Chronology of Events in Pakistan from Historical Perspective

Pakistan-Table A – Chronology of Important Events Pakistan Index Period Description ANCIENT EMPIRES ca. 2500-1600 B. C. Indus Valley culture ca. 1500-500 B. C. Migrations of Indo-Aryan- speaking tribes; the Vedic Age. ca. 563-483 B. C. Life of Siddartha Gautama–the Buddha; founding of Buddhism. ca. 321-180 B. C. Mauryan Empire; reign of Ashoka (r. ca. 274-236 B. C. ); spread of Buddhism. ca. 180 B. C. -A. D. 150 Saka dynasties in Indus Valley. ca. A. D. 78-ca. 200 Kushan Empire; Gandharan art flourishes. ca. A. D. 319-ca. 600 Gupta Empire; classical age in northern India.COMING OF ISLAM 711 Muhammad bin Qasim, an Arab general, conquers Sindh and incorporates it into Umayyad Caliphate. 1001-1030 Mahmud of Ghazni raids Indian subcontinent from Afghanistan. 1192 Muhammad of Ghor defeats Rajputs. 1206-1526 Delhi Sultanate. 1398 Timur destroys Delhi. THE MUGHAL PERIOD 1526 Babur defeats last Lodhi sultan in first Battle of Panipat, thus laying foundation of Mughal Empire. 15 56 Akbar victorious in secondBattle of Panipat. 1556-1605 Reign of Akbar. 1605-27 Reign of Jahangir; in 1612 East India Company opens first trading post (factory). 1628-58 Reign of Shah Jahan, builder of Taj Mahal. 1658-1707 Reign of Aurangzeb, last great Mughal ruler. 1707-1858 Lesser emperors; decline of Mughal Empire. BRITISH PERIOD 1757 Battle of Plassey and British victory over Mughal forces in Bengal; conventional date for beginning of British rule in India. 799-1839 Sikh kingdom established in Punjab under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. 1830s Institution of British education and other reform measures. 1838-42 First Anglo-Afghan War. 1843 British annex Sindh, Hyderabad, and Khairpur. 1845-49 Sikh Wars; British annex Punjab; Kashmir sold to Dogra Dynasty, to be ruled under British paramountcy. 1857-58 Uprising, variously known as Indian Mutiny, Sepoy Rebellion, and by Indian nationalists as First War of Independence. 858 East India Company dissolved; rule of India under British crown ( the British Raj) begins; marks formal end of Mughal Empire. 1878-80 Second Anglo-Afghan War. 1885 Indian National Congress formed. 1893 Durand Line established as boundary between Afghanistan and British India. 1905 Partition of Bengal. 1906 All-India Muslim League founded. 1909 Morley-Minto Reforms establish separate electorates for Muslims. 911 Partition of Bengal annulled. 1916 Congress-Muslim League Pact (often referred to as Lucknow Pact) signed. 1919 Montague-Chelmsford Reforms; Third Anglo-Afghan War. 1935 Government of India Act of 1935. 1940 Muslim League adopts â€Å"Pakistan Resolution† demanding separate nation for Muslims of India. â€Å"Two Nations Theory† articulated by Muslim League leader Mohammad Ali Jinnah and others. 1946 August Muslim League observes â€Å"Direct Action Day. Widespread communal rioting spreads to many parts of India. 1947 June Legislation introduced in British Parliament calling for independence and partition of India; communal ri oting and mass movements of population begin, resulting in next months in 250,000 deaths and up to 24 million refugees. INDEPENDENT PAKISTAN 1947 August Partition of British India; India achieves independence and incorporates West Bengal and Assam; Pakistan is created and incorporates East Bengal (East Wing, or East Pakistan) and territory in the northwest (West Wing, or West Pakistan);Jinnah becomes governor general of Pakistan; Liaquat Ali Khan becomes prime minister. October Start of first Indo-Pakistani War over sovereignty of Kashmir. 1948 September Jinnah dies; Khwaja Nazimuddin becomes governor general. 1949 January United Nations-arranged cease- fire between Pakistan and India takes effect. 1951 October Liaquat assassinated; Nazimuddin becomes prime minister; Ghulam Mohammad becomes governor general. 1955 August Ghulam Mohammad resigns; succeeded by Iskander Mirza.October One Unit Plan establishes the four provinces of West Pakistan as one administrative unit. 1956 March Con stitution adopted; Mirza becomes president. 1958 October Mirza abrogates constitution and declares martial law; Mirza sent into exile; Chief Martial Law Administrator (CMLA) General Mohammad Ayub Khan assumes presidency. 1965 August Start of second Indo-Pakistani War over Kashmir. 1969 March Martial law declared; Ayub Khan resigns; CMLA General Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan ssumes presidency. 1970 July One Unit Plan abolished; four provinces reestablished in West Pakistan. December First general elections; Awami League under Mujib secures absolute majority in new National Assembly; West Pakistan-dominated government declines to convene assembly. 1971 March East Pakistan attempts to secede, beginning civil war; Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Mujib), imprisoned in West Pakistan, declared provisional president. April Formal declaration of independence of Bangladesh issued; Mujib named president.December Pakistan launches preemptive air strikes against India; India invades East Pakistan; India recog nizes Bangladesh; Pakistani military forces in East Pakistan surrender to Indian armed forces, marking Bangladeshi independence; Yahya Khan resigns; Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto becomes CMLA and president. 1972 July Bhutto and India's prime minister, Indira Gandhi, conclude Simla Agreement, adjusting 1949 cease-fire line between Pakistan and India and creating new line of control. 1973 August New constitution goes into effect; Bhutto becomes prime inister. 1976 February Pakistan and Bangladesh establish diplomatic relations. 1977 March General elections; massive victory by Bhutto's party evokes widespread rioting and protest. July Army chief of staff, General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, appoints himself CMLA and proclaims martial law. 1978 September Mohammad Zia ul-Haq becomes nation's sixth president, replacing Fazal Elahi Chaudhry. 1979 February Islamic penal code introduced. April Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto hanged.November Mob storms and burns down United States Embassy in Islamabad, killing two Americ ans and two Pakistani employees; United States cultural centers in Rawalpindi and Lahore also torched; attacks in response to Iranian-inspired rumors that United States citizens responsible for November 20 attack on Grand Mosque in Mecca. December Large-scale movements of Soviet troops and military equipment into Afghanistan. 1980 January United States president Jimmy Carter pledges military assistance to help Pakistan defend itself against Soviet hreat; Carter offers US$400 million, rejected by Zia as â€Å"peanuts. † 1983 August President Zia ul-Haq announces that martial law will be lifted in 1985 but warns that army will retain key role in future governments. 1985 January Non-Islamic banking abolished. February General elections held for National Assembly. March Mohammad Khan Junejo invited by Zia to form civilian cabinet. July Economy declared to be in conformity with Islam. 1986 August Movement for the Restoration f Democracy (MRD) launches campaign against government, demanding new general elections; Benazir Bhutto arrested in Karachi. December New federal cabinet sworn into office by President Zia with Mohammad Khan Junejo continuing as prime minister. May Prime Minister Junejo expands federal government to include five new ministers and three new ministers of state; President Zia dismisses Junejo government, dissolves national and provincial assemblies, and orders new elections to be held within ninety days. August Zia, the United States mbassador to Pakistan, and top army officials killed in mysterious airplane crash near Bahawalpur in Punjab; Ghulam Ishaq Khan, chairman of Senate, sworn in as acting president; General Mirza Aslam Beg becomes chief of the army staff. October Salman Rushdie's novel, The Satanic Verses, banned in Pakistan; joint United States- Pakistani investigatory committee concludes that Zia's death was caused by â€Å"criminal act of sabotage. † November Elections held for National Assembly; Pakistan People's Party ( PPP) wins ninety-three out of 207 seats contested.December Benazir Bhutto sworn in as first female prime minister of a Muslim nation; PPP and MQM parties sign â€Å"Karachi Declaration,† an accord to restore peace in Sindh; Pakistan and India sign accords at South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Islamabad, including agreement not to attack each other's nuclear facilities. June Combined Opposition Parties (COP), consisting of most opposition groups, formed in National Assembly, with Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi as leader. February Soviet Union completes withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.September Pakistan's largest ever military exercise, Zarb- e – Momin (Sword of the Faithful), commences. October Pakistan rejoins Commonwealth of Nations. December Ethnic riots in Sindh claim scores of lives. 1990 May-June Ethnic troubles mount in Sindh; rift develops between PPP and coalition partners. August President Ghulam Ishaq Khan di smisses Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, her cabinet, and National Assembly; orders new elections for October 24, 1990; Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi becomes caretaker prime inister. October United States president George Bush is unable to deliver annual certification that Pakistan does not possess nuclear weapons as condition of continued assistance and arms and technology transfers, leading to cutoff of most aid. National elections held; Bhutto's PPP loses to coalition of rightist parties. November Mian Nawaz Sharif elected prime minister. 1991 February Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif liberalizes economy, lifts controls on foreign currency entering country, and announces policies to encourage new investment; numerous pro-Iraq emonstrations and widespread public opposition to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's support of Desert Storm but pro-United Nations stance reiterated. May Shariat Bill is adopted by National Assembly. July Opposition members call upon president to dismiss government because of deteriorating law and o rder situation, particularly in Sindh. 1992 December Babri Mosque in Ayodya, India, destroyed by Hindu fundamentalists seeking to build Hindu temple on contested site; communal violence mounts over incident; Pakistan asks Indian government to protect Muslims in India. 993 April President Ishaq Khan dismisses government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, citing corruption. July President Ishaq Khan and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resign under pressure from military; World Bank officer, Moeen Qureshi, named caretaker prime minister pending elections in October. October Benazir Bhutto's PPP wins slim margin in national elections and builds coalition government; Benazir appointed prime minister. November PPP stalwart, Farooq Leghari, defeats acting President Wassim Sajjad and becomes president. Data as of April 1994

Lincoln Electric Essay

Lincoln Electric’s CEO Massaro was correct in his assessment that, markets in developing countries would grow faster and yield a higher return. This strategy was critical and in alignment with the organization’s goal to reach 50% foreign sales revenue. As president of Lincoln Asia, Mike Gillespie faces a great challenge with his decision to enter the Indonesian market. If Mr. Gillespie does decide to enter Indonesia, he must also decide whether to do it alone or through a joint venture, and how to structure employee compensation. It looks like Gillespie conducted enough corporate anthropology research to identify viable consumer product needs that Lincoln Electric will be able to provide (stick consumables vs. automatic consumables segments). I understand that investing in Indonesia offers many benefits to the organization, mostly towards increased profit margins and market share of consumable products (for further information regarding the strategic planning for entering Indonesia see Exhibit 1). However, in my opinion, Gillespie does not have enough data to make an informed decision regarding this move. Fear of a rekindled Civil War, unstable inflation rates, and other activities in the country revealed both economic and political instability. Other issues to be considered include labor issues of Indonesia 1. I would recommend further market and cultural analysis to aid his decision-making. If Gillespie decides to enter Indonesia, it is my recommendation to enter with a partner. I support this recommendation because, through his own market analysis and consultation it was identified that due to the political structure a local partner with in-depth knowledge, and political connections would be essential for success. I understand that a joint venture will decrease Lincoln Electric’s profit margins, but in my opinion, the joint venture will minimize investment risk, especially if a partner is able to provide capital towards the cost of building a facility. Gillespie’s choice in partners should be based off of a predefined set of criteria. These criteria should include current relations/contracts with Lincoln Electric, current market share, knowledge of local market and culture, political and business contacts. The partner should also have the ability to withstand any financial risk toward this investment. See table 2 for a breakdown of both potential partners and how they compare to the criteria. I would recommend a joint venture with both companies (Tira and SSHJ). The reason for this recommendation is due to the diverse benefits, which both companies can bring to the venture. However, I have concerns regarding the loyalty of either partner to the Lincoln Electric brand. If we apply the social exchange theory to this situation, one could speculate that when more than one partner is included in a business relationship, the loyalty of each business partner may decreases due to competition and fear of favoritism 2. It is Gillespie’s intention to implement a piecework compensation structure and I support this decision. It is also the intent of Lincoln Electric to exceed minimum wage requirements and prevailing rates. Gillespie has concerns regarding the ability for all employees to meet minimum wage using piecework compensation. It is my recommendation to set the minimum daily quota at the minimum wage rate. I would also implement an aggressive performance bonus paying out monthly vs. annual. I would highly recommend further cultural analysis with a focus on time perceptions and labor perceptions of the local culture. The compensation structure should be adjusted as time goes on and favorable trends in compensation are identified.

INFS1602 Assignment A Essay

The purpose of this report was to design a start-up strategy and IS infrastructure for Ruth & Luke (R&L) Crowdsource’s business. Research for this report identifies the focus (target market), opportunities and threats in entering the market and provides a detailed business model. This report incorporated recent statistical data in relation to online social media, various journal articles and books obtained online. Research for the target market indicates that the seekers comprise of mainly businesses of a variety of sizes that are familiar with the practice of crowd-sourcing. In regards to the solvers, findings suggest that university students and academics will be the dominant target market for R&L Crowdsource’s business. Using the five-forces model to identify new market entrants, substitute products and services, customers, suppliers, and competitive rivalry, overall there is a medium-high level of threat in entering the market. Further research recommends that R&L Crowdsource should focus more on achieving an easily accessible system with availability to an extensive range of audiences while raising reputation and credibility by advertising through online social media, the ‘Google’ search engine and newspapers. The efficiency and effectiveness of R&L Crowdsource’s business operations will be dependent on the amount of investment into the appropriate information systems, which may be financed through revenue obtained by charging a fee to seekers. Target markets (seekers/solvers) R&L Crowdsource will be commencing the online business initiative for clients who are seeking for their business problems to be solved through outsourcing the business solution. To identify potential target markets R&L Crowdsource needs to consider following characteristics: Seekers: Type of clients : R&L Crowdsource needs to determine the type of business that their client conducts i.e. retail companies or IT companies. Online and offline research needs to be undertaken to see which sectors of these markets need R&L Crowdsource’s business solution services. This is because a variety of companies encounter different levels of difficulty within the businesses operations. As this is a relatively new type of service, it has not widely adopted it yet. Therefore, R&L Crowdsource should focus more on those who have used this service previously or are in the same industry where their competitors have used due to the fact that they are more likely to be interested (Alzawahreh & Khasawneh, 2011). This can be done through online research and surveys. Size of clients : Online research conducted primarily from Innocentive.com (www.Innocentive.com) suggests that the size of clients should not be prioritised. The research revealed that regardless of whether they are operating internationally or domestically, a variety of different sized companies are likely to favour outsourcing their business problems. Examples of these companies include P&G (Spradlin, 2012). Solvers: In order to target the market for seekers effectively, the directors of R&L Crowdsource should reflect on their experiences as past seekers. Primarily, different participants will conduct each project and depending on the characteristics of the projects, it may require more time and work. People who already have a full-time job are not likely to desire spending their spare time on additional works unless it has either a high level of reimbursement or it is an area of interest. Therefore, R&L Crowdsource should initially seek university students and academics that are qualified in certain fields so that the outcome will be more reliable. Implementation of 5 forces model New Market Entrants This type of business initiative is fully based on the supplier and they are free to participate and exit for the given challenges. The company will have a middleman role, which connects the suppliers to its clients. There are few economies of scale in place because there is no significant capital investment required and specialised technology is not required. The company will likely encounter other competitors coming into the market when it commences sooner or later. However, its strong brand development achieved by successful and stable customer relationship established will lead to a low threat of new entrants in the market. Substitute products and services Those who request these services would be less concerned about the process, caring only about the outcome. The assumption based on this initiative is that â€Å"the wisdom of crowds† will come up with optimised ideas for the challenges. Furthermore, clients who are considered as conservative will have a tendency to solve the business problems with internationally well-recognised business consulting companies as they can work collaboratively. They provide more systematic ways of solving problems and can work interactively with the companies as their group of employees will work for the company with well-trained and qualified human labours while it costs more. This may result a high level of client satisfaction rate. Furthermore, there is the likelihood that large sized companies would substitute this type of service by using their internal resources. This means that there is a medium to high level of threats of substitute services. Customers At the present, the bargaining power lies with the customers until R&L Crowdsource has built up a reputable audience consisting of both seekers and solvers. The main feature of this business initiative is that clients do not know who will be participating in the task and this will seem unattractive to more conservative companies due to the fact that they would be prefer to spend their resources on reputable companies and individuals instead of taking a risk through Crowdsourcing. Suppliers Suppliers will be those who are willing to attempt given challenges with other people collaboratively to discover the ideal solution. Since the business has a fundamental idea that collaborative work with other people who have different background will come up with better ideas, supplier bargaining power will be considered as relatively lower in this business type. This is because development of Internet accessibility has allowed a large number of users to facilitate a variety of internet resources regardless of their geographical location. Therefore, we assume that there will be a large number of potential participants who would like to take challenges with certain level of reimbursement. Competitive Rivalry This type of an online business is not widely recognised so far and only few existing competitors have provided the services. However, this does not benefit the R&L Crowdsource’s business because it also has a disadvantage, which is the lower level of switching costs for clients. A differentiated feature of this business from its potential competitors in the market is that the business problem will be worked on by a group of people who have different background knowledge rather than one individual. Therefore, even though this business market is considered as a blue-chip business, there is medium to high level of industry rivalry between competitors. Business Strategy R&L should utilise a click only strategy to assist their online business. The strengths of an online business lie with the low start-up capital and overhead costs, consisting of mainly purchasing a domain, designing the website and promoting the business. In this case, however, we will be promoting the business mainly through online social media which no cost. In order to gain exposure or popularity, something essential for every business, after designing the website, marketing should be invested in to find potential customers. Re-iterating the target markets from above, solvers would primarily consist of people who may not have full-time jobs and for people who may be full-time studying. However, knowing the target market will not increase website traffic, advertisements and other methods should be used in establishing R&L’s company’s reputation. R&L should advertise firstly with ‘Google’s AdWords’. As ‘Google’ dominates the search engine market, with 83% of search users using ‘Google’ and just under 1 trillion uses per year it emphasises its popularity. This online advertising program would allow for R&L’s advertisements to appear on ‘Google’ and its partner websites and will only charge R&L when someone clicks their ad. Using online social media is another method they should undertake in order to attract more seekers and solvers. Creating a page on ‘Facebook’ will allow R&L to announce co-creation projects and communicate with the public. If, for example, a large business ‘likes’ this page, it will be opened to a greater number of people, increasing credibility and reputation. Other sites such as twitter may also be used for announcements and increasing popularity. Advertising on newspapers or magazines should also be considered. Placing advertisements on the business section of newspapers may appeal more to seekers whereas advertising on other sections may appeal more to solvers. However, this may be less effective in finding solvers if we consider our target market for solvers to be full-time students in comparison to advertising on ‘Google’ and online social media websites. Once a Crowdsourcing project is established and seekers are found, if the project is successful, R&L should attempt to increase popularity and credibility through their client’s business in an attempt to continue the network effect mentioned earlier. Web 2.0 Mainstream and emerging Web 2.0 technologies and applications have greatly enabled users to share with and communicate to the broader world through online media. By advertising R&L’s business through social media, there is a higher potential to develop and expand this business. This business strategy relies partly on the network effect, as it will be dependent on the amount of users. As more users participate, the network will grow exponentially. Statistics also reveal that 60% of social media users are willing to post about products/services on ‘Facebook’ if it is of interest and that 91% of experienced social marketers see improved website traffic due to social media campaigns . As seen from these statistics, it is evident that the use of online social media such as ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ will be of benefit in increasing website traffic and exposure to the broader population. Also, in order to establish this liaison system, many applications or programs of web 2.0 should be employed to enable the operations of the business. As they are just starting the business, the use of free web-based tools such as ‘Google Docs’ and ‘eGroupWare’ will enhance the ability for the solvers to collaborate as any work submitted or edited will be updated automatically for everyone to read. As with any content management systems, roles must be set in order to maintain an efficient workplace. Having editors who can only edit material and administrators to watch over the work and behaviour of the editors will dissuade solvers from abusing their editing privileges. Using web based email clients such as ‘Gmail’ or ‘Hotmail’ will allow for seekers and solvers to communicate with R&L in regards to any problems outside of the work. As these web-based clients have options to organise emails into separate areas or folders, the emails won’t be as cluttered and be easier to deal with. Business Model: An organisation’s business model is essentially the blueprint of their business logic and ideologies (Ludeke-Freund, 2013). As such, it is critical that an effective business model is both established and adhered to. Osterwalder’s business model canvas is explained in nine different pillars. Key Partners Key Activities Value Proposition Relationships Clients Key Resources Channels Cost Structure Revenue Stream Source: Alexander Osterwalder Value Proposition RL Crowdsource needs to provide a universal crowd sourcing service, which connects solvers and seekers alike. The competitive advantage that RL Crowdsource should be striving for is an easily accessible system, which provides access to an extensive range of audiences. Whilst crowd sourcing is freely available on the Internet, R&L should implement a system that easily connects a seeker directly to the best available solvers. In an increasingly global generation, RL Crowdsource should also have the ability to bypass language issues, which would normally stop a seeker from outsourcing work. The presence of RL Crowdsource as an intermediary will also enable easier transactions. Payment and reward incentives would be transacted through RL Crowdsource, decreasing the possibility of fraud and enabling peace of mind for many users. Other solvers may be motivated by the social benefits derived from creations that benefits society greatly. Some others may not be motivated by recognition or monetary incentives but instead, choose to â€Å"free reveal† ideas (Krogh, 2006). R&L Crowdsource should endeavour to harness these different sources of motivation by being the delivery system for any rewards and incentives. The communication and collaboration between solvers and seekers in the project should produce greater satisfaction and results. It should be noted that the satisfaction and results were facilitated through RL Crowdsource’s C2C business system, and thus forms part of the value proposition to R&L Crowdsource’s clients. Pathak (2009) articulates this through emphasising the efficient nature of platforms, which allow consumers to cooperate and collaborate with each other in real time. RL Crowdsource will conduct advertising and recruiting activities on behalf of the client. This is particularly important because a large part of RL Crowdsource’s target audience will have little or no expertise and experience in this area. Key Activities To successfully enable the value propositions stated above, R&L Crowdsource must establish a system to connect consumers. A key element of that aspect would be a search RSS feed that connects a solver’s characteristics and qualifications with that of a seeker’s. The feed should have different categories alongside a onsite search engine. De La Torre-Diez (2013) educates that an RSS Feed is an extremely effective method for sharing frequently updated information on the Internet. It is also a low-cost method of creating universal access to the offerings of the firm through the Internet (Ning et al., 2008). A customer relationship management system and a multilingual search engine within the company’s website would also be useful for developing customer relationships and achieving the value propositions. The implementation of these systems would be dependant on the availability of capital. As the firm invests in these information systems, the key is for quicker and more accurate connections between seekers and solvers. This will thus create more value for everyone as more users use the site. Key Resources Capital is clearly the most important resource. It will enable R&L Crowdsource to obtain technological requirements such as computers, networks, databases and customised ERP systems. A physical location to store these items will need to be available as well. As the value propositions are primarily based online, R&L Crowdsource should mitigate a lot of resource expenses attributed to traditional brick and mortar businesses (Pure-Play e-Business Development, 2000). Key Partners The key partners of a firm are those who support and aid the firm’s success on a professional level (Clark, Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2012). As such, R&L Crowdsource should consider its I.T department or outsourced I.T consultants to be a key partner. This is because the firm’s value propositions rely entirely on the ability of its information systems. The design and accessibility of the system will also determine the success of the system. Other key partners could include large business customers whose reputation can give credibility to R&L Crowdsource’s legitimacy. Likewise, R&L should consider all users as a key partner simply because it relies on its users to create the value proposition for other users. Customer Relationship Managing customer relationships is critical for every business that aspires to attain a competitive advantage. The nature of a customer relationship is defined by how responsive, attentive, personalised and customised it is (Bankston 2013). A key aim to maintaining customer relationship is therefore to increase efficiency and effectiveness for every seeker or solver. Due to the low switching costs attributed to many businesses based primarily online (Pure-Play e-Business Development, 2000), customer loyalty is often defined through the value and customer service attained by the customer. Therefore, R&L Crowdsource must continue investing in the key resources defined above to maintain customer loyalty. Other methods to enhance customer loyalty can be through discounts and lower pricing. Channel Communication between the firm and its customers is a vital element. For a firm whose value proposition is primarily based online, it is rational to have communication channels based primarily online as well. Milburn (2004) states that the challenges faced by companies, involves encouraging a behavioural change to electronic communication. This makes sense for the company because electronic communication is often the method of communication with the lowest cost as well (Milburn, 2004). Methods such as email and enquiry forms on the website should be used. The advantage of electronic communications lies in the fact that it is accessible at any time of the day. However for electronic communication to be successful, it must be quick, responsive and easy to navigate (Bernier, 2013). Customer Segments R&L Crowdsource should be creating value for both seekers and solvers. It is paramount that both segments of the market see value in order for R&L Crowdsource to deliver its value propositions. The most important customers are the customers who generate the most revenue for the firm. These typically include organisations that use R&L Crowdsource extensively . Cost Structure The most important costs in this business model involve the business systems that deliver the value proposition to our clients. This includes the database (which needs to be constantly updated), alongside server bandwidth and RSS Feed design. These resources are likely to be the most expensive as it also incurs a constant maintenance cost. Legal support will also be required to make sure R&L Crowdsource abides by national and international legislation in its activities. Revenue Streams The revenue streams for R&L Crowdsource should be primarily from the seekers. An example of this can be seen by eBay.com, where the seller pays a percentage of the final sale price to eBay, alongside administration fees. This is a model that R&L Crowdsource should adopt. Bonakdar et al. (2012) educates that misguided revenue gaining ideals will hurt all business models. Therefore, R&L Crowdsource should refrain from charging fees on solvers. This will allow the number of solvers to increase because the service is free to them. Revenue will thus rise naturally as the number of seekers increases. References 1. Alzawahreh, A., Khasawneh, S. (2011). Business Strategies Adopted by Jordanian Organisations: The Key to sustained Competitive Advantage. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, Volume 3 . 2. Amir Bonakdar, T. W. (2013). Transformative Influence of Business Processes on the Business Model: Classifying the State of the Practice in the Software Industry. Hawaii: Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 3. Bankston, K. (2013). What’s Your Top Goal. Credit Union Management . 4. Bernier, P. (2013). Taking the Customer Experience Mobile. Business Source Premier (7), pp. 8-11. 5. Clark, T., Osterwalder, A. (2012). Business Model You: A One-Page Method For Reinventing Your Career. Hoboken, New Jersey, USA: John Wiley & Sons . 6. Cherry Tree & Co. (2000). Pure-Play e-Business Development. USA: Cherry Tree & Co. 7. ComScore, 2011. Statistic Brain. [Online] Available at: http://www.statisticbrain.com/google-searches/ [Accessed 16 April 2013]. 8. Kristin Purcell, J. B. L. R., 2012. PewInternet. [Online] Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Search-Engine-Use-2012/Summary-of-findings.aspx [Accessed 16 April 2013]. 9. Krogh, v. (2006). Free Revealing and the Private Collective Model for Innovation Incentives. R&D Management , 36 (3), 295-306. 10. Ledeke-Freund, F. (2013). Business Models for Sustainable Innovation: State-of-the-art and Steps Towards a Research Agenda. Journal of Cleaner Production , April Edition, 9-19. 11. Milburn, P. (2004). Customer Communications: Keeping Pace in an Ever-Changing Environment. Keeping Good Companies , 56 (8), 458-459. 12. Pathak, B. (2009). C2C Business Models: Beyond Online Marketplaces. Hershey, PA, USA: IGI Publishing. 13. Pring, C., 2012. The Social Skinny. [Online] Available at: http://thesocialskinny.com/99-new-social-media-stats-for-2012/ [Accessed 16 April 2013]. 14. Spradlin, D. (2012). Are you Solving the Right Problem?. Harvard Business Review 15. Torre-Diez, I. d. (2013). Development and Performance Evaluation of a New RSS Tool for a Web-Based System. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, Volume 7. 16. X Ning, H. J. (2008). RSS: A Framwork Enabling Ranked Research on the Semantic Web. Information Processing and Management . Overview of the Report The main purpose of the assignment is to illustrate how our client should commence their own business initiative into a viable business venture with our recommendation as a team of Information System consultants. Basically, we had to design a ideal and optimized business model for our client with reasonable explanation and how Information System will accelerate their business initiative. During our preparation for the group project for INFS1602, we started from reviewing the lecture notes and prescribed text book individually for the brainstorming stage. This was suggested by Justin as we did not fully understand all concepts and theories that the lecturer explained during the week 1 to 5 lectures. This idea was an absolutely good starter for our group work and we were able to find the right direction and it gave us a clear way of completing the work After the brainstorming stage, we had to discuss more details regarding of the assignment as none of us had the identical idea such as which target market we should decide as well as how we can recommend which business model Ruth and Luke should adopt. Throughout the brainstorming process, we came up with a variety of different ideas for potential target markets and Porter’s competitive forces model described in the text book was used in order to justify why we chose the target markets for the client’s business. This textbook resources were quiet useful, however, we needed to do further researches since it illustrated mainly generalized ideas and we wanted to see how actual Porter’s competitive forces model is adopted in practice. Therefore, we found some samples of the Porter’s model and this gave us very clear ideas about the first part of the assignment. When we were doing the second part of the assignment which is describing how our client should use information systems and technology to create value and how mainstream and emerging Web 2.0 technologies and applications could be used to enable the strategy and operation of the business, we referred to our textbook mainly from chapter 3 to chapter 4. Some case studies from the text book were significantly helpful to understand how actual information system is working for existing companies. Particularly, in terms of answering how the business initiative can generate revenue, the case study in chapter4 was a time-saver as we discussed these issues during workshop and various different opinions and perspectives from classmates stimulated when we were doing the brainstorming. In conclusion, while we were doing the group assignment, we encountered some conflicts as they had different point of view for the same issues and we effectively solved those issues cooperatively. Workshops, textbook and the lecture notes were the main resources that we used and a bit of supportive online researches were conducted in order to verify our recommendation for the client. Also we all agreed that information system is a combination of all different business knowledge and can maximise a business strategy if we can apply properly.

Historical Role Of Slavery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Historical Role Of Slavery - Essay Example Swift in Gulliver’s Travel describes the human nature in a satirical form. He shows how honesty and on the other hand lying are incorporated into the human nature and how well they fit. Swift does this by taking Gulliver through a self-deception journey and getting to a point of experiencing e depicted authenticity that is straightforward. Swift, therefore, reveals human nature as being faced with issues of telling the truth, lying, hypocrisy and authenticity and reality and illusion (Jan 16). Human nature in Voltaire’s Candide emerges as being ridiculous and depicts that whatever happens is for the best of all the possible worlds. He focuses on the capacity of the human to reason and believes that the only time that humanity can reform is when an individual is able to think by themselves and independent of what others think (Jefferson 146). Voltaire sees the possibility of challenges that face individuals with regard to belief before they can realize that optimism does not provide a realistic basis to enable them to perceive the world. He clearly shows that people must think independently in order to achieve all that they ate capable of achieving (Lowers 44). Shelly in Frankenstein brings out the human nature as being to judge from appearance. The people just see the external features of the creature and from this labels him the monster (Allen 93).They do not see beyond his external deformities even to realize the good aspects that he possesses such as being an eloquent speaker.  

Assignment 12 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

12 - Assignment Example They are mostly noncompliant with the law enforcement officials and show aggression towards public or police. They also make the police to chase them and show as if they are trying to escape. They point their weapons towards the law officials and also towards themselves. The subjects appear emotionally distressed, angry, panicked, and much more. They may also be under influence of drugs or alcohol (Mohandie, et. al, 2009). The police shootings can be regarded as suicide-by-cop if the subject delivers verbalized claim of self-destruction, if he has prior desire to die, if he has made any attempts of suicide before, if he is already receiving some form of medical or psychiatric care, if he has lost someone dear and near, if he is under depressing financial issues, if he had a conflicting relationship or some breakage in relationship, if he has lost his job, if he has some health issues, or if his some closer person has problems with law enforcement officials (Pinizzotto, et. al, 2005). Therefore, the people interested in suicide can be identified by their

The Right to Privacy and Corporate Responsibility Essay

The Right to Privacy and Corporate Responsibility - Essay Example The concepts presented will then be assimilated into a discussion about the reasonable accommodation of the genuine needs of both sides of the question, with a conclusion regarding a structure which defines acceptable practices for corporate inquiries while preserving the rights of individuals to retain a modicum of privacy. This paper will be organized along those logical lines with a section on individual privacy rights that includes current research on the topic. A second section will discuss modern corporate tactics that might impinge upon personal privacy and citations from academic sources regarding the suitability of those methods. The third section will incorporate the concepts of the previous discussions into some workable ideas that accommodate the needs of both parties. Finally, the conclusion will set forth a concise framework that bridges the two extremes. Individuals have a reasonable expectation that their privacy be protected. Corporations have a demonstrable right to employ those individuals who have an appropriate personal and work history, as well as a work ethic compatible with the objectives and corporate culture of the company. As with any discussion of fundamental rights, however, a consideration must be made regarding the fact that an individual person's right to privacy does not exclude the need of a corporation to be reasonably assured that the employee is trustworthy. Conversely, an organization's need to have confidence in their employees does not give it latitude to excessively intrude into the private life of an individual unnecessarily. Accordingly, a proper balance of the needs of both parties will permit the accomplishment of the mutually-sought objectives. Individuals and the companies that employ them can both get what they need if proper respect is shown for the concerns of each. Individual Privacy Rights In the modern workplace, employees are subjected to events every day that potentially impinge upon their privacy. Some employers perform credit and background checks prior to hiring. Others require employees to submit to random drug testing or even polygraphs. In many large corporations, employees' computers and telephone conversations are monitored, recorded, and reviewed. In fact, "[s]urveillance is so thorough in some offices that employers can check to see exactly when employees leave their work stations to go to the bathroom and how long they take" (Hayden, Hendricks & Novik 1990: 97). Individuals, however, do not give up their right to privacy just because they sign on to work for a company. The preservation of these rights is therefore a major concern. Even in countries where the right to privacy is not statutory or constitutionally-derived, individuals have a natural right to expect that their personal information will not be distributed without their consent or used against them in an unlawful manner. It is a widely-recognized principle that even when a situation exists where someone, a corporation for example, has a duty to its investors to investigate the background of a potential employee, that duty is circumscribed by the individual's basic human rights. As expressed by

English law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

English law - Essay Example ?s populace from unexpected data losses, as a matter of fact the largest data loss ever recorded in history which occurred on the inauspicious 21st of November 2007 was within the United Kingdom itself, and that too by the inappropriate management by government’s recruits themselves; within this data breach hefty information which encompassed the bank and employment details of more than 25 million Britons was lost. The data also included personal information about many renowned and wealthy personalities. (Hines, ONeill, & Blakely, 2007) Very soon after the data theft incident the Times reported another scandal where the missiles triggered by the ICO had missed by a continent as the report reveals that about 100 hacker websites were candidly selling off Bank details and secret PIN numbers (Mostrous & Kennedy, 2007). This report triggered off yet another tittle-tattle and directly questioned the ostensible â€Å"complexity† of the Data Protection Act. This report specifically focuses on the data protection policies for Banks and their Customers; this also includes avowals in various litigations such as the case of Bavarian Lager Co Ltd. v Commission of the European Communities. At the outset, it is to be declared that the Data Protection Act specifically focuses on the prevention of all sorts of data for living beings, may that be Bank details; personal info such as marital status, age, etc.; profession info; or last but not least secure data. Thus it is clear that the prime focus of Data Protection Act primarily places preference for the customer. As a matter of fact the Data Protection Act in the U.K. is known to be the most austere amongst similar laws in any other part of the world. The author would like to address this case because this created results that were the basic foundations of the data protection and information transfer procedures: The Basis of this case was negligence in clarifying the bank’s policies, this led to the outburst of the so called

Two discussion questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Two discussion questions - Essay Example An example is firing employees who are involved in the production of company products. Small-scale change is ideal in the case of avoiding conflicts in a firm. Making a small change in the firm will serve to make improvements to a company’s operations, without affecting its overall structure. This has proved as an effective strategy in maintaining standards and quality of most successful organization (Spector, 2010). Large-scale change involves a complete renovation of most if not all of the current factors. For example, a company will seek to change the products it produces; hence, it will renovate the company by introducing new machinery and installing efficient measures of operation such as using computers rather than filing cabinets for storing company data and information. Such change is implemented by companies, which suffer significant losses that affect their mode of operation (Borkowski, 2005). Large scale-change in a company would be applied in phases in order to get rid of the problems that negatively affect the company in bits and pieces. Small and large-scale changes vary depending on the situation, and as a result, they are applied based on preference and analysis of the best alternative. However, small and large-scale changes can be implemented simultaneously. For example, if a company wants to make large-scale changes to the company, the management can apply small-scale changes to achieve a large-scale change (Spector, 2010). The strategy is used as a methodology that will allow individuals to acclimatize (accept) the changes being implemented. A recent change that was applied in my workplace involved the management introducing a computer system that would access employee performance based on their output on a weekly basis (Spector, 2010). This was to be used in determining whether individuals were lazy and underperforming, whether some employees did more work than others and also to find out the employees that

Discuss the relationship between globalisation and democracy (with Essay

Discuss the relationship between globalisation and democracy (with reference to the asia pacific) - Essay Example Globalisation is metaphorically making the world a smaller place as it is is now a lot faster to travel or communicate with any part of the world. Globalisation has also led to the merging of some cultures and the quick transmission of ideas and information.3 The process of globalisation is supposed to offer economic benefits to all countries involved within it. For the developed countries of the West and Japan it brings cheaper goods and services whilst for developing countries in Asia pacific and other regions it brings employment and investment. Along with the investment, ideas are also exported to developing countries, ideas such as democracy.4 Some have attributed the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe along with the brutally repressed student uprising in China with globalisation and an increasing desire for democracy. 5 China although it has retained its communist leadership has become increasingly involved with the globalisation since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. The Chinese government adopted capitalist economic policies to drive forward economic development whilst retaining tight political control as they believed involvement in globalisation would possibly increase the demand for democracy.6 Globalisation can and has played a role in promoting and bring about democracy in the Asia pacific region although it has not been an easy or straightforward relationship. Countries such as South Korea have had long periods of economic growth and have benefited from globalisation. South Korea was also helped by its closeness to Japan; it however was not a democracy as such until the 1990s. The United States supported South Korea because it was anti-Communist.7 During the cold war the United States was happy to support not only South Korea but other undemocratic countries such as

Health Traditions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Health Traditions - Essay Example As the discussion highlights cltural imposition- cultural imposition is the tendency by a nurse to apply the majority culture on every individual without any further probing. Cultural imposition has led to the abuse of other community cultures. Through the heritage kit, a nurse shall know the different cultures of every individual. This will help him deal with every patient at individual cultural level. For instance, there are cultures which do not allow the eating of certain foods that majority eats. Therefore, the health provider must not recommend such food to the individual, as that will be cultural imposition. Cultural sensitivity- this is when both verbal and non-verbal language is used in a very respectful way as not to offend any individual in the community. For this reason, a health provider will be obliged to use more polite language when handling clients. Some words may be universally accepted but prohibited by a certain community. By assessing a family using the heritage kit, a health provider shall be able to deeply understand the language norms of that particular community and thus help him avoid the use of certain words on patients. From this paper it is clear that diversity- diversity is the general variation in the society. When an assessment carried out using the heritage is closely evaluated, a heath provider gets to know the level of diversity in a particular community. He will be able to know in exact numbers, for instance, how many orphaned children are in the community so that they can be provided for.

ECONOMICS OF POVERTY AND DISCRIMINATION Research Paper

ECONOMICS OF POVERTY AND DISCRIMINATION - Research Paper Example This makes an exploration of this idea complicated by the idea of the life of the person at immanent risk of homelessness as something that is expressive of the perspective of those who define them, and therefore may, wittingly or not, make class-struggle dynamics more a part of the equation than a lot of people may realize. That is, to define those who are at risk and be so explicitly brought down by them, or rather by those who oppress them, suggests a position that is far from an objective experience of the actual life of the homeless, who may or may not be aware of the rituals of definition which make their experience so singularly bitter. From this perspective, the poverty of the individual seems like more of a forced choice than a willing obligation. To avoid confusion, then, those who are immanently homeless still have their basic needs met, which are shelter food and water and clothes. But those who are homeless are beginning to lose these basic needs and lose touch with the society that provides them. This is the main difference in terms of the distinctions of immanent and real homelessness. This sets up a classification system of the poor and homeless, so that it is at least clear exactly about whom someone is speaking when they name the actual and immanent homeless. The definitions which can be provided in terms of this difference are largely classical and do not have the same attenuation that is placed in other sections of experience on modern equivalencies of the welfare state as it exists today; nonetheless, perhaps the classical definitional structure of immanence versus actuality in referring to the poor and homeless is made more clear by its presentation as a set of unchanging categories that includes the poor, the al most-homeless, and the homeless. It seems that this set of categories could be expanded, and that we could expand this definition by adding that although these are specific categories into which the poor and homeless can be

Philippine Treasure Essay Example for Free

Philippine Treasure Essay After watching the documentary of Philippine treasures, I have been get more knowledge about our ancestors treasures remains and I think that the early Filipinos living in the Philippines already had an advanced civilization. Instilled something into me that we were rich, we were rich! We’re talking of gold here it is an opulence. During the early times, the Philippines was filled with gold. These gold were used for everyday clothing of the Filipinos, and even for accessorizing themselves. Our ancestors, the early Filipinos, were civilized enough to know how to process gold. They made many bowls, necklaces and earring out of gold. These gold were part of their daily lives. The Philippines is filled with natural resources, so there was abundance in gold. Some people were even dressed from head to toe in all gold. Also, the early Filipinos were able to craft a doll of a Goddess of Buddhism. This doll also called Golden Tara was a golden alloy, mixed with many other metals. This shows how the Filipinos were knowledgeable to creating alloys with different metal even before Westerners have arrived in our country. The Filipinos have even known how to sew shells and make clothes out of them! There are also several jars that represents the early Filipinos, these jars can be used for multi-purpose storage, because these jars can story many other things aside from water. All these many things were made even before the arrival of the Spaniards or other colonizers, so this shows that the early civilization of the Philippines was very unique and quite advanced. I like the show of Philippine Treasures. It really told us what are some things on this country or treasures are not yet seen by the FILIPINOS. Now I realized that we need to care and concern the importance of some ancient things. I also hope that efforts can be made by officials to preserve the Philippines historical artifacts, and to strengthen support for the National Museum. â€Å"Dont Gain The World Lose Your Soul, Wisdom Is Better Than Silver Or Gold. † ? Bob Marley

Molecular Mechanisms of Sepsis

Molecular Mechanisms of Sepsis Title: Protein-protein interaction network and functional module analysis to reveal the mechanism of sepsis in polytrauma patients Highlights: We explored the molecular basis of sepsis induced by polytrauma using PPI network. A total of 342 DEGs including 110 up- and 232 down-regulated genes were obtained. TRAF3 was related with the innate immune responses in sepsis. ITGB3 was the key gene involved in coagulation dysregulation in sepsis. CASP6 and RASA1 played key roles in the cell apoptosis mechanism of sepsis. Abstract Objective Sepsis represents the systemic inflammatory response to microbial infection. The pathogenesis of sepsis remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to explore the molecular mechanism of sepsis inpolytrauma patients. Methods The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the polytrauma patients with and without sepsis were identified by analyzing the GSE12624 microarray data using the limma package of R. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was extracted from the human PPI datasets by using MATLAB. The functional modules in the PPI network were identified by the MCODE network clustering algorithm. The KEGG pathway analysis was performed in each module. The phylogenetic tree was constructed using phylogeny inference package (PHYLIP). Result Total of 342 DEGs including 110 up- and 232 down-regulated genes were obtained. The PPI network identified several hub genes which had more interactions with others, such as TRAF3, ITGB3, CASP6 and RASA1. Further phylogenetic analysis indicated the high conservation of these hub genes. In the module analysis, four significant modules were identified. All the genes (COL1A2, FN1, ITGA2B, ITGB3 and CD36) in module 2 were enriched in extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interaction pathway. In module 4, CASP6 and CASP3 were enriched in apoptosis pathway. Conclusion We predicted genes such as TRAF3, ITGB3, CASP6 and RASA1 which were closely associated with sepsis induced by polytrauma. Among them, ITGB3 may play key role in the coagulation dysregulation of polytrauma patients with sepsis, and CASP6 and RASA1 may be the key genes in the cell apoptosis mechanism of sepsis. Keywords Sepsis, DEGs, GO, PPI network, phylogenetic tree Introduction Polytrauma is a syndrome of multiple injuries exceeding a defined severity with sequential systemic reactions that can lead to dysfunction or failure of remote organs and vital systems, which have not themselves been directly injured [1]. Sepsis, as one of the complications of polytrauma [2], is the systemic inflammatory response to microbial infection that often leads to increasing susceptibility to secondary infections, multiorgan failure, and death [3]. A sixteen years clinical study indicated that 10.2% of polytrauma patients infected sepsis during their hospital course [4]. Polytrauma is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in global and sepsis (3.1-17%) is one of the predominant causes of late death in polytrauma patients [5]. The disease severity is increasing according to the order of sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock in the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) [6]. Mortality has been reported to be as high as 45.6% for patients with severe sepsis or septic shock [7]. Based on the pathogenesis of sepsis, many therapies have been applied in the clinical practice such as antimicrobial therapy [8, 9] and hemodynamic support and adjunctive therapy [10, 11]. Currently, the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) has attempted to increase the awareness and establish the practice guidelines to improve the recognition and treatment for the patients with sepsis [12, 13]. At present, there are four approved mechanisms in the pathogenesis of sepsis [14]. The first one is dysregulated coagulation. Sepsis patients frequently manifest disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) with consumption of platelets and prolongation of clotting times [15]. The second one is inflammatory response. The inflammatory response is an important and central component of sepsis because the elements of response drive the physiological alterations that manifest as the SIRS [16]. Third, many cellular aspects become dysfunctional in sepsis which behave either excessive activation or depressed function [17]. The last one is metabolic alterations. It was reported that endogenous glucose production was markedly increased in the patients [18]. However, the specific molecular mechanisms of them remain entirely unclear. In this study, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the polytrauma patients with sepsis and without sepsis were identified. Gene ontology (GO) analysis , protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and phylogenetic tree construction were performed to explore the molecular basis of sepsis induced by polytrauma. Materials and methods Microarray data The gene expression profile of GSE12624 based on the CodeLink UniSet Human I Bioarray platform (GE Healthcare/Amersham Biosciences) was downloaded from National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/). The dataset available in this analysis contained 70 samples including 34 polytrauma patients with sepsis and 36 polytrauma patients without sepsis. Data preprocessing and DEGs screening For the microarray data, Robust Multichip Average (RMA) in the Affy package of R was used to compute normalized expression measures from the raw expression values. Probe annotation was obtained by using the Bioconductor package. The limma package was used to identify the DEGs with p-value 1 [19]. GO enrichment analysis of DEGs GO analysis was performed using the DAVID online tool (http://david.abcc.ncifcrf.gov/) [20]. For GO enrichment of DEGs, we selected GOTERM_BP_FAT, GOTERM_CC_FAT and GOTERM_MF_FAT as the gene set categories. A p-value of less than 0.05 was set as the cut-off criterion. PPI network construction The human PPI datasets with 108477 interacting protein pairs were downloaded from PINA2 (http://cbg.garvan.unsw.edu.au/pina/interactome.stat.do) at December 26, 2013. The PPI networks of the DEGs in sepsis were extracted from the human PPI datasets by usingMATLAB [21]. The proteins in the network served as nodes and the degree of a node corresponded to the number of interactions with other proteins [22]. The protein with high degree was considered as the hub node. Identification of functional modules in PPI network PPI network visualization and network parameters evaluation were performed by using Cytoscape software. The modules were identified by the MCODE (a cytoscape plug-in) network clustering algorithm with the default parameters [23]. The module with score larger than 2 was considered as significant. KEGG pathway analysis of each module was performed by applying the DAVID annotation tool. Phylogenetic tree construction In this study, we constructed the phylogenetic tree based on the nucleotide sequences to investigate the sequence conservation of the DEGs whosedegree were large than 30. The BLAST program is used to search for homologous sequences of these DEGs. The DNA sequence of these DEGs and their homologous genes in FASTA format were obtained from the nucleic acid database in NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore). The phylogenetic tree was constructed by using phylogeny inference package (PHYLIP) with the default parameters [24]. The gene conservation was estimated by the distance from gene to the phylogenetic tree root. Result DEGs between the patients with and without sepsis After statistical analysis of the microarray data, a total of 342 DEGs were screened out. Among them, 110 were down-regulated and 232 were up-regulated in sepsis. The top 20 significantly up- and down-regulated DEGs are shown in Table 1. GO enrichment analysis The 342 DEGs were significantly enriched into 95GOterms including 81 biological processes terms, 10 cellular component terms and 4 molecular function terms. The top 10 GO biological processes termswere mainly related to the purine base (purine base biosynthetic process, purine base metabolic process, purine nucleoside monophosphate biosynthetic process and purine ribonucleoside monophosphate biosynthetic process), nucleobase (nucleobase metabolic process and nucleobase biosynthetic process) and regulation of protein modification (regulation of protein modification process and positive regulation of protein modification process). The 10 significantly enriched GO terms of cellular component included four lumen related terms (organelle lumen, membrane-enclosed lumen, intracellular organelle lumen and nuclear lumen), two membrane related terms (extrinsic to membrane and plasma membrane part) and four other cellular component terms (peroxisome, microbody, nuclear body and Golgi apparatus) . For molecular function, four significant GO terms were enriched finally. They were acyl-CoA binding, sons of mothers against decapentaplegic homologue (SMAD) binding, aryl hydrocarbon receptor binding and potassium channel inhibitor activity (Table 2). PPI network of DEGs A PPI network consisting of 225 DEGs and 1048 non-DEGs is shown in Fig. 1. This network included 1145 gene nodes and 1273 interactions. The connectivity degree of each node in this PPI network was calculated and the results of top 20 nodes are listed in Table 3. Among them, the genes CRK (encoding CDC2 related protein kina), RASA1 (encoding RAS p21 protein activator 1), TRAF3 (encoding tumour-necrosis-factor receptor associated factor 3), ZHX1 (encode zinc-fingers and homeoboxes), ITGB3 (encoding integrin ÃŽ ²3), RPA1 (encoding replication protein A1), JAK3 (encoding Janus kinases 3), and CASP6 (encoding caspase-6) with the degree over 30 were selected as the hub genes. Module analysis of PPI network A total of 7 modules were constructed by using MCODE plug-in. After excluding the modules with the score less than 2, 4 significant modules were considered as functional ones associated with sepsis (Table 4). According to the Fig. 2, the numbers of nodes and edges were similar in each model. The detailed results of KEGG pathway analysis for each module are provided in Table 5. For module 1, no pathway was enriched in the KEGG pathway analysis. For module 2, a total of 14 significant enriched pathways were identified. Among them, all the genes in this module were enriched in the pathway of extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interaction. In addition, except CD36 (encoding glycoprotein IV), the other four genes (ITGB3 and ITGA2B encoding integrin ÃŽ ±IIbÃŽ ²3, COL1A2 encoding the ÃŽ ± 2 chain of type 1 collagen and FN1 encoding fibrinogen 1) were enriched in the focal adhesion and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-Akt signaling pathway. There were three significant enriched pathways in module 3. HIF1A (encoding hypoxia inducible factor-1), ARNT (encoding arylhydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator) and ARNT2 (encoding arylhydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator 2) were enriched in the pathway of renal cell carcinoma and pathways in cancer. HIF1A and ARNT were enriched in the pathway of Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) signaling. For the module 4, five significant pathways were found. Among them, CASP3 (encoding caspase 3) and BIRC5 (encoding baculoviral IAP repeat–containing 5 and also called survivin) were enriched in the pathway of colorectal cancer, hepatitis B and pathways in cancer. CASP6 and CASP3 were enriched in apoptosis pathway. CASP3 and RASA1 were enriched in the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway (Table 5). Phylogenetic tree analysis Based on the result of PPI network analysis, the selected hub genes were chosen to construct the phylogenetic tree. The phylogenetic tree of ZHX1 was unable to be constructed, as only three homologous sequences were searched out. The phylogenetic trees of the other seven hub genes were constructed by the DEGs and their top nine significant homologous genes. The results showed that CRK, RASA1, TRAF3, ITGB3, RPA1 and CASP6 were the genes that were closer to tree roots indicating that the conservation of these genes was high during evolution. However, the conservation of JAK3 was low because of appearing in the late period of evolution (Fig. 3). Discussion Currently, sepsis remains a serious clinical problem. The four approved mechanisms of sepsis were dysregulated coagulation, inflammatory response, and cellular dysfunctional and metabolic alterations. However, the specific molecular mechanisms are still incompletely understood. For better understanding the pathogenesis, we identified and analyzed the DEGs between the patients with and without sepsis. As a result, a total of 342 DEGs including 110 up-regulated genes and 232 down-regulated genes were found. These genes were significantly enriched in GO terms including purine base biosynthetic process, regulation of protein modification process and peroxisome. Among them, the process of purine base biosynthesis is the most significantly enriched process. It was reported that de novo purine biosynthesis was essential for infectivity, growth and virulence of many bacteria in mammals [25]. The pathogenesis of sepsis was related with the bacterial infection [26]. Therefore, the purine base biosynthesis process may associate with sepsis based on the tissue response to bacterial infection. For the regulation of protein modification, Wu et al. reported that the alterations in the phosphorylation of myofibrillar proteins and the Ca2+ sensitivity of myofibrillar ATPase might contribute to alter cardiac function during the progression of sepsis [27]. The cardiac dysfunction was the clinical characteristic in severe sepsis and septic shock [28]. Thus, the phosphorylation of myofibrillar proteins may be related with the sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction. Furthermore, we mapped the DEGs to the PPI network and identified high conserved hub genes. Among them, the high conservation of CRK, RASA1, TRAF3, ITGB3, RPA1 and CASP6 were proved by the phylogenetic tree analysis. They may be the crucial genes in the pathogenesis of sepsis. For TRAF3, it is a member of the TNF receptor (TNFR) associated factor (TRAF) protein family [29]. This protein participates in the activation of the innate immune response [30]. In the PPI network, TBK1 (encoding TANK-binding kinase 1) was a non-DEG interacted with TRAF3. It was reported that TIR domain-containing adaptor-inducing IFN-ÃŽ ² (TRIF) could interact with noncanonical IKKs (IKKà Ã‚ µ and TBK-1) and IKKÃŽ ¹ (also called IKKà Ã‚ µ) through TRAF3 in the Toll-like receptors (TLR) signaling pathway [31]. The innate immune system constitutes the first line of defense by rapidly detecting invading pathogens through the TLR [32] and is a danger signal in systemic inflammatory response syndrome and sepsi s [33]. Thus, TRAF3 may be the mediator of innate immune responses in sepsis induced by polytrauma. We also performed the modular analysis of the PPI network and four functional modules were identified. Based on the result of the KEGG pathway analysis of each module, we found that the pathways in module 2 and 4 were more related with sepsis. The ECM-receptor interaction pathway was the most significant pathway in module 2 and all the genes of this module were enriched in this pathway. Fibronectin and collagen are the components of ECM [34]. Integrin family are the receptors transducing signals from the ECM [35]. Among them, integrin ÃŽ ±IIbÃŽ ²3 is the platelet integrin promoting theaggregation of platelets [36-38]. Moreover, it was reported that collagen type I could induce the aggregation of platelet [39]. Integrin ÃŽ ±IIbÃŽ ²3 is one of the platelet collagen receptors in platelets [40]. It was reported that platelet-specific elements initiated at the cytoplasmic domains of integrin ÃŽ ±IIbÃŽ ²3, which was a signal that leaded to conformational changes within the extracellular do mains of integrin and expression of the fibrinogen receptor, then the simultaneous occupancy on adjacent platelets of receptors with dimeric fibrinogen molecules leaded to platelet aggregation [41]. In addition, CD36 is spatially associated with the ÃŽ ±IIbÃŽ ²3 integrin on the surface of platelets [42]. Thus, we speculated that the binding of collagen type I and ÃŽ ±IIbÃŽ ²3 might need the participation of CD36, and then conformational changes within the extracellular domains of integrin and the binding between fibrinogen and fibrinogen receptor could lead to platelet aggregation. Disseminated platelet aggregation is one of the characteristics of the DIC in sepsis [43, 44]. The up-regulated expression of ITGB3 in sepsis may lead to the disseminated platelet aggregation. Hence, we concluded that the coagulation dysregulation in the polytrauma patients with sepsis may be associated with the increase of disseminated platelet aggregation caused by the up-regulated expression of ITGB3. Thus, ITGB3 may play key roles in the coagulation dysregulation of the polytrauma patients with sepsis. Hub nodes CASP6 and RASA1 were predicted to be closely interacted with each other in module 4. Besides, CASP3, TOP1, BIRC5 and AURKB (Aurora B kinase) were also included in module 4. Among them, CASP6 and CASP3 were enriched in apoptosis pathway. It was reported that CASP6 may be associated with the cell apoptosis in sepsis [45] and blocking caspases might have some beneficial effects in decreasing cell apoptosis in sepsis [46]. Thus, we further confirmed that the up-regulated expression of CASP6 may promote cell apoptosis in sepsis. Besides, TOP1 is cleaved late during cell apoptosis by CASP6 and CASP3 [47]. The TOP1 cleavage complexes contribute to cell apoptosis [48]. Therefore, the increase of these complexes induced by the up-regulated CASP6 can promote the cell apoptosis in sepsis. Moreover, full-length TOP1 could induce DNA cleavage by single-strand breaks which is the signal of cell apoptosis [49, 50]. Therefore, the exaggerated gene expression of TOP1 in our study might cont ribute to cell apoptosis in sepsis. In addition, it was reported that CASP3 could modulate a given set of proteins to generate, depending on the intensity of the input signals, opposite outcomes (survival vs death) through differential processing of RASA1 [51]. Some articles reported that low CASP3 activity leaded to the cleavage of the RASA1 protein into an amino-terminal fragment [52, 53]. RASA1 bound BIRC5 is a bifunctional protein complex that can suppress cell apoptosis and regulated cell division, so as to generate anti-apoptotic signals [54]. AURKB exists in a complex with BIRC5 [55]. Considering the up-regulated expression of RASA1 and AURKB, we speculated that there may be a switch mechanism of CASP3-RASA1 in cell apoptosis and BIRC5 and AURKB might play roles in the anti-apoptosis mechanism of RASA1. In summary, CASP6 and RASA1 are the key genes in the pathogenesis of sepsis induced by polytrauma. Conclusion In this study, we obtained four key genes related with pathogenesis of sepsisinduced by polytrauma. Among them, TRAF3 was related with the innate immune responses in sepsis,ITGB3 may play key role in the coagulation dysregulation of the polytrauma patients with sepsis and CASP6 and RASA1 were associated with the mechanism of cell apoptosisin sepsis. For further investigating the association of these hub nodes with sepsis and verifying the role of the interactions among the genes in the pathogenesis of sepsis, more studies are required in the future.

American Express Quality Management Marketing Essay

American Express Quality Management Marketing Essay Problem Statement- American Express using Quality Management to Excel in a Highly-Competitive Niche Market. Business Executive Exclusive Perks Card from U.S. Express (The BEEP Card) Do we launch with current levels of Business commitment in the field? Organizational Background American Express is a diversified global financal services company that was founded just prior to the American Civil War. It is best known for its business line of charge cards, travelers checks, and in fact, holds about 25 percent of the total credit card transactions in United States, largely because of its perks and programs focusing on American business (Chenault, 2009). American Express does not really sell anything tangible. Yes, they have some merchandise, but their primary focus for the consumer is to get as many American Express cards into the hands of qualified customers as possible. Money is generated through the fees charged to retailers and credit card clearing houses. But, American Express is essentially branded as a service-oriented business topnotch service that customers receive in their interaction with all U.S. Express staff (Bihlmier, 2002). One of the reasons American Express has been so successful to date, despite the ups and downs of the economy, is its focus on customer experience and branding that experience into something that feels tangible, even though it is not tangible. They have done this through enhancement of the customer experience from initial contact through final payment, tagging celebrities for endorsements, and branding the experience (McCarthy, 2005; Davis, 2010; americanexpress.com). Thus, for many businessmen, American Express is more of an experience they can call the company 24/7, 365 days per year in an emergency, have funds delivered or charges authorized by phone; they can received discounts on hotels, car rentals, meals, and even special events. Being an American Express member has its perks. And, with the new BEEP card, specifically designed for that upper echelon of corporate executive, the experience offered will be even more customized and special. Literature Review Even with billions in global assets, however, American Expresss business model is tied to the economic pulse of the business world. As one of the top rated charge cards for business and corporate use, the fiscal crises of the last few years has negatively impacted the company, and in November 2008, American Express won Federal Reserve System approval to covert its operation to a bank holding company, which made it eligible for government subsidies under the Troubled Assets Relief Program, which, at that time consisted of over $127 billion (Lanman, 2008). This troubling trend was serious enough for the Fed to waive its typical 30-day waiting period, and was the result in credit-card holders failure to repay loans at almost twice the rate of 2007. Indeed, one of the major strategic weaknesses of American Express is its tie to the economic health of the global financial markets American Express following the trends by posting several quarter profit declines even with some segments showing upturns. Given the continued volatility in the financial markets, we want to be best positioned to take advantage of the various programs the federal government has introduced. We will [also] continue to build a larger deposit base to broaden our funding sources (CEO Kenneth Chenault, Ibid). American Express is a large enough company, with core values in banking, financial services, travel, and corporate/personal credit and charge cards. They have a Strategic Planning Group that operates consulting services to management of all its business units, and also services as a conduit for executive level recruiting. (American Express Strategic Planning Group). The business model for American Express consists of several major sections, (See Figure 1) with the top grossing centers: 1) Discount Revenue from card transactions (53%); 2) Interest from card member lending services (revolving charge cards) (13%); 3) Fees from cards, travel, and other holding feeds (23% combined) (American Express Summary, WikiInvest). American Express acknowledged that 2008 was a tough year and that they are tied very closely with the spending patterns of businesses and executive cardholders in particular, the dismal performance of both the 2007 and 2008 Holiday seasons in luxury goods. Additionally, the impact of the ENRON, Arthur Anderson, and even Automobile Industry issues may force additional oversight and regulation upon American Expresss financial services division. Tactically, the company has instituted several short- and mid-range solutions to improve its financial volatility: 1) Adjust models in lending to reduce high-risk, cancel certain accounts, reduce lines of credit, and limit new cardmembers; 2) Manage risk to improve profits; 3) Enhancing services for businesses and cardmembers experiencing difficulty in order to prevent defaults (2008 Annual Report, p. 5). Strategically, the company has decided on the actions of: Reengineering Control of costs, cut back spending in every area of the business; increase efficiency and reduce or eliminate activities that were not supporting the companys highest priorities, including the elimination of 10% of the global workforce (7,000 jobs). Benefits of $1.8 billion are expected as a result of this reengineering. Partnerships Forging new Co-Branded partnerships in key international markets, primarily in the Far East and Australia. Signing 13 new partnerships and launching 130 new products with banks that issue American Express-branded cards globally. Servicing Improving servicing aspect and offering more opportunities than competitive products this resulted in earning the J.D. Power and Associates Customer Satisfaction Award. Business partnerships Even in a down economy, partnerships with businesses will continue to help American Express grow its revenue partnering in the B2B aspect will improve the ready income, while continuing to provide greater incentives for additional partnerships. (Ibid, p. 8). American Express has been through recessionary times before, and has emerged even stronger utilizing its core values and strategies. Marketing And Advertising On of the key factors in the improvement of American Express in the market is the continual thrust of its brand. American Express has taken branding to a new level one who has moved from the outmoded mold of 1960s marketing, humorously described in the III Series MADMEN,  [1]  to a more centered approach that makes every employee, essentially, a brand manager: American Express. American Express does not actually sell anything tangible. Yes, they have some American Express merchandise, but their primary focus for the consumer is to get as many American Express cards into the hands of qualified customers as possible. Money is generated through the fees charged to retailers and credit card clearing houses. But, American Express is essentially branded as a service-oriented business top notch service that customers receive in their interaction with all American Express staff (American Express Joe Bihlmier interview, 2002). American Express has done this w ith a few simple, yet very powerful, changes to its business paradigm: Customer Contact Every step of the American Express experience has been refined to be different and competitive from all other credit and charge card companies. Employees are highly trained, speak English in a professional manner, and rather than take the offensive on certain situations, begin the discussion with the customer as the #1 priority. Accuracy of Statement American Express statements are double and triple checked for accuracy, with an ease of back up data available at a moments notice. Since American Express realizes that most use is for business, they have organized their statement into categories that make it easier for the employee to report. Business Cards American Express wants large businesses, and has made it easier for company employees to receive cards and generate only their receipts back to the company. American Express will customize reports, by employee and category, for larger companies accounting management, and for some, even deliver it electronically based on their individual needs. Ease of Disputing a Charge Again, American Express assumes the client is right, and with a simple phone call, will act as an advocate for any unauthorized charges (AmericanExpress.com). Utilizing celebrities as role models Instead of having a celebrity simply pitch a product, American Express has taken two different views of improving its brand using celebrities. The celebrities actually USE the product, their names are printed on the card, and not only are they shown in their particular field of expertise (e.g. Tiger Woods, Robert DiNero, etc.), but the company has ads that play off popular archetypes (e.g. the movie CaddyShack, etc.) (McCarthy, 2005). Differential Branding Now, not only does American Express offer the Gold and Green cards, but a blue and red card, with different cards supporting credit customers (as opposed to charge customers), and the Product RED, which supports the fight against Aids, and other environmental causes. For example, one AmEx commercial shows a sexy model near a traditional Masai warrior; the model holds the RED card and says, It doesnt make you feel so guilty about spending your money! (American Express, 2007). Thus, for many businessmen, American Express is more of an experience they can call the company 24/7, 365 days per year in an emergency, have funds delivered or charges authorized by phone; they can receive discounts on hotels, car rentals, meals, and even special events. Being an American Express member, has its perks (See Appendix A Examples of American Express Branding). American Express seems to excel at creating the strategy from the outside in, rather than the typical product management idea of inside out this strategy has shown an increase in brand recognition, whether or not those consumers utilize the product at present. Thus, that recognition, as the population ages and is able to afford participating in the American Express experience is more of a marketing investment strategy, long-term, than it is a complete short-term blip (Atstiel, 2005). The Problem/Challenge The design and conformance quality are both strategic management issues that, for a company with a demographic like American Express, are vital for the success of their product. For a merchant, American Express is significantly more expensive than MasterCard or Visa, takes longer to be reimbursed, and has less flexibility in discount rates. Instead, it is the very design and conformance (value of the product and the degree to which product promises and specifications are realized) in the marketplace that makes it even worthwhile to merchants. In many cases, corporations use only American Express, and thus their employees are motivated to use that card, typically billed directly to the home office, without the same necessity for reimbursement and TE Expense Reporting. Because American Express already invested in POP materials, already shipped those materials to its list of businesses who accept the card, the key clearly was not whether the marketing folks at Ame rican Express had done their job. They had but only partially for all the collateral in the world is for naught if it is not posted, thrown away, or put into storage. That being said, the metrics of Six Sigma, and the defined error acceptance helped American Express hone in on the root of the problem regarding POP and the research behind it, as well as a means to mitigate the situation. Simply put, the current research was simply not working in terms of identifying the issues surrounding use of the card in small businesses. Opportunities/Recommendations American Express hired a research vendor to call on businesses to uncover what POP materials were being used, why or why not, and how these materials could translate into an increase value relationship for the consumer and business. Unfortunately, the data uncovered by the research vendor was fraught with inaccuracies: from poor call rates to a disconnect in research opportunities that, in fact, worked contrary to the needs of the company in providing a service to its business clients. American Express uncovered two primary causes for this disconnect by shadowing the vendor and putting principles of Six-Sigma into place to find a potential set of solutions. The two primary causes for the unacceptably high uncallable rate for American Express research were a disconnect between time of research and store hours and the ability of the research to identify individual businesses that were in compliance with American Express POP requirements. Both resulted in a loss of time and money, an unacceptable error rate, and considerable redundancy (returning to recheck). However, the research vendor was given the list by American Express. When the business signed up with American Express, they not only listed the type of business (e.g. retail, restaurant, etc.) but also their hours and days of operation. A simple Boolean search would have provided the research firm a sort of appropriate businesses and an adjustment of hours. Six Sigma already asks for statistical checks to be mad e when viewing data, had the methodology been in place within the marketing research area, the initial disconnect would not have occurred. It was not incumbent upon the vendor to know details about the client beforehand. Further, operating in a Six Sigma manner would have put a more robust vetting upon the research project prior to placing it into the field. In addition, the research protocol should have been written so that the purpose of the visit was plain to the vendor analysis of POP. If the analysis was possible without actually visiting the business (e.g. viewing the POP on the door or register), redundancies would have been eliminated (Hayler and Nichols, 2007, 55-9). Still, Six Sigma is a tool, it is not an edict. Like many tools, it is dependent upon two things: 1) How it is used, and 2) The quality of the data. Six-Sigma was originally designed for use by Motorola in the early 1980s. It was put in place in order to not only uncover, but to solve, certain manufacturing processes that were not working appropriately. It improved the company by defining a clearly focus on measurable issues that could be quantified and linked to profitability. It also increased an emphasis on managements commitment to utilizing the strategic planning system to actually implement a cause-effect relationship within the manufacturing model. However, when all the bells and whistles come off, and all the statistical data and measurement are broken down, the model is really a quality improvement template. It is not designed for any subjectivity and often fails to take into account that margin of error is different on divergent products and services (e.g. a surgical instru ment or medical device should have a lower rate of error than a new hardback novel). Further, some of the standards are arbitrary and force management to plug in data (as in the American Express market research). That being said, it is both possible to overanalyze certain ineffectual data; in other words, making certain Six Sigma data more important than it really is to ROI. However, it does effectively help management identify areas of needed improvement, of inefficiency, and of redundancy (Prasad, 2009, 32-40). Conclusions Such market gurus as Warren Buffet continues to invest in American Express and believe that it is a solid company with a solid business plan. American Express does have weaknesses, but because the do not offer tangible products, their success or failure in the marketplace is a result of their continual ability to get consumers and businesses to use their products. They have established a global service sector, they have established an extremely strong brand, they have established recognition that is top within its industry, and almost top in the era of advertising; the perception of the card remains positive; but the company is faced with an uncertain few years while the economic downturn changes globally. Luckily, the company is well-positioned to handle the slowdown, stakeholders seem patient to allow the company to restructure and refocus, and the strategic plan remains solid (Hagstrom, 1997; Evans, 2005). ? Six Sigma is a tool, it is not an edict. Like many tools, it is dependent upon two things: 1) How it is used, and 2) The quality of the data. Six-Sigma was originally designed for use by Motorola in the early 1980s. It was put in place in order to not only uncover, but to solve, certain manufacturing processes that were not working appropriately. It improved the company by defining a clearly focus on measurable issues that could be quantified and linked to profitability. It also increased an emphasis on managements commitment to utilizing the strategic planning system to actually implement a cause-effect relationship within the manufacturing model. However, when all the bells and whistles come off, and all the statistical data and measurement are broken down, the model is really a quality improvement template. It is not designed for any subjectivity and often fails to take into account that margin of error is different on divergent products and services (e.g. a surgical instrument or medical device should have a lower rate of error than a new hardback novel). Further, some of the standards are arbitrary and force management to plug in data (as in the American Express market research). That being said, it is both possible to overanalyze certain ineffectual data; in other words, making certain Six Sigma data more important than it really is to ROI. However, it does effectively help management identify areas of needed improvement, of inefficiency, and of redundancy. In the case of American Express- the Six Sigma model did uncover redundancy and most certainly does point to the need to expand and develop new market segments, thus a nswering the question of launching a new product piece into the marketplace.

Free Narrative Essays - Before You Leap :: Personal Narrative Essays

Before You Leap One bright Easter day about four years ago, my family had gone to my grandparents' house to celebrate Easter like we usually do each year. We talked, ate, and had fun. Little did we know when we drove up to the house that, by the end of the day, we would be in a hospital emergency room. It all started when my cousin suggested that we have a water fight. We had water guns and "water Easter eggs." These were plastic eggs filled with water that would come open when you hit someone. My cousin Ryan and I were on one team and my cousins Philip and Lance were on another team. We played outside the house and also on a deck extending from the second floor of my grandparent's house. For about thirty minutes we played and got a little wet but nobody had been hurt. At one point during the game, when I was inside, my cousin Philip, who was on the deck, said "I've had enough. Come out here." "Is this a trick?," I asked. It seemed a little suspicious. "No, of course not. I'm just sick of this game." "Well, okay." I hesitated then decided to go out to the deck. "Ha! Got you!" said my other opponent, Lance, who was hiding behind the door with a water egg in his hand. "Liar!," I yelled at Philip. My instant reaction was to jump off the deck onto the grass below. I had done it many times before and knew that I would be okay. That way I could get away from Lance and I would not lose the water fight. The water egg whizzed right past my head as I vaulted over the railing of the deck. I shouted "Missed me!" without thinking about or looking at what was below me. The only thing that I was thinking about on the way down was not getting hit with that water egg. This thoughtlessness was my big mistake. Since I was not paying attention on the way down, I lost my balance and landed on my left foot in a painful fall. "Are you all right?

Banking Sector Essay -- Financial System, Bank Runs

Traditionally, the existence of bank runs was a very frequent phenomenon in Europe during the 19th century. It was mostly seen in the emerging countries where the boeotian level was low. Kaminsky and Reinhard introduced a new concept in the banking sector called twin crises. The twin crises concept started since 1980 and occurs when both currency and banking crises take place simultaneously. This harmful phenomenon anticipated a significant recession after the 1933 when the Federal Reserve System imposed the concept of Deposit Insurance in the US. In the same directions all governments around the world tried to find ways to prevent crises. Several schemes like the Suspension of convertibility and penalty on short-term deposits followed the implementation of Deposit Insurance scheme. As a result of the establishment of these new schemes, policy makers and bankers focused their attention and criticism on the recent concept of moral hazard that came into surface during the savings and loan crisis of 1980. In order to begin analyzing the macroeconomic concept of bank runs I have to mention that there are literally two general views. The first group of economists such as Diamond and Dybvig (1983), Chang and Velasco (2001) and Cooper and Ross (1998) supports that bank runs are self-fulfilling prophecies, unconnected to the real economy of the country. Under this view, if agents do not expect a bank run to take place, the risk-sharing mechanism of the banking sector operates beneficially and an efficient allocation of resources is achieved. On the other hand, if the agents believe that a bank run will occur then they will all have the tendency to run and withdraw their money as soon as possible to avoid losing them. The second appr... ...mplementing the 5 regulatory policies as I mentioned above at the end of the first part of this paper. The Diamond and Dybvig model clearly explains why these five policies were introduced. Firstly, the suspension of convertibility was introduced in order for events like the example of the bad equilibrium be avoided and keeping the bank alive. On the same line was introduced the tax on short-term deposits as well in order to disencourage depositors to withdraw their money early. In addition, the FCDI scheme was implemented in order to remove the fear of a bank run from the investors to eliminate the occurrence of panic within the financial market. Furthermore, the ICDI scheme was introduced to eliminate the concept of moral hazard that is caused by FCDI. Finally, the capital requirement scheme was established in order to keep the banks more liquid and solvent.