HEALTH ILLNESS AND SOCIETY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

HEALTH ILLNESS AND SOCIETY - Essay Example nditions of the poor and the rich differed notably in the UK(Office of National Statistics, 2007).Many socio-economic aspects can explain health inequalities. Not only poor people live less long than the rich people, but also they have more years of poor health. There is also inequality in access to health. The young and able-bodied people receive better treatment than theold and disabled people (BBC News, 2009).In UK one of most important health challenges existing today is diabetes.By 2011 the number of people affected by the problem of diabetes islikely to reach to 5 million (Diabetes and the disadvantaged: reducing health inequalities in the UK, 2006, p. 5). Almost half of these people are from disadvantaged community, who do not have adequate access to the appropriate care. Life expectancy at birth for men and women in all the social classes has increased from 1972-2006. Over the years mortality gap has been widened amongst social classes (Office of National Statistics, 2007).Death proportions for both the men and women have increased overtime. This is also true for children and adults. Improved living conditions, availability of healthcare and other factors have caused the infant mortality rate to fall significantly (Health Inequalities in the UK, 2009, 14). One can define health inequalities in two different ways. One is absolute and the other is relative. By subtracting one figure or rate from another, we get absolute inequalities and by dividing one number or rate by another, we get relative inequalities.Socio-economic class is the only cause of measuring health inequalities in England.There are many other dimensions of measuring health inequalities, which are also very important (Ihsan& Ahmad, 1993). There are differences of health among ethnic groups. In 2001 Chinese men and women in England and Wales reported the lowest frequencies of both poor health and restricting long-term ailment, while Pakistani and Bangladeshi men and women recounted the

Comparisons between two retail organizations namely JC Penney and Research Paper

Comparisons between two retail organizations namely JC Penney and Kohls - Research Paper Example Furthermore, the state of New York has been chosen as a base location for comparison between these two organizations. One store from each organization has been chosen for contrasting between the retailers. ABOUT JC PENNEY AND KOHL’S The business of JC Penney comprises selling various products like apparel, shoes, accessories, jewelry, beauty items and home decoration products along with delivering different services such as salon, photography and decorating among others to the customers by its departmental stores. Since the foundation of the organization, JC Penney has grown to about 1104 departmental stores in 49 states of the US (JCP Media Inc., â€Å"J. C. Penney Company, Inc.†). On the other hand, Kohl’s also provide apparel, footwear, accessories, home products and house wares among others. By the end of the year 2012, Kohl’s has nearly 1146 stores in the entire US region (Kohl's Illinois, Inc., â€Å"Kohl’s Corporation†). SHOPPING ITEMS The shopping list on which the comparison will be made comprise rings from jewelry and watches category, bath towels from bed and bath category, bedroom furniture from furniture category, women dresses from women category and men athletic shoes from shoes category. Appendix 1 would show the list of the selected items along with price range and average price (JCP Media Inc., â€Å"Free Shipping Everyday†; Kohl's Illinois, Inc., â€Å"Kohl’s Expect Great Things†). ... In this context, it can be viewed that JC Penney and Kohl’s have considerable number of stores in New York City. With respect to JC Penney, the closest store is located at Serramonte Center with distance of 8.9 miles from the city, hence this store has been chosen for the study (JCP Media Inc., â€Å"Find A Store†) Concerning Kohl’s, closest mall is Jersey City Mall which is situated at distance of 2.64 miles from the New York City and has been selected for the analysis (Kohl's Illinois, Inc., â€Å"Store†). Customer Service: With respect to customer services, it can be apparently observed that the services of Kohl’s are superior to JC Penny. The stores of Kohl’s are opened longer then JC Penney i.e. in weekdays, the stores of Kohl’s are opened from 8 am to 10 pm, whereas the stores of JC Penney are opened from 10 am to 9.30 pm. In Sunday also, the stores of Kohl’s remain open for longer hours than JC Penney. On the other hand, it can also be observed that it takes much time to talk with the customer service representatives in JC Penney than Kohl’s. However, in JC Penney, the employees are quite able to handle customer service related issues with courtesy and competence. On the other hand, employees of Kohl’s are able to provide support in understanding the cause of any kind regarding customer related issues and provide solutions to the problems. The employees of JC Penney also possess strong knowledge about product features than the employees of Kohl’s (JCP Media Inc., â€Å"Find A Store†; Kohl's Illinois, Inc., â€Å"Store†). Store Layout: The store layout of JC Penney is concentrated on representing a streamlined visual display for the customers. JC Penney restricts the number of displays in the stores and it replaces the inventory

Comparative Study Between TBP and Dibutylalkyl Phosphonates

Comparative Study Between TBP and Dibutylalkyl Phosphonates CHAPTER 7 PHOSPHONATES AS ALTERNATIVE TO TBP FOR ACTINIDES AND FISSION PRODUCTS Solvent extraction studies of U (VI), Th (IV), Eu (III) and Tc (VII) in dibutylalkyl phosphonates have been carried out in present study. Uptake of these metal ion and formation of metal-ligand bond is a direct consequence of phosphorus-carbon bond and to understand the influence of these changes in the bond was the main objective for the present study. Thus synthesis and solvent extraction studies of Dibutyl Propyl Phosphonate (DBPrP) and Dibutyl Pentyl Phosphonate (DBPeP) were carried and were compared with those available for Tributyl Phosphate (TBP). Thus this study will represent a comparative study between TBP and dibutylalkyl phosphonates. 7.1 Introduction Spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is a complex system with large number of elements and there isotopes which are produced during the nuclear fission of U and Pu. These spent fuel rods containing activation products along with fission products needs to be dealt while reprocessing and waste management of SNF which is carried out at reprocessing plant. TBP a triester of phosphoric acid is a major extractant used for nuclear fuel reprocessing that is Plutonium Uranium Extraction PUREX processes worldwide for the separation of uranium and plutonium from the dissolver solution [1]. Even though it has been a workhorse in nuclear industry since long period there are major drawbacks like its significant solubility in aqueous phase, third phase formation during macro level extraction of tetravalent actinides in nitric acid medium, low selectivity of U and Pu over Zr and Ru and presence of chemical and radiolytic degradation products of TBP viz. monobutyl and dibutyl phosphoric acid are responsible for lowering the decontamination factor (DF) [2-6]. Significant research in the scientific community using higher homologs of TBP has shown that they are more resistant to third phase formation and aqueous solubility. Basicity of the phosphoryl oxygen and the nature of substituents attached to the P atom are key factor responsible for the extraction ability of any organophosphorus extractant. Enhancement of the basicity on the phosphoryl group may be achieved by replacement of C-O-P group directly by C-P group. Neutral organophosphorus extractants show the variation in the basicity of the phosphoryl oxygen as phosphine oxide > phosphinates > phosphonates > phosphates [7]. Studies in the past have reported that phosphonates are better extractants for the extraction of uranium and thorium as compared to that with corresponding phosphates [8, 9]. In the nuclear reprocessing industry dibutylalkyl phosphonate was found to be one of the promising candidates as a replacement for TBP. Lower D values than that of corresponding phosphinates and phosphorus oxide makes stripping easier in case of phosphonates. The main objective of this study was to focus on the potential extraction capabilities of U (VI), Th (IV), Eu (III) and Tc (VII) which are relevant from nuclear fuel cycle view point by the phosphonates DBPrP and DBPeP. 7.2 Synthesis of Dibutylalkyl Phosphonates Phosphonates used in the present study was synthesized using Michaelis Becker reaction [10]. In this reaction equimolar amount of sodium is allowed to react with dialkylhydrogen phosphonate and dialkylsodium phosphonate thus obtained is further allowed to react with alkyl halides and final product with P-C bond is obtained. Figure 7.1 Michaelis-Becker Reaction Preset reaction involves nucleophilic substitution of phosphorus on alkyl halide to yield phosphonate as shown in the figure below. Figure 7.2 Mechanism for Michaelis-Becker Reaction The preparation of these phosphonates were carried out in a refluxation unit by drop wise addition of dibutylhydrogen phosphate over a period of 30 minutes to the reaction mixture i.e. sodium (1.15g, 0.05 mol) + hexane (100 mL). The addition of dibutylhydrogen phosphate was continued until the dissolution of sodium was complete. After this complete reaction mixture was stirred under gentle refluxation for about 4 hours during which 1-bromoalkane was added over a period of half-an-hour. This reaction mixture was then washed with water after cooling it at room temperature after which the product was distilled using reduced pressure to get rid of impurities. 7.3 Mechanism of Extraction in Dibutylalkyl Phosphonates Uptake of metal ions from the aqueous phase using dibutylalkyl phosphonates is by formation of neutral complex formation. Solvation of metal ion takes place by nitrate ion which is the aqueous phase used in the present studies. Then the solvation of these neutral metal nitrate species takes place with the help of dibutylalkyl phosphonate which gets extracted be the organic phase. MX+aq + X NO3 + nDBAPorg M(NO3)X.nDBAPorg Following equation gives the equilibrium constant for the above reaction Keq = [M(NO3)X.nDBAP]org / [MX+aq] [NO3]X[DBAPorg]n Distribution ratio (D) is the ratio of activity of metal ion in organic phase to that in the aqueous phase at equilibrium, which can be rearranged and represented in the following way. D = Keq [NO3] X[DBAPorg]n Distribution ratio depends on the concentration of nitrate ions and concentration of extractant. There is always a rise in the D value as the nitrate ion concentration increases while the fall at higher acidity indicates the extraction of nitric acid. 7.4 Solvent Extraction Studies Extraction of U (VI), Th (IV), Eu (III) and Tc (VII) with were carried out in a plastic tube with preequliberated organic phase that comprised of 1.1 M DBPrP and DBPeP in n-dodecane. 2 mL of preequliberated extractant was agitated with 2 mL of nitric acid in a shaking incubator at 25 0C for 1 hour. After the equilibration the two phases were allowed to separate and were analysed for the metal ion content using suitable technique. 7.4.1 Extraction studies of nitric acid Around 2 mL of various concentrations of nitric acid (0.1-6M) were taken in an equilibration tube and equilibrated with 1.1 M DBPrP/DBPeP, n-dodecane at room temperature for an hour. The nitric acid concentration in both the phases was determined by acid-base titration. Figure below depicts the uptake of nitric acid in DBPrP and DBPeP compared with the available literature values of TBP. As observed from the plot it is clear that D values in case of phosphonates are higher as compared with that of TBP which is the direct consequence of the higher basicity of the phosphonates. Prasanna et al. have reported that the changes in alkyl group structure do not have significant affect on extraction of nitric acid [11]. 7.4.2 Extraction Studies of U (VI) After the equilibration the two phases were separated and analysed for U (VI) content spectrophotometrically using Arsenazo-III as chromogenic agent [12]. Organic phase concentration was estimated by subtracting concentration of U (VI) in equilibrated aqueous phase from the initial feed concentration. Below figure shows the comparative data for the uptake of U (VI) in TBP, DBPeP and DBPrP in the complete nitric acid range (0.1-6 M). There was a constant increase in the uptake of U (VI) metal ion with the increase in nitric acid concentration. Also the observed increase in the uptake of U (VI) as TBP Figure 7.3 Variation of DU(VI) as the function of acid concentration for Dibutylalkyl phosphonates at 25 0C 7.4.3 Extraction Studies of Th (IV) Figure 7.4 depicts the variation of extraction behavior of Th (IV) by 1.1 M of TBP, DBPrP and DBPeP extraction in n-dodecane under identical conditions. As expected there is a constant rise in the D values as the concentration of nitric acid goes on increasing. Also higher analogs of neutral organophosphorus extractant shows the higher uptake which is again a direct conciquence of the increased bascicity on phophoryl oxygen the highest uptake of Th (IV) is Figure 7.4 Variation of DTh(IV) as the function of acid concentration for Dibutylalkyl phosphonates at 25 0C 7.4.4 Extraction Studies of Europium (III) Figure 7.5 Variation of DEu(III) as the function of acid concentration for Dibutylalkyl phosphonates at 25 0C 7.4.5 Extraction Studies of Technetium (VII) Figure 7.3 Variation of DTc(VII) as the function of acid concentration for Dibutylalkyl phosphonates at 25 0C References Schulz, W.W.; Berger, L.L.; Navratil, J.D. Eds.; Science and Technology of TBP; RC Press: Boca Raton, FL, 1990; Vol. 3. Crouse, D.J.; Arnold, W.D.; Hurst, F.J. Proceedings of the International Solvent Extraction Conference (ISEC’83), Denver, Colorado, 1983; pp 90–96. Marcus, Y.; Kertes, A.S. Ion Exchange and Solvent Extraction of Metal Complexes; Wiley- Interscience, New York, 1969; p 953–954. Kolarik, Z. Proc. International Solvent Extraction Conference, Toronto, Canada; Lucas, B. H., Ritcey, G. M., Smith, H. N., Eds.; 1977; Vol. 1. Kertes, A. S. Solvent Extraction Chemistry of Metals; McKay, H. A. C., Healy, T.V., Jenkins, I. L., Naylor. A, Eds.; Macmillan: NY, 1965; p. 377–379. Srinivasan, T. G.; Ahmed, M. K.; Shakila, A.M.; Damodaran, R.; Vasudeva Rao, P. R.;Mathews, C. K. Third phase formation in the extraction of Pu by TBP. Radiochim. Acta. 1986, 40, 151–154. Berger, L. L. Uranium and plutonium extraction by organophosphorus compounds. J. Phys. Chem. 1958, 62, 590–593. Siddall,T.H., III. Trialkylphosphates and dialkylalkylphoshonates in uranium and thorium extraction. Ind. Eng. Chem. 1959, 51(1), 41–44. Madigan, D.C.; Cattrall, R.W. The extraction of thorium from nitrate solution by dibutylbutyl phosphonate. J. Inorg. Nuclear Chem. 1961, 21, 334–338. Kosalapoff, G.M. Isomerisation of alkylphosphites. III. The synthesis of n-alkylphosphonic acids. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1945, 67, 1180–1182. R. Prasanna, A. Suresh, T.G. Srinivasan, P.R. Vasudeva Rao, Extraction of nitric acid by some trialkyl phosphates, J. Radioanal. Nucl. Chem., 222 (1-2) (1997) 231-234. Perez-Bustamante, J. A.; Palomares Delgado, F. The extraction and spectrophotometric determination of sexavalent uranium with Arsenazo III in aqueous-organic media. Analyst 1971, 96, 407–422. Kalina, D.G.; Mason, G.W; Horwitz, E.P. The thermodynamics of extraction of U(VI) and Th(IV) from nitric acid by neutral phosphorus based organic compounds, J Inorg. Nucl. Chem. 1981, 43, 159–163.

Alcohol, Violence and Crime in America :: essays research papers

Alcohol is a dominant tool that controls the human’s body when it takes over its major systems. In addition, alcohol has a huge impact on people’s behaviors so that their behaviors go out of their control and could lead to things rather more serious. As a consequence of the impact of alcohol, crime rate increases dramatically under the influence of alcohol. On reason that supports this conclusion is that people who are addicted to alcohol but can’t afford buying would act aggressively to get access to alcohol by unmannered behaviors that some times could lead to serious crimes. In general, religions constitute the way of life humans should live no matter what kind of religion is that, and since the use of alcohol is either completely prohibited or not recommended, alcohol should be eliminated from any society to comply with god’s law’s just as people respect their government’s laws. However, the elimination of alcohol from a society at once is almost impossible and could result in severe incidents that could go beyond the control of the authorities. The best way to keep people away from alcohol is to make it hard enough for people to get alcohol; make them suffer to get the alcohol they need. Some of the ways a government could limit the use of alcohol is to increase its price dramatically by adding additional taxes and fees on those who sell alcohol so that its price will increase and wont be affordable for most of the people. The income of this increment should be spent on national awareness through media which would spread out the word about alcohol to people and warn them about the use of this evil product. Another restriction would be increasing the legal age of alcohol buyers from 21 to a higher age at which people would be responsible and think twice about the consumption of alcohol; a reasonable age would be around 25 I believe. Increasing the requirements of issuing alcohol licenses would limit the number of stores that sell alcohol so that people will need a bit more of time to get alcohol from a far place. In addition , limiting the quantity of alcohol sold to one individual would make him waste lots of time each time he wants to buy alcohol. Prohibition is not always the key of eliminating something from a society, but education is rather a better idea.

Laughter the best medicine Essay

A good sense of humour is one of the most important tools in your self-care kit. In fact, studies show that laughter affects both your body and your mind. Laughter is also readily available, free, has no side effects, and you don’t have to worry about overdosing. Moreover, it’s good for everyone around you too. And laughter can relieve stress, boost your immune system and even change your perspective on things. Stress relief. Laughter lowers your blood pressure and pulse rate and helps your muscles to relax. It counteracts your body’s stress response by lowering the stress hormones cortisol, epinephrine, adrenaline and dopamine. In addition, it releases â€Å"happy chemicals† in your brain, leaving you with a sense of well-being or even euphoria. Increased immunity. Laughter increases the number of antibody-producing cells and enhances the effectiveness of killer T-cells. This means a stronger immune system, as well as fewer physical effects and immune sup pression caused by stress. Pain relief. Laughter increases the production of natural painkillers, thereby improving our tolerance to pain. Muscle relaxation. Laughter exercises the diaphragm, contracts the abs and even works out the shoulders, leaving muscles more relaxed afterwards. It even provides a good workout for the heart. According to the late Dr Laurence Peter, author of The Peter Principle, the bigger the laugh, the lower the tension and the more long-lasting the relief. Perspective. Humour gives us an entirely different perspective on our problems. By viewing a problem a little more light-heartedly, it becomes a challenge instead of a threat, and your body won’t react with a stress response. This gives us a sense of mastery and control over our environment, which helps us cope with adversity. Distraction. Laughter diverts our attention away from our negative feelings like guilt, anger, and stress. Improved social interaction. Laughter is contagious. If you laugh, people laugh with you, even if they donâ⠂¬â„¢t always know what you’re laughing about. It connects us to those around us, and can even be used to ease interpersonal tension – crack a joke during your next heated argument and see the tension melt away. back to top How to lighten up Raise your laughter level with the following strategies: Surround yourself with humour. Watch a funny movie, read a humorous book or a comic, or listen to your favourite stand-up comedian. When you’re stressed at work, take ten minutes to read jokes on the Internet or listen to something silly on your iPod. Laugh with a friend or colleague. People tend to laugh more in social situations, so share the funnies with a friend. It will strengthen your relationship and the contagious effects of laughter may mean you’ll laugh more than you otherwise would have. Look for humour in everyday life. Why wait to â€Å"look back on it and laugh†? Find the humour in every situation, even the stressful and unpleasant ones, and enjoy a good giggle now. Laugh at yourself. Poke fun at your own behaviour and idiosyncrasies. As the saying goes, â€Å"Laugh at yourself and the world laughs with you.† Comedian Bill Cosby once said, â€Å"If you can laugh at it, you can survive it†. With the improved immune system, reduce stress ed, better coping ability and positive attitude that comes with laughter, you can survive almost anything too.

Recruitment

Focus and cite strategic manpower planning, recruitment and selection activities. Report and quote on these processes and how they help the company achieve its strategic goals Job analysis and Designing Coca cola companys HR Department check its own Job description and Job analysis in which they get the information about the employees work activities, human behavior, performance standard, Job context and human requirements and also other information related to this conduct.HR Department of Coca Cola used this information also for recruiting, selection, compensation, performance appraisal, training, and employee's relationship Planning and Forecasting Coca Cola HR Department involves in the company strategic planning and they also make sufficient planning for hiring new employees needs in the organization. HR forecast the needs for employees on the change in technology and increases in productivity.After planning the HR Department sends report to the head office for approval and if th ey get approval from the head office then HR will start the ecruitment process, The Recruitment Process HR Department posts their vacancy in news paper, institutions and company websites. The applicant can search for Jobs on the current Jobs tab from the homepage of their website and if the applicant already decided on what position to apply him/her will Just need to click â€Å"Apply Online† button and then follow the instruction provided.But in order to apply the applicant must first create a profile so that he/she can see the updates of his/her application. The company does internal nd external Recruitment. The Selection Process The selection process of Coca Cola HR Department will vary depending on the position that the candidates are applying for. Below are the tools used mostly by the HR department and in most cases they used the combination of any of the following tools; Interview- The interview is designed to reveal more about you and your experiences.Interviewer will ask for examples of how you behaved in different situations, maybe at school, home or in your previous Jobs Group Exercises- Coca cola s very much into teams so this exercise will show how the candidates effectively work with people. It is the good opportunity for the HR to see how the candidates communicate, influence and involve other people in work place.Presentations- Coca Cola used presentation as a tool in selection process to show the ability of the candidate on how he/she communicates to a group of people on a specific topic. The candidate may be given a topic in advance or on the day of the presentation. Psychometrics Test- the coca cola company also gives a psychometric test. Psychometric test are timed exercises that examine the candidates abilities and potential.HR uses the personality assessment tool that is designed to find out more specific things about you. Role plays/situational exercises- this tool is designed to assess how the candidates react in certain situatio ns, this will help to highlight the candidate may be given facts and fgures to review or a report to complete; hr may also have an assessor acting as a customer or employee to simulate a situation that could occur in the workplace.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Essay Essays

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Essay Essays Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Essay Paper Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Essay Paper Highly Loud and Incredibly Close encourages us to closely analyze the clip we have in our lives. We neer know when the last clip we will be seeing person will be. we must be responsible with how we spend our clip and we are responsible for the manner we treat people. The message that is conveyed to me an copiousness of times is to non take advantage of the clip you have. because it ?ies. This is represented on the pages with ruddy ink ( pages 208-216 ) . The commas are circled as if they are a error. Commas represent a intermission in the sentence. and with most of them circled it infers that clip moves really rapidly. The ruddy pen pages. besides represent looking closely at something. The circled ruddy pen means that there is an mistake at that place and we must look closely to ?x it. Therefore the writer wants us to closely look at the manner we distribute clip in our lives. 3 ) The alone narrative manner in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is chosen to further turn out certain subjects throughout the book. One manner that this book is alone is the fact that it is ?lled with symbolic pages. The space pages are a really strong manner to show the subjects in the novel. These pages exhaustively express points that Foer is seeking to do throughout the novel. Page 121 is an illustration of a clean page. conveying the changeless subject of emptiness. The clean pages represents Oskar’s grandmas head. She does non desire to believe about anything. she is enduring from loss and emptiness interior. The exposure scattered throughout the book of doorknobs conveys another large message in the book. This message is one door closes. another door opens. Even though the supporter is faced with a loss and is looking for closing. finally he obtains the closing by run intoing many new people to ?ll the empty infinite within him by literally opening new doors. This narrative manner creates a more interesting thought arousing reading experience and that is why I believe Foer has chosen to include these symbolic pages. 4 ) Oskar. his grandma. and the tenant all have loss in common. They all have a feeling of emptiness inside them. Oskar’s father â€Å"died the most atrocious decease that anyone could of all time invent† ( 201 ) . Grandmother and the tenant have both lost a boy. and Anna. Grandmother’s husband â€Å"the following forenoon he went to the airport† ( 185. ) He had left her. she had lost him. Besides the common loss that they portion. they all have issues affecting thought. The tenant and Oskar have the job of overthinking everything in their lives. The overladen pages. like page 282 express the tenants ideas overcasting up his caput. The tenant used thought as a reminder to allow him cognize he was alive during the bombardments of Dresden. He merely would believe and believe to cognize that he was alive. his encephalon was overloaded. Oskar is similar with the fact that he could neer halt his ideas. Oskar expresses that â€Å"all [ he ] wanted was to fall asleep at dark but all [ he ] could make was invent† ( 258 ) . Oskar invents many different things. like â€Å"a teakettle that reads in Dad’s voice† ( 1 ) and many other things that merely maintain traveling through his head. . Grandmother differed from them in idea. Grandmother would seek non to believe. She would compose clean pages so that she did non hold to believe about a individual thing like everything that has gone bad in her life. Although Grandmother relates to believing in the opposite manner. she still has thought in common with them.

Van Duerm essays

Van Duerm essays Anxious young fans swayed under open skies and heavy rains, reveling in the music and sustaining a mood of hope and renewal that would define their generation. Only some 80,000 people remained from an overwhelming 400,000 that Monday, August 18, 1969 at Max Yasgur' s dairy farm in Bethel, New York (Piccoli 112). They awaited Jimi Hendrix and his band as they prepared to close the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. The event was becoming a special memory that no future event would ever quite be able to match in its mixture of music, magic, misery, spontaneity, and history. Those who had left before the finale would live to realize their regret. The last act walked onto the stage under a streaky morning sky with his white Fender Stratocaster slung over one shoulder and his wild black hair bound in a red headband (Piccoli 11-12). The group eventually began and tore into the classic hit "Fire" followed by an ensemble of prime works of "Isabella", "Hear My Train A -Comin, and the proclaimed new American anthem of "Voodoo Chile (Wadleigh 60). Plagued by a bad sound system, due to rain and electrical storms, a sunken stage, and adverse weather conditions, Hendrix could not quite win the crowd over. That was until he stepped away from his microphone, looking like a cowboy gypsie and cosmic hitchhiker, sounded out the first notes of the song everyone knew so well: "The Star Spangled Banner." Hendrix's guitar seemed to mock and revere the national anthem's grandiosity. The effects of one of the most electrifying performances ever was captured by Michael Wadleigh himself, the director of the famous Woodstock documentary, The experience of standing in front of Hendrix was awesome. The hair came up on the back of my neck and everybodys neck. You did not hear the sound through your ears, you heard it through your diaphragm. It vibrated. It kicked you...

105 Training Essay Example for Free

105 Training Essay Choose cite format: APA MLA Harvard Chicago ASA IEEE AMA Haven't found the essay you want? Get your custom sample essay for only $13.90/page ? Training Principles You will perform the Sit and Reach exercise as described in the lesson and then answer the questions below based on your experiences. Important: Â ·Answer each question in the document by highlighting or bolding your answers. Â ·Save the file as 105training. rtf. Â ·Below the file name is the field for file type. Use the drop down menu to choose ‘Rich Text Format’. This will save it with the . rtf file structure required. Â ·Submit the completed assignment for Assessment 1. 05 Training Principles. Complete each exercise below: A. Reach to 0 cm mark and hold 10 seconds B. Reach to 8 cm mark and hold 15 seconds C. Reach to 15 cm mark and hold 10 seconds D. Reach to 22. 5 mark and hold 15 seconds 1. Of the four exercises attempted in the activity I was able to complete A. None of the exercises. B. Item A only C. Items A and B D. Items A, B, and C E. All of the exercises 2. Reaching to 0 cm mark and holding for 10 seconds was: A. Easily done B. Done C. Slightly Difficult D. Very Difficult E. Could not yet reach 3. Reaching to 8 cm mark and holding 15 seconds was: A. Easily Done B. Done C. Slightly Difficult D. Very Difficult E. Could not yet reach 4. Reaching to 15 cm mark and holding 10 seconds was: A. Easily Done B. Done C. Slightly Difficult D. Very Difficult E. Could not yet reach 5. Reaching to 22. 5 mark and hold 15 seconds was: A. Easily Done B. Done C. Slightly Difficult D. Very Difficult E. Could not yet reach Part II: Principle of Overload 1. How frequently would you need to stretch if the sit & reach was easily done? A. Very Often – several times a week B. Often – 3 times a week C. Rarely – once a week 2. Which of the above stretches made you work harder (had the greatest intensity)? A. 0 cm B. 8 cm C. 15 cm D. 22. 5 cm 105 Training. (2018, Nov 15).

International banking assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

International banking assignment - Essay Example For this reason, they are often regulated through creation of policies and regulations. Most nations have developed fractional banking systems, which are essential in the regulation of the banking industry (Somashekar 2009, 34). Through this system, banks have various liquid assess, which are equal to part of their current liabilities. In addition to different regulations aimed at ensuring liquidity, banks are often subject to the most minimal capital requirements depending on the internationally set standards that are known as Basel Accords. It has often been said that liquidity is something that be recognized easily that being defined; additionally, it is a highly elusive concept. As far as its barest essentials are concerned, is all about having cash at the moment one needs it. In relation to banks, liquidity can be defined as the ability of a bank to provide funding to the increases in assets in order to achieve various obligations as soon as they arise (Hall 2008, 16). This often has to take place without the banks having to incur any unacceptable losses. Management of liquidity risks aims at ensuring that banks can continue performing their most fundamental roles. It is important to note that while outflows are often identified with certainties, risks are often due to need to achieve indecisive obligations about cash flow. In most cases, they depend on the external events as well as the behavior and actions of various agents. The liquidity aspects of a certain bank are ultimately a function of its confidence. This confidence arises from the counterparties and depositors in the banking institution and its presumed capital adequacy or solvency. A liquidity shortfall in a certain individual institution can often have various repercussions in its broad systems. In this case, the withdrawal of one institution has a multiplier effect, having the ability to spread to other systems, which can bring about various

SIDS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

SIDS - Essay Example This incident was noticed at around noon (Bedsole, 2012). One can assume that the baby was sleeping on its tummy, on an adult soft bed, or accidentally suffocated with pillows surrounding the baby. These are the most common factors related to SIDS. After further investigation, the police came to a conclusion that there was no foul play or any wrongdoing by the parents. However, another case involved in SIDS was ruled a homicide. Vanessa Clark, a Texas woman, was charged with killing her newborn baby while sleeping with it in the same bed. The baby was found unexpectedly not breathing. This was not the first time this had happen with Clark. Her first child died the same way and was ruled an accident. Therefore, police did a further investigation and found reasonable evidence to indicate that Clark put the baby at a high risk by putting the newborn baby in imminent danger and acted upon criminal negligence. The Angelina County jurors found Clark guilty of child endangerment(Held, 2012). She is facing up to twenty years in prison. In the event that a possible SIDS death takes place, the police must investigate and interview all parties involved. â€Å"By law, police and other officials at hand, such as a coroner and detectives, are required to determine the cause of death† (Hooker, 2011).The information exchanged between these officials is crucial in order to solve the case (Ortmeier, 2006). Several questions must answered be in order to determine if such act was done deliberately or inadvertently. Family members are briefed about an investigation that must take place because of the infant’s death. In addition, child protective services as well as other special support groups should be involve assisting the family members after their loss. It would give great help and allow the police to detach themselves from the situation and allow them to focus on

Course journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Course journal - Essay Example For every classroom to maintain order, the parties involved must have a common behavioural code. Students can not express themselves freely without rules, and the teachers have to inform the students from the beginning of the class on how they are expected to behave. The teacher should reinforce negatively any behaviour violating the set rules. Students are motivated differently, and the teacher should make sure that the lessons taught respect the interest and goals of each student. When discussing classroom matters both genders should be present regardless of the topic being taught. When discussing or asking question, the teacher must ensure that each student participates. After focusing on the classroom dynamics and the effects they cause, I have learned that they can be handled through considering the behaviour of the parties involved. After solving the classroom dynamics, students will be able to understand the teaching and the teacher will have an easy time in handling the students. Commitment is the key to success in each subject told in class, and both teacher and students must be

THEMATIC UNIT Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

THEMATIC UNIT - Assignment Example The teacher will say: "Today class, we are going to be talking about one of my favorite Japanese festivals! The cherry blossom festival!" (The teacher will pass the cherry blossoms around for students to touch) CD of Japanese traditional songs, (including "Sakura Sakura, "Moonlight on the Ruined Castle, and "Star Festival Song"- these songs are available, free of copyright from Mama Lisas world (see resources). "One important thing to remember before you decorate is that all kimonos have a theme. The theme can be springtime, winter, flowers, cars, anything you like. Write your theme on the sleeve of your kimono before you begin drawing." "The first thing we must do is give our logs a title. The title for this project is Bamboo Bonanza. Please write this down on the front of your folder. Then, write your name in the upper right hand corner." "Write the date at the top right corner of the page. You will date the page, each day. We will be writing on the front and back of each page. Today, you will write your hypothesis and make your first measurements" CD of Japanese traditional songs, (including "Sakura Sakura, "Moonlight on the Ruined Castle, and "Star Festival Song"- these songs are available, free of copyright from Mama Lisas world (see resources). "This song is a song that is normally played at the star festival. This festival is special because it is held at night. During the festival, little boys and girls write their wishes on paper notes, like this" (show pre-made note) and hope that their wish will come

Mesopotamians Polytheism and The Epic of Gilgamesh Essay

Mesopotamians Polytheism and The Epic of Gilgamesh - Essay Example Nippur city state for example, was dedicated to the god of the wind known as Enlil. Occupying a number of acres was a temple complex at the heart of each city-state. It comprised of a ziggurat and a temple dedicated to the god or goddess of the city at the top. The god or goddess placed at the top of the temple was in the form of a statue. The construction of temples and other buildings such as priests and priestesses residents always consumed a lot of wealth. A close relationship between the culture and religion of the Mesopotamians could be seen in the way temples were dominating structures in their commercial and personal lives. The Mesopotamians view of the world or universe was impacted by their physical environment. Their local climate consisted of a disturbing climate, heavy downpours, ferocious floods and scorching winds. Famines and such conditions were convincing factors to the Mesopotamians that supernatural powers controlled the world and the life of human beings in it we re short. These can be clearly seen in the laments of the epic of Gilgamesh where the Mesopotamians always felt helpless in the presence of nature. Some words from the poem are as follows; â€Å"The rampant flood which no man can oppose, Which shakes the heavens and causes earth to tremble, In an appalling blanket folds mother and child, Beats down the canebrake’s full luxuriant greenery, And drowns the harvest in its time of ripeness.† (qtd. in Spielvogel 11). Because of the many gods and goddesses that controlled the universe, Mesopotamians had a religion of polytheism. The greatest god was An, god of the sky, he was the source of all authority followed by Enlil, god of the wind. The god of the earth was known as Enki, he was in charge of all canals, wells and rivers as well as waters of creativity. Ninhursaga, the goddess was initially associated with mountains, soil and vegetation but eventually became a mother goddess. The relationship between the Mesopotamians an d their gods was that of subservience since they believed they were created to work for their gods. Since they were unsure of what the gods would do they developed arts of divination. Divination took various forms with the most common being that of priests and kings. They would kill animals like sheep and analyze their organs to foretell events. Predicted events served as a means of guiding people to act wisely. The Mesopotamians viewed death with horror and fear. Death and disease were viewed in a spiritual perspective. They believed that the gods ordained immortality for themselves and death for man. They also believed that death and sickness were the results of sin. According to their mythology, man was made of clay which was then added blood and flesh of a god; therefore, God was present in all human beings. The main purpose why man was created was to serve the gods. When humans offended the gods, they would get angry and withdraw their support allowing demons to take over. The souls of dead people went to the underworld where according to the Mesopotamians was a dark land from which no one returned. However, offended spirits could find their way back to the living and inflict misery on them for their wrongdoings. To avoid such wrath, the Mesopotamians gave daily sacrifices to the spirits of the dead to appease them. The story of Gilgamesh is similar to the story of Noah in the Bible. The story deals with issues surrounding mortality and immortality. Gilgamesh was Sumerian king

Course journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Course journal - Essay Example For every classroom to maintain order, the parties involved must have a common behavioural code. Students can not express themselves freely without rules, and the teachers have to inform the students from the beginning of the class on how they are expected to behave. The teacher should reinforce negatively any behaviour violating the set rules. Students are motivated differently, and the teacher should make sure that the lessons taught respect the interest and goals of each student. When discussing classroom matters both genders should be present regardless of the topic being taught. When discussing or asking question, the teacher must ensure that each student participates. After focusing on the classroom dynamics and the effects they cause, I have learned that they can be handled through considering the behaviour of the parties involved. After solving the classroom dynamics, students will be able to understand the teaching and the teacher will have an easy time in handling the students. Commitment is the key to success in each subject told in class, and both teacher and students must be

Mesopotamians Polytheism and The Epic of Gilgamesh Essay

Mesopotamians Polytheism and The Epic of Gilgamesh - Essay Example Nippur city state for example, was dedicated to the god of the wind known as Enlil. Occupying a number of acres was a temple complex at the heart of each city-state. It comprised of a ziggurat and a temple dedicated to the god or goddess of the city at the top. The god or goddess placed at the top of the temple was in the form of a statue. The construction of temples and other buildings such as priests and priestesses residents always consumed a lot of wealth. A close relationship between the culture and religion of the Mesopotamians could be seen in the way temples were dominating structures in their commercial and personal lives. The Mesopotamians view of the world or universe was impacted by their physical environment. Their local climate consisted of a disturbing climate, heavy downpours, ferocious floods and scorching winds. Famines and such conditions were convincing factors to the Mesopotamians that supernatural powers controlled the world and the life of human beings in it we re short. These can be clearly seen in the laments of the epic of Gilgamesh where the Mesopotamians always felt helpless in the presence of nature. Some words from the poem are as follows; â€Å"The rampant flood which no man can oppose, Which shakes the heavens and causes earth to tremble, In an appalling blanket folds mother and child, Beats down the canebrake’s full luxuriant greenery, And drowns the harvest in its time of ripeness.† (qtd. in Spielvogel 11). Because of the many gods and goddesses that controlled the universe, Mesopotamians had a religion of polytheism. The greatest god was An, god of the sky, he was the source of all authority followed by Enlil, god of the wind. The god of the earth was known as Enki, he was in charge of all canals, wells and rivers as well as waters of creativity. Ninhursaga, the goddess was initially associated with mountains, soil and vegetation but eventually became a mother goddess. The relationship between the Mesopotamians an d their gods was that of subservience since they believed they were created to work for their gods. Since they were unsure of what the gods would do they developed arts of divination. Divination took various forms with the most common being that of priests and kings. They would kill animals like sheep and analyze their organs to foretell events. Predicted events served as a means of guiding people to act wisely. The Mesopotamians viewed death with horror and fear. Death and disease were viewed in a spiritual perspective. They believed that the gods ordained immortality for themselves and death for man. They also believed that death and sickness were the results of sin. According to their mythology, man was made of clay which was then added blood and flesh of a god; therefore, God was present in all human beings. The main purpose why man was created was to serve the gods. When humans offended the gods, they would get angry and withdraw their support allowing demons to take over. The souls of dead people went to the underworld where according to the Mesopotamians was a dark land from which no one returned. However, offended spirits could find their way back to the living and inflict misery on them for their wrongdoings. To avoid such wrath, the Mesopotamians gave daily sacrifices to the spirits of the dead to appease them. The story of Gilgamesh is similar to the story of Noah in the Bible. The story deals with issues surrounding mortality and immortality. Gilgamesh was Sumerian king

Timberlands Model Essay Example for Free

Timberlands Model Essay 1a) How would you characterize Timberlands exercise of its corporate power in society? Timberland uses its corporate power in society not only to make a profit, but to help others. It is a rarity for a company to go as far as Timberland has gone to make a huge difference in society. Whether participating in its City Year to Service program that serves its communities; or becoming carbon neutral, Timberland has paved the way and reflects a company that not only cares about its communities, but also cares about the environment. 1b) Is Timberland engaging multiple stakeholders in its business operations? If so how? Yes. Timberland’s Chief EarthKeeper and CEO Jeff Swartz, hosts regular stakeholder engagement calls to inform, inspire, and engage others about Timberlands corporate initiatives. They allow stakeholders to dialogue in a public forum. Past calls have covered topics such as corporate climate strategies, responsible sourcing, eco labeling, community greening, and the current state of corporate responsibilities. 2a) Has Timberland balanced its economic and social responsibilities through its various programs, such as the Path to Service program and sustainability goals? Yes, Timberland planned to build 15 community gardens worldwide and refurbish 80 playgrounds by 2009, utilizing the more than 76,000 employee volunteer service hours. The company contributes 2% of its pre-taxed income annually and makes grants to many non-profit organizations, including many of those it aids through its service projects. They advocated an ambitious goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2010, meaning they would eliminate or offset its own carbon footprint by reducing emissions at its facilities and this can be seen in its Ontario, CA distribution center where 60 percent of its power is generated through installation of new solar panels. The solar installation reduces greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 480,000 pounds annually. In the Dominican Republic plant, Timberland installed a wind turbine and solar heating panels to provide approximately 30,000 kilowatt-hours of clean renewable energy each year. 2b) Are the companys programs examples of enlightened self-interest? Yes, because Timberland considers what they call earthkeeping, common sense. Earthkeeping allows them to make their products by using recycled materials and also allows them to use renewable energy in their facilities. Earthkeeping is second nature to them. Their belief is that earthkeeping will help them create and sell better gear for customers to enjoy the outdoors and to protect the outdoors by being environmentally responsible. 3. What impact do you think that the current economic recession may have on Timberlands social programs? With the recession, most companies are cutting back on company-sponsored programs to stay profitable. There is no doubt that this has affected the Timberland Corporation as well. However, as the article noted, with 95% of employee participation in the companys sponsored program, if the company could no longer sponsor the program, greater than 50% would most likely stay. 4. How would you improve Timberlands corporate social responsibility program? Timberlands corporate social responsibility program, although great, could improve by involving its shareholders in its green efforts. Timberland could promise dividends if its green-goals are met quarterly. This would give its shareholders a vested interest in ensuring Timberland continues its corporate social responsibility programs. Update: Even after the economic slowdown in 2007 through 2009, Jeffrey Swartz has continued to look for ways to not only improve the communities his company affects, but also to improve the company. He has turned his monitoring inward on his factories and launched improvement programs that have improved working conditions for his employees. As he stated in Timberlands 2009 Earthkeeper Report, The results from our remediation efforts also support our belief that going beyond monitoring and beyond factory walls is critical to addressing workers’ needs. The article also mentions that they have eliminated high-risk issues from some of their footwear sourcing channels and seen their business partners increase their scores on Timberlands Code of Conduct assessments which help measure working condition improvements. References Retrieved from http://www.timberland.com

Evolution Of Media And Entertainment Consumption Habits Media Essay

Evolution Of Media And Entertainment Consumption Habits Media Essay The Media Entertainment (ME) sector comprises the creation, aggregation and distribution of content, more specifically news, information, advertising and entertainment through a number of channels and platforms. The combination of new digital distribution modalities and evolving audience consumption habits and demands has continued to challenge traditional ME business models during 2009. It also could mark the initiation of a drastic transformation that reshapes the entire ME ecosystem. There seems to be a stiff competition as far as the media industry is concerned, with industry players battling for the eye-balls of the viewers and readers. In this rat race, only those ME companies will survive that are able to rapidly identify and react to the evolving demands and consumption patterns of end users. As the time has evolved, ME consumption has undergone a paradigm shift. During old days the entertainment through media typically meant a few grainy channels on the television or tuning into limited stations on the radio or else gorging on stale news from newspaper or reading a hard copy of a book. In those days, outdoors were more welcoming. Today, one is connected to the world through plenty of hi-tech networked means. As the consumers have changed, so has the media (Kenneth A., 2009: 3). Advancing technology has been the single biggest factor behind this resurgence. The same technology has also created cultural shifts. Now consumers have understood their power and have become more demanding. Earlier they would adjust their daily routine according to the availability of the content. Today, the providers have to wrap up their broadcasting and publishing as per the consumer choices and conveniences. With the growing popularity of tools like cell phones that enable pulling of media software, media has become location agnostic. The use of social sites has to be seen as a game changer. At any given point people are exchanging notes with each other about media content and the death or survival of published or broadcast content are decided in fraction of seconds. Consumers have liberalized themselves from limitations and are enjoying greater choices and enlarged personal freedoms as far as media and entertainment are concerned. Along with independence, consumption has also significantly gone up. This has led to a double edged challenge for the suppliers-great returns and significant risks. In the era of technology shifts it is imperative that only those media and entertainment entities that enable themselves to rapidly identify and act to the growing demands and consumption patterns of end users will survive (Bill, 2005: 26) . There is a single measure that can enable these companies decipher complex customer requirements-information. The key is to filter through this information using analytical tools and gather intelligence that can be effectively used. In nutshell, ability to apply intelligence and creation and sustenance of loyalty among its consumer will be the major deciding criteria that will enable media companies to achieve success in an increasingly competitive marketplace. There appears to be plenty of ways in which the users can access and enjoy diverse media and entertainment content due to its mass availability. The cost of switching is also low for end users who want to switch to new content providers or media and entertainment companies. The greatest challenge in the media industry seems to be the changing loyalties of consumers forcing them to identify ways of tailoring content in compelling, highly targeted ways (Kenneth A., 2009: 6). 2. Factors Shaping Consumer Behavior 2.1 Quality of Content Todays well informed consumers expect a spectrum of content granularities. Their demands may change depending on the time, their device/network characteristics, and even their moods. This forces the providers to customize content so that fits within the media consumption patterns of the consumer. 2.2 Structure of Tariff Model Even though certain content will always be paid for, tariff remains a debatable issue. The users want low fee for themselves and expect the companies to generate most of the content through advertisements. In reality lot of content particularly on the online media are co-created between the company and the consumer. This challenges the companies to design superior quality, customized content and charge the consumer less for the same. 2.3 Timing of Attention In spite of variety new digital content that has replaced earlier scarcities along with easy access the only issue that has emerged seems to have been that of user attention. For the content providers, getting user attention has been nothing short of a battle. 2.4 Real Time Experiences The evolution of real-time business intelligence is enabling mass-customization of content and entertainment that delivers highly personalized and engaging experiences, consumers are demanding more. 2.5 Competition ME companies have been forced into transitioning into non-traditional roles. Networks are providing content online to consumers, bypassing traditional cable or satellite distribution; telecom companies are competing with cable via Internet Protocol television platforms; and cable companies are competing with telecom companies with voice over IP. As competition and churn rate increases, customer data analysis can provide competitive advantage for customer retention. (Barlow, 2009) 3. Impact of Changing Media Consumption Habits on Media Industry Rapidly changing consumer tastes and increasing digitization has created a number of industry-wide challenges. Some of these are protecting intellectual property, continuing historical revenue streams and finding ways to utilize and monetize emerging new platforms for traditional content including print, filmed entertainment, and recorded music as well as user-generated content and other new services, applications and formats that compete for consumer mindshare and time. 3.1 Gaming The interactive gaming sub-sector has enjoyed tremendous growth because of changing demographics. Increasingly gamers are older and there is significant growth in number of female population engaging in idle time. Introduction of new growth segments like mobile and online gaming, successful titles and the phenomenon of in-game advertising, resulted in gaining mass popularity for this new medium (Kenneth, 2009: 3). 3.2 Entrainment Companies Growth of multiplex culture in upcoming metros and option of entertaining oneself at home through DVDs, home theatre systems, has forced filmed entertainment companies to embrace the digital distribution business. The traditional ME players are struggling to understand and exploit new distribution windows, metrics and economics. However, as long as the demand for professionally-produced content remains high, the filmed entertainment industry will continue to evolve and find new ways to monetize their content. 3.3 Broadcasters Since traditional networks and broad-based cable networks own very little of their content and their advertising-based business being centred on attracting eyeballs and reselling attention, they are greatly impacted by shift in audience preferences. On the other hand, most themed cable networks have targeted subject matter and audiences and, hence, have an opportunity to extend their brands into products, events, etc. 3.4 Print Media Reduced cash flows caused by the migration of readers and advertising dollars to the Internet, compounded by 2008s economic downturn, are threatening newspapers very existence. Major consolidations may be their only avenue to existence. (Kenneth, 2009: 5) 3.5 Music With introduction of high tech electronics gadgets like mobiles, ipods, MP3 players containing dedicated software for superior quality of music and growing number of radio stations the music sub-sector is being forced to transform. There has been a wave of publicity surrounding new audio sources such as satellite and iPods, which may lead some to believe that traditional over-the-air radio services are losing a significant portion of its audience to these new choices. Currently, 20% of Americans subscribe to satellite radio, own an iPod/MP3 device or listened to Internet radio in the past week, compared with the 95% of Americans who listened to radio during the week. The sub-sector will continue to see decreased revenues for years to come and there is substantial likelihood of tomorrows music industry to be very different from what it is today. (Bill, 2005: 20) 4. The imperatives for the Media Entertainment industry: Media market is a heterogeneous mixture of human beings with multi-variant economic, cultural, social and political characteristics. This is the market whose consumption pattern should be responded to by appropriate production levels if the media industry is to remain in business; since capitalist production can only make sense when converted to monetary terms at the end of the process. Even public service media companies like state television and radio broadcasting need to produce according to viewers and listeners tastes if the policy objectives of their formation are to be realized (Bill, 2005: 24). 5. Recommendations for ME companies 5.1 Content Digitization Today digital is in while analog is out. ME companies should transform all content in digital format so that it can be quickly edited, stored, combined with other digitized content and rapidly repurposed as needed. Content needs to be tagged through a metadata framework which enables its easy location, identification and helps in determining digital rights permissions. It is vital to have smooth collaboration from pre-production through post-production all along the value chain. 5.2 Flexible Business Models With media and entertainment consumption pattern undergoing rapid shifts, traditional business models are becoming obsolete and thus unable to fully capitalize on the available opportunities or counter threats in contemporary market. In such case, adoption of flexible and evolving business models will help ME companies to sustain competition (Newman, 1991: 215). 5.3 Targeted Audience Revenue, especially through advertising can be maximized if consumption patterns could be effectively analyzed and identified. This will aid the ME players to break down larger segments into interest-specific fragments and deliver truly targeted and less intrusive advertising. 5.4 Active Participation through User-Generated Content The knack to actively engage its consumers and create a connect would give any media entities the ultimate competitive advantage. It has also been observed that engaged customers have the probability to be loyal. They consume more content, evangelize for content and services they use, and can act as a barometer for cultural and technological change (Bill, 2005: 23) 5.5 Content Protection and Consumer Privacy Development of grey market, piracy and unauthorized copying must be carefully controlled and digital rights must be enforced in order to protect the interest of ME players. Also, to actively engage customers and encourage incoming content in various forms (including comments, rating etc), it is crucial to ensure that unauthorized dissemination of information or access to such information will be restricted only to authorized audience. Thus implementing privacy controls have become very important. (Barlow, 2009) 5.6 Mergers and Acquisitions The business will react structurally to the changes in consumption if such a structural adjustment will give the company more leverage to compete effectively in order to maximise returns or survive the attrition of market forces. If consumption decreases and threatens viability, one method that is adopted by a company is to merge with others in the same media business and eliminate redundant structures from the resultant new company. This reduces overheads. Other structural changes that can be implemented as a reaction to threatening reduction in consumption are hostile or friendly take-overs. For example, Viacom and CBS merged to form the third largest media company Viacom-CBS after Time Warner and Disney. (Newman, 1991: 213) 5.7 Improvement in Distribution Network A company might also decide to improve its distribution networks. It may acquire distribution companies of the media in question, in order to achieve better coordination between production and sales, and to benefit from the resultant synergies and from the economies of scale in distribution. A company may even control al phases involved from the production of content to its sale. If it is music, these phases could be composition, recording, and packaging into CDs, DVDs or VHS video cassettes and transportation to retail outlets. This vertical integration achieves better utilisation of resources and higher production efficiencies, thereby cutting costs and increasing sales revenue, and makes the company compete better in the oligopoly. (Curran and Gurevitch, 2002: 137) 5.8 Incorporate the on-demand media lifestyle into programming decisions Young adults are most engaged by on-demand media devices and behaviours. As teens and young adults mature and on-demand media devices become more prevalent, consumers desire to control their media use is likely to spread. Marketers need to work now on strategies that will cut through in an increasingly on-demand media world. Consumers want media to fit their schedule, and they are adopting new devices and media to meet that need. Traditional media should consider playing first-run programs more than once, provide consumers with content online in addition to over-the-air, and partner with on-demand media services. (Bill, 2005: 23) 5.9 Make listening and viewing experiences more compelling through Internet Internet media incorporate several elements that appeal to young consumer, including programming not easily found on traditional media, fewer commercials and a wide variety of content. Therefore, Internet broadcasters need to continue to focus on providing unique programming that generates greater consumer passion for their medium. Internet advertising needs to expand beyond banners, search and pop-ups. Internet users are becoming more sophisticated and are learning to block much of the current advertisements and spyware. Internet broadcast advertising with Internet radio and visual ads attached to video content cannot be skipped or avoided, and may prove to be a vital part of the Internet experience. (Bill, 2005: 29) 6. Summary Production is a function of labour, capital and space and from economic theories, supply is related to demand. For any commercial media business, making profit is the primary concern, and therefore consumption determines cultural production. There are many factors that come into play when examining consumption of media. The macro economic situation of the target market, the real salaries, the educational levels, the attributes like age, gender, children, population densities, social classes, political beliefs and cultural aspects like language and religious beliefs, influence consumption which in turn determines production of media content and their products. The consumption levels caused by all these attributes and factors are different, since the informational, educational, entertainment and leisure requirements are different across diverse economic, political, social and cultural strata. Production strategies and content are modelled by management of media companies from the consumption patterns caused by these characteristics (Curran and Gurevitch, 2002: 154). However, there are limitations to which consumption determines production. Because of the imperfection of the market, the producers may have no knowledge or inadequate knowledge or may have sketchy knowledge about al the aspects that affect consumption in that market place, causing the producers to make decisions out of imperfect information. (Murdock, 2000) Fashion journalism and regulation in favour of minorities and other social biases also limit the extent to which consumption determines output. Collusion between media owners, governments and powerful organisations, lead to market corruption, which in turn causes distorted responses to consumption patterns. Some of the special economic characteristics of media like non-diminishing content with consumption also limit the way output is determined by consumption. (Vogel, 2004) Time and monetary constraints also limit the extent to which production is determined by consumption. This structural change as a reaction to changes in consumption is limited by government intervention and regulation to curb anti- competitive vices, and to maintain pluralism in the market, and to discourage possible abuse of market power by media moguls. Therefore, market consumption determines media output though such effect is limited in some cases due to imperfections of the market and human intervention. (Newman, 1991: 209)

Jane Addams Essay -- essays research papers

Social studies is defined by the Board of Director of the National Council for the social studies as, the integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence. Within the school program, social studies provides coordinated, systematic study drawing upon such disciplines as anthropology, archeology, economics, geography, history, law, philosophy, political science, psychology, religion, and sociology, as well as appropriate content from the humanities, mathematics, and neutral sciences. The primary purpose of social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world. There are two main characteristics of social studies as a field of study. First is social studies promoting civic competence, the knowledge, skill, and attitudes of a student needed to assume "the office of citizen" in our democratic republic. The National Council for the Social Studies considers civic competence as a main goal for social studies. The NCSS says, students who learn these skills in social studies will help shape the future of a democratic society. The second characteristic of social studies is the social studies program, K-12, integrates knowledge, skills, and attitudes within and across disciplines. A third characteristic is one in which social studies programs help students construct a knowledge base and attitudes drawn from academic disciplines as specialized ways of viewing reality. This can be achieved with courses such as, history, geography, political science, sociology, and language arts, English and fine arts. Examples from each help students experie nce concepts reflectively and actively, through reading, thinking, discussing and writing. The fourth characteristic of the social studies program is the demonstration of the changing nature of knowledge, fostering entirely new and highly integrated approaches to resolving issues of significance to humanity. The social studies program should help students gain knowledge of how to know, how to apply what they know, and how to participate in building a future. A well designed social studies curriculum will help each student achieve a blend of personal academic, pluralist, and global views of the human condition with a personal perspective, acad... ...rograms prepare young people to identify, understand, and work to solve problems. Assumptions about social studies as a school subject include social studies as diverse, all students should have access to the full richness of the social studies curriculum, teachers need adequate time and resources to teach social studies well at every grade level, and social studies teachers need to treat the social world realistically and address its controversial aspects. The vision of powerful social studies teaching and learning comes from the goals and purposes of social studies, the assumptions, and the available research and scholarships. Social studies teaching and learning is powerful when they are meaningful, integrative, value based, challenging and active, all of which are equally important. Powerful social studies teaching and learning is likely to become more common when assessment approaches at all levels focus on measuring progress toward social understanding and efficacy goals; t eachers benefit and education receives support from administrators, parents, the local community, and government agencies; and the nation successfully meets ceratin currently recognizable challenges.

John Locke :: Empiricists, Empiricism

Intrigued by the notions of inalienable rights, John Locke became known as a 17th century English philosopher of the enlightenment. Born on August 29,1632, Locke possessed a good deal of influence because of his connection with England and the United States. John Locke had a plethora of Philosophical theories. I will further elaborate on the idea of Locke’s thoughts on inalienable rights.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One might first begin with addressing the question of what are Inalienable rights? To this I answer that they are those natural rights belonging to individuals by virtue of their humanity. Locke’s focus is primarily based upon the ideas of freedom and equality as a whole. He believes that citizens should naturally possess the right to life liberty and happiness, which is portrayed in the constitution of the United States. These inalienable rights or natural rights have derived from the law of nature. The law of nature is a state that relies purely on the law of God, which is also known as moral law. This law gave people the natural right to life, liberty, and happiness without question. In addition, Locke believed that people also possess the basic right of self-defense if under attack. However, Locke’s key aspect of his theories was the basic idea of equality. He said that nobody has the right to rule and that consent is critical because it’s based on the premises that all people are equal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  John Locke is very much known as a political philosopher in today’s modern society. Because much of Locke’s philosophy centered on subjects such as natural rights and knowledge, he has in-turn shaped American politics in such a way that it has never been the same. Locke has challenged many theories have to do with inalienable rights as a part of natural law; therefore he had much to do with the involvement in the evolution of the American Government.

Medicaid Essay Essay

As I understood Medicaid are those personal cares services which are fundamental, non-acute services provided to facilitate recipients who require assistance with the activities of daily living to remain in their home or community, maintain their current health status and prevent, delay, or minimize deterioration of their condition. Personal care services are intended to supplement care provided by a recipient’s family or primary caregiver, not replace it. Services may be provided in the home or in setting outside the home, when necessary. The government took an active role in the economy during the 1960’s and 1970’s. In order to stimulate the economy, they ran annual budgets in a conscious attempt to spend more than they collected in revenue. Spending, inflation, and budget deficits were viewed as calculated efforts in expanding the economy. As a result this application Medicaid was created in 1965. Medicaid is a social program which provides health and medical assistance to families with low incomes and resources. Medicaid is funded by both the Federal Government and individual states. Each state is responsible for developing its own guidelines which must include: legibility, amount of services to be available, rate of payments for services, and administering its own programs. These conditions vary from state to state and are subject to change on a yearly basis. The qualifications of Medicaid recipients may differ according to each state’s guidelines Medicaid is the largest program run by the Federal Government and states that assists low income families that can not otherwise afford the high costs of health care. Medicaid pays for more services for which Medicare does not. Medicaid rules vary depend on each state. Medicaid information is accessible at your local district social services, interests or Department of Human Services Offices. In many states, Medicaid covers services and costs Medicare do not cover, including prescription drugs, diagnostic and  preventive care and eyeglasses. In some states, Medicaid charges consumers small amounts for certain services. In New England, for example the deficits are causing government directors to turn to cuts in many critical areas, including health department budgets. The states are in the point of making difficult decisions that will certainly have lethal affects on the health care system. The Congress should support short term fiscal relief to help the state through this budget crisis. Through fiscal year in 2003 Budget Ax hit Medicaid for second time, approximately every state has targeted health insurance programs for the poor, elderly and disabled to balance sever budget deficits, and two thirds of those states are on their second round of such cuts. One of the reason states are targeting Medicaid programs for cuts, is because health care programs are the most likely to be over budget. A proposition of eliminating health care coverage for about 300,000 low income parents by lowering the eligibility sill from 100% of the poverty level to 61% was held in California. Also New Jersey has started the phase out conscription for stumpy profits parents in the state’s joint Medicaid. Tennessee has already implemented changes that will abolish health care treatment for between 160,000 and 250,000 adults and children. Oklahoma lawmakers have accepted cuts to Medicaid that will quickly cause about 80,000 children, adults, seniors, and disabled people to be dropped from coverage, as well as near elimination of the state’s plan. More than one quarter of adult Medicaid enrolls have at least one chronic condition. They often finish taking conflicting medications. Florida is a good example of heavily touted cost savings are proving elusive in several states that have tried the approach. There are so many poor and disabled people on Missouri’s Medicaid program that would chip in for their medical costs under one money saving measure proposed by Governor Bob Holden. He recommended $280 million in budget cuts and savings and a part of it to changes related to the Medicaid health insurance program. Most of the Missouri’s Medicaid recipients do not pay for doctor’s visits, although many do pay co payments on prescription drugs. The Missouri Medicaid Program  provides health care access to low income people who are 65’s or over, blind, disabled, or members of families with dependent children. The Missouri Medicaid program is jointly financed by the federal government and Missouri State Government, and is administered by the State of Missouri, charged with administration of the Medicaid program is the Division of Medical Services, a division within the Department of Social Services. The state also has a limited medical assistance program which is funded with General Revenue and Blind Pension funds. In Washington, said that two thirds of the states are cutting Medical benefits, increasing co payments, restricting eligibility or removing poor people from the rolls because of soaring costs and plunging revenues. A new survey of all fifty states, finds that 16 are cutting Medicaid benefits, fifteen are restricting or reducing eligibility and four are increasing the co payments charged to beneficiaries. Medicaid provides health care for more than 40 million people, at an annual cost of more that $250 billion. The federal government and the states share cost, which rose 13 percent in the last fiscal year, the biggest increase. Washington State and Oregon took pride in expanding Medicaid and other health programs a decade ago, but now are wrestling with the unlikable alternative of whether to cut benefits or end legibility for some recipients. In California, proposed cutbacks that would remove nearly 500,000 low income parents from Medicaid, and state officials say even more saving will be needed. New Jersey is curtailing coverage for low income parents, by stridently dropping the greatest profits for new applicants. In Connecticut, the governs, recently planned eliminating coverage for thousands of parents in households with incomes from 100 percent to 150 percent of the deficiency level. States are giving some flexibility in providing coverage to its needy citizens because of the cost of the Medicaid program is shared by the state and federal governments. An individual who is chosen in South Carolina is not necessarily eligible in another state. South Carolina pays its physicians among the lowest Medicaid fees in the country, which is especially hard on doctors who treat a high proportion of patients who are enrolled in the program. Medicaid is already the largest and the fastest  growing element of most state budgets. This had made it a prime target of cost cutting efforts that nearly every states is now undertaking to make up for large budget shortfalls. Some states like South Carolina, have included, Medicaid cuts as part of across the board spending reductions. Others, such as Indiana and Illinois, have specifically targeted their Medicaid programs for reduction of hundreds of millions of dollars. There are many reasons for variation in Medicaid coverage and expenditures, these variations incentives that are inherent in the federal matching formula. But they also reflect a state’s ability to pay for these services, its political philosophy toward welfare families, and its recent efforts to expand coverage to pregnant women and children. The states make different decision with regard to coverage and benefits in both acute and long term care. Medicaid financed together by the federal government and the states, is the major foundation of health care funding for the low profits population in the United States. While states have considerable flexibility within federal guidelines, Medicaid programs differ across states in the numbers of community they cover and the amounts they splurge on services.

CASE Analysis: Seven-Eleven Japan Co. Essay

The case describes how seven eleven has successfully established an innovative business model. Toshifumi Suzuki, CEO of Seven eleven Japan (SEJ), described Seven Eleven Stores as: â€Å"Stores where you can find a solution for any of your daily life’s problems. We always try to plan and design a store in such a way that our store neighbours, in particular, can get whatever they need at any time they want† SEJ, headquartered in Japan, leads the world wide seven Eleven chain, which had 24,912 stores in 18 countries in March 2003.In 2003 ranking of retailers by market value, SEJ was number one in Japan. Since its establishment in 1974, SEJ has never experienced a fall in income or profits. With 9,757 stores as of May, 2003, SEJ is the largest CVS chain in Japan. Its stores feature the same basic designs: large, highly visible sign in green, red and orange, a large store window, much brighter than average lightning and a spotlessly clean store. SEJ identifies their customer orientation, offering not only a rich assortment of products but total comfort to customers, as the source of SEJ’s rise to the top of the Japanese retail industry. Industry Background The Japanese Distribution System Prior to 1974: Traditional Japanese retailing consists of a conservative, multi-tiered system that combines large numbers of small wholesalers and retailers into complex exclusive networks. These networks are not based solely on economic efficiency but also on tight human relationships. The wholesale to retail level ratios (W/R) is measure of layers within distribution system. W/R ratio 1992 1998 US 0.98 – Japan – 2.3 Although the development of information technology in the industry has gradually improved the efficiency of the distribution system, small-to-medium-sized retailers owe their existence mainly to the multi-tiered and vertically integrated structure. Retail Business Environment The Japanese retail sector is still dominated by small retailers. Firms with one to four employees make up about 70% of the total number of stores. In these small shops, CVS still accounts for only 3.2% of all stores and only 5% of total sales Because of Japan’s small land area, most Japanese retail stores have too little space to maintain a wide assortment of products in either the store or inventory. These small, local â€Å"mom-and-pop† stores typically lack both managerial know-how and planning skills. In addition, given their limited size, they are often unable to bear large inventory risks and thus have to rely on manufacturers and wholesalers to bear part of that burden. Legal perspective Japanese government enforced in 1974 the Large-scale Retail Store (LRS) Law which regulated the business hours of larger outlets. Initially applied to stores over 1,500 m2, it was later extended in 1979 to stores with an area of over 500 m2. The law mandated that stores close by 7 P.M. each day and remained closed at least 30 shop days per year. Fueled by heavy pressure from abroad, the deregulation trend caused the LRS law to be changed in 1990 and practically abolished in 2001. While operating its large stores under the LRS law, Ito- Yokado, a parent company of SEJ, launched a new retail business based on small regional stores, which can effectively co-exist with large stores. As a result, CVS chains prove that small stores can compete against larger retailers by improving the efficiency and productivity of their franchise and continual striving to meet customer needs. Because of the density of the store network, CVS chains are not only places to sell products, but are also becoming an important part of the social infrastructure. Seven-Eleven Japan Ito-Yokado, a parent company of SEJ, was founded by Masatoshi Ito in 1964 as a 66-square-foot family clothing store in Tokyo. After starting a new chain of super stores offering a range of food and clothing products, he expanded his business into other distribution areas such as restaurants, department, discount and convenience stores. By 2002, the Ito- Yokado group was one of the largest retail groups in Japan with  ¥5,574 billion ($41.6 billion) in sales and 114,600 employees. Toshifumi Suzuki negotiated directly with Southland, then owner of Seven-Eleven, to bring the convenience store concept to Japan. Japanese consumers were generally more sensitive to product and service quality, more fickle and less price-sensitive. Therefore products had to be fresh, and the turnover rate very high. To meet such customer requirements within the constraint of limited shelf and storage capacity, it was necessary to forecast customers’ demand by the time of purchase, the store location and the weather. Providing the customer with well-targeted, differentiated products 24-hours a day, 7-days-a week was critical. As of 2003, SEJ is the largest convenience store chain with  ¥2,213 billion ($17.5 billion) revenue and 5,061 employees. Its market value of $21,721 million and consolidated net income of  ¥82,825 million ($690 million) are the highest in the whole of Japan’s retail industry. Strategy SEJ practice of continuous item control and well-organized delivery system, and the heavy use of information technology (IT). The basic mission of an SEJ store is to provide solutions for all the problems of everyday life. Each store offers a variety of high-quality products and services that are required daily or on an emergency basis to make life easier and more â€Å"convenient†. The two main reasons for the failure of existing retailers. They ignored: 1)  the importance of convenience to the customer and 2) the quality of the products and the service. SEJ developed some key principles to define a quality convenience store. 1. Reduction of lost opportunity: A missed opportunity to sell an item because it is out of stock is one of the most serious problems in retail business in terms of disappointing customers as well as missing the actual profit. 2. Effective Item Control and Well-Planned Product Supply Management: The American practice of keeping large inventories of a wide variety of products could not be applied in convenience stores in Japan where shelf and storage space are limited and maintaining a large inventory is prohibitive. SEJ pursued a strategy of supplying products in high demand with a rapid turnover rate and eliminating dead or slow-moving products through item-by-item analysis. The well-organized analysis and frequent replacement contributes to SEJ’s high product supply efficiency. 3. Commitment to Customer Satisfaction with Original Product Development and Friendly Service:SEJ not only sells manufacturers’ products but also researches customers’ potential needs. SEJ uses this research to provide original products at reasonable prices (such as a lunch boxes and prepared foods) Merchandising The store space available for a Seven-Eleven franchisee is, on average, only 110 m2. The items kept in stock and on the shelf are precisely selected for the targeted customers and product quality is kept high. Product turnover is high, and goods are always new and food fresh. SEJ discovered that customer loyalty was driven more by specific items than by item categories. To meet the demand and achieve such tight item-by item control, SEJ implemented the POS (Point of Sale) system in 1982, whereby storeowners could identify customer trends and enhance product differentiation. SEJ introduced its POS systems to collect sales data used to improve merchandising and the item-by-item control process. For instance, the cash register would not open  until the operator pushed the account button indicating the gender and estimated age of the customer. This information from the POS system was used for consumer trend analysis. Store Network Expansion SEJ considers its market dominating strategy of high-density, clustered store openings to be the key to efficiency and stability. The advantages of the market dominance strategy are: Improved brand awareness Increased customer visits to the stores Boosted distribution efficiency Enhanced productivity of franchisee-support services Improved advertising effectiveness Franchise Strategy Approximately 60% of SEJ stores were modified from old family owned stores (e.g., liquor or rice stores). The relationship between franchiser and franchisee is one of reciprocal obligations. The franchisee is an independent business which gives SEJ royalties and a long-term commitment, and concentrates on the tasks of selling and effectively managing inventory. The royalty that the franchisee pays to the franchiser is 43% of its gross profit. In exchange for their long-term commitment and royalties, SEJ provides franchisees with service from field representatives called Operation Field Counselors (OFC). Each of about 1,300 OFCs supervises between seven or eight stores, providing (i) advice on store operation and ordering and (ii) information on the portfolio of available items and on sales methods. This person-to-person contact with store managers is a key element of the SEJ franchise system. Each OFC visits each store at least twice a week and spends at least two hours providing adv ice and information. Such a close relationship not only motivates franchisees but also supports company-wide brand image and promotional strategies. Outsourcing Policy SEJ is known for its outsourcing policy and ability to manage supplier relationships. The rationalized distribution system crafted by SEJ created conflict within the traditional wholesale system. Over time, however, SEJ’s  system has proved highly reliable and efficient, covering everything from raw procurement to product deliveries. The collaboration between SEJ and the business partners includes shared information systems and know-how about operations management as well as quality control in the food manufacturers’ factories and delivery centres. By 2002, the company had built a network of 223 distribution centres and 195 factories dedicated to fast food production, all of them created and operated by wholesalers, suppliers and forward agents. Information Systems Strategy Daily, Seven-Eleven stores serve a total of 9.5 million customers, process five million order transactions and send 35 million sales transactions to the information systems centre where sales data is collected, integrated and analysed. The decisions have to be based on well-analysed hypothesis, order and validation. Information technology (IT) for SEJ is merely a method to support the cycle. SEJ prefers to outsource most of its information systems management to external service providers due to the speed at which the information technology market moves. This strategy allows the information systems department of SEJ to focus on developing a systems vision that fits with the business strategy, while the rest of the information systems management is outsourced. The department has evolved into a more strategic organization that links needs from stores with top management and proposes innovative system plans. SEJ regularly explores opportunities to gain first mover advantage by trying out state-of-the-art technologies: the first POS system in Japan in 1982, the first major use of Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN) in 1991, etc. Operation Infrastructure Total Information Systems SEJ has continued to develop total information systems. In June 1999, the fifth generation total information system, in which SEJ invested  ¥60 billion ($500 million), was released in collaboration with 14 companies including NRI, NEC, Toshiba TEC, etc. High efficiency, maintainability and reliability of the total network system: The system connects 70,000 computers in stores, at headquarters and at supplier sites through satellite telecommunications, exclusive lines, ISDN and mobile networks via the most appropriate telecommunication technology. The combination of ISDN and satellite telecommunications realizes 45x faster speeds at 35x better cost performance. Terminals are constantly monitored and software and configuration can be updated remotely. The most critical systems such as online ordering and accounting systems are backed up at physically separated locations in Yokohama and Osaka. And in earthquake-prone Japan, satellite telecommunication provides an extra layer of safety. The system, now shared by 10,000 stores, is considered highly reliable due to the crisis management planning and high service levels. The store information system which encourages all store staff to participate in ordering: SEJ provides stores with multimedia information such as pictures, video, audio, text and numerical data, which is used by all employees in Seven-Eleven stores. The system platform shared with business partners: SEJ provides its business partners—vendors, distributors and manufactures—with a common infrastructure consisting of 1,800 terminals at 1,100 locations. The applications on the platform vary depending on the partner’s business: raw material ordering system, inventory management, production management, automated sorting system, for example. The broad system infrastructure facilitates collaboration among SEJ allies by improving the efficiency of delivery through the sharing of order, sales and inventory information. And finally, sophisticated analysis system which eliminates intuitive decision-making . Electronic Commerce Business SEJ categorizes its electronic commerce (EC) business into four major groups: 1) financial services, 2) Internet shopping site, 3) public and regional  services, and 4) in-store intelligent copy machines. Financial Services (settlement, finance, and card service): Launched in 1987, Seven-Eleven hasdeveloped the payment acceptance service whichprovides customers with a convenient means to paytheir bills 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Affiliatedcompanies number about 1,500 and the types ofpayment are mainly utilities: electricity, telephone,water, rent, and mail orders. This business has beensuccessful with 144 million yearly transactions witha total value of  ¥1.15 trillion (about $12.8 billion)and a 20% annual growth rate. Internet Shopping Site: 7dream.com, a subsidiary of SEJ, provides the internet shopping site by utilizing SEJ’s existing operating infrastructure in its EC activities. SEJ also ties into other internet sites and provides payment acceptance and pick-up service at the retail stores. Goods purchased via the Internet are picked up at stores 24-hours a day or delivered to customers’ homes, raising the value of Seven-Eleven stores and enhancing convenience for customers. Public, civil and regional services: SEJ’s meals-on wheels service, named Seven Meal Service, offers prepared meals and cooking ingredients to regional customers. Order can be made via the Internet. SEJ plans to expand its public services at stores via its EC platform so that customers can obtain civil services. In-store intelligent copy machines: Multipurpose copy machines at Seven-Eleven stores are connected the Internet and enable customers to print event tickets and documents created by customers at home as well as to pay for pre-ordered airline tickets. With the capability to attract 1,000 customers per day per store, SEJ is pursuing synergy between the existing retail and EC business units to encourage potential Internet users to visit Seven-Eleven stores and become new customers. SEJ also provides its EC platform service for EC partners with functions such as authentication, database, settlement, and distribution. Temperature-Separated Combined Distribution System Since 1976, SEJ has been developing a streamlined distribution system to efficiently integrate product supplies. The company established the Combined Delivery System, whereby the same kind of products coming from different suppliers can be centralized into 223 Combined Delivery Centres (CDCs). The combined distribution system allows products from different suppliers to be loaded on the same trucks for delivery to Seven-Eleven stores. Combined distribution consolidates product shipment from manufacturers to stores at similar optimum temperatures. In 22 years, SEJ has reduced the average number of vehicles visiting each store from 70 a day in 1974 to ten a day in 1998. Delivery routes and time are also well organized to maintain high efficiency. Competitors SEJ is the largest CVS chain in Japan in terms of the number of stores, sales, and net income followed by Lawson, C&S, Familymart, and Ministop. These top-five companies dominate the market with almost 90% market share. All four competitors operate franchise businesses with store networks expanding all over Japan. Competitors are increasingly investing in EC business to compete and establish dominance in a new area. In 1997, Lawson began implementing multimedia terminals in stores to gain first mover advantage. Lawson also tries to differentiate itself in the Internet shopping site named @Lawson by launching new services such net coupons, which was rare in Japan in 1999. Future Vision The company strives to achieve the maxim â€Å"the retail business should always keep up with change of customer demands† with three principles. 1. Responsiveness to changing customer needs and continuous improvement of customer services 2. Manufacturing retailer 3. The combination of demand chain and supply chain management with the common platform. Case Questions: 1. A convenience store chain attempts to be responsive and provide customers  what they need, when they need it, where they need it. What are some different ways that a convenience store supply chain can be responsive? What are some risks in each case? As In this increasingly competitive world, the whole concept of convenience stores from the existing concept of retail outlets have emerged to improve competitive advantage of businesses by enhancing customer service and by providing him with superior quality of products and experience. However, attaining this competitive advantage comes with added costs and risks. As responsiveness towards a customer’s demands increase, a convenience store chain gets exposed to greater uncertainty and risks- the risk of not having timely supply of essential goods, system breakdowns etc. A convenience store may deal in both perishable food items like processed fast foods and non-perishable items( life of more than 1 month) like frozen foods, magazines, beverages, and other consumer items like soaps, detergents etc. It is critical for any convenience store to have a tightly linked supply chain system for perishable items that need to be supplied to the final stores on daily basis. This distribution system ought to be flexible and highly responsive to alter delivery schedules depending on customer demands. The following are some ways that shall make convenience store supply chains operating on market dominance strategies more responsive- Local capacity: The convenience store chains can provide local cooking capacity that is, live counters at the stores and assemble foods on demand. The Inventory could be stored as raw material under controlled conditions at the stores and be supplied by the distributors at regular intervals. This would eliminate the need to supply fresh and fast foods from the to the outlets thrice a day thus bringing down the transportation cost of the entire distribution system and would add certainty to the production and distribution schedules. This strategy of selling fresh foods to customers would also enhance customer confidence in the brand. This is seen at the U.S. fast food restaurant franchise Subway where dinner and lunch sandwiches are assembled on demand. The main risk with this approach is that capacity is decentralized, leading to poorer utilization. High level of integration- One way of insuring more responsiveness is by further decentralizing the entire system. This can be attained by dividing each region further into  zones and having production plants in each zone nearer to each convenience stores. This would increase the set up cost for the parent company but in the long run but would also inhance the flow of information and service among the stores, suppliers and distributors thus increasing customer responsiveness and satisfaction. Local inventory: Responsiveness to customer demands can also be attained by having inventory available at the store at all times. This allows for the centralization of cooking capacity. But the main disadvantage of this way is not delivering fresh foods to customers thus increasing customer dissatisfaction and need for extra storage space. Rapid replenishment: Another approach is to set up rapid replenishment and supply the stores what they need and when they need it. This allows for centralization of cooking capacity, low levels of inventory, but increases the cost of replenishment and receiving. 2. Seven-Eleven’s supply chain strategy in Japan can be described as attempting to micro-match supply and demand using rapid replenishment. What are some risks associated with this choice? The main risk for convenience stores to adopt a supply chain system that works on rapid replenishment strategy is the potentially high cost of transportation and receiving at stores. The suppliers and factories are centrally located but the stores are scattered all across the city. So the company’s effort to supply fresh foods multiple times a day to all the stores increases the transportation costs. This one aspect can be taken care of by probably decentralizing the authority to produce fresh foods at convenience stores itself. Also, the fact that goods get unloaded multiple times a day reduces the store efficiency and increases customer dissatisfactions due to reduced services and frequent disruptions. This tends to fade away the customer’s experience at the store. Sudden breakdown of the information system or the transportation system connecting the stores to distribution centre and suppliers would also bring the functioning of the entire system to a halt leading to customer inconvenience and the resulting loss in sales. Thus convenience stores that attempt to micro-match supply and demand using rapid replenishment must take extra precautions to ensure timely delivery of goods, proper functioning of the information and transportation system, and customer’s convenience 3. What has Seven-Eleven done in its choice of facility location, inventory management, transportation, and information infrastructure to develop capabilities that support its supply chain strategy in Japan? Seven-Eleven Japan has chosen to operate a highly responsive operation and has chosen a supply chain design that supports this strategy. Their facility location choices are to saturate an area with stores, thereby making it easy for customers to shop and their own delivery trucks to move from store to store to replenish inventory. Seven-Eleven’s inventory system is run on an information system that transmits directly to the supplier and distribution centre; goods are produced using a pull system to replace what has been sold during that delivery period. The transportation system is flexible to maximize responsiveness while also achieving efficiency. All choices made by Seven-Eleven are structured to lower its transportation and receiving costs. For example, its area dominance strategy of opening at least 50-60 stores in an area helps with marketing but also lowers the cost of replenishment. All manufacturing facilities are centralized to get the maximum benefit of capacity aggregation and also lower the inbound transportation cost from the manufacturer to the distribution centre (DC). Seven-Eleven also requires all suppliers to deliver to the DC where products are sorted by temperature. This reduces the outbound transportation cost because of aggregation of deliveries across multiple suppliers. It also lowers the receiving cost. The information infrastructure is set up to allow store managers to place orders based on analysis of consumption data. The information infrastructure also facilitates the sorting of an order at the DC and receiving of the order at the store. The key point to emphasize here is that most decisions by Seven-Eleven are structured to aggregate transportation and receiving to make both cheaper. 4. Seven-Eleven does not allow direct store delivery in Japan but has all products flow through its distribution centre. What benefit does Seven-Eleven derive from this policy? When is direct store delivery more appropriate? Direct store delivery (DSD) would lower the utilization of the outbound trucks from the Seven-Eleven DC. It would also increase the receiving costs at the stores because of the increased deliveries. Thus, Seven-Eleven forces all suppliers to come in through the DC. DSD is most appropriate when stores are large and nearly-full truck load quantities are coming from a supplier to a store. This was the case, for example, in large U.S. Home Depot stores. For smaller stores it is almost always beneficial to have an intermediate aggregation point to lower the cost of freight. In fact, Home Depot itself is setting up these intermediate facilities for its new stores that are often smaller. In case of seven eleven, the benefit of delivery through its own distribution centre is total control of the system, aggregation of demand and minimal disruption at the retail outlets. If several suppliers tried to make two or three deliveries every day, it would detract from the store manager’s abil ity to provide customer service. Each of these suppliers would likely prefer their own way of doing things, their own inventory system, truck size, etc., which would make things more difficult for the Seven-Eleven system. The demand and production data would have to be shared rather than residing on Seven-Eleven’s system from cradle to grave. For items that cannot be prepared quickly, pull production may not provide the responsiveness that Seven-Eleven desires. In this case, the DC concept allows pooling of inventory which increases their overall service level while minimizing total system inventory of those items. Direct store delivery might be more appropriate if the items being delivered do not need bulk broken at a DC, have special handling requirements (lottery tickets, newspapers, or alcoholic beverages), or the supplier has a system that is consonant with Seven-Eleven’s (perhaps a regular bread run that has an information system that integrates with Seven-Eleven’s). 5. What do you think about the 7dream concept for Seven-Eleven in Japan? From a supply chain perspective, is it likely to be more successful in Japan or the United States? Why? 7dream makes sense given that Japanese customers are happy to receive their shipments at the local convenience store. From a logistics perspective, online deliveries can piggy back on Seven-Eleven’s existing distribution  network in Japan. Deliveries from the online supplier can be brought to the DC where they are sorted along with other deliveries destined for a store. This should increase the utilization of outbound transportation allowing Seven-Eleven to offer a lower cost alternative to having a package carrier deliver the product at home. The primary negatives are that 7dream will use up storage space and require the store to be able to retrieve specific packages for customers. One can argue that the concept may be more successful in Japan given the existing distribution network of Seven-Eleven and the frequency of visits by customers. Online delivery is able to link with the existing network. The high visit frequency ensures that packages are not occupying valuable store shelf space for a long time. Also, the frequent visits ensure that the marginal cost to the customer of picking up at Japanese Seven-Eleven is small. The 7dream concept allows e-commerce sites to use Seven-Eleven stores as drop-off and collection points for Japanese e-commerce customers. It has been extremely successful; a recent survey revealed that 92 per cent of the customers of one e-commerce company preferred to have their items shipped this way. It seems likely that this concept would work only for high density urban areas; It is being established in congested, less-safe urban areas for a service like package delivery. Suburban customers in the US would likely find it incredibly inconvenient and avoid it unless home delivery was not possible and the alternative was to pick up a package (for example, one that must be signed for) at the local carrier’s office. This is less likely to be the case in the United States. 6. Seven-Eleven is attempting to duplicate the supply chain structure that has succeeded in Japan in the United States with the introduction of CDCs. What are the pros and cons of this approach? Keep in mind that stores are also replenished by wholesalers and DSD by manufacturers. The supply chain structure for the US market can be close, but it can never be exactly as it is in Japan, and will probably not operate as smoothly as in Japan. Some of this is attributable to the culture and the corporate culture. Regardless of how like-minded supply chain partners claim to be, it would be extremely difficult to duplicate the collective spirit that  permeates Seven-Eleven Japan. The disadvantages of this system is that Seven-Eleven in the U.S. would probably have to run two system depending on whether the area could be treated as a dense urban location or a suburban or rural outpost. The cost of running the Seven-Eleven Japan system in middle-America would be prohibitive. The U.S. consumer in that region has too many alternatives that have 24 hour operations and are within a short drive. The difficulty of duplicating the Japan supply chain structure in the United States follows primarily from the much lower density of U.S. Seven-Eleven stores. This is compounded by the fact that Seven-Eleven stores are getting both direct store deliveries as well as wholesaler deliveries to its stores. Setting up its own DCs does not allow Seven-Eleven to get the same level of transportation aggregation as it gets in Japan. Its own distribution system would help more if all wholesaler deliveries and direct store deliveries were stopped and routed through the DC. Even then, having its own distribution system would add much less value than in Japan given the lower density of stores and larger distance between stores. Perhaps a hybrid system can be applied in select markets to test the system’s efficacy in the U.S. 7. The United States has food service distributors that also replenish convenience stores. What are the pros and cons to having a distributor replenish convenience stores versus a company like Seven-Eleven managing its own distribution function? The advantage of someone else replenishing stores is primarily cost; less transportation, material handling, and labour costs for your own system. Depending on how supply and reordering operations are designed, it might be possible for the distributors to perform the aggregation/demand smoothing function with minimal intervention by the individual Seven-Eleven franchise. One can contend that a distributor brings much more value to the table in the United States relative to Japan. Given the lower density of stores, a distributor is able to aggregate deliveries across many competing stores. This allows a distributor to reach levels of aggregation that cannot be achieved by a single chain such as Seven-Eleven. The disadvantage of the outsourced replenishment service is an overall loss of control, an increased  number of deliveries to each store, and the difficulty of integrating information flows across disparate systems. Also, Seven-Eleven is unable to exploit having a large number of stores. In fact, it may be argued that going through the distributor has Seven-Eleven subsidize deliveries to competing smaller chains that may also be using the same distributor