Energy drinks research paper Essay

Modern life has become fast-paced and the multitudes of work to be done require plenty of effort now more than before. Be it in school or in the office, many people have turned to energy drinks as a source of boost for their inadequate physical endurance and mental strength in addressing the demands of modern living. As the name itself easily suggests, ‘energy drinks’ are supposed to supplement people with the energy they need. Since they contain a combination of vitamins and plenty of caffeine, energy drinks have become a popular alternative to coffee and other caffeinated beverages. It is not surprising, therefore, if there are people who have developed a form of dependency on energy drinks after consuming them regularly for a certain period. However, there are also those who see energy drinks not as a boom but as a bane to the health of individuals. While these drinks may provide people with additional energy, it is often stated that they also have negative effects on the human body especially if they are taken habitually and in amounts that exceed safe limits. There are reasons why certain people support the consumption of energy drinks. On the other hand, there are also reasons why some others oppose the same, to the point that attempts have been made to ban the production, distribution and sale of energy drinks in some areas. This paper seeks to explore those reasons by surveying past and recent literature with respect to the effects of energy drinks on the human body. After an assessment on whether energy drinks can potentially endanger the lives of people, this paper will suggest ways on how to increase the awareness of the people on what these drinks have to offer, whether good or bad. This paper will also try to explore the possible measures which can be adopted in order to properly regulate the production, distribution and actual selling of energy drinks to the larger public. Energy drinks: the good side There are several reasons why people buy energy drinks. Today, it may be said that even age and status in life no longer pose rigid limitations as to who exactly can take advantage of what energy drinks have to offer. Some individuals can consume a certain dose of energy drinks for no strong reason except that they simply want to quench their thirst. The most apparent effect of energy drinks is that they boost a person’s energy. This is due to the ingredients contained in most energy drinks. For instance, energy drinks contain caffeine, sugar, B vitamins and certain kinds of herbs. The combination of these ingredients is said to help increase a person’s physical, mental and cognitive performances. For this reason, it is not surprising that people have patronized energy drinks. In fact, there are numerous brands of energy drinks out in the market, each one purporting to cater to specific preferences and conditions of the consumers. Some brands are labeled as an excellent source of energy for athletes while some other brands are tagged as powerful mental boosters for office workers and students. At any rate, it may be said that the fast-paced modern world requires from every person quick and efficient responses—and energy drinks are there to help them achieve that daily routine. Aside from caffeine, there are at least other common ingredients of most energy drinks: taurine and glucuronolactone. Both are produced naturally by the human body. Energy drinks can replace both glucuronolactone and taurine that the body loses during stressful situations and high physical activity (Olson). Both are important to the human body as they naturally cleanse the body from harmful toxins and provide natural energy boost. People who work overtime or who labor intensely are part of the large numbers of those who consume energy drinks. Even students who are prompted by long hours of studying and doing schoolwork have the similar disposition to use these drinks as a source of the energy they need in order to complete their tasks over extended durations. In a way, it can be seen that energy drinks may be responsible for motivating people to continue with their tasks. On a larger scale, a workforce able to perform better and produce more output within a constrained period will certainly yield positive results. Although energy drinks may not be solely responsible for such consequence, it may nevertheless be safely assumed that it has its share. The history of the energy drink is replete with indicators that it was initially produced to aid the physical well-being of individuals. As early as the second half of the twentieth century, energy drinks were already being produced in Japan with the same modern tagline as increasing an individual’s physical energy levels. Without doubt, early energy drinks were particularly formulated for people engaged in intense labor or those involving protracted hours of work that require physical endurance. Through the years, the benefits of energy drinks were later seen as applicable to athletes. Today, athletes and even people who are active in sports rely on energy drinks in order to supplement or quickly replenish their stock of energy. Similarly, energy drinks are oftentimes labeled as drinks that promote wakefulness. Apparently, those who stand to benefit from the mental alertness induced by energy drinks are the people who are in a desperate need to stay fully awake due to particular circumstances. Students who need to study overnight or to be awake in class after still feeling sluggish belong to this group. In particular, employees who need to beat deadlines the following morning and who are barely able to stay awake for the rest of the night also fall to this classification. Some employees working in graveyard shifts also consume energy drinks. For example, nurses and doctors who spend late hours in the hospital may rely on energy drinks from time to time in order to help them keep awake and alert for the rest of the evening. The same may also be said about corporate employees in outsourcing companies that serve clients from other time zones. At the most, energy drinks are perceived as useful aid for those who need to stay awake for different reasons. Without doubt, there is a different side to energy drinks. There are concerned groups who express their opposition to the consumption of energy drinks especially on regular intervals. At the heart of the sharp criticism against energy drinks is that they are said to contain chemicals and other substances that may endanger the health of individuals. While it may be conceded that energy drinks have short term benefits, it is likewise urged that they also have negative consequences in the long run. Thus, instead of promoting a person’s health, energy drinks may actually harm a person. Energy drinks: the bad side. Monster Energy is one of the more popular energy drinks available in almost every store in America. Interestingly, the product contains double the worth of strong coffee’s caffeine for every single serving of sixteen ounces (Laitner). It may be admitted that there is nothing inherently wrong with drinking caffeinated beverages like Monster Energy. In fact, medical experts may even suggest some of their patients experiencing sluggishness to consume a certain dosage of energy drinks every once in a while. However, it is the dosage and frequency of consumption that is crucial. Like other beverages sold in the market, energy drinks should be consumed only in moderation. Stated otherwise, people should not consume energy drinks more than what is actually needed by their body. As of the first quarter of 2011, the American Association of Poison Control Centers has already logged at least three hundred and forty incidents of adverse health effects as a result of consuming energy drinks with high caffeine levels, and that most of the data gathered revealed that many young people are part of the statistics (Laitner). The numbers may be insignificant on the whole scale but they tell one thing: the risks are real. More importantly, even young people who are presumed to be at a better health condition than most adults are not immune from the risks. That being said, the effects of energy drinks potentially cut across the age borders. There are also alcoholic energy drinks being sold in other parts of the world. In Australia, medical authorities have warned about the negative effects of these drinks to young people (Collier). What is more interesting is that these drinks are being consumed by teenagers aged between twelve and seventeen (Collier). At a very young age, these individuals are already exposed to the harms brought about not only by energy drinks but their combination with alcohol. Apparently, the effect on the body of these alcoholic energy drinks is a combination of a feeling of being simultaneously ‘alert’ and ‘drowsy’. The Australian Drug Foundation has already warned about the negative effects of these drinks and the research recently conducted confirms these effects (Collier). One of the more serious consequences of consuming energy drinks on a regular basis and beyond the required amounts is that it can cause health problems to a person’s cardiovascular, central nervous, musculoskeletal and renal systems (Babu). These risks are not to be taken lightly since they comprise the critical parts of the human body. Impairments in any one of these system of organs can greatly weaken a person and affect one’s daily routines. Apparently, these effects may come in the long term. This is probably the tricky part. Since these effects begin to be felt only after a certain period, a person may initially think that his consumption of energy drinks has not been affecting his health. However, once the effects have already begun to set in, it might be too late and the person may require hospitalization and complicated medical treatment. A harmless start may soon turn into a physically daunting end. Energy drinks contain plenty of sugar and the sugar contained in them are known to cause diarrhea and gastrointestinal pains which, in any case, will never improve the performance of any office employee, student or athlete (Miller). The effects become more pronounced if a person consumes energy drinks on a regular basis. Without doubt, a person may thereafter suffer from regular stomach upsets and diarrhea. Instead of actually helping an individual perform better at his or her tasks, the contrary is more likely to happen. It has been noted that the American diet is already filled with B-vitamins and, consequently, energy drinks which are most of the time likewise filled with B-vitamins do not really help the body. On the contrary, energy drinks can only potentially yield to an overload of B-vitamins in the human body (Brody). In effect, the body may not be able to absorb the overload of B-vitamins thereby resulting to certain bodily reactions. Vitamins should still be taken in moderation only as they can also adversely affect the body when taken in uncontrolled amounts. Even the term ‘energy drink’ is highly ambiguous. For the most part, the term itself is neither approved nor created by the FDA and the USDA; the manufacturers themselves coined the label (Babu). While these drinks are not being pulled out of the shelves for using a label that is not sanctioned by the FDA and the USDA, they continue to play on the sensibilities of the public. It is a fact that energy can be taken from any food. Most of them come in the form of calories. To say that a certain beverage is an ‘energy drink’ is to create the impression that it gives energy more than what one could normally derive from the average daily meals and snacks. It may be true that these energy drinks can provide people with energy but it is another matter altogether to claim that they can radically increase the energy levels of an individual. It may even be pointed out that a person may opt to eat fruits and vegetables several hours before a physically and mentally grueling task instead of consuming a can of energy drink before performing the task. It is a healthier approach with more benefits for the human body without the aid of artificial ingredients and chemicals. Identifying the problem and providing solutions It may be said that a person has the freedom to choose whatever he wants to consume. The basis for saying this is that a person has full autonomy over his own body. Thus, no one can be prevented from purchasing what is openly available in stores. This proposition is crucial since it establishes the idea that the main concern should naturally be focused on the individual. However, this does not relieve the manufacturers of energy drinks from any responsibility. On the contrary, the imperative to pay attention to the consumers necessitates that manufacturers have a big role to fill. It has been observed that there is little scientific research available and government regulation with respect to energy drinks (Seifert, et al.). This is worrisome since energy drinks have been manufactured and sold throughout the world for at least two decades. It may be one of the significant reasons why there are only very few available comprehensive information about the negative effects of energy drinks on the human body. In this day and age where more and more energy drink products are being produced—an indicator that there is a growing market for energy drinks—it is indeed imperative that more information about energy drinks should be made available to the public. It is important to inform and educate consumers about the effects of energy drinks on the human body. One way to achieve this is to provide the right information on the labels of products. Instead of purely flaunting catchphrases that tease the sensibilities of consumers, products should contain labels that clearly warn consumers of the negative effects of energy drinks if and when they are consumed in high quantities and in regular intervals. It is safe to say that a serving of Monster Energy once every week, for example, does not necessarily endanger a person’s health. However, regular consumption of the product—akin to an addiction—will certainly take its toll on the body. For this reason, products should contain warnings about the regular consumption of energy drinks. The warning should be visible enough and should not be placed in an obscure part of the product. This is a direct approach in informing the general public about energy drinks without the intervention of the government. Manufacturers should be responsible enough to take the initiative. Schools can also take part in informing young students about the energy drinks. Forums and symposiums may be conducted within school premises. Medical practitioners and representatives from the FDA and USDA can be invited as guest speakers. Students should be encouraged to give frank questions about energy drinks in order to remove any lingering doubts about their effects. Teachers may also include in their discussions on biochemistry or on human anatomy the benefits and harms of energy drinks. Documentaries about the effects of energy drinks may also be presented before classes of students. All of these suggestions can easily be done and require very minimal resources on the part of the school. Moreover, they immediately address the need to inform the younger population. The government should regulate energy drinks more stringently. The legislature should come-up with laws that will put a limit on how much caffeine, for instance, can be included in energy drinks. The same should also apply to other chemicals in these drinks. This approach has been done in other consumable products and should likewise be applied in the case of energy drinks since even teenagers today are getting hooked on the product. Needless to say, it is the duty of the government not only to make sure that the products available in the market are safe for human consumption but also to provide guidelines on product manufacturers so that no harm will be made. The FDA and the USDA should also do its role in making detailed analyses on every energy drink sold in the market and in crafting a comprehensive assessment on whether or not each of these products is safe for human consumption. The reports may also serve as the basis for the legislature to impose certain limits on the amount of chemicals that can be put into the products. These agencies have the expertise and skills to make conclusive and, in some cases, binding reports that cannot be dismissed easily by product manufacturers. The government can also carefully scrutinize the published and broadcasted advertisements of energy drink manufacturers in order to determine whether these manufacturers are making any unfounded claims which can gravely confuse the consumers. False advertising can certainly fool consumers into thinking that what the product professes to offer when in fact such is not the case. In order to clear any misinformation, the advertisers themselves should have the moral impulse to avoid making false claims just to make a sale. Needless to say, any false advertising can backfire on the advertiser, especially if the negative consequences of it have begun to take shape and an increasing number of consumers have likewise begun to air their grievances. Before it is too late, advertisers should take the initiative. Doing so can save them time from long years of litigation and money. A more radical suggestion is to impose an absolute ban on all energy drinks. Unfortunately, this suggestion will not hold water. Although it is admitted that energy drinks can potentially endanger the health of the people, imposing a full ban will likewise affect those who consume energy drinks within prescribed safety limits, especially those who need these drinks at the most important moments in their lives. Even the federal government can also face losses in the form of revenue taxes if and when the production of energy drinks is finally banned throughout America. Given the reports earlier mentioned that children nowadays are more and more becoming immersed in the consumption of energy drinks, it is also important to address this vital concern. The first step is that local grocery stores should see to it that they do not sell energy drinks to children especially those below seventeen years of age. This is a measure that can easily be done. However, it may be admitted that it has certain limitations. For instance, children can consume energy drinks at home if their parents stock a certain supply of this beverage. Still, something can be done. Parents should see to it that their children do not have access to energy drinks at home. This is where responsible parenting is of full use. Older siblings can also prevent their younger siblings from getting their hands on energy drinks whether at home or in the public. Efforts will have to come from the entire family. Teaching children at a young age to refrain from consuming energy drinks at their stage is crucial. It will help reinforce the idea in the child’s mind that there are consumable products that are not yet fit for their health. In the long run, children who will grow-up in an environment where they are taught to refrain from consuming energy drinks may soon minimize their consumption of such products when they have already grown. Independent research organizations should further engage themselves in the current efforts to comprehensively study and assess the consequences of energy drinks on the human body, from children to adults. Since more energy drink brands are being manufactured and sold, it is admitted that any attempt to make a comprehensive research can take a long while. Apart from time, more financial resources will also be needed in order to carryout a comprehensive study. Nevertheless, civic organizations can provide research grants. The government should likewise tap the private sector actively engaged in doing research by providing similar research grants. People and energy drinks: the future America is teeming with activity around the clock. Many people living in cities that never sleep, so to speak, are oftentimes predisposed to take full advantage of every waking hour of their lives. They work for protracted hours in order to get a bigger pay. Students do their school tasks over long hours. Young people party from dusk until dawn. On the other hand, many athletes and individuals with very active lifestyles maintain their physical routines almost every day. It is not surprising, therefore, if energy drinks have become an integral part of the American lifestyle. By themselves, energy drinks can help an individual, especially if these drinks are consumed in moderate amounts. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. There is an imminent danger: as the world becomes more fast-paced, people may fall into the temptation to consume energy drinks to the point that they will become dependent on these beverages in order for them to perform their daily routines. If the government fails to step-in and regulate energy drinks, and if very little research is done in the coming years, there may come a point when energy drinks will eventually become an indispensable part of the American culture. People may no longer begin to express their concern over the consequences of energy drinks since there is no comprehensive and conclusive basis to back-up their concerns in the first place. This can only push manufacturers to further develop their products, which translates to energy drinks with other chemicals that replaces caffeine, for instance, but with twice the effect. In general, energy drinks if left thoroughly unchecked can only grow into an even bigger social bane. In the end, nothing can replace a healthy lifestyle—not even energy drinks. A healthy body and a healthy mind need not depend on energy drinks in order to properly function even under stress. Proper diet, regular exercise and a lifestyle free from any form of vice are still the best solutions for any person who expects to face tight deadlines and activities at work or in school. Works Cited Babu, Kavita. â€Å"Energy Drinks: The New Eye-Opener for Adolescents. † Clinical Pediatric Emergency Medicine 9. 3 (2008): 35-42. Print. Brody, Jane E. â€Å"Scientists See Dangers in Energy Drinks. † NYTimes. com. The New York Times. 31 Jan. 2011. Web. Accessed 29 Apr. 2011. http://www. nytimes. com/2011/02/01/health/01brody. html Collier, Karen. â€Å"Kids wired on alcoholic energy drinks. † Herald Sun. Herald and Weekly Times. 29 Apr. 2011. Web. Accessed 30 Apr. 2011. http://www. heraldsun. com. au/news/kids-wired-on-alcoholic-energy-drinks/story-e6frf7jo-1226046546571 Olson, David E. , and Michael D. Maltz â€Å"Energy drinks: are they safe? † Nine MSN Health and Wellbeing. MSN. 3 Aug. 2010. Web. Accessed 29 Apr. 2011. http://health. ninemsn. com. au/family/familyhealth/689831/energy-drinks Laitner, Bill. â€Å"Some love the kick they get from energy drinks, but others worry about risks. † Detroit Free Press. Gannett. 1 May 2011. Web. Accessed.

Moving and positioning individuals Essay

Outcome 1 Understand anatomy and physiology in relation to moving and positioning individuals. 1-1 Outline the anatomy and physiology of the human body in relation to the importance of correct moving and positioning of individuals. 1-2 Describe the impact of specific conditions on the correct moving and positioning of individuals. Arthritis, stroke, swollen joints, painful joints, stiffness, Outcome 2 Understand legislation and agreed ways of working when moving and positioning individuals. 2-1 Describe how legislation and agreed ways of working affect working practices related to moving and positioning individuals. 2-2 Describe what health and safety factors need to be taken into account when moving and positioning individuals and any equipment used to do this. There are many health and safety factors that need to be taken into account when moving and positioning individuals. You should make sure the hoist is in full working order and charged up, make sure there is enough room/space, no wires or hazards. when using a slide sheet be careful of skin tears. When using a bath lift make sure the battery has been charged and the green light is showing. Read more: Describe when advice and assistance should essay Outcome 3 Be able to minimise risk before moving and positioning individuals. 3-4 Describe actions to take in relation to identified risks Inform the office straight away so they can plan a risk assesment. also let a family member know about the risk. 3-5 Describe what action should be taken if the individual’s wishes conflict with their plan of care in relation to health and safety and their risk assessment. Where an individual indicates a choice that you or others may consider to be a risk you should utilise your assessment skills to determine if there may be issues of capacity or safeguarding. If unsure, consult with your line manager. Record the decision / outcome and the discussion on the file. If there may be a safeguarding issue, refer to local Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Procedures. Outcome 5 Be able to move and position an individual 5-3 Describe the aids and equipment that may be used for moving and positioning. There are many different aids and equipment’s that can be used for moving and positioning, the hoist, turn table, slide sheet. Outcome 6 Know when to seek advice from and/or involve others when moving and positioning an individual. 6-1 Describe when advice and/or assistance should be sought to move or handle an individual safely. If the service user is a very large built person and you are struggling to manage alone you should contact the office to do an assesment to see if it is required a 2 carer call. 6-2 Describe what sources of information are available about moving and positioning individuals. policies and procedures, care plan, training courses, equipment manufactures instructions, trained colleagues.

Bzyt Archtecture Essay Research Paper The greatest

Bzyt Archtecture Essay, Research Paper The greatest of mediaeval civilisations was the Eastern Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was divided in 395. The Western half, ruled from Rome, was ruled by the savages in the fifth century. The Eastern half, known as the Byzantine Empire, lasted for more than over 1,000 old ages. The Byzantine Empire was one of the taking civilisations in the universe. Byzantine Architecture Is a assorted manner composed of Graeco-Roman and Oriental elements which, The signifier of the church used most in the West, a the long rectangular portion of the cathedral with the alter in it is supported on columns and an atrium appears in many illustrations of the 5th century in Byzantine. In the West this manner of constructing on occasion nowadayss similarities which are thought by some governments to be of Oriental origin # 8212 ; galleries over the side aisles, spirally channelled columns, and customss between capitals and arches. Vaulted basilicas were made at a early day of the month in Constantinople. The domical manner, with barrel-vaulted side aisles and transepts is a favorite with the Byzantines. Many of the oldest basilicas in Asia Minor, every bit good as the Church of St. Irene, Constantinople, carried one or more domes. This type leads to the construction in a centralised handbill, octangular, or cross molded program. In ancient Roman times tombs and baths had this kind of program. These types of edifices can non be seen as merely Byzantium, because the Romans and Oriental besides used these sorts of programs. Even in Italy, the churches there were strongly influenced bu the many influences from the West and peculiarly from the Byzantine. In the church of St. Sophia, built by Justinian, all the chief signifiers of the early Christian churches are represented. A rotunda is enclosed in a square, and covered with a dome which is supported in the way of the long axis of the edifice by half-domes over semicircular rounded terminals of the edifice. In this mode a basilica, 236 pess long and 98 pess broad, and provided with domes, is developed out of a cardinal chamber. Then the domical church is developed to the signifier of a long rectangle by two side aisles, which are denied of their significance by the monolithic wharfs. In forepart of all this, on the entryway side, are placed a broad atrium with transitions and two anterooms. The colossal chief dome, which is hemispherical on the inside, flatter, or saucer-shaped, on the outside, and pierced with 40 big Windowss. The ancient system of columns has merely a lease giver significance, back uping the galleries which open upon the long rectangular portion of the chuch that has the alter in it. Light flows in through the legion Windowss of the upper and lower narratives and of the domes. The dome, with its great span carried on wharfs, arches, and pendentives, constitutes one of the greatest accomplishments of architecture. ( The pendentives are the triangular surface of which a round dome can be supported on the crests of four arches arranged on a square program. ) . The designers of St. Sophia were Asians: Anthemius of Tralles and Isodorus of Miletus. In other great basilicas, local influences had great power in finding the character of the architecture, e. g. the churches of the Nativity, of the Holy Sepulchre, and of the Ascension, built in Palestine after the clip of Constantine. This is still more obvious in the dearly-won ornaments of these churches. Their love of luster is shown in the stacking up of domes and still more in confronting the walls with slabs of marble, in mosaics, in gold and coloring material ornaments, and in the many-coloured marbles of the columns and other architectural inside informations. Nothing seems to uncover the character of Byzantine architecture so much as the absence of work in the higher signifiers of sculpture, and the alteration of high into low ornament by agencies of interlacing traceries, in which the qi selled decorations became flatter, more additive, and lacelike. Besides the anterooms which originally surrounded St. Sophia, the columns with their capitals recall the old-timer. These columns about constantly supported arches alternatively of the architrave and were, for that ground, reinforced by a block of rock placed on top and shaped to conform to the arch. Gradually, nevertheless, the capital itself was cut to the broader signifier of a abbreviated square pyramid, as in St. Sophia. The capitals are at times rather bare, when they serve at the same clip as customss or intermediate supporting blocks, at other times they are marked with monograms or covered with a web of carving, the latter transforming them into basketlike capitals. Flat ornamentations of flowers and animate beings are besides found. The fortress like character of the church edifices, the crisp look of the constructive signifiers, the chunky visual aspect of the domes, the basic grouping of many parts, these are all more in conformity with the coarser work of the ulterior period of the Byzantine. Two other types of Justinian’s clip are presented by the renovated church of the Apostles and the church of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus. Both churches are in the capital. It is a dome-crowned octagon with an exterior aisle. The former church was built on the program of a Grecian Cross with four equal weaponries with a dome over the crossing and one over each arm. During the period of the Macedonian emperors, Basil I and Leo VI, an upward tendency in political relations, literature, and art set in. The Grecian basilica, which is a elongated construction, barrel-vaulted and provided with one or more domes, is besides widely represented in this period, while the western signifier of basilica, with the wooden ceiling wasn # 8217 ; Ts used any longer. A type looking more often is the domical church program or the Greek-cross program. The Koimesis, or Dormitio, in Nicaea has a clear basilica program. The same with the church of the Holy Mother of God at Constantinople, dating from the 10th century, and of the churches of Mt. Athos. The church at Skripu in Boeotia, of the same period, has three naves each stoping in an apsis, but the dome crowns the center of the edifice as in the Greek- cross type. The outsides of these churches, which are normally instead little, are treated with greater attention and are artistically decorated with alternations of rock and brick, smaller domes over the anterooms, a richer system of domes, and the lift of these domes by agencies of membranophones. The insides are decorated really nicely. It seems that they could non make plenty in this regard. This can still be seen in the church of St. Luke in Phocis, at Daphni, in the Nea Moni at Chio, and others. In this period the perfected art of the capital becomes the theoretical account for the imperium every bit good as for parts beyond its boundary lines: Syria, Armenia, Russia, Venice, Middle and Southern Italy, and Sicily. For the West, it is merely necessary to advert the church of St. Mark at Venice. After its business by the Reformers in 1204, Constantinople partially lost its character and at the same clip the far-reaching influence of its communicating with Western states. There still remained four Centres of Byzantine art: the capital itself, Mt. Athos, Hellas, and Trebizond. The architecture of Mt. Athos presents the most faithful contemplation of the Byzantine manner. The theoretical account of the church of the monastery of Laura, belonging to the old period, is more or less dependably reproduced. A dome, supported on four sides by barrel vaults, stands straight over the center of the transept, which is terminated at either terminal by a unit of ammunition apsis. The existent architectural decorations are forced into the background by the dearly-won mosaics and which practically cover all available wall surface. The architecture of this period remained still. Bibliography the short history of the Byzantium Empire 1986 measure blackman

Industrial Applications of Computers Case Study

Industrial Applications of Computers - Case Study Example Profitable papermaking means continuous production with minimal deviations from quality specifications. While steady-state control performance is essential, the elimination of waste during transitions such as changes of grades and break recoveries is where the greatest economic gains can be achieved. As production rates rise, often stretching the design capacity of the paper machine, Quality Control Systems (QCS) allow the company to improve the efficiency and quality of the production. This is evident from the significant new developments in quality measurement and control since the introduction of cross direction (CD) control seen in the past years since the 1970s.For paperboard manufacturing using the paper machines, it is necessary to establish the control system that provides a high-mix, low-volume product production. Control parameters are the key component of optimizing the operation, and so the paperboard company should consider an advanced performing QCS. In many cases, the control parameters of paperboard production facilities are normally fixed to the same value using a typical product. Many of these paper production facilities operates in a high mix, low-volume condition because the equipment are consolidated and diverse products are produced to satisfy the end user’s request. Moreover, the paperboard production equipment is often disturbed by the processes of feed preparation or by auxiliary systems. It is for this reason that the control parameters require optimization.... Control parameters are the key component of optimizing the operation, and so the paperboard company should consider an advanced performing QCS. In many cases, the control parameters of paperboard production facilities are normally fixed to the same value using a typical product. Many of these paper production facilities operates in a high mix, low-volume condition because the equipment are consolidated and diverse products are produced to satisfy the end user’s request. Moreover, the paperboard production equipment is often disturbed by the processes of feed preparation or by auxiliary systems. It is for this reason that the control parameters require optimization by deploying a plug-and-play quality control system. Plug-and-play Quality Control System Network Diagram The plug-and-play QCS is a cost effective tool that is used to monitor and control the processes of producing the paperboards. The QCS will consist of a scanner that is driven by a logic controller that is progra mmable, measurement sensors that are network-ready and a station for operations which is connected to a high speed Ethernet network. The architecture provides unlimited connectivity that helps in configuring the system as part of the mill wide distributed control system for full integration into the business network (Oloufa & Thomas, 1999). The configured system featured an off-the-shelf software suite that is configured for high resolution cross the profiles of the equipment, providing historical trends, statistics as well as the supervisory controls of MD/CD. The QCS system is built with components that meet the standard of the industry providing a generic installation designed give self maintenance to the

Do you agree with Dave Eggers that community service should be Essay

Do you agree with Dave Eggers that community service should be required for college students Why or why not - Essay Example As the saying goes, "get the leader and the masses will follow". I personally agree with Dave Eggers community development strategy, as it will not only benefit the community and the students but the nation as a whole. Students are like droplets of water and when gathered together to perform useful community activities they can be compared to enriching the ocean that surrounds them. These droplets should be used to enrich the community, for example even with a modest 9 hours a year requirement (the equivalent of less than two mornings a year), America would gain 54 million volunteer hours to invigorate the nation's nonprofit organizations such as churches, environment protection groups and college outreach programs; if the community service requirement is made compulsory for all private colleges. In other words, American is wasting 54 million precious volunteer hours a year. The next question to be answered is; would if the college students would like serve the community That is said to be the million dollar question, as they say, "you can take the horse to the water, but can't make it drink". I agree with this quote, but this statement is only true when the horse isn't thirsty. Using the "carrot and stick" method proposed by Dave Eggers, where the students are awarded up to three credits for community service, would get the majority of the students motivated. There are many advantages for the college students to become involved in community service, such as: Community service also helps enhance learning by allowing students to integrate course material with actual issues in a community setting. Community service also takes out the "curiosity" which many students have about the "real world" and would help the students gain valuable practical life experiences or even valuable history lessons, like meeting a World War II veteran. Another valuable ingredient for the idea of community service to be a long-term success that is needed is instilling patriotism amongst the students. Community service should be showcased as something to be proud of like when you high grades in the exam. This would remove the temptation to quit halfway through, which was the case for Dave Eggers. Prevention is better than cure; thus community service can prove to be the answer to many problems like drug addition, gangs, etc. Doing something constructive, like community services will stop the students from getting into destructive activities like drugs. Community service plays an important role in personality development. Volunteering will him the student be balanced and indulge in activities that will be to help others. Community service will also help the students develop and hone, "soft skills" that are very much in demand in today's job market. Community service can also act as an anti-depressant by being of service to others. At the same time, it is also important for the student to volunteer in that activity or activities that he or she likes, for example if a person is religious he or she should rather volunteer to help out at a church than at a conservation group. Programs such as the, President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, launched in 2006, recognizes institutions of higher education that support exemplary student community service and service-learning programs,

Competition Faced by Magiqads in the UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Competition Faced by Magiqads in the UK - Essay Example Transport- Railway & underground systems, airports, buses, taxis, and trucksides, etc form the core of transport medium. Due to its high street presence in areas where roadside marketing takes a back leap, it is one of the most popular outdoor advertising medium. A full service media house based in Kuala Lumpur, Magiqads uses 3D-floor imaging technology called 'Floorstoppers' (patented in London). Some of the esteemed companies with whom Magiqads has signed long term deals include Tesco's, Airports (Langkawi / Penang etc.), Universities, and the Kuala Lumpur monorail. Our partnerships include the University of Malaya (graphic design & creative skills) and 3M, who provide the laminate and training for our media installers. Brands who advertise with Magiqads in SE Asia include Sony Ericsson / Diageo / Coca-Cola / Adidas / Swatch and Unilever. The company is soon going to launch its services in the UK. But, the road of survival and success in UK would definitely not be an easy task. UK already has a number of well established firms in the field of outdoor advertising. There are number of big and small firms providing advertising services in the UK. ... To survive and compete in such a highly competitive market, Magiqads has to create a niche for itself by providing best and innovative services at a price that beats its competitors. The kind of fierce competition that Magiqads will have to face in the UK can be seen by this example- Technology Boosts Outdoor Ads As Competition Becomes Fiercer4 In 1994, when the billboard companies bid for the world's biggest outdoor advertising contract -- to hang up posters throughout the London subway system - all what was offered was to hang up posters. Recently, when the project came up again, it sparked a bidding war among the top providers of outdoor advertising space. The winner, CBS Corp., promised to install hundreds of television screens and projectors to beam advertisements on the walls. It spent years developing a way to stick up posters without glue (Aaron O. Patrick, 2006). This reflects the changing scenario and increasing competition in the outdoor advertising market in UK. Companies are trying to outdo their rivals by providing new, creative, and innovative techniques at a price better than others. In this kind of scene, if Magiqads have to survive and succeed, it will have to create a niche for itself by providing best and innovative services at a price that beats its competitors. Some of the leading outdoor advertising companies that will give a tough competition to Magiqads in UK are Clearchannel, JC Decaux and Titan, CBS. Clearchannel UK has established their brand and provide more than 70,000 advertising opportunities across 6 Sheets, billboards, premium formats and taxis5. JC Decaux- JC Decaux has an unbeatable presence in all major cities of UK including Manchester, London, Birmingham, and Glass

Pick up a topic from my PDF Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Pick up a topic from my PDF - Essay Example It is believed that the first cellular life forms were anaerobic heterotrophs because they lacked fully functional mitochondria. For example, majority of parabasalids and diplomonads are found in surroundings that lack oxygen. These protists do not contain plastid. In addition, their mitochondria are short of DNA and enzymes required for the tricarboxylic acid cycle. They also lack an electron transport chain. In other species, the mitochondria are extremely tiny. In these species, the cytosol contains cofactors that take part in production of ATP. A common example of a diplomonad is Girdia intestinalis got by taking contaminated water. Girdia thrives in mammals’ intestines where there is inadequate oxygen. Parabasalids include trichomonads such as Trichomonas vaginalis, which live in the vagina of female human beings (an anaerobic environment). Trichomonas vaginalis outgrow other beneficial bacteria and infect the vaginal lining under suitable conditions of acidity. Protists generally carry out three main metabolic activities, which are photosynthesis, nitrogen fixation, and respiration. Metabolic paths in Protists involve many materials and pathways, some of which are unique to this group only. Blue-green algae or the cyanobacteria use chlorophyll a and other pigments known as phycobilins for photosynthesis. Phycobilins have two colors, phycocyanin (blue) and phycoerythrin (red). Thylakoid-like membranes hold chlorophyll a just like in plants. Purple and green bacteria are anaerobes that utilize sulphur compounds, fatty acids, and alcohols as electron donors during the energy generating processes. Photosystem 2 in plants appeared to have evolved from photosynthesis in purple bacteria whereas, in bacteria, this system is a predecessor of photosystem 1. Prokaryotes are the only living things that have the ability to fix free nitrogen from the atmosphere. Endosymbiosis played an extremely large role in the evolution of prokaryotic and eukaryotic protists. Endosymbiosis involved unicellular organisms engulfing other cells. These cells in return evolved into organelles in the hosts’ cells. For example, the original eukaryotes obtained mitochondria as a result of swallowing up alpha proteobacteria. Studies of all protists indicate that they all have mitochondria, or at least previously contained them. Later on, a descendant of heterotrophic eukaryotes obtained a photosynthetic cyanobacterium as an endosymbiont. This photosynthetic cyanobacterium later changed to a plastid. Red and green algae arose from this lineage. Scientific evidence of this phenomenon is the similarity in the DNA sequences of cyanobacteria and plastids in red and green algae. These algae also went through secondary endosymbioisis through the process of evolution on a number of incidences. They were swallowed in a heterotrophic eukaryotes’ food vacuole and became endosymbionts. Chlorarachniophytes is a good example of algae that progressed from such a process. Fossils of protists and other microscopic organisms are contained in microfossils. Microfossil records indicate that prokaryotes were the earliest forms of being in the world for a long time (about 3.5 billion years ago). Protists came after the prokaryotes at some 1.5 billion years ago. Fossil records are able to give distinctions between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells in terms of the internal cell compositions. Zonation on a Local and Global Scale Zones are biological phenomena that

Cultural Identity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Cultural Identity - Essay Example It creates a certain stereotype that is more often not well justified or has no basis at all. My cultural identity is shaped and influenced by an ancient cultural Chinese tradition of filial obedience based on the teachings of Confucius, a feeling of belonging and affiliation with the entire Chinese nation, including the overseas Chinese in many other countries, and it is because of the Chinese civilization being the oldest continuously existing civilization in the world today, with its unique language (the most difficult to learn and master) and system of its writing (based on characters), and pride in resurgent China after two centuries of being under Western colonial powers. There is equality among sexual genders although under the present regime, families prefer baby boys to baby girls because of its one-child per family policy to help contain its ever-increasing large population. Although the Chinese people is composed of many ethnic groups, there is only one national language, which is Mandarin, and despite its huge geographic size, China officially has only one time z one (it covers five time zones) for easier governance and administration. A Chinese person is able to connect and feel an affinity with another Chinese anywhere in the world due to this single language for communication. I have come over to the United States of America as an international student, and one of my subjects in school is inter-cultural communications. This is the first time I experienced the concept of white privilege, in which people of the white race feel a sense of entitlement to all the good things in life, and taking these things for granted as something that is due to them (Martin 55) in a daily pattern of dominance, subordination, and privilege. It is unspoken type of privileged class, with white males looking down on the females (regardless of skin color) as sexual objects, made of

Aspects of a particular culture Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Aspects of a particular culture - Research Paper Example This paper will focus on just two aspects of Indian culture, namely religion and marriage. More than 80% of Indians would regard themselves as adherents of the Hindu religion, while some 12% are Muslim and there are small minorities of Christian, Sikh and other religions each numbering between 2 and 3%. These numbers may appear small, but when one considers that the population of India is over 1.15 billion people, it is clear that they also are significant in size. The focus here will be the Hindu majority, though it should be remembered that the other religions also have their place in Indian society. One of the first things that strike a visitor to India is the pervasive influence of the caste system. Fuller (1992, p.3) points out that the Indian form of greeting is a symbolic act which reflects this main tenet of the Hindu world view. The hands are placed together, fingers pointing upwards, and the head is bowed, while the person says â€Å"namaste† which is the word for this gesture of respect. There are more elaborate forms, such as bowing low, or even lying prostrated on the ground, and more cursory forms, such as a mere flick of the head and hand. People use this gesture to greet people, and also to show respect to the many gods and goddesses that abound in their temples across the land. What this gesture reveals is that the Hindu religion is based upon a hierarchical inequality. Unlike a European handshake, the Hindu greeting expresses a fundamental asymmetry of rank in which both parties are aware of their own and the other’s place. So, for example, a wife s hows this respect to her husband, and so does a child to his or her parents, and an employee to his or her employer. This hierarchical structure is evident all across the society, and whole groups, or castes of people are classified with a particular position above and below other castes. A second

QI Initiative On Reducing Nosocomial Infections In Wards Essay

QI Initiative On Reducing Nosocomial Infections In Wards - Essay Example NHSN is a public health surveillance system that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supports for its healthcare-associated infection (HAI) prevention program (Dudeck, et al, 2013). Standardized Infection Ratio (SIR) is the National metric used to make comparisons of an observed number of nosocomial infections in the entire US during a particular period with the national baseline experiences. For instance, the 5 year National Prevention Target which ends in 2013 stands at a 50% reduction in Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infection (CLBSI) in both intensive care unit (ICU) and wards located patients. This figure translates to a National Standardized Infection Ratio (SIR) for CLABSI=0.5. In other words, the national benchmark for nosocomial infections is SIR=0.5 as at 2013. It is noteworthy that SIR is often adjusted based on a number of the predictor of CLABSI, which include teaching status, location type, central line utilization, and bedside. The SIR data is vital in the sense that it indicates whether the infection rate is better, worse, or at the national benchmark. ... After exclamations about the fate of the large patient population who were seen to be ailing frequently from infections, the issue was finally brought to the attention of the top managers of the organization as well as clinicians. There was a final consensus among all the stakeholders that the rate of infections was too high and thus the need for immediate response to contain the situation and finally bring the rates below average numbers. The problem of hospital-acquired infection looks solvable though it remains a nagging problem not only to Clinix but also to most hospitals across the globe. Nosomica infections are undoubtedly a major burden on all of us. They claim the significant number of lives as well as a large amount of money. A large number of patients succumb to such nosocomial infections from time to time and our management team did not want our cherished clients to form part of that unfortunate statistics. The infection rate of SIR=2.9 was alarming for the stakeholders a nd as such, the entire management team felt the entrenched need to reduce infection rates in the wards making it a priority for the organization. According to the previous rates recorded by the organization concerning Nosocomial infections, the past two years have recorded the highest infection rates, which stood at SIR=2.1 and 2.4 respectively. In fact, there was great concern that if this issue is not addressed in good time then there was the likelihood of higher prevalence in the future.  Ã‚  

Beazer Homes Case Essay Example for Free

Beazer Homes Case Essay Investors were lead to believe that the company financials were healthier than they actually were, as evidenced by the changes noted when the financial statements had to be restated. As a result of doing this, investors who were under the impression of a healthier position, continued to invest in an organization that was essentially doing nothing more than stealing their money; money which could have been invested into a different enterprise rather than padding the pockets of executives that didnt earn it. As a result of having to restate financial statements, the per share price of Beazer Homes dropped from the $35/share price level in may, to approximately $11/share by the end of July. This is a significant loss in wealth for investors. In addition to the allegations against Mr. Rand for possible accounting fraud, allegations were also brought against Beazer Homes for mortgage fraud. To address the question as to which is a more serious offense, it would be our opinion that both would carry an equal weight of seriousness. On the one hand, investors were misled, as noted above, and this led to a significant loss of wealth for many, especially those individuals and/or institutions that may have held a large position. On the other hand, to address the issue of mortgage fraud, new homeowners were oftentimes cheated out of money that they paid to Beazer Homes. A example of this is when Beazer Homes would require purchasers to pay a fee for interest discount points at closing. Then Beazer Homes would keep the cash received and not lower the interest rate. This is just one example, but it can be an extremely costly one when you look at how much a . 25 percent or . 5 percent reduction in an interest rate can be over the life of a 20 or 30 year fixed rate mortgage; thats if Beazer Homes wasnt trying to convince people that an adjustable rate or hybrid mortgage would be better for their situation. Additionally, Beazer Homes ignored income requirements when making loans to unqualified purchasers, which not only put the purchaser in jeopardy of having the income needed to make their ayments, but in the event of default or foreclosure, it can have a significant impact on the home values of the neighborhood. As a result of these legal issues with Beazer Homes, the SEC issued a notice to the Beazer Homes CEO called the Wells notice. The Wells notice was created under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which states that if a firm has to restate their financial statements, the SEC can require the CEO and CFO to return any and all bonuses that were received during the period of restated financial statements. Additionally, the CEO and CFO do not need to have any knowledge of errors. The SEC issued the Wells notice to the Beazer Homes CEO, Ian J. McCarthy, on 13 November 2009, indicating that the SEC would be brining a civil case against him to collect incentive compensation. In the notice issued to the CEO, there was no indication or allegations of cover-up, or misconduct, on the part of Mr. McCarthy with respect to the financial statements or other disclosures that were published during the period in question.

Fast Food Essay Example for Free

Fast Food Essay Market and environmental analysis of McDonalds Corp – 2003. Market and environmental analysis is an essential part of an organization’s External Analysis. The main objectives of a market analysis are; a)To determine how attractive a market is. b)To understand the dynamics of the market and amend strategies accordingly. Here we apply the dimensions of a Market Analysis to McDonalds corp. 1)Emerging submarkets; McDonalds failed to recognize the changing trend in customer’s preferences to better tasting, fresher food. This trend led to new sub markets emerging for tastier, fresher and fast food perceived as healthier. A few of the smaller/privately owned competitors (Cosi and Quizno’s) were able to operate in niche markets selling gourmet sandwiches and salads. The emergence of smaller restaurants offering easy access to exotic foods such as sushi and burritos created a more specialized niche market. 2)Size and Growth; With the emergence of these sub-markets and niche markets, McDonalds started losing market share. It now had to share its fast-food mass market with these newly created markets. Even though these restaurant chains were small in size, their growth opportunities presented a potential threat to McDonalds. They operated on service that was better than McDonalds at the same time providing better tasting food, which led to an increase in its sales. This sector was in the early stages of growth where as McDonalds was past the maturity stage. 3)Profitability; McDonalds profitability can be gauged by using Porters 5 factor model. a)Intensity of competition among existing customers was relatively high. Direct competitors like Wendy’s and Chik-Fil-A were able to out perform. McDonalds based on service quality by providing quicker service. In comparison McDonalds had a large number of franchises, but will falling service time. b)Threat of new entrants: Other market niches like quizo’s, cosi and small restaurants offering exotic foods also provided a high degree of competition to McDonalds by offering food that appealed to changing customer preferences. The only barrier to entry that McDonalds used was to open a large number of franchises and offer an inexpensive menu; this is however changing as franchisees are leaving McDonalds, lowering the barriers to entry. c)Substitute products would include fast food options available in leading supermarkets, and cafe’s offering exotic foods like sushi. d)Bargaining power of customers. Customers are the main source of income for McDonalds. Customers were not happy with the menu offered at McDonalds and hence took their custom to other restaurants, leading to a drop in sales. e)Bargaining power of suppliers: McDonalds aimed to keep their menu prices low (source more details about suppliers) 4)Cost structure McDonalds strategic focus was on cost and service. In order to raise service quality new kitchens were installed. However, this installation was done for some franchises that did not need it and where the new additions did not help improve business. In order to keep the price of its burgers low, it asked the franchises to sell at a loss. Example: Promoting a $1 burger when the cost to make it was $1. 07. This lack in foresight resulted in rising costs to franchise owners who responded by leaving McDonalds and going over to competitors. This snowballed into falling investor confidence resulting in falling equity. Another cost issue was investing in too many takeovers which it couldn’t handle at the same time as improving service quality and revamping the menu. 5)Distribution Systems McDonalds distribution system was the large and growing number of franchises. However not many of the franchises were posting profits and as per Exhibit 1, more than 500 would have to be closed. One of McDonalds strengths is its distribution system, where in customers come in and have the same experience that they have at any other store. However, this can also be a weakness as providing a consistent experience soon becomes ordinary. 6)Market Trends. The fast food casual market was quickly breaking up into fragments. With the rising immigrant population customers now had a choice of items. McDonalds realize this too late and try to counter this effect by introducing new burgers. However, the testing of the new menu does not gauge strongly enough the changing customer preferences and this poor planning led to its failure. Internally changing trends were also blindsided. Franchisees who were the closest to customers were not included in decision making and were thus disgruntled. Here was the need to change the management style from top-down to bottom-up. This would have solved some of the issues plaguing McDonalds, by providing data on what customers want and what products would have a greater chance of success. 7)Key success Factors McDonalds did have some strengths or key success factors; a)Large number of franchises that led to economies of scale. This however contrasted to the ‘small is beautiful’ concept of the niche markets. b)Complete training for franchisees to begin and run their own McDonalds proved to be a good team building exercise. c)Cost of food was low due to economies of scale and economies of size. Moreover, McDonalds was able to negotiate a reasonable price for high quality food products. McDonalds failed to realize the changing trends in the casual fast food markets, as a result of which, a large part of the market share was taken over by existing brands like Wendy’s and new players like Panera bread co. The company also failed to acknowledge competition from the niche markets serving gourmet and exotic foods. This lack in analysis led to lowering of entry barriers for new entrants, loss of market share to competitors (Wendy’s, Chick-Fil-A. ), disgruntled franchisees, and a drop in sales leading to a fall in equity value. Environmental Analysis 1)Political: 2)Economic: 3)Socio-Cultural: There are three cultural forces that influence marketers: a) persistence of cultural values, b) subcultures and c) shifts in secondary cultural values. Of the three, secondary cultural values carry the largest influence on the fast-food market. When the market is interested in convenience, they are more likely to buy fast food; if the markets secondary values shift and become interested in fitness and health, they will be less likely to buy fast food. (Monash university, 2006) The case shows this shift to gourmet and healthier foods. 4)Technological: McDonalds had begun to notice the importance of technology. The organization was looking at new technological solutions like ERP to improve their supply chain (Newman, 2002) 5)Environmental: 6)Legal: References: Monash university, 2006, Briohny’s Report, Language and Learning Online, Retrieved on 06 May 2008. http://www. monash. edu. au/lls/llonline/writing/business-economics/marketing/3. 3. 2. xml Newman, K, 2002. McDonalds seeks closer electronic relations, iStart. com:Technology in business, www. istart. co. nz, retrieved on 06 May 2008. http://www. istart. co. nz/index/HM20/PC0/PVC197/EX245/AR22537.

Irelands Sovereign Debt Crisis

Irelands Sovereign Debt Crisis Both the Fed and the ECB use similar tools to implement monetary policy, although some differences do exist between the method used to manage the money and influence short term interest rates (Cecchetti OSullivan, 2003). The fed conduct an overnight repurchase agreements (repos) which are made of collateralized loans. The fed provide reserves to a small number of designated dealers in exchange for government securities, and agree to reserve the transaction at a future date. The Fed decide each morning the level of reserves to supply, by forecasting the demand of reserves the goal by doing so is to keep the federal funds rate as close to its target as possible. However, in case of sustained increases in reserves demand the Fed purchases government securities outright in the secondary market.   With the reserve requirements, the Fed has another tool to stabilize the demand for reserves and also it makes it easier to control the fed funds rates. At the same time the discount rate gives us the cost of funds available to banks to borrow through the discount window. Banks are obliged to finish all other sources of financing before going to discount window. Although funds in the discount window are a vailable at a rate lower than the market rate, borrowing in the discount window is perceived as the bank being in trouble. According to the definition from Wikipedia, An open market operation (OMO) is an activity by a central bank to give (or take) liquidity in its currency to (or from) a bank or a group of banks. The central bank can either buy or sell government bonds in the open market (this is where the name was historically derived from) or, which is now mostly the preferred solution, enter into a repo or secured lending transaction with a commercial bank: the central bank gives the money as a deposit for a defined period and synchronously takes an eligible asset as collateral (Open market operation, 2017). From the perspective of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB), identify and explain how the short term policy rate is implemented as part of monetary policy. Describe identifiable economic target variables that these central banks attempt to control and the degree of transparency applied in implementing policy. Incorporate a discussion of how operating procedures and institutional practice are managed in the respective jurisdictions (U.S. and Eurozone). Make reference to Wikipedias description of Open Market Operations. Compare and contrast where appropriate. Make reference to Taylor (1993), The Cecchetti Chapters 15 and 16. During the two decades before 2007, the Irish economy made a significant progress through implementation of wide range of policies. Those policies helped the country to stimulate productivity. The country industrial policies focused successfully on encouraging export-oriented foreign direct investment. Adding to that the country focused on improving education with large expansion of the third level sector. As result of those policies, the Irish economy outpaced advanced economies, and its labor productivity was not far from US by mid-2000. The country put a lot of people into work during the Celtic Tiger, for a country that did not have a lot of institution it was a huge labor participation. In the late 1980 the country had 1.1 million of people at work but by 2007 It grew to 2.1 Million. While the country in late 1980 had a low rate of labor force participation, from mid-1990 onwards Irish people who lived abroad started to take job at home. Due to that the Irish economy became incr edible employment creating machine. The country lowed tax rates and raised public spending. Given that; the country experimented a very gracious growth, and at the same time it had sufficient tax revenue to generate budget surplus. While the country was wishing for that period to last forever, things did not go like that and the bubble popped in 2007. Factors that contributed to Irelands Sovereign debt crisis Huge deficit: Banking crisis:   International borrowing of the 6 mains banks in Ireland rose from less than 15billion in 2003 to almost 100 Billion by 2007the credit boom and acceleration of housing activity were all financed by the Irish banks. Whelan (2011) stated that prior to 2003 they operated normally, with the boom they changed strategy and increased their property lending at rapid rates and financed much of this expansion with bonds issued to international investors. That created a huge exposure of the Irish banks to property developers, as the only way for the banks to get their money back was if the housing price kept increasing. As most of the property developers found misfortune during the collapse of the housing boom, it was difficult for those banks to get their money back and at the same time they found it hard to raise funds on bond markets as international investors became concern about their exposure. In what ways is Ireland Sovereign Debt Crisis akin to the crisis experienced in other Eurozone jurisdictions. In what way is it different? As Ireland a lot of countries in the Eurozone were operation a debt/GDP ratio above 90% prior to 2000, and with joining the Eurozone and changing currency some of them saw a growth of the economy in a way they were not expecting. The major banks of the Eurozone were all highly exposed to the losses in the US market in asset-backed securities. The end of the credit boom saw the economy growth of countries that were benefiting from it slowed down, they saw a fall in their fiscal revenues. The banking sector of some of the Eurozone countries deteriorated in way that for the outside world investors they posed fiscal risks. At one point they represented such a risk for the overall euro that they were shout out of the bond market. While the crisis experienced by other countries in the Eurozone was in some way similar to Ireland, the difference was the other countries were running large and sustained external deficits. However, in Ireland the government through the boom of the housing market focused less on taxing income taxes but most of the revenue of the government was from taxing the property developing market. According to Philip R. Lane (2012) in Ireland the government was not a net borrower during 2003-2007 while in countries like Portugal and Greece the government and corporations were both significant borrowers. Lane (2012) argued that the origin and propagation of the European sovereign debt crisis can be attributed to the flawed original design of the euro. While the euro area enjoyed years of happiness and growth, it was a half concept since from the beginning it was built of the Dollar union. There was an incomplete understanding of the fragility of a monetary union during crisis. Furthermore, it was created without a significant degree of banking union or fiscal union. While originally the monetary union was designed to tackle the over-borrowing of some countries, retaining national responsibility for financial regulation and fiscal policy never took away the risks some countries was building from years. With the euro, the fiscal risks increased before the crisis as the euro made finance available to countries which already had problem controlling their debt/GDP ratio. During the crisis it was more difficult to save the banks, and also the fiscal costs of rescuing them increased. If the euro was same as the dollar, the monetary union would have been out of the crisis quicker than what actually happened. The single currency took away the tools for a country to adjust its economy during time of crisis. First, cutting the interest rates to stimulate demand, but at the start of the crisis the ECB did the opposite and raised the interest rate, which put countries like Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Greece and others in a bad position. The second was to devaluate the currency in order to boost exports. While most countries that were hit at the same time as Euro managed to recover from the financial crisis, the difficulty of pulling the same trick failed here as the recovery is slow and some of the euro countries still hang on the edge of collapsing. Definition and Characteristics of hedge funds It is not clearly defined what hedge funds are, but different typical characteristics are enumerated in order to give some clarification on what they were. Stulz (2007) defined them as unregulated pools of money managed by an investment advisor, the hedge fund manager, who has a great deal of flexibility. Cottier, 2000 and Jakobsons, 2002 agreed with Stulz, 2007 on the fact that they are all form of investment funds, companies and private partnerships that use derivatives for directorial investing. Those investments are permitted to go short and also use a substantial leverage through borrowing. Hedge funds have a limited number of investors who can participate, and also they cannot make public offering in order to avoid regulation. Ahedge fund is typically a collection of funds managed by the hedge fund manager-typically through a separately organized company, the management company (Stulz, 2017). Hedge fund managers focus on maximise the increase in investment value rather than sim ply perform better than average. They are paid based on the amount of wealth increase they made, and most of their compensation depends on giving investors a positive absolute return. Stulz (2007) argued that the hedge fund industry may have played more of a role in creating liquidity and making markets efficient than the mutual fund industry. The hedge fund industry could do so because it was generally not regulated, so that funds were free to take whatever positions they wanted and to make full use of financial innovations. As hedge funds are enormously free from regulations that hold back mutual funds to operate at the best capacity, they have developed a better sophisticated, unconventional and proprietary investment strategies. Hedge fund means that risks are being hedge in order, but for some hedge funds take an aggressing approach with no particular hedging policy. The fees of a hedge funds are higher and depend on the performance which distinguishes them from mutual funds. Certain funds do not have the opportunity to take short positions, invest in derivatives but investing in hedge funds give them a simple way to expand their scope of investing. Hedge fun ds managers are given the chance to search for profitable opportunities that other investors do not have the resources or expertise to find. Looking at the track of top hedge funds managers, we can affirm that they very much found these opportunities. Hedge funds often make profits by providing liquidity to the markets by buying securities that are temporarily depressed because of market disruptions (Stulz, 2017). Furthermore, a hedge fund manager focuses on achieving absolute returns by finding as many profit opportunities as possible that are immune to market gyrations-in industry lingo, generating alpha (returns uncorrelated to market performance) rather than beta(imf, 2017). According to Duffie and Stein (2015) how was LIBOR manipulated by Banks and Traders? What solutions do they propose? From definition, LIBOR is the London Interbank offered Rate, it is a daily fixed rate used by the banks to borrow between each other. LIBOR play a central role as benchmark in modern financial markets. During the financial crisis of 2007-2009, banks were more concerned on the image they sent to the world. None of them wanted to be seen as creditworthy than others. As result from such behavior, when the banks were polled to produce LIBOR, some understated their costs. Which is known as a form of manipulation. In other cases, traders looking for profit on a position would ask bank officials to bias their reports. By doing so they would cause the benchmark to move one way or the other. In some instances, more significant distortions were achieved through collusion that coordinated the misreporting among several banks (Duffie Stein, Spring 2015). Various policymaking group that acknowledged the manipulation problem associated with LIBOR believed that it would be in the best interest of financial market to part away with the current practice. They wanted to change from the fixing LIBOR rates using judgmental submissions from a panel of banks something more secure. According to Duffie and Stein (2015) different types of solution might be worth looking into. They acknowledge that a transition from the current methodology to something might be hard to do but necessary if we wanted to tackle the problem. Their first solution was using the interest rates set by the Federal reserve as benchmark. The federal reserve set two rates: the rate it pays to banks on their excess and the overnight reserve repurchase rate. Because those rates are used to implement monetary policy and are set by Federal reserve they are shield from manipulation. Another solution they put forward was the use of the rate on short-term treasury bills. While this market is not manipulation-proof, it is certainly much deeper and more active than the market for unsecured bank borrowing (Duffie Stein, Spring 2015). Although this solution may provide some benefits, in some moments of stress on the economy they realised that investors tend to walk away from it. However, they concluded the merit in using should make us give some careful consideration. Treasury general collateral risk repo rate is another near-riskless rate they argued might be a solution. It is made of the average rate at which dealers acquire overnight financing secured by treasury securities. It is a market that is highly liquid and as the treasury bill, we would expect general collateral repo rates to be robust to manipulation. The last one is the overnight index swap, according to Duffie and Stein (2015) it pays a predetermined fixed interest rate in exchange for receiving the compounded daily federal funds rate over the 3-months term of the contract. An advantage of OIS is that it does not incorporate the same kind of safe-haven premium as Treasury bills (Duffie Stein, Spring 2015). A liquid derivatives market has an incentive of manipulation from the participants using the underlying benchmark. As big as the derivatives market is, one should expect a flaw in efficiently operating in and manipulation should be considered as the inevitable cost of doing business.   Cause reforming the whole system at this point would cost a lot money and time and would not necessary tackle the problem. According to Armour et al (2011) what has been the impact of bank fines on Banks. Explain the event study methodology as proposed by Armour et al (2011) to determine the impact of bank fines. as stated by Armour, Mayer and Polo (2011) a firms reputation reflects the expectations of partners of the benefits of trading with it in the future. They believed certain types of revelation may be expected to impact negatively on trading parties expectations of a firms future performance. An announcement by a regulator that a firm has engaged in misconduct may constitute precisely this type of revelation. They observed that the penalized firms stock prices experience statistically significant abnormal losses of approximately nine times the fines and compensation paid. They interpreted the fall in equity market value in excess of mandated payments as the firms reputational loss (Armour, Mayer, Polo, 2017). They used the statistical method to assess the impact of the public announcement of misconduct on the value of the firms. It was done in order to see how the investors respond to such news about the firms. The basic idea is to calculate the irregular price reaction around the event, using the market model as benchmark model for normal returns. They used a pioneer methodology by Fama et al (1969) which evaluates the reaction of stock price to the public announcement of misconduct. Adding to that They followed the residual approach used by Jarrel and Peltzman (1985), Karpoff and Lott (1993) and Karpoff, Lee and Martin (2008). Using 260 days period, they analysed the ordinary least square regression of Ri,t, and Rm,t which are the returns on firm is common stocks on day t and the index of market returns on day t. They use this formula Reputational loss = ΆVt Fine Compensation to measure the reputational losses. After getting the 3 days average cumulative abnormal returns of -1.68% which represent an average of the effect of all press statements. Then their sample was decomposed into cases which characterised investors and customers and also third parties in order to see the effect of press statements referring to misconduct that affected them. In the third parties group we had entities like the states, other companies investors. Doing this allows us to see that shareholder wealth effects are highly dependent on this stratification (Armour, Mayer, Polo, 2017). They observed that there is a -2.62% share price drop when the wrongdoing affects the customers and investors, a 0.24% increase when it is third parties. This is consistent with theories which suggest that revelation of information of misconduct by a firm will cause its trading partners its customers and investors to downgrade their assessments of its quality and adversely affect its terms of trade (Armour, Mayer, Polo, 2017). Why is banker pay relevant? Are bankers paid too much for what they are doing as job? Why even after the financial crisis bankers are still paid huge sum of money when other workers in different sectors saw their salaries cut due to the recession? Those are some of the questions that have been bothering people for quite sometimes now. Bebchuk, Cohen and Spamann (2010) performed an analysis using the period of 200-2008. They compared the performance of companies directed by top earning CEO to their salaries. In order to analyze if they were really worth paying those salaries. They found that those companies operated on incentive basis. Those firms bonus compensation structure, gave executives the incentives to seek improvement in short term earning figures even at the cost of losing the investments in the future. Originally the executives take the money and invest them to maximize the profit. The higher the risk the more profit the investments will make. Most executives focus on the bonus they will collect on those investments, the higher the risks they are taking, higher will be the bonus they will collect. And when the investments go bust and turn into massive losses, they still hold on to the bonus they made. Most banks arrange their pay in that way because they want excessive profitability. Most banks will prefer to retain the services of extraordinarily talented traders. In order to attract those people, they are ready to pay substantial premium for their services. In football you have Messi and Ronaldo and the rest follow, same principle with top tr aders (best CEO). The decision bankers make not just affect the bank but the economy as a whole which is why most firms are willing to provide a good incentive in order to be profitable. Also there is a notion that if you pay a banker in a good way it perform better. In the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008-2009, there widespread beliefs that executive pay arrangements could have encouraged excessive risk-taking and that fixing those arrangements will be important in preventing similar excesses in the future (Bebchuk, Cohen, Spamann, 2017). They argued that during the period 2000-2008, top executives of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers cashed large amounts of performance-based compensation. Annual salaries of those top executives have hardly changed, and kept increasing due bonuses. During the crisis, top bankers in 2011 had their pay fully recovered to the point where they were getting more money than before the crisis. If bankers are paid in a competitive labour market and simply rewarded for their talent, there seems little reason for government intervention, at least on efficiency grounds. That was why in late July 2011 the European commission unveiled its proposals known as CRD IV which covered the following area the bonus cap It restricted the senior staff bonuses to 100% of their fixed remuneration in any given year or 200% with agreement of shareholders. It recommended performance pay based on a combination of an assessment of the individual and the overall results of the firm. In addition, performance should be assessed in a multi-year framework in order to ensure that the assessment process is based on longer-term performance and that the actual payment of performance-based components of remuneration is spread over a period which takes account of the underlying business cycle of the credit institution and its business risks (Ferrarini, 2015). the Pay Out Process Rules the de minimis principle While the CRD IV proposed a very good alternative for bankers remuneration, it is apparent that the application of such are doomed to be limited by the sad reality of our world. It has said the bonus cap is counter-productive, because it drives up fixed pay, reduces firms cyclical cost flexibility and perversely makes material risk takers less personally accountable for risk management failures, by reducing the proportion of their pay that can be lost as a result of any failure (out-law, 2017). It is natural that cutting the incentive of getting high compensation through bonuses would encourage most of the senior staffs to seek a different way to maximize their profit. It will put pressure to increase fixed pay and .Another limitation is the one size fits all approach taken to tackle the problem. Not all the credit institutions are the same, so an incentive structure that may work for one firm is not necessarily suited to another.

Periods of European History that Demonstrated Changing Attitudes Towards the Education of Women :: European Europe History

Periods of European History that Demonstrated Changing Attitudes Towards the Education of Women Throughout the early portion of modern European history, women were never encouraged to undertake any significant education. Though the problem lessened over time, it was still a strong societal force. There were three major time periods when substantial changes took place in attitudes towards women's education -- the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Seventeenth and the early Eighteenth centuries. The earliest time period, the Renaissance, may have actually been the most liberal time period for women's education. The church was the only force at this time that discouraged education. In Erasmus's book "The Abbot and the Learned Lady", The church's position on this issue says that education does not protect the chastity that was necessary for women. There were still, however, a certainty that women could and should be educated. For example, in Castiglione's book "The Courtier", it is stated that women are capable of everything that men are. Also, Roger Ascham has described his female student(the future Queen Elizabeth I) as equally bright as any other male student of his. Furthermore, in a letter by the poet Louise Labe`, she states a need for women to "raise their head above their spindles" and take up studying. The next age, the Reformation and the catholic Reformation, saw a dramatic and conservative change toward the attitudes of education for women. Martin Luther, a leader of the Reformation, was quoted as saying that God made men with broad shoulders to do all the intelligent, and women with broad hips to do the "sitting" and housework. Agreeing with Martin Luther, was Emond Auger, a French Jesuit, who said "there is no need for women to take time out from their work and read the Old and New Testament" and also that "Women must be silent in church". The third age of early modern European history is the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, in which men at large were still strongly against the education of women, but they had reached a compromise to some extent. They allowed women to be educated on a minor level, as Mme. de Maintenon(wife of Louis XIV) says "Educate your middle-class girls in the middle-class way, but don't embellish their minds", but a women could never go beyond that. It seemed also that some men had conflicting view points on this issue. In Moliere's play "The Learned Ladies", educated women are

Essay --

When walking through a grocery store, one can easily forget that at one time, all the food in the store was local. At one time, people would bake their own bread, churn their own butter, and slaughter their own chicken; if they did not do it on their own, they bought these main food items from suppliers of small, local businesses. However, grocery stores are now stocked with pre-sliced bread, packaged butter, and portioned chicken. One can even see that American supermarkets do not have seasons. â€Å"Now there are tomatoes all year round, grown halfway around the world, picked when it was green, and ripened with ethylene gas. Although it looks like a tomato, it's kind of a notional tomato. I mean, it's the idea of a tomato† (Polland, Michael). Tomatoes, as well as other food, have come a long way-–from home grown to industry grown. While food production has evolved considerably over time, it is believed that this dramatic change has caused governments to subsidize farm s, a rapid development in biotechnology leading to an advance in genetic manipulation, and a shift in food questioning what is better, local or organic? Thousands of years ago, people either gathered and collected their food from the wild environment or hunted large and small animals. The process of hunting and gathering was sufficient enough for smaller groups of people found within a suitable environment, but when the population began to grow, people were pushed into areas that made food hard to come by, so they searched for nutritional sources that they could depend on. It is believed that the practice of agriculture first came into existence in the Fertile Crescent region in the Middle East about ten or eleven thousands years B.C.E. The area was home to many consuma... ... could ask Whole Foods' CEO, John Mackey, to help answer his question. According to Cloud, â€Å"He told me that when he can't get locally grown organics--and even he can't reliably get them--he decides on the basis of taste. "I would probably purchase a local nonorganic tomato before I would purchase an organic one that was shipped from California," he said. He called the two tomatoes "an environmental wash," since the California one had petroleum miles on it while the nonorganic one was grown with pesticides. "But the local tomato from outside Austin will be fresher, will just taste better," he said† (Cloud, John). When walking through that grocery store, do not forget that at one time that food use to be local. If we can choose the right food, even if that means searching for healthier, fresher, local food, we can make a difference in our current food issues.

The Stranger Cultural Analysis Essay -- Literary Analysis

This Novel, by Albert Camus, traces a year in the life of a young clerk, Meursault, in the 1940s who works for a shipping company in Algiers. The first thing that happens to Meursault is that he gets a telegram that his mother has departed. He takes a bus to see her and they hold the vigil. He shows no expression of remorse or sadness. Once back in Algiers Meursault goes to the public beach for a swim. There, he runs into Marie Cardona, his former co-worker. They decide to go on a date and they see a comedy movie, which is ironic after his mother’s death, and they sleep together during the night. The next day he spends just watching people in the street. That next day Meursault returns to work and works all day and while at his apartment Meursault runs into Salamano, an old man who lives in his building and owns a mangy dog. He also runs into his neighbor Raymond, who is suspected to be a pimp. Raymond invites Meursault to dinner and asks Meursault to write a nasty letter to t his girl who cheated on Raymond, and Meursault complies. The next Saturday Marie comes over and asks if Meursault loves her, he doesn’t love her and doesn’t show it, and at night Meursault runs into Salamano who is crying over his dog who ran away. The following Sunday Meursault, Marie, and Raymond go to a beach house owned by Masson, one of Raymonds friends. They run into the girl’s, of whom they wrote the letter to, brothers and a knife is pulled on Raymond and cuts him. They both go different ways and later Meursault shoots one of the girl’s brothers. Meursault is then sent to jail and put on trial. He shows no remorse and over time he goes through more trials after being in prison for over a year and he is sentenced to death by the guillotine. The setting... ... has done, and to free him from his entanglement. Works Cited Bufacchi, Vittorio, and Laura Fairrie. "Execution as Torture." Peace Review 13.4 (2001): 511-517. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. Camus, Albert, and Matthew Ward. The Stranger. New York: Knopf, 1993. Print. 24 Apr. 2011. de Cavarlay, Bruno Aubusson. "Can criminal statistics still be of scientific use? The French criminal justice system 1813-1980." Historical Methods 26.2 (1993): 69. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. Scherr, Arthur. "Camus's THE STRANGER." Explicator 59.3 (2001): 149. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. Scott, Nathan A. Albert Camus. New York: Hillary House, 1962. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. Strange, Alice J. "Camus' The Stranger." Explicator 56.1 (1997): 36. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 24 Apr. 2011.

A Research Proposal on the Role of the Chief Executive Officer Essay

Questions One of the major problems in business is the notion of whether companies should be concerned with other issues than profitability. Adam Smith in 1863 claimed that the process of achieving the overall good for the society is something that will happen inevitably happen because of his idea of the invisible hand of the market. However, more contemporary ideas assert otherwise as they believed that there are a number of conditions that would hinder the invisible hand to work effectively (Mohr and Webb, 2002). The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is deeply rooted on the commitment of organizations to continue their business in an ethical manner. It is in this respect that organizations are said to necessarily contribute to the overall economic development of one’s country while at the same time improving the quality of life of not only its employees and its families but also the society where it belonged (Watts and Holme, 1999). One of the central concerns with regard to the necessity of the implementation of CSR by a particular organization is the impact of a particular company’s decisions and actions within the society together with their responsibility in the aforementioned. As such this means that when aligning certain organizational goals or projects, it would be better if organizations will evaluate first their actions and make sure that they are in accordance to the welfare of the greater good (Parsons, 1954). As such, the impact of an organization’s decision within the society is very vital in CSR. It should be emphasized as well that an organization’s duty should span more than the economic and legal aspects but also assume the good of the majority. Archie Carroll said that an organization’s social responsibility is something that includes the interplay of four important factors. These are economic performance, adherence with the law, ethical responsibility, good corporate citizenship, and improving the society’s quality of life (Carrol and Buchholtz, 2003). However despite companies’ claim for CSR implementation, a significant number of evidence tells that every year, there are numerous companies that are charged for violating environmental laws (Kassinis and Panayiotou, 2006, p. 68). Problems The success of a company’s CSR and the its effect on the company’s image has been viewed by a number of studies to be directly correlated on the role of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) (PR News, 2007). It has been said by Kassinis and Panayiotou (2006) that the role of the CEO is very vital since they are the ones who are primarily responsible for the board’s decision-management functions and the even the extent of corporate wrongdoing. The interpretation of the CEO in terms of various environmental issues that could have affect their firms and its choice of environmental strategies have also a significant implication on the overall image and performance of a particular company. Studies such as those conducted by PR News Wire in 2008 claimed that to belong to Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies, the CEO’s role together with his or her capacity to create a strategy or hire specific experts who can effectively handle CSR concerns, such as hiring a competitive Chief Communications Officer (CCO,) is very vital. Companies which belong to Fortune’s annual awards are often evaluated based on their reputation. According to PR News in 2007, it is often the case that CEOs are the ones who are held accountable in terms of the failure to protect the company image in whenever a crisis arises. The study of PR News revealed that in out of 950 global business executives in 11 countries, 68% of the results attributed unethical behavior to the CEO, and 60% cited environmental violations and product recalls to the CEO as well. The influence of the perceptions of various stakeholders, regulators, communities and employees has been viewed by Kassinis and Panayiotou (2006) as critical to the welfare of the firm as they are centrally involved in enforcing the laws and other policies that companies must adhere to. Figure 1: Relationship Between CSR and Stakeholders Source: Tokoro (2007) The figure above shows the direct relationship of stakeholders to CSR in terms of the restrictions that they impose, the resource deals that they pass and the overall value creation of the organization. Gap in Research Even if the claim on the role of CEOs in terms of dealing with issues of CSR and company reputation, other studies suggests that CSR strategies and policies are instead delegated to the shareholders (Kassinis and Panayiotou, 2006, p. 67). It is often the case that the demands of the shareholders are oftentimes in conflict with the interest of customers, suppliers, governments, unions, competitors, local communities, and the general public (Sims, 2003, p. 40). The table below shows an overview of perceptions of Table 1: Stakeholders View of Corporate Responsibility Stakeholders Nature of Stakeholder Claim Shareholders Participation in distribution of profits, additional stock offerings, assets on liquidation; vote of stock; inspection of company books; transfer of stock; election of board of directors; and such additional rights as have been established in the contract with the corporation. Employees Economic, social, and psychological satisfaction in the place of employment. Freedom from arbitrary and capricious behavior on the part of company officials. Share in fringe benefits, freedom to join union and participate in collective bargaining, individual freedom in offering up their services through an employment contract. Adequate working conditions. Customers Service provided with the product; technical data to use the product; suitable warranties; spare parts to support the product during use; R&D leading to product improvement; facilitation of credit. Creditors Legal proportion of interest payments due and return of principal from the investment. Security of pledged assets; relative priority in event of liquidation. Management and owner prerogatives if certain conditions exist with the company (such as default of interest payments). Suppliers Continuing source of business; timely consummation of trade credit obligations; professional relationship in contracting for, purchasing, and receiving goods and services. Unions Recognition as the negotiating agent for employees. Opportunity to perpetuate the union as a participant in the business organization. Competitors Observation of the norms of competitive conduct established by society and the industry. Business statesmanship on the part of peers. Governments Taxes (income, property, and so on); adherence to the letter and intent of public policy dealing with the requirements of fair and free competition; discharge of legal obligations of businesspeople (and business organizations); adherence to antitrust laws. Local communities Place of productive and healthful environment in the community. Participation of company officials in community affairs, provision of regular employment, fair play, reasonable portion of purchases made in the local community, interest in and support of local government, support of cultural and charitable projects. The general public Participation in and contribution to society as a whole; creative communications between governmental and business units designed for reciprocal understanding; assumption of fair proportion of the burden of government and society. Fair price for products and advancement of the state-of-the-art technology that the product line involves. Source: Sims, 2003, p. 41 For instance, consumers expect that the company should be able to carry out their business in a responsible manner; on the other hand, stakeholders expect that their investments would be returned. In other instances, customers are looking forward a return on what they paid for, while suppliers look for dependable buyers. The government wanted companies to follow legislations, while unions seek benefits for their members. The competitors, expected companies to do their business in a fair manner and local communities wanted the aforementioned to be responsible citizens. Finally, the general public expects organizations to improve the over all quality of human life, while shareholders might view this proposition as utopian (Sims, 2003). The figure below shows the dynamics of stakeholder interactions. Figure 2: Value Creation Through Dialogue with Stakeholders Source: Tokoro (2007) As such, it is in this respect that it could be said that CEOs and a particular company’s responsiveness to the demands of CSR and eventually creating a strong image is something could not be the sole determining factor for a successful CSR. Instead, the question of whether CEOs are only implementing the demands of the company’s stakeholders, or the CEOs only attending to consumer, suppliers, government, community and general public demand should also be taken into close consideration. Deficiency As most researches often attribute the success or failure of a CSR strategy to the CEO, the role and influence of other stakeholders in the organization are not often viewed as significant variables worthy of consideration. Only most recent researches are significantly attributing stakeholder roles in terms of its relationship to CSR. Albeit, based from the researcher’s survey of various secondary data, there are hardly any robust literatures stating the influence of stakeholders to the CEO and eventually the latter’s decision on how to implement its CSR program. Purpose The study is vital in order to not only contribute to the existing studies on the role of CEOs and a successful CSR program; but also to further strengthen the claim on the relationship of CSR and a favorable company image. More importantly, subtle factors that might have influenced CEO decisions, strategies and policies such as those coming from company stakeholders will be taken into close consideration and in addition, will be taken as important variables for the research. Although studies on the direct relationship of company stakeholders and CSR and presented by various researches, the role of the stakeholders in terms of influencing the CEO in its CSR decisions are seldom taken into consideration. As such it is with this respect that the research seeks to significantly contribute to the scholarly studies devoted in order to analyze such dynamics. Research Questions Main Question For the purpose of this research, the study wanted to know: What is the role of the CEO in terms of promoting the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs of their organization and its relation to building a favorable image? Subquestions Specifically, the research wanted to know: 1. What is the relationship between a successful CSR program and the role of the CEO? 2. What is the relationship between a successful CSR program and a favorable brand image? 3. What is the role of the following in terms of influencing the CSR strategies of a particular organization: a. Shareholders b. Consumers c. Suppliers d. General Public 4. How did company shareholders, consumers, suppliers and the general public influence the strategy of the CEO in terms of implementing its CSR program? Methodology Research Tradition For the purpose of this research, the study will be employing both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Â  It is often the case that quantitative research employs the method that is based on testing of theories. It uses measurement of numbers, and statistical analysis to perform its studies. The idea behind quantitative research is often to ascertain that a generalized theory or the prediction of a theory will be confirmed by the use of numbers. The aforementioned normally starts with a research question or a hypothesis in addition to other theories that are needed to be tested. The approach of quantitative research includes the use of formal and generally recognized instruments (O’brien 1998). In addition to this, the quantitative tradition of research focuses on conducting experiments with an underlying expectation that a consensus would be arrived at. This method usually aims to arrive at a predictable generalization, and a causal explanation. Quantitative research can create a controlled environment in order to attain inductive analysis. The goal of this research tradition is to establish a consensus by reducing data to numerical indications, hence finally identifying if certain generalizations are valid or invalid (O’brien 1998). In this research method it is very relevant that the researcher must maintain its independence from the research object; and consequently, the research outcome is expected to be not value affected (O’brien 1998). The quantitative methodology also tests cause and effect by using deductive logic. When done correctly a quantitative research should be able to predict, and explain the theory in question (O’brien 1998). On the other hand, the Qualitative research focuses primarily on words rather than numbers. The main research instrument for such a type of tradition is the process of involvement of the researcher to the people whom he or she studies (Dyamon and Holloway, 2002). In relation with this, the viewpoints of the participants are also taken into much account. The Qualitative research tradition focuses on small-scale studies wherein deep explorations are being conducted in order to provide a detailed and holistic description and explanation of a specific subject matter. Rather than focusing on a single or two isolated variables, the aforementioned takes into account interconnected activities, experiences, beliefs and values of people, hence adopting a multiple dimension for study. This tradition of research is also flexible in a sense that certain factors are being explored due to not necessarily adhering to a strict method of data gathering. It also captures certain processes wherein changes in sequence of events, behaviors and transformation among cultures are closely taken into consideration. More importantly, a qualitative research is normally carried out in venues that are within a respondent’s natural environment such as schools, offices, homes, etc. This allowed participants to be more at ease and be able to express their ideas freely (Dyamon and Holloway, 2002). Data Gathering The data gathering will consist of secondary and primary data collections. Ghauri, Gronhaug and Kristianslund (1995) emphasized the importance of secondary data collection most especially through desk or library research. Secondary data collection normally includes data that were collected by another researcher or writer. It is often the case that they are lifted from books of recent publications, journals, magazines, newspapers and even trusted websites such as those of private organizations, non-government organizations, government organizations and the likes. The review of related literature will provide a scholarly perspective on the subject matter and at the same time made the researcher aware of both previous and contemporary research on the subject matter. For the purpose of this research, the author will be using scholarly journals and articles, books and magazines specifically focusing on the oil and gas industry; and freight industry in the Middle East, most specifically Turkey. The scholarly literatures will be primarily taken from EBSCO Host, JSTOR and Questia Media America, an exclusive on-line library. For the primary data collection for quantitative data, the study will be conducting surveys among consumers, suppliers and general public using questions of ordinal measurement using Likert scales for General Electric. Surveys include the process of using questionnaires with the aim of making an estimation of the perceptions of the subjects of the study. Surveys are considered advantageous because it could be used to study a huge number of subjects (Ghauri, Gronhaug and Kristianslund, 1995). On the other hand, interviews will be conducted among selected GE shareholders regarding their perception on the role of the CEO and implementation of the company’s CSR. Data Gathering Methods and their Justification For the purpose of this research, the researcher will be using self-administered questionnaires. Self-administered questionnaires often times offer a higher response rate and are also relatively cost effective (Ghauri, Gronhaug and Kristianslund, 1995). Foremost of its advantage rests on the notion that the process of data gathering could be more personal and also the researcher will be able to clarify certain notions that could be unclear in the survey form. However, one distinct disadvantage of such a method is the difficulty of administrating the survey to multiple respondents all at the same time. In addition, the self-administered data gathering could be very time consuming as well. The research will also be conducting an interview in order to collect the qualitative data necessary for the research. Interviews are very relevant most specially in getting data that could be a rich source of information that surveys could not provide (Ghauri, Gronhaug and Kristianslund, 1995). For the purpose of interviewing, various stakeholders from General Electric Corporation will be asked with regard to their perceptions of how GE should be employing its CSR, and their perceptions on the role of the CEO in terms of effectively implementing its CSR and the company’s image. Questionnaire Design The questionnaire design for the survey will be made in a detailed, precise and logical construction of close-ended questions. In addition with this, the questions will also be made in accordance with the research question and the objectives of the research (Oppenheim, 1992). The questions will be formulated using an ordinal scale and will be close-ended in nature. Such is relevant so that respondents would only have to encircle or check the designated number of their corresponding responses (Oppenhein, 1992). In addition to this, close-ended questions are very easy to answer and could enable the researcher create a summated value that could be use for data analysis. The questions that will be used in the interview will be tailored in such a manner that would directly answer concerns that are in accordance of the objectives of the study. The questions for the shareholders will be specifically created in a manner where there will be an open flow of information and exchange of ideas. The details on how consumers, suppliers and general public wanted the company to act together with its policies and possible ethical practices will be included in the survey. In this respect, questions will be formulated with a closed-ended nature. Sampling For the purpose of this research, the researcher will conduct a survey based on simple random sampling (SRS) which will include randomly choosing participants coming from consumers, suppliers and general public. On the other hand, the research will be employing purposive sampling methods in terms of choosing the stakeholders of General Electric who can participate in the study. Target Population According to Ghauri, Gronhaug and Kristianslund (1995) research should cater to a target population that has all the necessary information for the research such as sampling elements, sampling units, and area of coverage. For the purpose of this study, the author is trying to identify the role of consumers, suppliers and the general public. As such, the study will be asking 120 respondents to participate in the survey of which will primarily come from consumers and suppliers of General Electric as well as the general public who are concerned with General Electric and its operations. Reliability and Validity The study’s reliability and validity go hand in hand as patterns of measurement are both dependent on the aforementioned (Zikmund, 1994). Reliability primarily focuses on the internal consistency and the repeatability of the variables within the research. On the other hand, validity centers on the correctness and appropriateness of the question that one intends to measure (Ghauri, Gronhaug and Kristianslund, 1995). According to Chisnall (1997), validity is generally considered and established through the relationship of the instrument to the content, criterion or construct that it attempts to measure. A lack of validity can lead to incorrect conclusion. In order to make sure that the instrument that will be used are reliable and valid, the researcher will assure that such is patterned based on the objectives of the study, the secondary data and also on the feedback that was given based on the pilot study that will be conducted. Analysis of Data Data information gathered from the surveys and interviews and secondary data from the other studies found will be used for the analysis that would answer the research question. Charts and comparisons of data will be used as analysis tools. Statistics used will be based on the survey results from the questionnaire made by the researcher. Statistical Products and Service Solutions (SPSS) will also be used to determine the stand of the respondents regarding a particular question formulated in the survey (Griego and Morgan, 2000, p. 2). References Carroll A. and Buchholtz A.K., (2003). Business and Society: Ethics and Stakeholder Management, 5th ed. Mason, O.: South-Western. Chisnall P. M., (1997). Marketing Research, 5ed., Berkshire: McGraw-Hill. Woodruff H. (1995), Services Marketing. London: Pitman Publishing Daymon C. and Holloway I., (2002). Qualitative Research Methods in Public Relations and Marketing Communications. London: Routledge. 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