Analysis of the Article Written by Deepak Lal for the Business Research Paper

Analysis of the Article Written by Deepak Lal for the Business Standard Regarding Global Financial Crisis - Research Paper Example The savings are recycled through the international banking system on a regular basis to fuel demand. Second, cheap credit given by banks without checking the creditworthiness of the borrowers. Thirdly, the rise in the commodity prices also contributed a lot to the financial crisis and Lastly, according to him is the bailout sought by some irresponsible banks from the taxpayers telling them otherwise it will lead to the complete wiping of the financial institution. He says that the 1980 crisis was resolved when the banks hugely wrote off their Third World debt, sacked their reckless managers and shareholders also suffered large losses. But, eventually, it all came under control without threatening the world economy on a large scale. Whereas, in the current times the global financial system is sinking and bailouts are no longer an exception but have become a routine affair. The difference in outcome is because that even in the 1970s surplus money was recycled but it was done by the off -shore branches of the Parent Bank, bringing no risk to the Western Banking system, even if there was a default. Whereas, the current crisis stems from UK's financial liberalisation in the 1980s, and the Clinton era abolition of the Glass-Steagall Act, which had kept a firewall between the commercial and investment banking parts of the financial system since the 1930s. In these times no difference was kept between the Payments/deposit system of the banks and the investment banking.  

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Lord of the Flies both deal with mans struggle to control his inner evil Essay Example for Free

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Lord of the Flies both deal with mans struggle to control his inner evil Essay How do the authorss show this struggle? In the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson presents mans struggle to control his inner evil through Jekyll but the evil comes out in Hyde. Dr Jekyll is a fine upstanding member of the community and Mr Hyde is still Jekyll but he has no conscience and no sense of responsibility and so goes on wild evil rampages, I am going to explore how Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde show their evils. Dr Jekyll is a moral and religious man and has a conscience but he is attracted to the violence and freedom of Hyde and for him turning into Hyde is like a drug, he is addicted. Dr Jekyll is in a constant struggle with Hyde for control if I am the chief of sinners I am the chief of sufferers also, which shows the constant torment he is in yet he still drinks the drug. Before the smile was struck out of his face and succeeded by an expression of abject terror and despair, as froze the blood of the two gentleman below, this shows that Jekyll is scared of turning into Hyde and it also gives a picture of the ferocity of Hyde. Jekyll becomes weak from Hyde and eventually Hyde takes over completely Dr Jekyll, looking deadly sick. He did not rise to meet his visitor, but held out a cold hand and bade him welcome in a changed voice, this shows that Hyde is slowly trying to kill Jekyll. Jekyll decided to kill Hyde Utterson, I swear to god Utterson I am done with him in this world,I cannot say that I care what becomes of Hyde I am quite done with him, Utterson says to Jekyll he meant to murder you, which shows that Jekyll is good to have got rid of Hyde but Jekyll still takes the potion and Hyde continues his torments and Eventually kills Jekyll. God knows I am careless this is my true hour of death and what is to follow concerns another than myself, that was Jekylls final transformation before his death. Edward Hyde is the beast that takes Henry Jekyll over he is a small deformed man the man seems hardly human troglodytic shall we say, I read Satans signature upon a face, like a monkey, these all describe Hyde it is like Hyde is a step back in evolution. Hyde is also very fast it went so quick, with extraordinary quickness, these both show the speed oh Hyde so we now that he is animal like and very quick, he is also very savage as he has no conscience for the man trampled calmly over the childs body and left her screaming on the ground, really like Satan, these both show his ferocity, there are also a lot of satanic references to Hyde which suggests that he is the work of the devil. Other people perceive Hyde as being a juggernaut, without the bowels of mercy, a spirit of enduring hatred, which shows that he disgusts them. Hyde hates Jekyll because he thinks he is weak and pathetic but he still fears Jekyll because he knows that Jekyll has the power to cut him off by suicide how he fears my power to cut him off by suicide, blasphemies on the pages of my books, burning letters and destroying the portrait of my father, by doing these things Hyde is trying to demoralise Jekyll because it seems that the weaker Jekyll gets the stronger Hyde gets. As Jekyll gets ill Hyde feeds off his weakness making himself stronger the powers of Hyde have grown stronger with the sickliness of Jekyll, this shows that Hyde is very powerful and can force Jekyll to do anything. I think at first Jekyll finds Hyde exciting and adventurous and he loves the feeling of having no conscience. Jekyll and Hyde are like polar twins, being the same yet very opposite. Jekyll also has biblical references because the thrill of Hyde tempts him like the tree in the bible tempts Adam and Eve. This story shows that man has always been evil it is just hidden behind a mask and Hyde pulled this mask from Jekyll revealing the evil inside after all they are the same person. Lord of the Flies is much the same as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde because they both deal with mans struggle to control his inner evil, but however in Lord of the Flies it is children who are evil and not adults like in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, so does this show that you are born evil? It certainly challenges the idea that you are born free from sin, as some of the children in Lord of the Flies are from private schools and you would think to be better brought up and you could say somewhat shielded from the world, but the children who were from a public education system behaved better and tried to overthrow to the evil that lay on the island. Lord of the flies shows emotions through its characters, Piggy who represents conscience and logic, Simon who represents Jesus and Jack and Ralph who are the leaders of the two gangs (good and evil). At the beginning of the novel it is hard to differentiate between the good and bad people because they have all just met each other and are all trying to out do each other in a bid to be popular but does this in itself show that maybe they are all evil? When the two gangs split up and start living separately its like Jekyll and Hyde because its like one gang is Jekyll and the other gang Hyde and as the story goes on the Hyde gang tries to kill the Jekyll gang. Also the Hyde gang use masks when hunting for food body held up a mask that drew their eyes and appalled them. He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling, this shows that by putting masks on they are acting like Hyde transforming them from laughter to being snarling and bloodthirsty. Jack hid liberated from shame and self consciousness, this is exactly How Jekyll feels When he transforms in to Hyde because he is liberated from all consciousness and feels free to do whatever he wants. When Jacks gang are wearing these masks they launch attacks on Ralphs gang, the results of which end up in the death of Piggy, so all conscience and logic is removed and then as all they are removed we see the breakdown of their community and the good gang becomes equally as vicious as the bad gang showing that evil is like a disease that cant be healed and just keeps spreading. Simon also dies of an epileptic shock and this signifies that as he is the Jesus figure surely all hope and good is lost now, this is like when Jekyll becomes so ill he lets Hyde take over he was so frail he only raised a hand to bade him a welcome, and shows that there is no going back now evil has taken a strong hold on the island and can only get worse, good can no longer triumph over evil. When the navy finally rescues the boys nobody knows what has happened the island and they can only assume that the missing boys were killed in the plane crash. This shows mans naivety and arrogance to think that young innocent boys couldnt have brutally murdered one boy and left another to die, this reflects Jekyll and Hyde by the way in which nobody realises that a fine upstanding member of the community could possibly be a murderer although it is without his knowing but the boys on the island are young and you could say that without their parents and rules, they cant differentiate between right and wrong. Jekyll and Hyde was written in the Victorian times and it does challenge the idea of inner evil but good eventually wins because in the Victorian times people were moral and blind to the evil lurking before them and so sin was eventually killed in Jekyll and Hyde. In Lord of the Flies however you could say the evil triumphs which is the case in todays modern society, but the children are rescued from the evil they have created which you could argue that maybe good triumphs over evil after all. Both authors say that evil is in us and not around us and that without rules evil will show itself more fully. Evil is a tempting attractive power that gives you freedom but if you are truly evil can you be truly happy? We all see evil but can we see our own? Maybe these novels are trying to show us that maybe we should look inside ourselves and see if we are truly evil or is evil just something we use as an excuse to hurt people?

Humanity in Ridley Scotts Blade Runner Essay -- Film Movies

Humanity in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner The issue of humanity is one of the central themes in "Blade Runner." Countless arguments have taken place over whether or not Deckard is a replicant. The replicants are supposed to be "better humans than humans." Director Ridley Scott has many ways to communicate this theme, but one of the most prevalent is eyes. Human eyes are featured both in the beginning of the film and near the end. After a brief introductory text crawl which explains the world in which the movie takes place, "Blade Runner" cuts to a dark, futuristic Los Angeles. There are some flying cars, but mostly we see dark, smog-filled skies and smokestacks belching fire. As the camera moves across this landscape, blue eyes are superimposed on the screen. These eyes first establish traditional humanity as a force in the film. The eyes belong to Holden, a blade runner. Blade runners are police officers who hunt down and kill, or "retire", replicants. Holden is administering the Voight-Kampff test, which determines whether its subject is a traditional human or a replicant, to "Leon." Leon is a replicant, and when Holden asks him a question that he can't answer, Leon shoots him. Eyes are often thought of as the windows to the soul. It is this nebulous concept of the soul which is often used as the line in the sand dividing humanity from everything else. The Voight-Kampff test is designed to measure emotional responses. If the subject doesn't have any, it's a replicant. Leon was going to fail the test and be killed, so he killed Holden. Isn't that a display of the particular emotion known as rage? Well, maybe it's a rational decision or an instinctual survival reaction. However, a later scene lends weight to the... ...l are in love and want to run off together. As they are leaving his apartment, Deckard sees an origami unicorn on the floor. One can interpret this as Gaff showing Deckard that his memories are implants. Regardless of whether one accepts the unicorn interpretation given here, the question of what it means to be human is a core theme in "Blade Runner." After-the-fact directorial revelations aside, by leaving an element of ambiguity in Deckard's identity, Scott mirrors ambiguity in the question. He doesn't have a definite answer, he's not pushing some agenda. Even now, with little help from technology, we face a species-wide identity crisis. The whole issue of the legality of abortions stems from a disagreement over what constitutes a human. This is an important question that we're going to have to do a better job of answering, and Scott makes an excellent start. Humanity in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner Essay -- Film Movies Humanity in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner The issue of humanity is one of the central themes in "Blade Runner." Countless arguments have taken place over whether or not Deckard is a replicant. The replicants are supposed to be "better humans than humans." Director Ridley Scott has many ways to communicate this theme, but one of the most prevalent is eyes. Human eyes are featured both in the beginning of the film and near the end. After a brief introductory text crawl which explains the world in which the movie takes place, "Blade Runner" cuts to a dark, futuristic Los Angeles. There are some flying cars, but mostly we see dark, smog-filled skies and smokestacks belching fire. As the camera moves across this landscape, blue eyes are superimposed on the screen. These eyes first establish traditional humanity as a force in the film. The eyes belong to Holden, a blade runner. Blade runners are police officers who hunt down and kill, or "retire", replicants. Holden is administering the Voight-Kampff test, which determines whether its subject is a traditional human or a replicant, to "Leon." Leon is a replicant, and when Holden asks him a question that he can't answer, Leon shoots him. Eyes are often thought of as the windows to the soul. It is this nebulous concept of the soul which is often used as the line in the sand dividing humanity from everything else. The Voight-Kampff test is designed to measure emotional responses. If the subject doesn't have any, it's a replicant. Leon was going to fail the test and be killed, so he killed Holden. Isn't that a display of the particular emotion known as rage? Well, maybe it's a rational decision or an instinctual survival reaction. However, a later scene lends weight to the... ...l are in love and want to run off together. As they are leaving his apartment, Deckard sees an origami unicorn on the floor. One can interpret this as Gaff showing Deckard that his memories are implants. Regardless of whether one accepts the unicorn interpretation given here, the question of what it means to be human is a core theme in "Blade Runner." After-the-fact directorial revelations aside, by leaving an element of ambiguity in Deckard's identity, Scott mirrors ambiguity in the question. He doesn't have a definite answer, he's not pushing some agenda. Even now, with little help from technology, we face a species-wide identity crisis. The whole issue of the legality of abortions stems from a disagreement over what constitutes a human. This is an important question that we're going to have to do a better job of answering, and Scott makes an excellent start.

Abolishing Slavery: Abraham Lincoln

Abolishing Slavery: Abraham Lincoln, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the end of slavery all go hand in hand in modern day United States classrooms. Lincoln, a Kentucky native, was the great 16th president of the United States who brought freedom to black slaves throughout the country, forever abolishing slavery in the nation. Well, that’s at least what has been instilled in the young minds of children across the US. Before we can start calling Lincoln the â€Å"Great Emancipator,† or an abolitionist we need to take a look at the facts.Lincoln’s reign as a political leader was in an extremely crucial time of need in our country as the country was tearing apart with the eventual Civil War looming. In 1858 Lincoln ran for, and lost, the senator position in Illinois. His running mate Stephen Douglass made a veteran political move by accusing Lincoln of supporting black equality, which helped put fear into many voters’ ballots when they decided to vote for t he less radical Douglass.Lincoln, being the knowledgeable politician he was, responded with a statement in an attempt to clear his name with the white population by saying â€Å"I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races. † Although these views were most likely used as a political ploy, they didn’t sit well with the black community when Lincoln started receiving credit for freeing the slaves. Fast-forward about a decade when Lincoln was in the presidential seat and Lincoln was facing similar issues in his struggle to unify the wilting United States.As president Lincoln’s main goal was to unify the two sides of the United States: the Union and the Confederacy. In order to unify the country Lincoln had to hurdle his biggest obstacle in abolishing slavery. Perhaps the only reason Lincoln supported the freeing of slaves was because he realized it was the only way to unify the coun try, which is a solid argument in itself to the idea of Lincoln receiving too much credit for freeing the slaves. Anyhow, Lincoln somewhat reluctantly proceeded to announce his plans to abolish slavery with his first plan called compensated emancipation.In this plan Lincoln would free the slaves by paying off the slave owners large sums of money in return for the slaves freedom. Once freed, the slaves must move out of the country to foreign lands such as the Caribbean, Latin America, or West Africa. Although this plan would work for Lincoln in his main goal of unifying the country, the black community was outraged, rightfully so, in that the United States was just as much the blacks land as it was the whites land. After some time, Lincoln finally came to the realization that in order to avoid a country separation he had to release the Emancipation Proclamation (EP).The EP was a two-part document, the first being known as the preliminary EP, which was released on Sep 22, 1862. This g ave the confederate states 100 days to join the union or Lincoln would abolish slavery in the states that continued to rebel. On Jan 1st, 1863 the proclamation went into affect and Lincoln abolished slavery in the nine of the ten states that had yet to join the Union (Texas was exempted). This is the day in history that is perceived to be the day that slavery was forever abolished.However, slavery was only abolished in nine rebellious states while it was legal in states that had been apart of the Union before that Jan 1st date. Although this was clearly not the end of all ends in slavery, it was a genius political move by Lincoln who achieved his goal of unifying the country. But that’s all it was. Lincoln did his job; he unified the country. But, to pronounce Lincoln as the man who ended all slavery is simply put, ridiculous. It was defiantly a start as over 50,000 slaves were freed on that historic day, but was far from over as pockets of the country were continuing on with slavery as if nothing had happened.This included the entire state of Texas who was somehow exempt from the whole ordeal. Lincoln indeed was a great president who brought the country out of deep times, but he was not the man who ended slavery on the spot as we have been inclined to learn over the years. It was the next two or so years leading up to the 13th amendment that deserve most of the credit. The time following the EP was joyous for some, insulting to others, but in truth was most important to the complete freedom of blacks in America. Slavery continued on in the states for quite some time after the EP, which started to confuse many black leaders of the time.One of the most important dates in freeing the blacks was June 19th, 1865, two and a half years after the EP, when General Gordon Granger landed in Galveston, Texas to announce that slavery had been abolished and that at that moment all slaves had equal rights to their slave masters and could do as they please. This creat ed much jubilation in the state and around the country, as these slaves had been â€Å"illegal† slaves for over two years. This date, now celebrated as Juneteenth as an official holiday in 38 states, is considered to be the beginning of the end of slavery in the United States.About 6 months later on Dec 6th, 1865 the 13th amendment was added to the constitution stating that slavery was officially prohibited in the United States of America under any circumstances. It took nearly three years since the EP to completely abolish slavery, which by some people is considered completely ridiculous and insane, but it must be noted that the EP was not put in place to abolish slavery, but was in fact an intricate and in many ways brilliant political move by Abe Lincoln to unify the country.It was not intended to free the slaves as most of us are falsely led to believe. So, when are we going to get the celebration of abolished slavery in America right? No more should Lincoln receive credi t for abolishing slavery, we need a real holiday to celebrate this historic event. How about December 6th? The day when over 4 million slaves were finally free and slavery was officially abolished in the states. So here’s to a December 6th holiday, the day the 13th amendment of the constitution was established.

Twitter Case Study

TWITTER SEARCHES FOR A BUSINESS MODELTwitter, the social networking site based on 140 character text messages, is the buzz social networking phenomenon of the year. Like all social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, and others, Twitter provides a platform for users to express themselves by creating content and sharing it with their â€Å"followers,† who sign up to receive someone’s â€Å"tweets. † And like most social networking sites, Twitter faces the problem of how to make money. As of October 2010, Twitter has failed to generate earnings as its management ponders how best to exploit the buzz and user base it has created. Twitter began as a Web-based version of popular text messaging services provided by cell phone carriers. Executives in a podcasting company called Odeo were searching for a new revenue-producing product or service. In March 2006, they created a stand-alone, private company called Twitter. The basic idea was to marry short text messaging on cell phones with the Web and its ability to create social groups. You start by establishing a Twitter account online, and identifying the friends that you would like to receive your messages. By sending a text message called a â€Å"tweet† to a short code on your cell phone (40404), you can tell your friends what you are doing, your location, and whatever else you might want to say. You are limited to 140 characters, but there is no installation and no charge. This social network messaging service to keep buddies informed is a smash success. Coming up with solid numbers for Twitter is not easy because the firm is not releasing any â€Å"official† figures. By September 2010, Twitter, according to comScore, had around 30 million unique monthly users in the United States, and perhaps 96 million worldwide, displacing MySpace as the number three global social network (behind Facebook and Microsoft’s Live Profile). The number of individual tweets is also known only by the company. According to the company, by early 2007, Twitter had transmitted 20,000 tweets, which jumped to 60,000 tweets in a few months. During the Iranian rebellion in June 2009, there were reported to be over 200,000 tweets per hour worldwide. In October 2010, Twitter was recording over 1. 2 million tweets a month. On the other hand, experts believe that 80 percent of tweets are generated by only 10 percent of users, and that the median number of tweet readers per tweet is 1 (most tweeters tweet to one follower). Even more disturbing is that Twittter has a 60 percent churn rate: only 40 percent of users remain more than one month. Obviously, many users lose interest in learning about their friends’ breakfast menu, and many feel â€Å"too connected† to their â€Å"friends,† who in fact may only be distant acquaintances, if that. On the other hand, celebrities such as Britney Spears have hundreds of thousands of â€Å"friends† who follow their activities, making Twitter a marvelous, free public relations tool. Twitter unfortunately does not make a cent on these activities. The answer to these questions about unique users, numbers of tweets, and churn rate are critical to understanding the business value of Twitter as a firm. To date, Twitter has generated losses and has unknown revenues, but in February 2009, it raised $35 million in a deal that valued the company at $255 million. The following September, Twitter announced it had raised $100 million in additional funding, from private equity firms, previous investors, and mutual fund giant T. Rowe Price, based on a company valuation of a staggering $1 billion! So how can Twitter make money from its users and their tweets? What’s its business model and how might it evolve over time? To start, consider the company’s assets and customer value proposition. The main asset is user attention and audience size (eyeballs per day). The value proposition is â€Å"get it now† or real-time news on just about anything from the mundane to the monumental. An equally important sset is the database of tweets that contains the comments, observations, and opinions of the audience, and the search engine that mines those tweets for patterns. These are real-time and spontaneous observations. Yet another asset has emerged in the last year: Twitter is a powerful alternative media platform for the distribution of news, videos, and pictures. Once again, no one predicted that Twitter would be the first to report on terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the landing of a passenger jet in the Hudson River, the Iranian rebellion in June 2009, or the political violence in Bangkok and Kenya in May 2010. How can these assets be monetized? Advertising, what else! In April 2010, Twitter announced it s first 386 Part Three Key System Applications for the Digital Age foray into the big-time ad marketplace with Promoted Tweets. Think Twitter search engine: in response to a user’s query to Twitter’s search function for, say netbooks, a Best Buy ad for netbooks will be displayed. The company claims Promoted Tweets are not really ads because they look like all other tweets, just a part of the tweet stream of messages. These so-called â€Å"organic tweets† differ therefore from traditional search engine text ads, or social network ads which are far from organic. So far, Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony, Starbucks, and Virgin American have signed up. If this actually works, thousands of companies might sign up to blast messages to millions of subscribers in response to related queries. A second Twitter monetization effort announced in June 2010 is called Promoted Trends. Trends is a section of the Twitter home page that lets users know what’s hot, what a lot of people are talking about. The company claims this is â€Å"organic,† and a true reflection of what people are tweeting about. Promoted Trends are trends that companies would like to initiate. A company can place a Promoted Trends banner on the bottom of the page and when users click on the banner, they are taken to the follower page for that movie or product. Disney bought Promoted Trends for its film Toy Story 3, according to Twitter. In July 2010, Twitter announced its third initiative of the year: @earlybird accounts, which users can follow to receive special offers. Walt Disney Pictures has used the service to promote The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by offering twofers (buy one ticket, get another one free). The service could work nicely with so-called real-time or â€Å"flash† marketing campaigns in entertainment, fashion, luxury goods, technology, and beauty products. So far, Twitter has over 50,000 @earlybird followers and hopes to reach â€Å"influentials,† people who shape the purchasing decisions of many others. Another monetizing service is temporal real-time search. If there’s one thing Twitter has uniquely among all the social network sites, it’s real-time information. In 2010, Twitter entered into agreements with Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo to permit these search engines to index tweets and make them available to the entire Internet. This service will give free real-time content to the search engines as opposed to archival content. It is unclear who’s doing who a service here, and the financial arrangements are not public. Other large players are experimenting. Dell created a Twitter outlet account, @DellOutlet, and is using it to sell open-box and discontinued computers. Dell also maintains several customer service accounts. Twitter could charge such accounts a commission on sales because Twitter is acting like an e-commerce sales platform similar to Amazon. Other firms have used their Twitter followers’ fan base to market discount air tickets (Jet Blue) and greeting cards (Somecards). Freemium is another possibility: ask users to pay a subscription fee for premium services such as videos and music downloads. However, it may be too late for this idea because users have come to expect the service to be free. Twitter could charge service providers such as doctors, dentists, lawyers, and hair salons for providing their customers with unexpected appointment availabilities. But Twitter’s most likely steady revenue source might be its database of hundreds of millions of real-time tweets. Major firms such as Starbucks, Amazon, Intuit (QuickBooks and Mint. om), and Dell have used Twitter to understand how their customers are reacting to products, services, and Web sites, and then making corrections or changes in those services and products. Twitter is a fabulous listening post on the Internet frontier. The possibilities are endless, and just about any of the above scenarios offers some solution to the company’s problem, which is a lack of revenue (forget about profits). The company is coy about announcing its business model, what one pundit described as hiding behind a â€Å"Silicon Valley Mona Lisa smile. † These Wall Street pundits are thought to be party poopers in the Valley. In a nod to Apple’s iTunes and Amazon’s merchant services, Twitter has turned over its messaging capabilities and software platform to others, one of which is CoTweet. com, a company that organizes multiple Twitter exchanges for customers so they can be tracked more easily. Google is selling ad units based around a company’s last five tweets (ads are displayed to users who have created or viewed tweets about a company). witter is not charging for this service. In the meantime, observers wonder if Twitter is twittering away its assets and may not ever show a profit for its $160 million investment.Sources:Matthew Shaer, â€Å"Twitter Hits 145 Million User Mark, Sees Rise in Mobile Use,† Christian Science Monitor, September 3, 2010; Jason Lipshutz, â€Å"Lady Gaga to Steal Britney Spears’ Twitter Crown,† Reuters, August 19, 2010; Emir Afrati, â€Å"Twitter’s Early Bird Ad Ploy Takes Flight,† Wall Street Journal, July 14, 2010; Jess ica Guynn, â€Å"Twitter Tests New Promoted Trends Feature with ‘Toy Story 3’ from Disney’s Pixar,† Los Angeles Times, June 16, 2010; Erica Naone, â€Å"Will Twitter’s Ad Strategy Work,† Technology Review, April 15, 2010; Jessica Vascellaro and Emily Steel, â€Å"Twitter Rolls Out Ads,† Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2010; Brad Stone, â€Å"Twitter’s Latest Valuation: $1 Billion,† New York Times, September 24, 2009; Jon Fine, â€Å"Twitter Makes a Racket. But Revenues? † Business Week, April 9, 2009.CASE STUDY QUESTIONS1. Based on your reading in this chapter, how would you characterize Twitter’s business model?2. If Twitter is to have a revenue model, which of the revenue models described in this chapter would work?3. What is the most important asset that Twitter has, and how could it monetize this asset?

Nutritional assessment- a vital component The WritePass Journal

Nutritional assessment- a vital component Introduction Nutritional assessment- a vital component IntroductionCase scenarioNutritional assessmentMedical history collection approachesPhysical examinationBiochemical dataDiscussionConclusionReferenceRelated Introduction Malnutrition and undernourishment pose a major healthcare problem in the care of hospitalized patients in different care units in developed countries. There are numerous studies in health care literature reporting frequent malnutrition of patients in acute hospitals on admission and deterioration of nutritional status during hospitalization, particularly older people (Inge.K, 1999). Malnutrition can be defined in older people as faulty or inadequate nutritional status; undernourishment characterized by insufficient dietary intake, poor appetite, muscle wasting and weight loss (Carole S. Mackey, 2004). The cause of malnutrition is commonly contributed to medical, social and environmental as well as individual factors, such as poor appetite and disinterest in food, unpalatable or inadequate food, and lack of assistance with eating, poor skills in recognizing malnourished patients or those at risk of malnutrition and the low priority given to patients’ nutrition by doctors and nurses. Undetected and untreated, malnutrition is found to be detrimental to the quality of life and can lead to severe consequences such as prolonged hospital stays, high risk of infection, pressure ulcers, reduced wound healing, increased morbidity and mortality as well as increased costs for care, therefore, it is vital that hospital wards for older people have a nutritional care policy to prevent and/or treat malnutrition (Carole S. Mackey, 2004). Case scenario In 2010 August, Mr. Wong complained dizzy and fell in the morning and initially presented to orthopedic ward for collapse of L1 after fall. On admission, Mr. Wong’s ear temperature was 36.8, blood pressure was 100/ 50 mmHg, pulse was 75 /min, oxygen saturation was 93% on 2 L/min oxygen. During the acute state, he was developed hospital acquired pneumonia and put on Augmentin for one week course. In same year of November, Mr. Wong was transferred to rehabilitation ward for recovery and physiotherapy. Mr. Wong was retired. He has a 30-yr smoking history with one pack per day. He tries to quit smoking several times, but does not succeed. He lives in a 4-bedroom house with his wife and two sons and one daughter. He attended a Tai-Chi course with his wife in nearby park every day and had balanced diets prepared by Mrs. Wong. Mr. Wong had past history of Parkinson’s disease, hyperlipidaemia and gout followed up by Princess Margaret Hospital medical. On 2008 he had old lacunar infarct on computer tomography scan. In the rehabilitation ward, Mr. Wong had some exercise or limbs training with physiotherapists on the bed, as he could not have enough energy to stand up or walk with or without any support. Therefore, Mr. Wong always lied on the bed and then subsequently suffered from bed sore at his sacral. Firstly, he just suffered from stage one pressure sore, which was redness at the site without any discharge, and protected from duoderm. The health care workers provided daily normal saline dressing, frequent turning and pillows to relieve the pressure at the sacral. However, the pressure sore still became worse. At first, when the health care workers assessed Mr. Wong had high risk of worsening pressure sore; there are six risk factors including mobility, continence, nutritional, skin integrity, physical condition and medication common leading to developing pressure ulcers (Sharp CA, 2006). All possible preventions such as maintenance of well personal hygiene, frequent turning, and use of ripple bed had been provided. Also, wound nurse had assessed Mr. Wong’s situation and recommended the nurses for continuously providing dressing care and frequent skin observation. However, all recommendations and protections were given under strict supervision, but there is one criteria area missing in dealing pressure sore, this is nutrition. Poor nutritional status has been reported by several studies to be contributing factor to pressure ulcer development and malnutrition is positively correlated with pressure ulcer incidence and severity (Sharp. CA, 2006). Inadequate nutrition can increase the r isk of developing pressure ulcers and infection as well as impede the healing process of all wounds. Also, adequate dietary protein is absolutely essential for proper wound healing, and tissue levels of the amino acids may influence wound repair and immune function. As a result, a nutritional support should be given to patients with identified nutritional deficiency and any support be based on nutritional assessment using a recognized tool, general health status, patient preference or expert dietician (Ulrika Soderhamn, 2008). Moreover, nursing staff play an important role in the detection of the patient at risk and the implementation of sufficient preventive strategies. However, a comprehensive nutritional assessment is seldom performed on geriatric patients as routine and very few at-risk patients have a nutritional care plan. And some studies pointed that nurses in geriatric care feel they have a great responsibility for nutritional assessment and care but lack of sufficient knowledge for the tasks as well as of support from physicians (Ulrika Soderhamn, 2008). It is recommended that the health care workers should take the responsibility for informing, ordering, serving food and observing food intake and securing sufficient intake. These require the health care workers have sufficient knowledge and appropriate tools for screening and assessment of the older patients (Sharp. CA, 2006). Nutritional assessment A nutritional assessment is an in-depth evaluation of both objective and subjective data to define a person’s nutrition status. Specific data are obtained to create a metabolic and nutritional profile of the patient. The goals of the nutritional assessment are identification of patients who have, or at risk of developing malnutrition; to quantify a patient’s degree of malnutrition and to monitor the adequacy of nutrition therapy. It includes gathering information from the patient’s careful medical history, dietary history, a physical examination and laboratory tests (Weber, J, 2009). Medical history collection approaches Foremost in nutritional assessment is the patient interview for determining clinical history. Health care workers have recognized the way in which various diseases and conditions affect a person’s nutritional status. Attention should be focused on the disease state, duration of illness, intake of nutrients and presence of such gastrointestinal systems as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Also, the natural aging process can lead to increased nutritional problems among the elderly. Nearly 65% of elderly patients are calorie-protein undernourished or nutritional deficits developed while in the hospital (Vanderwee K, 2010). There some risks that are related with poor nutrition on the elderly such as normal aging changes in the senses of smell and taste, the effects of chronic diseases on food intake, psychological factors, social isolation, side effects from multiple medications or diminished function that subsequently limits their ability to shop or prepare meals. Choosing a dietary approach to nutritional status assessment The most valid or accurate dietary methods are prospective methods. These involve keeping records of foods consumed over the period of time of interest. This can be done by individuals themselves, or by health care workers observing them. Sometimes the foods are weighed before eating and then plate waste is weighed and subtracted. A similar method is to prepare two duplicate meals; one is consumed by the subject and the other is analyzed for nutrient content. Another method is the dietary record, in which the subject records estimated amounts of foods consumed. In any case, these methods are highly reactive because individuals may alter usual behavior to make their diet more socially desirable or to simplify the process of record keeping. Recall methods are the most widely used type of dietary data collection method. They are less reactive, but also less accurate than record methods. Twenty-four hour recalls, in which the previous days intake is queried in detail, for instance, foods , amounts, preparation techniques, condiments, are easiest for health care workers to complete (Sharp. CA, 2006). The data reported are converted from foods to nutrients with the use of food composition tables. Because a single day is not representative of usual intake, multiple twenty-four hour recalls are frequently used. Besides, the twenty-four hour recall of food intake record are used, the health care workers should observe the patients’ food preference, history of eating pattern and eating ability such as mood changes or swallow problem that might affect their eating. Physical examination Evaluation of the patient’s overall appearance and thorough physical examination of the skin, eyes, mouth, hair, and nails provide a clue the presence of malnutrition. Weight is one of the most useful elements of the physical examination for the assessment of nutritional status (Inge.K, 1999). Body weight is expressed as a relative to established norms in the general population. For adults, body weight and height are used to evaluate overall nutritional status and to classify individuals as at healthy or non-healthy weights. The most recent classification is to use body mass index (BMI, in kg/㎠¡). BMI, regardless of age or population, is normal at 18.5-25.0 kg/㎠¡, overweight at 25.0 to 19.9 kg/㎠¡, and obese at over 30.0 kg/㎠¡. In general BMI greater than 30 is assumed to be due to excessive adiposity (World Heart Federation, 2005). Weight loss is often the first clue to an underlying cause of malnutrition. The loss of more than 10% of the patient’s usual weight necessitates a thorough nutritional assessment. Recent unintentional loss of 10% to 20% of the patient’s usual weight indicates moderate protein-calorie malnutrition, and loss of more than 20% indicates severe protein-calorie malnutrition (Ulrika Soderhamn, 2008). In addition to weight and height, anthropometric approaches are for most part relatively noninvasive methods that assess the size of body composition of an individual. Anthropometric measures, such as mid-arm muscle circumference and triceps skin-fold thickness, estimate fat and lean tissue mass respectively (Carole S. Mackey, 2004). Anthropometric measures of nutritional status can be compromised by other health conditions. For example, edema characteristic of some forms of malnutrition and other disease states can conceal wasting by increasing body weight. Anthropometric data are used in nutritional assessment to compare measured values with standardized controls and to compare serial measurements over time in the same patient. These are useful in identifying the most severely malnourished patients, especially those with fluid retention as a result of disease (Inge.K, 1999). Biochemical data Laboratory tests based on blood urine can be important indicators of nutritional status, but they are influenced by non-nutritional factors as well. Measurements of serum protein levels are used in conjunction with other assessment parameters to determine the patients’ overall nutritional status. Serum proteins used in nutritional assessment include albumin and transferrin and preablumin. Albumin is a complex, high-molecular-weight protein produced by the liver and decreased albumin levels have been shown to correlate with increased morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients; therefore it is often used as a prognostic indicator. If the patient’s serum albumin concentration lower then 3.5g/dL and the total lymphocyte count lower than 1500 cells/mm3, it should be take more concern with them (Carole S. Mackey, 2004). Also lab results can be altered by medications, hydration status, and disease states or other metabolic processes, such as stress. As with the other are as of nutrition assessment, biochemical data need to be viewed as a part of the whole. Discussion Before utilization of the nutritional assessment, the health care workers might only concern how the pressure sore can be healed and provided further treatment or protection. The nutritional issue related to wound healing might be ignored. The health care workers should have knowledge and be conscious of nutritional issues and know the importance and relevance of these issues for the particular patient promoted the nutritional nursing assessment. Identifying, assessing and treating older patients’ nutritional problems is a challenge for all staff groups involved in the patients’ care, therefore, it need to collaboration between other caregivers and professionals and sufficient knowledge about nutrition among the staff groups (C. E. Weekes, 2009). For example, the nurse can organize one person into performing specific tasks like serving food to Mr. Wong to highlight his eating ability and facilitate the assessment process. There is also collaboration between the nurse an d physician, speech therapist or dietician who can help with the estimation of the nutritional requirements and get suggestions of food supplements. The first priority for the nurses is to let Mr. Wong know their nutritional needs and current problems, as he might think that he ate enough every day, but the situation perhaps was adverse. They should have an individual holistic patient view and discuss with Mr. Wong about his situation and then find out how and why the identified nutritional problem influenced the pressure sore. And the four assessment techniques in a nutritional assessment can perform at the same time. The health care workers always perform the twenty-four hours intake and output record with Mr. Wong for calculating the fluid balance and energy intake in the daily nursing routine. Also, it can be recognized Mr. Wong’s nutritional status from physical examination like Body mass index reading and mid-arm circumference to determine the specific needs and problems. And then collaboration with physicians to taking his blood for further laboratory assessment. The laboratory results like protein level and albumin level provide information for the nursing diagnosis. Using the clinical, biochemical and dietary data, influences on the nutritional status can be determined. A nutritional intervention which includes dietary guidance and exercise recommendations is then formulated and discussed with the individual. Further dialogues with and observations of Mr. Wong are used promoting for a continuous assessment process, because it can supply the nurse with information about the effects of the interventions and how the nutritional status of Mr. Wong changed, The nurse then feels a responsibility for him having a continuous and proper nutritional intake (C. E. Weekes e, 2009). If all the possible preventions and nutritional problem can be treated, the rate of getting infection should be minimized and the wound healing should be better. Conclusion Malnutrition becomes a considerable problem among hospitalized patients. The use of nutritional care practices and nutrition assessment of elderly patients is necessary and optimal in hospitals. Nutrition assessment involves a combination of examinations and patient history, and as such, no single laboratory test or finding should be used to indicate poor nutrition. An increased consciousness of the importance of nutritional care and assessment among health care professionals will contribute to further improvement of the quality of nutritional care. Reference Carole S. Mackey. (2004). Nutritional Assessment. Retrieved 19 February, 2011, from diet.com/store/facts/nutritional-assessment Ho. S Lee. S. ( 2011, March 18).   Slow food culture on stress-city menu. The Standard, p. A4 Inge.K, Simon. S Wood. J (1999). Nutritional care of the patient: nurses’ knowledge and attitudes in an acute care setting. Journal of clinical nursing, 8, 217-224 Sharp CA McLawa M.L (2006). Estimating the risk of pressure ulcer development: it is truly evidence based?. International Wound Journal, 3(4), 344-353 Ulrika Soderhamn. Olle Soerhamn. (2008). A successiveful way for performing nutritional nursing assessment in older patients. Journal of clinical nursing, 18, 431-439 Vanderwee K, Clayse E, Bocquaert I, Verhaeghe S, Lardennois M, Gobert M Defloor T. (2010). Malnutritiona and nutritional care practices in hospital wards for older people. Journal of advanced nursing, 67(4), 736-746 Weber, J. Kelley, J. H. (2009). Health assessment in nursing. Philadephia: Lippincott Williams Wilkins Weekes, C. E, Spiro, A, Baldwin, C, Whelan, K, Thomas, J. E, Parkin, D Emery, P. W. (2009). A review of the evidence for the impact of improving nutritional care on nutritional and clinical outcomes and cost. Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, 22, 324-335 World Heart Federation (2005). Body Mass Index [Leaflet]. World Heart Day 2005 Leaflet

Holding Debates in Middle School Classes

Holding Debates in Middle School Classes Debates are wonderful, high-interest activities that can add great value to lessons for middle school students. They provide students with a change from the norm and allow them to learn and use new and different skills. They have the natural appeal of watching controlled disagreements while scoring points. Further, they are not very challenging to create. Here is a great guide explaining how to hold a class debate that shows how easy it can be if you plan ahead. Benefits of Debates One of the greatest benefits of using debates in class is that students will get to practice a number of important skills including: Learning about the topic assigned. Obviously, researching the topic involved provides students with more information than can be gleaned during in-class lessons. Further, by having to argue for or against a proposition, students have to dig deeper into a topic and look at it from both sides.Using important research skills as they prepare for the debate. Researching information is a learned skill. While many students will have been exposed to library use, encyclopedias, and Internet research during their elementary years, they will need to have these skills reinforced and expanded upon. Further, students will need to learn about ways to judge the validity and accuracy of web resources.Working together as a team both before and during the debate itself. Having students work together as they research and then perform the debate can help them learn important skills about cooperation and trust. Of course, as teachers, we have to have methods in place to ensure that all students are workin g. If one or more student is not pulling their weight, then the grades of the other team members should not be penalized. Practicing public speaking skills. Debates provide students with necessary practice for public speaking made easier by passionately arguing their point of view. This skill will be important for them the rest of their educational and possibly work career.Using critical thinking skills in a real world setting. Debates require students to think on their feet. When one team makes a valid point, the other team needs to be able to marshall their resources and come up with an effective response. Challenges for Middle School Teachers For these and other reasons, teachers often want to include debates in their lesson plans. However, implementing debates in middle school classes can sometimes be quite challenging. There are a number of reasons for this including: Varying maturity levels. Students in middle school are typically between the ages of 11 and 13. This is such a transitional period for students. Personal behavior and maintaining focus can be a challenge at times.Students may not have the necessary research skills. In many cases, students will not have had to research information in the way needed to do a good job in a class debate. Therefore, it is very important that you spend the time helping them prepare.Students may be self-conscious. Public speaking can be daunting. Having them act as a team can help. Creating Successful Debates Debates are a great part of a teachers repertoire of activities. However, there are a few caveats that must be remembered to make the debate successful. Pick your topic wisely, ensuring that it is acceptable for middle school students. Use the following list for great ideas in middle school debate topics.Publish your rubric before the debate. Your debate rubric helps students see how they will be graded.Consider holding a practice debate early in the year. This can be a fun debate where students learn the mechanics of the debate activity and can practice with a topic that they might already know a lot about.Figure out what you are going to do with the audience. You will probably want to keep your team down to about 2 to 4 students. Therefore, you will need to hold a number of debates in order to keep the grading consistent. At the same time, you will have the majority of your class watching as the audience. Give them something upon which they will be graded. You might have them fill out a sheet about each sides position. You might have them come up with and ask questions of each debate team. However, what you dont want is 4 to 8 stud ents involved in the debate and the rest of the class not paying attention and possibly causing distractions. Make sure that the debate does not become personal. There should be some basic ground rules established and understood. The debate should focus on the topic at hand and never on the people on the debate team. Make sure to build consequences into the debate rubric.

What’s a Good New 2016 SAT Score for Your Target School

What’s a Good New 2016 SAT Score for Your Target School SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips You might have heard that a new SAT was released in March2016! What’s it out of? How do you know what a good score is? How do you determine what new SAT score you need to be accepted toyour target school? I'llcover all of this information below. New SAT Score Range The new SAT isscored out of 1600. There areonly be 2 sections instead of 3: Math and combined Writing and Language (instead of Math, Critical Reading, and Writing). Each of the 2 sections isscored from 200 to 800, making the new composite SAT score range 400 to 1600. Conversion Between the Old SAT and New SAT While we don’t yet know what the exact conversion will be, you can generally predict what the new approximate SAT score wouldbe by multiplying the old SAT score by 66.6% (since the new SAT isout of â…” as many points as the old SAT). If you're given separate scores by section (Math, Critical Reading, and Writing), you can use a different prediction method: Math section score + [(Critical Reading score + Writing score) / 2] In layman's terms, average Critical Reading and Writing and then add that average to the Math score. This method is more exact because it accounts for the fact that Mathisweighted more heavily on the new SAT(1/2 of your new composite score versus 1/3 of the old composite score). In 2014, the national average SAT score was 1497. Using the 66.6% calculation method mentioned above, I estimate the new average SAT score will be approximately 998. The national 75th percentile is about 1700, so the new 75th percentile score will be about 1133. The national 90th percentile is about 1900, so the new 90th percentile score will be about 1267. However, a good score is not just better than the average. A good SAT score depends on whatcollege you hope to attend. Colleges’ SAT Score Ranges and What They Mean for You To find out what a good new SAT score is for your target schools, you should look at colleges’ SAT score ranges. The score range shows what SAT scores admitted students received. Normally, schools show the scores from the most recent applicant pool, so the scores will likely be in terms of the old SAT (2400 scale). You'll need to convert the scores using the calculation above. The score range will be written in one of two ways as a 25th/75th percentile or an average. The 25th percentile SAT score means 25% of admits scored at or below that number (or 75% of admits scored higher). The 75th percentile SAT score means 75% of admits scored at or below that number (or 25% of admits scored higher). The average SAT is the average of all admits’ SAT scores. Knowing the score ranges will make you understand what kind of score you need to be a competitive applicant to that schoolsince you'll know what SAT scores admits received. Before figuring out your target, you need to figure out your target colleges. Make a List of Target Schools If you don’t have a list of target schools already, make one! This list should not include your safety schools. Asafety school is a college that you're almost certain you can get into with the SAT score and GPA you currently have. This list should include the more selective colleges that you hope to attend. You should exclude safety schools from this list because you want to plan your target SAT score for the colleges with the highest SAT criteria. If you meet or exceed their SAT criteria, you will almost certainly be admitted to your safety schools. After you have created your list of the more selective colleges, draw a table with 3 columns with the following titles: College Name 25th Percentile or Average SAT 75th Percentile / Target Score Fill in your target colleges under college name as I did below: College Name 25th Percentile or Average SAT 75th Percentile / Target Score UC Berkeley Yale University Under the 25th percentile or average SAT, you'll write either the 25th percentile or average SAT score for that college. As I mentioned earlier, colleges will only provide you with one. Whichever they give you, write that number in the middle column (you'll need to re-calculate it for the new SAT, which I will explain in detail below). Under 75th percentile / target score, you put the college’s 75th percentile score (if they provide it). For colleges that only give average SAT, you'll be calculating a target score. I'll explain how to calculate the target score later on. How to Find Your Target College’s New SAT Score Range Once you have your list, finding those colleges’ SAT score ranges is very simple. You just need to Google search â€Å"[College Name] average SAT† or â€Å"[College Name] SAT 25th/75th percentile.† That will should lead you to the Freshman Admissions Profile for your target college. If you're unable to locate a Freshman Admissions Profile for your target school,check out our college admission requirementsdatabase to see if we have the SAT information for your target school. This is a screenshot from Yale’s admission site: Yale provided the 25th/75th percentile SAT score for their freshmen admits. To approximate the 25th percentile composite SAT score for the new SAT in spring 2016, you need first to calculate the current 25th percentile composite SAT score. Average the 2 lower numbers for Writing and Verbal/Critical Reading together (which separately represent the current 25th percentile SAT scores for those sections): (710 + 720) / 2 = 715 Then, add that number to thelower number for the Math section (the 25th percentile SAT score for Math) 715 + 710 =1425, rounds to 1430 (the SAT is scored in units of 10) Do the same math with the higher numbers (75th percentile score) to figure out the composite 75th percentile SAT score. NOTE: certain colleges call the 25th/75th percentile the middle 50% scores. However, the 2 numbers they provide are the 25th/75th percentile scores. They call it the middle 50% since the 25th/75th percentile scores represent the middle 50% of SAT scores of admits. Add this new information to your chart: College Name 25th Percentile or Average SAT 75th Percentile / Target Score UC Berkeley Yale University 1430 1590 As I said before, other colleges will provide you with only the average SAT score for admits (asUC Berkeley does): Since UC Berkeley only provides an average, you can’t know how many students scored above and below it, but let’s assume about 50% scored above and 50% scored below. Let’s do the same math as above to figure out the approximate average SAT score for the new SAT: (686 + 698) / 2 =692 710 +692 = 1402, rounds to 1400 Fill that numberin under 25th Percentile or Average SAT, and leave the 75th Percentile / Target Score blank for now. I'll explain how to determine atarget score for school's with averaged scores later on. College Name 25th Percentile or Average SAT 75th Percentile / Target Score UC Berkeley 1400 Yale University 1430 1590 How to Calculate Your New SAT Target Score For the colleges that provide the 75th percentile, your target score should be at or above the 75th percentile. (That is why I had you list the 75th percentile in the same column as target score. The 75th percentile is your target score!) For the colleges that only tell you an average composite SAT, I would aim for a score 100 points above the re-calculated average. For example, for UC Berkeley, your target score should be 1500. Fill in that number (the average SAT plus 100 points) to your chart under 75th percentile / target score: College Name 25th Percentile or Average SAT 75th Percentile / Target Score UC Berkeley 1400 1500 Yale University 1430 1590 Why can’t you target a lower score near the 25th percentile or closer to the average? A non-negligible number ofstudents are clearly accepted with those scores. However, mostof the students accepted with lower scores are special applicants, including athletes, legacies, children of significant donors, or students with exceptionaltalents (such as the winner of the national science fair). If you aren’t in the â€Å"special† category, you’ll want a higher SAT score to boost your chances of being admitted.The higher your SAT score, the more likely you will get in.For more proof, check out Brown University’s admission data: For students with the highest score (800), 22.8% were admitted, which is much higher than the overall Brown admit rate, 8.7%. As the scores begin to decline (score between 750 and 790), the student’s chance of admission drops by 5.7%, from 22.8% to 15.1%. The same pattern holdsacross the other twosections and the composite.You now know the higher your score, the better chance you have of being accepted. If you have a discrepancy in the â€Å"Target Scores† on your list (as I do above), which should you aim for? Aim for the highest target score on your list.That way when you reach the highest target score, you will have the best chance of admission at all of your target schools. If you get a 1580 and apply to Yale and UC Berkeley, you have an excellent chance of being admitted to both schools. However, if you got a 1480 and applied to Yale, you would now be less likely to get in, as you would fall short of the 75th percentile score and be in the middle 50% of admits scores. How Exact Is the Conversion? What Does the Variation Mean for You? It's difficult to predict how students will perform on this new test since there are many changes(the College Board has not released data on the March 2016 test). Thus, the new SAT conversions I've given above may be slightly off. Writing and Reading iscombined into a single section,Evidence-Based Reading and Writing. The types of questions asked havechange. There areno more fill-in-the-blank vocabulary questions; instead, there are more critical thinking questions. Math iswithout a doubt more important on the new SAT. As you can see in the conversion above, Math now counts for half of your score as opposed to a third.For this reason, thebest method for converting current scores to the new format is to add the Math score to the average of the Reading and Writing scores rather than simply multiplying the composite score by 66% method. The first method ensures that the appropriate weight is given to each section in the context of the new score format. Based on this change in weight, you need to change your SAT preparation plan. With Math being more heavily weighted, if you struggle in Math, you'll need to focus more time preparing for the Math section to make sure you have a strong Math score. If Math is your strong suit, you'll have an advantage on the new SAT. Want to learn more about the SAT but tired of reading blog articles? Then you'll love our free, SAT prep livestreams. Designed and led by PrepScholar SAT experts, these live video events are a great resource for students and parents looking to learn more about the SAT and SAT prep. Click on the button below to register for one of our livestreams today! How to Plan Your Prep for the New SAT You need to have an excellent preparation plan to achieve your target new SAT score! Make sure you learn all you can about the new SAT. If you took a practice SAT and were unhappy with your initial score, think about taking an SAT class, hiring an SAT tutor, or using an online SAT program such as PrepScholar. Make sure the tutor or class/program is familiar with the changes tothe new SAT. If he/she/it is not, find help elsewhere! At PrepScholar, we figure out your strengths and weaknesses, and we personalize the practice to your needs. For more information, read How to Ensure Online Tutoring from PrepScholarTutors is Right for You? If you can’t afford these study options and/or want to try preparing by yourself, look at our study plan guides for sophomore, juniors, seniors and for students, who plan to study for a year or more. Stay focused on your goal, work hard, and you'll reach it! What’s Next? Worried about the SAT? Learn more about the content on the new SAT. Need help studying for the new SAT? Read our complete SAT study guide. Taking the test really soon? Learn how to cram for the test. Need help with your college application? Learn how to write about extracurriculars on your college application and get ideas to help you start your essay. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points?We've written a guide about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Financial Analysis Project Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Financial Analysis Project - Assignment Example Basically, the business is divided into three major business units. The PepsiCo Americas Food which includes brands such as Frito-Lay North America, Quackers Food North America and all of their Latin American food and snack businesses. The second business unit is that of PepsiCo Americas Beverage; this includes the PepsiCo beverage North America and Latin America beverage businesses. The third business unit is the PepsiCo International, which deals with all the international businesses of the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, Middle East- practically the whole world. The organization’s core value is to provide sustainable growth through the empowerment of people who act responsibly and build trust. Sustained growth, Empowered people, Responsibility and Trust form the core value foundations of the organization (PepsiCo, 2010). For the analysis purposes, the financial statements of 2007, 2008 and 2009 were used. The website provides the financial statements of all three years. For industry analysis and information purposes, the Bloomberg PepsiCo and Bloomberg Coke were also utilized. The initial review of the organization is divided into two areas; Analysis of the auditor’s messages as well highlighting the management’s discussion and analysis of the business that took place throughout the year, paying special emphasis on the important aspects of the business. According to the auditor’s report, the audit has been conducted keeping in mind the guidelines of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, in USA. According to the standards set by PCAOB, the auditors had to make sure there was enough internal audit control to not allow miss-statement of financial statements. A company is required to exercise sound internal control over the financial reporting processes and procedures in order to provide the auditors and the stakeholders with reasonable surety

Scientific Management Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Scientific Management Theory - Essay Example While Taylor’s method is referred to as scientific management theory, it’s other names attest to a variety of divisions in this approach. In addition to scientific management theory, this approach has been referred to as Taylorism. While in practice the two terms of oftentimes used synonymously, in much of the prominent literature a distinction is made between the two concepts (Archibald 1999). The main distinction the literature makes between these two categories is that Taylorism is supposed to refer to the early incarnations of Taylor’s theory or the ‘first form’ classical perspective. Conversely, scientific management theory is the more developed of the managerial processes. One considers that while Taylorism had been articulated as early as 1895 with Taylor’s text ‘A Piece Rate System’, and in 1903 with his text ‘Shop Management,’ it wasn’t until 1910 that Louis Brandeis first coined the term ‘scient ific management’ (Kulliver 2001). Scientific management has emerged and evolved throughout the 20th century. While scientific management is a specific approach, it fits within the context of late 19th century and 20th-century economic efficiency movements. Broadly speaking the efficiency movements sought to increase human efficiency, decrease waste, and implement an empirical methodology in doing so. Termed the Efficiency Movement among the prominent organizational elements that emerged during this period were lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, Fordism, and operations management.

The Definition of an Operating Segment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Definition of an Operating Segment - Essay Example Corporations that sell at the retail level, but who also have an online operation have multiple operating segments. The e-commerce operation would be considered an operating segment. Let’s take the Jiffy Lube business as an example. The money generated by the oil change operation would be considered an operating segment. The car wash operation of the business is another operating segment. Any food items sold inside the store in the waiting area would be a third operating segment of the company. 2. I agree with your definition of an operating segment. It is imperative for the CEO or COO of a company to evaluate the performance of each operating segment on a recurrent basis. Whenever an operating segment starts to under perform that segment could become unprofitable. A strategy that can be used by management to eliminate operating segments that are not generating profits is divesture. Divesture can be defined as the partial or full disposal of an investment or asset through sale, exchange, closure or bankruptcy (Investopedia, 2011). Investopedia.com (2011). Divesture. Retrieved September 7, 2011 from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/divestiture.asp#axzz1XEq4B6YF Effective and successful managers are able to generate profits from all the operating segments of a company. On many instances companies achieve expansion by adding operating segments to their operations. ... Two powerful stock exchanges are the NYSE and the LSE. The Securities and Exchange Act of 1933 requires companies to register with the SEC prior to going public. The Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 discusses the matter of being public. Once a company is public the SEC oversees its activities. The Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 regulates broker dealers and stock exchanges. 6. GAAP guidelines are used in the preparation of financial statement disclosures. Financial statement disclosures are comments or explanations listed in a company’s financial statements. Three types of items that are covered by disclosures and whose inclusion is mandatory based on GAAP rules are changes or errors, asset retirement and insurance contract modification. There are also voluntary disclosures included in the business reports of companies. Some voluntary disclosures include forward looking statements and management analysis. 5. The threshold to for an operating segment to be reportable is listed below: Reported revenue is at least 10 percent of combined revenue Reported profit (loss) is at least 10 percent of combined profit (loss) Assets are 10 percent or more of combined assets (Schroeder & Clark & Cathey, 2011). Schroeder, R.G., Clark, M.W., Cathey, J.M. (2011). Financial Accounting Theory and Analysis (10th ed.). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. 7. Weekly Summary Week 5 was very challenging, but I learned a lot about accounting during the week. The individual paper discussed pension funds. I learned that the use of pension funds became used a lot in corporate America after World War II. The accounting profession and the government have ensured that corporations respect the rights of retirees by properly funding pension funds. In

Electronic Health Records Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Electronic Health Records - Research Paper Example As data accumulates over long periods, a database is established; which can be used in epidemiological studies. This is crucial for development of policies that affect the healthcare industry. The data generated by the electronic health records is vital in order to determine emerging trends in health care and predict possible outbreaks in the future. The data in the EHRs can also be used to monitor provision of health care to the public, by ensuring that a standardized protocol is used to deal with all similar clinical presentations. The government can also utilize the data in the EHRs system to coordinate emergency efforts and assess the situation at the basic level of healthcare facilities. This ensures government involvement and facilitates population-level healthcare management.Electronic health records increase efficiency at all levels of healthcare provision. With efficiency, wastage of resources such as equipment, ideas, and energy, is radically cut back. The use of EHRs is a crucial means of enhancing the efficiency of healthcare professionals and reduces the administrative and labor costs associated with health care delivery and financing. With increased efficiency, there is a reduced cost of running healthcare facilities since there is minimal wastage of resources. Concerning wastage of resources, manual records require human resources to run them by operating the archives and pulling out files. The use of electronic medical records cuts back on employment of excess staff required for jobs that can be easily automated.

The Problem of Unwanted Births and the Awarding of Damages on a Public Essay

The Problem of Unwanted Births and the Awarding of Damages on a Public Policy Basis - Essay Example case a blessing.3 The circumstances posed to the Court of Appeal in Emeh required that it find some form of reconciliation between the two different stances of Udale and of Thake, though it was distinct from these two cases because the child had been born with disabilities. As a result, the damages awarded were restricted to those extra costs incurred as a result of the unwanted child’s disabilities, though the court claimed that it had awarded full costs. The approach as contained in Damages for the Birth of a Child4 suggests that Emeh was a result of the equation of unwanted pregnancy with consequential economic loss, and the damages were thus calculated according to â€Å"reasonably foreseeable financial loss directly caused by the unexpected pregnancy†.5 This approach was arguably taken too far in the decision of Benarr & Another v. Kettering Health Authority6in which it was held that damages could extend to private education of the unwanted child. ... the courts in relation to the decision of Emeh, and Ognall J in a subsequent similar case expressed his discomfort with a law that awards damages to the mother of a child, particularly if it is healthy; he said: â€Å"but there it is: that is the law†.8 Although the approach of the courts appears to be undecided on this matter, it is argued by some that awarding damages for both healthy and disabled unwanted children is perfectly acceptable according to principles of tort law,9 though decisions of the court have disagreed with this contention.10 There appears to be a major problem surrounding the distinction between unwanted healthy children and unwanted disabled children, and whether full or partial damages are to be awarded to both.11 It is suggested that the failure of the court in McFarlane to restrict its application to disabled children has caused an array of confusing exceptions to be created by subsequent cases on the topic.12 Yet what is the public policy behind the a pproach of the courts? It was claimed in Rees v Darlington Memorial Hospital NHS Trust13 that there are major public policy implications for making public bodies that are funded by the public to pay large sums of money to parents of healthy children.14 Such an approach has claimed that awarding damages for healthy unwanted children simply takes the law of tort â€Å"too far†.15 While this would seem to be a reasonably grounded policy which aims to establish the importance of causing healthy unwanted pregnancies and unhealthy unwanted pregnancies, highlighting the graver financial (and psychological) inconvenience of the latter, it has attracted much criticism.16 Such criticism is however warranted if one is to view the normal application of tort law which functions to award damages to healthy

Electronic Health Records Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Electronic Health Records - Research Paper Example As data accumulates over long periods, a database is established; which can be used in epidemiological studies. This is crucial for development of policies that affect the healthcare industry. The data generated by the electronic health records is vital in order to determine emerging trends in health care and predict possible outbreaks in the future. The data in the EHRs can also be used to monitor provision of health care to the public, by ensuring that a standardized protocol is used to deal with all similar clinical presentations. The government can also utilize the data in the EHRs system to coordinate emergency efforts and assess the situation at the basic level of healthcare facilities. This ensures government involvement and facilitates population-level healthcare management.Electronic health records increase efficiency at all levels of healthcare provision. With efficiency, wastage of resources such as equipment, ideas, and energy, is radically cut back. The use of EHRs is a crucial means of enhancing the efficiency of healthcare professionals and reduces the administrative and labor costs associated with health care delivery and financing. With increased efficiency, there is a reduced cost of running healthcare facilities since there is minimal wastage of resources. Concerning wastage of resources, manual records require human resources to run them by operating the archives and pulling out files. The use of electronic medical records cuts back on employment of excess staff required for jobs that can be easily automated.

European Idea Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

European Idea - Essay Example United States had financed the European war effort through the lend lease agreement in which 50.1 billion US Dollars (almost 700 billion dollars at 2007 prices) worth of materiel was dispatched. However at the end of the Second World War, Europe was in no position to repay the mammoth debt. Also the tremendous rise in industrial effort in United States had led to a high level of production capacity whose only possible buyers could be the European states. Thus it was in American vested interests as well to finance the reconstruction of Europe through various instruments available, one of which was the European Recovery Plan or the Marshall Plan. But to American thinkers, the biggest hindrance to the reconstruction of Europe was the traditional strict protectionist trade structure of Europe. American thinkers rightly believed that quick recovery of European Continent could only be possible by the creation of a United Europe on the lines of United States where all the resources availabl e are synergized to achieve a faster reconstruction and growth. However this could not just be credited to United States as the promoter of European Idea as the entire continent was tired of the countless wars and long standing antagonism in the continent. Movements had started all over Europe for integration of Europe into one federal state or state like structure. However the Europeans wanted to stay away from American sphere of influence as well as the iron curtain of Europe and maintain a third European Pole. But the cold war ensured that this non alignment would be increasingly difficult to maintain and the Europe as on the border of expanding Soviet sphere of influence have to choose United States as its reliable partner and accept the American model of governance. The Marshall Plan was the first step in practically forcing the European idea into the real world. As per Marshall Plan, United States agreed to fund the reconstruction effort in post war Europe only on the condition that if the Europe act together and present a mutually agreed reconstruction plan. Indirectly United States dictated the European states to learn to negotiate towards a common European recovery goal rather than the narrow self interest they had hitherto been following. This had a remarkable effect on the integration of future Europe. The Marshall Plan itself and the institutional mechanism established to implement it became the training grounds for the bureaucrats who later on worked in institutional integration of Europe. The success of the plan demonstrated to all and sundry in Europe, the benefits of economic integration. The free trade and non protectionist environment generated due to Marshall Plan ensured continuous two decades of excellent Economic Growth. Thus Ma rshall Plan stands as one towering example of United States's influence in shaping up the European Idea into a practical reality. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) became another fundamental effort by United States to shape up European thought into mutual coexistence in political and defence domains. What Marshal Plan achieved in economic domain was achieved by NATO in political / military domains. Though it can be argued that Marshal Plan started the economic integration process which culminated into one European Economy, while nothing of this sort is visible in military / political

Existence of youth culture Essay Example for Free

Existence of youth culture Essay There is debate within the scientific community about whether or not youth culture exists. Some researchers argue that youths values and morals are not distinct from those of their parents, which means that youth culture is not a separate culture. Others note that we must be cautious about extrapolating a current effect to other periods of history. Just because we see the presence of what seems to be a youth culture today does not mean that this phenomenon extends to all generations of young people. Additionally, peer influence varies greatly between contexts and by sex, age, and social status, making a single youth culture difficult, if not impossible, to define. Others argue that there are definite elements of youth society that constitute culture, and that these elements differ from those of their parents culture. Janssen et al. have used the terror management theory (TMT) to argue for the existence of youth culture.[5] TMT is a psychological concept that hypothesizes that culture originates from an attempt to cope with the knowledge of their mortality. Society does this by adopting a worldview and developing self-esteem. Researchers test TMT by exposing people to reminders of their mortality. TMT is supported if being reminded of death causes people to cling more strongly to their worldview. Janssen et al. tested the following hypothesis: If youth culture serves to help adolescents deal with problems of vulnerability and finiteness, then reminders of mortality should lead to increased allegiance to cultural practices and beliefs of the youth. Their results supported their hypothesis and the results of previous studies, suggesting that youth culture is, in fact, a culture. Schwartz and Merten used the language of adolescents to argue for the presence of youth culture as distinct from the rest of society. Schwartz argued that high school students used their vocabulary to create meanings that are distinct to adolescents. Specifically, the adolescent status terminology (the words that adolescents use to describe hierarchical social statuses) contains qualities and attributes that are not present in adult  status judgments. According to Schwartz, this reflects a difference in social structures and the way that adults and teens experience social reality. This difference indicates cultural differences between adolescents and adults, which supports the presence of a separate youth culture.

Accommodations for Intellectually Disabled Students

Accommodations for Intellectually Disabled Students Abstract: This following research paper describes about Intellectual Disability and its limitations. And some of the common characteristics of ID. It also provides the comprehensive view of modifications, accommodations and assistive technology and transition planning to assist disabilities. Some agencies and inclusion tips are also mentioned. Lastly, concluding the article formally by giving final suggestions. Definition: Intellectual disability (ID), also known as mental retardation, is categorized by below-average intelligence or mental ability and a deficiency of skills required for continuous living. People having intellectual disabilities can and be able to learn new skills, but they are able to learn them more slowly. There are different degrees of intellectual disability; from lenient to intense. This disability originates before the age of 18. (Definition of Intellectual Disability, n.d.) Common characteristics of Intellectual disability: There are many signs of intellectual disability. For example, individuals with intellectual disability may: Have trouble speaking, Find it hard to remember things, Not understand how things work, Have difficulty understanding social rules, Have difficulty seeing the result of their actions, Have trouble solving problems, and/or Have trouble thinking with logic and more Limitations of Intellectual Disability: Someone with Intellectual disability has limitations in two areas. These areas are: Intellectual Functioning: Also known as IQ, this is known as a person’s ability to learn reason, make decisions, and solve problems. Adaptive Behavior: is the collection of conceptual, social, and applied skills which are learned and completed by people in their daily lives like being able to communicate efficiently, cooperate with others, and take care of one. And these are defined as: Conceptual skills: Literacy and language; time, money, number concepts; and self-direction. Social skills: Social responsibility, interpersonal skills, self-esteem, acceptance, caution, social problem solving, and the ability to follow rules/obey laws and to avoid being victimized. Practical skills: actions of daily living (personal care), work-related skills, healthcare, travel/transportation, schedules/routines, safety, use of money, use of the telephone. (Tracy) Analysis of ways for addressing the needs of students within this disability category: There are many ways that disabilities can affect the ability to perform effectively on the job. Levels of disability and ability are unique to an individual. Most accommodations are simple, creative alternatives for traditional ways of doing things. Following are some of the strategies, accommodations, modifications and assistive technology analysis that will help people having intellectual disabilities to participate at their full in work-based learning experiences. (Dwyer) Strategies to address the needs of individual with intellectual disability: It is important to implement strategies that address the needs of the individual. Following are few strategies that can help in addressing the need of an individual with Intellectual disability: Understanding the Needs of Individuals with Disabilities Managing Time and Classroom Activities Teaching Techniques Assessment Practices (Doka) Accommodations for students with disabilities: It is very important to accommodate those individuals who have intellectual disabilities. So that they can be provided with normal environment where they can act like normal beings. Following are some of the modifications and accommodations for such individuals: Assistive Technology: Implementing accommodations involves anticipating problems students with disabilities may have with instruction or assessment activities. Students may need to use some type of assistive technology to overcome or mitigate the effects of their disability. Assistive technology encompasses a wide range of tools and techniques. Some low-tech tools include pencil and tool grips, color-coding, and picture diagrams. High-tech tools include electronic equipment, such as a talking calculator, computer with word prediction software, and variable speech control audio recorder for playback. (Assistive Technology, Accommodations, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, 2001) Instruction and Assessment: Suggestions for accommodations in specific areas of instruction and assessment are as following: Reading Listening Writing Mathematics Completing assignments Test preparation Taking tests Learning and Work Environment: Accommodations may be needed that involve: Changes to the physical features or organization of the school or classroom, Changes to the learning environment may include alterations to grouping arrangements, behavioral expectations, Classroom management procedures, And the physical setting. Job Requirements: Job accommodations are defined on an individual basis. Some accommodations involve simple adaptations, while others require more sophisticated equipment or adjustments to physical facilities. The instructor and employer will need to analyze job tasks, basic qualifications and skills needed to perform the tasks, and the kinds of adjustments that can be made to ensure that performance standards will be met. Modifications for students with disabilities: Modifications to the expectations or outcomes of the curriculum may be necessary for a student with a disability. Modifications may include modified program or course requirements, concepts or skills significantly below the targeted grade level, or alternate curriculum goals. Impact of Modifications: When considering modifications, it is important to evaluate the long-range impact of changing expectations. Students with disabilities who are not challenged to reach the same level of achievement as their nondisabled peers may not be able to earn a standard diploma in high school or a career certificate or degree from a postsecondary institution. Modifications may also limit the types of careers and occupations in which students can find work. (HOW TO SELECT, ADMINISTER, AND EVALUATE ACCOMMODATIONS FOR INSTRUCTION OF STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES, 2011) Modified Occupational Completion Points: Career education programs are different at the high school level. The student performance standards may be modified as long as they are aimed at fulfilling the requirements of the specific job selected by the individual student. Teams may modify the curriculum and identify a completion point that falls between established completion points, known as modified occupational points. Transition planning for students with Intellectual disabilities: Transition is usually described as a coordinated set of activities for a student, designed to promote successful progress to and from school. Transition relates to entry into and exit from each educational level, such as pre-school to elementary school, elementary school to secondary school, and secondary school to post-school activities, including postsecondary education (both university and college), vocational training, apprenticeships, employment, adult education, independent living and community participation. Successful transition for all students including those who have learning disabilities is based on: the student’s identified needs the student’s recognized strengths, skills and competencies the student’s interests the student’s preferences the student’s short and long term goals the student’s past experiences, including academic achievements, co-curricular and Volunteer involvements at school and in the community. (Tracy) Agencies available for intellectually disabled: There are many agencies all around the world that are catering the needs of individuals with intellectual disability that includes: National Intellectual Disability Care Agency (NIDCA) U.S. Organizations for People with Intellectual Disabilities: The ArcLink Find my roommate MOSAIC Think College and many more. Intellectual Disabilities’ agency of the New River Valley (IDA) Inclusion Tips: The tips below are general guidelines to help make simple accommodations: Academic Accommodations: Teachers may need to make adaptations to the curriculum and learning activities in order to fully include these students. Physical and Sensory Accommodations: This includes hearing impairments, visual impairments and physical disabilities. Behavioral Accommodations: It is important to have well managed and consistent behavioral plan in order to help students learn more appropriate behaviors. Conclusion: Intellectual disability is a very common disability. It should be eliminated by using different techniques that come in handy and that are mentioned in this particular research paper. Children with such disability should be accommodated accordingly. And there are a lot of ways through which a child can get accommodations. These pupils need special care and attention. People with such disabilities are often not seen as full citizens of society. There should be movement for self-advocacy, self determination and self direction by the people with intellectual disabilities. And there is a need to eliminate it either with the help of technology or either with providing comprehensive treatment. Works Cited (2001). Assistive Technology, Accommodations, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation and Rehabilitation Research. Cornell University. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/extension/files/download/Assistive_Tech.pdf Definition of Intellectual Disability. (n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2014, from Aaidd.org: http://aaidd.org/intellectual-disability/definition#.UwCy9vmSxvA Doka, K. J. (n.d.). Individuals with intellectual disabilities: Struggling with loss and grief. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from http://www.rescarenz.org.nz/Publications Papers/ciwid.pdf Dwyer, K. P. (n.d.). Disciplining Students With Disabilities. National Association of School Psychologists (. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/discipline.stud.dis.dwyer.pdf (2011). HOW TO SELECT, ADMINISTER, AND EVALUATE ACCOMMODATIONS FOR INSTRUCTION OF STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES. Department of Education. Nebraska: NEBRASKA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION . Retrieved February 16, 2014, from http://www.education.ne.gov/assessment/pdfs/Accommodations_Guidelines_Students_Disabilities_Nov_2011.pdf Tracy, J. (n.d.). Intellectual disability. Centre for Developmental Health Victoria. Centre for Developmental Health Victoria. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from Nichcy.org: http://www.cddh.monash.org/assets/documents/intellectual-disability.pdf

Pfizer Animal Health Essay -- Business Marketing Case Study, solution

Pfizer entered the animal health industry in the early 1950’s. Today, Pfizer Animal Health products are sold to veterinarians, livestock producers, and horse and pet owners in more than 140 countries around the world and used in more than 30 species. Pfizer Animal Health is committed to providing high-quality, research-based health products for livestock and companion animals. The company continues to invest more in research and development than any other animal health company. This offers opportunities for substantial growth and internal synergy. Pfizer has more new animal health products in its research pipeline today than at any other time in its history. Their products include anti-inflammatory, anti-infectious, and anti-parasitic pharmaceutical medicines, vaccines and feed additives. These products are used by cattle, swine, and poultry industries, as well as, veterinarians serving both the livestock and pet markets. The animal health segment of Pfizer accounts for approx imately 10% of their total revenues. ) Pfizer Animal Health revenues were $1,314 million in 1998. Some of Pfizer’s top selling animal health products are Rimadyl, Anipryl, Dectomax, and RespiSure.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The animal health segment is served in manufacturing by the 35 production plants around the world. Their products are sold through veterinarians, drug wholesalers, retail outlets, distributors, and directly to users. Animal Health gross revenues declined 1% to 1.3 billion in 1998. (Note Appendix:) This decrease is due to continuing weaknesses in the U.S. livestock market, the poor Asian economy, and the unfavorable effects of foreign exchange. This decline was offset by growth of Pfizer products; the cattle endectocide Dectomax, the canine anti-arthritic Rimadyl, and the swine vaccine RepiSure. Pfizer is among the leading suppliers of companion animal vaccines, a $500 million market worldwide. They have over 43 animal health product candidates in clinical development. Pfizer’s Animal Health markets several feed supplements for large animals. Feed supplement product sales slowed in 1998, due in part to regulatory issues, market conditions, and competitive pressures.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pfizer’s goal for both its business units is to meet the needs and exceed the expectations of all their customers. They achieve this with ongoing innovation through state-of-the-art research and development, ... ...s small, medium, large, and extra large coolers to accommodate shipments ranging in size.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Government regulations are a large threat to our company. In December 1998, the Council of European Agricultural Ministers voted to ban the use of Pfizer’s antibiotic feed additive, STAFAC, throughout the European Union. It is regulations like these that can stunt our sales growth in both of our business segments. FDA requirements and reviews have increased the amount of time and money necessary to develop new products and bring them to market. Our international businesses are subject to a number of risks that are inherent in carrying on business in other countries. Some government-imposed restraints may include laws on pricing or reimbursements for use of products.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another threat to Pfizer’s Animal Health segment is competition. Principal methods of competition in this marketplace vary depending on the particular product, but are mainly: product innovation, service, price, quality, and effective promotion to veterinary professionals and consumers. Pfizer is the leader in the animal health industry today. Some of their main competitors are Merck, Alpharma Inc, and Wingo Inc.