Wgu Vzt1 Marketing Plan - 3549 Words

Company G 1-Year Marketing Plan - MediMinder Student Name: Christin S Table of Contents Introduction 3 Product Description and Classification 3 Company G Mission Statement 3 Consumer Product Classification 3 Target Market 4 Competitive Situation Analysis 4 Analysis of Competition using Porter’s Five Forces Model 4 SWOT Analysis 5 Strengths 6 Weaknesses 6 Opportunities 7 Threats 7 Market Objectives 8 Product Objective 8 Price Objective 8 Place Objective 8 Promotion Objective 8 Marketing Strategies and Implementation 8 Product Strategies 8 Price Strategies 9 Place Strategies 9 Promotion Strategies 9 Marketing Implementation 10 Product Action Plan 10 Price Action Plan 10 Place Action Plan 11 Promotion Action†¦show more content†¦The MediMinder also comes with a complimentary app that can be used with any hand held device that will alert family members when medication has not been taken when scheduled promoting peace of mind. The app will also send refill alerts and allows the dispenser to be unlocked remotely in the event the key is misplaced. The MediMinder contains a vast number of different programmable options so that medications can be dispensed at multiple times per day if needed, which is an option unavailable with any other competitor’s unit. It is also designed to be space-saving in size while offering a wide variety of decorative options to compliment any setting. The MediMinder supports company G’s mission statement beautifully by improving the life of its customers through electronic innovation, cost effectiveness and convenience. Consumer Product Classification The MediMinder would be classified as a shopping product based on the market research that has been done. Given the importance of reliability for a medication dispenser, Company G’s brand awareness and reputation is very important. Our customers look to us to provide high quality, innovative electronic appliances so our company image will be essential for creating consumer confidence. This product will retail between $25 - $50 so it is important to sell the unit in a convenient retail locations such as pharmacies and cost saving department stores like Walmart. From a consumer standpoint, considerableShow MoreRelatedWGU VZT1 Marketing Plan Essay4019 Words   |  17 Pagesï » ¿Company 3G 1-Year Marketing Plan Assessment Code: VZT1 (Marketing Applications) Student Name: Student ID: Date: 14th April 2015, 5th May 2015 (Revision1) Mentor Name: Table of Content Introduction 3 Mission Statement 3 The Product 3 Consumer Product Classification 3 Target Market 3 Competitive Situation Analysis 5 Analysis of Competition using Porter’s 5 Forces Model 5 SWOT Analysis 6 Strengths 7 Weaknesses 8 Opportunities 8 Threats 8 Market Objectives 9 Product Objective 9 Price Objective

The Importance Of Plagiarism - 1425 Words

The number of plagiarism cases in Ireland is hard to quantify but O’Brien (2017) estimates that there have been 1,000 cases of plagiarism since 2010. O’Brien also states that the this number is only an estimate, as four universities did not provide any figures for this survey. The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1972, p.926) defines plagiarism as taking and using â€Å"another person’s (thoughts, writings, inventions†¦) as one’s own.† When people plagiarise it shows a dishonest work ethic and it lowers the academic standards of the institution. This is why colleges check for plagiarism. The percentage of plagiarism can be found on any essay or project submitted by any of the students. This is to keep the†¦show more content†¦TurnItIn is the most commonly used software to detect plagiarism. Fifteen thousand different colleges around the world use this software package (Hicks 2015). After the submitted work has gone through TurnItIn, it then provides the student and professor with a percentage of plagiarised work. However these percentages of plagiarised work can be influenced if you have the same name as anyone else in the same class, or if one uses a cliche or commonly used phrase. Another example of a different software that is used is SafeAssign which is linked with the Blackboard virtual learning system. It scans students work and compares it to other sources including any information put up by the aca demic staff or past papers submitted by previous students (Hicks 2015). As the author of this essay is currently in AIT the following about plagiarism penalties and grading system will be from this institute and referring to the AIT Plagiarism Policy (2016a). In every faculty of the college there is an appointed Academic officer. The role of the academic officer is to be well versed in the policies and procedures that follow a suspected plagiarism incident. The registrar of the college also keeps a record of these cases. Before a case goes before the registrar there are a number of criteria that must be met first. If there is a suspicion of plagiarism the lecturer may initially go to a more senior member of the faculty and seek advice. After this consultation a form can beShow MoreRelatedImportance Of Plagiarism804 Words   |  4 PagesImportance of Documentation The word plagiarism is mentioned in all kinds of settings. Professors and teachers will tell students that plagiarism is not tolerated. Bosses and managers will tell their employees that stealing others’ work is prohibited. People will often suffer many consequences for plagiarising. But those large fines and repercussions can all be avoided if documentation is given for the information that was taken. Documentation can simply be including in-text citations and addingRead MorePlagiarism : School College Of Health Science840 Words   |  4 PagesRunning head: PLAGIARISM 1 PLAGIARISM 2 Plagiarism Robert Blakley Baptist College of Health Science Abstract The paper analyzes the existing ethical academic dilemma of applying plagiarism within diverse academic works by students in general and nursing students in particular. It presents particular examples of well-known plagiarism cases and allows properly evaluating the reasons and ways of avoiding any acts of intentional and unintentional plagiarism. It emphasizes the necessityRead MorePlagiarism, Cheating And Academic Standards1674 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction The demonstration of showing the thoughts of others as your own without referencing known as plagiarism. This is cheating and degrades academic standards. One of the most important contributing factors that make plagiarism a worldwide problem is the simple access to web assets, where all the investigative papers and reports are effectively accessible. It has been evaluated that plagiarism has always been an area of interest for both administrators and teachers when they want efforts of studentsRead MorePlagiarism And Plagiarism1326 Words   |  6 PagesPlagiarism is when one use another person’s work or ideas without getting his permission. Oxford dictionary (2015) defines plagiarism as â€Å"The practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own†. The word origins, based on Oxford dictionary (2015), is coming from â€Å"the early 17th century, from the Latin word ‘plagiarius’ that means ‘kidnapperâ€℠¢Ã¢â‚¬ . Although the definition can help us understand better what plagiarism is, it is sometimes hard to know where the line crossRead MoreUnderstanding Plagiarism Essay1244 Words   |  5 Pageswhile the instructor is reviewing the final report is plagiarism. In regards to plagiarism there are six topics that I would like to cover on the topic. What is plagiarism? Why do students plagiarize? What is the difference between intentional and unintentional plagiarism? What is the importance of citing? What is citing, direct quoting, and paraphrasing? What is common knowledge? By understanding these areas in the context of plagiarism we as students can ensure that we will not be guiltyRead MorePlagiarism : Ethical And Ethical Responsibilities850 Words   |  4 PagesPlagiarism refers to the purposeful or accidental use of text without properly giving credit to its author. Bucks County Community College, A Statement from the Facility states the following, â€Å"It must help them to mak e connections among disciplines, help them develop an integrated view of knowledge, and help them recognize that their use of knowledge always carries consequences, as well as moral and ethical responsibilities.† An elaborated look at this sentence defines the responsibility we as studentsRead MorePlagiarism And Why It Is Considered Wrong1550 Words   |  7 Pagesrecognition. It is considered human nature for students in the modern day to turn to readily available sources to aid their work. However, they do not understand the concept of plagiarism and why it is considered wrong in the educational world. To build upon this essay, we need to first understand what plagiarism exactly is. Plagiarism is well-defined as making use of the language and viewpoints of another source as an individual s own either on purpose or accidentally, and is therefore considered a formRead MoreEssay about Preventing Plagiarism in Writing562 Words   |  3 Pages TITLE : PREVENTING PLAGIARISM Plagiarism is a act of imprinting another persons writing, conversation, or even ideas. This even includes the information one gets from WebPages, the published papers online and even articles Paraphrasing is also considered plagiarism if done without proper internal citation. Plagiarism stays still unclear because often the boundary between plagiarism and research is unclear. Plagiarism is also considered as academic dishonesty and breachRead MoreA Study On The Swiss Management Center University1060 Words   |  5 Pages Moreover, they also learned analysis of the results included quantitative and qualitative method while taking into consideration theoretical work combined. (Coronel Llamas Boza, 2011). â€Æ' â€Æ' DQ #2 Plagiarism entails taking another person’s work and passing it as one’s own. (What is Plagiarism? n.d.). As a researcher, this can be avoided by following the guidelines outlined by American Psychological Association (APA) standards which include using in-text citations and references where requiredRead MorePlagiarism, Research Skills and the Role of Assessment and Feedback1735 Words   |  7 Pages 4 Plagiarism 4 1.1 Definition 4 1.2 Tackling Plagiarism 4 Research

Catholic Baptism Free Essays

Roman Catholicism relates itself to broader and more dominant religion of Chrisitinity. They share a large number of similarities in terms of biblical references(Contender Ministries, 2005). From the immaculate conception of Mary to the trinitarian belief. We will write a custom essay sample on Catholic Baptism or any similar topic only for you Order Now They share the deity of Jesus Christ who died on the cross and was resurrected after three days. Its history started with Peter the Apostle. Being the rock where Jesus Christ appointed his church, Peter along with the other apostles started their â€Å"ministries† and traveled around Europe and to other continents to spread the Word of God and life of Jesus Christ(Religion Facts). From then on the appointment of a pope became a necessity in the survival of the church. Peter being the first pope and considered as the spiritual heir to the leadership of Jesus, Catholics subject themselves in its ruling. The pope administers and heads a hierarchy of religious leaders from the lowest parish priests to cardinals. Also, the crusades have contributed greatly in the acceptance of the Catholic church around Europe. Almost all of the beliefs of the Catholic church is similar to the beliefs of other â€Å"varieties† of Christianity. Being based from a central bible, it follows the teachings of prophets, apostles, and disciples. Also, the concept of a single god with three personas, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ as both divine and human are shared among Catholics. Examples of distinctive beliefs are the leadership of the pope, the existence of purgatory in afterlife, and transubstantiation or the use of bread to represent the body of Christ (Religion Facts). Also, catholics venerate saints as intermediaries to their prayers to God. Catholics gather in their Eucharistic celebration called mass. The mass is usually held weekly, specifically on Sundays, to commemorate the gospels and teachings of Christ. It constitutes gospel readings, a homily or sermon, utterance of certain prayers like The Lord’s Prayer, songs, sacrifices, and communion. Communion symbolizes the last supper where Christ shared bread and wine to His apostles. The structure of a Catholic Church is patterned from that of St. Peter’s Bassilica. It has a large facade that resembles a large altar due to the presence of stone statues of saints. Inside it has a dome over the altar where the ceremonies are being held. Churches also commonly have a grotto in veneration of Mary’s apparition in Lourdes, France (Queen of Peace Productions). Similar to other â€Å"varieties† of Christianity, Catholicism practices baptism. Baptism is included in the seven sacraments they follow to attain eternal salvation(Contender Ministries, 2005). The practice originated from the story in the bible where the Apostle John poured water on Jesus. It is believed that through baptism we are cleansed of our original sin and are now welcome to the chruch of God. In baptism, a person is being poured with holy water over a large basin under the sign of the cross. This marks the acceptance of the person being baptised to the church of Christ. Before the person is poured with water, the presiding priest asked the people present to renounce the devil and the sins accompanying it and follow the teachings of God. On this respect they show their rejection of evil and thus cleanses them particularly the person being baptised from their original sins (Cathechism of the Catholic Church). Also, the utterance of the Apostle’s Creed is done for this purpose. The person being baptised wears white clothes to signify his acceptance of Christ. The whole ceremony is very solemn, though there were jokes on the number of guests which become the godparents of the person being baptised. there feeling of oneness is present among the attendants. The ceremony suggests a feeling of relief for the person being baptised, because again another person is introduced to a religion with its moral and spiritual teachings. How to cite Catholic Baptism, Papers

Professional Skills Information and Communication Technology

Question: Discuss about the Professional Skills for Information and Communication Technology. Answer: Introduction: Security and privacy policies are the most important things that are needed to be considered to be implemented before using the concept of manual data arrangement system. Being an Information Technology consultant, in order to keep the personnel and financial information of the employees secured, different encryption keys are required to be introduced (Leicester, 2016). Implementation of appropriate encryption algorithm, only the authenticated users will be able to access the details. In order to identify different records, the IT consultant is employed to analyze the database of the consumers. However to keep the security of the process flow the accounts of the users who are inactive from last three years are suggested to be deleted. The purpose is to block the users, who are no longer part of the organization (Lindley et al., 2013). If the ex users are not deactivated then they will keep on using the reward programs facilitate for the employees which is commercially lead to loss. While considering this incident, from the ethical perspectives, the element conducted by ASC that is mostly required to be considered is honesty. After get to know, that if the accounts of the ex employees or more three years deactivated account are deleted then many friends and even family members will get affected (Venables, Tan Pradhan, 2014). Instead of explaining this to the friends and family the consultant should inform the manager about the chaotic situation. Due to the undertaken action honesty is the most effective ethical factor that is needed to be considered. If the situation is critically analyzed then, professionalism and professional develop are the two other factors that are considered. The consultant should keep him or herself more professional by continuous development, up-gradation of skills and knowledge (Burmeister et al., 2014). The professional behavior will help to distinguish the personal and professional opinion of the employees. This factor will give realistic estimation of project. Then, proper decision making approach will become easier. A proper ICT communication and development will also become efficient after considering these ASC ethical perspectives. An ICT professional is strictly required to be an ethical person, because, it helps to increase the awareness of problems that might affect the ICT profession and interactive relationship among the service provider and the consumers as well. The behavior will encourage the other colleagues and employee (Leicester, 2016). The overall professional need will be developed if the IIT consultant develops the additional responsibilities. It will motivate all other employees also and behavior of the IT consultant will act as leader. References Burmeister, O., Al-Saggaf, Y., Schwartz, M., Johnson, L. (2014). Internet resources to help Australian ICT professionals identify and solve ethical challenges. ACIS. Leicester, N. (2016). Ethics in the IT Profession: Does a Code of Ethics have an Effect on Professional Behaviour Lindley, D., Aynsley, B., Driver, M., Godfrey, R., Hart, R., Heinrich, G., ... Wilkinson, K. (2013). 11. Educating for professionalism in ICT: Is learning ethics professional development?.Professionalism in the Information and Communication Technology Industry,3, 211. Venables, A., Tan, G., Pradhan, S. (2014). A collaborative framework for a cross-institutional assessment to shape future IT professionals.Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology,11, 215-223.

Analyzing the role of Strategic Entrepreneurship in forming temporary Competitive Advantage that leads to Value Creation The WritePass Journal

Analyzing the role of Strategic Entrepreneurship in forming temporary Competitive Advantage that leads to Value Creation Introduction Analyzing the role of Strategic Entrepreneurship in forming temporary Competitive Advantage that leads to Value Creation ). Strategic entrepreneurship essentially involves concurrent opportunity-seeking and advantage-seeking behaviors, which result in better performance of the firm (Ireland, Hitt Sirmon, 2003). This research is interested in conducting a similar investigation and seeks to analyze the role of strategic entrepreneurship in forming temporary competitive advantage, which leads to the creation of value for the firm. Research Questions This dissertation is interested in determining whether firms, which engage in strategic entrepreneurship, are able to establish temporal competitive advantage in a dynamic environment, especially whilst competing with other firms and within the context of creating value for the firm. Below are the specific questions to be addressed in this dissertation: What benefits would a firm obtain by successfully employing strategic entrepreneurship in the current competitive market? What temporary competitive advantage results from employing strategic entrepreneurship? Does strategic entrepreneurship create value? Aims and Objectives The primary aim of this research is to analyze the role of strategic entrepreneurship in building competitive advantage and creating value for the firm. Based on the research questions given above, the objectives of this dissertation are as follows: To find out the benefits of employing strategic entrepreneurship To understand what competitive advantages are the result of utilising strategic entrepreneurship To investigate whether strategic entrepreneurship creates value for the firm Rationale This dissertation will provide insights on the significance of strategic entrepreneurship, especially within the context of forming temporary competitive advantage, in pursuit of creating value for the firm. This research seeks to address some of the gaps in literature, such as understanding the balance between the opportunity-seeking behavior associated with entrepreneurship and the advantage-seeking behavior of strategic management (Hitt et al., 2011). Moreover, a Strategic Entrepreneurship Theoretical Tree will be utilized in order to analyze the various components of strategic entrepreneurship. The theoretical tree is created based from the different studies conducted on the subject. Literature Review (Preliminary) Strategic entrepreneurship is associated with firm’s objective of achieving superior performance through the simultaneous application of both opportunity-seeking and advantage-seeking activities (Ketchen, Ireland, Snow, 2007). Various researchers have identified different components of strategic entrepreneurship, which can lead to superior performance of the firm. Ireland, Hitt Sirmon (2003) proposes four dimensions for the successful implementation of strategic entrepreneurship: (a) entrepreneurial mindset; (b) entrepreneurial culture and leadership; (c) strategic management of resources; and (d) applying creativity to develop innovations. At the business level, value creation is usually reflected in the expansion and growth of a firm. Welter Smallbone (2004) found that Institutional Economic Theory highlights the institutional embeddedness and path dependence of entrepreneurial behavior. This, in turn, influences the degree and nature of value creation for the firm. A number of authors have identified the factors that influence value creation and competitive advantage. Pongpearchan (2011, p.5) found that ‘operational innovation efficiency and business practice effectiveness have a significant positive effect on value creation excellence.’ On the other hand, Rindova Fombrun (1999) argue that competitive advantage is a systemic outcome which develops as firms engage in processes that involve the use and exchange of resources, as well as the communication that occurs in these exchanges. Therefore, the fluctuations on the interpretations and evaluations of a firm affect its resources and its competitive advantage in the marketplace. Below is the model of the Strategic Entrepreneurship Theoretical Tree which will be used as the main theoretical framework of this research. Each of the components of this model is based on different studies. These will be discussed in more detail during the full dissertation document. Methodology This research will use quantitative research methodology in addressing the objectives of the study. Quantitative survey will be used in gathering data from respondents. Quantitative methodology is chosen for this study because it will allow the researcher to utilize the opinions of respondents in explaining the phenomena being studied. The survey will be administered to employees and managers of SMEs and large commercial firms in the UK to find out their views on the subject. The survey will asks questions such as how respondents perceive the role of strategic entrepreneurship in forming creative temporary competitive advantage; what are the benefits of strategic entrepreneurship; how can firms create value; etc. The target number of respondents for the survey is 100. In anticipation of the fact that some potential respondents might refuse to participate in the survey, around 175 to 200 questionnaires will be distributed to ensure that 100 responses will be gathered. The survey will be administered face-to-face, via post, though emails, and online. This is done to allow respondents to choose how they want to answer the survey. After data gathering is completed, statistical analysis will be used in analyzing the data. SPSS and Excel will be used as the primary software for analysis. References Hitt, M, Ireland, D, Sirman, G, Trahms, C. (2011). Strategic Entrepreneurship: Creating value for individuals, organizations and society. Academy of Management Perspective. p.57-75. Ireland, D, Hitt, M, Sirmon, D. (2003).   A Model of Strategic Entrepreneurship: The Construct and its Dimensions. Journal of Management. 29(6), p.963-989 Ketchen, D, Ireland, D, Snow, C. (2007). Strategic entrepreneurship, collaborative innovation, and wealth creation. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. 1(3-4), p.371-385. Olusola, A. (2012). Strategic Entrepreneurial Skills’ Influence on Small Businesses’ Performance in Oyo and Osun Western States-Nigeria. Research Journal in Organizational Psychology and Educational Studies.1 (6), p.345-352. Pongpearchan, P. (2011). Strategic entrepreneurship management competency and firm success: a comparative study of SMEs in auto and electronic parts in Thailand. International Journal of Business Strategy. 11(2). Rindova, V Fombrun, C. (1999). Constructing competitive advantage: the role of firm-constituent interactions. Strategic Management Journal. 20(8), p.691-710.

French Terms Related to Movies and Film Festivals

French Terms Related to Movies and Film Festivals Whether you love attending film festivals, watching movies, or just reading reviews, youll want to learn some French vocabulary related to movies.le film - film, moviele cinà ©ma - movie theaterle Festival de Cannes - Cannes Film Festivalla Croisette - little cross, promenade which is the center of activity during the festivalla sà ©lection officielle - official festival selectionUn certain regard - Cannes category for particularly innovative filmsla Palme dOr - golden palm, highest award given at Cannes Genres la comà ©die - comedyle documentaire - documentaryle drame - dramale film daction - action moviele film daventures - adventurele film dà ©pouvante - horrorla science-fiction - science fictionle western - western Acteurs - Cast un acteur - actorune actrice - actressla distribution - cast listle / la figurant / figurante - extralinterprà ¨te (m or f) - actor/actressle premier rà ´le - male lead, leading actorle premier rà ´le fà ©minin - female lead, leading actressle second rà ´le - supporting actorle second rà ´le fà ©minin - supporting actressla silhouette - walk-on part/rolela vedette - star Équipe -  Crew le / la bruiteur / bruiteuse - sound-effects engineerle camà ©raman, cadreur - camera operatorle / la cinà ©aste - director, film-makerle / la coiffeur / coiffeuse - hair stylistle / la dà ©corateur / dà ©coratrice - designerle directeur de la photo(graphie) - cinematographer, director of photographyle / la maquilleur / maquilleuse - make-up artistle metteur en scà ¨ne - directorle / la monteur / monteuse - editorle preneur de son - sound engineer, sound recorderle / la producteur / productrice - producerle producteur exà ©cutif - executive producerla productrice exà ©cutivele / la rà ©alisateur / rà ©alisatrice - directorle rà ©gisseur - line producer, assistant directorle scà ©nariste - screenwriter Scà ¨nes et Plans -  Scenes and Shots larrà ªt sur image - freeze framele cadre - framedans le champ - in shoten dà ©cor, studio - on seten extà ©rieur - on locationle fondu - dissolve, fadehors champ - off-camerale panoramique - panningun plan rapprochà © / serrà © - close uple raccord - continuity Verbes - Verbs bruiter - to add sound effectscadrer - to frame a shotcouper - to cutdiriger - to directinterprà ©ter - to perform, actmonter - to editproduire - to produceprojeter - to project, showtourner (un film, une scà ¨ne) - to film, shoot (a movie, scene) Miscellaneous laffiche - showing, playing, on screenla bande sonore - soundtrackle bruitage - sound effectsle dà ©coupage - story boarddoublà © - dubbedlà ©clairage (m) - lightingle gà ©nà ©rique - credits, theme musicla grue - cranele mà ©trage - lengthle montage - editingle scà ©nario - screenplaysous-titrà © - subtitledle truquage - special effectsVF - version franà §aise (dubbed into French)VO - version originale (in the original language with French subtitles)

HR Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

HR - Essay Example An employee starts learning different skills required to perform the job. Employee development is a future oriented process. The main purposes of employee development include improving quality of the employees, retaining key employees, and incorporating technological advances. â€Å"An employee in need of career guidance can speak to the HR director of his or her company† (Jeffress, n.d.). Some of the most effective learning theories that HR planners use to improve employee learning include reinforcement theory, social learning theory, and goal theory. Some of the learning styles used in the process of learning include divergers, assimilators, convergers, and accommodators. Employees learn through observation, experience, and interactions. In employee development process, HR planners help employees identify their needs and development goals in order to make them initiate the development process. Gordon (2006) states, â€Å"Employee development programs are essential to improve morale as well as to motivate the employees to perform well†. Some of the methods used in the employee development process include assessment, formal education, job experiences, and interpersonal relationships. Structured development plan are very useful for employee development. â€Å"Structured development plans encourage greater understanding of the job role† (Nathoo, 2011). â€Å"Employee development programs are essential because they help create workplaces that promote excellence† (Ganapati, 2005). Employee learning and development are those processes, which make employees productive, skilled, and competent enough to carry out their job responsibilities in accordance with the strategic directions of the company that ultimately leads the company towards the achievement of competitive advantage in the

Fundamentals of Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Fundamentals of Finance - Essay Example Fundamentals of Finance Retained earnings means the amount of profit held by an organization, and that should be utilized for meeting the several requirements, except the payment of dividend. Break even point is a point at which the total cost and income equals, so at this point there should not be the question of profit or loss arises. So, the exhaustion of retained earnings also strongly related to the fundamental financing decisions and its implications. Break Even Point (BEP Output) in Units= Fixed Expenses/Contribution per unit.(C) Assume, fixed expenses (F) costs  £60000; selling price per unit  £15; variable cost per unit  £10. Therefore, BEP= F/C per unit. Contribution (in unit) = Selling price per unit_ Variable cost per unit. i.e.  £15_ £10=5 BEP=  £60000/5= 12000 Units. The composite of overall cost of capital of a firm is considered as the weighted average cost of several sources of funds. Weights are taken as the proportion of each source of funds in the overall capital structure of an enterprise. WACC is computed through a step by step process, such as Calculating the cost of specific sources of funds, then multiplying the cost of each source by its proportion in capital structure, and adding the weighted component costs. That is, K0= K1 W1 + K2 W2+†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦; here, K1, K2 etc. are component costs and W1, W2 etc. are weights. Assume total number of equity shares is 1000 shares,  £35/share,  £35000 is the equity capital or NP. While Dividend is  £1750, i.e. 5% of  £35000, and the cash dividend is  £3.25/ share, i.e. 1000 shares @ £3.25/ share is amounted to  £3250.

Questions on UML and Project Management Research Paper

Questions on UML and Project Management - Research Paper Example The UML is used to construct, visualize, document, specify and modify the elements of an object oriented system under enhancement.. J. Object Management Group (OMG) is an association of several computer design and system developers. The formation of the OMG targeted the setting of conventional standards for disturbed object oriented systems. Currently, the organization concerns with different aspects of modeling such as business processes, systems and programs. OMG attempts to avert vague standards that cannot be implementable or have never been implemented. Object Management Group also provides other standards basing on modeling principles. Apart from the UML, OMG also involves in other modeling operations. Meta Object Facility (MOF) is another specification employed in OMG. MOF is applicable in the Model-Driven Architecture and combines each development and integration steps of business, architectural and application modeling to enable development, management and transformation. Bu siness Motivation Model (BMM) is also an OMG specification standard. The BMM avails vocabulary for organization’s governance and strategic planning. ... of the UML state machine operation incorporates the organization of a way a device such as a computer program works  in a way that a section or each of its elements is accurately one of the number of probable state at which there are explicitly definitions of conditional conversions between the states. UML state machine initiates the concepts of hierarchy nested states and perpendicular regions, while extending the notion of actions. The state machines depict protocol and behavioral state machines. The behavioral state machines can be utilized in modeling the actions of individual elements while the protocol statecharts are employed to express utilization protocols and identify the legal usage situations of order interfaces and ports. Umbrello UML Modeller Umbrello UML Modeller is a software diagram tool which is present for many platforms such as Unix-like and Microsoft windows. The modeller is versatile and performs well with other computers and programming conditions. Umbrello U ML Modeller tool manages all types of paradigm UML diagrams. The tool can reverse all written codes from different languages such as python, C++, Java, IDL and Ada. Umbello can also reverse the XMI files produced from PHP codes and export to other diverse programming languages. Umbello permits sharing of model components through exportation of Docbook in addition to other XHTML layouts. The distribution assists in amalgamation enhancement attempts in case the team members cannot access the umbello directly. The tool is also critical in situations where the data is to be published in the web. Therefore, Umbrello UML Modeller would be the best for a project team to use in developing an object-oriented information system using UML. Umbrello UML Modeller is more significant because it supports

Engaged In The Retail Stores Operation Management Essay

Engaged In The Retail Stores Operation Management Essay In the beginning in 1962, Wal-Mart founder, Sam Walton, who opened the companys first discount store in Rogers, Ark. In October 1969, Wal-Mart officially incorporated its business and operates over 4150 retail facilities globally. At the year of 1962, Wal-Mart has its competitors- KMart and Target. Walton studied his competitors and borrowed liberally. In the United States, Wal-Mart is the largest retail store. It mainly has its retail store in Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. (Walmart Corporate, 2012) Throughout the United States, Wal-Mart is engaged in the retail stores operation. Wal-Mart is most practicing mode of entry which is wholly-owned subsidiary and joint ventures globally currently. In China, Wal-Mart is practicing joint venture and acquisition entry modes (Hornblower, 2004). Wal-Mart needs to be careful in choosing the appropriate strategy in order to develop the future expansion successfully. Wal-Mart operate its business is because it wants to save people money tend to help them live better. It continues to deliver that promise to families around the globe. Therefore, Wal-Mart works harder to do their part in protecting our planet and conserving our natural resources (Walmart Corporate, 2012). Joint Venture is an entry strategy for a single target country in which the partners share ownership of a newly created business entity (Warren Mark, 2011). This means that Wal-Mart joint venture with local partner and local parent earn more than 51 percent share attributed to Chinas government policy. Through joint venture, Wal-Mart may able to share the risk with the local partner and it can limit financial risk as well in 1996 (Wal-Marts Strategies in China, 2005). Wal-Mart joint venture expands their strategy in order to gain successful entry into many of its international markets (Marcus, Jon, Wayne, and Constince, 2007). Wal-Mart may able to gain access, increase profitability, enhance global market share and explore into more global market (Gary and Ryan, n.d.). However, Wal-Mart may enter the new market quickly, avoiding costs and risks of new product development, gaining market share and acquiring new knowledge and capabilities. In 2007, Wal-Mart successfully acquired Trust-Mart. Wal-Mart has been established the brand name of Trust-Mart (David, 2007). Current Expansion Strategy Joint Ventures and Acquisition in China Today, Wal-Mart is one of the leading international retailers in China. It is also one of the largest international retailers in China. It is estimated that the firm will have 150,000 employees in its stores and warehouses in China alone by 2010. China is the largest emerging market, and Wal-Mart could expand their business rapidly. Wal-Mart has followed much of this expansion in China through joint ventures because of government restricted foreign retailer not to own a store. Therefore, Wal-Mart followed government policy strictly (DePamphilis, 2009). Learning about a market through a joint venture is a particularly powerful motivator when a firm seeks to enter an emerging or developing market. When Wal-Mart entered China, partnered with local firms in the new cities, tend to enter to learn about their challenging environment and distribution system (Jim, 2004). The nature of China is that the culture and political power can vary widely from one major city to another. Hence, joint ventures in such situations allow Wal-Mart to learn about the local system, such as legal standards, consumer characteristics, labor markets, and building relationships with the government and local distributors (Hornblower, 2004). China is the cheapest workshop and emerging market in Asia, so it would like to attract Wal-Mart to invest in its country. Wal-Mart tend to enter the emerging market is because it operates on a smaller scale in new market before making a more significant investment. Apart from that, Wal-Mart divides the responsibilities and liabilities with others to keep a minimum cost. It also combines assets and skill-sets with other companies. (Wal-Mart Store Inc., 2010 Annual Report) China could offer the opportunity to foreign firm operated with no taxes on foreign business for the first few years of operation. Therefore, Wal-Mart caught a chance and tends to expand their business into China. (Hornblower, 2004) One of the reason Wal-Mart expand their business to China because the impact of competition and the restriction and lowered the market trade barrier caused U.S operation could not control attributable to the faster growth of Wal-Mart. Moreover, due to China has the strong economic growth and it has 1.3 billion population of people and also cheap labor they could provide. It would compete with Carrefour, Tesco and Metro more easily because China removed all limits on business location, amount and share structure. Therefore, Wal-Mart endeavors to gain a better marker share in Chinas $240 billion retail market. (Wal-Mart Bulks up China Expansion Strategy, 2005) Wal-Mart entered China through this entry mode is successfully. China could offer a way of getting around high Chinese tariffs, allowing a company to gain a competitive price advantage over imports. (Philip, Mary and John, 2009) China government has provided Wal-Mart the benefits of synergy which the local partner providing the access to the Government officials and market information besides sharing the risk. Acording to (Gerald and Edwin, 2008), sales and profits of the joint venture may be greater than those of a subsidiary, because the operation is looked upon with more favor by nationalist-oriented consumers than would be the case if it were considered a foreign operation. Therefore, Wal-Mart could be sustained its growth and sales will be increased through this joint venture. Stern and Stalk (1998) found that the expansion in China has been proven Wal-Mart could reduce stock-carrying and transportation costs and increase profitability by 2.5 percent compared with their competitors. However, through the joint venture with local partners, Wal-Mart is able to gain valuable knowledge on Chinese market, economic and political conditions. Joint Ventures are really a good option for their expansion since Chinas government regulated the foreign retailers enters China market should use joint venture strategy. This could allow Wal-Mart apply the valuable resource to improve market, economic as well as political condition (Clem, 2009). There is also an acquisition Trust-Mart in China which bought 35 percent of its shares. Trust-Mart is one of the leading retailers in Chinese market. Wal-Mart is willing to acquire and invest huge amount of capital because Trust-Mart has several number of stores. In addition, Trust-Mart also is leading position in China. This could enable Wal-Mart to capture much more competitive advantages in China. (Lee, 2011) Indeed, Wal-Marts retail footprint could become doubled where taking full control of Trust-Mart. At the same time, China tends to develop its economy sustainably in promoting the domestic consumption (David, 2007). This acquisition helped Trust-Mart expand on the Chinese mainland. Nowaday, it had more than 100 retail outlets in 34 cities on the mainland and employed more than 30,000 employees (Li, 2011). Wal-Mart planned to acquire the rest of the Trust-Mart, but the plan has been delayed because of several top executive resigned in 2010. This caused to Wal-Mart unable to acquire Trust-Mart the rest of the share (Li, 2011). Through this acquisition, Wal-Marts sale is less than 3 percent of its sales in America (Walmart v Wumart, 2011). Future Expansion Strategy According to Bishop (2006), a firms entry mode is how to enter the foreign market, and how to make its goods or services available to foreign customers. Basically, there are six different modes for a multinational firm to choose, such as licensing, exporting, turnkey project, joint venture, franchising and wholly-owned subsidiary (Hill, 2004). The current entry mode of Wal-Mart in China is through joint venture with Shenzhen International Trust Investment Co., Ltd, China due to the government restriction on foreign ownership. But joint venture benefits Wal-Mart from knowledge of the host countrys competitive conditions, political systems, language, culture, and business system. However, joint venture could bring negative effect to Wal-Mart because it has a risk of giving control its technology to its partner when it entry into a joint venture and it would also caused to conflict happen when the shared ownership arrangement is different and the goals and objectives is change. Hence, it is important for Wal-Mart to convert its entire joint venture stores into wholly-owned subsidiary. In order to completely convert into wholly-owned firm, the very first step that Wal-Mart should take into consideration is acquiring its partner Trust-mart. By acquisition, Wal-Mart is able to reduce risk over losing control and tighten control over operation in country and by the way maximize the profits. It is possible for Wal-Mart to acquire Trust-mart because China had lighten the limitations towards foreign company after joining WTO in year 2001 and after so many years operation in China, Wal-Mart is know well about the cultures and customer preferences in that country. At the same time, the large number of stores and leading position of Trust-mart in China makes the strong attraction for Wal-Mart to acquire. Undoubtedly, this acquisition would help Wal-Mart to capture more competitive advantage in China. The successful role models of acquisition that can be benchmark by Wal-Mart were the acquisition done by it in Canada and European countries. The company entering Canada by acquiring 122 Woolco stores in 1994. Due to continuously suffering a loss in Canadian operation, Wal-Mart quickly restructured the operation by applying the practices that had been successful in United States and the action taken was profitable. And the acquisition made in Germany and United Kingdom in year 1998 and 1999 also proved to be successful where it allowed Wal-Mart to build market share quickly within the highly developed and competitive European market. (Source: Wal-Mart takes on the world) Besides that, Wal-Mart should also build up a partnership or joint venture with local supplier in near future to ensure the flexibility, freshness of the foods and understand more about customers needs and tastes. It is because the strategy adopted in United States may not be fitted in China. The Chinese consumers are more prefer to consume fresh food rather than frozen food. A good example can be follow is Carrefour; it did a great job on building partnership and direct sourcing agreement with local suppliers. It focuses on locally sourced products, especially regarding fresh food. It also rely them to distribute goods directly to stores. A greater emphasis on partnerships with farmers enables Carrefour to have better control over food quality, and to reduce buying costs.   Finally, it proved to be more flexible to customers than any others do. Additionally, joint venture with local suppliers and purchase locally not only create flexible to customers, at the same time also reduce the costs in development than having joint venture with Investment Company. As deeply understand of the customers around, local suppliers have more experiences about the customers which are more accurately than foreign companies. Lastly, another future expansion that would recommend to Wal-Mart is through mergers. According to Valentine (n.d.), successful mergers businesses are reaping benefits and gain more profits. Therefore, a merger with Trust-mart and any other giant company in China may help Wal-Mart to obtain quality staffs and knowledge or additional skills to cope with different in culture and customer preference. Apart from this, merging also provide Wal-Mart the opportunity to increase market share and expand to new geographical areas and sectors. The best evidence to illustrate was Carrefour making its first merging with NextMart Shanghai store after entering the China retail market for more than ten years. This movement had marked a basic change in their expansion strategy and indicated the second climax of Carrefour expansion in China. (Sources ¼Ã… ¡www.China-cbn.com, 2007) Wholly-owned subsidiary in Philippine We would like to recommend Wal-Mart to expand their operation in Philippine. Philippine is one of the richest and developing countries in Asia. We suggest Wal-Mart using wholly owned subsidiary. This is because under the Retail Trade liberalization Act (RA 8762), this law indicates that foreigners may own up to 100 percent of a store with pad-in capital of the Peso equivalent of USD $7.5 million. This mean that Wal-Mart could paid up capitalization of USD $7.5, wholly own a firm in Philippine (Abigail, 2011). It is more suitable using wholly-owned subsidiary which is acquired a Philippines local firm. According to Philip et al. (2009), wholly-owned subsidiary could develop its operation with a greater control and higher profit compare with other entry mode strategy. However, this strategy has a higher risk. In another word, higher risk will get high return. Besides that, through the wholly-owned subsidiary, Wal-Mart could also state-of-the art technology hence resulting in increased operational efficiency. Wal-Mart could offer control over the local firm. In addition, Wal-Mart has its wholly-owned operations in Canada, Brazil and Argentina, there are extremely successful since Wal-Mart has past experience operate in these Country. For instance, Wal-Mart successfully became a wholly owned subsidiary in Japan, Seiyu recent year. (Walmart Corporate, 2012). Wal-Mart could learn the strategy same as in Japan because Wal-Mart has its experience and knowledge to use this entry mode into Japan. Wal-Mart can form a new firm or find a local company to do the business. By doing this way, Wal-Mart could earn a valuable knowledge from local partner since they operated in Philippine several years because they know the economic, government policy, consumer buying pattern and consumer purchasing power (Gerald and Edwin, 2008). For instance, David and Gary (2010) found that Wal-Mart often acquires ongoing firm as they move into a new market. Wal-Marts 2005 acquisition of controlling interest in the Central American Retail Holding Company helped Wal-Mart acquire valuable knowledge about this important market. Retail trade in Philippine is very vital and essential in order to boom the economy. Thus, Philippines government encourage foreign retail to invest in their country. In view of the fact that Wal-Mart is giving the low price of the retail grocery service for Pilipino, this would more satisfy them to buy Wal-Marts products (Retailing in the Philippines, 2002). The reason we recommend for Wal-Mart to expand in Philippine due to Philippine is an open economy which is freely and business-friendly economy. Government also gives multinational company some incentives such as tax exemptions and tax and duty-free importation of particular materials and equipment. Aside from tax and government incentive, Philippine has a strategic business location which suitable for European and American businesses to operate their business there (Why do business in the Philippines, n.d.). Joint venture in Malaysia Furthermore, as many foreign retailers looked forward to invest in Malaysia because of the purchasing power of local consumers, we recommend that Wal-Mart can expand their business in Malaysia in the future. However, Malaysia has restricted and controlled the foreign hypermarkets to expand and enter to the local market in order to protect smaller local businesses over recent years. But some of the major foreign retailers such as Carrefour, Tesco, Giant, and Isetan have operated and doing well in Malaysia. Wal-Mart can try to enter Malaysias market because the entry of foreign giant retailer would bring benefit for both parties including the profit for Wal-Mart itself, and at the same time create job opportunities for the local workers. Furthermore, other than create job opportunities; the entry of Wal-Mart will also make the retail market more competitive and simultaneously benefit consumers by providing additional place to shop. Moreover, we recommend Wal-Mart to apply joint venture as the entry mode into Malaysia retail market. Wal-Mart can try to joint venture with the local giant enterprise such as Berjaya Group, YTL, and IOI Corporation. However, Wal-Mart normally applies acquisition to enter into the countries. Unfortunately, Malaysia government has restricted and tightly controlled the entry of foreign retailers. Before that, Wal-Mart has tried to enter into Malaysia but have been rejected because the government realizes that the entry of Wal-Mart into Malaysia will greatly affect the local retailers. Moreover, Wal-Mart is able to provide the goods to the customers at a very low price because its business model is very efficient, but the low price of Wal-Mart has threaten the small local retailers as they may not able to fight the lower price with Wal-Mart and their business will be greatly affected, at the same time unable to survive. The reason we recommend Wal-Mart to expand by using joint venture in Malaysia is because the minister of Malaysia stressed that Wal-Mart is not allowed to operate new retail stores or hypermarkets at their own discretion. However, according to Vivian (2007), Malaysian authority was planning to loosen the limitations on foreign hypermarket so as to attract foreign direct investment in Malaysia retail market. Therefore, Wal-mart might have an opportunity to expand into Malaysia. In order to successfully enter into Malaysia, Wal-Mart should joint venture with Berjaya Group to open a new store named as Berjaya-Mart as Berjaya Group is one of the successful companies. Through joint venture, Berjaya-Mart is able to access larger markets because Berjaya Group provides larger geographical markets and customer bases. Furthermore, Berjaya-Mart is new to the market and may need to spend a lot and the process is complicated. Through joint venture can helps to overcome some of the problems such a s government regulation, direct financial losses, operating complexity, and reduce the cost of entry. Moreover, start a business in a new country might confront with political factors and the strict rules and regulations by the national government. Joint venture will help Berjaya-Mart to penetrate into the local market in Malaysia. Conclusion In conclusion, China is always an attractive market among countries for foreign investment. Although the retail market in China has a great potential, but the competition is very fierce from both local Chinese retailers and foreign retailers. However, Wal-Mart was a well-known company which with high reputation in global. Wal-Mart will continue to success in the future in China is mostly depend on the future expansion and their market strategy. As mentioned above, other than joint venture, we were recommended that Wal-Mart can try to use wholly-owned subsidiaries, partnerships, and merger. The wholly-owned subsidiaries from both acquisition and Greenfield investment will create advantage and help to expand in the future. Acquisition helps Wal-Mart to access and enter foreign market quickly and a way to achieve greater market power. Wal-Mart applies acquisition to achieve the larger market power to consent to exercise of a core competency and capture competitive advantage in global ma rket. Although it is high risk due the potential high cost, but it is the most probable to provide above average return. However, for partnerships is somewhat easy to establish, Wal-Mart able to get fresh products much more easily through partnership with the local suppliers. Partnerships can help Wal-Mart to save cost as each partner specializes in certain aspects of their business. Undoubtedly, more and more foreign investment including Wal-Mart has come into China, and they usually bring advanced technologies and also management knowledge. Moreover, some of these foreign entrants are successful in the worldwide. Expansion of Wal-Mart in China is one of the successful examples of foreign investment and can be learned by other firms. However, some business models which successful in other countries may not be successful in China. In order to success in China, both internal resources and external environment are critically important for Wal-Mart. Moreover, Wal-Mart can be so successful today in worldwide, there must a reason behind, which is Wal-Mart able to implement monitoring measures consistently in their operations and performances of their employees and managers that sent to China. Furthermore, Americans culture and Chineses culture is greatly different, but Wal-Mart is able to adapt speedily to the Chinese culture, fulfill requirements while carrying out their responsibilities, and get appreciation of the exclusive processes of doing business in China. However, there is also a lot space for further improvement of Wal-Marts strategies and future expansion.

Time For Americans To Be A Family :: essays research papers

Time for Americans To Be A Family By D.C. Burch It seems to be a time for Americans to try and be a family again. Maybe a quarrelsome and restless family not entirely happy with each member all of the time, but a family nonetheless. OK, I admit it. I am confused and perplexed by the storm of political correctness sweeping throughout the nation, raising dust-devils and tempests; leaving destruction and chaos in its wake. The English language is being transmogrified to quell and satisfy members of the American society who feel they should somehow, be special; apart from our citizenry. Thus my confusion. I've been called a privileged white-boy by some, honky by others, and cracker by others still. All this because I grew up in a middle class family in Toledo, Ohio? I've never considered myself to be anything special, certainly never superior to anyone or anything by virtue of my ancestry, just your basic, run- of-the-mill guy who wants to do the right thing. From the time I was little boy, I have seen one particular group called colored, Negro, black, and now, African-American. I can't seem to find a consensus out there in any media, one moment the reference is to blacks, and the next to African-Americans, when they are referring to the same group of people. I'm not knocking what people want to call themselves, it's the mixed messages I'm getting and the inaccuracy of the terminology that frustrates me. Look around and you will see there is the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Black Muslims, and African-Americans. All of these terms are used to refer to members of one group of people. Is it any wonder I'm confused? I have particular problems with the term African-American, a misnomer which would lead me to believe these people somehow hold dual citizenship with another country, or even worse, lead everyone to believe all those who use that term to describe themselves are of African origin and are exclusively black in color. As we all know, there are white Africans, too. Should they choose to come to the U.S., they too, would be eligible for the label African-American, which would further confuse the issue. Enter the U.S. Census Bureau. Rather than help clear up the mess, they perpetuate it by requesting racial information and make-up of families that does nothing more than perpetuate the lies we tell one another. At least with the Census Bureau, their are Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, Other, and Whites. I don't know about you folks but, I was born here in the U.

Different stakeholders Essay

Every organisation has Stakeholders; these are groups or individuals that affect or are affected by the business. The number of stakeholders of a business varies and so does their importance and influence on the company. The type of organisation and the product or service it supplies also determines the stakeholders. An organisation such as Lidl has far more stakeholders than family business; it is therefore much more influenced and affected by the actions, aims and objectives of its stakeholders. In this report I will evaluate the influence that the different stakeholders exert within Lidl. Employees are very influential stakeholders of Lidl and they are crucial for the running of the organisation. They have around 315,000 employees worldwide. The quality of an employee’s performance depends on the way human resources are managed within the company. An employee’s main interests are salaries, wages and job satisfaction; all of these factors influence the company’ s staff turnover. When employing new staff, and managing existing staff the employers must consider a lot of different elements. Employees can affect and influence Lidl in various ways and due to different reasons, some are; skills and qualifications, personal views and opinions, employee performance, training and redundancy. As employees are one of the main stakeholders and are the human resources of the company; their performance highly affects Lidl. If the employees are not satisfied with their wages or the working environment the products and services will not be of a satisfactory standard which could result in poor publicity. Motivation is one of the methods used to improve employee performance as when employees feel unmotivated they tend to perform inadequately e.g. the shop floor could be untidy, shelves un-stocked or a lack of people on the tills. An employee’s skills and qualifications are crucial aspects because if an employee doesn’t have the right skills or knowledge to perform a certain task essential for the consecutively of Lidl; it could slow down the whole production process therefore decreasing the quality of the presentation within the store resulting in Lidl making less profit than they could have. Customers contribute to profit levels and turnover through buying products and services.

Formal Outline Template

GUIDE TO FORMAL OUTLINING I. The outline should be in sentence form. A. That means that each section of the outline must be a complete sentence B. Each part may only have one sentence in it. II. Each Roman numeral should be a main section of the speech. A. Capital letters are main points of the thesis. 1. Numbers are sub-points under the capital letters. 2. Little letters are sub-points under the numbers. B. Sub-points need to correspond with the idea it is under. 1. This means that capital letters refer to the idea in roman numerals. 2. This means that numbers refer to the idea in the capital letter.III. All sub-points should be indented the same. A. This means that all of the capital letters are indented the same. B. All numbers are indented the same. IV. No sub-point stands alone. A. Every A must have a B. B. Every 1 must have a 2. C. You don’t need to have a C or a 3, but you can. D. There are no exceptions to this rule. Your speech outline should look something like the o ne in the sample. Your outline will also include the full sentence details of your speech, including source citations. The number of sub-points will differ in each speech and for each main idea. FORMAL SENTENCE OUTLINE FORMATStudent’s Name: Date: Topic: General Purpose: Specific Purpose: Key statement that describes the topic of your speech To inform OR To persuade Your specific purpose identifies the information you want to communicate (in an informative speech) or the attitude or behavior you want to change (in a persuasive speech). The central idea of your speech (should predict, control and obligate). Thesis: I. Introduction A. Attention Getter: Something that grabs the attention of the audience. Examples of this: startling statistics, stories, rhetorical questions, quotations, scenarios, etc. This point should be more than one entence long. Why should the audience listen to your speech, make it personal to each of them. Exact same statement as above. B. Reason to Listen: C. D. Thesis Statement: Credibility Statement: 1. 2. What personally connects you to this topic? What type of research have you done to establish credibility? E. Preview of Main Points: 1. 2. 3. First, I will describe †¦ Second, I will examine †¦ Third, I will discuss†¦ II. Restate thesis, exact statement as above. A. Statement of the first main point; you should not use a source in this sentence. 1. Idea of development or support for the first main point a.Support material (ex: statistics, quotation, etc. – cite source) b. Support material (ex: statistics, quotation, etc. – cite source) 2. More development or support a. b. Support material (ex: statistics, quotation, etc. – cite source) Support material (ex: statistics, quotation, etc. – cite source) 3. Transition: More development if needed (Required) Statement of movement that looks back (internal summary) and looks forward (preview). Statement of second main point. Do not use a source in this statement. 1. Idea of development or support for the first main point a. b. . Support material (ex: statistics, quotation, etc. – cite source) Support material (ex: statistics, quotation, etc. – cite source) B. More development or support a. b. Support material (ex: statistics, quotation, etc. – cite source) Support material (ex: statistics, quotation, etc. – cite source) 3. Transition: More development if needed (Required) Statement of movement that looks back (internal summary) and looks forward (preview). Statement of third main point. Do not use a source in this statement. 1. Idea of development or support for the first main point a. b. . Support material (ex: statistics, quotation, etc. – cite source) Support material (ex: statistics, quotation, etc. – cite source) C. More development or support a. b. 3. Support material (ex: statistics, quotation, etc. – cite source) Support material (ex: statistics, quotation, etc. â₠¬â€œ cite source) More development if needed III. Conclusion A. Review of Main Points: 1. 2. 3. B. C. Restate your first main point. Restate your second main point. Restate you third main point. Exact same as above. Develop a creative closing that will give the speech a sense of ending.This point may be more than one sentence. You should refer back to your AttentionGetter. Restate Thesis: Closure: References APA format; all references need to be sited in APA format. Electronic sources must be . edu, . gov, or . org in order to be acceptable. Be sure to make sure that the references are in Alphabetical order. Double-Spaced; all references should be double-spaced and indented. Five source minimum: You must have at least five sources cited in your outline and listed on your reference page. Make sure to provide all necessary information in the references.

One of the most constantly asked questions about The Merchant of Venice is Is it anti Semitic Essay Example

One of the most constantly asked questions about The Merchant of Venice is Is it anti Semitic Essay Example One of the most constantly asked questions about The Merchant of Venice is Is it anti Semitic Paper One of the most constantly asked questions about The Merchant of Venice is Is it anti Semitic Paper Essay Topic: Merchant Of Venice Play It is quite clear when reading The Merchant of Venice that there is a large focus on Shylock being a Jew. This is very prominent in his I am a Jew speech he, the Jewish moneylender, angry and betrayed, rails against the non-Jewish world which torments him. Antonio hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies and whats his reason? I am a Jew, he exclaims. Then comes the famous speech. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions. However from this alone we cannot decide if Shakespeares play is anti Semitic. In Shakespeares day, anti-Semitism was all the rage in England. Despite the fact that Jews had been kicked out of the country three hundred years previously by the Edict of York, hatred for them remained powerful. Ten generations of Englishmen had never seen or talked to a Jew, but that didnt stop them from thinking Jews were evil, smelt bad, committed ritual murder and had other salacious traits. Elizabethans didnt wash. Queen Elizabeth herself was considered a little quirky for insisting that she took a bath once a year. But it was a well known fact that Jews bathed Jewish women once a month in the ritual mikve, and Jewish men just before the Sabbath. Somehow the general public knew that the immersions in water were related to the monthly cycle so they firmly believed that Jewish men menstruated too and every week! It was in this climate that Shakespeare wrote his plays. Pandering to the taste of his audience, he stuck in many lines that may be seen as anti Semitic. If I do not love her I am a Jew, proclaims Benedick about Beatrice; meaning that if he does not love her he is a scoundrel. In Macbeth, the witches intone Liver of blaspheming Jew as they pop another vile ingredient into their cauldron. Servants invite each other for drinks, stating that one who refuses the offer is a Jew. Portia, in her impassioned speech about mercy: The quality of mercy is not strained, / It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven changes her tune when it is her turn to be merciful. Not so fast, Jew. to Shylock, as she relentlessly increases his punishment. This is a concrete example of why maybe Shylock is the way he is: The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction. I would argue, despite the anti Semitic content of some of the scenes in this play, that the play is not solely anti Semitic or that Shakespeare is so. At first it may appear that Shakespeare is merely building the play up to show a cantankerous Jew who receives his comeuppance, however Antonio, the merchant of Venice, is shown to be a hard-hearted man who curses Jews and spits upon their coats. When he is forced to ask Shylock for a loan, not only does he refuse to apologise for this behaviour, but also he actually says, I am like to call thee so again, to spit on thee again, to spurn thee too. He wants the money as an enemy not as a friend. Shylock is shown to have a reason for his anger and his stubborn demand to receive his pound of flesh. Apart from Antonios unpleasantness, there is the matter of Rebecca, Shylocks daughter, who has run off with her fathers money and jewels in order to marry a Christian. Shylock has a motive for hating Christians and their double standards. In this way the play actually shows both sides of the coin, that Christians have the potential to be bad just as well as Jews. Jessica being Shylocks daughter is obviously Jewish but it is interesting to see the stark contrast is persecution that they receive. Her character is more a perpetrator of discrimination rather than a victim of it. If anything, Jessicas behaviour towards her father reinforces the anti-Semitism that is in the play. When Gratiano says that Jessica is a gentle and no Jew he says so because Jessica has behaved like a good Christian by stealing from the dissolute Shylock. Moreover, Jessica says: When I was with him I have heard him swear to Tubal and to Chus, his countrymen, that he would rather have Antonios flesh than twenty times the value of the sum that he did owe him. Here we see Jessicas own words supporting the stereotype that Jews are immoral. She describes Shylocks house as hell explicitly connecting Shylock to the devil himself. And Shakespeares contemporary audiences were likely left with the impression that Jessicas theft of Shylocks funds is deserved that the Jew is finally getting what he deserves. Shylock is a victim, whose mind is clouded with grief and frustration at the Christians relentless persecution of him, and their theft of his only daughter. However, because he is overcome with this red mist, he loses himself in his hatred, and it appears to everyone that he has gone too far. Until then the only Christian to address Shylock directly by his name was Portia, but after he passes the point of no return, she reverts to calling him Jew like the others. The fact that he passes this point shows that he has some villain in him, but no more than Portia. It is ironic that Portia passes judgement on Shylock, and criticises him for not showing Antonio mercy, yet she acts with the same lack of mercy towards Bassanio regarding the ring as Shylock did to Antonio. In conclusion, Shylock shows some of the characteristics of a villain, but these are simply products of his victimisation; Shylock is a victim of the self-absorbed, racist community that Venice had become. His anger and frustration that lead to him making poor judgements are products of having to endure the torment of this environment. An Elizabethan audience would probably harbour a little sympathy for Shylock because of the way the Christians persecute him but however hard Shakespeare has tried to even out the playing field with regards to the portrayal of Jews in a bad light, the audience would of probably left the theatre with their anti Semitism intact or inflamed. Viewing the play through modern eyes, Shylock can be seen as both an Elizabethan stereotype but also a human being. Ironically, it is precisely because of the stereotypical elements in Shylocks character that many people argue against The Merchant of Venice, viewing it as an anti-Semitic work, which is an understandable reaction in a post-Holocaust era. Shakespeare, however rarely creates a one-dimensional villain, but a complex character who usually has many lessons to teach the audience.

Food inquiry Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Food inquiry - Movie Review Example She always does the best editing job that will always be appealing to the public and she has edited the annual Best Food Writing series since the year 2000. She is the author of Frommer’s 500 Places for Food and Wine Lovers. The last year 2012 review was her twelfth year of the Best Food Writing series and is an enjoyable anthology of all times. There were contributors like John T. Edge, an accomplished author, Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen, one of the most popular bloggers, amongst other several levels of notoriety. One can easily appreciate her writing styles and skills, the diversity of topics and sources that are incorporated in her collection which provides a rich, complete and captivating representation of the best food writing scenario. There are many pieces in the Best Food Writing that are from popular books like Tomato land, A Spoonful of Promises, An Everlasting Meal amongst others. She has also incorporated pieces from New York Times, popular food magazines like Food and Wine. There are also very interesting pieces from non-traditional food writing sources which are incorporated in her collection. There is a variety of contributions whose approach ranges from light-hearted to serious and part of these are Maureen O’Hagan’s topic of Childhood Obesity as she focuses on two obese teens, giving a clear perspective on junk food and effects of overeating among the population. Joel Stein writes hilarious food reflections and entertains as he reveals in his piece how he found his manhood through barbecue, Kevin Pang’s story of an upcoming chef, Brandon Baltzeley, who struggles with the addiction of cocaine, and David Leite writes about his thanksgiving baking catastrophes. This series has always included many online writers over the years into its page and giving credit as well as recognizing authors who mainly digitally publish their work. Pieces like those of

CYBER BULLING A SOCIAL PROBLEM Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

CYBER BULLING A SOCIAL PROBLEM - Research Paper Example According to Wanamaker (2012), the abuses from cyber bullying are as hurtful to the victim as physical abuse. In most cases, it has resulted to low self-esteem and to some extent suicide. Cyber bulling is a developing social problem that needs social workers to tackle. Many social workers today are inadequately equipped to handle the issue between students. Because cyber bullying can lead to mental harm, the social workers do not have the right skills for handling the problem properly. Cyber bullying mostly occurs over the Internet hence it has become difficult for staff and social workers to monitor the issue. Since social workers are essential to school mental health services and offer crisis intervention services compared to staff members, they will be important in developing effective and accurate cyber bullying policies. People may claim that cyber bullying has declined, but the more people become aware of the problem they realize that many kids are involved in it. To those kids and teens involved, it has become a game given the anonymity associated with it. The anonymously that the Internet provides has highly encouraged cyber bullying. Due to this aspect of the Internet, cyber bullying has become an online version of teasing and cruelty that usually exists in schools. While the Internet provides anonymity, it also provides a wide range of opportunity to reach, many people as it is open to anyone. Therefore, since many people can access the Internet and the fact that it is difficult to establish who said what, this encourages people to use the Internet to bully others. Education is truly essential when it comes to cyber bullying. While the upcoming Internet-based networking sites might appear to challenge to any user, children and teens do not likely have the maturity of using these sites. The well-educated parents keep

Krohn et al. (2011). The Cascading Effects of Adolescent Gang Research Paper

Krohn et al. (2011). The Cascading Effects of Adolescent Gang Incolvement across the Life Course - Research Paper Example What is specifically meant by adult life chances is a satisfactory family life and economic well-being at the age ranging from late 20s to early 30s. And what is meant by adult criminal behavior is persistent criminal behavior at the age of 31. What concept represents the independent variable(s) in this article and what is the conceptual definition of this concept discussed by the authors? The independent variable in this study is gang involvement in adolescence. Gang involvement is defined as a self report of being a member of any street gang or â€Å"posse† between the age of 14 to 31 and the level of gang involvement is measured in terms of the number of waves in which a particular individual was involved with a gang between the age of 14 to 31. What concept represents the dependent variable(s) in this article and what is the conceptual definition of this concept discussed by the authors? The dependent variables in this study are precocious transitions, economic hardship, f amily problems, street crime and arrest. The concept of precocious transitions is defined as to include any, some, or all of the behaviors- early nest leaving (no longer resides with parents by wave 9), dropping out from high school prior to graduation (not graduated by wave 10), cohabitation (not married yet living with a partner when the individual is between 20 and 22 years of age) and teenage parenthood (had a child before the age of 20). Economic hardship is defined as to include unemployment (at 29 years of age) and income pattern (at 29 years of age). The concept of family problems is defined as to include scores corresponding to arguing, lose tempers, and physical fights at wave 13. The concept of street crime relates to the individual scores corresponding to being involved at the age of 31, in any of the 13 different street crimes listed. The concept of arrest is defined as self-reported arrest during 13th or 14th wave. What are the null and research hypotheses related to t his research question? The null hypothesis for this study is that there is no relationship between gang involvement in adolescence and life chances and criminal behavior in adulthood. The research hypothesis is that it is involvement in a gang that impacts an individual male’s life chances and eventually leads to criminal behavior as he matures into adulthood. Sample, Research Design and Data Collection Describe the sample (who or what was used and how they were selected) used in this study. The sample used in this study was the data from Rochester Youth Development Study which was a multi-wave panel study on how delinquency and drug use developed among the youth. This (RYDS) study had collected 14 waves of data from 1000 adolescents as they grew from 14 to 31 years of age and the study by Krohn et al (2011) has used the same data by way of a longitudinal analysis of data gathered from males alone which was not done by the original study. What type of research design did the authors use in this study and how was it structured? The research design was based on the structural equation model that allows to have an approximate measurement of cause-effect relationships, all the same leaving enough space for taking into account the estimation error. The design was structured so as to measure both the observed and latent variables. The two-step process involved

JetBlue Airways Corporation Essay Example for Free

JetBlue Airways Corporation Essay JetBlue Airways Corporation was formed in August 1998 as a low-fare, low-cost but high service passenger airline serving select United States market. JetBlues operations strategy was designed to achieve a low cost, whilst offering customers a pleasing and differentiated flying experience. JetBlue has had a successful business model and strong financial results during that period, and performed well in comparison to other airline companies in the US during the period between 2000 and 2003. It had been the only other airline apart from Southwest airlines, to have been profitable during the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on World Trade Center, and at a time when the entire airline industry was experiencing losses. The core of JetBlues strategy was low operating cost achieved through a smaller and more productive workforce; utilizing aircraft efficiently; better use of technology to achieve lower distribution cost i.e. use of electronic ticket as against paper ticket; use of brand new single model planes that reduced maintenance costs and training costs at the same time. However, moving into the growth phase, JetBlue was contemplating expansion with the introduction of a new model of planes, i.e. Embraer E190, that are smaller than the A320s that they were using. These planes were to be utilized for penetrating mid-size cities and also during off-peak times on existing routes. The company defined these markets as destination with 100 to 600 local passengers per day each way, compared to the much larger markets that the company was serving with its A320s. This had potential implications for its low-cost strategy. Jetblues expansion required investments in areas other than just new aircraft. Owen needed to decide how to raise additional capital to fund the  companys growth. Investment bankers had presented two financing proposals; a new public equity offering and a private placement of convertible debentures. Own needed to decide which proposal, if any, to recommend to the board. QUESTION 1 PART A In early 2003, JetBlue continue to see opportunity to grow by adding both new market and new flight to existing destination. One of such new market where the company believed there was attractive opportunity was the mid-sized market segment which comprised of destinations with 100 600 local passengers per day each way. To accommodate this growth, the company is seeking to purchase 65 new Airbus A320, with an option to buy additional 50 new aircraft, and also committed to purchase 100 Embraer E190 aircraft, with the option to purchase 100 additional ones. Jetblue had embarked on a $6.8 billion plane acquisition program that would increase its aircraft fleet from 45 to 252, including existing aircraft purchase commitment. The company needs thus to think about a way to finance those acquisitions, as well as other needed investments such as spare parts, new engines, additional hangars and a flight training centre JOHN OWEN THE CFO OF JETBLUE IS TRYING TO DECIDE WHICH OF TWO FINANCING PROPOSALS (NEW PUBLIC EQUITY OFFERING AND A PRIVATE PLACEMENT OF CONVERTIBLE DEBENTURE) TO PURSUE. A straight equity issue will dilute his principal shareholders ownership, but favored a conservative capital structure that would help to ensure JetBlues financial flexibility, access to capital and a favorable lending rate. On the other hand, a convertible debt alternative seems less dilutive, and cheaper, but brings with it an increased risk of default and financial problems. PART B The financing decision taken by the CFO is important because of the positive impact it is expected to have on the current and future performance of the JetBlue. The considerations as regards impact of the financing decision are discussed; IMPACT ON CURRENT PERFORMANCE OF THE COMPANY It is expected that the new capital would ease Jetblues ability to finance its short term obligations as JetBlue does not have a line of credit, or short-term borrowing facility. Therefore, the company depends on its operating cash flow to finance its short-term obligations The new capital will be required to finance working capital requirement of Jetblue, Working capital is the short term resources that are used to manage the business on a daily basis. This is otherwise referred to as current asset. The financing decision which is aimed at securing the purchase of the new 100-seat Embraer E190 aircraft would allow JetBlue to enter smaller markets while maintaining low operating costs, and increase flight frequency on existing routes. The low fares offered by JetBlue would allow it to attract new passengers who might otherwise not fly. Earnings from this market segment is expected to contribute to the profitability and positive financial performance of the company IMPACT ON FUTURE PERFORMANCE OF THE COMPANY The additional capital is expected to strengthen the companys balance sheet at a time when JetBlue will be shouldering a significant amount of debt related to new aircraft deliveries. The decision on financing method would result in a strong capital structure for Jetblue which would ensure that the company would continue to grow while avoiding financial problems. The new cash inflow which is directed at ensuring JetBlue achieves its expansion activities. It is expected that the company will be in a position to purchase larger volumes of jet fuel and would thus have more leverage in procuring fuel than today. The company will thus suffer relatively less from fuel shortages and the negative impact a rise in fuel has an operating income QUESTION 2 PART A John Owen the CFO of JetBlue generally favored a conservative capital structure. A conservative funding strategy is when a firm finances both its seasonal and permanent requirement with long term debt. The criteria which John Owen used to evaluate his decision on the appropriate capital structure and mode of financing to support the expansion drive of the business are; FINANCIAL FLEXIBILITY: This refers to the firms ability to take advantage of unforeseen opportunities or their ability to deal with expected events depending on the firms financial policies and financial structure. A firm with a high debt obligation and weak solvency and liquidity is not financially flexible. FAVORABLE LENDING RATE: The lending rate to a business varies directly with the risk associated with any given financial structure which can be accessed by leverage analysis. It is expected that a higher leverage (as a result of accepting debt offering) tends to amplify a firms predictable business swings i.e. associated risk. This inclines to increase lending rate to the firm and ultimately result in an unfavorable lending rate. CONTROL: The financing scheme of a company can imply changes in control constrains on the firm, this can be indicated by percentage distribution of share ownership and structure of debt covenant. There is a high chance that the board of directors will not favor the equity offering as they were  sensitive about the dilution (i.e. control dilution) that an equity offering would cause to existing shareholders. INCOME: This compares financing tactics on the basis of their effect on value creation and distribution i.e. the impact on Earnings per share (EPS) and Return on equity (ROE). The debt option limited the ability of Jetblue to manage one of the airlines principal risk; rising fuel prices. As discussed above, the debt offering afforded Jetblue less financial flexibility. If fuel prices rose unexpectedly, operating income will decline thus hurting JetBlues ability to meet the additional debt service payments. PART B Other criteria John Owen could use to evaluate his decision on the appropriate capital structure and mode of financing are; Timing: This considers whether the current capital market environment is the right time to implement any alternative financial structure and what the implication for future financing will be if the proposed structure is adopted. Financial market condition often favour one or another kind of financing. Others: This is the consideration of the impact of the alternative financing choice on other issues and vice versa. An example is the ability to use collateral to reduce the costs and risk of debt financing and the effect of various financing tactics on the liquidity of investment. REASONS WHY JOHN OWEN SHOULD PROPOSE THE EQUITY FINANCING OPTION From the above analysis, it can be deduced that using equity financing option minimizes the companys weighted average cost of capital, thus maximizes the overall stock price of the company and the shareholders wealth. The NPV of the company is higher under the equity financing option JetBlue, as any airline company has a debt to equity ratio of 61.21% and incurs very high fixed costs as a result of high value operating property and equipment. An equity offering would increase the financial flexibility of the company. The company has a very high operating leverage as a result of variability in fuel price. This exposes the company to the risk of cash flow projections errors in case it does not meet the projected revenues figures. Any variation in the estimated revenues, might lead the company to a position where it could not meet its financial obligations related to debt. From this point of view, JetBlue needs to secure its cash flows. This can be achieved using equity financing. The lending rate to a business varies directly with the risk associated with any given financial structure which can be accessed by leverage analysis. Issuing equity will reduce the leverage of business and reduce lending rate. PART C Other financing option I would like to recommend to the board and John Owen are; JetBlue can consider some other alternatives as well. Indeed, the company can issue some preferred stock. This stock might be considered as equity in accounting, to strengthen the balance sheet of the company, but will at the same time accommodate the board members concern about dilution. Another alternative might be the issuance of simple corporate bonds. The coupon rate for those will however be higher than the 3.5% of the convertible bonds. This option will thus cost more for JetBlue than convertible bonds QUESTION 4 PART A Aviation fuel cost is the second largest operating cost in the airline industry after payroll, this has significant impact on operating and financing risks of a company. IMPACT ON OPERATING RISK: In 2002, JetBlues fuel cost amounted to $76 million or 14.4% of operating cost. In the event that fuel prices rises, there will be a significant drop in operating income and higher exposure to operating risk (risk created by operating leverage). Operating leverage is the magnification of the top half of the income statement, it measures how EBIT changes in response to changes  in sale, and the relevant cost is the fixed cost of operating the business. It is expected that as operating leverage increase due to jet fuel increase, the operating risk of the business likewise increases. IMPACT ON FINANCING RISK In the event that jet fuel rises, it is expected that operating profit will drop and operating leverage would increase. This will also hurt JetBlues ability to meet the additional debt service payment i.e. it may face risk of default or potential financial loss which is known as financial risk. Financing risk is the risk associated with financing and its created by financial leverage. Financial leverage is the magnification of the bottom half of the income statement, it measures how EPS (earnings per share) changes in response to changes in sale, and the relevant cost is the fixed cost of financing, in particular interest. PART B The operating and financing risk exposure of JetBlue through rising fuel price of JetBlue has being managed in the past through hedging 75% of its fuel using a combination of CALL OPTIONS, SWAPS AND COLLARS hedging instrument. PART C HEDGING: Fuel hedging is a contractual tool some large fuel consuming companies such as airlines (JetBlue) use to reduce their expose to volatile and potentially rising fuel cost. A fuel hedge contract allows a large fuel consuming company to lock in the cost of future fuel purchase, allowing an increasing number of airlines to avoid surprises from unforeseen cost fluctuations. The hedging could be done via a commodity swap or option. One of the basic reasons why a company enters into hedging contract is to mitigate their exposure to future fuel prices that may be higher than current prices and/or  to establish a known fuel cost for budgeting and predictability of earnings. PRINCIPAL WAYS JETBLUE HAS BEING USING HEDGING TO MANAGE FUEL PRICING RISK: Jetblue is a small airline which had less leverage in procuring large volume of jet fuel in order to mitigate risk of volatility or shortage of jet fuel. In order to mitigate fuel pricing risk, Jetblue used a combination of fuel call option, swaps and collars hedging instrument. From time to time Jetblue has simply bought call options which tend to be at least $5 per barrel. HOW THE HEDGING INSTRUMENT WORKS The hedging instrument mostly used by JetBlue is the call option. CALL OPTION: This is a financial contract between two parties, the buyer and the seller of this type of option. The buyer of the option has the right but not the obligation to buy an agreed quantity of a particular commodity (jet fuel) from the seller of the option at a certain time (the expiration date for European call option or at any time during the life of the option for American call option) for a certain price (the strike price). The seller is obligated to sell the commodity (jet fuel) or financial instrument should the buyer so decide. The buyer pays a fee called a premium for this right. In the case JetBlue, the premium it pays is at least $5 per barrel. SWAPS: Swaps are tailor made futures contract whereby an airline exchanges payment at a future date (which can be in jet aviation fuel and could be further into the future into the future than possible through commodity exchanges), based on the fuel or oil price. There could be an arrangement with a supplier such as Air BP. The airline would buy a swap for a period of say one year at a certain strike price for a specified amount of jet fuel per month. The average price for that month is then compared with the strike price, and if it exceeds it the counter-party would pay the airline the difference times the amount of fuel. However, if it were lower, then the airline would pay the difference. They lock in a given price, as with forward contacts. COLLARS: This is a combination of a call and a put option. The call protects the holder from adverse price increases above its strike price, at a cost of the option premium that would be paid in any event. The holder of this call also writes a put option that limits the advantage it can take of price reduction below its strike price. The total cost of taking the two options is the call option premium paid less the put option premium received. A collar limits the speculative risk to a small range of price moves and locks in the price that will be paid for fuel between two known values.

Adolescent Depression: Causes, Effects and Treatments

Adolescent Depression: Causes, Effects and Treatments Teenage Depression Urooba Fatima Depression is defined as a medical condition in which a person feels very sad, hopeless, unimportant and is often unable to live in a normal way (Merriam-Websters online Dictionary, n.d.). In 2004 alone, it was reported that 11.2 percent of teens suffered from depression (Depression in Children and Adolescents, n.d. para.1). Symptoms that adolescents tend to show when suffering from depression are difficulty with relationships, loss of interest in hobbies, persistent sadness, feeling of hopelessness and the feeling of guilt and/or worthlessness. There are many possible results that stem from depression, such as suicide, substance abuse and alcohol abuse. For various reasons, people fail to realize that majority of the youth in the U.S suffer from depression. People in todays society need to recognize the severity of depression and provide better treatments for their youth. In the past, people did not believe that children and adolescents could go through depression, but today teens show so many signs of depression that it is impossible to ignore. By the time 11 percent of adolescents turn 18 years old they have at least one depressive episode (Merikangas, n.d). One of the leading causes of disability in Americans is major depressive episode, according to the World Health Organization (Merikangas, n.d). The reason depression in adolescents has been ignored so long is that it can be very difficult to tell whether an adolescent is showing symptoms of depression or just going through a phase (Depression in Children and Adolescents, n.d). Before reaching adulthood about 20 to 30 percent of adolescent have one major depressive episode. 25 percent of adults who suffer from depression, started to show signs of depression in their adolescence (Schwarz, 2009). By 2020 depression will compete with heart disease as the â€Å"health disorder with the highest disea se burden in the world.†(Reuters, 2011) Depression in adolescents can be caused by many things but three of the main factors are genetic causes, biological causes, and environmental causes. Genetic factors are traits that you may inherit from your parents (Definition of Genetics, n.d.). Some examples of genetic causes are adolescents with a relative who is or has been depressed is more likely to get depressed. The most common types of depression that runs in the family are bipolar depression and severe major depression (Kim, n.d). However just because depression runs in one’s family does not mean that he/she` will suffer from depression. Depression can also arise in adolescents who do not have a family history of depression There has been a great deal of research that has been done to determine a biological cause, and after many years, researchers have concluded that depression may be caused by abnormal delivery of key neurotransmitters (chemical messengers to the brain)(National Institute of Mental Health, n.d). There are many neurotransmitters that can cause depression but one of the most essential neurotransmitters is serotonin. Serotonin is a chemical that helps deliver signals from one area of the brain to the other. Serotonin is also important for the well-being feelings, imbalances in the brain’s serotonin levels can cause depression (National Institute of Mental Health, n.d). Environmental causes are the influences that one may have from social and cultural that shape a person’s life.There are many environmental causes that may contribute to depression, such as the loss of a loved one, a traumatic event in one’s life, and big changes in one’s life (Healthline Editorial Team, 2012). Events such as these can cause a person to start feeling hopeless. However some research states that getting depressed because of traumatic or stressful event is because that person already has depression. According to Dr. Nassir Ghaemi most people never suffer from depression after a major life event (Ghaemi, 2012). Another environmental cause that can cause depression is bullying. Bullying is the ongoing physical or emotional victimization of one person from another person or a group of people (Bullying and Depression, n.d). Bullying can cause the victim to suffer from low self-esteem, and can also cause suicidal thoughts. People assume that only the child being bullied will suffer from depression in their life, but what they do not realize is that the bully is also at high risk of suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts (Klomek, Sourander, Gould, 2011). In the 1950’s and 1960’s doctors had started making a link between food and depression. Today we know that certain foods have a relation with depression (Laverie, 2010). Food additives are one of the many preservatives that contain synthetic chemicals, and research has proven that synthetic chemicals can cause many symptoms of depression to occur. Food additives are used to add flavor to foods, and to help make foods look more appealing. But the number one reason for using food additives is to help preserve food so that it can last longer (Bousch, n.d.). Research has proven that many food additives have a harmful effect for our health physically but also mentally. Just like food additives, industrial by-products have the same effect on ones mental health. Industrial by-products are products that are produced using machines in factories (Merriam-Webster’s online Dictionary, n.d.). Some examples of food additives that have been proven to have a negative effect on m ental health are foods that are identified as â€Å"sugar-free† or â€Å"diet† (Bousch, n.d) These foods all contain Aspartame, better known as artificial sweeteners. Aspartame can cause many diseases including depression. Another food additive to avoid is monosodium glutamate (MSG), an amino acid used in many frozen foods and chips. MSG can damage cells even to the point of death by over exciting them, and MSG can also affect neurological pathways. If many of these causes are not avoided, adolescents may suffer from depression which may have many consequences. Depression, if left untreated, has many effects. One of effect of depression is substance abuse. Substance abuse and mental disorders usually co-occur in adolescence. Adolescence suffering from depression are usually in search of a way of making themselves feel better, which usually leads them to drugs and alcohol. Teens who try to self medicate marijuana and other drugs end up making their depression worse (Adolescence Depression and Substance Abuse, n.d). Drug abuse and alcohol abuse can also cause suicide because it can impair one’s judgment and increasing their impulsivity, which can cause them to make decisions without thinking of the consequences (Suicide and Depression, n.d). Another effect depression can have on adolescents is a negative impact on school performance. Depression can cause lack of concentration which causes a disinterest in school. Also students tend to be more forgetful when suffering from depression, which causes them to forget about assignments, tests, and quizzes which can cause grades to go down. Another issue adolescents face in school is with insubordination. Depressed adolescents get into more fights and arguments with peers and teachers. School performance can also affect depression, for example doing poorly in school may have an effect on one’s self esteem. School also can be a trigger for stress, which is another cause of depression. Also, adolescents have trouble interacting with their peers which may discourage them from wanting to go to school (Depression, n.d). One of the biggest consequences of leaving depression untreated is suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in adolescents in the U.S. (Suicide Prevention, n.d). The number one cause for suicide is untreated depression (Caruso, n.d). There are many reasons why adolescents commit suicide but most of the time it’s because they think it’s the only solution to their problems and they are unable to see that they can turn their life around (Teenage Suicide, 1999). According to Center for Disease Control over 90 percent of the time someone commits suicide it is because they have a mental disorder that can be treated and if it were treated there would be a less number of suicides in the U.S (Suicide Prevention, n.d). Suicide shares many symptoms with depression but to a much more greater extent, for example extreme hopelessness, insomnia, heightened panic attacks, and irritability (Some Facts about Suicide and Depression, n.d). Depression, unlike many other diseases, is treatable. There are many different approaches to treating depression such as antidepressants, psychotherapy, and electroconvulsive shock therapy. Antidepressants are used to balance chemicals in your brain called neurotransmitters (Greenlaw, n.d). Antidepressants help improve your mood, your appetite, and your sleep (Greenlaw, n.d). Like all medications, antidepressants have negative side effects, for example sometimes antidepressants can make some people feel suicidal, also antidepressants can cause nausea, weight gain, headaches, sweating, and diarrhea(Smith, Robinson, Segal, Ramsey, 2014). Psychotherapy is a series of ways of treating mental health, emotional and some psychiatric disorders (Psychotherapies, n.d). Another word for psychotherapy is talk therapy, psychotherapy involves having people understand their mental disorder (Psychotherapies, n.d). Psychotherapy also teaches one how to deal with stress and unhealthy thoughts. There are many different types of psychotherapy, because everyone responds differently to treatments. Some people may have to meet with the therapist alone whereas some people prefer to be with a group of people (Psychotherapies, n.d). There aren’t many negative side effects of psychotherapy, but one negative in choosing this method treatment is not always being able to find fully qualified therapists who can treat depression this way (Jollant, n.d). Electroconvulsive therapy is when you pass electric currents through the brain to cause brain seizures (Mayo Clinic Staff). Electroconvulsive therapy can reverse certain symptoms of mental illnesses faster than other treatments (Mayo Clinic Staff, n.d). Electroconvulsive therapy is known to be the most effective treatment for severe depression (Szalavitz, 2012). One of the biggest negative effects of electroconvulsive therapy is memory loss (Side Effects and Risks, n.d). People may also suffer from cardiovascular complications, dental and oral trauma, and skin burns (Park, n.d). Islam is a holistic religion, meaning that it has an impact on every aspect of one’s life. Everyone must face some trials and tribulations in life, it doesn’t matter how religious one person may be they can still be tested, as stated in this ayah in the Quran: â€Å"Do people think that they will be left alone because they say: â€Å"We believe,† and will not be tested?† (Qur’an 29:2). Islam teaches its believers never to despair and always have hope in Allah (swt). no matter how hard the situation maybe at the moment that Allah (swt) will also provide that person with relief afterwards (Quran 94:5). Islam believes that shaytaan can make one feel like they’re being punished so one may tend to lose hope and forget that it may only be a test from Allah (swt) not a punishment. According to some, trials and tribulation can also strengthen one’s relationship with Allah (swt) (Bataski, 2011). When someone feels depressed or down at times Allah (swt) states in the quran to always turn to him because he is the only true source of light and guidance. People may go through difficult times in their lives but they should always know that Allah (swt) will always be there for them to turn to. Society needs to recognize the importance of depression and should be able to equip it’s youth with treatments. If many people understood the causes of depression then maybe people would not ignore their symptoms and would go and get treatment for themselves or their children. If depression stays ignored then and nothing is done to help todays youth then there will be a rise in the number of deaths by suicide.