Application of Management Functions to a Case Study

Application of Management Functions to a - Case Study Example As a new manager, I would choose planning to guide me in the management of the hospital. In any business or an organization, entity that focuses on growth and offering quality services to their customers planning is essential (Kerzner, 2013). According to Kerzner, (2013) planning is one of the basic management functions; it involves the use of the available resources to ensure maximum production of goods or solving of peoples wants and needs. Planning ensures maximization of the resources available for production. Additionally, it ensures that the economies of scale are optimized to ensure growth of the organization. Since the merging brings together two entities with different philosophies and way of doing things, planning will be essential to adopt them into our ways of doing things. Additionally, we have to absorb some of the staff who was working in the small hospital. Absorbing the staff can only be possible through effective planning (Kerzner, 2013). Further, Johnson (2013) stated that planning ensures that our goals are clearly set to prevent any conflicts of interest in the newly merged hospital. I will ensure that the goals outlined clearly by writing and follow up to ensure, all the responsible people work hard to ensure the realization of the goals. Additionally, it can come up with a proposal by which the hospitals goals are pinned on all notice boards of the entire hospital. A goal also doubles up as the objectives of the hospital. Objectives are the laid down principles that act as a guide to every organization success. The success of any organization is measured through; the achievements are compared to the set goals. After the merger of the two hospitals, my main goals will include. To increase the number of staff, to start an expanded laboratory facility and to come up with a new registry that will be holding all the records of patients and their affiliates. Secondly, planning shall be essential in my efforts in setting down of

Physics of Volleyball Essay Example for Free

Physics of Volleyball Essay Physics is the study of energy and how it is transferred from one particle to another. There is certainly a lot of energy transferred between objects and players in the sport of volleyball. A few of the concepts of physics that take place during volleyball include gravity, displacement, velocity, acceleration, projectile motion, and force. These concepts are displayed throughout the different positions on the court. There are three main aspects of volleyball that include physics, the first one being displacement. This happens when a player moves to their position on the court and when the ball moves from side to side. Displacement is relative to all positions on the court of volleyball because all six players should be evenly spaced on their respective side. Each player on the court is assigned one of the six positions. Even though theyre only assigned one position, they move and adjust to the play according to their teammates and the direction of the ball. Secondly, velocity is the speed of the player and ball. Velocity is commonly expressed as the change in displacement in a given time. One of these areas where velocity is found in volleyball would be when a player spikes the ball. With the proper velocity, the ball will hit the floor without a defender being able to react quickly enough to the attack. Thirdly, there is gravity, If there was no gravity the ball would not come down nor would the players. Gravity is essential to volleyball because without gravity the players would not be able to stay on the ground and enjoy the game. Also, the ball would float away from the people participating in the game. There are two major concepts of physics for serving, velocity and acceleration. As the ball’s velocity increases its distance also becomes greater. Since the ball is in constant acceleration, the velocity increases by the same amount of time. With the proper velocity, the ball will hit the floor without a defender being able to react quickly enough to the attack. Acceleration goes hand-in-hand with velocity. Acceleration is defined as the rate at which velocity changes. The ball, along with players on the court, both have acceleration. There are times in a volleyball game when the ball has constant acceleration, when the ball is served. When the ball is hit by a player for a spike, the rate at which it reaches is maximum velocity is the acceleration. In order to determine when to hit the ball, you need to calculate the trajectory, speed, and placement of the set. When approaching the ball, the body has kinetic energy and this energy turns into potential energy. This allows the player to jump higher. Since potential energy is the product of the mass of the player, gravity, and the height of the jump, the height is what determines how much potential energy will be attained. When the player hits the ball, it puts as much momentum into it as possible, the shorter amount of time the hand is in contact with the ball, the greater the momentum. Physics affects every aspect of the sport of volleyball from hitting, defense and serving. Without the concepts of physics that take place during volleyball include gravity, displacement, velocity, acceleration, and force, there would not be the sport. Understanding the physics behind the game can make someone a better player because they can learn how the game works and react to it accordingly.

Is Export oriented industrialization indispensable for economic growth

Is Export oriented industrialization indispensable for economic growth INTRODUCTION One of the key indicators, of economic development of a country, is its level of industrialization. That is, as many empirical investigations proved the main reason for increased divergence in living standards between the advanced countries and the developing countries is their level of industrialization. This being the fact, it is only after decolonization and end of world War II that, developing countries consciously adopted industrialization strategies for economic development purposes and as a solution, from their vulnerable dependence on export of few primary products and import of high valued manufactured goods (Brisbane, 1980). The low terms of trade in international market for primary goods from former colonies and the determination to get out of severe poverty and register sustained growth, were the main reasons for the diversification of the narrow structure of the colonial economy. Industrialization is beneficial for developing countries for many reasons including the following (i) it reduces their vulnerable dependence; (ii) it speeds up their economic growth process; (iii) it modernize the economy through spill over or externalities effects associated with industrialization, from advanced countries; (iv) create more employment for the vast population in rural agricultural sector and accelerate income growth which is used as a means to re-distribute income to the impoverished masses; and (v) generate more foreign currency through export which reduces balance of payment problems (Brisbane, 1980). As Brisbane explained, to industrialize, developing countries adopted import substitution strategies from about 1945 to the 1970s. Import substitution strategy is designed to produce few luxury consumer goods for domestic consumption behind a very high tariff wall. However, most countries which followed the import substitution strategy failed, to meet the goal of industrialization, while spectacular growth and development was reported from developing countries that pursued an export oriented strategy, in the 1970s. Defined simply, export-oriented Industrialization (EOI) often termed as export led industrialization (ELI) is a policy designed for the purpose of speeding up the industrialization process of a country through exporting goods for which the nation has a comparative advantage. This policy requires countries to open up their domestic market to foreign competition in return to getting access to international market. In order to promote EOI and ultimately economic development, complementary policies in relation to tariffs, trade, exchange rate, and others need to be adopted and employed. This paper will critically examine how export oriented industrialization is essential for economic growth in developing countries, if it can be backed up by appropriate policies on trade, industrial policy and exchange rate policy, geared for that purpose. The paper also argues that export oriented industrialization has its own drawbacks. Thus, the essay is structured as follows: In section 2, It the paper analyses the significance of policies on the functioning of EOI, particularly: trade policy, industrial policy and exchange rate policy that developing countries need to adopt and identifies areas where government intervention is needed to bring economic development. It then explains the drawbacks of export oriented industrialization, on export dependence countries, in Section 3. Then section 4, empirically examines how EOI contributes to economic development and the conclusions are presented in section 5. 2. Significance of Policies on EOI The role of complementary policies for effectiveness of export oriented industrialization is undeniable. This paper focuses mainly on how trade, industrial and exchange rate policies can support EOI policy. 2.1 Trade policy: Appropriate trade policy is one of the key tools used for effective of export oriented industrialization and for economic development, in general. That is, the better trade policy a country has, the better chance it has for industrial diversification, creating value added products and getting more income from export. Theoretical context: Even if, there has been little consensus on the relationship between trade and short- to medium -term economic growth-and even less on its role in long term economic development. The principle of comparative advantage, which prescribe countries to specialize as to their factor endowment, first described by David Ricardo, forms the theoretical basis for traditional trade theory and provides the rationale for free trade. The principle states that even if a country produced all goods more cheaply than other countries, it would benefit by specializing in the export of its relatively cheapest good (or the good in which it has a comparative advantage)(Murray Gibbs 2007, p. 10). And some classical economists believed that the principal base for this principle is the difference in factor endowments among countries determine the relative cost of production. However, this traditional theory from classical economists has been challenged as it doesnt explain well the actual trade patterns and as the theory has unrealistic assumptions, like perfect competition, full employment etc (Murray Gibbs 2007). In addition to the unrealistic assumptions, in real situations the theory favors advanced countries, and developing countries hardly benefit anything from it. The controversial Singer Prebisch thesis, also explained this situation by stating that it is the center that gets all the benefits of international trade while the periphery gets nothing, which opposes to the Ricardian Theory of Comparative Advantage. He argued: given the differences in the existing economic, productive and labor market structures between the periphery and the center (in the application of technology in traded goods and in the market structures; oligopoly vs. competitive) less-developed countries cannot benefit from international market, if they adopt comparative advan tage doctrine (Todaro and Smith 2009).This is because developing countries usually produce and export primary products which have lower terms of trade. And the scope for diversification is too narrow, and these conditions put developing countries to have vulnerable dependence on international market. Thus, unlike the classical economists static comparative advantage doctrine, dynamic comparative advantage is a better option for developing countries. This is because as more innovation, technology, capital, and other requirements for industrializations are met and as industrialization happens in developing countries, it will be easier to diversify their economic structure, as manufactured goods have better terms of trade than primary products. Skarstein (2007) in his paper Free Trade: A Dead End for Underdeveloped Economies,criticized the comparative advantage doctrine. He argued, what matters most in international trade is the absolute advantage that countries get out of it than a comparative advantage. And empirical evidences show that the doctrines of comparative advantage and free trade benefit the advanced countries only. This is mainly because the doctrines are likely to exclude international learning among countries. Particularly, the WTO agreement, Trade related intellectual property rights (TRIPS), which is a big challenge developing countries to acquire technology, skill and international learning from the rest of the world. He also argued, for a trade policy to function effectively, developing countries have to make sure that, this policy is well integrated with their industrial policy. And in addition to these, developing countries have to get support from advanced countries, through reduced import tariffs for goods from developing countries and by giving developing countries a chance to protect their industries and to get easy access to international market. He also stressed that, developing countries have to ensure that food security is maintained in their countries, as it keeps them safe from their foreign account, balance of payment problems as well. Thus, governments of developing countries have to protect agricultural production for consumption. Therefore, while designing policies, developing countries have to consider the dynamic comparative advantage or absolute advantage options. In addition to this, they also have to consider how their economic integration to the world economy should be in support of EOI. 2.2 Industrial policy: A proper industrial policy is also another important tool for effective export oriented industrialization, as a countrys industrialization depends on how individual domestic firms are protected. This is because, it is individual firms that innovate and harness technological change and compete in the world market (Suranovic, 2002). The basic policy component of industrial policy for developing countries is Infant industry protection. It is a necessary condition, because newly emerging firms in developing countries need some policy to help them grow strong and to safeguard them from intrusion of foreign firms in their market, that have a negative effect on their growth. Infant industries in developing countries can mainly be protected through import tariff mechanism, which reduce imports from the rest of the world and raises demand and production of domestic product. This protection enables the domestic firms to cover their higher production costs and to remain in business. Depending on the nature of the firm, infant industry protection strategy will help the domestic firms to produce efficiently and to be competent in international markets. However, in order to use the infant industry protection policy as a tool for export oriented industrialization, government of developing countries need to have reliable information about what industry to protect, how large the production tariffs need to be and over what period the tariffs will be reduced and eliminated. Because import tariffs have to be gradually reduced and eliminated, to increase efficiency of domestic firms. A complementary policy component to infant industry protection in export oriented industrialization is export promotion. This component stimulates export and allows the infant industry to have access to international market, while Infant industry protection policy allows the new domestic firm to grow strong. For industrial policy to be effective it has to be complemented by competition policy, as some regulations are required for the competition among domestic firms and simultaneously, as there is a need for policy to protect the domestic firms from intrusion of foreign firms in their market. A coherent execution of industrial policy requires a coordinated approach to trade policies. This is because trade policies are designed usually in accordance with a countrys trade negotiations, which include: policies related to investment, tariff, Intellectual property, and others. The effectiveness of tariffs as a tool for industrialization is also linked to the monetary policy framework within which it operates. When the capital account is liberalized control over exchange rates may be lost and the appreciation of exchange rates can obviously undermine export competitiveness and the impact of tariff protection (Murray Gibbs 2007, p. 19). 2.3. Exchange rate policy: The role of exchange rate policy in the success of export oriented industrialization strategy is undeniable. Exchange rate is a policy on the level of exchange rate of a countrys currency. The main challenge in formulating the exchange rate policy is in keeping balance between maintaining exchange rate stability and maintaining export price competitiveness, which requires devaluation. Devaluation increases the value of imports, while it gives options for exporters to choose either to reduce the prices of their products or to keep them as they are, to increase their profit margin. Thus, devaluation, at a cost of higher inflation, enables domestic industries to be competent internationally, by keeping the volume of import down and by raising the volume of export (domestic output) higher. The role of government in controlling inflation, to stabilize the economy is very essential, here. Thus, this phenomenon in addition to supporting the export oriented industrialization process it helps countries to improve their current account balance in Balance of payment problem (Jacob, Atta ; Keith R., Jefferis ; Ita, Mannathoko and Pelani, Siwawa-Ndai 2000) 3. Drawbacks of Export dependence A country is dependent on export, if export constitutes the largest portion of its gross domestic products. However, even if EOI strategy contributes for economic development, the extent to which this strategy is applied has to be considered for various reasons. To mention some of them, as dependency theorists argue: first, export dependent developing countries cause chaos on the long-term economic planning capacity of a nation-state (Barratt-Brown Prebisch) as these countries have little or no control over the market, to allow sustained economic growth through stable revenue. Second, Income from export is not a reliable source for economic development for developing countries. As many of the export oriented industrializations in these countries are owned by multinational corporations, and large portion of revenue from such sources are not repatriated, to be used for re-investment (Jaffee, 1985). 4. Empirical evidence: Skarstein, 2007 paper Free Trade: A Dead End for Underdeveloped Economies, showed the empirical evidences on EOIs contribution for miraculous economic development of the Asian tigers and the now developed countries. It mainly showed the relationship between economic development and effective implementation of infant industries protection policy and export promotion policy. In support of this, it is argued, that many people have argued that Infant industry protection was precisely the industrial development strategy that was pursued by countries like the US and Germany during their rapid industrial development before the turn of the 20th century. Both the US and Germany had high tariffs during their industrial revolution periods. These tariffs helped protect fledgling industries from competition with more efficient firms in Britain and may have been the necessary requirement to stimulate economic growth (Suranovic 2002) Bairoch also analyzed data and concluded that the different the effect of free trade on developed and developing countries is. In all the cases he analyzed, free trade has a positive effect on developed countries while it lets the least developed countries to suffer. He mentioned that United Kingdom registered its fastest growth during the period (1860 1880). In those cases he analyzed, how effective import tariffs for developing countries were in their economic development (Bairoch, 1972, p. 211). In his paper, Skarstein, illustrated, with detailed data how the East Asian tigers used industrialization policy for their economic development. That is: first by implementing a policy of protected import substitution and then, as their industries grow competent, by shifting their industrialization strategy to export oriented industrialization, with a slow reduction of import barriers for industrial good. And, at the same time, how implementing high import protection for their agriculture helped them to maintain food security and helped their success in industrialization The miraculous performance of the East and South East Asian countries during 1970s to 1990s cannot be analyzed without considering the connection between the export -oriented policies and economic growth. In the Newly Industrialized Economies from East and South East Asia, the general macroeconomic policies as well as selective export promotion policies facilitated the high export and economic growth. Following their path China and India also changed their policy stance in favor of export oriented policies and moved on the high growth trajectories. 5. Conclusions: In sum industrialization is a key process for developing countries for economic development. However, as many economists agree, the process of economic development is very complex, as it depends on large number of variables such as political system, socio economic structure, capital accumulation (both physical and human), trade, price fluctuations, and income distribution, and even more on geographical characteristics. As such, while export oriented industrialization contributes to economic growth, it is not necessarily indispensable to the growth and development of developing countries. As explained in this essay, EOI can be one of the key strategies to register economic growth. And in order for it to function effectively it has to be supported by appropriate components of the policy like: infant industry protection strategy, competition policy, export promotion strategy and others. More specifically, it requires well functioning and well integrated macroeconomic policies like: trade policy, industrial policy, exchange rate policy, investment policy, tariff policy and others. Government intervention also plays a key role in making the export oriented industrialization effective for economic development. Examined empirical evidences also reveal that Export-oriented Industrialization was particularly the characteristic of the economic development of the Asian Tigers: Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore in the post World War II period . In addition to Asian Tigers, evidences also tell how EOI strategy contributed for the economic development of US, Germany and others, who are now in developed world category. However, though the role of export oriented industrialization in economic development is undeniable, countries have to also carefully consider its share in the gross domestic product, as larger export dependence has a negative effect on economic growth.

Lighting Candles :: Personal Narrative Essays

Lighting Candles Albert Einstein once said, "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious," His words echo in my mind as I constantly make many choices in my life. First, I chose to leave the state and live with my father in South Carolina, then I came back to my hometown, and now I'm planning to study abroad in France. Change apparently enthralls me. The beauty of change and mystery is not only the excitement of seeing and learning new things but the way in which I can explore my true self and make advancements in personal growth. Sometimes the only way to do that is to test myself by trying new adventures. As a high school student, I have been provided with many and academic opportunities. This has allowed me to develop a stronger sense of who I am, where my strengths lie, and what profesion would best fit my interests and abilities. The greatest blessing has been the leadership organizations that have come into my life. Both in South Carolina and here, I have been honored to be selected as one of the schools emerging leaders. Here, the Emerging Leader Institute has nurtured the challenge of self-exploration. Each forum looked at an important aspect of leadership in a creative and interactive manner. There was rarely a dull moment! From analyzing my personality, to communication exercises, to looking at a real human brain, ELI allowed me to realize my skills in organization, creativity, and communication. But the greater task at hand was both the group and individual leadership projects. As a group, we decided to landcape the Bob Brown House, a home for disabled adults. At first, I felt as though the idea was ludicrous. I didn't think that a group of wimpy high school kids could pull it off successfully. I was wrong. Not only did I see students shine as they prepared for the day by getting many donations of presents, trees, and plants, but I saw the apprectiation in the eyes of the adults whom we helped. I felt grateful and proud to be part of the group. However, the individual project was not as cut and dry. It was truly up to me to decide what to do and to actually do it. I didn't struggle finding a topic. Lighting Candles :: Personal Narrative Essays Lighting Candles Albert Einstein once said, "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious," His words echo in my mind as I constantly make many choices in my life. First, I chose to leave the state and live with my father in South Carolina, then I came back to my hometown, and now I'm planning to study abroad in France. Change apparently enthralls me. The beauty of change and mystery is not only the excitement of seeing and learning new things but the way in which I can explore my true self and make advancements in personal growth. Sometimes the only way to do that is to test myself by trying new adventures. As a high school student, I have been provided with many and academic opportunities. This has allowed me to develop a stronger sense of who I am, where my strengths lie, and what profesion would best fit my interests and abilities. The greatest blessing has been the leadership organizations that have come into my life. Both in South Carolina and here, I have been honored to be selected as one of the schools emerging leaders. Here, the Emerging Leader Institute has nurtured the challenge of self-exploration. Each forum looked at an important aspect of leadership in a creative and interactive manner. There was rarely a dull moment! From analyzing my personality, to communication exercises, to looking at a real human brain, ELI allowed me to realize my skills in organization, creativity, and communication. But the greater task at hand was both the group and individual leadership projects. As a group, we decided to landcape the Bob Brown House, a home for disabled adults. At first, I felt as though the idea was ludicrous. I didn't think that a group of wimpy high school kids could pull it off successfully. I was wrong. Not only did I see students shine as they prepared for the day by getting many donations of presents, trees, and plants, but I saw the apprectiation in the eyes of the adults whom we helped. I felt grateful and proud to be part of the group. However, the individual project was not as cut and dry. It was truly up to me to decide what to do and to actually do it. I didn't struggle finding a topic.

Good Fall

A Good Fall The word Freedom has a different connotation in every part of the world, to have freedom means to have certain characteristics. These characteristics would be having the Third Eye, self-control, humility, and the ability to be able to overcome problems with a strategized plan. In the short story collection A Good Fall by Ha Jin, each story puts characters in dissimilar positions where they show whether or not they have the characteristics that define freedom. A Composer and His Parakeet†, â€Å" In The Crossfire†, â€Å"The Beauty†, and â€Å"Temporary Love† all involve characters that seem to be trapped in a current relationship, but for different reasons. Learned Helplessness is a disease, in which you close your heart and mind to your strong self and settle for your weak self-resulting in shame, several characters are diagnosed with this disease. The Third Eye can be defined as self-awareness, it allows us to interpret the current situation w e are in, and analyze the good from the bad.It emphasizes the bigger, long-term picture over the short-term and helps make decisions out of reason rather emotion. A person with the third eyes exercises discipline over desire. Humility is simply learning from our mistakes to make us stronger and wiser. Fanlin from the story â€Å"A Composer and his Parakeets† shows traits of having freedom. His girlfriend Supriya owns a mute parakeet Bori; she leaves Bori with Fanlin as she goes off to Thailand for her job as an actress. At the beginning Fanlin disliked the bird because he believed one of Supriya’s ex-boyfriends gave her the bird.Over time he grows a heart and starts bonding with the bird, he lets him into his music studio in which the bird was not allowed in at first. Fanlin was preparing to write for an Opera event that was coming up. Weeks went on and the bird went everywhere Fanlin did, until one day by the beach the bird flies away and almost drowns and Fanlin thro ws himself into the water to save it. Bori would later die the following day and his girlfriend did not seem to care about the bird anymore. This made Fanlin’s third eye kick in as he wondered whether she would not care about him like she did with the bird over time.When the bird died so did his relationship with Supriya. Fanlin’s students that he thought music lessons seemed concerned about him and so they bring him another parakeet. This parakeet had a dirty mouth and Fanlin paid him no mind, he even left his window open so he would fly away. After the death of the first bird and the death of his relationship, Fanlin goes on to write a beautiful second half of music in his opera which was full of emotion and is told to go back to rewrite the first half. His second bird would fly away shortly after, symbolizing he being set free from his past relationship that was just a waste of time.Self-control is the ability to improve our position rather than surrender to self-de struction and compulsion. In the story â€Å"Temporary Love†, Lina a married woman who’s husband was in China, lived in the United States with a married man. Although she tells her husband that she lives by herself, she has sexual relations with this married man who’s spouse as well lived in China. They had a mutual agreement to end this temporary relationship until their spouses arrived in the United States. Unfortunately Panbin, the man Lina stayed with grew feelings for her and told her repeatedly he was in love with her.Lina told him a plethora of times that she was married and that they agreed to end this arrangement whenever one wanted. Her husband was coming to the United States so Lina prepares to move out and find her own apartment. She thought that her husband did not know about the affair but he did. He had his ways of having someone follow her and relay him the information he needed. This put Lina in an uncomfortable position, her husband told her he did not want to find a job and was going to go to business school to get his MBA. Not only that, but Lina was going to pay for it with all her money she had saved in her bank account.She had no other choice but to pay for his schooling, she feared that once she paid he would soon leave her. Secretly she would visit Panbin for advice but he paid her no mind for leaving him. Now she was trapped in a relationship she could not escape. Lina could either pay and face the consequences of her husband maybe leaving or not pay and face the humility, disappointment, and shame in her by her family back home for her actions. Lina is a victim of learned helplessness. Freedom was a major contributor in Fanlin actions as he could freely relieve himself from Supriya.As for Lina, she was strapped in for a long ride with the devil. Fanlin is able to figure out that Supriya was no good for him and that she would soon leave him. He made up his mind and left her, and was free without her. Lina in this case was stuck, she had no self-control, she was ashamed of herself and her actions, the only thing she could do was pay her husbands tuition for taking of her ailing father back home. Some people are born with the third eye such as Fanlin, while others lack it and suffer and live a life without any freedom.

Benjamin Harrison - The 23rd President of the United States

Benjamin Harrison - The 23rd President of the United States Benjamin Harrison was the grandson of Americas ninth president, William Henry Harrison. He was a Civil War hero, having ended the was as a brigadier general. He dealt with civil service reform and fighting against monopolies and trusts while he was president. Following is a list of fast facts for Benjamin Harrison. For more in depth information, you can also read the Benjamin Harrison Biography Birth: August 20, 1833 Death: March 13, 1901 Term of Office: March 4, 1889-March 3, 1893 Number of Terms Elected: 1 Term First Lady: Caroline Lavinia Scott - She died of tuberculosis while he was in office. Caroline was key in building the Daughters of the American Revolution.   Benjamin Harrison Quote: Unlike many other people less happy, we give our devotion to a Government, to its Constitution, to its flag, and not to men.Additional Benjamin Harrison Quotes Major Events While in Office: Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890)Electricity Installed in White House (1891) States Entering Union While in Office: Montana (1889)Washington (1889)South Dakota (1889)North Dakota (1889)Wyoming (1890)Idaho (1890) Related Benjamin Harrison Resources: These additional resources on Benjamin Harrison can provide you with further information about the president and his times. Benjamin Harrison BiographyTake a more in depth look at the twenty-third president of the United States through this biography. Youll learn about his childhood, family, early career, and the major events of his administration. Chart of Presidents and Vice Presidents This informative chart gives quick reference information on the presidents, vice-presidents, their terms of office, and their political parties. Other Presidential Fast Facts: Grover ClevelandGrover ClevelandList of American Presidents

The Digestive Systems Essays - Digestive System, Digestion, Ruminant

The Digestive Systems Essays - Digestive System, Digestion, Ruminant The Digestive Systems The digestive systems works on nutrients taken from the environment, breaking them down into simpler products, and then absorbing the products together with water and salts so they can be used in metabolism. The individuals of all species contain many different protiens or carbohydrates in the cell walls of bacteria, chitin in the external skeletons of arthropods, and so on and foreign proteins or carbohydrates are rarely incorporated unchanged. They are usually first broken down to their constituents before being built up again as the proteins or carbohydrates belonging to the organism. In such organisms that are not cellular as amoebae, digestion occurs inside the cell. Intracelular digestion is also found in some higher animals such as mussels and sponges. Muscles, for instance, filter algae and other tiny organisms from the water and digest them within the cells of a special digestive gland. Intracellular digestion occurs even in some animals that consume large pieces of food; the prey captured by Hydra, for example, is partly digested in the coelenteron, a gut-like cavity, and the residue is completely digested in cells of the body wall. Scientists believe that intracellular digestion in organisms such as Hydra has evolved from such protozoans as amoebae and paramecia. In most higher animals digestion is completed not in the cell in the cavity of a digestive tract (the stomach and intestine). Animals with this type of digestion include crustaceans, insects, cephalopods, tunicates, and all vertebrates. A few animals with digestive tracts also partially digest their food before eating it. Some spiders, for example, pierce their prey with fangs that pump digestive fluids into the victim. This liquefies the softer parts, which the spider then sucks into its stomach and intestine, where digestion is completed. DIGESTIVE ENZYMES In digestion large molecules are split into smaller ones by enzyme hydrolosis, so named because water is taken up in the process. The enzymes that hydrolyze proteins, fats, and carbohydrates are called, respectively, proteases, lipases, and carbohydrases, or amylases. Some insects, birds, and herbivorous animals can digest substances that most other animals cannot. The clothes moth digests hair and wool, termite digests wood; and herbivores digest the big, fibrous cellulose of plants that is completely indigestible to other animals. However, none of these unusual organisms produce the needed digestive enzymes, which are furnished instead by bacteria or protozoans, harbored in special parts of the digestive tract. Each termite species, for example, carries protozoans peculiar to it that attack wood and change it into dihestible substances. The newborn termite is infected with its digestive aids by feeding from older termites. Eat as they may, they will die of starvation if isolated before this infection occurs. Herbivorous mollusks like the snail produce their own cellulose- digesting enzymes, as does the shipworm, a wood-boring mollusk. No vertebrate produces cellulose-digesting cellulases. Thus, the initial stages of digestion in the cow and other ruminants are carried out by enzymes secreted by bacteria in the rumen, a large sac that precedes the true stomach. Plant fiber enters the rumen, is attacked by the bacterial enzymes, and is then returned to the mouth for further chewing; the food so returned is called the cud. This chewing increases the surface area exposed to the bacteria. The presence of digestive bacteria in ruminants results in a specialized metabolism of proteins and carbohydrates. Most of the ruminant's protein needs are actually supplied by the rumen bacteria, which use such simple substances as urea and inorganic sulfates to manufacture proteins. Ruminants digest that protein and do not require in their diets certain amino acids (the basic building blocks of proteins) that are indispensable in the diets of other animals. All kinds of organic materials can be digested and used by organisms. Most of the digestion products, however, are the same: simple sugars from the hydrolysis of carbohydrates; fatty acids from the hydrolysis of fats; and amino acids from proteins. These substances yield the energy and body-building material needed by conventional animals. THE GUT In amoebae a vacuole serves the same purpose as the intestine, or gut, in the higher animals. Some parasites need no gut but absorb material from the host through their external surfaces. Organisms below the evolutionary level of the flatworms have a single gut opening that connects with the

Essay on Egyptian Geography

Essay on Egyptian Geography Free Online Research Papers Egypt was kept from outside influence because of its natural boundaries and the Nile. Therefore, this had positive effects on Egypt’s agriculture and development. The natural boundaries included the Mediterranean Sea, deserts and the six cataracts of the Nile. Since there were no outside influences there were no pressures and so this ancient river valley civilization could develop. The Nile did not only protect them but it also benefited them a lot. The annual flood of the Nile gave them good soil to grow and the prevailing winds of the Nile made it easier to travel up and down the Nile. The annual flood also allowed them to develop a calendar. Also the Nile valley gave them a lot of good building materials and other natural resources for tools and jewelry. The Egyptians lived this uninfluenced lifestyle until around 3,000 B.C. Ancient Egypt’s natural boundaries offered it lots of protection which caused it to be so uninfluenced until 3,000 B.C. These natural barriers did not give them full protection and were still vulnerable. The first natural barrier was the Mediterranean above the delta. Before 1500 B.C. not many people traveled by ship and so the Mediterranean offered great protection. The next natural boundaries were the Western Desert and the Lower Desert. A desert is a region that receives less than ten inches of precipitation every year. It was hard to move an army through a desert and also the provisions needed to make the tour. The last natural barrier that gave the Ancient Egyptians protection from outside influences was the six cataracts along the Nile. A cataract is a waterfall or a violent rush of water. These cataracts didn’t let any foreigners or enemies travel in the Nile and therefore kept them out too. Although the Nile river valley was very protected there was one vulnerab le place from which they could be attacked. This vulnerable stop is known as the Suez Canal. This was the only way to get into Ancient Egypt. Also known as the Isthmus of Suez which was the land bridge between Asia and Africa. Today the Suez Canal is used for transporting goods. Because of the Ancient Egypt’s natural boundaries it was able to keep out enemies and so could easily develop. Like the Greek historian Herodotus once said, â€Å"Egypt is the gift of the Nile.† Herodotus’ quote about Ancient Egypt was right. Indeed Ancient Egypt is the gift of the Nile because without it there would be no Egypt. The yearly flood was one of the reasons why Egypt developed so well agriculturally. Every year June and October the summer rains in the Ethiopian highlands and the melted snow from the mountains came down to the Nile and caused its banks to over flow. This gave fertility to the land and created silt. The flood was very important and life supporting. If there was no flood then the land wouldn’t be good for planting and therefore nothing could be grown. That is why agriculturally Egypt developed so well because of the annual flood. The Ancient Egyptians therefore developed a machine which was used to irrigate the crops. It was called a shadoof and consisted of a balanced beam which on one side had a bucket that took the water from the Nile and then brought it to the canals. By using this technique the Egyptians were able to not only grow one crop per year but up to three crops which gave them a bigger surplus of food. Since the flood was annual and came every year around the same time the Ancient Egyptians developed a calendar around the flood. In order to develop a calendar you need a predictable event such as the rise and fall of the Nile. Therefore, Egyptian priests studied the night skies for stars to mark the beginning of the Nile flood. They did find a star that marks the beginning of the Nile flood called sepdet. Around this a 5,000 year old calendar was formed. Because of the prevailing winds that swept over the Nile transport was very easy and important. You could either go up stream with the current or against the current with the prevailing winds. This was important because it was easier to travel along the Nile and allowed them to trade and transport goods along the Nile. Because the Nile was so protected from out side influences they developed their own system of irrigation and a system of calendar based on the flood. This also clearly shows that the Nile gave the people a lot and was therefore the key to survival in Ancient Egypt. In addition the Nile Valley and the desert provided a lot of good resources for the Ancient Egyptians. One of the main resources of the Nile was the papyrus plant which grew along the Nile in abundance. Papyrus was used to make paper by cutting of the stem of the plant and using the pith of the plant which was then compressed and that made the paper. But papyrus could also be used to make rope by twisting it. The ability to make paper gave them the ability to write and therefore this was a very important achievement in Ancient Egypt. This was also very beneficial because through this they could write down their ideas on paper and keep records. Copper and turquoise were found in the Sinai Peninsula. Turquoise was used to carve scarabs and was used in jewelry. Copper was used to make tools for building or other utensils of some sort. Gold was found in the desert Thebes and was mainly used for jewelry. Clay however, could be found almost anywhere in Egypt and when mixed with water and s traw you could make bricks for building. There was limestone available for building. Granite was quarried near the first cataract which was also a very good source for building. Once the Egyptians were able to successfully quarry stone and transport they could build different houses or buildings out of stone. Because the Nile valley was so rich in natural resources there were a lot of things that could be made to their benefit. The granite, limestone and clay bricks were good ways for building. Therefore, we can see that the Nile valley was very important to the Egyptians. The reason why the Egyptians developed so well and stayed a civilization for so long was because of the optimal geographical location they were in. Because they had natural boundaries which protected them they didn’t have to fear attack and could develop. The natural boundaries kept enemies out. The Nile was the main reason though that there was Egypt. It was the source for their agricultural development and it gave them a lot of resources that were important for their development. Basically the Egyptians developed a civilization around the Nile. Without of the Nile this area would have never been populated. Because of the annual flood the Egyptians developed one of the earliest calendars known to us. Although different cultures have shown that isolation and natural â€Å"protection† has only stopped their process of development it was exactly the opposite for the Ancient Egyptians. Research Papers on Essay on Egyptian GeographyCanaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionMind TravelThe Spring and AutumnGenetic EngineeringWhere Wild and West MeetComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoQuebec and CanadaDefinition of Export QuotasEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever Product

The State of Human Nature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The State of Human Nature - Essay Example Hobbes identified and discussed two paths that human nature takes and, no matter the striving and effort put into one or another, the human being and its glory or fall resides in what he called ethical egoism. The purpose of this paper is to discuss this matter by looking at two examples: one given by Michel Montaigne and the other, more recent and representing a deeply disturbing moment in history, by Primo Levi. The ethics and moral values of humans seem to diminish, if not vanish, when it comes to two important processes that set into motion the dynamics of humanity; be it the natural condition that Hobbes discusses, that of the man dealing with no artificial political or religious bodies of governance, a man who has to create a cult for the Self in order to survive, or the condition in which the mechanisms of power punish or reward the individual, man proves to be fundamentally violent and able to start the metamorphosis of everything that once was considered moral value. In 'De Cive' Hobbes concludes that: " I obtained two absolutely certain postulates of human nature: one, the postulate of human greed by which each man insists upon his own private use of common property; the other, the postulate of natural reason, by which each man strives to avoid violent death."1 The transformations do not completely erase the cognitive capacities of the individual, but reinforce in a very dangerous way for the society the Delphic principle 'nosce te ipsum', which can push the individual into a world of absurdity in which reasoning is as well transformed and all meaning becomes corrupt. Michael Montaigne's aim in his essay 'On Cannibals' is a very complex one and it is that of proving that no matter the time or the social circumstances, human nature developed its fundamental values and constantly fought to adjust morality to whatever its interest was. The problem of the pain or pleasure generated by a government like mechanism, which in Hobbes opinion triggers the egotistic behavior, is seen by Montaigne as something which occurs in those of us who have a very strong desire to be better than others, desire that is destructive for the rest of the society, and, this sort of action loses touch with the original selfishness, degenerating thus; we all are barbarians, some are transformed by these inner happenings into more barbaric people. For Montaigne both the cannibal who lives in a natural state of no law and reasoning, who and the cannibal who adhered to a moral barbarism as part of an artificial structure, if we are to put it in Hobbes terms, are guilty of seeing as barbarian, as a threat "whatever is not his own practice".2 When it comes to the questions related to the similarities and differences between the cannibal and the barbarian withholding some moral values, the last one represents the society contemporary to Montaigne, mainly seen in terms of political dispute and greed for power just like in Hobbes case; both philosophers found their theories on the sort of violence generated by self conscious people who end up acting as violent beings who are in fact too weak and fall under the influence of their own edacity. Montaigne's argument stands valid and is a confirmation of Hobbes's thesis that humans act only in their own advantage. Montaigne states that: "I conceive there is more barbarity in eating a man alive, than when he is dead; in tearing a body limb

Domino's pizza (evaluation essay) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Domino's pizza (evaluation ) - Essay Example Tossed pizzas, Bread Sticks, Cheesy Bread, Cinna Stix, Buffalo Wings, Boneless Chicken, oven-baked sandwiches, Breadbowl Pastas and Chocolate Lava Crunch Cake. This essay aims to evaluate Domino’s Pizza and compare it with another pizza store, Pizza Hut, which is considered to be its major competitor. Their products and marketing strategies will be assessed and weighed against each other. For this essay, one will focus on the pizza products only. A brief background about Pizza Hut will be discussed in this essay too. A major competitor of Domino’s is Pizza Hut. The first Pizza Hut was established in Wichita, Kansas in 1958, two years before Domino’s. At present Pizza Hut has more than 11,139 stores operating in more than 94 countries. Its menu includes Thin N Crispy, Veggie Lovers, Meat Lovers, Tuscani Pastas, WingStreet wings, pastas, bread sticks, Cinnamon Sticks, Hershey’s Chocolate Dunkers, among others. Both Domino’s and Pizza Hut offer almost the same product line. They both have thin and thick crusts pizza. Aside from the regular pizzas, Domino’s has Mexican-inspired pizzas which are offered for a limited time. Another addition to its pizza line are its gourmet pizzas where they use ingredients such as baby spinach and feta cheese. Like Pizza Hut, they also have a variety of toppings on their pizzas. The tomato sauce topping they use are almost similar in terms of sweetness and sourness. Both have the right blend of seasonings and spices that complement the wide range of toppings. Domino’s however boasts of its meatballs topping. Domino’s and Pizza Hut both have different crust offerings for their pizzas. Pizza Hut prides itself of their hand-tossed crust. One finds Domino’s pan pizza as softer and fluffier. For the thin crust pizzas, one is convinced that the Pizza Hut’s thin-crust pizza is crispier than that of Domino’s. In terms of the promotional strategy, both Domino’s and Pizza Hut have a â€Å"buy one, take

Advice topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Advice topic - Essay Example The Chinese culture focuses on molding children into morally upright individuals of the society. Many life teachings as championed by early prominent persons such as Confucius are at the center of upbringing in the Chinese culture (Colson, 45). I have learnt many lessons from the teachings, which guide me in my daily dealings. For instance, Confucius’ teaching on unlocking personal excellence has propelled me to success and within reach of my full potential. Confucius says that â€Å"choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.† The Chinese culture has shaped me into a morally upright member of the society. Confucius lessons are instrumental in personal empowerment and decision-making on issues such as choosing a career path (Hall, Mod. 1). The sensitivity of an individual to other cultures is paramount in establishing good relations. The important aspects of the Chinese culture have made me sensitive to other cultures. Initially as I grew up, I ignored other cultures simply because they were not part of my life. However, after moving to America, I have been able to learn new things and life became more interesting as I integrated other cultures into my way of life. There should be no fear of other cultures and instead for individuals to reach their full potentials, they should explore the diversity of cultures (Hall, Mod. 1).The diverse nature of Chinese culture has helped me make formidable relationships with my peers from other cultures. The anxiety to learn from each other and empower ourselves has been the key driving force to this course. Due to different cultures, individuals have different personalities. This has made it easier to form all-round academic and social groups with friends and classmates (Hall, Mod. 1). Belief System and Discipline are important values of any culture. My parents use guan as the primary practice of valued discipline. Confucianism is a feature of

Children's behaviour towards undiected recreational play Research Paper

Children's behaviour towards undiected recreational play - Research Paper Example A fact that is not often recognised is that play can even function as a type of therapy for children who suffer from behavioural problems. In the present world, children are exposed to numerous problems that affect them physically and psychologically. The rate of divorce has risen significantly across all nations. This means that children are increasingly being raised in single families, and having to live with the complex emotions that this triggers even though they do not have the capacity to process them. This can cause behavioural problems to arise even in the well-adjusted children. Children today are also exposed to greater levels of stress than their counterparts dealt with in past generations. Many parents today prefer for their children to entertain themselves indoors rather than exploring their surroundings outside. This is because parents tend to be committed to work activities outside the home, and so cannot supervise their children when they are outside school (Ohannessian 2014). Furthermore, parents and guardians today have more access to information through various media channels. This means that parents are more likely to think that their children are endangered due to the sheer numbers of child molesters, kidnappers, and drug traffickers that they imagine are walking through neighbourhoods. It is a fact that such miscreants existed in the past when children were allowed to play outside unsupervised; however, the parents of past generations may not have been exposed to information about child molesters on a regular basis. All children use play as a natural medium to express themselves. This means that when children have accumulated stress from family problems that they have no control over, they can actually play out their negative feelings. It is an established fact that undirected play is far more productive than directed play. This is because there are definite distinctions between child directed play and adult directed play.

Cosmetic Industry Advertising Analysis- Prime focus on L'Oreal Essay

Cosmetic Industry Advertising Analysis- Prime focus on L'Oreal - Essay Example L’Oreal is one such cosmetic company who with their effective advertising campaigns is able to attract consumers from various cultures from all the over, thereby achieving sizable profits and in the process becoming the largest cosmetics and beauty company of the world. Among the many industries, the cosmetic industry is an ever expanding one, as the desire of the people to look as well as feel good has been increasing, irrespective of gender, age, culture, etc. L’Oreal Group is able to cater to these segments of consumers by offering products for hair care, hair colouring, skin care as well as beautifying products in three international brands, namely L’Oreal Paris, Garnier and Maybelline. One of the key as well as successful branding cum advertising strategy adopted by L’Oreal and missed by its competitors is the reaching out to the customers of different countries of the world, across different income ranges and cultural patterns. (finance.mapsofworld.c om). That is, instead of focusing on one country or even a particular continent and one target customer base, L’Oreal has and is still expanding to newer markets with various products as part of differentiation strategy. â€Å"L'Oreal uses different brands to attract different markets†¦shows no desire to create the world in its own, singular image† (Haig 2006). Importantly, in their operations worldwide, L’Oreal comes up with advertisement campaigns which cater to the local population, even while maintaining an international look. International look in the sense, even if L’Oreal come up with advertisements catering to the local population featuring local celebrities or models, they make sure that the celebrity or even the model has an non-ethnic international facial features. On the other hand, some international advertisements with international celebrities are also showcased in other countries, with the language or voice over dubbed in the local la nguage. In addition, the advertisements are shot by International advertising agencies to give that look. This can be seen in the key market of India, where L’Oreal advertisements although have local celebrities like Former Miss World and Indian actress Aishwarya Rai, it projects an international look. â€Å"Cosmetics major L’Oreal uses international advertising for its brands like the hair.† (Jacob 2002).Thus, it is clear that as â€Å"a result of this transnational approach, L'Oreal is apparently able to maintain a similar image for all its brands wherever they are sold.† (Bogucki and Kredens 2010). While its competitors are now only following L’Oreal’s path and are diversifying and entering various markets. That is, these companies mainly catered to the local market and people of particular ethnicity and race, and so their advertising campaigns had a certain market centric ‘look’. For example, Shiseido, Japan’s number one cosmetics company and fourth largest in the world, exhibited this behaviour as they mainly focused on the Asia-Pacific region and thereby came up with advertising campaigns that predominantly featured Asian models. However, following the model set by the L’Oreal, Shiseido also wants to become a global player by showcasing international advertisements as well as local advertisements with international look. â€Å"We want to become more of a global company like L'Oreal,'' says Yoshikuni

Writing is an important thing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Writing is an important thing - Essay Example Writing helps students achieve goals and objectives related to other subjects within and without the teaching and learning environment. As a writer, I have come to understand that writing is not as easy as it appears. Writing can be as simple as one could think, or as complex as it could ever get. On the same note, forms of writing are many and different. For this reason, the experiences of a writer are broad in terms of scope, and these experiences show one’s creativity and imagination in writing. Personally, when I joined this class I did not know what defines a well-written essay. With the free writing assignment, however, I learnt proper essay writing through getting information, organizing the content, and targeting the intended audience. When writing, it is important to capture the intended main idea. Through free writing, I have learnt how to identify the main ideas from a given piece of writing. Main ideas give meaning to any written piece. On the same note, the style and strategy of presenting written work matters as far as the audience is concerned. In this respect, I have learnt to address major factors that improve the quality of writing. In so doing, I have become a more competent writer. Over and above improving the quality of writing, I have understood synthesizing, comparing, and contrasting information and/or content of written work. In the process, I have become a writer who thinks outside the box when presented with a piece of information and/or text.

Children's behaviour towards undiected recreational play Research Paper

Children's behaviour towards undiected recreational play - Research Paper Example A fact that is not often recognised is that play can even function as a type of therapy for children who suffer from behavioural problems. In the present world, children are exposed to numerous problems that affect them physically and psychologically. The rate of divorce has risen significantly across all nations. This means that children are increasingly being raised in single families, and having to live with the complex emotions that this triggers even though they do not have the capacity to process them. This can cause behavioural problems to arise even in the well-adjusted children. Children today are also exposed to greater levels of stress than their counterparts dealt with in past generations. Many parents today prefer for their children to entertain themselves indoors rather than exploring their surroundings outside. This is because parents tend to be committed to work activities outside the home, and so cannot supervise their children when they are outside school (Ohannessian 2014). Furthermore, parents and guardians today have more access to information through various media channels. This means that parents are more likely to think that their children are endangered due to the sheer numbers of child molesters, kidnappers, and drug traffickers that they imagine are walking through neighbourhoods. It is a fact that such miscreants existed in the past when children were allowed to play outside unsupervised; however, the parents of past generations may not have been exposed to information about child molesters on a regular basis. All children use play as a natural medium to express themselves. This means that when children have accumulated stress from family problems that they have no control over, they can actually play out their negative feelings. It is an established fact that undirected play is far more productive than directed play. This is because there are definite distinctions between child directed play and adult directed play.

Writing is an important thing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Writing is an important thing - Essay Example Writing helps students achieve goals and objectives related to other subjects within and without the teaching and learning environment. As a writer, I have come to understand that writing is not as easy as it appears. Writing can be as simple as one could think, or as complex as it could ever get. On the same note, forms of writing are many and different. For this reason, the experiences of a writer are broad in terms of scope, and these experiences show one’s creativity and imagination in writing. Personally, when I joined this class I did not know what defines a well-written essay. With the free writing assignment, however, I learnt proper essay writing through getting information, organizing the content, and targeting the intended audience. When writing, it is important to capture the intended main idea. Through free writing, I have learnt how to identify the main ideas from a given piece of writing. Main ideas give meaning to any written piece. On the same note, the style and strategy of presenting written work matters as far as the audience is concerned. In this respect, I have learnt to address major factors that improve the quality of writing. In so doing, I have become a more competent writer. Over and above improving the quality of writing, I have understood synthesizing, comparing, and contrasting information and/or content of written work. In the process, I have become a writer who thinks outside the box when presented with a piece of information and/or text.

Environment Influences Essay Example for Free

Environment Influences Essay There is a belief among experts that everyone is born as a blank slate. We do not know anything about the world and those around us and we spend our childhood years learning, emulating, adjusting, and finally creating our individual personas based on these experiences. Now the main question being asked by the other experts these days is â€Å"Does the environment influence people?† The environment has an effect on a person in more ways than one can fare imagine. My argument is that the environment does influence people, children most specifically, by building character and freethinking. We can also view the influence of the environment on people in terms of scientific and sociological aspects. In more scientific terms, one can say that an environment is based on the physical, geographic, biological, social, cultural, and political conditions that a person has to deal with on a daily basis and learns to equip himself regarding how best to handle those situations. In terms of society links, the environment has a direct bearing on how lives and societies evolve. People, progress, development, and the environment are like an inter-linking chain where all of these varied aspects converge to form a new form of thinking or character in a person. In terms of childhood development, we can safely say that the environment has the heaviest influence over a child. A child’s environment is not the same as in his home environment where everything is controlled by his parents. Even though parents may raise and rear a child in the best way they know how, that is not the environment that influences him the most because he spends most of his time outside the house. The environment outside the house is where the child begins to develop his character and sense of ones self. Outside the home, a child tries to become part of and to identify himself with a peer group. A child does this by allowing himself to be influenced by the people around him and following their examples and making it suit their own individual needs. . His environment also influences the culture of a child. Culture, is something that a person must experience first hand in order to learn from it. Therefore, since you have to live in order to experience culture, one can consider culture to be a transmission from the environment of the child or adult. Just like influence, culture is passed on from person to person. Even though parents try to provide the â€Å"right† environment for their children, the simple truth is that there is no â€Å"right† anything. The environment will influence the child no matter how you try to control it because a parent can only do so much to influence the child who spends most of his time outside the home. Of course, aside from children, the environment that they interact in can also influence adults. The social environment of a person dictates the way he shall conduct himself in public. There are a large majority of studies that support the argument that the environment does greatly influence the personality of people because the way his environ ment views his physical appearance will determine how he will act out in public. It is this belief that has most experts, such as doctors and mental health professionals debating various theories regarding the mental development of people. Certain theorists are of the opinion that the environment a person grows up in has a direct effect on his mental health and mental development. So there must be a concentration on the environmental development of a person’s mind. So what do these developments and studies about how the environment influences people tell us? It tells us a number of major things. First of all, the environment is not just located in one localized place. It also cannot be in a controlled space for long. The environment of children proves to be a very delicate and intricate part of growing up. The environment of a person directly influences the mental development, and personality of the child or adult. Secondly, the social environment of an individual influences his behavior as these so called â€Å"norms† show us how to act and how to have other people treat us. It is this social influence that trains a person to conform, comply, and follow the dictated norms of the environment he exists in. Yes, the environment does have a direct influence on a person. The direct influence of the environment on people cannot be measured in terms of quantity. This topic is so vast and highly debatable that it will take more than a three page essay with which to defend my stand. Therefore, I would like to conclude my essay on the following note. Each man is placed in an environment where he will best grow as a person. Be it in youth of maturity, that person will have an equal amount of exposure to good and bad environments. The choice of which environment he will allow to influence him solely depends on greatly influenced he is by the environment and his peers. The influence of the environment ends when the person makes the conscious decision to follow a certain path for himself be it in along the path of his environment or in an opposite direction. At the end of all this, the environment gave the individual a unique personality and coping ability that is designed to best help him navigate the perils of his environment. An environment will only influence a person as far as he is willing to be influenced. Everything else pertaining to influencing the individual mentally, socially, and emotionally are all conscious decisions made by the person him or herself based upon the influences of his immediate and past environments Games and Violence Computer games have seriously caught the attention of Mass Media and nowadays every channel considers its duty to remind people how much damage these games cause to children and adults. The increasing amount of games with violent scenes sock the society and makes it very aware of them.It is already common knowledge that violent games cause violence in people. This fact is not even doubted by the majority of people. Every other person says that the reason lies in games being too close to reality. The opinion that games make violent actions normal for the player and therefore make the player pitiless can be often heard. In this case the game is the cause of violence and the act of violence by itself is a consequence. And can real-life violence exist in the reality of a game? Is the transfer of the definition of â€Å"violence† with all its peculiarities from one world to another justified only according to the external similarity of these two worlds? Games originally are entertainment. Contemporary games are very realistic and for this reason they are a source of great experience for the player and develop the imagination. Games are entertainment and even more then that. In addition, the statistics of the New York University lead by Green and Bavelier claim that the player preferring active games get an improvement of some types of brain activity, related to processing of visual information. In particular, game players cope with problems of simultaneously tracking several moving objects at the average level of 30% better then people who do not play active computer video games. The â€Å"gaming† violent experience may not be the cause of violent behavior in reality. None of the playi ng experience will become the priority in making important decisions concerning problems in real life. A game is an abstraction. A player gets abstract tasks and acts according to abstract rules.Games are also the possibility to be however a person wants to be and to rest from the outside world for some time. But what if a person gets so much excited with the game scenes that he becomes violent in reality? Then, it proves that the games cause people to become violent. Let us stop for a moment right at this point. Those who do not participate in this type of activity usually make the conclusion of presence of violence in the game-world. Nobody will ever hear this kind of statement from those who play, from those who know the rules of the game and understand that it is just a virtual world. A psychologically healthy person will never confuse or connect these two different worlds. A game is a virtual world with visual images very similar to human. These images represent by themselves nothing but simple playing obstacles. A game may potentially give the opportunity to â€Å"destroy the obstacles† that may not be destroyed according to the rules but it is more about personal choice whether to do it or not. This leads us to the conclusion that violence is not a consequence but the cause. People who are originally prone to violence may get irritated by games and perform violence in the â€Å"real world†. But in this case violence in games is a simple justification of the violent nature of the player. Is a College Degree Necessary to Become Successful The value of higher education cannot be underestimated considering the contemporary realities of the competitive marketplace. A higher education degree literally serves as the first impression of a jobseeker applying for employment. Namely a college degree is a person’s pass to the business world and so work-related opportunities are enormous. Truth is, college degrees are never the same if we take into account the reputation of higher establishment as well as the prestige of a particular field of studies. The today’s holders of college degrees have unprecedented opportunities of job search since the employment market has largely expanded throughout on-line domain offering freelance and part-time vacancies. Though, in both real and virtual employment, it is always a person’s CV (resume) that is initially considered by employer and in 95% of cases the inclusion of college degree is a must to get a well-paid job. The abovementioned proves that college degree always pays off, and therefore this essay aims to discuss the present-day realities in due respect. Overall, college education provides students with appropriate knowledge and skills to be used later in real life circumstances and working environment. At that career choices do not matter since the contemporary market is vast and enormous. In particular, college education enables students to gain preliminary information about many essential aspects required to cope with real-life challenges. At that students expand their knowledge and acquire practical skills by grasping abstract theories and concepts. A college curriculum teaches students how to clearly express personal standpoints and opinions both in conversation and writing. In most cases students acquire global thinking as well as that relevant to the solution of specific problems. Furthermore, students learn how to work in teams and solve tasks in cooperation; this enables to establish team spirit and ability to make personal contribution to overall mutual achievement. Various case studies based on real-life experiences teach students to better presume and therefore adapt to further complexities. To this end, it goes without saying that a college degree always means more employment opportunities since it is the identification of one’s academic qualification. In comparison, high school education is not enough to meet the ongoing challenges of today’s market place, and therefore the overwhelming majority of jobs require a college degree. In addition to the expanded job opportunities, a bachelor’s degree means higher earning prospects compare to a person with a high school diploma. Therefore, our earnings initially depend on the quality of diploma we receive, and to a great extent college marks (grades) may be compared to the monthly salary rate in the future In actual fact, there is a problem concerning studying at a college. College education does not depend only on student’s talent, successfulness or willingness to study. The cost of education is therefore high issue on the agenda which indicates the affordability of college education. Many students cannot afford college education due to various reasons and/or particular life conditions. Hence, most students rely on loans and/or other means of financial aid to afford their college courses. Apart from financial reasons, of course, the initial factor is high self-motivation to study at college. Whenever there is no family tradition or lack of overall interest, or nobody to recommend college education, a young person may easily opt for other (alternative) choices. In addition to this, college education a ssumes preliminary determination meaning that a person should choose a single subject area (law; medicine; architecture) to master in college and therefore build his/her career. However, the initial indecisiveness does not mean a student should know everything in advance. A college education is therefore designated to provide a student with proper and substantial knowledge and skills; nevertheless, the major direction should be chosen well in advance. One other initial problem is that young people mistakenly assume that a college education is rather difficult. To this end, it is worthy to note that studying at college involves student support and tutoring. Most western colleges are equipped with the necessary technological devices and easily accessible academic database to assist students while performing their assignments. Certainly, there are alternatives (e.g. community colleges) to four-year colleges that provide sufficient level of education, though only bachelor’s and master’s degrees are genuinely valued on the competitive marketplace, and therefore most students try to complete their education at four-year colleges (College Board, 2008) . Considering the aforementioned, the most important issue on the contemporary agenda would be not the importance of a college degree as such, but its real quality. This is actually the root answer to the problem of why some people are becoming more successful, while others not. Specifically, the quality of a college degree indicates that college graduates obtained certain amount of knowledge and managed to process and, most importantly, absorb it. A core subject, such as law or medicine whatever, requires proper understanding, a contribution of solid amount of time and additional resources to make it a future profession that would bring profits. This is to ay a college degree as such is not the panacea in a working world. A proper college diploma therefore assumes that a college graduate is able to prove it with a certain extent of academic knowledge. Regarding practical skills, they are further acquired within internship, practice and actually working environment. Many people, howeve r, fail to prove their knowledge acquired during college years with practical skills and therefore are made to change profession/occupation. Historically education has been regarded as a key to prosperity, and college system of education starting from the 17th century has proved this approach to be right. Also, throughout historical evolution, conventionally males have gained better education compared to females. However, times have changed and starting from the second half of the 20th century the situation has been equalizing. The today’s working environment is highly diverse providing vast opportunities to the qualified specialists and therefore knowledge has been regarded as a decisive factor. Religious, sex, colour, socio-cultural diversities are more and more eliminated since companies need qualified college graduates that can prove their knowledge in practical conditions. This is the way most companies win a competitive advantage for qualified employees are regarded as an invaluable asset by most corporations. Such fair treatment based on professional qualities rather than individual features is reasonable an d justified. Based on qualifications, there is hardly any difference between pay rates; nonetheless, in most industries men still earn more than women. This indicates that discriminatory issues are more and more tolerated and the quality of education approved by a college degree is a real value at the contemporary marketplace (Leonhardt, 2008). One more aspect to consider is the vast employment opportunities accessible to college graduates. The point is that the modern world has become flexible and changing as never before. Internet and cutting-edge technologies indicate the permanent progress and thus success is now associated with s permanent change. Successful people permanently adjust to changing circumstances and diverse environments to reap most benefits. Thereafter, the work-related relationships between employees and employers have also altered dramatically. There are millions of freelance job opportunities enabling people to work form the comfort of their home and rationally maintain work-life balance. To keep workforce loyal most companies need to establish flexible working practices, including part-time jobs, paternity leaves, childcare leaves, swapping shits etc. Therefore, HR departments lessen work stress and enable their employees to lead reasonable (normal) lives. In addition to this, employees are granted with numerous bonuses and incentives that often serve as sound motivators to keep loyal to the corporate policies (Walton, 1985). Due discussion might be continued and further expanded – though the core theme remains the same – only proper extent of knowledge and skills approved by a college degree enable a person to change jobs and seek better option for career-building and professional advancement. A college degree is a precious asset we use during lifetime to properly build up our professional growth and development. Therefore, whenever there is a chance, a person should use four college years to acquire this asset and ensure his/her further career prospects. As a rule, college graduates make social strata regarded as elite and many of them are becoming very successful to donate money to charities and therefore reduce poverty. Hence, knowledge brings profit and profit is used for prosperity. In the 21st century this particular formula should be applied in all walks of life to make the world a better place. 1. Argumentative Topic (Alcohol danger for under age drinking) Alcohol addiction is largely featured by general tolerance for alcohol with periodically increasing amounts to achieve the same degree of satisfaction, having a persistent desire or the inability to lower the amount of consumed dozes, and continuing consuming great amounts of alcohol despite realizing that the habit causes physical, psychological and socio-economic problems. Such dependence is much intensified during the teenage period (13-19 years) when young organism acquires negative effects that eventually destroys the rest of a person’s life. Alcohol addiction is mostly featured by psychological and physical dependence on daily basis. Hence, physiological, behavioral and cognitive perceptions are mainly centered on alcohol rather other life values. Alcohol desire is deemed a central descriptive characteristic of the dependence syndrome (Mental Health Matters, 2005). In addition, alcohol dependence is featured by irresistible desire or compulsion to frequent alcohol takings, and consequently difficulty to control alcohol-taking behavior including post-consumption consequences; disregard of outer difficulties caused by enormous alcohol consumption. As is proved by numerous under-age examples of alcohol consumption and addiction, the dependence syndrome is mostly revealed in either alcohol taking or a desire to take alcohol (Mental Health Matters, 2005). The need for alcohol is present when a person craves alcohol and cannot limit actual amounts or whenever a drinker enlarges alcohol consumption to feel high. Then, this state is called alcoholism which is particular to the majority of drinkers who practiced alcohol consumption during the underage stage. Differences between men and women at their workplace Introduction: A very important issue concerning diversity is the difference between men and women at workplace. As the matter of international experience of hiring people it is very important to point out that there have been a great number of cases connected with discrimination. We consider this to be a vital problem even nowadays, in spite of the change of the reasons for discrimination. If in the past it was a major problem for women to find a job and to prove that they can provide results equal to men, in the present time the situation has quiet changed. In addition to that women start getting benefits and are sometimes the only possible employees for a given workplace. Women establish a very strong emotional contact with the client; at the same time they are treated as being less professional than their male colleagues. Male workers according to the opinion of the employers are more rational. They complement and substitute the women’s emotional â€Å"contamination† by the rational aspect of the matter they are working with. Due to this employers sometimes prefer to eliminate either the â€Å"emotional†, or the â€Å"rational† factor and put â€Å"labels† on the employees taking their gender as an evaluating criterion. But nowadays everything has changed and men and women perform each other’s work excellently. We have observed in practice this difference, when a job, considered to be a â€Å"male job† was done perfectly by a woman but did not get the well-earned recognition in the company. One of the psychological reasons for that, as we assume, is the incapability of the authorities of the company to deal with a stereotype and change their ways according to the changing world around them. So therefore, it is the lack of flexibility. Women nevertheless are treated with a higher loyalty in any decent company. And sometimes their work results may be viewed as just needing some correction in comparison to the same work presented by men that would be considered wrong. But all these are exaggerated examples. The cultural component of this issue should be taken in count, too. For example is we take a black male and a white woman we may meet with a â€Å"special† treatment to the first one, due to the company’s respect and desire to show that they do not have any racial prejudices. We, believe, that the difference between men and women still exists and women and the quality of their work nowadays displace men. Nevertheless, we have examined another opinion that concerns women. Rose Mary Wentling suggested another point of view on the differences between men and women at workplace. The author asserts that women are still experiencing difficulties in their workplaces. The main arguments that are brought are the next: women are not given the standard of work performance when they apply for a â€Å"male† job, therefore do not get the detailed and clear picture of their involvement; women are not included in all the kinds of communication throughout a company; women lack the opportunity to †grow, develop, and contribute to company profitability†. According to this point of view women are not given the opportunity to introduce their ideas and innovations to the company’s functioning. But the main issue to work on is that the expectations of the employers concerning women are different than the ones concerning men. Conclusion: Women are ready to travel and move and relocate, and to make â€Å"the same commitment to the company as men aspiring to leadership positions† due to the reassessment of the woman’s role in the society. Analyzing this different point of view we came to a conclusion that both men and women face gender difficulties at any kind of job. So therefore we consider providing them with equal conditional vital for the benefit of the company itself in the first place. A modern company should not pay attention to the gender attribute. Both men and women need to have career advancement opportunities and counseling. Men and women are potential employees of any company, no matter what position we are talking about. From with combination of two points of view we get an understanding that both men and women have examples of being not treated properly at their workplace in spite of having the required skills for the place. And it is not possible to say that either men or women are facing greater difficulties in their professional lives. So it can be said that the difference did not disappear, but it is not a single-sided issue. Dorm life vs. Home life Almost every young person entering the period of college education faces the necessity to leave home and to live in the on-campus dormitory. The on-campus dormitories have been â€Å"survived† by many people and some of them have absolutely opposing opinions. The change from home to dorm life can be called one of the most important event in the life of any young person first of all because it is the first extreme life change and also because the consequences are still unknown. Home life and dorm life represent two different ways of living in different conditions. Nevertheless they have their similarities and differences that can be seen only after a deep analysis of the issue. The choice between home life and domestic life can lead to complete transformation of the life of a young man. On-campus life inevitably affects the life of the person and along with home life have their pros and cons. On-campus dormitories may be a pleasant experience for one person and a terrible test for another one. For some people dorm living is a necessity. There are several objective facts concerning dorm living. First of all any individual living at the dorm will have to face the necessity sometimes to live together with up to three students. Only those individuals who have an exclusive position within the university may count on having a room without roommates. The quality of the beds sometimes requires repair and the closet very often cannot fit in all the belonging of the roommates. The dorm does not provide the individuals with an actual kitchen and has small space for refrigerating food. The dorm offers public baths which are not comfortable under any condition. The next fact is about one of the most important ones – the dorm cuts individual space to its possible minimum as the person can hardly ever be alone. Another aspect of the dorm living is that the individual can make a lot of friends and find a lot of people who have the same interests. At the same time dorm living sometimes leads to early sexual intercourses and a false â€Å"feeling of complete independence†. Home living is another option sometimes chosen by young people. First of all home living proved the student with the possibility to get healthy food, freshly cooked on a normal kitchen. The fact that the meal can be actually cooked is a plus for the saving in the individual’s budget. Home living requires having personal chores and complete responsibility for the place the person lives in. As for personal hygiene at home, it is private and the individual can spend as much time on it as he desires. Home living guarantees the fact that people come to visit the person most often under the condition of a beforehand notice. The individual may do whatever he feels like doing and not get involved in activities he has no actually desire for. In other words, home living requires a lot of responsibilities but at the same time offers personal space and the opportunity to relax, study or work any time of the day. Home and dorm living have a lot of contrasts such as: food, privacy, hygiene, leisure, etc. and similarities such as certain expenses required for living. If to compare home living to dorm living a few fact are worth of mentioning. In home living the individual has at least one full room which is completely under his â€Å"jurisdiction†. Home living offers all the required personal space and the individual’s movement within the house are not limited as they are in the dormitory. The dormitory does not have a comfortable bed and also the individual cannot equip everything in the most suitable manner for him. A home living individual has all the required space for his belonging and an equipped kitchen to cook food. Nevertheless, in the dorm the food expenses can be spited among the roommates. The dorm’s public bath has obvious disadvantages as compared to a private home bath. Also home, as compared to dorm living provides more individual space as the person at home still has time to be alone and in the dorm it is practically impossible. If the person does not want to party all the time, home living is the best option. In order to conclude it is important to say that the basic differences between the dorm living and home living are the individual interests of the person and his aims in life. If dorm living is a necessity for one individual but he has a high motivated for education – dorm living will not change anything. And at the same time if a individual without motivation is a subject of home living there is no guarantee that all these personal space and freedom will lead to a better future. Therefore the main factor here is the personality of the dweller.

Strategies of Financial Forecasting at Strident Marks

Strategies of Financial Forecasting at Strident Marks Financial Forecasting Role of Financial Statements Forecasting The role of financial statement forecasting at Strident Marks is to provide expected future financial statements based on conditions that management expects to exist and the action it expects to take. These statements offer financial managers insight into the prospective future financial condition and performance of the company. Financial statement includes income statement and balance sheet. (Horne, Wachowicz Bhaduri, 2008) Development of Income Statement Forecast The income statement forecast is a summary of a Strident Marks expected revenues and expenses over some future period, ending with the net income for the period. The sales forecast is the key to scheduling production and estimating production costs. The detailed analysis of purchases, production based wages and overhead costs helps to produce the most accurate forecasts. The costs of good sold are forecasted on the basis of past ratios of cost of goods sold to sales. Following this the selling, general and administrative expenses are forecasted. The estimates of these expenses are fairly accurate because they are generally calculated in advance. Usually, these expenses are not sensitive to the changes in sale, specifically to the reduction in sales in the very short run. After this other income and expenses along with interest expenses are estimated to obtain the net income before taxes. Next to this income taxes are computed based on the applicable tax rate, which is then deducted to arrive at estimated net income after taxes. All of these are then combined into an income statement. Anticipated dividends are deducted from profit after taxes to give the expected increase in retained earnings. This anticipated increase need to agree with the balance sheet forecast figures that are developed next. Development of Balance Sheet Forecast To prepare balance sheet forecast for a particular period say for June 30, Strident Marks utilizes the balance sheet of the previous December 31. Receivables at June 30 can be estimated by adding to the receivable balance at December 31, the total projected credit sales from January through June (for which the estimation is done) and deducting the total projected credit collection for the particular period. Forecasting Assets: In the absence of cash budget, the receivable balance can be estimated on the basis of a receivable turnover ratio. This ratio, which depicts the relationship between credit sales and receivables, should be based on past experience. To obtain the estimated level of receivables, projected credit sales are simply divided by the turnover ratio. If the sales forecast and turnover ratio are realistic, the method will produce a reasonable approximation of receivable balance. The estimated investment in the inventories for a particular period may be based on the production schedule, which in turn is based on the sales forecast. This schedule should represent expected purchases, the expected use of inventory in the production and the expected level of finished goods. On the basis of this information along with the beginning inventory level, an inventory forecast can be made (Horne, Wachowicz Bhaduri, 2008) Estimates of future inventory can be based on an inventory turnover ratio, instead of the use of production schedule,. This ratio is applied in the similar manner as for the receivables, except that now we solve for the ending inventory position. Inventory Turnover Ratio = cost of goods sold (Ending) Inventory Future net fixed asset are estimated by adding planned expenditures to existing net fixed assets and subtracting from this sum the book value of any fixed assets sold along with depreciation during the period. Fixed assets are fairly easy to forecast because capital expenditure are planned in advance. Forecasting Liabilities and Shareholder Equity: for instance if the company wants to estimate the liabilities for June 30, the accounts payable are estimated by adding the projected purchases for January through June and deducting total projected cash payments for purchases for the period to the balance of December 31. The calculation of the accrued wages and expenses is based on the production schedule and the historical relationship between these accruals and production. The shareholders equity at June 30 will be equity at December 31 plus profits after taxes for the period minus the amount of dividends paid. Generally cash and notes payable (short term bank borrowings) serve as balancing factors in the preparation of forecast balance sheets, whereby assets and liabilities plus shareholders’ equity are brought into balance. Once all the components of the balance sheet are estimated, they are combined into a balance sheet format. (Horne, Wachowicz Bhaduri, 2008) Importance of Financial Statement Forecast The information that goes into a cash budgets can be used to prepare forecast financial statements. Financial mangers can make direct estimates of all the items on the balance sheet by projecting financial ratios into the future and then making estimates on the basis of these ratios. Receivables, inventories, accounts payable and accrued wages and expenses are frequently based on historical relationships to sales and production when a cash budget is not available. Forecast statements allow us to study the composition of expected future balance sheets and income statements. Financial ratios are computed for analysis of the statements; these ratios and the raw figures may be compared with those for present and past financial statements. Using this information, the financial manager can analyze the direction of change in the financial condition and performance of the company over the past, the present and the future. If the firm is accustomed to making accurate estimates, the preparation of a cash budget, forecast statements or both forces it to plan ahead and to coordinate policy in the various areas of operation. Continual revision of these forecasts keeps the company alert to changing conditions in its environment and in its internal operations. In addition, forecast statements can even be constructed with selected items taking on a range of probable values rather than single point estimates. (Horne, Wachowicz Bhaduri, 2008) Comparison between financial statement forecasting process and budgeting process The budgeting process starts with forecasting of future income statements. These statements are made on monthly or weekly basis and may stretch for twelve months in the future. Both budgeting and forecasting are important management tools that we use to anticipate needs and avoid crisis. (Laura, 2000) Budgeting process gives us information about only the prospective future cash position of the company, whereas forecast statements embody expected estimates of all assets and liabilities as well as of the income statement items. The key differences between budgeting process and forecasting are as follows: The budget obtained by budgeting process is generally more detailed than a forecast. Expenditures are more specifically matched to sources of income in a budget than in a forecast. Budgeting is a tool for management to achieve the objectives, whereas, forecasting is a used by management to formulate the budget. Budgeting is related to future definite period only, whereas, forecasting is related to past, present and future for pure estimation. Budgeting is dependent on forecasting but forecasting is not dependent on the budgeting. The preparation of budgets ids essential to achieve the production targets but the forecasting is essential to prepare a business budget. Budgets are quantitative, whereas, forecasting is qualitative in nature. Budgeting is a business process for management whereas forecasting is a mental process for management. The success of budgeting is dependent on sound forecasting whereas, success of forecasting is dependent on proper use and analysis of scientific and statistical methods. Budgeting process starts after forecasting while the forecasting is a pre process of budgeting. Budgeting is a standard itself whereas forecasting helps in preparing budget as a standard. Budgeting highlights the whole business while the forecasting helps the budget to highlight the business. (Khan, Jain, 2002) References Horne, J.C., Wachowicz, J.M. Bhaduri, S.N. (2008). Fundamentals of Financial Management. Delhi: Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd. Khan, M.Y. Jain, P.K. (2002). Financial Management. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Ltd. Laura, E. (2000). Budgeting for the Future: Why Firms Need to Forecast and Budget Their Cash Flows. Retrieved June 2, 2008, from http://www.allbusiness.com/accounting-reporting/budget-budget-forecasting/622015-1.html