American history questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

American history questions - Essay Example It established the notion of an international justice system that can be resorted to in cases when criminal acts are committed by a country against the citizens of another country or when they are committed by a government against its own people. The relevance of the Trials was that they served as precedent to future cases. In the subsequent cases, for example, crimes against humanity like genocide and ethnic cleansing committed in Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Indonesia, the principles of the Nuremberg Trials were employed to try the accused. At the close of the war, the threats to these freedoms were once again resuscitated by the actions of the USSR. Harry Truman who succeeded Roosevelt to office saw the Russians’ foreign policy as emphatic on the communist ideology, suspicious, aggressive and close to and of the world around it. Soviet seemed so suspiciously obsessed with its security. Truman then decided that the best way to deal with the Russians and Stalin was a hard-line approach to contain communism and defend American interests. Thus, there was a discarding of the policy of compromise and the adoption of the policy of containment. In addition, Truman took a lesson from the past. His ‘Iron Fist’ approach was a reaction to the appeasement approach that was employed by the British towards Germany and Hitler before the outbreak of the WWII. Since the appeasement approach seemed to have goaded Hitler into being an airhead and declared war against the allies. Truman thought that from then on such an approach is not only futile but also dangerous and so he took a different tact. Another threat that communism brought to the US is the fear that that it’s spread in Europe would curtail US trade in that market. The revival of Europe after the war was especially important to the consumer-based US and therefore it must be safeguarded from communism. Q8 Some historians argue that the

Burdens of History Essay Example for Free

Burdens of History Essay The British imperial history has long been a fortress of conservative scholarship, its study separated from mainstream British history, its practitioners resistant to engaging with new approaches stemming from the outside – such as feminist scholarship, postcolonial cultural studies, social history, and black history. In this light, Antoinette Burton’s Burdens of History: British Feminists, Indian Women, and Imperial Culture, 1865-1915 represents challenges to the limited vision and exclusivity of standard imperial history. Burton’s Burdens of History is part of a budding new imperial history, which is characterized by its diversity instead of a single approach. In this book, the author examines the relationship between liberal middle-class British feminists, Indian women, and imperial culture in the 1865-1915 period. Its primary objective is to relocate â€Å"British feminist ideologies in their imperial context and problematizing Western feminists historical relationships to imperial culture at home† (p. 2). Burton describes Burdens of History as a history of â€Å"discourse† (p. 7). By this, she means the history of British feminism, imperialism, orientalism, and colonialism. Throughout the book, the author interposes and synthesizes current reinterpretations of British imperial history, women’s history, and cultural studies that integrate analyses of race and gender in attempts at finding the ideological structures implanted in language. In this book, Burton analyzes a wide assortment of feminist periodicals for the way British feminists fashioned an image of a disenfranchised and passive colonized female â€Å"Other†. The impact of the message conveyed was to highlight not a rejection of empire – as modern-day feminists too readily have tended to assume – but a British feminist imperial obligation. According to Burton, empire lives up to what they and many of their contemporaries believed were its purposes and ethical ideals. Burton based her book on extensive empirical research. Here, she is concerned with the material as well as the ideological and aware of the complexity of historical interpretation. Backed by these, the author particularly examines the relationship between imperialism and women’s suffrage. Burton brings together a remarkable body of evidence to back her contention that women’s suffrage campaigners’ claims for recognition as imperial citizens were legitimated as â€Å"an extension of Britains worldwide civilizing mission† (p. 6). Centering on the Englishwomans Review before 1900 and suffrage journals post 1900, the author finds an imperialized discourse that made British women’s parliamentary vote and emancipation imperative if they were to â€Å"shoulder the burdens required of imperial citizens† (p. 172). The author shows in Burdens of History how Indian women were represented as â€Å"the white feminist burden† (p. 10) as â€Å"helpless victims awaiting the representation of their plight and the redress of their condition at the hands of their sisters in the metropole† (p. 7). Responding both on the charge that white feminists need to address the method of cultural analysis pioneered by Edward Said and the imperial location and racial assumptions of historical feminisms, Burton explores the images of Indian women within Victorian and Edwardian feminist writing. In her analysis, the author argues that Indian women functioned as the ideological â€Å"Other† within such texts, their presence serving to authorize feminist activities and claims. By creating an image of tainted Oriental womanhood, and by presenting enforced widowhood, seclusion, and child marriage as â€Å"the totality of Eastern womens experiences† (p. 67), British feminists insisted on their own superior emancipation and laid claim to a wider imperial role. However, while feminists persistently reiterated their responsibility for Indian women, the major purpose of such rhetoric was to institute the value of feminism to the imperial nation. According to the author: â€Å"The chief function of the Other woman was to throw into relief those special qualities of the British feminist that not only bound her to the race and the empire but made her the highest and most civilized national female type, the very embodiment of social progress and progressive civilization† (p. 83). According to Burton, British feminists were, â€Å"complicitous with much of British imperial enterprise† (p. 25): their movement must be seen as supportive of that wider imperial effort. She sustains this argument through an examination of feminist emancipatory writings, feminist periodicals and the literature of both the campaign against the application of the Contagious Diseases Acts in India and the campaign for the vote. Indeed, the greatest strength of this book lies in the fact that Burton has made a n extensive search through contemporary feminist literature from a new perspective. In the process, she recovers some quite interesting subgenres within feminist writing. She shows, for instance, how feminist histories sought to reinterpret the Anglo-Saxon past to justify their own political claims and specifying some characteristic differences between explicitly feminist and more general womens periodicals. Certainly, Burton’s survey establishes the centrality of imperial issues to the British feminist movement, providing a helpful genealogy of some styles of argumentation that have persisted to the present day. Burdens of History is a serious contribution to feminist history and the history of feminism. In conclusion, Burton states that British feminists were agents operating both in opposition to oppressive ideologies and in support of them-sometimes simultaneously, because they saw in empire an inspiration, a rationale, and a validation for womens reform activities in the public sphere. Her arguments are persuasive; indeed, once stated, they become almost axiomatic. However, Burton’s work is to some extent flawed by two major problems. First, the author never compares the â€Å"imperial feminism†; rather she locates in her texts to other imperial ideologies. In addition, Burton does not subject imperialism to the same kind of careful scrutiny she turns on feminism. She does not define â€Å"imperialism† in her section on definitions, but uses the term – as she uses â€Å"feminism† – largely to denote an attitude of mind. Another problem is Burton’s failure to address the question of how feminist imperialism worked in the world more generally. It is true that feminists sought the vote using a rhetoric of cross-cultural maternal and racial uplift, however, one may ask: what were the effects of this strategy on the hearing accorded their cause, on wider attitudes toward race and empire, and, more specifically, on policies toward India? The author not only brushes aside such questions; she implies that they are unimportant. It seems that, for Burton, the ideological efforts of British feminists were significant only for British feminism. It can be argued that Burton’s difficulty in tracing the way Burdens of History works in the world is a consequence of her methodological and archival choices. The problem is not that the author has chosen to approach her subject through a â€Å"discursive tack† (p. 27), but rather that she has employed this method too narrowly and on too restrictive range of sources. While the author has read almost every piece of feminist literature, she has not gone beyond this source base to systematically examine either competing official documents, Indian feminist writings, or imperial discourses. Thus, Burton’s texts are treated either self-referentially or with reference to current feminist debates. Overall, Burton’s approach is useful in providing a critical history for feminism today, Certainly, it is as a critique of Western feminisms pretensions to universal and transhistorical high-mindedness that Burdens of History succeeds. However, if one wishes to map out the impact of imperial feminism not only on feminism today, but also on imperial practices and relations historically, one needs a study that is willing to cross the border between political history and intellectual history and to take greater methodological risks.

Essay on Metaphors for Death in Shakespeares Sonnet 73 -- Sonnet essa

Metaphors for Death in Shakespeare's Sonnet 73 William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 73: That Time of Year Thou Mayest in Me Behold" is a sonnet that examines the fears and anxieties that surround growing old and dying -- a topic that resonates within us all. Shakespeare's use of metaphor to illustrate decay and passing are striking, and sets a somber tone throughout. He uses the season of Fall, the coming of night, and the burning out of a flame as metaphors for old age and death, and then uses the last two lines to suggest that we should love and cherish life while we can. The first four lines of the sonnet reflect the changing of seasons, and the oncoming of Fall: Â   That time of year thou mayest in me behold, When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. Â   Â   The season of Fall has often been used as a metaphor for the passing of time. The seasons of Spring and Summer -- the time of blooming flowers, vibrant colors, and long, hot days -- are gone. Fa...

Help Sheet Essay

Explain the points of view of different stakeholders seeking to influence the aims and objectives of two contrasting Organisations (M1) You must explain the points of view of the different stakeholders and link the points of view with the aims and objectives of each business. You need to research all aspects and investigate external influences that affect your chosen businesses, for example, supply and demand, government legislation, economy and social factors. * Introduction – start the assignment by describing why stakeholders have different perspectives. They all want their own way, see examples below to help†¦ * You need to look at TWO companies (Tesco and AKA) * Suppliers – want the best price for their product (eg farmers and milk prices, Tesco want to give them 21p, farmers want 25p – how will this affect Tesco’s aims and objectives? (profit, being the best retailer, offering value for money) for AKA – the suppliers want to deliver a product at a certain time, AKA only open from 1pm – this affects suppliers as they have other deliveries and may waste time waiting for AKA to open, hence not worth the order. * Customers – they want the best quality for the best price, they constantly research competitors and only buy the best. They demand special offers, excellent customer service and for big companies to go the extra mile for them. How is this different to suppliers or employees point of view? AKA – the customers want more classes, more sessions, cheaper dance classes, – this goes against the owners as she wants to make a profit and have a minimum numbers of people attending classes otherwise she won’t cover costs. * Local community – they want clean environment, quiet peaceful living area, no rubbish – how will this influence aims and objectives? And how is this different to the other perspectives eg. managers who want to make a profit not pay for bins or plan for early morning deliveries). For AKA, local community want a place to go and visit but car park blocks a whole road when a show is on! * Shareholders and Directors – they want profit and high dividends – how does this compare to the other stakeholders? For AKA, this is not relevant. * Government – they want people to be employed in UK, they want to obtain taxes from large companies, they have initiatives to employ more young people or school leaving age – how does this affect Tesco’s aims? For AKA – Government offer grants to AKA – government want small business to engage segments of the community eg (autistic people) this may not be the pathway the owner wants to go – she may want to work with elderly people – how will the terms of a grant influence AKA’s objectives? * Trade Unions – they want fair, equal pay and terms and conditions for all employees, how does this differ from shareholders that want profit? For AKA, this is not relevant. * Employees – they want good working conditions, bonuses, good holidays – this contradicts against shareholders who want profit, or managers who want to spend money on products not employees staff rooms or lockers. AKA – employees may want better pay to compete with larger dance classes like Zumba franchises – owner cannot afford the higher wages so they have conflict. * Now conclude – this is where you summarise the different opinions of stakeholders and how important they are in making aims and objectives for EVERYONE not just owners or customers. Remember – this is a MERIT task – grade C equivalent – detail and evaluation is the key!

Operations Management Test Bank

INSTRUCTOR'S TEST BANK Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Why would a marketing major need a basic foundation in operations management? A) Marketing staff schedule work centers for most businesses B) Marketing staff must know how to design processes C) Marketing staff must be able to make decisions with the entire business in mind D) Marketing staff must understand the technical processes behind manufacturing capacity management C 2 The value of a product is defined by: A) The owner B) The potential customer C) The price initially paid for the product being soldD) The actual cost of ownership over the products life B 3 A critical difference between a product and a service is: A) A product is tangible, but a service is not. B) A product is expensive, but a service is not. C) A product is often poor quality, but a service is not. D) A product is made with cheap labor, but a service is not. A 4 One reason producers of products also provide customers with services is: A) They don't know any bette r. B) Services can be added at no cost. C) Services differentiate them from competitors. D) Services are easier to match to customer needs.C 5 One reason services are more difficult to manage than manufacturing is: A) Services can't be stored as inventory for later use. B) Service employees aren't as flexible as manufacturing employees. C) Service customers are more demanding. D) Services can't define processes precisely. A 6 A B2B customer would value a product differently than a B2C customer because: A) Businesses have more money to spend than consumers. B) Businesses must consider how much value the product will add to the products and services they sell.C) Consumers can't define quality very well. A) Services can't be stored as inventory for later use. B) Service employees aren't as flexible as manufacturing employees. C) Service customers are more demanding. D) Services can't define processes precisely. A 6 A B2B customer would value a product differently than a B2C customer be cause: A) Businesses have more money to spend than consumers. B) Businesses must consider how much value the product will add to the products and services they sell.C) Consumers can't define quality very well. D) Consumers are not as concerned about costs as businesses. B 7 Profitability results from: A) High sales prices B) Minimal workers with low salaries C) The value being greater than the cost to create it D) Unintelligent customers C 8 An important part of a strategy is: A) Writing down plans for processes B) Identifying suppliers of inputs to processes C) Establishing productivity measures for processes D) Identifying what target customers value D 9Timeliness is a critical component of value for a business because: A) Timeliness has a direct impact on a business's return on investment. B) Business owners are impatient. C) Businesses are typically late and need things right away. D) Most products spoil quickly. A 1 0 D In the resource/profit model the resources used to create value are: A) Time, materials, machines, and people B) Natural resources, animal products, crops C) Labor, materials, cash, buildings, and transportation equipment D) Inventory, workforce, capacity, facilities

Understanding Different Interest Rates

Understanding Different Interest Rates There are a variety of different types of interest rates, but in order to understand these, one must first understand that an interest rate  is a yearly price charged by a lender to a borrower in order for the borrower to obtain a loan, usually expressed as a percentage of the total amount loaned. Interest rates can either be nominal or real, though certain terms exist to define specific rates such as the Federal Funds Rate. The  difference between nominal and real interest rates  is that real interest rates are ones that are adjusted for inflation, whereas nominal interest rates are not; the interest rates one typically finds in the paper are nominal interest rates. The federal government of any given country can affect the interest rate, known in the United States as the Federal Funds Rate and in England as the Prime Rate. Understanding the Federal Funds Rate The Federal Funds Rate is defined as the interest rate at which U.S. banks lend to one another their excess reserves held on deposit at the United States Treasury Department, or the interest rate that banks charge each other for the use of Federal funds in general. Investopedia describes the Federal Funds Rate as the rate of interest banks charge other banks for lending them money from their reserve balances on an overnight basis. By law, banks must maintain a reserve equal to a certain percentage of their deposits in an account at a Federal Reserve bank. Any money in their reserve that exceeds the required level is available for lending to other banks that might have a shortfall. ï » ¿Essentially what this means for the average American is that when you hear that the Federal Treasury Chairman has raised interest rates, theyre talking about the Federal Funds Rate.  In Canada, the counterpart to the Federal Funds rate is known as  the overnight rate; the  Bank of England  refers to these rates as the base rate or the repo rate. Prime Rates and Short Rates The Prime Rate is defined as a rate of interest that serves as a benchmark for most other loans in a country. The precise definition of prime rate differs from country to country. In the United States, the prime rate is the interest rate banks charge to large corporations for short-term loans.​​ The prime rate is typically 2 to 3 percentage points higher than the Federal Funds rate. If the Federal Funds rate is at around 2.5%, then expect the prime rate to be around 5%. The short rate is an abbreviation for short-term interest rate; that is, the interest rate charged (usually in some particular market) for short-term loans. Those are the major interest rates you will see discussed in the newspaper. Most of the other interest rates you see will usually refer to an interest-bearing financial asset, such as a bond.

Diffusion practical essays

Diffusion practical essays Experiment to demonstrate how the rate of diffusion is affected by distance We set up a glass tube horizontally with a clamp and stand, and placed red litmus paper at 5cm intervals for 50cm. we then soaked some cotton wool in ammonium hydroxide solution, and placed it at one end of the glass tube. We put rubber bungs in both ends, and started a stopwatch to time how long it took each piece of litmus paper to turn entirely blue from the ammonia gas. To ensure the experiment was reliable, we waited until the piece of litmus paper turned entirely blue before writing down the time. Also, we accurately measured the distance between each piece of litmus paper using a metre ruler. Distance of first end of litmus paper from cotton wool Time taken for litmus paper to turn entirely blue(in seconds) 5cm 10cm15cm20cm25cm30cm35cm40cm45cm 204590140210290395538704 The graph has a clear upward sloping curve showing the correlation between the distance of the litmus paper from the cotton soaked in ammonium hydroxide and the amount of time taken for the litmus paper to turn blue. This is because as the particles of ammonium hydroxide collide with each other and become forced further out during their diffusion through the air in the tube. However, the particles that move further are less concentrated and not as close together, so there is less collisions between the molecules, so they dont move out as quickly. This represents itself as the curve in the graph. Diffuses from high concentration to low concentration because of concentration gradient. NH4 and OH ions diffuse. Collide with air particles. Diffusion due to random kinetic movement. ...

How a Cabinet Toe Kick Enhances Kitchen Ergonomics

How a Cabinet Toe Kick Enhances Kitchen Ergonomics A Matter of Ergonomics Ergonomics is the study of human efficiency and comfort in a working or living environment. Ergonomics is of great concern in the workplace, but it is also an issue in residential construction, where dozens of different design standards are aimed at making the rooms of a home more comfortable and safer for family members.   Home ergonomics is of particular concern in the kitchen, since this is a primary workplace and a space where people spend a great deal of time. Apart from the kitchen work triangle,  the toe kick space beneath base cabinets may be one of the most important  ergonomic elements in your kitchen design. The importance of the toe kick space in base cabinets holds for cabinets in other locations, as wellsuch as bathrooms, laundries and home offices.   What is a Toe Kick? A toe kick is a notch-shaped recess at the bottom front of a base cabinet.  It provides a recess for your feet so you can get slightly closes to the countertop. This improves your balance,and also reduces the fatigue that would result if you were forced to reach across a countertop to work. Without a toe kick, users typically find themselves standing well back from a base cabinet in order to avoid stubbing the toes, a posture that leads to leaning over and putting considerable strain on the back, shoulders and arms. Working in this way is quite uncomfortable and can lead to chronic pain and posture issues.   The answer is a very simple design alteration - a small notch at the bottom of the cabinet that allows you to move slightly closer to the countertop. The toe kick is typically only 3 inches deep and about 3 1/2 inches high, yet it makes a huge difference in the comfort of using your countertop. Although toe kicks are not required by building codes, they are a traditional design standard followed by manufacturers and tradesmen. As a result, you will find toe kicks on virtually every factory-manufactured cabinet sold, and woodworkers or carpenters building custom cabinetry will always follow typical design standards for the shape and size of toe kicks in base cabinets.

In the Dark of Night Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

In the Dark of Night - Essay Example Nothing in our history has been so heinous a crime and yet some people actually survived the ordeal and wrote about the experience. The book Night by Elie Wiesel, is a true account of Wiesel's experience in the Nazi concentration camp system, and it is one book among many that shows the courage and faith of a people who had a strong will to survive. 1. The Climate of the State The nature of the State was brewing prior to the actual years of the Holocaust. Wiesel begins his experiences in 1941 when he was 12 years old. However, the State became volatile after the first world war. After this war, the Germans had lost face with the rest of the world. The US, Britain, France and Italy were Allies and wanted to make sure that the Germans would not go to war again (Wood 31). The Allies signed The Treaty of Versailles, which made the Germans lose part of their land and pay "crippling reparations" (Wood 31). Another important event was the Locarno Pact that was between Britain, Italy, Czecho slovakia, France, Germany, Poland and Belgium. This Pact was to confirm Europe's borders that had been set at the Treaty of Versailles. However, Hitler was present at that meeting and decided by 1928 that this rule did not apply to him (Wood 31). Hitler understood that the common German people were upset about their loss and feeling disillusioned. By 1936, Hitler totally ignored the Locarno Pact and moved forward with his goal of annihilating a race. Hitler made the German people believe that the cause of their trouble was the outsiders, which he named the communists and Jews (Wood 33). His rule was based on anti-Semitic over exaggerations and on creating fear about the Jews who were very different from everyone else. The challenge for most people is to understand why Hitler chose to single out the Jews for his wrath. According to Bryan Caplan, Professor of Economics at George Mason University, Hitler went after the Jews because he could. Hitler systematically looked for a target th at matched what he had learned about evolutions. He chose the Jews because they were the "right kind of victim", and they made sense for him to prosecute them. He weighted many options to come to this conclusion. Hitler understood that these were people who would not fight back, and he took advantage of the situation as best he could. The nature of the State at that time was one of fear, ridicule, anger and hate. 2. Relationship between Civilization and the Individual The Jews were a successful race of people because they stayed to themselves and only helped each other. Their religion did not ask them to fight back so they became an easy target. They were very devout in their religion, they loved their families, their community and they thought they were safe. Their civilization was organized and structured and as Tevye the milkman said in Fiddler on the Roof "Everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do" (Holland 2). At this time, the Jews understood who they were in the ir communities and they were a collaborative people who helped each other collectively. However, the Nazi Regime pushed them into thinking of themselves as individuals. Dienke Hondius, a professor at VU University in Amsterdam, compared the events of the Holocaust with what happened in slavery. She points to the themes of genocide, racism, and human rights violations (S63) that were prevalent in both situations. Also, the issue of family, community and religion were the same for both cultures. However, when the slaves came to America they were also treated as individuals. In both instances, the idea of autonomous individual did not exist for the Jews or for the slaves before the interference of outsiders to their civilization. Now, having to move away

How Does Interface Design on social networking website Impact on Dissertation

How Does Interface Design on social networking website Impact on today's Youth - Dissertation Example edly taken over by the Digital Revolution. The Internet has changed the face of our world. Web based and Social Networking Websites and Soft wares have broadened our horizons and now we have plenty of new opportunities to choose from. First of all, online learning and Web based teaching have become synonymous with Face-to-Face learning. Secondly, each day new aspects of web based solutions are made available for the ease of online students. The only issue that must not be neglected is the protection of one’s privacy and safety. The young users are vulnerable and prone to many a web based menaces and exposed to a whole new world of Internet crimes. Proper coaching and counseling are required on part of the parents and teachers both, to make them beware of the criminal activities and privacy invasions taking place by mere use of the online social networking applications. 48 3.1 Objectives: 49 3.2 Data Analysis and Methods of Data Collection: 50 Limitations & Ethics Issue: 52 53 3.3Research Methodology – Case studies 54 a)Case Study 1: PINTEREST: A security Issue: 54 b)Case Study 2: Face book the case of Privacy: 55 3.4 Research Methodology: Conclusion of Online Surveys: 56 QUESTIONNAIRE 56 BIBLIOGRAPHY 68 TABLE OF FIGURES 73 CHAPTER 4 74 INTRODUCTION 74 4.1 FINDINGS AND NEW APPROACH: 75 4.2) FINDINGS: 76 5) Uploading music, movies, widgets and related information. 77 6) Downloading games and applications. 77 7) Authoring and showing creativity by uploading your own content such as: Personal blogs videos, music, poetry etc. 77 8) Sharing third party content e.g. liking someone else’s preference or work as hosting a YouTube video or a blog page. 77 9) Posting Public and Private Messages such as: Through Face book and MySpace. 77 10) Collaborating and interacting with other people, as it is the best way for people who are not very social and are introvert and shy. 78 WEBSITES DESIGNED SPECIALLY FOR YOUNGSTERS: 78 Many conventional social network ing services are intended and designed for teens and young people according to their interests and preferences such as: 78 1)Teen Second Life. 78 2) Habbo Hotel. 78 3) Imbee. Com. 78 4) Disney. 78 5)Nick.com 78 6) ClubPenguin. Etc 78 These websites are specifically designed for TEENS AND YOUNG ADULTS, according to their age, maturity levels and basic security requirements as well as profile modifications and identity security as they have a required age limit for signup (National School Boards Association, 200

Financial Management Cash Management Techniques Essay

Financial Management Cash Management Techniques - Essay Example One of the important strategies to study is the feasibility study. Feasibility study is an important phase in the development process. It enables the developer to have an assessment of the product being developed. It refers to the feasibility study of the product in terms of outcomes of the product, operational use and technical support required for implementing it. Feasibility study should be performed on the basis of various criteria and parameters. The various feasibility studies are (1) Economic Feasibility, (2) Operational Feasibility and (3) Technical Feasibility. Their strategies include low price and free shipment. This factor played an important role in the long-term development of the company. The cheaper prices of goods with high quality and further free shipment attracted many. Another factor is the customer service. Customer plays an important role in the development of the company because it is the customer who uses the product that was developed by the companies and Amazon's services were good at it. To stay and hold the position in the present competitive market Amazon has planned to expand its business outside US like Eastern Europe and Far East Asia. Amazon is encouraging other companies to advertise their product on their website.

Production and Operational Management in the auto Industry Term Paper - 1

Production and Operational Management in the auto Industry (Forecasting, Quality, Quantity, Profits, Assembly) - Term Paper Example They even had a great deal of say in the political sector of USA. Their political power was due to a fact that had been narrated by the CBC News article in the following words: â€Å"The L.A. Times recently calculated that since 1990, the auto industry as a whole has donated $100 million US to Republicans and $34 million to Democrats.† From the year 1951 to the year 2007 Ford had been ranked third in all the automotive manufacturers of the world. After maintaining this position for fifty six years the company lost its position worldwide. It, however, still remained at third position in the US auto industry. The recent times have however depicted a recession of Ford and GM in their native country’s automobile industry. This recession has given space to foreign automobile manufacturers to establish their position by introducing their models in the industry. Currently these foreign automotive industrialists are leading the industry. BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM. Ford and GM w ere the largest vehicle producing giants in USA once. They assisted their country’s economy massively by producing generous revenue and benefit packages for labor. Ford and GM held their importance in the US automobile industry not only because of their size but also because of their business volume. Their loosing of their stature, however, was owing to a number of reasons. Those reasons can be summarized as follows: This meant that a major number of operations in them were distributed into unions or rather termed as being â€Å"Unionized†. This led to a rising labor cost that incurred to these industrial giants. The labor costs of their international emerging counterparts were however very less as they did not practice unionization. Even the counterparts that had their manufacturing units in the US did not face the said problem. (Van Praet, 2008). WHY THE RECESSION? A number of issues led to the downfall of Ford and GM along with other US automobile manufacturers. Qua lity Compromised Among various issues was that of the maintenance of Quality by these giants. Stephen Robbins (2009) mentions their carelessness and compromise in the maintenance of their products in his book ‘Management’ in the following words: â€Å"U.S. car industry is often used as a classic example of what can go wrong when managers focus solely on trying to keep costs down. In the late 1970s, GM, Ford, and Chrysler built products that many consumers rejected...... When the costs of rejects, repairing shoddy work, product recalls, and expensive controls to identify quality problems were considered, U.S. manufacturers actually were less productive than many foreign competitors. The Japanese demonstrated that it was possible for the highest-quality manufacturers to be among the lowest-cost producers. American manufacturers in the car and other industries soon realized the importance of TQM and implemented many of its basic components.† (Robbins, 2009) The abov e statement clearly highlights how the erroneous strategy of leading automobile manufacturing giants of USA gave room to their foreign counterparts. Even though they learned their lesson and tried to improve on their mistakes but it was too late then. The market shares that they once lost were not repairable. So was the inclusion of these counterparts in the industry. Retailers knew they had equally better options to go for and that too often at lesser costs. Product SUV’

The Debate between the Principal-Agent Model and Organisational Essay

The Debate between the Principal-Agent Model and Organisational Culture Theory - Essay Example As the paper outlines  the principal-agent (PA) theory describes linkages entrenched in intricate delegation chains that influence the capacity of the international organisation leader to strive toward their own goals. Theorists mostly view the member states as the ‘principals’ and the international organisation as the ‘agent’. The PA theory can also go deeper the delegation chain to look at the principal-agent ties within international organisations that are specifically helpful in terms of identifying the degree to which IO leaders may understand their tendencies.This study highlights that  organisational culture theorists have persuasively demonstrated that IOs are actors, with ability to expand and behave in line with autonomous goals and principles that cannot be diminished to the goals and principles of their member states. As stated by this model, the capability of IOs towards independent behaviour originates from their specialist, moral, assigned , legal, and rational power, which gives them capacity to wield power. Common arguments of the organisational culture theory recognise the outer limits enforced by states. Nevertheless, in almost all of the empirical studies the possible conflict between the autonomous objectives of the IOs and outside pressures is avoided by selecting case studies wherein IOs behave autonomously but in accordance to the interests of the states, or case studies wherein IOs behave where states are unsympathetic.

Production and Operational Management in the auto Industry Term Paper - 1

Production and Operational Management in the auto Industry (Forecasting, Quality, Quantity, Profits, Assembly) - Term Paper Example They even had a great deal of say in the political sector of USA. Their political power was due to a fact that had been narrated by the CBC News article in the following words: â€Å"The L.A. Times recently calculated that since 1990, the auto industry as a whole has donated $100 million US to Republicans and $34 million to Democrats.† From the year 1951 to the year 2007 Ford had been ranked third in all the automotive manufacturers of the world. After maintaining this position for fifty six years the company lost its position worldwide. It, however, still remained at third position in the US auto industry. The recent times have however depicted a recession of Ford and GM in their native country’s automobile industry. This recession has given space to foreign automobile manufacturers to establish their position by introducing their models in the industry. Currently these foreign automotive industrialists are leading the industry. BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM. Ford and GM w ere the largest vehicle producing giants in USA once. They assisted their country’s economy massively by producing generous revenue and benefit packages for labor. Ford and GM held their importance in the US automobile industry not only because of their size but also because of their business volume. Their loosing of their stature, however, was owing to a number of reasons. Those reasons can be summarized as follows: This meant that a major number of operations in them were distributed into unions or rather termed as being â€Å"Unionized†. This led to a rising labor cost that incurred to these industrial giants. The labor costs of their international emerging counterparts were however very less as they did not practice unionization. Even the counterparts that had their manufacturing units in the US did not face the said problem. (Van Praet, 2008). WHY THE RECESSION? A number of issues led to the downfall of Ford and GM along with other US automobile manufacturers. Qua lity Compromised Among various issues was that of the maintenance of Quality by these giants. Stephen Robbins (2009) mentions their carelessness and compromise in the maintenance of their products in his book ‘Management’ in the following words: â€Å"U.S. car industry is often used as a classic example of what can go wrong when managers focus solely on trying to keep costs down. In the late 1970s, GM, Ford, and Chrysler built products that many consumers rejected...... When the costs of rejects, repairing shoddy work, product recalls, and expensive controls to identify quality problems were considered, U.S. manufacturers actually were less productive than many foreign competitors. The Japanese demonstrated that it was possible for the highest-quality manufacturers to be among the lowest-cost producers. American manufacturers in the car and other industries soon realized the importance of TQM and implemented many of its basic components.† (Robbins, 2009) The abov e statement clearly highlights how the erroneous strategy of leading automobile manufacturing giants of USA gave room to their foreign counterparts. Even though they learned their lesson and tried to improve on their mistakes but it was too late then. The market shares that they once lost were not repairable. So was the inclusion of these counterparts in the industry. Retailers knew they had equally better options to go for and that too often at lesser costs. Product SUV’

Designing a Study Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Designing a Study - Assignment Example To test the hypothesis, the Wilcoxon signed rank tests would be the fitting test. This test examines whether the data available supports the assertion that a prolonged daily exercise length implies a faster rate of weight loss. The test has been used previously in similarly befitting roles. (Han et al. 2011) notes: We used two-sided Wilcoxon rank sum tests for differences in location for these variables as well as for age and years of education. To carry out the test, the researcher needs to calculate the differences in recorded weights before and after the study period. All weight losses will be noted with a plus sign and all gains by a minus sign. Because the positive results (those with plus signs) are the center of our study, we assign them the title k-observed, denoted as kobs. Then using the value of the smallest integer kÃŽ ± we shall calculate the rejection region for kobs. We then observe whether our kobs is contained in R, that is without the boundaries of the rejection region. If kobsЄR, we fail to reject the null hypothesis. Let us put our R at 4, just for illustration. If kobs=3, then we fail to reject the H0 owing to the earlier explanation that kobsЄR. Han, X., Rozen, S., Boyle, S. H., Hellegers, C., Cheng, H., Burke, J. R†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦, Kaddurah-Daouk, R. (2011). Metabolomics in Early Alzheimer’s Disease: Identification of Altered Plasma Sphingolipidome Using Shotgun Lipidomics. Lipidomics in Alzheimer’s Disease. Vol 6. Issue 7. p. 7. Nishiumi, S., Kobayashi, T., Ikenda, A., Yoshie, T., Kibi, M., Izumi, Y.,†¦..Yoshida, M. (2012). A Novel Serum Metabolomics-Based Diagnostic Approach for Colorectal Cancer. Metabolomics for Colorectal Cancer. Vol. 7, issue 7. p. 4. Plichta, S. B., Kelvin, E. Munros Statistical Methods for Health Care Research. Statistical Methods for Health

Shadow box play review Essay Example for Free

Shadow box play review Essay On the night of the 28th of November 2013, I had the chance of watch some of the third year Lasalle theatre students produce and perform Michael Christofer’s â€Å"The Shadow Box†. Despite having very little knowledge of the play itself, I thoroughly enjoyed the play and was kept engaged throughout. â€Å"The Shadow Box† revolves around three main terminally ill characters, Joe, Felicity and Agnes, who had to deal with the fact of not being able to live much longer. It also involves their family and friends facing the inevitable death of their loved one. The play addresses the theme of death and the idea of seizing the day and living life to its’ fullest, otherwise known as ‘Carpe Diem’. Keeping within the genre of realism, the play uses dark comedy to emphasize and enhance the message of the play ‘to grab onto life and live it with all your might’. The play was held in the Creative Cube and the space was set up with blocks of different heights, distinguishing the three individual spaces, as well as a void-like segment placed center up-stage. The space showed the cottages of Joe’s, Brian’s and Felicity’s, from stage left to stage right respectively. The void-like space had a swivel chair with a spotlight on it. During the play, the different characters had a chance to sit on the chair and discuss their current situations with numerous voices that encouraged each of them to express their emotions. This gave the audience an insight into their personal feelings and thoughts of their condition. Even though the set was not exactly the most extravagant, it had basic set pieces such as a couch and a table that made it unambiguous to the audience that the play was set in their cottages. I felt that the set was enough to inform he audience of where the play was set in and what really mattered was the content and acting of the play. What had kept me engaged was how strong the relationships between the characters were and how I as an audience member could so clearly see each character’s development throughout the play. I could actually see how each character grew from being almost angry and confused of their inevitable death, to growing to accept it. The show began with Jordan Prainito, who played Joe, walking into a void and being questioned by several voices about his family and his daily routine ever since he began living at the cottage. It wasn’t made clear to the audience who exactly the voices belonged to, however I got an impression that they were doctors and it seemed as if it was a daily or weekly routine to talk to these voices. The other characters underwent the same thing and as I have mentioned before, it gave us an insight into their personal emotions and their opinions of the whole situation. The relationships between the different characters were so well established that made the play extremely captivating to watch as you could also see the personal struggle of each character slowly losing a loved one. My favourite relationship established within the play would have to be between Felicity and Agnes, played by Rachel Tay and Samantha Jean Kwok respectively. They played a mother-daughter relationship where the daughter, Agnes, had to take care of her terminally ill mother who seemed to have a side condition of dementia. You could see how patient Agnes had to be with Felicity, and how she had to remind her mother of basic things, such as the date and time, to slightly more serious things, such as who Agnes was, as Felicity had a mindset that her other daughter, Claire, was still alive and was taking care of Felicity instead and not Agnes. My favourite character would be Beverly, who was played by Chinie Concepcion. She was acting as Mark’s ex girlfriend, who was the terminally ill patient in cottage #2. Mark, played by Renfred Ng also had a gay partner, Brian, played by Brett Khao. Together, Beverly and Brian fought and worked together to overcome their fear of losing a loved one so soon. As they had contrasting personalities, Beverly’s being loose and carefree, whereas Brian was rigid and uptight, this created an interesting segment to watch on how the two had to work together for Mark’s sake. Chinie Concepcion brought so much life to her character and did a really good job of portraying her character as the ‘life of the party’, or rather life in general (She also rocked her sparkly 6 inch heels throughout the whole show). Each relationship played throughout the show was kept real, distinct and extremely powerful. It made me feel almost connected to the characters who had to face the expected death of their loved ones. I especially felt this from the relationship between Stevie, played by Kimberly Chan and her father Joe. As we saw the first meeting between Stevie and her father, you could almost feel her excitement and joy bouncing around the whole space. This was seen through her facial expressions and eagerness to make him proud through her songs played on the guitar. However, she had not known of his coming death and it was the biggest bomb dropped throughout the whole show. As each relationship and character had their good points, it made the show enjoyable and engaging. Thus, I felt that the third year Lasalle students did Michael Christofer proud as making this the Singapore premier of ‘The Shadow Box’. Everyone should definitely take some time off to catch the play, it was extremely moving and thought-provoking as well as it made me think about really living life to it’s fullest and how true the expression ‘Carpe Diem’ was.

Analysis of the E-brokerage Industry

Analysis of the E-brokerage Industry Executive Summary The financial brokerage industry has undergone dramatic changes worldwide in the last decade, due to the rise of the Internet. E-brokerage brought huge opportunity to the industry as it introduces enormous amount of on-line traders but at the same time posted serious threat as it open up the market to new competitors. In this thesis, we investigate past and current challenges the brokerage industry faced. From our literature review, we studied the impact of online trading to the brokerage industry and the online traders, and proposed solutions pinpointed to the facts we found. We studied the challenge the brokerage industry faced from the perspectives of strategy, marketing and technology and carried out strategic analysis using value chain and framework of five forces by Michael E. Porter. A small scale survey was conducted to collect local people attitude towards online/mobile trading and we used the data collected to justify the information we found during our literature review. F inally, we proposed a basket of suggestions for the brokerage industry in various aspects including product enhancement, customer education, partnership, differentiation, customer segmentation and more. An in-depth interview with a local broker firm was organized to value our suggestions, their feedback are positive. Introduction The tough challenge among e-brokerage industry is still going on and in fact, it is getting even more furious. The situation was more rigorous during bearish market after the burst of IT foams, SAR outbreak and the recent financial tsunami. The strategy the brokerage firms adopted to handle the challenges they faced determine who will survive the competition and stay in the market. Losers will soon be squeezed out of the market. This is especially true for small to median size local brokerage firms who are now facing new competitors like direct banks and oversea online trade provider like E-Trade. Confronted with growing competition, old-guard brokers are being forced to restructure and re-focus their market offerings. Various strategies were adopted, some brokerage firms seek to maintain their lead in value-added services through a focus on knowledge/advise more financial planning and investment advice rather than transactions -processing trades. Other firms attempted to comprehen d how to offer on-line services without alienating their brokers, to minimize channel conflict. The purpose of this article is to analysis the current e-brokerage practices and device new service directions and enhancement to existing products to increase competence of our local brokerage industry. We will first present the evolution of security trading in Hong Kong and characteristic of different types of brokerage firms and customers. From our literature review, we found that online trading exerted great impact on both brokerage industry and online traders. For brokerage firms, they faced vigorous competition due to new competitors, reduced customer loyalty and market fragmentation due to low entry barrier. While illusion of knowledge and control, lack of personal advice and overwhelmed by information were the hurdle online traders faced. We have presented the strategic challenge faced by the brokerage industry and analysis their strategy using value chain and framework of five forces algorithm. We have devised a basket of suggestions and discussed with a brokerage firm the f easibility to comprehend our research. Financial Broker Industry In Hong Kong Evolution of security trading in Hong Kong The ultimate goal of a well-functioning stock market is to bring together all possible buyers and sellers, so that the market price reflects the combined preferences of all participants. The history of securities trading in Hong Kong can be traced back to 1866. The present Sock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEx) was established as a result of the unification of four exchanges during the big market boom in 1986, while the first stock exchange began its operation in 1891. Exchange System Architecture Computerized trading system was first introduced on 2 April 1986 and in 1993 the exchange launched the Automatic Order Matching and Execution System (AMS), which was replaced by the third generation system (AMS/3) in October 2000. AMS/3 is the core system used to serve securities trading which has significant enhancements in central market functions, open connectivity and system capacity as compared with AMS/2. AMS/3 supports multiple trading facilities for market access. Most of the participants developed their own Broker Supplied System (BSS) which interfacing with AMS/3 via the Open Gateway (OG) facility for greater control to the front-end solutions instead of the Multi-workstation System (MWS) by HKEx. The open connectivity of OG has made possible the large-scale automation of Participants operations, enabling Participants to offer new investor services and experience efficiency gains. In 2002, a new generation of the system, CCASS/3, was launched for clearing and settlement. MD S (Market Data Feed System) is the key system used for delivery of securities price data to about 60 local and international information vendors. HKATS (Hong Kong Futures Automated Trading System) is the electronic order matching system operated for the derivatives market. Advancement in information technology, especially the Internet, is revolutionizing traditional commerce. Obviously the securities industry, and in particular the on-line brokerage, is at the forefront of this revolution. Here in Hong Kong, retail online trading as a proportion of total retail investor trading continued to grow in 2008/09, reaching 43 per cent from 39 per cent in 2007/08. Its contribution to total market turnover was 10 per cent, up from 7 per cent in 2007/08. For stock options, retail online trading contributed 23 per cent of total retail investor trading (up significantly from 15 per cent in 2007/08) and 2 per cent of product turnover (1 per cent in 2007/08). For other derivatives, retail online trading contributed 49 per cent of total retail investor trading and 18 per cent of total product turnover (up from 44 per cent and 15 per cent respectively in 2007/08). Types of Brokerage Firm The basic function of a brokerage firm is to execute buy and sell orders for clients. Traditionally these firms have offered the investigation of the quality and the possibilities of investing in a variety of investment products. It is still accustomed for brokerage firms to offer information about possible investments free of charge. This activity of bringing free of charge stock investment reports is one of the main tools that are utilized by brokerage houses to compete against other firms. To investors, it continues to be an important service. However, with the bloom of communication technology, especially the Internet, more and more investors rated that investment reports as less important service. Instead, those investors preferred other types of services that charged less commission and service fee, by forfeiting those investment reports. In order to capture this vast diverse clientele, the brokerage industry segmented itself. After the restrictions in commissions were eliminat ed, several brokerages began to open up their doors as discount brokerage firms. At that time, brokerage firms were classified into two types: full service brokers and discount brokers. Full service brokerage firms continued to offer informative stock reports and a level of service much higher than other brokerage houses. They looked for purchasing and selling opportunities for clients and offering more customer and portfolio advisory service than was available from discount brokers. Discount brokerage houses, on the other hand, only dedicated themselves to execute orders for clients with minimal services. These differences in services and philosophies led to great differences in commission costs. It was evident that these differences were an important factor in the return of an investment. Type of customers in brokerage industry In Hong Kong customers of brokerage firm can be divided into three typical categories: l Prestige Group: These are customers with large amount of capital put in to the brokerage firm for investment. They have granted total authority to the brokerage firm to execute trading decision on behalf of them. Although they are minority in terms of the customer base of brokerage firm, they contribute a great portion of revenue to the brokerage firm. l Middle Group: Customer of this group usually trade through account agent of the brokerage firm. They utilities financial information, report and analyzing tools provided by the brokerage firm to make trading decision. Account agent will also actively contact these customers whenever they see an investment opportunity fit for them. l Basic Group: Customer mostly uses service of brokerage firm to maintain account balance and execute trading order on the own. Although multiple channels are supplied to them, they mostly adopt on-line trading as their first choice of trading media. Although the first two groups of customers contribute quite a large portion of the revenue of brokerage firm, we will concentrate our research on the third group for two reasons. First, there is a clear trend that this group of customer is increasing in a fast pace. Second, by investing and improving the on-line system, the other group will also be benefited. Literature Review Online-Brokerage Simply put, â€Å"On-line brokerage† can be defined as selling of securities which encompasses equity like stocks and warrants and derivatives like bonds, mutual funds etc, on the Internet. Although traditional banks and brokers also provided online trading after year 2000, new entrants like direct banks and new brokers offered a genuine e-commerce business model. Direct banks are internet-only banks or virtual banks. These banks were designed without a traditional banking infrastructure with physical branches. This cost-saving advantage enabled many of them to offer savings accounts with higher interest rates, loans with lower interest rates and minimal management fee and commissions than most traditional banks. More and more customer joined in as online trade and a peak was hit on year 2000. At the same time, new competitors like traditional brokers and virtual banks joined in proactively by acquiring existing brokerage firm or using their own business model. At that time, t hen customer base and knowledge of the traditional institutions was still advantages for online trading enhancement. The strategy online brokers adopted was customers segmentation and directed their offer to the most preferred customer group, the active private investors, which allowed them to swiftly catch up the market. Compared with banks, absence of physical branches thus low overhead costs gave these internet brokers an advantageous in cost structure. They competed with each other rigorously to achieve the biggest market share in the shortest time frame to reach the break even point. The strategy to conquer and develop loyalty of new customers was invested massively in marketing. They also adopted a cut-throat commission rate to attract private individuals who were more sensitive to this cost of investment. The position of banks and traditional brokers in the brokerage business was deeply undermined by the pressure caused by these new entrants. Bloom of on-line trading For the first time ever, investors could, from the comfort of their own homes, accessed a wealth of financial information including breaking news developments and market data on the same terms as market professionals did. In addition, on-line brokerage provided investors with tools to analyze this information, such as research reports, calculators, and portfolio analyzers. Finally, on-line brokerage enables investors to act quickly on this information. The technological and regulatory barriers that gave traditional brokerage and securities companies edges were rapidly becoming extinct. First, new provider quickly gained access to the market by leveraged on the use of Internet technology. Without expensive branch networks and labor-intensive advisory services, new competitor like direct banks and new online brokerage firms were able to process retail clients orders in relatively low cost. Second, the bull markets in year 2000 attracted large number of new online customers. For example , lot of local residents became online investors and started to hold security when frequent and gigantic scale IPO activity were taking place during 2006. These new customers welcomed the new internet investment style that encompassed vast amount of free of charge real time information, enhanced market transparency, convenience and low commission. Together with the rising share prices in bull market atmosphere, these new customer, in particular, heavy traders quickly got accustomed to doing online trade. The Internet also made other comparisons easier. For example, it increased price competition for products for which price comparison was previously more difficult. New information applications enabled investors to compare the quality of trade execution provided by different brokerages and thus extend the trading costs that investors consider beyond commissions. Companies scrambled to create viable strategies that balance many priorities. Typical considerations included: Should they defend their existing customer base or enter into new customer segments? Grow their existing business or expand into new products? Acquire, partner or go alone? Basically, companies were competing not only to offer different and better products and services, but to design robust, lucrative business models that took advantage of emerging forms of electronic commerce. Electronic commerce the facilitation of exchange of value over computer networks fundamentally changed the brokerage business in part by increasing the velocity of financial services [1]. Impact of on-line brokerage Hurdle on brokerage firm Rigorous competition With the advancing Internet technology, investors had became less reliant on stockbrokers for trade execution or obtaining research information as such services were readily available on the Internet. In addition, the Internet was a convenient and efficient channel for doing stock trade transactions and for providing information support to investors. Indeed, the trend of self-investing led to the proliferation of Internet brokerages around 2000, offering trading services on the Internet at very low commission rates compared to using traditional brokerages. Reduced customer loyalty Lower transaction costs online led many investors to e-brokerages and away from traditional brokers to place their trades Another concern was that since investors feel that they can distinguish between the good and bad advice that they find on the Internet, they therefore were not be willing to continue to pay a financial planner solely for their expert opinion. This was in part due to the information illusion discussed in next section: illusion of knowledge and control, where investors feel that since they have access to so much information that they had no need to pay for such service and can do it better on their own. Reduced customer-broker cohesiveness Before on-line trading is prevalent, a single stock trade typically involves multiple telephone conversations between a customer and a broker. The broker may take the opportunity to reinforce the personal relationship with the customer by discussing pros and cons of the trade or offer tailor-made investment package. On the contrary, on-line traders are more on their own. Together with the convenience to switch broker, the loyalty of the customer to the brokerage firm is largely weakened. Although transactions are the bread and butter of brokerage companies, brokerage firms were also strived to developing client relationships in order to provide total solution to their customers. The income by providing strategic planning, advisory services, financial advices, margin loan and other client services are also vital to brokerage companies.. Market fragmentation Market fragmentation occurs when too many competitive suppliers enter an active or new market. It happened starting from 1998 and peaked around 2001, when online trading started to take off and attracted many different competitors. They all aimed attract on-line investors and to achieve the largest possible market shares by all means, for example, by giving them some extra bonuses. However, the sudden downturn of the market quickly turned a lot of these new investors to passive customers, if not entirely retired, due to lack of knowledge and experience. This phenomenon was even more obvious after market started to plunge beginning at 2001. As a matter of fact, it is too risky for e-brokers to over-rely on commission as the main source of revenue. After all, the demand for brokerage services highly depends on investment atmosphere of stock market. The number of on-line executed orders during bullish and bearish market varies significantly. These large variation experts high risk for those who base their income on commission. In order to safeguard possession of active traders during both bullish and bearish market, it is very important to educate them and foster a correct investment culture. Lower entry barrier The Internet changed how information is delivered to investors and the ways in which investors can act on that information. On-line brokerage provide a effective and convenient access media between customers and the brokerage firm, the unit cost of operations is much reduced. It had lowered both the fixed and marginal costs of producing financial services, thus enabling newer, smaller companies to challenge established providers of these services. On-line brokerage firms, such as E*Trade, are among the most vivid and successful financial service firms to provide on-line financial advice, research tools, and financial information that emerged in the last decade. These e-commerce firms transformed the way traditional services were delivered and offered a vast assortment of new services. Hurdle on customer Investors in general and on-line investors in particular now make decisions in a very different environment than investors in the past. They have access to far more data. They often act without personal intermediaries. They can conduct extensive searches and comparisons on a wide variety of criteria. Although the quantity they can produce may be large, it is the quality that matter. As a consequence, they trade more actively, more speculatively but less profitably than before. On-line trader stress heavily on commission and management cost when choosing broker firm to use. However, there are other unobservable costs that are unaware by them: information-processing costs, information illusion, illusion of control, frequent trading behavior, and the lack of personal advice. Information-processing costs Information-processing costs are the costs that online investors sustain before they actually make a transaction and it is defined by the time and energy that the investor expands trying to reach an investment decision. Because of the huge volume of information found on the Internet that it can take investors a lot of extra time to find, sort, and analyze all of the relevant information. This in turn can out-weigh the benefits of online trading for some investors because they might not be able to afford the opportunity. In fact, the overwhelmingly huge amount of information available on the Internet scales many investors away, let alone their validity or intentional hoax. Illusion of knowledge The proposition that more information leads to better decision-making is intuitively appealing. But the truth of the proposition depends on the relevance of the information to the decision and on how well-equipped the decision maker is to use the information .The vast amount of on-line investment data available will enable investors to confirm their prior beliefs and may lead them to become overconfident in their ability to pick stocks and other securities. Faster feedback may focus investors attention on recent performance. Psychology shows that when people who initially disagree on a topic are given arguments on either side of the issue, they become further polarized in their beliefs. They are impressed by the arguments with which they already agree and they discount opposing views. Not only are people more impressed by arguments they favor, but they actively seek out confirming evidence. For this reason, investors are more likely to visit chatrooms or forum of like-minded investor s. If controversies ensue, they are likely to be convinced by those with whom they already agree. Investors who believe that additional information makes them better investors are unlikely to seek out or attend to evidence that indicates otherwise. Thus, on-line investors are likely to become overconfident. They may believe that they have more ability to perform tasks such as stock-picking than they actually do. In theoretical models, overconfident individual investors trade more actively and more speculatively than they otherwise would, hold under diversified portfolios, have lower expected utilities, and contribute to increased market volatility. In an empirical study of investors at a large discount brokerage who switched from phone-based to personal computer-based trading by Barber and Odean, they find that after going on-line, investors tend to trade both more actively and more speculatively. Illusion of control This illusion results when investors think that because they have access to so much information via the Internet that they have an advantage over the entire market and this can lead them to make bad investment decisions. These investors then have an exaggerated sense of control over the outcomes of their investments. Frequent trading is another cost associated with online investing. Low transaction costs can encourage frequent trading and day-trade strategy according to Konana, Menon and Balasubramanian. As an example, in Singapore, 71.1 per cent of online investors say that they trade more frequently than they did prior to online trading (Teo, Tan, Peck, 2004). Researches show that most of the on-line traders adopt short term trading strategy: a risky strategy rather than the believed buy and hold strategy. The Internet also seems likely to change what information investors focus on, because it reduces the cost of some kinds of information more than others. For instance, the Intern et especially facilitates comparisons of real time data, and thus has changed investors focus by emphasizing the importance of speed and immediacy. While the serious individual investor of a decade ago may have checked stock positions once a day in the morning paper, casual investors now may check theirs several times an hour. Many more investors pay attention to short term-even intraday- return trends than ever before. Worse still, many firms advertise their ability to deliver real time data or to execute investors orders rapidly, making the situation even worse. Lack of personal advice The downside of investing online is the lack of personal advice from those in the financial field (Vakil Lu, 2005). According to Phelan (2001), the Web will never be able to substitute for the judgment and expertise of financial planners, nor will it be able to protect investors from all of the scams that are abundant on the Internet. In reality, the news and new information people found on the internet might not be as new as they think. Moreover, many online traders only focus on the here and now and do not look at the whole picture or at the future as financial advisors are trained to do, thus jeopardizing their investment. Challenge Our research examines the pressures for change over the past decade that was overcoming the inertia in the brokerage industry. We viewed the challenge from the perspectives of traditional brokerage firm and electronic brokerage firm. Traditional brokerage firm To provide online trading, traditional brokerage firms were forced to decide on which of the two approaches to go, either establishes new subsidiary with a new brand name or provide under its own name. For the first case, brokerage firm suffer from overlapped company structure and considerable marketing expenditure to build the new name, which prolonged the period to reach break even point. The later case, though easier to setup, brokerage firm is putting their reputation at stake when the service do not meet customers expectation. The strategy adopted was to have differentiated brands serve the younger, more tech-savvy investors that gravitated to on-line trading without nibbling full-commission business. With the advent of the World Wide Web, discount brokerage firms face a comparable disintermediation dilemma. Commissions were suddenly under pressure, customers wanted to trade directly, and competition is coming from non-traditional sources like direct banks. To address the competitive threat, some entrenched firms adopted the supermarket approach by providing other supplementary services like providing financial information and news. However, such approach was in fact a typical re-intermediation path that directly competed with full service brokerage firm which offered a wider portfolio of products and services. Nevertheless, creating a financial services supermarket was a misguided strategic choice for three reasons: First, many successful 1990s businesses have rediscovered the virtues of adhering to their core competencies and the power of strategic outsourcing in order to gain agility. Most of the conglomerates which attempted to enter the financial services arena learned the hard way that adding unfamiliar lines of business can dilute their ability to compete, weaken shareholder and customer loyalty and multiply management complexity. The reason for failure was economic. Risk and cost sharing in the production or delivery process can enable better time to market and make providing a product/service bundle more efficient than integrating everything in-house. Second, offering additional products to an existing customer base does not prevent customers from leaving. Also, the decision to add new products to an existing portfolio is complicated by an uncertain environment such as the Internet. In an uncertain techno-marketplace, a firm is often making an informed guess about what it thinks is best for a customer without fully knowing what that customers preferences and goals are. Third, technology-enabled firms like ETrade were taking the â€Å"re- intermediation† path in a new way by providing customers with interactive and personalized services at little or no cost. This branding and trust-building approach enables the service providers to learn directly and accurately from each customer whats actually important to him or her. Armed with this intimate customer knowledge, these companies are better positioned to build loyalty and increase profits for the long term. Clearly, re-intermediation was a difficult strategy as sustainable competitive advantage was becoming rare in the on-line environment. High performers today look for a series of short-term advantages over a long period of time instead of attempting to plot a far-sighted course in an environment with too many unpredictable variables. Innovative Internet-based intermediaries were the real threat to the entrenched players. These firms were adopting dramatically more effective means of forging interactive relationships with customers added value, which was essentially the incremental benefit that the new in the middle firm brings to the customer. They were looking to exploit synergism across different product lines. They innovated more frequently and organized to seize opportunities much faster than their competitors. The reason was: concentrated focus on traditional sources of competitive advantage such as cost, technology, and differentiation was inadequate because competitors were quick to replicate advantages. They seek to identify and rapidly responded to subtle changes to the finest ingredient: the individual customer. To sustain competitive advantage, it was important to embrace business practices that encourage deep customer insight and thinking about how to materially improved the customers value proposition. Electronic brokerage firm Online brokers rushed to pour money to increase their capacity to absorb the fast growing demand during dot.com boom in 2000. The only way considered effective to increase market share at that time was advantageous offers and promotions, combined with enormous marketing expenses exposing them to a very high costs. The development of the online brokerage market was highly dominated by such marketing approach. Absence of physical branches and thus reduced operation cost entitle internet brokers the advantageous cost structure. Instead, they allocated this saving and invested on massive marketing campaign in order to achieve the biggest market share as soon as possible. By attracting and developing the loyalty of new customers, these brokerage firms were expecting soon to reach the break-even point. The bull market during the dot.com boom had dusted the eye of these online brokers. They failed to anticipated adverse situation when significant downturn in capital investments occurred and stroke their over investment. The stock markets had proved its volatility in a year time, when the dot.com boom burst in 2001. The serious regression caused by global slump of economy and the later SAR outbreak during 2003 had made the situation even steeper for the industry. The depression lasted for a couple of years before reaching a rising track started on 2007. Stock market transaction was drastically dropped from hundreds of billion down to tens of billions and last for years. Investors were either scared away or suffered from great lost by the sudden market plunge and prolonged recession. The once admirable capacity had turned into the biggest burden for brokerage firm. Naturally, all of them suffered from great investment lost, if not bankrupted altogether. All the internet brokerage firms had paid a huge price for this costly experience. The lesson they learnt made them re-evaluated the challenges ahead and the goals to attain. They have learnt that low commission rates or excessive marketing expenses would not give them competitive advantages and made the break-even point harder to reach. Instead, they had to revise the services they offered and discover alternative source of revenue. Suffered from the great impact of market volatility, they were looking for a flexible enough business models that is able to cope with the huge capacity demand during a bull market while enable them to safely transit bearish market. We can classify the challenges facing online brokerage firms into three categories: strategy, marketing and technology. Strategic challenge The characteristic of online brokerage had fundamentally changed the brokerage industry. New competitors like insurance companies, banks and financial portal had entered the arena. With the competitive advantage in possessing technology, a large customer bases and knowledge of their customers, they posted great threat to traditional brokerage player who want to participant in online brokerage. The large customer bases not only significantly reduced marketing cost but also helped to minimize development and operation cost due to economy of scale. Coupled with the open standard characteristics, traditional brokerage players had an up hill battle to fight. The value chain of the brokerage was invaded by these new competitors, forcing traditional p

NAACP Essay -- essays research papers

NAACP The civil rights movement in the United States has been a long, primarily nonviolent struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all Americans. It has been made up of many movements, though it is often used to refer to the struggles between 1945 and 1970 to end discrimination against African-Americans and to end racial segregation, especially in the U.S. South. It focuses on that particular struggle, rather than the comparable movements to end discrimination against other ethnic groups within the United States or those struggles, such as the women's liberation, gay liberation, and disabled rights movements, that have used similar tactics in pursuit of similar goals. The civil rights movement has had a lasting impact on United States society, both in its tactics and in increased social and legal acceptance of civil rights. One of the most important organizations of this era was the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). NAACP is an or ganization composed mainly of American blacks, but with many white members, whose goal is the end of racial discrimination and segregation. The association was formed as the direct result of the lynching (1908) of two blacks in Springfield, Ill. The incident produced a wide response by white Northerners to a call by Mary W. Ovington, a white woman, for a conference to discuss ways of achieving political and social equality for blacks. This conference led to the formation (1910) of the NAACP, headed by eight prominent Americans, seven white and one, William E. B. Du Bois, black (wikipedia 1). The selection of Du Bois was significant, for he was a black who had rejected the policy of gradualism advocated by Booker T. Washington and demanded immediate equality for blacks. From 1910 to 1934 Du Bois was the editor of the association's periodical The Crisis, which reported on race relations around the world. The new organization grew so rapidly that by 1915 it was able to organize a partially successful boycott of the motion picture The Birth of a Nation, which portrayed blacks of the Reconstruction era in a distorted light( S partacus 2). Most of the NAACP's early efforts were directed against lynching. In this area it could claim considerable success. In 1911 there were 71 lynchings in the United States, with a black person the victim 63 times; by the 1950s lynching had virtua... ...erica's darker citizens were denied. From the ballot box to the classroom, the dedicated workers, organizers, and leaders who forged this great organization and maintain its status as a champion of social justice, fought long and hard to ensure that the voices of African Americans would be heard. The legacy of those pioneers such as W.E.B DuBois, Thurgood Marshall and Roy Wilkens and the hundreds of thousands of nameless faces who worked tirelessly cannot and must not be forgotten (NAACP 1). The history of the NAACP is one of blood sweat and tears. From bold investigations of mob brutality, protests of mass murders, segregation and discrimination, to testimony before congressional committees on the vicious tactics used to bar African Americans from the ballot box, it was the talent and tenacity of NAACP members that saved lives and changed many negative aspects of American society. While much of its history is chronicled in books, articles, pamphlets and magazines, the true movement lies in the faces---black, white, yellow, red, and brown---united to awaken the conscientiousness of people, and a nation. Work Cited www.en.wikipedia.org www.naacp.org www.spartacus.schoolnet.co

Houses: Shelter to the Physical and Emotional Well-Being

Sandra Cisneros’   Ã¢â‚¬Å"The House on Mango Street† is not just another coming-of-age story; it is also a story that has been written to conquer the personal difficulties of a Latina writer.  Ã‚   Being Latina, she does not have many â€Å"Chicano role models† (Klein 21), but she has strived to express herself in writing, nonetheless.   In the 1988 collection of fifty four vignettes, Cisneros makes the narrator, Esperanza, come alive through experiences ultimately caused by being poor, female, and a minority, while giving the house the title role as it encompasses the dreams of families from any race: having a home to call their own. It is Cisneros’ way of dealing with the issues she herself has faced as a Latina is through her perseverance that they do not remain mere issues (O'Malley 35), but full-blooded experiences of a girl named Esperanza.   In the short story with the same name, Cisneros focuses on the dream of acquiring a home.   Therefore, this coming-of-age short story emphasizes on the importance of the physical house to the emotional growth and identity of its residents. Esperanza relates the many times her family has to move from rented house or apartment to another:   â€Å"We didn’t always live on Mango Street.   Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor and before that we lived on Keeler.   Before Keeler it was Paulina, and before that I can’t remember. But I remember most was moving a lot† (Cisneros 290). Mango Street is a change from all the moving because the family finally does â€Å"not have to pay rent†; the house is supposed to be theirs   (Cisneros 291). However, the house still has some disappointments in store for Esperanza and her family.   The house is not what Esperanza imagines a real house that they can proudly call their own to be. â€Å"In the United States in particular, the house is more than just shelter; it is a national institution almost as sacred as the American flag.   In home ownership, the American dream and the American way are manifest: the civic values of individualism, economic success and self-sufficiency are asserted† (Kaup 361). Esperanza and her family are striving to reach that American dream, to stop being substandard citizens who get to be asked disbelievingly by people â€Å"You live there?† (Cisneros 291).   According to Esperanza the way it was asked made her â€Å"feel like nothing†.     Ã‚  This is how sometimes people are judged by the house they live in.   The house also affects the psyche of its residents.   A clean, well-kept house may contribute to a clearer outlook while a house which reflects poverty can be a cause for shame, such as in the case of Esperanza and her family’s house on Mango Street (Klein 23). The short story â€Å"The House on Mango Street† may be very brief, but according to Thomas O’ Malley, an English teacher, he considers â€Å"Cisneros’ writing† as â€Å"poetry† and thinks that â€Å"her characters speak poetic dialogue† that has not been heard â€Å"since Shakespeare moved out of the hood (O'Malley 35). It is probably Cisneros’ identification with Esperanza’s experiences that make her write them vividly and with the right tone. She understands what Esperanza is going through, and she makes sure that she uses simple language as appropriate to that of a little girl’s. It is also important to note that like other Latin American writers, Sandra Cisneros emphasizes on the â€Å"reinvention† of the English language when put side by side with other languages (Wolf 61).   Esperanza is not just a little girl, she is also a bilingual girl therefore there are two reasons behind the use of simple language. The story being added to a curriculum may be questioned by some English Literature students (Romero and Zancanella 26), but studying the story is not a waste of time at all even for non-Latinos.   In fact, other students are curious about â€Å"the line between fiction and reality† in the short story, having known Sandra Cisneros’ somewhat similar background (O'Malley 37). It not only opens the eyes to the world of Latinos but also expresses the universal need to feel secure with both shelter and identity.   The house on Mango Street is not a useless location for the story; it develops a character of its own.  Ã‚   It is used as a symbol for a person’s status in life, and possibly the person’s emotional state. The House on Mango Street relates a story of poverty and of a family’s search for a home to call their own.   However, what makes this story worth reading is that although there are many trials for Esperanza’s family, their story ends with Esperanza thinking hopefully:   â€Å"I knew then that I had to have a house.   A real house. One I could point to.   But this isn’t it.   The house on Mango Street isn’t it. For the time being.   Mama says. Temporary, says Papa.   But I know how things go† (Cisneros 291).   The last sentence diminishes that hope but the desire to have a real house is already in Esperanza’s heart.   She has the desire to improve her family’s situation and she does not want to remain trapped in rented houses, or even houses like the house on Mango Street.   However, this does not mean that Esperanza does not recognize the irony in what her parents have promised. Rudolfo Anaya is another Chicano writer who, like Cisneros, creates â€Å"protagonists who, like themselves, have no models, but were possessed by destiny, by inclination and by courage (Klein 22)†¦Ã¢â‚¬  to reach their goals.   He differs from Cisneros in his more active childhood and his stories which focus more on the development of a male protagonist. Related article: Arguments Made in Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry As a conclusion, â€Å"The House on Mango Street† is a story that does not only explore the development of a young girl called Esperanza, it also tells how the different houses she has lived in, including the house on Mango Street, contribute to her emotional growth and recognition of self-worth.   The house on Mango Street is not only present to provide a literal roof over the head of Esperanza’s family, it affects their very identity. Works Cited Cisneros, Sandra. â€Å"The House on Mango Street.† n.d. 290-291. Kaup, Monika. â€Å"The Architecture of Ethnicity in Chicano Literature.† American Literature,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Vol. 69, no. 2 (June 1997): 361-397. Klein, Dianne. â€Å"Coming of Age in the Novels of Rudolfo Anaya and Sandra Cisneros.† The   Ã‚  Ã‚   English Journal Vol. 81, No. 5 (September 1992): 21-26. O’Malley, Thomas F. â€Å"A Ride Down Mango Street.† The English Journal Vol. 86, No. 8 (December 1997): 35-37. Romero, Patricia Ann and Don Zancanella. â€Å"Expanding the Circle: Hispanic Voices in American Literature.† The English Journal, Vol. 79, No. 1 (January 1990): 24-29. Wolf, Dennie Palmer. â€Å"Of Courses: The Pacesetter Initiative and the Need for Curriculum-Based School.† The English Journal, Vol. 84, No. 1 (January 1995): 60-68.      

Food Inc. Essay

1. Incorporation (Inc. ) means to form a legal association of individuals, created by law or under the authority of law, with a continuous existence independent of the existences of its members, and with powers and liabilities distinct from those of its members. Therefore, Food Inc. implies that food system of the modern day has become more of a combination of monopolized businesses, whom only care about their profits, rather than the farmers from the obsolete agricultural system. 2. Walking through a supermarket many food items are plastered with images of farms and pastures creating a facade to the true factory farming that’s occurring in today’s society. These images are creating a pastoral fantasy of the agrarian America of the 1930’s. 3. Using Monsanto’s soy beans for this timeline all seeds begin in a lab. Seeds are genetically altered (GMOs). They are then sold to farmers who have a contract with the Monsanto Company. Then they harvested in large amounts and shipped out to be processed, but some of the beans are used a feed for cattle and other livestock. At the factory they are packaged, and are shipped out to local supermarkets for national consumption. 4. The McDonald brothers revolutionized the fast food industry. They â€Å"brought the factory system to the kitchen. † Increasing profit, while decreasing costs, and with this came an increase in the unhealthiness of food by focusing on the three things humans’ desire most: sugar, fat, and salt. 5. Factory farming is the precise systematic farming of livestock in a factory setting an example being chickens. Today, chickens are often raised in huge metal buildings with no access to light or fresh air, confined together with thousands of birds in one building, and made to grow so quickly that often their bones cannot keep up and they can lose their ability to walk. 6. In Food Inc. the phrase â€Å"growing chickens† creates a negative connotation. It would seem that the process that’s usually referred to as raising chickens has become so systematic that there is no longer a personal connection between the farmer, and his chickens. They become property, which are only used for financial profit. 7. With all the diversity found in the supermarket, one would think there are hundreds of different companies that provide the different foods. Truthfully, about eighty percent of all products in the supermarket are produced, and distributed by four major companies. This creates an illusion of diversity which, unfortunately, most consumers are unaware of. 8. Monsanto Company, Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods, and Perdue Farms were all asked to be interviewed for Food Inc. and all declined the opportunity. Declining the opportunity to explain their motives give many a reason for doubt. Showing they have secrets or motives that would not be explainable without legal confrontations. 9. Environmental contamination is a major result of the newly developed farming system. Manure mixed with run-off water can contaminate surrounding vegetable farms causing Salmonella and E. coli contamination in plants such as spinach and lettuce. In South America, a major beef producer, deforestation has become a huge problem which is created by companies trying to make space for factory farms. This deforestation causes the displacement of animals and ecosystems. Smoke produced by factories can lead to smog, and air pollution in concentrated amounts. 10. Not only does the modern food system have a negative effect on the environment it harms humans as well. With animal feed being treated with antibiotics any bacteria present has a chance to become immune. This bacteria can then be acquired by consumption of raw meat, and with it being immune to some antibiotics, it will cause an increase the difficulty of treatment, and may result in death. With the food system being based so highly on the consumption of fat, salt, and sugar, a major concern for humans is heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. Type two diabetes, acquired diabetes, used to only be contracted in adulthood, but now its arising as early as age seven. 11. There is a direct relationship between food and health. The major goal of the new industrial agricultural system is to grow everything faster, fatter, and bigger. We’ve grown right along with the companies who own these farms. Michael Pollan evaluates the problem by comparing it to the past: â€Å"Over the course of human history, we were struggling to make sure we had enough food and enough calories for a sizable percentage of the human race. Now the problem is too many calories. † 12. GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organism. Companies such as Tyson may use GMOs to produce more efficient and more profitable livestock. GMOs should be clearly labeled when present in food. Although not all GMOs are harmful, a customer should be privileged to know what their food contains. Labeling the presence of a GMO may also prevent a lawsuit against the major corporations if anything was to happen. 13. The documentary Food Inc. , being very factual, used many different sources to acquire all the information needed. Sources such as first-hand accounts on what occur, hidden cameras, accredited websites, other documentaries, classical farmers, award winning authors familiar with the topic, and many well educated informants. 14. Food Inc. is sectioned into chapters. Each chapter pulls the veil away from the consumers eyes on somewhat different, but connected topics: fast food, food contents, food safety, right to healthy food, meat industry, chicken industry, major companies, lives lost, and what consumers can do to change the system. 15. Being a documentary the main purpose of Food Inc.is to educate people on the problems of food production, and to persuade consumers to make healthier food choices. It may also be trying to inspire change in the everyday persons eating habits. 16. Food Inc. is directed towards middle class citizens who shop at the supermarket without really knowing what they are eating. 17. The strategies used throughout Food Inc. covered a wide range of tactics. Rhetorical questions, hidden camera footage, creditable statistics, personal anecdotes, music, religion, and the most heart wrenching strategy used was on location filming of the factory farms. 18. Food Inc. had a very informative, and cautious tone. There were many facts, and just as many warnings. 19. An interesting revelation made in the duration of Food Inc. is how naive people can ben to their surroundings. Maria Gonzalez believed that â€Å"everything was healthy† which justified her family visiting Burger King for almost every meal. It would be understandable to know that she couldn’t afford anything healthier, but to not know that the food she was consuming was unhealthy, it just shows how manipulative large corporations can be.