Welcome Stranger (English Belonging Related Text)

Name of Text:â€Å"Welcome Stranger† Composer & Date of Publication:Stephanie Dowrick, 2008 Type of Text:Feature Article What is the text about? The text basically gets you to question whether you are an includer or excluder. It’s about people fitting in to different groups at all ages. Identify links to belonging: What elements of this text explore the concept of belonging? The whole text explores people’s connections to others in different groups and settings and questions our role in our sense of belonging and how we make other’s feel. Consider the composer’s purpose/intention: Why do you think the composer made this text?She’s giving her opinion and trying to persuade her audience to be more inclusive. She is informing her audience of the benefits of being inclusive. Who is the target audience for this text? Adult, professional audience. Identify the mood/tone of the text: (e. g. peaceful, anxious, cynical, hopeful, confused etc†¦ ) Critical, serious, persuasive, highly emotive. Identify forms and features relevant to the concept of belonging: Form and structure: argument, narrative, interview†¦ Feature Article Literary techniques: register, alliteration, similes, contrast, repetition, metaphors†¦Rhetorical question, imagery, appeal to emotions, alliteration, high modality, metaphor. Visual techniques: colour, layout, reading paths/vectors, modality, camera angles, colour, sound None Quotation Technique Effect How it represents belonging Do you give much thought to whether you are an â€Å"includer† by nature-or not? Rhetorical QuestionOpening rhetorical question engages the audience my making them stop to think. This article shows the enormous power that we as people have to enrich communities, groups and other peoples’ lives, including our own. â€Å"the image of a child standing alone in a crowded playground†.Imagery It appeals to our sense of emotions and fear of isolation. It represents a child not belonging in the group. â€Å"vital sense of inclusion† High Modality Emphasises how important belonging is. Very persuasive. It depicts perceptions of belonging and how important it is for our wellbeing that we do belong. â€Å"They are society’s treasures† Metaphor It positions us to want be one of those treasures/ it’s persuasive. We can identify with a treasure, because we all want to be treasured, that is looked after and appreciated-after all that is what is belonging is al about.What are the characters’ / persona’s / composer’s perceptions of their belonging? The composer’s perception of belonging is that it is important, and it is just as important to offer belonging to others, to give it, as well as to take it. What are the characters’ / persona’s / composer’s experiences and notions of: identity? Belonging gives people a sense of identity which provides security and happine ss. relationships? Our sense of belonging is dependent upon our connections with others. acceptance? Do we accept others. understanding? We have to understand people, the need to belong.Are there characters who enrich or challenge the group? Explain how they do this. The includers are the ones who encrich the community and the excluders challenge the community. Are attitudes to belonging modified over time? Do any characters make choices not to belong? Are there any barriers preventing belonging? The people who excluder others. How is this text similar or different to Strictly Ballroom? Similar: -ideas about belonging: both question the individual’s role and ability to enrich or challenge group -ideas of not belonging is explored in both texts both broaden our understanding of ourselves and the world- we question our own behaviour and the behaviour of others -both explore relationships and connections with people, groups and communities. -both explore notions of acceptance an d understanding -both explore barriers to belonging Different: -form: feature article and film -techniques: persuasive language and film techniques -purpose: to persuade, give an opinion and inform and to entrain -audience: professional 2008 and 1980’s adults

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Behaviourist Approach Essay

Outline Two Advantages and Two Disadvantages of the Behaviourist Approach (12) One of the strengths of the behaviourist approach is that it only focuses on behaviour and behaviours that can be observed and manipulated. Consequently this approach has proved itself to be useful in experiments where behaviour can be observed and manipulated for desired effects such as the experiment Burrhus Frederic Skinner conducted on rats, manipulating them to press buttons and levers until they are given food and the experiment Ivan Petrovich Pavlov conducted on dogs where he manipulated them to salivate to the ringing of a bell, rather than to food. The behaviourist approach also concentrates on ‘here and now’ and what can be seen, rather than exploring a person’s past like the psychodynamic approach does. This is an advantage because it is not concerned with what cannot be seen and what happened in the past and many people do not know and believe that their past causes behaviour and personalities in their later life, and many people the think removing the undesirable behaviour is more important than understanding the causes of the behaviour. On the other hand, a disadvantage of the behaviourist approach is that the theories are too deterministic as behaviourists believe that our behaviour is determined only by environmental effects such as classical conditioning and operant conditioning which is a disadvantage as behaviour can be indeterministic and there can be no causes for it. It also undermines the amount of free will a person has and doesn’t consider that ever human can make choices about their behaviours and have moral responsibility for their behaviour which is a deficiency in the approach as a person can choose to change their behaviour and personality at any given moment and the environment doesn’t have to effect their decision. Also, the behaviourist approach emphasises too much on nurture. It focuses only on the environment effects on a person, so it completely ignores effects nature can have on a purpose and disregards genetics as an explanation of behaviour which is a disadvantage as behaviour can be altered and modified by nature every day in different ways like where a person  lives, where they visit, even what bus route they take etc. Furthermore, a question often put to behaviourists is ‘If learning is the only factor that makes us who we are, then we should all be capable of becoming whatever we want to be’ and many behaviourists cannot justify this question properly, the bottom line is that there are many different factors affecting our abilities other than learning. In addition, the theories of behaviourism have been mainly tested on animals so the findings may not completely apply to human behaviour, which is much more a lot more complex.

Mondavi Business Model Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Mondavi Business Model Analysis - Essay Example Robert Mondavi Winery manufactures a range of wines like the $125-a-bottle Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve for the discriminating connoisseur or the $5 Woodbridge table wine for the average American who have come to enjoy a glass or two on steak dinners. This disparity in prices reflects the profitable but unfocused approach to marketing to two distinct but demographically opposite consumer groups, which eventually undermined the wine brand's premium image, despite its commercial success among the low to mid end wine consumers. This unfortunate turn of events led the elder Mondavi to lament its success in the winery's latter years prior to its acquisition by Constellation Brands.2 The bungled marketing strategy notwithstanding, the Robert Mondavi Winery is nothing less than a stellar success, a multi-billion dollar wine brand that has done more to change the liquor-consuming game in the post prohibition America. II. THE ROBERT MONDAVI WINERY BUSINESS MODEL The Robert Mondavi Winery infrastructure is pretty much a relic of the old world vineyard estates albeit with a few technological modifications like state-of-the-art processing and bottling facilities that ensure consistent manufacturing quality regardless of volume. The To Kalon Vineyard, which means "the highest beauty" in Ancient Greek, is the vineyard that provides Robert Mondavi Winery with most of the grapes for its world-class Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, and Oakville District Cabernet Sauvignon and is the exclusive source of Sauvignon Blanc for the estate bottled Fum Blanc Reserve and I Block Fum Blanc. It consists of over 550-acres, parts of which were originally planted in the middle of the 19th century, in the Oakville region. The Cabernet Sauvignon from Oakville and specifically from To Kalon Vineyard has been found to be some of the finest in the Napa Valley. The other vineyard is a 400-acre Wappo Hill Vineyard in the Stag's Leap region which supplies much of the Merlot and the Sauvignon Blanc for the winery's Napa Valley Fum Blanc. 3 Fig. 1. The Robert Mondavi Winery Business Model (prior to 2004 acquisition) The wineries, where the actual processing of the grapes are done, were located in Oakville and a little time later in Woodbridge. One unique feature of the Robert Mondavi Winery in its primary location in Oakville is the California mission-styled building designed by Cliff May. Taking inspiration from the missions along the California Coast, the building features a classic arch and bell tower that serve as a lasting tribute to the Franciscan missionaries who originally introduced wine to California.4 This edifice is also the venue for the Mondavi's great cultural showcases where the famous Mondavi Summer Music Festivals and the 40-year running Napa Valley Symphony fundraisers are held. The estate also features the fabled

Exam questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Exam questions - Essay Example Times have changed, and this has brought issues such as environmental concerns (Shaheena, 2008). The following are some of the other trends that have arisen in the sphere; Organizations under Constant Scrutiny One notable development over the past decades is that organizations are continually loosing grip of the information that reaches their customers. This is the information era, and everyone seems to know more than they actually do. The fact that people are constantly seeking information, the numerous channels of passing information, and that there is freedom of expression in most nations forces most organizations to lose some grip on the information that gets to the public (Thomas, 2009). This is the reasons why organizations are competing with these outside sources of information by using the same means such as setting up websites along with utilizing popular social media sites. Responsibility as an Organizational value During the past few decades, many organizations have incorp orated the elements such as sustainability, responsibility, and respect into their workplaces. Initially, only a handful held this trait since their work demanded so. Examples of such organizations included Ben & Jerry’s, Starbucks, and Tom’s of Maine. ... In 1943, Johnson & Johnson was accredited as the first organization to act responsibly towards the community. While the CSR department is deemed as the core steward of this attribute, present trends depict that organizations are using them internally requiring everyone to exhibit good citizenship. Recognition that CSR can foster skills in the workplace It is said by some economic experts that the world economy is still trying to heal its wounds from the economic downturn of 2008. During this period, most multinationals focused on the validity of every job and employee within their realm. The recession caused most organizations of this nature to limit the leadership and training initiatives. This caused a challenge since the heart of any organization can be stated as its employees; they put the welfare of the organization in a destitute place whenever they are not advancing in any way. The future seemed obscured for most of these organizations up until some discovered that CSR held a key to the issue (Thomas, 2009). Organizations such as IBM used CSR to indirectly train its employees. The technique was that activities embedded into CSR such as volunteering are imperative in building skills in employees; mainly through skill-based and pro-Bono volunteering. For instance, IBM commissioned approximately a hundred and fifty thousand workers to perform community service all across the globe. This technique was assumed by other organizations who sought to benefit in the same way. It was possible to do so because the workload was dismal thanks to the recession, but it gave organizations something to mull about. Presently, organizations can consent some of their workforce to this service to the society and consequently develop skills without

Security Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Security - Research Paper Example aper will explore the scope of security, responsibilities of a security director, necessary skills for the position, importance of business environment to security operations and the scope security operations in an organization. The general scope of roles of the security in an organization is the protection of organization’s properties. This covers the organization’s internal and external environments. Security ensures safety of property, conducts investigations, administration and management roles. One of the roles of security is to apprehend and enforce immediate discipline on any person found to have breached security measures in the organization. Some of the involved cases in this scope are theft and destruction of property and security devices (Sennewald, 2011). Security department also vets new employees to ascertain their potential to threaten the organization’s security. This role investigates historical code of conduct of selected employees to ascertain their past criminal records. It therefore advises the management on decisions that affect security of the organization’s assets (Sennewald, 2011). Security department is also the custodian of all the access points within an organization monitoring and ensuring safety of property. It keeps copies of keys to secured areas and manages access points into the organization such as gates, doors, and safes. Another role of the security department involves provision of safe dispatch and reception of sensitive documents and assets such as money by offering escorts to and from the organization. This protects the organization’s assets from burglary while on transit. Finally, the security plays a crucial role in maintaining security confidence within an organization. The presence of security personnel in patrols promotes psychological stability for favorable interactive environment for internal operations of the organization and relations with outsiders such as customers (Sennewald, 2011). A security

Gated Communities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Gated Communities - Essay Example This is because the living in enclosed compounds reduces the chances of suffering insecurity. Since the compounds have an enclosed surrounding, the parents also have a feeling that their children have a safe playing environment.Security is also a result of exclusionary Zoning. This is a scenario that occurs when certain type of people or group are excluded from a given community. The same is being practiced in Pennsylvania , and it fosters security in the community in the sense that people likely to cause chaos are excluded from the community.Secondly, a gated community also fosters affordability. This is because gated communities have houses of a variety of qualities. This shows that houses are available for people of various classes. The main advantage of buying a house in gated communities is because it is cheaper that buying land on an individual plot. Also, Common services are shared among residents in a gated community and this makes them to be more economical. Services such as street lights, solar panels, borehole and the community center are shared between people living in the same community. This forms a fundamental part of the economic structure of the community since it saves a lot of money that could be spent to pay for the same services in individual plots. The supporters of gated communities have the idea that reduction of people from passing through makes strangers recognizable with ease. The truth is that not all strangers are harmful to the community1. Therefore, this view is unrealistic because only a very small percentage of the strangers are potential criminals. Secondly, security in gated communities is more of illusion than reality. In the United States, the crime rates in gated communities in suburbs areas is the same as he crime rate in non-gated communities. Another disadvantage of gated communities is that it renders individuals to be homeless in instances where they have to be vacated due

Lab #7 and #9 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Lab #7 and #9 - Assignment Example However structural and functional abnormalities have been observed in this area in schizophrenia patient. Therefore it was suggested that schizophrenia patients may have selective attention problems. This study was conducted to test the hypothesis patients with schizophrenia would fail to activate the anterior cingulate gyrus during selective attention performance. Fourteen schizophrenic patients and fifteen age and sex matched healthy subjects were recruited for the experiment. They were instructed to perform a computer based stroop task in which they have to tell the color of the letters of different words while their brain activity was scanned by positron emission tomography. During the experiment answers of the participants and time taken to answers were recorded to the nearest millisecond. Three types of words randomly displayed on the computer screen. 1. Color matched words (eg. â€Å"red† in red color), 2. Color un-matched words (eg. â€Å"red† in blue color) and neutral words (eg. â€Å"car† in blue color). There was no significant difference between the schizophrenic and healthy groups in time taken to answer. However error rate was significantly higher in schizophrenic patients than that of the healthy group (11.1% Vs 1.9%, p Obesity increases the risk of mortality and morbidity chronic diseases such as diabetes and stroke. Although excess energy intake directly contributed to obesity some animal experiments have shown a relationship with diet composition. This cross sectional study was

Leadership and Financial Goal Setting of Top SMEs Dissertation

Leadership and Financial Goal Setting of Top SMEs - Dissertation Example ExplanationIt is good to study on this subject because there will be additional knowledge on how SMEs try to adapt some changes in the leadership process as their way to integrate financial stability with their daily business operation. Research aim:The overall purpose of this dissertation is to find out the link between leadership and financial goal setting of top SMEs in the UK. This has to be found out from ten of the best 100 SMEs in the UK. Thus, at the end of this study, the proponent will achieve concrete information about the role of leadership activities and its form in the financial goal setting of top SMEs in the UK. The business world is always looking forward to increase revenue and minimise expenses in order to ensure either profit or good business performance (Liu and Wang, 2008; Abi and Shimizutani, 2007; Ingene and Parry, 1995). The very activity of achieving this is focused on maximising financial concerns in order to achieve the bottom line.Trying to come up with s omething new in the business is focused on many aspects but financial activities and business performance seem to be at the top priority (Hallin et al., 2011; Liao and Rice, 2010). Therefore, it is important to bear in mind that there has to be other considerations when it comes to other significant activities on how to maximise business performance.Considering that business is dependent on human resource as one of its best assets, it is important to consider that people have to be redirected to perform the vision.

Hewlett-Packard Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Hewlett-Packard - Research Paper Example The company intends to follow an evolutionary trend for growth under the guidance of Apotheker, primarily focusing on the digital entertainment technology, portability and the expected increase in mobile computing. The new CEO has stressed upon the increasing awareness within the company about sustainability of operations and compliance of its products with the current stress on keeping the earth green and pollution free. The company intends and has already taken steps to develop product lines in coherence with these objectives. Apotheker intends to stabilize and retain the reputation of HP as the world’s largest technology company after the recent setbacks when the Directors’ had to sack the previous CEO Mark Hurd on disciplinary grounds and a downward slump in HP’s performance in the First Quarter of the year 2011 (Worthen & Sherr, 2011). Apotheker intends to promote ‘cloud computing’ from its own resources as well as in collaboration with other ma jor players’ in the field.

Misconception of African Americans Essay Example for Free

Misconception of African Americans Essay Since the beginning of time African Americans have been viewed negatively. We have always been viewed as a threat to society and frowned upon by many races. There are many cliches displayed in the media of what African Americans are supposed to act like. These conclusions cause almost immediate negative feelings from other races and sometimes by our own race. African American females in television shows and movies are often shown as the loud â€Å"ghetto† acting, angry black girl who is always â€Å"telling someone off†. Actor Tyler Perry has been criticized for illustrating African American females as â€Å"big momma†, another negative portrayal of black women. Other times shapely video vixens cause other black females to be portrayed as â€Å"jump-offs† or gold diggers. African American males have even greater judgments to overcome. They are viewed as a menace to society. They are illustrated as wild, angry, dangerous â€Å"gang bangers†. Black men are viewed as absentee fathers or abusive husbands. Although, in some cases, African American males do possess some of these characteristics, there are just as many black men that are positive role models. These ignorant judgments are called stereotypes. A stereotype is defined as â€Å"a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing†. Stereotypes, in my own words, are judgments blindly made by people who use ignorance as an excuse to be biased against those who are different from them. There are many different types of stereotyping. Racial stereotyping, sexist stereotyping, stereotypes about cultures, and sexual orientation stereotypes are all judgments that can affect one’s life in many ways. Stereotypes are, sadly, made by everyone. Racial stereotyping, however, is the most common type of stereotyping, and can sometimes be dangerous. The Trayvon Martin story, for example, is a situation where stereotyping turned tragic. Trayvon Martin was a young African American boy who was walking from the store with nothing but Skittles and a drink in his pockets. Because of his race, and the stereotype of what black Males are capable of, he was targeted, and tragically killed. There have been many similar cases of dangerous stereotyping. People’s fear of what the media shows we are suited to do, has gotten out of control. Too many of us are dying because of this fear. While many stereotypes do seem to be believable, people like Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, my grandparents, and my mom allow me to realize that not all stereotypes are true.

Impact of Exchange Rate Volatility on Bilateral Trade Flows

Impact of Exchange Rate Volatility on Bilateral Trade Flows Chapter 1: Introduction The relationship between exchange rate volatility and trade flows has been extensively reviewed in literature. Exchange rate volatility refers to the extent to which prices of currencies tend to fluctuate over time. Theoretical literature has provided diverging views on the effect on exchange rate volatility on trade flows. Some authors argue that an increase in exchange rate volatility implies that risk averse firms are faced with uncertainty with respect to their earnings and hence would generally respond by redirecting their activity to local markets. On the other hand, other researchers pointed out that when the assumption of risk aversion is lifted, it can be argued that market participants are more likely to take advantage of the fluctuations in the exchange rate so as to increase their profits which will cause an increase in international trade. The various empirical studies carried out on this topic have not been able to establish a clear link between exchange rate volatility and trade. Therefore from both theoretical and empirical point of view, the relationship between exchange rate and volatility is ambiguous. Mauritius is often cited as an example of a country which has undergone successful trade liberalization and export-led growth. It is also said that trade policies has shaped the countrys path of industrial development, contributing to over two decades of steady growth and propelling the country in the ranks of the â€Å"newly industrialized economies†. However since the 1960s, the Mauritius has experienced much changes and reforms in its trade policy. Early trade policies adopted by Mauritius involved an import substitution strategy while at the same time providing incentives for export promotion. However as from the 1980s, Mauritius moved towards a more outward-oriented strategy and embarked on trade liberalisation. Imports restrictions and tariffs were reduced while economic stability was maintained. By the mid-1990s, Mauritius had one of the most liberal economic regimes in Africa. Incentives for export promotion like tax incentives, preferential rates of borrowing and so o n were maintained. One of the key factors of exports competitiveness is the level of exchange rate in Mauritius which had to be kept low. In addition the exchange rate regime itself in Mauritius has been deregulated over the years in a set of financial liberalisation measures. The exchange rate regime in Mauritius has also evolved from a fixed exchange rate system to a manage float one. In the 1970s, Mauritius adopted a pegged exchange rate system where the rupee was first pegged to the sterling. The rupee started floating vis-à  -vis other foreign currencies in June 1972 while still being pegged to the sterling. However as from 1976, the Mauritian rupee was delinked from the sterling and was pegged to the SDR. The rupee-SDR peg lasted for seven years and as from 1983 Mauritius pegged its currency to a trade-weighted basket of currencies. This is because the appreciation of the dollar US which had the highest weight in the SDR basket caused the rupee to appreciate considerably and hence causing inflation. Hence the Mauritian rupee had to be delinked to the SDR. In the 1990s, Mauritius embarked on a set of financial li beralisation reforms and in 1994 exchange rate controls were removed and Mauritius adopted a manage float exchange rate regime. The evolution of the exchange rate system from a fixed to a manage float one implies that the exchange rate in Mauritius is subject to wider fluctuations. This begs the question whether the fluctuations in the rupee has any significant impact on the volume of trade in Mauritius and which of the theories advanced by researchers is applicable for Mauritius. Bilateral trade between Mauritius and USA is considered to assess this question. The rest of the paper is organised as follows: Chapter 2 presents a broad survey of the literature concerning the relationship between trade and exchange rate volatility. Chapter 3 describes the model that will be used and presents the methodology that will be applied. Chapter 4 presents the empirical findings of our study and the interpretation of our results. Finally chapter 5 presents the summary and conclusion of our study and also provides some policy implications and implications. 2.1 Introduction The 1970s saw the demise of the Bretton Woods system since a fixed exchange rate system no longer appeared feasible given the speculative flows of the currencies. This led to the adoption of a freely-floating exchange rate regime by many countries. Since March 1973, exchange rates have become more volatile and less predictable than they were during the fixed exchange rate period when changes occurred infrequently. There have been considerable investigations on the effect of Exchange rate volatility on the volume of trade. The increase in the risk of international transactions led researchers to investigate the exchange rate volatility-trade flows connection. Investigators argue that variability increases uncertainty and risk which causes firms to produce less than they would produce under certainty. This view was supported by Baron(1970), Clark(1973) and Ethier(1973). Empirical studies which yielded a negative relationship between exchange rate volatility and trade include Akhtar and Hilton(1984), Fountas and Aristotelous(1999), Arize(1997, 1998a and 1998b) and Rose(2000). However other authors have rejected this view, arguing that the exchange rate volatility have very little or at times even positive impact on trade volume. Researchers like Hooper and Kohlhagen (1978), Bahmani et Tavlas(1988), Bahmani et al.(1993), Bailey, Tavlas and Ulan(1987), found evidence of a negative effect of exchange rate uncertainty on trade volume, the effect was insignificant. Klassen(2004) also found no significant relationship between Exchange rate volatility and international trade. Research conducted by McKenzie and Brooks(1997), Franke(1991), Neumann(1995), Viaena and Vries(1992) and Baum et al(2004) on the other hand found a positive relationship between exchange rate volatility and trade. Other researchers like Cushman(1983) on the other hand obtained mixed results. This chapter provides an overview of the vast literature that covers this particular issue of exchange rate volatility and trade. Section 2.2.1 provides an overview traditional exports and imports functions used in most studies and their findings. Section 2.2.2 elaborates on additional factors which have been used in empirical studies. Finally section 2.2.2.4 outlines the research carried out to determine the relationship between exchange rate volatility and trade. Literature defines volatility as the tendency of prices to fluctuate either up or down. Exchange rate volatility is in fact a measure of how exchange rate changes over time. It has been argued that exchange rate volatility has a significant impact of the level of trade. First we will discuss the various factors that have an impact of trade in an economy. 2.2 Determinants of Bilateral Trade Flows Most of the empirical works used the traditional export and import demand models. While the traditional models were deemed to be significant in explaining trade, these works were often deemed to be unsatisfactory since several key determinants of trade were omitted which led to unreliable results and conclusions. Therefore, the traditional trade function was used in addition to other explanatory variables. Nevertheless, the major contribution of the traditional trade model in explaining exports and imports cannot be ignored. 2.2.1 Traditional Export Demand Function The traditional export demand function commonly used by many studies was expressed as a function of real income, relative prices and/or exchange rate. This was termed by Goldstein and Khan (1985) as the imperfect substitute model. An aggregate export demand linking real exports with a measure of foreign real income and relative prices is an important element in most conventional trade models. In theory, the higher the foreign income, the higher the demand for export. This is because an increase in foreign income is relative to an increase in the purchasing power of the foreign economy. Likewise an increase in domestic income will increase the demand for imports. Real foreign income were normally proxied using real GDP or real GNP or index of industrial production of the foreign economy. Relative prices were also included in the model. Relative prices are an indicator of a countries competitiveness and are normally proxied by the ratio of foreign prices to domestic prices or the ratio of import prices to import prices. Exports and relative prices is expected to have a positive relationship since an increase in relative prices implies that foreign prices are increasing which means that the competitiveness of exports is increasing. One of the most influential empirical work on export demand was that of Senhadji and Montenegro(1999) who estimated demand elasticities for a large number of developing and industrial countries using OLS and Phillip Hansenss fully modified ordinary least square techniques. They found that exports react to both the trade partners income and to relative prices in a large sample of both developing and industrial countries. Marquez and McNeilly(1988) examined income and price elasticities for exports of non-OPEC developing countries using quarterly data for 1973-84. This study was based on the two-stage square estimation technique. Import prices, real income and lagged endogenous variables were the main explanatory variables. They found a positive and significant income elasticities for exports and a significant relationship between prices and exports. Among other prominent empirical works which find a positive and significant relationship between trade and income are Sachs and Warner(19 95), Frankel and Romer(1999) and Edwards(1998). Wu(2004)constructed a foreign trade model for China using error correction model. They found a significant and inelastic relationship between relative price and export demand. Other empirical works included exchange rate as a determinant of export in their model. It is widely known in the international trade literature that a change in real exchange rates will affect trade flows directly with all other things being equal. A change in the real exchange rate rather than a change in the nominal exchange rate will affect exports and imports under the Generalized Marshall-Lerner condition. Also real exchange rate is another important measure of a countrys competitiveness. Real exchange rate is the nominal exchange rate that has been adjusted for inflation differentials. A real depreciation or devaluation of domestic currency will lead to an improvement in trade flows of a country and vice versa. This is because if the price of the currency of a country is low, its exports will be cheaper hence demand for its exports will increase. Imports also will be affected since imports will appear more expensive to local residents. However empirical works have found diverg ing results when assessing whether exchange rate have any effects on trade. Miles (1979) tested the effects of devaluation by entering the exchange rate directly into the trade flows. The results obtained were not conclusive since the exchange rate coefficient with respect to trade flows was significant in only three out of 14 cases examined. Warner and Kreinin(1983) specified the determinants of trade flows of 19 developing countries using conventional models. They found that the effect of real exchange rate changes on the volume of exports are significant as predicted by the theory. Similarly Himarios(1989) reassessed the impact of devaluation on real magnitude of trade flows and found that real exchange rates had a significant effect on trade flows. Rose (1991) analysed the relationship between the effective real exchange rate and the real trade flows for five major Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Japan, and the United States. He found no relationship between these two variables, and thus the generalized Marshall-Lerner condition did not hold. Bahmani-Oskooee and Malixi (1992) based their work on Almon lag structure on real exchange rate but found no support for a relationship between trade and real exchange rate. However on employing the Engle-Granger cointegration approach, Bahmani-Oskooee and Alse (1994) assert that the long-run impact of devaluation on the trade balance model is positive. Bahmani-Oskooee concluded that trade flows are more responsive to changes in relative prices and to changes in the exchange rates in the long run than in the short run. Brada et al. (1997), who divided the data set into two sub-samples, reports no long-run relationship between the variables of the trade balance function in the 1970s but they have revealed reverse results for the 1980s Kale (2001) points out that a real depreciation of the domestic currency helps to improve the trade balance with a lag of about one-year and the impacts of devaluations on the trade balance are positive in the long-run. Haque et al.(1990) used a generalised non-linear 3-staged least square estimation for the period 1963-87. They used a conventional model where real imports is expressed as a function of real domestic output, real exchange rate and a lagged import term. All signs were significant. Real imports were found to be real exchange and income inelastic. While the above factors were used as the main determinants of exports, there are also other also factors which are important determinants of trade. 2.2.2 Other factors affecting bilateral trade 2.2.2.1 Inflation rate and trade Inflation is defined as a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. High inflation is like to have a negative effect on trade flows because it reduces exports competitiveness and makes imports cheaper. When domestic price rises, foreign goods are relatively cheaper (ceteris paribus) and demand for imports should increase, Inflation adversely affects some sections of the population, distorts relative prices, erodes value of financial assets and creates uncertainty and instability in the economy. This may lead to an overall decrease in output in the economy since investors and producers is faced with uncertainty about future prices and economic outcome. Gylfason(1998) used cross-sectional data covering 160 countries for the period 1985-1994 and found that high inflation tended to be associated with low exports in proportion to GDP. Kotan and Saygili(1999) found that inflation rate significantly and positively affect non-oil exportati on in the long-run while in short run inflation did not have any significant impact of non-oil production. 2.2.2.2 Investment and Trade   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are valid theoretical reasons why a high investment ratio should give rise to a strong export growth performance. One theoretical background is provided by Ghosh and Chandrasekhar(2001). They stated that the rate at which international trade grows varies over any period. Also a countrys ability to increase its exports would depend on its production structure and the rate at which this structure is changing. Furthermore, countries normally engage in international trade by XXXodernizesXXXg in the production of certain commodities only. Therefore a countrys ability to increase its exports will therefore depend on its capacity to rapidly transform its production structure in the direction of commodities where world trade would grow faster. The rapidity of this transformation is linked to the investment ratio(ratio of investment to GDP), that is the higher the investment ratio, the higher the rate of transformation of the production-structure and hence the greate r the ability of the country to participate in world trade, that is the greater the rate of export growth. Also production capacity, potential productivity, cost effectivesness, production process will all be increased by properly-oriented investment and hence export competitiveness should also increase. Investment is said to enlarge the production base and thus increasing production capacity. It XXXodernizes production processes and thus improving cost effectiveness. It also allows for the production of new and improved products, increasing value added in production. In addition it incorporates international world-class innovations and quality standards. All this leads to an active participation in international trade and favourably affects exports. Patnaik and Chandrasekhar(1996) in their research analysed cross sectional data for 25 developing countries for 20 years and found a positive relationship between investment-ratio and export growth. FDI is said to foster innovation and competitiveness in the local industry. Moreover it contributes to technological innovation and increased production capacity in the domestic economy. Another import element of investment is foreign direct investment(FDI) which has been argued to be a prominent factor in promoting exports. Horst(1972), Lipsey and Weiss(1984), Head and Ries(2001) and Camarero and Tamarit(2004) are among the authors that find a positive relationship between FDI and trade. 2.2.2.3 Capacity Utilisation and Trade Capacity utilization refers to the extent to which an enterprise or a nation actually uses its installed productive capacity. Thus, it refers to the relationship between actual output that is produced with the installed equipment and the potential output which could be produced if capacity was fully used. From theoretical and empirical point of view, the relationship between capacity utilisation and exports is ambiguous. On one hand, researchers argue that when firms uses excess capacity, this will increase to a general increase in capacity utilisation and will lead to an increase in output. It will be possible for firms to export more. Productivity also may increase since firms are employing more of their excess capacity. Likewise an increase in foreign capacity utilisation is likely to have a negative impact on domestic exports. This is because an increase in foreign capacity utilisation means firms are able to increase their productivity and output. Also Hooper and Kohlagen(1978) who were the first to introduce capacity utilisation in their model to determine the relationship between exchange rate volatility and exports, argued that as domestic capacity utilisation increases, domestically produced goods are delivered with longer lags and hence decreasing quantity demanded of imports. Likewise an increase in foreign capacity should decrease the demand of exports. Correa, Dayoub and Francisco(2007) in their study found that domestic capacity utilisation positively affect export intensity of Ecuador. On the other hand other authors argue that exports growth is possible mainly in the presence of large unemployment of domestic resources. Dunlevy(1979) and Artus(1977) argued that in the long run an increase in capacity utilisation will reduce the quantity of exports and increase the export prices. However Medhora(1990) found that both domestic and foreign capacity utilisation was insignificant in explaining West African imports. 2.2.2.4 Exchange Rate Volatility and trade Basic uncertainty trade models   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The traditional models examine the behaviour of undiversified firms and are based on the assumption that the firms profitability is linked directly and unambiguously to the movement in one bilateral exchange rate. The variability of that exchange rate is assumed to measure the risk to the firm in conducting trade. Therefore in the simplest model, higher exchange rate risk is assumed to have a negative impact on trade, since it creates uncertainty with respect to profits of firms exports and, hence, lead risk-averse exporters to reduce their supply of exports, an effect that increases with the degree of risk aversion.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  An example provided by Clark(1973) can be used to illustrate the concept of how exchange rate volatility can affect the level of a firms exports. Clark develops a model of a firm operating under competitive conditions. In the simplest version described, it is assumed that the firm produces a homogeneous commodity which is sold entirely in a foreign market. The firm has no market power and its does not import any inputs and the production decision is taken before observing exchange rate volatility, therefore output is constant over the planning horizon. Also the price of the exported good in foreign currency is an exogenous variable. The firm in paid in foreign currency and hedging possibilities such as forwards or futures market is very limited. The firm converts its proceeds from exports at the current exchange rates. Given the above assumptions, variability in the exchange rate will affect the firms level of profits since output cannot be altered in response to a favourable or unfavourable move in the profitability of exports due to exchange rate movements and there are also limited hedging techniques. Therefore uncertainty about future exchange rates translates into uncertainty on future export receipts in domestic currency. This uncertainty will be considered by the firm when deciding on the level of exports. The firm maximises the expected value of utility which is assumed to take the following quadratic form: U(p)= a p +b p2 Under conditions of risk aversion (b   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  However the above analysis is based on a number of restrictive assumptions. Other researchers attempted to examine the relationship between exchange rate variability and trade flows by relaxing some of the assumptions like no hedging possibilities while still maintaining the risk aversion theory. Clark (1973) notes that while risk-aversion among traders might depress the volume of a countrys exports, perfect forward markets might reduce this effect. Advanced economies have well developed forward markets where specific transactions can be easily hedged, thus reducing exposure to unforeseen movements in exchange rates. However most developing countries do not have access to such markets for currencies. Baron (1976) finds that forward markets may not be sufficiently developed, and traders may still be unsure of how much foreign exchange they want to cover. In addition, Baron provides another approach to the model developed by Clark by relaxing the assumptions of perf ect competition and by emphasising on the role of the currency in which the products are invoiced. He argues that invoicing in a foreign currency will result in a price risk. When an exporting firm invoices its commodity in foreign currency, it is faced with the risk of variations in the foreign exchange which will affect revenue. The quantity demanded will however remain the same since the price will not change over the contract period and hence the firm cannot benefit from fluctuations in the foreign exchange rate. When invoicing in home currency, the exporter will face a quantity risk. This is because the quantity demanded will be uncertain since the price of the commodity to the buyer will be uncertain. The firm will also face uncertainties regarding its cost of production since the assumption that the firm will not import factor inputs is relaxed. In both cases the risk averse firm will try to minimise its risk exposure either by expanding or contracting supply. Baron shows tha t an increase in risk will cause prices to rise which will result in an increase in supply. The higher price reduces expected profits since demand is elastic at optimal prices, but it increases expected utility. On the other hand, if the firm invoices in domestic currency, its response will depend on the properties of the demand function in the destination market. Baron shows that if the function is linear, prices will decrease resulting in an increased demand. However the price-cost margin decreases which reduces the expectation and variance of profits. Also, under the basic model, changes in exchange rate does not have any effect on real opportunities available to the firm. Firms are held to be risk averse and factor inputs are assumed to be fixed. They are also assumed to make production and export decisions before the exchange rate is known and inventories are ignored. When the assumption of risk aversion is lifted, the negative relationship between exports and exchange rate volatility can even be reversed. De Grauwe(1988) developed a model that shows that the effect of volatility on trade will depend on the degree of risk aversion. He argued that firms with a slight degree of risk aversion will decrease their exports whereas very risk averse firms will increase exports so as to avoid a drastic decrease in their export revenues caused by higher exchange rate volatility. Franke(1991) showed in given a monopolistic setting, risk neutral firms may increase exports if exchange rate volatility increases. The theory that trade may be a ffected by exchange rate volatility is also based on the assumption that factor inputs cannot be altered so as to adjust optimally to a change in exchange rates. If firms are able to adjust one or more factors of production with respect to a change in exchange rates, variations in exchange rate may provide firm with the possibility of making a profit. This view was analysed by Canzoneri et al.(2004), De Grauwe(1992) and Gros(1987). In addition, Clark et al.(2004) affirm that there are several other factors which can reduce the negative effects of exchange rate volatility and trade. They argued that a multinational firm which engages in a diversity of trade and financial transactions across several countries can benefit from various opportunities to exploit offsetting movements in currencies and other variables. For example if an exporting firm is importing intermediate inputs from a country whose currency is depreciating, this can offset a decrease in export revenues through a decrease in cost of production. Also recent studies has shown that the tendency for exchange rates to adjust to differences in inflation rates and hence if exports are priced in a foreign currency that is depreciating, the loss to the exporter from the declining exchange rate is at least partly offset by higher foreign currency export price(Cushman 1083 and 1986) Finally as put forward by Makin(1978), multinationals have many possibilitie s of internally managing their exposure to foreign exchange risk, for example by holding a portfolio of assets and liabilities in different currencies. In his analysis of exchange rate volatility, Gros(1987) takes into account adjustment costs. His model consist of a risk neutral and competitive firm which exports its entire output. It is shown that if some factor can be adjusted instantaneously, an increase in exchange rate volatility increases a firms investment. The rationale behind this is that if exchange rate for the exporting firm is high, this means output price will be high and thus the firm can increase production by utilising more of the flexible factor so as to obtain a more than proportionate increase in profits. On the contrary if prices are low, production can be reduced to limit losses. An increases in the volatility of prices means that there is the possibility for excessive prices increases. Therefore it is more desirable for firms to have high capital stock and over time the export supple function shifts upwards. In this study, exchange rate variability affects exports through its effect on investment. Another aspect of the relationship between exchange rate variability and trade is the presence of sunk cost. Sunk market-entry costs are faced by risk neutral firms when they enter the market for exports. This would arise particularly where the firm is exporting differentiated goods and require substantial investment by the firm for example to adapt their product to foreign market and to create a marketing and distribution network. Sunk cost tend to make firms less responsive to short run fluctuations in the foreign exchange rate as they would have the tend to continue to operate in the market as long as they can recover their variable costs and to wait for a change in the exchange rate which will allow them to recoup their sunk costs((Baldwin,1988; Krugman, 1989) Finally, other researches like Bacchetta and Van Wincoop (2000) conduct their study within a general equilibrium framework. They use a simple general equilibrium model for two countries where the source of uncertainty are monetary, fiscal, and technology shocks, and they compare the level of trade and welfare for fixed and floating exchange rate arrangements. They reach two main conclusions. First, there is no clear relationship between the level of trade and the type of exchange rate arrangement. Second, the level of trade does not provide a good index of the level of welfare in a country, and hence there is no one-to-one relationship between levels of trade and welfare in comparing exchange rate systems. Theoretical analysis of the relationship between exchange rate volatility and trade flows has yielded indeterminate results and hence this issue has attracted a large number of empirical researches. One of the earliest analysis was carried out by Hooper and Kohlhagen(1978) who assessed the effect of exchange rate volatility on the volume of aggregate and bilateral trade flow for all G7 countries except for Italy using time series data for the period 1965-1975. They utilised the model by Ethier(1973) for traded goods and derived equations expressing export prices and quantities in terms of cost of production reflection both domestic and imported inputs, other domestic prices, domestic income and capacity utilisation. Exchange rate risk was measured using the average absolute difference between the current period spot exchange rate and the forward rate last period, as well as the variance of the nominal spot rate and the current forward rate. Their conclusion was that they found no sig nificant effect of exchange rate risk on the volume of trade.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cushman(1983) uses a model similar to Hooper and Kohlhagen to investigate the effect of exchange rate uncertainty on trade flows among industrialised countries. However he enhances the model by extending the sample size to include more recent data and by using real rather than nominal exchange rate. Of the 14 sets of bilateral trade flows, Cushman found a significant negative effect of real exchange rate on trade flows in 6 cases against only 2 cases where the association is statistically significant and positive. Along the same line Bailey and Tavlas(1988) did not find any significant evidence of a negative effect of exchange rate variability on trade.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The work of Akhtar and Hilton(1984) were among the few early papers which generated fairly consistent results. They derived volume and price equations for Germany and United States multilateral trade for the period pertaining to a floating exchange rate. Exchange rate volatility was measured in terms of the standard d

Compare And Contrast The Star And The Necklace :: essays research papers

The story â€Å"The Star†, which was written in 1970’s, is trying to say that we need to understand the truth of our fate rather than put on blinders and quit refusing everything else that we don’t want to see. In the story â€Å"The Necklace† written by Guy De Maupassant the woman worked herself to the bone for ten years trying to pay off the debt used to pay for the necklace she lost at the ball. The woman in this story is a poor pretty woman who thought she deserved a better life than one that she already had. The main character in this story is a woman named Louis, the daughter of simple working class man. Both stories include a sub theme of a hope for a better life, in which all men were created equal and all the ugly injustices in the world would cease to exist. But the cold hard fact is that we humans have this innate sense of optimism, which blocks our thinking for reality, because without it we would have no reason for living. In the case of the woman in the story "The necklace" the object being the necklace which she eventually loses and tries to replace. Instead of hiding the truth and facing the music, which was harder, to take than when she lied. The old adage which says," What a tangled web weave when we first start to deceive." We humans can't handle the truth. We think we know what is the truth. What that really is just bullshit. It's arrogance-playing tricks on our minds making us think we are in control of our lives. If we really were in control of our lives then why can't we control every little aspect of it that gives discomfort? Because we can't, because we don't know how, and eventually the truth will show that is we don't what the truth really is. Using the slippery slope logic one can conclude that the two stories are more similar than they are different but because the assignment at hand requires for me to compare and contrast in an illustrative manner then I guess I sho uld start. In the story the Star the setting is on a rocket ship with astronauts and the setting in the necklace is old France in the late 1970's. The Star is a science fiction story while the necklace is an illustrative story.

Oprah Winfrey :: essays research papers

On January 29. 1954 Oprah Gail Winfrey was born to unwed teenage parents in Kosciusko, Mississippi. For the first six years of her life her grandmother raised her on a Mississippi farm. While in her grandmother’s care she was taught to read at a very early age. This grew into a love of reading that she still has today. At the age of six her mother, Vernita Lee, decided that she could care for her daughter and Oprah was sent to live with her mother in Milwaukee. From the age of six to thirteen, Oprah stayed with her mother. During this time a cousin raped her when she was nine years old and later she was molested by a male friend of her mother’s and by an uncle. She never told anyone about the abuse that she was suffering. Instead, she held her angry and pain inside and she rebelled. She repeatedly ran away and got into trouble. She was sent to live with her father Vernon Winfrey in Nashville when she was thirteen. Her father helped her with discipline. He encouraged Oprah to do her best. Oprah’s father helped her turn her life around. Oprah has spoken of his requirement that she read a book each week and completes a book report on the book. At the age of nineteen Oprah landed her first job as a reporter for a radio station in Nashville. Later she entered Tennessee State University to study radio and television broadcasting. In 1976 Oprah Winfrey moved to Baltimore where she hosted a TV show called People Are Talking. The show was a hit and Winfrey stayed for eight years. In 1986 Oprah started the Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah has been honored with the most prestigious awards in broadcasting including the George Foster Peabody individual Achievement award in 1996 and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences lifetime Achievement award in 1998. In June 1998,

Essay --

Ans. Today a typical operation spends and takes in several hundred thousand dollars per year , and income over a million dollars are not uncommon. The irregularity of income and expenses, and the use of intensive technologies have become very capital have adequate funding in the key to the success of a business right time. The use of capital and credit has modern investors with a series of decisions to make : †¢ How much to invest? †¢ Where to get capital? †¢ What combination of equity and debt to use? †¢ How to negotiate rates and terms of the credit? †¢ How much financial risk to take ? Making good financial decisions is often the difference between a thriving economy , growing farm business and is constantly wondering how to pay the next bill. The modules in this course of professional study will address the above decisions , and more. Although the modules are arranged in a logical sequence , can be completed in any order you want. According keeper and ambrosio , " Financial Management is the application of the functions of planning and control of the finance function. " ï  ® Financial decisions are decisions concerning the financial matters of a Firm. The financial decisions are grouped into three categories. 1. Investment decisions. 2. Financing decisions. 3. Dividend decisions. Investment decisions An investment decision revolves around the capital expenditure assets that produce the best performance of the company over a period of time desired . In other words , the decision is about what to buy for the company will get the maximum value. To do this, the company has to find a balance between your short term and long term. In the very short term , a company needs money to pay your bills, but keeping all your cash means you ... ...ned as: WACC= [kd(D/D+E) + ke (E/D+E)] D= Dividend E= Equity Kd= cost of debt Ke= cost of equity WACC= value of the firm The WACC for the firm may be calculated as follows: % 0f Equity % of Debt Cost Of Debt Cost Of Equity Cost of capital of Debt Cost of capital of Equity WACC 100% 0% 5% 12% 0.00% 12.00% 12.00% 90% 10% 5% 12% 0.50% 10.80% 11.30% 80% 20% 5% 12.50% 1.00% 10.00% 11.00% 70% 30% 5.50% 13% 1.65% 9.10% 10.75% 60% 40% 6% 14% 2.40% 8.40% 10.80% 50% 50% 6.50% 16% 3.25% 8.00% 11.25% 40% 60% 7% 20% 4.20% 8.00% 12.20% The optimal debt equity mix for the company occurs at a point when the overall cost of capital, ko, is minimum. The above calculations show that the ko is minimum at a point when the debt is 30% of the total capital employed. Therefore, the firm should use 30% debt and 70% equity in its capital structure and its ko would be 10.75%.

Cooper Industries’ Corporate Strategy Essay

1. What is Cooper’s corporate strategy? How is Cooper Industries adding corporate value to its portfolio of businesses? Would you recommend any changes in corporate strategy? Cooper’s corporate strategy is diversification through acquisitions and mergers. This diversification is in both related and non-related businesses to lessen its dependence on the capital expenditures of the natural gas industry. Cooper’s started acquiring low-technology manufacturing companies. The companies were premium-quality products with strong brands names mainly still own by the original family owners that have seen better days. Once Cooper’s acquired the companies they would update the processes and equipment and consolidate the plants. In a few cases, moved entire manufacturing plants to new plants in the southern part of the country to break away from practices of 20 years ago. They called this the â€Å"Cooperization† process which is one where they create lean independent business. The â€Å"Cooperization,† process included plans for divisional managers to seek out complementary acquisitions for further expansion of the Cooper Empire. Let’s now look at ways they add this value to the Cooper Portfolio. Cooper empire added value to the corporation in a variety of ways: Manage Cooper’s over all corporate portfolios †¢Pursuing companies have stable earning or earning counter cyclical to oil and natural gas †¢ 30 years acquired more than 60 manufacturing companies †¢Retain only best top leadership from the acquired business †¢Centralized activities including managing inventories, sales, shipping, billing and headquarters. †¢Over 30 divestitures in under 20 years in efforts to only keep business that would continue to add value †¢Half of growth depends upon internal growth and other half from acquisitions †¢Reviewed about 100 potential acquisitions annually. †¢Division had a global responsibility for its operations. †¢Close examination of business parts in order to place different products into a more well suited area of the corporation. †¢Corporate management teams participate in every policy decision made in the organizations †¢Internal audit staff and four person team of manufacturing cost systems experts available †¢Labor relation, shareholders and public relations, environmental matters, legal affairs, administering personnel policy and benefits programs handle by one person. †¢Strong union-avoidance policy †¢Precisely focused upon complying with strategy rather than upon assigning blame for poor performance. †¢Knowledgeable, understanding, and supportive division managers. Managing each individual business owned by Coopers †¢Focus on products that served basic needs and suspending manufacturing on unprofitable products. †¢Vertical integration of other business to lower supply and dealer cost. †¢ Gain leverage with distributors because of greater sales volume and wider product offering. †¢Decentralized operation philosophy. †¢Bottom-up strategic planning. Managed linkages among different divisions of Coopers businesses †¢Combining sales member from other companies to promote all products creating a small yet efficient sales team. †¢Strong brand name for superior quality. †¢Ã¢â‚¬Å"Cash flow is king,† implemented thinking in divisions to keep money on hand to be able to acquire businesses fast and efficiently if needed or  opportunity presents itself. †¢Production improvements based upon broader perspective of manufacturing plants they one plant can have. †¢Established purchasing council negotiated advantageous prices †¢New building and/or major construction products would be expected to purchases Cooper’s supplies. Manage change in the businesses owned by Coopers †¢Combining duplicate product lines to one division  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å"Lean and mean,† cost structures while limited power of spending habits to lower level managers. †¢Rationalized manufacturing facilities to close underutilized plants †¢Consolidating sales and marketing programs to help develop a unified market identity and then construct showroom to display all of its products, train architects, designers, and to show off product lines. †¢Enhanced management of distribution-oriented businesses because of experience at Cooper’s. Recommendations for changes in future acquisitions and mergers: It is my belief that Coopers has a first-class corporate strategy that is very effective at making money. They have great portfolio management skills with obtaining and releasing companies that is best for the stockholders. This means there is little agency problem that occurs in the corporation. Coopers is also great at creating productive manufacturing companies with little worries about foreign competitors due to high-quality products, technologies and management teams in place to direct uncharted directions. The only recommendation of change I have is for the company to have a greater appreciation of people currently running the acquired businesses. Yes, Coopers obtained them in a rundown condition, but the companies are still in business. That means the few people holding the company together could be lost with the â€Å"my way or the highway† philosophy of Coopers. This only need to be a small change, Coopers is good at identifying profitable parts of a business except mid and low level human based resources. Cooper should start an evaluation process of current workers and the ones that are a superior fit should be sent to a different part of the corporation to be trained in the Cooperization process in hopes they will one day become a greater asset to the company. 2. How is Cooper Industries structured? Is this structure  appropriate for its strategy? Would you recommend any structural adjustments? Divisional Structure The diversification structure is very appropriate for Cooper Industries. Cooper has operations in manufacturing, administration and finance across many different products creating synergy throughout entire corporation. These operations across many different products, areas, and customers gives enhanced flexibility to the corporation as a whole in responding to change. This flexibility creates enhanced coordination across the functional departments due to expertise focus. The diversification structure combined with an expertise focus allows Coopers to evaluate internally to give clear responsibility with a mature sense of correction. As if the diversification structure with the expertise focus wasn’t enough, Coopers added a system of control on top of all this to ensure success. This control required all division to propose a standard 150 line item monthly financial report, guidelines to help direct potential acquisitions, and strong brand name awareness for quality creating a well-built company. Cooper recommended structural adjustments In the case of Cooper’s structure I believe it is prestige and shouldn’t be touched. The fact that the company gives up control of day-to-day activities with monitoring and guidance available creates trust in throughout the entire organization. Secondly, because the Cooper’s breaks up newly acquired companies and transfers resources among the different business units or even to relocates a full line to different divisions show that this is a forward thinking company. Thirdly, it would be unachievable for another corporation to compete on the same level as Cooper because it has co-leader in every divisional segment. Lastly, even if a company does become available to purchase you better be ready to compete with Coopers which is a force you don’t want to come against.

English Exam

I personally think â€Å"Culture Smarts Norway a Quick Gulled to Customs & Etiquette† has managed to capture the Norwegian lifestyle well. The tips are angled in a way for the reader to better understand Norwegian way of thinking and acting. Basic information about the Norwegian people and what values we got, that may be very different from other cultures. Being aware of other cultures values is an important and clever thing to do when traveling abroad. It strengthens your chances of good communication and prevents you from being misunderstood as easily.The only negative thing to say about the text is that It has put a lot of weight on Just explaining why we are so reserved, to help prevent foreigners from misunderstanding us. Of course this is important information, but there could be given more advice on how to otter the communication with us, rather than it mostly being excuses for our rather strange behavior. But don't get me wrong, if I was to write a guide like this, I w ould most definitely mention the same things, but with some enhancements In the communication part.Appease 3. C) Do we really want to know? Weeklies; the weapon that â€Å"leaks out† confidential Information Into the public domain, Information the government Intended to keep secret, and backing the Information with trustworthy sources, as well as making sure the Individual providing the highly classified material remains anonymous. Weeklies has been a hot topic in the media the last couple of years. It's not the information being given that is the main focus, but the fact that the Information is being given.Whether it Is good for the public to know, or if much of the information should be held kept, as intended. I personally appreciate such information. We all know terrible things happens in war, out rapports Ana Tall Dotage snowing emulates Ana Inhuman actions In war, causing death of civilians is something I feel is right for the public to see. To help prevent the governmen t from believing they are untouchable. To help prevent military actions aging lives' of the innocent, without consequences.For each individual, and their rights to know what is going on in the world, this information is best to be official for the public. But is this what's best in the bigger picture? Is much of this information held secret, not only to hide information that is not accepted by the public, but to benefit world peace? Will the leaked information cause bigger consequences for cooperation between countries? Is the reduced trust in our government benefiting us, or is it better not to know? Maybe some of the information from Weeklies is better of being unknown to the public, in order to maintain world order.

Japanese Street Fashion

The beginning of the 21st century, it formed street fashion, a fashion style in which the wearer customizes outfits by adopting a mixture of current and traditional trends. At present, there are many styles of dress in Japan, created from a mix of both local and foreign labels. Some examples of popular styles are: Laity, Gaur and Decors fashion. Laity is a fashion subculture originating in Japan that is based on Victorian-era clothing. It is usually consisted of knee length skirt or dress with a cupcake† shape assisted by petticoats.Laity fashion has evolved into many different sub styles that are present in many parts of the world. The most popular sub categories are: gothic Laity, sweet Laity and the punk Laity. Laity has popularized by the more feminine visual eke or â€Å"visual style† artists. Visual eke is a fashion among Japanese musicians, who are usually male, featuring make-up, elaborate hair styles and flamboyant costumes Guar fashion is a type of Japanese str eet fashion that was popular in the sass, but shortly died out in the early sass.It is often portrayed as a sign of youth rebellion as it is the opposite of the traditional idea of beauty in Japan. Guar fashion is typically characterized by heavily bleached or dyed hair, highly decorated nails, and dramatic makeup. Popular sub categories include: Kangaroo, Him guar and Anne guar. The Decors style originated in the late ass and rose to great popularity both in and outside Japan. The clothes are usually in black, dark pink r baby pink and neon.A plain shirt and hooded are often worn with short tutu-like skirts. The most important part of the style is to pile on many layers of cute accessories until the clothes worn underneath are barely visible. Leg and arm warmers, knee socks, and many accessories such as necklaces, bracelets, rings, lights, children's toys, mittens, face masks and sunglasses are worn atop each other in different layers. The style is worn to give the youthful and inn ocent image.

Macbeth Essy

Hayley Von Oepen Hour: 1 English 11 Guilt Can Affect Your Fate Macbeth was a manipulative man. He wasn't like this before, but his wife told him that he was a coward and that there would be no way he could be king because he was too weak. So basically, Lady Macbeth had to help him plot to kill the king. Macbeth's fate was to be king; however his best friend Banquds children were supposed to be king after Macbeth. Macbeth did not like this and plotted to kill everyone in his path, thus causing his guilty conscience. A guilty conscience can get in the way of things leading to fate, and fate may not be how one wants it to be.Shakespeare's play Macbeth shows many themes. One of the themes is the role of a guilty conscience. Macbeth's guilt builds up after everyone he kills. For example, when Macbeth finds out that he isn't the only one who will be king he hires thieves to kill Banquo and his children. When Macbeth was having dinner with the Lords, he kept seeing Banquds ghost and was sca red. Lady Macbeth told everyone that he does this all the time and that he has done this since he was a little boy. She says, â€Å"Things without all remedy / Should be without regard. What's done is done† (3. 2. 3-14).Lady Macbeth is saying that undoing the past cannot be done and disregarding past deeds should be done. Think of the present and the future to come. Macbeth is furious that he won't remain king. He says, â€Å"For Banquds issue have I filed my mind; / For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered, / Put rancor's in the vessel of my peace / Only for them, and mine eternal Jewel / Given to the common enemy of man / To make them kings, the seeds of Banquds kings† (3. 1. 7()-75). Macbeth basically is saying that he is angry that Banquds kids get to be king and his do not. He did everything he could to be king and realizes that it was all for nothing.He did this all for Banquds kids, or Banquds seeds as quoted above. Macbeth was talking to one of his servants and his servant said, â€Å"It is the cry of a woman my good Lord†¦ / The queen is dead† (5. 5. 1()-11). Macbeth's guilt grows more when his wife dies even if he doesn't show it. He realizes that he shouldVe been there for his wife and that she shouldVe been here in the hereafter. And so, the role of a guilty conscience can get into the way of fate. Unfortunately for Macbeth, he realizes it too late and everyone he has loved was killed either by im or suicide.Also, in the end, once he killed so many people, Macbeth realizes he should have let fate take its course thus giving him a guilty conscience. Another one of Shakespeare's themes is Fate vs. Free Will. When the witches told Macbeth he is destined to be king, that it is his fate. Macbeth states smugly and powerfully, â€Å"If chance shall crown me without my stir† (1. 3. 158); which means that if he is the one who should have the crown, King Duncan would give it to him without Macbeth having to do anything ra sh. When he isn't crowned, Macbeth decides he must kill Duncan.Also meaning, that Macbeth is following his â€Å"chance† and the chance is his me to the utterance! † (3. 1 . 70-71). This basically means that Macbeth is challenged by his fate. The words â€Å"come fate† means to let the fate come. So basically, Macbeth is challenging fate toa fight to a bitter end. At the beginning of the supper that Macbeth had with the great Lords, he told the murderers that it will not only be Banquo that dies, but his son, Fleance, will die too. He tells them â€Å"†¦ must embrace the fate / Of that dark hour† (3. 1 . 136-137). Here â€Å"fate† means a terrible thing that is going to happen.And because it is Macbeth, it is going to happen. As it turns out, Fleance escapes this particular â€Å"fate† and lives. In conclusion, Fate vs. Free will is basically the cause of a guilty conscience. Macbeth's fate to stay king, made him lose everything, includi ng his wife and his best friend. Macbeth's free will said that he could change the fate that the witches prophesied to him. However, Macbeth did not change his fate, and even if he tried to it wouldVe been too late because of all the guilt he has obtained. To sum it up, a guilty conscience and fate can lead to bad consequences, even if they risk your life in the end.

This is an Exam Question Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

This is an Exam Question - Assignment Example Doing such targeting is important to a firm as often they realize that they can roll out innovations without necessarily having to add value to their service. Key among most target markets would be price as they realized with the introduction of new brand, Xiameter. However, for companies to benefit from need based segmentation its important for them to be well prepared for new product line and organize it product development accordingly (Lilien and Grewal, 2012). Success in new product roll out to a given segmentation must have the right marketing mix. It is important that the new product be of the right quality, have the ability to meet a current need and be supported by a price that resonates to the target market. Doing so enhances market acceptance and adoption as well as shorten the break even period. As these products succeed in the market, a company’s market share continues to grow. It is important that a company keeps in touch with changing customer needs and preferences and respond to the appropriately. This therefore calls for an in-depth knowledge of one’s customers. To understand customers a company has to pay special attention to customer feedback as well as develop a strong customer relationship management model. A company has to invest in its employees by equipping them with the right customer skills so that they can deliver exceptional service to clients and discern any setbacks in the products. This creates a me dium through which ideas are exchanges and corrections made. These interactions helps to develop a value based business model where different market segments are satisfied. Having the right marketing mix also calls for proper distribution chain so that customers can have products and services at their convenience. In addition a company must invest in market research so that it can identify the various target clients and develop products that meet their needs and tastes. In target marketing, companies need to understand that

Violent Video Games Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Violent Video Games - Essay Example It is important to note that besides social networking sites, violence video games have the greatest following among the youth. However, critical consideration of the facts surrounding the act is important to establish ways of managing it so that the future society is saved of devastating socio-economic results. There is a raging debate on the issue of violence video games on the young minds but a lot of focus is evidently put on the negative side. It is important to carry out investigative research that explores the advantages as this equally provides measures of dealing with it. The young generation is subjected to unstable emotional behavior and most of their actions are rarely guided by logics (Kassin, et al. 97). They lack good understanding between reality and fiction which is important when it comes to dealing with the violence video games. This is an age bracket with a lot of energy where physical might and battle for social supremacy reigns and playing such violence video ga mes holds a lot of impact. In-depth analysis of merits and demerits of this popular entertainment is the best avenue to establish it effect on the structural and functional concept relating parents to children. There are observed advantages from the video games which have set its industry bursting with young clients. It is important that the positive side of such a game is also taken into consideration. It would be important to highlight such advantages. Violence video games improve the ability of an individual to concentrate. The mental engagement required while playing such games boosts the focus of the young people and this helps them to learn how to capture detail and master concepts in other social aspects of life like class work. There is a sense of accomplishment when the young people take the game. It is common to come across children saying how they enjoyed the game and this is a pathway to internal spirit of achieving goals in the society (Kassin, et al. 57). Most of the y oung people in the contemporary society have several issues to deal with due to the pressure of changing socio-economic and political environment. This means that they need some form of stress relief which such violence video game with the fantasies in them provide. Some of the content of the violence video games is composed of historical activities and this offers lessons to kids about some significant facts which sum up to sharpen their overall cognitive skills. Research indicates that cognitive ability of the young people improves as they engage their mental and physical efforts towards achieving specific goals. Language development is equally derived partially from the communication experienced by the players of such violence video games. Tactics of winning requires repeated trials by the young players and this boosts their overall learning process. The increasing exposure of the young children to such violence video games has several disadvantages to the society at large. The c ontent of the violence video games includes uncensored sexual acts which intoxicates the children’s morals and may affect their overall productivity in the society. There is an observed increase in childhood aggression which may outplay the emotional stability of the young people. This is worsened by increasing addiction which deepens the defilement of the young people’s mind and lack of concentration on more important issues (Kassin, et al. 37). Much time for learning especially homework and household chores

How the Olympics Influenced History Research Paper

How the Olympics Influenced History - Research Paper Example This paper is critical analysis of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, with special focus on the historical significance of that particular global event. Historians refer the 1936 Olympic Games in various terms, including â€Å"Hitler Olympics† and â€Å"propaganda Olympics†. Some of the factors that made the event remarkable include the features and facilities installed in the venues, use of modern telecommunication technology and the propaganda propagated by the Nazi government in addition to exemplar performance by the participating athletes. By the time Berlin City was granted the right to host Olympic Games, Germany was under the leadership of Weimer, but in 1933, Adolf Hitler took over the government heralding one of the most momentous and eventful eras in history. The coming to power of Adolf Hitler transformed the growing and delicate democracy into an absolute dictatorial country, under one party rule, the National Socialist German Workers Party popularly referred as Nazi (Rippon, 78-85) Hitler’s ascendancy to power in 1933 elicited widespread concern in the world, throwing the 1936 Olympic Games in jeopardy. United States and several European democracies questioned the morality of supporting and sponsoring Olympic Games under Hitler’s oppressive regime. ... In order to make Aryans the dominant race in Germany, Hitler passed laws that authorized doctors to conduct sterilization by force on colored people, psychiatric patients and people with physical disabilities (Kass, 225). The Jews in German experienced the most severe crackdown characterized by physical assaults, economic boycotts on their interests, and forced expulsion from government jobs and other professions. In addition, they were excluded from social places such as recreation amenities. Moreover, Jews were prohibited from engaging in intermarriages with the Aryan race (Kass, 226). According to Rippon (152), Nazi leadership used the Olympic Games to promote the superiority of the Aryan race. German citizens that were not of Aryan ancestry were excluded from the German team, and sports facilities. In addition, they were condemned to poorly equipped facilities that severely limited their abilities to compete in the 1936 Olympic Games (Rippon, 163). The reports on persecution of J ewish athletes in Germany in 1933 reached organizers of the Olympic Games, which responded by the sending observers in the country to asses the situation. Young (144) notes that the American Olympic committee strongly condemned the unfolding events in Germany, by asserting that the basis of Olympic Games revitalization would be severely undermined by the limiting participation of athletes on grounds of race, creed or race. Several member nations in the Olympic committee considered Germany to be denied the right to host the games. In view of the growing concern from global leaders, the German government embarked on a well orchestrated propaganda aimed at impressing the world on its

Is Hate Speech in the Media Directly Affecting our Culture (responses) Assignment

Is Hate Speech in the Media Directly Affecting our Culture (responses) - Assignment Example Henry is of the opinion that the kind of culture portrayed in the media makes human being lose their sense of humanity. By watching violent behaviour on television children tend to adopt what they have seen in the media. Societal degradation is rife and rising in the name of entertainment and glorification of America. People no longer care about each other and the poor and homeless are considered lazy. In his response he states that ‘†¦ many groups who are considered marginal because they are poor, unemployed, people of color, elderly or young have not just been excluded from the American dream but have become utterly redundant and disposable waste products of a society that no longer considers them of any value’. He adds that suffering and violence is applauded and recognized in holly wood. The homeless and poor are seen as a burden to the state and instead of having compassion for the homeless, homelessness is considered a crime. He adds that sleeping, sitting, soliciting lying down or loitering in public places is considered a criminal

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Department of Human Resource Development and Performance Technologies - Essay Example It is anchored on sustainable development strategies which seek to provide a long term solution instead of short term measures of poverty alienation. Sustainability is a concept within the development agenda which refers to ability of people to use various resources without finishing them up for the future generation or use. These international developments have been pegged on sustainable technology campaign and this brings the above dined terms into one umbrella idea. †¢ Provide background information about your worksite and its mission. My worksite is an Islamic Center of Terre Haute which is a religious center that serves diverse roles in nurturing the future Muslim faithful and makes effort to promote peaceful co-existence with other communities from different religious faith. This institution is a learning center with an organized curriculum and the workforce deliver services of high standards (Bargach, 2002). There is a spirited management effort to champion for technologi cal application in learning and execution of various administrative issues in line with the concept of sustainable development. ... †¢ Briefly describe what you did while you were at the worksite. Describe your own thinking, understanding, and learning as your project evolved. My work in Islamic center was to help with cleaning, arranging the books in the library, also arranging the Quran books. These activities provided a great challenge which also served as a lesson to me in view of the wider concept of the society. As the project progressed, I began to reflect on the theories learnt in class and compare with the real life situation. It is worth to note that the theoretical concepts learnt in class give a guideline and appropriate hint on how to handle different issues in any situation. Practical application of learnt concepts requires patience and perseverance as they don’t automatically fit. In arranging the books in this institution for instance, there are some cases where the books have erroneous coding and their search process in the database may as well not help. At this point, critical thinki ng is required to advance book search methods. When it comes to cleaning, the effect of the litter and dust on the compound should be seen to be an environmental threat beyond the limits of the institution and this explains the need to place litter bins in places of higher population concentration. This is a sustainable approach that promotes environmental care and a perfect precedent for the future generation. †¢ Identify what was puzzling, problematic, engaging, exciting, etc. about your project. My project entail cleaning and arrangement of books which attracted several problems and equally puzzling situation. Despite my attempts to put litter bins in the

Implication Of The Use Of The Triple Bottom Line Approach In The Essay

Implication Of The Use Of The Triple Bottom Line Approach In The Events Industry - Essay Example This led to the formation of the Triple Bottom Line Approach. The Triple Bottom Line Approach is also known as the ‘people-planet-profit’ approach. As the name suggests, this approach says that a company must have three different bottom lines (or net earnings). 1. The People Bottom Line: This is meant to show how socially responsible the company has been towards the people it is associated with. Its employees, stakeholders and any other person that comes in contact with the organization in its operations. (economist.com 2009) 2. The Planet Bottom Line: As the world is more environment conscious right now and all know that our resources are coming to an end, a lot of focus is given on how much effort the company put into trying to give back to the environment. Recycling, rainwater harvesting, treating waste water, sensible disposal of harmful chemicals, and so on are some of the ways in which companies today are trying to reduce their carbon footprint. (economist.com 2009 ) 3. The Profit Bottom Line: This is the traditional corporate bottom line of a company’s monetary profit or loss in the financial year. It is usually in the form of a Profit and Loss Account and is easier to judge than the other two aspects of the Triple Bottom Line Approach since it is numerical. The other two are not so simple to judge in comparison. (economist.com 2009) If we think about it, the Triple Bottom Line Approach is a very good way to judge the actual profit of an organization because it even judges the humane aspects of an organization’s functioning. Having a big figure in the profits column does not mean that the company has prospered. In today’s day and age of environmental crises, it is essential to give back to the planet. Also, it is essential to make sure that all the people associated with the organization’s success are able to say they are happy to be a part of the organization. Event: Spanish Bullfighting Spanish Bullfighting is an event that has met with a lot of opposition in the past. It was started in 711 A.D. to celebrate the crowning of King Alfonso VIII. The sport was originally played on horseback, but when King Felipe V banned it in 1724 citing it was a bad example to set on the public, people started fighting bulls on foot, for the simple reason that they could not afford horses. (spain-info.com) Spanish Bullfighting takes place mainly in three stages. 1. Stage 1 - Tercio de Varas or third of lances This is the first stage that is mainly a testing stage. In this, the matador and his team mainly do many passes to check on the mood of the bull so that they can plan the rest of their strategy. One must note that that matador doesn’t enter the bullfight alone. (donquijote.org). He is accompanied by a team of people on foot and horseback that assists him. Here they try various ways to weaken the bull and also test to find out what is the bull’s favorable side and so on. They also try variou s means to ensure that the bull is weakened enough to hang his head down for the rest of the fight. (donquijote.org).This is a very essential step in a bullfight. 2. Stage 2 - Tercio de banderillas or third of flags In the second stage, the matador’s helpers try to stab the bull in its shoulders. This not only weakens the bull but also angers him very much and makes him charge with all his might at the bullfighters. (donquijote.org).This stage is designed to weaken the bul

Describe the ways that airports can prepare for and respond to Essay

Describe the ways that airports can prepare for and respond to aircraft accidents - Essay Example Set up and train emergency response team. This team is trained specifically to deal with emergencies in the airport while waiting for an external help from specialized teams like fire fighters who will take charge of the situation once they arrive. Have an onsite medical facility. The advantage of having an onsite medical facility in place is that the airport can perform first aid procedures on the affected persons so that their condition can be stabilized before they are transferred for further treatment outside the airport facilities. Have an onsite medics and fire fighters. Medical personnel and fire fighters have been trained and are always ready to respond to any emergency so long as it is within their control. Their presence in the airport facility is an assurance enough to travelers that their safety has been taken care of. In conclusion, a successful response of the airport during an accident is determined on how prepared they are and this can be gained by following the above guidelines in addition to the practices laid down by the airport

An I.T. System for a Video Rental Store Essay Example for Free

An I.T. System for a Video Rental Store Essay Contents * Choice of Problem * Description of Problem * Investigation and Analysis of Problem * Specification of Solution * Design of Solution * Implementation of Solution: * Resources Required * Data Collection, Capture and Input * Data Verification and Validation * Output Format * Testing of Solution * Documentation of Solution * Evaluation of Solution Choice of Problem I live in large city called London. My Grandfather runs a video shop there under the name Video Rentals LTD. Has a large and varied amount of stock that he finds hard to keep track of. At the moment he employs a card index system but this has its limitations: * Cards often get misfiled meaning that extra time has to be spent refilling and amending lost data. * On average it takes 30 seconds to search for a record, at busy times this is too long. * The shop currently has about 150 customers, which means that to find a record it may take a long time, this will delay the time that it takes to sort through the records and therefore customers may not want to wait that long and may go to another shop. Description of Problem At my grandfathers video shop the current system involves filing all the information in a filing cabinet. This is a manual system as all the data is hand written. I believe that because of this the video shop needs a computerised system, which will make the database better. There will be graphical menu System that will link all the forms and queries together. My database project will allow the shopkeeper to edit, create and delete record details of members, videos and loans. Investigation To find out more about what the database required I phoned my Grandfather. I wanted to know: * The precise objectives of the new system * The problems or weaknesses in the current manual system * The information that needs to be kept on each customer * The required output * The volume of data (e.g. number of existing customers, number of new customers each year/month) * Any hardware or software constraints. My evaluation will be based firstly on whether it works properly, secondly that it is faster in finding a particular video or client than the existing manual system and thirdly that my Grandfather finds it easy to use. Specification of Solution Objectives of the new system * It should take less than thirty seconds to establish whether a customer is already on file. * It should be possible to go directly from the Customer Details form to the entry of a video that that customer has hired, without having to re-enter the customers name, etc. * Data entry should be as fast and as easy as possible, particularly as there are several hundred existing customers and videos to be entered when the system is first installed. * It be able to show who has rented what video and when. * There must be provision for more than one video to be hired at once by the same person. * The new system is required to provide the following information: * A list of all business customers * A list of all customers interested in a certain type of video such as horror, comedy etc. * A list of customers whose numbers of rentals exceeds a given value. * A list of all rentals that are overdue and need chasing. * It should be possible to send a standard letter to selected customers, using criteria mentioned above. * The user must be able to create new letters whenever needed and perform a mail merge to selected customers. * The main menu should be displayed automatically when the database is loaded, and the whole system should be menu driven. Design of Solution A database package will be ideal for implementing the system for my Grandfathers video rental shop. He has requested that it is done in Access 97 so this is the package that must be used. It would probably be possible to implement the system using Visual Basic or another programming language but it would take a lot longer and would involve the owners having to buy more software which is not really necessary, as Access has all the capabilities required. I already have some experience of Access 97 and it is available in my house for development. Using this package it will be possible to: * Set up the necessary tables and relationships * Produce customised input screens, using Visual Basic to automate data entry wherever possible and to perform various validations * Use Visual Basic modules to enable fast searches for a particular customer and past jobs * Design reports as needed * Make and save queries to select certain customers for a mail merge * Implement a customised menu system On starting up the database, I will design it so that you are presented with a main menu that is linked to the client and video databases, which in turn are linked to each other. I will make it so that on each of the forms there are buttons that enable you to scroll between records, delete records and search for records. If you choose to search for a record then you will be prompted to enter the details of the record you want. The database will be menu orientated so I will make a separate options menu that is linked to everything else. The options menu will also contain a help menu that will cover everything that is covered in the user manual. My system will be based on two separate files, one is of the customers and the other is of the videos in stock. Each record in whichever file will only contain one video or customer, and contain fields like name, address, video name, and certificate. The implementation will begin with the design of the database, then data capture forms, entry screens and output screens. Before the database is put in to use I will test the system using a range of valid and invalid data to make sure the system works as it should. I will then create a user manual that will support the system and its functions. Implementation of Solution Resouces Required I have chosen to design and make my database in Access version 97 because this is the program that the final product will be used on. It allows me to create customized data input screens and has a wide range of validation checks available, so unless a good reason transpires for using an alternative program or package, Access will be the first choice of software. In order to run Access 97 and be able to perform a mail merge using Word, a minimum of a Pentium 133 system with 16Mb, wil be required. A faster processor may be needed if the system is going to appear slow in switching between screens and searching for records. When the system is up and running it will take up about 5Mb. The user has a Pentium 300 with 16Mb, which will be perfectly suitable, and similar machines are available for development work in my house at school. My Grandfather is familiar with Word and has good keyboard skills, so should have no problem in entering the data but may need help in doing some of the more complicated functions. In the future he would like to improve his knowledge of Access so that he can perform new queries and reports as the need arises. Data Collection, Capture and Input Three data input forms are needed: 1. Customer Details This form will be used for several purposes so it needs to be able to: * Add a new customer * Look through the current clients and see what videos they have hired. Validations will be performed automatically. The Member ID field will be an integer and letter field so that it is more personalised. Wherever possible default values will be inserted automatically (e.g. most customers are from Ludlow so the relevant fields will default to those values). Tab order will also be used to speed data entry, so each field will have a certain order in which the data is entered. The form will be straightforward and follow in a top-to-bottom order. 2. Video Details This needs basically to be the same kind of layout and make up as the customer details form except that the fields are those to do with the video. I shall use a validation rule for things such as the videos certificate which can only be one of five (18,15,12,PG,U) and have validation text that warns if the data has been incorrectly inputted. 3. Hire Details This form is designed to make the inputting of information much easier and quicker than searching for a customer and ammending the details every time. It just requires you to input the video number and the client number. Everything else is done automatically. If the wrong client or video number is given then a dialogue box comes up telling you so. You will also have the ability to go staright to a clear form so that a new customer can be added or ammended. Validations will be performed automatically. The client number field will be made up of two numbers and a capital letter, 11A for example. All text that is inputted will automatically be put into upper case lettering for ease. A sample of a data capture form is in the appendix. This is how the system will operate: The diagram shows how the menus will be linked. The hire details are entered in and stored to the various tables. Then comes th possibility of ammending a current customer or adding a new one. Data Verification and Validation Access allows you to say what type of data is included in any field, and also allows me to say the maximum length allowed for any particular field. It also gives the possibility of making input masks for the field. The First and Last Name fields will always be text and most names will be shorter than twenty letters. The House Name/ Number field allows for three digits to be put in first eg 112 Orpen Drive. In fields like Sex, Title and Form Of ID, I have coded it so that only the abreviations of the input are required, and even then the input is one of a choice. This speeds up entry time and reduces the possiblilty for error. The input masks and validation rules reduce data being incorrectly inputted, but they do not completey reduces errors. Data such as name and address, can not be validated, so it has to be verified by the user when the information is being entered. This verification involves manually checking each record to ensure accuracy. Output Format I wanted the output in my database to ocupy 3 sections, the visual display forms, the query which was a search output and the mail merge. I will now show that I have completed those task. First of all here is my Main form, which links all the other forms and functions together. Another output would be the members table I Also designed a query to find all the curent videos that are on loan. ID number of Member ID number of DVD ID number of Video Date Out Date In Surname Of Member Name of DVD Name Of Video Old Member Cost She1 dv004 1 25/7/01 27/7/01 Sheppard The Mummy The Fast one Yes à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½2.95 My mail merge is contained at the end of this project. User Guide To load the database click on the database file twice quickly (double click) To save the database click file, the save. Or just click on the icon that looks like this. If you require any further help try microsofts built in help progam. Then is one in Help/Microsoft assistant. And also one accesible by pressing the start button. Then on the help file. Testing of Solution I am going to test my database using a variety of correct and incorrect data. In doing this I hope to find any problems with the system, and in doing this finding the solution. The test results for the major tests are shown below. Errors which came to light during the test were corrected and all tests gave expected results. Test 1: test password When the correct password was entered the database opened. Otherwise the following message was displayed: Test 2: Entering client information Client details entered. All different options, defaults and fields were tested during data entry. The tests resulted in some minor changes of the input masks, such as the number of characters allowed in the address field was not big enough for my address. Test 3: Deleting a record A client was deleted and the result were as expected, access alowed me to delte the record, after promiting me in what I was about to do. I also needed to test whether or not my query worked, to do this I first loaded it up. I was asked to type in th date when the video was due back so I typed in 27/11/01 and the query found the following result. As the query found the right result I believe that my query works correctly. Evaluation of Solution By looking at my testing I can conlcude that my database is succesfull, as all the buttons, tables and queries work correctly. If I look at my my evaluation crtitera I can say whether or not I have completeed them. * It should take less than thirty seconds to establish whether a customer is already on file (Query member search) DONE * It should be possible to go directly from the Customer Details form to the entry of a video that that customer has hired, without having to re-enter the customers name, etc. (Relationships) DONE * Data entry should be as fast and as easy as possible, particularly as there are several hundred existing customers and videos to be entered when the system is first installed. (Data flow) DONE * It be able to show who has rented what video and when. (loan table) DONE * There must be provision for more than one video to be hired at once by the same person. IMCOMPLETE * The new system is required to provide the following information: * A list of all rentals that are overdue and need chasing. (Date due back query) DONE * It should be possible to send a standard letter to selected customers, using criteria mentioned above. (Mail merge) DONE * The user must be able to create new letters whenever needed and perform a mail merge to selected customers. (Mail merge wizard) DONE Seeing as I have completed nearly all of my evaluation points I believe that I can say that my database project is a complete success.