Maternal Depression in Women and Its Effect on the Family

Maternal Depression Depression is a prevalent issue among women. Approximately 25% of women in will have a major depressive disorder at least once in their lifetime and 15% of the female population will experience post-partum depression. (Women and Mental Illness, 2003) With these numbers, it is obvious that maternal depression has profound effect on the Canadian family. Mother have the most influence in a childs life, since they generally more involved in raising the children then men are. In most cases, this influence serves to direct the child to healthy development. But when the mother is suffering from depression, what effect does it have on the intellectual and emotional development of her child? The child is definitively affected starting as early as infancy and through adolescence. Depression: Symptoms and Causes Depression may be simply defined as a state of sadness. Many may feel depressed for a short time when things do not go their way, but when this feeling persists and interferes with daily activity a doctor may diagnose an individual with clinical depression and order medication. Genetic predisposition, personal problems, and seasonal hormonal changes are some of the many things that may trigger depression. A depressed individual may encounter feelings of despair and sadness, constant fatigue, constant headaches, among other things. If left untreated, depression may lead to suicide. (Mood Disorders, 2003) Depressed Women as Mothers Most mothers aspire toShow MoreRelatedMaternal Depression And Its Effects On Many Individuals1384 Words   |  6 Pages Introduction Maternal depression can have effects on many individuals. It is a disorder that can have ramifications on women, men, children, and families. Maternal depression is not a disorder that just happens postnatal , this diagnosis can occur in the prenatal stages. It s estimated that 1 in 10 pregnant women and 13 percent of new mothers experience depression. Maternal depression is a mood disorder that begins before or immediately after childbirth. It affects a mother or fathers abilityRead MoreMaternal Depression : A Standard ( New York State Department Of Health1048 Words   |  5 PagesDespite widespread recognition of the problem of maternal depression and the potential benefits of screening, screening for maternal depression is not a standard (New York State Department Of Health, 2016). This policy brief was written for healthcare providers who treat expectant and new mothers with goals to improve the screening and to increase the number of women receiving appropriate treatment in ou r community. The recommendations address measures to improve early identification of the conditionRead MoreThe Role Of Literature Of Maternal Depression During Prenatal Stages1110 Words   |  5 Pages Evaluating the Relationship of Literature of Maternal Depression during Prenatal Stages. Depression can occur at any time. We often hear talk of postpartum depression or the baby blues, which occurs shortly after the birth of a baby. Though we rarely discuss depression that occurs during pregnancy or prenatal depression. There are estimates that as many as 70% of women will experience symptoms of depression during pregnancy, making it a widespread concern. However, these depressive symptoms areRead MoreEffects of Postpartum Depression on Child Bearing and Rearing Family1357 Words   |  6 PagesEffects of Postpartum Depression on Child Bearing and Rearing Family Postpartum depression (PPD) is a major event occurring in eight to fifteen percent of the woman population after delivering their child (Glavin, Smith, Sà ¸rum Ellefsen, 2010). The symptoms and causes of PPD are similar to depression symptoms in other periods of life (Glavin et al., 2010). These symptoms may include feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, loss of interest in daily activities, sleep changes, anger or irritabilityRead MoreThe Effect Of A Mood Disorder On Maternal Behavioral Outcomes1172 Words   |  5 Pagesbirth of a baby can provoke a lot of emotions. Mothers particularly can have a range of emotions, including depression. Many mothers experience postpartum â€Å"baby blues†. Baby blues include symptoms of crying, anxiety, mood swings, and problems sleeping for about two weeks (Postpartum, n.d.). However, postpartum depression (PPD) is more severe and long-term. Mothers with postpartum depression experience similar symptoms of baby blues, however these s ymptoms are more intense and extreme. This disorderRead MoreGuaranteed Paid On The United States Essay1346 Words   |  6 Pages22, 2016 Guaranteed Paid Maternal Leave in the United States Today there are two countries in the world that do not currently guarantee paid maternity leave for employed new mothers and/or expecting mothers, those countries are the United States and Papua New Guinea, according to the International Labour Organization, an United Nations agency, which recommends a minimum 18 week maternity leave (Rubin 2016, p.1). In recent years, the controversial issue of guaranteed maternal leave has been a prominentRead MoreMaternal Health And The Pregnancy Essay1215 Words   |  5 PagesMaternal health defined by the world health organization as the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. However, this paper examines maternal past experience and utilization of health care during the pregnancy. The primary goal is to assess the role of socio-demographic factors particularly age and race/ ethnicity, and the role of pregnancy intention to the prenatal care utilization and ultimately the correlation of these factors in the birth outcome and the maternalRead MoreNo Perinatal Mental Illnesses Have Linked With An Increased Risk Of Suicide Essay920 Words   |  4 Pagescauses of maternal mortality in the last two decades and in the perinatal period the rate is not showing any signs of improvement. In 2005 among women aged 15 to 44 years suicide was the fourth cause of death in the US (Mendez-Bustos, Lopez-Castroman, Baca-Garcà ­a, Ceverino, 2013). A 2006-2008 review of maternal death in the UK identified psychiatric disorders and suicide in particular as the leading cause of maternal death. In those same years there were 1.27 maternal deaths per 100,000 maternal deliveriesRead MoreA Look Into Advanced Maternal Age Pregnancies1370 Words   |  6 Pages A Necessary Timeline? A Look into Advanced Maternal Age Pregnancies Krystie Johnson, SRN Unitek College â€Å"Children learn more from what you are than what you teach,† W.E.B DuBois. If this statement is true, then one could say that becoming pregnant and starting a family later in life would be beneficial to the growth of a child. A woman over 35 would have lived more, had more life experience, and in most cases, be a more mature, stable person. However, society and medicalRead MoreDomestic Violence, Maternal Depression, And Home Environment969 Words   |  4 Pageshomes not only have to face the direct violence that is happening at the moment, but also have to face the indirect change that is brought after the violence has occurred. Using a sample of 100 women and their children ages 3-5, the study conducted by Huth-Bocks, Levendosky, and Semel (2001) examined maternal psychological functioning and its impact of the quality of the home environment in a domestic violent household. After observing these indirect variables, assessments were made to determine if

Officer Selection Process Free Essays

Officer selection is a very detailed process. Every police department wants to recruit, select, train, and maintain the best and brightest officers possible. The job of a police officer requires an individual that can deal with stressful situations and the ability to interact with the community. We will write a custom essay sample on Officer Selection Process or any similar topic only for you Order Now The job requires quick decision making and good judgment. Police duties vary from writing reports to maintaining order to responding to criminal situations, all of which require critical thinking skills. Officers should possess certain traits due to the range of duties they will have to perform. These traits include physically agility, the ability to cope with difficult situations, well-developed writing skills, good communication skills, sound judgment, compassion, strong powers of observation, and the ability to both exert and respect commands of authority (Grant Terry, 2008). Every department sets its own standards therefore there is not a set standard for officer selection. The minimum requirements that most departments require that the officer be at least 21 years of age, have a driver’s license in the state or be eligible for one, have no prior felony convictions, and be able to pass a written exam, a medical exam, an interview, a physical agility test, and psychological screening. Individuals must be able to obtain a driver’s license because their primary duty will be patrol and must be twenty one years of age as they will have to qualify for a firearm. A police officer will not have full police powers until at least the age of twenty one, for that reason some departments will not even allow recruits to enter the police academy until they reach that age. A convicted felony is prohibited from possessing a firearm, which thereby bars them from becoming police officers. Most police departments now have educational requirements for recruits. Nearly all departments require officers to have a minimum of a high school diploma, and many require at least some college credits. Officers need to be able to deal with the constant changing law of criminal procedures, and the idea is that the departments need to raise their requirements to keep pace with the rising levels of education in society. With the increase use of technology in policing is another reason for high education among the officers. In most states, small departments send their new officers to a state training academy or program certified by the state. During this time the officer is on probation for a period of a year or two years in which the officer is evaluated. Some of the programs are operated through community colleges. The separate police academies run by the large police departments are similarly certified by the state. Officers who complete state training are then certified or licensed as peace officers in the state. The academy provides formal training during which the recruits who prove to be unqualified are weeded out. During the time at the police academy the officers receive physical training, training in the use of firearms, and training in the systems of patrol and traffic. The officers must learn about the department, its policies, and its relationship with other agencies such as state, county, federal. Once out of the academy, the police officer is assigned a field training officer (FTO). The FTO assist the new officer in using the knowledge and skills learned at the academy. The FTO also assist the new officer to acclimate into the police culture, and experience the socialization process. The FTO’s can have a significant influence over the new officers and assist the officer in dealing with the stress and cynicism that comes with the job. In some states, the officers are required to be Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) certified as the officers are often confronted with acts of civil disobedience. The promotion process for police officers is very competitive. Officers may be promoted through several methods; these methods may differ from department to department and agency to agency. The officer typically will take a written exam and partake in an interview; the officers are then assessed on qualities relating to the job. The written exam usually is in a multiple choice format. During the interview, a board of several members asks the candidates a variety of questions. These questions may range from information about the candidates background and personal characteristics to judgments about policing situations. After the interview, the candidates are assessed, during which time the candidates are observed, tested, rated, and evaluated. The purpose of these assessment tools is to determine how well the candidate would perform at supervisory levels. Promotions are not based on these factors alone, but are considered in combination with the performance evaluation. Performance evaluations look at the candidate’s quantity and quality of work, work habits, human relations, and ability to accept new situations. The officer selection process has evolved over the past 100 years. The police began actively recruiting women and minorities, implement affirmative action policies to keep the departments as equal opportunities for hiring of police officers. The selection process is similar among the local, state, and federal agencies. The law enforcement departments are all looking for the brightest and best for their departments. The departments require the officers to be healthy of mind and body, ability to learn and adapt to different situations, and have good communication skills with the community. Each agency is willing to train and educate the officers as it is difficult to find the ideal candidate with all the qualities necessary. How to cite Officer Selection Process, Essay examples

Plain English Proof Reading - Editing and Rewriting

Question: Describe about the Plain English for Proof Reading, Editing and Rewriting. Answer: Original Acme Company Group Newsletter Sentence Acme Company Group Newsletter Comments or Observations on Grammar and Language 1. Appraisal of what? Management of what? These points should be incorporated in the sentence 2. In order for is clumsy and not plain English just use 'For'. 3. This is incorrect word. That should be used Which board? Greater should not be utilized. The entire sentence should be broken into two simple sentence to the remove the sentence complexity 4. Significant sales increases can be achieved is grammatically incorrect. Short term should not used. Short timeline can be used instead of it. 5. Use of thereby is incorrect. 6. Constantly and critically should not be used at the end of the sentence 7. then adapted is clumsy and not plain English 8. Modification should be made over the phrase As the system evolves. Edited and Re-Written Acme Company Group Newsletter The performance management has accepted the need for implementing greater group integration within the Acme companies following the recent performance appraisal undertaken by XYZ. it must show a consistent level of performance across all operating units, particularly in terms of marketing and sales skills for the group to present a common image. To obtain that the performance management board has accepted the fact that the central management must play a great part in directing each company activity. However, t is recognized that the autonomy of each company must be retained. It is also accepted that increase in significant sales can be accomplished within short timeline by improving the overall group standard of sales management and control. The sales control system should take into account the need for simplicity by maximizing real selling time. the role of individual sales management will be to constantly and critically evaluate their respective sales operations. From this study, t he most appropriate system will be selected and adapted to incorporate the specific operational characteristics of the Acme Group. As per the evolution of the system, it will be corroborated by referring back to the individual companies in order to ensure comparability with national requirements. Original Blue Sky Airlines Letter Paragraph Blue Sky Airlines Letter Observations or Comments on Language and Grammar 1. Improper use of adverb, recently That should be used between a complaint and you had Incorrect use of to travel in the second line of the paragraph Wrong use of the verb charges a $35 fee is an incorrect phrase Incorrect use of the verb, paid A preposition is required between, requested and a refund In your case, a total of $70 is clumsy and not plain English 2. In the first line of the paragraph, after within, a pronoun or a noun is expected. To would be replaced by the after the phrase cost of attending. That should be used instead of so in the second sentence of the paragraph. a $35 coupon should be changed into a coupon of $ 35 3. Use of that is not necessary between I suggest and you carefully Reflecting on the questions as well as the letters, it must be stated that the letter is not written effectively. There are few grammatical errors in the letter. Apart from that, language of the letter should be more improvised. Thus, in order to write a proper letter, the grammar, language as well as the format of the letter should be focused to be presented in an effective manner. Edited and Re-Written Blue Sky Airlines Letter Blue Sky Airlines January 18, 2014 Dear Mr. Johnson, Recently, you wrote a complaint with Blue Sky Airlines. Allegedly, you purchased a ticket from the Travelocity online ticket service for your 19-year-old son who would travel from Chicago to Miami on October 12. When you arrived at OHare airport in Chicago on October 12, you were informed that Blue Sky Airlines charged a fee of $ 35 to deal with minors who were traveling alone. You were also told that your son could not be approved for boarding unless you paid the fee. You already paid that fee. However, you requested for the refund of that fee. In your case, the total amount of that fees is $ 70. If you had read the special information attached to your ticket order, you would have seen our policy clearly stated within that. Blue Sky Airlines charges a fee of $35 each way for the cost of attending the unattended minors. Therefore, we are not obligated to refund your fee according to our policies. We apologize to inform you that we would not be able to refund the money. However, we are sending you (enclosed) a coupon of $35 which you may apply to your next Blue Sky Airlines ticket purchase. In the future, I suggest you to read carefully all the provisions and conditions of airline tickets you purchase. This way you will avoid unpleasant surprises. Sincerely, Charles Wentworth Client Services Representative Blue Sky Airlines Bibliography Cutts, M., 2013.Oxford guide to plain English. OUP Oxford. de Groote, M.L., Verschure, P.J. and Rots, M.G., 2012. Epigenetic Editing: targeted rewriting of epigenetic marks to modulate expression of selected target genes.Nucleic acids research, p.gks863. Raskind, M.H. and Higgins, E., 1995. Effects of speech synthesis on the proofreading efficiency of postsecondary students with learning disabilities.Learning Disability Quarterly,18(2), pp.141-158. Turner, J., 2012. Rewriting writing in higher education: the contested spaces of proofreading.Studies in Higher Education,36(4), pp.427-440.

Women’s Right (Compare and Contrast) Essay Example

Women’s Right (Compare and Contrast) Essay Everywhere, regardless of color, nationality, religion, and educational background, most women found them selves at disadvantage level compared to men in most aspect of their social lives. In the work place women suffers from sexual harassment, at home they suffers sexual assault and in some cases sexual abuse. In general, women suffer discriminations that are often times a result of either religious or government implementations of laws or doctrines that is discriminatory. Thus, even in their own domain, most women suffer physical and emotional abuses. There may not have justifiable reasons for this women dilemma although some put the blame partly on women victims themselves in view of the manner most women dressed. However, it cannot be denied that there are many women whose skills, intelligence, and leadership are far better than men are and yet they are either victims of discriminations in the work place or sexual harassment. What does the different gender based movement say about all these misfortunes that has befall on women. Mainstream sources said that women are helpless victims of systematic discriminations in all aspect of their social life, while independent source partly blame women for their own predicament. We will write a custom essay sample on Women’s Right (Compare and Contrast) specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Women’s Right (Compare and Contrast) specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Women’s Right (Compare and Contrast) specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer What Mainstream Say about abuses and discrimination on Women The two main opinions on women discrimination tells that there seemed to be differing reasons why women became victims of abuses and discriminations. Mainstream source tells us women are vulnerable and often systematically discriminated just because of their sex. The mainstream source noted that in countries like Ukraine, Moldova, Nigeria, the Dominican republic, Burma, and Thailand women are bought and sold, traffic to work in forced prostitution, while government action to protect their rights are insufficient. The same source reveals that in some countries such as Guatemala, South Africa, and Mexico, women’s capability to enter and stay in the work is thwarted by private employers using women’s reproductive status to keep them out from the work. This action according to Mainstream source is backed up by discriminatory laws as well as by discriminatory enforcement of the law. Not only women were discriminated in many countries, they were even legally held inferior with men. In some Islamic countries like Morocco, Jordan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, women faces government-sponsored discrimination that legally held them unequal before the law. These countries’ discriminatory family code nullifies women’s legal authority and bestowed their legal rights in the hands of male family members, while restricting women’s involvement in public life (Mainstream source). In general, Mainstream source tells us that all these discriminations and abuses on women are beyond their control. Women are helpless against all these abuses that some times even lead to physical violence resulting to fatal consequences, including increased risk of HIV/AIDS infection. They do not enjoy government protection against physical violence at home, and they do not even have personal rights. Mainstream source calls all these violence, abuses, and discrimination on women as â€Å"global social epidemics† and three areas wherein women suffers discrimination and abuses. These includes legal, cultural, and religious areas in which according to mainstream source, women are methodically discriminated against, barred from political involvement and public life, isolated in their every day lives, beaten in their homes, raped in armed conflict, killed for having sex, assaulted for not conforming to gender norms, forced to marry, sold into forced labor and denied equal divorce or inheritance rights (Women’s Rights). Therefore women discrimination should be abolished. Title VII of the US constitution declares the discrimination is illegal. Due to these offenses on women, some loose gender based movements rallied against gender-based discrimination. Among this movement is the anti sexism movement which denounced gender based norms that promotes inequalities between men and women. This movement specifically noted the discrepancy in the division of work between men and women citing that fulltime work belongs to men while part time work is the domain of women. The difference is that full time work gets high salary (Five Cram). What the Independent source say about women Discrimination Independent source claims that some women are partly to blame of their misfortunes. Citing a new poll in Ireland an internet source entitled Significant Numbers of Irish Blame Women for Rape, pointed out that a huge numbers of people of Ireland think that women are at least partially responsible for rape if she flirts with man. The same article contends that more people are willing to blame a woman for rape if she would go somewhere at night alone and dressed provocatively.   The survey says ten percent of the people think the victim is completely at a mess if she has had a numbers of partners, while one in three believes that a woman is either partly or fully to blame if she wears seductive clothing (The Curvature). The article remarked that However, despite of the recent public opinion in Ireland, in general, many women are victims of discrimination. In many occasion, women are portrayed as sexual object. Pictures of nude women are used by certain companies to attract potential male customer. Women also serve as the attraction in most bars and clubs, which categorized women as mere objects of men’s desire, or as something that men can use (Women’s Right). In many countries, women’s rights are ignored. Women do not have access to education, and are subject to violence, which deny them control over their own bodies. In her article entitled For India’s Untouchable women, Cleaning Human feces, Linda Lowen noted that in India, women are used as manual scavengers to clean up public toilets with no water to flush the excrement (Linda Lowen). These women have only broom and a tin plate to gather up human feces, which they put into a basket and carry with their heads for up to two miles distance in which contents often drip into their hair, faces, and bodies. Despite that the work is illegal and hazardous to women’s health due to potential bacterial and viral infection, yet this practice still persist in India. Lowen pointed out that these women were forced to take on this kind of work because of poverty and the failure of the government to provide alternatives. Comparing and contrasting the Sources In most of the arguments it appears that there are similarities of opinions between the two sources as both were against discriminations. However, the mainstream sources emphasized that in general, women are innocent and helpless victims of discriminations and abuses just because of their gender. They therefore call for equality and the granting of the women’s right on global scale. They call on government and all concerned to stop discrimination and violence against women. The mainstream source emphasized on the abuses, violence, and discriminations that women are experiencing on a general situation or may be on a global scale to which in many countries women does not have enough protection from the government. They reveal the helpless conditions of women perpetrated either by the macho image of men who tend to display their dominance to conform to this norm. Because of these the anti sexism movement which aim to promote equality between men and women emphasized on the soluti on to these dilemma that women are facing. They offered practical solution to abolish the discrimination in the work place such as a practical shift in the distribution of the task between men and women in which in their view, it would open door to many changes (Anti Sexism + Work) This source also suggest for the reduction of the averaged work hours which in their view, will help reduce women unemployment. In contrast to this assertion of the mainstream source, the Independence sources although they might also denounce violence on women, yet they tend to put the blame on women victims. They emphasized that in most cases of rapes woman are partly to blame for their provocative manner of dressing. They also pointed out that when women would go somewhere at night alone, they should be responsible for their own safety and welfare. Thus when they are raped, they are partly to be blame for their predicament. The emphasis therefore of the independence sources are on the individual actions and misfortunes resulting to misfortune. The independence sources tells us about the result of how individual women carry themselves, and the manner they dressed which are provocative to such offence as sexual abuse and rape. However, discriminations on women in the work place and elsewhere are clearly beyond the women’s control and they are innocent of their struggle. Domestic violence on women and s exual abuses are also beyond their capacity to control and that these women are innocent of such sufferings. Conclusions Women are the same human beings as men and care for the same things as men do. It is clearly unfair to discriminate women based on their gender or their weaknesses. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides protection for the individual against employment discrimination based on sex, national origin, race, color, and religion. The provisions also protect women against sexual harassment and discrimination because of pregnancy, childbirth, and related conditions. In other words, although in some Islamic countries, discriminations on women is tolerated by government, yet the fact remain that women must have their own right as an individual human being and fellow citizen of this world. There is no justifiable reason fir women discrimination. The feminism quest therefore for equality and fairness is with men is acceptable as they are merely seeking for their own place in the society which long dominated by men.

Free Essays on Mary Jane

Marijuana can cause many harmful effects. There has never been a major test though. The ones they’ve used have shown very different things. I have been very surprised by what I have been reading. I cannot believe the difference in what different scientists think. One says, â€Å"It's hard to know for sure whether regular marijuana use causes cancer. But it is known that marijuana contains some of the same and sometimes even more, of the cancer-causing chemicals found in tobacco smoke. Studies show that someone who smokes five joints per week may be taking in as many cancer-causing chemicals as someone who smokes a full pack of cigarettes every day.† While in certain places it is legally perscribed to people with many different types of cancer. The New scientist says, â€Å"A FRENCH government study has heaped fuel on the debate over the safety of cannabis by listing it as the least dangerous of all potentially addictive drugs. It also concludes that alcohol is among the most dangerous. The study, commissioned by French health minister Bernard Kouchner, was carried out by a panel of 10 French and foreign scientists headed by Bernard-Pierre Roques of the Renà © Descartes University of Paris. The panel searched the scientific literature for information about psychological and physical dependence, neural and general toxicity and social hazards such as aggressive behavior caused by various legal and illegal drugs. The team then grouped the substances into three categories of dangerousness. Cannabis was the only drug put in the least dangerous category. While cautioning that no drug they assessed was "completely free of danger", the researchers gave cannabis a rating of "weak" for social hazard and addictiveness, "very weak" for general toxicity and zero for neurotoxicity. In the most dangerous category, they included heroin and other opiates, and cocaine. Alcohol was also placed in this category because of its strong toxicity, its potential as... Free Essays on Mary Jane Free Essays on Mary Jane Marijuana Throughout history marijuana has been used to serve various purposes in many different cultures. The purposes have changed over time to fit in with the current lifestyles. This pattern is also true in American history. The use of marijuana has adapted to the social climate of the time. Marijuana, whose scientific name is cannibis sativa, was mentioned in historical manuscripts as early as 2700 B. C. in China. (Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia, 1995). The cultivation of the marijuana plant began as far back as the Jamestown settlers, around 1611, who used hemp produced from the marijuana plant's fibers to make rope and canvas. It was also used in making clothing because of it's durability. These uses fit in with the social climate of the time, because the main focus was on survival rather than for psychoactive purposes. During the prohibition, marijuana was widely used because of the scarcity of alcohol. Prohibition was repealed after just thirteen years while the prohibition against marijuana lasted for more than seventy five years. This double standard may have resulted from the wishes of those in power. Alcohol prohibition struck directly at tens of millions of Americans of all ages, including many of societies most powerful members. Marijuana prohibition threatened far fewer Americans, and they had relatively little influence in the districts of power. Only the prohibition of marijuana, which some sixty million Americans have violated since 196... Free Essays on Mary Jane Marijuana can cause many harmful effects. There has never been a major test though. The ones they’ve used have shown very different things. I have been very surprised by what I have been reading. I cannot believe the difference in what different scientists think. One says, â€Å"It's hard to know for sure whether regular marijuana use causes cancer. But it is known that marijuana contains some of the same and sometimes even more, of the cancer-causing chemicals found in tobacco smoke. Studies show that someone who smokes five joints per week may be taking in as many cancer-causing chemicals as someone who smokes a full pack of cigarettes every day.† While in certain places it is legally perscribed to people with many different types of cancer. The New scientist says, â€Å"A FRENCH government study has heaped fuel on the debate over the safety of cannabis by listing it as the least dangerous of all potentially addictive drugs. It also concludes that alcohol is among the most dangerous. The study, commissioned by French health minister Bernard Kouchner, was carried out by a panel of 10 French and foreign scientists headed by Bernard-Pierre Roques of the Renà © Descartes University of Paris. The panel searched the scientific literature for information about psychological and physical dependence, neural and general toxicity and social hazards such as aggressive behavior caused by various legal and illegal drugs. The team then grouped the substances into three categories of dangerousness. Cannabis was the only drug put in the least dangerous category. While cautioning that no drug they assessed was "completely free of danger", the researchers gave cannabis a rating of "weak" for social hazard and addictiveness, "very weak" for general toxicity and zero for neurotoxicity. In the most dangerous category, they included heroin and other opiates, and cocaine. Alcohol was also placed in this category because of its strong toxicity, its potential as...

Synonyms for Because - Proofread My Papers Academic Blog

Synonyms for Because - Proofread My Papers Academic Blog Synonyms for Because The word because is used to join two ideas and express cause and effect: The lemonade fizzed because we shook the bottle. However, if you find yourself overusing the word because, there are alternatives available. Were going to look at some here. Alternatives to Because Instead of because, you could use any of the following terms (although this may depend on the context). Consider using Since/As Used as conjunctions, these are the simplest alternatives to because. They often work as substitutes without having to change the rest of the sentence: The lemonade fizzed, since we shook the bottle. The lemonade fizzed, as we shook the bottle. Due To/On Account Of/As a Result Of These alternatives all require changing the sentence slightly. Here, for example, we need to use the term shaking rather than shook: The lemonade fizzed due to shaking the bottle. The lemonade fizzed on account of shaking the bottle. The lemonade fizzed as a result of shaking the bottle. Which Meant/Which Caused In these phrases, the sentence must be reversed, with the cause coming first: We shook the bottle, which meant that the lemonade fizzed. We shook the bottle, which made the lemonade fizz. In this version, we need to swap fizzed for the infinitive to fizz. We shook the bottle, which caused the lemonade to fizz. Using some of these alternatives will be a great way to show off your vocabulary. They will also vary the rhythm of your text and engage the reader much more, enhancing readability. Why Not to Use the Word Because Using a word repeatedly in a paper can make you seem unimaginative. It could also make your work dull to read. If you need help finding other words to use, or if you are not sure that you have used these words correctly, simply upload your document to be proofread within 24 hours!

Self-Assessment Inventories Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Self-Assessment Inventories - Essay Example From this paper, it is clear that various methods can be used to evaluate one's competency at work. One of these is the self-assessment inventories. Abstract Self-assessment inventories are structured closed end questionnaires, which are meant to collect information concerning someone’s beliefs, virtues, and principles guiding that person at work. The subject individual in gauging his technical standing concerning his/her performance can use self-assessment information. The data collected will be standardized using a stipulated set of principles expected from an individual in the course of duty. The stipulated principles define how an ideal career person ought to administer his/her practices at work. Self-assessment inventories will provide an insight into someone’s strengths and weaknesses at work. Someone’s competencies will be evaluated in referent to the degree of deviation that exists between that individual’s actual principles of work and the stipula ted guidelines that defines an ideal person at work. Based on the abstract, the self-assessment inventories are meant to supplement me with my actual performance level information as an adult educator. The assessment inventories will unearth my philosophy as a teacher and my technical abilities as an adult educator. ... I assessed my abilities categorically based on the title of the inventories. Competencies for teaching adults All categories of learners require specific needs of technical skills during learning. The requirements for successful early childhood education are not similar to those for adult education. Therefore, as a teacher, one has to possess the appropriate set of qualities that characterize a successful administration of knowledge to learners (David, 2005 P.138). As an adult educator, I acknowledge the necessary skills needed to enhance proper dispensation of knowledge to the students. The inventory data concerning the competencies for teaching adults will depict my performance level in terms of the technical aspects I stick to when teaching. This inventory narrows down to assessing my technical capability on the most crucial contents of teaching. Based on the (1-7) scale scores in every section of the inventory, I could define my teaching competence. From the data contained in the inventory, I could acknowledge the fact that based on my self-knowledge; I slightly disagree with two statements, neutral on two statements and I slightly agree with the other two statements.

EU Legal Contexts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

EU Legal Contexts - Essay Example The company terminated her services on 19 December 2006, providing her with a notice period up to 31 January 2007, calculating the period of service as 3 years, that is the computation period commencing from the time she was 25 years of age. The company ignored her pleas that she was serving the company for a period of 10 years that is, since December 2006, and thus her notice period should have been four months and not over one month as provided to her in her termination notice. Aggrieved, the petitioner took up this matter with Labour Court on the grounds that the subject clause in German Civil Code (BGB) which denies credit for the period below 25th year of service validity was void and â€Å"Paragraph 622(2) of the BGB is a measure which discriminates on grounds of age, contrary to European Union law, and must be disapplied.†1 Laws: There were two main questions that need to be answered in this case. The first question would be in terms of whether national legislation such as that at issue, under which periods of employment completed by the employee before reaching the age of 25, which was not taken into consideration in calculating notice period for dismissal, constitutes a difference of treatment on grounds of age prohibited by European Union law, with special reference to EC Directive 2000/78/EC. ...The main contention in the reckoning would be â€Å"Thus in the case of two employees each with 20 years’ seniority in service, the one who joined the undertaking at the age of 18 will be entitled to a notice period of five months, whereas the period will be seven months for the one who joined at the age of 25. †¦ the situation of Ms Kucukdeveci shows – may, despite several years’ seniority in service in the undertaking, be excluded from benefiting from the progressive extension of notice periods in the case of dismissal according to the length of the employment relationship, from which older workers of comparable seniority w ill, by contrast, be able to benefit.†

Intercultural Aspect Of Culture Essay Example for Free

Intercultural Aspect Of Culture Essay Before evolving an intercultural model of conflict resolution it is important to understand and identify aspects of culture that lead to creation of the framework of conflict. The cultural spectrum holds different shades for a person, a society and a nation, accordingly helping each of them to assimilate and adapt to a common identity that is defined and shaped by culture (Holliday, Hyde and Kullman, 2004). In the process of evolving this collective identity, culture transcends its traditional role of providing an aggregate set of beliefs, customs, norms, values, ethics, traditions, moral, social and legal codes, perceptions, and philosophy, to become the overall physical framework for the society to function. Culture is strongly related with geographical setting of a place, religion, ethnicity, and race, explaining why different countries have different cultures, and also why places on seashore share common elements of culture that is quite different from culture of mountainous places. The imprinting of culture on ways a person thinks, acts, perceives the environment and models his/her reaction is very strong and virtually indelible, determining every aspect of human behavior and giving rise to cultural identity in addition to individual and national identity. Although the classic rational choice framework says that people are independent in choice of their behavior and approach towards events, its seen that at subtle levels the structural model provided by culture acts as final determinant in predicting a person, a society and a nation. Although culture is dynamic, evolving and continuously upgrading itself, in essence, these changes occur within the context of culture’s own timeframe. One of the most important contribution of culture to human civilization is the orientation provided towards other cultures, making the culture in question receptive, tolerant, indifferent or outright hostile towards different cultures. Societies are seldom mono-cultural, displaying a range of cultural traits, achieved through generations of trades, contact, and cross cultural mixing (Holliday, Hyde and Kullman, 2004). However, although for people belonging to a particular culture, their culture would hardly seem complex, the cultural realities are hidden beneath the surface, difficult to observe and discern from outside. These improper understanding and imperfect perceptions of culture often give rise to conflict when different cultures are required to meet or come across. In the workshops I have attended I have come across people from various cultural background and my first attempt is always to know as much possible as about them; not their individual preferences, but their cultural orientation and philosophy. My this approach has helped me immensely in not only developing an understanding of other cultures, but my own adaptability and flexibility in my relation towards them Conflict and Culture Conflict is an integral part of human culture. When a number of people of interact with their own individual perspectives, view points, ideologies, cultural and social backgrounds and intellectual development then differences and debates are bound to arise as a logical and inevitable consequence of the interaction (Killian and Pammer Jr. 2003, 3). These differences, acted upon by incompatible interests of attaining personal goals, change into conflict within groups, societies and nations. (Rahim, 2001,1) The greater the diversity and richer the profile of a society, the greater is the scope and range of its embedded conflict. Therefore it is essential to educate people on understanding and handling conflict and treat as an integral component of a democratic society that is important for developing a healthy social life (Killian and Pammer Jr. 2003, 3). In every conflict, whether it is individual or at social scale, culture has always an important role to play. Depending upon the actors involved and the context of conflict, the role of culture in conflict can be direct or subtle, but it is always present as the ultimate factor in deciding the scope of conflict, its direction or its outcome. Culture even decides the existence of conflict, for people who are embedded in the culture of seeing world as a harmonious entity, may not be aware of any conflict through their life. In all the major disputes, debates and disagreement taking place around world, differences in cultural identities and perceptions are fundamental causative factors. A further evidence of the role that culture plays is evinced by peace and harmony existing among societies that have same culture, such as observed between USA and Britain, sharing same historical and cultural roots. Every conflict, whether it is trans-generational, geographical, religious, organizational, or personal, has a cultural component involved. People enshrined in their own culture often react with hostility against any cultural identity that appears contrary to their thought process and ideas. It follows therefore that any effort of conflict resolution needs to incorporate cultural understanding and acknowledge the existence and necessity of diversity (ibid). Personally I have encountered cultural difference in perspective of style of communication. Some of my colleagues, belonging to different cultural background, initially took exception to the direct and frank method of communication that is followed in US, as this, according to them constitutes a mild level of effrontery. However, as they assimilated themselves with the general surrounding, they realized that the direct nature of communication is a norm, not an aberration. Communication and Conflict Communication is important, as it is the medium of conveying message, forming the first interface in method of conflict resolution. Communication is almost always within the context of culture, and culture determines the significance of words as well as gestures and non-verbal expressions, affording people with choices of high context or low context communication, depending upon their cultural maturity and ability to handle multi-culturalism and accommodate a range of opinions and ideas other than those familiar to them (Grosse, 2002). During the initial phase of cultural familiarity, communication takes place at low context, meaning that people rely more on direct verbal communication, which is more or less literal in nature. As the cultural relationship progresses, communication interaction moves ahead on continuum to become high context, and it becomes more interpersonal and contextual, minimizing chances of misunderstanding and confusion. Effective cross cultural communication is centered upon knowledge, empathy and intercultural sensitivity (ibid). The correct approach in such cases is be flexible, adaptable and receptive to all views, no matter how contrary or incongruous they appear.. A positive and patient listening attitude is also valuable as it allows people to fathom emotions of others and makes them perceptible to alternate view points. Finally, the most important attribute in cross cultural communication is recognition that every culture is correct in its own context and each has to yield some ground to reach a harmonious consensus (ibid). In my attempts to understand and know about other cultures, I have always relied on effective communication skills, that include both hearing and communicating. Personally I have felt that people from different cultures readily share their cultural background, their beliefs, customs and traditions as I myself do in a multi-cultural environment, as we all want to be well understood and appreciated. Active listening and frank communication skills have greatly helped me in establishing quick rapport in any multi-cultured environment. Discussion on mediation and skills in conflict resolution Effective communication strategies are keys to resolve conflict by providing channels that provide expression of grievances and bring conflicting parties together. In the field of conflict management, communication strategies help through the channels of 1. Negotiation: Negotiation has emerged as an important form of conflict management within organizational and social setups. As such research in communication theory in conflict management has started to pay close attention to communication behaviors, types and strategies towards successful negotiation. Negotiation, as a part of managing conflict, requires interested parties to trade proposals for settlement that include, out of court settlements, business contracts, collective bargaining contract etc (Womack, 1990, 32). As Womack further elaborates, generally the process of negotiation proceeds through motives that are both competitive and cooperative. The approach of communication in the entire process of negotiation is concerned with the messages that are transferred among negotiators and the concerned parties. Communication intervenes in the process of negotiation through its both verbal and nonverbal forms and constitutes the entire base on which the goals and terms of the bargain are negotiated. Communication plays the central role in not only developing the relationship among the parties in conflict, but also in determining its direction. It is also central in every form of bargaining process, whether the bargaining is done for organizational form of conflict management, involves conflict resolution, negotiation on legal agreements or for negotiation in inter-group an intra group conflict. The entire role of communication in negotiation processes and strategies is quite vast and it ranges from defining the conflict issues, selection and implementation of strategies to presenting and defending the viable alternatives and finally helping in reaching on a solution (Womack, 1990, 35). 2. Third party intervention: Third party intervention in conflict situation is a tricky and challenging situation. It is considered as one of those areas that offers real test to the communication skills of the intervening person. Although mediation requires a neutral and third party to bring the disputants on the resolving chairs and solve the conflict, the mediator per se, has no authority and commanding power to force the parties into acquiescing to an agreement. At the best, the mediator can use persuasive and convincing dialogues through which the involved parties voluntarily agree to reach at accord through advises, admonishments, ideas, and views of the mediator and break into meaningful dialogue with each other (Burrel, 1990, 54). Its easy to see that this entire procedure requires very high level of communication skills on the part of the mediator to successfully negotiate agreement among the conflicting parties. I have had the opportunity to mediate in certain cases of cultural misunderstanding in the workshop. I tried to resolve the dispute by completely understanding the issue of contention, and the respective approaches that each party had taken on the issue. Thereafter I clarified the entire situation to them, explaining in the process that their respective approaches where natural consequences of their cultural training and application of that training on the issue in hand. In the process I encouraged them to understand and appreciate each other’s cultural understanding and orientation, they were successful in settling the conflict. Designing a process of Intercultural aspects of conflict resolution In the course to evolve a systematic cultural response to conflict, the first step is to breed familiarity among cultures that adds plurality and multicultural dimension to broaden existing views. In the process of evolving cultural familiarity communication, approaches towards conflict, cultural interpretation of life and identities and roles are identified as essential parameters (Carbaugh, 1990). Out of these, role and range of communication has already been discussed. Now it is time to look at rest of three factors. Responses towards a conflict situation are largely culture dependent, guided by the ways each culture has systemized itself towards conflict. Direct and straightforward ways of approaching conflict, generally acceptable in western society, may seem threatening and offensive in eastern cultures accustomed to third party negotiations. Similarly, cultures that follow calm and reasonable response to conflict, may feel intimidated by emotional and passionate response to conflict situation (Carbaugh, 1990). Cultural interpretation of life sets the starting point for people that forms basis of their thinking, values and philosophy, eventually deciding the role they would play in every conflict and their outcome they come across. It is the cultural orientation that makes societies disciplined or diffused, generalized or specific, value oriented or bohemian, and cooperative or isolated (Carbaugh, 1990). Hence cultural conflict resolution ultimately depends on the depth of understanding attained through interaction. Intercultural differences are very real forces in an environment where multiple cultures are interacting and coordinating on day to day basis. From my learning and observation the nature intercultural differences and their consequences on organizational and group efficiency, these differences can be resolved by taking a more comprehensive, collective and adaptive view of situation, that includes our own cultural vulnerabilities when placed in an unfamiliar social structure. As the workshop trainings and experience has demonstrated, it is very important to know the cultural background of people with whom we interact, fully understand the points where our mutual cultural understanding differ and recognize where they converge. Finally we should also develop a mutual sense of regard and appreciation for our combined cultural diversity. One of the revealing experiences that I have undergone relates to issue of timeliness. While in western culture, schedules are strictly followed and meetings start exactly on designated time, it is normal in many cultures to digress in time by a limited margin. Thus, in a multi-cultured environment, cultural ignorance can lead to conflict on such simple issue of scheduled arrival, while cultural knowledge and understanding would help in ‘looking’ at from other person’s cultural lens. Given the range and depth of cultural impact on overall personal behavior and communication style of people, there are numerous situations where cultural ignorance can directly put people against each other. Hence we should always strive to learn as much about other cultures as possible and continue to update our knowledge. References Burrel, N. A, 1990. Theory and Research in Conflict Management. edit M. Afzalur Rahim editor. Praeger Publishers. :New York Rahim, M. A (2001), Managing Conflict in Organizations. Contributors: M. Afzalur: Quorum Books. Westport, CT Handbook of Conflict Management. (2003) . Jerri Killian ,William J. Pammer Jr. (edits): Marcel Dekker. New York. Womack, D. F, 1990. Theory and Research in Conflict Management. edit M. Afzalur Rahim editor. Praeger Publishers. :New York. Leborn, M. 2003. Culture and Conflict. Accessed online on 17. 11. 2007. http://www. beyondintractability. org/essay/culture_conflict/ Grosse, C. U. 2002. Managing Communication within Virtual Intercultural Teams Business Communication Quarterly, Vol. 65, 2002. Holliday, A. , Hyde, M. ,, Kullman, J. 2004. Intercultural Communication: An Advanced Resource Book; Routledge, Carbaugh, D. 1990 Cultural Communication and Intercultural Contact; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Market Research in Housewares :: Marketing, business, products,

It’s certainly been one of the most eventful years on record for the housewares industry, with the economy in freefall and the decline of some of the industry’s most respected household names– there really was very little to cheer about. There are still many â€Å"what ifs† out there. It’s impossible to predict the outcome, but on one- side there is the issue of rising inflation, unemployment and a general election which will keep consumers holding tightly on to their purse strings and demanding more from the industry. By this I mean, demanding products that are well designed, ethically sourced and competitively priced. This is going to provide suppliers with a range of major challenges over the coming year. New Priorities One of the outcomes of a recession is that people often re-evaluate the way they live their lives and whereas before purchase decisions probably didn’t require a great deal of thought, this is no longer the case and every single pound spent will need to count. On the more positive side, 2010 will see new suppliers and retailers enter the market, companies who have taken advantage of vacant space available on the high street and also gaps in the supply chain. One of the areas that I believe will continue to grow is high-end contemporary established brands as well as smaller altruistic retailers. These newcomers focus specifically on quality, service, design and lifestyle. Many established names like Emma Bridgewater and Cath Kidston have grown their businesses during 2009 and have a strong foot hold in the market. They continue to provide their customers with fantastic â€Å"lifestyle stories† and fresh contemporary designs as well as playing on their â€Å"Made in Britain† traits or feeding the â€Å"homespun† lifestyle concept, a trend which will be with us for quite some time and which consumers still wish to emulate. Opportunities Whilst supermarkets and discount stores strive to increase their market share at the expense of domestic producers and specialist retailers, I still believe that there are opportunities out there for the smaller retailer. You only have to look at Lakeland - the mail order company - who continues to thrive in difficult market conditions due to a fantastic mix of great product offers and outstanding customer care. Whilst companies strive to compete in difficult economic times, I do believe that those who really understand their market and customer needs will continue to grow.

Energy crisis

An energy crisis Is any great shortfall (or price rise) In the supply of energy resources to an economy. It usually refers to the shortage of oil and additionally to electrlclty or other natural resources. The crlsls often has effects on the rest of the economy, with many recessions being caused by an energy crisis in some form. In particular, the production costs of electricity rise, which raises manufacturing costs.For the consumer, the price of gasoline (petrol) and diesel for cars and other vehicles rises, leading to reduced consumer confidence and spending, higher transportation osts and general price rising. AIM 2. The aim of this assignment is to highlight the crises which Pakistan is facing in terms of energy. MAIN BODY 3. Energy resources have depleted! Whatever resources are available are simply too expensive to buy or already acquired by countries which had planned and acted long time ago.Delayed efforts In the exploration sector have not been able to find sufficient amoun ts of energy resources. Nations of the world which have their own reserves are not supplying energy resources anymore; only the old contracts made decades ago are active. Airplanes, trains, cars, motorbikes, buses and trucks, all odes of transportation are coming to a stand still. Many industries have closed due to insufficient power supply. Price of oil has gone above the ceiling. At domestic level, alternate methods like solar, biogas and other methods are being tried for mere survival 4.The above is a likely scenario of Pakistan and around the globe after 25 years. A pessimistic view, but realistic enough to think about and plan for the future. But are we doing anything about it? Lets have a look at the current energy situation of Pakistan and the world. Pakistan's economy is performing at a very high note with GDP growing at an exceptional rate, touching 8. 5% in 2004-05. 1n its history of 58 years, there has been only a few golden years where the economy grew above 7%.This year official expectations are that GDP growth rate will be around 6. 5 – 7. 0%. For the coming years, the government Is targeting GDP growth rate above With economy growing at such a pace, the energy requirements are likely to increase with a similar rate. For 2004-05, Pakistan's energy consumption touched 55. 5 MTOE (Million Tons of Oil Equivalent). 5. The energy consumption is expected to grow at double digit if the overall economy sustains the targeted GDP growth rate of 6% by the government.Pakistan's energy requirements are expected to double in the next few years, and our energy requirements by 2015 is likely to cross 120MTOE. By 2030, the nation's requirement will be 7 times the current requirement reaching 361 MTOE. Pakistan's energy requirements are fulfilled with more than 80% of energy resources through Imports. 6. Pakistan is most likely to face a major energy crisis in natural gas, power and oll In the next three to four years that could choke the economic growth fo r many years to come, official estimates and energy experts suggest.Pakistan's total energy requirement would Increase by about 48 per cent to 80 million ons of oil equivalent (MTOE) in 2010 from about 54 MTOE currently, but major petroleum minister on condition of anonymity for the simple reason that he had also served the present government. 8. Major shortfall is expected in the natural gas supplies, he said. According to official energy demand forecast, he added, the demand for natural gas, having about 50 per cent share in the countrys energy consumption, would increase by 44 per cent to 39 MTOE from 27 MTOE currently.Partly contributed by gas shortfalls, the power shortage is expected to be little over 5,250MW by 2010, he said, adding that the oil demand would also increase by over 23 er cent to about 21 million tons in 2010 from the current demand of 16. 8 million tons. This would leave a total deficit of about nine million tons of diesel and furnace oil imports, he said. Sinc e the gas shortfalls were expected to be much higher, the country would need to enhance its dependence on imported oil, thus increasing pressure on foreign exchange situation, he added. 7.According to the former minister, the government had planned five major initiatives to meet these energy requirements. They included three gas import pipelines, Gwadar port as energy hub and LNG import. However, four of these measures, including the three import pipeline projects, show no signs of progress for various reasons while concentration on energy facilities in Gwadar would chiefly depend on security situation, besides oil and gas import pipelines. 8. Planning Commission sources said the government had planned to add an overall power generation capacity of about 7,880MW by 2010.Of this, about 4,860MW is to be based on natural gas, accounting for 61 per cent of capacity expansion. However, the gas-based power expansion of about 4,860MW would remain in doubt since these estimates were based o n gas import options for ompletion in 2010, 201 5 and 2020, said the sources. The fifth initiative of LNG import was on schedule and would start delivering about 0. 3 billion cubic feet of gas (BCFD) by 2009 and another 0. 5 BCFD by 201 5, said the sources. 13. Pakistan's gas reserves are 32. TCF at present, with reserve-production ratio in the order of 27 years, considering that domestic production does not grow substantially. Power sector demand represents 41 per cent of total gas consumption, general industries 24 per cent, fertiliser 7. 8 per cent and domestic-commercial 22. 8 per cent, cement 1. 5 per cent and CNG 2. 8 per cent. . Demand growth has been up to 8. 5 per cent in recent years and is expected to be seven per cent with power industries and domestic consumption accounting for 82 per cent.Gas demand already displays seasonal pattern with national demand growing in winter beyond transmission capacity. Therefore, supplies to large users mainly industries and power plants are curtailed during winter months to ensure supplies to domestic, commercial and small industries. Annual production at present is about 1. 16 TCF. 10. The country may plunge into energy crisis by the year 2007 due to rising electricity demand which nters into double digit fgure following increasing sale of electrical and electronic appliances on lease finance, it is reliably learnt Thursday. The country may face energy crisis by the year 2007 following healthy growth of 13 per cent in electricity demand during the last quarter, which will erode surplus production in absence of commissioning of any new power generation project during this financial year,† informed sources told The Nation. 11. As per Pakistan Economic Survey 2003-04, electricity consumption has increased by 8. 6 per cent during first three-quarter of demand surged up to 13 per cent during last quarter. The survey said household sector has been the largest consumer of electricity accounting for 44. per cent of total electricity consumption followed by industries 31. 1 per cent, agriculture 14. 3 per cent, other government sector 7. 4 per cent, commercial 5. 5 per cent and street light 0. 7 per cent. 12. Keeping in view the past trend and the future development, WAPDA has also revised its load forecast to eight per cent per annum as against previous estimates of five per cent on average. Even the revised load forecast has also failed all assessments due to which Authority has left no other option but to start load anagement this year, which may convert into scheduled load shedding over a period of two year, sources maintained.The country needs a quantum Jump in electricity generation in medium-term scenario to revert the possibilities of load shedding in future due to shrinking gap between demand and supply of electricity at peak hours. 13. According to an official report, the gap between firm supply and peak hours demand has already been shrunk to three digit (440 MW) during this fiscal and will slip into negative columns next year (-441 MW) and further intensify to (-1 ,457 MW) during the financial year 2006-07.The report maintained that the difference between firm supply and peak demand is estimated at 5,529 MW by the year 2009-10 when firm electricity supply will stand at 1 5,055 MW against peak demand of 20,584 MW. 14. Chairman WAPDA Tariq Hamid at a Press conference early this year warned about the possible energy crisis and stressed the need for ‘quantum Jump' in power generation. The experts say it could only be possible through a mega project of hydropower generation, otherwise the gap between firm supply and peak demand will remain on the rise.They said the power generation projects, which are due to ommission in coming years are of low capacity and will not be able to exceed the surging demand of the electricity. 15. They say no power generation project will commission during this fiscal year and the total installed capacity of electricity generatio n will remain 19,478 MW to meet 15,082 MW firm supply and 14,642 MW peak demand. Giving details of projects, the sources said Malakand-lll (81 MW), Pehur (18MW) and combined cycle power plant at Faisalabad (450MW) are planned to be commissioned during the year 2007.Mangla Dam raising project would also add 1 50 MW capacity to the national grid by June 2007. Besides this, Khan Khwar (72MW), Allai Khwar (121 MW), Duber Khwar (130MW) and Kayal Khwar (130MW) are expected to be completed in 2008 along with Golan Gol (106MW) and Jinnah (96MW). Moreover, Matiltan (84MW), New Bong Escape (79MW) and RaJdhani (132MW) are expected by 2009 while Taunsa (120MW) is likely to be completed by 2010. Sources say WAPDA has also planned to install a high efficiency combined cycle power plant at Baloki (450MW), which is expected to be completed by 2010.In addition of these, power plant 1 & 2 of 300 MW each at Thar Coal with the assistance of China are also lanned for commissioning in 2009, sources said. Moreover, efforts are also under way with China National Nuclear Corporation for the construction of a third nuclear power plant with a gross capacity of 325 MW at Chashma, they added. 23. RECOMMENDATIONS that is generally considered feasible for tropical and equatorial countries.Even though the accepted standard is 1,000 W/m2 of peak power at sea level, an average solar panel (or photovoltaic † PV † panel), delivers an average of only 19-56W/m2. Solar plants are generally used in cases where smaller amounts of power are required at remote locations. PV is also the most expensive of all options making it less attractive. b. Industrialization around the world has taken place because of the abundance of reliable and cheap electrical power (infrastructure, human resource and government incentives follow).Reliable and cheap availability of electric power in Pakistan will lead to large-scale investment in industry, creation of Jobs, elimination of unemployment and poverty, g reater manufacturing and exports, trade surplus and the reduction of deficits. It will lead toa prosperous Pakistan. c. Smaller windmills are also very feasible for remote villages, and in desert, mountainous and oastal regions, cutting down on the cost of power transmission and distribution networks. In remote farmlands, they have been successfully used for decades in the United States and Europe d.The supply of natural gas in Pakistan has been depleting over the years, and the country is now looking at the option of importing gas from Qatar and Central Asia. This leaves the possibility of exploring nuclear, coal and other alternative energy sources. e. Nuclear energy and coal form the lowest source of power production in Pakistan. On the other hand, the world average for nuclear energy is 16 per cent and for coal 40 per cent. There have been alarming predictions by groups such as the Club of Rome that the world would run out of oil in the late 20th century.CONCLUSION 24. Although technology has made oil extraction more efficient, the world is having to struggle to provide oil by using increasingly costly and less productive methods such as deep sea drilling, and developing environmentally sensitive areas such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The world's population continues to grow at a quarter of a million people per day, increasing the consumption of energy. The per capita energy consumption of China, India and other developing nations continues to ncrease as the people living in these countries adopt western lifestyles.At present a small part of the world's population consumes a large part of its resources, with the United States and its population of 296 million people consuming more oil than China with its population of 1. 3 billion people. Efficiency mechanisms such as Negawatt power can provide significantly increased supply. It is a term used to describe the trading of increased efficiency, using consumption efficiency to increase available ma rket supply rather than by increasing plant generation capacity.

Effects of CClF3 on Ozone

CC13F to enter the stratosphere (1930 to 1955). 2. The ozone layer above Canada began to decline in 1975. 3. Once the production of CC13F was drastically reduced, it took 20 years for the CC13F levels to decrease in the stratosphere. Conclude and Communicate 4. CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons) are inorganic man-made chemicals that have been in production for more than 50 years in Canada.They were thought to be sensational substances due to their stability, nonflammable characteristic, low in toxicity, and inexpensive. However, research on CFCs showed that they have long life spans allowing them to resist being washed away in rain. Through the aid of wind, CFCs rise up into the stratosphere and into the ozone layer where they decompose into chlorine and bromine, from the ultraviolet radiation. These two chemicals are responsible for damaging the ozone layer.Some atmospheric chlorine are caused by natural occurrences such as large fires and volcanic eruptions, yet most chlorine in the ozone layer is due to CFCs from man-made products such as refrigerators, aerosols, solvents and other household items. Studies show that for every one hlorine atom that is released into the ozone layer, 100000 ozone molecules are destroyed. According to the statistics recorded in 1979, the ozone layer has decreased every single decade nearly 4% to 6% in mid-latitudes and 10% to 12% in higher southern latitudes.This constant decrease has left the ozone layer permanently damaged. Even though production of CFCs has drastically decreased over the past couple of years, the ozone layer is unable replace itself. Research on how Earth is affected by the depletion in the ozone layer 5. CFCs are so stable that the only way to break them is by exposure to strong UV radiation. When this occurs, the CFC molecule releases chlorine that can destroy 100000 ozone molecules.

Mid term break by Seamus Heaney and The identification by Roger McGough Essay Example

Mid term break by Seamus Heaney and The identification by Roger McGough Essay Example Mid term break by Seamus Heaney and The identification by Roger McGough Paper Mid term break by Seamus Heaney and The identification by Roger McGough Paper Essay Topic: Poetry Seamus Heaney Poems In this assignment I will be comparing and contrasting two poems, mid term break by Seamus Heaney and the identification by Roger McGough. Seamus Heaneys poem is auto-biographical and he writes about himself experiencing the reality of death via his younger brother. He describes desctrbes his family suffering from greif and struggling to accept the truth. In the identification Roger to describe what seems to be a single Father identifying the body of a boy believed to be his son, Stephan who has been tragically killed by what is described as an explosion. I will be comparing the similarities and differences of these two gloomy poems by using three topics to organize the comparing. The topics are Subject matter, use of language and poetic technique. Firstly I will be comparing the similarities within both poems. The subject matter between both poems are that they portray family grief for example in mid-term break Seamus describes almost all his family members and neighbors showing signs of grief. His father is described a quite a tough man as it portrays him as always taking funerals in his stride. At this point Seamus is unaware of why he has been pulled out of school but we can gather from the previous quote that he has added all the facts together to realize he has come home for a funeral. His mother is also caught grieving when he describes her holding his hand whilst coughing out angry tearless sighs. This quote suggests two things, firstly it uses the adjective angry which suggests that the Mother may be blaming herself for the loss of her son but the reason for this we are not aware of. Secondly it suggests that in her emotional state she has drained herself emotionally and physically of tears to cry. The family grief in the identification is only portrayed by the father as he is the only person we hear of as it is written in first person, however we are aware his talking to whom is believed to be a pathologist because he asks a series of questions which appear to be answered. I believe that his type of grief is the worst as he has no one to grieve with and is suffering quietly and alone which I believe that in time will take could possibly lead to a decline in the mans health. During the poem the father shows a type of grief through his disbelief that the boy is his son. This is shown by all the questions he asks and which he describes and removing all trace of doubt. In both poems struggling to accept the truth is a big factor as both Seamus (mid-term break) and Stephens Father (the identification) both portray struggling to accept the truth over the death of their loved one. Seamus shows this when he enters his brothers room for the first time after arriving home. The scene is described almost heavenly with snowdrops and candles soothing his brothers bedside. A snow drop is a type of flower which blooms in spring and represents the passing of sorrow which explains why this specific flower is used on this occasion. Seamus describes his brother as almost asleep or ill as his face has become paler and this shows us that Seamus wants to believe that his brother is only asleep and will awake at any moment however this is not going to happen. This is him struggling to accept the truth. He also cannot accept the fact that his brother will never live to celebrate another birthday when he write the very last line A four foot box, a foot for every year. This is a very dramatic as he bluntly buts the facts together it also shows us a twist of fate that the box being the same length as the brothers age. In the identification Stephens father is struggling to accept the truth and this is shown when he asks so many questions and by doing this he is hoping to achieve pulling out every splinter of hope. This shows him hoping to find some evidence that this body is not his son and not wanting to believe the facts he has already been portrayed. The last of the similarities in subject matter is confusion. Seamus portrays confusion when he is brought home from school by his neighbors at an unusual time in the school term, he also not aware of the reason why he has been brought home until the last two stanzas of the poem. He also suffers from confusion when he over hears big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow Im not certain but I am presuming a lot of questions flooded into his head when he over hears this for example What was a hard blow? In the identification Stephens father gets confused in the first stanza about the color of the boys hair which is black but his sons, Stephens, was fair. It becomes apparent after the father queries this fact it becomes apparent that the explosion that killed the boy would of synched the boys hair and caused it to turn black. He also becomes confused when cigarettes are put before him which were found within this boys pockets. This turns the fathers opinion against this boy being Stephen as he believes that he son would never disobey him. But however he continues to examine the exhibits which force him to believe that this body was the body of his son. The use of language between the two poems are also similar as the both have a non-rhyming structure and would both appeal to the same target audience which in this case would be ranging from mid-teens to adults and they would be able to cope with the high number of grief portrayed in these poems. Children under the age of 12-13 would not have the correct maturity level to read a poem like these and may become upset or overly concerned about the people within the poems. There are no similarities in the poetic techniques used in both poems. The poems also differ in the three topics, subject matter, use of language and poetic technique. In mid-term break Seamus Heaneys little brother we believe was killed in a Road Traffic Accident. We believe this because of what Big Jim Evans says in the second stanza it was a hard blow and the bumper knocked him clear. We know that Seamuss brother must have been killed by a motor vehicle as it suggests in the previous quote the bumper knocked him clear as a bumper is a legal necessity to any car, bus and taxi. In the identification we are led to believe that Stephen was killed in some type of explosion as we find out in the first stanza when he is asking the pathologist about the colour of the boys who is lying before him, hair colour as it does not match to his own sons but he is corrected as the explosion wouldve singed his hair black, the explosion. The way the mourners suffer in both poems also differs in both poems. In mid term break Seamus Heaney suffers alongside his family and neighbors until the last stanza when he finally discovers why he has returned home. This scene is dramatic as it is emotional upsetting as is described well so that the reader can picture themselves in his situation. In the identification Roger describes the father suffering alone as he has no other family member to consolidate with or mourn with. He his not completely on his own though as he has the pathologist with him but he however does not show any reassurance and only answers asked questions. The use of language within both poems also range as they both wrote there poems in a different narrative perspective. Mid-term break is written is first person narrative perspective (me, myself and I). This is used throughout the poem in order to create sympathy for Seamus. This narrative perspective is used to its full extent in the second line of the fifth stanza I saw him this short sentence really hits the reader as this is the first time Seamus actually sees his brother during the poem. This sentence also puts the reader in his position and prepares us for a description of what he is about to see. The identification was written is second person narrative so that you, the reader can see eye to eye with the father of Stephen. He does this so we can feel all the emotions Stephens father goes through. In the last line of the poem the readers becomes emotionally upset as we have already gained sympathy for the father therefore do not want him to go through this experience, like we wouldnt want ourselves to go through it so we hope that he does not suffer the loss in the end, but unfortunately he does Thats our Stephen

Change Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Change Rosabeth Moss Kanter Change Management Organisations Must Change and Change quickly INTRODUCTION Rosabeth Moss Kanter is the professor in business at Harvard Business School, where she holds the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship. She is known for her classic 1977 study of Tokenism. As a business leader and expert on strategy and leadership for change, she was nominated as the top ten on the list of the â€Å"50 most influential business thinkers in the world†, and she is on the list of the â€Å"100 most important women in America† and the â€Å"50 most powerful women in the world†. Her main concepts include changing organisations, bureaucracy and characteristics of resistance to change. (drfd.hbs.edu, 2007) In 1989, she argues that: â€Å" today’s corporate elephants must learn how to dance as nimbly and speedily as mice â€Å". (Burnes, 2004) In other words, she points out that big organisations should change and change quickly to meet the changing environment. This repo rt is going to analyse the key drivers for this statement and find out the reason behind change. This report contains three sections. Section 1 will give definitions to change management and the importance of change. Section 2 is discussions, which is divided into two sub-categories, first part is concerned with the models of change management, and part 2 goes on to show examples of how big organisations keep up with change and the possibilities of failure. This section contains examples of big organisations successfully changed to meet their goals and objectives, while some other organisations stay the same and fail to maintain their strong market position. Section 3 is conclusions. CHANGE MANAGEMENT â€Å" Today’s corporate elephants must learn how to dance as nimbly and speedily as mice if they are to survive in our increasingly competitive and rapidly changing world† (Burnes, 2004) According to Paton it is no surprise that change is also a fact of life within huma n systems. Recent developments in the global economy have catapulted this fact to the forefront of management concerns as well. Therefore, even though Professor Kanter’s statement was mentioned about 18 years ago, it is still valued today. Additionally, Kanter (1989) mentioned that in order for organisations to change, it requires faster action, more flexibility and closer partnerships with employees and customers than typical in the traditional corporate bureaucracy. To quote from her, â€Å"Corporate giants, in short, must learn how to dance†. Therefore, the â€Å" corporate elephants † represents big companies while â€Å" mice â€Å", on the other hand, represents small firms. To summarise her statement above, we could conclude that small firms are more flexible in changing compare with big organisations, because big organisations have more management levels and more bureaucracy; therefore, corporate giants should adapt this ability to change and change qu ickly. More over, the most important reason for organisations to change, is to keep pace with the ever changing business environment and give a good company image to the public that they are keep up dating themselves and stay competitive.

Good Writing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Good Writing - Essay Example It’s hard to tell whether a piece of writing is good or bad by simply looking at it. You have to read and analyze the piece writing and finally, explain why the writing is good or bad. Good writers organize their work in a logical and effective manner. The ideas will be clear, interesting and concise (Murphy 2009). Ideas help a writer to communicate through writing to other people. The sentences will be fluent and be flowing from one idea to another. A piece of good writing will be communicative and correct. This means that good writing will be free from spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes. Good writing demands a person to recognize the owner if the writer borrows ideas form that piece of writing (Murphy 2009). Good writing is always a result of hard work and a lot of practicing. The ability to write well is not something that is inborn (Murphy 2009). A good writer always puts in a lot of time and effort to improve his writing. I would say I am a good writer. I always t ry my best to make sure that my work is free from grammatical, punctuation and spelling mistakes. I also ensure that my ideas are concise and are related to the topic. My ideas will flow fluently from one idea to another. Information connects thought my writing eventually responding to the needs of the reader. I also cite my work whenever I use any secondary or primary sources. I also read a lot and do a lot of practice to perfect my weak areas. This has helped me gain confidence and improve my attitude towards writing.

Sustainable Tourism Strategy for Romania National Park Essay

Sustainable Tourism Strategy for Romania National Park - Essay Example The strategies included dividing the park into four different zones in order to develop each and every section with greater effectiveness focusing on its unique natural feature. Furthermore, the strategy proposed by the authority to improve the Retezat National Park focused on the concept of promoting the availability of medical services, hotels and emergency rescue services among within the park in order to augment the interest of tourists to visit the tourism location. The developmental strategies proposed by the authority also included the intention to increase the scope of employment for the local people who live in the surrounding of the park. The strategies also proposed the inclusion of certain ethical and practical rules that were expected to limit the activities of the tourists up to an extent which will reduce the negative impacts on the natural assets of the Park. Thus, from an overall perspective, the strategies proposed by the authority of Romania Tourism can be observed to represent a multidimensional approach in benefitting the overall performance of the Retezat National Park. Part B Introduction The concept of sustainable tourism is apparently becoming widely accepted all over the globe. It is regarded as an attempt to minimize the impact of the environment as well as the local culture on the tourism industry of any country. Contextually, it has been observed that the main aim of sustainable tourism is to make sure that along with environment preservation, a considerable development in the tourism sector of any country can be provided which can yield maximum positive experiences for the people who decide to visit a particular country such as Romania possessing a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of natural heritage. The concept of sustainable tourism is often argued as an important aspect that largely influenced the modern day strategies concerning the tourism industry operations. It is in this context that sustainable tourism can be effectively achieved with the development of certain strategies with the purpose of designing a positive structure of the tourism industry (Ali & Frew, 2013; Tribe, 2010; Swarbrooke, 1999). Based on the theoretical underpinning, this paper intends to discuss about the appropriateness of the strategy for one of the national park of Romania, i.e. the Retezat National Park. The paper further aims to recommend certain inputs that might be helpful in developing and executing strategies with greater accuracy yielding maximum positive results. Overview of the Romania’s National Parks and the Tourism Industry of the Country Romania is a country located in the South Eastern region of Europe. In terms of its geographic location, the country is listed as the eighth largest in the European continent. It has been observed that the country is quite well known all over the world because of its natural beauty

Write a letter of Introduction to Medgar Evers Essay

Write a letter of Introduction to Medgar Evers - Essay Example But there are still problems among us that you would feel it was necessary to confront, and I believe you could give us some guidance on what we should be doing to remain true to your legacy. Without money, the hard-won right to education remains elusive. So many young Americans today are prevented from achieving their full potential educationally as their families do not have the financial resources to ensure their tertiary – and sometimes even their secondary – education. The pressure to enter employment for the children of families who live in poverty is huge. Children need to be earning dollars to contribute to the survival of the family. And in a kind of vicious circle, the only jobs available to baseline educated people are low-earning, and low-status, without many prospects for advancement and future success. So, many of our children are drawn into, for example, the drug industry and organized crime syndicates take full advantage of the desperation of our children and families. It seems that the great contribution you made to human rights for all of us is being undercut by a kind of economic segregation, which continues to exist for certain communities. As people live in disadvantaged communities, they are forced into situations where the stereotypical perceptions of those communities are able to continue. I believe that you would feel great disappointment and sadness if you were to see this unfair and seemingly unstoppable situation in the country you loved so, and fought for in foreign countries. Politically, we have benefited; socially and economically we have a long way to go. We have to, like you did, recognize and identify the reality of our situation, and begin to act as you did to change it. With community efforts, supported by Federal Government, we can make it possible for parents to get out of the cycle of poverty, and be assisted in providing their children with

Ericsson Mobile Platforms Using Value Chain Model Information Technology Essay

Ericsson Mobile Platforms Using Value Chain Model Information Technology Essay The value grid approach allows firms to identify opportunities and threats in a more explicit way than the traditional value chain. This research aims to test the Value Grid in a multinational company: Ericsson Mobile Platforms (EMP). How does the value grid model help to define the organizations Key Success Factors (KSF)? For this case study, the value grid concept proved to be an interesting heuristic tool to locate opportunities that are not evident from a traditional value chain perspective. EMP can identify indirect ways of influencing demand by playing a coordinative role with network operators. Key Success Factors for Ericsson Mobile Platforms using Porters Value Chain model The value chain model, first depicted and popularized by Michael Porter in 1985, has proved to be an effective approach to analyze and capture the value generated along a chain of activities. But, with the increasing complexity of production and service delivery, critique has arisen from both academics and professionals in terms of value chain model applicability. The value grid approach allows firms to move beyond their industry lines and to identify opportunities and threats in a more explicit way. This research aims to test the Value Grid in a multinational company: Ericsson Mobile Platforms (EMP). How does the value grid model help to find novel opportunities and define the organizations Key Success Factors (KSF)? For this case study, the value grid concept proved to be an interesting heuristic tool to locate opportunities that are not evident from a traditional value chain perspective. EMP can identify indirect ways of influencing demand by playing a coordinative role with netwo rk operators. 1. Models of Value The purpose of this part is to analyze the evolution of value models from the value chain to the value grid through the value system, the value network and the added value chain. The intent is to clarify the relevance of the value grid choice for studying the case of Ericson Mobile Platform. The Value chain The value chain includes all the activities involved in product making. It is a useful tool to measure the value created for each activity in the process of product creation. It is a part of a firms strategic planning to arrange these activities in a way that the total value, the value that buyers are willing to pay, exceeds the total cost. According to Porter (1985), a company can create value through a cost advantage or product differentiation. Porter (1985) identifies two types of activities in the value chain: Primary activities and Support activities. Primary activities are those that create customer value. The goal of the primary activities is to produce value that exceeds the cost, thereby resulting in a profit margin. Support activities concern procurement, human resource management, technological development and infrastructure such as accounting, legal, finance, planning, public affairs, government relations, quality assurance and general management. The activities in the value chain are not independent. Linkages may exist between activities. In fact, one process may affect the cost and performance of the others. Linkage can exist between primary activities, as well as, between primary and support activities. Therefore, competitive advantages can also be derived from the linkages between activities. This is a highly relevant situation for EMP. The Value System Porter (1985) extends the concept of the value chain; a firms value chain is a part of the Value System, which is a network of interconnected value chains between suppliers and buyers. The value system includes the value chains of the upstream suppliers and downstream channels and customers. The available total margin is spread across suppliers, distributors and customers (Recklies, 2001) in the value system. The amount of how much part of this margin is received by each member depends on its market position and negotiation power (Recklies, 2001). A firm who has higher degree of vertical integration has a better position in coordinating its upstream and downstream activities and therefore get a higher margin, however a company with low level of vertical integration can also get high margins if it can achieve better coordination with suppliers and partners. The Value Network Porter (1980, 1985) measures value chain and the five forces model extracted from the organizations activities, in terms of financial value (margin) but ignore the fact that intangible assets such as competencies, internal structures and relationship with the environment are the driving factors behind the financial results (Sveiby, 1997). New methods appear to take into consideration the intangible assets. Value Network Analysis (Allee, 2003) is a method that combines tools that analyze strategy with insight into complexity of interactions among people (Middendorp, 2005). According to this analysis, the intangible assets should be considered as negotiable and exchangeable. Peppar and Rylander (2006) introduce the Network Value Analysis (NVA) method as a way to analyze competitive ecosystems. Combinations of players co-create the value in the network and the method focus not only on the company or the industry, but the value creating system itself (Peppar and Rylander, 2006). Firms cultivate an ecosystem a set of firms that can co-create value by building relationships among the different players in the industry: suppliers, partners, allies and customers (Peppar and Rylander, 2006). Firms that understand the sources of value in the network and are able to exploit them will be the winners in tomorrows more complex industries (Peppar and Rylander, 2006). The Added-value Chain According to McPhee and Wheeler (2006), focusing on the firms internal core activities is not sufficient to generate value in todays firms. The authors propose an added-value chain model that includes a set of expanded business activities from different business models and a redefinition of value that incorporates brand, reputation, and relationship-based value drivers of the firm. In the added-value chain model, the definition of value incorporates profit margin and intangible assets like leadership quality, innovate capability, brand equity and competences in strategic-alliance development. This new value definition gives to the firms the ability to evaluate how their strategies affect both hard and soft assets of the firms (McPhee and Wheeler, 2006). This model is incomplete for example in finding and exploring non-linear value opportunities. The Value Grid New research conducted by Pil and Holweg (2006) argues that this approach can also put a stranglehold on innovation at a time when the greatest opportunities for value creation (and the most significant threats to long-term survival) often originate outside the traditional, linear view. Based on this critic, Pil and Holweg (2006) develop an evolved concept of Value Chain called Value Grid, which has a variety of new paths to enhanced performance, resulting in a three dimensional grid: the vertical, the horizontal and the integrative diagonal dimensions. Regarding the vertical dimension, firms are seeking for competitive advantages in the value chain by reducing cost, reducing lead time between activities and improving coordination between supplier and customers. However, how the benefits are distributed across the value chain depends on the balanced power between suppliers and manufactures. Therefore companies need to focus on three areas: Opportunities to influence customer demand both upstream and downstream, opportunities to modify information access in either direction, and finally opportunities to explore penetration points in multiple tiers that are not immediately adjacent (Pil and Holweg, 2006). The horizontal dimension provides opportunities for companies to move across value chains, in order to leverage economies of scale across multiple sources of demand (Pil and Holweg, 2006). The potential of this dimension is to enable companies to manage risk, seize existing value (special products with advanced technology), integrate sources of existing value and explore new ways to create value. The horizontal thinking allows parallel value chains to be viewed from different industries, in this way companies can integrate these parallel value chains to offer package or price combinations, which cannot be achieved by the single value chain approach. Finally, in the diagonal dimension, firms explore the grid in an integrative fashion, in order to increase the control over inputs and customers. Firms looks at the upstream and downstream of other value chains for controlling the critical components of the supply chain and uncovering new ways of boosting customer demands (Pil and Holweg, 2006). Pil and Holweg describe the two strategies that take advantages from this dimension: The first is pursuing Pinch-Point mapping when companies shall monitor key component supplies and negotiate alternative source of components. The second is defining demand enablers when companies that have a particular expertise in a given value chain, can examine other value chains in other industries that can leads to new opportunities to leverage key competitive advantages (Pil and Holweg, 2006). Industry Background The telecommunications industry is undergoing radical transformations through liberalization, lowering of technological barriers to entry and the diversity of players (Li and Whalley, 2002). Originally, the process of manufacturing a complete mobile phone was finished within one company. However, as with the PC industry, the value chain for making a mobile phone has become more fragmented according to a more stratified approach (Anderson and JÃ ¶nsson, 2006). Companies like Ericsson Mobile Platforms (EMP) and Qualcomm are examples of this change in the industry. They provide technology solutions for mobile manufactures that enable them to make a new phone model much faster without having the core knowledge like radio access. New actors and new services enlarge the mobile communications value chain in both ways, functionally and institutionally (Buellingen and Woerter , 2004; Ballon, de Munck, Poel and de Pas, 2001; Fertig, Prince and Walrod,1999). The traditional concept of value chain may not be sufficient for todays firms (Buellingen and Woerter, 2004). Barnes (2002) tries to adapt the value chain analysis for m-commerce and analyses the players, technologies and activities involved. Full-size image (36K) The basic model consists of six core processes in two main areas: First infrastructure and services, and second the area of content. Pagani and Fine (2008) consider five principal actors in the supply chain: the content providers, application providers, infrastructure providers, network providers the device providers. They assume that the end consumers create demand, set the rules of engagement and then pull the supply chain system (Pagani and Fine, 2008). In the last decade with the entry of powerful new players, rapid technological developments and increasing market turbulences (Li and Whalley, 2002), the mobile handset industry has changed from a vertical specialization to a more horizontally stratified structure. A complex and rapidly evolving value network is developing (Li and Whalley, 2002). There are more parties involved in the process of making a mobile phone. Each party focuses on areas of the value chain where they have core competences such as new technology, customer relationships management, or infrastructure management. The market is then highly complex and competitive given the fact that companies compete also with companies from other industries operating under different value propositions and economics (Li and Whalley, 2002). Methodology: Research design and data collection There are several techniques for identifying Key Success Factors, Leidecker and Bruno (1984) propose the following: environmental scanning, industry structure analysis, industrial experts opinions, competitors analysis, best practice analysis, assessment of the companys internal feeling or judgment, intuitive factors and gathered data of profit impact and market strategy. This study mixes between internal assessment of a firm and industrial experts opinions. This internal assessment technique explores the firms forces and weaknesses. The KSFs are thus concluded from the interviews with experts in the industry. - Figure 1 about here - As designed in the research model, first a value chain analysis focuses on the firms core competences from an inside perspective. In parallel, the firms value chain is positioned into the value system of the industry, to identify adjacent players and external linkages and determine firms ecosystem. An analysis of the Value Chain aims to identify competitive advantages. From the Value System and the ecosystem, the Value Grid framework identifies competitive advantages from its three dimensions. The outcomes from Value chain and Value Grid are analyzed to test the Value Grid and to extract the KSF for EMP. An ideal analysis of the KSF for EMP would be to do benchmarking with other companies from the same Industry. Then it will be possible to define EMPs real strategic advantages. However, due to availability of information this research focuses on an inside-out perspective and tests the concept of the Value Grid using one source of empirical data (a single case study). Semi-structured interviews are conducted with a specific list of topics to be covered (Bryman and Bell, 2003). The advantage of this method is that the interviewer is free to reformulate the questions or simply ask new questions that may appear as a result of the answer of the interviewee (Bryman and Bell, 2003). According to Grunert and Ellegaard (1992), this type of interview with business decision makers can measure perceived KSF. Five key persons are chosen for an interview from EMP: Robert Puskaric, head of EMP, Martin JÃ ¶nsson, from Product Portfolio Management, Fredrik Dalhgren Deputy Director of System Management, PÃ ¤r Stigmer from Sourcing and Supply and Linda Wenerman from Product Management. Empirical Findings for Ericsson Mobile Platforms Ericsson Mobile Platforms is a business unit within the Ericsson Group. It was founded in 2001 as a result of a split from the Ericsson mobile handset division, Ericsson Mobile Communications. This split ended up in Ericsson Mobile Platforms (EMP) and the joint-venture Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. Before that time, Ericsson produced mobile platforms for in-house use only. Through EMP, Ericsson started to license open-standard 2.5G and 3G technology platforms to other mobile phone manufacturers and other mobile communication devices. EMP offers stable platform deliveries that include ASICs and development boards (hardware), platform software, reference design, development and testing tools, training, support and documentation. The EMP platforms contain integrated circuits and softwares needed to build a GPRS, EDGE and/or WCDMA phone. It provides all the system functions such as Network Signaling, Data communications and Multimedia services. The system architecture of EMP is a modular design that is built on a use case analysis (Kornby, 2005). Examples of use cases are: imagining, video telephony, voice call, multimedia streaming, call handling, audio and video. The following criteria have been taken into account to develop this system architecture (Kornby, 2005): complete platform software (not only protocols), stability, flexibility, scalability to different market segments, adaptability to customer software applications, one single architecture for different mobile systems (GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA), maximum reuse of components and customer applications; and backward compatibility in software over the time. Customers build their applications on top of EMP platform software stack. Examples of customers applications are: multimedia players, phone call applications, web browsers, etc. EMP also supplies a suite of core applications where customers can use as a starting point for building their applications. EMP provides a complete application suite to support customers who do not build their own applications. This is especially for customers who want to focus in the low-end market. The goal of the EMPs Application Suite is to reduce time-to-market for customers in launching their phones. EMPs business model The EMPs business model consists of two parts: to license its core technology and to sell engineering support services to the customers. EMP charges a one-time up-front fixed payment for a Platform license and a royalty per unit that represent the major source of revenue (Kornby, 2005). EMP has built an ecosystem in order to ensure the maximum value creation for EMP. The five players in the EMPs ecosystem are depicted in figure 2. - Figure 2 about here - The first set of players relates to Network Providers; these companies offer the telecom infrastructure such as wireless communications systems. The main partner with EMP is LM Ericssons network group. They work hand-by-hand to provide end-to-end solutions, align roadmaps and ensure that EMP platforms can support the new network functionality offered by Ericsson (Kornby, 2005). Second, EMP has a closer relationship with the customers to ensure that new customer requirements are collected promptly in order to implement new functionality as early as possible. The third set of players in EMP ecosystem relates to Network Operators. These companies provide the services to the end-users (subscribers). They also purchase phones from mobile manufactures that are sold to the operators subscribers. Very often operators request mobile manufactures to use a specific mobile platform (Kornby, 2005). Thus EMP has built an important relationship in order to understand future operators requirements to secure that new functionality is available in the EMPs platform. Fourth, EMP and LM Ericsson are active at work with the standardization bodies such as 3GPP, OMA, JCP and OMPT. This is done in order to ensure interoperability of EMPs mobile platforms worldwide. And finally EMP works actively with ASIC, peripheral, IP and software suppliers in order to get fair prices for building EMP products. 4.2 The EMPs Value Chain and Value System The direct activities of EMPs value chain are: supply chain Management, hardware design activity, Software development and integration activity, a system reference design activity, a System Test and Interoperability Test (IOT), Product Use, External Networks and finally a customization activity. EMP has also a prototype unit that builds prototype phones for testing early functionality. The EMPs value chain and value system are depicted in figure 3. - Figure 3 about here - 4.2.1 Supply Chain Management EMP basically does not have any regular material flow, but outsource software and hardware through licenses. The task of the sourcing and supply department is to act as an internal consultant at EMP for deciding whether to buy an IP or develop hardware/software in-house. The sourcing department works tightly with the product definition and the RD organization; they work proactively to ensure fair prices. The decisions are based on three aspects: comparing the prices of buying from others and developing by itself, assessing the risk of buying and finally evaluating the total value by an in-house development. For example, to get a new IP in the platform, the sourcing department evaluates the total cost composed of the getting IP cost from supplier and the using IP cost (license) per ASIC. In this case customers pay the license directly, the cost of integrating an IP into the suppliers ASIC (a supplier may have already the knowledge of adding this IP, thus it becomes cheaper) and the co st of the final integration into the platform (how difficult is to make drivers and APIs to control the IP). The sourcing and supply department acts differently depending of what wants to outsource. For IPs, the negotiations are based on case, for ARM and DSP cores it builds long term relationship with the suppliers, and for a specific component such as Image Signal Processor (ISP) it chooses the best price in the market. Since ASICs are costly, EMP co-develops the design with suppliers and builds long term relationship. 4.2.2 Hardware design (HW) Regarding the Hardware, EMP only designs and specifies requirements for the different hardware components in the platform. As is shown in the Error: Reference source not foundASIC suppliers (or fabs) test and manufacture the hardware. EMP verifies the hardware components only when it builds the reference design. The design of the HW is divided into two main parts, Front-End and Back End design. For the Radio Frequency (RF) hardware EMP designs the Front-End and Back-End. For the Digital Base Band (DBB) EMP only does the front-end design. Finally, the analog base band (ABB) ASIC, EMP only specifies the hardware requirements and leaves the rest to the ASICs suppliers 4.2.3 Software development and Integration Software development and Integration refers to developing software solutions for the different stacks in the software platform architecture. This activity also involves developing EMP (in-house) software stacks such as Network Signaling protocols for WCDMA, GSM/GPRS and EDGE; data communication protocols such as, TCP/IP, RTP, and IMS; multimedia protocols for streaming music and video; developing a set of application platform interfaces to control the software platform and hardware. DBB, ABB, RF, and peripheral are to implement low level drivers to control hardware components inside the mobile platform. This activity also involves integration of third party proprietary software components such as, music codecs (like MP3 and Windows media player), and operating systems. This activity also involves testing the software at different levels: module tests, regression tests and integration tests. 4.2.4 Reference design EMP builds reference boards and real-size reference phones. These non-commercial phones are produced in small quantities that are internally used for software development and hardware verification, interoperability test and early-stage test of hardware for customers. 4.2.5 System Test and Interoperability test The system test consists of the verification of the complete reference design. The tests are conducted in lab, with network vendors and interoperability test with major live networks operators in the world. This is a very costly task and it is done to uncover ambiguities in the basic standards and specification. It also covers informal type approval test for the phone (Kornby, 2005). Value Chain Analysis According to the theoretical framework a company can generate competitive advantages by analyzing the different activities in the value chain. EMPs value chain basically works only in the service domain. EMP licenses its platform solutions and let the customers manage the manufacturing process with EMPs suppliers, thus the EMPs core activities are design (both in hardware and software), integration and testing of the platform (of the whole system). EMPs advantage appears in the fact that the firm has designed a holistic system architecture which makes easy to develop and test the functionality independently. This saves considerable a considerable time amount at the integration phase. Moreover, the system is designed to be flexible and scalable, so it is easy to re-use and add new functionality. Therefore, EMPs main strength is that the firm successfully manages to develop, integrate and test very complex new technologies to deliver a stable cost-effective platform solution when techn ology development is not in a mature phase. The main EMPs competitive advantage is to be the leader in providing cost-effective solutions for the mass market when the new technologies are emerging. Another interesting strength found is that the brand image of Ericsson plays an important role when meeting with new suppliers. The reputation of the Ericsson corporation is transferred to EMP and it facilitates the starting of new agreements and business opportunities. Potential Risks The value chain is an analytical tool that helps to find value in each activity; this can also be used for finding weakness and improvement areas. From the value chain we can identify two main weaknesses. First, the base band ASICs are the most costly part in the platform, despite that EMP says that it has managed to get fair licenses prices for the ASICs. The power of the suppliers is relatively high, thus EMP cannot have full control of the hardware prices. It seems that high margins still go to ASIC manufactures. Second, at this moment, EMP does not have the competence and the resources to integrate vertically in the upstream value chain. According to the interviewees, the most valuable strategic resource at EMP resides in personnels competence in the area of radio access technology and in the skills for designing a flexible and low cost system. These two competences are the driving forces for providing a cost-optimized mobile platform. The main risk in the value chain comes from the suppliers side. When technology reached a mature market, there is a risk that the technology becomes a commodity product and thus, suppliers can acquire knowledge on how to implement these technologies in their own ASICs. This implies that ASIC manufactures can produce ultra low cost platforms, due to the fact that they can control the price of the hardware. Another identified potential risk relate to how much EMP should outsource (Varadarajan, 2009). As is shown in the value chain (figure 3), EMP outsources a number of software components. An indiscriminate software outsourcing policy may lead to the loss of competences inside the EMP value chain (such as signal processing knowledge) thus reduce the value of the platform offering. 5.2 Benchmark What are the EMPs keys factors that are considered important for success? EMP is constantly evaluating and comparing with competitors in terms of cost, size, performance and power consumption of the product offering. From an end-users perspective, EMP is interested in delivering high quality multimedia functions for providing good speech and audio quality. Other benchmark measures are purely financial measures. All the interviewees agree that there are areas of improvement for EMP from a value chain perspective. 5.2.1 Horizontal integration In most of the interviews, a potential improvement for EMP consists in the integration of the value chain from a horizontal perspective by adding others technologies for example to offer an integrated solution with WLAN, BT or FM radio. The platform today provides the flexibility to add these peripherals, but this is a work that the customer must do when he done the product design (and it doesnt add a real value for EMP). This extended platform function offering in EMP platforms has the following impacts: 1) As customers will have less control over the price for these peripherals, they will not be able to bargain the prices 2) the cost of the EMP platform for customers will increase, 3) the total PCB area will go down due to integration of the peripheral in the ASICs and 4) the final product from a customer perspective (i.e. phone ready to launch with everything in place) will result in a total cost reduction. Thus, EMP would add value into the platform and customers will benefit fro m cheaper phones. In order to integrate these peripherals, EMP should create alliances with these suppliers in a cost effective manner (HÃ ¥kansson and Ford, 2002). It is not enough to just integrate any peripheral; it should be a peripheral that can be used by almost all customers in the different platforms, in a way that provide a common platform offering. Otherwise it will end up in a customized platform and the total value added from a portfolio perspective may not be that clear. An example of a peripheral that may fit with this approach is BT devices. The goal of EMP will probably be the re-use of the same platform as much as possible; however this is not defined yet. EMP has managed to have more than one ASIC supplier. This has increased the possibilities of getting fair prices. EMP is still looking to increase the number of suppliers to gain bargaining power. 5.2.2 Vertical integration Almost all the interviews discuss the fact, if the vertically integration must be in the upstream or not. As was described, the most costly part in the platforms is the ASICs and in order to offer competitive price, alliances must be created with ASICs suppliers. However, what if EMP chooses a fabless model? EMP would need then to focus more on the design of the hardware devices (today, it leaves it to some suppliers to design the hardware). EMP should start to do more IP designs, to focus on the back-end design of all the hardware components (ASICs) and create cell libraries for them. This vertical integration implies that EMP would leave ASIC manufacturing to a silicon foundry (for example, companies like TSMC, UMC, Chartered, etc). The advantage is that EMP would be able to choose suppliers, to get better prices and thus to get higher margins. For instance the EMPs competitor Qualcomm has this approach and uses TSMC as ASIC manufacturing. Nevertheless, complete back-end design requires EMP to build specific competence and skills for the complete hardware design. Moreover, EMP would need to take care of production issues like yield management, quality and logistics. This could lead to an expensive learning experience. Since EMP is a rather small company in global terms which focuses mostly in software design and system integration, a solution would probably be to invest in a company who has already the skills and experience. But in the near future this option will be not considered. Test of Value Grid Value Grid offers a variety of new paths to enhance performance, resulting in a three dimensional grid: the vertical, the horizontal and the integrative diagonal dimensions (Pil and Holweg, 2006). 6.1 Vertical Dimension From the theory of Value Grid and the analysis of the value chain in the previous section, there is a match between the External Networks from the value-added chain concept and how to influence customer demand in the downstream. In this case the relationship between EMP and network operators plays an important coordinative role (Andersen and Christensen, 2005). EMP cannot influence demand directly since this activity is mainly driven by EMPs customers who manufacture, distribute and sell the phones to operators and end-users by other distribution channels. Indeed, network operators distribute a great part of the mobiles phones to the end-users due to their infrastructure. In order to increase traffic in their networks, they finance partly the cost of the phone by tying it with contracts (fixed subscriptions periods normally for one or two years) or offering a phone at lower cost with the restriction that the phone can only be used exclusively with prepaid SIM cards. Therefore, to inc rease sales and market share, EMP can build a strong relationship with operators and persuade them to buy mobiles phones from EMPs customers. 6.2 Horizontal Dimension In this dimension similarities were detected betwee