Financial Analysis And Research Of Mutual Fund - 1832 Words

Financial Analysis and Research of Mutual Fund GCEQX The purpose analyses is based on the Green Century Funds. In this mutual fund involves with the environment and has organized with other companies to help the environment. How to support the environment stablility. This will be the reason the investors would use the funds to help society and will be on climate change. The overview of this paper us the GCEQX has a long-term total return, which involves in stocks. The fund uses the environmental, social, government standards to make earth a better way to live. Above all, it would help so many companies. Last, they use the Fossil Fuels Index which contributes oil, gas, and coil. The SRI/BRI mutual fund reviewed is based on the social†¦show more content†¦The Green Century fund involves with going green and they use private companies. Maybe the companies cannot agree to the measure of the standards. The screening process will be the environmental positive impact which includes engineered organisms (GMO), and others. They try to decrease the negative environmental impact for the fossil fuels companies. The rate of return of the GCEQX for five years at 11.04% and for ten years is 6.18%, since inception rates to June 3, 1991. The SP 500 Index for the 5-years are 11.58% and 10-years are 7.01%. To compare with GCEQX and the SP 500 Index are decreasing through those years, but the SP 500 Index is higher in percentage than the Green Century Equity Fund. The Fidelity Spartan 500 Index Fund Class Inv (FUSEX) with the five year return rate of 10.92% and for the ten years is 6.84% and comparing to the mutual fund the percentage is still higher. It is shown in Appendix A as a chart for the comparison. Vanguard FTSE Social Index Fund Investor Shares (VFTSX) has a five year of rate of return are 12.27% and for the ten years are 6.44% and the comparison to the Green Century Equity Fund will be less than the social index fund. For both the five and ten years rate of return are in the 1% of total returns. The mutual fund collaborates with other companies that include in the environment for example Fossil Fuels Index. The mutual fund makes â€Å"about 360 stocks† is greater than the 30 stocks with this

The Long Lasting Effect of Alcohol on The Brain - 1208 Words

â€Å"Each year in the U.S., nearly 80,000 people die from alcohol-related causes, making it the third leading preventable cause of death in our country† (Alcohol Facts 1). Alcoholism is a major controversy in the United States, and many debate whether alcoholism is a disease or choice. Accordingly, based on scientific evidence, alcoholism is a disease because it has major long-term effects on the brain, it is an addiction, and it is treated medically. The first major reason alcoholism should be considered disease is the long-lasting effects it has on the brain. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently conducted a study that shows how the brain is affected after chronic alcohol use. They concluded that, â€Å"chronic alcohol exposure†¦show more content†¦Mark Willenburg, director of treatment and recovery research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism stated, â€Å"People with mild to moderate alcohol disorders can be treated with medications or behavioral therapy with a primary care doctor, but many people can do this on their own without having a professional. This idea is teaching people how to reevaluate their drinking†(Roan 2). By saying this Dr. WIllenburg has changed the opinions of many speculators in the nation, but what he has failed to do throughout his investigations is to take a people who exceed the mark for moderate drinking into question. Alcoholism is defined a chron ic disorder marked by excessive and usually compulsive drinking of alcohol leading to psychological and physical dependence or addiction (â€Å"Addiction† 1). The definition of alcoholism alone is enough to show that it is a serious problem, and it should be treated as such. The second reason alcoholism should be considered a disease is because of addiction. Addiction is defined in the Webster dictionary as, an unusually great interest in something or a need to do or have something (â€Å"Addiction† 1). Many other drugs such as marijuana, meth, and heroine are commonly known as highly addictive substance. Alcohol on the other hand is widely forgotten to be one of those substance. In an article titled,† What is Addiction†, Henry R. Kranzier, MD and Ting-Kai Li, MD looked further into what is addiction is reallyShow MoreRelatedLong Term Effects of Alchool818 Words   |  4 Pages12th Grade Alcohol essay The Long-Term Effects of Alcohol Use Alcohol is primarily absorbed through the stomach and the small intestines. 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Marketing Audit For Toowoomba Chamber Of Commerce

Question: conduct a Marketing Audit that includes an analysis of the internal and external factors that will be relevant to the development of a marketing strategy for the Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce. Answer: Executive Summary In Australia, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce is the most famous chamber. Therefore, this report reflects the marketing audit report of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce. In order to analyse or marketing audit of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce, explain the overview of organisation. Analyse the internal and external environment using PESTEL, SWOT and TOWS analysis tools. Apart from that, this report describes the target market, customers and stakeholders of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce. Through this report, it has been seen that Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce faces some problems and analyst also provides recommendation in order to mitigate problems. Introduction Park and Rim (2012) presumed that marketing audit provides the appraisal or review of existing market for business organisation along with their activities. On the other hand, Herbst et al. (2011) noted that marketing audit analyse the whole market for organisation with the activities and assess the present as well as past performance of the company. Based on marketing audit, management of the firm is able to evaluate possible actions for future success and long-term sustainability. Soldic-Aleksic and Rakic (2012) explained that marketing audit is very important for attaining success and long-term sustainability because external as well as internal environment of business change continuously. Therefore, with the consent of update, business firm has to reflect changes of external environment within their internal organisational process. This report represents the marketing audit report for Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce. The company currently run their business in Australia. The company mainly provides guideline on behalf of protecting business interests for secure future to community. This report represents the internal and external market audit for Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce and summarised the main point of overall strategic approach Section 1: Organisational Overview In 1899, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce started their journey in business environment. However, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce shows their keenness that encourages business. They run their business 114 years with proud history. Apart from that, it has been seen that wide range of committee of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce operates across the different region of Australia. Purpose The main purpose of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce is to promote, advocate and link for local business of Australian region with the people (Toowoombachamber.com.au, 2015). Mission The CEO of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce Ms. Helen Jentz said that they provide networking forum and advocate to the local community of business (Toowoombachamber.com.au, 2015). However, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce ensures that their member receive high value for business community. Table 1: Mission of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce Vision The vision of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce is to influence the formulation of government policy that affect Australian region. Apart from that, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce tries to gather premier sources for professional development opportunities for the greater Toowoomba business community. According to the CEO of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce, premier source of professional development can grow along with the growth of membership (Toowoombachamber.com.au, 2015). Thus, they can achieve most effective as well as largest business Chamber in the Australian region. Goals In terms of fulfilling the vision and mission, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce develop seven major goals for their future improvement such as Increase membership up to 1000 members within five years. Proactive in utilising members experience and promotions Improve the system of advocacy for business Regular review and update of constitution Improvement of future leaders Improve collaboration with organisations Influence government and council according to the local business within Australian region Section 2: Environmental Scan The current environment of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce operates largely. Therefore, due to changing environment, the Chamber faced several big picture issues at local and state levels. This section considers the major trends of the Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce by analyzing external audit such as political factors, economical, social, environmental, technical, etc and internal audit such as SWOT and TOWS analysis method. 2.1 PESTEL Analysis Political Factors: Political factor was not eco friendly with the organisational process of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber faced many challenges due to change of Queensland government in 2013. Apart from that, change of councillor Toowoomba also created several issues (Backhaus et al. 2011). Relationship with the councillors and TRC was also low. However, in 2013, Federal Election created lot of troubles for Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce. Political Relationship with Councillors and TRC Queensland government change Change of Toowoomba Councillor 2013 federal election Economical Labour costs and Labour Supply Growth rate of economy of TSBE (Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise) Cost of Capital Australian economy strength Social Joint Venturing Dynamic region of Australia Cross cultural communication Availability of labour force with high skills levels High growth rate of virtual interaction Technological E-commerce websites Advantage of NBN Mobile technology proliferation Transportation network and service access Environmental Infrastructure of local water supply Impact of mining and climate Global warming Farming versus mining Legal Employment law Law of Healthy and safety Law of consumer Table 2: PESTEL Analysis of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce Economical Factors: Economic helps Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce in order to grow their business. Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce closely related with the Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise (TSBE). However, in 2012, growth rate of TSBE was 7 percent of overall business process (Krstic and Popovic, 2012). Interest rate of service also decreases due to high business cycle stage. Apart from that, labour cost and labour supply has low impact in the economics of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce. Social Factors: Australia is also known as the social dynamic in their different region. Therefore, it has great impact in the organisational process of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce. Labour of Australia has high skills level as well as available. This also has high impact on Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce (Smith and Speed, 2011). Cross-cultural communication creates wide range of opportunity for increasing membership to Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce. However, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce is known as the business-networking organisation (Cant, 2009). Apart from that, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce involved the strategy of joint venturing with other organisation such as University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba Regional Council, etc. Technical Factors: Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce developed e-commerce website in order to interact with the members online. It demonstrates that communication technology is high for Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce (Nwankwo and Gbadamosi, 2011). Apart from that, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce implements mobile technology for communication with other and provide update report of constitution to their members (Malhotra, 2011). However, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce faced infrastructure challenges due to jet capable airfield and second range crossing. Environmental Factors: Infrastructure of local water supply for Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce is high (Chernev, 2010). However, due to climate fluctuation and global warming, the company faces challenges. Apart from that, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce has potential impact of both mining and climate on the farming community. Legal Factors: Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce maintain healthy and safety law within their operational process (Beamish and Ashford, 2010). Moreover, they follow the rule of consumer law, employment law and corporation law in their operation. 2.2 SWOT Analysis Strength: Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce runs their business for 114 years with proud. Therefore, long live proven success is the key strength of the organisation (Aaker, 2010). High brand value in establishing business in local community is also strength for Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce (Loudon, 2011). Apart from that, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce that they are the expert of using Australian business policy such as consumer law, contract law, employment law, corporation law, etc. Figure 1: SWOT Analysis of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce (Source: Herbst et al. 2011, pp- 971) Weakness: Low membership and representative is the key weakness for Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce (Luther, 2011). Apart from that, new board member of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce is not able to take regular review and update about continuous change of political environment. Opportunity: In order to increase customer base, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce adopted the strategy of joint venture and collaborate with other organisation such as Toowoomba Regional Council, Southern Queensland Institute of TAFE and University of Southern Queensland (Mullins, 2009). It will help Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce in increasing membership as well as future leaders. Threats: Lower exposure of committee member of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce is the major threat (Palmer, 2012). The organisation runs their operation for long time. However, they are not able to attain membership (Paley, 2009). After running the organisation, still they attain only 350 members and 120 leaders. This is also another influential threat for Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce. 2.2 TOWS Analysis Threats: Lesser expertise is the potential threat for Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce. However, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce has only presence in Australia. Therefore, membership is low. They have not any presence in outside of Australia. Opportunity: New appointed CEO of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce Ms. Helen Jentz collaborates with other large institute in the different region of Australia (Brodie et al. 2009). It may help in sharing information about the potentiality of organisation. Thus, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce is able to fulfil their goals within 5 years. Weakness: Base of membership is too much low according the long-term business sustainability of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce. Moreover, majority of representatives or leaders are new (Bates, 2009). Therefore, they find difficulties in terms of providing update constitution to members. Strength: Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce has high brand value in terms of establishing local business community within the region of Australia (Bolton and Lemon, 2009). Apart from that, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce has long terms success stories (more than 114 years). This helps in creating positive impact on local business community of Australia. Section 3: Customer, Competitors and Stakeholder Analysis 3. 1 Target Market Analysis Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce is one of the most popular advocacy and business support providing organization within the local business community of Toowoomba (Kim and McAlister, 2011). However, the organisation delivers required advocacy for the large organisation in local business community within Australia (Zhang et al. 2012). The organisation has 350 members and 120 future leaders. The target market of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce is those the local business community especially those business house that growing large within the country as well as outside of the country such as Action Metal Recyclers Toowoomba Pty Ltd, Barker signs, , Climate Assist Png, etc. In order to increase membership, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce identifies their potential customers such as Aba Pty Ltd, Allied Liquid Waste, etc (Toowoombarc.qld.gov.au, 2015). According to the CEO of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce, they segment their customers based on organisational operational process such as financial marketers, agriculture marketers, printing and publishing, shopping and stores, etc. Apart from that, Toowoomba segment their target market demographically. According to the market review of 2014, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce achieves more than 600 members (Brei et al. 2014). 3.2 Customer Analysis From the point of view of advocacy service, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce satisfies their customers needs and requirements properly. In order to satisfy the consumer and fulfil their requirement, Toowoomba develop new board and appointed new CEO name Helen Jentz. Increasing members in board, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce provides wide range of facility to their customers including current up to date constitution. However, in terms of providing advocacy, the organisation segments their target market. In the diverse demand and continuous policy change climate in Australia, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce successfully attains their unmatched membership. In modern days, majority of companies tries to develop business with full of ethics (Toowoombarc.qld.gov.au, 2015). Therefore, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce review about the constitution rules and regulation of Australian repaid changing government and advocate to customer by properly maintaining the curret rules and regulation in local bu siness community. Apart from that, majority of organisation in these days are very much conscious about the environmental policy. Therefore, providing information and advocating them, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce builds trust (Leonidou and Leonidou, 2011). The board member of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce demands that they provide solutions to customer that purchase partial decisions. This factor allows in increasing growth rate within business community. 3.3 Competitor analysis According to the present scenario, there is not competitor found of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce in Toowoomba Region. 3.4 Stakeholder Analysis Major stakeholders of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce are the Mrs Taisoo Kim Watson, Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise, Football Toowoomba Inc, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Heritage Bank, etc. The stakeholders of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce play the important role in order to develop the network and make important contribution. It helps in attaining success via evaluating the program. Pirog (2010) argued that University of Southern Queensland plays the important role in developing program in different cities. On the other hand, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce helps in advocating with other organisation in local business community that facilitate the sustainable growth for those organisations within the region of Toowoomba. Moreover, Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise allow the organisation in providing information about development of economy to the customers. Apart from that, the governing body of Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise involved in the advocacy service providing program of Chamber of Commerce closely (Toowoombarc.qld.gov.au, 2015). Mrs Taisoo Kim Watson is also play the vital role in operational process of Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce. Mrs Taisoo Kim Wats on continuously engages with the government council board and interprets the service that helps in increasing income delegation. Section 4: Conclusion and Recommendations 4.1 Conclusion From the above market audit report, it has been identified that due to new member of advocacy board, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce is unable to provide council with important information for the performance of Central Business District at local business community of Toowoomba. Apart from that, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce is not meeting the demands regarding statutory obligations for ensuring ethical business activities. Moreover, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce was not fulfilling the statutory requirements for their customers. The organisation is unable to amend planning scheme policy for customers. Due to change of government policy, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce is unable to facilitate their customers. 4.2 Recommendations Recommendation 1: Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce has to endorse the framework of Central Business District Metrics. Analysing the method need to prepare a plan and design specific group. Moreover, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce has to engage council officers within their chamber of Commerce. Recommendation 2: In order to make appropriate plan and amend local business community planning, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce has to maintain or follow the guideline of Statutory Guideline 02/13. This will help in making the minor amendment that consists successful business for customers. Recommendation 3: In order to mitigate the problem of amend planning scheme policy, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce has to adopt standards engineering for the drainage and road infrastructure in terms of modifying the consideration of submission Reference List Books Aaker, D. (2010) Strategic Market Management: Global Perspectives. 6th ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Beamish, K. and Ashford, R. (2012) CIM Course book 07/08 Marketing Planning. 3rd ed. New York: Free Press. Cant, M. (2009) Marketing Management. 3rd ed. New York: Free Press. Chernev, A. (2010) Strategic marketing management. 7th ed. 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Sequence and Rate of Each Aspect of Development free essay sample

Children are given intellectual development at a young age and their own experiences. It is important to know that children learn in different ways and at different speed, and find particular activities more or less difficult than other according to own strengths and abilities. Social, emotional and behavioral development Children should learn to have confidence in becoming independent from adults as they get older, these development is about how children feel about themselves and relate to others. The table below shows the different developments to age. | 0-3 Years| 3-7 Years| 7-12 Years| 12-16 Years| Physical development| Period of fast physical development. New born have little control over their bodies. Sucking and grasping which are reflexes of movement, which they need to survive, in the first year they learn more control over their bodies, by 12 months most babies have developed to crawling or rolling, by their 2nd year they continue to grow and develop quickly learning to walk, using their hands for pointing, holding small objects, and dressing and feeding themselves. We will write a custom essay sample on Sequence and Rate of Each Aspect of Development or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page | They can carry out more coordinated movements and growing in confidence. They have more control over fine motor skills like cutting, writing and drawing. They also have more confident in activities such as running hopping, kicking a ball, catching and using larger equipment. | They continue to grow, develop and refine many of their skills through these years. Dance and sport become hobbies and interests, which means they are more practiced in some areas. There fine motor skills have developed which means they can learn such things as sewing, drawing and playing an instrument. Girls start to show signs of the early stage of puberty about age 10 or 11 and boys puberty usually starts to show later, when there will be another period of rapid physical growth. In these years they are growing stronger. Boys are going through puberty and girls have completed the process and have regular periods. There is a variety in height and strength between these ages, on average boys are taller than girls at the end of this stage. | Communication and language development| From an early age adults talk to babies even know they can’t understand what they are saying, babies that don’t have contact with adult have problems learning communication skills, it is around 12 months that babies try to speak, even though pronunciation is not clear and words are usually used in isolation. At about 1 and 2 years they start to put words together, around 2 years old most children know around 200 words and between 2 and 3 years, children start to use negative and plurals in their speech, they still make errors with their grammar when in speech like â€Å"I drawed it†| At this stage they become more confidence with talking and start to ask a lot more questions and talk about thing in the past and future tenses, they start to use a lot more familiar phrases and expressions. Most children by this stage and onwards are able to speak with fluency in their own language and are refining their skills at reading and writing, they are able to have full discussion and put their ideas forwards and learning in more abstract terms. | | Intellectual development| They start to look around, enjoy repetitive activities on which they can predict the outcome of the activity, when playing hide and seek they start to understand that the object is still there when hidden, they can start to recognize colors’ and point to them, they can identify different items and point to them. They become skilled with aspects of numbers and writing, also they are starting to read with become more confidence with reading, as well as learning about the world but they are still looking for adult approval. | Children start to develop ideas about subjects they enjoy, they are becoming fluent in writing and reading skills and are still influenced by adults. They are able to transfer information and think in a more abstract way by using their own thoughts. | Young pupils in this stage know their favorite subjects, activities and have clear ideas about these. They are choosing what GCSEs to sit in which they are able to achieve. They might not have a lot of confidence or avoid situations in areas that they do not like. In teenagers they need to feel good about themselves and they want to belong. | Social, emotional and behavioral development| Babies at this stage form strong attachments which are usually with parents and carers, they start to find their own identities from about the age of 2. Form age 2 they start to have tantrums through frustration and will want to do things for themselves.

The Changing Faces of Present and Presentation

The Changing Faces of Present and Presentation The Changing Faces of Present and Presentation The Changing Faces of Present and Presentation By Maeve Maddox Present belongs to a group of English words that, with a shift in pronunciation, may be either noun or verb. present [prÄ•zÉ™nt] n. (accent on the first syllable) a gift present [prÄ ­-zÄ•nt] v. (accent on the second syllable) to introduce, to give an award In an article about the 2009 Academy Awards, I noticed a third use of present that may be in the process of entering the language: Best Present: Copresenters Steve Martin and Tina Fey, whove been funny together on TV and film, delivered a hilarious tribute to writers that made us want to see them make another movie together. Erik Pedersen, E! Online Here Pedersen is using present as a shortened form of presentation. In the way of the web, Pedersens words have been copied by numerous bloggers and it may only be a matter of time before we hear present [prÄ“zÄ•nt] for presentation the way we hear invite [Ä ­n-vÄ «t] in place of invitation. presentation [prÄ•zÉ™n-tÄ shÉ™n] n. the act of presenting A presentation can be a gift, or it can be something like a lecture or a slide presentation. Evidence that the cropped form present for presentation may have already caught on with some users appears in these headlines used to introduce slide shows on the web: OM slide Present SHN Membership Slide Present 2006 In looking for examples of this new, unlovely use of present, I came across a (to me) new use of presentation. When used on a wedding invitation, the expression presentation preferred, means forget the gifts, we want cash. This comment from a wedding forum shows that not eveyone is comfortable with this use of presentation: My soon-to-be mother in-law is really against presentation, but its our wedding, not hers ! I guess when we showed her the sample of the invite, she didnt notice the presentation on it. Ah, the accelerate of linguistic change! 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 Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:What is the Difference Between "These" and "Those"?Capitalization Rules for Names of Historical Periods and MovementsCharles's Pen and Jesus' Name

Learn the Basics of Earthquakes

Learn the Basics of Earthquakes Earthquakes are natural ground motions caused as the Earth releases energy. The science of earthquakes is seismology, study of shaking in scientific Greek. Earthquake energy comes from the stresses of plate tectonics. As plates move, the rocks on their edges deform and take up strain until the weakest point, a fault, ruptures, and releases the strain. Earthquake Types and Motions Earthquake events come in three basic types, matching the three basic types of fault. The fault motion during earthquakes is called slip or coseismic slip. Strike-slip events involve sideways motion- that is, the slip is in the direction of the faults strike, the line it makes on the ground surface. They may be right-lateral (dextral) or left-lateral (sinistral), which you tell by seeing which way the land moves on the other side of the fault.Normal events involve downward movement on a sloping fault as the faults two sides move apart. They signify extension or stretching of the Earths crust.Reverse or thrust events involve upward movement, instead, as the faults two sides move together. Reverse motion is steeper than a 45-degree slope, and thrust motion is shallower than 45 degrees. They signify compression of the crust. Earthquakes can have an oblique slip that combines these motions. Earthquakes dont always break the ground surface. When they do, their slip creates an offset. Horizontal offset is called heave and vertical offset is called throw. The actual path of fault motion over time, including its velocity and acceleration, is called fling. Slip that occurs after a quake is called postseismic slip. Finally, slow slip that occurs without an earthquake is called creep. Seismic Rupture The underground point where the earthquake rupture begins is the focus or hypocenter. The epicenter of an earthquake is the point on the ground directly above the focus. Earthquakes rupture a large zone of a fault around the focus. This rupture zone may be lopsided or symmetrical. Rupture may spread outward evenly from a central point (radially), or from one end of the rupture zone to the other (laterally), or in irregular jumps. These differences partly control the effects that an earthquake has at the surface. The size of the rupture zone- that is, the area of fault surface that ruptures- is what determines the magnitude of an earthquake. Seismologists map rupture zones by mapping the extent of aftershocks. Seismic Waves and Data Seismic energy spreads from the focus in three different forms: Compression waves, exactly like sound waves (P waves)Shear waves, like waves in a shaken jump rope (S waves)Surface waves resembling water waves (Rayleigh waves) or sideways shear waves (Love waves) P and S waves are body waves that travel deep in the Earth before rising to the surface. P waves always arrive first and do little or no damage. S waves travel about half as fast and may cause damage. Surface waves are slower still and cause the majority of the damage. To judge the rough distance to a quake, the time the gap between the P-wave thump and the S-wave jiggle and multiply the number of seconds by 5 (for miles) or 8 (for kilometers). Seismographs are instruments that make seismograms or recordings of seismic waves. Strong-motion seismograms are made with rugged seismographs in buildings and other structures. Strong-motion data can be plugged into engineering models, to test a structure before it is built. Earthquake magnitudes are determined from body waves recorded by sensitive seismographs. Seismic data is our best tool for probing the deep structure of the Earth. Seismic Measures Seismic intensity measures how bad an earthquake is, that is, how severe shaking is at a given place. The 12-point Mercalli scale is an intensity scale. Intensity is important for engineers and planners. Seismic magnitude measures how big an earthquake is, that is, how much energy is released in seismic waves. Local or Richter magnitude ML is based on measurements of how much the ground moves and moment magnitude Mo is a more sophisticated calculation based on body waves. Magnitudes are used by seismologists and the news media. The focal mechanism beachball diagram sums up the slip motion and the faults orientation. Earthquake Patterns Earthquakes cannot be predicted, but they have some patterns. Sometimes foreshocks precede quakes, though they look just like ordinary quakes. But every large event has a cluster of smaller aftershocks, which follow well-known statistics and can be forecasted. Plate tectonics successfully explains where earthquakes are likely to occur. Given good geologic mapping and a long history of observations, quakes can be forecasted in a general sense, and hazard maps can be made showing what degree of shaking a given place can expect over the average life of a building. Seismologists are making and testing theories of earthquake prediction. Experimental forecasts are beginning to show modest but significant success at pointing out impending seismicity over periods of months. These scientific triumphs are many years from practical use. Large quakes make surface waves that may trigger smaller quakes great distances away. They also change stresses nearby and affect future quakes. Earthquake Effects Earthquakes cause two major effects: shaking and slip. Surface offset in the largest quakes can reach more than 10 meters. Slip that occurs underwater can create tsunamis. Earthquakes cause damage in several ways: Ground offset can cut lifelines that cross faults: tunnels, highways, railroads, powerlines, and water mains.Shaking is the greatest threat. Modern buildings can handle it well through earthquake engineering, but older structures are prone to damage.Liquefaction occurs when shaking turns the solid ground into mud.Aftershocks can finish off structures damaged by the main shock.Subsidence can disrupt lifelines and harbors; invasion by the sea can destroy forests and croplands. Earthquake Preparation and Mitigation Earthquakes cannot be predicted, but they can be foreseen. Preparedness saves misery; earthquake insurance and conducting earthquake drills are examples. Mitigation saves lives; strengthening buildings is an example. Both can be done by households, companies, neighborhoods, cities, and regions. These things require a sustained commitment of funding and human effort, but that can be hard when large earthquakes may not occur for decades or even centuries in the future. Support for Science The history of earthquake science follows notable earthquakes. Support for research surges after major quakes and is strong while memories are fresh but gradually dwindles until the next Big One. Citizens should ensure steady support for research and related activities like geologic mapping, long-term monitoring programs, and strong academic departments. Other good earthquake policies include retrofitting bonds, strong building codes and zoning ordinances, school curricula, and personal awareness.

Kodak and Fujifilm Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Kodak and Fujifilm - Assignment Example The organization has its headquarters in New York, US. George Eastman established the company in the year 1889. The organization is known for its photographic film products. The adoption of blades and razor strategy by the company led to its selling cheaper cameras in the market. The company also made huge amount of margins from its production of consumables such as films and chemicals. The company flourished during the later part of the year 1976. At that point in time, a major portion of the film sales and camera sales were commanded by the company in the US market. Fujifilm is considered as a multinational organization dealing in services such as photography and imaging services. The company is officially known as Fujifilm Holdings Corporation and has its headquarters in the Tokyo city of Japan. The company is engaged in the business of colour paper, colour photographic film, sale of digital cameras, and photofinishing equipment, etc. The approach of the company with regard to management has made the organization a strong consumer brand which is considered to have a sound technology base. The strategy of the management of the company is considered as different with regard to managing and undertaking innovation. PEST analysis is considered as an important tool to analyze the macro environment of an organization. It seeks to identify those factors that have a considerable bearing on an organization’s demand and supply levels and also on its cost structure. There are numerous advantages of PEST analysis as follows: Political: it is required by the copyright law of US that any print and subsequent release of digital images taken by photographers considered as professional cannot be released without having a copyright of release. The company has its operations in various countries and so it is of utmost importance for the company to comply with the regulations of such countries

External Environment Analysis of Rio International Company in Dubai Essay

External Environment Analysis of Rio International Company in Dubai - Essay Example The company currently provides its services to the Middle East and other Asian countries at large. It is believed that it is through its lengthy relations that the company has stronger networks and connections. Locally, the company extends its services to airports, resorts, catering suppliers, restaurants, coffee shops, supermarkets, and Multi Star Hotels (Atninfo, 2013). In as much as the company can rejoice and celebrate so many years of existence, there is much that it should do about its environmental factors that directly affect its performance and its future success. To be able to do this, the company needs to carry out an environmental analysis that would involve analyzing all the factors in its external environment that directly affect its performance. In analyzing Rio International’s external environment, we use the following tools: Most of the equipment that are provided by the companies in the food processing industry in Dubai are manufactured and imported from Switzerland and Germany. This has inhibited adequate growth in the industry as most of the revenues earned taken back to the countries where the products come to purchase more. When the industry depends so much on other countries for the supply of the equipment, it loses the independence to keep itself in business without overreliance on other countries. The industry can, therefore, face easy extinction in case the countries supplying it with the equipment decides to put unfriendly policies that would make it hard for bilateral or multilateral trade between the countries. The government of Dubai is involved largely in the key sectors of the economy. Manufacturing and processing being one such sector, the government can use its political influences to protect such sectors from external exploitation. Therefore, the industry is protected politically through formulation of appropriate legal conditions to make it grow and survive without much

U.S. Secret Service Essay Example for Free

U.S. Secret Service Essay United States of America, have many service within the government to protect themselves, the people, or our president. The one service I we hear about but rarely know will be the, secret services. We rarely know anything about them just that they make good money and put there life in danger. The following I will be information you about: education required, qualifications, training, and salary of a member of secret services. Education required for them each position has different entry level qualifications and education requirements. It would depend on what they want to be and the position they want. Each position has different requirements and education levels. Members also have to have certain qualification. For example they must be a United States citizen, must pass a medical exam – vision, hearing, cardiovascular, mobility of extremities, pass a drug screening, must pass a report writing test , pass an extensive background investigation, must pass a polygraph examination, must pass an in-depth interview, must pass an entrance exam, must be able to obtain a Top Secret clearance and must be over age 21 years and under age 37 years. There is no expectation of any of these they are all must, if they do not pass one of these qualifications then they will not be eligible to work in secret services. If they pass all these they must get training which is three month training program at the, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. The is only two training campuses one is in Artesia, New Mexico, and in Glynco, Georgia. After done with that training they go another three months for specialized instruction training, which is located in Laurel, Maryland at the James J. Rowley Training Center. After completing this process and being hired they would make, $43,200 to $73,354 per year, as starting officers. This information is report in 2009 by the, United States Secret Service. The United States Secret Service is something we hear about at time and know rarely about. I wanted to inform myself and learn things about how they get to their level and what they do. As I was reading I see that they have to work for their position, it is not given to them they have to put all there effort in their job. I saw their job is to protect the president and vice president, their families, former presidents, presidential candidates and other U.S. or foreign visiting political figures. They go under cover on criminal cases that relate to the nation’s financial security form credit card fraud, computer fraud, and bank fraud. Secret Services does two thing basically they do investigations and protect the people that are important to our society at the moment and after. As well they were founded in 1865 and are one of the most elite law enforcement organizations in the world. Their main headquartered is in Washington, D.C with 150 offices over the United State. They must stay untied in order to complete there job.

Saint John Bosco :: essays research papers

A man with a vision, with an awareness of the good that lives in people, with an ability of dreaming dreams of beauty for those he met along his way, this is John Bosco.St. John Bosco (1815-1888) was born to poor parents in Recchi, Italy, the Piedmont area of northern Italy. When John was two, his father died prematurely. As a boy, John lived on a farm with his family doing the only thing they knew how, farming. Poverty and a lack of formal education in the home did not stop the growth of John Bosco as a person. His mother was for real, realizing the importance of God in life.This friendship with God became powerful and slowly John prepared for the priesthood. In 1841 at the age of 26, John was ordained priest at Turin, and immediately gave himself to that work, finding shelter for neglected youth and instructing them in religion. He was now ready to make his contribution toward the poor and homeless. He rented an old barn in a field which he called "The Oratory." This was the first of many oratories John Bosco founded for helping poor boys who needed a home. He believed that prayer and Holy Mass and Communion and confession are the best ways for children to attain a sense of personal responsibility.In a short time, other priests joined him in his work and by 1852 they were caring for over 600 boys. John dealt with them by using a minimum of restraint and discipline, lots of love, keeping careful watch over their development and encouraging them personally and through religion.John's preaching and writing, as well as the charitable support of wealthy and powerful patrons allowed for expansion of his work. The need for dependable assistants led to the founding of the society of St. Francis de Sales in 1859, and it continues to work today.To provide similar care for the poor and neglected girls, John Bosco founded, in 1872, the Daughters of Our Lady, Help of Christians.The life of St. John Bosco was full and his zeal contagious. He never got tired of talking and writing about his work for the young and their care. On this feast day the Church has chosen for the Office of Readings an excerpt from one of his letters. It expresses his concern and is applicable for our time when children suffer from neglect in broken homes and in less than ideal welfare situations.

Client’s Advocacy Essay

Abstract Advocacy is an important aspect of every counselor’s role; therefore, counselors need to help remove environmental barriers that hamper client’s well-being by increasing the client’s sense of personal power and to foster environmental changes that reflect greater responsiveness to client’s sense of personal needs. Outreach, empowerment, social justice, and social action are all apart of advocacy. Counselors need to help the client prevent psychological distress by helping them develop resources and strengths while reducing negative influences. There are three models: the wheel of wellness model, the indivisible self- model, and advocacy. These models emphasize the importance of enhancing individual strengths and environmental resources and decreasing individual limitations and social stresses. Sally Jo Jacobs, 34, Female client whom is Caucasian and divorced with four children and two living at home, youngest is living in Arizona with his Father, her ex-husband She hasn’t seen him since ’03. She is divorced from him because he was abusive to her physically and mentally. Her oldest son is living In Seattle and working, going to college, and has his own radio show from the college at Green River Community College. Client has one older sister, who lives in Alabama, which is on her 5th marriage due to her inability to deal with the abuse sustained when they were growing up. The client has two younger brothers, who were abused, but not sexually by their father. Her and her children are now living in the area with no family support or even communication with her parents. Client states she has a violent relationship with her father. Client states her relationship with her mother is on and off. The client was referred by her regular Physician for depression and unable to come up with healthy coping skills. The client doesn’t drink but twice a month, quit smoking in ’03, doesn’t gamble, doesn’t do street drugs, but is on prescription drugs due to chronic pain from a previous work injury and her physical abusive ex-husband. She loved working on cars and trucks, roller skating, going 4x4ing, gardening and yard work. She states that she has a very limited ability to do these things she loved to do and is having a hard time dealing with the fact that she can no longer do the things she loved to do. Client states she is taking Percocet 7.5 325 mg, 6 pills in a 24 hour period of time, Cymbalta 60mg in the morning, Flexerall,10 mg and a sleep aid at night. It is important for the counselor to be aware of what medications the client is on in order to help in the relation to the client’s well-being. Client states that she has nothing to do and she thinks about what happened when she was growing up with the abuse and her accident on a constant basis, which leads her to depression. She says that when she was growing up there was sexual and mental abuse by her father, that her father abused her and her sister when their mom was working or out bowling. She has very specific memories, she remembers from when she was in a crib to her last day of high school, which was the last time her father touched her in an inappropriate manner. â€Å"Childhood abuse and neglect may be markers for other factors that have an impact on the developing child or may share with PTSD a common origin in a disrupted and disorganized childhood. Another concern is that previous research has suggested that abused and neglected children are at increased risk for early behavior problems and conduct disorder. Behavior problems in childhood or adolescence may be associated with increased risk for engaging in risk y behaviors. In turn, such behaviors may lead to increased risk of exposure to traumatic events and to subsequent PTSD. A third possibility is that childhood victimization may be associated with PTSD through its effect on a person’s lifestyle, which places the person more or less at risk for exposure to traumatic events and, ultimately, PTSD. PTSD, such as low levels of education and extroversion, that serve to expose individuals to social roles and environments associated with high risk for victimization.† (Cathy, 1999.). This learner believes that she stayed in abusive and unhealthy relationships because of what her father did to her as a child and now she is experiencing depression and PTSD. The goal of this client is to empower her to solve her problems independently by helping her understand herself and to help her have the ability to problem-solve. The counselor needs to spend time assessing the seriousness of the concern presented to her and provide structure to the counseling process (such as understanding the conditions, procedures, and nature of counseling), and helping the clie nt take initiative in the change process. The goal for this client is to get her help for her depression with tools and education to help her work through what her father and ex-husband have put her through. My first priority is to build trust, rapport, and be able to set goals and design a treatment plan for change. The counselor will need to build up her psychological health by helping her build coping skills, self-esteem, social support, personal power, problem solving skills, self- care, sense of humor, sense of control, sense of worth, and stress management. Because of her abuse, she has developed depression and stress. The prevention programs the counselor needs to use for this client to help with stress is identifying the source of the stress, recognizing the physical and emotional consequences of stress, and learning and implementing adaptive coping responses. Strength-based Wellness counseling interventions may help abused survivors develop coping skills to enhance both overall quality of life and everyday functioning across multiple domains, while also providing a healthy foundation from which to explore and reframe their abuse experience. One of the most common interventions with adult women survivors is trauma-focused, or exposure-based, treatment, where the sexual abuse experience is reviewed in some way. Trauma focused interventions are based on the notion that the meaning â€Å"attach[ed] to the abuse, as well as the personal impact, is imbedded in the details of the experience† And therefore requires in-depth review of the abuse experience (Hodges & Myers, 2010). Fostering positive growth is an appropriate therapeutic goal: posttraumatic growth increases positive feelings of self, self-efficacy, and resiliency, which lay the foundation for continued Improvement in other areas of life. Wellness-focused interventions offer clients a positive lens for viewing their strengths and strategies for using those strengths to cope with the issues created by their sexual abuse history. Wellness-focused interventions validate the individual and the fact that the important thing is not why the individual survived but how. Advocacy is an important factor in every counselor’s role and it serves two purposes: to increase client’s sense of personal power and to foster environmental changes that reflect greater responsiveness to client’s personal needs (Gladding & Newsome, 2010). In order to help the client with advocacy, I would join the Montana Coalition against domestic and sexual violence and get my client guidance through them. The Montana Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence (MCADSV) is a statewide coalition of individuals and organizations working together to end domestic and sexual violence through advocacy, public education, public policy, and p rogram development. Our mission is to support and facilitate networking among our member organizations while advocating for social change in Montana. Currently, MCADSV represents over 50 programs across Montana that provides direct services to victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence and their children. In addition, the membership includes other nonprofit and government organizations and individuals (professionals and members of the general public) who are interested in addressing domestic and sexual violence in a way that holds offenders accountable and provides support for the people they victimize. Our membership is open to anyone who is in accord with their philosophy. Their philosophy is â€Å"We base our actions and interactions on the following basic tenets; we advocate for policy that supports and/or forwards them; and we work to increase public awareness on issues related to them. We believe all women have the right to live a life free of violence or the threat of violence. Women have the right to freedom from violations of their personal autonomy and physical integrity on the street, in the home, at the workplace, and in the Coalition. Furthermore, women should not have to restrict their freedom of movement, their bodies, or their activities in order to be safe. We believe all women have the right to make their own decisions regarding sexual and reproductive matters, lifestyles, finances, education, and employment. We believe religious beliefs and practices are a matter of personal conscience and individual choice, and a Montana Coalition member shall neither promote nor discourage a particular religious belief in the course of his or her work. We believe classism, racism, ableism, ageism, homophobia (and all forms of elitism) are attitudes that serve to divide people who might otherwise join forces. As such, they interfere with women’s ability to pool their efforts and reach their full potential. Our membership is open to people of all backgrou nds. Furthermore, survivors of violence represent an essential constituency in our movement, and the Montana Coalition strongly encourages full participation by and equity for survivors† (MSADSV, 2010). MSADSV’s goals are to eliminate all forms of oppression, provide support and networking opportunities and training, and to encourage increased awareness and understanding of domestic and sexual violence and the concerns of survivors and to explore and support innovative policy approaches to issues related to domestic and sexual violence. This website has a lot of information for the client to get additional help and tools for her recovery. During the advocacy with the client, the counselor needs to be compassionate and show commitment in order to provide motivation to take action. The counselor needs to use verbal and non-verbal skills in order to be an effective counselor. Some skills the counselor needs to have is integrity, flexibility, empathy, patience, persistence, and resourcefulness. The client needs to have outreach, empowerment, social justice, and social action. Outreach involves reaching out to vulnerable populations in the community and helping clients find new ways to cope with the stressors. Empowerment is a process which the client gains resources and skills they will need to have more control over their environments and lives. Empowerment is important in this case because it helps the abused woman become aware of inappropriate use of power and privilege that her partner was claiming. Social justice is promoting access and equity to ensure full participation of all people in the life of a society as well as a belief system that values fair and equal treatment for all members of society. Social action derives from the belief system, resulting in the actions taken to promote equal rights. The counselor is involved in confronting barriers faced by clients. Abusive relationships has a significant and pervasive impact on individuals, producing a variety of mental, emotional, relational, physical, and trauma symptoms. Most therapeutic interventions focus primarily on reliving or retelling, in great detail, the sexual abuse experience. However, many clients lack a positive sense of self, an internal focus of control, and an ability to view the abuse as only part of which they are rather than the defining elements. Through a focus on Wellness factors, therapists can help adult women recognize their strengths and use them both in and outside of sessions to create and sustain positive lifestyle change. Helping clients experience positive outcomes of Wellness choices is empowering and facilitates their ability to invest in and cope with the healing process. Considering the multiple challenges many survivors bring to counseling, these outcomes are extremely important. A wellness-based intervention may increase self-efficacy, resiliency, and awareness of healthy coping skills, resulting in positive changes in everyday functioning. Such changes are inherently helpful to the survival process and can offer survivors valuable tools with which to approach future experiences. Therapists need to consider symptom presentation and prioritize the goals for therapy accordingly. Once safety is established, therapists and clients can incorporate a Wellness intervention into a range of treatment options, positive growth can occur simultaneously with distressing emotions. As with any therapeutic intervention, the therapist must continually assess the client’s experience with the intervention and alter interventions when necessary. References Cathy, S. W. (1999). Posttraumatic stress disorder in abused and neglected children grown up. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 156(8), 1223-9. http://search.proquest.com/docview/220471620?accountid=27965 Gladding, S.T., & Newsome, D.W. (2010). Clinical Mental Health Counseling in a Community and Agency Setting. (3rd Ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education. Hodges, E. A., & Myers, J. E. (2010). Counseling Adult Women Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Benefits of a Wellness Approach. Journal Of Mental Health Counseling, 32(2), 139-153. Montana Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence (2010). Retrieved from- http://mcadsv.com/

Letter of Advice on Communication Essay

I am honored that you would seek my advice on communication in your relationship. There are many components to good communication, many think that good communication comes naturally. The fact that we have been communicating all of our lives does not mean that we do it well. (Sole, K, 2011 ch1. 1). Communication is complex, it requires many skills and you must be willing to not only practice these, but also continue learning to improve these. There can be many issues while learning to communicate effectively. In order to help you in your quest for knowledge I will go over a few important things I think you should know about interpersonal communication. This advice should help you in your lives together. When it comes to a healthy relationship, effective communication is the cornerstone on which you build it. If you cannot communicate properly, it will have effects in your personal life. When it comes to relationships, effective communication is the most important skill that one can learn. Explain principles and misconceptions in effective interpersonal communications It is important to realize why we communicate. We communicate for a reason. The primary goal of communication is to share meaning and to connect with other people. Understanding these human needs and communication purposes is essential to success as a communicator. (Sole, 2011) There are many purposes for communicating. One of the most basic purposes is to meet personal needs. Humans are social animals; we need to interact with one another. Another purpose is to learn about yourself and others, this is a process that you must continue well into your relationship, I will provide you advice on how to do this. The most important purpose in your case is to build and maintain relationships. Effective communication is the glue that will hold your relationship together. There are certain skills that are required to be an effective communicator. Listening skills are essential research indicates that most people spend more time listening than talking, however most people have had little education on how to be an effective listener. Listening requires focus and attention; failure to listen effectively is one of the key causes of miscommunication. People skills are important to communication as well, this skill requires a wide range of skills in itself. You must be able to determine the appropriate self disclosure, which means how much personal information to share with others, assertion skills, collaborative skills, problem solving skills, and conflict resolution skills. Emotional intelligence is another skill that you must learn. This means understanding emotions and expressing emotions appropriately. Appropriate skill selection is another skill in effective communication; this means the ability to recognize communication problems when they arise. The final critical skill is communicating ethically, this means the ability to understand what constitutes ethical communication. I have given you the basics in order to better explain how effective communication will enhance your relationship. Describe the process by which self concept is developed and maintained It is important in communication to realize who you are as an individual. How you carry yourself can reflect in your interpersonal relationships and communications. Your self-concept is made up several components. You may have a physical self concept, how you look. You may have an academic self-concept; I am a good student for example. The first step to develop and maintain self-concept is to find out what your self-concept is. A good way to do this is to take a pen and paper and write I am on it, and then in ten minutes write as many descriptions of yourself as you can. This will help you realize what you believe about yourself. This can be critical to maintaining a healthy relationship. Self concept is best learned and maintained through interpersonal communication. You construct partially your-self concept by choosing to accept or reject what other people tell you about you. Through communication with others you can use words and actions to influence other people’s opinions of you. Recognize how words have the power to create and affect attitudes, behavior and perception When communicating with each other choose your words wisely. Words are powerful tools; the words you use can have multiple intentions and interpretations. Choosing the wrong words can lead to miscommunication and lead to conflict. Your choice of words reflect your attitude to show an example of this to etter explain the concept, if you work with someone who is particular about things, if you like them you would call them detail oriented, if you don’t you might call them picky or fussy. (Sole, 2011) Both terms have the same meaning, however one has a negative connotation, the other is positive. The words you choose to use will also have an effect on perception of the person you are communicating with, if you realize this it may save a lot of miscommunication conflicts. Evaluate the proper level of self-disclosure in relationships It is important to keep your personal communication going. This means you have to have quality communication beyond about who is going to pick up the kids, pay the bills, or call the grandparents. (Schoenberg, 2011) You have to have quality communication. If you plan to get married and live together for a lifetime, you must continue to show interest and learn about one another. Ask each other random questions, tell your spouse you fears, feelings, doubts and perceptions with each other. Researchers have linked self-disclosure with marital satisfaction. That is why self-disclosure is key to your relationship, you have to take the time for quality communication. Identify barriers to effective interpersonal interactions If you practice your communication skills you can avoid most barriers to your interpersonal interactions. One thing to keep in mind is that researchers found that most couples think that they communicate better than they do (U. S. News and Report, 2011). If you are close in your relationships you may assume that your spouse automatically understands what you mean when you say something. If you say it’s getting hot in here when you are cold, your spouse may think that you are making an amorous advance and may not go turn up the temperature in the house. You must be patient when things like this happen as well and remember that effective communication must be worked at and does not automatically happen. When it comes to relationships effective communication is the most important skill you can learn to keep your relationship alive. If you do not communicate effectively, it can lead to conflicts. These conflicts can cause couples to break up. If you continue to practice your communication skills, you will have a higher chance of having a happy marriage. Good luck and congratulations on your engagement.

Government Spending essays

Government Spending essays How resources are allocated within a program signal a great deal about priorities. In the wake of the bombings of the World Trade Center and the Murrah Federal Building in the United States and that sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, both the executive and legislative branches of government focused considerable attention on preventing and responding to a WMD terrorist attack. In the context of a federal budget that exceeds a trillion dollars, a natural question to pose is whether $10 billion dollars allocated to address the range of terrorism challenges is too much, to little, or just enough. As the GAO repeatedly noted, part of the problem with the current executive branch funding approach to terrorism is the lack of threat and risk assessments that would suggest priorities and appropriate countermeasures. Rooting government funding more rigorously seems vitally important if every dollar spent to address the terrorism problem will render the maximum amount of public safety. The executive and legislative branches of government are equally responsible for heralding the critical need to address the threat, but neither body has made a cogent or somber assessment of the threat. Most of the executive and legislative branch activities to counter terrorism seems based on the vulnerability of American society and forces abroad, not on an assessment of the threat. Given the openness of American society, the country is potentially infinitely vulnerable to terrorist use of WMD. Even if the chances of terrorist use of WMD are extremely low, the consequences of such an attack may result on a scale hard to imagine. Understandably, executive and legislative branch activities seem designed to meet the threat forcefully enough to address genuine needs and send a signal to the American people and the world that the US government is taking action to thwart the WMD terrorism problem should it present itself. ...

Top 10 Internships for College Students in 2017

Top 10 Internships for College Students in 2017 You’re in college, or a recent graduate. Maybe you already have a solid idea of where you want to go, and what you want to do next. Great! Maybe you†¦don’t. That’s great too. Whether you’re looking to test the career waters of a job related to your major, or you’re still figuring out what you want your post-college career path to be, internships are an excellent way to refine your thinking and build experience. Let’s look at 10 of the top internship options in a variety of fields, based on sources that take intern feedback into account, like Vault.com’s annual rankings and Glassdoor’s survey of internship opportunities. Best Social Media Internship: FacebookPerhaps you’ve heard of this company? Facebook ranks highest on a recent Glassdoor survey of best internship companies, with feedback like, â€Å"Facebook has one of the best design teams in the world, and deals with particularly hard problems. Interns get lots o f responsibility, but the biggest learning is from the people around you.†Facebook’s focus on tech, data, and social media provides cutting-edge internship opportunities, as well as spots in business operations.Compensation: Paid/stipendDuration: 6 to 12 weeksLocation: Facebook’s headquarters are in Menlo Park, California, but the company has office locations all over North America, including New York, Washington DC, and Chicago.Best Health Care Internship: Aetna Summer Associate ProgramInsurance company Aetna’s summer program gives interns the opportunity to learn about all aspects of the business side of insurance, as well as build general office and career skills. Each intern has the opportunity to work on a â€Å"cross-functional† project that takes on a real-life business issue faced by the company. This kind of real world experience is definitely not your stereotypical coffee-and-copies internship. Interns are also offered many marketing oppor tunities, and the chance to work with company mentors to help build their career beyond the internship.Compensation: Paid/stipendDuration: 6 to 12 weeksLocation: Aetna is based in Hartford, CT, but has other offices (and internship opportunities) around the U.S. as well.Best Financial Services Internship: Northwestern MutualFor students majoring in Finance, Accounting, or other related business fields, Northwestern Mutual’s internship program gives students hands-on experience working on financial planning, client services, and consulting. Interns receive a stipend for their 6-12 month terms. Approximately one-third of Northwestern Mutual interns are offered a full-time position with the company after graduation.Compensation: Paid/stipendDuration: 6 to 12 monthsLocations: The company has offices throughout the U.S.Best Media Internship: Nickelodeon Animation Studio Nickternship ProgramIf you’ve ever wanted to see how the Spongebob is made, this internship at Nickelodeo n’s Animation Studio could be for you. Geared toward animation enthusiasts or those who want to work in the children’s entertainment industry, this internship helps â€Å"Nickterns† build general business experience while also taking specialty classes and workshops in areas like storyboarding, character design, pitching concepts, production and post-production, and presenting. Even if you can’t draw, the Studio offers internships in virtually every area of the business: TV production, development, talent development and casting, office management, digital operations, business operations, sales and marketing, human resources, and public relations. Nickterns also get perks like free movie screenings and admission to industry events, as well as networking opportunities.Compensation: PaidDuration: 6 to 12 weeksLocation: Los Angeles, CABest Energy Internship: Westar Energy Internship ProgramIf you’re interested in finding innovative ways to provide ener gy, Westar Energy’s internship program is a way to build skills and experience in the expanding field of green energy solutions. Headquartered in Kansas, Westar is the largest electricity provider in the state. For its interns, the company is committed to providing hands-on business experience, as well as building knowledge about the future of energy and electricity.Compensation: Paid/stipendDuration: 3 to 6 monthsLocation: Topeka, KS and Wichita, KSBest Retail Internship: Burlington Stores Summer Internship ProgramBased in the Burlington Stores company’s corporate offices in New Jersey, interns learn the ins and outs of the business behind a nationwide discount department store chain. Burlington is committed to providing meaningful learning experiences for its employees, including leadership development seminars, mentorship opportunities with senior management, seminars on retail practices and technical skills, store tours, and projects based on real business scenario s.Compensation: Paid/stipendDuration: 6 to 12 weeksLocation: Burlington has stores all over the country, but the internships are primarily located in its corporate offices in Burlington, NJ and Edgewater Park, NJ.Best Engineering Internship: Capital One Technology Internship ProgramWith its engineering focus, financial and IT company Capital One’s internship program is geared toward the STEM student. These hands-on programs give interns specialized experience in software engineering, data engineering, and cyber security engineering. Interns work on collaborative engineering projects, and also attend business and leadership seminars throughout the term.Compensation: Paid/stipendDuration: 10 weeksLocation: San Francsico, CA, New York, NY, McLean, VA, Richmond, VA, Plano, TX, Chicago, IL, and Wilmington, DEBest Startup Internship: Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers (KPCB) Fellows ProgramIf you’re interested in the startup world, but you aren’t finding many targeted in ternship opportunities, consider programs like KPCB’s. KPCB is a venture capital firm that specializes in working with tech startups. Its Design and Engineering Fellows program helps interns build the tech and creative skills they can apply to startup companies (or even start their own). The Fellows program offers unique networking opportunities in Silicon Valley, as well as the opportunity to spend a full year working for a Silicon Valley startup.Compensation: Paid/stipendDuration: 3 to 6 months, plus a potential year of employmentLocation: Mountain View, CA, Palo Alto, CA, San Francisco, CA, San Jose, CA, San Mateo, CABest Poli-Sci Internship: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) InternshipConsistently ranked among the best U.S. government internship programs, the CIA’s program is geared toward providing work and civil service experience for promising undergrads, particularly minorities and students with disabilities. While you likely won’t be sent deep undercove r, Homeland-style, you will gain practical experience in the daily operations of one of the biggest U.S. government offices.Compensation: UnpaidDuration: FlexibleLocation: Washington, DC metro areaBest Multidisciplinary Internship: NBC Universal Campus 2 Career Internship ProgramAs a massive media company, NBC Universal offers internships in areas like television production, news, business operations, ad sales, legal, marketing, media relations, accounting/finance, business, strategy, human resources, research, and marketing.Compensation: Paid/stipendDuration: FlexibleLocation: NBC Universal has headquarters in New York City and Los Angeles, but there are internship opportunities at its offices and sister companies throughout the country.If you’ve got your career sights set on a particular path, or know you want to do some experimenting and skill-building while you figure out your long-term plans, internships are one of the best ways to ease from student mode to professional mode. Wherever you decide to plant your intern flag, TheJobNetwork has you covered!

Cheating prevention in multi-player online games Essay

Cheating prevention in multi-player online games - Essay Example The games allow people to collaborate or play against each other irrespective of the location they occupy around the world. The use of the internet has made this possible because people far away from each other can connect and play without having to meet or see each other face to face. Many only games have become famous where players can form friendships. However, multiplayer games have been subjected to issues of cheating and hacking. Hackers can interfere with the graphic rendering to reveal information that would be hidden in a normal game. Cheaters, on the other hand, can use software robot to play the game automatically and gain an unfair advantage over their counterparts. Because of the above weaknesses, some games have released software patches or anti-cheating software to detect the known cheats (Yeung, Lui, Liu, & Yan, 2006:1180). However, this has not been a success because cheats still find a way of bypassing such software because the software creates a difficulty for deployment but cheats still breach the normal game logic until the patches are available. Moreover, the cheats can still bypass the software by hacking them. There are many different ways of cheating in multiplayer online games. However, this paper will focus on two types that include cheating by exploiting misplaced trust and cheating by abusing game procedure. In this type, the game player is given to a game client that performs a number of functions. It directs commands to the game server, receives commands from the server and uses a graphical engine to make a graphical representation of the game on the player’s computer screen (Webb, 2006:25). Here, the game client is a target to a player who has the ability to modify the client using a disassemble. The fact that it is in the cheaters possession makes it complex because the cheater can reverse engineer it passively. This modifies the client to perform cheats such as the wall hacks and map hacks. Map hacks occur when the player

Business Strategy term project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5500 words

Business Strategy term project - Essay Example Agilent Technologies is a leading manufacturer of measurement devices in a variety of industries. It was formed through an IPO (initial public offering) from a spin-off of Hewlett Packard in 1999. The company website states the following about the company: "Agilent Technologies, a spin-off of Hewlett-Packard Company, broke records on Nov. 18, 1999 as the largest initial public offering (IPO) in Silicon Valley history. The US $2.1 billion raised from that IPO was a sharp contrast to the $538 in working capital that founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard began with in 1938. From a small garage in Palo Alto, California, to employees around the world serving customers in 110 countries It is located in room 5022, just off the Santa Clara Campus's main lobby at 5301 Stevens Creek Blvd. in Santa Clara, Calif..(Agilent,2007).The company's corporate brochure describes itself as: " When measurement matters, engineers, scientists, manufacturers, businesses, researchers, and government agencies rely on Agilent tools and solutions. ... No other company offers the breadth and depth of measurement tools and expertise to meet the world's critical requirements for electronic and bio-analytical measurement".(Corporate Brochure,2007) The 1934 setup company launched its first product after a good amount of R&D as the company's website states, "Bill Hewlett's study of negative feedback results in Hewlett-Packard's first product-the resistance-capacity audio oscillator (HP200A), an electronic instrument used to test sound equipment. The oscillator uses an incandescent bulb as part of its wiring scheme to provide variable resistance, a breakthrough in stability in oscillator design. The principle of feedback provides the foundation for other early HP products such as a harmonic wave analyzer and several distortion analyzers". (Agilent, 2007) In 1943 ,as the company's website states, "Company enters the microwave field with signal generators developed for the Naval Research Laboratory and a radar-jamming device. A complete line of microwave test products follows World War II, and the company becomes the acknowledged leader in signal generators". 2. Identification of the industry and competitorsAgilent has been operating in multiple industries as its website clearly states that, " Agilent has a long history of innovation and leadership in the communications, electronics, semiconductor, test and measurement, life sciences and chemical analysis industries".(Agilent,2007) The Major Competitors for Agilent Technologies are reproduced from Agilent Technologies Fact Book 2007 as under : Source :Agilent Technologies Fact Book, October 2007 Agilent began with measuring instruments way back in 1938 and developed this area as field of

SUMMARY OF ENIEST MARTINEZ ARTICAL Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

SUMMARY OF ENIEST MARTINEZ ARTICAL - Essay Example These activities include but are not limited to drunk driving, driving without license, being in the company of wrong people, and hiding assets from the tax-imposing agencies. All of us do such things and are not caught only because we are lucky enough to get away with them, while the prison in-mates are not quite as lucky. It is wrong to conclude that prison in-mates are people different from us. Many of the prison in-mates are just like us who ended up in jail because they could not deal with the circumstances. There is a shortage of skilled and talented people out there in the market, while many of the prison in-mates hope to start a second chapter in their life where they can play a positive role in the society by benefiting themselves as well as others with their talents, skills, traits, abilities, and aspirations. Human resource is one of the most important resources of any successful company. Companies today are not advancing only on the basis of their technology or equipment. Skilled and talented workforce is actually what is fundamentally taking the businesses to the next level. The interpersonal relationships of between the consumers and the company personnel help improve the company’s sales. Management and business gurus like Dr. Peter Drucker emphasize upon the importance of workforce as the asset of a company. In order to expand the business, it is imperative that we consider people as our greatest asset. Ernest Martinez believes that many prison in-mates have all it takes to make a company successful. They are talented, technically and intellectually gifted, and many are eager to work diligently. Not all in-mates are worthy of a second chapter in their life. It is indeed hard for them to establish themselves given their circumstances. The prisons are pools of many talented men and women who qualify as productive employees. While this cannot be generalized for all in-mates, there is need to search for

Cytomegalovirus Overview

Cytomegalovirus Overview 1. unocompromised host Cytomegalovirus is a significant opportunistic pathogen in immuno-compromised patients. Primary infection, reactivation of latent virus, and reinfection are possible and are often clinically silent. The onset of infection is marked by spiking pyrexia, which may resolve in a few days. Its severity is parallel with the level of immunosuppression, and is greatest in bone marrow transplant (BMT) recipients and AIDS patients with low CD4+ T-cell counts. Solid organ transplant recipients, patients receiving immunosuppressive chemotherapy, and subjects with congenital immunodeficiencies may also be symptomatic (Landolfo et al., 2003). Organ transplantation Cytomegalovirus is one of the most important pathogens that infect (SOT) recipients and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality (Beam and Razonable, 2012). Solid organ transplant recipients are particularly susceptible to CMV-related disease due to the immunosuppression necessary to prevent organ rejection. Patients receiving T-cell depleting therapies are at the highest risk The major risk factor for CMV pneumonia is a CMV-seronegative transplant recipient receiving a CMV-seropositive organ. Because of the multiple human strains of CMV, seropositive organ recipients are at risk of re-infection with a different strain of virus. The clinical syndrome is then usually less severe than in primary infection and the onset of disease is often delayed to approximately 6-8 weeks post-transplantation (Alexopouloset al., 2012). Clinical signs of HCMV infection in transplant recipients may be absent or severe, although severe infection is now less frequent as a result of better prophylaxis. HCMV is initially localized in the transplanted organ, but then spreads throughout the gastrointestinal tract and to the retina, skin, endometrium, lungs, and CNS. HCMV disease is more difficult to treat in BMT compared with SOT recipients, and HCMV pneumonia has a high mortality rate, despite the recent introduction of specific antiviral drugs (Landolfo et al., 2003). Lastly, an immunosuppressive syndrome often related to HCMV infection in the late post-transplant period is characterized by superinfection with bacteria, fungi, and protozoa, perhaps due to disturbance of both the humoral and cellular immune response by HCMV (Landolfo et al., 2003). Cytomegalovirus and HIV infection CMV can cause very serious infection in HIV infection (Barrett et al., 2012). Retinitis: Retinitis is the most common manifestation of CMV disease in HIV positive patients. It presents with decreased visual acuity, floaters, and loss of visual fields on one side. It begins as a unilateral disease, but in many cases it progresses to bilateral involvement. It may be accompanied by systemic CMV disease. (Barrett et al., 2012). CMV pneumonia in patients who are HIV positive is uncommon. The reason for this is unknown (Barrett et al., 2012). Gastrointestinal tract: In the upper gastrointestinal tract, CMV has been isolated from oesophageal, gastric and duodenal ulcers. Patients with oesophageal disease may present with painful dysphagia. In the lower gastrointestinal tract, patients with CMV may present with diarrhoea due to colitis (Barrett et al., 2012). CMV may cause disease in the peripheral and central nervous system (Barrett et al., 2012). Replication in the CNS of AIDS patients produces some of the symptoms observed in congenital infection, and is often followed by encephalopathy (Landolfo et al., 2003). Laboratory Diagnosis It is difficult to diagnose CMV infection in immunocompromised patients as it requires not only detection of virus but also determining whether CMV is causing disease. CMV shedding and viremia are common in patients with impaired cellular immunity even when disease due to CMV is not present (Jahan, 2010). Rapid and sensitive technique for diagnosis of CMV infection is of vital importance for the management of immunocompromised patients. A number of rapid and sensitive methods have been developed. These includes DNA probe techniques (Spector and Vacqier, 1983) , Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (Zipeto et al., 1992), CMV antigen detection in biopsies and bronchoalveolar lavage (Emanuel et al., 1986) and immunofluorescence technique for detection of CMV early antigens in cell (Vander et al., 1988). Moreover, an assay has been developed for CMV antigenemia based on the detection of CMV immediate early antigen (pp65 ) in circulating leucocytes (Boeckh et al., 1996). Histopathology: Histopathology remains the reference standard for diagnosis of tissue-invasive CMV disease (Razonable and Hayden, 2013). CMV infection is indicated by cellular and nuclear enlargement (cytomegalic cells) and the presence of amphophilic to basophilic cytoplasmic inclusions (aggregates of CMV nucleoproteins that are produced during viral replication) (Eid et al., 2010). The severity of CMV infection can be assessed based on the degree of histological involvement (Mattes et al., 2000). While these histopathologic findings are highly characteristic of CMV infection (Mattes et al., 2000), atypical features may be present and may overlap in appearance both with reactive changes and with inclusions of other intracellular viruses. Hence, the diagnosis can be confirmed further by in situ hybridization (ISH) or immunohistochemical (IHC) testing (Razonable and Hayden, 2013). The ISH uses CMV-specific cDNA probes that bind to viral DNA in the cellular materialÂÂ   (Razonable and Hayden, 2013). Likewise, IHC uses monoclonal or polyclonal antibody against early CMV antigen (ChemalyÂÂ   et al., 2004 Histopathology requires an invasive procedure to obtain tissue samples for testing (Eid et al., 2010). As a result, clinicians are often hesitant to perform it. Moreover, repeated biopsies cannot be performed serially to assess the response to treatment (Eid et al., 2010). Accordingly, many clinicians rely on the demonstration of CMV in the peripheral blood by Nucleic acid amplification testing (NAT) or antigen testing to support the clinical diagnosis of tissue-invasive CMV disease in patients with compatible clinical signs and symptoms (Razonable and Humar, 2013). Serology: Serology relies on the sensitive detection of antibodies against CMV in the blood (Vauloup-Fellous et al., 2013). CMV immunoglobulin M (CMV-IgM) is initially secreted during early CMV infection, and the detection of CMV-IgM by serologic assays is indicative of active, acute, or recent infection. Weeks into the course of primary infection, CMV-IgG antibody is secreted, and this antibody persists for life. The detection of CMV-IgG is indicative of previous or past infection (Vauloup-Fellous et al., 2013). Many different assays have been described and evaluated for the detection of CMV IgG antibodies. Among these are complement fixation, ELISA, anticomplement immunofluorescence, radioimmunoassay, and indirect hemagglutination (Ross et al., 2011). Many different assays are available for IgM detection, but enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) are the most widely used. Recombinant IgM assays using recombinant HCMV proteins and peptides have been developed in an attempt to standardize serological assays. However, studies have shown poor correlation of results obtained with different commercial kits for IgM testing. In addition, assays for IgM antibody lack specificity for primary infection because of false-positive results, because IgM can persist for months after primary infection, and because IgM can be positive in reactivated CMV infections (Ross et al., 2011). Because of the limitations of the IgM assays, IgG avidity assays are utilized in some populations to help distinguish primary from non-primary CMV infection. These assays are based on the observation that IgG antibodies of low avidity are present during the first few months after the onset of infection and avidity increases over time reflecting maturation of the immune response. Thus, high anti-CMV IgG avidity represents longstanding infection in an individual. Avidity levels are reported as the avidity index which is the percentage of IgG bound to the antigen following treatment with denaturing agents (Ross et al., 2011). Seroconversion remains a reliable means of diagnosing primary CMV infection but usually practical only for closely monitored patients such as transplant recipients, for whom pre and post infection sera are readily available (ONeill et al., 1988 and Pass et al., 1983). Culture: This is highly specific for the diagnosis of CMV infection (Razonable and Humar, 2013). Culture can be performed using the conventional plaque assay or the more rapid shell vial centrifugation culture system (Razonable et al., 2002). Isolation of CMV from most clinical samples (other than urine, saliva, and stool) is highly predictive of the diagnosis of CMV disease or the risk of progression from CMV infection into clinical illness (Razonable et al., 2002). In contrast, the use of urine, saliva, and stool samples for CMV culture is of limited clinical utility because viral shedding may be detected in these specimens in CMV-seropositive patients even in the absence of clinical illness (Razonable and Humar, 2013). For CMV-seronegative patients (seen most commonly in pediatric age groups), however, the isolation of CMV in urine (and other samples) may be clinically relevant, since it is suggestive of active primary infection (instead of shedding) (Razonable and Humar, 2013). The major drawbacks to viral culture are its low to modest sensitivity and long turnaround time (Razonable et al., 2002). Accordingly, the clinical use of viral culture is minimal in the contemporary era, when molecular assays are most commonly used in the clinical setting (Razonable et al., 2002). The remaining major clinical use of viral culture is in the diagnosis of CMV infection by use of samples that have not been validated or optimized for molecular testing (Razonable and Humar, 2013). Viral culture may also be required when phenotypic antiviral drug resistance testing is needed, although advances in molecular genotypic assays have emerged for detecting antiviral drug resistance (Hakki and Chou, 2011). Antigen Testing: CMV antigen detection in the blood is the most commonly used phenotypic method for the rapid and sensitive diagnosis of CMV infection (Razonable and Humar, 2013). CMV antigenemia assay uses monoclonal antibodies to detect the CMV pp65 antigen that is expressed in CMV-infected leukocytes during the early phase of the CMV replication process (Razonable et al., 2002). The result of the test is reported as the number of positive cells per total number of cells counted (Razonable and Humar, 2013). Because pp65 is secreted during viral replication, its detection in peripheral blood leukocytes generally signifies active CMV infection. The CMV antigen assay is a rapid and easy test to perform and has a higher sensitivity than that of virus culture (Razonable and Hayden, 2013). It is able to detect CMV infection earlier than virus culture, with some studies reporting the detection of antigenemia an average of 5 to 14 days before the onset of CMV disease (Razonable and Hayden, 2013). Thus, it can be used to detect early CMV replication and to guide the initiation of preemptive therapy (Singh, 2001). In general, the degree of pp65 antigenemia correlates with the risk of subsequent CMV disease. However, there is a lack of consensus as to the threshold of pp65-positive cells that should trigger the initiation of antiviral therapy (Razonable and Hayden, 2013). In some studies, the sensitivity of pp65 antigenemia testing for the diagnosis of CMV infection was comparable to that of CMV NAT by PCR (Garrigue et al., 2006). One of these studies reported a strong correlation between pp65 antigenemia and CMV PCR performed on whole-blood specimens (Garrigue et al., 2006). Other studies, however, have reported a significantly lower sensitivity of antigenemia testing than those of molecular tests (Pang et al., 2009). Moreover, the plasma PCR assay detected CMV infection 12 days earlier than the antigenemia test (Hadaya et al., 2003). The disadvantages of CMV antigenemia testing are its labor-intensive and manual nature. The interpretation of the test is subjective, and there is limited interlaboratory standardization of thresholds of positive cell counts to guide various clinical actions (Razonable et al., 2002). Blood samples being subjected to pp65 antigenemia testing should be processed rapidly (ideally within 6 h) to optimize sensitivity, since test results depend on the life span of leukocytes ex vivo. Delays in the processing of a sample for longer than 24 h may lead to a significant decrease in the number of detectable pp65-positive cells in the blood (Razonable and Hayden, 2013).