Abraham Lincoln: President of the USA Essay

Abraham Lincon was born Febuary 12, 1809 in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. Born in a farming family, with tradgedy around him, Lincon perservered. Lincon became the sixteenth president of the United States, and guided America through some of it’s biggest struggles, such as the Civil War. In a world full of â€Å"You cannot do it†, Lincon ignored hate, and through each failure, found success. Abraham Lincon was birthed by Nancy Lincon and Thomas Lincon. Two years before Lincon was born, his mother had a daughter name Sarah. Thomas Lincon was the traditional frontier farmer. Lincon grew up seeing his father as ignorant, and did not admire his father. Both of Lincon’s parents worshipped at an anti-slavery church, that was very contriversal during the time in the slave state of Kentucky. See more:  The 3 Types of Satire Essay Lincon once shot a turkey while on the farm, and the sight of blood and dying repulsed him, that day Lincon knew he was never going to be a marksman. Lincon’s mother at age thrity four died of a â€Å"mill sick† disease. The widowed Tom Lincon re-married, and moved the family to Ohio. The summer of 1828, Lincon read the Declaration of Independence and was drawn into it. After that Lincon began reading books on law, and attending political meetings. In 1831, on a trip to New Orleans Lincon witnessed the brutality of slavery, and it was there where he formed his opinon on slavery; injust. In 1833, Lincon ran for state legislature, and lost. Instead, Lincon was state assemblyman, and would soon go represent Henry Clay’s Whig party. Lincon soon had a growing repuation. Lincon ran for State Legislature against Stephen Douglas, and lost. Lincon had many ups and downs with women, his first wife, dying and then he met Mary Todd and married. Servants who worked for Mary found her very obnoxious. A close friend of Lincon called the Lincon household as â€Å"Domestic hell on Earth†. Abe and Mary’s son Eddie, died, and Mary was very devestated. Later that year, they had another child named William. Abe’s father Tom became ill, and died, and Abe did not attend the funeral or mark his grave. In 1858, Abe ran against Douglas for U.S. Senate and was defeated. In 1857, the Dred Scott case came along. Abe compltely supported the case, and believed that all men should be equal. Douglas always thought that Lincon was preaching for â€Å"Negro citizenship†. Abe preached slavery was ethucally wrong. Later, Abe was nominated for president, and succeeded. Now began the fight for Abe to end slavery. Abe believed that the only way to beat slavery and change the constitution is to change the will of the people (Keneally 65). Abe stated that the Civil War was not to free slaves, but to save the union. Abe had the union victory at Antietam, which would serve as a baisis for his first Emancipation Proclamation. On January 1, 1863, Abe freed the slaves in the rebel states. After his first term, Abe was re-elected as President of the United States. Earlier in the month of April 1865, Abe had a dream he died of asassination. On April 14th, the Lincons went to John Fords Theatre to see Laura Keene’s benifiet performance of the â€Å"Our American Cousin†. It was there in the box seating of the John Ford theatre that Abe was shot in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth. After the shoot, Booth jumped on stage and yelled â€Å"sic semper tyrannis†, the audience believing it to be part of the play since Booth was a well-known actor. Abe passed later that night and became the bloodied nation incarnate (Keneally 175). Before I read this book, the only thing I really knew about Abe Lincon was that he freed the slaves, and was known as â€Å"Honest Abe†. Abraham Lincon was sort of a totured soul. He lost his mother, and never really got along with his father. Abe never had much luck with the ladies, but seemed like a man who would do anything for a woman he loved. I envy Abe in a way. Abraham Lincon should really be a synonym in the dictionary behind the word â€Å"Perserverance†. Abe ran for an election, and was defeated, ran again, and was defeated. Ran again, and was defeated. And so on, and so forth. Out of all of Abe’s defeats he found the greatest thing of all; success. Not once did Abe ever give up. I am sure he thought about it many times, and reached his breaking point all to much, but he never let that stop him. Abraham Lincon was a man of many things, he had a roughness about him, and was disportionally awkward and clumsy. Abe had many failures from being defeated countlessly, and death of family and friends, he overcame it all. Abe is debatedly one of the best Presidents of the United States, and through defeat, he found success and his legacy will remain forever.

Female Education Essay

Napoleon once said â€Å"Give me an educated mother and I will give you an educated nation. † This statement is enough to prove the importance of female education. Allah has created both man and woman equally. They are like the two sides of a coin. One is incomplete without the other. So, education cannot be the only possession of a single class or sex. Rather, it should be imparted equally to both men and women. Our religion has also made education compulsory for all. In the past, our women folk were confined within the four walls of home. Parents did not allow them to receive education and to participate in any outside work. Early marriage, religious misinterpretation and the narrowness of our outlook were mainly responsible for this. Parents thought it waste of time and money to educate their girls. They did not understand that if girl children were educated they could be as competent as male children. As our women folk constitute almost half of our total population, no real development is possible keeping them uneducated. On the other hand, an educated mother plays a very important role in making and shaping the character of her children. She knows well how to bring up her children, to educate them and to make them worthy. In domestic life, she can also extend her helping hand to her husband. So, there is no alternative to female education. It is a matter of great delight that women have started to come out of their cocoons. Being educated, they are joining a wide range of professions. They have been able to prove their abilities. So, the disadvantages of early marriage and religious misinterpretation must be removed. Our outlook about women must be changed. More schools and colleges for girls should be set up to spread female education. Recently the scenario of female education has started to change. Many socio-economic factors are responsible for this change. All possible facilities of female education have been extended. Education for girls up to degree level has been made free with a monthly stipend. This encourages them to continue their education. We should remember that only educated women can change the picture of our society. So, all of us should come forward to spread female education. The overall state of female education in Bangladesh is not yet satisfactory. In the past, women were in the boundary of their houses. They usually spent their time doing their household chores. They were deprived of education. But the situation has been changed now. Now-a-days, they are admitting into schools, colleges and universities. The rate of literacy in our country is about 60% whereas female literacy is about 40%. Female education is necessary for getting an educated nation. Because, an educated mother can give an educated nation. There are many advantages of female education. A child will never remain illiterate if his/her mother is educated. An educated woman can play various roles in the family. She can impart himself in different business and jobs. As a result, she can contribute to the family income. However, government should do something more to educate the female. â€Å"No need girl’s education, they are born only for taking care of their families†- this idea was stereotype in the early past of Bangladesh. The birth of a boy child was a blessing for the parents and a girl child was like a curse. It is a surprising matter that a girl child also comes like a boy child from mother’s womb and father’s blood but still that child is unexpected to her parents. In reality, a father and mother can never hate their children. Actually, the society made the rule to neglect the girl children. As Bangladesh is considers as a Muslim country, most of its population are Muslim. The Bangladeshi people thought that their religion had ordered them to keep their women and female children inside the house and keep them in safe. As a result, the parents always wanted a male child to earn for the family and protect their old age. From a theological research, it has found that the beliefs which were followed by our ancestors were based on wrong concepts. The holy books actually suggested keeping women in safe, not to confine them into four walls where they do not have any liberty. These books also suggested that a woman can even participate in the warfare if she is able to protect herself. Very slowly but the people started to change their mentality when they were becoming educated and started realizing that it was useless to achieve success without women as a mother is the first teacher of a child. If a mother is illiterate there is much possibility that the child will be uneducated. To cure this problem, Begum Rokeya, the pioneer of giving the light of education to the Muslim Bengali girls. This social movement of educating girls was very slow and at that time people were against of this blessed work. She kept patience and opened a girls’ school. She made people to understand about the benefit of the girl’s education by giving the religious points. Though it took time to convince people, it worked. People understood the necessity of the girls’ education and started sending their daughters into the school. This idea was so effective because a nation can have more achievements if the entire nation works together for success, not the half of the nation. The government also realized that this is an innovative idea and so the†¦ â€Å"It is the height of selfishness for men, who fully appreciate in their own case the great advantage of a good education, to deny these advantages to women. There is no valid argument by which the exclusion of the female sex from the privilege of education can be defended. It is argued that women have their domestic duties to perform and that, if they were educated, they would bury themselves in their books and have little time for attending to the management of their households. Of course, it is possible for women as it is for men to neglect work in order to spare more time for reading sensational novels. But women are no more liable to this temptation than men and most women would be able to do their household work the entire better for being able to refresh their minds in the intervals of leisure with a little reading. Nay, education would even help them in the performance of the narrowest sphere of womanly duty. For education involves knowledge of the means by which health may be preserved and enable a mother to consult such modern books as will tell her how to rear up her children into healthy men and women and skillfully nurse them and her husband, when disease attacks her household. Without education she will not be averse to listen, with fatal results, to the advice of superstitious quacks that pretend to work wonder by charms and magic. But, according to higher conception of women’s sphere, women ought to be something more than a household drudge. She ought to be able not merely to nurse her husband in sickness but also to be his companion in health. For this part of her wifely duty, education is necessary, for there cannot be congenial companionship between an educated husband and an uneducated wife who can converse with her husband on no higher subject than cookery and servant’s wages. Also, one of a mother’s highest duties is the education of her children at the time when their mind is not amenable to instruction. A child’s whole future life, to a large extent, depends on the teaching it receives in early childhood and it is needless to say that this first foundation of education cannot be well laid by an ignorant mother. On all these grounds female education is a vital necessity. Gender inequality in education is extreme. Girls are less likely to access school, to remain in school or to achieve in education. Education helps men and women claim their rights and realise their potential in the economic, political and social arenas. It is also the single most powerful way to lift people out of poverty. Education plays a particularly important role as a foundation for girls’ development towards adult life. It should be an intrinsic part of any strategy to address the gender-based discrimination against women and girls that remains prevalent in many societies. The following links will further explain the necessity of girls’/women’s education. Education is a right Cultural changes Better health and awareness Poverty reduction Education is a right Everybody has the right to education, which has been recognised since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948. The right to free and compulsory primary education, without discrimination and of good quality, has been reaffirmed in all major international human rights conventions. Many of these same instruments encourage, but do not guarantee, post-primary education. These rights have been further elaborated to address issues like quality and equity, moving forward the issue of what the right to education means, and exploring how it can be achieved. As a minimum: states must ensure that basic education is available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable for all. (4A scheme) The right of girls to education is one of the most critical of all rights – because education plays an important role in enabling girls and women to secure other rights. Cultural changes Cultural and traditional values stand between girls and their prospects for education. The achievement of girls’ right to education can address some of societies’ deeply rooted inequalities, which condemn millions of girls to a life without quality education – and, therefore, also all too often to a life of missed opportunities. Improving educational opportunities for girls and women helps them to develop skills that allow them to make decisions and influence community change in key areas. One reason for denying girls and women their right to an education is rarely articulated by those in charge: that is their fear of the power that girls will have through education. There is still some resistance to the idea that girls and women can be trusted with education. Education is also seen in some societies as a fear of change and now with globalization, the fear becomes even greater- fear to lose the cultural identity, fear of moving towards the unknown or the unwanted, fear of dissolving in the many others. Better health Basic education provides girls and women with an understanding of basic health, nutrition and family planning, giving them choices and the power to decide over their own lives and bodies. Women’s education leads directly to better reproductive health, improved family health, economic growth, for the family and for society, as well as lower rates of child mortality and malnutrition. It is also key in the fight against the spread of HIV & AIDS. Poverty reduction Educating girls and women is an important step in overcoming poverty. Inequality and poverty are not inevitable. â€Å"The focus on poverty reduction enables the right to education to be a powerful tool in making a change in the lives of girls and women. Poverty has been universally affirmed as a key obstacle to the enjoyment of human rights, and it has a visible gender profile. The main reason for this is the fact that poverty results from violations of human rights, including the right to education, which disproportionately affect girls and women. Various grounds of discrimination combine, trapping girls in a vicious downward circle of denied rights. Denial of the right to education leads to exclusion from the labour market and marginalisation into the informal sector or unpaid work. This perpetuates and increases women’s poverty. † Education is one of the basic human rights. Every human being has the right to be enlightened by the light of knowledge. But like other issues of our society, a gender inequality exists in receiving education which is enacted to the females. This unwanted practice is continuing still in our society and hinders the progress of our nation. In our country, because of some old superstitions and customs, girls are deprived from many facilities which are cashed in on by males. Education is one of those. The parents think not to invest money to their female children rather than to the males. And that’s why; women of our country still can’t lead a solvent, secured, independent life. A woman without any education can’t use her skills and brain in a proper way. Because of educational ignorance, she can’t differentiate the right and wrong and take any decision correctly. She can’t use the chances to uplift her condition. She can’t nurse her family and children properly. In total, an uneducated woman leads a disorganized life. These awful facts affect the society decisively. Almost half of the population remains inoperative, unskilled, and slapdash. It lags behind the whole nation economically, academically, commercially which will suffer the future generation. If the women-folk is educated, they can utilize their skill, knowledge and work hand in hand with men in all programs of development. They can be self-employed and be a source of man power by which they can support their family financially. They can analysis any situation and take the right decision and influence her family and society in the key areas through their useful thoughts. They will be conscious about early marriage, family planning, maternal mortality rate, child mortality etc. Besides, if a woman is educated, she can take care of her children perfectly. A mother exercises an undeniable influence in the formation of children’s character and shaping their future destination. Once Napoleon said, â€Å"Give me†¦ [continues] Essay Introduction: The history of progress of the human race is the history of education. Hence it is necessary for every person, man or woman, to be educated. The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. Women should be educated like men; otherwise there can be no peace or no progress. If you yoke an unbroken (untrained) horse with highly trained one, the carriage will be dashed to pieces sand the occupants’ lives will be destroyed. The family peace cannot be preserved with such ill-matched life-long companions. Need for Female Education: Napoleon was once asked what the greatest need of France was. He answered â€Å"Motherland’s National progress is impossible without trained and educated mothers. † If the women in any country are not educated about half the people in that country will be ignorant. The result is that such a country will not be able to go along with other nations in development and progress. A Controversy: There is a great controversy going on in India whether women should receive higher education or not. Orthodox people are in favor of female education, but they are opposed to given them high education. But this view does not sound well. If women are mentally fit to receive higher education there seems to be no reason why they should not be allowed to develop their mental faculties. There is other group of liberal people which in favor of the female education. To give them only the rudiments of knowledge while they are eager for advanced studies is to condemn them to a place of inferiority. Duties of Woman: A woman has to play three distinct parts in the course of her life in each of which certain duties are expected of her. If she is able to do these well she is worthy of being called perfect woman. It is only by the help of education that she can hope to be able to do them satisfactorily. The first duty of a woman is to be a good daughter. The second is to be a good wife. And the third is to be a good mother. Education†¦ [continues] Male Female Education Different people have different ideas and opinions as to whether it is more important to educate boys or girls. Some believe that the education of boys is more important than that of the girls, and meanwhile others disagree. In reality, the choice depends on what country, culture, or society we are talking about. In many nations including many Asian countries, tradition demands that men provide the family with income, food, clothing, etc., and women perform the usual household business such as cooking, cleaning, washing, and taking care of children. In such societies it seems logical that there is more stress on the priority of men’s education rather than women, since it is the male that requires the needed education to succeed, survive, and thrive. It is perceived in these countries that education is not of vital importance to women since they â€Å"are not† supposed to work outside the house, and that their primary duty is to take care of the family and kids. However in modern societies and nations, the situation differs. Now days more countries are inclined towards modernization. The general moral philosophy of these nations is equality amongst men and women; therefore, this means equal business, industrial, and occupational opportunities for both the men and women. Based on these facts, it is vital to put of equal stress on the education of men and women for this will insure that females and males perform their tasks professionally and adequately. In my opinion, the edification of men and women has to be equally emphasized because today’s technological and economical advanced world require fully educated, experienced, and versatile citizens regardless of their gender. And this can be only achieved through sufficient education of both men and women. The importance of today’s society is to improve the reaction time interview tested techniques of the oriental and occidental countries and continents. [continues].

The role of immune therapy in breast cancer Essay

The role of immune therapy in breast cancer - Essay Example s of breast cancers that can affect women, with some forms being rare, and also some where two or three forms of cancers occur within the same form (Types of Breast Cancer 2014). The different forms of breast cancers include: Ductal carcinoma in situ, Lobular carcinoma in situ, invasive ductal carcinoma, invasive lobular carcinoma which are more common. The less common types include inflammatory breast cancer, triple negative breast cancer, paget disease of the nipple, phyllodes tumor, and angiosarcoma (Types of Breast Cancer 2014). The above figure reflects on the statistics of cases of breast cancer in the UK, as recorded for the year 2011. It can be observed that the number of cases is significant and hence immunotherapy seems to be highly essential, particularly for women are the most affected ones. Although the concept of immunotherapy has developed as a revolution over the recent times; however its roots can be found dated back to 1778 when the first vaccine was administered against smallpox by Edward Jenner who was an English physician (Cancer and the Immune System: The Vital Connection n.d.). The immune system involves collection of cells that protect the body from microbes and bacteria and hence tries to protect the body from diseases. Innate immunity and adaptive immunity are the two divisions in which the defense of the body against microbes works (Mooi 2010; The innate and adaptive immune systems n.d.). The innate immune system is such where cells and proteins are ready to fight the microbes always and hence protect the body at the site where the infection takes place. The major constituents of this system include physical epithelial barriers, phagocytic leucocytes, dendritic cells, natural killer cell which is a special type of lymphocyte, and circulating plasma proteins (Mooi 2010; The innate and adaptive immune systems n.d.). The adaptive system is different from the innate immune system in the sense that it is initiated to overcome or avoid the

Discuss whether Mexico has the potential to become a future global Essay

Discuss whether Mexico has the potential to become a future global economic power - Essay Example In order for the country to achieve such, it requires an appropriate management of its various economic sectors with the view of limiting the various economic threats that have threatened country’s economy in the past. The expansion of the various economic sectors will likely improve the country’s economic potential by increasing the employment rate of the economy thus facilitating an expansion of the economy (Boyes & Michael, 2012). The discussion below portrays some of the major economic features and an elaborate discussion of the current economic state of the country thus developing the growth potential the economy enjoys. Current economic characteristics of the country The Mexican economy has various vibrant sectors all of which sustain the country’s economy. All of the sectors present a potential for expansion thus promising the growth of the economy into a global economic power. Among the most vibrant sectors in the economy are tourism, communication and tr ansportation (Fox, 2002). Transportation sustains the economic growth in any country. With this knowledge, the successive Mexican governments have often invested in the development and expansion of the country’s transport system. The country has long road network that links nearly every part of the country. With an effective road network that joins every part of the country, the economy enjoys faster transportation of both goods and passengers throughout the different cities within the country. Besides the elaborate roads network, the country has a complementary rail network which also facilitates the faster transportation of goods. The development of the electric rail system has further improved the efficiency in the transportation sector, as goods currently take shorter to reach their destinations (Kates, 2007). The country also has various airports and airstrips all of which facilitate the faster transportation of products within the country. The capital city known as Mexi co City has two international airports, which act as the entry points into the country. Through the two facilities, the country maintains an active economic interaction with other countries globally as the two facilitate the transportation of goods in and out of the country (Aaker & Aaker, 2010). The effective and efficient transportation network has attracted hundreds of investors who enjoy the seamless transportation of both goods and humans to every part of the country. Another great factor that has attracted more multinationals into the country is the cheaper labor and electricity costs. The low cost of the two makes the country favorable for setting up companies. Various companies have therefore set up their manufacturing plants in the country (Tabbush, 2011). The fact that the country competes with the likes of China in labor and electricity costs makes it a favorable destination to most of the American multinational companies seeking cheap labor. This way, the country has con tinuously enjoy infrastructural development and an increasing employment opportunities as the companies provide ready employment. Tourism is the country’s main foreign exchange earner. With such a vibrant tourism industry, the country enjoys sustained influx of foreign currency and an equally large employment opportunity. The world tourism organization rated Mexico as the second most visited country in the world in 2001 coming second to the United States (Cavanagh, 2002). The country has

DNA is the most important for life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

DNA is the most important for life - Essay Example This essay argues the DNA is the most important molecule for life. Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA is a nucleic molecule that functions as one of the most central aspects of living organisms. Contained within DNA are the fundamental aspects of all living things; in these regards, DNA functions as a sort of encyclopedic instruction manual for all elements within the human genetic system. Another way of viewing DNA is as a blueprint for the living organism. When new components, including RNA or proteins need to be constructed, it is the DNA that determines how these elements will be constituted. Figure 1 below demonstrates the basic DNA genetic components. It’s for these reasons it’s clear DNA is more important to the construction of life than these components. While DNA is recognized as an essential blueprint for all living organisms, it all contains a number of important live creating and sustaining functions within these organisms. One such function is that of transcription. Within DNA there are genes, which are strands of material that influence the constitution of living elements (Cooper). These genes contain genetic components influence the organism’s phenotype through transcription processes. This transcription process functions through informing the sequences of RNA and protein. During this process the codons of a gene are implemented in transcribing RNA polymerase (Pollard). This process is then decoded through ribosomes that read the base-pairing messenger elements. This process occurs in a great variety of life producing ways, with sixty-four possible combinations, making DNA a core element for daily life. This process is witnessed below in Fig. 2. Fig. 2 Transcription Another core function of DNA that makes it the most important molecule for life is witnessed in its interaction with protein in the body. All components of protein interaction rely on DNA. Some of the most notable elements in terms of life-producing components occur in the domain of structural proteins. In the interaction between DNA and structural proteins, the important life-producing element of chromatin is produced (Van Holde). This element is used for the important life functions of mitosis and meiosis. Ultimately, it’s the combination of these elements that make DNA the most important molecule for life in living organisms. In conclusion, this essay has demonstrated that Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA functions as the most important molecule for life in living organisms. While DNA functions in countless and complex ways, this essay has considered what it considers to be the most prominent such aspects. In these regards, DNA’s function as the blueprint of the living organism is considered as its primary function. In addition to this component, DNA also functions in transcription processes and in the development of chromatin. Ultimately, it’s the combination of these elements that makes DNA the most important component in living organisms. References Cooper, Geoffrey M. 2000. The Cell, 2nd edition, A Molecular Approach. Pollard, T. 2002. Cell Biology. Saunders. Van Holde KE. 1989. Chromatin. New York:

Civil Liability and Private Police Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Civil Liability and Private Police Paper - Essay Example or its employees (also known as torts); and (2) criminal acts committed by the security company or its employees. The major source of liabilities of the private police is the tort law which is rooted on negligence rather than on malice or evil intent. Following are the usual torts committed or imputed to private police: battery, assault, infliction of mental distress, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, trespass to land, trespass to personal property, negligence, defamation, and invasion of privacy. Hence, any mistake committed by a private police may be the subject of a tort lawsuit. The Fourth Amendment provides protection to the citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures and arbitrary arrest and detention. A reading of the provision creates an impression that it is geared towards the protection of citizens against public authorities. In fact, even the Courts have some apprehensions in applying the said provision against private entities and individuals. In the case of Burdeau vs. McDowell (256 U.S. 465 [1921]), the Supreme Court Civil Liability and Private Police Paper ruled unequivocally that the provision is not applicable to complainants arrested or searched by private parties. Due to the said ruling, the private police continued to avoid all restrictions imposed upon their public counterparts. On the issue of arrests, private police enjoy the protection afforded to private individuals on the argument that they act for and in behalf of the person, business entity or corporation that hired them; thus, their employer practically transferred the latter’s basic right of protection of their persons and properties against unreasonable searches, seizures, and arrests. This is so in spite of the general knowledge that the function of private police is akin to that of the public law enforcement agencies, albeit limited to the interest of their employers. However, the conclusion is still the same – that unless the private police are de putized or commissioned through a valid law, they do cannot enjoy the powers given to the public authorities. Hence, private police, when it comes to the issue of arrests and seizures, must be confined within the ambit of the theories of self-defense, defense of another or the property of another, crime prevention, and citizen’s arrest. Similarly, in cases of invasion of privacy or defamation, the private police may rely only on exercise of reasonable limitations. On the other hand, in cases of negligence, the possible defences are contributory negligence and assumption of risk by the complainant. Considering that private police are usually engaged in situations requiring restraint or detention, most often for investigation purposes, the possibility of being held liable for assault is high. Following are the elements of assault: (1) an act; (2) intent to harm or make offensive contact or to cause apprehension; (3) apprehension must be imminent; and (4) apprehension is caused by the defendant. Perusal of the above-enumerated elements show the apparent absence of

Cost Accounting Assignment Project Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cost Accounting Project - Assignment Example At the end of year 2013, the net income of the company was $494,500 million. This is an increase of about 17%and 21% from 2012 and 2011respectively. The company brands the products and distribute to the market segments. Each market segment receives a unique brand as per their respective preference. Enables them to company manufactures thousand units of the product at some point in time. The method provides the manager with an answer of comparison of similar products from one period to another hence having a control over the manufacturing cost. The method allows the allocation of materials that part way the process. This enables in determining the value that processes material such as the labor cost. The company incurred several operating and management costs. The cost incurred includes factory insurance cost, plant depreciation $13,450, factory manager’s salary$90,000, laborers wages 450,000, supervisor’s salaries 250,000, power consumption $45,000 and warehouse maintenance cost 50,260. The direct cost was which composed of laborer’s wages $450,000, indirect costs was $398450 that is factory insurance $120,000, power consumption $45,000, factory manager salary $90,000, depreciation $13,450 and supervisor $250,000. The fixed cost includes the warehouse maintenance cost of $38, 000. From the financial perspective, the company has improved due to marketing of its products and services worldwide. From the annual report, the company garnered 26 billion as the total profit after tax. This is the growth of 1.45% and 3% from 2013 and 2012 years respectively. From the customer perspective, there is an increase in the customer loyalty. This is due to the manufacture of superior quality products that give them a competitive advantage. The products sell faster than the competitors because of efficiency supply of products to the markets for their loyal customers. From internal business

Come up with a topic for me Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Come up with a topic for me - Essay Example The truth is yet to be established. According to Sartre’s philosophy of Existentialism, each individual in any nation seems to the freedom and right to choose a leader of preference (Sartre, 12). It is always a way of excising their God given power. Sartre and Beauvoir share a number of thoughts in this concept of power and freewill. They both tend towards the philosophy of Abraham Lincoln on Democracy where, the citizens have the sole right and willpower to choose a government. In essence, the kind of head of head of state solely depends on the independent decision of the people. Let us try to see how these theories are connected to Realism and Neo-realism. Political theorists of all time had attempted to design a profound theory of political power and state relations. This enormous theory was dabbed Realism. According to Morgenthau and his theory of realism, all the nations of the world will always have contrasting political interests, a situation that usually ignites conflicts among these states. Realism, as separate political theory, is specifically concerned with political power. The 20th Century realism proponents like Morgenthau and E. H Carr strongly believe that power is the key factor in the entire system of the International relations. Realism clings to the assertion that international politics solely depends on the nature of the human, thus, politics is always a subject to the manipulation of a state leader (Carr, 347). Following the above description of realism, realists seem to be of the opinion that the political stability of any state can only be determined by the nature of the leader in the office. Thus, if the head of state is very aggressive, he is very likely to gain more political powers than the less aggressive president. It is the very aggressive nature of the political leaders that led to some leaders being termed as dictators. In essence, leaders of states have been depicted as

Managing Work Activities Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Managing Work Activities - Assignment Example Accounting and finance is concerned with an analysis of the budget in the business in order to minimize costs and maximize savings. Finally, the Legal function takes care of any business contracts with all stakeholders, and also deals with compliance with domestic and international standards. All these functions complement each other especially following Nokia’s organizational structure. The office of the CFO ensures that there are enough funds to fund the budget and pay the staffs, thus making sure that the human resource and finance functions. Availability of funds and personnel eases the processes of marketing and customer service, since there are more people to do the work. By knowing what the consumer wants, the company is able to come up with products that meet the set legal standards, while also pleasing the customer. Q2: Explain the functionality of three departments of an engineering business of your choice, (which could be the engineering business established in assi gnment 1). Explain the importance and effects of each function on the operation of the company as a whole. The department for designing is the most significant in Nokia. This department determines the look of Nokia products, in addition to their various functionalities. Accordingly, this department has to create products that are appealing to the consumer, yet they are affordable and have high functionality. According to the Nokia website, the design department houses the solutions unit which is tasked with coming up with practical products that have varied content and are able to meet the personalized need of the consumer. Essentially, Nokia’s products should be able to offer solutions to some consumer needs, for example, the need to access the internet using a mobile device. While doing this, the design department needs to maintain low operational costs so that the company maximizes profits. It is the design department that ensures that Nokia stays in the market, by designi ng products that offer a competitive advantage with Nokia’s rivals. Without the designing department, Nokia would not be able to compete with other manufacturers, in the production of state-of-the-art products. Fundamentally, the design department is the one that ensures that Nokia remains relevant in the business, thus assuring the company’s survival. The human resource department is a very important department, since it is charged with the recruitment, training and sometimes, retraining of personnel. According to Griffin, a company needs to identify future human resource need s and recruit accordingly (232). Without this department, Nokia, and any other company would not be able to run operations, since machines cannot operate themselves. Human resource ensures that people with the right qualifications are employed and that they are trained to meet the standards at Nokia. Without the right workforce, Nokia would not be able to battle in the global market which has be come increasingly competitive in recent years. The sales and marketing department at Nokia ensures that the company has proper sales channels through engaging in product branding and promotional activities. In the current

Database Security for Electronics Ltd Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Database Security for Electronics Ltd - Essay Example Database security is the process of protecting the files stored in the database from any malicious attempts of viewing the data or modifying the data (Ramakrishnan & Gehrke, 2003, p 157). The standard language that is used for making an interactive query from and, updating the databases as Microsoft SQL server is known as the Structure Query Language (SQL). This paper tries to analyze the potential issues that are arising from having a database server online. Securities in the software applications are very significant in all the organization that has databases. An SQL injection attack is one of the identified potential issues that might arise from having the databases online. SQL injection attack is a type of an attack that comes from what the user has inputted, and is not well checked to find if the input is valid. SQL Injection attack enables the external users to view information from the database. In other systems that are well designed, it will only include the information that is available to the public. While in a system which is poorly designed, this would only allow the external users in discovering other people’s password (Basta & Zgola, 2012, p 167). The objective of the SQL injection attack is to fool a database system to a running malicious code that will reveal the sensitive data or information or else it may compromise the whole server. SQL injection attacks are of two types; there are the first-order attacks, and the second-order attacks. The first-order attacks happens when the attacker attempts to receive an immediate desired result, this can be by direct response coming from the application that is being interacted to, or it may be some other response mechanisms, for example emails. While the second-order attacks takes place when the attacker attempts to inject some of the data that are going to reside in the database, although the payload will not be activated immediately. Most websites are commonly used in mounting the attack on the database (Cherry, 2011, pg 201). For example, the below is an example for a typical SQL statement that can be used to mount an attack on the website. SELECT ProductName, Unit Price, QuantityperUnit FROM Products WHERE ProductName LIKE ‘F%’ The above SQL statement tries to select the name of the product, the price per unit, and the unit per quantity from where the products are stored where the ProductName must start with a letter F (ProductName LIKE ‘F%’). The main aim of the attackers in database is to make sure that they inject their own SQL into a statement that the application may use when querying the database. For the above SQL statement, just in any case the query was generated from the website; the user must therefore insert the letter ‘F’ as the query. However, if a server side code inserts a user input directly in an SQL statement, the SQL statement may look like this, but it is only fine if the data that is inputted is valid. String sql = â€Å"SELECT ProductName, Unitprice, QuantityPerUnit â€Å"+ â€Å"FROM Products† + WHERE ProductName LIKE ‘†+ search, Text + â€Å"%’; SQL injection attack damages SQL injection attacks have been somehow limited concerning the risks that are associated with unintended disclosure of the data. Today SQL injection has evolved, and it has become the preferred method and, processes that are used by the hackers in breaching well-liked websites. It has also inserted a malware websites. SQL injections alternatively, may

Inclusive education Essay Example for Free

Inclusive education Essay The concept of inclusion has been adopted as a response to the mandate of Public Law 94-142 or the Education of the Handicapped Act of 1975 which aims to place disabled and mentally-challenged students in non-restricted environments where they have access to equal opportunities in education. Inclusive education is an academic program where children of varying abilities are placed in one class or group and allowed to interact together to facilitate learning. It aims to provide all types of students with equality and exposure to the same learning stimulus that is bound to create various learning experiences to different types of children. And although many educators recognize that this is a breakthrough scheme for integration and intellectual freedom (Porter, 2001), in some cultures, this is the traditional way of teaching preschool children since special classes for attending to disabled children have not yet been developed at that time (Duncan, 2001). The scheme may involve only partial inclusion where special or disabled students can be pulled out anytime from class as the need for it arises. Oftentimes, for this category, another teacher who caters to the specific needs of the disabled students is also present. Full inclusion, on the other hand, is usually applied for disabled or special cases of students with high levels of learning capacities. Similarly, George and Alexander (2003) noted that in cases where tracking or ability grouping could not be totally excluded, partial de-tracking is also a good alternative. Inclusive education is a form of recognition (Friendly and Lero, 2002) and value that goes beyond human rights and equality and is a contributing step to eliminating social exclusion in the community. It promotes active and meaningful participation to all members of a group or class and offer different prospects for the students who experience the different class activities in their own light. They are able to socially interact, treated equally despite cognitive, physical or financial levels and, most importantly, achieve happiness and security. These are the essential elements and goals of inclusive education (Sen, 1999). As the Laidlaw Foundation puts its, it requires an active change in current policies and programs and build community-based foundations that will benefit and develop equal opportunities for both children and families (Friendly and Lero, 2002). On the other hand, early descriptions of inclusive education provide less drastic measures for improvement. Kamps et al.(1994) note that the strategies employed in inclusive learning are cheap measures designed to center on techniques that are less invasive but improves both the academic and social learning of the children (Kamps et al. , 1994). They also add that despite an inclusive program, change will not be truly instituted if the techniques cannot be adapted to current educational classroom systems that are at in place (Kamps Carta, 1989). The members of the Inclusion InterAmericana (2000) also agree that Inclusive education is a cheaper alternative to provide disabled students access to education as evidence by their limited resources and provision. Cooperative learning is one aspect of inclusive education, where students are classified into smaller learning groups created for the purpose of maximizing learning and development (Johnson et al. , 1990). This type of grouping, also referred to as a heterogeneous classification has aimed to ensure that each student receives the same high class standards of instruction and education. The access of all types of students to these educational practices will allow them to benefit in the same way that others students do (Daniel, 2007). This type of scheme not only follows a mandate to provide children with the equal opportunities in education but also aims to improve the skills of the students relative to the learning levels each child possesses (Yonezawa and Jones, 2006). The children in an inclusive class who, in an ideal situation, are helping each other learn also do not need to be in the same age levels as other students as in the case of a learning strategy in an inclusive set up called cross age tutoring (Barbetta et al., 1991). In contrast to inclusive education, a scheme called homogeneous grouping, or ability grouping or tracking, is a case where students are grouped according to similar cognitive levels. The grouping is done by determining abilities of students through studies on their previous test and activity scores and those with similar abilities are group accordingly (Daniel, 2007). Gamoran and Weinstein (1998), George (1988) and Slavin (1993) all note a lack of evidence that ability grouping is effective. In addition, Vang (2005) discusses the disadvantages of this scheme to students with poor learning abilities, those from the minority and even financially challenged children. As Friendly and Lero (2002) note, exclusion in any form results in not only vulnerability and inability to voice out to the proper forum but also reduces quality and limited capabilities of life experiences. They also stress that a changed path from exclusion will enable social cohesion and improve life prospects. This also applies not only to communities but also to students in classrooms as well.

Effects Autism Has On Communication Psychology Essay

Effects Autism Has On Communication Psychology Essay This research report is about Autism and the effects it has in Communication. This disorder has always been interesting to me. Autism is a developmental disorder that affects 1 in every 150 children. There are several different types of Autism but the most commonly known are Asperger Syndrome and general Autism. Asperger Syndrome is when children have problems communicating and interacting with others but have good communication skills. They can also be sensative to loud sounds, bright lights and tastes. Children with Aspergers have an obsession with one thing or any subject that they find appealing. Classical Autism is the most common of the disorders. Autism symptoms include problems with social interaction, repeating actions and phrases and difficulty with communicating in general. Autistic children become obsessed with certain subjects but lack interest in other areas. These children are known for being socially withdrawn, little emotion, and isolated. I want to know how does Com munication affect autistic people in everyday life? I recently watched a documentary on Autism, where a normal guy lived with a twenty year old Autistic boy. He wanted to put himself into an Autistic childs lifestyle and see how the most simple tasks can be some of the hardest things to do for someone who has Autism. I am interested in finding out if the things that set them off can be monitored, will it eventually stop being a problem in their lives. Autistic kids spend everyday of their lives fighting their inner thoughts and when speaking out loud. Autism has so many unanswered questions. I want to do more research and find out testimonies from people with Autism and their struggles with Communication. Autism is something I am sure everyone has been in contact with and you have not even realized it. I think by more people learning about this disorder maybe it can be improved somehow. I feel like this is a disorder that can be managed and one day the children diagnosed with it cou ld be more comfortable with themselves and the way they communicate with others. Anderson A., Litras S., Moore D.W. (2010). Using Video Self-Modelled Social Stories to Teach Social Skills to a Young Child with Autism, Autism Research and Treatment, Vol. 2010, 9 pages. This research report is the study of how video modelling and social studies effect a three year old child with Autism. In this report the researchers point out that social intervention has a crucial effect at an early age if signs of Autism are caught early. It is pointed out that if these behavoirs are caught it will be beneficial later on in life. Social Stories are used to show children with autism how to manage their behavior during social situations by describing where the activity is likely to take place, when and how it will occur, and responses the target child could display. There has also been interest in the use of video modelling, in the treatment of children with autism. Video technology appears well suited to children and fitting to the needs of children with autism. Video modelling involves a child watching specifically made video tapes of him or herself, peers or adults engaging in a behavior being taught. The effectiveness of video modelling for children with autism has been demonstrated for conversational speech, social initiations, and play-behaviors. This report will be useful to my research because it provides actual studies on children and their social behaviors. It is important in my research to have testamonies of actual field research. Bock, G., Goode, J. (2003). Autism: Neural basis and treatment possibilities. Novartis Foundation symposium, 251. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. There have been many advances in research into the nature of autism and our concepts of autism have undergone a radical change.The view was that autism was an early stage of schizophrenia that had been caused by so-called refrigerator parenting. It became clear that it was a mistaken concept and that autism constitutes a neurodevelopmental disorder with a distinctive pattern of cognitive defects and that it is strongly genetically influenced. The point is to tackle the challenges from a range of different perspectives in the hope that a coming together of minds, and of different research strategies, may move research forward. The huge rise in diagnosed autism is a consequence of a major broadening of the concept of autism .The rise is unlikely to have been genetically determined? There have been claims that the rise is due to the use of the combined measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) vaccine but that does not seem very likely. The rise began before the introduction of MMR and it continued to rise, without any plateauing, after MMR was used with the vast majority of the population. The prevailing consensus at the moment is that autism spectrum disorders constitute a continuum extending from mild autism to severe handicap.Why is it that individuals with the broader phenotype do not have associated mental retardation and do not seem to have an increase in the rate of epilepsy, both being very characteristic correlates of autism? Th is critical essay is reporting on how people used to think Autism was not a social disorder but cause by certain diseases. I like this article because it shows how far research has come in this field and there are more humane thoughts about Autism. Luiselli, J. K. (2008). Effective practices for children with autism: Educational and behavioral support interventions that work. New York: Oxford University Press. Children who have autism require educational and treatment services. There are a many approaches currently recommended to practitioners and parents, but little is known about their efficacy. Which are the most effective in teaching skills, overcoming behavior challenges, and improving quality of life? Methods must be based in research settings, but be easily extended to real world settings where children with autism live, go to school and socialize.Identifying and validating effective practices is a difficult process, but an important one for responsible research and practice. This critical essay brings together many views on interventions for autism education and behavior. With contributors from a variety of disciplines and orientations, Effective Practices for Children with Autism presents a critical view of current practice standards, emphasizing procedures and research-to-practice applications. This book was intended for researchers and doctors in this field, the book is for eval uating educational and treatment procedures, which acknowledge the most effective ways of going about treatments of Autism. Hacking I. (2010). Autism fiction: A mirror of an internet decade. University of Toronto Quarterly 79(2), 632-655. Retrieved August 18, 2010, from Project MUSE database. In the past ten years there has been an explosion of literature fiction and non-fiction, in which autism plays a key role. This critical essay explores the diverse genre that has resulted and examines some of its effects on the evolution of our understanding of autism and on our ability to talk about autistic experience. The role of the Internet in enabling autistic people to interact with others while avoiding the difficulties of face-to-face interaction. It proposes that the public fascination with autistic texts mirrors the dominance of the Internet in daily life. Both texts and the Internet represent changes in communication. Rogers, S. J. Interventions That Facilitate Socialization in Children with Autism Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 2000-10-01Springer Netherlands 0162-3257 Behavioral Science 399, 409, 30, 5. Being socially handicap is one of the most defining and handicapping features of Autism. One of the most important parts in Autism research is improving social function. Many social experiments have been published in autism literature. Children with autism are responsive to a variety of interventions aimed at increasing their social engagement with others. Successful strategies such as peer tutoring have involved autistic children. Several studies have demonstrated that social engagement directly affects other important behaviors like language, even when these behaviors are not specifically targeted by the teaching program. While an area of severe involvement, social behavior is also responsive to intervention. I believe this critical essay is an important part of my research because it gives the background of Autism and extensive information on what measures need to be taken to improve the social behaviors of Autistic children. Sansosti F.J. and Powell-Smith K. A. (2008). Using computer-presented social stories and video models to increase the social communication skills of children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders, Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 162-178. This research report on three children with High-Functioning Autism and Aspergers Syndrome, they are the subjects of a two week research study that was done by video modelling. The data was collected twice a week through daily tasks that are not monitored. One of the main events monitored was recess. The research in this report showed that with using video modelling and social stories is helpful for children with Autism and Aspergers Syndrome. This report is helpful to my research because it shows a daily plan of how the research was done and how effective it can be if done routinely. Shute, N. (2010). Desperate for an Autism Cure. Scientific American, 303(4), 80-85. Retrieved from Nursing Allied Health Collection: Comprehensive database. The research report discusses the reliance on risky alternative therapies by parents of autistic children as valid treatments become rarer. According to the report the percentage of autistic children in the U.S. that are receiving alternative treatments is high. The author argues that many of the non-conventional therapies are unreal and that some practitioners are prescribing drugs that have never been tested for safety or efficacy in the treatment of autism. Points include how increased public awareness and the demand by parents for proven treatments have resulted in increased research funding for autism Stacey, P. (2003). The boy who loved windows: Opening the heart and mind of a child threatened with autism. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. This book is a personal memoir that is written first hand about a boy with Autism. It begins with the diagnosis, through a five-year span through alternative medicine, brain research, and the work of pioneering psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan who helped bring their son into full contact with the world. In 1997 Patricia Stacey and her husband Cliff learned that their six-month-old son might never walk or talk, or even hear or see. Shocked with his prognosis they can not live with this prediction, they start on a five-year escapade that took them into the world of Autism. Their search led them to pioneering developmental psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan who helped them save their son and bring him into full contact with the world. This memoir is hopeful and gives people an insight on the way of life in a childs world with Autism. In some ways you make yourself apart of their lives instead of them living in the real world. This critical essay explores all of the ups and downs of this famil ies struggle with this social disorder. The Boy Who Loved Windows is inspiring reading for parents and professionals who care for children with autism.  

Philosophical Arguments Of Plato And Aristotle

Philosophical Arguments Of Plato And Aristotle This paper tends to use known facts and dialogues as the starting point from which to draw inferences and solutions based on the philosophical arguments of Plato and Aristotle. THE PROBLEM OF CHANGE ARISTOTLE The basic notions of Aristotles philosophy of nature can be understood from his analysis of change. When Aristotle undertook to explain how it is that things change, a fact apparent to anyone, he had first to confront the seemingly iron-clad logic of Parmenides. According to Parmenides All change is mere appearance; reality is One, and this One, which only is, is unchanging. Parmenides had argued that there are only two alternatives for anything, being and non-being. No new being can come from non-being since nothing comes from nothing. Nor can new being come from being since what has being, already is and does not begin to be: being cannot come from being since it is already. The advance that Aristotle made over Parmenides consists in seeing that, although it is true that nothing can come from nothing, it is not entirely true that being cannot come from being. One must distinguish being-in-act from being-in-potency. While it is true that from being-in-act, being-in-act cannot come since it would already be. The alternative from which being can come is not non-being, but being-in-potency. From being-in- potency there can come being-in-act. Potency, in this case, is defined as the capacity for growth and development. ACCIDENTAL CHANGE In his analysis of change, Aristotle discovered that every change implies duality. It implies a subject in potency which, by the action of some agent, pases into act, i.e. receives some new perfection or actuality. Motion presupposes the acquisition of something and the corruption of something else. The subject of change is what stays the same through the change. However, through the change, it acquires something new and loses what it previously had. Motion implies a passive principle and an active principle, intrinsic to the thing that changes. This he described as accidental change. Thus, there are three principles necessary for change to take place. There must be something new that comes to be, something old that passes away, and something that stays the same throughout. In the Aristotelian tradition, these principles receive the names form, privation and matter. Form is what comes to be Privation is what passes away And matter is what stays the same throughout the change. In the case of a statue, the shape of the sculpture, Michelangelos David for instance, is the form that comes to be when a formless block of marble becomes a statue. The formlessness of the block is itself the privation of the statue shape, and the potency for the statue shape. The marble, first in block shape, later in David shape, is what stays the same throughout the change. The case of the coming to be of a statue is an instance of an accidental change; what changes are the accidents of the marble. What stays the same is the substance of the marble. SUBSTANCIAL CHANGE For Aristotle, motion is the technical name for changes in accidents. There are three kinds of motion for Aristotle: a change in quality (which he calls alteration), a change in quantity, size (called growth or diminution), and a change in place (called local motion). In all cases, motion, as such, is defined as the act of a being in potency insofar as it is in potency. Motion is the process that a substance goes through in which it loses one accidental form or actuality and gains another. Aristotle discovered these principles of nature (matter, form and privation) by analyzing accidental changes. He found that they could also explain the more fundamental kinds of changes, changes that involve the passing away and coming to be of substances. Example; If one admits that sodium and chlorine are different substances (and they certainly appear different one is a white metal, the other a green gas), and that they are each different from salt (also apparently so), then one can see that the change from sodium and chlorine to Sodium chloride (salt) is a substantial change. PLATO Plato argued that both the material objects perceived and the individual perceiving them are constantly changing; but, since knowledge must be concerned only with unchangeable and universal objects, knowledge and perception are fundamentally different. In his theory of forms Plato meant to solve the ethical and intellectual problems as well as that of change and permanence: How can the world appear to be both permanent and changing? The world we perceive through the senses seems to be always changing. The world that we perceive through the mind, using our concepts, seems to be permanent and unchanging. Which is most real and why does it appear both ways? These are the arguments Plato sought to solve. The general structure of the solution: Plato splits up existence into two realms: the material realm and the transcendent realm of forms. Humans have access to the realm of forms through the mind, through reason, given Platos theory of the subdivisions of the human soul. This gives them access to an unchanging world, invulnerable to the pains and changes of the material world. By detaching ourselves from the material world and our bodies and developing our ability to concern ourselves with the forms, we find a value which is not open to change or disintegration. This solves the first, ethical, problem. Splitting existence up into two realms also solves the problem of permanence and change. We perceive a different world, with different objects, through our mind than we do through the senses. It is the material world, perceived through the senses, that is changing. It is the realm of forms, perceived through the mind, that is permanent and immutable. It is this world that is more real; the world of change is merely an imperfect image of this world. A form- This is an abstract property or quality. Take any property of an object; separate it from that object and consider it by itself, and you are contemplating a form. Platos characterization of forms to explain permanence and change: The forms are transcendent- This means that they do not exist in space and time. A material object, for instance a basketball, exists at a particular place at a particular time. A form, the roundness, does not exist at any place or time. Therefore a form such as roundness will never change; it does not even exist in time. It is the same at all times or places in which it might be instantiated. The forms are also pure- This means that they are pure properties separated from all other properties. A material object, such as a basketball, has many properties: roundness, ballness, orangeness, elasticity, etc. These are all put together to make up this individual basketball. But the form, Roundness, is just pure roundness, without any other properties mixed in. In virtue of the fact that all objects in this world are copies of the forms, the forms are the causes of all that exists in this world. In general, whenever you want to explain why something is the way that it is, you point to some properties that the object has. That is, you explain what forms the object is a copy of. The forms are causes in two closely related ways: The forms are the causes of all our knowledge of all objects. The forms contribute all order and intelligibility to objects. Since we can only know something insofar as it has some order or form, the forms are the source of the intelligibility of all material objects. The forms are also the cause of the existence of all objects. Things are only said to exist insofar as they have order or structure or form. Hence, the forms are the causes of the existence of all objects as well as of their intelligibility. Plato uses the sun metaphor to explain how the forms in general, and the form of the Good in particular, are causes in these two ways. Just as the sun gives light which allows us to see objects, the form of the Good provides order and intelligibility to allow us to know objects. Just as the sun provides the energy for the nourishment and growth of all living things, so the form of the Good provides the order and structure which is the source of the existence of all things. REASON WHY WE THINK ARISTOTLES ARGUMENT IS MORE CREDIBLE: In place of Platos doctrine of Ideas with a separate and eternal existence of their own, Aristotle proposed a group of universals that represent the common properties of any group of real objects. The universals, unlike Platos Ideas, have no existence outside of the objects they represent. Aristotle sought a general combined principal approach, unlike Plato who insisted that the forms are the causes of the existence of all objects as well as of their intelligibility. Not implying that Plato was wrong but that Aristotles attribution of change to 3 principals seems to be logically acceptable i.e He did not separate Form from Privation nor from Matter. Form and matter, therefore, make up a substantial unity; one cannot have form without matter, nor matter without some form. But, one can still distinguish these principles, and also understand that these principles are real features of the things that exhibit them. Aristotle thought that Platos theory of forms with its two separate realms failed to explain what it was meant to explain. That is, it failed to explain how there could be permanence and order in this world and how we could have objective knowledge of this world. By separating the realm of forms from the material realm, Plato made it impossible to explain how the realm of forms made objectivity and permanence possible in the material world. The objectivity and permanence of the realm of forms does not help to explain the material world because the connection between the two worlds is so hard to understand. Aristotle and the Aristotelian philosophers used logic to criticize the theory. Gail fine went to an extreme to say: The theory of form is an unnecessary proposal. There is no need to split the world up into two separate realms in order to explain objectivity and permanence in our experience.6 Aristotle elaborated this general criticism into two more particular objections: 1. The obscurity of the notion imitation: According to Plato, material objects participate in or imitate the forms. It is in virtue of this relation to the realm of forms that material objects are knowable and have order. Yet, Aristotle argues, it is almost impossible to explain what exactly this participation or imitation is. The properties that the forms have (eternal, unchanging, transcendent, etc. ) are all incompatible with material objects. How, for example, can a white object be said to participate in or copy the form of whiteness? Is the form of whiteness white itself? How can there be whiteness without any thingwhich is white? What can a white object and the form of whiteness be said to have in common? It seems that the metaphor of imitation or participation seems to break down in these cases because of the special properties that Plato ascribes to the forms. The only link between the realm of forms and the material world, then, breaks down. The forms cannot explain anything in the material world. 2. The third man argument: This argument was first given by Plato himself in his later dialogues. It is related to the first objection, but is a more technical way of getting at the main problem with the theory of forms. The resemblance between any two material objects is explained by Plato in terms of their joint participation in a common form. A red book and a red flower, for example, resemble each other in virtue of being copies of the form of redness. Because they are copies of this form, they also resemble the form. But this resemblance between the red object and the form of redness must also be explained in terms of another form. What form does a red object and the form of redness both copy to account for their similarity? Whenever someone proposes another form that two similar things copy, we can always ask them to explain the similarity between the form and the objects. This will always require another form. The notion of imitation or copying used in the theory of forms, then, runs into logical difficu lties. The theory of forms really explains nothing about the similarity of objects; another form is always needed beyond the one proposed. Thus to explain the similarity between a man and the form of man, one needs a third form of man, and this always requires another form. The explanation of the original similarity is never given; it is only put off to the next level. This criticism paved the way for further criticism. As there was no logical connection between the transcendent forms and the material world, so many critics raised a question about the epistemological dimensions of this theory. Plato was of the view that real knowledge was knowledge of form and the ideal destiny of a man was to reach the realm of forms. But he didnt mentioned how to reach that realm. As it was above this material world, so whether there was a way to reach that realm in ones life or only death could take a man in that ideal realm. The idea of forms was very abstract and it wasnt clear enough to be accepted, un criticized. Plato didnt write much about his theory of forms and most of the written work was also not preserved. Pheodo was the first book to have this theory and later on in republic he explained it a bit. But this explanation was too little to make the theory clear. So the explanation was mostly rendered by the commentators of the theory. This became the major source of criticism on this theory. CONCLUSION: The criticism of Aristotle and Aristotelian philosophers, on this theory, is mostly of explanatory type. Had Plato written more or his books had been preserved, there might not have been that strong criticism on this theory. Even then the theory was powerful enough to split the philosophy and philosophers in two parts. Though a group of philosophers dont agree with the content of the theory but even they accept that this theory provided human beings with s new way to think and perceive the universe.

Pompey The Great :: essays research papers

Pompey The Great   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pompey was a Roman general and political leader. He was a member of the first Triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Marcus Crassus, but later became Caesar's enemy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pompey was born September 30, 106 B.C. His first important military experiences were in the Social war during which his father Pompeius Strabo, taught Pompey his military skills. Pompey distinguished himself in the civil war between Lucies Sulla and Gaius Marius. Pompey raised his own army in Picenum. He did such a good job raising his army he was made an imperator general. In 83 B.C., he was sent as an imperator general to Sicily and then to Africa. Successes in both places earned Pompey the name Magnus and the honor of a triumph, although he was little over 25 years old and legally unqualified for such a status.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some years later, the senate used his aid against the remnants of Marius' factor. Then in 77 B.C., Pompey moved against the Marian forces commanded by Quintus Sertorius in Spain. There his operations were not rewarded but Sertoriu's death by poison permitted Pompeys return to Italy in time to annihilate the remnants of Spartacus's army fleeing from the defeat at Crassus hands (71 B.C.). For his victory, Pompey celebrated his second triumph although he still held public office. He got a spot in office by moving into the highest office of all, the consulship with Crassus as his colleague (70 B.C.). Together they overthrew Sulla's constitution by giving the plebian tribunes their former powers and the knights partial control of the law courts. In 67 B.C., the tribune Aulus Gabinius, by a bill gave extraordinary military powers to Pompey. His objective was to deal with Piracy throughout the Mediterranean. Pompey needed only three months to finish this task.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This feat led to further honors. In 60 B.C., on the motion of another tribune, Pompey received even greater powers when appointed in Lucullus's place as commander against Mithridates the Great. With little difficulty, the new Roman commander forced the Mithridates from Asia Minor and then spent some years overrunning the North East. The big range of Pompey's Journeys and his hatred towards the natives started future trouble with Parthia. Pompey did, however, increase Rome's dominions, and he also laid a firm foundation for Roman administration in the area. While in Palestine, he learned of Mithridates' suicide and some months later he returned to Italy and a third triumph. His action in disbanding his army relieved his enemies of their anxiety at his return, but it also persuaded the senate to refuse to approve his near Eastern

Electromagnetic Spectrum Essay -- essays research papers fc

The electromagnetic spectrum is made up of six different types of waves. Radio waves, Microwaves, Infrared waves, Visible light, Ultraviolet light, X-rays and Gamma rays. The radio waves are used to transmit radio and television signals. The infrared waves are used to tell temperature of areas. Visible light is all the colors that we can see. Ultraviolet light can help things grow but to much can cause diseases such as skin cancer. X-rays are used as a tool to find broken bones or take pitchers of our sun. Gamma rays are used in medical science but they are oftenly used to produce images of our universe. If you would like to know more about the spectrum keep reading. The electromagnetic spectrum is the organization of six diferent wavelengths. Each having their own use. The spectrum in order from longest to shortest wavelengths is: Radio waves, Microwaves, Infrared waves, Visible light, Ultraviolet light, X-rays and Gamma rays. The most familiar forms of the spectrum are radio waves and light waves. The reason for that is, that we listen to the radio or use its waves more often than we think. For instance cell phones work off of radio waves. Light waves are used more often than we think because with out light we wouldent posibly be able to see color on any thing, or we wouldent have photosynthisis which sunlight is used for. The term spectrum refers to light in general or the whole range of electromagnetic radiation. The electromagnetic field was found in the 19th centurie. It was founded by James Clerk MAXWELL of Scotland and published in 1865. The field is described in two quantities the electric component E and the magnetic component B and both charge in space and time. This meaning electric / magnetic / spectrum. Radio waves are used to transmit radio and television signals. Radio waves can send sounds at the speed of light. The range of radio waves can be less than a centimeter to tens or even hundredths of meters. Radio waves are produced by coherent motion of electrons such as the antenna of a radio transmitter. Coherent motion is the focused pattern of the waves, in this case. The radio waves are also produced by charged particles orbiting in magnetic fields. As you already know we have FM and AM radio waves. Well an FM radio station at 100 on the radio dial (100 megahertz) would have a wavelength of about 400 meters. A radio wave can also be us... ...cy. Nanometer- One billionth. Angstroms- Ten billionth. Bibliography: Internet: Http://hurlbut.jhuapl.edu/NEAR/Eucational/lessonSpectrum/lpspec.html http://www.mymate.demon.co.uk/em.htm http://www.physics.gmu.edu/classinfo/astr103/CourseNotes/rad_wave.htm http://www.li.net/~stmarya/stm/gamm_1.htm.. http://cossc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cossc/nasm/VU/overview/whatare/whatare.html Books: Grolier Encyclopedia, 1996 ElectrIcity and Magnetism, Prentice-Hall, 1993 Scott Forman, Physical Science Bell and Howell Company 1977 Readers digest-How In The World Library of congress, 1990 Adventures In Scuba Diving, NAUI, 1996 Eric M. Rogers, Physics For The Inquiring Mind Princeton, New Jersey Princeton University Press, 1960 Magazine: Global Communications OMNI, November 1990 Acknologements: I would like to thank Mr. Rhan for giving me the time to work on the electromagnetic spectrum during his math class period. And I would also like to thank that stupid voice in my head for keeping me on task, against my will. I cant forget good old Mr. Garcia for giving me such a short time to finish this but the confidence it took to succeed as well. And my dear old dad since he asked me to thank him too.

Analysis of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. :: Restaurants Business Management Essays

Analysis of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. For the last thirty years, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. has been offering people on the highways of America an alternative to the fast food pit stop. Their restaurants serves home-style food, has quality gift shops and, most of all, a friendly and accommodating environment all go in to create a welcoming atmosphere. Making the guest comfortable is what makes them different. The waiters and waitresses let you take your time. You are seated and promptly drink orders are taken. They give the customer sufficient time to gaze over the menu. There are peg games on the table to occupy you or your young ones. If it is a game of checkers you wish, there is always a table in the corner ready to play. The main consumer characteristic that Cracker Barrel Old Country Store sets their standards on is â€Å"Pleasing people†. (Etzel, Walker, Stanton. 2001 pg. 204) A review of the Cracker Barrel Old Country store states, â€Å"This restaurant has a combo of good food, good service, and atmosphere. The gift shop is trendy, and affords one a place to browse. Do your browsing after the meal, for service is fast and efficient. One dines among country antiques that serve as decor. The country plates are a delight, and one must try the daily specials. Don't order dessert if you're not hungry. The blackberry cobbler and lemon icebox pie are superb. This is home cooking with affordable prices and great atmosphere.† (http://stlouis.citysearch.com/profile/3855636) Cracker Barrel stores appeal to both the traveler and the local customer and have consistently been a consumer favorite. Cracker Barrel was ranked as the top family dining chain for the eleventh consecutive year in the 200 0 Restaurants & Institutions magazine "Choice in Chains" annual customer survey. It was also named â€Å"Best Family Dining† restaurant by Restaurant & Institutions magazine for the tenth consecutive year. The R&I award is based on a national consumer survey that evaluates chains on seven separate attributes: food quality, menu variety, value, service, atmosphere, cleanliness, and convenience. For 2000, Cracker Barrel scored highest among family dining establishments on every one of the attributes. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store has accomplished the pleasing of people by capturing a bit of the past...back when time seemed to move a bit more slowly, and folks had more time. They have captured a time gone by through their atmosphere, country store, and most of all, through their country cookin'.

Comparison Essay Cuba & U.S. Essay

In different countries they have different economics structures. Some countries are very similiar to other economies while some are the exact opposite. For example a country could have a whealthy economy while another country could have a poor one , just like the U.S. compared to Cuba. The U.S. consitution is designed to protect the rights of the states by establishing a federal system of government. The U.S. federalist system some powers belong to the national governemnt, others share governments and still others are shared by both. The constitution wanted to protect state rights. They also wanted a national that had suffient powers to maintain order and keep the country united. The difference between the U.S. and Cuba is according to the constitution of Cuba, the country is a socialist state and a republic. Cuba is not a democratic republic, in which they people elect leaders to represent them. Cuba is actually a dictatorship controlled by Fidel Castro and communist party the highest leading force of the society and of the state the party leaded by Castro, has about 400,000 members. The top officials in Cuba is fidel Castro who continues as Cuba’s supreme patriarch and leader whos pressence helps to legitimize the regine and preserve its intual cohesion. It remains to be seen if this intual cohesion can be maintained in the event that Castro becomes incapatated or dies. Ricardo Alareor de Quesada is the president of parliament and Juan Almeida Bosque is the vice president of the council of state. In Cuba the government, the primary player in the economy, has undertaken limited reforms in recent years to stem excess liquidity, increase enterprise efficiency, and alleviate srious shortage of food, comsumer goods, and services but prioritizing of political control makes extensive reforms unlikely. Living standards foe the average Cuban, without access  dollars, remains at a depressed level compared with 1990. Income taxes and increased regulations introduced since 1996 have sharply reduced the number of legally self employeed from a high of 208,000 in January 1996. Much of Cuba’s recovery can be attributed to tourism revenues and foreign investment. Growth in 2001 should continue at the same level as the government balances the need for economic loosening against its concern for firm political control. Compared to the U.S. our economy is not stuggling as they are. From watching news recently Cuba’s from the U.S. send thier relavtives in Cuba american money because american money is worth more there. To conclude this essay Cuba is not a rich country and is struggling in there economy compared to the U.S. ,the U.S. has more organized goverment and equal economy.

Owens & Minor case for aligning supply chain incentives Essay

Executive Summary Statement of issues: Due to the changes of business environment, O&M suffered a continuous loss on business. Instead of acting individually, customers formed buying groups and combined buying power to gain advantages in negotiating gross margin with distributor. With the increased popularity of JIT and stockless idea, customers want to shift cost and risk associated with inventory to distributor, and they also want distributor to provide better services at its own expense. Moreover, competitions from private label distributors and manufacturing distributors further squeezed profit margin of our company. Owens and Minor play a very important role in the entire SC. They are in charge of providing information to manufacturers on product flow. Their services to the hospitals include storing the inventory in their warehouse and making constant shipments based on stockless and JIT strategy, thus taking all the financial risk in inventory handling and storage. They don’t add value to the product itself, but they do add a lot of value to the SC. The nature of distribution has changed over time. The bargaining power of hospital has increased due to mergers and alliances, pressuring the distributors to reduce their margins. Upstream members of the SC have also put some pressure on O&M to take additional cost in their operations. If the ABP strategy could be successfully implemented, both distributor’s and customers’ incentives could be allied. Customers would be willing to order expensive products via distributors’ channel instead of buying directly from manufacture. Generally, customers who could reduce or simplify the activities happened through the supply chain would adopt ABP faster. Also, customers who understood and were willing to develop a sustainable relationship with distributors would adopt the ABP first. ABP was a new concept and its value had not been proven. Aggressive  implementation of new idea such as ABP might drive customers away and fed competitors. There are internal obstacles exist in the ABP implementation. Hospitals have to restructure its organizational structures to fit in ABP system. Rearranging employees and reallocating facilities would increase the distrust to ABP system. Also, a substantial amount of investment is needed for establishing the EDI system. How to overcome these obstacles and make ABP implementation smooth is a big challenge. In order to illustrate the idea of ABP more clearly, we have come up a simple pricing matrix based on ABC method. We have identified two cost drivers and separated fixed and variable costs from general cost information. However, for simplicity we have not considered the cost difference of EDI and non-EDI ordering in this simple matrix. Owens and Minor should carefully deal with its customers’ resistance to the new pricing system by making them truly understand the new system and benefits they would get after the implementation. Owens and Minor also needed to launch a pilot program before full implementation and provide help and support to its customers to insure the success of the implementation. Statement of issues Historically O&M was doing very well in the industry, however, for recent years company suffered continuous loss on business. At the end of 1995 O&M had ended with an $11 million loss due to decrease in gross margin and an increase in expense. There are many reasons that caused this result, and we are going to identify the most important ones. Healthcare industry has changed a lot since 1980. Historically, hospitals purchased healthcare products individually. However, in order to achieve economies of scale and gain more control over supply costs, hospitals joined forces with other hospitals to form large buying groups. With such combined buying powers, hospitals are much more powerful in negotiating gross margins  and service levels with distributors. Distributors are forced to cut gross margins and increase service level. A quote from O&M manager can illustrate this situation very well: â€Å"whoever had the strongest will would win the price†. Apparently, in current supply chain, the relationship between distributors and customers is not harmonious. Moreover, with the increased popularity of Just-In-Time and stockless management ideas, hospitals are reluctant to hold large inventory because they wouldn’t benefit from JIT whose primary principle is to lower inventory carrying cost by ordering when needed. Instead, they want distributors provide Just-In-Time delivery service. Also customers require special handlings such as smaller package and different products batching and these services are at distributors own costs. Distributors also experienced margin pressure from the manufacturing side because manufactures do no compromise on the already low healthcare product price. Competitions in the industry also results profit decline of O&M, especially with distributors who also produce healthcare products entered the market. Those distributors are able to offer extremely low price to customers because they are the manufactures as well. Even though O&M commits to provide better service, it lost many customers because of this. Analysis of Data Services rendered by O&M and changes in Distribution. Owens & Minor play a tremendous role in this industry’s Supply-Chain. They are in charge of providing information to manufacturers on product flow such as: market trends, buying patterns and product penetration, so that their suppliers use this valuable information in order to manage their operations and production schedules. By doing so, manufacturers are able to produce the right quantity of supplies, which in turn reduces stockouts and/or excess stock costs, in other words O&M provide the necessary tools for the upstream members to have adequate inventory production planning. As for their customers, their role is to purchase the products from the manufacturers and ship those medical supplies to their warehouse where they will store them until delivery to the hospitals. So O&M owns and manage the inventory themselves, taking all the financial risk associated with product handling, shipment and storage. â€Å"O&M’s main operational functions included receiving, put-away, order picking and shipping†. O&M don’t add value to the product itself since they just act as an intermediary to pass the products from the manufacturer directly to the hospitals, however they do add value to the Supply-Chain. They enrich the SC with the necessary information needed to avoid phenomena such as the Bullwhip Effect and they bring expertise in stockless and JIT inventory management systems, consequently lowering costs along the chain. However, it is certain that the nature of distribution, that is, the role of O&M has changed through time and not for the greater good. This change has occurred mainly with its downstream partners the hospitals. They have shifted they costs to their distributors and demanded better and faster service without any additional rewards, this is why O&M relies heavily on its logistics department to make process more efficient. This was made possible for hospitals due to their increase in power by merging or joining forces with other hospitals. Voluntary Hospitals of America member hospitals represented $1.2 billion in annual revenue to the company, meaning that O&M’s switching cost is too high. They are able to minimize their own costs by forcing distributors to hold their inventory and transport in smaller units, sending it to the nursing and surgical units instead of leaving it at the loading dock as before. Margin pressures have also been present upstream with manufacturers, which were reducing discounts even as small as 0.5%, thus lowering significantly up to 31% distributors net profits before tax. A main issue taken from this case is that incentives along the Supply-Chain are not aligned. The risks and rewards of doing business are not fairly distributed across the network. Even if the manufacturers and hospitals are better off with the cost-plus strategy, the whole SC still does not have a win-win situation and they might lose against other Supply Chains. The truth  behind this issue lies in that there is no trust in the SC, this assumption is made given that nobody wants to share critical information, which enhances Impact of Cost-Plus Pricing on the members of the Supply-Chain. On the side of the distributors O&M, engaging in a cost-plus pricing strategy means charging a 7% markup, meaning that profits lie on expensive products, which they don’t have the change to deliver cause Hospitals bypass them and deal directly with manufacturers in order to avoid the 7% increase in prices. The most important aspect to consider about this strategy is that it does not take into account the services added. In addition, this method caused the effect of Distributor giving more and better service holding more inventories, which increases carrying costs and risk of damage during storage. Distributors enforce supply-chain speed without any additional profits. On the customer’s side, cost-plus pricing implies less risk on inventory carrying cost, creating more incentive for hospitals to order frequently due to flat rate. Nevertheless, there is some unethical activities in which they can participate. They can avoid paying high costs on expensive products to their distributors by jumping them through the SC and dealing with manufacturers instead, an activity called â€Å"cherry-picking†. Finally, the manufacturer engaging in cost-plus strategy needed to handle some shipment to deliver, mainly expensive products, to hospitals. This resulted in inefficiency for both parties due to the fact that manufacturers required hospitals to buy in bulk and they did not have the space or management systems as distributors did to handle the product. Mishandling, damaging and loosing expensive items often occurred in the â€Å"cherry-picking† process. Alternative Courses of Action for O&M. Based on our five quantitative and qualitative decision criteria: cost, time, ease of implementation, customer satisfaction and future benefit for the  company, we are able to compare the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative and help us make the best decision. 1)Status Quo: The easiest option for O&M is to keep operating as they are, which is not the best alternative for them for financial reasons. They currently have customers who are not profitable for the company, customers who keep asking for higher service at the same price that would keep profit margins low as personnel costs increase. For the year of 1995 they incurred a net loss of $11.3 million, which compared to last year’s profit of $7.92 million represents a dramatic and also unstable change. Based on this data, the assumption is that the upstream and downstream partners will not change their business habits and incentives will keep unaligned and that the company will not be able to reduce costs to an extent where they can offset service costs and generate profits. O&M will keep generating loses for the company and will ultimately yield to bankruptcy. The time to implement is inexistent, since no actions are made. The cost of implementation is also inexistent; nevertheless the company’s cost on the long run will be very high because cost-plus strategy is not profitable for them. There is no ease of implementation. The customer’s benefit is high, since they don’t have to pay additional service and inventory carrying cost. The future benefit for the company is very low, might loose contract with clients because of their lack of ability to fulfill all products and keep taking all the costs. 2) Vertical Integration: Our second proposed alternative is vertical integration, which means to acquire a manufacturing plant. By using this strategy, O&M would be able to create its own healthcare product brand and reduce the purchasing price on that. Thus, O&M could offer a more competitive price to its customers and might get some recovers from the high operating costs. However, there are some problems associated with this alternative. O&M had to spend time on finding suitable acquiring target, understanding manufacturing process and integrate the manufacturing plant into the company system. Therefore, this strategy requires a relatively longer time period to get things work. On the other hand, in order to do vertical integration, O&M had to prepare a huge amount of cash. Based on the fact that O&M’s current cash flow was very tight, acquiring a manufacture  would have a big impact on company’s financial health. Implementation of this strategy would be quite diffi cult as well. Since O&M had no experience on healthcare manufacturing, it has to get familiar with the process from very beginning. Also, how to control manufacturing cost at a competitive level is a new challenge to O&M. Because O&M can create its low-cost private label products under this strategy, it has the incentive to promote private label products to hospitals. However, hospitals do not like private label products since it limits the scope of choice so under this strategy customer satisfaction level is low. In general, vertical integration is effective in reducing company’s cost on healthcare products purchasing but requires a substantial investment and long implementation period. Customer satisfaction is also low in this case. 3)Selected ABP: Another alternative that O&M could use is to use ABP system only on certain type of customers. More specifically, O&M could choose unprofitable customers to implement ABP and keep its profitable customers status quo. The time required for this alternative will not take too long, less than 6 months would be a reasonable estimation. The majority of time would be spent on the analysis of profitability of customers. The challenge of implantation this alternative is to make sure the customer profitability analysis would be done under a proper and correct result would be produced. To estimate customer satisfaction after the implementation, we needed to split our customers into two groups. Those customers determined as â€Å"profitable† to us under current cost-plus system would likely to maintain the current satisfaction level, but customers viewed as â€Å"unprofitable† would feel less satisfied since they would have to pay more after ABP implemented. The downsides of this alternative are the risk to drive some customers away and the increased complexity of our pricing system which might lead increased error rate. The good side is that O&M would benefit in the long run because of the elimination of unprofitable customers. If O&M would have all the information and could develop correct ways to conduct the analysis, this alternative would be a possible choice to lead O&M succeed. 4)ABP for all Customers: this final alternative considers implanting ABP to all customers, both profitable and non profitable. The cost of this option  is higher than â€Å"Selective ABP† previously mentioned, due to the fact that all customer base will be subject to EDI technology and connecting to all of them takes organization within the company and thus training cost by employees for both O&M and hospitals. The time to implement will be longer compared to Selective ABP; however based on our assumption that O&M will be located higher on the learning curve, their time per implementation per customer will be less the more customers they have previously served. The easiness of implementation therefore is not easy due to the large customer base dealt and new systems and training needed. However, the future benefits, not only for O&M, but also for the entire SC will be substantially improved in the sense that incentives would be aligned. Based on previous analysis on alternatives, we conclude that â€Å"ABP for all customers† is the most feasible solution that can maximise company’s profits, as well as aligning the incentives along the SC. This is important not only for the short term, but also for the long term of the entire chain. Impact of ABP on Customer Behavior. Before the implementation of ABP (activity based pricing), the current dominant form of pricing in the medical/ surgical industry was cost-plus pricing. If the ABP strategy could be successfully implemented, both distributor’s and customers’ incentives could be allied. Under ABP, the distribution fee was no longer based on the value of item but the value of service. In that way, Owen & Minor’s customers would begin to think about the real cost of various activities through the supply chain. Instead of wanting to order as less as possible per time and increasing order frequency, customers would begin to seek a way to reduce the order frequency to reduce the distribution fee charged by Owen & Minor. Also, since now the fee was not determined by product value, customers would be willing to order expensive products via distributors’ channel instead of buying in bulk directly from manufacture. So the possibility of mishandling, damaging and lost of expensive items would be reduced. From the distributor’s side, it would be more happy to provide good service because it would be paid based on the service it provided not the value of item. Of course, it’s unlikely to ask all Owen & Minor’s customer to turn to the new pricing system at the same time. Depends on the type of customers, some of them might be adopt the ABP quicker and with less resistance. Generally, customers who could reduce or simplify the activities happened through the supply chain would adopt ABP faster. First, customers willing to simplify or reduce the order frequency would be more likely to adopt the ABP. By doing that, the fee charged by distributor would be decreased. Also, those customers often ordering large amount of expensive items would adopt the ABP first. By doing that, it shits the risk of mishandling, damage and lost to the distributor. Compared with previous fee charged by item value, now they would more likely to pay less but get better service. Furthermore, those customers who understood and were willing to develop a sustainable relationship with distributors would adopt the ABP first. They understood that if distributor was losing money because of the improper pricing system, the entire supply chain would collapse someday and both of them would be hurt finally. There were also risks associated with ABP for Owens and Minor. ABP was a new concept and cost-plus pricing system was still a dominant form in the medical/ surgical industry. It was hard to convince customers adopt the new and even unproven concept. Some customers might turn to other competitors and the relationship that needs built over long time might get hurt. Proposed ABC pricing matrix In order to have a better demonstration, O&M designed a simple pricing scheme using activities-based costing. The pricing scheme is based on two major cost drivers–number of purchase orders per month and number of lines per purchase order. The number of orders was tied up to O&W’s fixed administrative costs and number of lines was tied to variable costs such as the labour handling cost of different products. This is a very primitive matrix because it only listed two cost drives and priced based on them. In reality, there should be a price for every value-adding service provided by distributor and the number of cost drives is huge. However, this simple  pricing matrix could effectively show our clients that their operating cost is associated with level of service they demand, and lower cost is achievable if they can optimize their behaviors. Because we designed this pricing matrix based on two cost drivers, costs included in matrix are directly related to number of ord ers and lines. For example, fixed order costs such as procurement, labeling, account management fees and variable costs like shipping & handling, delivery, interest cost are all included. However, some costs are not comprised in the matrix. O&M believes all costs associate with number of orders are fixed but there are variable costs incur in placing orders. Activities such as taking orders, processing and staging & processing are not free so in the future we need to include these costs in more sophisticated pricing matrix. Moreover, operating cost of an EDI system and a non-EDI system are very different. For simplicity reason we just ignore the difference and assume identical prices for both systems but actually using non-EDI system would incur more cost due to high level of manual works. We have worked out some simple examples on ABP and it shows that company’s profitability increased dramatically under ABP system. Please refer to exhibit #1 fro more details. Risks & Challenges. Although this selected alternative presents many future benefits for the company and the Supply-Chain, certain risks are involved. Risk associated with ABP for Owens and Minor. ABP was a new concept and cost-plus pricing system was still a dominant form in the medical/ surgical industry. It was hard to convince customers adopt the new and even unproven concept. Some customers might turn to other competitors and the relationship that needs built over long time might get hurt. Customer’s entire internal system such as budgeting and incentive programs are formed based on old cost-plus system, and a change in pricing structure is very time consuming. Restructure of pricing system will also affect customer’s buying personnel because their compensation was related to the percentage they negotiate with distributor, and under ABP structure that percentage disappeared Employees on the customer side might have problems understanding the system and change their behaviors to reap maximum savings. Organizational structure will be adjusted to fit ABP which means some employees will be reassigned or resigned, but this decision will have negative impact on morale and productivity. EDI system implementation requires a substantial commitment in resources. Sharing valuable information with customers can be misused at their advantage with O&M’s competitors. The main challenge will be to build mutual trust among the parties involved. Implementation Plan. The successfully have a fully implemented ABP system; we suggest the following action steps: 1.Establish ABP System within the company first and find out cost drivers (services which incur costs). Upgrade IT infrastructure to facilitate further implementation steps. 2.Analyze the benefits of SC based on ABP, benefits such as: improvement on inventory management, aligned incentives to efficiently compete with other Supply Chains, reveal hidden costs on activities, and build long-time relationships, among others. 3.Communicate to selected customers with the previous benefit analysis. 4.Initiate ABP pilot program. 5.Setting up EDI and give continuous support. 6.Adjust and upgrade ABP system based on feedbacks from pilot program 7.communicate to all customers with the success of pilot ABP system 8.Full ABP implementation. (For suggested time-line refer to exhibits.). Conclusion In general, we do see huge potential benefits on the implementation of ABP system. However, risks and challenges will emerge from this alternative and opposition will be strong on the customer side. The implementation steps provide an easy guideline to have a successful ABP system in the SC.