The American Dream - 1140 Words

The American Dream is not a Reality Ever wondered what it is like to be truly free, safe, or have a true friendship? In the 1930s, people constantly asked themselves this question, as they traveled the country in search for work. In the novella, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George Milton and Lennie Small are in search of a new job to provide a steady income. An inspiration that always keeps them on track, and something to look forward to is the American Dream where they will own land, and have truly achieved freedom. In the real and cruel world, can one especially as unfortunate as George and Lennie really accomplish the freedom, safety and friendship of the American Dream? Throughout the story the reader sees many people who want†¦show more content†¦In pursuit of the American Dream, the two main characters, George and Lennie, both base their opportunity to just be together in peace and to work as their own boss through this American Dream. Throughout the story the reader can tell that these two are fr iends, but polar opposites. Once they get a job and save up enough money they will purchase the land that comes with the American Dream. This sounds very similar to the American Dream, living the simple life at their own leisure, with only the essentials. With dramatically different character traits, George, unlike Curley’s wife, has a major disadvantage when getting a job and babysitting Lennie at the same time. Usually a reliable friendship is a great thing, however the relationship between Lennie and George is strong yet inhibiting to George. He soon realizes that success, combined with having to assist someone with a disability, becomes very difficult. The dream that they have is similar to the general dream that most people have as a motivation; thinking they have a future to look forward as stated in this quote. â€Å" ‘With us it ain’t like that. We got a future.’ †¦. ‘O.K. Someday-we’re gonna get the jack together and we’r e gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and-’ ‘An live off the fatta the lan,’ Lennie shouted†(14). This is another perspective of the American Dream of owning your own piece of land and livingShow MoreRelatedImmigrants And The American Dream1362 Words   |  6 PagesImmigrants and the American Dream In the article â€Å"The American Dream†, by James Truslow Adams in The Sundance Reader book, he stated that the American dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and highRead MoreThe American Dream By Kimberly Amadeo1637 Words   |  7 PagesNowadays, a large number of people migrate to the United States to work and achieve the American Dream. According to the Article â€Å"What is the American Dream?† by Kimberly Amadeo, â€Å"The American Dream was first publicly defined in 1931 by James Truslow Adams in Epic of America. Adam’s often-repeated quote is, ‘The American Dream is that dream of land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyon e, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.’† There are many peopleRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie The American Dream 754 Words   |  4 Pages Nyreel Powell Ms. Jones American Literature 1 June 2015 The American dream in A Raisin in the Sun Have you ever had a dream and it didn’t come how you wanted it to be? Have you ever had accomplishments that you wanted to achieve but people were getting in the way of them? The four main characters in this book all have good dreams but there are people in the way of getting to those dreams or their dream is too high to accomplish. A Raisin in the Sun a play written by Lorraine Hansberry, andRead MoreSister Carrie and the American Dream1618 Words   |  7 PagesThe American Dream is surely based on the concept of â€Å"Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness† but it is above all, a matter of ambition. James Truslow Adams, an American writer and historian, in 1931 states: life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement†, which not only points towards a better standard of living for Americans but also denounces a degree of greed in the US society. Ambition not only â€Å"killed the catâ₠¬  butRead MoreGrapes Of Wrath And The American Dream1644 Words   |  7 PagesThe idea of the American Dream is ever changing depending on the person and the time of life that person is in. Although the main ideas of the American Dream remain the same to be educated, economically sound, healthy, to have a family, and equal rights. Many great films and works of literature were created to show case all the different ideas people have for their American Dream. The film â€Å"Grapes of Wrath† directed by John Ford and the poem â€Å"I Will Fight No More Forever† by Chief Joseph, both depictRead More Destruction of the American Dream Essay2145 Words   |  9 PagesDestruction of the American Dream I’ve talked about it in the past, the destruction of the American Dream. Always, there have been papers, writings, and thoughts that quantify a particular section of its ultimate demise, be it due to money, education, or sexuality. Maybe the destruction cannot be viewed as a singular event or cause. Perhaps instead it must be examined as a whole process, the decay and ultimate elimination of a dream. Self destruction, if you will†¦ Mr. Self Destruct Read MoreSuccess As One Of The American Dream1137 Words   |  5 PagesApril 2015 Success as One of The American Dream When we hear the word â€Å"success†, we often think of wealth and money. To some people, the embodiment of being success is earning a lot of money. In fact, the concept of success is primarily based on how much money a person earns. However, each person views the definition of success differently. One way to define success is something that has more to do with flash than it does with substance. John Wooden, an American basketball player and coach viewRead MoreJim Cullen And The American Dream2081 Words   |  9 Pages The American Dream, as defined by Cullen, is starting your goal off with a little and ending with more; it s like a business, you invest in it in order to gain more money. Usually, people will define the American Dream as being able to achieve your goal because everyone is offered opportunities. Cullen does acknowledge that people are born with different opportunities, so he talks about the good life. The good life describes different factors that determine your opportunities. Throughout the otherRead MoreFactors Influencing The American Dream1834 Words   |  8 Pagesindividual to succumb or to not succumb to the seductions of crime. These three factors are brilliantly portrayed in the television show, Breaking Bad and the novel, The Stick Up Kids. The American Dream is what many American citizens strive for. However, not all of those citizens are able to achieve the American Dream through a legal pathway. The reason an indivudal may not being able to do so is because of his or her background factors. It is important to note that background factors are a fractionRead MoreShark Tank And The American Dream1755 Words   |  8 PagesShark Tank and The American Dream The TV show Shark tank embodies everything the American dream represents. The show obtains successful Entrepreneurs ready to invest their own money into other Americans wanting to be just like them, reaching the American dream and become a successful entrepreneur. The show presents entrepreneurs working towards the goal of creating a business to not only gain wealth but also change the way we live today. The show is to keep the American dream alive and well while

Spanish Colonization Of North America - 993 Words

Spanish Colonization of North America In 1492 when Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, Spain had discovered its next easy conquest. With North America added to its territory Spain had surpassed ancient Rome as the largest empire. Exploiting the land, labor, and minerals Spain quickly conquered and settled most of South America, the Caribbean, and the Southwest. Spain used its new wealth to help finance their war in Europe. With promises of riches and many natives to convert to Christianity the Spanish sent conquistadors who brought with them not only superior military technology but also diseases like smallpox, scarlet fever, and the bubonic plague decimating native populations like the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas. These Spanish conquistadors, who were poverty-stricken nobles predominantly from the west and south of Spain, were then awarded encomiendas, land grants that included the right to force native populations into slavery as long as the convert them to Christianity (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). The Spanish Monarchy governed North America using viceroyalties and audencias, royal mediation courts. The church also played a part in governing the New World and large areas like what is known today as Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California was under control of Dominican, Franciscan, and Jesuit missionaries with the goal of converting the natives to Catholicism. Since North America was being used to fuel the income needs of wars over in Europe the SpanishShow MoreRelatedCompare and Contrast Spanish and British Colonization Efforts in North America Prior to 1763.1475 Words   |  6 PagesCompare and contrast Spanish and British colonization efforts in North America prior to 1763. Prior to 1763, both Spanish and British colonization efforts expanded into various regions of North America. In less than a century, from 1625 to 1700, the movements of peoples and goods from Europe to North America transformed the continent. Native Americans either resisted or accommodated the newcomers depending on the region of the colony. Though the English colonies were by far the most populousRead MoreThe Major Differences in the Colonization of North and South America between the French, Spanish and English and Subsequent Civil Rights.2019 Words   |  9 Pagesï » ¿The Major Differences in the Colonization of North and South America between the French, Spanish and English and Subsequent Civil Rights. The Major Differences in the Colonization of North and South America between the French, Spanish and English and Subsequent Civil Rights. Even in the twenty first century North America, the United States and Canada in particular, is viewed as a bountiful land with rich resources and numerous civil liberties that have inspired differentRead MoreDifferences Between Britain And Spanish Colonization778 Words   |  4 Pagessimilar motivations for colonization, but their colonies were vastly different in many aspects due to differences in their own government and policies. Both countries created colonies to increase their wealth and expand their economies, but religious freedom played a factor in British colonization. The fundamental differences between the two countries led to a difference in the way the colonies of each country interacted with its government. The relationship of British and Spanish colonists with NativeRead MoreColonization of Spain and Britain Essays647 Words   |  3 Pagestime period, Spain and Britain, to win control of North America. Prior to 1763, these entities battled over territory on the co ntinent, eventually leading the Britain’s dominance. The economic, social, and political differences between the Spanish and British colonization efforts created the opportunity to Britain to overtake North America. To begin, economic factors greatly contributed to the power of each entity. Both British and Spanish wealth flourished from the economies of the coloniesRead MoreNative Americans During The Colonization Of Early America855 Words   |  4 PagesAmerican continent, contact with the Native Americans who were already living there was inevitable. In the colonization of early America, the various groups of European settlers: the Spanish, French, English, and Dutch each had unique experiences with, and therefore individual opinions of the Native Americans whom they interacted. Each of these nations also shared commonalties in their colonization processes and in how they viewed Native Americans. Furthermore, the Native Americans held differing opinionsRead MoreBenefits Of The Spanish Colonization1409 Words   |  6 Pages a name given to people who came from Spain or from the spanish descendents. These people over the course of hundreds of years, because this specific colonization bega n hundreds of years ago. Brought upon us many great opportunities and changes for our society today, but one thing in particular are benefits brought by Spanish colonizations. In this essay the reader will learn about what benefits exactly were brought by Spanish Colonization and how some of these benefits, benefit The United StatesRead MoreAmerican History Essay938 Words   |  4 PagesQuestion 1 Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Iroquois developed a confederation to: control violence that may have occurred over territory conflicts. Question 2 The religious dissatisfaction, that ultimately played a factor in the colonization of the New World by Separatists, began in 1517 when which of the following men publically protested the Catholic Church? Martin Luther Question 3 Refer to the map entitled Indian Groups in the Areas of First Contact (Map 1Read MoreFree And The Home Of The Brave1394 Words   |  6 Pagesclaim to be a land of freedom but America takes the cake in terms of popular opinion. America’s particular brand of freedom is something that has been in a constant state of evolution since the days of the revolution. Freedom in North America has also evolved over the centuries of colonization beginning with Columbus. By looking at US history, beginning with Columbus’ landing and the subsequent Spanish colonization, through British colonialism to the birth of America and beyond, we can see that freedomRead MorePeter H. Woods Strange New Land: A Review764 Words   |  4 PagesStrange New Land, offers a seemingly vast view of the presence of African Americans in present day North America. Mr. Wood describes the harsh and often brutal fate of African Americans during the colonization of America. Exploring Chapter 1, allowed me to view the way different cultures took advantage of not only African Americans, but Native Americans as well. Native Americans were invaded by Spanish settlers, taken into slavery and forced to live with harsh living conditions. Settlers exposed themRead MoreDifference Between Spanish And English Colonization1012 Words   |  5 Pagesthe Old World and the nation began to claim the majority of territory in Central and South America. Spain sent conquistadores to assert their dominance in the New World through violent conquest which resulted in difficult relations with native populations. Although the English did not settle in North America until the early 17th century, well past the period of the Spanish conquest, their methods of colonization were more successful in the long term. The English were able to find economic success through

Sexual abuse Free Essays

Sexual abuse is a term used to describe one individual forcing another to commit a sexual act. Around the globe sexual abuse is much more common than people would like to think. In most cases, when we hear of sexual abuse we think about women or children. We will write a custom essay sample on Sexual abuse or any similar topic only for you Order Now However, there are some instances where men are also sexual abused. For instance, there is a significant percentage of men incarcerated that experience sexual abuse at one point or another in their adult lives. Many factors play into these abuse cases such as; gang relations, sexual desires and/or the desire to control and take away the manhood of another. Women on the other hand, experience rape, in most cases, by someone they know; someone whom they would call a friend or maybe even a family member. Women by nature are physically weaker than men and some men take full advantage of this fact. Some men feel hatred toward women which fuels their desire to cause them pain. Others feel that women want to be rape. A simple gesture of inviting them in for a drink can be misconstrued as an invitation for a sexual assault. On the contrary, children, in my opinion, are the most vulnerable. They can be misled by their parents, parents of friends, and/or relatives. They are the most vulnerable due to their age and lack of experience. Most children after experiencing sexual abuse find it hard to cope with their abuse and commit suicide. Others tend to have an extremely hard time trusting others, and use sex as a way to deal with their pain. In addition, when they have children of their own they tend to be over protective. The mental abuser is someone that beats another’s conscious mind into submission in order to control their situation. The controller is trying to discourage the other from saying what they think by giving them all kind of negativity. The abuser is making the controlled person low-self esteemed. People like to get certain things into people’s heads by either making them believe whatever it is that they want the other person to believe. The mental abuser will brainwash whomever they feel can trust them the most and will not give them any doubt. Mental abuse can cause progressive, long-term harm. All the person has to be told is that they are stupid, ugly, fat or worthless and it will go further than what it is supposed to. Physical abuse is act of another person intending to cause physical harm on another person. Physical abuse is common in relationships and child abuse. Abuse in a relationship an be he or she hitting, slapping, throwing, punching, and kicking. Any of those can be consider physical abuse. Physical abuse is very dangerous in relationships because it could lead to having someone in the hospital or worst death. Physical abuse with a child is when a parent or role model is physical hurting a little girl or boy. There is some case where parents have burn the child with an iron or a cigarette. In either situation physical abuse can cause symptom such as depression, emotional problems, and suicide. How to cite Sexual abuse, Papers

Reflective Journal for Little Violence - myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theReflective Journal for Drinking and Little Violence. Answer: Summary of the article: The article by Stephen Tomsen gives an insight into the relations between masculinity and culture of drinking violence in society. Through the ethnographic study of assaults in public drinking venues, the author has highlighted about subjective experience of participation in drinking violence. Violence in drinking location was found to have strong association with social variables such as aggressiveness of bouncers, rate of drunkenness and presence of number of male groups. The study finding rebutted direct link between drinking and violent actions because in some occasions high rate of drinking and little violence was also observed. Hence, this means that violence is linked not only to drinking, but also to different social context of people. In volatile social setting, the collective drinking is necessary for people to display their social power in society and for some violence was an expression of masculinity. Therefore, different social perspective affected the drinking rate and rate of violence in community. The study mainly gave the reason that people engaged in violence incidents for the protection of male honor. In addition, drinking style between different cultures also affected the violence rates. The main conclusion from the study was that although no direct link between violence and use of alcohol has been found, however complex association has been found between the collective process of drinking and incidents of public violence. Violence has been found more in rowdy drinking group and a culture empowered by masculine identity. Despite this evidence, it is difficult to completely denounce violent behavior in drinking places due to cultural resistance and preference to display masculinity. Personal critical analysis of the article The personal view about the article is that it is a strong piece of evidence to explain the connection between drinking, violence and masculinity. The importance of the research work is that it has identified that historical and cultural perceptions influences different forms of social disorders and analyzing violence incidences in drinking places according to different cultural context. The use of long-term ethnographic study and observation for a period of 12 month is also commendable as it enhances the validity of the study and ensured that enough data could be collected to properly understand complex association between drinking and violence. In addition, very few studies has presented the complex relations between drinking and violence incident in such a manner. The article focused on an innovative topic where there is less research available and the analysis of situation cause of violence in drinking environment ensured getting answer to the research question. Through the focus on situational analysis, the author could establish strong links between social variables and drinking related violence. The author used systematic research method to comprehensively discuss different social context related to violence. The selection of venues for the studies and sample collection approach was effective in giving a reliable result. Useful information of the venue was obtained from regular patrons and semi-structured interview with regular drinkers minimized and enhances the reliability of the research work. Highly violent venue were also selected in research study which promoted situational analysis. The authors rebuttal of the view that there is a simple direct link between drinking and violent actions is also correct because there are evidences for high rates of drinking and little violence in certain places too. The results vary based on population, context and individual research approach. This is understood from various examples. For example, advertising restriction and taxation on alcohol in imposed in those population level where high drinking rate is present. Such alcohol relat ed policy and action are aimed at reducing the consumption at the population level. The violence rate is also moderated by state level drinking culture and the research article has discussed this part effectively. Another important insight given by the article was the link between perception of masculinity and drinking violence. This is true for a culture or community that favors male domination. The validity of the article is also seen because in many cases bouncers in drinking places trigger violence and the author focused on interviewing bouncers too. Hence, the author was successful in demonstrating how masculinity promotes drinking violence. Many people favor masculinity by showing their male power and due to the perception of high social status. The main contribution of this study is that it has pointed out to the role of masculinity in drinking related violence. Policies has never paid attentions masculinities in preventing alcohol related violence, however address this area might help to curb the incidence of violence in drinking places.

Albert Einsteins Special Theory of Relativity

Albert Einsteins Special Theory of Relativity Free Online Research Papers Albert Einstein was born at Ulm, in Wurttemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879. Six weeks later he and his family moved to Munich, where he later on began his schooling at the Luitpold Gymnasium. Later, they moved to Italy and Albert continued his education at Aarau, Switzerland. In 1896 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich to be trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics. In 1901, the year he earned his diploma and received a Swiss citizenship and he accepted a position as technical assistant in the Swiss Patent Office. In 1905 he went for his doctors degree. In 1914 he was appointed Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute and Professor in the University of Berlin. He became a German citizen in 1914 and remained in Berlin until 1933. He became a United States citizen in 1940. During the 1920s he lectured in Europe, America and the Far East and he was awarded Memberships to all the leading scientific academies throughout the world. He gained numerous awards for all of his work, including the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London in 1925, and the Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1935. He married Mileva Maric in 1903 and they had a daughter and two sons. He died on April 18, 1955 at Princeton, New Jersey. Introduced in 1905, Albert Einsteins Special Theory of Relativity is based on two ideas: the law of physics is constant for anyone moving at a constant speed, and the speed of light is constant for anyone, in any frame of reference. If the speed of light is constant, then time and space must be relative. After 1905, Einstein continued working in all three of his works in the 1905 papers. He made important contributions to the quantum theory. In 1907 he said that if mass were equivalent to energy, then the principle of equivalence required that gravitational mass would interact with the apparent mass of electromagnetic radiation, which includes light. By 1911, Einstein was able to make the first predictions about how a ray of light from a distant star, passing near the Sun, would appear to be attracted, or bent slightly, in the direction of the Suns mass. At the same time, light radiated from the Sun would interact with the Suns mass, resulting in a slight change toward the infrared end of the Suns optical spectrum. At About 1912, Einstein began a new phase of his gravitational research, by putting his work in terms of the tensor calculus of Tullio Levi-Civita and Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro. The tensor calculus made calculations in four-dimensional space-time, a notion that Einstein had obtained from Hermann Minkowski in 1907. Einstein called his new work the general theory of relativity. After a number of false starts, he published the definitive form of the general theory in late 1915. In its original form, Einsteins general relativity has been verified a number of times in the past 60 years, especially during solar-eclipse expeditions when Einsteins light-deflection prediction could be tested. The theory of special relativity says if all the laws of physics are equally valid in all frames of reference moving at a uniform velocity and that the speed of light from a uniformly moving source is always the same, regardless of how fast or slow the source or its observer is moving. The theory has as consequences, the relative mass increases rapidly for moving objects. Some criticized Special Relativity for many reasons, such as lack of evidence, rejection of mathematical physics, philosophical reasons. Examples people who criticized him are: Max Abraham, Friedrich Adler, Henri Bergson, Herbert Dingle, Harald Nordenson, Hugo Dingler, Louis Essen, Herbert E. Ives, Emanuel Lasker, Hjalmar Mellin, Albert Abraham Michelson, Menyhà ©rt Palgyi, Walter Ritz, Georges Sagnac. Other critics had already concluded that there had to be air in the upper sky (aether) which carried the light as the Earth moved through it. The two results suggested opposing results: was the aether local and fluid, or was it universal and rigid? Although there still are critics of relativity outside the scientific mainstream, most of scientists agree that Special Relativity has been proven in many different ways and there are no inconsistent things within the theory. Research Papers on Albert Einstein's Special Theory of RelativityAppeasement Policy Towards the Outbreak of World War 2Effects of Television Violence on ChildrenInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeThree Concepts of PsychodynamicAnalysis Of A Cosmetics AdvertisementQuebec and CanadaNever Been Kicked Out of a Place This Nice

Hyphenating Prefixes

Hyphenating Prefixes Hyphenating Prefixes Hyphenating Prefixes By Maeve Maddox A reader who works with legal transcription has the following question: There seems to be a trend towards having the prefixes and suffixes separate from the modified noun instead of being attached or hyphenated.  What is proper?   Some examples are non negotiable, post surgery, post doctorate, age wise. The examples given present a variety of forms, not all of which represent a prefix+noun combination. The prefix non- is added to nouns of action, condition, or quality with the sense of â€Å"absence, lack of,† or simply â€Å"not.† for example, non-Catholic. Non- is affixed to adjectives to make them negative. Whether to add a hyphen depends upon whether American or British usage is being observed. The OED hyphenates many words that M-W shows written as one word. For example, M-W gives nonnegotiable, but OED has non-negotiable. When it comes to another word in the reader’s list, however, both the OED and M-W agree with postdoctorate, although both prefer postdoctoral. The prefix post- means, â€Å"after† or â€Å"behind.† It is added to adjectives without a hyphen: postcolonial, postsurgical. Post can be used on its own as a preposition meaning, â€Å"after†: â€Å"Your mouth will be extremely dry post surgery.† In this context post is a separate word. Added to a noun to create a descriptor, however, post would require a hyphen: â€Å"Post-surgery care is vitally important.† The suffix -wise means, â€Å"in the manner of† or â€Å"as regards,† as in clockwise, lengthwise, foodwise, etc. This combining form is never separated from the word it’s added to, either by a hyphen or by a space. It can have other meanings, of course. For example, a person is said to be â€Å"penny wise, but pound foolish.† In this context wise is a word that means â€Å"possessing wisdom†; it is not a suffix. Hyphenation is not an exact science. Authorities differ regarding the necessity of a hyphen, but I’m reasonably sure that all agree that suffixes aren’t free agents that can stand apart from the words they belong to. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:75 Contronyms (Words with Contradictory Meanings)How to Punctuate Descriptions of Colors10 Tips for Clean, Clear Writing

Parental Communication Initiative as An Answer to Most of the Social Essay - 1

Parental Communication Initiative as An Answer to Most of the Social Issues - Essay Example Talking about such topics should not be made hard especially when parents open up the communication lines with teenage offspring. If parents can talk to these teens, maybe the 2008 statistics where18% of who commits abortion is teenagers would have been lower (Jones, et al, 5). Presently, efforts are being made and 82% of parents are already taking time talking to their children about sex and sexuality according to the Planned Parenthood website. This may be the factor which can decrease the number of teenage pregnancies over the years. Numbers will not go down instantly though there will be changes. Same goes for those teens with different forms of vices and abusive habits which can affect not just the physical aspect but also the mental and social aspects of life. Parents should be the guide to the children especially those on the teenage years where a lot of changes do happen not just physically but almost the totality of a teenager’s personality. This is not to blame parents for the mistakes of the youth, yet this may awaken parents of what can be done for the improvement of humanity. Parents should also set an example to these teens on how to properly lead their lives. Sometimes children see parents having vices. When they reach their teenage years and more independence is experienced and practiced, these teenagers may have the perception that these vices are allowed and can be done which should not be the case. Something needs to be done to break the chain and improve the lives of those teenagers who will be future leaders. Things can still be changed and parents can still make it a point to talk to teenage kids every now and then. Teenagers have the tendencies though of being hard headed.

4G Wireless Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

4G Wireless Systems - Essay Example Data packets are sent wirelessly to the satellites that help to transfer data quickly. This change has brought about much relief for the general public as now communication can be easier and much faster and not to mention it has become a lot less tedious. However, the fast paced changes in the technological world make it a lot harder for various companies and industries to keep up. One day a new product is introduced and the next day the team sits down to chalk out the plans to make the product better. A perfect example would be Apple’s effort to introduce new and improved versions of the iPhone and then there is the competition that makes companies run faster and faster. Using the last example of Apple it is now common knowledge that Google’s Android is becoming the competition to the iPhone. In the same manner, wireless systems have evolved from time to time and continue to do so.The wireless communication systems have been defined by giving then designations with reg ards to generations. The first generation was introduced in the early 1980s and made use of analog frequency modulation and were more or less used for the purpose of voice communication. It was not much later in the late 1980s that the second generation of wireless system technology made its way in the market was once again focused on voice communicationÃ'Ž Later, instead of a third generation technology, there was a midway between the second and third generation know as 2.5 generation.  

Functions of Planning and Organizing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Functions of Planning and Organizing - Essay Example As such, planning entails the design of a firm’s activities to respond accordingly to its goals and objectives. However, organizing involves selecting the suitable structure that promotes the implementation of the designed scheme (Hiles, 2011). Therefore, this piece incorporates the concepts of planning and organizing in developing a plan for promoting Macdonald’s. The paper starts by exploring the vision, goals and objectives of developing such a strategy for Macdonald. The paper first examines the state of the company by performing a SWOT analysis. Subsequently, there is a critical assessment of the appropriate strategies, which aim at highlighting the company’s strengths while addressing its weakness. An informed conclusion of the strategies that can promote company’s activities follows. Vision, Goals and Objectives of the Plan This plan’s sole vision is making MacDonald Inc a force in the world’s fast food trade in future. The goals of th e plan include boosting the company’s profits, establishing competitive attributes and addressing the company’s threat and weaknesses effectively. The main objective of plan is developing a comprehensive scheme, which centers on the company’s strengths while countering its weaknesses hence providing an approach that will enable the company to adjust to the dynamic market. The auxiliary objectives include conducting a Swot analysis in the company to propagate knowledge about its market status. Swot Analysis The Company Background Macdonald is a multinational company that significantly controls the world’s fast food supply. Since the date of establishment, the company has recorded incredible growth. Presently, it runs outlets in more than 118 countries. However, the organization is currently facing stiff competitions that are straining it growth. Strengths Strong command powers The company has a reputable market for its products as evident in the extensive supply networks. This is witnessed in most parts of the world; thus, generating massive sales. Fiscal stability The Company has a large business capital and is currently experiencing a period of financial harmony. Indeed, company’s sales are comparatively performing well in the market and returns are appealing. Adaptability to market fluctuations The company can adjust rapidly to the market changes since its large capital can allow a adoption of products diversification models (Kleindl, 2007). Weaknesses The company trades in dynamic products since the food industry provides assorted tastes and preferences that keep changing depending on the availability. Additionally, the company engages in expensive promotion campaigns, which are unproductive; hence, wasting funds. Opportunities Macdonald has the opportunity to venture into emerging food markets especially the provision of organic foods. As such, the company ought to shift its focus from fast foods, which are increasingly s hunned. Threats The emergence of new companies poses threats to Macdonald’s especially when they are small. This is because they require less capital hence their number continues to grow. Notably, the culture of distributing packaged foods though retail chains like supermarket is becoming popular in the market. Strategies Product Restructuring Marketing strategies are plans aimed at capturing the market to increase awareness and purchase of the company’s products. McDonalds can engage in innovative marketing

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) at Doctors Surgery

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) at Doctors Surgery Proposed Working Title Does Customer Relationship Management (CRM) build stronger bonds with the customers and help provide quality services in a doctors surgery at Camden? - A case study of NHS Research Background and Context I have chosen this topic in order to find out what are the key issues that are important for successfully running a doctors surgery. We have been seeing that there are always patient dissatisfaction and complain about the services, both clinical and non-clinical. Hypothesis The hypotheses that will be tested in this research are as follows: To analyze what aspects of CRM strategies are missing in running this doctors surgery. To identify what benefits can be attained by completely implementing CRM at PPCC To what extent the employees are playing their role according to CRM strategies. To look in various models, strategies, theories and methods that can be used to make the services effective at doctors surgery. Organisation Background – Partnership Primary Care Centre (PPCC) The Surgery has been established in 1973 for the people who are living in the housing. It was named Fairweather House Surgery. Initially it had 250 patients from the housing. Dr. Morris Davies was founder General Practitioner (GP). In 1976, Dr. Diane Rosenthal, Dr. Jonathan Rosenthal, Dr. Enid Greenbury and Dr. Wil Cupola took over from Dr. Morris Davies and this Surgery was under Camden and Islington Primary Care Trust (PCT). In 1976 Camden and Islington PCT allocated more patients and gave a practice boundary that is a catchment area. In 1976, GPs appointed a practice nurse who used to do child immunisation, dressing, and cervical smear. In 1988 Dr. Wil Cupola left the surgery and Dr. Ian Hopkinson joined the surgery as a partner and there were 8 sessions of doctors and 5 sessions of nurses. GPs decided to register more patients and in 2003 total registered patients were 1900. It was difficult to offer more services from the small premise, so GPs had several meeting with the PCT to move to a bigger building. During this time, Camden and Islington PCT divided into two and this surgery came under Islington PCT who decided to move the Surgery in a bigger premises. Meanwhile, one of the local GP died and another GP went for retirement. In 1st October of 2003, Fairweather House Surgery shifted to newly built premises and named the surgery as Partnership Primary Care Centre (PPCC). After moving to this new premise, there are now 16 consulting session of doctors, 10 nurses session and 5 health care assistant sessions. Now the total registered patient is 3300 and growing everyday. (Source: Mr. Rashidul Hasan: Practice Manager and Mrs. Heather Johnson: Ex-Practice Manager at PPCC) Services Offered at PPCC Services that are offered by PPCC are personal doctoring, urgent medical problems, out of hours emergencies, home visits, talking to a doctor or nurse on the telephone, family planning services , antenatal care , child health surveillance, screening and health promotion, travel immunisations advice, sexual health for teenagers adults, quit smoking advice, alcohol advice , advice on drug problems, test results, repeat prescription service, interpreting services, careers needs and special nurse-led clinics available that include asthma/COPD clinics, diabetic clinic, cervical smears, childhood immunisation, family planning, heart disease/stroke prevention, well person checks. (Source: PPCC leaflet) Customer Relationship Management System at PPCC The surgery uses patient data storage system called VISION that is the most popular GP data storage system in the country. It has been maintained by the company called INPS. It holds all the information about the patients who are registered with PPCC. It holds the name, date of birth, address, telephone numbers and obviously the medical information. This system is also linked with the Whittington Hospital in order to receive test results including X-rays that are transferred electronically to the surgery. Rationale for the chosen topic I have selected Customer Relationship Management (CRM) because it is one of the best and most popular methods of developing stronger bonds with customers (in this research my customers are the patients who come to the doctors surgery). It can be said that if there is no patients then there is no need of doctors surgery, that is – no patient, no business. By the implementation of CRM strategies, PPCC can become one of the role model for other doctors practices. Customer satisfaction is the core of any business and when it comes to patients, it is a must. Research Questions- Formulation of researchable questions Like all research, my research also has an objective and to achieve that objective I have prepared a researchable question. The most important question to me is: ‘How effective will be customer relationship management strategies in providing quality services in doctors surgery? I will be focussing on this question through out my analysis of this research. Some of the important concerns that will arise while answering this question are as follows: †¢ What is CRM? †¢ Usage of CRM? †¢ What are the organisational benefits of CRM? †¢ How successful CRM can be in providing quality services? †¢ To what level can customer satisfaction can be achieved? †¢ How the organisation can achieve competitive advantage by CRM? Research Aim The aim of this research is to determine the relationship between the CRM and the quality of services and does it build a stronger bond with customers. Research Objectives The main objective behind this research is to understand and identify the root cause of customer dissatisfaction with the services provided at the doctors surgery. This research will focus on the real life example of a London based doctors surgery called Partnership Primary Care Centre (PPCC). I will discuss about the implementation and benefits of CRM to PPCC. In order to achieve the above aim, the following research objectives have been set: †¢ To understand and identify the root cause of customer dissatisfaction with the services provided by the doctors surgery, †¢ To determine the variable factors that could influence customer satisfaction level, †¢ To determine how CRM can bring a positive change in the quality of service, †¢ To identify how implementation of CRM can benefits PPCC. Literature Review A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period. For the purpose of this research, the literature review is on Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Customer Relationship Management (CRM) The better a business can manage the relationships it has with its customers the more successful it will become. In order to have a better understanding and knowledge about the customers needs and demands, customer relationship management strategies can be used. Customer relationship management (CRM) is not just the application of technology, but is a strategy to learn more about customers needs and behaviours in order to build up stronger relationships with them. As such it is more of a business philosophy than a technical solution to assist in dealing with customers effectively and efficiently. (www.xicom.biz , Accessed: 21/08/09) According to Armstrong and Kotler (2005) customer relationship management (CRM) is managing detailed information about individual customers and carefully managing customer â€Å"touch points† in order to maximize customer loyalty. CRM involves all of the corporate functions (marketing, manufacturing, customer services, field sales, and field service) required to contact customers directly or indirectly. The term â€Å"touch points† is used in CRM to refer to the many ways in which customers and firms interact. (Gray and Byun, 2001) The foundation of customer relationship management CRM is based upon identifying; understanding and being able to provide a better service to customers. CRM allows build a better relationship with customers, improving customer satisfaction and maximising profitability. It is about understanding, anticipating and responding to the exact needs of customers with a constant eye for making the services to them the best it can possibly be. The main target of CRM is to improve long-term growth and profitability through a better understanding of customer behaviour. (Source: www.customerrelationshipmanagementcrmuk.co.uk, Accessed: 21/08/09) CRM consists of three basic components: customer, relationship and management. (Roberts-Witt, 2000) Customer If there is no customer then there will be no profit now or in the future. But a good customer, who provides more profit with less resource, is always scarce because customers are knowledgeable and the competition is fierce. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish who is the real customer because the buying decision is frequently a collaborative activity among participants of the decision-making process (Wyner, 1999). Information technologies can offer the skills to distinguish and manage customers. CRM can be thought of as a marketing approach that is based on customer information (Wyner, 1999). Relationship The relationship between a company and its customers involves continuous bi-directional communication and interaction. The relationship can be short-term or long-term, continuous or discrete, and repeating or one-time. Relationship can be attitudinal or behavioural. Even though customers have a positive attitude towards the company and its products or services, their buying behaviour is highly situational (Wyner, 1999). Management CRM is not an activity only within a marketing department. Rather it involves continuous corporate change in culture and processes. The customer information collected is transformed into corporate knowledge that leads to activities that take advantage of the information and of market opportunities. CRM required a comprehensive change in the organization and its people (Wyner, 1999). Specific software to support the management process involves: Field Service, E-Commerce Ordering, Self Service Applications, Catalogue Management, Bill Presentation, Marketing Programs, and Analysis Applications. They can be used to take the advantage of CRM, but keeping in mind that CRM is not about just technology but more about quality service. (Source: http://www.tupublicas.com/docs/12-44-15-02-2004-leyva.pdf, Accessed: 17/08/09) The core components of customer relationship management The content of a CRM strategy consists of six mutually dependent criteria (Donaldson and OToole, 2002) Emphasis on quality: if we provide poor service we will lose our customers and ultimately business. The core product alone is no longer sufficient, and service quality is considered as the key to successful business. Measure customer satisfaction but manage customer service: This implies understanding and defining the various benefits that a prospect expects prior to purchase and the management of the gap between expectations and performance after the purchase process. Invest in people: Both internal and external relationships are important. Implementation of a relationship orientation can only come from the people in the organisation understanding the objectives set and meeting the required standards. Maintaining dialogue with customers: Building long-term relationships is the key issue in CRM. Companies that listen and adapt to preferences of individual customers have a higher chance to retain them and make them loyal. Setting realistic targets and assessing performance: Organisations must have an understanding of customer views of the various elements in the offering and the elements important to each individual customer. Relationship-based interfaces: This means being in touch with both internal and external customers in a responsive and flexible manner. In practice, there is a gap between what firms do, what they should do, and what is most desirable to do. The means of communication should be adapted to the needs of the individual customer. (Donaldson and OToole, 2002) Types of Customer Relationship Management There are different variations in CRM approaches and they are all in different software packages focusing on different aspects. Some of the main types of CRM are as follows: Operational CRM Operational CRM is for â€Å"front office business processes. It interactions with customers to gather and stored customer information, so that later staff can retrieve customer information as necessary. The reasons for storing this information are as follows: Managing campaigns Enterprise Marketing Automation Sales Force Automation Sales Management System Analytical CRM Analytical CRM makes strong use of data mining and other techniques to create useful results for decision-making Analytical CRM analyzes customer data for a many reasons and they are: Designing and executing targeted marketing campaigns Designing and executing campaigns, Analyzing customer behavior in order to make decisions relating to products and services Management information system In this stage the importance of fully integrated CRM software becomes most apparent because the more information the analytical software has available for analysis, the better is the predictions and recommendations are. Sales Intelligence CRM Sales Intelligence CRM is more or less like Analytical CRM, but is intended as a more direct sales tool. Features include alerts sent to sales staff regarding: Cross-selling/Up-selling/Switch-selling opportunities Customer drift Sales performance Customer trends Customer margins Customer alignment Campaign Management Campaign management includes elements of Operational and Analytical CRM. The functions include: Target groups formed from the client base according to selected criteria Sending campaign-related material to selected recipients using various channels. Tracking, storing, and analyzing campaign statistics, including tracking responses and analyzing trends Collaborative CRM Collaborative CRM consists of a companys dealings with customers that are handled by various departments within a company, such as sales, technical support and marketing. Staff members from different departments can share information collected when interacting with customers. Collaborative CRMs main focus is to use information collected by all departments to improve the quality of services provided by the company. (Edwards, 2007) Consumer Relationship CRM Consumer Relationship System is mainly for a companys dealing with customers handled by the Consumer Affairs and Customer Relations contact centers within a company. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_management, Accessed: 24/08/09) Benefits of Customer Relationship Management Exceptional customer service is about being aware of customer needs and reacting to them effectively. CRM facilitates to understand, anticipate and respond to customers needs in a consistent way, through out the organization. Practicing CRM requires an efficient and integrated internal business system. Many businesses benefit from the organizational discipline CRM imposes, as well as from the technology itself. CRM will help business if we view it as a set of tools that let us do more for, and get more from, our customer. CRM can: Develop better communication channels Collect vital data, like customer details and order histories Create detailed profiles such as customer preferences Deliver instant, company-wide access to customer histories Identify new selling opportunities To better serve customers, organizations must ensure that information can be accessed through one single source throughout the enterprise. (Source: http://www.is4profit.com/business-advice/it-telecoms/crm-customer-relationship-management_2.html, Accessed: 16/08/09) Business benefits of CRM Setting customer relationship management (CRM) solution in practice requires substantial time and expense. However, there are many potential benefits. A major benefit can be the development of better relations with the existing customers that leads to: Increased sales through better timing due to anticipating needs based on historic trends, Identifying needs more effectively by understanding specific customer requirements, Cross-selling of other products by highlighting and suggesting alternatives or enhancements, Identifying which of the customers are profitable and which are not. This can lead to better marketing of the products or services by focusing on: Effective targeted marketing communications aimed specifically at customer needs, A more personal approach and the development of new or improved products and services in order to win more business in the future. Finally this leads to: Enhanced customer satisfaction and retention, ensuring that the good reputation in the marketplace continues to grow, Increased value from existing customers and reduced cost associated with supporting and servicing them, increasing overall efficiency and reducing total cost of sales, Improved profitability by focusing on the most profitable customers and dealing with the unprofitable in more cost effective ways. Once the business starts to look after its existing customers effectively, focus can be shifted on finding new customers and expanding the market. The more we know about our customers, the easier it is to identify new prospects and increase our customer base. (Source: http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/, Accessed: 16/08/09) Customer privacy is an important issue in CRM. CRM deals with large amounts of customer data throughout various touch points and communication means. The personalization process in CRM requires identification of each individual customer and collections of demographic and behavioural data, this is the very information that most customers consider personal and private. The individual organisation gets into an ethical dilemma as it wants to collect as much information as possible about each customer to further its sales. It is a must to have the customer consent to avoid any future problems. Authorized personnel should only have the access to the stored information and data. Drawbacks of CRM As of any other topic there are some negative sides about CRM. According to a research study released in March, 2001 by the Meta Group (cited in Connor 2001), between 55% to 75% of CRM projects fail to meet management objectives. However, research undertaken by CRM Guru (The Blueprint for CRM Success 2002) indicates that the failure rate of CRM projects is 35 %. About 50 % of projects get a payback within 18 months. Research Methodology The two most common methods of data collection for any research are qualitative and quantitative. It is important to define qualitative and quantitative methods. Quantitative data is the term given to data that can be quantified where as qualitative data is the term given to data based on meanings which are expressed through words and language (Anderson, 2004). Both these methods will be used to gather data and information for this research. Interviews will be conducted with the staff members to learn about their ideas and opinions on what they can add to the existing services that they provide. If possible and permitted, then a group of patients will be selected and will be interviewed about what their expectations from the doctors surgery. A questionnaire will be prepared for conducting this research which will be given to the patients who come to take service to the surgery. All these descriptive, exploratory, ethnographic, qualitative and quantitative methods will be used to fulfill the requirements of this research. Data Collection Methods This study draws on both primary and secondary data, such as past customer satisfaction levels, as well as both qualitative and quantitative data. The main focus will be on the qualitative approach as well as observation. This is because my data analysis will be based on words rather than figures. In addition to this, an interview will be conducted on a focused group of patients as primary data source. Primary Data Collection Methods Primary sources are original works of research or raw data without interpretation or pronouncements that represent an official opinion or position. Included among the primary sources are memos, letters, complete interviews or speeches (in audio, video, or written transcript formats), laws, regulations, court decisions or standards, and most government data, including census, economic, and labour data, (Cooper and Schindler, 2003). For the purpose of my research, qualitative method of data collection is more appropriate. Qualitative research is centrally concerned with the understanding rather than the measurement things (Hague Jackson, 1996). Moreover it is believe that qualitative research provides data that is open to interpretation and argue. (Brassington Pettitt, 1996). The search will use a combination of structured and unstructured questionnaires during face-to-face in-depth interview that provide a mixture of closed and open-ended questions for ease and for the acquiring opt imum data. The interviews will be with the parties, the service providers and the service receivers that is the patients. Questionnaire and Interview Questionnaire will be one of the most important approaches that would be used in this research as it provides the simplest and fastest way of primary data collection. A questionnaire will be design to handout to all interviewees and this will give me the data I need to base my theories on. Interviews will be taken to collect data in which selected participants are asked questions in order to find out about their activities, thoughts or feeling about relative issues. The sample size will be 50 plus and of both sexes and of different age groups. Secondary Data Collection Methods Studies made by others for their own purposes represent secondary data, (Cooper and Schindler, 2003). This will include both qualitative and quantitative data as well as descriptive and exploratory research. Books, magazines, articles, journals and other kinds of publications will be used to gather the data. The libraries that will be used for resources are London School of Commerce Library, the British Library, City Business Library and Online Library of University of Phoenix. As this report is a case on NHS (National Health Service), the web sites of the NHS and PPCC will be used to get information about the doctors surgery. The information gathered on the secondary research will be presented in the literature review part of this research. Data Analysis The primary data that will be gathered through questionnaire as a form of quantitative analysis will be analysed by using the Microsoft Excel spread sheet. To have a better understanding of the data, they will be presented in Pie chart and Bar charts. The findings will be also put as percentage of the total sample size. The interview will be analysed as qualitative data as there will be opinions, suggestions and views of the participants. Resource Requirements Some of the expenses that would incur during the primary data collection would be for light refreshments for the interviewees and the expenses for secondary data would be for buying the referral books, magazines, printing and binding of the research. There will be also some additional transportation cost for travelling to the libraries. Time Scale Time is a crucial element for any kind of work and I believe that the dissertation can be completed according to the following time scale. Time Scale Week Activity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Submission of the Proposal Literature Review Interviews Updating Literature Review Data Collections and Questionnaire Data Analysis First draft of dissertation Revising draft Second draft of dissertation Final editing and preparing Final report ready

Pneumatic Tyre Characteristics :: essays research papers

Introduction The purpose of this technical report is to communicate the results of the Pneumatic Tyre Characteristics laboratory by investigating the effect of cornering force on slip angle. The technical report is presented to the academic staff of the Engineering Systems Department at the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham. It is assumed that the reader is fully familiar with the experiment and with the equipment on which it is preformed. Experimental Conditions †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For this particular experiment the gain of the output for the strain gauges are set to 1 as 0 to 8 degrees slip angle is been measured. If smaller angles are measured a larger gain may be required. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The total displacement of the trolley that runs along the track is approximately 2.17 meters. However, this may slightly vary in the results, especially with higher slip angles due to the reaction force acting on the reversible hydraulic motor that drives the track. For consistency the corresponding point for each distance is taken in the results. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The current details and condition of the tested tyre are given. - Manufacture: Avon. - Dimension: 710 / 22.0 – 13. - Condition: Generally worn all around with patches of the tyre (approximately 60mm in diameter) in worse condition on the inside of the wheel. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The tyre was tested at 14, 16 and 18 psi pressure. For each test at each angle increment the air valve is pointing downwards purely for consistency as the tyres circumference may vary. The increments for each test are as follows. - 0 – 5 degrees in 0.25 degree increments. - 5 – 8 degrees in 0.5 degree increments. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The experimental equipment is set to output 1000 points of displacement and side force. The computer capture rate is set to 50Hz and a total run time of 20sec †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Final experimental conditions that should be mentioned include: - Before the conduction of the experiment the camber of the wheel should be checked and adjusted to zero degrees. - The track is manufactured to have a sand paper surface. This is important to exert a sufficient side force on the tyre and is in good condition. - For each experiment, initially slip pads are used under the wheel as the mechanical mechanism used to apply the vertical force is applied at a radius and therefore would give an unwanted offset. - A constant vertical load of 1.5kN is applied to the tyre. This load is kept consistent by a mechanism which includes a beam and counter balance weights.

Investigation into Roles and Contracts of the Music Industry Essay

Scenario Your local paper has assigned you with a task to present them with information about the roles and contracts in the Music industry. Carry out an investigation that describes/explains/comments critically on the roles and contracts of one area of the Music Industry and deliver your results as a presentation to the class. Task 1: Using Publisher/ Word, you need to research, write and describe the contracts associated with an area of the Music Industry (Live Performance: e.g. artist’s responsibilities with a label, or a manager/agency’s responsibilities with an artist/performer) (P3) In order to gain a MERIT grade, in addition to the requirements of the PASS criteria, you will need to describe and explain the above by providing examples. (P1, P2, M1, M2) In order to gain a DISTINCTION grade, in addition to the PASS and MERIT criteria, you will need to describe, explain and comment critically the above by giving examples, drawing conclusions from experience and/or research (P1, P2, M1, M2, D1, D2) 2 Know the professional roles within a chosen area of the music industry Live performance: eg performer/artist, DJ, agent, promoter, venues and stage management, crew/ technicians, security, merchandise Record companies: eg A&R, promotion, distribution and retail, merchandising Music publishing companies: eg publishing, copyright, sales, composer and artist development  Artist management: eg artists, songwriter/composer, manager Assessment Method: Class presentation. To include referencing

Stock and Company Essays

Stock and Company Essays Stock and Company Essay Stock and Company Essay Stock Valuation at Ragan, Inc Nautilus Marine Enginees negative EPS wer the result of an accouting write off last year. Without the write-off, EPS for the company would have been 1. 97. Last year, Ragan had an EPS of 5. 08 and paid a dividend to Carrington and Genevieve of 320,000 each. The company also had a return on equity of 25 percent. Larissa tells Dan that required return for Ragan of 20 percent is appropriate. 1 . Assuming the company continues its current growth rate, what is the value per share of the companys stock? Solution: The total dividend paid by the company was $640,000. Since there are 150,000 shares utstanding, The total earnings for the company were: Total earnings = = $762,000 This means the payout ratio was: payout ratio = = 0. 84 So, the retention ratio was: Retention ratio = 1 . 84 = 0. 16 Using the retention ratio, the companys growth rate is: ROE b = . 04 or Now we can value the company using the entire dividend payment. The total value of the companys equity under these assumptions is: Total equity value = Dl / (R g) Total equity value = / (. 20 . 04) Total equity value = So, the value per share is: value per share = / 150,000 Value per share = $27. 73 Total equity value = $4,160,000

Tolerancia Cero y cruce ilegal de la frontera de EE.UU.

Tolerancia Cero y cruce ilegal de la frontera de EE.UU. Tolerancia Cero es una polà ­tica migratoria del gobierno de Donald Trump, la cual impone que todas las personas que crucen ilegalmente la frontera sean detenidas, acusadas judicialmente y procesadas. En este artà ­culo se informa sobre quà © ocurre en estos momentos en la frontera cuando un migrante, despuà ©s de cruzar ilegalmente a los Estados Unidos, es atrapado por la Policà ­a Fronteriza (CBP, por sus siglas en inglà ©s). Tambià ©n se toca el tema de la polà ­tica fronteriza antes de entrar en vigor Tolerancia Cero en abril de 2018. Asimismo, se informa sobre cà ³mo esta polà ­tica derivà ³ en la separacià ³n de nià ±os de sus padres. Finalmente, se incluyen referencias sobre dà ³nde acudir para solicitar ayuda legal. Cruce ilegal de la frontera antes de Tolerancia Cero Hasta hace pocos aà ±os, muy pocos cruces ilegales de la frontera eran castigados judicialmente. Esta situacià ³n comenzà ³ a cambiar en 2005 con la aplicacià ³n de la Operacià ³n Streamline en Texas, que se fue expandiendo gradualmente para cubrir casi toda la frontera entre Estados Unidos y Mà ©xico. Bajo la aplicacià ³n de Operacià ³n Streamline, se calcula que aproximadamente una de cada tres entradas ilegales eran procesadas judicialmente. En el resto de los casos, los migrantes eran devueltos inmediatamente a sus paà ­ses de origen o se les permità ­a ingresar mediante un permiso conocido como parole mientras se decidà ­a su caso, lo cual podà ­a demorarse aà ±os. En todo caso, por sistema no se incluà ­a el procesamiento judicial ni la separacià ³n de familias. Tampoco se procesaba penalmente a los nià ±os que ingresaban solos a Estados Unidos. Tolerancia Cero y consecuencias: separacià ³n de familias y ms Tolerancia Cero comenzà ³ a aplicarse en mayo de 2018 y supuso, en la prctica, una ampliacià ³n de la Operacià ³n Streamline a toda la frontera sur que separa a Estados Unidos de Mà ©xico, afectando a todos los migrantes atrapados despuà ©s de cruzar a EE.UU. sin autorizacià ³n. En un primer momento de la aplicacià ³n de Tolerancia Cero, la CBP detenà ­a a migrantes y separaba a adultos de menores, producià ©ndose asà ­ la separacià ³n de familias. En esos casos, los adultos pasaban a disposicià ³n judicial y los menores eran entregados al U.S. Health and Human Services Department. Esta agencia los entregaba temporalmente a familiares de los menores presentes en Estados Unidos, a familias de acogida o a albergues repartidos por todo el territorio del paà ­s. Asà ­, en pocas semanas, ms de 3.000 menores fueron separados de sus padres, lo que provocà ³ protestas de diverso tipo que llevaron al Presidente Trump a poner fin, por orden ejecutiva del 20 de junio de 2018, a esta prctica de separacià ³n de nià ±os de sus padres. Adems, el 26 de junio, la jueza Dana Sabraw ordenà ³ la reunificacià ³n de estas familias y en el momento en que se escribe este artà ­culo, ms de 2.500 menores han sido regresados a sus padres. Sin embargo, todos los dems aspectos de Tolerancia Cero siguen vigentes. Esto significa en la prctica que todos los adultos que son agarrados tras cruzar ilegalmente la frontera son puestos a disposicià ³n judicial para ser acusados y procesados. Las acusaciones pueden ser de dos tipos. En primer lugar, de ingreso ilegal, que es considerado una falta federal, conocida en inglà ©s como misdemeanor. La condena puede ser de un mximo de 6 meses de crcel y despuà ©s se expulsa al migrante. Esto que sucede en la frontera es, desde el punto de vista de las leyes migratorias, una expulsià ³n inmediata en la frontera, no una deportacià ³n. Esta diferencia es importante a la hora de determinar las sentencias. Si una persona ha sido expulsada en la frontera antes y vuelve a ingresar de forma a ilegal, esta segunda o sucesiva entrada puede llegar a tener una condena de 2 aà ±os de prisià ³n como mximo. Una situacià ³n distinta, pero que por su nombre puede dar lugar a confusià ³n, es el reingreso ilegal despuà ©s de una deportacià ³n. El reingreso ilegal se da cuando una persona ha estado previamente en Estados Unidos y fue deportada tras un caso de corte migratoria. Es decir, esta situacià ³n exige una orden de deportacià ³n previa. Si la persona es atrapada despuà ©s de cruzar la frontera nuevamente, la pena de crcel puede llegar a ser, en los casos ms graves, de 20 aà ±os de prisià ³n. Esta condena mxima se impone cuando la persona ha sido previamente   deportada por un delito agravado. Cabe destacar que, segà ºn las leyes migratorias, no solamente los delitos violentos tienen esta consideracià ³n, sino tambià ©n otros como el hurto, trabajar con un documento de identificacià ³n falso, etc. En cuanto al procesamiento, pueden darse dos situaciones. En primer lugar, que la persona detenida pase a disposicià ³n judicial en cuestià ³n de dà ­as o semanas. En estos casos, muy frecuentemente la mayorà ­a de los migrantes consulta con un abogado un mximo 15 minutos y comparece ante un juez junto con otros detenidos en juicios masivos, donde en una misma maà ±ana se juzga a decenas de personas. En este tipo de casos, los migrantes suelen aceptar el cargo del que se les acusa, se les condena al tiempo que ya han servido mientras esperaban por el juicio y se les transfiere a la agencia de Inmigracià ³n y Control de Aduanas de los Estados Unidos (ICE, por sus siglas en inglà ©s), la agencia del gobierno que procede a su deportacià ³n. En segundo lugar, puede darse la situacià ³n en que el migrante solicita asilo. En este caso, y por aplicacià ³n de Tolerancia Cero, los oficiales que deben decidir sobre si permiten continuar un caso de asilo deben tener en cuenta como un factor negativo en contra del migrante el hecho de que ha ingresado ilegalmente a EE.UU. Si a pesar de este inconveniente, el oficial decide que se puede continuar con un caso de asilo, puede suceder que el migrante permanezca detenido por meses, e incluso aà ±os, mientras su caso se resuelve. Tambià ©n puede suceder que quede en libertad mientras se decide su caso, bajo depà ³sito de fianza o por acuerdo de llevar una tobillera que permite determinar en todo momento dà ³nde se encuentra el migrante. Con respecto a la fianza, cabe destacar que aunque la ley requiere un monto mà ­nimo de $1.000, la fianza migratoria media es de $9.000, y en los casos de asilo pendiente son muchas las fianzas que exceden los $10.000, siendo ya comunes las que alcanzan los $25.000. A veces, los inmigrantes que no pueden obtener esa cantidad se deciden por el sistema de la tobillera. Aunque en principio parece ms asequible que una fianza migratoria regular, puede resultar ms cara. En el caso de la tobillera debe anticiparse una cantidad, que normalmente est fijada en $4.000. A ese monto hay que sumarle cada mes un pago de $420 mientras se resuelve el caso. Finalmente, en caso de estropear el aparato o daà ±arlo, debe abonarse $3.950. En cuanto al tiempo que tarda en resolverse un caso de asilo, en la actualidad y segà ºn una base de datos de la Universidad de Syracuse que sigue estos casos, el tiempo medio es de 700 dà ­as, es decir, casi 2 aà ±os, si bien hay diferencias importantes de corte a corte y segà ºn la situacià ³n del caso de cada solicitante.  ¿Dà ³nde encontrar ayuda legal para detenidos y solicitantes de asilo? Es fundamental contar con buena asesorà ­a legal para tener una oportunidad mayor de ganar un caso de asilo tras haber cruzado ilegalmente la frontera u obtener otros beneficios migratorios, como la visa U para và ­ctimas de violencia o la visa T para và ­ctimas de trfico humano. La Asociacià ³n Americana de Abogados de Inmigracià ³n (AILA, por sus siglas en inglà ©s) es la organizacià ³n de abogados migratorios de EE.UU., y ofrece una excelente base de datos para buscar un letrado especializado. Asimismo, diversas organizaciones de apoyo legal a migrantes pueden dar buenas referencias o, incluso, defender casos a bajo costo o pro bono. En el caso de menores solicitantes de asilo, organizaciones como Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) y Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), entre otras, se especializan en este tipo de ayuda. Puntos clave La polà ­tica de Tolerancia Cero tiene como mandato acusar y procesar a todos los migrantes que ingresen ilegalmente.Castigo por entrada ilegal: mximo 6 meses.Castigo por reingreso ilegal: mximo 20 aà ±os.Fianzas para quienes solicitan asilo tras cruce ilegal de frontera: frecuentemente por encima de $10.000. Este es un artà ­culo informativo. No es asesorà ­a legal.

The most significant trends and issues in guiding children's behavior Essay

The most significant trends and issues in guiding children's behavior - Essay Example Self discipline needs an understanding of an individual’s self and at the same time, an understanding of the couple of ways in which one can cope with the existing difficulties, disappointments, and frustrations. Self discipline gives an individual the ability to concentrate on an event so long as it is deemed necessary to enable the child learn, perfect or complete it. Guiding young kids involve a number of tasks. Parents are solely responsible for identifying and at the same time, enforcing reasonable and clear limits, while slowly giving freedom to children by trying to encourage them to be solely responsible for their self and all their actions. A positive approach is significant when teaching young children how to cope with skills and also, self-control while trying to discourage inappropriate and destructive behavior (Coloroso, 2000).Even though, children seek their freedom from the set rules and regulations that limits them at an early age, they still require constant g uidance and structure. Children upbringing as individuals depends majorly on making their own choices and facing the consequences of their actions and decisions directly (Nelson, 2002). Parents do not possess many skills for guiding their children. Preventing a child’s misbehavior takes a lot of planning and preparation. Effective and corrective discipline measures focus on the child’s development and maintains the kid's dignity and also self-esteem.In guiding children’s behavior, the kids should have choices.... Effective and corrective discipline measures focus on the child’s development and maintains the kid's dignity and also self-esteem. In guiding children’s behavior, the kids should have choices. This is an effective way in guiding a child to build decision making skills, and mould a kid’s self discipline. Nevertheless, a parent should give choices he or she is willing to allow. Parents should use more dos than don’ts in guiding a child’s behavior. They can consider giving the kid a go ahead light instead of a stop light. Guardians should set only the necessary limits. Only the principal ones and the ones viewed as necessary for a child to be safe. The set limits should also be reasonable. Is the kid capable? At times, the parent’s exceptions are too high and should be moved to fit the kid’s capabilities. The set limits should be comprehensible and clear. The parent should give information that is sufficient as well as understandable to the children and other member of the family (Nelson & Lott, 2004). The set limits should be consistent that is, they should never change at all. They should not change as the kid grows and becomes more self disciplined. Consider how past trends and societal approaches contribute to the current thoughts. In the past traditional era, physical punishment was common as a form of punishing wayward behaviors by the children. Nevertheless as, times changed, dialogue has become introduced among parents and their children preventing further instances of the physical punishment. According to Coloroso (2000), parents nowadays sit down with their kids and even discuss the punishments they deem appropriately. What are the best approaches and strategies in the early

The Human Rights in the Media in Syria Research Paper

The Human Rights in the Media in Syria - Research Paper Example Ajami further added that as for Yemen, the revolution was also an outcry against the attempts by the Saleh’s government to amend the country’s constitution (86). As for the Syrian revolt, it was partly contributed by the ethnic hatred between the minority and majority, whereby the ruling minority ethnic community lead by the Assad regime is accused of apply nepotisms in the distribution of national resources. Additionally, the Syrian crisis was propelled by the food crisis that has greatly affected the country, and of which the current Assad regime and the previous regime that was lead by his father are both accused of failing to make the nation food secure (Ajami, 23-31). Lesch lamented that it is only Syria, which is still experiencing intensified civil war since the advent of the Arab revolution while most of the Arab nations such as Yemen, Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia have at least returned to normalcy or the intensity of the crisis has reduced. This is because the cou ntries have recorded reforms in the governance of the nation and a change in the countries' top leadership that has been enabled by the elections conducted after the revolution (45-48). Lesch further lamented that the Syrian crisis is still intensified because President Assad is adamant on his position and has continued to defy the opposition. Moreover, the use of inhumane approach by President Assad loyal forces to quell the violence has continued to anger the opposition and even intensified the civil war within the country. Among the most inhumane approach that the Assad regime has used to fight back the opposition is the use of military tankers on both armed and unarmed protestors (102-113). Worse is the fact that off late the law enforcement officers have been threatening... This essay approves that current reports by the international media such as Cables News Network, British Broadcasting Corporation, and Al Jaezera all indicate that since the beginning of the Syrian crisis there has been thousands of death and injuries on both the pro-government supporters and opposition supporters in Syria. Secondly, the civil war in Syria has lead to the displacement of more than four million Syrians. Moreover, media reports indicate that many Syrians have fled to other neighbouring countries because of the civil unrest currently going on in their country and they are living in refugee camps where the standard of living is quite low. With reference to the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is correct to assert that the crisis in Syria and in particular the Assad regime is responsible for committing human rights violation on men, women, and children. This report makes a conclusion that the UN is trying to support the Syrian population using the media by ensuring that their stories is widely covered in the international press and by encouraging the Syrian population to tell out their story to the rest of the world. The United Nations have also taken upon themselves to inform the rest of the world about the situation in Syria and to urge the rest of the World to publicly condemned the violence and human rights abuses that are taking place in Syria. Secondly, the UN while using the media has urged the rest of the world to join hands and call for peace in Syria. Thirdly, the UN while using the media to support the Syrian population has also asked the rest of the world to support the Syrian population during this difficult time through moral support and even material support.

See the attachment Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

See the attachment - Term Paper Example The Economists Dictionary of Economics defines Microeconomics as "The study of economics at the level of individual consumers, groups of consumers, or firms... The general concern of microeconomics is the efficient allocation of scarce resources between alternative uses but more specifically it involves the determination of price through the optimizing behavior of economic agents, with consumers maximizing utility and firms maximizing profit." Microeconomics is a field of economic study that focuses on how an individuals behavior and decisions affect the supply and demand for goods and services. For the purpose of microeconomics, the actions of individuals, households and businesses are crucial. One key element of microeconomics is price theory. Theoretically, all markets are perfectly competitive, with supply and demand driving prices. However, individuals and groups can directly affect the supply and demand of products and services. Labor economics, for example, is based largely on the analysis of the supply and demand for labor of different types. An economic theory contends that the price for any specific good/service is the relationship between the forces of supply and demand. The theory of price indicates that the point at which the benefit gained from the people that demanded the entity,   meets the sellers  marginal costs is the most optimal market price for the good/service. Labor is a measure of the work done by human beings. Labor economics seeks to understand the functioning and dynamics of the market for labor. Labor markets operate through the interaction of workers and employers. Labor economics looks at the suppliers of labor services (workers), the demands of labor services (employers), and attempts to understand the resulting pattern of wages, employment, and income(Freeman, 72-76). Market failure is a situation in which a market is inefficient in organizing

Current issue in government contract Essay Example for Free

Current issue in government contract Essay The issue is focus on the financial aspect in the company operations. The law is so strict enough in the budget allocated for any accounts which are voluntary. Below is the issue accordingly; auditing the companys accounts on a voluntarily basis: â€Å"A request from the Secretary General of the Department of Finance to audit, the annual accounts of Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Ltd. I agreed to audit the companys accounts on a voluntary basis pending the enactment of legislation to put the company and its operations on a statutory footing. The audit, which was completed in June 2001, covered a period from the date it commenced operations on December 10, 1999 to the end of the year 2000. Almost ? 2 million was allocated from the Department of the Taoiseachs Vote to meet the costs of the company in the initial period. The committee will see from the accounts that something around ? 560,000 of that went to fitting out the offices which were rented in Blanchard town, ? 400,000 went to pay for executive services for the last four months of the year 2000 and ? 313,000 or so went on consultants fees (Purcell. http://www. irlgov. ie)†. Corporate governance arrangements, tendering for executive services, fee levels for executive services, credit card expenses and the tax status of the company. I can expand on the specific issues during the course of the examination if the committee so wishes. The main activities of the company during the period of the accounts were developing an architectural and environmental scheme for the company, devising the structure of a competition for the provision of the various facilities on the site and latterly organizing a competition for the provision. In my own opinion of the issue, I could rather say, if the provision issue provides the enhancement of the development of the company’s progress then it is so much advice able to adopt the audit more profoundly. Then continuous monitoring of the results of the issue to the point of view of the rest of the people concerned to either it resulted to a positive outcomes or not. If it has positive outcomes then it would be better to enhance such auditing issue just for the good of the company and all the concern as well. Other Issues â€Å" 1.) A persons children or other lineal descendants such as grandchildren and great-grandchildren, it does not mean all heirs, but only the direct bloodline. Occasionally, there is a problem in determining whether a writer of a will or deed meant issue to include descendants beyond his or her immediate children. While a child or children are alive, issue refers only to them, but if they are deceased then it will apply to the next generation unless there is language in the document which shows it specifically does not apply to them. This issues looks unfair to the new generation to which no how on how comes they are a part of the problem for infact they just come in existing. 2) n. any matter of dispute in a legal controversy or lawsuit, very commonly used in such phrases as the legal issues are, the factual issues are, this is an issue which the judge must decide, or please, counsel, let us know what issues you have agreed upon. In these issues, as long as it is following the legalities it has to be abided. The judge is the one to promulgate laws that was agreed upon standards. So if it is in my case I don’t need to argue at all though it hurts to accept facts but facts must prevail. 3) v. to send out, promulgate, publish or make the original distribution, such as a corporation selling and distributing shares of stock to its initial investors. I will rather agree to this statement, this is for the reason of visibility to everybody of what was going on the promulgation. There should be participation to everybody’s concern. 4) n. the shares of stock or bonds of a corporation which have been sold and distributed (â€Å"Issue†. http://legal-dictionary. thefreedictionary. com)†. A Problem in Contracts Assurance contracts are a financial technology that facilitates the private creation of public goods and Club goods in the face of the free rider problem. The free rider problem is that there may be actions that would benefit a large group of people, but once the action is taken, there is no way to exclude those who did not pay for the action from the benefits. This leads to a game theoretic problem: all members of a group might be better off if an action was taken, and the members of the group contributed to the cost of the action, but many members of the group may make the perfectly rational decision to let others pay for it, then reap the benefits for free, possibly with the result that no action is taken. The result of this rational game play is lower utility for everyone. â€Å"Assurance contracts operate as follows: In a binding way, members of a group pledge to contribute to action an at least N-1 other members also make the same pledge. If N members sign the pledge (perhaps by a certain expiration date), the action is taken. If the quorum is not reached, the parties are not bound to carry through the action (â€Å"Assurance Contract†. http://en. wikipedia. org)†. â€Å"The binding mechanism may be a contract enforced by a government, a contract enforced by a private organization (e. g. a mediator, a protection agency in an anarcho-capitalist society, etc. ), an escrow organization (in such cases, the binding contract is signed by depositing funds in advance, which are later either disbursed according to the contract, or refunded), etc. Many economists argued that the central planning and bureaucratic directions are necessary to produce public goods. There is at least some types of public good can be produced privately by profit seeking entrepreneurs. A new and more powerful form of assurance contract and discusses, without making rigorous is called a dominant assurance contract. This was contracts that exhibit on the goods or product. There are two problems involved in the production of public goods, the preference revelation problem and the contribution problem. One focus we have for sure is on the contribution problem, how to get agents voluntarily contribute to providing the public good. This will limit the analysis of good, which naturally comes in lumpy quantities, or goods for which we can deduce into an efficient size. If a bridge or road or light house is to built we can probably estimate the efficient size from the information about preferences and technology (Tabarrok, Alexander. March 6, 1996. http://mason. gmu. edu)†. Under this issue we can include the government contracts which were brought to news for publicly seen. A recent decision by the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has potentially momentous consequences for bankrupt government contractors and their creditors. â€Å"That court, with jurisdiction over the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D. C. , the primary place of business for many government contractors, has held that the debtor/contractor filing for reorganization of the Bankruptcy Code is not automatically entitled to continue performing its federal contracts. Instead, the government can obtain permission from the bankruptcy court to immediately terminate such contracts (Government Contracts. 1999. http://www. hklaw. com)†. This decision may result in contractor being forced into liquidation proceedings, with little remaining for its creditors. In my own opinion it is inhuman to say getting all proceeding of the debtor on which nothing left for her living. This means that, the same saying killing the debtor for not paying all the debts. It’s too much contract not giving any pardon to debtor itself. If I were to judge I have to see to it that I can make adjustment prior to both the company and the debtor. There must be equal distribution. Government Contract Commitment to the client and the promise of innovative solutions is the core of Government Contracts Consultants. Government Contracts Consultants is organized as a small woman-owned, SBA certified HUB Zone company organized to meet the ever-growing needs of business by providing creative information technology, administrative and acquisition management support services and training to government and commercial clients. Our areas of expertise included. â€Å"M3 Federal Contract Practice Group, LLC. (M3) works on behalf of Prime contractors, Subcontractors, and International companies doing business with the U. S. Government. M3 is a highly recognized U. S. Government contract consultant firm comprised of subject matter experts that focus on and comprehend every element of the federal procurement field from business development, writing winning proposals, contract management, contract closeout, and claim resolution. M3 Federal is the only company within the federal procurement field that provides an all encompassing teaming solution for any company willing to get into the federal procurement field or that has been in the federal field and has complex procurement issues to resolve. M3 Federal Contract Practice Group specializes in all areas of government contracting and federal procurement including (â€Å"M3 Federal Contract†. http://www. m3federal. com): †¢ Contract Claims †¢ Preparation †¢ Submittal †¢ Resolution †¢ Audits †¢ Qui Tam Actions †¢ Fraud †¢ Bid Protests †¢ Proposal Development DoD Facility Clearances †¢ DoD Personnel Clearances †¢ Intellectual Property Rights †¢ Export Regulation Compliance †¢ Commercial Contracts †¢ Joint Ventures/Teaming Agreements †¢ Contract Administration †¢ GSA Schedules This are all gives us the background of what covers the entire contract. The overview of this contact will focus on business. Business will be better off if it follows a standard to avail. Conclusion: We have dealt with five issues that differ in many ways. Issues has an act by the Government that goes beyond the terms of a Fixed Price Contract, Cost Type, Cost Plus Award Fee, Research Development Contract, etc. or any contract termination that has a consequential ripple effect upon the entire contract and/or Contractor, impose a substantial risk to the Contractor and require immediate action by the Contractor to ensure no financial denigration to reputation. In the sense of Government contract it is legal and purposely design to make progress not only the company but also the people at large. It is properly impose so that everybody will understand the agreement agreed upon. But in the case of problem issues it is focusing more often to the people who have not agreed to to their previous contract or might be things they fail to do and the other parties tends to claim and will sewed the debtor for example. Also problems sometimes will come out to be in the case of agreement which was not abided. If I will to make sure that agreement should complied I have see to it , that my opponents could make a written not just verbal agreement to whom I can claim even if problem arise. Reference â€Å"Assurance Contract†. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Assurance_contracts â€Å"Issue†. http://legal-dictionary. thefreedictionary. com/issue Government Contracts. 1999. http://www. hklaw. com/Publications/newsletters. asp? ID=70)† â€Å"M3 Federal Contract†. http://www. m3federal. com Purcell. http://www. irlgov. ie/committees-02/c-publicaccounts/020321/Page1. htm Tabarrok, Alexander. March 6, 1996. http://mason. gmu. edu/~atabarro/PrivateProvision. pdf Sovereign acts by the Government, such as dictating to the Contractor, orally or through un-priced or unsigned modifications are a manifestation that you are working to defective specifications and/or performing added scope work. If any of the following conditions apply to your contract, you may be experiencing lost funds and may be entitled to additional mo whether or not the end item meets contract requirements. Any change in this methodology, not covered by a modification, is a delay to the contract and in many cases is considered added scope work entitling the Contractor to be monetarily Contractor must be aware that a rejection, not supported by a specific contract citation is improper, and that a Contractor is not obligated to perform the work until a citation is given or a modification is made to the contract.

What Is Systematic Literature Review Information Technology Essay

What Is Systematic Literature Review Information Technology Essay Empirical software engineering requires the scientific employment of qualitative and quantitative data to realize and improve the software product and process. To conduct empirical studies, the process steering steps to be performed and research strategy are very essential elements [11]. Apart from the traditional method such as experiments, case studies and surveys, the systematic literature review, also called systematic review, is another strategy becoming normally used in empirical software engineering in order to identify relevant empirical studies and combine results to provide reliable information for researcher. This paper aims to provide the general idea of systematic review, process to conduct the review according to the existing guideline and suggestion to improve the guideline. The paper is structured as follows: section 1 gives an introduction to systematic review, explains the reason why systematic review is needed, discusses the differences from narrative review and pros and cons of systematic review. Section 2 explains process of conducting systematic review in detail according to Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guideline [1]. Since there are still some restrictions and gaps could be improved in the guideline, section 3 described those limitations and provides suggestions for improvement. Lastly, section 4 presents some concluding remarks. 1.1 What is Systematic literature review? Systematic literature review is the methodology that researchers use to gather and evaluate available information to specific research topic. The use of a SLR is mainly proposed to provide an unbiased and systematic approach to answer a structural question which focuses to research topics. The studies or articles that used for systematic review are called primary studies, the systematic review itself is considered as the secondary studies. The review process is very formal with strict procedures and sequence. Each step of the process must be well-defined and can be reproducible by other researchers. The selection criterion of primary studies and type of acceptable information are also defined before hand and thoroughly reviews. To identify the primary studies is done by the use of searching technique. All search methodology and selection criteria are transparent for the reader by described in review protocol. Thus, this means other readers can replicate this review in systematic way. Finally, selected primary studies are analyzed and aggregated, in which forming a systematic review for answer the research questions. 1.2 Why Systematic reviews is needed? Originally, systematic review has been introduced in medical and clinical field as a way to help clinical practitioner finds the answer to their question relating to their practices. Before systematic review was implemented, researchers have difficulties in several areas that traditional review cannot satisfy their need. There is no structural way to review primary studies and to ensure that all related evidence has been evaluated. To summarize and evaluate the knowledge from primary studies is very difficult and also because each study may use different design and organization of information may be vary. The result from traditional review is difficult to evaluation if there is conflicting result. Many times, reader of the review have some doubt to the quality of researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ work since the review method is not clear and explicit. In addition, due to broad scope of traditional review, the result of the review can easily be bias as the selection choice by reviewer may not be co nsistency without well defined guideline of the selection. Thus, systematic review methodology has been introduced to address those difficulties. Systematic review process have increasingly recognized and replaced traditional reviews in many academic fields including software engineering discipline since it provides effective way to summarize and determine research result to help those researchers in their studies. The researchers can utilize systematic review to design new studies that previously difficult in the past with traditional review. With systematic review, it helps reducing reviewer bias since it uses objective and reproducible criteria for primary sources selection with strict assessment of the resources. It also help s researchers to combine result from several small studies in which can help them conclude more precise and dependable result. Moreover, it assists in identifying gap that researchers could make further investigation [1]. 1.3 Differences between Systematic and Unsystematic review There are several key differences between systematic review and unsystematic review or traditional review. This topic will discuss each difference of these two types of review. First, the search for primary studies of these two reviews is widely different, with traditional review, the scope of primary studies search usually have wide range of coverage with no strict rules how to search. In contrast, the search of primary studies in systematic review is very focused on the topics, researchers need to identify question and predefined search rules that can be reproducible by other researchers. Second, the primary sources selection process is also different. With systematic review, selection process has to be predetermined; researchers must decide which type of resources is acceptable for the review so that the selection process is explicit and transparent, and then select primary sources with these strict rules and criteria. Unlike systematic review, traditional review selection process does not have specified criteria on the selection process and dependent on researchers experiences to select the primary sources. Finally, the evaluation method of systematic review followed strict evaluation rules to evaluate each of selected primary sources while traditional review is variable based on individual researchers methods. 1.4 Advantages and disadvantages of Systematic review Though there are several advantages that researchers can utilize systematic review method in their studies, there are still some disadvantages remain comparing with traditional review. Researchers will need to aware and select review type that is appropriate with their situation. This topic will discuss both advantage and disadvantage of systematic review. Advantages  ¿Ã‚ ½ One of the major advantages of the systematic review is that it improves the precision and completeness of the result. Because systematic review process uses well-defined method to search and select for primary studies in which will result in less biased sources comparing with traditional review  ¿Ã‚ ½ The systematic review process helps researchers to identify the consistency or inconsistency of the result from its selection process. If result is consistent, it provides strong answer to researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ questions. If not, researchers can identify the gap and then study the variance. This benefit will be difficult to identify through traditional review process.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Systematic review can apply statistic technique (meta-analysis) to help combining data from more than one primary studies which will give more precise answer to researchers question than using only one primary study. With traditional review, it will be more difficult for researchers to compare and conclude the result from several primary studies to answer their focus question. Disadvantages  ¿Ã‚ ½ Because of its limited focus and predefined method, as it is the advantage of systematic review, it can be disadvantage in some cases. Since the process does not allow comprehensive coverage of the evidence to answer research topics. Thus, researchers must carefully determine their condition and select technique appropriately. In general, traditional review is more useful if researchers want to obtain more broad perspective of their research topic comparing to systematic review.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Traditional review is more useful if the researched topic is the brand new topic, since not much primary studies will be available. Traditional review will have more information coverage than systematic review.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Due to its strictness in process and methodology, systematic review process usually needs more time and effort from researchers to conduct the review. 2. Systematic review guidelines As first introduced in medical research studied, systematic review has also been brought to software engineering field by B. Kitchenham (2004). Since software engineering research method is less strict and less experimented-dependent comparing with medical studies, the revision is needed in the process of systematic review to adapt to the characteristic of software engineering studies. The guidelines emphasize the distinction to medical systematic reviews and guide the software engineering researchers how to perform a systematic review. There are several activities involves in the systematic literature review and they are specified in the guideline. In this section, I refer to the guideline suggested by Kitchenham [1] which describes a systematic review process into three main phases: Planning the review, Conducting the review and Document or Reporting or the review. Each of them consists of order of stages. The implementation each phase involves iteration, feedback and refinement in order to move to next stage and finally reach satisfactory outcomes as illustrated in figure 1. Please note that there are some more optional stages described in the guideline. But I only refer to the stages that are essential to be performed Fig. 1. Phases in Systematic Review 2.1 Planning the review In the first phase of the review, the final outcome which would be produced is a review protocol. It is considered as a plan which defines the research questions that will be addressed by the review and basic review procedures. The planning phase consists of the following stages:  ¿Ã‚ ½ Identification of the need for a review  ¿Ã‚ ½ Specifying the research question(s)  ¿Ã‚ ½ Developing a review protocol  ¿Ã‚ ½ Evaluating the review protocol 2.1.1 Identification of the need for a review Before conducting the review, the reasons behind why the systematic review could answer the research questions or could be useful for further must be given. Originally, the need for a systematic review initiates from the demand to fairly sum up all existing information about some phenomenon. Probably the reasons are to represent more general conclusions instead of just obtaining from individual studies, or may be carried out to lead up to further research activities. In particular, Kitchenham notes that the researchers should first make sure that a new systematic review is really needed before starting the review. And they should consider finding any existing systematic reviews relates to the topic of interest. It could be possible that they do not even need a new systematic review if there existed. Besides, the already published systematic review could help construct a protocol. 2.1.2 Specifying the research question(s) This is the most important stage of the systematic review process. The research questions can be seen as a goal of the review since they drive the whole process of systematic review. To be in detail, the search process is conducted with the aim to classify primary studies that discuss the research questions. Furthermore, the data extraction and analysis processes must extract and synthesize the data in such a way to answer the questions. Kitchenham notes that asking the right question is the important issue in any systematic review. She provides some guideline questions to help in construct the correct questions. She also discusses the characteristics and various types of research questions which are proper for the systematic review. For detailed structure of the questions, the PICOC (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes, and Context) criteria are used to define the review question elements. Besides, Kitchenham discusses about the different kinds of experimental designs to derive the acceptable studies. In particular, she argues whether studies based on primary studies of one particular type should be accepted for systematic reviews in software engineering. 2.1.3 Developing a review protocol A review protocol is a concrete plan which details the process and strategy to perform a particular systematic review. A pre-defined protocol is crucial to minimize the possibility of researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ bias. The protocol contains all the essentials of the review and some other planning information. The elements described in protocol are: background, research questions, planned search strategy, study selection criteria and procedures, quality assessment criteria and procedures, data extraction strategy, data synthesis strategy and project timetable. Kitchenham suggests that the review protocol should be piloted during its development to find mistakes in the data search procedures, in which it can help to improve the review methodology. 2.1.4 Evaluating the review protocol Because the review protocol is significant for the systematic review, it should be evaluated before execution. The evaluation procedures are done by asking researchers or experts to review the protocol and the agreements among all reviewers must be reached. 2.2 conducting the review This is the execution phase which follows the plan defined in the review protocol. The final outcomes of the systematic review are generated in the end of this phase. To conduct the review, the subsequent stages must be carried out:  ¿Ã‚ ½ Identification of research  ¿Ã‚ ½ Selection of primary studies  ¿Ã‚ ½ Study quality assessment  ¿Ã‚ ½ Data extraction and monitoring  ¿Ã‚ ½ Data synthesis 2.2.1 Identification of research Since the systematic review aims to find all possible of available publications relating to the research question and make conclusion in a fair manner, how to generate the search strategy and publication bias are the critical issues that Kitchenham discusses in this stage. The search strategies defined in the protocol are used to discover the relevant publications. In general, the search strategies are done iteratively by trial searches using different combinations of search terms and in consultations with relevant experts. Typically the search term can be obtained by separate the research questions into individual elements base on PICOC criteria and then create a list of synonyms and relevant words. Another good way to derive the search term is by analyzing the heading of journals. Kitchenham notes that the search strategy should be designed to detect articles that report pessimistic results in order to illustrate researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ bias. Other major concerns regarding the systemat ic review are the completeness and repeatability. Kitchenham suggests that the review process must be transparent and replicable. By providing sufficient detail when documenting the review, this enables the study to be replicable and allows the external reader to evaluate the search terms. And the search terms should be documented properly. 2.2.2 Selection of primary studies The purpose of the selection process is to assess if obtained primary studies have any actual relevance to the research questions. So that we can identify ones that provide direct information for the review. This process should proceed according to the plan defined in the protocol. Kitchenham explains that the study selection is a multistage process. Firstly, base on the research questions, the researchers should define the study criteria to point out the direct relevant studies. These inclusion and exclusion criteria should be piloted to ensure the reliability and correctness when interpreted. The exclusion criteria should be applied first in order to exclude any irrelevant studies. Kitchenham suggests keeping the record of excluded publication with the reason of exclusion just after all unrelated publications have been filtered out. Then the inclusion criteria are applied to remaining studies. Kitchenham also mentions about how to increase trustworthiness of the process in an attem pt to decrease the possibility of bias. 2.2.3 Study quality assessment After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria to select the primary studies, the quality of primary studies is also considered significantly important to be assessed. Kitchenham describes how important of the quality assessment for example, to allow researchers to evaluate differences in the study, and to weight the importance of each study when synthesize the results. She also discusses about the hierarchy of the evidence described in medical guidelines. Base on their assumption, this hierarchy can be used to control the sorts of study included in the systematic review and it is a ground for the initial quality evaluation. To explain, the top of the hierarchy is the evidence from systematic reviews and controlled experiments, which is believed in the medical area that it is more reliable than the bottom level evidence such as the evidence from expert opinions. However, this argument was later proved that it is not always true. After that, Kitchenham describes about how to defi ne and to use the quality instruments. Basically, checklists are used to assess quality in detailed. To construct the checklists, factors that could bias study results are considered. 2.2.4 Data extraction and monitoring Once the primary studies have been selected, the next step is to extract the relevant information. The extraction process should be performed as defined in review protocol which will describe the extraction forms used to collect the data from the filtered primary studies and also the procedure of data extraction. Kitchenham discusses what should be contained in the data collection form. Not only the information to facilitate the answer of review question and the criteria for quality assessment are included, but also the basic information such as name of reviewer, date of performing data extraction and publication detail must be given. Importantly, the extraction form must be piloted before implementation. Kitchenham suggests that there should be two or more researchers perform data extraction independently. And they have to set agreements either by consensus or by using additional researchers to resolve disagreements on the data. If each paper cannot be assessed by at least two resea rchers, some checking technique, such as random sample of primary studies, has to be employed to ensure that the data are extracted correctly. Monitoring data is also important to perform in this stage. Kitchenham notes that multiple publications of the same study should not be contained in the systematic review since it can lead to bias. It is sometimes needed to contact the authors to make sure if those publications refer to the same study or not and also to derive the required information if the data obtained from studies are missing or we need some unpublished data. 2.2.5 Data synthesis Data synthesis aims to gather and summarize the data extracted from selected primary studies. Same as other stages, the activities to be performed should be defined in the review protocol. Base on Kitchenham research on various options of data combination from several types of studies, sensitivity analyses is suggested to perform to find out the impacts on the synthesis results where some studies are higher quality than others. 2.3 Reporting the review The purpose of this last phase is to write the results of the review. The guidelines explain there are three main stages in this phase  ¿Ã‚ ½ Specifying dissemination mechanism  ¿Ã‚ ½ Formatting the main report  ¿Ã‚ ½ Evaluating the report The final report does not only include the answers to the intended research questions, but it also need to specify the dissemination strategy so that the researcher can expose the result efficiently. Kitchenham presents seven mechanisms to disseminate the systematic reviews results. They are: a) Academic journals and/or conferences b) Practitioner-oriented journals and/or magazines c) Press Releases to the popular and specialist press d) Short summary leaflets e) Posters f) Web pages g) Direct communication to affected bodies Basically, the results are reported in two formulas: in a technical report or in a conference or journal paper. After writing the reports, it is necessary to perform evaluation. Kitchenham discusses evaluation technique for each type of reports. One effective technique is organizing a peer review. The structure and contents of report papers can be seen in the Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guideline [1]. 3. Improvement suggestions on Systematic review guidelines This section aims to present limitations and to provide suggestion for improvement on each step of the systematic review guidelines on software engineering. The recommendations are collected base on lessons learned and experiences from various articles which utilize systematic review as literature review technique. The study reported in [7] reveals that one of the significant problems of publishing low quality systematic review is that some people conducting systematic review do not understand exactly what systematic review is and how to perform it. So, they end up with having no obvious research questions, explicit search strategy and so on. The subsequent suggestions should be always kept in mind before starting and while performing the systematic review  ¿Ã‚ ½ Thoroughly review and study the guidelines, e.g. Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guidelines.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Review several SLR examples and experiences to help you understand the process.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Make sure you understand each step of activities and be reasonable for everything you do.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Record the decisions made during conducting the systematic review as much as possible since this information will be needed for writing the final report. According to [2], they suggest to perform training on systematic reviewing in the very first step in order to make the reviewers familiar with the specific terms in the area where they will conduct systematic review. Furthermore, this helps the reviewers get better understanding about the review process and activities. 3.1 Planning the review During this phase, the main activities to be performed are specifying the purpose of conducting a systematic review, formulating research questions, developing and evaluating a review protocol. 3.1.1 Identification of the need for a review In order to identify the clear statement of the objective of the review, the researchers should use the checklist to help pointing out the reasons and ensure their needs. Regarding this issue, there are several useful checklists provided in Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guideline [1]. In addition to identify rationale of the review, Staples and Niazi [3] collected information from case studies, surveys, and reports to check if the intended research questions are possible to be answered by systematic review. This is founded very useful since they come to know what is common and uncommon in the research questions. Sometimes people thought the question is normal and feasible to be answered by other researches but in the later phases when they try searching for the related literature, they found that their question is very uncommon and then they have to discard those questions. Another crucial point is that the researchers should try to identify the existing systematic review related to their topics of interested in order to avoid conducting a duplicate review. Nevertheless, it is quite difficult to find published systematic review in the area of software engineering comparing with medicine. Since there is no powerful scientific database which collects systematic reviews of studies related to software engineering empirical studies, like the Cochrane (www.cochrane.com) which stores a large amount of systematic reviews of medical research. Although there are currently several services providing access to sources of software engineering publications, there are still many restrictions of those publications as followings [17]:  ¿Ã‚ ½ The available studies is limited and disintegrated properly since many researchers in this field are focused on their own style to generate result rather than structural review process.  ¿Ã‚ ½ It is difficult to combine the result of software engineering review because the quality of review is so variable with no agreed standard for systematic review for this field.  ¿Ã‚ ½ There is no guideline that is well-accepted, though some guideline has been proposed but it neither addresses all necessary topics nor provided sufficient detail. 3.1.2 Specifying the research question(s) As mentioned before, the research questions are specified as part of the review protocol and will be used to construct the search string for searching related primary studies. Basically they will be revised repeatedly during piloting the review protocol and should not be changed when the protocol is committed. The most important point when formulate the research questions is to make them as obvious and concrete as possible. Other than structuring the question by using the PICOC criteria which is shown in [1], it is essential to specify rationale to formulate a particular question. Tabulate the question and purpose such in table 1 could be helpful. Table 1. Research question Research question Purpose RQ1: RQ2: Brereton et al [4] recommend that during protocol construction, researchers should anticipate to refine their research question both for increasing their understanding and making the automated search more effective. There are several systematic reviews, for example the  ¿Ã‚ ½Systematic literature review of guidelines for conducting systematic literature reviews ¿Ã‚ ½ in [4], which firstly define a few research questions. Later on, after investigation some information sources, those questions are extended in more detailed questions Regarding [5], the research questions are not only the questions that needed to be answer by the review, but also the question providing some idea in the area of such a topic for better comprehension. This is also confirmed by Staples and Niazi [3] since their research questions are part of a larger research project. By performing the systematic review on these questions will help them understand better in the project background. By selecting clear and narrow research questions, it helps confining the scope of a systematic literature. [4] proposes another method that may help to scope the research question. That is a systematic pre-review mapping study. The idea is to map out sorts of studies relating the systematic review question have been conducted. The mapping process can be considered as a quick data extraction but the studies described are not very details. The further information about mapping study can be found at [12]. 3.1.3 Developing a review protocol As explained in the section 2, the protocol provides information of the plan for conduction the review, including, for example, the procedure to be performed, the search strategy for selecting primary studies, the allocation of reviewers to some specific activities and the quality assessment criteria for evaluate primary studies. Lacking of a protocol, some process such as the selection of primary studies or data analysis and synthesis may be motivated by researcher bias [14]. And because one of the key features of the systematic review is repeatable, a well-documented review protocol is needed to guarantee the reproducibility of the review. Many experiences on systematic review show that developing a review protocol is an iteration process that needs several revisions to get the complete protocol. Thus, the researchers should expect protocol changes, take a long time and allot appropriate time for it. Brereton et al [4] suggests all members in systematic review team should participate actively in constructing the review protocol, in which helps all of them get insights about the protocol and understand the process of data extraction. Additionally, piloting the review protocol is highly suggested to be performed. Not only because it supports discovering misunderstandings and mistakes in the data extraction and aggregation process, but also it may specify that the researchers need to change the method planned to deal with the research questions. As mentioned above, the search strategy must be documented in the protocol, enabling the reader of a review to evaluate how accurate and complete this is. However, due to the restriction of existing software engineering search engines that are not well-supported systematic reviews like in medicine, the software engineers should conduct resource-dependent searches. In particular, they might have to use different search string for each searchable sources which have different form interfaces and search syntaxes [4]. The followings are recommendations to improve the search strategy.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Searches should be performed to title as well as abstract [6]. However, before making a decision to accept or reject a primary study, searching on summary and content is founded very useful. Since mostly in software engineering, the abstract and titles are not much indicative [6] and not so dependable for primary studies selection [4].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Any search strategy should be made up of multiple keywords, and it is essential to use a various combinations of terms to get the very successful search [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Using more standardized vocabulary will promote the search results [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ For some software engineering topics, the publications in related fields should be searched as well. i.e. information systems, psychology, economics, quality, artificial intelligence [6]  ¿Ã‚ ½ To get the most out of relevant publications, synonyms of the main search term should be used for search [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ It is likely that adding other more general terms to synonyms of the key search term detects more relevant studies. However, this tends to increase the number of irrelevant articles as well. So, it should only be used when there are a number of systematic review resources available in detecting and rejecting irrelevant articles [6]  ¿Ã‚ ½ It is not necessary to search on all the search fields because it is not considerably benefits the response and also requires a big effort [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Construct search strings using Boolean  ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½AND ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ to link the key terms and  ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½OR ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ to group synonyms [4]. An example could be the following: (experiment OR  ¿Ã‚ ½empirical study ¿Ã‚ ½) AND ( ¿Ã‚ ½software cost estimation ¿Ã‚ ½ OR  ¿Ã‚ ½software effort estimation ¿Ã‚ ½)  ¿Ã‚ ½ Try searching from synonyms to the term representing the study type need to search [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Include search fields that typically contain the key terms of the study type such as title and abstract [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ To get the key search terms. ,beak down the research questions into single words pertaining to the types of study that will help answer the question, technology of interested, and the response test [4].  ¿Ã‚ ½ After deriving the key search terms, using various combinations of those terms to perform trial searches [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Specifying the year of the paper first published in the search string can help lessen the amount of irrelevant articles [4].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Be careful when using the Basic or Advances search forms because some search engines may produce different results even though the key searched terms are the s