Case Preview and Questions for Anagene, Inc. Essay

A start-up company struggles to understand its operating margins. How much of the large monthly fluctuations in margins is real and how much is caused by its costing system? Skim the section on The Genomics Analysis Market on pages 1-3 of the case but pay attention to the information on competitive position. Case Questions: 1. Work the Youngstown Products numerical example on the following page. (This should take only a few minutes and is basically a short refresher on a phenomenon we saw in the Bridgeton case.) Answer is inline in Youngstown case question. 2. The cartridge margins shown in Tables A and B vary from 17% to 65%. What elements of cost account for the difference between the 2000 Actual and 2001 Budget margins in Table A? What elements of cost account for the difference between the margins in the original 2001 Budget in Table A versus the revised 2001 Budget in Table B? For each element, why do you think costs changed between 2000 and 2001 between the original and revised budgets in 2001? What would you predict for each cost in the long-run? The elements account for the difference between 2000 Actual and 2001 Budget are the estimated material and scrap cost, overhead cost based on cartridge production volume. Revised material and scrap cost, overhead cost account for the difference between original and revised 2001 Budget in Table B. The estimated and actual production volume affects each element of cost. Larger volume means lower per unit cost. In long-run, the cost should approach to a steady level. 3.Kelly, Puleski, and Yeltin meet to discuss concerns about both â€Å"long-term profitability of the business† and â€Å"short-term profitability.† Discuss how well the current standard cost systems helps the board and analysts distinguish and understand these two issues. The current system doesn’t do well at estimating the cost. The estimated material and scrap cost, overhead cost depends on estimated production volume rather than capacity. The system can explain short term profitability but has difficulty to explain long term profitability. 4. Suppose sales in 2001 equal 26,000 units, as budgeted in January, and that actual manufacturing expenses turn out to equal budgeted expenses. What should Daniel Yeltin do to â€Å"devise a better way to calculate product costs and gross margins for management decision-making purposes†? (Hint 1: What are the decisions facing management and the board? Hint 2: Consider the suggestion in Activity-Based Costing and Capacity to allocate costs based on capacity, rather than based on production. What is current cartridge manufacturing capacity according to the information in Exhibit 8? What are the costs of providing that capacity according to Exhibit 7? What should Daniel Yeltin do with the cost of unused cartridge manufacturing capacity?) Basically calculating the cost based on production capacity rather than production volume. The current manufacturing capacity is 65000, while the cost of such capacity is $1,299,581. The unused cartridge manufacturing capacity should be written off as an expense. 5.Anagene expects demand for 95,000 cartridges in 2002. What changes can Anagene make to increase capacity to meet higher demand? (See information in the comments column of Exhibit 8 about additional capacity that can be added to the various manufacturing steps.) Assume employees added to increase capacity at any of the various steps cost $100,000 per employee, and assume these costs are treated as part of the overhead cost pool because they are costs of increasing capacity. Under these assumptions, how will the cost of adding capacity affect the overhead component of cartridge manufacturing costs? Youngstown Products, a supplier to the automotive industry, had seen its operating margins shrink below 20% as its OEM customers put continued pressure on pricing. Youngstown produced four products in its plant and  decided to eliminate products that no longer contributed positive margins. Details on the four products are provided below: ProductABCDTotal Production Volume (units)10,0008,000 6,000 4,000 Selling Price$15.0018.00 20.00 22.00 Materials/unit$ 4.00$ 5.00 $ 6.00 $ 7.00 DLH/unit0.240.18 0.12 0.08 Total DLH2,4001,440 720 3204,880 Plant Overhead $122,000 DL rate/hour$30 Youngstown has a traditional cost system. It calculates a plant-wide overhead rate by dividing total overhead costs by total direct labor hours. Assume, for the calculations below, that plant overhead is a committed (fixed) cost during the year, but that direct labor is a variable cost. 1. Calculate the plant-wide overhead rate. Use this rate to assign overhead costs to products and calculate the profitability of the four products. Product 2. If any product is unprofitable with this cost assignment, drop this product from the mix. Recalculate the overhead rate based on the new total direct labor hours remaining in the plant. Apply the new overhead rate to the remaining products. A is not profitable, after dropping out A, the new overhead rate will be 122000/(4880-2400) = 49.19 Product 4. What is happening at Youngstown and why? The total plant overhead is fixed, and when a product line is dropped, each product line has higher overhead allocated, and eventually Youngstown becomes unprofitable. 5. What does the situation at Youngstown (a low-tech manufacturing firm making decisions to shrink sales over time) have to do with the situation at Anagene (a high-tech firm making decisions to grow sales over time)? Anagene is facing a similar situation. If Anagene continues to use budgeted manufacturing volume when determine the cost,  Anagene might have a risk to run into the death spiral as Youngstown (dropping unprofitable product until nothing is profitable).

Explain how governments are attempting to overcome the problems of rapid urbanisation

Urbanisation is the rapid movement of people from rural areas into urban areas. This generally occurred in MEDC's in the mid 19th Century, and is currently occurring in LEDC's. Urbanisation has many negative effects on a city, these can include deindustrialisation, housing problems, ethnic minority groups and poor quality of life. Deindustrialisation is the movement of manufacturing industries away from inner city areas. New technologies which start up in the area require a smaller work force. This leads to unemployment. What jobs are available are split into two jobs with half the wage, this leads to under employment where people can barely afford to live. The housing problems which become associated with urbanisation are mostly overcrowding, where there are more than one person per room in the house, and the other many problem is that there are many more owner occupancy housing, and these tend to be situated away from the inner areas. Those people who cannot afford to buy properties are forced to rely on smaller and declining council rented houses. In LEDC's the new migrated population tend to build up temporary housing areas around the city, these are called different things in different places; Brazils call them favelas, in Peru they are called barricades, Mexicans call them colonias proletarias and in India they are called bustees. Discrimination against ethnic minorities in both employment and housing opportunities often leave these people trapped in the inner cities. In general ethnic minorities live in wards which are even more deprived than the average Unemployment amongst ethnic minorities are almost always higher than the rate among the white population and ethnic minorities suffer higher rates of overcrowding. Quality of life criteria have been used to highlight the substandard housing, educational disadvantage, ill-health, deprivation and poor environments (e.g. pollution). The residential populations typically include those least able to move such as the elderly and recent immigrants. A number of policies have been introduced to try to reduce the problems of inner-cities, these include; gentrification, conservation and rehabilitation and central government policies. Gentrification is the term used to describe the improvement of old buildings usually by private investment. The external of the appearance of the building is restored to its original quality and the interior is modernised. Gentrification can involve housing directly, like the Georgian terraces of London, another example is the Docklands Development Scheme where old factories or warehouses have been converted into houses. By providing high quality accommodation in areas where the environment has also been improved, in this way investment is drawn into the inner city areas. Conservation and rehabilitation involves the wide spread clearance of old terraced housing and replacement with high-rise flats, or by modernising the old houses to make them more suitable for people to live in. In Birmingham 75,000 houses were involved in the new housing scheme. The high-rise flats solution are thought to have failed because of the disruption to community life and the difficulty that living in flat can create. Central government policies have aimed to stimulate economic development and improve the urban environment so that new investment is drawn into the area. These policies include grants enterprising zones and city action teams. The London Docklands Development Corporation started a massive project in redesigning the Docklands, they built the light railway the city airport, new housing areas and new industrial opportunities. Much redevelopment has taken place in Salford Docks, in Manchester, where hotels, houses, factories, warehouses and a leisure complex have all been added to the Dockland area. In conclusion, urbanisation has caused many problems in both MEDC's and LEDC's, the governments of these areas have been trying to counteract these problems by reversing them or slowing them down. The solutions are often expensive but have many positive effects to the area. The aims of these policies are to improve the quality of life for the people in the inner city areas and to provide better opportunities for them. Many of these solutions have provided these results.

Making Connections Between Three Authors Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Making Connections Between Three Authors - Essay Example of new players, on a new playing field, developing new processes for horizontal collaboration—that I believe is the most important force shaping global politics and economics in the early 21st century (Friedman, 7).† Friedman also warns that Americans need to keep up, or get out of the game. â€Å"There is no sugar coating on this: in a flat world, every individual is going to have to run a little faster if he or she wants to advance his or her standard of living (Friedman, 10).† Still, some low-income groups of Americans are at a disadvantage and succumb to the â€Å"roundness† of the bygone American world. Though countries like China and India are exploding ahead politically and technologically, African Americans and people of color in the United States have little opportunity to do the same. According to Barbara Ehrenreich’s article â€Å"Maid to Order† and William Julius Wilson’s book When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor, the world is definitively not flat, but limited to the socio-economic imprisonment of the lower urban class. Both Barbara Ehrenreich’s article â€Å"Maid to Order† and William Julius Wilson’s book When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor show a rethinking of the mostly-optimistic approach Friedman has towards the â€Å"flat,† expansionist and technologically forward view of the world. â€Å"Maid to Order† discusses the trials and tribulations of being a maid, and the sorry, anti-feminist history behind the booming industry of domestic work. â€Å"In a society in which 40 percent of the wealth is owned by 1 percent of the households while the bottom 20 percent reports negative assets, the degradation of others is readily purchased (Ehrenreich, 1).† This degradation comes in the form of racism, sexism and classism that has been an American mainstay since the turn of the century. â€Å"So the insight that distinguished the more radical, post-Friedan cohort of feminist was that when we talk about

Stockholders' Equity (Assignment 10) Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Stockholders' Equity ( 10) - Assignment Example Common stock Authorized The most significant change was the change in comprehensive income whereby Pentair, Inc. recorded an overwhelming percentage of 576.94. The other significant change in stockholders equity involved a negative change in the amount of total stockholders’ equity which was recorded at -7.15%. 4. Check here if your firm had no preferred stock outstanding. If your company had preferred stock outstanding at any time during the most recent year, indicate which of the following features apply. Pentair, Inc did not have any preferred stock. f. For characteristics a. through e. that apply to your firms preferred stock, indicate the specifics of that characteristic to your stock. For example, if it is convertible, under what terms can it be converted? If yes, identify the number of shares issued of each type of stock, par value (if any), and total dollar amount received from each issue. Pentair, Inc. issued 98,622.564 shares and collected 15,779,610.24 million dollars. These were class A common stock. Based on the Note about P/E ratios, what does your firms price-earnings ratio tend to indicate about investors expectations regarding the companys future earnings? Pentair, Inc has a high P/E ratio and this boosts investor confidence in the firm. The ratio basically indicates that the company is expected to produce higher earnings for its shareholders. Assuming the dividend yield ratio you just computed has been fairly constant over recent years, briefly explain what this reveals about the cash return an owner receives on his/her investment each year. Do you believe this is a satisfactory return on a stockholders investment? What other source of return (besides dividends) do stockholders earn on their investment? Pentair, Inc. has a low dividend yield on its common stocks. Investors always make money from their investments in stocks in form of both

Overview and analysis of the energy generation industry in Uk Essay

Overview and analysis of the energy generation industry in Uk - Essay Example .†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦3 GDP Contribution†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦12 Employment creation...†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦14 Investment..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦15 The effects of government sustainability targets on Ecotricity business plan†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...†¦15 The UK Energy Generation Industry is one of the core industries in the United Kingdom’s economy, owing to the fact that the industry does not only power the whole nation, but also determines the rate of earnings that the other industrial sectors in the economy produces (Willems and Morbee, 2008:17). Energy is the backbone of the manufacturing, transport and commercial industries, such that without efficient energy supply for these sectors, the economy would virtually grind to halt. The UK Energy Generation Industry accounted for 51.8% of the total industrial investment in the United Kingdom in 2010 (DECC, 2013:2). This underlines its major contribution to both the stability and productivity of the economy, not only in its capacity to generate revenues for the economy, but also in supporting the rest of the industries in the economy to maximize their productivity. This report seeks to analyze the structure of the industry, with a view to evaluate the reasons for the structure and the strategic decisions that are influenced by the structure of the industry, as well as the possible future structure of the industry. The other subject of this report will be the analysis of the contribution of the UK energy generation industry to the economy, especially as related to the value added by the industry to the country. Finally, the report will also assess the effects of government sustainability targets on the business plan of Ecotricity, as one of the

International Sustainable Tourism Management 2 Essay

International Sustainable Tourism Management 2 - Essay Example Current paper focuses on a particular form of tourism, the community based tourism as developed in countries internationally. Agencies and the local communities have extensively supported the particular type of tourism; however, its effectiveness is often doubted. The level of effectiveness of community-based tourism worldwide is the main subject of this paper; reference is also made to issues related to the above subject – as the types and the scope of community based tourism but also the challenges that this form of tourism faces in countries globally. 2. Community based tourism – main aspects In order to identify and evaluate the effectiveness of community based tourism it would be necessary to understand primarily the context of this form of tourism – a form that is standardized internationally. In accordance with a relevant report, the community-based tourism can be characterized as ‘the form of tourism in which local residents (often rural, poor and e conomically marginalised) invite tourists to visit their communities with the provision of overnight accommodation’ (Responsible Travel, 2011). ... rily separately for each visitor, a community-based telephone would be adequate) but also an accommodation that has certain standards (meaning the conditions of living that do not put the health of the visitors in risk), c) travelers need to be aware of the challenges of the particular form of tourism; in the context of community-based tourism visitors are expected to support people in the local community; it is meant that visitors will be possibly asked to be involved in tasks related to ‘the protection of the environment or of the cultural heritage’ (Sustainable Tourism, 2001). The relationship between the community-based tourism and specific social obligations, mostly the protection of the environment is emphasized in the study of Byrd (2007) who noted that ‘sustainability has become an important topic and concept in relation to tourism planning and development’ (Byrd 2007, 6); however, the participation of the stakeholders in the relevant projects is set by Byrd as a prerequisite for their success (Byrd 2007). The concept of the community-based tourism is explained in the literature using various approaches; in accordance with Beeton (2006) the community-based tourism focuses on ‘the creation of a more sustainable tourism industry, focusing on the host community in terms of planning and maintaining tourism development’ (Beeton 3006, 50). On the other hand, Spenceley (2008) refers to the community – based tourism as a tool for promoting sustainability but also ‘for achieving various socio-economic benefits’ (Spenceley 2008, 310) – it is assumed that reference is made to the economic developing of the local communities that support the relevant activities. From another point of view, Moscardo (2008) note that the development of the community-based

Principles Of Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 2

Principles Of Management - Essay Example For effectiveness in the performance of any business enterprise, therefore, the management of the organization must devise a mechanism for influencing the resources of the company in a proper manner to enable it achieves its objectives (Yeoh & Koronios, 2010). Effective management is a significant component for achievement of the optimum productivity of an organization. Using an appropriate management and leadership style, the top, and the middle managers in an organization can shape both the internal and the external environment of the organization to ensure improvement in productivity within the organization. Motivation of the employees is one aspect of ensuring proper management of the internal environment of the organization, while provision of the essential social services is a responsibility of an organization to ensure appropriate cooperation and collaboration with the external environment of the organization. Management in an organization draws from a multivariate of principles and styles, thus to understand the nature of management in an organization, this paper will analyses management through a discussion on the significance of management duties, the importance of team management and communication, effective leadership as well as the ethical factors influencing effective management in an organization (Walker, 2004). The management functions in an organization are geared towards coordination of the efforts of the employees towards the meeting of the objectives of the organization. The coordination purposes are done using available resources in the organization to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in the utilization of the resources to have an optimum output. The management functions in an organization thus include planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling the endeavors of the organization. Planning as a management function of an organization contains all the

Authors, journalists,and artists throughout the Modern Chinese Essay

Authors, journalists,and artists throughout the Modern Chinese - Essay Example The reporting of incidents and occurrences using the invented methods like writing and picture taking improved journalism and made it advance to the level it is in the modern days. This paper will give a clear analysis on two pieces of journalism and literature that have become impressions of art In reviewing the works of Ah Cheng, he gives out his ideas about journalism, art, and literature in China. Ah Cheng came to the public and became famous in the 1980s. The period saw him as a member and one of the ‘seeking roots’ literary movement. In the movement, he was with other writers such as Han Shaogong and Mo Yan. Before Cheng became involved in writing and started writing fiction articles, he was fond of helping his father, Zhong Dianfei, who was a film critic. His father had composed the article, ‘The Art of Cinema’. Both Cheng and his father used ideas and influences that originated from Karl Marx, Hegel, the philosophies and ideas of Confucianism as well the classical Chinese literature writings such as the ‘The Book of Changes’. In the Festival by A Cheng, he draws inspiration from Kansha’s Observing Decapitation and Join the Crowd of Onlookers by Weiguan to depict different scenes in his work. Cheng uses vivid descriptions in his works to bring the reader closer to his scene in ways that place the reader as part of the events. The author takes his time to bring out even the minute details such as the description of drying up gun powder using iron skillets (Cheng 128). Cheng does not just mention that the individuals were drying up gun powder, but rather delves into the details to outline the process and bring the reader closer to the event. Such depictions are taken in positive light especially when the scene regards positive attributes that the society holds dear. In drawing a similarity to Kansha’s Decapitation, the festival has vivid descriptions of scenes that draw negative attitudes due to depictions of violence and

Diffusion and Osmosis Essay Example for Free

Diffusion and Osmosis Essay Diffusion and osmosis are very important in biological process. Diffusion is the movement of molecules or ions from a region of their high concentration to a region of their low concentration. Osmosis is the diffusion of water molecules across a semipermeable membrane. To gain a better understanding of diffusion and osmosis, we examine multiple experiments to show diffusion and osmosis in animal cell, plant cell and synthetic cell. In our first experiment, we weight a decalcified chicken egg and place 10% NaCl concentration. At every fifteen minutes intervals, we weight the egg and record that the weight decreases. In our second experiment, we use three slices of aquatic plant Elodea and add pond water one leaf, distilled water for the second and 20% NaCl for the third, then observe the cells of each leaf with a compound microscope. Under microscope, chloroplasts (green organelles) in Elodea tend to bound to the cell wall in pond water, spread all over the cell in distilled water, pull away from cell wall in 20% NaCl. In our last experiment, we use a dialysis bag that contains 30% glucose and starch solution then place into a beaker of water and iodine solution. We then remove the bag out of the beaker, and use two test tube which label BAG, BEAKER to perform a Benedict’s test. We place solution in the bag in the BAG tube, and solution in the beaker in the BEAKER tube and add a drop of Benedict’s reagent to each tube, then heat each test tube and observe a color change in each tube. These experiments show that movement of water of chicken egg cell and Elodea cell is â€Å"osmosis† and movement of molecules in dialysis bag and beaker is â€Å"diffusion†. INTRODUCTION Diffusion is involved in many biological processes occurring in single-celled to complex organism (cite this). It is a part in life that we need to know and understand how it works. Diffusion is the process by which molecules move from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration (cite this). A branch of diffusion process is osmosis, which is the movement of water across a membrane which is selectively permeable (cite this). We are going to learn and get more information about diffusion osmosis by perform three experiments. We place a shell-less chicken egg in salt solution. We predict that water in the egg will move out the cell because this is a hypertonic solution, a greater concentration of osmotically active substance than the solution on the other side of membrane. Next, we are going have three slices of Elodea in each different solution: hypotonic, isotonic, hypertonic then we observe these reactions in the microscope. We predict that one will have chloroplasts (green organelles) bound to cell wall in hypotonic, one will have chloroplasts move in the cytoplasm, one will have cell wall remain intact and chloroplasts move away from cell wall. Third, we’re going to use a dialysis bag contains starch and glucose and place in water and iodine solution. After a Benedict test, we predict that there will be color change in these solutions. These experiments are easy to perform and they also give people enough information to gain better concepts of how diffusion works in animal cell, plant cell, and synthetic cell. METHODS First, we performed an experiment to show osmosis in animal cell. Our materials in this experiment were a decalcified egg, a 350mL beaker, 10% of NaCl solution, a triple beam balance, and a timer. We used the triple beam balance to weigh the egg. The weight of the egg was 77.3g at this time. Next, we placed the egg in the beaker that was filled with 250mL of 10% NaCl. We waited about fifteen minutes and then remove the egg out of the beaker. We dried off the water from the egg and placed the egg on the triple beam balance. The weight of the egg after fifteen minutes was 76.6g. We then placed the egg back in the beaker and repeated these steps every fifteen minutes intervals. At thirty minutes, the egg’s weight was 76.3g. At forty-five minutes, the weight was 76.2g. At sixty minutes, the weight was 76.1g. We recorded the data and calculated the percent change in egg weight by using the weight at the present time minus the previous weight all over the previous time and all multi ply to one hundred. We then graphed our data to show percent changes in weight of the egg. Next, we performed another experiment to show osmosis in a plant cell. We used leaf of the aquatic plant Elodea, pond water, distilled water, 20% NaCl solution, a compound microscope, a pair of forceps. First, we cut three small pieces from Elodea plant with forceps. We then carefully placed each piece onto the microscope slide glass. We added a small drop of pond water to one piece and labeled it â€Å"pond water†. We added a small drop of distilled water to another piece and labeled it â€Å"distilled water†. Last we added 20% NaCl to the last piece and labeled it â€Å"20% NaCl†. We waited for ten minutes and then we observed the cells of each piece of leaf under the microscope. We then sketched the cells of each piece as seen in the microscope. In our last experiment of diffusion of synthetic cell, we used a 30-cm strip of moist dialysis tubing, a string, 30 % glucose solution, starch solution, iodine solution, Benedict’s reagent, hot plate, 500-mL bea ker one-third filled with water, handled test tube holder, 3 standard test tubes, disposable transfer pipettes, two of 400-mL beakers to hold dialysis bag. First, we soaked the dialysis tubing in water and closed one end with a string, and let the other end open. Then we added four pipettesful of 30% glucose into the bag and four pipettesful of starch solution to the glucose in the bag. We gently mixed the contents and observed the color in the bag. Next, we add 300mL of water to 500mL beaker. We put some drops of iodine solution in the water and it turned into a brown color. After that, we placed the dialysis bag into the beaker and waited for thirty minutes. After thirty minutes, we moved the bag and let it stand in a dry beaker. We then recorded the data. Next, we used two test tube which labeled â€Å"BEAKER† and â€Å"BAG† for the Benedict’s test. We put two pipettesful of the bag solution in the BAG tube and two pipettesful of the beaker solution in the BEAKER tube. We added a drop of benedict’s reagent to each tube and heat them up in hot water for three minutes. After three minutes, we observed the co lor change and recorded our data. RESULTS In our first experiment with decalcified egg in 10% NaCl, we find that the weight of the shell-less egg decreases after every fifteen minutes time interval. At time zero, the egg has 77.3g but after fifteen minutes, the egg has 76.6, a -0.9% change in weight. At thirty minutes, the egg has 76.3g, a -0.4% change in weight. At forty-five minutes, the egg has 76.2g, a -0.1% change in weight. At sixty minutes, the egg has 76.1g, a -0.1% change in weight. In our second experiment with Elodea plant, we find that chloroplasts(green organelles) of Elodea cell in pond water moves close to cell wall. In distilled water, we find that chloroplasts (green organelles) of Elodea cell move freely through out in the cytoplasm but block by cell wall. We also find that chloroplasts (green organelles) of Elodea cell of in 20% NaCl moving away from the cell wall and form tightly in the central of cytoplasm. In our last experiment with dialysis tubing, we observe some color change. The bag solution, which contains glucose and starch, has a transparent original color, turns to transparent with some black dots as final color. After using the Benedicts reagent, the tube which contains the bag solution turns into an orange color.

Say Yes to Homosexual Marriage Essay Example for Free

Say Yes to Homosexual Marriage Essay Everyone can marry the person they love, the murderers, the corrupt official, the beggar , the thief , the old spinster can get married. Gay, however, cannot. marriage is the last process and expression of love. Traditionally, marriage is an institution and promise about a man and a woman to live forever and form a kinship under the law. Our city – Hong Kong thinks homosexuality is unacceptable. Homosexuality can be classified into two categories: gay and lesbian which a man loves a man and a woman loves a woman respectively. It is a sexual orientation that one can in love with others that share the same sex. Homosexuality marriage is a kind of marriage between two people in same sex or gender. Why homosexual marriage should not be encouraged? A marriage is simply about two people love each other and willing gives a commitment for the relationship. It shouldn’t be banned since gay marriage encourage people to build up a stronger family ties, love is first-rated in terms of marriage and it’s unrelated of gay marriage to trigger other improper forms of marriage .So same-sex couples should have the same legal right of marriage as different-sex couples. The biggest argument for people against same-sex marriage is that it will totally damage and spoil the value of family and affect society in some ways. However, it’s far beyond the truth. As for today, there are lots of sexual problems and sexually transmitted disease in our society such as AIDS. It is the result of improper, unprotected and careless sexual relation. To allow same-sex marriage can help people to build a strong family belief and minimize the problems of the improper sexual lifestyle in society. Marriage is an encouragement asking people to settle down for your partner and is a promise that two in loved people will work to build their own life. Strasser (2006) stated that homosexual marriage sometimes give a helping hand in rebuilding relationship between people. Due to the prohibited of homosexual marriage, thousands of gay people have unsteady relationship. What even worst is they, usually, are having unprotected sex with different partners. This distorts the value of relationship and love. The legalization of same-sex marriage pushes gay couples to build up their family and stop the frivolous life. Eskridge(2011) remarks that marriage can  be classified into private and social institution. For the social institution, marriage is a way to build kinship among two individuals. Thus, it can stabilize and keep society in a harmonic situation as it can group people into ‘us’ as a whole. Absolutely true, the point is that gay marriage would not affect the harmony of the society. More importantly, the prohibition of same-sex marriage have created lots of noise and demonstration in our society, it rather destroy the harmonious rather than stabilizing it. Therefore, why couldn’t approve homosexual marriage to attain a win-win situation? Those who against homosexual marriage stated that it would violate the meaning of marriage and does not respective to what marriage really means. However, do they really know what being married really means? Marriage is all about love. Love is everything its cracked up to be. Thats why people are so cynical about itIt really is worth fighting for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you dont risk everything, you risk even more. ( Jong, 2010, P.45) Love should not depends on its gender but feeling. Getting married is the last process of ending the long love journey. It is the one and the only way to show how much a couple loves each other. This is actually what marriage means and the thought behind. Marriage should not just limit to one man and one woman, instead, it should be available for two people no matter what their gender are. â€Å"Over time, people came to view marriage as a relationship between two individuals who were free to organize their partnership and their parenting on the basis of their personal inclinations rather than pre-assigned gender roles.† (cootnz, 2011). Gender, nowadays, become a less essential element of marriage because our feeling matter most. If society only allows different-sex marriage, isn’t it violating the principle of marriage – love and promise? There’s an argument stating that same-sex marriage would lead to the rise of another serious problem towards morality. It could have chain effect that increases the opportunity of other kinds of improper marriage and it distorts the original idea of marriage. The improper marriage includes polygamy: a marriage between a man and two or more wives, Bestiality: a sexual relations between a human and an animal, could be follow. Is same-sex  marriage provide a ‘ slippery slope’ for another forms of marriage? That is not true. The case of having multiple wives and having sexual relation with an animal is too extreme and totally unrelated. Even if there is none case of gay marriage, it couldn’t guarantee the improper marriage like polygamy and bestiality will not happen. Marriage is only about two human beings who are in loved with each other without considering the gender so marriage is just about loves. Wolfson (2003) noted that homosexual marriage sets a precedent for future cases of polygamy and bestiality. This is the weirdest argument because polygamy and bestiality is not just about two human beings. Thus, allowing gay marriage is not a slippery slope of other sort of marriage. Pinello (2006) noted that without true love, marriage cannot be maintained. The ultimate goal of love is getting married. And what’s marriage about is love. Banning homosexual marriage is a cruel way to avoid two loved people to stay with each other. Moreover, it’s not wrong because gay marriage encourage people to build up a stronger family ties, love is first-rated in terms of marriage and it’s unrelated that gay marriage will trigger polygamy and bestiality. Thus same-sex couples should have the same legal right of marriage as different-sex couples. APA referencing: 1) coontz, S.(2011,January 9), from http://www.stephaniecoontz.com/articles/article55.htm/ 2) jong, E (2004). What do women want (3rd ed.) Germany: HarperCollins 3)Eskridge, W.()Case for same sex marriage : from sexual liberty to civilized commitment, New York: free press. 4) strasser, M. (2006) Legally Wed: Same-Sex Marriage and the Constitution, Ithaca: Cornell University Press 5) Wolfson, E. (2003, June 2), E-Journal: For Richer, For Poorer: Same-Sex Couples and the Freedom to Marry as a Civil Right , from http://www.drummajorinstitute.org/library/article.php?ID=5518 6) Pinello, D(2006) Americas Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage ,Cambridge , MA : Cambridge University Press

Practice Of The Motivational Interviewing Approach Social Work Essay

Practice Of The Motivational Interviewing Approach Social Work Essay Critically analyse your practice of the Motivational Interviewing approach with specific reference to your classroom learning and work placement On reflection I have learnt a great deal about the MI approach, putting the classroom learning into practice, then reviewing my performance on the DVD has been a fundamental part of my learning process. Although being familiar with many of the techniques, which are similar to skills I already possess, the actual approach was new to me. In brief MI allows a normally client lead Person Centred Approach to have direction by allowing clients to recognise their ambivalence acknowledging that change is possible and cultivating their innate forces to make necessary changes that are acceptable to them. I have recognised that for myself Im going to need to practice, review and hone my techniques awareness with implementing this model. It is emphasised with MI that the spirit of the approach is conceivably more important than techniques used . I feel the only real way to describe this phenomena is to acknowledge that the spirit would be how the therapist presents themselves the way that he/she utilises the techniques. With MI it is the clients responsibility to resolve their ambivalence finding intrinsic motivation to change problematic behaviours, not the therapists to impose or suggest change. The counselling approach is generally a soft, quiet eliciting style, which places importance on the working relationship being a partnership. The extreme contrast to MI would be confrontational approaches, which may attempt to break a clients denial through authoritative derogatory shaming approaches stripping away individuals defences and rebuilding their identities with societies or groups philosophies . The therapeutic approach of a pure Person Centred counselling model essentially relies upon the three core conditions of Congruence, Empathy and Unconditional Positive regard these conditions contribute to the presence of the Counsellor influencing the relationship formed with the client. With addiction treatment settings where time constraints are prevalent Motivational Interviewing can allow more structure direction being applied to the normally client lead Person Centred Approach. By developing discrepancy between client beliefs and problematic behaviours direction can be achieved. According to   when discrepancy becomes large enough and change seems important, a search for possible methods for change is initiated (p. 11). I have already integrated some use of MI into my practice however, Im aware at times my agencies policies and procedures are in conflict with the MI spirit. Recently, I have had to check my own incentives in using MI, making sure Im not implementing it as a form of manipulation to move clients into adherence with agencies policies, which would blemish the spirit of the MI approach. The compatibility of the MI approach in my place of work is questionable in some areas. Our treatment modality is a 12 step abstinent based approach, which immediately arises two conflicts with the MI spirit. Firstly, not all clients may wish total abstinence and those who do may wish to achieve it in some way that is not 12 step orientated. It is agency policy that all clients attend 12 step fellowship meetings every evening during their treatment duration. In our treatment setting the MI approach has proven to be useful in several areas when clients initially arrive in treatment anxiety levels are high if not addressed can lead to dropout. Application of MI here can help the client focus on the influencing factors that motivated them to contemplate treatment in the first place. In addition, MI is acknowledged a beneficial approach to use with angry clients especially the principals of rolling with resistance and the expression of empathy . Although the clients have attended our treatment facility for a variety of reasons, it is difficult to place them all in one bracket concerning the stages of change model. Taking into account their alcohol / drug use the vast majority would be in either contemplation or active change. Some clients may display signs of resistance to change around other areas of their life which may include being in a relationship with a partner who is still active in addictive behaviour. Many clients also have difficulty with assertiveness, which is going to be necessary to develop for them to help maintain addiction free lifestyles. It is a process of change for clients conversely many of these distinct essentials are met with varying degrees of resistance by individual clients. The first example Im going to use is a male client of 42 years of age who has been dependent upon substances for twenty years. He displays high levels of interest in the abstinent approach registering high using a Likert assessment tool to gauge his Willingness, Ability Readiness regarding an abstinent way of life. With reference to his substance use, I would assess him to be in the action stage of Prochaska and DiCliemente The stages of change (see appendix A). He has a partner who still is a substance user; he displays high levels of resistance to changing this area of his life and feels that he will be able to change her view on substance taking once he returns home after the completion of his treatment. I have been affirming the client consistently with the changes he has made to his behaviour whilst in treatment and with permission from him, pointing how his changes are in line with the 12 step abstinent based approach. What Im trying to achieve is too reinforce his belief in himself about this particular approach. By doing this I feel that there are inconsistencies further developing between his two cognitions I want to remain substance free, yet I want to go home to my partner who is a substance user. As he is now beginning to question his own thinking, I can see that the cognitive dissonance is beginning to have an effect Im hoping he will seek to alter the risky dissonant cognition by remaining in Bournemouth to attend aftercare. A client we recently had at our facility who presented for cannabis use, and admitted his main motivation for being in treatment was to avoid going to prison displayed resistant behaviours towards the treatment modality. His resistance would manifest in ways of walking out of group therapy, getting up and walking around whilst clients were presenting personal assignments generally showing no respect for what other clients were trying to achieve. The application of MI in this instance was quite difficult as a direct approach in line with agency policy and procedures needed to take place first. We had tried on several occasions not to take too much notice of the unacceptable behaviours he presented which could be considered rolling with resistance, however eventually had to enforce an ultimatum. In circumstances like this I found it very difficult almost impossible to remain in a totally pure orientated spirit of MI. To say that I have mastered the concepts principles of MI would be a significant over estimation. I have furthered my knowledge of the contributing elements of MI which included the stages of change model, the techniques used to work with ambivalence resistance. Most importantly, I have learnt above all else MI is about allowing the client to be the expert and for me to be mindful of the type of language that I use. The spirit of MI I have no real problem with other than perhaps on occasions avoiding the expert trap generally I do present myself within the spirit of this model. The application of this particular model Im using at work in a tentative way, in other words Im applying it in certain situations where perhaps I feel confident to use it. An example of this would be, when clients seem to be making rash decisions to leave treatment or are displaying ambivalence about an abstinent approach. After reviewing the DVD it is clear to me that I lack confidence in the application of the MI approach. I do however feel though that practice and reviewing my practice can only help with me developing my implementation of this approach. I feel that I need to be more mindful of the language I use whilst working with clients. As it became apparent to me whilst reviewing the DVD that I can without realising fall into traps. An example of this would be at the end of the session I asked my client if I could give him something to take away. On reflection, I could have asked him how he felt he could assess his decision on getting a shed. My future development is going to involve applying reviewing my practice, what I have started to look for at my work setting in my own practice and that of my work colleagues is to identify what clearly is not MI. Some observations I have acknowledged not only with this approach are the ethical conflicts that can arise between benevolence autonomy . On reflection, the example I used earlier on in this assignment with a male client whose partner remains in active addiction. His autonomy was to return home after treatment completion my interest or benevolence is with the safety of the client. As a professional, I know it would be risky for him to return home to someone who remains actively taking illicit drugs. The question is do I then use MI as a way to manipulate the client? My answer is yes of course I do. Questionably is this really in the pure spirit of the approach? Appendix A The Stages of Change Intervention process using the Stages of Change model Source; Adapted from the work of Prochaska and DiCliemente

Culture Of India :: essays research papers fc

Nearly one sixth of all the human beings on Earth live in India, the world's most populous democracy. Officially titled the Republic of India, it's 1,269,413 sq. mi. lie in South Asia, occupying most of the Indian subcontinent, bordered by Pakistan (W); China, Nepal, and Bhutan (N); and Myanmar (E) and Bangladesh forms an enclave in the NE. Its borders encompass a vast variety of peoples, practicing most of the world's major religions, speaking scores of different languages, divided into thousands of socially exclusive castes, and combining the physical traits of several major racial groups (Compton's). The modern nation of India (also known by its ancient Hindi name, Bharat) is smaller than the Indian Empire formerly ruled by Britain. Burma (now Myanmar), a mainly Buddhist country lying to the east, was administratively detached from India in 1937. Ten years later, when Britain granted independence to the peoples of the Indian subcontinent, two regions with Muslim majorities--a lar ge one in the northwest (West Pakistan) and a smaller one in the northeast (East Pakistan)--were partitioned from the predominantly Hindu areas and became the separate nation of Pakistan. East Pakistan broke away from Pakistan in 1971 to form the independent nation of Bangladesh. Also bordering India on its long northern frontier are the People's Republic of China and the relatively small kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan. The island republic of Sri Lanka lies just off India's southern tip (New World Encyclopedia).Much of India's area of almost 1.3 million square miles (3.3 million square kilometers--including the Pakistani-held part of Jammu and Kashmir) is a peninsula jutting into the Indian Ocean between the Arabian Sea on the west and the Bay of Bengal on the east. There are three distinct physiographic regions. In the north the high peaks of the Himalayas lie partly in India but mostly just beyond its borders in Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet. South of the mountains, the low-lying Indo-Ga ngetic Plain, shared with Pakistan and Bangladesh, extends more than 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal (Compton's). Finally, the peninsular tableland, largely the Deccan, together with its adjacent coastal plains, makes up more than half of the nation's area. In general, India's climate is governed by the monsoon, or seasonal, rain-bearing wind. Most of the country has three seasons: hot, wet, and cool. During the hot season, which usually lasts from early March to mid-June, very high temperatures are accompanied by intermittent winds and occasional dust storms (Concise). Culture Of India :: essays research papers fc Nearly one sixth of all the human beings on Earth live in India, the world's most populous democracy. Officially titled the Republic of India, it's 1,269,413 sq. mi. lie in South Asia, occupying most of the Indian subcontinent, bordered by Pakistan (W); China, Nepal, and Bhutan (N); and Myanmar (E) and Bangladesh forms an enclave in the NE. Its borders encompass a vast variety of peoples, practicing most of the world's major religions, speaking scores of different languages, divided into thousands of socially exclusive castes, and combining the physical traits of several major racial groups (Compton's). The modern nation of India (also known by its ancient Hindi name, Bharat) is smaller than the Indian Empire formerly ruled by Britain. Burma (now Myanmar), a mainly Buddhist country lying to the east, was administratively detached from India in 1937. Ten years later, when Britain granted independence to the peoples of the Indian subcontinent, two regions with Muslim majorities--a lar ge one in the northwest (West Pakistan) and a smaller one in the northeast (East Pakistan)--were partitioned from the predominantly Hindu areas and became the separate nation of Pakistan. East Pakistan broke away from Pakistan in 1971 to form the independent nation of Bangladesh. Also bordering India on its long northern frontier are the People's Republic of China and the relatively small kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan. The island republic of Sri Lanka lies just off India's southern tip (New World Encyclopedia).Much of India's area of almost 1.3 million square miles (3.3 million square kilometers--including the Pakistani-held part of Jammu and Kashmir) is a peninsula jutting into the Indian Ocean between the Arabian Sea on the west and the Bay of Bengal on the east. There are three distinct physiographic regions. In the north the high peaks of the Himalayas lie partly in India but mostly just beyond its borders in Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet. South of the mountains, the low-lying Indo-Ga ngetic Plain, shared with Pakistan and Bangladesh, extends more than 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal (Compton's). Finally, the peninsular tableland, largely the Deccan, together with its adjacent coastal plains, makes up more than half of the nation's area. In general, India's climate is governed by the monsoon, or seasonal, rain-bearing wind. Most of the country has three seasons: hot, wet, and cool. During the hot season, which usually lasts from early March to mid-June, very high temperatures are accompanied by intermittent winds and occasional dust storms (Concise).

Womens Role in Society Compared to that of Men Essay -- Women Rights

Are women and men equal in our society? Why or why not? Women’s Rights establish the same social and economic status for women as for men. Women’s rights guarantee that women will not face discrimination on the basis of their sex. Until the second half of the 20th century, women in most societies were denied some of the legal and political rights according to men. Although women in much of the world have gained significant legal rights, many people believe that women still do not have equality with men. This is evident in the home, workplace, and society in general. Look no further than the home to see the first sign that men and women are not equal. The traditional role of man was to work and make the money, which would be used by all in the household. The traditional role of the woman was to stay home, take care of the children, clean the house, and cook. Because society has always associated money with power, the person bringing home the money had the power. The man often makes the final decision on all household matters because he has the money. The workplace is another place where men and women are not equal. Men are often applauded for being assertive and giving orders. By giving orders, men are taking a leadership role. Demonstrating leadership ability is a quality that employers often look Slava 2 for. On the other hand, women who are assertive and give orders are not well liked in th...

Matrix Organizational Structure Essay

After reading the case, do you thing matrix organization structure can always bring success? A1. Matrix structure is effective in relatively large companies that cater to the needs of diverse markets with varying requirements. It is based on the basis of decentralizing power to various functional and operational heads so that they understand their respective domains or geographical regions and frame strategies accordingly. It is especially effective when an organization is in the growth phase and wants to go global with its products and services. There is a well defined hierarchy and the decisions taken by the individual domain of functional heads are more often than not in sync with each other. It lends the company flexibility and allows it to focus on multiple business goals. It also enables the company to establish economies of scale and facilitates in innovative solutions to complex, technical problems. On the contrary if a company is a start up phase their might be a fight for resources between the individual departments. Here a matrix structure can lead to a state of ambiguity as the divisional officers have to report to multiple divisional heads which creates conflict. The individual units end up competing with each other. Also there are additional costs owing to additional management and administration requirements. In such scenarios, centralized decision making system would be more effective than the matrix organizational structure. Q2. Identify some companies which have failed subsequent to introduction of matrix structure. List the reasons for failure and suggest what could be the appropriate structure for them? A2. In the 1990’s, some of the leading auto makers of the world resorted to the matrix structure-Toyota, Renault, Nissan, Ford, Mitsubishi etc. They were not entirely successful in their implementation. More power was delegated to the functional heads and leads to carry out the individual processes with their resources. The reasons for their failure could be: 1. The system became very complicated and difficult for the functional heads to carry out their functions. 2. There were too many functional divisions but not many engineers with the desired specializations 3. Coordination across projects was lacking 4. Each manger had to handle too many projects. 5. Production costs were higher 6. There wasn’t adequate sharing of common components among divisions 7. Led to competition between the individual segments for the limited resources so as to reduce cost. These industries should balance the need for a matrix structure with the specialized manpower and machines at their disposal. Instead of resorting to too much specialization in allocating divisions, they should club specialized divisions having common raw materials and technology requirements so that the costs of production are reduced and there is efficient use of resources. Also there would be better coordination and synergy between the constituent divisions in such a case.

The Life and Death of Great American Cities

The diversity, strength and most importantly, the fundamental life of cities during the early part of 1960s significantly require the humanistic supervision and direction of authoritative architects and urban planners. This is under the principle that the design and overall plan of remarkable American cities such as New York should not be compromised and burdened with concerns of unsuccessful and incorrect city planning and approach. This was effectively exemplified by Jane Jacobs in â€Å"The Death and Life of Great American Cities.† The book’s success primarily lies with the author’s daring analysis of the issues relating with problem on slums or the decaying of neighborhood in famous city areas like New York. In exerting her efforts at criticizing the city planners, the book provided the public with a realization of the inefficient strategies which were designed and carried out by urban architects and concerned authorities in their management of the cities and neighborhoods of the twentieth century (Jacobs, 1961).The book was distinctly commendable for its provision of an honest study and critique of what comprise to have a successful neighborhood. Jacobs simply stated that a city is properly handled by its managers if it manifests effective and safe streets. Additionally, the book clearly implies the need to have walkway for pedestrians, recreational or play areas and most essentially, a healthy and safe neighborhood.The book emphasized that it pays to have a link between the constructions in the city and the people themselves. This is under the idea that effective city structures paves the way for the successful handling of the urban area by its city manager and ultimately the healthy and safe living of people within the city. Work Cited Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House, 1961.

Based on Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ” Can Art Ever Push Social?

Iskra Angelova Assignment #3 Dr. Ferrante Writing 140 10/26/2012 Based on Andres Serrano’s â€Å"Piss Christ† can art ever push social boundaries too far? â€Å"Anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they blasphemes the Name they are to be put to death. † (Holy Bible. Leviticus 24:16) Religion as believe and institution emerged centuries ago and it is a significant segment influencing our lives.Spiritual faith has impact in many institutions and fields, like politics and the art world. The Lord’s Supper has been and still is an inspiration to many artists. There are evidences in the history of the greatest art in the world: Michelangelo’s â€Å"The Creation of Adam†; â€Å"Last Supper† by Leonardo Da Vinci and many others. The representation of religious icons has been of significant importance of artists’ genius. Art is a pow erful machine which is able to shape our belief system and change lives.It has the power to teleport us to completely new environments where everyone could interpreted in their own personal perspective. The tremendous influence of art in people lives has a bouquet of lovely feelings replacing people reality with some paradise to the moment when believes fall apart. Centuries artists were focusing their talent into representation of religious people, as religion used to have a huge influence in people every day routines. Throughout the years there was a shift in the representation of religious figures.In the past they were idealized, but today there is controversy surrounding spiritual representations. The new way of picturing holy icons has become a number one topic for critics. Religious art can be highly controversial and insulting, and some ask if art is a powerful weapon that can push social boundaries too far. But where exactly does art cross the line between being acceptable a nd becoming controversial. In the past 25 years, one of the most discussed photographs, which shock society’s view of religious figure representation, is Andres Serrano’s â€Å"Piss Christ†, a controversial photograph of a small lastic crucifix submerged in a glass container filled with the artist’s urine and highlighted with red light. Some people are very sensitive when artist let their imagination and esthetic views take over the realistically and respectful representation of religious figures. As long as the creation of art does not break any laws in the country of exhibition, then art cannot push social boundaries too far. Without the title Serrano’s creation is arresting, but emphasis of the usage of urine for its creation categorizes as blasphemy.The first exhibition of the work caused bitter disputes because of its offensive context, also was problematic when it won the Visual Arts Award sponsored by the National Endowment for the Art, an i ndependent agency of the United States federal government that finances artistic projects. The general opinion claim that â€Å"Piss Christ† is blasphemous, but Serrano’s art work indicates the way modern society has begun to treat Christ and Christian values. The artist explains: â€Å"The Church is obsessed with the body and blood of Christ.At the same time, there is the impulse to repress and deny the physical nature of the Church’s membership. There is a real ambivalence there. It’s one thing to idealize the body and it’s another to deal with it realistically†¦ In my work, I attempt to personalize this tension in institutional religion by revising the way in which body fluids are idealized. â€Å"(Serrano 25). Serrano’s intentions are not to disgrace this religion but to show how commercialized the Christian icon has become in contemporary culture. The artist’s purpose is to involve people’s minds in both a visual an d intellectual domain.Even though this photograph is highly controversial and insulting to religious people, it does not violate any legislation. Religious groups and institutions make comparisons between Serrano’s â€Å"Piss Christ† and the resent film â€Å"Innocence of Muslims†. Wave of violence swept over the Arab world in response to provocation from the low-budget film satirizing Prophet Mohammed. Aggressively protesting crowds flood the streets in respond to the film, violent acts against the Western civilization and embassies attacks.But what is it so insulting about the film â€Å"Innocence of Muslims†? There are many offensive movies, art works and books which humiliate Christianity and directly disgrace Christ’s name, but in consequences of which the Christian world does not responds in such violent way. The examples are numerous, but the interesting fact is that all of the controversial art had been made during modernist movement when C hristians extracted themselves from the prejudices and place the freedom of expression over the dogmas.However, Serrano’s â€Å"Piss Christ† has been provoking and peeve people since its creation, the tolerance rich its pick on Palm Sunday, 2011 in France when it was attacked with hammer and destroyed by Catholic protestants, but it does not cross the limit and push the social boundaries too far. In contrast the anti-Muslim film, it could be consider as art which goes beyond the borders of acceptance because it is in contrast with what the Koran says about Mohammad representations and it causes people death. More than two decades Serrano’s photograph generates negative oppositions to politics, social and religious world.That contributes to the artist intention to make people engaged with his work not only visually but intellectually too. Twenty five years from its creation and it is still highly provocative. Faith people are bombarding President Obama with their requests to forbid â€Å"Piss Christ† exhibition at the Edward Tyler Nahem Gallery in New York City. Serrano’s photograph is various things including shocking, scandalous, beautiful and compelling, but there are much more important things which this art addresses and who could dispute its seriousness, originality and power?It is showing how limited is the human mind and how low educated are some people in sense of understanding art work. The artist is twisting the meaning and placing religious symbols into new contexts. He is displaying the commercialized side of the religion. People are arguing that this great creation is blasphemy, but the Bible says do not make any idols and do not worship them. In that sense of thinking isn’t it a wooden or plastic object made from human hand representing Jesus’s suffer against the Holly book lows?Bill Donohue, who is president of the Catholic League, believes that the President of The United States should defend Ame rican’s values. Obama ignores this request and does not prohibit the display of Serrano’s photograph but even support it and refused to stand against an art made 25 years ago. Artist’s supporters point out that â€Å"Piss Christ† is an expression of artistic liberty and freedom of speech. Since its creation, this art work has generated a lot of negative comments.The work was a centurial focus of the Cultural War in the 1990’s on which was question its artistic value. Throughout his career, Serrano has created a different visual language that raise the question about religion, humanity, sex and social values. The abstract beauty of his photographs it could be termed as spiritual quest. It is a fight of good and immoral, the urine is symbol of the realism and the holly icon is the idealism. His photographs are emblematic for contrasting elements from life: beauty, disgust, provocation etc.Renowned for a passionate body of work that challenges artisti c and social boundaries Andres Serrano has exhibited since the 1980s. His art is categorized as inappropriate, blasphemous and even there are claims that it is not an art. With turbulent negative verbal and physical attacks against the â€Å"Piss Christ†, Serrano cleverly navigate human attention in the direction of questioning our values and believes. This photograph is provocative art work, which is displaying a perfect balance between realism and idealism.Although its controversial idea and strongly offensive meaning this great art creating could not be consider as object which pushes social boundaries too far. In contrast to the resent film â€Å"Innocence Muslim† which not only brakes Islamic lows but provokes human vandalism and push the limits to the extremes, exactly a human death. But the question is can a society living in medieval to overleap its social and cultural point of view? Hardly. It will not change even after this cheap provocation.The modern societ y should become more open minded and free ourselves from the religious prejudices and Serrano since 25 years ago is driving people all over the world towards this goal. Work Cited: 1. Holy Bible, New International Version ®, NIV ® Copyright  © 1973, 1978, 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Leviticus 24:16 2. Serrano, Andres :Works 1 983-1993. Philadelphia: Insti- 1994 tute of Contempora Art, Universityo f Pennsylvania 3. Massara, Kathleen. Piss Christ: Andres Serrano’s Iconic Work on View at Edward Tyler NahemGallery. The Huffington Post.

Justifications on the Need to Bring Back the Military Draft Essay

In today’s evolving and trying world, there is nothing absolute about the exercise of individual’s freedom or free choice. Consideration of several significant factors results to flexibility, if not violation of even this basic requirement of independence or free will. The said condition is concretely manifested by a discussion on the necessity to bring back the military draft in the United States. This is because despite the fundamental argument against the reimplementation of the Selective Service System in the American military, it is ultimately essential to reflect on some principles aimed at benefiting the majority of the population hence paving the way for a requirement to set aside one’s liberty or rights. By its nature, a military draft or the American Selective Service System implies an infringement of citizen’s free choice of whether to join the United States military voluntarily or not. The system is not new as it has been implemented by previous administrations. However, criticisms against its execution made the past Presidents halt the controversial military draft on the premise that it violates human rights particularly one’s privilege to a freedom of choice as far as joining the military. As the system was not totally discarded, there is now the possibility of imposing again the military draft after careful deliberation of at least three main necessary justifications. Proponents of the re-imposition of the system argue the underlying principle that military draft challenges freedom. This is primarily due to the vital reason that the military draft serves as a payback opportunity for the government and country in general to raise the estimated usefulness and value of all citizens. This is made possible because the people’s selective services into the military will increase benefits or returns which the government needs in having an expensive cost of military training and education. Additionally, the military draft paves the way and has even proven to be a concrete way of unifying the country as it destroys class and racial distinctions among Americans. Most importantly, military draft is critically important in ensuring national defense and security in the face of an inevitable military conflict. While the system is an obligatory manner of breaching one’s liberty, these economic, unifying and safety considerations are, therefore, rational principles which justify the need to undertake another round of military draft. Military Draft, an Overview For a clearer and objective discussion on the need to bring back the military draft, it is empirical to present the general concepts behind the system which calls for the selective services of American people into the U. S. military. Military draft, as the main function and basis of the Selective Service System, is activated upon the direction of the U. S. President and the Congress. As mandated by law, the Selective Service System maintains its promptness and effectiveness in managing a military draft despite its current inactive status. Upon the restoration of the military draft, the system requires for the carrying out of a National Draft Lottery to identify the people to be drafted. In the conduct of the military draft, the Selective Service System requires the registration of all male American citizens with at least 18 years of age but had not reached 26 years of age, not taking into consideration their place of their residences including foreign male migrant-residents in the country (â€Å"Military Draft†). The U. S.  President and the both houses of the Congress authorize the military draft during an emergency such as armed crisis which entails additional military crowd because of the insufficiency in the supply of the volunteer military. Thereafter, a lottery is conducted wherein the dates of birth of the citizens are used as the basis for finding out the system of drafting the citizens. Duties of all members of the Selective Service are activated where the State Directors and Officers of the Reserve Forces are called into for military service. There will be physical, psychological and ethical assessments of all registrants and upon release of evaluation result, a registrant will have to report for if he needs to be exempted or that his service needs to be deferred. Registrant claims will be evaluated and passers will be given induction orders and are given ten days to be inducted until finally turned over to the military (â€Å"Military Draft†). Benefit Justification While not commonly attributed as justification for the need to restore the military draft, the beneficial aspect of carrying out the system is significantly essential. A study about the draft or conscription of American citizens into the military and its increasing returns revealed this condition. This is because the noteworthy mounting returns, such as the requirement for the least fundamental training and education in the military preparation and service, are attractive grounds behind the selective service or military draft (Ng 382). While the draft inevitably results into incompetence, freedom violation and injustice, the study showed that the effectiveness of military draft in recording the increasing returns in the U. S.  Armed Forces compensates the cost allotted in carrying out the military draft. The study further justified that in the condition where the level of mounting returns was elevated and that the needed degree of military service became big particularly when the nation is at war, the popularity and requirement of military draft could not be totally eliminated. The same study also noted the economists’ apparent disregard of the principle behind the probable appeal of military draft and reiterated the result which hinted that the efficiency percentage of military draft soars as the level of increasing returns in the U.  S. military also becomes high. To concretely justify this point, it just merely presented an idea that an increase in the degree or number of military drafts is synonymous to having an increased in the number of military personnel thereby working more to the advantage of the U. S. Armed Force in its military undertakings (383). Unifying Justification Despite circumstances which made previous Presidents decide to discontinue the military draft, the system definitely helps in crushing class distinctions in the country. Hence, this unifying justification makes it one of the positive points for considering the return of the selective or random military recruitment. In particular, the military draft resulted into an amicable educational condition where the educated and not became united and even helped each other as they became one in achieving a common goal. In fact, this homogenizing system did not only exist in the learning structure because military draft also widened the cultural perspectives of the military draftees. As the class distinctions were removed so are the racial separations among the future military personnel. In short, the selective service system enhanced the equality grounds in the country as compared to what has achieved by other measures and institutions (Koch A23). Koch emphasized the need for the nation to return to the military draft after it proved to be an established means which returned unity among people and within the country. The selective service system provided a universal language for the public which covered the military draftees as well as their respective families and the people around them. It also credited the honor among the draftees and leveled their respective sacrifices which they have done for the nation. It eventually unified more the American people who are one in their search for power and thereafter carry with them an appreciation of the real value of conflict, unity and winning (Koch A23). National Security Justification Foremost the positions of bringing back the military draft is the rationale that it prepares and secures the country for an eventuality of another armed conflict, both internally and externally. This was illustrated by Hod and Hod when he ignited the call for the return of the military draft in the name of defending and ensuring the safety of the country. In a work directed to the public, Hod and Hod wrote that the military draft also prepares the nation and its people to see the world in a precautionary aspect. Ultimately, it was meant to pave the way for the upholding of the nation’s protection and safety against possible armed conflict within and outside the country (Hod & Hod 73). This national security position was corroborated by Rangel and Vennochi who both supported the need for the restoration of the military draft. As a Korean War veteran and now a U. S, Representative, Rangel believed that the requirement to defend and secure the country should be a shared sacrifice among all Americans. He added that a renewed call for the system enables for an increased vigilance and acceptance of the random military system as the people appreciate more the draft based from the safety benefits it will bring to the country (Rangel 1). Vennochi, supported the idea by stressing a point wherein the military draft will speed up the country’s armed fight against Iraq and other terrorists-laden nations. He added that restoring the military draft will awaken the country and force involvement among Americans to have their share in protecting and ensuring the nation’s security (Venocchi 1). Conclusion Every undertaking has its advantages and disadvantages. Despite criticisms against the military draft, its restoration is definitely important and needed in order to increase the benefits it offer to the nation, to break barriers and enhance unity among people and ultimately to guarantee that the country in always ready and capable to defend itself from conflict. While the issue of military draft has resulted into several criticisms, it was able to stand its way and justified that it may be inevitable for the country not to bring back military draft primarily due to the position that it was aimed at working to the advantage and not to detriment the people and the country as a whole.

Black Boy Essay Research Paper Black BoyWhen

Black Boy Essay, Research Paper Black Boy When a individual thinks about hungriness, nutrient comes to mind. We neer think of hungriness as anything else. In Richard Wright # 8217 ; s book Blackboy, a immature male child faces many different types of hungriness. He refers to the phrase # 8220 ; American Hunger # 8221 ; throughout his book. I feel that the # 8220 ; American Hunger # 8221 ; which he is mentioning to is the hungriness to be considered an American and be treated as an equal. Throughout his life he was treated as if he were from another planet. He was ever considered to be different, an castaway and a also-ran. He felt the demand to be a portion of the alleged American Culture. He wanted to be able to make what the white kids did. He wanted to be able to travel to school, to larn, to read, hold friends, have a occupation ; but because he was an African American he could non. This is what I will be discoursing, his hungriness. Hunger is non the merely hungriness he felt. He felt many other types of hungriness throughout his life. His hungriness came about when his male parent left his household hungering which led to Richards physical hungriness. He feels as though it is his occupation to back up and assist his household since his pa left. By reading and larning through colleagues he learned how to cover with others, whether they are black or white. He learns the secret of how to last in his society by watching how others act and react to one another. An illustration of this is when Richard is in the lift and the black get says # 8220 ; Watch this. I will acquire a one-fourth # 8230 ; # 8221 ; So the child lets a white adult male kick him in the buttocks every bit hard as he can merely for a one-fourth. This secret is what keeps him alive, places him in society where he belongs, and lets him populate out is dream of going a author. Richard was so eager to larn that he kept invariably inquiring inquiries, and if his inquiries were left unreciprocated he would allow his imaginativeness take over.. He would seek to happen work in which he would be able to read some of the B ooks. His household and relations refused to allow him larn. There is one incident in which his school teacher read to him. His grandma got angry and said that reading was devils work. Through out his childhood he heard many footings and phrases. He neer understood what they meant but one time they were said he knew if they were good or bad. For illustration, when Richard was taking a bath and his grandma came in to scour his rear, Richard replied with, â€Å"When you get through, snog back there.† This is merely one of the many phrases he said in which he did non cognize the significance. Richard’s grandma flipped and wanted to crush Richard for what he had said. Richard had learned that phrase from school and didn’t know the significance. Through his avidity to larn he began to understand himself, other inkinesss, and Whites better. He continues to larn and to play dumb for his ain endurance. His self instruction began when a colleague Lent Richard his library card to read Mencken # 8217 ; s essays. He eventually got a interruption from a white adult male who trusts Richard and is willing to allow him read what he wants to read. He lets Richard # 8220 ; feed his hungriness, # 8221 ; He feels that his dreams and his narratives in which he reads are an flight for him. He wants to suit in with others and be able to be apart of America. He feels the demand to travel to school because it is his aspiration to go a author. His reading puzzled his Aunt Maggie for she could non understand why person would be reading merely for merriment because they liked it. Through out the book Richard tries to feed all his hungriness so that he isn # 8217 ; t hungry any longer. Not in the sense of nutrient but the sense of cognition. Back so it was difficult to be the colour black and survive and learn. Race was a large thing and could hold gotten him killed at any clip. But Richard learned organize his errors and other peoples errors and overcame many obstructions. He is a nationalist a hero a MAN. I feel that Richard had # 8220 ; kept himself full! # 8221 ;

Health and Wellness Resorts Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Health and Wellness Resorts - Research Paper Example At the same time, it has been ascertained that health and wellness resorts are engaged in standardizing and globalizing the products and services. Nonetheless, it has been observed that health and wellness resorts are also burdened with increasing management and operational issues arising from declining quality and increasing competition. Furthermore, health and wellness resorts as mentioned above are in the early stage of development thus there is a relatively less literature regarding it. Consequently, there is a greater scope for future research to be conducted in order to derive valuable insights about the health and wellness resorts. Introduction Over the last few years, businesses have started using the word wellness for describing both physical and emotional meaning. More specifically, the word ‘wellness’ is extensively used in the service industry particularly in the context of luxurious hotels. At the same time, travelling for the purpose of health is not a new concept. However, it can be firmly admitted that the term ‘health tourism’ is relatively a new concept in the market positioning strategy of hotel and resorts. Broadly speaking, health and wellness tourism is defined as products or services that are made accessible to people travelling from their places or residences for health reasons (Caribbean Export Development Agency, 2009). The primary focus of the health and wellness resort involves imparting good health and general wellness of people. It entails a wide variety of treatments and services. For instance, Canyon Ranch one of the leading healthy living and luxury spa vacations comprising resorts, a beachfront hotel and destination spa amenities both on land as well as on sea is determined towards expanding the concept of health resort by initiating comprehensive approach regarding health and wellness of people. The evolution of health and wellness tourism is a result of continuous effort of service industry to attrac t new and potential customers through promotion and campaigns of health services. It can be argued that in the recent times the health and wellness tourism has gained tremendous popularity amid the global tourism industry as it does not depend on the factors such as seasonality. In other words, the health and wellness tourism has increased the ability of service industry to generate favorable income even during the off-seasons. Notably, the health and wellness sector within the context of Canada has also accorded radical growth. Health tourism across the globe including Canada can be identified to hold a greater opportunity for the service industry to boast its revenue and acquire loyal customers. Furthermore, the demand for health and wellness resort is constantly increasing (Siriphannapirat et al., 2013). Correspondingly, this research study intends to review the relevant development, management and operation issues pertaining to health and wellness resorts along with making relev ant recommendations regarding future research scope. Literature Review Wellness Tourism Mueller & Kaufmann (2001) postulate wellness tourism to be the sub-category of health tourism (Mueller &Kaufmann, 2001). Didascalou & et al. (2009) argue that there is no single definition of wellness or wellness tourism. It has been stated that the development of wellness tourism is actually embedded to ancient form of tourism (Didascalou & et al., 2009). Boulay et al. (2013) argue that wellness tourism

Corporate governance - Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Corporate governance - Law - Essay Example According to Andreasson (n.d. P 2) corporate governance in emerging markets is a critical issue where companies are constantly struggling for investors to raise capital base. About the scope of governance, Abdulla and Valentine (2009, p89) point out that â€Å"corporate governance includes all types of firms and its definitions could extend to cover all of the economic and non-economic activities† p 89. This needs to be embraced by the UK in its bid to improve its corporate governance. One way by which the UK can improve its corporate governance as shall be discussed in diversity is by incorporation of corporate governance and the complexity theory which encompasses many approches integrated into the governance system. Because the perception that the stakeholders about a company is an elastic issue that depends on the corporate image created by the company there has been experienced varying business performances by corporations in the financial and stock markets. This has led to the new wave seeking to transform the way legislative and procedural policies are made and employed by companies to stay afloat in the internal and external market. Therefore board actions on corporate management need effective monitoring so as to avert the corporate failures resulting from traditional corporate strategies as experienced in the UK capital markets. Their short-term policies are feared to be the main reasons for the low efficiency and low return on invested capital yet the companies largely depend on public equity financing amidst their many financial access options (DoB 2010, p 10). A look at the Bitish policies on company opertations shows an emphasis on the accountability of the directors to the shareholders while they set the policies for the company (FRC 2010, p9-11). However the weakness in the Companies Act 2006 which allows for freedom by companies to adjust corporate rules using their constitutions remotely diminishes the corporate sense of the shareholder s who are the main contributors of investment through public equity funds. This calls for real improvement that will address the weaknesses that have led to failure of many corporate organisations which lies in the role played by the company directorate (Kiarie 2007, p2). Kiarie identifies the non-specificity of the management roles in the companies especially the non-executive directors (NEDs) whom she says must play an important role in checking the power wielded by CEOs based on their independance and autonomy. This is possible if the companies willingly offer relevant and sufficient information other than the one the NEDs solicit for use in decision making and judgment. Therefore the NED should be part of the shareholder pressure on the corporate board that would enhance the value of the firm in form, of policies and strategies (Brenner, 2008 p 3-5). It is realised that most companies are reluctant to freely disclose their portfolio in the bid to cut on costs and keep competitor s at bay a fact that has made the shareholdders and the NEDs in darkness on the exact positioning of the company in the corporate market in what Brenner calls â€Å"free rider problem† p 5. This in a way has been the reason for mixed responses from stakeholders ranging

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals - Essay Example 34). To the extent that drugs are used to treat individuals to get better, it would contradict the health practitioners’ code of ethics to prepare the individual for death. Further, this case is strengthened by the reality a case for execution cannot be substantiated after realization of insanity while in prison. The initial crime committed by Singleton is supposed to take charge in this case and he should be given the antipsychotic drugs ready for execution. The essential claim premise would dictate that the claims of such an argument be supported by a plausible claim within the rubric of written laws. The claim made on the execution of Singleton is strictly supported by the written laws in the constitution (LaFave, & LaFave, 2006, p. 91). Given the fact that he committed the crime insane conditions, he is presumed to have had full knowledge of the implications of his actions at the time. In this perspective, a case for insanity that happened thereafter cannot be used to reverse a stipulated law to relinquish the previous charges. Singleton should be restored to his sane sense to realize the events of the proceedings to his execution. From the fact that the law recognizes equity to all citizens, pardoning Singleton overruns the rights of the innocent individual whose life was cut short by S ingleton’s action. Actually, Singleton did not consider his actions even when he was sane, and a medical antipsychotic would only restore his senses to understand the charges as he faces the consequences of his actions. An objection to the above argument would be based on the health practitioner’s duty to protect life. Given that the intentions of any actions dictate whether the deed is good or bad, it would be plausible to assume that treating Singleton with the intention of execution after recovery is bad. Medicine should be administered with the sole intentions of getting individuals better and relieving them of pain to realize better lives. Further, it is

In this assignment you will draw two primary sources and two secondary Research Paper

In this assignment you will draw two primary sources and two secondary sources written after 1990 to explore a topic addressed i - Research Paper Example There are several factors that played a key role in the collapse of one of the greatest empires in the world. According to Bauer (84), several factors that occurred within a span of approximately 500 years were instrumental in the collapse of a strong empire, the Roman Empire. Expansion of the Rome Empire can be referred to as one of the major causes of its collapse. Rome kept conquering many nations and therefore there was rapid growth in the land they owned. Consequently, there was great need to defend the borders and the territories of Rome. As they struggle to keep this under their control, emperors increased taxes on non-Romans and these created more enmity where frequent rebellions arose. Lack of enough solders to safeguard their territories forced them to employ foreigners who were against them resulting in the collapse of the empire. Since the empire was growing at a rapid rate, it needed more soldiers for it to remain a great conqueror. As such, militarism was adopted as a m ean of the emperor and his compatriots remaining in full control. In this case, constant fighting needed heavy military spending. This demand for the military was high since the Roman Empire became over stretched, and the need for more solders was proportional to its needs for expansion and protection of their overstretched territories. Due to this, there was overspending in the military body, hence other fundamental activities were left with few resources. Vital issues such as provision of houses to the public, quality roads and channel were left untouched. This also resulted in emperors raising taxes repeatedly resulting in increased levels of inflation. Roman Empire faced a failing economy and increased levels of inflation. Inflation is a state where prices increase and the purchasing power of currency declines. The Rome Empire was in this situation and the government was threatened of impoverishment as it did not have sufficient cash to cater for its needs. Overexpansion and eff orts to protect their territories resulted in this. For instance, the increased population required more militaries and the demand forced them to recruit and train more people. This process was demanding and more money was used in paying the large numbers of military personnel .The other factor is that after they diminished new lands conquering, the flow of gold to their economy decreased. This resulted to less use of coins and the coin become less valuable. Due to over-expansion of the territories, there were more merchants from the conquered places who raised the prices of the goods that they sold. Several persons changed their way of trading and butter trade erupted eventually. People stopped using coins and they began to undertake barter trade in order to get what they wanted from others. This went to as far as paying salaries in the form of food and clothing while tax collection also changed and vegetables and fruits were used to pay taxes. In this case, the expansion of territ ories shows how the economy was affected resulting to its decline. According to Goldsworthy(72) Over expanded Roman Empire territory had people from different ethnic groups and was over populated. As a result, the labor force was composed of slavery resulting in unemployment. Plebs in

Institutional racism in america Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Institutional racism in america - Essay Example The US property appraisal system, formulated in 1930, allows whites to achieve property value ratings and government loans whereas the blacks struggled to enjoy such facilities. Majority share of the governmental subsidies went to the whites rather than the blacks even though blacks were comparatively poorer than the whites. Underrepresentation of blacks in critical positions has also been charged as institutional racism. Mass media such as TV and movies always like to employ whites at the top position. All these inequalities happened in America because of institutional racism. This paper briefly analyses the characteristics of institutional racism in America. â€Å"According to Census data, whites with high school diplomas, college degrees or Master's Degrees all earn approximately 20% more than their black counterparts. Moreover, whites with professional degrees earn 31% more than blacks and 52% more than Latinos†(Institutional racism, 2009). Even though, both whites and bla cks have similar educational qualification and expertise, the earning levels of whites and blacks in public institutions were unequal because of the institutional racism. Whites are getting special considerations in both public and private institutions. The employers give preference to the white professionals while they conduct a recruitment process.

Strategic management of MC DONALD and how they maintain their succeses Essay

Strategic management of MC DONALD and how they maintain their succeses over the years - Essay Example There are few challenges and problems that the company faces which would be discussed in this study. The biggest challenge for McDonalds is to overcome the increase in competition, maintain its quality and keep a strict check and balance on the customer satisfaction as the company has more than half of the business depends on franchising. In the SWOT analysis of the company it has been found out that McDonalds occupies a very strong position in the market. Special attention paid to hiring potential staff has been a key to its success. As we know in the food and hospitality industry the major role is to be played by the internal customers (that are employees) as they will be the source of satisfaction for the external customers (the real customers). So keeping the internal customers satisfied and properly training them is what McDonalds has been doing. This has been a key success factor for the company. The concept of franchising has also been fruitful for the company as it generates 60 percent of its sales through franchising (Gallagher, 2008). McDonalds focuses on five main things that are its drivers for success namely people, product, price, place and promotion. PESTLE Analysis Following is the Pestle Framework application to McDonalds. PESTLE framework includes the political, economical, social, technological, environmental and legal factors that relate to McDonalds. Political Factors While McDonalds plans to expand its business it has to keep a lot of political factors in mind like the taxation and licensing issues (Ghemawat, 1991). During international expansion the analysis of the political situation of the other country happens to be of critical importance. Economical Factors Economic factors are of concern to McDonalds, because they are likely to influence demand, costs, prices and profits. Amongst the economic factors the high unemployment levels are one the most influential factors as it reduces the demand for a lot of goods and also the food industr y. Inflation is one other thing that has impacted almost every business in the world and so is the case with the food industry. The economic factors mentioned above are mostly beyond the company’s control but at the same time their effects related to the marketing mix and performance can be reflective. Social Factors The awareness of the health issues is increasing amongst the consumers' day by day and the attitudes they hold towards food is continually changing. The quality that McDonalds has provided to its customers over these years has helped the company earn a good repute and thus a strong position in the society (Schlosser, 2008). Technological Factors New technologies profit company and the customers both. The adoption of the new technology by the company and always keeping everything updated has helped the company in attaining this strong market position (Vignali, 2001). Upgrading of its equipments and the machinery used have also served as a source of satisfaction fo r the internal and external customers both. Environmental Factors McDonalds has always focused on healthy and clean environment and this has helped the company in winning the trust of the customers. Legal Factors The policies of government in order to control monopoly and the reduction of power of buyers can lead to putting a limit to entry in this sector by putting controls such as license requirements and limitation to access the