What Activities and Hobbies Do You Pursue Outside of Work?

Outside of work, I participate in a variety of activities and hobbies. These activities provide me with the opportunity to learn, take on challenges, and have fun. In addition, I believe my hobbies allow for relaxation and inner growth.I enjoy learning new information through reading, surfing the Internet, watching television, and shopping. From the breaking news in Iraq to the latest gift catalog from World Vision, the Internet has become one of my major resources to get updates on the world. My most recent interest is in learning HTML code to enhance my newly created web page on Aloha Tower Marketplace with flash and graphics.Shopping is another activity that I frequently do outside of work. To most people, shopping is a routine and necessary activity that involves going to the supermarket for dinner, buying a new sweater at Macy’s for the upcoming winter, or picking up the latest Harry Potter book in Barnes & Noble for a nephew’s birthday.To me, however, shopping is a pleasurable activity, as well as a chance to observe market trends. To a marketer for a shopping mall, understanding the competition is very important.I also like to watch stage shows or go to the movies on the weekends. My favorite stage show is â€Å"Once Upon One Time,† a musical written in Pidgin by a local playwright, Lisa Matsumoto. It is a fusion of many famous tales of Hawaiian culture and life.From various shows, I have learned to appreciate the incredible art of theater and recognize the efforts in place to protect Hawaiian culture. I prefer stage shows to movie productions because the stage leaves more to the imagination and the audience can interpret the themes.Along with indoor activities, I like to spend time outdoors when my schedule allows. I regularly challenge my fear of heights by hiking to the peaks of mountains to enjoy the fresh air and terrific scenery. Whether choosing a hobby or a job, my goal is always self-improvement, the same as my goals in life .

3D printing revolution in fashion industry

AD Printing Revolution in Fashion Industry Last week, I went to London Science museum, there was an exhibition of AD printing showing the completely new image of fashion in the coming 20 years. AD printing has been developing rapidly, now it is way more than printing plastic. It prints something that I cannot even believe: structural thing like house, complicated thing like gun, huge thing like rare plane and guess what, lively tissue. As AD printing becomes more mainstream, its applications are broadening (Rachel 2013).It started to hit the roll of fashion, besides AD printed handbags, dresses, we can see AD printed high- heel shoes and bikinis in the latest fashion shows. As Stephanie (2014) mentioned, the mix of apparel and technology shows the innovative soul of fashion, the future of fashion is truly tricked out with AD printing technology. As this evolution continues we can expect to see a AD printing revolution in our fashion industry. In the following sections, this essay is going to illustrate the revolution in production, supply chain and design aspects.Beginning with the first step of manufacture, production method in fashion field will e totally changed. According to some researches, 10% of all consumer products by the year 2025 will be made by the AD process. Richard (2013) discussed that since applications of the technology spread and prices decrease, more products will be manufactured at their location of purchase or consumption. Indeed, consumers will be printing their own clothing by 2020, according to inventor and futurist Ray Skuzzier (Tanya 2013). This implies that new household-level production will emerge.On top of it, production will no longer includes labor force, capital, natural resources, UT only the printing machines, raw materials and programs which lead a huge reform. Based on the change of production method, the supply chain will eventually be modified. â€Å"The world will transform from a macro-manufactured supply chain to a mi cro-manufactured supply chain or what is known as distributed manufacturing† (Nick 2014). Whereas cars today are made by Just a few hundred factories around the world, they might one day be made in every metropolitan area.The supply chain is going to be shortened as only machines and programs are involved, the whole supply chain may even only appear in our home. As the supply chain will undergo a makeover, certain categories of business will be eliminated. Countries will rather do domestic production than import since production will no longer require so much labors and places, shipping, delivery and inventory service will then go downhill. Before, the Internet technology has already overturned many traditional business models, so now the AD printing technology is going to revolute the fashion industry into a new era.Nature of design will be adjusted due the altered producing methods. Customization of goods is more significant due to maker can simply adjust the aerogramme (Ric hard 2013). As AD printing can solve some practicable problems of creative products, so it actually encourages the creativity in meeting individuals' need. The Job of designer will change as they have to know well about technology and design the products with programmer, or even, everyone can become a designer.What Rachel (2013) mentioned is this kind of intersection of fashion and technology can give everyone access to creativity. People will be designing clothes for themselves which they know their size and style the best, so they can create personalized clothing. If you do not want to spend time on making your own AD printing programmer, you can simply buy it online as what we are doing for music file, consumers would pay a fee to download and print the renderings, Ideas may eventually never produce sportswear, but simply sell the format to print Jersey and sneaker.Due to this, keen competition between the brands will be stronger, millions of designers are compete to produce a tr emendous variety of objects. Some researchers start to doubt whether AD printing will be widely spread since customized products may be more expensive than traditional mass-produced goods, ND spend longer time as well (Ashley 2010). And actually, since the technology is improving and supply increased, according to the scale of economy, the price of machine and materials for printing are eventually dropping.CNN did an experiment in 2013 that compared buying 20 items like phone case, spoon holder to the cost of printing them out directly. The result is, it took 25 hours to print all the objects and they saved up to $1926, depending on the quality of the comparable retail products. So we can definitely imagine all the time cost and price will be reducing by 2020. As what Nick (2014) pointed out, we are at the beginning of a revolution that will transform our society in ways we can't even imagine.

Marketing and the Health Care System Research Paper

Marketing and the Health Care System - Research Paper Example The utilization of the healthcare services of Maryland General Hospital could be assessed by the healthcare service provider in order to analyze the current situation of usage of healthcare services. A proper analysis of the field reports is helpful in designing the ways in which the decision of the healthcare recipients could be influenced. Research Objectives The scope of this research includes a study of Maryland General Hospital. The research objectives for this study are to examine the direct impact of marketing for Maryland General Hospital, to determine a strategy to find the utilization of products and services of the hospital, and to design a marketing strategy for Maryland General Hospital. Research Methodology The impact of direct marketing of Maryland General Hospital and strategies to determine the current utilization of healthcare services of the community that it caters have been determined with the help of the secondary method of research. The data collected for the s tudy are secondary. The data have been obtained from secondary sources such as the electronic websites of the health care provider, journals, etc. The data obtained from the official website of Maryland General Hospital are reliable. The healthcare service activities have been studied from these secondary data sources. The information has been analyzed to design a marketing strategy for Maryland General Hospital and also to determine ways by which the decision of the healthcare recipients could be influenced for wider spread of the healthcare services. Analysis and Findings Maryland General Hospital is located in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The hospital serves majorly Afro-American citizens and lies in a medically underserved area of Baltimore. The hospital has been awarded a score of 38.6 for the medically underserved area, and any score below 62 requires medical services to a higher extent. This has raised the scope of direct marketing for the hospital which im pact has been analyzed below. The hospital has engaged its consultants and internal committees for conducting surveys and direct marketing of its healthcare products and services. As a result, Maryland General Hospital has been able to understand the needs of the community through direct interaction with the members. The health care needs of individuals and their families could be identified and the cost of the healthcare services could be customized in order to serve the medically undeserved area of Baltimore. The direct marketing of healthcare services provides a clear picture of the demographics, income level and the barriers to access healthcare by communities (Maryland General Hospital, 2009). It has been found that about 16.2% of the population in the city of Baltimore are below the federal poverty line and cannot afford the primary healthcare service due to transportation barriers and financial constraints. The direct marketing of the healthcare services of Maryland General H ospital helps the organization to outreach to the people who need basic healthcare services. The strategies that could be adopted by Maryland General Hospital for assessing the utilization of the products and services of the organization are through the conduct of a survey using paper questionnaires and survey questionnaires through the Internet. The hospital could also conduct meetings with the religious leaders and school

Identity and Representation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Identity and Representation - Essay Example It will further highlight the tensions encountered in entering an unfamiliar group and how the values brought in are affected. Some electronic, print and social media have linked Islam and, inevitably, the Arab world to intolerance and violence while ignoring its commonalities to other religions (Cote & Levine 57). Some cultural groups immediately associate the mention of an Arab with negativities such as barbarism, terrorism, religious fanatics, cruelty, oil wars in deserts and belly-dancing women. As an Arab student in the US, where a multicultural philosophy conspicuously prevails in the education system, I was shocked at how different it is with Arabs. Some students are driven into an identity crisis and take frantic measures, some extreme, to adopt or reject the host culture with a risk of ending up in depression. However, I decided not to lose my culture, which is the source of my identity and at the same time not give stereotypes, in contrast to their expectations, a chance to confirm their perceptions. The best way to maintain a positive identity is to preserve my heritage while respecting that of others by fully interacting with them. As a new member of the university society, it is my duty not to let the behaviors, feelings and thoughts of those I interact with be influenced by their wrongly adviced perception of my cultural background. I chose to view the diversity of the American culture as the true source of knowledge, beauty and richness that it is. At the same time, I expect the US Constitution to support the desire of all minorities, including Arabs and Muslims, to conserve their heritage. That will be in accordance to the values upon which the US was built (Leary & Tangney 24). I do not intend to let go of my cultural roots, and I opted for a problem-oriented approach towards the stereotype, rather than an emotion-oriented one as stereotypes would expect. An emotional approach would make me want to â€Å"fit into† the American culture an d resent anything linking me to my culture. This leads to attempts to attain a culture that I do not belong to, with a possibility of rejecting my own people. Instead, I chose to be proud of my identity and heritage and contribute positively to a country populated with a myriad of cultures. I attend and invite friends to my cultural functions as well as others that are foreign to me. I never point out any negative aspect of other cultures, especially in culturally polarized areas or around people that can be offended by my remarks. I make it my policy to participate, and invite others, to community service whenever time allows. I further realize that an emotion-oriented approach towards an identity representation can lead an individual or a cultural group to create a defense mechanism, albeit unconsciously. They attach themselves fully to their homes or community and vehemently reject everything else not perceived as part of their heritage. Such rejection of outside cultures often c ulminates into violence, which contributes towards confirmation of the stereotype. Studies have shown that this group even has a tendency of rejecting other Arabs who adopted foreign cultures (Leary & Tangney 31). It is further shown that

Points of Access citizens have in the American Government Essay

Points of Access citizens have in the American Government - Essay Example These three outlets are chosen because they seem to be the most efficient approaches to letting American government know about the grievances of its citizens. There are broadly two kinds of demonstrations: there are peaceful and non-peaceful demonstrations. In the United States, peaceful demonstrations are mostly carried out by special interests groups, disgruntled workers, angry people from the same communities, unpaid workers, and topical issues opponents. Since the inauguration of Obama Administration, several peaceful demonstrations or protests have been carried by those who felt that his Government was moving off course: they include protests against Health Care reforms, Abortion issues, Big government spending and several other testy issues that divide or unify Americans. The main merit of peaceful demonstrations is that they are not often dispersed by the jaded police, since it has no immediate dangers to the public safety and would not disrupt usual business activities (Holbrook 4)1. It may be difficult, at times, to precisely detect the efficiency of a demonstration, but there is no doubt that it is an open expression of displeasure at the US Governmental policies. And it is always true that the particular section of the government affected by the demonstrations often take into consideration what the demonstrators are fighting for. When peaceful, a demonstration can attract an unbelievable number of people who shared in the same urgency to make their voices heard against a typical injustice or mismanagement of public limited resources. The courts in the United States have been described as the last resort for common men: in other words, anyone who feels that his/her fundamental rights have been breached, or has been cruelly treated against the dictates of the US Constitution, can seek legal redress in any of the courts in America. Structurally, these courts range from the Municipality Court to the Circuit Court, Appeal Court

Epoch Of The Grand Tour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Epoch Of The Grand Tour - Essay Example Typically, the Grand Tour included visiting the most famous cities of France, Italy, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands with Calais, Paris, Turin, Venice, Naples, Florence, and Rome being the primary goals. The Grand Tourist would journey from city to city and typically spend weeks in smaller cities and some months in each of the three key cities. Travel was not easy in the eighteenth century. The most popular crossing of the English Channel was made from Dover to Calais, France. A trip from Dover across the Channel to Calais and onto Paris routinely took three days. The crossing of the Channel was not a trouble-free one. There were hazards of seasickness, illness, and even shipwreck. The journey from France to Italy could be done by the  sea  where the tourist faced the danger of pirates, or by land by sedan chair over the Alps, where constricted passes made travel an expedition in terror. If the tourist chose to sail to Italy rather than scale the Alps, he would first journey to the south of France. The English were delighted by the warm weather, sunshine and the fields of lavender, calling Provence â€Å"almost  Paradise†. To sail across the Gulf of Genoa, a tourist engaged a fishing boat in Marseilles or Nice. The Gulf of Genoa was notorious for its sudden squalls. The hazard of storm and shipwreck or attack by pirates hovered, but it could be much faster than the long laborious trek through the mountains, and the alpine passes were closed in the winter. Many Grand Tourists chose to either begin or end their tour in Holland. The Dutch were the kings of trade in the 18th century, and passage home to England could be booked on one of their superb  merchants ships (Buzard 42).... However, the idea of traveling for the sake of learning and education - the key idea underlying the Grand Tour - was a relatively new one even in the 18th century (Brodsky-Porges 173). Although representatives of other European nations adopted the same belief that genuine knowledge comes exclusively from the external senses, the Grand Tour is essentially a British invention: at that time Great Britain was the wealthiest country in the world with extremely numerous upper class representatives of which had both the time and the wealth to spend years traveling around the world. As a result, young English elites often spent from several months to several years traveling around Europe in an effort to see the cultural artifacts of antiquity and the Renaissance, learn languages, architecture, geography, culture, and visit other aristocratic societies of Europe (Brodsky-Porges 173-174). Typically, the Grand Tour included visiting the most famous cities of France, Italy, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands with Calais, Paris, Turin, Venice, Naples, Florence, and Rome being the primary goals. The Grand Tourist would journey from city to city and typically spend weeks in smaller cities and some months in each of the three key cities. Travel was not easy in the eighteenth century. The most popular crossing of the English Channel was made from Dover to Calais, France. A trip from Dover across the Channel to Calais and onto Paris routinely took three days. The crossing of the Channel was not a trouble-free one. There were hazards of seasickness, illness, and even shipwreck. The journey from France to Italy could be done by sea' where the

The five to seven most important things about computer networks that Essay

The five to seven most important things about computer networks that should be understood by everyone who uses one - Essay Example Every computer user should have a basic understanding of the 'Error Message'. The man that got his first computer with AOL spent most of his afternoon running down his driveway when the computer kept announcing that, 'You've got mail'. It took almost as long as the user who spent hours looking for the 'Any' key when the message said "Press Any Key To Continue". All this time could have been saved by requiring new computer users to take a short course in computer messages. Understanding the error messages is almost as important as learning to communicate with the technical people. An important time saving tip for computer users would be to invest in a tech support to English dictionary. Learning the basic lingo of the geek squad would be invaluable in improving communications (Strange user requests, 2006). Users may tend to interpret tech support literally and confuse the meaning of everyday words such as 'frozen', 'mouse', or 'boot'. Who knows what 'LAN', 'OS', or 'USB' stands for A quick reference card placed near the computer screen could help the user decode the special language of tech support. Reducing calls to tech support could also be accomplished by giving computer users a basic course in hooking up a computer and eliminating static electricity. If a keyboard does not respond, there is some likelihood that the cable has come disconnected. The simplest and most common cables are the power cord, mouse, LAN cable, and keyboard. It would be a simple task to check these before using the scarce resources of tech support. In addition, static electricity has been cited a primary cause of computer lockup or failure (Miastkowski, 2002). A few minutes of instruction on reducing the risk of static could potentially save thousands of dollars worth of computing equipment. While some computer knowledge will save time and money, there are other things that a user should know to keep their information secure. Using passwords on key information is mandatory, but is of little use if the password is given out to fellow employees or friends. In addition, the password should be something that is not easily deciphered. It is also critical to know what to put a password on. Network users will often be unaware that many of their personal files may be accessed by any user on the network. Users should have an understanding of how a basic network operates and where the information is stored. This would help users understand just how vulnerable their private information can be on a network. Simple passwords and a basic understanding of computer networks can eliminate the threat from prying eyes. However, it can do little to dissuade the dangers posed by the malicious hacker. Users need to be fully aware of the threat posed by viruses, spyware, and other forms of 'mal-ware'. Security software needs to be installed and updated regularly. Out of date security software is vulnerable to attacks from the latest version of a virus. Users also must be sure that the software is active and the firewall is turned on. Hackers that take advantage of systems that are not running security software can do irreparable harm to an individual or a corporation. In conclusion, the tips listed for basic computer skills may seem blatantly obvious to any intermediate level user.

SWOT analysis on UK business 'What competition does Bubbleology face Essay

SWOT analysis on UK business 'What competition does Bubbleology face in the Uk niche drinks market ' - Essay Example I analyzed and compared different sources as well as the website of the reference business to derive relevant information. My sources are relevant, up-to-date, authoritative, and efficient to address the competition that Novosco face in the UK cloud technologies, managed service, and consulting market. Findings Novosco Novosco is a company based in Belfast U.K (ULSTER Business 2013, p. 1), which deals with cloud technologies, managed service, and consulting services. The company has been in operation since 1994 and has recorded immense growth and success over the years (Novosco 2013, p. 1). As a result, the company has won major recognitions in its operations like the Cisco Datacenter Partner of the Year and EMC Partner of the Year in 2012 based on the volume and caliber of work delivered (Novosco Ltd 2012, p. 21). Moreover, the company has been enjoying consistent and immense economic growth in the technology industry. In fact, Novosco received the Deloitte FAST50 award in 2012 for the 13th consecutive year for being the most successive technology company in revenue growth (Novosco Ltd 2012, p. 21). The company manifests high level of technical ability where it investment in delivery and support staff (Novosco 2013, p. 1). Indeed, the company accommodates continuous training and certification in its operations with a view of gaining optimum expertise and receiving maximum accreditation on the technologies they recommend to their customers (Novosco 2013, p. 1). Novosco specializes with helping institutions to utilize the unique aspects of emerging technologies for purposes of addressing business challenges in a more efficient and cost-effective manner (Novosco 2013, p. 1). It provides unique consulting talent and technical support to organization seeking to maximize the advantages of their investment in information technologies. Notably, the company operates under managed service or strategic partnership contracts with its major clients to realize its objective s (Novosco 2013, p. 1). As such, it collaborates with the best hardware and software companies that deal with cloud technologies, managed service, and other technology applications. The company commits itself to offering help to their clients in the evaluation of all potential solutions that enables them to design and deliver cost-effective solutions (Novosco 2013, p. 1). Its main clients include universities, government departments, and UK and Ireland health trusts (Weir 2013, p. 1) with Belfast Health and Social Care Trust being its largest client (Gosling 2012, p. 1). Novosco Competition among Cloud Technologies, Managed Service, and Consulting Companies Novosco is the leading provider of managed services and cloud based infrastructure in U.K (Novosco 2013, p. 1). However, the company faces immense competition in different sectors including the winning of contracts. Novosco seeks to enroll its services to the wider market and its directors know that it will face stiff competition from established companies (WEIR 2013, p. 1) like AJUBEO and CDNETWORKS. The competition will be in the field of internet connectivity, supply of cloud computing, transfer of data, servicing

Business Process Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Business Process Management - Essay Example success of the ERP software implementation procedure, while the details of Hershey Company have communicated the reason behind the failure of the ERP system. The discussion has further communicated the major problems faced by organisations during the application of the system. It has also suggested a number of solutions to avoid these discrepancies. The system is developing its services by collaborating with various updated technologies such as mobile applications and cloud computing. It has also been illustrated that organisations are using different tactics to reduce the expenses regarding malfunctioning of the ERP system. The final outcome of this discussion has suggested that the ERP system is gathering great acceptance from different organisations industry sectors. It has also suggested that the technology is developing rapidly to accrue a huge market share worldwide. The study is based on the discussion about various aspects of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. This discussion will mainly focus on the importance of the usage of ERP system in different businesses. Two organisational case studies will be illustrated to analyse various implementation procedure of ERP system in business operations. The case study of Cadbury and Hershey’s company will demonstrate the success and failure of the ERP system implementation procedure in the organisational operations. A list of problems regarding the usage of the system in business process will be discussed. The study will also offer some solutions to the problem of ERP implementation. A number of recent technological developments of the ERP system will be illustrated in the report. These developments will enable business operations cope up with the ever changing market structure. Finally, recommendation will be made regarding the major vendors of ERP software and current level of usage of the system. ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning system is considered as business process management software which

Strategic Leadership and Innovation at Apple Inc Essay

Strategic Leadership and Innovation at Apple Inc - Essay Example The researcher states that Apple Inc has had its patches of rough and dry in between, yet it has come out of the wood successfully on many occasions. The success has been a result of many factors, while some can be stretched to the excellence of the man himself Steve jobs, other to the performance of the overall unit, and the rest may contribute the success to the strategies. These strategies have been devised in form of long-term to short-term strategies. Since the departure of the legendary and visionary man, Apple needs to find the spark in some other form and some other person. A long-term strategy should be based on ensuring the continuation of the innovative models. Since Apple surpassed the rest with its feature of innovation. Performance indication is easily attainable through the scoreboard balance. It must do something to ensure that the string of first to market is not lost and at the same time, the shares in the market are equally maintained. The long-term strategy should be based on exploring other dimensions. They must not restrict themselves to the mobile phones. While other players are mainly focusing on the open source operating systems and online stores, Apple has yet to make a domino’s impression in that domain. The first element is continuity and constant innovation. If innovation is not followed by generation of new kind, it can lead to stagnation. Keeping close to the customers’ demands and responding according to the need enables maintaining effective scoreboard. Customers’ response helps to determine the market trend and the closer to the customers the better. Apple Inc cannot rely only on Apple phone in this regard. Overall sales and market share capture is far from possible with a single product. Besides, Apple Inc has yet to fix its claws firmly and completely with regard to the computer industry. While tablets might give them some presence in the market, but competitors like IBM, Microsoft, Android, all are spear head present and Apple has to create a long-term effective strategy to create a counter and come up with something like the mobile phone or tablet to give them a challenge and ultimately outsmart them. Apple Inc.

Higher Education Ensures Better Life Essay Example for Free

Higher Education Ensures Better Life Essay 1.what state exams do school-leavers choose most often in (CITY) ? 2.what are the best ways to prepare for examinations?how are you going to do it? 3.do you think that exams motivate students to study?why? 4.higher education ensures better life. these days is very important to gain secondary education. its not only develops your mentality,but and broadens your perspective. In (CITY) the school-leaver are preparing for exams. Lithuanias main exam is the first language exam. this first language exam Is difficult and takes a lot of energy. a lot of studying people are fail this test. so, the school-leaver are studying very hard and much when to finish the tests with a good marks. If you want are finishing the exam with good marks, you have to concentrate on what you dont know something and are progressing what you dont know, at the moment. also, calm down, learn little by little, ask the teachers, they always helps you and of course, you should believe what you do. I think that examinations motivate you to learn more.but also, use to a lot of nerve, efforts and energy. school-leaver gets a lot of stress, exhaustion. I think that can facilitate exams and everyone would be happy. higher education ensures better life.Nowadays, higher education is important thing in better life when the person finishes final exams.the person will be able to better job with a good qualification. also, the person who has higher education, has higher intellect level. So, higher education is important. everyone has to learn and finish at school.

Organisational Structure Of The Ikea Company Commerce Essay

Organisational Structure Of The Ikea Company Commerce Essay Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, as a child, started a profitable business selling matches to neighbours on his bicycle. In 1943, at just 17 using money he received as a gift from his father for doing well in school he formed IKEA which is an acronym made up of his initials and the first letters of Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd, the farm and village in Sweden where he grew up. In 1947, furniture was introduced for the first time in IKEAs product line in the form of armchairs. Local craftsmen made the furniture using wood from a nearby forest. IKEAs furniture became very popular and the line was extended to include more products. Its interesting at this point in the companies history because Kamprad was based in a very poor area of Sweden, and because of this, the people were naturally frugal and highly resourceful, in other words they had to maximise and be inventive with the limited resources available to themThe author believes that this is the setting and cornerstone for all of IKEAs subsequent success. IKEAs vision was To create a better everyday life for the many people. According to Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea; To design a desk which may cost $1,000 is easy for a furniture designer, but to design a functional and good desk which shall cost $50 can only be done by the very best. Expensive solutions to all kinds of problems are often signs of mediocrity. (Chandler, 1993: 12) Ikeas success is based on the relatively simple idea of keeping the cost between manufacturers and customers down. Costs are kept under control starting at the design level of the value-added chain. Following on from this the culture of the company emphasizes efficiency and low cost, which cannot be achieved at the expense of quality or service. Bureaucracy is fought at all levels in the organization. Kamprad believes that simplicity and common sense should characterize planning and strategic direction (Bartlett et Al, 1993: 78). Bartlett C.A. Ghoshal S. (1993) Transnational Management. Irwin Publishers Boston Massachusetts Symbolic policies, such as only flying economy class and staying at economical hotels, employing young executives and sponsoring university programs have made cost part of corporate culture and have further inspired the influx of entrepreneurship into the organization. Despite his vast wealth it is reported he used to only drive an eleven-year-old modest Volvo. By 1951, furniture sales dominated his sales inventory and he decided to specialize exclusively in low priced furniture. The author recognises here that he is playing to his market strengths and again this is a further cornerstone of his subsequent success. In the same year, the first IKEA furniture catalogue was published. IKEA opened its first furniture showroom in 1953, which allowed customers to check the quality and use the items they were buying. The author recognises that any company that is prepared to allow customers to use its products before buying them will likely ensure that the quality of the product is if anything substantially above its utility specification. People also like to handle and view a potential product before purchase, which is part of the reason, that ecommerce will always take on limited success. Today IKEA is actually a privately held company owned by Stichting INGKA Foundation, a non-profit registered in Leiden in the Netherlands that is controlled by the Kamprads three sons. The Dutch foundation is worth US$36 billion in 2006. IKEA Group with its headquarters in Denmark, is a multinational operator of a chain of stores for home furnishing and furniture. It is the worlds largest furniture retailer with a reputation for low cost, style and design. IKEAs annual home furnishing sales are 20 billion euros with more than 260 IKEA Group stores in 25 countries (Ohlsson, 2010). IKEA has about 40 distribution centres worldwide in 16 different countries, and implemented the automated Astro warehouse management system in 2005 (2005) in 15 of their Distribution Centres (DC) and Customer Distribution Centres (CDC). IKEA has approximately 1,220 suppliers from 55 different countries split more or less evenly between Europe and Asia, the top five of which are China 20%, Poland 18%, Italy 8%, Germany 6% and Sweden 5%. The company holds 3.5m stock keep units, with 10000 different product types amongst them, 10% of which are new every year. It is also a major global employer with 125000 employees in 40 different countries. Human resources The companys ethos was quite Christian in its values-their philosophy was to treat others as one would like to be treated oneself and their belief is akin to that shown by Japanese companies to their workers today that is to increase commitment and hence productivity from staff, one has to provide them with the belief of belonging to the company. For instance, all design teams enjoy complete autonomy in their work, but are expected to design new appealing products regularly. Ikeas employment philosophy is widely welcomed in the USA where historically moral amongst staff and working conditions and benefits are poor in the retail sector. This accounted for the fact that the sector had one of the highest turnover rates of all industries. Consequently, it also suffers from high human resource (HR) costs, as companies have to recruit and train replacements at frequent intervals. Definition: Management Information Systems (MIS) is the term given to the discipline focused on the integration of computer systems with the aims and objectives on an organisation. Information systems can be broadly divided into operational level for transaction processing, knowledge level for knowledge and office management, management level for decision and intelligent support and strategic level for executive support. The information systems support an information value chain for both business process-supply chain, enterprise, customer and knowledge management and management activities-planning, co-ordinating, controlling and modelling. Ultimately all the systems process data and provide feedback and for executive support for decision making planning, monitoring and implementation of strategy and the general workforce. Definition of an organisation -a stable formal structure that takes resources from the environment and processes them to produce outputs. An organisation can be said to be a formal structure with a standard operating procedure, politics and culture. Environmental factors affect their outputs -these maybe resources, government, competitors, financial, institutional culture, technology. Impact of information systems is seen in terms of a microeconomic model, transaction cost model, agency theory and behavioral theory. sociotechnical systems, redefining boundaries, recognising work flows, flattening, electronic market. Diagram Organisation Information technology mediating factors -environment culture structure standard procedures politics management decisions chance Information systems Information systems relate to the way in which Ikea is organized, its management and its technical layout. Information systems do not just consist of information technology (IT) and information transfer systems-the technical requirements should act as an adjunct to the business strategies of the enterprise rather than being a hostage to its fortune. Often business strategy requires the execution of complex processes of control and automation and the ability to quickly analyze and react to relevant data, not in an uncontrolled firefighting or reactive manner but with anticipation and forward planning based on likely demand and external changes in the business environment. Diagram showing interdependence between Business strategy, software, hardware, data management, telecommunications Organisational framework The problem is that in complex business organizations SBUs tend to design their information management needs according to their best interests rather than to the interest of the enterprise as a whole. This is termed the silo affect. To survive in an every more competitive environment, management must be strong enough to ensure that their strategy is implemented in the execution of cross-functional business processes and that information can be managed and shared across spatial, functional, geographic and segmental boundaries. Stakeholders interests e.g.are often ignored at the expense of damaging other parts of the supply chain, and the chain weakens. This maybe for several reasons, particularly because corporations are often intimidated by the thought of sharing competitive information with their suppliers. Their information security facilities often prohibits suppliers from gaining advantage by withholding from them key information e.g. manufacturing processes can benefit from effi cient production through accessing a real-time demand system. Companies therefore face a dilemma-do they share information to the extent that it allows their potential competitors access to their market information or do they with-hold information and become less competitive. In the end and on balance, a closeted attitude becomes self-defeating and exposes them to the risk of a more aggressive competitor. Ikea does not actually manufacture products, however it plays a very large design and innovative role in their production. By outsourcing manufacturing they can retain a competitive advantage -if one company fails to provide product as specified they will find another company that can and they do not suffer from set-up costs and ultimately ROI costs. One can immediately see the main problems relating to information management for IKEA. None more so than with a company whose strategy demands supply from a worldwide network and delivery to a worldwide customer base. One can easily understand that where there is a disparate group of suppliers, co-ordination between various supplier and DC is critical. A range of kitchen products e.g.may be produced by different manufacturers who have different supply times, manufacturing ability, geographical location, delivery times etc. On one hand one does not want idle inventory stock as this costs money, on the other one wants to ensure a constant supply which can meet fluctuations in demand-otherwise customers will become frustrated and will purchase elsewhere. In addition customer demand may vary between geographical location e.g. a country maybe has mainly city based stores where there would naturally be higher demand e.g. for space saving furniture which may be manufacturered in a country r ound the other side of the world. Ikea faces huge logistical problems, particularly as their ethos is to supply medium range quality product at low price. Supply planning is key to this strategy. One needs in this situation to forecast across the whole company and to organise its distribution centres into groups and hold one lot of a float of stock for a number of DCs. The capacity and geographical location of the CDCs become crucial to the companies strategic planning. Clearly a high capacity geographically distant CDC or a low capacity near CDC have redundancy issues because of the volume of product they hold and there impact on delivery time. Technology At operation level, Astro WMS (Group, 2010) is a modular WMS that IKEA adopted in 2010 and increases and improves efficiency in their distribution centre. Astro simplifies and streamlines the work process to provide total control of warehouse management with full tractability, accuracy, and on-line planning. In order to optimise capacity, handling equipment and storage spaces must be fully utilized. Astro is an automated warehouse management system that allows for ordering fulfilment automatically so reducing manual cost with automated re-ordering purchase orders being sent to suppliers when stock levels are low. Fully automatic double-aisle cranes from LTW Doppelmayr operate without any manual input as if robots have taken over the world leaving man redundant. In IKEA DC in New Jersey USA is running Astro WMS at full capacity with 175 warehouse employees. Ed Morris, Operations Manager at the site comments, We have seen that we are already back to picking 4,500 customer order lines per day and able to ship 34 trailers to the stores by the end of week one. I am confident that we will be exceeding our previous daily expectations in the very near future. Through the partnership we have built with the Consafe team, I am sure that both sides will take things away from this project and use them in the future. I really believe that this cutover was a success for both IKEA and Consafe. There will be space for 70.000 pallets in the 2 conventional modules and 100.000 pallets in the high-rack system. The warehouse capacity will be 270.000 pallets and therefore the largest IKEA Distribution Centre in the world. Taking a product to market involves many steps and information management is crucial to the products success. Ikea often designs and develops products from their inception to market. In order to do this they work from CAD drawings and have prototype machines model real products from their design drawings. But product manufacturing is more involved than just prototype production and testing. One must consider material source and process cost with the manufacturer as well as packaging development. IKEA is famous for its flat packs that were designed not just to fit into the customers car easily, but are mainly designed to maximize use of space during transport and warehousing so reducing costs storage and handling costs to a minimum. (Economist, 1994: 101). IKEA realized early on that space is often redundant during storage or transportation, yet costs money regardless of whether it is utilized or not. Hence the idea of a flat pack where storage and transport demand can be anticipated easily and utilized efficiently. In addition products have to market researched and tested and there has to be careful consideration in rollout, forecasting and financials. Neglecting one of these areas can cause immense damage to the company as a whole e.g. if a product reaches the shelf which is faulty may damage the brand of the company e.g. if the manufacturing process is too costly to set up it can place borrowing costs and liquidity capital under significant strain. The product must also be indexed, catalogued, labeled and displayed correctly. All of these represent part of the supply process, all of them require huge information analysis and appropriate information transfer. Order planning is therefore crucial to their operation and differences between expected demand and supply will affect their bottom line. In 2005 realising that these issues were becoming critical, the company decided to use an SAP based demand-planning tool solution with Manugistics and their goal was to reduce inventory levels in distribution centres by at least 10%. In its deployment the software must be able to identify critical resources such as people, equipment, storage, suppliers, finances, and be able to forecast with reasonable accuracy supply and demand fluctuations. Diagram-Forecast, stock, orders, material resource planning, requisition, quality, invoice, payment, structure of DC, CDC manufacturers. Production manager and finance officer. Management issues In modern corporate culture constant improvement has become a leading concept, and the technology has to keep up. Therefore the system needs to be flexible and adaptive, i.e. they need to be able to adapt changes in the flow. The limits of this flexibility are set at an early stage, by the choice of system and provider/supplier. As the company has such a vast range of stock there is also a tendency to be production-oriented, rather than customer focused which has made its supply chain more push than pull which naturally creates a supply-demand imbalance. The Supply Chain Council is an independent group of international supply chain industry executives and experts who developed the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) Model over a ten-year period using in-depth industry research and analysis. The models however are often based on forecasts and on theories, which are exact in them selves, but whose results maybe incorrect. The reason is that they require great quantities of data that are hard to gather and have to be estimated and calculations often have to be carried out for entire batches. One such example is the Wilson formula. The Wilson Formula The Wilson formula is a traditional method for determining production quantity where the total consumption during a period of time is known. The formula assumes that the only costs entailed are a warehousing cost per stock keeping unit and a one-time cost every time an order is placed, known as administrative re-ordering costs. The formula tries to find an optimal balance between the two costs to minimize the total cost, which is known as the economic order quantity (EOQ). In order for the Wilson formula to work, a number of conditions have to be met: Demand is constant and continuous The lead time for receiving ordered goods is constant Administrative re-ordering costs and warehousing costs are constant The order quantity does not need to be expressed as an integer The entire order quantity is delivered to the warehouse on the same occasion No shortages allowed The price/cost is independent of time requirements and ordered quantity Goods handling is ignored which is often a considerable cost e.g. the value of the article is often not proportional to the handling cost of the good. The administrative re-ordering cost is hard to determine. Price and demand also varies over time making judgement obsolete. Management by Objectives Ikea uses Opportunity Analyzer, which makes use of the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) Model. Best practices and key performance indicators are embedded in Opportunity Analyzer Management. Opportunity Analyzer recognizes important key performance indicators (KPIs) e.g. delivery performance. While MIS systems are extremely useful in generating statistical reports and data analysis they can also be of use as a Management by Objectives (MBO) tool. MBO is a management process by which managers and subordinates agree upon a series of objectives for the subordinate to attempt to achieve within a set time frame. Objectives are set using the SMART ratio: that is, objectives should be Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic and Time-Specific. The success of any MBO objective depends upon the continuous tracking of progress. In tracking this performance it can be extremely useful to make use of an MIS system. Since all SMART objectives are by definition measurable they can be tracked through the generation of management reports to be analysed by decision-makers. http://www.supply-chain.org/resources/scormark/tutorial SCOR considers management processes and planning. Ikea has such a large range of products that one has to be able to benchmark supply chains against products in order to best assess the most profitable items. SCOR takes product and cross references them individually against customer sub-type then groups similar supply chain characteristics. It then applies performance matrices-those of agility, responsiveness, cost, assets and reliability and scores each group of supply chains accordingly creating a ranking of supply chains. The advantages are obvious in that the more efficient supply chains can be more heavily relied upon, to create profit, the weaker ones losing out from future reliance. However, the disadvantage is that supply chains may cut across market segments and unifying groups by supply chain efficiency rather than by market segment may destroy market uniformity. The executive team can select a relevant KPI for the particular target area. Today, companies connect into networks or chains, increasing the flow rate throughout the supply chain to satisfy an ever more demanding customer. Increased power is given over to the vendor to keep stock at the desired level. http://www.jda.com/company/display-collateral.html?did=636dcid=1 The demand supply chain software must also be able to provide key metrics in areas where demand exceeds supply and available capacity. This will improve order fill rates and network utilization and will free working capital tied to ineffective inventory. However, understanding the supply demand chain in its practical execution is not all that is required. The product, must also align with its financial evaluation in an integrated business plan. It must be able to identify any performance concerns and gaps at the lowest practical level across the strategic/business plans. The software must become a forecasting tool and be able to perform a what if scenario for management to make best estimate prediction on future capacity demands. It must be able to relate assumptions, risks and opportunities to specific hierarchy levels in the SOP plan. These are decision support systems. Like all good army strategy there must be a backup plan when all goes wrong with practical and well-worked altern atives e.g. its no good having a back up generator if its not properly serviced regularly. The information tool must also be able to track changes over time and carry out real-time review analysis of supply and highlight areas where inventory positions violate pre-defined tolerances. It must also be able to highlight critical resource constraints related to material, labor and other capacity variables. Clearly there is a position that optimizes resources, distribution, transportation, stock inventory, production and materials. http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/operations-supply/10574219-1.html Recommendations IKEA is undoubtedly a highly successful global firm. Like all firms they must ensure competitive advantage. In information transfer terms they have problems relating to the fact that their suppliers are multiple and demand can vary. It may be better for them to consider horizontal back integration and begin to act as suppliers to ensure consistant information flow-from factory to customer. They will undoubtedly sometime soon saturate their market and further market expansion may not be possible. They must look toward expansion elsewhere either by parallel related market considerations e.g. home or commercial furnishing design or by backward horizontal integration. Both would be ideal targets for integrated information design providing the company with synergistic information value and ultimately increasing their information value chain.

Quinapril HCl (QUI) and Hydrochlorthiazide (HCTZ) Literature

Quinapril HCl (QUI) and Hydrochlorthiazide (HCTZ) Literature LITERATURE REVIEW Reema jaiswal, Pinak patel et al., (2013) developed and reported a new simple, sensitive, rapid, accurate, precise and economical RP-HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of Quinapril HCl (QUI) and Hydrochlorthiazide (HCTZ) in their combined pharmaceutical dosage form using potassium Dihydrogen Phosphate buffer (pH 4.0 adjusted with Ortho Phosphoric acid):Acetonitrile(70:30v/v) mobile phase, and C18 column ODS(100 mm x 4.6 mm,3.0ÃŽ ¼ particle size) as stationary phase with detection wavelength of 215 nm. Linearity was obtained in the concentration range of 5-25 ÃŽ ¼g/ml for both the drugs. The % recoveries of the both the drugs were found to be 99.50 – 101.50 % and 99.00 101.06%respectively.The LOD were found to be 0.014ÃŽ ¼g/ml and 0.013ÃŽ ¼g/ml at 215 nm for QUI and HCTZ respectively. Methods were statistically validated for Accuracy, precision, specificity, LOQ, and robustness according to ICH guidelines and can be used for analysis of combined dosage form. Serkan ALTUNSOY, Burà §in BOZAL-PALABIYIK, Bengi USLU et al., (2013) developed and reported a RP-HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of quinapril (QNP) and hydrochlorothiazide (HCZ) in pharmaceutical dosage forms. In this method quinapril, hydrochlorothiazide and perindopril (internal standard) were separated using a reversed phase column (Hichrom C18; 250Ãâ€"4.6 mm i.d.; 10 ÃŽ ¼m) with acetonitrile: potassium dihydrogen phosphate (at pH 2.5; 0.067 M) (40:60 v/v) as a mobile phase using UV detector at 211 nm and flow rate was 1.0 ml/min. The retention times for quinapril, hydrochlorothiazide and perindoprile were 4.391, 3.237 and 3.931 min, respectively. Linearity was obtained in the concentration range of 2-30 ÃŽ ¼g/mL for QNP and 1.25-18.75 ÃŽ ¼g/mL for HCZ. The proposed method has been fully validated and method is simple, rapid and suitable for quality control (QC) applications. Khan SA, Kulkarni SS, Biyani KR and Khan BA et al., (2013) developed and reported a simple, sensitive, accurate and reproducible method for simultaneous estimation of Quinapril and Hydrochlorthiazide by the Simultaneous equation method, using methanol as solvent. The two wavelengths 257 nm ÃŽ »max of Quinapril Hydrochloride (QNA-H) and 271 nm ÃŽ »max of Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) were selected for the formation of Simultaneous equations. The two drugs follow Beer-Lambert’s law over the concentration range of 5- 30 ÃŽ ¼g/ml of QNA-H and 2.5 – 15 ÃŽ ¼g/ml of HCTZ. Recovery study was performed to confirm the accuracy of the method. The recovery of the Quinapril Hydrochloride and Hydrochlorothiazide were found near to 100 %. The Results were found to satisfactory and reproducible. The methods were validated as per ICH guidelines. Reema Jaiswal, Pinak patel et al., (2013) developed and reported a new economical Derivative Spectrophotometric method for the simultaneous determination of Quinapril HCl (QUI) and Hydrochlorthiazide (HCTZ) in their combined pharmaceutical dosage form was developed and the absorbance of the solutions were measured at 242.45 nm (ÃŽ »1), and 257.17 nm (ÃŽ »2) for the estimation of both the drugs. The linearity was obtained in the concentration range of 80-240 ÃŽ ¼g/ml for QUI and 10-50 ÃŽ ¼g/ml for HCTZ The mean recovery was 99.93 – 100.33 % and 99.06- 101.25% for QUI and HCTZ respectively. The results of analysis have been validated statistically as per ICH guidelines. Gandhimathi and Ravi et al., (2013) developed and reported an ion-pair HPLC method has been developed and validated for the estimation of quinapril and hydrochlorothiazide simultaneously in combined dosage form. The mobile phase used was a mixture of 0.1% v/v triethylamine (pH 3.5), containing 1M of hexane sulphonic acid: acetonitrile (30:70% v/v). The detection was carried out on photo diode array detector at 220 nm. The proposed method can be successfully used to determine the drug contents of marketed formulation. Girija B. Bhavar, V.A Chatpalliwar, D.D. Patil and S.J. Surana et al., (2008) developed and reported HPTLC method for simultaneous estimation of Quinapril and Hydrochlorthiazide in pharmaceutical formulations. The drugs were separated on silica gel 60 F254 plates using suitable combination of solvents as mobile phase. The validation parameters, tested in accordance with the requirements of ICH guidelines, prove the suitability of methods. Mariusz Stolarczyk, Anna Maalanka, Anna Apola et al., (2013) developed spectrophotometric and chromatographic-densitometric methods for determination of losartan potassium, quinapril hydrochloride and hydrochlorothiazide in pharmaceutical preparations. The measurements were carried out at ÃŽ » = 224.0 nm for quinapril, ÃŽ » = 261.0 nm for hydrochlorothiazide and ÃŽ » = 270.0 nm for losartan when the derivative spectrophotometry was applied and ÃŽ » = 317.0 nm when zero order spectrophotometry was applied for the determination of hydrochlorothiazide. In chromatographic-densitometric studies high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) plates were used as stationary phase and a mixture of solvents n-butanol : acetic acid : water (15 : 5 : 1, v/v/v) as mobile phase. Under the established conditions good resolution of examined constituents was obtained. Retardation factor for quinapril hydrochloride was Rf ~ 0.70, for losartan potassium Rf ~ 0.85 and for hydrochlorothiazide Rf ~ 0. 78. The developed methods are characterized by high sensitivity and accuracy. For quantitative analysis, densitometric measurements were carried out at ÃŽ » = 218.0 nm for quinapril, ÃŽ » = 275.0 nm for hydrochlorothiazide and ÃŽ » = 232.0 nm for losartan. Kunal Makwana, Reena V Dhamecha, Nilesh Pandya et al., (2011) developed a rugged and economic method for the estimation of quinapril and its metabolite in human serum by lcms/ms detection for clinical trials. Ramipril was used as internal standard for quantitation of Quinapril, and it metabolite from human serum. Linear regression with 1/X2 weighting was performed to determine the concentration of the drug from serum . A common solid phase extraction procedure for the isolation of drug and its metabolite was developed from serum samples. The samples were analyzed on API 3200 Triple quadrapole mass spectrometer using Chromolith, RPà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ 18e column in atmospheric pressure electro spray ionization. The mobile phase composition was an isocratic mixture of 0.01% Ammonia in water: acetonitrile (30:70 %v/v). The method was validated over a linear range of 10 – 1000 ng/mL and the limit of quantification was 10 ng/mL. Recoveries were observed above 70% for all the three analyt es. The storage stability of Quality control samples was investigated under various conditions Wagh, Hapse. S. A.; Kadaskar, V. S.; Dokhe, P. T.; Shirsath, A. S. et al., (2012) developed a method for the estimation of hydrochlorothiazide in tablet dosage form. This analytical method developed for the estimation of hydrochlorothiazide in bulk fluids showed maximum absorbance at ÃŽ »max of 272 nm in distilled water and in 0.01N NAOH between 200 nm and 400 nm of UV scan. The method developed was validated for accuracy, linearity, limit of detection and limit of quantitation studies. The above analytical parameters indicated that the developed UV Spectrophotometric method of hydrochlorothiazide was simple, accurate and reproducible. Neela M Bhatia, Rituraj B Desai and Swapnil D Jadhav et al., (2012) reported a simple spectrophotometric method development for simultaneous estimation of Losartan Potassium (LOS) and Hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) in two component tablet formulation. The method employed is a first order derivative spectroscopy. The wavelengths used for detection were 257 nm for LOS and 243 nm for HCT. Linearity was observed in the range of 10-90 ÃŽ ¼g/ml for LOS and 2.5-22.5 ÃŽ ¼g/ml for HCT. The recovery studies confirmed accuracy of proposed method and low values of standard deviation confirmed precision of method. The method is validated as per ICH guidelines. R. K. Patel, J. B. Patel et al., (2011) developed accurate, precise and sensitive UV spectrophotometric method for the determination of Nebivolol Hcl (NEB-H) and Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) in bulk as well as in the pharmaceutical formulation. Calibration curves were linear in range of 10-80 ÃŽ ¼g/mL (r2=0.999) and 2-16 ÃŽ ¼g/mL (r2=0.998) at ÃŽ »max of 281 and 271nm for Nebivolol HCl and Hydrochlorothiazide respectively. The method was validated statistically. Monika L. Jadhav, Manoj V. Girase, Shripad K. Tidme et al., (2014) developed two UV spectrophotometric methods and validated for simultaneous estimation of valsartan and hydrochlorothiazide in a tablet dosage form. The first method employed solving of simultaneous equations based on the measurement of absorbance at two wavelengths, 249.4 nm and 272.6 nm, à °Ã‚ Ã…“† max for valsartan and hydrochlorothiazide, respectively. The second method was absorbance ratio method, which involves formation of Q-absorbance equation at 258.4nm (isoabsorptive point) and also at 272.6nm (à °Ã‚ Ã…“† max of hydrochlorothiazide). The methods were found to be linear between the range of 5–30 à °Ã‚ Ã…“†¡g/ml for valsartan and 4–24 à °Ã‚ Ã…“†¡g/ml for hydrochlorothiazide using 0.1N NaOH as solvent. The mean percentage recovery was found to be 100.20% and 100.19% for the simultaneous equation method and 98.56% and 97.96% for the absorbance ratio method, for va lsartan and hydrochlorothiazide, respectively, at three different levels of standard additions. The precision (intraday, interday) of methods was found within limits (RSD Shilpa Korti, Channabasavaraj KP, Somashekar PL et al., (2014) reported a new, simple (RP-HPLC) method and validated for simultaneous estimation of Moxonidine(MOX) and Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) in bulk drug and tablet dosage forms. The separation was achieved by using C8 Phenomenex Luna (250 x 4.6mm, 5ÃŽ ¼m) column with a mobile phase acetonitrile and formic acid solution (0.2%v/v) in the ratio 50:50 by using flow rate of 0.8 ml/min and detection wavelength at 245 nm. The retention times of MOX and HCTZ were found to be 3.0 and 4.8 min and the calibration curves were linear (r2=0.999) over a concentration range from 1-35ÃŽ ¼g/mL for MOX and HCTZ respectively. Limit of detection (LOD) and Limit of quantitation (LOQ) were 0.08ÃŽ ¼g/mL and 0.1ÃŽ ¼g/mL for MOX and 0.2ÃŽ ¼g/mL and 0.4ÃŽ ¼g/mL for HCTZ respectively. The developed method was validated as per ICH guidelines and the results were found to be within the limits. So it can be used for the routine quality control of MOX and HCTZ in bulk sample and tablet dosage forms. Vidhya K. Bhusari, Sunil R. Dhaneshwar et al., (2011) reported a new and accurate HPTLC method for simultaneous estimation of Atenolol, Hydrochlorothiazide and Amlodipine Besylate as the bulk drug and in tablet dosage forms by using aluminum plates precoated with silica gel 60 F254 as the stationary phase and chloroform: methanol: acetic acid (8: 2: 0.2 v/v/v) as mobile phase. Densitometric evaluation of the separated zones was performed at 232 nm. The three drugs were satisfactorily resolved with RF values 0.22  ± 0.02 and 0.36  ± 0.02, 0.55  ± 0.02 for Atenolol, Hydrochlorothiazide and Amlodipine Besylate, respectively. The accuracy and reliability of the method was assessed by evaluation of linearity (100-600 ng/spot for Atenolol, Hydrochlorothiazide and Amlodipine Besylate), precision (intra-day % RSD was 0.37–1.19 and inter-day % RSD was 0.69–1.11 for Atenolol, intra-day % RSD was 0.49–1.16 and inter-day % RSD was 0.50–1.23 for Hydrochlorothiazi de and intra-day % RSD was 0.59–0.84 and inter-day % RSD was 0.60–0.91 for Amlodipine Besylate), accuracy (99.93  ± 0.43 for Atenolol, 99.92  ± 0.72 for Hydrochlorothiazide and 99.87  ± 0.63 for Amlodipine Besylate), and specificity in accordance with ICH guidelines. Havaldar Freddy H and Vairal Dharmendra L et al., (2010) developed a simple, specific (RP-HPLC) method and validated for the determination of atenolol, hydrochlorothiazide, losartan and valsartan. Separation was achieved with a Nucleodur 100 C–18 column having 250 x 4.6mm i.d. with 5ÃŽ ¼m particle size and potassium dihydrogen phosphate buffer adjusted to pH 3.0 using diluted ortho phosphoric acid and acetonitrile (50:50 v à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ v) at flow rate of 1.0ml/min using UV detection at 210nm. The retention time of atenolol, hydrochlorothiazide, losartan and valsartan was about 1.99min, 2.90min, 5.92min and 9.42min respectively. The proposed method was validated and successfully used for estimation of atenolol, hydrochlorothiazide, losartan and valsartan in the pharmaceutical dosage form.

Essay --

While living in the Bay Area, I have a valuable opportunity to experience many interesting food cultures. Doing my report on cultural traditions, I am inspired to enrich my knowledge in the culture that I have little knowledge of. Through the interview presentations, personal experiences shared by students, and several suggestions of indicative foods by the instructor, I have gained interests in different food habits and food symbolisms. After doing small research on each topic to decide what I am really interested in, I chose to learn more about the Seder plate in Passover tradition. The meanings of the celebration as well as the symbolic foods intertwine with the Jewish history of more than 210 years of slavery in Egypt. Though I have learnt about the cruelty of slavery, I have never known about any celebrated festival to commemorate on the journey to freedom from bondage. I am curious in understanding how symbolic foods that are emphasized in this festival represent the experienc es that the Israelites faced and their passage to freedom. Passover (also known as Pesach in Hebrew) is one of the most sacred festival in the Jewish calendar and the longest continuing ritual in the human history. Since 1300 B.C, Jews celebrate this tradition to commemorate the national freedom of the Children of Israel and recalls stories behind the Israelites' departure from the land of Egypt. Spring time signifies the season of Passover, which begins at the sunset marking the fifteenth day of Nisan, the first month in Jewish calendar. In modern calendar, that is between April and May. The story of Passover is written in the Book of Exodus, the second book of Hebrew Bible. Over 3000 years ago, Pharoah, the King of Egypt, enslaved Jews and tortur... ...e tradition. Hopefully, the younger generations will continue to celebrate the sacred celebration to maintain their heritage in the future. Besides the historical meaning behind this tradition, the Seder plate in Passover celebration not only teaches the younger generation to recall the past painful experiences from slavery, but also emphasizes on the positive sides of their successful journey and their joyful moments. Each of the symbolic foods of the Passover Seder Plate has an interesting meaning, and together, they created complex layered meaning of the tradition. Family and friends come together to reflect upon history, sympathize the tragedies, and celebrate the triumphs of their ancestors. It is extraordinary that all Jews around the world strongly symbolize their ancestors’ experiences and spread it as the foundation of national identity.

Homo Erectus Essay -- Science Ancestry Science Essays

Homo Erectus In the quest to explain human origins it is necessary to find a species that bridges modern man (Homo sapiens) with the apes. To fill this gap evolutionists have set forth Homo erectus, who lived approximately 400,000 to 1.6 million years ago (Johanson and Shreeve1989). Although the distinctions are somewhat vague, below the neck, Homo sapiens and Homo erectus are practically Identical and Homo erectus was responsible for pioneering the use of standard tools (such as the hand axe), big-game hunting, and the use of fire (Johanson and Shreeve1989). You may know Homo erectus as "Java man" or "Peking man"( Johanson and Shreeve 1989). Erectus was low of brow, thick of bone, endowed with a brain larger than that of its ancestors but decidedly more simian than its descendants' (Washburn, McCown 1972). "Emerging in East Africa about a million and a half years ago, Homo erectus lived in the time Frame of 500,000 - 100,000 B.C. The geographical range in which Homo erectus lived in was Africa, Asia, Europe, and Oceania" (Johanson and Shreeve 1989). Homo erectus's brain, twice as large as that of Australopithecus, provided this new species with even more intelligence (Johanson and Shreeve1989). The climate during this time period varied greatly, with alternating periods of warm and cold and glaciers appearing during the cold eras(Johanson and Shreeve1989). The intelligence of erectus was helpful in survival, and Homo erectus had specific strategies for more efficient hunting. PHYSICAL FEATURES The most prominent difference between Homo erectus and previous species of hominids is the increase in cranial capacity (Washburn, McCown 1972). Over the course of Homo erectus' existence, the cranial capacity increased fr... ...mber 14, 1998 1998 Website: www.cruzio.com/~cscp/econ.htm, accessed November 14, 1998 1998 Website: www.emporium.turnpike.net/C/cs/emhe.htm, accessed November 12, 1998 1998 Website: www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/a_erectus.html, accessed November 11, 1998 Johanson and Shreeve. 1989 Lucy's Child. Morrow. p. 221 Lieberman,-Leonard; Jackson,-Fatimah-Linda-C 1995 Race and Three Models of Human Origin p.231-242 Parker,-Sue-Taylor 1985 A Social-Technological Model for the Evolution of Language;Current-Anthropology. p 269 Washburn,-S.-L.; McCown,-E.-R. 1972Evolution of Human Behavior, p163-170. Feder,-Kenneth-L. 1990Piltdown, Paradigms, and the Paranormal, p 397-402 Zihlman,-Adrienne-L. 1978Women in Evolution, Part II; Subsistence and Social Organization among Early Hominids p 4-20.

Personal Profile of a Belly Dancer Essay -- Interview Essay

Personal Profile of a Belly Dancer Professor’s comment: The personal profile is a standard assignment, but students often struggle with it since it requires that they not only interview someone who is generally a stranger to them but also become an instant expert on their subject’s particular talent or expertise. In writing the piece, the student resisted the impulse to talk about her own experience and focused squarely on Shakar. In doing so she presents a vivid portrait of her subject and demystifies belly dancing. In the picture, Belinda Shakar wears a satin bra with sleeves and a split skirt that reveals the entire length of her leg as she lunges on the ground. Her eyes are swept in dark makeup, and on her lips sits a seductive smile. The Belinda holding the picture is decidedly non-exotic, wearing glasses, a sweatshirt, and two layers of workout pants. She scowls when a young man accidentally walks in to the just-ending belly dance class. â€Å"I don’t like to have men in here at all,† she says. This, from a woman who spends her evenings shaking her hips at restaurant patrons. Although she doesn’t like men ogling her classes, Belinda Shakar does not shy away from the sensual aspects of her dance. In fact, that’s what attracted her to belly dancing as a teenager. â€Å"I really liked the sensuality of the dance and even the blatant sexuality,† she says. She had been taking traditional dance classes in Los Angeles in hopes of becoming a performer but thought belly dance seemed more interesting than the styles she was learning. She finally switched to belly dance after injuring herself in a ballet class. The accident convinced her that ballet is unnatural: â€Å"It distorts the body and torments it. That is still my feeling o... ...lly dancers have to love the dance, because for all that work, dancers get little money—workshops with master dancers usually cost around seventy-five dollars, costumes average five hundred dollars each, and dancers are usually paid only fifty dollars for two and a half hours of work. But Belinda Shakar cannot imagine her life without dance: â€Å"I’ve gone through so many careers, but I’ve always stuck with belly dance. I’ve just been doing it for so long.† From dancing, she has found freedom in being in touch with her body and the healing powers of movement. She is now working as a massage therapist, helping others free up their bodies as well. For her, dance is about enjoying her body and expressing her sensuality, not entertaining others or making money. So she is not at all concerned about making it to the top. Besides, she says, â€Å"in belly dancing, there is no top.†

Mcmurphy a christ figure Essay

Bromden and McMurphy are led to the electroshock room after they stood up for George, a fellow ward inhabitant, and assaulted the employees. As they anticipate the electroshock therapy, Bromden is nervous and afraid. However, McMurphy strangely expresses optimism despite the grave situation. The passage in which McMurphy gets prepared for the treatment clearly alludes to a martyr, specifically Jesus Christ. McMurphy even refers to himself as a Christ figure when he asks, â€Å"Do I get a crown of thorns?† McMurphy sacrifices himself for his friends in the wards. He gives up his own mind and life for Bromden, George, Billy, and the others so that they could have hope, a daring light breaking the austere darkness. Also, like Christ, McMurphy accepts his sacrifice with some sort of willingness, obligation, and tried optimism. Though McMurphy may not have been as polite as Christ would have (â€Å"Hooee, those Chinese Commies could have learned a few things from you, lady,† from McMurphy to Nurse Ratched), he admits his treatment somewhat graciously and definitely intrepidly. He sings and â€Å"makes their (employees’) hands shake,† certainly intimidating the workers, which is true of Jesus when his responses and reactions intimidate his executor, Pilate. Kesey presents McMurphy as a strong figure but still vulnerable to pain as the reader can observe after he receives multiple shock therapies. He endures them as optimistically as he can, but Bromden can see that they weary him, just like how the lashing wearied Christ. Most people know the history of Jesus Christ, so the reader can foretell the ending of the story using the apparent allusions in the passage. In conclusion, the story forebodes McMurphy’s inevitable and important death, similar to that of Christ’s. His sac rifice essentially breaks limits within the ward, and in the bigger picture, within society as well.

Homelessness in the usa

Psychology Name College Homelessness in the USA There still exist problem of homelessness in the United States long after the United States Housing Act of 1937 made it clear that the federal government would provide safe, decent and affordable housing. It is not that the government has neglected the poorest people in the country. The United States Quality of Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998 reveals that the federal government has little role to play in ensuring that every citizen is housed. This is a show that there are other factors contributing to the growing problem of homelessness.In every American city, one is likely to find homeless families living in abandoned buildings, cars, shelters among other places. This paper looks at two biological factors and two social factors that may be related to becoming or being homeless. History on mental illness is one of the contributing factors to increase in homelessness. A majority of the homeless persons experience mental probl ems as a result of traumatic circumstances that dominate their lives (The United States Conference of Mayors, 2008). The illness takes different forms and mainly affects the functioning of the mind.This makes it difficult for an individual to lead a normal life as it becomes hard to perform daily duties. In addition, relatives or close friends often avoid associating with the mentally ill pushing them to the streets. Depression is one of the most common forms of mental illness affecting homeless individuals. According to the National Institute of Health (201 1), approximately twenty-five per cent of the mentally ill population comes from the homeless population. This is a high figure that is attributed to the stressful situations characterized by the depression.Individuals in such situations have a egative outlook towards life and are constantly struggling to make things work out. A person without a home feels lost and has a general low self-esteem. In addition, such a person has no interest in previous activities that were considered fun and would most likely keep to themselves. The isolation and loneliness often leads to depression for persons living in a homeless community. Moreover, situations that result in depression can result trom actual homelessness or can occur atter the loss ot a home (Marcuse, 1988).Another form of mental illness that has relations with becoming or eing homeless is schizophrenia. However, unlike depression, schizophrenia has biological and genetic components. This means that it does not result from external features like harmful environment or homelessness. The mental condition is devastating as it affects the how one perceives reality. This makes it difficult for one to handle the daily activities. Therefore, it is the condition that makes an individual become homeless. Individuals suffering from schizophrenia display two categories of symptoms.The first category of symptoms is referred to as positive symptoms. They re in form of delusions and hallucinations and cannot be seen on healthy individuals. For instance, hallucinations take the form of smell, sounds, and sights felt only by the affected persons. On the other hand, delusions are consistent false beliefs regardless of whether they are true or not. The second category is that of negative symptoms which are evidently seen in the life of a healthy individual but are not considered schizophrenic. Some of the common symptoms are displeasure in life or activities.It also includes the tendency to stay lonely and avoiding interaction with ther persons. This category also has symptoms relating to cognitive ability whereby an individual is unable to remember information Just received. This includes reduced capability of making informed decisions and solving problems (National Institute of Mental Health, 2011). The symptoms are a cause of distress to individuals who find it difficult to handle even the simplest tasks. This makes it hard for the affected individ uals to build lasting relationships and develop careers.In turn, it becomes difficult to maintain a home consequently leading to homelessness. There are many social factors that may lead to becoming or being homeless. Two of the most prominent social factors are poverty and social abuse. Poverty can be as a result of lack of material resources and the unfavorable market condition for housing. This affects the poor who can barely afford to rent a decent house. Most of the homeless are poor and are not well educated to secure well-paying Jobs. Therefore, they are less skilled and survive on the wages whose returns have been on the decline (Quigley Raphael & Smolensky, 2001).The rising share of income spent on housing osts is unbearable for the majority of the poor. It has become nearly impossible to own or rent a housing unit. This is the reason why most metropolitan areas have continued to experience an increase in homeless families living within the cities. Measures such as availabi lity of shelter beds in certain cities and regulations that criminalize homelessness have not been successful in bringing families and individuals out of the street. Social abuse is another factor that determines if an individual will become homeless.The most common forms of abuse are physical and exual abuse in childhood. The experience is traumatizing and may lead to major problems such as inability to adjust in all stages of life. There is also increased likelihood of experiencing stress, inability to build lasting relationships, and make good decisions. Furthermore, persons coming from an abusive background are likely to have low self-esteem, which worsens their situation as they become prone to health complications such as going into a depression and substance abuse (Richardson and Bacon, 2003).Children are worse affected compared to adults when t comes to physical and sexual abuse. In addition, children who witness constant violence are also likely to develop negative ettects that lead to homelessness. T atmosphere of violence becomes a part of their lifestyle as they become used to the incidences. Such exposure makes them develop less fear to otherwise dangerous experiences. This is what has enabled most of the children who grow in the street to get used to the harsh conditions. They tolerate the violence and later become perpetrators of the same.

Bond Market Power

The reasons behind James Carville's quote stating that if he would want to be reincarnated as the Bond Market as appose to a political figure or religious leader (Ferguson, N, 2008) is clear, the Bond market since its inception over 800 years ago has been the most influential financial instrument throughout history. Its longevity and power far surpasses any leader. It affects the outcome of wars, the success and failures of even the largest economies and also touches the lives of individual people. The below paper will discuss the history and origins of such a Debt Instrument, its rise in America inspiring James Carville's quote. Also how the Bond Market works, its components and its power over economies throughout history using examples to support this. Concluding this analysis with the Bond Market in Ireland and how it has been greatly affected by the current economic climate. Origins and Early History of the Bond Market: Nations, races and religions have been at war since the dawn of time and has seen many wars; there have been countless debates as to what ultimately plays the most important role in winning a war. Many people would argue that it is the size of an army, some would say it is the General at the forefront of a battlefield, others would denote it to technological advances in weaponry. These arguments all have one factor in common, they all need to be funded by money; money to pay soldiers, to reward Generals and to pay for arms. The amount of money which a town, country or kingdom has to fund a war is what determines victory. Niall Ferguson outlines the historic origins of the Bond Market very informatively in †The Ascent of Money† tracing the use of Bonds, to as far back as the early 14th century in Italy. Throughout the 14th and 15th Century, Italian cities were at war with one and other. Florence, Pisa and Siena being the main cities at war with each other among others. As concluded above, it is money which is the most influential strategy or weapon to be victorious against the other cities and in the case of Florence we see that by funding their wars they landed their town into major debt. How could Florence pay back this debt? Imposing tax increases would lead to upheaval, they therefore came up with the revolutionary idea of a commonly coined term: â€Å"Government IOU's† (Ferguson, N 2008); the wealthier citizens would lend the Government money over an agreed period of time receiving regular interest payments on said loan. The ideal factor in this agreement is that these IOUS's could be sold to other citizens prior to their maturity making them a liquid asset. This debt instrument saw the birth of the Bond Market. By the early 14th Century, two thirds of households were the Florentine Governments prime lenders in financing their â€Å"Mountain of Debt†. (Ferguson, N 2008). While it seems like a win-win situation for both investors and the Government a critical point arose, if a Government kept going to war and kept issuing Bonds to pay for such wars, how could an investor be guaranteed the investment would be returned. It is this point which highlights the link between the Bond Market and is power over economies. Governments undertaking this idea grew throughout the 16th and 17th century, some using towns as intermediaries; France with Paris hotel de ville, Spain utilizing Genoas Casa di San Girgio and Antwerp's beurs. (Ferguson, N, 2008) But it is the 18th Century and the British consol which paints the most relevant picture as to the rise of the Bond Market and the extent of its power, both from the perspective of winning battles and to be capitalized as a rewarding investment; The Battle of Waterloo being the best example of this. Nathan Rothschild was the most prominent figure at that time in the UK financial world and due to this and his reputation of being a successful Gold smuggler, he was given the task by the British Government of using funds from the issuance of Bonds to purchase amounts of gold to finance the Duke of Wellingtons battles. Rothschild was commissioned to deliver  £600,000 worth of Gold but instead collected  £2 million worth of bullion reserves. It is when the war was announced over and won by the British in 1815 that Rothschild had a problem of having an overly excessive gold reserve from his gold piling mission. He then, in a clear way of capitalizing on the Bond Markets in such a historic way, made one of the best investment decisions of his life. Post being informed of the Duke of Wellingtons victory, Rothschild purchased the British Bonds before the market had an opportunity to react, expecting the price to rise with increased stability of the Government due to the victory at Waterloo. Rothschild purchased the British Consol initially on 20 July 1815 and then again in subsequent years until selling at a peak in late 1817 at an increase of 40%. It is this display of financial valour and a clear inter connection between Government economies and the Bond Market which saw its rise to power in the global financial world. (Ferguson, N 2008). Linking the above to America and ultimately James Carville's quote, we can begin with the oldest impact of the Bond Market on American History, the American Civil War. The South approached the Rothschilds to back them as they did Britain in Waterloo but the Rothschild decided to opt out, this resonated throughout the entire European quarter which led to the an ingenious idea by the Confederacy to offer â€Å"cotton backed bonds† to the Europeans which basically guaranteed the bonds with Cotton making them a less risky initiative. Because the south monopolised the global cotton supply, they could influence prices thus making the cotton backed bonds more expensive leading to the increase in Bond price and ultimately funding for the Civil War. This is why it is said that the fall of New Orleans (cotton producer of the south) in April 1862 was the true definitive moment in the American Civil War, as a result the Bond prices fell astronomically and hence the financial backing for the Confederacy, the end of the war being 1865 with the North claiming victory. (Ferguson, N 2008). Bond Market America 1900's – 1990's Clinton Administration: In terms of the US Treasury Bond Market, it began as part funding for World War I. The war was financed through a rise in taxes and through the sale of war bonds, called â€Å"Liberty Bonds†. Over $21 billion dollars of debt were raised in maturities that came due after the war. Budget surpluses were not enough to cover the debt and so converted into T-bills, notes and bonds. These amounts were paid down regularly until borrowings were increased during the Great Depression of 1929. Foreign governments became holders of United States debt as they began to have surpluses in the balance of trade. As the Government deficit rose during World War II and accelerated during the Vietnam war, the debt markets and the rise of debt related trading instruments has dominated financial markets. In the early 1980s, bond yields rose substantially due to increases in commodity prices, labor wage increases and expanding deficits. Bond prices anticipate rising amounts of future debt and thus yields rise. (www.ehow.com). U.S. interest rates beginning in 1900-2010: (observationsandnotes.blogspot.com) The graph above shows U.S. interest rates beginning in 1900. From 1953 onward, the rates are 10-year U.S. Treasury Note rates, plotted monthly; prior to 1953, they're the less granular. This can support the previous paragraph's historical perspective in the ascent of the US Bond Market, in that we see how the interest rates drop from the depression and how it slowly began to rise post the Vietnam War in the late 60's early 70's.( observationsandnotes.blogspot.com). Placing the James Carville quote into perspective and in line with the time at which it was stated, during the Clinton administration. We can see according to some the destruction of the Bond Market happen in the US in 1994 entirely caused by the policies of said Administration. In 1993 President Clinton began with a plan to kick push the economy. His view was that all he needed to push the economy was lower interest rates. Short-term interest rates can fall for many reasons; public expectations change, increased savings increase, the market or as Adam Smith coined the â€Å"Invisible Hand† drives down interest rates as a signal for more investment. (Smith, A 1991). The same can happen artificially as the central bank expands credit and intentionally causes increased money supply within the economy, the central bank creates distortions in the capital structure, including stocks and bonds, while an increase in private savings allows steady economic growth. The Clinton administration, pushed the Federal reserve to lower short-term interest rates. Making money cheap and plentiful to pump up spending. But there is a fine line between plenty of money and plenty of devalued money. One is higher prices or in other words Inflation, lowers the purchasing power of money, which forces the Fed, sooner or later, to raise the interest rates back to a higher level. The usual consequence is an economic slowdown or even recession. A by-product may be a lower exchange rate internationally. But the actual consequence in the time of the Clinton administration was the bond market collapse. (Pongracic, I, 1995) So far we have tracked the history of the Bond Market from its origins in Italy to its rise within the US economy, but what is the Bond Market technically and how can we analyze the Bond Market and break it down to see how it operates within the financial system in today's terms? The Bond Market and How it works: When dissecting the bond market and its relevance and importance in today's terms we do not associate it too much to the funding of wars or the financing of battles, as we did with Waterloo, The American Civil War and Vietnam, we view it like Nathan Rothschild did, as an investment tool. Stocks historically produce higher rates of return than other investments but at the same time carry with a substantial amount of risk, also noting that it is at the Board of Directors discretion to pay out dividends on common stocks. The alternative being Bonds on the other hand have a maturity date at which time the Bond is redeemed at the issuing price. US Treasury Bonds interest and redemption payments are backed by the U.S Treasury thus rendering them â€Å"risk free† . (Faerber, Esme, 1993) The word †BOND† means contract, agreement, or guarantee. An investor who purchases a bond is lending money to the issuer , and the bond represents the issuer's contractual promise to pay the interest and repay the principle according to specified terms. The issuers themselves can be the National Government, Lower Levels of Government , Corporations and Securitisation Vehicles. (Levinson, M, 2000). Bonds are traded on both the Primary and Secondary Capital Markets along with Stocks and Mortgages, they are first introduced as initial public offerings or IPO's on the primary market and then can be traded or sold on the secondary market before maturity. The Par, face or maturity value of the Bond is the amount the issuer must pay at maturity. The coupon rate is the rate of interest paid on the bond. If the repayment of Bond are not met, the holder can claim on the assets of the issuer, (in the above Civil War example, the South's cotton). Long term bonds traded in the capital market include long term government notes and bonds, municipal bonds and corporate bonds. When dealing in Corporate Bonds, Default risk is an important factor of Bonds, as it is the main factor which influences a Bonds Interest Rate. This can be explained to be the risk that the issuer will not be able to meet interest payments and pay the principle back to the investor. If the possibility of default increases because the corporation is suffering losses the default risk will increase and their expected return on these bonds will decrease. Due to this importance, it is the credit rating agencies which assess the risk of default of Companies and Governments alike and rate them according to likeliness of default. (Mishkin, F.S, 2006) When buying and selling bonds, investors can utilize brokerage firms as they do with other investments and in the case of U.S Treasury Bonds can purchase them directly, it is when successfully realising where its best to buy and sell bonds which leads the investor in gaining from both differences in bond pricing and in commission costs. The Irish Economy & its Bond Market a midst the crisis: As displayed above, the main way for countries to raise fund when required are theough the Bond Markets. They are also a a key indicator as to the economic position of that country. This is because the more concerns the markets have about a nations financial stability, the more expensive it is for that government to issue its Bonds and raise money. A midst the Irish Financial Crisis and the troubles of Irelands Banks, mainly due to the blanket guarantee annoiunced by the Irish Finance Minister John Lenihan, Ireland have found it so much more costly to attract interest in their bonds this year. This is due to the Government accepting responsibility for Commercial Bank’s risky Loan Books, considering these loans will more than likely be defaulted so is the risk that the Irish Government will default on their soveirgn debt. Due to the above, the market prices of Irish Bonds have fallen in recent months, pushing up the yields. The yield on a 10-year Irish bond reached about 9% at one point. That is very high. The UK government – in spite of all its financial difficulties – can borrow for 10 years at just over 3%. (bbc.co.uk).

Lending Decision

Coles Group Limited Formerly known as Coles Myer Limited. The Group's principal activities are carried out through the following business segments: Food, Liquor & Fuel, Kmart, Target and Office works. Food, Liquor & Fuel involves retailing grocery, liquor and fuel products. Kmart and Target involve retailing apparel and general merchandise. Office-works involves retailing office supplies. Major brands include Coles, Bi-Lo. Liquor-land, Vintage Cellars, 1st Choice, Theo's, Coles Express, Kmart, Target and Office-works. It operates around 2,600 stores in Australia and New Zealand. It also has branch offices located in China. On 31 March 2006, the Group acquired Sydney Drug Stores Pty Ltd (trading as Pharmacy Direct). On 2 June 2006, it disposed of its Myer business. On 14 June 2006, it completed the acquisition of the Hedley Hotel Group. On 9 November 2006, it divested its Mega-mart stores The most common claim with regard to the importance of money in our everyday life is the morally neutral if comically exaggerated claim that makes the world go round'. Equally exaggerated but showing a deeper insight is the biblical warning that ‘the love of money is the root of all evil', neatly transformed by George Bernard Shaw into the fear that it is rather the lack of money which is the root of all evil. However, whether it is the love or conversely the lack of money which is potentially sinful, the purpose of the statement in either case is to underline the overwhelming personal and moral significance of money to society in a way that gives a broader and deeper insight into its importance than simply stressing its basically economic aspects, as when we say that money makes the world go round'. Consequently whether we are speaking of money in simple, socalled primitive communities or in much more advanced, complex and sophisticated societies, it is not enough merely to examine the narrow economic aspects of money in order to grasp its true meaning. To analyze the significance of money it must be broadly studied in the context of the particular society concerned. It is a matter for the heart as well as for the head: feelings are reasons, too. National currencies are an inadequate form of world money, but at least their use in international transactions avoids the faults of commodity-money. A monetary standard based on strategic commodities, no matter whether gold alone or some combination of raw materials, will always suffer from their relatively inelastic and uncertain supply conditions. Producers of the money commodity will have an outright advantage over others in the marketplace. Even if we reduce the role of the money commodity to that of last-resort reserve and numeraire for exchange rates, as was the case with the gold exchange standard of Bretton Woods, such a hybrid system is prone to break down. Commodity-money and credit-money are essentially incompatible forms of money and do not coexist easily with each other. One or the other will dominate, and each form of dominance will cause its peculiar sources of instability (e.g., inadequate supply of liquidity, loss of convertibility, inequitably distributed adjustment burdens). National currencies are an inadequate form of world money, but at least their use in international transactions avoids the faults of commodity-money. A monetary standard based on strategic commodities, no matter whether gold alone or some combination of raw materials, will always suffer from their relatively inelastic and uncertain supply conditions. Producers of the money commodity will have an outright advantage over others in the marketplace. Even if we reduce the role of the money commodity to that of last-resort reserve and numeraire for exchange rates, as was the case with the gold exchange standard of Bretton Woods, such a hybrid system is prone to break down. Commoditymoney and credit-money are essentially incompatible forms of money and do not coexist easily with each other. One or the other will dominate, and each form of dominance will cause its peculiar sources of instability (e.g., inadequate supply of liquidity, loss of convertibility, inequitably distributed adjustment burdens). By some measures, the real backbone of world commerce and global employment is made up of the millions of unsung small enterprises that farm small plots of land, cook food, provide daycare for children, make clay pots or straw mats by hand, do piecework for apparel makers, and carry out the countless other tasks that larger businesses don't do. In the cities of developing countries, for example, a growing percentage of the working population – sometimes estimated as high as 50 percent – is engaged in microenterprise activity. In the seven countries of southern Africa, there is evidence that small, unregistered enterprises provide work for substantially more people than the â€Å"regular,† legal ones do. In Latin America and the Caribbean, more than 50 million microenterprises employ more than 150 million workers. Even in a wealthy country like the United States, more than a quarter of all employees work for establishments of fewer than 20 people, and those businesses constitute 87 percent of all U.S. business establishments. The tasks these businesses perform cover the whole range of human activity, from the basics of housing and farming to the luxuries of entertainment and tourism. In many parts of the world, microenterprises frequently have only one employee – who is also the owner – or they benefit from the work of family members who are not really employees at all. In wealthy countries, many microenterprises may be larger, up to 10 or 20 people, for example, but still small in comparison to many of their competitors. But throughout the world, what most of these businesses do have in common is a lack of access to resources. They get little help from lawyers or accountants; often they are not able to afford retail space; many of them are not even legally registered as businesses. At almost all American banks, the board delegates loan approval authority to the professional banking staff. Such delegation permits assistant branch managers up to the president to have varying loan authority, from $5,000-$10,000 unsecured to $250,000, $500,000, or even $1 million secured. On top of this, the board often delegates still-higher authorities to loan committees or combinations of loan officers. Using a hypothetical example, if the lending limit of the financial institution is $5 million per borrower, the directors may delegate from $1 up to $1 million to individual officers, officers in tandem, and loan committees. This leaves all loans above $1 million and under $5 million to be approved by the board itself. In essence, the board has set itself as approver of the most sophisticated, most risky, and most complex lending arrangements, while the professional loan staff handles the relatively inexpensive and less-risky loan approvals. Add to this the fact that if the loans go seriously wrong, and the board has approved the loans, then the state and federal regulatory agencies may take remedial actions against the directors. Many financial institutions adopt in-house lending limits which are significantly lower than the lending limit to any one borrower that is legally available. For example, prior to the sale of First of America Bancorp to National City in 1998, the legal lending limit of First of America was $180 million to any one borrower. On the other hand, its board refused to make any loans in excess of $24 million. The directors felt that $24 million was sufficient risk exposure. Several financial institutions have set their in-house lending limit equal to the professional loan committee's lending authority, thus for all intents and purposes eliminating the board as a source of loan approvals. Micro-enterprises are more flexible and mobile than the much larger, more complex and building-bound businesses. They provide part-time work to women and men who also have to take care of families, and seasonal work in places where crops have to be harvested. They require little capital, office space, or startup title. They can thrive in rural areas, thereby slowing the rush to urbanization. Jobs in microenterprises are accessible to immigrants and disenfranchised people who need to moonlight or share jobs. And they are run by women at least as often as men, helping to reverse a pervasive global inequity. Microenterprises also offer an alternative to the conventional strategy for bringing development to poor nations – making large loans to governments for massive power or infrastructure projects. Such project-oriented development has come under growing criticism from grassroots activists, who say the projects often benefit large contractors and central governments more than they help local people. More investment in smaller, local industries, they argue, could bring economic and social benefits at far less cost. Their view is reflected in an old Chinese saying, â€Å"many little things done in many little places by many little people will change the most of the world.† For years, the First National Bank of Omaha, Neb., had a board consisting exclusively of inside professional bankers who made all loan decisions. In these financial institutions the professionals make the loan approval decisions, not the amateurs. Finally, it is up to the board to set the loan authorities and to review such loan authorities per loan officer on an annual or more frequent basis. The board must also revise lending authority by type of lending function, depending upon the size of the financial institution, so as to protect the institution from risky, inappropriate lending by staff members. The board in these cases normally reacts to the recommendations of senior management, especially the senior lending officer, who is in charge of the entire lending function. As we transition away from the high growth years of the past two decades, it's an appropriate time to reflect upon the future of the banking industry. As the economy continues to slow from what has been a remarkable global expansion, the banking industry finds itself in the middle of a dramatic transformation. Several significant trends are impacting key decision-makers of traditional financial institutions, and many are grappling with their role in the New World economy even as they try to reinforce the traditional attributes that have made them competitive. Financial institutions also face challenges on the services-side as there has been a proliferation in the number of customer touch points with the growth of the Internet, wireless, as well as traditional channels such as branches and telephone banking. This has added further pressure on profitability and on increased efficiency. Many boards today are trying to reconcile the need for greater operating efficiency while realizing that traditional channels are not going away any time soon, and at the same time recognizing the need for newer distribution channels to serve the changing demographics. There is also the need to be more creative in offering traditional and non-traditional banking and other products. This need complements the need for new revenue streams particularly non-interest fee income sources. Additionally, there is a keen acknowledgement that banks must know a lot more about their customers so they can serve them better and more profitably. Most traditional institution brands are built around service, trust and community. These are fundamental attributes that financial institutions have enjoyed for over a century. Brand strength will become increasingly important as institutions compete for customers. Brand identity will become more important because choices among customers will increase, making it more important for your target audience to differentiate between competitors. Financial institutions will differentiate on service, trust or serving a particular community or demographic set. Their brand recognition and identity will be increasingly important to their customers and will enable them to filter through the competition. REFERENCES Micro-Enterprises, Magazine article by Hal Kane; World Watch, Vol. 9, March-April 1996 The Role of the Board in Lending, Part 1 of 3 Parts: Reexamining Directors' Role in the Lending Process, Journal article by Dr. Douglas V. Austin; ABA Banking Journal, Vol. 94, 2002. The Future of Banking and the Role of Technology, Journal article by Louis Hernandez Jr., Michael D. Nicastro; ABA Banking Journal, Vol. 93, 2001. The Role of Social Capital in Development: An Empirical Assessment, Book by Christiaan Grootaert, Thierry Van Bastelaer; Cambridge University Press, 2002 Competitive Industrial Development in the Age of Information: The Role of Cooperation in the Technology Sector , Book by Richard J. Braudo, Jeffrey G. Macintosh; Routledge, 1999