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Friday, November 29, 2019

The Airline Industry And The Challenges Tourism Essay Essay Example

The Airline Industry And The Challenges Tourism Essay Essay Introduction Today, the engagement of Middle Eastern air hoses in extra-regional operations varies, but is already comparably high. Emirates is offering 82 % of its place capacity on extra-regional services. Most other of import bearers from the part like Etihad Airways ( 74 % ) , Qatar Airways ( 66 % ) and Gulf Air ( 54 % ) besides operate more than half of their seats on extra-regional flights ( AEA, 2006 ) . Air France ( 26 % ) and Lufthansa ( 23 % ) show that the portion of excess regional offer for European web bearers is well less, bespeaking that these bearers have stronger domestic markets. It has besides projected the following for its fiscal twelvemonth mentality. Qatar Airways aims for 40 % leap in grosss, says CEO Akbar Al Baker. Defying the planetary fiscal downswing, Qatar Airways is anticipating to enter a 40 per cent addition in its grosss in its current fiscal twelvemonth stoping March 31, 2011 over the last twelvemonth, harmonizing to the Doha-based air hose s main executive officer. We are aiming a 40 per cent addition in grosss for this twelvemonth, which is somewhat over the addition in the air hose s capacity of around 30 per cent. Qatar has besides come up with balance selling Mix to as to switch from rival of Emirates to chief participant in the air hose industry in the Gulf part. The Airline Industry and The Challenges We will write a custom essay sample on The Airline Industry And The Challenges Tourism Essay specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Airline Industry And The Challenges Tourism Essay specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Airline Industry And The Challenges Tourism Essay specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The commercial air power industry has been characterized by a cyclic nature since its origin. During times of economic prosperity, rider traffic demand grows and air hoses seek to add capacity to run into that demand. Conversely, during economic downswings, air hoses respond to decreased travel demand through call offing flights, anchoring or selling aircraft and by and large shriveling capacity. By 2005, a new moving ridge of brash exuberance was experienced in the air hose industry, and aircraft orders skyrocketed fourfold, twelvemonth over-year, to record degrees of more than 2000 units, split reasonably equally between Airbus and Boeing. ( See Fig. 1. ) A ample part of aircraft purchasing originated with air hoses based in the Gulf Region. Traffic growing in that part of the universe was strong, and bearers like Emirates, Etihad and Qatar began puting big aircraft orders, frequently in duals of one-upmanship at assorted air-shows such as Paris, Farnborough and Dubai. The air hose industry has been bedeviled in the recent times by economic downswing, skyrocketing fuel costs, perceived menace of terrorist act, the possible eruption of the bird grippe virus and monolithic insurance premiums the international air hose industry faces an unsure, deregulating that has hit major industrialized state air hoses and disputing future. North America is 2nd largest of the four parts examined, with 2827 orders, but with over 80 % of these orders being placed for narrow-body equipment ( by and large 100-200 seats ) , most of which are destined to fall in the fleets of LCC air hoses in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Europe is the 3rd largest part, at over 2600 orders, besides to a great extent weighted dedicated to narrow-body purchases ( 70 % ) , once more to a big extent ordered to increase the fleets of turning LCCs such as EasyJet and Ryanair. The Middle East is the 4th largest part examined, and though aircraft orders figure merely over 400, a cardi nal differentiation from the other parts is that more than 60 % of these orders are for twin-aisle widebody ( 200-400 seats ) and Very Large Aircraft ( greater than 400 seats, such as the Airbus A380 ) , as shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 1. Aircraft orders of Gulf States: 1995-2007. Beginning: www.airbus.com, www.boeing.com. Fig. 3. Airbus A380 orders by part. Beginning: Airline Monitor, November 2007. Situation analysis Company analysis Qatar Airways is the national air hose company of Qatar which one of the fastest turning air hoses in the universe. Since its re-launch in 1997, Qatar Airways has achieved astonishing growing in fleet size and rider Numberss. From merely four aircraft in 1997, the air hose grew to a fleet size of 28 aircraft by the terminal of 2003 and a milepost 50 by October 2006. Today, the air hose operates 68 Boeing and Airbus aircraft. By 2013, the fleet size will about duplicate to 110 aircraft. Qatar Airways presently has more than 200 aircraft on order worth over US $ 40 billion for bringing over the following few old ages ( www.linkedin.com ) . Presently, Qatar Airways has a fleet of 87 aircraft functioning 92 finishs worldwide. The company employs more than 15,000 employees across Far East, Middle East, Central Asia, Europe, the Africa, North America, South America and Oceania. Qatar Airways vision is to put in and keep, a turning fleet of immature and modern aircraft winging to identify concern and leisure finishs worldwide. Furthermore, company s mission includes safety first , client focused , culturally cognizant and financially strong . Furthermore Qatar Airways set up its end which is to be a universe s top aeroplanes company. Rivals Katar is strategically located in the Gulf States. It has become one of the concern hub and way station. Its air hose industry, has come under increasing competition from rivals such as Emirates, Etihad, Bahrain air hoses. Airlines in the Middle East presently account for merely 9 % of long draw capacity worldwide, but are responsible for approximately 25 % of all planetary long-haul aircraft bringings over the following decennary ( Flanagan, 2006 ) . Dubai-based Emirates Airlines is the largest purchaser, with about 70 % of all new long-haul aircraft orders in the Middle East the air hose is be aftering to more than duplicate its all-wide organic structure fleet capacity by 2012 ( Flanagan, 2006 ) . Once all these aircrafts are in usage, Emirates Airlines will be the universe s largest long-haul bearer. Other air hoses in the part with ample broad organic structure aircraft orders include Qatar Airways with an order book of about 140 widebody aircraft aircraft and Etihad Airways with approximately 20 aircrafts pending bringing. Whilst aircraft orders of Gulf bearers represent existent fleet enlargements, aircraft orders placed by incumbent bearers are chiefly used to replace bing capacity ( Fig. 1 ) . Overall, aircraft orders by Middle Eastern bearers are valued at 40 billion USD ( list monetary values ) . In-between Eastern bearers are constructing their growing scheme on widebody aircraft aircraft that offer expanded scope, enhanced rider comfort, and improved operating economic sciences. These aircrafts will assist Middle Eastern bearers to extenuate the likely on-going slot deficits and congestion jobs experienced at some airdromes. New-generation aircraft are cardinal to the development of long-haul hubs in the Middle East, leting the bearers to stay competitory by maintaining unit costs low ( OConnell, 2006 ) . Qatar airways merely like other air hoses in the Gulf States is portion of the authorities scheme to diversify its gross base, economic systems, commercialism, touristry and planetary conveyance importance. The air hose has a rich mission statement which is Excellence in everything we do. Harmonizing to a study carried out by Pearce and David ( 1987 ) to analyse the mission contents of air hose companies, the mission, it showed that Qatar s mission statement is one of the best in the universe. Amongst 9 points, it has 6 points. Fleet enlargement programs of Middle Eastern bearers ( as March 2008 ) . Source Journal of Transport Geography 18 ( 2008 ) 388-394 Confederates ( world-wide spouses, codeshare ) Code sharing or codeshare is an air power concern term for the pattern of multiple air hoses selling infinite on the same flights, where a place can be purchased on one air hose but is really operated by a collaborating air hose under a different flight figure or codification. The term codification refers to the identifier used in flight agenda, by and large the 2-character IATA air hose designator codification and flight figure. Qatar Airways is proud to be codeshare spouses with some of the universe s premier air hoses such Nippon Airways, Asiana Airlines, BMI, Lufthansa, Malaysia Airlines, Philippine Airlines, US Airways and United Airlines which indicated as Star Alliance. ( Qatar.com ) Climate Macro environment ( PESTLE analysis ) PESTLE Analysis which is an acronym of Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, is a tool that aids organisation brand schemes by assisting them to understand the external environment in which they operate now and in the close hereafter. Below is a tabulated External analysis in which Qatar air line operates. Political Looking at both the demand and the supply side of Middle Eastern air power growing, it becomes clear that the development has both a demand and a supply side drift to it. The rise of bearers from the part has become possible due to the overall addition in demand for air travel. Additionally, traffic has already been diverted from the established bearers. However, there is besides another side to the growing procedure: Induced demand . This is because of political stableness in the Gulf part non merely in Qatar. Economic Domestic demand benefits from the topography of the Gulf states, which favours traveling by air for intra-regional conveyance. Furthermore, a high per capita income that is still increasing rapidly, offers a base for a strong air power industry. But there are socio-economic restraints, restricting both domestic leisure and concern travel potency. Besides, wealth is unevenly distributed, with an estimated proportion of 20 % to 45 % of the population life below the poorness line ( AEA, 2006 ) . The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar have a combined 5.5 million people which is merely about the population of the Philadelphia metropolitan country. With more people populating above the poorness line, the air hose industry has a bright hereafter. Social UAE lies in the bosom of the Middle East ( ME ) and is one of the universe s fastest turning economic systems with a per capita income of US $ 31,000 ( IMD, 2005 ) . Worldwide, in 2006, the ME Travel and Tourism economic system was graded figure nine in footings of absolute size ( US $ 150 billion ) and is expected to turn to US $ 280 billion by 2020 ( WTTC, 2007a ; Husain, 2007a ) . UAE ranks 18th in the universe and figure one in the Arab universe, harmonizing to the planetary touristry competitiveness study by the World Economic Forum ( Rahman, 2007a, B ) . Global Futures and Foresight, a British think armored combat vehicle expects the investing in touristry and substructure for the ME to be about US $ 3 trillion by 2020, with current investings standing at US $ 1 trillion which is much higher than what is considered current planetary outgo ( Husain, 2007a ) . Non-oil grosss contribute 63 per centum to the GDP ( UAE Interact, 2007a ) . Abu Dhabi contributes 59 per centum to the G DP of UAE ( 56 per centum which is oil dependant ) . Qatar scheme is to feed from the Dubai market. Technological Delaies, cancellations and recreations are the most seeable grounds of the effects of these breaks on the air hoses. By and large, each of these consequences in aircraft and crews being out of place relation to planned paths. Passengers are inconvenienced as reachings are delayed and scheduled connexions missed. As a consequence, an air hose may go responsible for the cost of alternate transit, housing, nutrient and, if the hold is sufficiently long, a hard currency payment to counterbalance the traveller for any incommodiousness. Qatar has achieved great technological effort to avoid such holds unless when the flight is at their hub and they are anticipating some flights to do bash. Legal Qatar airways is a signer of unfastened skies understandings. Between 1990 and 2003, the United States implemented a series of Open Skies Agreements, supplying a alone chance to measure the consequence that a alteration in the competition government has on monetary values. In our sample, Open Skies Agreements cut down air conveyance costs by 9 % and addition by 7 % the portion of imports geting by air. Those consequences hold for developed and upper-middle-income developing states but for lower-middle-income and low-income developing states Open Skies Agreements do non cut down air conveyance costs. SWOT analysis SWOT analysis helps to research the internal and external environmental factors impacting Qatar Airways and therefore enable us to do strategic determinations ( Aaker, 2005 ) . The recommended schemes that would be adopted in this paper would be based on the on the SWOT analysis of the company. SWOT analysis for Qatar Airways Strength Failing The lone 5-star ranked in-between eastern air hose Over 90 Finishs Worldwide Codeshare spouses with most of the universe s premier air hoses Qatar Airways net incomes from the really low charges at its place airdrome High ticket monetary values Young air hoses which established in 1994 Operation costs is really high due to investings on airdrome Reconstructions and purchasing high-class aircrafts Opportunity Menace Qatar s favourable location for concern The new airdrome is scheduled to be operational from the terminal of 2011 Qatar holds a major Association of Southeast Asian Nations and international sporting activities, late Qatar won offering to host FIFA World Cup 2022. Investing on Environmental Studies ( first commercial flight with GTL Jet fuel- without peculiar emanations in 2009 ) Unstable political environment of vicinity states High hazard of terroristic activities Strong neighboring province rivals ( Emirates Airlines, Gulf Air ) Qatar Airways has over 200 aircraft pending bringing with the orders worth more than US $ 40 billion by Boeing. Company aims Marketing aims To assist drive their enlargement in the UK and internationally, Qatar were looking for an chance that would present the right audience and wide coverage with twelvemonth unit of ammunition presence. While Qatar and their bureau Starcom were looking at assorted conditions chances available in the market, we were convinced that the comprehensiveness and deepness of our offering via the award winning Sky News would do it a clear victor they agreed. The run comprised of 5 different sing platforms leting Qatar to make Sky News desirable and flush audience via multiple touch points. Coverage besides included Sky News International, driving the trade name into over 70 million places and 1 million hotel suites worldwide. The relationship has now spanned over 4 old ages with a new 2 twelvemonth extension merely agreed. Aims Grow trade name consciousness and perceptual experience in the UK and internationally Raise consciousness of Qatar as a premium 5-star air hose Communicate the quality of the Qatar service Increase portion of voice against the competition hypertext transfer protocol: //www.skymedia.co.uk/Audience-Insight/Case-Studies/qatar-airlines.aspx Fiscal aims Qatar Airways aims for 40 % leap in grosss, says CEO Akbar Al Baker. Defying the planetary fiscal downswing, Qatar Airways is anticipating to enter a 40 per cent addition in its grosss in its current fiscal twelvemonth stoping March 31, 2011 over the last twelvemonth, harmonizing to the Doha-based air hose s main executive officer. We are aiming a 40 per cent addition in grosss for this twelvemonth, which is somewhat over the addition in the air hose s capacity of around 30 per cent, Akbar Al Baker, told Emirates Business. He added that the air hose will see a similar capacity addition in the undermentioned twelvemonth. Marketing cleavage and mark market Geographic Cleavage: Qatar Airways is presently runing in most of the parts of the universe. They are soon trusting to spread out their paths to include the south Pacific paths of Australia and its adjacent states. Qatar Airways is a dynamic, high service bearer, which utilizes the geographic location of its Middle Eastern hub to associate 72 international metropoliss. See the company s web site for more information. Target Market Merchandise Differentiation: Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer, stated, By offering a assortment of amusement options, we are able to distinguish our rider service through unrecorded amusement programming while besides puting new criterions of comfort to guarantee we are the air hose of pick ( Rockwell Collins, 2005, p. 1 ) . Some of the characteristics of distinction are: Biggest and best concern category in the Middle East Synergistic Audio, Video on Demand Entertainment System Largest personal Television screens in the Middle East Electronic place controls In-seat back massage First Middle East air hose in First Class with level beds. Current Marketing Mix ( Ansoff merchandise mix A ; 4P s ) Merchandise Strategy utilizing Ansoff merchandise mix: Servicess is defined as affecting one party offering something that is basically intangible and where the interaction does non ensue in ownership of anything ( Kotler, 2008 ) . Using Ansoff merchandise grid matrix, it can be said that Qatar air hoses is still in market incursion. This is because the air hose as was shown in the introductory subdivision of the work, has projected the figure of aircraft it wish to purchase before 2012. The properties of a company in growing phase of company life rhythm is expansionary qualities. New Merchandises Existing Merchandises Existing Market Market Penetration Merchandise Development New Market Market Development Diversification ansoff s merchandise / market matrix The properties of market incursion scheme in which Qatar air passages are utilizing include: aˆ? Maintain or increase the market portion of current merchandises this can be achieved by a combination of competitory pricing schemes, advertisement, gross revenues publicity and possibly more resources dedicated to personal merchandising As portion of this growing program, Qatar Airways will widen its path web to 50 finishs by the terminal of 2003. It has late added Manchester and Rome to its increasing path web. It will shortly be adding Shanghai, Seoul and Tripoli to its path web. ( Airhighways Magazine, 2005, p. 1 ) . aˆ? Secure laterality of growing markets. Qatar air hoses have been known to rule the of all time busy African- Middle east air paths. The company ever has some flights available from any portion of Africa to the Gulf States. The topology of the country has encouraged the air hose to run in merchandise incursion scheme of Ansoff merchandise grid. Its sparsely populated country has encouraged traveling by air for intra-regional conveyance. Furthermore, a high per capita income that is still increasing rapidly, offers a base for a strong air power industry. But there are socio-economic restraints, restricting both domestic leisure and concern travel potency. aˆ? Increase use by bing clients for illustration by presenting trueness strategies.A market incursion selling scheme is really much about concern as usual . The concern is concentrating on markets and merchandises it knows good. It is likely to hold good information on rivals and on client demands. It is improbable, hence, that this scheme will necessitate much investing in new market research. There is no grounds that Qatar airways is puting on market research because they are non spread outing into unknown paths such as Kula-lumpur Sydney path. Pricing Scheme: Going-rate-pricing scheme Soon Qatar air hose pattern what is called Going-rate-pricing scheme. The market leader in the middle- east air hose industry remains Emirates. Qatar charges its menu based on the monetary value of Emirates which is somewhat higher. This is because being the market follower, Qatar does non necessitate to upset the constituted market dynamism because it might non be able to vie on the same degree with Emirates. Comparing the monetary value of Qatar and Emirates, on the same path of Kuala-lumpur ( Malaysia ) Johannesburg ( South Africa ) : Monetary value of Qatar Airways on 21st Nov returning on 23rd Dec from Kuala-Lumpur to Johannesburg Monetary value of Emirates on 21st Nov returning on 23rd Dec from Kuala-Lumpur to Johannesburg Promotion Strategy Qatar air hoses are non practising merchandise distinction but it is practising publicity distinction. Harmonizing to its main Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker he said that Qatar By offering a assortment of amusement options, we are able to distinguish our rider service through unrecorded amusement programming while besides puting new criterions of comfort to guarantee we are the air hose of pick ( Rockwell Collins, 2005, p. 1 ) . Some of their publicity schemes are as listed below and experienced by its riders are as Biggest and best concern category in the Middle East Synergistic Audio, Video on Demand Entertainment System Largest personal Television screens in the Middle East Electronic place controls In-seat back massage First Middle East air hose in First Class with level beds Katar has engaged the services of Global media industries to assist distribute the good intelligence. Such Television, Corporate Videos, BBC Campaign to place it as a premium bearer, CNN testimonies from air hose staff, Sky News studies as a patron of the conditions service and Sponsors a travel show through Al-Jazeera. Qatar is a major patron of high profile featuring activities such as World Tourism Day, World Travel and Tourism Council Summit, World Economic Forum, Leading International athleticss events. Qatar air hoses was the official patron of 15th Asiatic Games, Doha 2006. The company has come up with a new merchandise called Flying Oryx Newsletter that it distributes to go agents. The newssheet is besides available through its web sites. More links could be established to the newssheet through the Internet. The air hoses besides give off merchandises to riders that promote the logo of the Burgundy Oryx and Taking you personally, such as tickers, computing machine mouse and manus towels. .Place Scheme: This places a small impact on the concern scheme of Qatar. Qatar air passages like any other air passages have developed a system of acquiring their ticket. Unlike the normal concerns, whose distribution channel goes from the maker wholesaler-retailer-consumer. The normal concern rhythm Qatar air hose and other air passages are from the air hose operators to consumers when online engagement is done or through traveller agent. Airline operator Airline operator Manufacturer Jobber Traveling Agent Consumer Retailer Consumer Consumer Traditional Supply channel Online engagement channel Intermediary engagement channel Marketing Execution Budget ( short amp ; long term projections ) Qatar air hoses being a authorities company operates a closed system whereby no 1 knows their fiscal projections. But based on Boeing s Economic Overview fort the following 20 old ages, the company predicts an overall economic growing of the international air hoses industry will be at 2.9 % , the international growing in rider traffic will be 4.8 % , and the largest country of growing will be in lading at 6.2 % . Although the industry will still confront highs and depressions, which is built-in, the Boeing study says that the long-run mentality is that of positive growing. Part of the factors of positive growing are globalisation, increases in international trade, growing of GDP, the liberalizing of ordinances in assorted states to let more entree and services. World GDP growing is at 2.9 % and this is one of the major factors for the growing in the air hoses industry. Harmonizing to that same study, the GDP growing in the Middle East is 3.6 % , and growing in the rider traffic is es timated at 5.5 % . Of class, this growing in higher in parts where the GDP is higher. Other factors impacting increased growing in the Middle East are increasing populations and the belief that oil costs will be sustainable long-run. Integrated Selling Plan Low cost Qatar air passages have the purchase to prosecute in more competitory monetary values that what they are offering soon. They should borrow a leave from what Qantas did. Qantas came up with a low cost bearer called JETSTAR. The low cost scheme can vie in the low cost flight class of the air hose industry while the parent company keeps their normal criterion. Alliances Qatar air passages have the trade name image to organize strategic confederations with many similar air hoses where they can acquire the benefits of economic sciences of graduated table. This might come in the signifier taking one air hose company in the continent to organize a cringle. They might borrow a expression from what Singapore air hoses deed as shown below. Singapore Airlines Air New Zealand Leading Alliance Diners Club Avis Singapore Airlines confederation web ; strategic confederation, follower ( Kotler Pg 812, 2008 ) Decrease of booking agents Committees and other inducements to gross revenues staff add to the operational cost of the company. These costs either passed on to the clients or absorbed by the organisation lowers the borders of the company. The company should come up with a construction of naming GSA ( General Gross saless Agent ) in major metropoliss and towns. They might even go through it to the station office to sale for them since they post office has their fixed cost already running. Web Friendly Site The company should as a affair of urgency design a friendly user web site. Their current web site is non user friendly. They should borrow a cue at Airasia web site. Airasia web site is fast, user friendly and updates every proceedingss. This has greatly encouraged clients to utilize the web more often than physical office infinite thereby restricting people or topographic point contacts to the barest lower limit. Decision For Middle Eastern participants, there are three possible beginnings of rider demand. Firstly, domestic demand arising in the Gulf part can add to make full fleets and airdromes. Second, demand can originate from foreign riders that are bound for Middle Eastern states may they be leisure or concern travellers. And thirdly, stop-over travel that is utilizing the Middle Eastern airports as hubs and that is heading for finishs beyond the Gulf states can be a beginning of demand. These factors are favourable to Qatar air hoses. However, reacting to the growing processes in the Middle East merely by cutting costs is an deficient scheme for the incumbent participants. Pricing systems, for illustration, have been developed in decade-long procedures and are hard to copy. Other of import Fieldss and assets for reaction are strategic webs and co-operations, frequent circular plans and booking systems.

Monday, November 25, 2019

Free Essays on Authors Theme

such as mournful, beggar, fail, pained state, refused, poor, sorrow, and abused to create this mood of sympathy. In "Sympathy", Dunbar does an excellent job of depicting the animals, a bird, feelings of sadness and will to escape its caged state. One phrase depicting this is "I know why the caged bird beats his wing, till its blood is red on the cruel bars." Another example is "And pain still throbs in the old, old scars." A last example is in line 16 and 17 when the author says "When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore. When he beats his bars and he would be free; it is n... Free Essays on Authors Theme Free Essays on Authors Theme Authors put a great deal of time and effort into their pieces of work to uncover the best way to portray specific feelings and emotions. Two prime examples of this are in Babette Deutsch's "Ape" and Paul Laurence Dunbar's "Sympathy". Each poet uses unique phrases and literary devices to explain their feelings of sympathy for caged creatures. In "Ape", Deutsch uses phrases such as "His eyes are mournful, but the long lined palm." "He grips the bars; his pained state grows to a brown sturdy framed in dusty fur." Both of these phrases show the animals sorrow and views of escape. "They eyes, poor sorrow's jewels, seldom wink, but to his grinning public, as before, show endless patience, endlessly abused." This phrase shows the animals emotions as well. Words such as mournful, pained, poor, and abused were all used to draw the attention of the sympathy the author has for the caged animal. The use of rhyming helps to ease the flow of the poem. This is used in "Ape". An example of this is, "His eyes are mournful, but the long lined palm he thrusts between the bars expects the best. His old man's face as innocent as calm, the beggar puts compassion to the test and fails." Another literary tool used in the poem is tone. Tone is the attitude the author has towards what he or she is interpreting. This is used to create an overall mood of the work. Words such as mournful, beggar, fail, pained state, refused, poor, sorrow, and abused to create this mood of sympathy. In "Sympathy", Dunbar does an excellent job of depicting the animals, a bird, feelings of sadness and will to escape its caged state. One phrase depicting this is "I know why the caged bird beats his wing, till its blood is red on the cruel bars." Another example is "And pain still throbs in the old, old scars." A last example is in line 16 and 17 when the author says "When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore. When he beats his bars and he would be free; it is n...

Friday, November 22, 2019

Comparison of two readings on terrorism. Links to each article is Essay

Comparison of two readings on terrorism. Links to each article is attached in instructions - Essay Example For instance, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) group of India suffered from its close association with Pakistan (Carter, 2012). To illustrate this fact, the author uses data collected on 648 terrorist and insurgent groups that were in existence between 1968 and 2006 globally. The results show that although such sponsorship helps to supply the group with much needed resources, this has a negative effect on the group. Based on the results, the author concludes that a terrorist group with a sponsor does not help to avoid elimination. In addition, sponsorship with a safe haven increases the likelihood of internal wrangles. As a policy implication, the author asserts that forceful elimination of such groups becomes relevant as they age. In the article by Lyle Pienaar (2008) focuses on state sponsored terrorism in Africa, focusing on the case of Libya and Sudan. In the article, the author begins by defining state-sponsored terrorism, which mainly involves acts of violence against non-combatants for social or political gain. According to the author, this form of terrorism is the most dangerous due to the funding, training, intelligence and firepower provided by the state. The author further names the countries identified by the United States as the state sponsors of terrorism and the measures that have taken against them. Such countries include Syria, Cuba and South Korea. The article also discusses the historical roots of the international and state sponsored terrorism in Africa, which became a major issue in the late 1960s. More importantly, the author notes that during the post-Cold War period, terrorist activities became rampant in Africa, and were conducted by either groups seeking political independence and oth er domestic agenda or groups forming part of a bigger global terrorist organization. One of the two African countries highlighted in the article for their state sponsorship

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Animals for drug testing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Animals for drug testing - Essay Example The anti-animal testing campaigners argue the exact opposite, not only insisting that the use of animals for drug testing is completely inadequate for drug-safety testing but that safer alternatives exist. While conceding to the fact that the use of lab animals for drug and medical research may have been at the core of some medical advances, the fact is that the use of animals for drug testing is unethical, costly and unsafe, in addition to which, ethical, less expensive and safer alternatives are available. The proponents of animal testing maintain that without the use of live specimens, the medical and pharmaceutical communities would not have been able to acquire the anatomical knowledge of the human body, they currently possess. There is no doubt that this claim is partially valid. As Joan Dunayer, a medical researcher notes, the similarities between the human and the ape anatomy have allowed medical researcher, through vivisection, to explore the ape anatomy and through that, acquire an expanded understanding of the human one. Certainly, one cannot ignore the fact that the dissections carried out on human corpses have been the primary contributors to the mapping of the human body but, the fact remains that the observation and examination of a live human specimen is, or was up until a certain time, impossible. The use of apes provided the medical research community with the ability to conduction vivisections on live specimens and, in so doing, acquire a significant, and invaluable, u nderstanding of the human body at work.... Similarly, the medical and pharmaceutical communities claim that without the use of lab animals they would not have been able to develop much of the chemical and drug cures now being routinely used to save millions of human lives. As Jones argues, live animals are used in the research lab setting in order to determine whether or not the introduction of a certain chemical compound into the body reacts with specific viruses, bacteria and disease, resulting in their elimination. Secondly they are further used to test whether the cure, or the chemical compound which has been determined to successfully eliminate a particular disease, virus or bacteria, has any side effects, both long term and short-term, harmful or benign (Jones). In other words, animal testing is essential for both the development of effective drug cure and their later testing for safety before production and licensing for human use. While the pro-animal testing argument appears strong, the fact remains that the practice is inhuman and incontrovertibly unethical. Alan M. Goldberg and Thomas Hartung, both science researchers, note that over the past four decades "hundreds of millions of animals" were sacrificed in the name of medical and chemical research. The unethical aspect of the stated is better clarified when the method of their death, invariably involving prolonged and senseless torture and suffering, is considered (Goldberg and Hartung). Irrespective of its best intentions, animal testing is fundamentally based on the deliberate infliction of pain, suffering, disease and death on countless of millions of animals. Despite the undeniably unethical character of animal testing, proponents have claimed it

Monday, November 18, 2019

Driving School case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Driving School case - Essay Example (Pollack) The first phase, Strategic Marketing Analysis, includes observing every element of the marketplace such as target market, industry growth, market size as well as competitors. This is considered as the "Opportunity Analysis" stage when the firm is able to identify if there is indeed an opportunity in the market (Pollack). In the case of Advanced Driving School, the company has passed this phase as it has identified its target market, growth potential and existing competition. According to Oliver, the firm's core market is primarily comprised of fleet-drivers whose trainings are sponsored by fleet operators. Apart from this, the company also caters to private motorist and motor manufacturers. Indicative of the bright prospects in the industry, Oliver forecasts that profits would increase exponentially on the second year of sales. The company has also considered its competitors and identified its competitive edge. As cited by Oliver, quality of service provided by other driving schools remain questionable since they do not use qualified instructors as opposed to the company's high ranking former police instructors. The second phase, dubbed as Market Entry Strategy, involves the actual development of strategy. This stage entails the review of product strategies, presentation of service offering, pricing scheme, enticing customers and determination of the place where the service would be rendered (Pollack). Given the case facts, Advanced Driving School is within the middle of this phase. Although it has budgeted for marketing, considered the above elements and recognised the problem with regard to its current location, the company does not have a concrete marketing program that would enable it to completely penetrate the market and establish a strong foothold in the industry, especially in the long run. To be able to successfully maintain sustainable demand, the firm should first solidify not only its current sales strategy, but its overall marketing program as well. The company should be able to design the effective marketing mix to satisfy the wants and needs of its target market. (Burns & Bush) Only when Advanced Driving Schools has come up with its marketing strategy can it advance to the third phase, i.e. Strategy Implementation. In this stage, the firm should be able to integrate the Four Ps in concert with one another to be able to execute an effective marketing program. (Pollack) Question 2: What needs to be done to develop Advanced Driving School's sales and marketing activities in order to significantly increase sales In order for the firm to continuously boost sales, Advanced Driving School should ensure that its sales and marketing activities are apt for its intended market. In this regard, prior to undertaking is sales and marketing program, the company should assess the preferences of potential customers. As such, the company should primarily consider conducting marketing research. Through this process, the firm would be able to gather significant information which would help determine potential clients' wants and needs, and design marketing strategies that would

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Stack Sequential Algorithm to Analyse Adverse Drug Reaction

Stack Sequential Algorithm to Analyse Adverse Drug Reaction Amiya Kumar Tripathy, Nilakshi Joshi, Aslesha More, Divyadev Pillai, Amruni Waingankar Abstract— An adverse drug reaction (ADR) is ‘a response to a medicine which is noxious and unintended, and which occurs at doses normally used in human beings’. During the last decades it has been estimated that such adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are the 4th to 6th largest cause for mortality in different countries. They result in the death of several thousands of patients each year, and many more suffer from ADRs. The percentage of hospital admissions due to adverse drug reactions in some countries is about or more than 10%. In addition suitable services to treat ADRs impose a high financial burden on health care due to the hospital care of patients with drug related problems. Some countries spend up to 15-20% of their hospital budget dealing with drug complications. The existing scenario is manual, costly, not easily portable and the findings are not reported to the responsible authorities in timely manner. To overcome these flaws of the existing system, we propose a automated ADR detecting  system. This is an interactive system platform for detecting ADR from the specified combination of drugs. If ADR is detected , the system will suggest some appropriate combination of drugs which will solve the specified purpose. The detection part of ADR is done by using algorithms like Chi-Square, PRR (Proportionality Result Ratio), Combinational.(Which are already implemented). The solution part i.e, suggesting appropriate drug combination is implemented by Sequential decoding algorithms and the stack sequential algorithm. Keywords—Adverse Drug Reaction, Adverse Drug Event, Bayesian Confidence Propagation Neural Network, Information Component, Frequent Pattern, Online Analytical Processing Database , Operating System, Random Access Memory, Medicines and Healthcare pro ducts Regulatory Agency, World Health Organization. I. INTRODUCTION An adverse drug reaction (ADR) is an injury caused by taking medication.[1] ADRs may occur due to a single dose or long term administration of a drug or result from the combination of two or more drugs ,as this last expression might also imply that the effects can be beneficial.†ADE can be mainly caused from medication errors. A serious adverse event is any event that: Is fatal Is life-threatening Is permanently/significantly disabling Requires or longterm hospitalization Causes birth defects Requires intervention to prevent permanent impairment or damage II. RELATED WORK Study of design elements include exploration of relevant multiple outcomes (utilization and/or safety), sample size calculations, cohort accrual procedures, and the timing and method of data collection. The custom questionnaires can include those related risks potentially possible and identified, also missing information in RMPs or can be designed to address specific regulatory issues. Single data capture or multiple data capture phases enable abstraction of clinical information from medical chart review by prescribers responsible for treatment initiation in primary care, over a time frame relevant to study needs analysis plans can be tailored to address novel analytical issues and also convey thoughtful, appropriate, and comprehensive analysis of the data. Study reports have been prepared with scientific rigor to provide brief or in depth presentation of results relevant to the products safety and efficiency [4]. Before a medicine is granted a license it has to go through the strict tests and routine checks to ensure that it is acceptably safe and effective. All the medicines which are effective, can cause adverse drug reactions which in general term we say a side effect, which can range from a very minor occurrence to being very serious. For a medicine to be authorized licensed, the benefits of the medicine must satisfy all the possible conditions of the medicine causing adverse effects in patients. Many a times, it is not easy to identify if the side effect is due to a medicine, or something else. Even if it is only a suspicion that a medicine or combination of medicines has caused a side effect, the patients or doctors are asked to send the proper reports of the symptoms and drugs prescribed, to FDA. Reports received on suspected side effects are evaluated, with the information like clinical trial data, medical literature or data from international medicines regulators, for identifying previously unidentified safety issues or side effects[5]. In statistics, a confidence interval (CI) is a population parameter estimation and it indicates the reliability of an estimate. It is calculated from the observations, in principle differs from sample to sample. The frequently observed interval contains the parameter and is determined by the confidence level or confidence coefficient. Confidence intervals contains a range of values (interval) that act as best estimates of the unknown population parameter. However, in infrequent cases, none of these values may cover the value of the parameter. The level of confidence of the confidence interval would indicate the probability that the confidence range captures this true population parameter given a distribution of samples. The confidence interval contains the parameter values that, when tested, should not be rejected with the same sample. Greater levels of variance yield larger confidence intervals, and hence less precise estimates of the parameter. Confidence intervals of difference parameters not containing 0 imply that there is a statistically significant difference between the populations. III.SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE The database comprises of a combination of drugs-symptoms and the adverse drug reactions associated with them in particular. The database is a heterogeneous aggregation of the demographic, combination, drug, symptoms and reactions of ADRs. It previously consists of Information related to the drug description and attributes of the patient as well. After evaluating the patient info which involves the symptoms and the medicines the doctor has prescribed to that patient the working system would provide a safe case to the end user. These cases are consistent and can be further used by the Doctor/Pharmacist to prescribe the combinations. These safe cases would be ago ahead for the doctor about his prescription to that particular patient. These are tested cases and determine the validity of that doctor’s prescription. The probability of occurrence of an ADR and its detection for a new patient is our main goal. The input after being assessed derives a result of an ADR case. The occurrence of ADR means that the Doctor has to modify his combination of Drugs accordingly and convert an ADR case to a safe case. This should result in the doctor making changes that prove to be safe to the patient according to our system. The input given by the Doctor detecting an ADR case is then matched with the database in the available system. The Database already comprises of ADR cases found out, so when a current patient whose symptoms and the prescribed medicine by the doctor matches it leads to a ADR detection. Figure 1: System Architecture The doctor will give input to the system including the patients symptoms and the medicines prescribed by the doctor to that current patient .These information are the important factors for the detection of the ADR through the system. IV.SYSTEM FLOW Figure 2: System flow The System flow involves extracting the Database which includes the ADR cases and the safe cases. These cases are stored in the database and comprises of the drug-symptom combination. When a Doctor provides input to the system with the Symptoms and drugs, the system evaluates the validity using the PRR algorithm and provides a value which is then matched with the current records in the database of ADRs. In occurrences of safe case the doctor continues with his combination of medicines prescribed, but in the event of an ADR that is occurred the doctor realizes that a medical negligence could occur. To prevent such an occurrence he modifies his drug combination for the safety of the patient. V. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP For making experimental setup we have developed the structured database in XAMPP with MySQL and we have made front end in HTML for executing various queries. The database which we are using is the official database released by food and Drug Administration (FDA)[2]. The database is updated after every three months. Database consist complete information about Demographic data of patients, drug, indications, reactions, therapy ETC. data of 5000 patients was considered as test cases. The database which we have contains following: Drug information; Reaction information; Patient outcome information; Information on the source; Figure 3: database Screenshot This table shown below gives complete statistics about the test cases of adverse drug reaction received in various years. The test cases are reported by various hospitals, doctors, pharmacist, clinical researches, and drug manufacturers. This table shows the number of reports received by Food and Drug Association and entered into FDA Adverse Event Reporting System by type of report since the year 2003 until the end of the second quarter of 2012. Table 1: database statistics Table 1 provides information regarding the data that is present in the database[2]. Each year shows a number of new cases that were registered with the US FDA. Expedited Cases involve those which were reported as soon as it was detected. Direct Cases involve those which were reported by individuals/ independent medical practitioners. Non-expedited cases are those cases which were reported much after occurrence. The number of cases that were received by US FDA were much higher than those that were entered. Details regarding registered cases is available until the second quarter of the year 2012 only. VI. METHODS AND ALGORITHMS Proportionality Reporting Ratio (PRR) The PRR algorithm is a statistical method which is used to detect ADRs in Electronic health records and databases .The working of this algorithm relies on the fact that when an ADR (related to a particular event) is identified for a medicinal product (say medicinal product P), this adverse event is relatively reported more often in association with this product P than with any other products in the database. This gradual increase in the reporting of events for the medicinal product P in consideration is reflected in the table below based on the total number of cases stored in the database. Table 2: Contingency matrix for PRR In the table mentioned the elements calculated are the individual available cases in the available database .Therefore a given individual case may contribute to only a single cell of the table, where the cases refer to the multiple products or the adverse events[7] PRR= A/(A+B) C/(C+D) The general criteria to run the PRR are as follows: Value A is the number of cases with the defective medicinal product P involving an adverse event R. Value B is the number of cases related to the defective medicinal product P, involving any other adverse events but R. Value C is the number of cases involving event R in relation to any other medicinal products but P. Value D is the number of cases involving any other adverse events but R and any other medicinal products but P The system performs the calculations of the PRR on all the case counts instead of the ADRs to be chosen to keep the individuality between the variables used to calculate PRR so that the difference of the PRR will not be underestimated. The calculation of the PRR is done as follows: For evaluating given cases of nausea involving medicinal product ‘allopurinol l’ = 15% (e.g. 15 reports of diarrhea amongst a total of 100 reports reported with medicinal product ‘allopurino l’). For evaluating a given number of reports of nausea with other medicinal products in a database = 5%. Thus, the Proportionality Reporting Ratio is equal to 3 . The chi-square (χ2) statistics The Chi-square is a statistic, which is traditionally used in dis proportionality analyses. The Chi-square is used as an alternative measure of association between the medicinal product P and the adverse event R based on the following calculation:[8] X2= (AD-BC)2(A+B+C+D)/[(A+B)(C+D)(A+C)(B+D)] When the PRR is displayed with the X2 statistic : The PRR ≠¥ 2 The X2 ≠¥ 4 The number of indivisual cases greater or equal to 3. Stack Sequential We introduce the drug combination optimization algorithms and show how they relate to the algorithms used in sequential decoding. Fully factorial datasets, where every possible drug combination is tested, grow exponentially with the number of drugs (n). See Text S1 for the relevant equation and an example dataset. In computational terms we say that the complexity is O(an). The O-notation indicates the order of growth of an algorithm basic operation count as a function of the input size. An exponential growth is not practical for large n, therefore our aim is to find algorithms with improved efficiency, for example with a linear dependency on n, expressed as O(n). The problem of finding the optimal estimate of the encoded sequence is described as a walk through a tree. To appreciate the analogy with the search for the optimal drug combination, the tree shown in Figure 4 can be compared with the trees used in one of the original descriptions of the stack sequential algorithm [14]. An alternative version of the tree, the ‘‘trellis’’ depiction shown in Figure 5, eliminates nodes representing redundant drug-dose combinations. The stack is a sorted list of all examined combinations (best on top). Notations : A1= BACITRACIN A2= KADCYLA B1= ERYTHROMYCIN B2= RAMIPRIL S1 – the process initially contains only the list of the measurements in the absence of any drug (the root of the tree of Figure 4). Figure.4 Tree representation of the data S2 The parsing begins from the top of the sorted list. After the search completes it moves one level up in the braches of figure 4. Combinations already used are ignored for future extensions. S3 – Once the combination reaches its maximum size , the parsing ends. This is similar to reaching the top of the tree of Figure 4. Since we consider the best combination, instead of best path, we do not delete any combination from the processed list. When we find a combination been already used, we move to the next combination in the sorted list. We do not combine different doses of the same drug with each other, to limit the size of the search, but this is not an essential feature as shown in Figure 2,. The algorithm is efficient in searching combinations in which the outcome is not purely additive, because it overcomes non-linearities by backtracking to nodes in the tree. Figure.5 Trellis-like representation showing combination of the data. S1 Examine all drugs based on strength, doses and rank. S2 The best drug combination is saved from the processed list. S3 Select the best single drug and call it Cbest. S4 Take the Combination of Cbest with all other drugs, increasing the drug size by 1, measure the biological scores, and store the list of drugs of this size. At this step the algorithm moves one level upwards in the tree of Figure 4. S5 If the new combinations scores better than Cbest, this combination is used as the new Cbest and return to previous step. If no new combination scores better than Cbest, backtrack to the next best combination in the previous size, mark it as Cbest and return to the previous step. S6 Backtrack value should be limited to a specific value. S7 Repeat S4 to S6 till we find that the maximum size for the combinations is reached. VII. CONCLUSION In this system, by using PRR in association with Chi-Square, an attempt has been made to help and assist the doctors/pharmacists to perform safe drug evaluation. An experimental study using test cases and combinations from a doctor was performed and the results obtained were very promising. The system proposes a unique method for correcting the prescribed combination of drugs in case of an ADR event occurrence using Stack Sequential. The possibility of vast Patient Record data available allows for extracting the results available to the system. The approach used in this paper can be to provide an impetus and improve existing systems that provide detect Adverse Drug Reactions. In the field of Pharmaceutical and medical diagnosis, there is always the scope for uncertainty. This system has been built to provide a naà ¯ve and safe understanding of the drug combinations on the experience of doctors only, so there will always be a scope for ambiguous or uncertain diagnosis. The developed system does not give a 100% accurate results as not even the doctors can claim to do so; however, its results are promising. It can be used as a tool to complement the doctors’ knowledge and could assist them to reach a conclusion. The system will give the doctor an upper hand to decide whether to use the results evaluated from the algorithm and prevent an ADR. By using this system, many essential results can be obtained, thus reducing the effects of wrong prescriptions to some extent. With the support of various medicinal and pharmaceutical practitioners and hospitals, higher probability of getting the positive results right can be obtained. With an extensive database of medical records to mine from, this could be useful to build helpful medical assistance software that can be of great use to all doctors and pharmacists using this system. The system will also help the medical fraternity in the future by helping them in providing safer medical assistance to the patients and doctors. VIII. REFERENCES [1] Search Algorithms as a Framework for the Optimization of Drug Combinations Diego Calzolari1., Stefania Bruschi1., Laurence Coquin1, Jennifer Schofield1, Jacob D. Feala2, John C. Reed1, Andrew D. McCulloch2, Giovanni Paternostro1,2* 1 Burnham Institute for Medical Research, La Jolla, California, United States of America, 2 Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America. [2] Safety of Medicines A guide to detecting and reporting adverse drug reactions. [3] Statistical methods for knowledge discovery in adverse drug reaction surveillance G. Niklas Norà ©n. [4] Adverse drug reactions: definitions, diagnosis, and management I Ralph Edwards, Jeffrey K Aronson [5] MANUAL OF OPERATIONS ADVERSE DRUG REACTIONS ONLINE REPORTING SYSTEM (ADORS) [6] An Information Technology Architecture for Drug Effectiveness Reporting and Post-Marketing Surveillance -Surendra Sarnikar , Amar Gupta, Ray Woosley(2006). [7] A multi-agent intelligent system for detecting unknown adverse drug reactions through communication and collaboration -Ayman Mohammad Mansour Wayne State University(2012) [8] ADRTrace: Detecting Expected and Unexpected Adverse Drug Reactions from User Reviews on Social Media Sites Andrew Yates, Nazli Goharian [9] Detect adverse drug reactions for the drug Pravastatin. Yihui Liul ‘Institute of Intelligent Information Processing,’ Shandong Polytechnic University, China(2012)

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Speak Your Mind: The Censorship Controversy In American Culture :: essays research papers fc

On a rainy morning in Detroit, Michigan, a twenty-something year old man by the name of Marshall Mathers awakes to hear a pounding on his front door. After muttering a few obscene phrases, he rolls out of bed and stumbles to his front door. However, instead of facing another autograph seeker, the rapper best known by his alias Eminem (or the real Slim Shady) is face to face with two police officers. â€Å"Mr. Mathers,† one says, â€Å"we’re here to serve you with an arrest warrant. You have subjected much of America’s population to obscenity, homophobic comments, sexism, and racism, and frankly, it offends many people. We don’t want culture to face your type of commentary any more. You have the right to remain silent†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Needless to say, this scenario would never occur in the American democracy of the present. However, many in America today are advocating censorship to such an extreme that someday events such as this may become a reality. And, though time and time again court cases have ruled against censorship, many continue to fight to limit free speech in America. However, in restraining what the constitution guarantees, there is much at stake. Although many argue that censorship is necessary to protect America’s citizens, it violates one’s freedom of speech found in the First Amendment and should therefore not be practiced. Granted, there are many reasons for advocating censorship that could be justified. Much material that is available in magazines, at the movie theater, and on the internet is considered by many to be extremely offensive. For example, the rock band Rage Against the Machine at times seems to glorify violence. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the Columbine High School gunmen, were fond of this band, and some of Rage Against the Machine’s lyrics have been assumed to have inspired the boys’ violent act. In many cases, evil can be advocated in forms of speech, causing many to believe that in order to prevent wrong from prevailing, censorship must be practiced with a fervor. In his essay â€Å"Censorship Can Be Beneficial,† Thomas Stork says, â€Å"Now if we can identify certain evils, and if advocacy of those evils seems likely to encourage people to commit them, then why should we not take the next and logical step and prohibit such advocacy†¦ Must the authorities be helpless to restrain the source of the evil?† (20) This statement is a logical one, for one of the American government’s greatest concerns is protecting its citizens from violent acts.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall Essay

In this film, based upon a screenplay by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall from a novel from Waterhouse (which written in 1959 influenced by the prevailing theme of the 1950s – the protest of the angry young men), director John Schlesinger creates the fantasized world of Billy Fisher (Tom Courtenay), a young man working at the Shadrack and Duxbury funeral parlor who dreams of becoming a great writer. Julie Christie provides some romance for the awkward clerk. Denys Coop’s cinematography effectively captures the drab life and imaginative world of Billy’s existence, lending further relevance to the film in real life. Billy is an original character whose fantasy life is funny throughout. Known to his officemates as Billy Liar because he is a compulsive liar, Fisher escapes his dour existence by creating a fantasy life as the military leader of the fictional, semi-fascist state of Ambrosia. This fantasy supplies the power and control lacking in his daily life where he feels trapped in his job at the funeral parlor. Though chronic lying is not admirable and his coldness towards his family and his fiancees is dislikable trait, still, overall, Billy is an attractive character, and we can pity him as his rather pathetic pretenses are exposed, while still seeing the justness of the exposure. Waterhouse has managed to mirror the basic nature of people: being dissatisfied with what we have and therefore devising all means to be what we dream to be. Billy Liar remains a pleasing counterpoint to the depressive movies Room at the Top (1958) and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960). According to Gale (1996), this film that was originally a novel led some commentators to place Waterhouse in the Angry Young Men School. It is in some ways a study of provincial dissatisfaction. Our lives are very similar to Billy in many ways, the reality and fantasy of who we are sharply at odds. Most of us live with a family which is the quintessence of ordinariness; so we compensate by a rich fantasy life and, unfortunately, by dishonesty, much like Billy in the film. Reminiscent of Fisher’s character, we lie our way through life, not out of malice or even out of any conscious desire to cause mischief or to cause hurt to those around us, but purely because we cannot live with, or face up to the demands of, our real lives. The overall mood in the film is, however, disquieting – Fisher’s dreams include killing people, such as his parents, who place obstacles in his way. The film shows that the only real obstacle confronting Fisher is a lack of courage combined with no obvious talent. Much like in real life, we all have a secret vision of doing the unthinkable, murderous or otherwise, to people we extremely dislike. Our judgment is often clouded by anger for other people, which lead to ineffective use of our God-given talents, which in turn hinders the progress that we otherwise could have achieved easily. Despite its very British setting, the film has a universal dimension which is even more poignant in today’s Internet age. In a sense, Billy Liar is an adroit satire about a society caught between socio-economic classes. Billy Fisher’s character is therefore struggling against the limitations of his class, family and urban environment for a better opportunity to display his ability. This theme is relevant even today, as we all strive daily to move up the social and economic ladder of society, as a response to our natural trait to be forever dissatisfied. One cannot help but be fond of and relate to Billy Liar, a unique character that deeply depicts in what boils down to a humorous yet solemn and incontrovertibly influential movie. It is apparent that this film appealed and is still appealing to audiences precisely because Billy’s lack of courage, commitment and his flights of fancy are not so far removed from those of ourselves. Many of us live in dreams where we do spectacular things but given the chance we would not have the courage to accomplish them. Likewise, the film affirms that, ultimately, we must live with, rather than in opposition tom the real world, no matter how painful and uncertain the experience of that invariably will be. While on one level this film could be dismissed as a whimsical fantasy, there is a Billy Liar that exists in all of us. WORK CITED Gale, S. (1996). Encyclopedia of British Humorists: Geoffrey Chaucer to John Cleese. Philadelphia: Taylor and Francis.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Diversity at Deloitte – Plans and Policies

When talking about equality opportunities implemented by companies, we can make a differentiation between two different models, the liberal and the radical one. The liberal model, described by Jewson and Mason, is emphasized on a philosophy of â€Å"sameness†, where people should have access to and be assessed within the workplace as individuals, regardless of social category. In the other hand, the radical approach is focused on a â€Å"positive discrimination† where employment practices are deliberately manipulated in order to obtain a fair distribution of those disadvantaged groups in the workplace, and it is also focused in achieving not only equality of opportunity but also equality of outcome. Considering this differentiation referring to the equalities of opportunities implemented by companies, we can see that Deloitte have a liberal approach in their policies, as they have created different programmes to make possible a equal treatment within the company instead of creating discriminatory policies, and, as for the outcome aspect, we haven't been able to find information about what is Deloitte's policy in that matter. Gender and Diversity management at Deloitte addresses the needs of a diverse workforce in regards to gender, sexual orientation, physical ability, ethnicity and national origin by offering programs to that specifically support these groups both internally and externally. The importance of diversity management at the firm is seen through the commitment placed on creating organizational structure, practices, policies, management and financial investment or partnerships that supports diversity. Deloitte’s annual diversity plan and the commitment to place diversity as the top priority on board meeting agenda’s is allowing the company to live and breathe its vision statement, which is: â€Å" to be recognized internally and externally as a diversity leader, to have leadership that represents the overall labour market, diversity management will be a core leadership competency and a business imperative, talent process will reflect ‘best-in-class’ diversity sensitive processes† (Deloitte, Diversity annual report). To achieve this vision, Deloitte has created a national Diversity council comprised of senior management across Canada which meets ten times per year to set goals and assess the progress of current policies and practices at the firm (Deloitte, Valuing Differences). To ensure the success of these initiatives they have created a diversity accountability framework to guide and incent progress. One of Deloitte’s most recognized and progressive steps towards diversity management have been the appointment of their Chief Diversity Officer, Jane Allen. Some key diversity practices within the firm includes; the creation of people networks, diversity calendar, the Diversity Matters blog, their Diversity Round table, a bias awareness toolkit as well as corporate sponsorship and partnerships. Deloitte’s people networks aim to connect like-minded people within the firm to act as mentors and support networks. The creation of the Diversity Calendar was a part of a firm wide communications campaign to communicate the diversity visions and goals for the year. Read also Analyze the Ways in Which British Imperial Policies The calendar was a huge success, receiving over 4000 downloads (Deloitte, Valuing Differences). The firm has also leveraged social networking tools with the creation of a Diversity Matters blog where employees can speak with the Chief Diversity Officer directly. Moreover, the Diversity Round table was created as an initiative to discuss the issues affecting people with disabilities an addition to Deloitte’s corporate sponsorship of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter games. The bias awareness toolkit is used to educate managers on a range of topics including common stereotypes. It is used in conjunction with mid-year and year end reviews in addition to the policy of employees and partners setting a personal diversity goal for their year plan. Finally, Deloitte sponsors a number of organizations that share their interest and commitment to strengthening an inclusive workplace through programs, and research. These activities give their professionals opportunities to gain knowledge and expand their networks and also provide them with another way to attract new talent. As part of these relationships, they help fund research and programs that build community and support career development for people of diverse backgrounds. Some examples of current sponsorships include: DiversityInc DiversityInc is a prime source for best practices and solutions to workplace diversity related challenges. The sponsorship makes it possible to expand the recruiting efforts as well as demonstrate the commitment to diversity in the marketplace. In addition, Deloitte leverages DiversityInc’s benchmarking data and analysis to increase awareness of the most progressive strategies companies and firms are employing, so that it can continue to be a true diversity leader. Working Mother Media Working Mother Media is solely focused on the challenges and tradeoffs that can impact working mothers and women of color. From their magazine to their robust website and inspiring conferences, Working Mother is a key resource for Deloitte to better understand these challenges and provide opportunities for people to leverage these resources. Deloitte is also an ongoing, premiere sponsor of the Working Mother Multicultural Women’s conference, as well as a sponsor of the Working Mother 100 Best Work Life Congress. | | These policies and practices are just the beginning of a web of more specific gender and diversity policies targeted to specific minority groups. Overview of Policies & Practices: For Women: Deloitte supports female employees through Canadian Women's Initiative Network (canWin), which offers mentoring and networking sessions, awards to recognize women in leadership roles, support for Career Moms, the Step Up program to support female senior management leadership development, as well as a Women of Influence Luncheon Series. For Parents: Deloitte’s parental leave guide offers a generous adoption subsidy for new parents and provides maternity top-up payments for new mothers (to 100% of salary for 17 weeks). It also provides a variety of alternative work arrangements that help women gradually return to work after maternity leave (Mediacorp). For LBGT: Deloitte`s Lesbian Bisexual Gay and Transgendered people network is a sponsor and participant in the â€Å"Out on Bay St. † career fair and conference for LGBT professionals. They also work to raise awareness facing Lesbian Bisexual Gay and Transgendered people in the workforce. For those with Disabilities: Deloitte is partnered with the Progress Place community organization which provides temporary, six-month transitional positions for persons recovering from mental illness to help them gain the confidence to reintegrate into the workforce (Mediacorp). For Aboriginals: Deloitte is a member of the Canadian Aboriginal and Minority Supplier Council, which connects Aboriginal owned businesses to corporate supply chains. The company also hosted an Indigenous Youth Gathering, leading sessions focused on leadership and career counselling. For Immigrants and new Canadians: Deloitte is a corporate sponsor of Assisting Local Leaders with Immigrant Employment Strategies and a partner with Toronto Regional Immigrant Employment Council that helps new immigrants navigate job search. Deloitte has created a guidebook for employers on hiring immigrants and has created an in-house mentorship program that pairs new Canadian employees with over 100 firm mentors. Part of Deloitte`s success in achieving their successful diversity management strategy is in part, due to their ability to define a business care for diversity. Their view is that diversity will lead to better work results, greater innovation as well as opportunities to work with a variety of clients. As their clients globalize they will expect Deloitte`s teams to have a global perspective. Teams that reflect this growing diversity will enhance their reputation in the business community (Deloitte, Valuing Differences). In addition to the ability to use diversity to attract the top talent, Deloitte has also founded a Women as Buyers pilot program which examines the difference in women`s buying approach when it comes to professional services. Understanding the differences in why women choose certain professional service providers over others, especially as more women take on leadership roles, will be essential to the success of the company in the future. Not only has Deloitte set outstanding policies and practices on diversity management, but they are also committed to continually measuring and monitoring the success of the policies. They currently use a scorecard to track the company`s progress in areas of recruitment, partner admissions, promotions and turnover (Deloitte, Diversity annual report). In the future, Deloitte`s Strategic Plan for 2014 will focus on providing more development opportunities, increasing their knowledge on diversity, tracking progress toward achieving their vision and keeping diversity top of mind and leading their agenda.

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Linear Algebra and Vector Equations †Math Essay

Linear Algebra and Vector Equations – Math Essay Free Online Research Papers Linear Algebra and Vector Equations Math Essay Week 2 in Linear Algebra focused on Vector Equations (Section 1.3) and the Matrix Equation Ax = b (Section 1.4). The key concepts in section 1.3 are linear combinations of vectors and a spanning set. A vector is defined as a matrix with one column. A vector with n entries defines a vector in Rn. If you plot two vectors in R2, you can find the sum of the vectors graphically using Parallelogram Rule. Linear Combinations are combinations of vectors, using different weights for each. For example, given vectors v and u, 2v + u is a Linear Combination of the two vectors. Furthermore, the equation v + u = b has the same solution as the augmented matrix [v u | b]. This means that b can be made from a linear combination of v and u if and only if the corresponding augmented matrix has a solution. The other key concept in section 1.3 is Span. The Span of vectors is the set of all linear combinations of the vectors. Given u, v, and z, Span{ u, v, z} is the collection of all vectors that can be written as x1u + x2v + x3z. To determine if vector b is in the span of vectors u and v, put all three vectors into an augmented matrix (vector b being the last row) and solve. If the solution is consistent, b is i n the Span{u, v}. Section 1.4 explains how linear combinations can be viewed as vector multiplication. There are three ways of viewing linear systems: as a system of linear equations, as a vector equation, or as a matrix equation Ax = b. So, since all three represent linear systems, they can all be used to find the same solutions. For any matrix A with rows m and columns n, the following is true: for each b in Rm, the equation Ax = b has a solution, each b in Rm is a linear combination of the columns of A, the columns of A span Rm, and A has a pivot position in every row. This means that a 33 matrix must have a pivot in every row to span R3. Finally, the last theorem of the section states that if A is an m x n matrix, u and v are vectors in Rn, and c is a scalar, then: A(u+v) = Au + Av, and A(cu) = cAu. Research Papers on Linear Algebra and Vector Equations - Math EssayIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfOpen Architechture a white paperResearch Process Part OneThree Concepts of PsychodynamicGenetic EngineeringThe Project Managment Office SystemEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andHip-Hop is Art

Monday, November 4, 2019

Animal right Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Animal right - Essay Example According to his theory, when value is given to all other humans regardless of their mental and rational abilities then the same value should be ascribed to the non-human animals as well. His arguments are based on the views of Immanuel Kant that all animals have moral rights but he criticizes Kant’s belief that only rational beings are subjected to respect. Regan rejects this view and argues that humans gain the value and respect regardless of their rationality as with infants and those who are mentally instable thus non-human animals are also subjected to the same value and respect regardless of their rationality. Since all human and non-human animals are subjects-of-a-life, life is the only attribute which would subject to value. Thus every being that is subject-of-a-life must be treated with respect and must be given moral rights (Regan, 2004). On the other hand, utilitarianism is a theory which proposes that any action will be morally right only when it benefits and provides good to a large number of people. According to this theory, what’s right is determined by the value of pleasure or pain that it causes to other people. If an action causes pleasure to most of the people then it is considered as morally right while if it causes pain and suffering for the people, it will be considered morally wrong. Utilitarianism is often used to justify animal rights as their pain and pleasure is also counted for actions that are morally right or wrong (Brooman, 1997). Utilitarian theorists believe that biologically it is justified that non-human animals are sentient and biologically they are able to feel pain and pleasure. This is justified also practically as many people have experienced such feelings in animals, especially cats and dogs. There is a lot of evidence that non-human animals are sentient and they feel

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Issue of Management of Change Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Issue of Management of Change - Research Paper Example Change Management is very important for the company and should be its top priority. It is necessary to admit that the paper pays also attention to public and private sector industry because they will give the opportunity to examine change management in the very details. The purpose of the paper is to examine the current trends of various changes such as environmental and demographic changes in the public sector. The paper also takes into consideration strategies and models to be applied to change management. Finally, the paper involves the right change management. It is very important because change management is the best of the rapid development of every business either private or public. Due to globalization processes taken place in modern society change management has to be a universal requirement. The term "change management" is mostly used to define "organizational change management or the management of change triggered in organizations or industries". (Change management, 2006) Change management of Dell Company deals primarily with the human aspect because humans and their psychology are the most subjected to changes. There are two types of change management: reactive and proactive. Management is considered reactive when the change comes from an external source. Management is considered proactive when change comes from either internal change aimed at achieving organizational objectives and goals. It is necessary to admit that change management is connected with human resource management because it allows to implement new technologies and procedures and to cope with employee resistance. (Change management, 2006) Change management in an organization means distinctly specifying and implementing procedures and methods to deal with changes in the organizational environment for the overall prosperity of the business. It involves adaptation, controlling and effecting change smoothly. It is thus the systematic approach to deal with change that takes place in an organization and most crucial as only successful adaptation offers positive results. (Adaptation to change, 2006)