviolet etc.) – Near infrared spectroscopy -Pulse oximetry Blood gas monitor Blood pressure measurement You see Physics is a great help in the field of medicine without it, we are not able to enjoy what we are enjoying in terms of treating our diseases. Chemistry is a huge part of medicine, not only do you need an understanding of it to become a doctor, but it is also both a diagnostic and treatment tool. The importance of chemistry lies in developing and testing new medical treatments and medicines. Without it doctors would not understand how vitamins, supplements, and drugs can help or harm you. Chemistry departments in hospital medical labs play an important and valuable role. Analyzing substances such as blood and urine, for proteins, sugars and other metabolic and inorganic substances. They are able to look for problems such as diabetes, therefore offering an early prognosis and cure to potentially life threatening diseases. Medical Technology extends and improves life. It alleviates pain, injury and handicap. Its role in healthcare is essential. Incessant medical technology innovation enhances the quality and effectiveness of care. Billions of patients worldwide depend on medical technology at home, at the doctor’s, at hospital and in nursing homes. Wheelchairs, pacemakers, orthopedic shoes, spectacles and contact lenses, insulin pens, hip prostheses, condoms, oxygen masks, dental floss, MRI scanners, pregnancy tests, surgical instruments, bandages, syringes, life-support machines: more than 500,000 products (10,000 generic groups) are available today. Medical technology represents only 6,3% of total healthcare expenditure in Europe – a modest share if you consider the benefits for every member of society. The term medical technology may also refer to the duties performed by clinical laboratory professionals in various settings within the public and private sectors. The work of these professionals encompass clinical applications of chemistry, genetics, hematology, immunohematology (blood banking), immunology, microbiology, serology, urinalysis and miscellaneous body fluid analysis. These professionals may be referred to as Medical Technologists (MT) and Medical Laboratory Technologists. Pharmacy which is from the Greek word Pharmakeia φÎ ±Ã ÃŽ ¼ÃŽ ±ÃŽ ºÃŽ µÃŽ ¹ÃŽ ± is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs. The Greek: φÎ ¬Ã ÃŽ ¼ÃŽ ±ÃŽ ºÃŽ ¿ÃŽ ½ (pharmakon), means â€Å"drug† or â€Å"medicine† (the earliest form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek pa-ma-ko, attested in Linear B syllabic script). The scope of pharmacy practice includes more traditional roles such as compounding and dispensing medications, and it also includes more modern services related to health care, including clinical services, reviewing medications for safety and efficacy, and providing drug information. Pharmacists, therefore, are the experts on drug therapy and are the primary health professionals who optimize medication use to provide patients with positive health outcomes. An establishment in which pharmacy (in the first sense) is practiced is called a pharmacy, chemist’s or drug store. In the United States and Canada, drug stores commonly sell not only medicines, but also miscellaneous items such as candy (sweets), cosmetics, and magazines, as well as light refreshments or groceries. The word pharmacy is derived from its root word pharma which was a term used since the 15th–17th centuries. In addition to pharma responsibilities, the pharma offered general medical advice and a range of services that are now performed solely by other specialist practitioners, such as surgery and midwifery. The pharma (as it was referred to) often operated through a retail shop which, in addition to ingredients for medicines, sold tobacco and patent medicines. The pharmas also used many other herbs not listed. In its investigation of herbal and chemical ingredients, the work of the pharma may be regarded as a precursor of the modern sciences of chemistry and pharmacology, prior to the formulation of the scientific method. What is covered in the BS of Pharmacy program? BS of Pharmacy covers subjects that offer a solid foundation in biomedical, clinical, pharmaceutical, biological and social sciences. This is to ensure that students are trained to effective deliver pharmaceutical services in both private and government institutions.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Lakeland Wonders Case Study Essay

1. How will the new CEO’s vision transform the Lakeland Wonders organisation? †¢ Change of brand image- no longer ‘Handcrafted with pride in the USA’. †¢ Change of organisational culture with the proposed expansion. †¢ Create new revenue streams with expansion into new markets. †¢ Departure from the traditional style of the company. 2. What are the main concerns of the stakeholders who do not agree with her vision? †¢ Loss of Lakeland Wonders image and ‘94 year tradition’. †¢ Expanding too quickly could damage the company, concern over speed of change. †¢ Potential logistics issues with outsourcing. †¢ Concern over quality control and possible damage to brand image. †¢ Local, long term partners would be lost. †¢ New CEO’s lack of clear brand strategy for proposed new products. †¢ Union issues- threatened by outsourcing, not consulted earlier on, etc. †¢ New CEO’s plan to bring in new people (Cecil, Pat) will make long term employees feel threatened and insecure. 3. Does your group think the proposed strategy is a good strategic move for Lakeland Wonders? If yes, why? If not, why not? We think that the proposed strategy is a good move for the following reasons: †¢ Increased growth potential, increased profits- enabling the company to grow in line with targets set by board. †¢ Expansion into growing market-mid non-electric market only segment predicted for double digit growth. †¢ Ensures the company remains competitive over the long term. †¢ Cost effective.  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ New staff, new ideas and fresh growth- overall improvement for the company. However there are also some negatives: †¢ The overall planning is needs to be effective and complete otherwise it could be damaging to the company. †¢ CEO’s push to force through the changes is causing divisions within the company. †¢ Potential loss of the core quality of the company (traditional, made in USA, etc.) †¢ Risk alienating current customers.

Monday, July 29, 2019

United Airlines multinational finance Research Paper

United Airlines multinational finance - Research Paper Example United Airlines (UAL) is the major United States airline with the largest number of destination and passenger flights. It caters to the customers’ demand of maximum luxury and comfort during flight. It is the most in-demand airline for all employees and shareholders to invest. It is the world’s most inclusive set of connections worldwide with first-rate international gateways to Asia and Australia, Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. United Airlines has its base almost everywhere in the US with non-stop or one-stop services. Its fleets are the most fuel-efficient among all the US network carriers. It has ten most advantageous central locations in the four largest cities in the US (UAL, Factsheet 1). The overseas subsidiaries of UAL are United Express, Ted, Continental Express and Continental Connection carriers. United Express and Ted are premium and low-cost subsidiaries of UAL. With these two subsidiaries, UAL participates in the entire scale of the con sumer market. These are regional operators and act as additional services of UAL’s mainline network. These subsidiaries add to UAL’s operations by carrying flights that connect to the mainline service. These subsidiaries also can allow a more number of flights in smaller cities than would not have been economically viable with full sized mainline jet aircraft (UAL, Form 10-K 5). The total number of aircrafts owned and leased by the subsidiaries is 552 (UAL, Form 10-K 29). In 2009, UAL had an operating revenue from mainline passengers of $11,313 million as reclassified and $11,910 million as historical. In the same year, UAL had an operating revenue from regional passengers of $2,884 million as reclassified and $3,064 million as historical. Other operating revenues were $1,602 million as reclassified and $825 million as historical (UAL, Form 10-K 99). Foreign Exchange Risk Management Policy UAL being an international airline garners revenues and makes expenditures in nu merous foreign currencies. Some expenses include aircraft leases, commissions, catering, personal expense, advertising and distribution costs, customer service expense and aircraft maintenance. Fluctuations that occur in the rates of foreign currencies exchanges have a major effect on the service of UAL and â€Å"cash flows through changes in the dollar value of foreign currency denominated operating revenues and expenses† (UAL, Form 10-K 140). In order to effectively reduce the possibilities of risk, the Company may use foreign currency forward contracts to avoid a part of its vulnerability to changes. UAL does not enter into foreign currency derivative contracts for purposes other than risk management. In 2009 and 2010, United did not have any foreign currency derivatives. Continental had foreign currency derivatives with a fair value of $7 million in 2010 and $5 million in 2009. During these two years, according to financial statements, there were no significant hedge gain s or losses (UAL, Form 10-K 140). UAL emphasizes North American and hence is not vulnerable to US$ exchange rate risk. For this, UAL does not have to worry about risk related to foreign exchange while buying fuel because oil is traded in US$. This is one advantage for UAL (Muck and Rudolf 573). Some of the most common foreign exchange transactions of the Company are Canadian dollar, Chinese renminbi, Japanese Yen, British pound and European Euro (UAL, Form 10-K 74). UAL’s foreign currency exchange rate changes were 11 million in 2010 and 8 million in 2009 (UAL, Form 10-K 121). Fluctuations in foreign exchange rates can affect UAL in various ways. The scopes and variations of foreign exchange impact can be immense. Foreign exchange exposure is of significant importance to UAL as the large aircrafts travel into foreign markets (Levi 303). Net cash flows of UAL that include foreign currency cash flows have increased in 2010 by $941 million from 2009. There has been a steady incr ease in cash flow over the last few years and the principal sources

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Housekeeping Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Housekeeping - Essay Example Understaffing of housekeeping†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..8 d. Staff Turnover due to †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦8 i. Competitor high pays†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..8 ii. Low wages †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦8 iii. Hectic work†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦9 iv. No Growth Opportunities for housekeeping†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦9 v. Personal problems of employees†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ .†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.9 e. Loosing trained staff†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.10 f. Managing Budget†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦10 5. Outsourcing in Housekeeping†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...10 a) Cost Cutting†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦....11 b) Outsourcing is flexible†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...†¦11 c) Staff Substitution†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦12 6. ... †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.15 c) Preventing Fires†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦16 d) Cuts and Wounds†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦17 8. Security Issues in Housekeeping†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..17 a) Protection and theft issues†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦17 b) Bomb Threat†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.....18 9. Environmental Policy in Housekeeping Departmentâ € ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦..18 a. Proper Waste Disposal†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦19 b. Customer Preference†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..19 c. Amenities Dispensers†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦19 10. Conclusions and Recommendations†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦20 11. Appendices†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..22 a. Appendix A†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.22 b. Appendix B†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.23 12. References†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦..†¦.24 Executive Summary Housekeeping research study was conducted by interviewing the executive house keeper at Hilton London Bridge Hotel. The study was conducted to reveal if the theoretical perspectives of housekeeping are in accordance with the practical ones. The executive housekeeper was interviewed with questions prepared in advance, through research. The interview revealed information related to the challenges faced b y executive housekeepers such as; budgeting,

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Legal system and method Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Legal system and method - Essay Example Subsequently, Laroche made a claim in the High Court of England and Wales, for personal injury against the defendant, which was dismissed. Laroche appealed against this decision in the England and Wales Court of Appeal. The High Court had held that his claim had been extinguished, on the basis of Schedule 1, Article 29 of the Carriage by Air Acts (Application of Provisions) Order 1967. Thereafter, the Spirit of Adventure underwent voluntary liquidation, but it was appropriately restored, so that Laroche could claim damages for the injury caused to him. In England, all claims are subjected to the application of the Non – International Rules and they also fall within the scope of the Warsaw Convention on International Carriage by Air 1929. Thus, the concept of exclusivity of claims is governed by the Carriage by Air Act of 1961. In this case, the claim was made under article 29 of Schedule I. Under this article, the parties have to make a claim within a period of two years. Thus, the claim in this case was not valid, since two years had already transpired. The claimant could not invoke his right to action. Section 651 of the Companies Act 1985 sets aside such limitation. Nevertheless, article 29 could not be excluded in order to invoke the doctrines of estoppel or waiver under English law1. It was held by the court that Laroche’s claim was governed by Schedule 1 of the 1967 Order. This Order provides an exclusive cause of action; and Laroche could invoke this schedule to his claims. However, he had failed to make a claim within two years. Thus, he was precluded from invoking Schedule 1 article 292. This is a landmark case in the area of accidents, during carriage by air or sea. It served to establish that the provisions of International Conventions will be applied to claims in such accidents. The provisions apply to claims in domestic or international accidents. The conventions provide remedies to the claims for damages, and are

Friday, July 26, 2019

New Product Packaging Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

New Product Packaging - Research Paper Example It is important to note that the consumers recognize the colors and other forms that trigger the visual stimuli in the cognitive mind (Johnson, 2012). Once this happens the as, a survival instinct works, and you engage the consumer by the attraction nature. We shall use pink, blue and print the letters in black for total engagement. Pink is a color that symbolizes nurturing and unconditional love, giving the car owner the sense of love to the car and matching it with the product. Blue symbolizes the brand loyalty and confidence in the product; this communicates the sense of friendliness and consumer importance to us. The black letters print will represent the strength and brand authority also makes it stand out from the others, the letters are printed in aerial fonts for easier reading.The cartoon must have a simple design on one side indicating the number of piles for piling together plus other information like temperature and keeping it up. On the opposite side, it contains the add ress and location of the company. The other two sides show the content inside the carton. The simple design on the carton is effective in communication and branding. The print on the carton is tailor made to connect with the product inside hence the use of graphic design on two sides.For the small runs, flexography printing methods will be suitable for our production. It allows printing of up to three colors this make it a viable option for a high-quality small runs tailor made cartons for packaging the car perfumes.

Interview of Professor Graue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Interview of Professor Graue - Essay Example My interview with Professor Graue was truly enlightening. It offered me a whole new perspective on how â€Å"human† university professors actually are. Professor Graue was called into the teaching profession and he dutifully heeded this calling. Other than teaching, he also has to fulfill responsibilities in the University such as assisting students, running the Mathematics department and completing researches. Professor Graue employs a number of teaching strategies that would make it easier for students to learn and appreciate mathematics. He further says that in order to succeed and be happy as a university professor, one has to be continuously learning and must have the intrinsic love for teaching. My interview with Professor Graue proves why he is a campus favorite among students. He is truly a valuable asset in the teaching profession. His knowledge in Mathematics and passion for teaching makes him a gem in his chosen field.

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Reflective journal entry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reflective journal entry - Essay Example Goals set competition bases within the organization and in external environments. Missions are set based on the firms goal attainment strategies. A firms mission also acts as a base for attracting customers since it is linked to its activities and products. Controlling, Planning and organizing are tools of management that contribute to most of the internal decisions made by managers and departmental heads. Cost drivers are also tools used in decision-making processes. They include structural, activity and organizational drivers. Structural costs are linked to product delivery and include technologies and scope of operations. Organizational costs are incurred during the relay of information between departments and chain of command. Additionally, they are also involved in the connection between the firm and its external environments such as suppliers and other contractors. Activity costs are incurred while enhancing customer service and catering for their needs. Firms invest in these costs with the aim of customer satisfaction and profit maximization. Ethics is part of the decision-making tools that a firm has to adopt to ensure success. Ethics is linked to the social life of customers and various impacts that the firm has caused to the society. Code of ethics includes various behavioral approaches that a firm exercises with its customers. The chapter has provided in-depth information on the approaches that firms have to follow to ensure success and competency. Decision-making processes in firms are not just made abruptly, but managers have to put different principles into consideration. The tools have covered all principles and sectors that make a business unique. The chapter specializes in cost behavior analysis and estimation and their relation to the performance of the firm. The cost behavior consists of four patterns that include mixed, variable, step and fixed costs. They are

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Explain Internet and distributed application services Essay

Explain Internet and distributed application services - Essay Example Different forms of clusters exist and each has its failures, and advantages that paper intends to examine. Introduction The term cluster is used in the computer technology to refer to a group of loosely coupled computers that are configured to work as a unit. Every node often operates as a complete unit as opposed to the operations of a tightly coupled multiprocessing system. Clustered computers usually have independent CPU, I/O, and memory (Englander, 2003). Clustered computers may constitute multiple processing systems. A computer in a cluster refers to a node (Englander, 2003). The main aim of clustering computers is to make the users to see them as single machines, which they are not in the actual sense. There are the main reasons for clustering computers; however, each reason has its challenges and better share of benefits. The main advantages of clustering include increasing the computing power of computers by combining the individual power of each computer. Notably, a computer has the power to process data independently (Englander, 2003). ... Fundamentally, clustering is a significant practice in computer technology since it is a sure way of increasing or designing highly performing computer systems. The processing problem including parallel processing units can be solved by breaking the problem into subtasks and then distributing them to different or parallel processing units among the nodes thereby solving the problem in parallel (Englander, 2003). Clustering also intends to create fault tolerant systems because each computer with the cluster is able to operate alone without the assistance from other computers within the cluster (Englander, 2003). Therefore, a node failure will not lead to standstill operational since the entire cluster will not be closed. The software controlling the entire cluster is capable of switching processes to other nodes within the cluster in a process referred to failover. Therefore, failures of certain nodes, the failed nodes’ processes can be switched to other functional nodes within the system; this switching will facilitate the continuation of processes that were running on the failed node or computer (Englander, 2003). Nonetheless, a cluster that has never experienced any form of failure can be designed and this is often advantageous for systems that process critical applications. Clusters are also vital in creating high available systems where computers within the cluster can be distributed geographically over a wide area (Englander, 2003). Therefore, users can access the closest computer system with the cluster. In most cases, this phenomenon creates a natural balancing of loads among different or series of computer nodes

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Nurse practitioner school Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Nurse practitioner school - Personal Statement Example I was subsequently requested to work in specialty surgery by a vascular surgeon due to my efficiency, experience, and expertise in various aspects of nursing. I did this for several years as I also worked and furthered my studies to obtain my registered nurse (RN) license. This was later on followed by working as a charge nurse in a very busy trauma center where I gained more knowledge in performing a variety of administrative and clinical duties by providing quality care nursing and coordinating total nursing care for patients and residents alike. My other duties had included implementing specific programs, procedures, and processes, expediting work flow but still ensure accuracy in quality health care, and being actively involved in many committees that recommended and implemented various evidence-based practical measures in nursing. I went on several medical missions in the past and these experiences were instrumental and influential in my desire to obtain a masters degree in nursing. Medical mission trips are very good ways to get grounded in reality and give back to underprivileged people right here within our own borders (Fahlbusch & Bromiley, 2003). The work of a nurse is quite challenging but is also extremely rewarding which is why I desire to obtain a masters degree in due

Monday, July 22, 2019

Legitimacy Theory Essay Example for Free

Legitimacy Theory Essay â€Å"Legitimacy is a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions† (Suchman, 1995, p. 574, emphasis in original) Legitimacy theory has become one of the most cited theories within the social and environmental accounting area. Yet there remains deep scepticism amongst many researchers that it offers any real insight into the voluntary disclosures of corporations. This brief paper outlines responses to two specific concerns identified in the literature. It will eventually form part of a much larger project addressing a range of issues associated with legitimacy theory. First, the paper brings some of the more recent developments in the management and ethical literature on legitimacy and corporations to the accounting table. Second, there are contributions to the theory that have already been made by accounting researchers that are yet to be fully recognised. The author believes that legitimacy theory does offer a powerful mechanism for understanding voluntary social and environmental disclosures made by corporations, and that this understanding would provide a vehicle for engaging in critical public debate. The problem for legitimacy theory in contributing to our understanding of accounting disclosure specifically, and as a theory in general, is that the term has on occasion been used fairly loosely. This is not a problem of the theory itself, and the observation could be equally applied to a range of theories in a range of disciplines (see for example Caudill (1997) on the abuse of Evolutionary Theory). Failure to adequately specify the theory has been identified by Suchman (1995, p. 572, emphasis in original), who observed that â€Å"Many researchers employ the term legitimacy, but few define it†. Hybels (1995, p. 241) comments that â€Å"As the tradesmen [sic] of social science have groped to build elaborate theoretical structures with which to shelter their careers and  disciplines, legitimation has been a blind man’s hammer.† This paper begins to address these issues. Not One Theory but Two (at least) An important issue which needs to be acknowledged is that there are in fact two major classes of legitimacy theory. These are graphically presented in Figure 1 below. The ‘macro-theory’ of legitimation, known as Institutional Legitimacy Theory, deals with how organisational structures as a whole (capitalism for example, or government) have gained acceptance from society at large. â€Å"Within this tradition, legitimacy and institutionalization are virtually synonymous. Both phenomena empower organizations primarily by making them seem natural and meaningful† (Suchman, 1995, p. 576, emphasis in original). In terms of accounting research, given the time frames involved and questions generally being considered, the current business environment, including the capitalist structure, democratic government, etc. are generally taken as a given, a static context within which the research is situated. This assumption would, however, need to be carefully considered for a longitudinal study of any significant length. Figure 1: Layers of Legitimacy Theory INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL GOVERNMENT RELIGION SOCIETY CAPITALISM ORGANISATIONAL LEVEL (IN THIS CASE: COMPANY LTD BY SHARE) Establishment Defence Extension Maintenance From the Moral to the Measurable One layer down from the Institutional Level is what in Figure 1 is called the â€Å"Organisational Level† (sometimes referred to as Strategic Legitimacy Theory). â€Å"Underlying organizational legitimacy is a process, legitimation, by which an organization seeks approval (or avoidance of sanction) from groups in society† (Kaplan and Ruland, 1991, p. 370). It is from this level  that most accounting research tends to draw its understanding of legitimacy. Mathews (1993, p. 350) provides a good definition of legitimacy at this level: Organisations seek to establish congruence between the social values associated with or implied by their activities and the norms of acceptable behaviour in the larger social system in which they are a part. In so far as these two value systems are congruent we can speak of organisational legitimacy. When an actual or potential disparity exists between the two value systems there will exist a threat to organisational legitimacy. At its simplest, within the Organisational view â€Å"legitimacy [is] an operational resource that organizations extract often competitively from their cultural environments and that they employ in pursuit of their goals† (Suchman, 1995, p. 575 6, emphasis in original). Legitimacy, just like money, is a resource a business requires in order to operate. Certain actions and events increase that legitimacy, and others decrease it. Low legitimacy will have particularly dire consequences for an organisation, which could ultimately lead to the forfeiture of their right to operate. Although we can describe a firm as being legitimate, and conceive of ‘amounts’ of legitimacy, it becomes a very subjective exercise to try and directly measure legitimacy. Although it has concrete consequences, legitimacy itself is an abstract concept, given reality by multiple actors in the social environment. For a researcher to try and directly establish, or even rank, the legitimacy of various organisations would seem to be a necessarily subjective undertaking, preferencing the researcher’s own views. As Hybels (1995, p. 243) argues, â€Å"I reject this view because it is based on a conflation of the roles of observer and participant in social science†. As an alternative, rather than trying to subjectively measure a firm’s legitimacy directly it can instead be inferred from the fact that being legitimate â€Å"enables organizations to attract resources necessary for survival (e.g., scarce materials, patronage, political approval)† (Hearit, 1995, p. 2). Hybels (1995, p. 243) develops this in some detail: Legitimacy often has been conceptualized as simply one of many resources that organizations must obtain from their environments. But rather than viewing legitimacy as something that is exchanged among institutions, legitimacy is better conceived as both part of the context for exchange and  a by-product of exchange. Legitimacy itself has no material form. It exists only as a symbolic representation of the collective evaluation of an institution, as evidenced to both observers and participants perhaps most convincingly by the flow of resources. †¦ resources must have symbolic import to function as value in social exchange. But legitimacy is a higher-order representation of that symbolism – a representation of representations. Hybels (1995, p. 243) argues that good models in legitimacy theory must examine the relevant stakeholders, and how â€Å"Each influences the flow of resources crucial to the organizations’ establishment, growth, and survival, either through direct control or by the communication of good will†. He identifies (p. 244) four critical organisational stakeholders, each of which control a number of resources. These are summarised in Table 1 below. Table 1: Critical Organisational Stakeholder STAKEHOLDER RESOURCES CONTROLLED Contracts, grants, legislation, regulation, tax (Note that the (1) The state last three of these could be either a ‘negative’ or ‘positive’ depending on the implementation) (2) The public (3) The financial community (4) The media Few ‘direct resources’; however, can substantially influence the decisions of stakeholders (2) (3) (if not (1)) Patronage (as customer), support (as community interest), labour Investment The last of these has received considerable attention. The power of the media has been noted by a number of researchers, including Patten (2002, p. 153), who states â€Å"that while increased media attention can certainly lead to the potential for increased pressures from any of the three sources [dissatisfaction of public; new or proposed political action; increased regulatory oversight], increases in pressure can  also arise, particularly with respect to regulatory oversight.† See also Deegan et al. (2000, 2002). Companies try to manage their legitimacy because it â€Å"helps to ensure the continued inflow of capital, labour and customers necessary for viability†¦ It also forestalls regulatory activities by the state that might occur in the absence of legitimacy and pre-empts product boycotts or other disruptive actions by external parties By mitigating these potential problems, organizational legitimacy provides managers with a degree of autonomy to decide how and where business will be conducted† (Neu  et al., 1998, p. 265). Researchers need to move away from trying to directly assess legitimacy, and instead focus on measuring it in terms of the resources relevant stakeholders provide. â€Å"Rather than engage in the further development of entirely abstract constructions of the legitimation process†¦ researchers should investigate the flow of resources from organizational constituencies as well as the pattern and content of communications† (Hybels, 1995, p. 244). But Wait†¦ There’s More As shown in Figure 1 Organisational Legitimacy Theory suggests that a firm may be in one of four phases with regard to its legitimacy. These phases are outlined below, some examples of industries/firms that might be considered to be operating in each of these phases are included (further research needs to be undertaken in this area). Establishing Legitimacy. (E.g. Stem Cell based bio-tech). This first phase represents the early stages of a firm’s development and tends to revolve around issues of competence, particularly financial, but the organisation must be aware of â€Å"socially constructed standards of quality and desirability as well as perform in accordance with accepted standards of professionalism† (Hearit, 1995, p. 2). Maintaining Legitimacy. (The majority of organisations). This is the phase that most firms would generally expect to be operating in, where their â€Å"activities include: (1) ongoing role performance and symbolic assurances that all is well, and (2) attempts to anticipate and prevent or forestall potential challenges to legitimacy† (Ashford and Gibbs, 1990, p. 183). However the maintenance of legitimacy is not as easy as it may at first appear. Legitimacy is a dynamic construct. â€Å"Community expectations are not considered static, but rather, change across time thereby requiring organisations to be responsive to the environment in which they operate. An organisation could, accepting this view, lose its legitimacy even if it has not changed its activities from activities which were previously deemed acceptable (legitimate)† (Deegan et al., 2002, p. 319 20). Extending Legitimacy. (E.g. Alternative Health Providers). There may come a point where an organisation enters new markets or changes the way it relates to its current market. This can give rise to a need to extend  legitimacy which is â€Å"apt to be intense and proactive as management attempts to win the confidence and support of wary potential constituents† (Ashford and Gibbs, 1990, p. 180). Defending Legitimacy. (E.g. Uranium Mining). Legitimacy may be threatened by an incident (internal or external), and therefore require defence. â€Å"Legitimation activities tend to be intense and reactive as management attempts to counter the threat† (Ashford and Gibbs, 1990, p. 183). Even barring a major incident it is likely in the Western Capitalist system that almost every corporation will regularly need to defend its legitimacy, by the mere fact that â€Å"corporations must fulfil both a competence and community requirement to realize legitimacy†¦ Satisfaction of stockholder interests often occurs at the expense of community concerns (e.g., the despoiling of the environment, the use of labour) while, conversely, responsibility to the larger community often occurs at the expense of the stockholder† (Hearit, 1995, p. 3). It is this last phase that has tended to be the main focus of accounting researchers. It also provides us with the clearest opportunity to examine the crucial link between legitimacy and resources. Lindblom (1994), a key paper cited by many Social and Environmental Accounting researchers, also seems relevant specifically to this phase only. An example of work in this area is Deegan et al.’s (2000) study of five major incidents (including the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the Bhopal Disaster) which provided a context to examine the annual reports of related (in industrial terms) Australian firms to see if there had been a significant change in their social or environmental reporting. They concluded: The results of this study are consistent with legitimacy theory and show that companies do appear to change their disclosure policies around the time of major company and industry related social events. †¦ These results highlight the strategic nature of voluntary social disclosures and are consistent with a view that management considers that annual report social disclosures are a useful device to reduce the effects upon a corporation of events that are perceived to be unfavourable to a corporation’s image (Deegan et al., 2000, p. 127). The Diagnosis Needs Refinement This is where the traditional legitimacy model stops. However my own  research, into the tobacco industry, Tilling (2004), and that of other researchers, including experimental research undertaken by O’Donovan (2002), suggest a further development of the Organisational Legitimacy Level, as depicted in Figure 2 below. Added to the model is the possibility that a firm may not successfully (or may be unable to) defend the threat to its legitimacy and actually start to lose legitimacy. Figure 2: Refinement of the Organisational Level of Legitimacy Theory Establishment Loss Defence Disestablishment Extension Maintenance In this model the defence phase is usually entered by an organisation after some form of one-off ‘incident’ or ‘accident’ which threatens its legitimacy. This phase could be characterised as being ‘acute’, it can be serious, some times even fatal, but usually, with proper management, the organisation can maintain, or at least recover, its legitimacy. However should there be an ongoing series of events, indicative of a systemic issue, e.g. the nuclear power industry, or a single event with permanent consequences which cannot be effectively managed, e.g. realisation that the organisation’s product is not safe such as the tobacco industry, an organisation is likely to have its legitimacy eroded over a period of time (the ‘loss’ phase), which can be characterised as ‘chronic’. The issue can be difficult to manage, and generally leads to declining legitimacy, however the loss may be managed and slowed over a long period of time, or significant change could lead to reestablishment of legitimacy. The ‘loss’ phase is most likely to be preceded by sustained media and NGO scrutiny, and accompanied by increasing government regulation, monitoring and possibly taxation. Within this phase there are likely to be periods where the company will increase its voluntary social and environmental disclosure in an effort to meet specific threats (such as to postpone or defeat proposed regulations) or to communicate systemic corporate change  (similar to the defence phase). However, with each new restriction average total disclosure can be expected to decrease. This idea is alluded to by O’Donovan (2002) who argues, based on experimental evidence, that the lower the perceived legitimacy of the organisation, the less likely it is to bother providing social and environmental disclosure. Watch This Space Legitimacy theory offers researchers, and the wider public, a way to critically unpack corporate disclosures. However the understanding and study of the theory must become more sophisticated, drawing on developments both within the accounting literature and beyond. Only then will the full potential of legitimacy theory for examining a wide range of disclosures be fully realised. Areas that would provide useful insights include at the moment the asbestos industry (as it goes through the disestablisment phase), brothels (as they become much more legitimate within the Australian context), and the forestry industry (as it tries to defend its legitimacy), to name but a few. The knowledge gained will then be used to provide better and more useful information to inform decision making by stakeholders. In this way society is empowered to have greater control and oversight over the way resources are allocated. References: Ashford, B. E. and B. W. Gibbs (1990) â€Å"The Double-Edge of Organizational Legitimation†, Organization Science, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 177 194. Caudill, E. (1997) Darwinian Myths: The Legends and Misuses of a Theory, Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press. Deegan, C., M. Rankin and J. Tobin (2002) â€Å"An Examination of the Corporate Social and Environmental Disclosures of BHP from 1983-1997: A Test of Legitimacy Theory†, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 312 343. Deegan, C., M. Rankin and P. Voght (2000) â€Å"Firms’ Disclosure Reactions to Major Social Incidents: Australian Evidence†, Accounting Forum, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 101 130. Hearit, K. M. (1995) â€Å"‘Mistakes Were Made’: Organizations, Apologia, and Crises of Social Legitimacy†, Communication Studies, Vol. 46, No. 1-2, pp. 1 17. Hybels, R. C. (1995) â€Å"On Legitimacy, Legitimation, and Organizations: A Critical Review and Integrative Theoretical Model†, Academy of Management  Journal, Special Issue: Best Papers Proceedings, 1995, pp. 241 245. Kaplan, S. E. and R. G. Ruland (1991) â€Å"Positive Theory, Rationality and Accounting Regulation†, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 361 374. Lindblom, C. K. (1994), â€Å"The Implications of Organizational Legitimacy for Corporate Social Performance and Disclosure†, Critical Perspectives on Accounting Conference, New York. Mathews, M. R. (1993) Socially Responsible Accounting, UK, Chapman Hall. Neu, D., H. Warsame and K. Pedwell (1998) â€Å"Managing Public Impressions: Environmental Disclosures in Annual Reports†, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 265 282. O’Donovan, G. (2002) â€Å"Environmental Disclosures in the Annual Report: Extending the Applicability and Predictive Power of Legitimacy Theory†, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 344 371. Patten, D. M. (2002) â€Å"Media Exposure, Public Policy Pressure, and Environmental Disclosure: An Examination of the Impact of Tri Data Availability†, Accounting Forum, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 152 171. Suchman, M. C. (1995) â€Å"Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches†, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 571 610. Tilling, M. (2004), â€Å"Communication at the Edge: Voluntary Social and Environmental Reporting in the Annual Report of a Legitimacy Threatened Corporation†. APIRA Conference Proceedings, Singapore, July.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Effects of Nutribullet Processing on Glycemic Response

Effects of Nutribullet Processing on Glycemic Response The major results from the present study show that processing a variety of fruits with the Nutribullet has had beneficial effects on the postprandial glycemic response in healthy subjects. We observed that after the ingestion of the Nutribullet mixed fruit treatment, on average the subjects maximum glycemic increment was only 0.4mmol/L, in comparison to the maximum increment of 1.3mmol/L after the ingestion of whole mixed fruit. In contrast, processing mango with the Nutribullet showed to have no added beneficial effects on postprandial glycemic response in comparison to the ingestion of whole mango. After the ingestion of the Nutribullet processed mango the maximum glycemic increment was 0.9mmol/L, compared to the maximum increment of 0.8mmol/L in the whole mango group. Although the processing of mango did not have the same effects seen for the mixed fruit group, these results are still significant because they demonstrate that the domestic processing mango alone and processing a variety of fruits together does not increase their GI as previously thought. In fact, the results of the present study demonstrate that Nutribullet processing a combination of fruits favorably flattens the postprandial glycemic response which is in conflict with the current recommendations for diabetics to avoid fruit smoothies. As mentioned earlier, these recommendations are formed on the assumption that the majority of fibre in fruit juice and smoothies has either been removed or broken down. Although there is substantial evidence supporting the link between the consumption of fruit juice and the increased risk of T2DM (Muraki et al, 2013; Bolton et al, 1981; Haber et al, 1977), there appears to be a sparse amount of research investigating the effects of domestically blending fruits on glucose metabolism. Although, there is one study to our knowledge that has investigated the impact of whole fruit, fibre-disrupted purà ©e and fruit juice (Haber et al, 1977). The authors reported that plasma glucose rose to similar levels after the consumption all three meals. However, they suggested the removal of fibre from food or the physical disruption of fibre, could lead to slightly higher postprandial glycemic responses. Indeed the cellular structure of fruit is important and potentially explains the results of the present study because unlike fruit juice, the fibre was not removed during the Nutribullet processing. Interestingly, evidence from a recent investigation showed that commercial smoothies which have gone through a homogenization process still contained high concentrations of intact fruit cells (Chu et al, 2017). However, we must appreciate that the process of homogenization is completely different to domestic food processing and therefore, it could be argued that perhaps domestic processing would elicit different outcomes with regards to fibre content. Although a recent study reported that the concentrations of insoluble and soluble fibre were the same in both domestically blended mango fruit and high hydrostatic pressurized mango (Elizondo-Montemayor et al, 2015). Therefore, this evidence signifies that the processing of fruits, with a domestic blender does not completely breakdown the fibre. This may go on to explain why the present study did not observe a sharp peak in blood glu cose following the consumption of Nutribullet treatments, in comparison to studies which have observed postprandial hyperglycemia due to the consumption of fruit juice where the fibre is absent (Bolton et al, 1981;). Although the results of the present study may be in part attributable to the presence of dietary fibre within the treatments, several other parameters have also been identified to affect the absorption of glucose. These parameters include the viscosity of the fruit and other properties of fibre, such as solubility and swelling capacity. Effects of fibre on carbohydrate absorption Fibre can be classified as either soluble or insoluble, characterized by how they react in aqueous solutions.   Insoluble fibre includes lignin, cellulose and many hemicelluloses. These fibres make up the cellular-wall structure of fruits and vegetables. When consumed together with foods, these fibres behave as bulking agents and also increase intestinal transit time. Water-soluble fibre comprises hemicelluloses, and many polysaccharides, such as pectin. These fibres are characterized by their high water-holding capacity, also several of them are highly viscous in solution (Wursch et al, 1997). Pectins are constituents of the primary cell wall and intercellular layer of plant cells. They are insoluble in unripe fruit, yet become more water-soluble as the fruit ripens. Lastly, they have large water-holding capacity and form gels in aqueous solutions. Within the scientific community, it has been acknowledged that the presence of certain dietary fibres influences the digestion and absorption of CHO within the small intestine, resulting in a reduced and levelled off glycemic response. Importantly, this effect has been shown in both healthy and T2DM subjects (Jenkins et al, 2002; Anderson et al, 1994). It has widely been reported that viscous soluble fibre are most effective in improving glycemic control by reducing the postprandial glycemic response, in comparison to insoluble fibres (Jenkins et al, 1978; Elizondo-Montemayor et al, 2015). In contrast, it has also been established that when the viscosity of fibre in several products has been reduced through varied processing techniques then the reduction in blood glucose peak is attenuated (Wursch et al, 1997), signifying that both the solubility and viscosity of the fibre is directly linked to the attenuation of blood glucose. Due to the growing pool of scientific evidence linking t he consumption soluble fibre with a flattened glycemic response, several theories have been developed to explain what mechanisms in the small intestine may be causing the modulation of the glycemic response. One mechanism suggested is a delayed rate of gastric emptying. It is thought that due to the water-holding capacity of soluble fibre, a resulting delayed gastric emptying and transit time through the small intestine occurs, thereby resulting in a reduced rate of CHO absorption (Benini et al, 1995; Cherbut et al, 1995; Ou et al, 2001). Another proposed mechanism is that the ingestion of soluble fibre increases the viscosity in the small intestine resulting in a reduced mixing effect of peristalsis, thus reducing the digestion of CHO by pancreatic alpha-amylase and in turn causing a delayed diffusion of CHO to the intestinal mucosa (Cherbut et al, 1994; Ou et al, 2001). Lastly, it has also been proposed that the capacity of dietary fibre to bind to glucose may reduce the concentration of available glucose in the small intestine, resulting in reduced digestion and absorption of glucose (Ou et al, 2001). Considering all this, a theory has been developed to further explain the results observed in the present study for the Nutribullet mixed fruit treatment. The theory is that the banana used within the mixed fruit treatment is potentially the main fruit influencing the postprandial glycemic responses. As previously mentioned, the ripeness of fruits is a major influencing factor on the concentrations of soluble and insoluble fibre. Recall from the methodology in the present study that all of the fruit was freshly purchased within days of the appropriate trial. Therefore, it is highly probable that the banana included in the mixed fruit trial was unripe as they were refrigerated for no more than 2 days. This theory is based on the evidence that unripe or less-ripe bananas contain higher concentrations of resistant starch, in comparison to over-ripe bananas. Resistant starch has been found to be more slowly digested in humans by alpha-amylase thereby causing a flattened glycemic response due to the reduced availability of glucose (Wolever et al, 1990; Hermansen et al, 1992). From all of this information we have established that dietary fibre is still present in fruits which have been domestically blended, also we have discussed some of the mechanisms potentially causing the effects fibre has on glycemic response. The next question at hand is whether Nutribullet processing effects the sugar content of fruit. It has been proposed that foods containing Effects of Nutribullet processing on the composition of mango and mixed fruit carbohydrates The content of simple sugars was lower per portion of mango (11.8g) and mixed fruits (15.7g) after Nutribullet processing, compared to whole mango (16.5g) and whole mixed fruits (24.9) (Table 3).   Recall for the methodology in the present study that we calculated specific servings of each fruit to give 25g of sugar per serving among the whole fruit and Nutribullet treatments. Due to this it was hypothesized that HPLC analysis would reveal that the sugar content of the whole fruit treatments would be similar, if not lower, compared to the sugar content of the Nutribullet treatments. Previous work has suggested that processing fruits, through homogenization, can cause losses in cell integrity, thus resulting in the release of simple sugars from compartmentalized structures and non-covalent links (Elizondo-Montemayor et al, 2015). On the contrary, this was not observed in the present study. When comparing the total sugar content of both mango treatments to the observed postprandial glycemic responses (Figure 1), there is a discrepancy where the extrapolated IAUC for both mango treatments do not correlate with the sugar content revealed through HPLC analysis. For example, from figure 1 we can see that both mango treatments had a very similar postprandial glycemic response, yet HPLC analysis would suggest that the whole mango treatment should have had a higher glycemic response. Although this was not the case, signifying that errors in the HPLC methodology are potentially causing these results. For example, upon completion of the HPLC testing, it was regrettably found that several tubes containing various mango treatments still had remaining supernatant within them. This of course would explain the varied sugar content between the mango treatments and reflects that the investigators had varied pipetting skills. Regarding the mixed fruit HPLC results, the total sugar content of both mixed fruit treatments seem to correlate well with the postprandial glycemic responses (Figure 1). In addition, the mixed fruit Nutribullet contained half the sugar content compared to the whole fruit treatment. As discussed earlier, the potential mechanisms associated soluble fibre may explain why the Nutribullet treatment revealed to have a lower sugar content. For example, the fibre may have bound to the glucose molecules reducing the available glucose in the small intestine, thus resulting in the attenuation of postprandial glycemic response. An in vitro digestion model, designed to mimic the in vivo situation, was able to determine the glucose content within supernatant by mixing 1g of resistant starch or soluble fibre with 100ml of glucose solution, then incubating the mixture in a water bath (37 °C) for 6 hours, followed by centrifuging (Ou et al, 2001). The authors reported that the solutions which had added fibre contained less glucose within the supernatant, signifying that the fibre had binding potential to glucose. On the other hand, it is important to consider that the HPLC results for the mixed fruit treatments may also be subject to errors within the methodology. For example, looking at Table 4, there is high relative deviation amongst the whole fruit samples, yet not amongst the Nutribullet samples. This indicates that there was low precision during the measurement of whole fruit samples. Again, perhaps due to the low level of skill among the investigators with regards to the pipetting, syringing and filtration of supernatant. Considering all of these limitations, the results obtained from HPLC analysis provide little relevance and impact to the present study. Practical Implications of the results The fact that both the whole fruit and Nutribullet treatments elicited a low GI and specifically that the mixed fruit Nutribullet treatment showed a significantly lower GI (figure 2) has important clinical implications for both healthy and T2DM subjects. A relatively recent Cochrane review which was based on 11 randomized controlled trials, reported that glycemic control in T2DM subjects was improved significantly following a low GI diet, compared to those on a high GI diet (Thomas et al, 2009). In addition, a low GI diet elicited significant reductions in glycated hemoglobin A1c (0.5%) which are comparable to reductions usually found through medications for recently diagnosed T2DM patients (Holman, 1995; Holman, 1999). Furthermore, improvements in A1c of this size have been linked with the reduced risk of diabetes-related microvascular complications, such as retinopathy (Stratton, 2000). With regards to healthy subjects, diets containing low GI foods have been associated with reduct ions in body weight, improvements in lipid profile and a decreased risk of T2DM and cardiovascular disease (Jenkins et al, 2011; Barclay et al, 2008; Van Dam et al, 2000). Overall, as the Nutribullet does not appear increase their GI of commonly eaten fruits, both healthy and T2DM subjects could potentially benefit from this method of food preparation by improving glycemic control. Although as the results from the present study are novel, more research is needed before any conclusions can be drawn with regards to the safety and effectiveness of recommending that diabetics can consume fruit smoothies. Study limitations There are some limitations within the methodology of the present study that should be mentioned. Firstly, the present study employed only one reference trial. Recommendations are that the reference food (glucose) trial should be repeated at least once to minimise the variation of mean GI values (Wolever et al, 1991, 2002). For example, a simulation study carried out by Wolever et al (2003) found that the margin of error of the estimation of mean GI was reduced significantly from one to two reference measurements. Secondly, we were unable to enforce a strict standardization of diet and physical activity 24 hours prior to the test days which may reduce the reproducibility of the results. An ideal example would be that the subjects consumed a meal of their choice prior to the overnight fast and then would have been required to repeat that same meal before each trial. Thirdly, the results may be subject to selection bias as the participants included in the mixed fruit trials were also th e investigators of the study and randomization was not used. In addition, due to the 10% drop out rate, it is possible that the degree of statistical power and precision was reduced as recommendations are that glycemic trials include a minimum of 10 participants (Brouns et al, 2005). Although, several strengths include the appropriate use of a repeated measures design which ensures less individual differences and allows the inclusion of fewer participants. Another strength is that the protocol closely followed evidence-based recommendations. Conclusion In conclusion, our results indicate the consumption of a variety of fruits including banana, mango, passion fruit, kiwi, raspberry and pineapple have a low GI and that processing these fruits with a Nutribullet generated further benefits, such as a significantly lower GI and a more favorable glycemic response. A higher proportion of the subjects presented a low GI for both of the Nutribullet treatments. These results are in conflict with current recommendations to restrict or avoid fruit smoothies. However, much evidence has indicated that the fibre content of fruit is still present after domestic and commercial processing treatments. More so, the evidence suggests that the presence of fibre within the processed fruit is still potentially having several beneficial effects on the postprandial glycemic response, such slowing gastric emptying and reducing the amount of available glucose through binding mechanisms. These results could potentially have clinical implications for healthy an d T2DM subjects who include these fruits in their diet. However, more research is needed 1. to determine if these effects are reproducible and 2. to determine the safety of diabetics consuming different fruit treatments produced by Nutribullet and/or other domestic appliances. Future research should further investigate the potential mechanisms involved with Nutribullet blending and how they are causing an altered glycemic response.

Sms Banking Marketing Plan

Sms Banking Marketing Plan BankMuscat is I well known bank in Oman and consider the best financial organization and the winner of 8 in raw as Bank of the year (Times of Oman 2010). It provides large banking services which fulfills most country demands including consumers, businesses and government. The main divisions of the bank are retail banking and wholesale banking. Within these divisions there are E-channels which are call center, ATM, CDM, cards, Internet and mobile banking. The demand for electronic banking services is increasing since Oman strategic is to convert the conventional system to E-government (e.oman 2010). While these changes in country is ongoing, most of organizations adapting to go electronically in order to compete in the market. BankMuscat is one of the leaders to adapt new innovative technologies which make them step ahead from other banks. An opportunity exists for SMS banking for two reasons: None of other banks yet provided transactions over SMS while BankMuscat SMS banking existing system support this feature. Expand the language to Arabic in SMS banking to cover existing BankMuscat customer of non-users of SMS banking. All other banks local not offering this type of services and they only were providing informative SMS banking rather than interactive transaction (Ecommerce Journal 2009). Our new service in existing SMS banking will lead the market since BankMuscat has a large portion of market share of customers. The current stats show a large usage in electronic services and people become more technology aware. The stats shows also huge increase in the number of registered customers with SMS banking and comparing total registration in 2009 by 110,099 while in 2010 the total registration as of month of November is 134,926 (appendix 1,2). Moreover, the increase also occurs in the usage of the service comparing it by last years and also comparing it with monthly transactions, 1,118,826 request in 2009 and 1,430,399 requests in 2010 (appendix 1,2). With all this increase if we applied the new services like transactions over SMS and Arabic enabled interface we will lead the market for years. This also will increase our commission profit for each SMS sent by customer and will attract more service providers to use our SMS banking service as a channel for bill payment. Our target customers will be all type of customers capable of using mobile phones to send SMS. The rapid increase in cell phone market with cheap prices and good rates of service providers is our key of success. Also the growth in Oman and increase the percentage of roads traffic is changing the habit of customers of paying for their bills and prefer to do all this at their home at own suitable time. Situation Analysis In order to build good relationship with our all stake holders we have to understand our environment forces around all our relationships. In the next section I will describe BankMuscat Internal and external environments along with their analysis. External environment (Mic, Mac) As a bank its obvious other local banks are our competitors and the main force and we will analysis this with Porters Five forces analysis. Porters Five forces Competitive Rivalry: our rivalry banks are HSBC because its an international well known bank and locally NBO which the second successful bank in Oman. Both are very adaptive to the technology and always competing. Threat of entry: misuse of SMS banking services may raise law issues which interferes the service as what happened to the NAWARS tel. bill payment portal shutdown by force of law. Also there is threat of leaks this new service to our competitors before launching will make a bad image of BankMuscat is imitating others initiatives. The power of buyers: Our customer will intend to use the SMS banking service a lot because they are directly transfer amount from their account to utility bills which is easer from withdrawal money from bank and then visiting utility providers outlet to pay their bills. The power of suppliers: since our utility providers are a few companies so there is limited of suppliers which will offer to market for their utility payments exclusively to BankMuscat because of the huge number of customers dealing with. The Threat of substitutes: the major threat is using the other channel which internet banking since its become more popular because the government encourages this initiative by name of E-government. Since we analyzed the microenvironment by using Porters analysis we also require doing another analysis in macro environment by using PEST analysis. PEST analysis Political Factors: Telecommunication Regulatory Authority may set rules and standards in order to protect the users from fraud by which will make the process of using SMS banking more complicated for users. Economical Factors: after the recession which happened during end of 2008 the market growth increases again in 2009 recovery stage and in 2010 most of companies started to gain profits (Oman Observer 2010). This increased the salaries and buying power from customers. In other hand, BankMuscat makes good profit in the three quarters of 2010 by increase in 26% (Sharif 2010) which allowed increasing the budget for department for development. Social Factors: The resist of change is one of the culture factors that are facing the banking developments. Some of interior customers still prefer to pay their bills by visiting the utility providers. But the good thing is our Arabic based SMS banking will capture those who dont want to use other language to do their transactions. The go green campaign which sponsored by many environment organizations and with support of government is focusing in reduce papers in businesses and here comes SMS banking as free papers service which is widely accepted as eco-friendly. Technological Factors: SMS banking has good opportunity because the bank strategies are to change the attention from visiting branches to do banking services remotely (BankMuscat 2009). Most companies prefer to do their transactions without using papers and this good sign change customers behavior towards our new electronic services. The availability of mobile coverage and the range of choice with cheap prices all adding value for using SMS banking as first alternative. SWOT analysis After we captured the information for from external environment we will use it in our SWOT analysis as opportunities and threats. Strengths Current system already has the function for bill payments Current system is the latest in market Current system has the capability to add additional languages Management are very adaptive for new changes Low cost upgrade Weaknesses Limited IT staff for implementation Third party software needs support from vendor Other departments not support in marketing of other products Opportunities Fastest bills payment with one step from account to utility provider. Easy to capture more utility providers because of large base of customers in BankMuscat Gain the market of non-English users Government support and collaboration for new technologies Threats International banks are more advanced in technology Law enforce in case of misuse of this service by customers Internet banking may attract big portion of SMS banking customers Marketing Objective BankMuscat vision statement Over one million satisfied customers by 2010 through continuous enhancement of stakeholder value. In pursuit for customer satisfaction and comply with BankMuscat vision our new SMS banking system will fill the thirst of customers who deserve to get unique services at any time anywhere with no hassle of waiting. Target Market To get deep inside to our target market we will be using market segmentation process analysis. 1-Segmentation Variables Geographic: since SMS banking is mobile technology based service, so there is no limits because it depends on the coverage of mobile network operator even its support international rooming. The Arabic based SMS is targeting customers especially in rural areas which they are not able to deal with English language. Demographics: Targeted market customers with age range 18-65 years old both genders who are working in job or having business with all range of income with small level of knowledge in using mobile devices. Psychographic: Targeted market customers can be any lifestyle orientations with personality open minded Behavioral: Common variables of this segment are customers prefer easy and fast way of bill payment for medium usage in monthly rate and heavy usage for account enquiry. The user status can be ex-user, nonuser, potential user and existing user. 2- Market segment profile After analyzing the market variables we will now gather the common share of who, what and why to build segment profile. Our customer looks like any gender between 18-65 years old living anywhere having account in BankMuscat and using text messaging of our local mobile operators with sufficient knowledge in using mobile devices. Our customers appeals to do their bill payments at any time faster than any service with both local and English languages. Customers who want to make their bill payment easier and faster on monthly basis in case of bill payments and frequently in case of account quires. Our customer needs are to provide them with fastest one-click anytime and anywhere with free of charge bill payments service, also at their convenient language. 3-Targeting strategy Our marketing strategy will use a mix of undifferentiated and concentrated strategy. SMS Bill payment will satisfy any BankMuscat account holders who is having local mobile operator. But also our strategy will concentrate on special targeted customers who want to use SMS banking in Arabic version. 4-Evaluate of market segments Currently the total registered customers for year 2010 are 110099 by comparing to 2009 was 981120 which we estimate the increase by 25% because of the new service and additional language. There is no comparison with other banks because this is new service to market. The cost will only occur in implementation stage because of the system upgrade, Ads, brochures and banners. 5-Selecting target market Based on the overcome of the targeting strategy and along with BankMuscat vision we will use the mix of undifferentiated and concentrated marketing strategies to increase the usage between existing customers and to capture potential customers of our competitors to reach and exceeds the satisfactory levels. 6-Market positioning We are offering our new service to our main two segments, existing and new customers who will use their mobiles SMS for the first time to do transactions which no other banks in Oman provide such service for their customers. The second segment is to provide existing SMS banking service and SMS bill payment service in Arabic-based for remaining BankMuscat account holders. Like before this is new service which our customers will experience exclusively. 7-Developing marketing mix The next section we will be describing the marketing mix Marketing Strategies, 7Ps -Product: Our product is upgraded SMS banking service for account query and bill payments with both English and Arabic interface. -Place: SMS banking service can be accessed by any BankMuscat accounts holders using their mobile phones through our local mobile operators locally or international rooming. -Promotion: Ads will be announced in newspaper radio stations and BankMuscat web site before launching to keep the customer informed for the new service launching and after launching. Brochures and banners will be distributed to all branch channels and ATM/CDM. -Price: SMS banking will remain free of charge service and only customer cost is for SMS as normal cost rate of sending SMS from mobile phone to another. -Physical evidence: Customer will get confirmation SMS after the transaction with transaction code for reference. Customer can use their account statement as a record for their transactions. -Participants: Customers will get support by direct interaction with call center agents and branch staff. -Process: The service will be monitored by usual function in the bank core system with status of the customer. SMS banking team and billing team will have the access to daily reports of the transactions. Budget The budget for the project will divide into upgrading the system and marketing for the service. The system upgrade will cost OMR 55,000 including support from vendor. The second part is for publishing Ads through media newspapers and radio stations and this will cost OMR 13,000. Last part is for printing brochures and banners, which will cost around OMR 25,000. There will be yearly budget for the rewards of the best selling branch. Part of the budget we will get it after the approval from the management. We have good confidence in our management to support the new project as Sheik Abdul Malik Chairman of Bankmuscat described that BankMuscat is welcoming any opportunity to develop pioneered products and services meeting the market changes (Letha 2010). Implementation The action plan is represented in a timeline schedule in next page and will shows each activity time and assigned department with the managers of that activity Evaluation and recommendation Once we end with timeline of the project we will take deep insight view of how our new system is effectively meeting our goals. As we are providing a service we will have to depend on the reports of the system providing. The system will allow us to see for each branch how much registration they made in point of time. We will compare these reports by same month of the previous year to see the percentage of increase. Monthly we will extract reports of the number of bill payments starting from the launching moth of July and onward to see if the increase is happening from month to month. We will also check the payments of each of bill type and to see where the bill type is needs more attention to boost the sale of it. In case there is system failure easily our IT team are ready to switch the system maintenance mode which will stop any interaction with customers SMS and will send default replay as the system under maintenance please try again later. If the problem is persist in bill payme nt facility then we can disable this feature temporary and keep the normal account query facility working until we fix the problem. The bill payments complaint will be handled by bills team and to update any payments with utility provider. So the customer will not need to contact both the bank and the utility provider since we will do all the necessary actions to solve the customers issue. Reference: Times of Oman (2010) BankMuscat wins top Banker award. Times of Oman [online] 14 December 2010. Available from [23 December 2010]. ITA (2010) ITA Vision [online] available from [23 December 2010] Ecommerce Journal (2009) Electronic banking in the Sultanate of Oman Ecommerce Journal [online] available from [23 December 2010] Oman Observer (2009) Omans economic fundamentals remain strong. Oman Observer [online] 05 July 2010. available from [23 December 2010] Sharif,A. (2010) Bank Muscat Third-Quarter Net Income Increases 26% on Lending. Business Week [online] 14 October 2010. Available from [23 December 2010] BankMuscat (2009) BankMuscat widens reach of easy-to-use mobile banking service [online] available from [23 December 2010] Letha,J. (2010) True leader. Business Today [online] 01 Jun 2010. Available from [23 December 2010]

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Anne Frank Essays -- essays research papers

The diary of Anne Frank, written over a two-year period, tells about her life while she and her family are in hiding in Holland. They are staying in a secret attic of the office building where Mr. Frank used to work in order to escape from the Nazis during World War II. During their stay in the annex, they are supported by several people in the office building, who risk their own lives to insure the secrecy of the Jewish hideout and to provide them with food and basic supplies. Much of Anne's diary tells about the daily routine of the occupants of the attic. It also describes in detail the characters of Anne's father, mother, and sister, as well as the characters of the three Van Daans and Mr. Dussel, who share the attic with them. Anne's difficult situation is made more complicated by her own adolescence. Her maturing process, coupled with the misery of her cramped quarters and her constant fear of discovery and capture, is clearly seen in the pages of the diary. She tells of the conflicts she has with her mother and sister, the support she receives from her father, the love that develops between her and Peter Van Daan, the constant bickering of the inhabitants of the attic, and the deprivations that she must endure while in hiding. She also gives a detailed accounting of what is occurring in the war, especially in Holland, and reflects upon her past life. The straightforward and simple diary is filled with conflicting emotions, ranging from depress...

Friday, July 19, 2019

Native American Schooling Essay -- essays research papers

Native Schooling For many years Native American people have been discriminated against in the United States as well as in the Public School system. Beginning with the common-school movement of the 1830s and 1840s, which attempted to stop the flow toward a more diverse society, the school systems have continued to be geared exclusively toward WASPS (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants). Native Americans have been forced to abandon their culture and conform to our â€Å"American† ways (Rothenberg, 1998, pp. 258-259.)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Thomas L. McKenney focused on deculturalizing the children through public schooling (Spring, 1997, p. 16). McKenney served as superintendent of Indian trade for fourteen years. After that office was abolished in 1823, he was appointed as the first head of the Office of Indian affairs. His idea was that a person could â€Å"civilize† the Native American children in schools when they were away from their parents. He tried to force assimilation on these Native American children. He wanted them to convert to Christianity, and adopt the WASP’s beliefs and morals. In 1827 McKenney wrote to the Secretary of War, James Barbour stating that, â€Å"children, who only needed to be protected from evil . . . and under the conditions of isolation and education Indians could be civilized in one generation (Spring, 1997, p.18).†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Missionaries were sent to the tribes to spread the word of Christianity under the Civilization Act. Today the act of sending in missionaries would be viewed as a violation of the First Amendment. The amendment states that there shall be no governmental support of any religion. In that time though they were still beginning their school day with a reading from the Protestant Bible (Spring, 1997, p. 18). The Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches brought into existence the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in 1810. Their mission was worldwide and they sent missionaries abroad as well as the Native American tribes. According to Spring, the missionaries viewed the Native Americans as foreign â€Å"heathen.† A powerful example of the path to deculturalization was Reverend James Ramsey’s visit to a Choctaw school in 1846. As quoted in the Spring text, Ramsey stated, â€Å"`I showed them [on a map] that the people who speak t he English language, and who occupied so small a part of ... ... p. 103), which encouraged Indian involvement in the school systems. This required a separate local committee to represent the population if the majority of the school board was not Native American. This committee was given control over all Native American education programs affiliated with the United States Government. The ideals of this act were expanded upon in 1988 with the Tribally Controlled Schools Act. This act provided for grants to be given directly to tribes to fund the operation of their schools. With these positive modifications equality is in the possible, but distant future.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Native Americans have been oppressed for hundreds of years since the their land was taken from them. The United States Government simply expects the Native American’s to assimilate to our society. Their culture and tribal ways have been stolen without a second thought. The government should provide some sort of retribution for these people. Perhaps Native American culture should be taught in our schools as well as American culture. Hopefully, someday everything will be equal in the world as well as in the public school system no matter what the person’s heritage.

Thoroughly Modern Millie :: essays research papers

Thoroughly Modern Millie   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Thoroughly Modern Millie takes place in the year 1922 in New York. At this point in history all the women wanted equal rites and wanted to have fun. The main characters in this film are Millie Dillmount, Miss Dorothy Brown, Trevor Graydon, Jimmy Smith, and Muzzy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Millie Dillmount is a totally modern woman. She’s come to the cite from the country in search of a husband. She strives to become a successful business woman and to marry well and be rich. She has every intention of marrying her boss.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Miss Dorothy Brown is an orphan new to the city from California. She’s very naive and has no friends or family.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Trevor Graydon is Millie’s new boss. He is a single business man.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jimmy Smith is a man in the paper clip industry. He is madly in love with Millie.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The major theme of this movie is that love doesn’t always have to include money and materialistic things. Also that not everything has to happen like they do in the movies.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Millie Dillmount lives in a hotel and Miss Dorothy Brown from California moves in. They automatically become friends. The house mother, Ms. Meers, is a middle aged Chinese woman who runs an illegal work ran by kidnapped white female orphans. Miss Dorothy is a target because she doesn’t know a soul. Millie meets Jimmy Smith and he falls in love with her. She feels the same only she wants to marry her future boss whom she hasn’t met quite yet. She’s looking for love and money. When Millie finally gets a job her boss, Trevor Graydon, is a handsome, charming man.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One day for an outing Jimmy takes Miss Dorothy and Millie to his friend Muzzy`s house. Muzzy is a multi millionaire who becomes close friends with Dorothy and Millie.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Miss Dorothy meets Trevor Graydon and its love at first sight. Later that night Miss Dorothy is kidnapped by the Ms. Meers and taken to slave with the other white women. Jimmy, Millie, and Trevor figure out what’s going on and come up with a plan.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jimmy dresses up as a woman and gets a hotel room at the hotel and he makes it quite clear that he is an orphan and all alone in the world. He gets kidnapped and Millie follows as he leads the way to the others. Their plan works and everyone gets set free and Millie realizes she loves Jimmy.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Becoming an Alpha Male

Does this sound like you? Are you the guy that women just want to be friends with? Do you have lots of women pals but not lovers? Do women try to push you around, control you or make all the decisions in your relationship? Do you wish you had the confidence and authoritative presence to be in charge of social and business situations?Do your own insecurities keep you from achieving your own potential? Do you wish your sex life was more creative, exotic and fulfilling? This is the plight of what nature calls the beta male – the lesser man.The beta male shrinks into the background and rarely exerts any type of control. He allows himself to be the fallback guy for women, to be controlled by them, and relegated only to asexual pals. He gets very little sex, and what he does get is uncreative and boring. He is not able to assert himself with women or men and has very little chance of achieving his dream in life and love. Beta males do everything in their power to try to please a wom an, but no matter how hard they try, women just push them away and push them around.Beta males are taken advantage of by their friends and by their female companions. Beta males are the â€Å"nice guys† who get caught up in the web of deceitful games that women play and end up losing out in all ways possible while their friends, the alpha males, get all the hot women and all the sex they can handle. After a while, these beta males fall out of reality and become even less attractive to women. Shake off the beta male image now! Learn how to be the alpha male! Be the first guy to get this hot new guide on how to command attention from women by learning the techniques of the alpha male!The alpha male always gets the first pick of woman because of the skills that you will learn in this exciting new guide. Be the master of sexual experiences and social opportunities beyond your wildest dreams. The alpha male gets what he wants, and that guy can be and will be you! You can and will be an alpha male. Forget what you have ever thought about relating to women as a beta male. This informative and innovative new book, Becoming an Alpha Male, will retrain you in how to be dominant, aggressive and completely irresistible to women. That beta male attitude will be gone forever!Beta males are frequently the subject of abuse by hot women. How many times have you wined and dined a woman, only to take her back to your place to find out that she doesn’t want to have an intimate relationship with you because she sees you as just a â€Å"friend†. And how many times does it seem to you that the harder you tried to please a woman, the more she regards you as a just that – a nice friend and does not want to take the relationship with you further. These situations happen because hot women have learned the benefits of preying on what they believe to be men’s motives – desiring them for sex or dating!.In many situations, beta males always cede pow er to the hot women who then become bored with being regarded as superior by these very guys. She is actually looking for the guy who will be a challenge to her. This guy will treat her as just an equal or less and be confident of his ability to attract her without resorting to giving expensive gifts, performing favors, or excessively lowering himself to win her approval. This is the behavior that she finds attractive. The guy who is able to do this exudes an inner belief that he thinks he is able to attract women, and women are attracted to this quiet self-confidence.Consequently, alphas are irresistible to women. The betas who do everything they can to win over a woman’s approval are sabotaging their own efforts, and the more they try, the more women are turned off by them. – How does one shed off the beta male image to move into the alpha male zone, or – How does one cultivate and manifest all the qualities of an alpha male that will quietly attract women, ag ainst their subconscious will and beyond their own awareness? These will be among the major challenges addressed in this book, which you will learn after going over the tips in detail.This article offers only a skeletal preview of the tactics and techniques involved. Get a complete and FREE COPY of the book now for a thorough explanation on the tips. Also, it is no myth that hot women are frequently given their power by beta males, who are willing to accept compromises and even self-abuses in order to get these women. This behavior makes hot women unusually arrogant and ready to walk over you if you are seen to be the next guy that is going after her. Thus betas find getting these women to date them to be nearly impossible.If you do not wish to settle for less, however, this book is for you. It will teach you how to re-establish the playing field, how to become the dominant party in the relationship, how to get hot women to relinquish those powers that they have been given by the be tas, and get them to instinctively surrender to you. Tips to enable you to avoid playing into a hot woman’s games, to avoid being abused by her like the betas who inadvertently became her victims, will be covered in depth in the book, as will the tips on how to lower a hot woman’s esteem and ego, or arrogance.All these will turn you from being a predator to the target and make you that much more different and harder-to-get than other men, and you can turn from being the hunter to the hunted. While betas yearn to sleep with a hot woman, but fail to get her attention, you would be able to sleep with many as you wish and make hot women accept compromises in order to be with you, if you learn how to develop the Alpha Male combination of inner self-confidence and masculine dominance that attracts women. In other words, you can even have hot women tolerate abuses and mistreatments from you, and they will still yearn to sleep with you.Therefore, this book teaches you the tips on how to move quickly through transition phase from being a beta into a hot, confident, but also dominant alpha male that attracts hot women and makes them pursue you. Maintaining their threshold of power, alpha males attract hot women to them, but do not have to accept any compromises themselves and can even have their own picks and selections of any hot women they wish. Hot women simply cannot interfere and block their decisions! Have you ever seen how easily jerks discard their choices of beautiful babes and get themselves new ones almost effortlessly?Jerks are one extreme example of males who attract with dominance and self-confidence. But alpha males can achieve the same thing without being as abusive as jerks. The similarity, however, is that by being an alpha male, you will get women, especially hot women, with success, and not get tossed over by arrogant hotties! Those days will be history pretty soon. And all these and more will be precipitated into realities, but only if you learn how to transform yourself from being a beta male today into an dominant, alpha male, which is the intended purpose for this ebook.