Monday, September 30, 2019

Caring Theory

Swanson’s Middle Range Nursing Theory of Caring By: Shari Semelroth RN, BSN Mennonite College of Nursing Abstract Do we honestly make an effort to improve the environment, care, medical treatment, and interactions with those patients who are suffering a loss? Do we adequately provide the care that they need? These questions are answered in Swanson’s Middle Range Theory of Caring. We examine the five caring processes and their applications to one’s daily nursing routines. Many healthcare organizations have adopted the caring theory as their model of care for their philosophy and principles for nursing.Caring theory has also been the focus of many research articles that have concluded that caring is a natural part of nursing and it is based on evidence. All healthcare professionals should be able to achieve the concepts into their daily nursing profession. We care for patients, and what we are currently doing we can always switch to improve for more positive intera ctions. What is caring and why is it essential to nursing? What are the perceptions of caregivers, care receivers, and care observers regarding caring? A nurturing way of relating to a valued other person toward whom one has a personal sense of commitment and responsibility.Nursing has traditionally been concerned not only with the caring needs of individuals, but also with caring as a value or principle for nursing action. (Swanson, 1991) The underlying structure of the nursing philosophical system or grand theory of nursing as caring is created by the assumptions of the theory and their interrelationships. (Boykin & Schoenhofer, 2001) These assumptions develop the most fundamental belief that all persons are caring by virtue of their humanness, that to be human is to be caring.A deep understanding of the practical meaning of that foundational assumptions also organize the theory that personhood is living grounded in caring; that caring is lived moment to moment in relationships wi th caring others, and that nursing as a discipline and profession of caring is orientated not towards diagnosing needs nor compensating for deficiencies, but as its focus, nurturing persons living caring and growing in caring. (Boykin, 2003) Swanson suggests that a universal definition or conceptualization of caring does not exist within and outside of nursing as to the role of caring in personal and professional relationships. Swanson, 1991) Kristen Swanson is a native of Rhode Island, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Rhode Island in 1975. She went on to earn her master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978 and PhD in nursing from the University of Colorado. Swanson worked as a Registered Nurse at the University of Massachusetts, as she was drawn to that institution because the founding nursing administration clearly articulated a vision for professional nursing practice and actively worked with nurses to apply these ideas while working with clients. Swanson, 1993) As a novice nurse she wanted to become a knowledgeable and technically skillful practitioner with an ultimate goal of teaching these skills to others. She pursued graduate studies. While studying she worked as a clinical instructor on a med surgical unit. Swanson studied psychosocial nursing with an emphasis on exploring the concepts of loss, stress, coping, interpersonal relationships, persons, environment and caring. As a doctoral student, she was able to experience hands on health promotion activity.She was involved in a cesarean birth support group. One historical meeting for her was on miscarriage. Swanson noticed that the discussion was based by the physician more on the pathophysiology and health problems of miscarriage. The women of the group were interested in discussing their personal experiences with pregnancy loss. (Alligood & Tomey, 2010) From that day forth she decided to learn more about the human experience. Caring and miscarriage became the focus of her doctoral dissertation and her program of research.She has since then received numerous awards, has taught fellow nursing students, became the Dean at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Associate Chief Nursing Officer for Academic Affairs at UNC Hospitals. In addition to teaching and administrative responsibilities, she conducts research funded by National Institutes of Nursing Research, publishes, mentors faculty and students and serves as a consultant at national and international levels. Swanson was inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and received Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Rhode Island.Swanson used various theoretical sources while developing her theory. During her doctoral studies, she was influenced by other nurses and their theories related to caring. She took Dr. Jacqueline Fawcett’s course on the conceptual basis of nursing practice as a master’s prepared nurse, not only made her better at understanding the differences between the goals of nursing and other health disciplines, but also made her realize that caring for others as they go through life transitions of health, illness, healing, and dying was congruent with her personal values. (Swanson 1991)Dr.Fawcett developed the Language of Nursing and Metatheory; she displayed a distinctive role in caring for others and the importance of altruistic caring for the person’s well-being. (Fawcett, 1989) Dr. Jean Watson was also a mentor during her doctoral studies. Dr. Watson is known for her Theory of Human Caring. Even with the close relationship, they had, neither has ever seen Swanson’s program of research as an application of Watson’s theory of human caring. They do agree that compatibility of finding on caring in their individual programs add creditability to their individual programs of research.Swanson acknowledges Dr. Kathryn E. Barnard for encouraging her to make the t ransaction from interpretive to contemporary empiricist paradigm to convey what she learned and postulated about caring through several phenomenological investigations to direct intervention research and hopefully clinical practice with women who had miscarriages. (Alligood &Tomey, 2010) Dr. Barnard is recognized for her Parent Child Interaction Model. She encouraged Swanson to test her theory through randomized controlled trials.Swanson’s theory of caring is a nursing set of processes that are formed from the nurse’s own principles and his or her interaction with the patient, with five fundamental processes of knowing, being with, doing for, enabling, and maintain belief. Her theory was formed from three descriptive phenomenological studies from perinatal nursing. The five processes that help explain the concept of this theory has subcategories. The theory has four phenomena of concern: nursing, person, health and environment. Theory concepts of nursing are informed c aring for the well-being of others. Beatty, 1984) Person in theory concept is unique beings who are becoming and whose wholeness is manifested in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Health in theory is related to having meaning filled experience with wholeness. Environment is any situation that is influenced by the client or influences the client. Knowing is the first process of caring. Knowing is striving to understand the meaning of the event in the life of the other, avoiding assumptions, focusing on the person cared for, seeking clues, assessing thoroughly, and engaging both the one caring and the one cared for in the process of knowing. Swanson 1991) The second caring concept, being with emotionally present to the other. It involves simply â€Å"being there†, conveying ongoing availability and sharing feelings whether joyful or painful. Monitor so that the one caring does not ultimately burden the one cared for. The third concept is doing for others what would do for the self at all possible, including anticipating needs comforting, performing skillfully and unconditionally, and protecting the one cared for while preserving his or her dignity (Swanson, 1993) Enabling is the fourth concept.It is facilitating the others passage through life transitions and unfamiliar events by focusing on the event, informing, exploring, supporting, validating feelings, generating alternatives, thinking through, and giving feedback (Swanson, 1991) The final concept is maintaining belief. Sustaining faith in the others capacity to get through an event or transition and face a future with meaning, believing in others capacity and holding him or her in high esteem, maintaining a hope filled attitude, offering realistic optimism, helping to find meaning and standing by the one cared for no matter what the situation is. Swanson, 1993) Her later work introduced â€Å"Informed Caring†, aimed to provide structure for relating the five caring processes and describes ass umptions about the four main phenomena of concern to nursing. (Swanson, 1998) An assumption of nursing is informed caring for the well-being of others. Providers must be informed and regarding common responses to health concerns. The nurse will increase care given based on her experiences. Included is evidenced based practices, compassion, understanding of other structure of caring, and understanding of the nursing profession.Along with this assumption, the nurse may be affected by Benner’s Novice to Expert Theory. Persons are defined as unique beings who are in the midst of becoming and whose wholeness is made manifest in thoughts, feelings and behaviors. (Benner, 1984) Each individual experiences are molded by environment. Spiritual endowment connects each being to an external and universal source of goodness, mystery, life creativity, serenity and free will to choose a range of possibilities. Each person does have equal choices.Nurses are mandated to take on leadership rol es in fighting for human rights, equal access to health care and other humanitarian causes. (Hanson, 2004) Health and well-being is a complex process of curing and healing that includes â€Å"releasing inner pain, establishing new meaning, restoring integration, and emerging into a sense of renewed wholeness†. (Swanson, 1993) Bonds are created, free expression of spirituality, thoughts, feelings, intelligence and creativity. The well-being of health is negatively affected by actions of individuals upon the other that inhibit expression of wholeness.Environment is situational. Any context that influences or is influenced by the designated client informed. (Swanson, 1993) Any forces that exert influence upon or are influenced by the patient. (Hanson, 2004) Forces could come from cultural, economic, political, spiritual, social, physiological realms. Any disturbance or change in the environment or realms will affect the wholeness of the other. According to Swanson (1993), the te rms environment and person in nursing may be viewed interchangeable, therefore, what is considered an environment in one situation may be considered a client in another situation.Internal evaluation of the theory consists of clarity, adequacy, consistency logical development, and level of theory development. Clarity of the caring theory is straight forward and easy to interpret. Swanson’s definition of the environments clearly describes her thought process of how the environment and patient are interchangeable. Adequacy adequately addresses each process with thorough descriptions that bring the theory together as a whole. It recognizes nursing values and missions and uses prior theories and research as the basis for its formation.It is clear descriptions of its process allow it to be easily applied to practice. Consistency within the theory focus, definition and interpretation of relationships remain consistent throughout the description of the theory. Logical development is described as the formation of caring as an interaction process. It acknowledges the processes that affect each level of the interpersonal relationship between client and environment. Swanson included previous research and knowledge of caring, but later individualized her theory with empirical evidence that her processes can be used to form a healing environment.Level of theory development is displayed of components of a middle range theory including empirical testing applicable to direct practice, based on a specific phenomenon and narrower in scope because it focusses on the five processes of caring and their interaction, rather that focus on both the medical and psychosocial aspects of nursing. (Peterson & Bredow, 2009) External evaluation of the Theory of Caring include, complexity, discrimination, reality convergence, pragmatic, scope, significance, and utility. Complexity is easily understood with the simple definitions of the four concepts and five processes.Discrimination is not unique to the nursing field. There are many other theories based on caring. The theory does not have a precise boundary as it can be applied to many situations of nursing as well as outside the nursing practice itself. Reality convergences represent the real worlds of nursing and are true. The concepts and processes are described thoroughly enough to be understood by any professional. This allows the theory to be applied to a broad spectrum of human interaction meant to be caring. Pragmatic can be operationalized in real life setting which is seen in Swanson’s empirical testing.Scope is met by Swanson of a middle range theory by having the processes narrowly described for individual situations however it is broad enough to be applied to caring interactions that range from nursing to other professions. The components can be testes but remain concrete to be repeatedly applied to different practice setting. Significance of the caring theory is truly substantial to the nursin g profession. It has recognized and organized key values of caring that will help to provide improved client to nurse interactions.The theory clearly describes the importance of recognizing the situational environment, and the influence of a nurse’s interactions on the health and potential outcome of a patient. Utility is a clear with definition and descriptions and has allowed Swanson to continue to have her theory tested for further research. Each process stands on its own, but some also help to build and define the others. Knowing, being with, doing for, and enabling work together to have the path filled with meaning will be chosen and thereby meet the goal of maintaining belief. Limitation in theory was to show relationship between five processes.She recognized the limitations and worked to link all five processes in to Nursing in Informed Caring for well-being of others. Swanson’s theory is congruent with Benner’s theory of Helping Role of Nursing and Watso n’s Carative Factors. There is cross validation and rationale for perception. The University of North Carolina hospital has operationalized Swanson’s Caring theory. Swanson’s Theory has led to research based practicing. The initial investigation that launched this program of clinical research was a phenomenological pilot study of five women who had miscarried within fourteen weeks of participating in the study.The research questions were: â€Å"What is the meaning of miscarriage to the woman who has recently experienced it? † Another study was a phenomenological study of twenty women who had miscarried two specific aims were (a) to describe the human experience of miscarriage and (b) to describe the meaning of caring as perceived by women who had miscarried. This research study shifted the program of research from a qualitative, interpretative approach to a descriptive quantitative design. Kyle, 1995) Swanson was able to develop instruments to assist in t he measuring of her results. The Impact Miscarriage Scale was delivered from her research. (Swanson, 1999) The scale was developed in three phases, it was repeated, measures, and randomized. This scale measures significant aspects of suffering from a miscarriage. She developed an Emotional Strength Scale that measures the extent of how individuals view themselves emotionally and the Caring Other Scale which measures the received after miscarriage from one’s significant other and â€Å"others†.The Caring theory postulates that nurses demonstrating they care about it is as crucial to patient well-being for them through clinical activities such as preventing infection and administration medications. ( Bulfin, 2005) ) Implemented the Carolina Care Model is one approach to actualizing caring theory across a healthcare organization by systematically incorporating interventions that link nursing actions, caring processes, and expectations. The professional practice model for the University of North Carolina hospital completed in 2008 grounded in caring theory.A model was developed into specific caring behaviors and incorporated them in practice. Four key behavioral characteristics of Carolina Care were developed 🙠 1) multilevel rounding, (2) words and ways that work, (3) relationship service components, (4) partnerships with support services. Hourly rounds combine elements of the caring process of being with and doing for. Scripts may have an adverse reaction, so words and ways that work. Suggests key points to include in interaction that frequently occur that are individualized conversations.These words are linked to enabling. These may be linked to the other caring process, such as being with. A moment of caring is asked to be done with each patient for 3-5 minutes to talk about how they are coping with their illness while touching the patient's hand or arm. Moments like this exemplify being with, and information the patient shares may contrib ute to knowing. These links between caring processes and caring behavior suggested are grounded in a culture of maintaining belief. There are many healthcare organizations that use Swanson’s theory as their care model.Norton Healthcare, University of North Carolina, Children’s Hospital of Michigan, Virginia Mason Medical Center, Hudson Valley Sinai Hospital in Michigan and Meritus Healthcare in Maryland are a few that has adopted this theory into practice. A theory is an explanation and it is said that nothing is as practical as a good theory. Yet there is a persistent gap between nursing theory and practice. Theory guided practice remains and ideal versus a realized goal in most organizations. Swanson’s caring theory may be a notable exception in accelerating progress toward this goal.Caring theory postulates that nurses demonstrating they care about patients is as important to patient’s well-being as caring for them through clinical activities such as p reventing infection and administrating medication. By incorporating interventions that link nursing actions, caring process and expectations is an approach to actualizing caring theory. All areas of nursing should be able to incorporate the theory of caring into their daily routine with no barriers of resistance. My practice is initiated usually as an inpatient status.Our providers are called to consult any neurological concern that the admitting physician would like evaluated. We see pediatric patients and their families in the emergency room, NICU, PICU, and general pediatric floor. Some of the patients are new to their current health crisis and some are established patients of our service already. Knowing as defined in Swanson’s theory of caring could be implemented during our first initial visit that we center on the patient. We offer a realistic optimism that we will devote our services to properly diagnosing the patient.Taking a detailed history and searching for clues to why this admission came about and to determine the next step in helping the patient. Staying with the patient during this complicated and stressful initial consult can be related to Swanson’s being with. Nurses can take the time with our patients and explain in depth the diagnosis and testing that may need to be ordered. Many times we will spend hours with our teenage patients explaining the electroencephalogram. This age of patients can be scared of any testing and need to be told the truth on what is going to take place.Working in a children’s hospital it is a blessing that we have access to child life. These professionals are specifically trained in child development and can help with the education process with our children. We ask for their assistance to educate our patients. Many of times they have pictures or videos to show that can explain in a way a child or teenager may understand, visual and audio sometimes works in our modern technology generation. We enc ourage questions and let the patient and their families understand there is no burden on asking questions.Asking questions is the way our patients learn, and we want them to be educated so they are not scared. With our population, the more the patient knows, the easier the testing usually goes. Doing is applied to all our patients. When we have a seizure patient we have an abundance of education. Seizure patients need to be explained the many safety precautions. When they are being discharged from the hospital we are enabling setting up and scheduling follow up appointments at our clinic. Maintaining belief occurs as we are reassuring that if they are in need of anything before they come in to our clinic to please call and we can try to help.Many schools require a seizure action plan before students can come back in to class. This is why we try to stay in communication with the patients and their families before their follow up as many times they are scheduled out four months from d ischarge. Our patients are transferred to adult when they reach 18 years of age, and we hear too often that the adult world is not as caring as we were in pediatrics. I do believe that our services are being seen as a caring process. How can we enhance the theory of caring? Can the theory help us with research in the future?I believe that the theory of caring can be beneficial in care models, research and evidenced based practice. According to Johnson and Webber (2005), a model should capture central themes and theoretical relations in such a way to help guide nurses in their practice. Boykin, Smith, and Aleman (2003) believed that a model would help create a work environment for nurses that support their commitment to nurture and caring. This model would display the important values that nurses have stated to be critical in the practice of nursing. Caring is the foundation of nursing and defines the nurse’s professional identity. Boykin ; Schoenhofer, 2001) A caring-based nu rsing model, identified that care is an essential value for nurses and that being able to incorporate this value into their practice increases satisfaction of the nurse and the patient. A study by Bulfin (2005), using the care concepts developed by Boykin and Schoenhofer generated a model of care to patients in a large community hospital. In the Bulfin (2005) study, the researcher asked if a visual model would enhance and support caring in nursing practices and, thus, improve the job satisfaction of the nurse and impact the level of patient satisfaction.Following the implementation of the caring model, patient satisfaction increased and more positive comments were received from the patients and families (Bulfin, 2005). The National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF) issued domains and competencies for every NP graduate that included emphasis on the nurse-patient relationship, use of healing modalities, respect of the worth and dignity of the patient, and incorporat ion of spiritual beliefs into the plan. These competencies describe the core abilities of NP graduates.NONPF states that these competencies are a â€Å"gold standard† to maintain and shape quality graduate NP programs. NONPF's emphasis on caring qualities in the NP-patient relationship is further evidence that NPs do not practice from a medical perspective but, rather, as facilitators of holism and health with their patients. Theory of caring can be used to better understand how to relate to our patients. Each process slows for a nurse to formulate an intervention to better care for a patient. This is a theory for the future.Caring defines nursing and is moving to be an evidence-based profession. Swanson’s five caring process are first grounded in the maintenance of a belief in human kind, anchored by knowing another’s reality, conveyed by being with and enacted through doing for and enabling. When time is taken to observe and interpret nurses' actions, it becom es clear that nursing practice is the result of blended understandings of the empirical, aesthetic, ethical and intuitive aspects of a given clinical situation and a nexus of maintaining belief in, knowing, being with, doing for and enabling the other. Nursing caring†¦consists of subtle, yet powerful, practices which are often virtually undisclosed to the casual observer, but are essential to the well-being of its recipient†. (Swanson, 1993, p. 357) Swanson gives nurses a platform to base our caring foundation on. As nurse’s gain experiences we build small levels on the foundation. Like building a house, we all start with the basics of the foundation that we learn in nursing school. It is up to us what we do with that foundation.Every nurse in any clinical setting can use the theory of caring daily. They may not know the five caring process by name, but they are used in every situation, with every patient, by every nurse. References Alligood. M. R. , ; Tomey, A. M. (2010). Nursing theorists and their work. (7th Ed. ). St. Louis: Mosby. Beatty KD. Reflection on caring for a home care client using Kristen M. Swanson’s theory of caring. Int J Hum Caring 2004; 8: 61–64 Benner, P. (1984). From novice to expert. Menlo Park: Addison-Wesley.Boykin, A. , ; Schoenhofer, S. (2001). Nursing as caring. Sudbury, MA: Jones ; Bartlett. Boykin, A. , Smith, N. , St. Jean, J. , ; Aleman, D. (2003). Transforming practice using a caring-based nursing model. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 27, 223-231. Bulfin, S. (2005). Nursing as caring theory: Living caring in practice. Nursing Science Quarterly, 18, 313-319. Fawcett, J. (1989). Analysis and Evaluation of Conceptual Models of Nursing, 2nd Edn. F. A. Davis, Philadelphia, PA. Hanson MD.Using data from critical care nurses to validate Swanson’s phenomenological derived middle range caring theory. J Theory Construction Testing 2004; 8: 21–25 Kyle, T. (1995). The concept of caring: A re view of the literature. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 21, 506-514. Kavanaugh K, Moro TT, Savage T, Mehendale R. Enacting a theory of caring to recruit and retain vulnerable participants for sensitive research. Res Nurs Health 2006; 29: 244–52. Nightingale, F. (1859). Notes on nursing: What it is and what it is not.London: Harrison and Sons. Peterson, S. J. , ; Bredow, T. S. (2009). Middle Range of Theories: Application to Nursing Research (3rd ed. ). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer, Lippincott Williams ; Wilkins. Schoenhofer, S. , ; Boykin, A. (1998a). The value of caring experienced in nursing. International Journal for Human Caring, 2(4), 9-15. Swanson, K. (1998). Caring made visible. Creative Nursing, 4(4), 8-12. Swanson K. What’s known about caring in nursing: a literary meta-analysis. In: Hinshaw AS, Feetham S, Shavers J, eds. f Clinical Nursing Research; Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 1999:31-58. Swanson, K. M. (1991). Empirical development of a middle range theory of caring. Nurse Researcher, 40(3), 161-16 Swanson, K. M. (1993). Nursing as informed caring for the wellbeing of others. Image: Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 25, 352-357 Watson J. Caring theory as ethical guide to administrative and clinical practices. Nurse Adm Q. 2005; 30(1):48-55. Watson, J. (1988). New dimensions of human caring theory. Nursing Science Quarterly, 1(4), 175-181.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Alternative Power Sources

Mexico is one of the countries that utilize alternative or renewable energies aside from its major power generating plants such as thermal and coal fired power plants. Renewable energy represents the production of electrical energy with the resources being provided by nature on a sustainable basis. Utilization of this renewable energy gives an alternative solution to the prevailing demand for energy. It also lessens or eliminates the emission of harmful threats to the environment cause by the usage of the typical sources of energy such fossil fuels in the form of carbon, oil, or gas.The environmental effects are long term in nature and irreversible in process such as the increasing hole in the ozone, global warming and contamination of the atmosphere, the greenhouse effect, and nuclear waste. Alternative or renewable energies may be in the form of a hydropower plant that uses the kinetic energy of water to be able to generate power; a solar panel utilizing photovoltaic cell to harnes s the energy rays coming from the sun; a windmill that uses wind power to produce energy; and geothermal energy that utilizes steam coming from the earth’s core.Adapting to the usage of renewable energy not only has a positive effect on Mexico’s environment but also in its economy. An evaluation of renewable power sources will provide significant help in producing additional power in Mexico. Mexico utilizes alternative sources of energy in the form of hydropower which comprise 22% of the total rated capacity, 2% to geothermal plants, 3% to nuclear plants, only a small fraction of percent goes to wind power and large percentage accounts to thermal plants of CFE and others from independent power producers.CFE refers to the â€Å"Comision Federal de Electricidad† or the Federal Electricity Commission, and it represents the sole state owned electric company. CFE is responsible for the construction of generating plants to meet the demands for domestic lighting, irrig ation, dragging and milling; increasing the rated capacity of power needed; unified economical and technical criteria by standardizing the operating voltage and frequency with the purpose of standardizing equipment thereby reducing manufacturing time as well as cost, inventory and storage.At present there are two governing bodies in Mexico’s electrical public system, the Central Light and Power Company and the Federal Electricity Commission or CFE. The two bodies govern agreements on transmission and interconnection services being granted to renewable power sources. Regulatory schemes are being implemented to balance the competitive condition of power production thus enabling competition under similar conditions.The Energy Regulatory Commission or the CRE has the sole responsibility regarding the economic and technical regulation of the electricity sector. The objective is to protect consumer’s interest either short or in long terms. Factors to consider in economic reg ulations include costs, prices, quality of service and investment. CRE is also responsible in concessions and permits, settling disputes, and promoting competitions among participants.Mexico’s energy sector played a key role regarding the economic growth of the country such as the relative increase in the Gross domestic product or GDP, certain percentages coming from the energy exports, total public revenues, and investments in the energy sector greatly contributed to the economic growth of the country. The figure below shows the structure of the Mexican Energy Sector.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Business ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Business ethics - Essay Example However, the absence of these health professional in over-the-counter prescription and the advertisement of this drugs as created a new challenge that ought to be confronted. There are even cases where these advertisements have been found to pressure health professionals to prescribe particular drugs that might as well be less effective and dangerous. This idea intrudes in the relationship between patients and medical practitioners, thereby, interfering or even impeding the therapeutic process. Additionally, prescription advertising is not educational, instead it is inherently misleading if the omission of crucial information on drugs in its features is anything to go by. This therefore demonstrates just how dangerous consumer marketing of prescription drugs is and why it should be prohibited (Jeffrey, 2004, p. 21). II. What do you think is the most effective means to market a drug that is chemically and theoretically identical to its competitors? What do you think is the most ethica l way to market such drugs? Pharmaceutical products are those chemicals that improve the health of human beings, although in certain instances they can cause serious side effects to certain people who might be allergenic to these chemicals. Normally, producer of medical drugs compete both in terms of advertisement as well as prices, up to a point where advertisement and prices reach an equilibrium point (Harold, 2004, p.44), a point at which people are free to make choices based on their capability. This leaves the choice of drug administration in the hands of the physician. At times it is even the patient who is left with the decision of expressing his/her preference for one drug over the other and particularly if he/she has been exposed to some form of advertising. I strongly believe that a sale promotion involving packaging is not a bad idea to market a homogenous drug. Presentability of a drug can make all the difference in a contest pitting two theoretically and chemically iden tical with another already in the market. In fact, because the drugs are similar chemically and theoretically, one can focus on the cleanliness and hygiene of the drug through packaging the drug in a fashion that demonstrates hygiene and cleanliness to weather the competition. III. In what ways might a consumer suffering from a medical condition be less than fully free in making choices about medications? What psychological conditions undermine consumer autonomy? In most instances, patient fear of health deterioration leads to pharmaceutical inertia i.e. resistance to making any changes in their medicine regimens, which may also emerge due to unwillingness to use medication since they is no guarantee of improvement as one has no idea that it is going to improve the condition. This is one of the factors that put patients at the mercies medical practitioners or medical adverts in cases where the medical practitioners might not be available for whatever reason. Lack of proper medical a wareness might impair a patient’s decision concerning the medication to take. A patient might as well be in a state that makes him/her unable to make rational decision concerning the medication to take. Mostly, these are extreme case of sickness like stroke-induced coma or patient in vegetative state and therefore unable to even communicate. Psychologically affected

Friday, September 27, 2019

Entrepreneurial Management and Leadership - Individual Reflection Assignment

Entrepreneurial Management and Leadership - Individual Reflection - Assignment Example A corporate organization can only succeed in maximizing productivity with the essence of good efficiency in all its factors of production. However, among all the factors, entrepreneurship acts as the underlying driving force, that helps a corporation to operate competently, through proper amalgamation of all other resources in business. Thus, within a corporate setting, the need for entrepreneurship is indispensable. Good quality of entrepreneurial activities is crucial for success of any corporate organization. So, it is highly rational to foreground the various opportunities via which an organization can enhance its entrepreneurial skills. Senior managers or entrepreneurs are present in every organization. Nonetheless, enhancing entrepreneurial skills involves ways through which new ideas as well as promoters in business can emerge, along with the essence of effective entrepreneurial management. These opportunities or ways are: When a corporate organization enhances its entrepreneurial opportunities, then it also faces several challenges in business. These challenges might hinder proper promotional growth of an organization. These challenges are: Lack of proper financial reserves in an organization often forces entrepreneurs to be risk averse in business. The officials in such situations face circumstances, where they can promote new ideas, but due to lack of proper fund, they fear undertaking risky initiatives in business (Brown 166). Strict government regulations and policies in a particular industry often force corporate firms to be less productive at their work. Under such situations, the government authorities impose heavy restrictions on companies, thereby reducing their market power in the industry. Challenges are bound to arise when an organization tries to enhance its managerial and leadership attributes. However, there are effective ways through which

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Campbell soup Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Campbell soup - Essay Example From this period, Campbell diversified its products and posted billion dollars sale but small profits. The most important development, however, was due to its borrowings from investors, the company gradually became subject to the decision and pressures of stockholders. The most important of which include the managements protracted legal battles with investors. This dimension to Campbell’s existence has resulted to the adoption of management teams that were desperate to improve Campbell’s positive net margins because it affects the stock price. This the reason why it has pulled all the stops in order to generate the positive earnings that Wall Street demands to the point that illegitimate policies were adopted. Cases in point were the improper accounting, trade loading, among other policies. 1. Identify legitimate business practices that corporate executives can use for the primary purpose of manipulating or â€Å"managing† their company’s reported operating results. Are such practices ethical? Defend your answer. Examples of legitimate business practices that corporate executives can use in order to manipulate their organization’s operating results include: trade loading or the use of excessive price concessions in order for consumers to buy more products thereby propping up the reported revenues or profits for a specific period; and, converting given period-ending discounts as selling, general and administrative expenses instead of treating them as reductions of gross revenues. Another legitimate gimmick that organizations could legitimately use to smooth out its earnings and manipulate its operation reports is by putting excessive reserves on its balance sheet (i.e. for bad debts or defective merchandise) in one quarter, in effect, lowering earnings below what they otherwise would have been, and then reversing the process in another quarter, which would result to the conversion of some of the excess reserves into profit

GENDER AND JIM CROW Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Essay

GENDER AND JIM CROW Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 18961920 - Essay Example The book revisits the history of oppression of blacks by white supremacy in the nineteenth century in the state of North Carolina and in the process makes many startling revelation hitherto either ignored or suppressed. Her theses is the emissarial role of contemporary African American women during 1896-1920 when their husbands, fathers ,brother and sons had been denied of surfage, in bringing out African American men and women to the main stream politics in North Carolina hitherto denied due to machinations of American white men. Gilmore reminisces as a young white North Carolinian girl her varied experiences and steps into the shoes of few African American women who had acted as ambassadors to their white male American counterparts by coming to the mainstream though not directly in politics but through academics, social organizations and other charitable institutions. The book which showed Gilmore as the historian in the making also was the precursor to her stream of further works on African Americans endless saga in the U.S. even today. It was by a chance discovery of discrete participation of African American women who were wives of the church leaders, or themselves teachers, college professors in finding a solution to overcome the supremacy of whites over blacks in North Carolina that prompted her to write this dissertation as conferred by her in the introduction pages of the book. I initially encountered this group of black middle-class women while investigating the 1920 election in North Carolina, the first in which women voted..That investigation of women's political culture soon doubled back on itself as I realized that gender and race were no less intertwined in men's politics than they were in women's.( Gilmore, 1996 p xvi) Kennedy in his review of the book says that Glenda Gilmore has re-examined the early period of Jim Crow and made known the to the world the efforts of middle-class African American women like Sarah Dudley Petty to bring about change in their social status by improving their standard of living, identifying opportunities for the both blacks and whites and most importantly changing the attitude of white toward the blacks in North Carolina. How the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) enabled the African American women of North Carolina to forge an interracial harmony and build strong communities is a case in point cited by him. The WCTU became a base for facilitating equality between whites and blacks in North Carolina. Thus when black men could finally vote, it was the white women who welcomed encouraged the activism of black women too. (Kennedy 2004) Judy(1997) whose grand father William J. Trent, finds a mention in Gilmore's book among so many others, writes how he must have felt having lost right to vote in 1900 in spite of going to college, learning languages like Latin. She is sure her grand mother Maggie Tate Trent must have also contributed a lot by joining the Salisbury Colored women's Civic League that toiled hard for getting African American women also secure voting rights. She agrees with Gilmore that down turn in the economy at that time that forced white men to compete with black men by bringing about repression of blacks and their disenfranchisement in 1900 and that it the was learned black women who became ambassadors of black community in North Carolina

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

MGT3150 MANAGERIAL LEADERSHIP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

MGT3150 MANAGERIAL LEADERSHIP - Essay Example Furthermore, the study seeks to identify actual implementations of the said ethical policies to personnel of all levels. The methodology used was primary research through Lufthansa's official website, www.lufthansa-financials.com, as well as news articles involving the company. Secondary research on business ethics practices online and in school libraries were also conducted. During the course of the research, several limitations were encountered: direct interview with company officials and employees due to inaccessibility. Deutsche Lufthansa AG is a globally operating aviation group with around 400 companies and subsidiaries. It is active in five (until the end of 2006, six) business segments. Passenger Transportation is the Group's core business activity. Logistics, MRO, IT Services, Catering and Leisure Travel are further segments of the group. The Leisure Travel segment is due for disposal according to the supervisory board decision on 7 March 2007 and after approval of the competition commission.Annual average Group employee numbers were 93,541. The Group generated around EUR 19.8bn in revenue ("Portrait")." Lufthansa is a publicly traded company. As such, it is under the scrutiny of the German government. "It operates with the customary two-tier management system in Germany comprising an Executive and a Supervisory Board. The Executive Board is independently responsible for company management. The Supervisory Board appoints, supervises and advises the Executive Board ("Corporate Governance at Lufthansa")." This two-pronged approach checks and balances senior and junior managers. It encourages transparency in the workplace; effecting self-regulation by decentralizing power that could lead to collusions and unethical practices. Staff & Welfare In its quest to offer competitive remuneration, permanent jobs and attractive working conditions, the company has implemented a wide range of career-development measures such as trainings and an integrated study/work courses. "Each year Lufthansa invests around 300m in training measures for their employees. The Lufthansa Group offers over 40 different vocational courses with a technical, commercial or information technology focus. Another growing field is eLearning. Last year around 450 different learning programmes with a total of 1,762 teaching hours were in use at Lufthansa ("Employees")." Lufthansa employs people from all over the world, seeing opportunities in diversity. It provides in-house medical service for staff in handling health and safety issues. Governance Code International standards on Corporate Governance have been developed in recent years with primary focus on protecting the interests of the shareholders. The Corporate Governance Code was developed by the German Commission in February 2002 "to make the Corporate Governance System transparent and comprehensible. The code recommends clear and transparent presentation of a company and its business development, establishment of structures and processes which lead to proper and responsible management, administration and supervision. Such increases the trust of the investors and other providers of capital ("In General")." Since 2002 up to present, Lufthansa has been complying with the code in full, amending the Articles of Association to reflect relevant regulations. The

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Corporate responsibility Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Corporate responsibility - Essay Example The chief business drivers are: It is turning obvious that leading companies of the future will have tasks and plans to continually enhance shareholder worth but as an essential part of those policies will also identify and proceed upon the latent for: Companies do not recompense the full costs of their impact. For example the costs of cleaning pollution frequently fall on society in common. As a result profits of corporations are improved at the cost of environmental or social welfare. Whilst directives are required in certain conditions, over regulation creates blockades to access into a market. These barriers raise the opportunities for surplus profits, to the delight of the market contributors, but do little to serve the interests of people as a whole. One of the outstanding improvements in the vicinity of business through the past thirty years is the rise to eminence of corporate responsibility. ... In order to draw quality workers, it is crucial for companies to propose better pay and conditions which directs to an overall augment in standards and to prosperity creation. Investment in less developed countries adds to the wellbeing of those societies, despite that these countries have fewer protections in place for workers. Whilst directives are required in certain conditions, over regulation creates blockades to access into a market. These barriers raise the opportunities for surplus profits, to the delight of the market contributors, but do little to serve the interests of people as a whole.Emergence of Corporate Responsibility (CR) One of the outstanding improvements in the vicinity of business through the past thirty years is the rise to eminence of corporate responsibility. Corporate responsibility (CR) has appeared as the leading metaphorical casing for the legitimating contemporary capitalism. While supporting the quest of profits for shareholders / owners, CR pressurizes the answerability of corporations towards a wider network of stakeholders, and for communal and ecological outcomes more normally. Consequently, CR sets a larger outlook of self-interest than is ordered by free-market convention. Rhetorically, CR appeals to defenders and to critics of the worldwide socioeconomic status quo. CR is potentially a hegemonic idea because it accomplishes significant practical necessities of universal capitalism, while being acquiescent enough to lodge critics of the status quo too. In either case, CR is neither monolithic nor evenly distributed. There is considerable disparity in the excellence and extent of CR participation, as well as in the time of CR commencement in different authorities. By 'corporate responsibility'

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Values Scenario 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Values Scenario 1 - Essay Example I was very happy at this time because of achieving great success. Godly virtues and values are discussed in this stage. I declare that God’s values such as honesty, faith and being compassionate to others have been very important in my life. Drawing example from the Bible one can see that Job was faithful to God, and that is why he was healed. In addition, forgiveness is a value that is of important to God. From the Bible, we know that God gave his only son for the sake of forgiveness of our sins (Gulla 34). I have succeeded in my exams and interviews because I had enough faith in God. Being a compassionate guy I have impacted on disabled persons, whom I assist with food and clothing. I felt satisfied when I managed a whole project by myself through perseverance and the same time having self-discipline. The completion of the project fulfilled my ultimate desire that one can succeed in life if you have self-drive and self-discipline. That success partly guaranteed me that I will be successful in future when a drive myself in every aspect of life. Other factors that contributed to that fulfilment include the support from my colleagues and the honesty in my work. My personal and work values include teamwork spirit, success, self-discipline, faith, perseverance and compassion. The experience, of working in a team, is memorable since it has led to success in our football club, schoolwork and at the workplace. My role models such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have utilised the teamwork, perseverance and self-discipline values to achieve

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Why hunting is possitive Essay Example for Free

Why hunting is possitive Essay The human being has been hunting ever since time began. It was the only way of life back then. A hunter was either successful and survived or not successful and died. Hunting is still a way of survival for some people. There are many anti-hunting activists out there trying to bring down hunting. They say that it is cruel and mean to kill a defenseless animal. What they don’t understand is that if we didn’t hunt, the world would be completely different. Hunting has many positive effects on not only the environment but also the economy and people’s life. When people think of the most dangerous animal in North America they think of bears and sharks. There have only been 28 deadly bear attacks and 10 deadly shark attacks in the past 10 years (Rice, 2011). The most dangerous animal may well be the deer. There are nearly 32 million deer alive today (25 Reasons, 2013). With roads and highways going through areas that are heavily populated by deer, more than 1 million car accidents are caused by dear per year. Due to those 1 million car accidents, there is $1 billion in vehicle damage, 200 deaths and 10,000 personal injures per year (Rice, 2011). Hunting lowers the risk of a driver hitting a deer. For every deer hit by a car, hunters kill 6 (25 Reasons, 2013). When a hunter kills a deer they take away the chance of that deer getting hit by a car. If we didn’t hunt, those numbers of vehicle accidents caused by deer would go up dramatically because the population would be higher. Hunting is also a method of conservation as it keeps the population of animals down, keeping them compatible with human activity. Hunters not only help wildlife conservation by keeping the population down but also by purchasing the weapons and ammunition. In 1937 hunters requested an 11% tax on weapons and ammunition by introducing the Pittman-Robertson Act. The tax from this Act generates $371 million dollars a year (25 Reasons, 2013). In just state licenses and fees alone, hunters generate $769 million a year for conservation programs (25 Reasons, 2013). Altogether including donations hunters pay more than $1. 6 billion dollars for conservation (25 Reasons, 2013). The money goes to conservationist across the country (Hunting and Wildlife, 2012). The land area and the number of licenses in that area is what decide where the money gets  distributed (Hunting and Wildlife, 2012). The money supports conservation efforts by the department of natural resources such as conducting research, wildlife reintroductions, and improving wildlife habitat. Hunting conservation not only keeps the population of animals down, but it can also help bring the numbers of endangered animals up. Hunting regulations and conservation efforts have brought many species’ populations from few numbers to many. In 1907 only 41,000 elk remained in North America, now there are more than 1 million. In 1900 there were only 500,000 whitetail deer and  only 100,000 wild turkeys, now there are more than 32 million whitetail and 7 million wild turkeys (25 Reasons, 2013). Also many non-hunted animals benefit off the conservation efforts that hunters provide (25 Reasons, 2013). These animals were able to make a rebound in their numbers by the conservation efforts. These efforts include the conservationist protecting the land and making untouchable areas. President Theodor Roosevelt was an avid hunter and conservationist. He created 230 million acres of protected forest and wetlands for wildlife (25 Reasons, 2013). Hunting has a major impact on the economy. There are a total of 15. 5 million hunters over the age of six in the United States of America (Fueling, 2013). When a person goes hunting they have to have gear to hunt. Hunters also sometimes travel to go hunt, whether it is in a different state or just down the road. The purchase of the gear and travel has an impact on the American economy. In 2011 American hunters spent $38. 3 billion dollars in hunting equipment and travel expenses. That is more than the revenue of Comcast for that same year (Fueling, 2013). Travelers spent $10. 4 billion on trip related expenses in 2011 (Fueling, 2013). The total amount of money spent on gear in 2011 was $27. 9 billion (Fueling, 2013). Duck and geese hunters use decoys and calls when they hunt. They spent $302 million on the decoys and calls in 2011 (Fueling, 2013). A hunter cannot 1 / 2 hunt without a weapon whether it is archery or a firearm. In 2011 hunters spent a total of $6 billion on guns, ammunition, and archery equipment (Fueling, 2013). Hunters are improving the American economy in these hard economic times. In 2011 hunters in America have spent 30% more on hunting than five years ago (Fueling, 2013). Another aspect of the American economy is providing  people with jobs. Hunters supply the people of America with over 680,000 jobs (25 Reasons, 2013). Those 680,000 people are able to have an income and support their family because of hunters. Hunting is a tradition passed down from generation to generation. People have been hunting since the beginning of time. The ways of hunting have changed the way life is today. Back in the time of the Native Americans they didn’t have a grocery store that they could go and get food at. The men were hunters and warriors and the women would plant gardens and take care of the village. They  depended on the men to go and kill an animal that would feed their family and tribe. These tactics have been passed down from generation to generation and has evolved immensely. Not only has the ways of hunting evolved, but also the tools used to hunt have evolved. People today still depend on hunting as a primary source of meat for their families. Hunting puts food on the table for survival. A buck that is 180 pounds that is killed will yield 72 pounds of meat (How Much, 2005). In 2012, 31,140 bucks were harvested in Michigan (Frawley, 2012). If all of those bucks weighed 180  pounds then 2,242,080 pounds of venison to feed families would have been harvested. There were a total of 418,012 harvested in Michigan in 2012 (Frawley, 2012). 418,012 deer fed families and was food on their tables. Hunting can teach many responsibilities and life lessons. The first lesson hunting can teach is how to handle a powerful weapon. In order to use a weapon to hunt, a hunter has to take a hunters safety class to learn how to use the weapon and how dangerous it is. A weapon is such a simple machine but powerful enough to take a life. A person has to respect and learn how to handle the  weapon with care and responsibility. Learning how to use the weapon can provide a person with a way to defend them if they were in harm’s way. When a person is out hunting they get to respect and observe the beauty of nature. They can view how delicate it can be but also how much strength it can hold. Hunting teaches survival skills such as how to clean the animal, how to be self-sufficient by providing yourself with a meal and pulling the trigger on an animal. Overall hunting is positive in many ways. It has been tradition since the beginning of time. There are many ways that hunting is improving and evolving. There are many more changes that can happen to make it more successful. It has many contributions to an individual, a creature, and a country. References Frawley, B. (June, 2012). Michigan deer harvest survey report 2012 seasons. Michigan Department of Natural Resources, http://www. michigan. gov/documents/dnr/ MI_Deer_Harvest_Survey_Report_2012_426213_7. pdfFueling the American economy. (2013), America’s sporting heritage, http://www. sportsmenslink. org/uploads/page/Economic%20Impact%20Report%20E-version. pdfHow much will your deer yield, (July 10, 2005). Butcher amp; Deer, http://www. butcher- packer. com/index. php?main_page=document_general_infoamp;products_id=331Hunting and wildlife conservation go hand in hand. (December 27, 2012), Department of Natural Resources, http://www. michigan. gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10370_12141-294259,00. htmlRice, D. (2011, November 1). Deer-car collisions increase this time of year. USA TODAY. http://usatoday30. usatoday. com/news/nation/story/2011-10-31/deer-car-accidents- rise/51019604/125 reasons why hunting is conservation. (2013), Rocky mountain elk foundation, htt p://www. rmef. org/Conservation/HuntingIsConservation/25ReasonsWhyHuntingIsConservation. aspx POWERED BY TCPDF (WWW. TCPDF. ORG).

Friday, September 20, 2019

Identification of Organic Compounds

Identification of Organic Compounds May Zheng Lab Partner: Vena Ganesarasa Observations: Table 1: The Use of Iodine Solution for Determining the Presence of Starch in Various Samples Solutions Sample: Amylose Maltose Sucrose Glucose Unknown X Unknown Y Distilled Water Observations Light yellow, cloudy, liquid Transparent light yellow, liquid Clear, colourless liquid Clear, colourless liquid White liquid Orange liquid Clear, colourless liquid Colour of Solution Dark blue/black liquid Clear yellow liquid Clear, dark yellow liquid Red/brown liquid Blue Dark blue/ black liquid Yellow/orange liquid Table 2: The Use of Benedict’s Solution for Determining the Presence of Sugar in Various Samples Solutions Sample: Amylose Maltose Sucrose Glucose Unknown X Unknown Y Distilled Water Observations Light yellow, cloudy, liquid Transparent light yellow, liquid Clear, colourless liquid Clear, colourless liquid White liquid Orange liquid Clear, colourless liquid Colour of Solution Orange liquid Dark orange liquid Clear, light blue liquid Yellowish/whitish precipitate Beige liquid Lime green liquid Clear blue liquid Table 3: The Use of Biuret’s Reagent for Determining the Presence of Protein in Various Samples Solutions Sample: Amylose Maltose Sucrose Glucose Unknown X Unknown Y Distilled Water Observations Light yellow, cloudy, liquid Transparent light yellow, liquid Clear, colourless liquid Clear, colourless liquid White liquid Orange liquid Clear, colourless liquid Colour of Solution No colour change No colour change Clear light blue liquid Very light blue/white liquid Beige liquid Yellow liquid Clear light blue liquid Table 4: The Use of Sudan (III) Solution for Determining the Presence of Lipid in Various Samples Solutions Sample: Amylose Maltose Sucrose Glucose Unknown X Unknown Y Distilled Water Observations Light yellow, cloudy, liquid Transparent light yellow, liquid Clear, colourless liquid Clear, colourless liquid White liquid Orange liquid Clear, colourless liquid Colour of Solution Pinkish red on top, yellowish/white on bottom Light pink liquid Light orange liquid  ¼ pinkish layer, white on bottom Pink layer, milky/ whitish layer on bottom Orangey on top, yellow on bottom Clear very faint pink when indicator was added; colour slowly faded away Discussion: The distilled water in this experiment functioned as the control sample. A control sample should be a constant variable that was not exposed to the factors being tested in the experiment. In this case, the purpose of the lab was to determine the presence of starch, lipid, protein, and sugar in various solutions. Distilled water did not contain any of these experimental factors and therefore it acted as a control sample. The distilled water played a very important role in this experiment considering that the results of the experimental samples must be compared to the control in order to form a conclusion (Rodriguez, 2013). By comparing the results of the control, the colour changes which had occurred in the experimental samples could be identified. If there was no control, one wouldn’t have been able to determine any valid changes in the experimental results since there was nothing to compare them to in order to verify the changes. In this experiment, distilled water was used a s the control instead of tap water because of the absence of metals and minerals such as iron and calcium. These elements have the potential to alter the results of the experiment by creating unwanted reactions with other substances in the experiment. Therefore, in order to have an accurate control to act as a reference source for the results of the experimental samples, distilled water was used (Myers, 2013). The Iodine solution was commonly used to test for the presence of starch in a substance. During the presence of starch, the Iodine solution would turn into a dark blue/black colour. The colour change was caused by the chemical reaction between the starch and the iodine. Amylose was a polysaccharide consisting of glucose units; it was a type of starch, in fact starch was made up of a mixture of amylose and amylopectin. Therefore in this experiment, when the iodine solution was added into the Amylose solution, the resulting solution had a deep bluish-black colour. The helix structure of amylose resembled a coiled spring. The element iodine, a non-polar molecule, on its own was insoluble in water; hence it was dissolved in an aqueous potassium iodide solution forming potassium triiodide which was soluble in water. The linear triiodide ion (I3-) basically slipped inside the coil of the amylose molecule resulting in an extremely blue/black colour. The transfer of charged particles (electr ons) which occurred between the amylose and the iodide ion altered the spaces between the energy levels/electron orbitals. This meant that light was absorbed by the solution at a different wavelength resulting in the colour change. The presence of starch was also determined in the unknown X and unknown Y solutions. The unknown X solution had a less intense shade of blue indicating that there was a lower concentration of starch in that substance (Iodine test for, 2012). Benedict’s solution was a clear blue liquid containing copper sulfate used to test for the presence of simple carbohydrates such as allmonosaccharides and several disaccharides like maltose. The presence of these sugars such as glucose triggered a chemical reaction between the sugar and copper sulfate (after heating which provides the energy required to initiate the reaction) resulting in a reddish-brown precipitate if there was a high concentration of sugar (2% or more). The solution could also turn greenish, yellow, or orange with lower concentrations of sugar. During this experiment, the glucose solution changed into a dark orange-red colour, while unknown X turned into a light yellow/beige colour, the unknown Y with a lime green colour and the maltose resulted in a yellowish-green colour. This suggested that the sugar content in maltose, unknown X and Y was low (less than 2%) compared to glucose (Benedicts reagent, 2014). Specifically, the Benedict’s solution tested for reducing sugars which consisted of an aldehyde group (presence of the CHO group). In the presence of reducing sugars, the copper (II) ions were reduced to copper (I) ions forming copper (I) oxide, a reddish-brown precipitate that was insoluble in water. In this experiment, the glucose possessed accessible electrons for donation, which the blue copper (II) ions were willing to receiving/accept to become reduced to reddish copper (II) ions. When the glucose donated an electron, it became oxidized while the copper (II) was reduced. For this reason, glucose was considered to be a reducing sugar capable of initiating a chemical reaction with the copper sulfate in Benedict’s solution. Similarly, maltose, a reducing disaccharide, reacted with the benedict’s solution when heated to form a murky yellow precipitate. Maltose molecules have a linear open-chain structure which made them accessible to react with the copper sulfa te in Benedict’s solution resulting in a dark yellowish colour indicating a low concentration of sugar (Yool, 2014). However, sucrose, also a disaccharide, did not provide a positive test for sugar. This was because sucrose was not a reducing sugar. The bond between the two sugars which made up sucrose, fructose and glucose, was formed in a particular way which inhibited the sucrose to isomerize to aldehyde form causing it to be a non-reducing sugar. The molecular structure of sucrose was not linear meaning that it was incapable of opening; it was basically stuck in its cyclical form. This prevented the sucrose from donating electrons and reducing the copper (II) in Benedict’s solution resulting in no chemical reaction, colour change, or formation of precipitate (Benedicts reagent, 2014). Biuret’s reagent was used to test for the presence of protein. The chemical reaction which occurred in the presence of protein resulted in a violet colour solution due to the peptide bonds which made up protein. The biuret reagent contained hydrated copper sulfate; the copper (II) ions formed coordination complexes as the single electron pairs of the four nitrogen atoms in peptide bonds surrounded a central atom which was the copper (II) ion. As the metal complex was formed, the wavelength at which light was absorbed changed to violet from clear blue indicating the presence of protein. Additionally, the greater the amount the protein in a solution, the more intense the colour change considering that there were more peptide bonds present resulting in long chain peptides (Biuret test, 2014). Sudan III was a red reagent that detected the presence of lipids. This solution was insoluble in water, however would dissolve in lipids. It would stain the present lipid an orange-red colour. In this experiment, only the unknown Y solution presented a distinctive orangey colour on top of a yellow solution after the addition of the Sudan III reagent suggesting the presence of lipid in this unknown solution. This showed a clear separation of the lipid and water portions of the solution considering that the two did not mix; lipid molecules were nonpolar while water molecules were polar. For this reason, the staining had only occurred at the top layer of the solution (Sudan iii, 2014). Carbohydrates were essential nutrients to leading a healthy diet. They were important energy source for the human body. However, they were not used straightaway due to excess intake; the body would store the carbohydrates in the form of glycogen in the muscles and liver. The body used the glycogen stored in the muscles while the brain obtained energy from the glycogen stored in the liver which could only support a limited amount. Therefore, upon excess consumption of carbohydrates, the carbohydrates would be converted into fat which was stored in the fatty tissues. This would also simultaneously increase the glucose levels in blood which triggered the release of insulin in order to maintain homeostasis. Insulin was a hormone secreted by the pancreas into the bloodstream with the purpose of lowering the sugar levels. A great quantity of insulin not only triggered the body to store the extra carbohydrates as fat but also inhibited the release of the stored fat. This meant that the stor ed fat lost its ability to be used as energy. Additionally, high levels of insulin restrained the secretion of glucagon and growth hormones. Glucagon was a hormone secreted in the pancreas that initiated the breakdown of fat and sugar to increase the blood sugar levels. Growth hormone was responsible for muscle development. Lastly, the excess intake of carbohydrates which increased the blood glucose levels caused the secretion of extra insulin in order to lower the sugar level at a rapid rate. This caused hunger considering that after a short amount of time; the body’s blood sugar levels would be lower than normal causing the hungry sensation to convince the body to consume more carbohydrates increase the sugar levels (The relationship between, 2008). Cholesterol was a waxy, sterol, substance found in most body tissue such as in bloodstream and the nerves. This compound was produced by the liver in the human body and circulated through one’s blood stream. Cholesterol could also be found in one’s diet; foods with a great amount of saturated and trans fat such as meat and dairy products contained this substance. The presence of high level of cholesterol in the body greatly increased the risk of many heart diseases such as heart attacks and strokes. This was because when there was an excess amount of cholesterol in the blood, it could accumulate in the interior walls of arteries which provided various parts of the body the nutrients and oxygen needed to function properly. Plaque was formed as the extra cholesterol and other substances such as fat and calcium stuck to the inner walls of the blood vessel. This sticky substance would harden and decrease the circumferences and flexibility/elasticity of arteries. This health issue was known as atherosclerosis; the clotting of blood vessels due to the buildup of plaque limiting the flow of blood to several parts of the body such as the brain, the heart, and other organs. Depending on which of the many arteries in the body was blocked, there were several potential heart diseases. If the plaques clot the coronary arteries which supplied the heart with oxygen-rich blood, heart attacks may occur and if there was a blockage in the carotid arteries which fed blood to the brain, the reduced blood flow to the brain may cause a stroke. Most of these heart diseases were serious and even deadly (What is atherosclerosis?, 2011). Protein could be used as an energy source for the human body; however not the most efficient method. As protein was digested by the body, it was chemically broken down into amino acid subunits. Glucose and amino acids were chemically alike with the exception of the presence of nitrogen atoms in amino acids. In the absence of nitrogen, the amino acids could be converted into glucose or fatty acids which provided energy for the body. Due to the additional steps of removing the nitrogen, proteins were a slower source of energy, but longer lasting compared to carbohydrates and lipids. Furthermore, the use of protein as an energy source could be harmful to the body due to the by-products formed from the breakdown of amino acids. The nitrogen atoms contained in all amino acids were converted into ammonia during amino acid catabolism. The substance ammonia was toxic as it accumulated in the blood causing the body to excrete it through urination. However, high levels of ammonia would damage the liver and the kidneys. Also, the presence of a large quantity of this compound was poisonous to the cells in the body (Cloe, 2012). Errors: During this experimental, a few errors had occurred. The test tubes filled with the experimental samples were not washed properly for the next nutrient test. This resulted in absurd colour changes. At times, not enough indicator solution was added to the samples. This might have affected the resulting colours. Lastly, during the test for sugars, after the addition of the benedict’s solution into the samples, the solutions were not heated evenly for the same length of time. A few samples did not obtain enough energy for a potential chemical reaction/ colour change to occur. Conclusion: It was concluded that distilled water functioned as the control in the experiment due to the absence of metals and minerals in the liquid which could possibility initiate unwanted reactions. The control was used to provide a reference source for the obtained results from the experimental samples in order for the changes to be valid. The iodine solution was used to test for the presence of starch. The chemical reaction between the triiodine ions and starch molecules triggered the colour change of the solution to deep blue/black. Starch was detected in the amylose, unknown X and Y solutions. The benedict’s solution was used to determine the presence of reducing sugars. The chemical reaction between the copper sulfate in the benedict’s solution and the sugar molecules triggered a colour change in the samples. The sugar molecules reduced the copper (II) into copper (I) resulting in a reddish precipitate. With a lower concentration of sugar molecules, the samples turned gree nish, yellowish or orangey. The presence of sugar was determined in maltose, glucose, unknown X and Y samples in this experiment. Biuret’s reagent tested for the presence of protein. The copper sulfate in the reagent formed metal complexes with the nitrogen atoms found in the peptide bonds of protein. This resulted in a colour change of the samples to violet if protein was detected. The Sudan III solution tested for the presence of lipid. Since the solution was insoluble in water and soluble in lipids, the colour change to orangey red was only found on the top layer of a few samples. The presence of lipid was determined in the unknown Y sample. Furthermore, excess intake of carbohydrate increased the sugar level in blood. This triggered the release of the hormone, insulin, with the intention of lowering the sugar level to maintain internal balance. The release of this hormone by the pancreas caused the extra carbohydrates to be stored as fat. Also, the presence of a large amount of insulin caused the frequent sensation of hunger. This was because the insulin quickly lowered the sugar levels causing the body to want more carbohydrates to increase the sugar levels to maintain homeostasis. High levels of cholesterol in the blood resulted in the accumulation of plaque reducing the blood flow to various part of the body. This was a major risk factor of heart diseases such as heart attacks and strokes. Lastly, when the body used protein as an energy source, there would be an elevated level of ammonia in the body considering that it was a by-product of the breakdown of amino acids. The high level of this toxic compound would cause harm to the kidneys, the liver and other body cells. References: Benedicts reagent. (2014). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedicts_reagent Biuret test. (2014). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biuret_test Cloe, A. (2012).  Why are proteins used as the last source of energy?. Retrieved from http://livewell.jillianmichaels.com/proteins-used-last-source-energy-5473.html Iodine test for starch. (2012). Retrieved from http://brilliantbiologystudent.weebly.com/iodine-test-for-starch.html Myers, G. (2013).  Why is distilled water a good control for science projects?. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/facts_7418493_distilled-good-control-science-projects_.html Rodriguez, B. (2013).  What is the purpose of a control in an experiment?. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/info_8612333_purpose-control-experiment.html Sudan iii. (2014). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudan_III The relationship between carbohydrates and insulin. (2008, July 02). Retrieved from http://www.naturaltherapypages.com.au/article/Insulin_Weight_Loss What is atherosclerosis?. (2011, July 01). Retrieved from https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/atherosclerosis/ Yool, B. (2014).  The effect of benedict solution on glucose. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/about_6584528_effect-benedict-solution-glucose.html

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Polonius in Shakespeares Hamlet :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Polonius in Hamlet  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   In Shakespeare’s dramatic tragedy, Hamlet, the first victim of the rapier, Polonius, meets death behind the arras in Gertrude’s room in the castle. Polonius’ death contributes to Ophelia’s death and the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; and these deaths, in turn, precipitate further tragedies in the play. Polonius, an underestimated character, will be the subject of this essay.    Polonius’ entry into the play occurs at the social get-together of the royal court. Claudius has already been crowned; Queen Gertrude is there; Hamlet is present in the black clothes of mourning. When Laertes approaches Claudius to give his farewell before returning to school, the king asks Polonius: â€Å"Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?† And the father dutifully answers:    He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   By laboursome petition, and at last   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I do beseech you, give him leave to go.    So right at the outset the reader/viewer respects the lord chamberlain as a very fluent spokesman of the language, and respectful of his superior, the king. Later, in Polonius’ house, Laertes is taking leave of his sister, Ophelia, and, in the process, giving her conservative advice regarding her boyfriend, Hamlet. Quietly Polonius enters and begins to advise Laertes regarding life away from home:   Ã‚   Give thy thoughts no tongue,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Nor any unproportioned thought his act.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   But do not dull thy palm with entertainment   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. Beware   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For the apparel oft proclaims the man,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   And they in France of the best rank and station   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Are of a most select and generous chief in that.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Neither a borrower nor a lender be;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For loan oft loses both itself and friend,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This above all: to thine ownself be true,

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

How does Miller create dramatic tension between Marco and Eddie at the

How does Miller create dramatic tension between Marco and Eddie at the end of Act One? So far in the play Marco and Rodolfo have illegally immigrated to America, seeking shelter with their cousin Beatrice and her husband Eddie. Living with them is Catherine, their niece, who falls head over heels in love with Rodolfo. Eddie is not happy, as he is incredibly overprotective of Catherine. This overprotectiveness turns to jealousy, which turns into an obsession. At the end of Act One all five characters are in the living room, sharing a cosy after dinner chat. At this point of â€Å"A View From The Bridge† Eddie is feeling intensely jealous of Rodolfo and he doesn’t really understand why. He talks to Alfieri about it, yet Alfieri seems to immediately understand what is going on and just before this scene hints at the bloody outcome of this tale. Marco, too, recognizes Eddie’s feelings for Catherine, though he appears to be the only one in the family who sees it. The premonition in Alfieri’s soliloquy make the audience think. It makes them ask question like who’s going to die? How are they going to die? Why are they going to die? The audience want to know the answers to all of these questions right at the beginning of the play and will start to guess what will happen, yet they have to pay attention to understand what is going on and make predictions. The personalities of the characters greatly affect the tension of this part of the play. For example, if Marco were not so silent and still, his threat would not be so obvious. When he â€Å"takes a chair, places it in front of Eddie, and looks down at it† it is a contrast to his natural behaviour. Eddie, however, still does not get it, as he believes that the worl... ...gland, for example, where the sense of community is much less, the dramatic tension would not exist. In fact the situation would probably not have arisen at all. Catherine would have had more freedom, Eddie and Beatrice would have attended marriage counselling and most likely Marco and Rodolfo could have immigrated legally. The play would be quite boring. In conclusion, many things contribute to the tension at the end of Act One. It would be nearly impossible to have the same sort of tension if just one aspect of the play was changed. The tension would probably remain but it would be utterly different. It could be more or less effective than the way it is now, but I feel it would be more likely that a master playwright like Arthur Miller would understand what he was doing, and would try and make the play as dramatic as he could, to get his point across.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Essay --

Postpartum depression affects 8-15% of mothers within a few days or weeks after giving birth. Some mothers experience a mild form of this disorder, while others experience a more rare and intense version. This intensified postpartum depression is known as postpartum psychosis. According to the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law, Nau, McNiel, and Binder (2012) express â€Å"Postpartum psychosis occurs in 1-2 of 1,000 births and frequently requires hospitalization to stabilize symptoms.† These symptoms include: Hallucinations, restlessness, disturbed sleep, insomnia, drastic mood or behavior change, delusional thinking, thoughts of suicide or death, and extreme depression. In The Journal of Women's Health, Sit, Rothschild, and Wisner described postpartum psychosis as â€Å"an overt presentation of bipolar disorder that is timed to coincide with tremendous hormonal shifts after delivery†. Approximately 72%-88% of mothers who experience postpartum ps ychosis (PP) have bipolar illness, schizo-affective disorder or a family history of either which is why PP is classified as a psychotic disorder by the APAA. Many women who are affected by postpartum psychosis are too afraid or embarrassed to come forward and claim the disorder. This is dangerous for both mother and child(ren) as the disorder has a 5% suicide rate and a 4% infanticide rate. Even if there is no physical harm done to the child there may be emotional harm. The behaviors that are exhibited by the mother to the child may â€Å"interfere with the children's emerging cognitive skills...†(Sohr-Preston & Scaramella, 2006). It has been theorized both before and after birth the mothers' health, physical and emotional, may affect the child's cognitive skills later in li... ...omeone do this to their child?†. There have been many similar cases where the mother was found not guilty, so why was Yates found guilty? The answer may come from the website Andrea Yates: Ill or Evil? â€Å"In America, there are no clear standards in court for dealing with mentally ill mothers—not even in the same city.† This is a sad, but true statement. People tend to use their own morals and experiences as how they perceive things. Of course what Andrea Yates did was wrong, but she was also seriously ill. Postpartum psychosis is an extremely scary and dangerous disorder. PP is treatable, however there are no guidelines for treatment at this time. Most patients have been treated using a combination of pharmaceuticals and psychotherapy. Even though treatment options are still being evaluated, the sooner any treatment starts the better off mother and child are.

Scott Miracle Grow Speader; Make or Buy

Scott’s Miracle-Gro has a plant in Temecula, CA that produces seed spreaders. Management is deciding if it should keep the Temecula plant open or if it should outsource manufacturing either to mainland China or offshore China. Before Miracle-Gro became Scott’s Miracle-Gro, they outsourced to contract manufacturers for production. Scotts manufactured their spreaders since it acquired Republic Tool and Manufacturing. Scott’s Miracle-Gro manufacturing facilities have a plant in Temecula, CA. The Temecula plant improved productivity, efficiencies, and also different innovations including a new assembly process for their hand spreader.Also, they invented an in-mold labeling process that produced a label that did not fade, scratch, or peel off. Despite what the Temecula plant had done, management was looking to see if they could save money by outsourcing the full operation. The plant manager wanted to keep the Temecula plant open and felt that if the production was mov ed to China that there would be quality problems along with high shipping costs, and extra administrative costs could erase any economic benefit from outsourcing to China. Another alternative to outsourcing to China was building a Scotts-owned facility plant in China.This option would help keep the proprietary processes in the hands of Scott’s Miracle-G ro. However, the disadvantages associated with moving to China stated above (poorer quality, high shipping costs), would still be a negative. The problem is what should Scott’s Miracle-Gro do. We did a NPV analysis focusing on the 4 Cost drivers for the Temecula plants which are raw materials, labor costs, electricity costs, and overhead costs and compared them to what it would cost in China. The NPV for the Temecula plant is $94,826,678 (screenshot of spreadsheet in appendix).The NPV for China mainland (offshore NPV would be close to mainland China except for initial start-up costs, etc.. ) is $90,070,804 (screenshot o f spreadsheet in appendix). We analyzed the data by using the numbers provided in the case. For example, for analyzing the Temecula plant, we used the information in Exhibit 4. However, some of the data (number of employees in China) we based the information on what the Temecula plant was using. Based just on the NPV, it seems that closing the Temecula plant and moving to China would be the best option.However, important the potential cost savings (in labor and energy costs) might be, it is also necessary to look at other factors. Some of the other factors would include the production quality, control over their own products, proprietary rights, longer lead times, having to carry safety stock, and their image to stakeholders and employees. Also, management needs to look at problems that might arise if China’s government changes laws, problems in cases of ports closing, and the training and productivity of new employees. Next, we will analyze the 4 cost drivers more in depth.C ost Drivers There were four main cost drivers examined in this case: Raw Materials, Labor, Electricity (Energy), and Overhead. Scott’s must evaluate these cost drivers to determine whether outsourcing the manufacturing of their spreader will improve the company’s profitability and/or operational efficiency. Although, in some instances the decision to outsource can be very clear based on the numbers alone, there are also other not so quantitative risks such as loss of control, loss of inventory flexibility, and loss of one’s competitive advantage. Raw MaterialsPlastic resin is the main component in the manufacturing of the spreader bucket, and the costs are comparable whether it’s purchased in China or in the US. However, the Temecula plant did invest in a re-grind process which saves them an additional $100,000 per year. However, this savings has little impact on the overall operating expenses at the Temecula plant. Labor Costs Labor rates are one of the main driving forces in whether or not a company should make or buy a product or service. For s Scotts labor costs associated with manufacturing the spreader in the US is initially $6M vs. 350K in China, see attached appendix , which is 17X more costly to produce the spreader at the Temecula plant. Even if the plant can improve their operational efficiency in the out years and reduce labor costs it would still be difficult to compete with China during this 10 year period. Electricity (Energy) Costs Energy costs are still cheaper in China, by more than half the cost. However, the majority of energy which China uses is from coal plants and not environmentally friendly, more and more companies and US consumers are becoming sensitive to the issue of reducing one’s carbon footprint.Outsourcing based on energy costs is typically not the sole driver. However, if energy cost between China and the US become more competitive, such as in the case of the US using natural gas (i. e. fracki ng) to supply electricity to their plants the argument to bring manufacturing back to the US may become more compelling. Overhead The cost of overhead or Governance at the Temecula Plant is approximately $5M annually vs. China $500K (excluding $1M in year one for start-up costs) these are costs associated with Scott’s management to monitor, track and visit China to oversee operations. Sensitivity AnalysisDue to the uncertainty in the future economic trends, there are three uncertain factors playing important roles in the decision making. They are labor cost in China, electricity price in China and exchange rate between Yuan and Dollars. The NPV model is sensitive to the how those three factors change over the next decade. A careful analysis on the sensitivity is necessary in order to make sound business decisions. 1. Labor Cost According to the case we know that labor costs in china may have a big increase in the next 10 years, from 40% totally to 10% annual increase to even 40% annual increase.If the labor cost will increase 40% in the next 10 years, that means it’ll increase 3. 4% annually, so the NPV of costs will be $73,751,039. If the labor cost will increase 10% annually in the next 10 years, the NPV of costs will be $74,998,037. If the labor cost will increase 40% annually in the next 10 years, the NPV of costs will be $91,424,835. We can see from previous analysis, NPV of Temecula is $94,826,678. So if labor cost will increase differently, we’ll get different NVP. But no matter how big increase it’ll be, our decision will still be outsourcing to china. 2. Electricity Price The current electricity cost in China is 0. 65USD per kilo-watt hour. It is estimated to increase by 20% over the next 10 years. Assuming the electricity cost increase at a certain rate each year, we get the annual increase rate 1. 8% (1. 8% =(1+20%)^(1/10)-1). This estimated rate is probably lower than the actually annual increase because of increasing pr essure on environmental records and fuel costs. Thus how much does electricity cost may increase is important and the NPV model output is sensitive to it. However, since the electricity cost in China is so low when converted into USDs, the growth rate doesn’t influence the NPV that much.For example, experimenting with 5% annual growth, since 5% is significantly larger than 1. 8%, we get NPV = 74,968,548 USDs, whereas 74,376,968 USDs with 1. 8% annual growth. The difference would be 591,580 USDs, which isn’t that significant when putting it in a bigger scope. Also, 5% is an unlikely assumption given the fact that the Chinese is heavily investing in infrastructure to generate more energy. Thus, we think NPV model is not very sensitive to the electricity price. 3. Exchange Rate According to the case, we know that the market expectation was the yuan would appreciate by 20% in next five years.Since this datum is just an expectation, which means it is inaccurate and uncertai n, so that we need to analyze the sensitivity of it. We assume that the annual increase in value of Yuan is 3. 6%, we can get the NPV of costs is $74,376,968. However, if we decrease the rate, say 2%, the NPV of costs turns to be $69,099,021, which means the cost decreases; on the other hand, if we change the rate to 6%, the NPV of costs increases to $81,500,203. So we can conclude that the lower the annual increase in value of Yuan, the lower the NPV of costs. ConclusionAs we stated in the beginning we feel Scotts Miracle Gro should outsource the manufacturing of their to spreaders to China, this is based on the data and sensitivity analysis the group conducted. In addition, one of the questions that we had to examine was whether or not the technology to have â€Å"in-mold labeling† was a competitive advantage, and should it be a considered a core capability. Although, Scotts Miracle Gro manufactures spreaders, the brand name is about the quality of seed and fertilizers for the do-it-yourself lawn and garden consumer, and not the spreader.The consumers primarily purchases those products which enhance the look of the garden and lawn, selling spreaders which can disburse their product is ancillary, Scotts wants consumers to buy their seed and fertilizers every season (repeat customer) where as the purchase of a spreader is a one-time purchase every 10 years or more. Therefore, if Scotts can outsource the production of approximately 3 million spreaders to China at a significant cost savings then the company should do so. Cost savings realized should be re-invested into research and development so Scott’s can maintain their competitive edge is this home and garden market.

Monday, September 16, 2019

The Impact of Downsizing on Manufacturing Industries

The amount of information on the effects of down sizing on manufacturing was not plentiful, however one main point that flows through all of the articles is that even though down sizing may be done to help a company it can end up hurting them in the long run. In the paragraphs to follow we look at the effects that downsizing has on people and companies as well as look at whether or not downsizing is truly the answer. Parker (2003)Reports that in 2003 the expected job losses among the manufacturing industries in Great Britain would create the effects of rising input costs and oil price increase on the job cuts; Downturn of the purchasing managers' index for manufacturing; Decrease in the rate of manufacturer's orders. So even though these cuts may be necessary he pointed out that it would have an overall negative effect. The Midwest may be the focus of manufacturing layoffs and financial woes(Link, 2005), but according to this survey, people who live in the area of the country that includes Cleveland and Detroit in the low- to moderate-income lax bracket are using less of their income to pay for housing than other areas of the country. The study, dubbed the Housing Landscape for America's working Families 2005, revealed that from 1997 to 2003 the number of America's working class who spend more than half of their income on housing leaped from 2. million to 4. 2 million. The study also revealed that immigrant families are 75% more likely to use more of their income to pay for housing than American-born citizens. Across the country there are 14 million people that spend too much of their income 10 pay for housing. About 35% of that group is low- to moderate-income families. In 2003, the critical housing need for the Midwest totaled 8. 7% of residents while the West Coast had a need among I6. 89 (of its residents. The South followed the Midwest for a lower critical housing need with 9. % while the Northeast trailed California with a need among 14. 2% of its residents (Link, 2005). (Palley, 1999) Reported that given the dismal economic performance that marked the period from 1990 to 1995, when downsizing was widespread, inequality widened, and real wages fell, the subsequent U-turn in performance has been completely unexpected. Moreover, it has been cause for further surprise that the economy has continued to prosper despite the East Asian financial crisis, which destabilized global financial markets, undermined U. S. exports, and unleashed a surge in U. S. imports. A second source of uncertainty (Palley, 1999) concerns the sustainability of the growth of personal consumption spending, which had been the principal engine of economic expansion in the past two years. In 1997, personal consumption expenditure contributed 59 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) growth, and in 1998 it contributed 85 percent. Meanwhile, in 1997 and 1998 nominal personal consumption expenditures grew 5. 3 percent and 5. 7 percent, respectively, while nominal disposable income grew only 4. 7 percent and 4. 0 percent. From the Federal Reserve's perspective, this pattern is not sustainable since consumption is growing faster than potential output, which implies that the economy will eventually hit an inflationary wall. An alternative interpretation is that such growth is not sustainable because households must inevitably run short of financial wherewithal, and when this happens, an economic decline will ensue. According to this view, recession rather than inflation is the danger. A last scenario concerns the possibility of a full-scale crash or economic depression. Such an outcome is the least likely of the three scenarios, but it is still more likely than it used to be. In the 1960s and 1970s, the possibility of an economic depression was truly far removed. However, in the 1990s such a notion has surfaced as plausible, even if unlikely. Recent events in the global economy have added further credibility to this possibility. One reason a crash has become more likely is that many of the factors precipitating a hard landing are already in place, which means that many of them could be realized simultaneously. Indeed, many of these factors are linked in trip-wire fashion so that if one occurs, it triggers another. Thus a Federal Reserve-induced increase in interest rates could trigger a stock market crash, and this could then trigger an end to the spending boom. It could also trigger renewal of global financial instability. Similarly, a renewal of global financial instability could become the event that bursts the stock market bubble. Alternatively, a realization that the existing U. S. urrent-account trajectory is unsustainable could trigger a foreign exchange crisis that would renew global financial market instability, trigger a stock market crash, or evoke a Federal Reserve rate hike to protect the exchange rate and guard against imported inflation. Finally, if the economic expansion begins to flag of old age, overoptimistic projections of corporate profitability could pop, triggering a stock market crash. Also, a flagging economy could renew global financial turmoil by ending the U. S. conomy's role as buyer of last resort, thereby undermining the rest of the world's economic recovery, which rests significantly on export-led growth. However, it is not just this interconnectedness of negative factors that lies behind the increased plausibility of a crash. A second and more important factor concerns changes in the structure of the domestic and global economy that have diminished the presence of â€Å"automatic stabilizers† and replaced them with â€Å"automatic destabilizers. â€Å"These destabilizers work in a pro-cyclical fashion. On the cyclical upswing they make for stronger and longer expansions, but on the downswing they make for deeper and more sustained contractions. One important change concerns patterns of employment and remuneration. In earlier business cycles, labor hoarding was a common practice–firms held on to workers through downturns in order to retain their skills and avoid future hiring costs. However, the changed pattern of the employment relationship means that firms now hire and fire much more freely, making labor incomes more pro-cyclical. It is also the case, especially in manufacturing, that overtime has become more important as firms have sought to save on employment costs by extending hours rather than hiring new personnel. Wage income is therefore more vulnerable to downturns since hours can quickly be cut back in a downturn. Finally, casual evidence suggests that there may have been an increase in the use of incentive pay, with greater reliance on stock options and profit-related bonuses. In a downturn these forms of pay are likely to fall off rapidly, contributing to a larger decline in household income and spending. In sum, the above labor market developments all make wage income more procyclical, thereby increasing the pro-cyclicality of demand (Palley, 1999). Another development concerns the general flexibility of wages. In the period from 1950 to 1980, recessions were characterized by a decline in the rate of increase in nominal wages. However, the important point is that wages still rose in recession. The recessions of 1981-1982 and 1990-1991 suggest that a new pattern may have emerged. Now not only does the rate of wage inflation slow, but nominal wages can fall. This is a very important development when it is considered in conjunction with the new debt-driven business cycle. The ability to repay consumer debt depends on the nominal value of income. In a recession the value of debts remains unchanged, but now wage incomes may show a tendency to fall. This will tend to increase debt burdens and raise the prevalence of bankruptcy, thereby deepening recessions. Just as developments in labor markets have contributed to the emergence of automatic destabilizers, so have developments in financial markets. Households now have significantly increased access to credit. In particular, households are able to borrow more heavily against their assets, thereby increasing their ratio of debt to income. Home equity loans are the most prominent example. Another is the ability to borrow on margin against stock holdings. These innovations and their spread give the economy a strong pro-cyclical impulse, but they also generate greater financial fragility. Thus, in upswings when asset prices and wages are rising, households borrow more and spend more, thereby lengthening the cycle. However, when the downswing occurs, households are now saddled with greater indebtedness and may also be subject to margin calls. This worsens the downturn and may contribute to even greater stock market corrections (Palley, 1999). The shift from defined benefit to defined contribution pension plans is another automatic destabilize. First, households are able to borrow against these contributions. Second, these plans may change household consumption and saving behavior since each month they receive statements showing how the value of their pension holdings has increased. Thus, as stock market prices rise, households cut back on saving and increase consumption, while some households borrow against their appreciated 401(k) accounts. However, stock prices are likely to fall in a recession, while the incurred debts will remain unchanged. At that time, households will have larger debts and reduced holdings of liquid assets. Finally, it is worth noting that prices in the stock market may have been at bubble levels for more than three years; recall that Chairman Greenspan gave his â€Å"irrational exuberance† warning back in 1996. This means that a considerable amount of borrowing and spending has taken place on the basis of these bubble prices, so the bubble may be deeply embedded in the balance sheets of agents. This means that a market correction is likely to be all the more severe. In effect, the size of the negative impact of an asset price bubble is positively related to the duration of the price bubble. Accompanying these changes in the domestic economy have been changes in the global economy that have contributed to the emergence of international automatic destabilizes. One change is the increased degree of international financial capital mobility. When a country's financial markets begin to fall, it is easier for asset holders to exit, thereby creating a larger stampede for the exit. Foreign holders have an incentive to exit to protect the domestic-currency value of their holdings, and they now have a larger impact because of their increased holdings. Domestic holders are also more likely to exit because of reduced transaction costs and the increased sophistication of financial markets. They recognize that exit is the way to maximize the dollar value of portfolios when the dollar is under pressure. A second development is the increased international integration of goods markets. In theoretical terms, the foreign trade expenditure multiplier has become larger, which means that economic activity across countries has become more connected, making for greater amplitude in the world business cycle. In the 1950s and 1960s it was said that when the U. S. economy sneezes, the world economy catches a cold. Globalization of goods markets may have created a situation in which the U. S. economy sneezes and the world economy catches pneumonia. In this study (Wertheim, 2004), has developed a hypothesis which combines the effects of both economic impact and pre-disclosure information with the financial distress and potential benefit hypotheses developed in prior research in corporate downsizing. Instead of offering that these two hypotheses as competing and mutually exclusive, evidence are provided that supports the conclusion that these hypotheses simultaneously explain concurrent and additive effects on the stock price reaction to announcements of company layoffs. Finally, results indicate that the relationship between economic impact, pre-disclosure information and stock price reaction to layoff announcements depends on the relative dominance of the signals provided by the layoff about both financial distress and potential benefit. (Palley, 1999)stated that for policymakers at the Federal Reserve, the goal is a soft landing, though some (those who continue to believe in the natural rate of unemployment) think a bumpy landing is desirable since they believe that the unemployment rate is now below the natural rate. Thus not only is the economy expanding more rapidly than potential output, but the level of output already exceeds the level of potential output. Consequently, not only must the rate of output growth decrease, but the rate of unemployment must also rise back to the natural rate in order to avoid accelerating inflation. Since around 1980, there has been a determined drive to downsize American organizations (Budros, 1999) and there currently is no end in sight to this movement, even though studies underscore its technical-economic and human dysfunctions. This situation indicates a need to consider why organizations downsize in the first place, yet the shortcomings of the scholarly literature on this issue are conspicuous (Budros 1997). Therefore, in that paper he offered some systematic thoughts on the causes of downsizing. He developed a conceptual framework for exploring organizational innovation that features two under explored dimensions associated with this phenomenon, the basis of organizational action (rational versus irrational) and social context (organizational versus extra-organizational). He then portrayed downsizing as an organizational innovation and identified factors that lead organizations to downsize. (Palley, 1999) suggests that there are three possible future paths–a soft landing, a hard landing, and a crash. A soft or hard landing is by far the more likely outcome, but, that said, it is possible to imagine conditions in which a crash will occur. Japan's prolonged hard landing, East Asia's economic crisis, and the October 1998 near-meltdown of global financial markets have all added plausibility to such an outcome. A soft landing has the rate of output growth gradually slow to a level consistent with potential output growth. According to current consensus thinking, this potential rate of growth is somewhere between 2 and 2. 5 percent, though New Economy optimists claim it to be as high as 3 percent. A bumpier version of the soft landing (a. k. a. growth recession) has the rate of output growth slowing below potential but growth still remaining positive. Under this scenario, unemployment rises but the economy avoids a formal recession since output continues to grow. A hard landing has the decline in output growth such that it turns negative so that the economy is pushed into recession and unemployment rises even more. Finally, a crash involves a collapse in the rate of output growth, so that the economy enters a deep recession that may even border on a depression (Palley, 1999). The use of an organizational innovation framework to examine downsizing clearly has shed light on this phenomenon (Budros, 1999), revealing that organizations may make people cuts in response to rational organizational, rational extra organizational, irrational organizational, and irrational extra organizational processes. Of particular interest is the realization that scholars have focused almost exclusively on rational (organizational and extra-organizational) causes of downsizing, neglecting the role irrational forces may play in work force reductions. Perhaps this situation prevails because of the longstanding inclination among scholars to view organizations as efficiency-minded social actors. But if we are to develop a complete understanding of downsizing, then we must evaluate the impact of rational and irrational factors on this practice. This research investigates organizational practices in downsizing after a restructure and the effects of these practices on an organization and its employees (Labib, 1993), in particular, and on other stakeholders in general. Findings indicated that it is not downsizing that causes negative effects on both terminated and surviving employees, but rather the human resources practices used to implement downsizing; such as advance notification, method of termination, and amount and type of post-termination assistance given. This research further found that organizations often do not achieve their strategic goals after downsizing because they do not adjust their work processes and their human resource management practices to the new size and structure of the organization. Based on the literature review, a process model for the development and implementation of downsizing plans is proposed. The model is designed to provide a guide to be used by organizations when downsizing to ensure that the interests of all stakeholders are taken into account. The proposed model is tested through a field research in the form of case studies of five major organizations in Canada. The actual practices of these organizations are outlined and compared to the proposed process model, both collectively and individually. The differences are then analyzed and a new revised model is proposed that emphasizes, not only the downsizing process itself, but also what organizations must do during and after downsizing to ensure that employees' needs are met and that the new strategic goals that prompted the downsizing are achieved. Two conclusions are drawn from this research. The first is that downsizing, if it is necessary, must be undertaken in a way that would cause the least amount of pain to those affected which is the ethical responsibility of good corporate citizenship. The second conclusion is that downsizing, in itself, is not enough to ensure increased profitability and goal attainment, but rather, it is how the organization functions afterward that will indicate whether or not the downsizing was a good or bad thing(Labib). The topic of off shoring generates extreme differences of opinion among policy makers, business executives, and thought leaders. Some have argued that nearly all service jobs will eventually move from developed economies to low-wage ones. Others say that rising wages in cities such as Bangalore and Prague indicate that the supply of offshore talent is already running thin. To a large extent, these disagreements reflect the confusion surrounding the newly integrating and still inefficient global labor market. Much as technology change is making it possible to integrate global capital markets into a single market for savings and investment, so digital communications are giving rise to what is, in effect, a single global market for those jobs that can now, thanks to IT, be performed remotely from customers and colleagues. The newly integrating nature of this global labor market has strategic and tactical implications for companies and countries alike. Information and insight about it are sparse, however, and executives and policy makers have little of either for making the decisions they face. To provide help for governments and companies in both high- and low-wage economies, the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) analyzed the potential availability of offshore talent in 2. 8 low-wage nations and the likely demand for it in service jobs across eight of the developed world's sectors (chosen as a representative cross-section of the global economy): automotive (service jobs only), financial services, health care, insurance, IT services, packaged software, pharmaceuticals (service jobs only), and retailing. These sectors provide about 23 percent of the nonagricultural jobs in developed countries. The study, which projects trends to 2008, aims to assess the dynamics of supply and demand for offshore service talent at the occupational, sectoral, and global level and thus the likely impact on both employment and wages in the years ahead. MGI's analysis provides a panoramic view of the off shoring of services, as well as a number of useful conclusions, including: Off shoring will probably continue to create a relatively small global labor market – one that threatens no sudden discontinuities in overall levels of employment and wages in developed countries. Demand for offshore labor by companies in the developed world will increasingly push up wage rates for some occupations in low-wage countries, but not as high as current wage levels for those occupations in developed ones. Potential global supply and likely demand for offshore talent are matched inefficiently, with demand outstripping supply in some locations and supply outstripping demand in others. The more efficiently the emerging global labor market functions, of course, the more value it will create for its participants by allocating resources more economically. Both companies and countries can take specific measures to raise its efficiency in clearing demand and supply. Broadly speaking, a suitably qualified person anywhere in the world could undertake any task that requires neither substantial local knowledge nor physical or complex interaction between an employee and customers or colleagues. Using these criteria, we estimate that 11 percent of service jobs around the world could be carried out remotely. Of course, some sectors provide an unusually large number of such jobs. As a rule, industries with more customer-facing functions have less potential in this respect. Consequently, the retailing sector, in which the vast majority of employees work in stores, could offshore only 3 percent of its jobs by 2008. Yet because retailing is such a huge employer around the world, this would be equivalent to 4,900,000 positions. In contrast, by 2008 it will be possible to undertake remotely almost half of all jobs in the packaged-software industry, but in this far less labor-intensive business, that represents only 340,000 positions. Some occupations also are more amenable than others to remote employment. The most amenable to it are engineering, on the one hand, and finance and accounting, on the other (52 percent and 31 percent, respectively). The work of generalist and support staff is much less amenable (9 percent and 3 percent, respectively), because those workers interact with their customers or colleagues extensively. But generalists and support workers permeate every industry and therefore provide the highest absolute number of jobs that remote talent could fill: a total of 26,000,000. In practice, just a small fraction of the jobs that could go offshore actually will. Today, around 565,000 service jobs in the eight sectors we evaluated have been off shored to low-wage countries. By 2008, that number will grow to 1,200,000. Extrapolating these numbers to the entire global economy, we estimate that total offshore employment will grow from 1,500,000 jobs in 2003 to 4,100,000 in 2008 – just 1 percent of the total number of service jobs in developed countries. To put this number in perspective (in what is, to be sure, not a direct comparison), consider the fact that an average of 4,600,000 people in the United States started work with new employers every month in the year ending March 2005. Why is the gap between the potential and actual number of jobs moving offshore so large? Many observers think that regulatory barriers stand in the way, but MGI interviews indicate that company-specific considerations (such as management attitudes, organizational structure, and scale) are generally more powerful deterrents. Companies cite cost pressures as the main incentive to hire offshore labor, for example, but the strength of cost pressures varies by sector. Many companies lack sufficient scale to justify the costs of off shoring. Others find that the functions they could offshore in theory must actually stay where they are because their internal processes are so complex. Often, managers are wary of overseeing units on the other side of the world or unwilling to take on the burden of extra travel. On the supply side, developing countries produce far fewer graduates suitable for employment by multinational companies than the raw numbers might suggest. Nonetheless, the potential supply of appropriate workers is large and growing fast, and some small countries boast surprisingly large numbers of them.