Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Super Kikay and Her Flying Pagong Essay Example for Free

Super Kikay and Her Flying Pagong Essay The turtle is a mystical and enabled Kikay to spare mankind and the ocean animals. It is her obligation to shield the sea profound from the mammoth little Octopus and its lord supporter from getting the enchanted pearl that offers life to the sea profound. As a preparation, Super Kikay fly around their town and attempt to take care of the issues and challenges of others. A portion of the issues she explain was to help a stuck jeepney get off the mud. She likewise protected a young lady that nearly tumble from the ships haggle the illicit fishers from obliterating the sea by utilizing dynamites to get fish. After her preparation, Dong pagong educated her to get the mysterious pearl and carry it to their territory to keep the mammoth octopus from discovering it in the sea. Kikay changes into Super K and plunge into the sea to get the mystical pearl. She handily found the enchanted pearl yet she was additionally observed by the goliath octopus and followed her into the land. At the point when Super K saw that the monster octopus followed her, she promptly burrowed a gap to conceal the enchanted pearl however she neglected to cover it. Super K and the mammoth octopus battle one another. Super K nearly crushed the monster octopus however she was handily beaten in light of the fact that the mammoth octopus terminated a dark ink all over and briefly blinded her giving the octopus time to get away from w/the supernatural pearl. Super Ks sibling was additionally grabbed by the mammoth octopus while she was briefly blinded. The following morning, Dong pagong revealed to Kikay that she should get the supernatural pearl from the monster octopus to keep the fishes from kicking the bucket. Kikay changed into Super K again to locate the mammoth octopus and get the enchanted pearl and furthermore to safeguard her more youthful sibling. Horje (the researcher who made the goliath octopus) disposed of the monster octopus since he feels that the mammoth octopus might be a blockade on his arrangements (he intends to offer the mystical pearl to outsiders for 100,000 million pesos) Super K heard the firearm fired that was shot from Horjes weapon. She imagined that shot her more youthful sibling however later on discovered that Horje murdered the goliath octopus and not her more youthful sibling. In the wake of letting her more youthful sibling got away, she pursued Horje until she cornered him. They battled wildly until she have beaten Horje and get the mystical pearl. Super K backpedal on their town and restored the enchanted pearl into the sea. After the restoring the otherworldly pearl, the sea turned out to be spotless again and all the fishes were cheerful and expressing gratitude toward Super K for sparing them. Dong pagong didn't reclaim the force that she has given to Kikay in light of the fact that he realizes that Kikay will utilize her forces to support people.

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Federal government of the United States Essay

 © 2010 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. All rights saved. The Carnegie Endowment doesn't take institutional situations on open arrangement issues; the perspectives spoke to here are the author’s claim and don't really mirror the perspectives on the Endowment, its staff, or its trustees. No piece of this distribution might be recreated or transmitted in any structure or using any and all means without authorization recorded as a hard copy from the Carnegie Endowment. If it's not too much trouble direct requests to: About the Author Nathaniel Ahrens is a meeting researcher in the Carnegie Energy and Climate Program, where his examination centers around atmosphere, vitality, and economical advancement issues in China. He is the leader of Golden Road Ventures Ltd., a business advancement and vital warning firm that gives ability and backing to basic activities in China, including supportable turn of events, government acquisition, horticulture, and media. Already, Ahrens was senior item administrator and chief of universal deals for Intrinsic Technology, a Shanghai-based media communications programming supplier. He additionally established Shanghai Pack Ltd., an extravagance brand bundling organization situated in Shanghai and Paris. Ahrens is an individual from the National Committee on U.S.â€China Relations, the Asia Society, and fills in as a privileged envoy for the State of Maine. Indigenous innovation1 has become the best prompt wellspring of monetary erosion between the United States and China. This pattern isn't special to these two nations; arrangement producers all around are effectively attempting to animate household advancement. The prospering markets for biotech and environmentrelated items and administrations and, possibly much increasingly significant, countries’ endeavors to rise up out of the worldwide monetary stoppage all fortify this pattern. Aware of this worldwide scene, China has made indigenous development one of the center components of its endeavor to make an auxiliary move up the modern worth chain. As of late, be that as it may, indigenous advancement has been tarred with a protectionist brush. In both China and the United States, there have been expanding calls for purchase nearby specifications and the erection of levies and non-tax obstructions to exchange. In China, these measures fundamentally take the state of government â€Å"local content† orders and through the special treatment given to items authoritatively named â€Å"national indigenous advancement products† (NIIP) in the administration acquirement process. In the United States, they have appeared as purchase nearby arrangements and endeavors to close out outside organizations. The contention has been heightening hazardously. In the approach the ongoing Strategic and Economic Dialog, the U.S. business network positioned indigenous advancement in China as its main approach worry, above even the cash issue. As of this composition, the key purposes of conflict stay uncertain. However regardless of the uproarious cries of dissent against it, the worldwide pattern toward â€Å"homegrown† advancement is a sound, positive turn of events. Without development, nations can't ceaselessly raise wages and living standards.2 Government obtainment should assume a significant job in animating advancement, yet keeping up open markets and universal linkages is basic. Be that as it may, rather than following its present methodology of transient item replacement and picking champs by shielding them from rivalry, China should concentrate on demonstrated, showcase well disposed methods of animating development. Government procurement’s essential jobs ought to be advertise flagging, de-gambling R&D, crossing over the money hole, and invigorating interest. The United States would likewise profit by pulling together its administration acquirement strategies along the lines demonstrated in the key discoveries of this paper, particularly focusing on encouraging increasingly open markets and lifting the significance of economical acquisition. The accompanying arrangement of explicit suggestions for China will invigorate development through open markets and the successful utilization of government acquisition

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics I do understand that human beings are not intuitively good at statistics. Daniel Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002 for showing, among other things, that people in general are terrible at statistical thinking. From Kahnemans Nobel biography: The standard example of a framing problem, which was developed quite early, is the lives saved, lives lost question, which offers a choice between two public-health programs proposed to deal with an epidemic that is threatening 600 lives: one program will save 200 lives, the other has a 1/3 chance of saving all 600 lives and a 2/3 chance of saving none. In this version, people prefer the program that will save 200 lives for sure. In the second version, one program will result in 400 deaths, the other has a 2/3 chance of 600 deaths and a 1/3 chance of no deaths. In this formulation most people prefer the gamble. If the same respondents are given the two problems on separate occasions, many give incompatible responses. When confronted with their inconsistency, people are quite embarrassed. They are also quite helpless to resolve the inconsistency. Still, just because other people are bad at statistics doesnt mean Ill accept that as an excuse from you as a prospective MIT applicant. Most MIT majors require or suggest a course in probability and/or statistics, so you might as well get a head start in statistical thinking now. First, a few facts on which to chew: 1. The overall admission rate for the class of 2009 was 14.3%. (From here.) 2. Applicants who interviewed (or had their interview waived) had a 19% admission rate; those who didnt interview had a 7% admission rate. (I dont have a citation for this, which is sketchy, so feel free not to believe me. But although I cant remember where I found the numbers, this is close enough to the truth for the purposes of this entry.) 3. Applicants with SAT scores in the 88th percentile (roughly a 1290 old SAT) have about a 5% admission rate, while those with perfect scores have about a 50% admission rate. (From here a very fun read, if youre into this kind of thing. I highly suggest it!) So does this mean that you can pour all of your personal data into some magic admissions algorithm and have it spit out a number which reflects your chances of getting into MIT? First of all, no. Moreover, it wouldnt matter if it could. For example, if the computer said that you had a 33% chance, that would mean that if you applied to MIT many times, you would expect to get in in approximately 1 in 3 tries. (And were not talking if you applied 3 times here. I think applying 500 times would probably give a good result, but I dont feel like playing around with Matlab to see if thats true.) Of course, you cant apply 500 times to MIT in a single year, or even in your lifetime, so its pointless to try and stick a number on your chances at MIT. I guess the moral of the story here is that no one is a shoo-in for MIT, but the opposite is also true nobody should think they have no hope. But its pointless to over-think this issue, because you just cant control for all the variables. For what its worth, my Super Getting into MIT Guide goes something like this: 1. Do something that you really care about, and make sure you write about it glowingly on your application. 2. Interview, and dont be lame and fake at said interview. 3. Get good scores on the SAT I and SAT IIs. 4. Take difficult classes at your high school (or even local community college) and get good grades in them. And, of course, you can get into MIT if you only have three of these four characteristics you can get in if you only have two you can get in if you only have one. But even if you have four, youre not a sure thing. My final statistics lesson has to do with something you may have heard that MIT supposedly has a stratospherically high suicide rate. This is a contention supported by the Boston Globe, a group of stellar journalists, Im sure, but not so good at the statistics thing. (I cant find the original Globe article, but the article here makes all the points the original article made.) The Globe basically looked at the MIT suicide rate between 1990 and 1999, compared it to suicide rates at other schools, and decided it was too high. (Lets just say theres a reason the Globe article wasnt published in a scientific journal. Sweeping conclusions backed up by questionable data like that make scientists including me want to bang their heads on hard surfaces.) Now lets look at some problems with the Globes grandiose conclusions: 1. People who successfully commit suicide are significantly more likely to be young and male. In the 1990s, the average MIT student was both those things; since then, the population has famously evened out. (Source here; relevant quote: In fact, MITs suicide rate is below the national average if one adjusts figures for the schools overwhelmingly male student body [during the years of the study].) 2. Moreover, science, engineering, and business students have significantly higher suicide rates than do liberal arts students. MIT undergraduates are almost exclusively science, engineering, and/or business majors. Given that both those things are true, one would expect MIT to have a high suicide rate based on those demographics alone. (Source here; relevant quote: Based on 10 undergraduate suicides over 11 years, the article concludes that suicide is a greater danger at MIT than elsewhere. When one factors in that science and business students have considerably higher suicide rates than liberal arts students, and that male college students kill themselves five times more often than female college students, the figures quoted prove nothing. MIT is cited as currently being composed of 59 percent male students; that fact alone would make the suicide rate differences with most other colleges understandable; but in the early 1990s an even higher percentage of the students at MIT were ma le.) 3. The Globe compared MIT to other schools with engineering programs, which is a terrible control. Other schools have engineering programs, yes, but few other schools have 50% of the undergraduate student body majoring in engineering. If you dont have appropriate controls (and its difficult to think of a school which would be a good control Caltech is science/engineering focused too, but only having one school as the control population would be pretty sketchy.) 4. Statistics like this are terribly vulnerable to small swings in absolute numbers. The absolute number of suicides is very small, and therefore it takes many of them spread over many years to accurately determine whether or not the rate in one place is higher or lower than the rate in another. (Source here; quote: Because of small number statistics, the true suicide rate i.e., that that would be measured by an very large MIT in the limit of an infinite number of students is, to 95% confidence, approximately 100,000*(11 +/- 2*sqrt(11)/48,000). At this level, MITs suicide rate is consistent with the national average it would take approximately another thirty three years in order to obtain a measurement of the MIT suicide rate that could be distinguished from the national average at 95% confidence.) So now you know. Go out, and tell my story to the masses. ;)

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Questions On Financial Accounting Standards - 1356 Words

According to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Accounting Standards Codification Topic 230 (ASC 230), cash flows are classified in the Statement of Cash Flows (SCF) as cash flows from operating, investing, and financing activities. ASC 230 replaced FASB Statement No 95 (SFAS-95). This paper will discuss certain problems in SFAS-95 that continue to exist. Certain related cash flows are classified differently because of inconsistencies and ambiguities in classification. Further, the indirect method is widely executed while the direct method discloses more cash flow information. This paper alerts users to make more informed assessments of cash flow information with regards to the subtotals from operating, investing, and financing activities. This paper also suggests the FASB require the direct method for reporting purposes to improve investors’ and creditors’ judgment accuracy. At the same time, this paper provides users ratios to assess the quality of income to make more informed decisions. ASC 230 requires that companies provide the SCF for each operational period. The SCF provides information about cash and cash equivalents, and classifies cash receipts and cash payments as resulting from operating, investing, or financing activities (Nurnberg 1993). The measurement of the SCF is considered as being more reliable and more objective than the measurement of the income statement because the latter involves more judgment about accruals, allocations, andShow MoreRelated3101AFE Seminar Questions from Seminars 1 6 Sem 1 20151558 Words   |  7 Pagesï » ¿3101AFE Accounting Theory and Practice Seminar Questions for Seminars 1- 6: Semester 1 2015 SEMINAR 1 - Semester 1 2015 Deegan Topic 1: Introduction to financial accounting theory QUESTION 1 – Question 1.2: If you developed a theory to explain how a person’s cultural background influences how they prepare financial statements, would you have developed a positive theory or a normative theory? QUESTION 2 - Question 1.3: What is a conceptual framework, and would it be considered to be a positiveRead MoreCurrent Financial Reporting Standards On The Workplace Essay1744 Words   |  7 PagesCurrent Financial Reporting Issues It is incontestable that international financial reporting standards (IFRS) are in vogue and global conformity theoretically on the doorstep as about 100 countries implement standard financial regulations. The idea that uniform reporting standards have the same effect on financial reporting undervalues the contested ability to be flexible in financial reporting and introduces another level of debate on the issue of flexibility and uniformity. Apart from the factRead MoreAcc 11410 Words   |  6 PagesTravis BUS3061 Professor Jerry Thomas July 17, 2014 1. Question 1: Proficient-level: There are several important functions performed in an organization, among which accounting is one of them. 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According to ContemporaryRead MoreThe International Accounting Standards Board951 Words   |  4 Pagescom/en/resources/ifrsf/due-process/background-to-ifrs)†The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is an independent non-profit organization that develops and approves International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs)†. In mainly usage, the term International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) has both a narrow and a broad meaning. Firstly, IFRSs refers to the new numbered series of pronouncements that the IASB is issuing, as distinct from the International Accounting Standards (IASs) series issued by its predecessorRead MoreInternational Financial Reporting Standards On The Workplace Essay1740 Words   |  7 PagesIt is incontestable that international financial reporting standards (IFRS) are in vogue and global conformity theoretically on the doorstep as about 100 c ountries implement standard financial regulations. The idea that uniform reporting standards have the same effect on financial reporting undervalues the contested ability to be flexible in financial reporting and introduces another level of debate on the issue of flexibility and uniformity. Apart from the fact that the merits of flexibility areRead MoreAccounting1024 Words   |  5 PagesQuestion 1:   * Proficient-level:   * There are several important functions performed in an organization, among which accounting is one of them. Define the accounting function and discuss how it differs from double-entry bookkeeping. Answer: According to the Dictionary of Accounting Terms, Accounting is defined as a one step process of recording, measuring, interpreting and communicating financial data by preparing financial statements in order to reflect financial condition and operatingRead MoreInternational Accountancy Quiz Question from Test Bank819 Words   |  4 Pages* Question 1 2.5 out of 2.5 points | |    | The following inventory information above was taken from the records of BlobeKom Ltd.:Historical Cost  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   $12,000Replacement Cost  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   $ 9,000Expected selling price  Ã‚   $10,000Expected selling cost  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   $  Ã‚  Ã‚   500Normal profit margin  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   10% of selling priceUnder U.S. GAPP, what should the Balance Sheet report for Inventory?Answer | | | | | Selected Answer: |   Ã‚  $9,000 | | | | | * Question 2 2.5 out of 2.5 points | |   Read MoreGeneral Purpose Governments vs. Special Purpose Governments1713 Words   |  7 PagesGovernmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) is the body authorized to establish accounting principles for all state and local governments, both general purpose and special purpose. True False A characteristic common to governmental and not-for-profit organizations is operating purposes that are other than to provide goods or services at a profit or profit equivalent. True False The needs of users of governmental financial reports are the same as those of users of business financial reports. TrueRead MoreQuestion 1:.Organizations Give The Accounting Firmsimportanttasks835 Words   |  4 PagesQuestion 1: Organizations give the accounting firms important tasks that they cannot do it by themselves. The services provided by public accounting firms will vary by the size and the expertise of the firm. Accounting firms typically specialize in areas such as auditing, business advisory services, tax accounting, bookkeeping and forensic accounting. The type of accounting firm you hire depends on the nature of your business needs. Like audit firms, These firms provide audits for organizations

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Gothic Architecture Romanesque Architecture - 1049 Words

Gothic style architecture originated in 12th-century France. The style was very different to architecture styles in early periods, with this style we see characteristics such as ribbed vaults, pointed arches, flying buttresses, etc. Buildings made in Gothic style were usually made of stone with large glass windows. Some examples of Gothic style buildings we ve studied in class include the Basilica of St Denis, Chartres Cathedral and Reims Cathedral. Although Gothic style architecture ended in the 16th century, it remains as one of the most familiar styles of architecture comparatively to other abbey s, churches and cathedrals in Europe. The main goals of Gothic architects were to make beautiful, decorative buildings that were also functional. For example, the flying buttress was created to spread to weight of a building effectively. Flying buttresses were used basically used as a support beam, practical, but also beautiful and decorative. Gothic style buildings were also meant to be tall and large, to be closer to God. In comparing the two works about Gothic architecture by Suger Abbot and Bernard or Clairvaux, we can see that there are more differences than there are similarities. Looking back at Gothic characteristics, Abbot agreed more loosely with the beautiful and decorative side of Gothic architecture, while Bernarf agreed more loosely with the functional side of Gothic architecture. Suger Abbot s work is vastly different compared to Bernard of Clairvaux.Show MoreRelated Romanesque and Gothic Architecture Essay1144 Words   |  5 PagesRomanesque and Gothic Architecture The 11th to 15th centuries saw a great surge of the Christian Church within Europe which was emphasized by the persuasiveness of the Crusades. The growing population of the Church increased the demand for the increased presence in architectural monuments and during the Romanesque and Gothic periods, a great cathedral construction boom occurred across Europe. The Romanesque and Gothic architectural styles were distinctive in not only the massiveness of the RomanesqueRead MoreRomanesque Architecture versus Gothic Architecture Essay714 Words   |  3 Pagestransition from Romanesque architecture to Gothic architecture can be attributed to a simple reason and that is wealth. Throughout Europe near the end of the Romanesque era there was large growth in towns and in turn a large growth in trade. Places such as Germany had rapid growth in their populace and economy and this encouraged trading with other towns. When it came to relations with other towns there was also a sense of competiti on and they showed this by building huge Gothic building that onlyRead More The Contrast between Gothic Architecture and Romanesque Architecture1934 Words   |  8 PagesThe Romanesque and Gothic architecture period both occurred during the Middle Ages with the Gothic period taking place during the later half. Gothic and Romanesque architecture were related in many ways, but they also contrasted in style too. Over time, masons began to test the waters and push the limits. They thought of new ways to add lighting and ways to allow more height to the building without it being to heavy and weak. Many of the reasons for the change in styles had a lot to do with societyRead More Gothic vs. Romanesque Architecture Essay2191 Words   |  9 PagesGothic vs. Romanesque Architecture Missing Figures Where are you when you wake up? Where are you when you are learning? Where are you when you go to pray? Where are you when you go to work? Where are you when you are having fun? The answer is that you are in a building or structure of some kind and style. All of the buildings and structures that one sees around them is designed and built with much thought and care. They are all designed and built by what we call architecture. According toRead MoreRomanesque And Gothic Architecture As 90821 - Mckenzie Henare1352 Words   |  6 Pages Romanesque and Gothic Architecture AS 90821 - McKenzie Henare Catholicism expresses its faith and relationship with God through many techniques whether it be art, teachings, scriptures or architecture. Extravagant cathedrals built show our relationship and faith in God. But when theories and ideas about why the styles are what they are. There was a time where the original Romanesque architecture became outdated and Gothic architecture was the new style that showed our faith and relationship withRead More Gothic and Romanesque Cathedrals Essay1289 Words   |  6 PagesGothic and Romanesque Cathedrals The Romanesque style transformed into the Gothic style during the Middle Ages. This happened for many reasons. The Romanesque period was a time of trial and error while the Gothic period was a time of advancements in inventions. Religion was an important factor in the shift between Romanesque and Gothic. The locations of the two types of cathedrals also contributed toward the change between Romanesque and Gothic, as well as the power of the relics and the communityRead MoreGothic and Romanesque Cathedrals Essay1296 Words   |  6 PagesThe Romanesque style transformed into the Gothic style during the Middle Ages. This happened for many reasons. The Romanesque period was a time of trial and error while the Gothic period was a time of advancements in inventions. Religion was an important factor in the shift between Romanesque and Gothic. The locations of the two types of cathedrals also contributed toward the change between Romanesque and Gothic, as well as the power of the relics an d the community to raise funds for the Gothic cathedralsRead MoreSacred Medieval Architecture789 Words   |  4 Pagesemphasizing the importance of the Eastern Church in everyday life. The Byzantine architecture maintains a sense of well-balanced proportions and favors a more simple approach to the building’s exterior. The Byzantines established an architectural style, different from the Romans generally by plans that were well thought out and intricate (Western Architecture p.138-139). One of the most important works of Byzantine architecture is the Hagia Sophia. The Hagia Sophia, which took less than six years to buildRead MoreThe Beginning Of Gothic Art943 Words   |  4 PagesThe beginning of Gothic art started around the year 1140. At this time Gothic art was not a particular art form that was practiced in Europe. The Ile-de-France which means, Paris and vicinity, was the only place that art and architecture shoes Gothic characteristics. However, once people from other places started to notice the beauty that this particular art form presented, it quickly spread around the rest of Europe. The art and architecture that is attributed with the Gothic style is actuallyRead MoreEssay on Medieval Art1111 Words   |  5 Pages800 A.D. and was important in metal work. Carolingian art ranged from 750 to 987 A.D. overlapping 50 years of the Celto-Germanic period. The period of Romanesque art spanned mainly the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and was an important period for medieval architecture. Gothic art, the final period of the Middle Age art began in the Romanesque period around the twelfth century and went on until the sixteenth century. Artwork form these four periods all consist of distinct styles setting them

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Describe the employment of women in Britain in 1914 at the outbreak of war Free Essays

As war broke out in 1914 about 1/3 of women were in some type of paid employment. The majority of this was domestic service or secretarial work and most people accepted, there was no place for women in manual labour e. g. We will write a custom essay sample on Describe the employment of women in Britain in 1914 at the outbreak of war or any similar topic only for you Order Now dock-labouring, mining or road -digging. A woman’s role was very much as the homemaker. They were regarded as the weaker sex and the sex that had fewer rights than men. Decent women were expected to stay at home and rear the children of the family. They had to obey their husbands. Britain’s leisure class was kept in comfort by an army of domestic servants. A large landowner with a wife, two children and a 62-roomed house n the West End required an indoor staff of 36. Some of the servants accompanied the family to its other homes – the country house, the seaside villa, the ‘shooting box’ in Scotland – each of which also had its own separate staff, containing many women. The working day could be a gruelling 17 hours long. The most important female servant of the household was the housekeeper, known by the title of ‘Mrs’, she commanded a platoon of female domestics like lady’s maid, housemaids, kitchen maids and the scullion who washed the dishes. Upper class women were not expected to work. They therefore were involved in charity work and voluntary work also they were heavily involved with the suffragettes. Many working class women worked all day at jobs in their own homes, however some working class women worked in factories, to supplement the men’s income, which often wasn’t enough. Workrooms were often crowded, dirty, ill lit, ill ventilated and insufficiently heated. The hours permissible under the Factory Acts in 1901 were long. Women and girls over 14 years could be employed 12 hours a day and on Saturday 8 hours. In addition, in certain industries, and dressmaking was one, an additional 2 hours could be worked by women on 30 nights in any 12 months. At the outbreak of war women earned about 65 per cent of the male wage. The employment of little errand girls, usually only 14 years of age was common. Their work was very varied – running errands, matching materials, and taking out parcels, cleaning the workrooms, and often also helping in the work of the house. To be running around doing ‘odd jobs’ for the employees of a busy workshop was hard work and tiring. It was not surprising that the young women in those workshops often looked weary and overdone; but there were plenty of girls to take their place, so they would not give in. Many others were employed to work on the surface of coal mines or on fish docks at hard, tiring, physical labour. A sexist outlook upon women in the workplace operated throughout this period. It resulted in skill definitions and pay differentials. Women’s work was usually considered unskilled, where as a man doing the same job would be considered skilled. For example welding was perceived as a skilled job when men did it but when women became welders during the First World War it was seen as unskilled, with women being paid half the male rate. Middle class women attempted to get into professions as doctors, lawyers, accountants and bankers but found it incredibly difficult. The opinion of men was that they were not intelligent enough and too weak emotionally therefore unable to cope with the work. They did find employment easier to find as teachers, as this was dealing with children and they were able to find employment in the white-collar industries as clerks, telephonists and secretaries. However female clerks would earn less than one third of the male wage, and a female typist would earn i1 a week compared to i3 a week earned by a man. Women from the upper and middle classes came to have more opportunities in the late nineteenth century. This was particularly so in education. Higher education was open to women, although they were restricted in taking degrees in either Oxford or Cambridge. Most women lacked such opportunities. Women mainly moved into the low-skill, low-pay ‘sweat shop’ sector as they were denied access to the new technologies. Female factory workers were generally worse treated than men in pay, training and opportunities, and the trade unions mainly male organisations co-operated with the management or the definition of skills, which affected pay, were controlled by men and favoured them; skilled women were poorly recognised. Women were also paid piece rates and found their wage lowered if they earned too much. One factory inspector remarked that ‘What can one do when a girl is earning as much as 15 shillings a week but lower the piece rate? ‘ In a survey just before the war the social commentator and reformer, S. Rowntree, had argued that i1 a week was necessary in order to live above poverty but few women received this amount. In J. M Barrie’s comedy What Ever Woman Knows (1908), John Shand, the railwayman turned MP, owes his success as a debater to his wife Maggie, who has transformed his boring speeches when she typed them up. Women had achieved some degree of marital equality and been given some educational opportunities by 1914. They had also begun to make some inroads into traditional male occupations and they had focused political action on winning the vote. How to cite Describe the employment of women in Britain in 1914 at the outbreak of war, Papers

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Diversity and Cultural Sensitivity in Mental Health

Question: Discuss about the Diversity and Cultural Sensitivity in Mental Health. Answer: Introduction: Prevalence of mental disorders among asylum seekers and refugees in Australia has always drawn the attention of policymakers to improve their well-being and reduce the burden of health-related costs. In the year 2014, there were around 3500 people in immigration detention facilities and 3000 people in the community detention in Australia. The number of people going to asylum in 2012 was around 15000. More than 85% of the detainees were reported to have depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety. They also exhibited self-harm and suicidal ideation. Suicide rates were up to ten times more in detention centres as compared to Australian community (Horyniak et al., 2016). Symptoms of psychological illness are more common in refugees and asylum seekers. However, they do not necessarily indicate any form of mental illness. Negative attention from the mass media has attempted to bring into focus the mental status of this section of the population. Asylum and refugees living in Australia are vulnerable to suicidal behaviours and self-harm. However, they are not getting the care they need. Reports have found that the rate of anxiety, post-traumatic disorder and depression are as much as four times more among Tamil asylum seekers in Australia than among other immigrants. Moreover, young individuals have more risk of suffering from depression from a broader observatory viewpoint. There is a lack of clear picture of the actual mental health condition of the refugee community in Australia. Whether mental health research gives the needed emphasis on linguistic and cultural diversity in the country is a topic of debate (Higgins, 2016). Refugees and asylum seekers are at high risk of suffering mental health problems as they undergo displacement. Moreover, they are from different cultural backgrounds and undergo different experiences, leading to altered mental status. There is a rich pool of evidence that loss and trauma have a profound ongoing impact on the people migrating to Australia from other parts of the country (Newman et al., 2013). The common mental health problems are chronic grief, depression and stress. The most serious problems may compel them to engage in behaviours like panic attacks, self-harm, agoraphobia, disruptive behaviour, sleeping disorders, alcohol abuse, eating disorders, and sleeping disorders. Stressors leading to such mental health conditions include loss of near ones, racism, poverty and marginalisation. Refugees and asylum seekers face hurdles in accessing adequate health care services for mental illness and psychological trauma (Li et al., 2016). The prevalence of common mental health problems among immigrants is initially is less in comparison to the general population. However, with time, the prevalence increases to become similar to that of the general population. Refugees experiencing severe exposure to any form of violence have more chances of suffering trauma-related disorders. These disorders include chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder and other somatic syndrome (Mayne et al., 2016). Assessment for identifying risks for mental health problems encompass consideration of stresses of migration, pre-migration exposures, uncertainty faced at the time of migration, post migration settlement experiences related to health outcomes and adaptation. The effectiveness of clinical assessment and interventions can be increased by employing trained interpreters who can break cultural and language barrier and lead to mutual understanding. Communication build up would be stronger in this process (Ellis et al., 2014). My personal belief is that there is an urgent need of employing health professionals who are adequately trained and have the knowledge to understand the actual mental health problems of the refugees and asylum seekers against the cultural and social backdrops instead of assuming and imposing diagnoses of illness. This is understood through the high prevalence of mental disorders in all refugee populations. I think this is due to the over-diagnosis of mental disorders instead of normal reactions individuals tend to give to stress and the unsuitable environment. Social factors form to be the most important factor in the determination of mental health. There is an urgent need of addressing these factors, and I would like to see the government take up more initiatives to address these concerns. Governments must also consider that a number of individual factors affect the mental health of the refugees in combination. So the associated factors must not be left out from the strategic plan t o combat this vital issue. References Ellis, B. H., Murray, K., Barrett, C. (2014). Understanding the mental health of refugees: trauma, stress, and the cultural context. InThe Massachusetts General Hospital textbook on diversity and cultural sensitivity in mental health(pp. 165-187). Springer New York. Higgins, C. (2016). Australian Community Attitudes to Asylum Seekers and Refugees.Hum. Rts. Defender,25, 25. Horyniak, D., Melo, J., Farrell, R., Ojeda, V. D., Strathdee, S. A. (2016). Prevalence and risk factors for substance use among refugees, internally displaced people and asylum seekers: findings from a global systematic review.Annals of Global Health,82(3), 423-424. Li, S. S., Liddell, B. J., Nickerson, A. (2016). The relationship between post-migration stress and psychological disorders in refugees and asylum seekers.Current psychiatry reports,18(9), 82. Mayne, J., Lowrie, D., Wilson, J. (2016). Occupational Experiences of Refugees and Asylum Seekers Resettling in Australia: A Narrative Review.OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health,36(4), 204-215. Newman, L., Proctor, N., Dudley, M. (2013). Seeking asylum in Australia: immigration detention, human rights and mental health care.Australasian Psychiatry,21(4), 315-320.

Monday, March 30, 2020

Invasive Species

Abstract Some pests and weeds are considered by the Australian government to be of national significance. Most of these species were introduced from other countries and continents. Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and the Alligator Weed (Alternanthera Philoxeroides) are some of the invasive species which threaten the ecology and several sectors of the Australian economy.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Invasive Species specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This document discusses why and how these species were introduced in Australia, factors which ensured their successful establishment in the country, as well as, their ecological and economic impacts. Finally, it examines the advantages and disadvantages of the control methods used to manage them. Introduction Numerous invasive species have been introduced in Australia over the years. These species are considered pests and have become a serious threat to biodiversity as well as agriculture in the country. Generally, pests have a direct effect on the environment/ecosystem as well as on human life wherever they exist. Their rate of reproduction is high making it difficult to control them. Most of them were introduced either deliberately or by accident, including some brought in to assist with the control of other nuisance species. Among the animal pests in Australia is red fox (Vulpes vulpes) also known as the European red fox was introduced in Australia in 1855 from Europe (Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water and Communities 2010). Since its introduction in Australia, it has spread across most parts of the country, although it is no longer found in the tropical north as well as some off-shore islands (Tasmanian Department of Primary industries, Parks, Water and Environment, 2010). Vulpes vulpes is classified as a serious invader to native animals as it kills them. On the other hand, one of the weed species which has invaded the ecological s ystem of Australia is the Alligator Weed (Alternanthera Philoxeroides). It was also introduced from Parana River region, South America (Everitt, Little Lonard, 2007, 55).Advertising Looking for report on biology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More They have spread in Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Tasmania and South Australia. According to Bonila and Gunasekera (2001, 17) Alternanthera Philoxeroides is among the top 20 weeds posing serious threats and therefore causes significant concern in Australia. How and why the species were introduced in Australia According to Cuthbertson and Parsons (1992, 155) Alternanthera Philoxeroides was first introduced in Newcastle, New South Wales from South America and has since spread to all states in Australia. It has viable seed which aids its dispersal. As a result it spread from South America through pieces of mud which it used to attach itself to ships which sailed from South America. It was first introduced in this region during in 1946 when ship ballast was abandoned near New Castle (Cuthbertson and Parsons 1992, 155). According to the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (2011) Alternanthera Philoxeroides was introduced to Newcastle, New South Wales as a culinary herb. Red fox which has also greatly contributed to serious breakdown of Australian ecology was first introduced in the country from 1855 (Cowan Tyndale-Biscoe 1997, 31). They were first released in Melbourne, Victoria. They were deliberately introduced to the country for recreational hunting. European red fox was hunted by humans beginning 1865. Hunting had started back in 1839 in Australia as people sought after kangaroos, rabbits and dingoes. Factors which contributed to their successful establishment The weed has the ability to survive in terrestrial, Aquatic as well as semi-aquatic habitats in temperate, tropical plus in sub-tropical reg ions. All the regions in Australia where the weed has spread all have the characteristics of these climatic regions. The existence of rivers, wetlands and river tributaries provided the optimum condition for their survival. Red fox can survive in various habitats which include alpine, urban, as well as, arid areas (Pearson Pyres 1998, 87). It can also live in lightly wooded regions, and grasslands. Australia has wooded areas which are found in the country’s agricultural landscapes. This offers a wide range of food and shelter for the fox. The fox can also survive in a cleared farming land which has some livestock such as lambs which it can prey on.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Invasive Species specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Besides, the fox can eat almost anything including small animals, insects and fruit (Larivià ¨re Pasitschniak-Arts 1996, 6). In each environment, red fox is at the apex of the food chain. This enables it to survive even when its preferred prey, small animals, is less available during the summer seasons. Australia has all types climates which the fox can survive in, and due to this, red fox has established itself firmly across the country. On the contrary, native animals of Australia have not yet evolved to protect themselves against the fox because of the circumstances in which red fox was introduced. The fox was introduced so suddenly that the native animals were killed to feed the young foxes. This helped sustain the population of the red fox, which has since become the head of the food chain. Ecological effects Red foxes have had several long-term effects on the Australian environment. One major effect is the decline of biodiversity. Predation by red fox has contributed significantly to the decline of native species in the country and still continues to undermine the efforts of the Australian community to conserve the threatened species which includes the night parrot, malleefowl, as well as, the bridled nail-tail wallaby. The fox has greatly contributed to the reduction in populations of ground-nesting birds, reptiles like the green turtle, as well as, small-to-medium sized mammals like the greater bilby. The fox often loots loggerhead turtle nets. Furthermore, it eats eggs in nests found on the beach. Loggerhead turtles are protected at Mon Repos Conservation Park in Queensland since they are endangered. If these foxes are allowed to continue to breeding, as well as remain among the wild animals for much longer period, the fragile ecology of Australia will be destroyed. This means that it will be difficult to recover this unique environment. In addition, they are carriers of rabies. The spread of rabies could destroy the fragile Australian ecosystem. The disease affects both human beings and animals. Thus eradicating it would be very difficult.Advertising Looking for report on biology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Red foxes normally eat berries in summer seasons when their favourable food resources are not available. In addition, the fox competes alongside native predators which include eagles. In the past, the fox has competed against Tasmania Devils which were once abundant across the mainland; however, it is now found in Tasmania only. Others included Tasmania Tiger, Thylacine, and Tasmania Wolf which are now extinct in the country. Even though the red fox endangers the existence of many native animals, it is itself endangered by some animals. These animals include the Western Quoll, Red-Tailed Phascogale, Numbat, as well as, Brush-Tailed Bettong which are majorly found in South-Western Australia. These animals are poisonous to the red fox since they eat Gastrolobium, as well as, Oxylobium plants, which are poisonous to animals especially the red fox (Cowan Tyndale-Biscoe 1997, 31). These plant species have flouroacetate which is the chemical used to make the poison baits used in 1080 (Co wan Tyndale-Biscoe 1997, 31). On the contrary, these animals considered to be dangerous to the fox have developed immunity to the chemical, and therefore they store the poison in their flesh. When the red fox eats the animal, it dies. Alligator weed disrupts the aquatic environment by covering the surface and therefore hindering penetration of light into the water or soil (Groves, Richardson Shepard 1995, 07). This adversely distresses aquatic fauna as well as flora. Economic impacts Economic Impacts Alligator weed has impacts on several sectors of the economy. The plant has increased the would-be costs to irrigation farming (Groves, Richardson Shepard 1995, 10). It is expected that should the alligator weed not be controlled, then, the Barren Box Swamp infestation will cost about $250 million annually (Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water and Communities 2010). It is also threatening the sustainability of the turf industry in the Sydney Basin. The vegetable industry in the Hawkesbury-Nepan region is also threatened; the industry is estimated to be worth $150 million a year (Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water and Communities 2010). Other than the vegetable industry, there is the extraction industry in the same region, which also under threat. Should these resources be contaminated with the alligator weed, then the resources will have to be restricted. Moreover, it also threatens soy bean as well as sugar cane industries in the Richmond region (Groves, Richardson Shepard 1995, 11). Alligator weed also interferes with livestock farming. The plant contaminates grazing pastures and causes cancerous lesions in cattle. At some point, they become so dense that they deny livestock access to drinking water. This also implies that it limits access to, as well as, use of water. It can also block and damage pumps. In Warragamba Dam in Sydney, the weed causes sedimentation and therefore its major water supply, as well as, storage system (Depar tment of Sustainability, Environment, Water and Communities 2010). It obstructs stream flow of water and as a result leads to sedimentation. This contributes to flooding of the region, and structural damage to infrastructure. Red foxes have significant impacts on the Australian economy. It threatens the existence of native species as well as ecological communities. This impacts on the national heritage as it reduces species population (wildlife resources) in the country. The night parrot, malleefowl, as well as, the bridled nail-tail wallaby are some of the species which have been identified as threatened by red fox (Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water and Communities 2010). Red fox also causes losses to farmers especially those who keep livestock. The fox preys on the kid goats, poultry, as well as, newborn lambs. Moreover, they can also pass rabies on to livestock as well as native mammals. This costs the Australia economy millions of dollars per year since they kill livestock as well as by being a pest to farmers. Advantages of the methods used to control red fox Among the methods the government and the Australian community has employed is the prevention of the spread of red foxes to new regions which includes islands. Protection of the islands has been major priority in controlling red fox population. Islands have often been used as refugee habitats for species which are not available on the mainland any more. This has been effective in eradicating red fox from high-conservation-value islands. Adoption of poison baits on fences has also been successful in reducing the population of red foxes. This has been applied in south-west Western Australia and Eastern Australia. It has enabled native mammals to start to recover, and as a result, return to their former habitats. This method has also reduced the pressure on native species threatened by the red fox. It helps promote the maintenance, as well as, recovery of native animals together with the e cological communities which have been affected by red fox predation. Demerits of the methods used to control red fox Although the Australian community has adopted payment of bounties to encourage people to remove red foxes from among the wild animals, reduction of damages from the fox has not been effective (Tasmanian Department of Primary industries, Parks, Water and Environment, 2010). Again, hunting has not been able to achieve significant or long-term impact red fox population as well as the damage they cause. The application of poison baits in controlling red fox could have effects on other animals which are the target for elimination. Poison baits may also have similar effects on other animals, and therefore lead to their decline in areas where they are used. Besides, poison baits are very expensive and requires much resources to maintain them indefinitely. In south-west Western Australia, a large scale 1080-poison baits is used to control red fox. Advantages of the methods us ed to control alligator weed There are several methods which have been applied in Australia to control alligator weed. These control methods include physical, chemical and biological controls, and through legislation. Physical control method which involves the manual digging and burying of the alligator weed after having applied herbicides which kills any above-underground plant growth. This ensures immediate eradication of the alligator plant (NSW Department of Primary Industries 2008). It has successfully reduced floating mats which grow in Georges River as well as parts of Hawkesbury-Nepean region. Disadvantages of the methods used to control alligator weed One of the methods which have been applied in managing alligator weed is the adoption of alternative vegetable as part of the eradication program. The most notable alternative vegetable that has been adopted is the lesser joy weed which is scientifically known as Alternanthera denticulata (Bonila and Gunasekera 2001, 19). Howe ver, this does not help eliminate alligator weed as most of it grows wildly. Wetlands and river habitat where the weed grows is not affected by this program. Chemical control method applied in Australia is not effective as it takes long to eradicate the weed. Alligator weed can tolerate most herbicides. This means that application of these herbicides may only suppress the weed. Consequently, this method may take as a long as 6 years to completely eradicate the weed since in some cases, the herbicides are applied annually. Again, since the alligator weed is tolerant to most of these herbicides (NSW Department of Primary Industries 2008), it implies that large quantities are used in process. This can be dangerous to other plant species and could lead to their death. This means that chemical control method may lead to further loss of biodiversity. Application of chemicals could also lead to the death of soil micro-organisms which play key role in breaking and enriching the soil. Physic al control on the other hand, cannot be adopted in large and extensive alligator coverage areas. It is difficult to carry out deep manual digging for burying the weed that covers a wide area. Besides, applying herbicides to prevent above-underground plant growth could affect many plant and animal species which were not intended. Conclusion Red fox and alligator weed are among the invasive species which are of great significance to Australia. Both of them cause great damage to the environment, which in turn affects the country’s economy. If they are not carefully controlled, then they may cause reduction of population of various species and even lead to their extinction. Thus, it is important to devise better and more environmentally friendly ways of managing them and their impacts. This means that more research has to be done to enable the Australian community understand their impacts and develop more advanced ways of controlling their population and impacts on the ecology, o ther species and human life. It is also important to understand that these species also play vital roles in the ecosystem, and therefore the control measures adopted should not aim at eliminating them, but also protecting them. Finally, the local community should be involved in controlling these pests and weeds in order to achieve sustainable environmental management. Reference List Bonila, J., Gunasekera, L., 2001, Alligator weed: Tasty vegetable in Australian backyard. Journal of Aquatic Plant Management, 39: 17-20. Burgman, M., Lindenmayer, D., 1998, Conservation biology for the Australian Environment. Sydney: Surrey Beatty Sons. p. 83. Cowan, P. E., Tyndale-Biscoe, C. H., 1997, Reproduction, fertility development: Australia and New Zealand mammal species considered to be pests or problems. CSIRO, 9: 27-35. Cuthbertson, E., Parsons W., 1992, Noxious weeds of Australia. Plant Protection Quartely, 3: 154–157. Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water and Communi ties, 2010, European red fox (vulpes vulpes). Canberra ACT: Commonwealth of Australia. Everitt, J. H., Little, C. R., Lonard, R. L., 2007, Weeds in South Texas and Northern Mexico. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press. pp. 55. Groves, R., Richardson, R., Shepard, R. 1995, Biology of Australian weeds, Vol. 1. Taipei City: Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 1–12. Larivià ¨re, S., Pasitschniak-Arts, M., 1996, Vulpes vulpes. Mamallian Species, 537: pp. 1-11. National Land Water Resources Audit, 2008, Assessing invasive animals in Australia 2008, NLWRA, Canberra./SEWPaC (2010). Web. NSW Department of Primary Industries, 2008, Alligator weed control manual: Eradication and suppression of alligator weed in Australia. Orange: NSW Department of Primary Industries. Pearson, J., Pyres, G., 1998, Ecosystem of Australia: Deserts. Port Melbourne: Heinemann Library. p. 87. Tasmanian Department of Primary industries, Parks, Water and Environment, 2010, Locations of fox activity inTasmania . Web. This report on Invasive Species was written and submitted by user Kamille Riley to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Saturday, March 7, 2020

IL Carnevale Italiano essays

IL Carnevale Italiano essays Il Carnevale Italiano is one of the most celebrated festivals in Italy, let alone Europe and the rest of the world. In modern days tens of thousands of tourists flock to Italian cities to join the festivities, wearing masks of different shapes and types, and rejoicing in the culture and style that all began years ago in the 11th century of the middle ages. In Venice, where it traditionally originated, the carnival was one of the popular feasts that the whole city loved most, and it was renowned abroad too. It can be dated back to 1094 in the city of Vitale Falier (back then it was called Doge) in the era when Venice had just become a big and feared power. As the years passed other regions and cities took Venices lead and organized their own festivals; now many regions hold annual carnivals, some of the better known ones being set in Napoli, Verona, Bologna, Salerno, Trieste, Arezzo as well as other cities. It was not until the 18th century though that Venice was fully acknowledged as the city of the carnival, and the festival became internationally known. Gentlemen from all over Europe came to enjoy themselves among the streets and squares, in the casinos and in the theatres. Not only commoners attended, but also kings and princes from other close by countries including France, Austria, and Spain. After the fall of the Republic the city progressively lost its vitality, and also consequently the tradition of the carnival was abandoned at the same time. The revival of the tradition first restarted around 20 years ago with public and private festivities and theatre performances, involving Venetians as well as foreigners. Already the Venetian Carnival is again the biggest Italian carnival as well as one of the most famous and popular in the world. The festivals normally take place all over Italy in early February. The earliest that they would start would be mid - late January ...

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Leadership within the human behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Leadership within the human behavior - Essay Example Leadership is one of the most studied topics within the human behavior in organization realm. Regardless of career or profession, the need for leaders could not be denied since they play a crucial role in steering the people within the organization towards that achievement of identified goals. In one’s particular career that is currently being pursued, that of a physician assistant, the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) is the national organization that governs accredited programs within the profession (Physician Assistant Education Association, 2012). As revealed U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, physician assistants (PAs), â€Å"practice medicine under the direction of physicians and surgeons. They are formally trained to examine patients, diagnose injuries and illnesses, and provide treatment† (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012). Due to the nature of responsibilities and accountabilities in patient care, leadership skills are essential to be assesse d and evaluated within this profession. The leadership essay hereby aims to present the results of the Student Leadership Practices Inventory test taken and to identify those leadership characteristics that were the strengths and weaknesses noted therein. The discourse would likewise determine how one would maintain the identified strengths and address the weaknesses. Since one is pursuing a career as a physician assistant, the essay would also proffer what the professional association says about leadership and to provide one’s contention.

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

The Fourth Amendment, Search and Seizure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Fourth Amendment, Search and Seizure - Essay Example This paper discusses a case about the violation of the Fourth Amendment exposing the dynamics of its interpretation and application. The case between Brigham City and Stuart of 2006 is an exemplar of search and seizure cases. Brigham City police responded to a call that came in at around three o’clock in the morning. The call was a complaint about a loud party in a certain neighborhood in Brigham. On arrival to the house in question, the police confirmed that indeed there was shouting and drinking. The police observed some individuals fighting in the kitchen, and an officer entered the house and announced his presence. The officer arrested the adults present at the scene and pressed charges against them including encouraging delinquency. The trial court allowed the suppression of the prosecution’s evidence and Utah Court of Appeals affirmed this suppression (Schulhofer, 2012). The suppression of evidence was on the basis that the officer's entry into the house was warra ntless hence violating the Fourth Amendment. Utah State Supreme Court affirmed this decision suspending any claim on the emergency aid doctrine and exigency of the situation. The court cited the absence of an objectively reasonable belief that there was a missing, semiconscious or unconscious person on the premises. It was this notion that the court used to suspend any claim on the emergency aid doctrine. The emergency doctrine excuses individuals from acting reasonably in lieu of an urgent need to offer aid in an emergency situation. The court suspended the doctrine also because the officers acted in the capacity of law enforcers and not in assistance to the injured individual. The court refused the exigency of the situation as it lacked persuasion about the officers’ warrantless entry (Clancy, 2008). The Supreme Court reversed the case and referred it back to court for fresh proceedings varying from the initial judgment. The concept of reasonableness  that is central to the provisions of the Fourth Amendment allows s ome exceptions to the need for a warrant.  

Monday, January 27, 2020

Accounting Essays Comparability of Financial Statements

Accounting Essays Comparability of Financial Statements Comparability of Financial Statements. 1.0 Financial Statements and its Significance. In recent times, we have witnessed tremendous policy reforms and recommendations being made to tackle and control the manner in which businesses carry out their accounting work. Numerous accounting mismanagement and malpractices have only added to the urgency to bring regulations that seek to keep a check on accounting procedures followed by the corporate world. The failure of companies such as Enron due to inappropriate accounting tactics stands out as a perfect example. Investors in the form of shareholders and stakeholders provide huge sum of capital anticipating higher future returns. Firms are known to tamper with financial data in order to attract prospective investors to finance their capital requirements and debt elimination. Recently, Shell, one of world biggest energy and oil producing companies was accused of overstating oil reserves to attract investments and had eventually admitted to have tampered with its financial data. Therefore, proper scrutiny of financial statements is essentials especially since various individual and business interests are developed citing information provided in these statements. Countries such as the US have come up with regulations such as US GAAP1 to assess financial policies pursued by corporates and the format to be followed in publishing financial statements. Countries have adopt accounting procedures and guidelines framed under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to eliminate discrepancies in financial analysis, improve investment opportunities and to make financial information available. By 2005, all companies registered in the EU have to adhere by new accounting standard. Countries such as UK have come under immense pressure to replace UK GAAP with the new IFRS scheme. Investors often depend on various financial ratios to determine when and where to invest. Such complexities and the presence of diverse interests groups make it essential to develop financial mechanisms that determine the financial health of a company. Companies have to publish Annual Reports that summarise its financial status and act as a medium of information to its shareholders. An important and significant step in determining the health of a company is to analysis its historical financial statements. These historical data provides a picture of the financial health of a business and a roadmap outlining the direction the business is heading. The financial data are covered under various headings such as the Balance Sheet and Income Statements. Each of these has a particular format and is based on the principles of financial regulation framework such as the GAAP. We shall look at them briefly in the following chapter and also look at other techniques developed due to the shortcoming some of these financial ratios are known to show. 2.0 Understanding Financial Ratios Ratio is nothing but the comparison of one figure with another and is normally depicted as a percentage. Financial ratio is an analytical tool used to analyse trends, strength and weakness of a companys assets and its liabilities. Financial ratios are compared overtime on a year to year basis. The basic source for these ratios comes from the companys financial statements which contains information on the assets, liabilities, profits and losses and dividends accruing to its shareholders.2 The most common ratios can be classified under the following headings: Profitability Ratios Liquidity Ratios Capital Structure Ratios In the financial world, firms rely on investors to raise funds for its short and long term needs. This is done by floating shares in the stock markets or by issuing debentures or bonds (loans). The funds may come in the form of short term, medium or long term loans. An investor will only invest if he is fully convinced that his investment will gain higher returns/dividends. He may look at the balance sheet to analyse how much the company is worth. Liquidity is an important criterion that influences investor decisions. The company must be able to pay back its loans on time and doing so will only raise its reputation in the capital market for future borrowings. The company that relies heavily on borrowing its expenses will obviously find it difficult to service its liabilities. Besides, customers spending habit has a larger impact on the companys sales and liquidity. Purchase affects the companys stock of goods which, in turn, affects its liquidity. Since stocks cannot be sold in short notice, it has a direct impact on the firms capability to raise fund to finance short term debt financing. The current liabilities have to be settled in cash within short period of time. The presence of large stocks will artificially inflate the total current assets which may make it appear as if the company has enough resources to meet its short term liabilities. We shall look at some popular ratios that, though informative, cannot be used as an ideal tool for financial analysis. Lets see how. The annual report 2004 of The EMI Group suggests that group has current assets (including stocks) worth  £1107 million and current liabilities worth  £1403.5 million. The resultant current ratio is 0.78:1.3 This figure suggests that the Group does not have enough short term resources to meet its short term requirements. It has only 78 pence to meet a pound of debt. If we deduct the stocks ( £36.4 million) from its current assets to see its immediate liquidity, the quick ratio shows an even poor debt financing capability. The quick ratio is 0.76:1.4 This figure suggests that the Group has only 76 pence to meet every 1 pound worth of debt.5 Analysing the results suggest that it would be inappropriate to rely on the current ratio as it does not explain how much the company real assets are readily convertible into cash in short notice. Stocks are not highly liquid and therefore must be excluded in assessing the companys liquidity in the short period. Therefore, current ratio cannot be used as a reliable means to make investment decisions and that it essential that we look at other ratios and their merits and demerits to determine which of these is appropriate in the capital market. The Gross Profit Ratio is the ratio between the Gross Profit and the Sales Revenue. The Gross Profits is arrived at by deducting the Cost of Sales from the Sales Revenue.6 To analyse this ratio we shall look at the Income Statement of The Sandvik Group.7 The Consolidated Income Statement suggests that the group had an Invoiced Sales of  £4010.2 million and Cost of Sales equalling  £2742 million. The GP ratio between these two figures is 1.46:1 meaning that the group is able to make 46 pence extra from every  £1 of sales. It may look appealing but it must be noted that the Cost of Sales does not include other expenses that may significantly reduce the gross profits.8 If we deduct other expenses worth  £741.9 million, the operating profits drop to  £526.3 million. The Shareholders and the companys future investment plans and its dividend policies depends on the Net Profits. It is arrived at by deducting the interest payables. The Sandviks Net Profits for the year after tax de ductions are equivalent to  £327million. We can see that though the Gross Profit ratio is a useful ratio it does not shows the companys financial position and does not influence any investment decisions. The real true figure that matters is the Net Profits after taxation. The ratio categorised under capital structure ratios are more elaborate and descriptive. However when using ratios such as gearing and interest cover, factor such as market structure, consumer preference and taste, economies of scale, product type have considerable influence. For example, payments from debtors depends of consumer income and preference. These factors have its affect on the current assets (cash) which will in turn affect the company ability to pay its creditors. The points here is that though some factors cannot be measured and may not have direct consequences (market structure) it cannot be ignored. The ideas highlighted above are very important in performing financial analysis of a company. The accounting professionals have introduced techniques that are more accurate and explicable. We shall look at one such technique in the next chapter. 3.0 Improvement in assessment of financial statement. We have seen the technical failure of various financial ratios and the difficulty in using them as a tool to make investment decisions. Comparing financial results from different periods has its own drawbacks because there are no independent frameworks to assess whether the companys current results are good or bad. It is very important that care must be taken when comparing results between two different companies in terms of products, size, market share etc. For example, company A may have a significant market share (turnover) compared to company Bs but smaller net profit due to its bigger operational costs. Such discrepancies can influence wrong investment patterns and decisions. Another major drawback of ratio analysis is that accountants indulge in creative accounting techniques where ratios calculated from published financial statements show favourable figures. For example, sale and repurchase agreements manipulate liquidity figures and off-balance sheet finance which distorts return on capital employed and thereby influencing companys gearing. It is therefore essential that new approach to assessing financial statement must be devised and changed to suit to new market conditions. One such technique was developed by Professor Altman who devised a new technique popularly known as the Z-Score.9 The Z-Score is a statistical model that incorporates the use of five different ratios which serve to predict the health of a firm.10 The Z-Score is used to predict bankruptcy of the business using traditional financial ratios and statistical method known as the Multiple Discriminant Analysis. The Z-score is considered to be 90 % accurate in forecasting business failure one year into the future and 80 percent accurate in forecasting it two years into the future.11 By selecting various financial ratios and applying weight to each ratio it is possible to estimate the financial position of the company. In his study, he analysed over 22 such financial ratios and selected 5 distinctive ratios that focused on the balance sheet and performance ratios. Weights were assigned by establishing appropriate coefficients to show how each of these ratios influenced the dependent Z-Score. Altman Z-Score equation: Z = X1 (a) + X2 (b) + X3 (c) + X4 (d) + X5 (e)12 Where, X1 Working Capital/Total Assets. X2 Retained Earning/Total Assets. X3 EBIT/Total Assets.13 X4 Market Value Equity/Book Value of Total Debt. X5 Sales/Total Assets a, b, c, d, e are respective coefficient assigned to each ratios (X1,X2 ¦Ã‚ ¦..X5). Z Overall Z-Score. Now, companies expand their reach in the global market by producing goods that belong to different markets. Firms engage in horizontal and vertical integration to expand their market and also to reduce risk by spreading their resources in different activities. It is therefore illogical to do a financial comparison of firms from different industry. Professor Altman overcame the problem of comparing companies that specialised in different industries by altering the above equation by eliminating certain ratios. For example, Ratio X5 for non-manufacturing companies. This is done because sales/total assets ratio greatly varies from industry to industry. Z = X1 (a) + X2 (b) + X3 (c) + X4 (d) He modified the equation for a privately held company by implementing book value of equity as a private companys stocks are not publicly traded. He further devised Z Score table to determine a financial healthy company from a sick company in various industries. The companies in the grey area were considered misclassified. Unhealthy Gray Area Healthy Private Companies < 1.23 1.23 2.90 > 2.90 Public Companies < 1.81 1.81 2.99 > 2.99 Non Manufacturing Companies < 1.00 1.11 2.60 > 2.60 The Z Score technique is gaining popularity in the financial world as an efficient and accurate method to predict financial health of a company and also it is less likely to be manipulated as Ratio Analysis are known to be. In the next chapter I shall focus on the International Financial Reporting standard and look at ways it can be improved to promote comparability and facilitate globalisation and movement of capital. 4.0 Financial Reporting and Applications. The International Financial Reporting Standards also known as the International Accounting Standard are a set of accounting standards companies must follow when formulating financial policies and publication of financial statements. In the EU, new regulations require EU companies to adopt International Accounting Standards by the year 2005. Questions have been raised as to whether we need international standards with massive movement towards free market. As Mr. Andrew Crockett puts in advances in IT and the ascendancy of free market principles have underpinned government-led to market-led financial system ¦.the period saw the emergence of financial instability 14 Mr. Crockett also stress on the fact that we need to develop, seek global acceptance of, and implement a set of codes or standards that pertain to key elements of financial system infrastructure . It was felt that certain regulations on financial prices, financial statements framework, and accounting principles pertaining to domestic and cross border transactions were hindering market forces. These factors combined with the shift towards greater fiscal and monetary prudence laid the foundation for a system that controlled capital movement across borders and international standards that improved global accounting principles. The steps taken to achieve efficient financial mechanism must be able to address two factors firstly, it must be able to identify the most economic way of utilising resources and secondly, it must be able to control the manner in which these resources are utilised. It forms the basis for the allocation of income among various claimants on the company and to bring in financial discipline. The major advantages of such reporting standards are:- It helps in poverty reduction by reducing the risk of financial crisis and their impact on the global poor. It achieves significance because the scope of globalisation has reached almost every single country. It helps in creating investor confidence by improving investment climate, eradication of loopholes affecting direct and indirect investments. Its helps by eliminating barriers on free movement of market information and sentiments. It assists local governments to implement taxation regulations and also unwanted barriers to trade. Despite the advantages of having international standards for financial reporting, it is quite evident that certain factors act as a barrier to accounting standards. For e.g. the UK banking sector has been in the forefront of this conflict between the international standards and the national standards. Lets very briefly look at two such regulations that will have an impact on the banking sector the Basel II capital accord and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which apply to all companies listed in the EU.15 Basel II requires banks to link their capital to risk. It is likely to have consequences on all types of lending to SMEs and large companies. Despite the advantages in terms of better risk management and accurate pricing of loans, the complexity involved in switching will cause some problems. The eventual replacement of UK GAAP with the IFRS comes with the complexity of changing over, cost involved and bad debt provisions. According to an article published in the Business Money magazine by Mr. Mike Imeson, the HSBC bank incurred $ 400 million in expense to bring regulatory changes in accounting standards world over in 2003. Similar sentiments were expressed by Mr. Stephen Pegge, Lloyd TSB in this article by saying that when a business approaches you for a loan, you wont know for certain which legislation applies .16 Considering the above statements, it is essential to look at national concern towards the development of an international standard on financial regulation. It is true that it will improve investment opportunities by elimination of unwanted barriers and it is also likely to create expenses that may prove as a hindrance to an already volatile and underdeveloped financial systems in most countries. As Mr. Pegge puts in, it will create confusion in the mind of investors and lenders as to what legislation applies and bureaucratic delays in understanding and applying them. 5.0 Conclusions In the preceding chapters, we have seen the importance of financial analysis in investment choice and decision making. The ratio forms a very important aspect in making financial choices and also acts as a medium for companies to assess their business performance. Financial analysis of these ratios influences the interests of various groups of individuals and organisations such as Individual shareholders, Employees, Managers, Directors, Governments. Considering these interest groups and affects on each of these entities, the need for an international framework for accounting standard has being increasing felt. It acts as a medium of information for the investors who would assess the basis for making further investments and also to see how well the company is performing. The managers stand to benefit as their remuneration and income are directly linked to the company performance. The governments policy towards economic development and need for further reforms are based on these financial analysis and financial statements. It forms the basis for taxes on trade and tax benefits and exemptions. While the importance haves been highlighted, it is also essential to note that drawbacks are not ignored. As Mr. Pegge points out there must be a clear understanding of the legislations and it must work towards reducing costs rather than increasing it. To conclude, financial reforms and regulations are an essential component in todays global economy. Financial statements must as an informative source free from manipulations of date and figures. References and Bibliography Chartered Institute of Management Accountant (CIMA), (2005 Edition), Financial Accounting Fundamentals Paper C2. Chartered Institute of Management Accountant (CIMA), (2005 Edition), Management Accounting Fundamentals Paper C1. Annual Report, 2004, The EMI Group. Annual Report, 2004, The Sandvik Group. Internet Sources: The EMI Group www.emigroup.com/financial.html The Sandvik Group www3.sandvik.com/pdf/annualreports/sandvik2004_eng_web.pdf Vercor The Global Resource for Business, Sales, Merger and Acquisitions www.vercoradvisor.com/articles/companyscore.html Bank for International Settlement www.bis.org/speeches/sp020227.htm BusinessMoney.com http://www.business-money.com/features_mike_imeson_jan05.html Ventureline www.ventureline.com/SampleOneIndustry.asp

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Speak Noah

Bogeyman Mrs.. Johnson February 14, 2013 English Honors Period 3 An Untold Story â€Å"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. † (Maya Angelo) The novel Speak details the life story of Melinda Sordid, a freshman in high school, and how both the traumatic and happy events of her life shape her character. In the summer before entering high school, Melinda is invited to a party that changes her life; and it is not for the better. A senior in high school named Andy Evans rapes her, and since she is so scared, she calls the police, they arrive shortly, and proceed to reek up the party.Throughout Speak, Melinda is reassured by a poster of Maya Angelo, who was also raped as a child, but went on to become a successful public figure and author. A major theme that echoes throughout the novel Speak is that all people are made smarter not by aging, but by the experiences they have been through. This fact that experience defines a person is evident in Melanin's l ife by both the traumatic experience she has of rape and the enjoyable experience she has attending Mr.. Freeman's art classes. These two opposite influences wage war and, in he end, Melinda decides to emerge from her shell.When she speaks to her middle school friend-turned-enemy Rachel about the event at the summer party, Melinda is accepted with open arms and forgiven of her accusations. Through the symbol of the white couch and the metaphors of the seasonal change and the tree, which is each effectively inserted into Speak, one can tell that a person grows through learning from his experience rather than by mere aging. Most trees are a symbol of life when they are full of leaves in the summer, or a symbol of death when they have lost all heir leaves in winter.In Speak, however, as shown on page 12 by Mr.. Freeman and Melanin's brief conversation, the tree actually represents Melanin's life story, â€Å"By the end of the year, you must figure out how to make your object say somet hing, express an emotion, speak to every person who looks at it. † This introduction to art by Mr.. Freeman turns out to play a big role in Melanin's life because the object she chooses mirrors the Journey of her life. Melinda thinks to herself, â€Å"Some people groan. My stomach flutters. Can he really let us do this? It sounds like too much fun. Tree?It's too easy. I learned how to draw a tree in second grade. I reach in for another piece of paper. † Just as she is about to grab the second paper, Mr.. Freeman dissuades her by saying, Mimi Just chose your destiny, you can't change that. † This quote is the beginning of a book-long metaphor for the progression of Melanin's life; as Melinda improves her drawing of the tree, her life improves. Throughout the rest of Speak there are many other references to the tree metaphor; with each successful encounter of Melanin's tree project, her artistic ability has shown improvement.This correlates with her life improving t hrough the experience she has gained. On page 15 of Speak, Melinda returns home from school, sits down on her white couch, and orders pizza. The white couch symbolizes Melinda; this is shown by the following trick to eating on it is to turn the messy side of the cushions up. The couch has two personalities: ‘Melinda inhaling pepperoni and mushroom' and ‘No one ever eats in the family room, no ma'am. ‘ Flip, flip, flip – cushions reversed to show their pretty white cheeks† (15).This quote is a symbol of Melanin's life because the hidden underside of the couch is symbolizing Melanin's secrets that are buried and not visible to people on the outside. Although, what makes the couch such a great example, is that the visible exterior of the couch is white, which symbolizes purity. On the contrary, the white couch looks repulsive if it is dirty; this relates to a possible reality for Melinda because if she does not speak up, but instead buries her abuse under neath a clean exterior, she cannot be fully clearness of her burden.Thus, by not peaking up to the world about how she was raped at a party last summer, she can never reach her true potential of the beautiful, white couch. Melanin's reasoning behind hiding the real couch and the truth behind the party is that she fears that people will Judge her for her imperfections. Through the experience she has gained in her freshman year of high school, Melinda realizes that the only way for her to conquer her fear is to use those various positive and negative incidents to help her grow in maturity through experience.A final example of metaphoric language append to occur on the final page of Speak. It is the last day of Melanin's freshman year and the person she must talk to is Mr.. Freeman. Melinda ideates, â€Å"The tears dissolve the last block of ice in my throat. I feel the frozen stillness melt down through the inside of me, dripping shards of ice that vanish in a puddle of sunlight on t he stained floor† (198). The ice in this quote represents Melanin's secrets that are weighing her down, not allowing her to speak up for herself, and harming her physically (Andy hurt Melinda after she told Rachel Andy raped Melinda).The tears signify the experiences she has undergone in high school and how those experiences allowed her to mature. The sunlight on the stained floor symbolizes Melanin's artwork of the tree; how the tree emanates warmth to cure Melanin's ailment of a frozen mind. Without the experience Melinda had by communicating with Mr.. Freeman, she would never have been able to face her fears and come out of her shell. Speak is overflowing with metaphorical expressions, but many readers do not understand the implications behind the author's use of a particular metaphor in a even situation.People think, â€Å"Oh, I know this is a metaphor,† and then move on reading. This ignorance of the meaning behind symbolism is actually a symbol for how those indiv iduals live their lives. The following quote by Maya Angelo shows this ignorance of symbolism in a real world sense, â€Å"Most people don't grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging. † For example, whenever a person attends a party, the driving factor behind that party's success is the quality of inversion.If everyone there was one of the â€Å"most people† that Maya Angelo mentions, the party would be dull and boring, and it would only age the people rather than provide them with new experiences. In summation, if one is to truly live and contribute to society, he must be so overflowing with experiences that he will use metaphors to describe accurately a situation that he has encountered; without wasting the time that could be spent living through more life Journeys and garnering experience, rather than aging by merely passing through life.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Case on Air Deccan

Case Study Strategic management Evaluation II AIR DECCAN: REVOLUTIONISING THE INDIAN SKIES Air Travel in India For decades, air travel in India was meant for the most elite and powerful in society. An overwhelming majority of travellers who could not afford the prohibitive air travel fares, preferred to journey on trains and buses. The revolutionizing effects of liberalization swept India with dynamic changes in the aviation sector. From being a service that few could afford, the sector has now graduated to being a fiercely competitive industry with the presence of a number of private and public airlines and several consumer-oriented offerings. In ten years of competition in the aviation sector, private airlines have changed the rules of the game, and they now account for more than 60 % of the domestic aviation market. More and more middle class families in India now prefer air travel to the more traditional travel by train. In 2003, 10 million Indians travelled by air domestically. In 2004, 25 million took to the skies within India and 6 million Indians travelled abroad. The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation estimates that the domestic Indian market will add 5 million passengers every year for the next five years, growing to 45 million passengers by 2010. Today, the relationship of domestic to international travel stands at 40:60 whereas in 1994 it stood at only 25:75. But taking into account a growing middle class with increased and increasing purchasing power, there are 200-210 million potential spenders. The Indian population grows at a rate of 8% per year. Around 100 million travellers every day on state-owned Indian Railways, If air travel bites into even a small percentage of this huge pie, that’s still clearly a tremendous growth opportunity. The entry of budget airlines like Air Deccan, the introduction of cheap airfares by other domestic carriers, combined with rising incomes and consumption of the middle class as also their growing aspirations, have created this new paradigm: Air travel is no longer for the elite. Air Travel Market The new entrants have caused a shift in the market share for the old hands. The three legacy airlines, Jet Airways, state-owned Indian and Air Sahara, saw their market share slipping in first quarter of this year. Jet Airways, still the leader, found its share of market volumes slipping with 34. 9%. Indian at 23. 9% and Air Deccan at 10% followed suit. Low-cost airlines are certainly giving a tough time to full service carriers whose market share has dipped, as has their revenue. Fares have been slashed drastically and both Jet Airways and Indian are wooing the consumers with special schemes and promotions. Several new entrants such as Air Deccan, SpiceJet, GoAir, Kingfisher and Paramount have begun to dot Indian airspace, garnering a market share of more than 31% in the first quarter of 2006. The leader among this brat-pack is clearly Air Deccan – the airline has doubled its market share to 15. 2 per cent. Kingfisher and SpiceJet have captured a market share of 8. 3 per cent and 6 per cent respectively. Coimbatore-based Paramount Airways has publicly confirmed garnering 0. 3% of the market. Jeh Wadia’s GoAir is also going great guns by cornering 1. 6% of the air traffic in a short time span. These airlines took to the skies after the first quarter of last year. All the airlines have seen an increase in the number of passengers carried in the first quarter. With all the start-ups planning significant increases in capacity this year — Kingfisher (fleet may go up to 20 planes), Deccan (38 planes), SpiceJet (12/14 planes), Go (7/9 planes) and Paramount (10 planes) — the market is set to sizzle. The market is gearing up for an adventurous ride of price wars as six more low-budget airlines waiting in the wings – Jagson Airlines, King Air, Mega Airways, Indus Air and Megapode Airline. IndiGo has made its entry as well, with ambitious plans to induct 100 aircraft into its fleet. According to analysts, airfares will continue to nosedive, as nearly 200 new aircraft will be added to the existing 250 aircraft in the country. All this translates to further downward revision of fares and packaged offers for passengers. Lessons The case is replete with illustrations of how Captain Gopinath crafted the company from scratch. He went on a ‘boot strapping' mode, which is the hallmark of a successful entrepreneur. The constancy of purpose, focus and humility are evident. His ability to sense opportunities from chance encounters (such as a visit to the USA or the Southeast Asian countries) are out of the ordinary experience. These and many other qualities are a ‘must have' list of qualities of a successful entrepreneur. Anyone aspiring to succeed in an entrepreneurial venture will do well to emulate these qualities, among others. Rise of Air Deccan â€Å"It hit me like a ton of bricks. This country has a population of a billion, but only 15 million air passengers. May be the time is right. If one billion people can fly, and we get a miniscule percent of the market, imagine how big that will be? It's not an impossible dream. † – Captain Gopinath, in The Hindu, Sunday, August 15, 2004 Air Deccan, India's first Low-cost Airline (LCA), started off with more of a whimper than a bang in September 2003 with an aborted maiden flight from Hyderabad that didn't quite make it off the ground when a fire broke out in one of its engines. Adding to the embarrassment was the presence of the then Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Pratap Singh Rudy and other senior Indian politicians on the flight. The press had a field day criticizing the ‘maestro behind the mayhem ‘Captain Gopinath, the Managing Director of Air Deccan. There were many prophesies of doom by competing airlines and industry analysts who were convinced that the bad publicity with which the airline took off would drive away customers. Captain Gopinath, however, remained unfazed and calmly went about doing what he did best succeeding at the task that he had set out to do. Making a shaky start with just two ATR turbo-prop aircraft in September 2003, Air Deccan now operates 75 flights a day to around 32 destinations in India and has increased its fleet to three Airbus 320's and seven ATR 42's. This flock of aircraft is constantly growing. As of March 2004, Air Deccan has recorded annual revenues of $120 mn (Rs. 5520 mn) with a passenger load as high as 83% across sectors and some routes like Bangalore-Hyderabad and Bangalore-Goa, recording 100% loads (Exhibit 1 and 2). In December 2004 Captain Gopinath cut a deal with Airbus, the world's largest manufacturer of civil aircraft, for the purchase of 30 A320 aircraft valued at over $1. 4 bn. The delivery of these new aircraft will commence in 2007. While the airbus will operate on trunk routes, the smaller airports will be connected with ATR's. The company has signed a deal with ATR for supply of 30 aircraft over the next few years, of which half will be on lease and the rest will be purchased. A distinctive strength of Air Deccan vis-a-vis any of the big three airlines in the country (Indian Airlines, Jet Airways and Sahara) is its ability to penetrate into the small towns of India. This provides the company almost an exclusive access , to 75% of the population of the country that lives in small towns and rural areas. Air Deccan has been instrumental in getting the Government to open up many of these small town airports, some of which had fallen into disuse over the years. In contrast to the swanky airports of the big cities Such as Mumbai and Chennai, these more modest cousins need very little investment on the part of the government to recommission them and the ‘airport terminal’ is often no more than a tin shed or a thatched hut. But according to Captain Gopinath, ‘What the hell, they serve their purpose’. This obsessive focus o costs and functionality is perhaps what best epitomizes the philosophy of the main behind Air Deccan. The Low Cost Business Model: A popular mantra Air Deccan triggered the race to the bottom in the low cost sector. Their model forced the industry to move from having simple economy, business and first class fares, to multiple slab tariffs such as apex fares, internet auctions, special discounts, bulk purchases and last day fares. Some of the tariffs offered are so low that they have brought airline fares neck-to-neck with upper class railway fares. This low cost model is two-fold: offering connectivity between smaller cities and major metros and making air travel a feasible option to a new class of passengers. The features and benefits of the model are listed in the table below: Features| Benefits| Ticketless travel & Online ticket sales| Reduction of huge costs of printing| No international offices| and processing tickets. | Use of secondary city airports| Lower landing and parking costs in| No frequent flyer points| secondary city airports| No free food & beverages/in-flight magazines| High seat capacity due to nil storage of food| No club lounges| Minimal training (of pilots) and| Same aircraft types | maintenance (of spares for different types of aircrafts) costs. | Separate ticket for each sector/flight|   | No premium class|   | Short haul flights| Quicker turnaround and higher aircraft utilization | Challenges and constraints still persist: * India is a very cost conscious society, hence market is very sensitive to air fares * Internet based solutions limited-Bandwidth restrictions and low internet penetration * Changing needs of the business traveller puts more pressure on the travel agents to offer wide variety * Travel agents still the first choice for air bookings * While aviation is centrally managed, the regional structure of India’s government and regulations, combined with the often regional management of airline companies, has created a fragmented market for corporate travel. STRATEGY The challenges that the company has to face are now only beginning. In the initial stages of the company, many of the established players (Indian Airlines, Jet Airways and Sahara) would have trivialized the company and not expected it to reach the level it has reached now . Suddenly, the company has appeared as a big dot on the radar screen of  these well-established players. The existing paradigm is that running an airline requires large funding, something that Captain Gopinath lacked. Hence, the existing players would have concluded that this venture was bound to fail. However, there was a lot of  entrepreneurial creativity manifested by Captain Gopi that helped him make his dream a reality, and today Air Deccan is a force to reckon with. Besides, many other ‘me too' low cost airlines are already on the anvil. The Government and the realities are also things to reckon with. Participant teams may identify other challenges as well. How Captain Gopi and his team will deal with all these identified challenges will make observation interesting. Strategy as per the porter’s force model: Kingfisher Red Oct. 17–MUMBAI, India — Kingfisher airlines has signed up with Air-Deccan to buy out the Bangalore-based low-cost airline's extra ASKMs (available seat kilometres) on category 2, 2A and 3 routes. The Vijay Mallya promoted airline will buy about 800,000 ASKMs for the months of October and November, which will enable it to continue its expansion on the metro routes. The DGCA guidelines require airlines flying on the primary routes to fly a certain percentage of their total flights on other, less popular routes. Growth: Indian Travel is on a roll†¦here’s why In India, travel and tourism activity is expected to grow by 8. 0% per annum in real terms between 2007 and 2016. As per World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), India will emerge as the second-fastest growing tourism economy globally between 2005 and 2014, second only to by China. Successful promotions such as the Tourism Ministry's hit â€Å"Incredible India† multimedia campaign and the budget air travel boom are reckoned to have contributed to the tourism gold rush. Summary: Indian Skies are experiencing a new dawn: * Rising income and consumer confidence in key markets-personal travel demand on an increase * Travel liberalization gathering pace * Leisure travel increasingly more affordable * Low Cost Carriers are reshaping air travel, leading to regional liberalization * Branded hotels with air routes have discovered India in exotic places like Goa and the North East * Airport privatisation of Mumbai and Delhi progress and confidence develops in creating tourism infrastructure