Hedge Funds Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Hedge Funds - Essay Example Most of the hedge funds are devised in such a manner that they are able to generate return for the investors with the rate of return that is generally more than the market return and even in times when the market is not performing well due to recession or some other reason. However, a retail investor cannot invest in the hedge fund the same way as he would have done it for stocks or mutual funds. The operations of these funds fall beyond the control of any government regulation and hence it is mainly at the fund manager’s discretion that the investment portfolio would be designed, what strategies would be employed and which stocks are to be included. The main motive behind devising such a fund was to secure the funds from the market risk and to earn more return. Hedge Fund Management and Skill The management of this kind of investment product requires a lot of skill. The fund managers need to have an insight about the market and the various risk management strategies that can help the managers to cover the fund against probable losses and gain profits out of those risky situations. The managers and the investors of these kinds of funds need to be aware of the types of investment risks that they may come across. Since higher the risk taken higher is the possibility of return, the hedge funds often attempt at taking risks that may not be beneficial for the investors. The capabilities and expertise of management of the hedge funds cannot be determined from their past performances because there are a lot of fluctuations in the way the hedge funds tend to perform. If an investor tries to invest in a fund looking at the past performance he might face a lot of challenges because the fund may not perform as before. Hedge Funds and Luck Often the investors of a hedge fund are confused between luck and skill. The common people think that a particular fund performed well because of the efficiency of the manager. But it is not always the case. It might happen becaus e of good luck as well. Most of the hedge funds do not encounter any kind of restrictions and hence their portfolios are not very diversified. For any risk averse individual it is highly risky to invest because the direction in which the market moves may not favour that particular fund. These kinds of funds often result in a mixed performance which may not be favourable for the investors in the long run. Hence, though the skill level of the managers is extremely important for prediction of the market and for choosing the correct investment avenue, the investors cannot rely on the intuition of the fund managers or their past performance solely. There is a luck factor and there should be a certain level of control of expectations on part of the investors because the markets may change its colour due to any kind of unprecedented event and hence may expose them to a risky situation. Hedge Funds and Insider Trading The agency theory is often applicable in case of hedge funds where the fu nd managers act as the agents of the investors. In most cases there exists an information asymmetry between the investors and the managers and the latter take this advantage for deriving undue profit from the market. Since Hedge Funds, are privately owned, they do not fall under the jurisdiction of any rigid regulatory framework. Thus the disclosure requirements of this fund are also less. Thus there may be problems of insider trading in case of hedge funds. The phenomenon of insider trading takes place when a fund manager makes use of any price

Balck Death in England Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Balck Death in England - Essay Example The Yersinia Pestis bacteria triggered England’s version of the Black Death. The fleas were the confirmed carriers of the deadly bacteria. The fleas attached themselves on the bodies of rats. The fleas sucked the blood of the rats. The Black Death pandemic reached the shores of England during a few years prior to 1350.4 Furthermore, the Black Death pandemic is known as the bubonic plague. The pandemic originally came from China. The travelers using the trade routes from China to England carried the plague. Some of the flea-infested rats hid behind grain sacks and other products transported through the trade routes from China ot England.5 Since quarantine was not yet in place, England was not able to detect whether individuals entering England were infected with the Black Death (Bubonic Plague). Since medical science did not have adequate knowledge on how to spot, vaccinate, or kill the deadly bacteria, more people died from healthcare ignorance.6 The bacteria-infected fleas carrying the deadly bacteria rode on the rat’s body. The rats lived inside the holes of the people’s homes. Consequently, the fleas were able to bite the human residents7. When the fleas sucked the human residents’ blood, the bacteria entered human victims. Inside the human host, the bacteria immediately lodged itself in the human’s lymphatic system. Inside the system, the bacteria start to increase in quantity. They increased bacteria group’s swelling was classified as buboes. This was how the bubonic plague identification was crafted. After several days in the lymphatic system, the increased bacteria population attacks the human victims’ blood. Next, the bacteria infect the human victims’ spleen. Further, the bacteria invade the human victims’ spleen. Finally, the victims succumb to the overwhelming infection. Death is inevitable.8 The Black Death triggered a reduction on the England population. An estimated fifty percent of the

Karyotype Analysis to Detect Cancer

Karyotype Analysis to Detect Cancer Abstract A complete set of metaphase chromosomes is called a karyotype. It is widely used to detect the chromosomal abnormalities that are related to the genetic diseases and various type of cancer. As the biomedical science advances, various kinds of techniques are introduced to analyze the human karyotype. These karyotype analyse are widely used in genetic counselling to minimize the risk of having unfortunate abnormalities that can cause serious limitation on quality of life. So, nowadays individual and families are realized the necessity to implement the genetic testing. Introduction In genetic counselling, knowledge of karyotype analysis is greatly used to determine the heritable diseases including cancer. Moreover, pedigree construction based on Mendelian principles was used in days gone by the determinable pattern of inheritance. In recent years, FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization), PCR (polymerase chain reaction), CGH (comparative genomic hybridization) and SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) arrays have been developed and hold a promising future for human genetics. Among them FISH is the most currently diagnostic tool for the various chromosomal aberrations that can be visible in karyotype analysis. The most tested chromosomes are 13, 18, 21, 22, X and Y that account for 85% of chromosomal abnormalities (Rodrigo et al., 2010). But now, genetic scientists have carried out all the approaches towards chromosome analysis. On the other hand, with the high risk society is greatly interested to do pre pregnancy counselling to reduce the heritable defective g enes for the next generation. Therefore, use of karyotype analysis has been more and more improved in genetic counselling for the screening and diagnosis as well as for treatment and prevention. Karyotyping Karyotype construction and analysis is the powerful diagnostic method to identify the chromosomal studies in human genetics. Karyotyping is usually done at the metaphase of cell cycle in which the chromosome structure is the most condensed. Therefore, it is easier to identify the complete set of metaphase chromosomes (Nie et al., 1998). There are 46 chromosomes in humans (22 autosome pairs and sex chromosomes). Karyotypes show the number of chromosomes, the sex chromosome content, the presence or absence of individual chromosomes and the nature and extent of any structural abnormalities. Karyotyping can be accessed under a microscope to examine the number and structural variants which must be size of 3 Mb or more. Only DNA sequencing can observe smaller alterations (Klein and Tibboel, 2010). Chromosomes in all human karyotype are divided into seven categories depending on their size and on their bands after staining procedure. Each group is arranged into A to G defined by size and centromere position. These banding patterns help to identify specific defect regions on the chromosome. Thus, any defect in chromosome region can be described as accurately. For example; 1q2.4 defines chromosome number 1, q arm, region 2 and the banding 4 (Trask, 2002). Method For karyotype construction, the specimen can be taken from the white blood cell, skin cells, amniotic fluid cells and chorionic villus cells. Then the cells are prepared to enter mitosis and arrested in the stage of metaphase. Moreover, these preparations are treated with trypsin and staining to obtain the banding pattern. After that, a video camera attached microscope directly sends the images to the computer to generate the karyotypes (Yang et al., 2000). Generally, the karyotype can be used to determine if chromosome of an adult has an abnormality or defect that can be passed on to a child. The origin of complex chromosomal defects is identified by using standard G-banding procedures, fluorescent staining, FISH and CGH. FISH is a recent technology to detect the specific chromosome structure by using particular DNA probes. This method is more accurate and enables the detection of micro-deletions and exact break points involved in each chromosome (Ligon et al., 2007). The karyotype analysis is of benefit to pregnant women at the age of 35 and having the history of a previous child with a defect. Because the risk of chromosome abnormalities is dramatically increased in advanced maternal age and if the mother is an X-linked carrier, the recurrent risk is 1 to 2%. Therefore, antenatal screening tests including karyotyping are carried out to pregnant women who are older than 35 years and those with family history of chromosomal abnormalities. Different tests are done in different stages of pregnancy. In first trimester, these high risk mothers are conducted by non-invasive procedures like high resolution ultrasound for nuchal translucency and PAPP-A (pregnancy associated plasma protein A) for trisomy 21 to exclude the major chromosomal abnormalities. Then triple test consisting of a serum ÃŽÂ ±-fetoprotein, unconjugated oestradiol and human chorionic gonadotrophin is usually carried out in second trimester. If the abnormalities are detected, it is necessary to continue some invasive procedures like chorionic villus sampling and amniocentesis for cytogenetic testing. Chorionic villus sampling is offered at 11-13 weeks of pregnancy, Amniocentesis is done at 15 weeks and fetal blood sampling is carried out at 18-22 weeks of pregnancy. Although all these procedures carry the risk of miscarriage, they are suitable for chromosomal and DNA analysis (Callen et al., 1988). Particularly for the detection of trisomies in chromosome 13, 18, 21, X and Y because which account for more than 85% of all fetal aneuploidies. As a benefit, if a couple has a known risk to offspring, they can choose options to avoid or plan further pregnancy. If the male partner is affected, the couple has the option for artificial insemination of sperm from a donor. If the female is affected with a dominant condition or is an X-linked carrier, the couple has the option for egg donation from another female. Moreover, a relatively new procedure is pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. Initially, this process requires in vitro fertilization. If fertilization occurred, one cell is removed from the stage of the blastocyst and then investigated for the chromosomal disorder. If there is no defect, it will be returned to the uterus (Fukuda et al., 2007). In the molecular genetics, DNA testing is divided into four main categories which are diagnostic testing, carrier detection, pre symptomatic testing for adult onset diseases and prenatal diagnosis. In genetic counselling, karyotype analysis is widely used in carrier detection incase of balanced translocation carrier, autosomal dominant recessive, X-linked female carrier disorder in order to evaluate the risk of having an affected child. Furthermore, karyotyping can be used as a pre symptomatic or predictive test in some individuals who are at risk of an adult onset disorder to determine whether or not they carry the mutated gene for these disorders. This test is of value for autosomal dominant condition because of having a chance is of 50% if one parent is affected. Familial adenomatous polyposis, colon cancer and Huntington disease are the examples of autosomal dominant (Bodmer et al., 1991). Chromosomal aberrations Abnormalities of the chromosomes which are large enough to be visible under the light microscope are termed chromosomal aberrations. They are usually classified into numerical and structural aberrations. A numerical aberration is the disordering of chromosomes due to error in separation of the chromosome in cell division. Aneuploidy represents gain or loss of a specific whole chromosome due to failure of a paired chromosome in meiosis. The one with an extra copy of a chromosome is called trisomy and the one with a missing copy of that chromosome is called monosomy. These can be seen in either autosomes or sex chromosomes. Autosomal trisomy will result in early miscarriage and monosomy of an autosomal chromosome is not compactable with life. Autosomal trisomy is associated with increased maternal age (Harper et al., 1995). Similarly, polyploidy represents a complete extra set of chromosomes due to fertilization by two sperms (dispermy) or failure in maturation divisions of either the eggs or the sperm. For examples, triploidy and tetraploidy depending on the number of extra sets of chromosomes. Triplody occurs in 2% of all conceptions but early spontaneous abortion is usual (Munne and Cohen, 1998). Aneuploidy of the autosome The most commonly seen autosomal aneuploidies are trisomy 21-Downs syndrome, trisomy 18-Edwards syndrome, trisomy 13-Pataus syndrome. Sex chromosomal aneuploidies are Klinefelter syndrome and XYY syndrome in male and Triple X syndrome and Turner syndrome in female. Autosomal monosomy is mostly lethal and autosomal trisomy is relatively common (Rodrigo et al., 2010). The kayotype of Downs syndrome is 47, XX/XY, +21 that is an extra copy of chromosome at chromosome number 21. The disease incidence is 1 in 900 live births if the mother age is at 30 and is strongly correlation with advancing maternal age. More than 90 percent of cases are maternal in origin and are caused by non-disjunction in maternal meiosis 1. The affected children are born with sever hypotonia (floppy) and also show characteristic facies of upward sloping of eyes, small ears and protruding tongue. 40-45% of the patients are presenting with congenital cardiac abnormalities and serious limitation of IQ scores ranging from 25-75. The average life span is 50-60 year if the affected one does not have severe cardiac problems. Most of the patients suffer from Alzheimer disease in later life because of a gene dosage effect of amyloid precursor protein on chromosome 21(Wald et al., 1997). The karyotype of Patau syndrome is 47, XX/XY, +13 and of Edward syndrome is 47, XX/XY, +18. Patau and Edward syndrome share many clinical features in common and are usually found at the time of doing cytogenetic analysis in malformed children. They both show the incidence of 1 in 50,000 and convey a very poor prognosis, with most affected infants dying during the early life. Approximately 60% of cases are caused by non-disjunction and 10% of cases are resulted from mosiacism or unbalanced rearrangement. The recurrence risk is less than 1% if the parent is not a carrier of a balanced translocation (Massiah et al., 2008, Rasmussen et al., 2003). Aneuploidy of the sex chromosome Aneuploidy of the sex chromosomes is more common than the autosomal aneuploidy but has less impact. Unlike the autosomes, monosomy for the Y chromosome is always lethal whereas monosomy for the X chromosome is a viable condition. The commonest syndromes that have ever been seen in the clinical setting are Turner syndrome, Klinefelter syndrome, Triple X syndrome and XYY syndrome (Smith et al., 1960). The karyotype of Klinefelter syndrome is 47, XXY. The additional X chromosome of maternal origin is 56% and paternal is 44%. It usually arises from non-disjunction at either the first or second meiotic division (Lamb et al., 1996). For example, if the father produces XY sperm it can cross over with the maternal X ovum to produce XXY. Overall the birth incidence of 47, XXY is 1 in 1000 male with an increased risk at maternal age and azoospermatic infertile males (Steinberger et al., 1965). This is the single commonest cause of hypogonadism and infertility in male. The other clinical findings include learning difficulties, gynecomastia and taller than average with long lower limbs. There is increased incidence of carcinoma breast and osteoporosis in adult life. But it can be treated with testosterone from puberty onwards and fertility has been achieved by using the techniques of testicular sperm aspiration and intracytoplasmic sperm injection in a small number of affected males. Monosomy of the X chromosome results in Turner syndrome, 45, XO karyotype due to non-disjunction in either parent. It is estimated that 1% of all conception from which 95 to 99% of all 45, XO embryos die before birth. Therefore, the incidence of live birth is very low ranging from 1 in 5000 to 1 in 10,000. It is being detected by routine ultrasound scan during second trimester showing the residue of intrauterine edema with neck webbing. They have significant defects in height, sexual development and fertility but there is no mental retardation (David et al., 1986). The short stature is apparent without growth hormone treatment and it is due to haploinsufficiency of the SHOX gene on the pseudoautosomal region. For the management of infertility, estrogen therapy should be started at adolescence for the development of secondary sexual characteristics and in-vitro fertilization using donor eggs offers the prospect of pregnancy. The karyotype of the super female syndrome is 47, XXX which is also known as triple X syndrome. It usually appears as physically normal but 15- 25% are mildly mentally handicapped and quite oppositional behavior. About three quarters of the affected females are fertile of which one- half of their offspring would expect to have this syndrome (Michalak et al., 1983). Many studies have shown that the additional X chromosome is of maternal in origin in 95% of the cases due to error in meiosis I. Furthermore, another karyotype defect associated with personality disorder is 47, XYY syndrome. It was firstly noted in 1965 in a cytogenetic survey in males for violent and dangerous antisocial behavior and about 4.5% of the males in this survey were shown as XYY karyotype. The frequency of having this characteristic karyotype in the general population is 1 in 1000 birth according to the sub-sequent studies. The recurrence risk for the offspring would be 2XXY : 2XY : 1XX : 1XYY due to production of YY sperm at the second meiotic division or post-fertilization non-disjunction of the Y (Staessen et al., 2003). Structural aberration is the disordering of the structure and shape of the chromosome resulting from chromosomal breakage and error in rejoining mechanisms. Translocation is the transfer of chromosomal material between non-homologous chromosomes but there is no DNA loss. Three recognizable translocations are reciprocal, centric fusion (Robertsonian) and insertion. The one important thing in translocation is the balanced reciprocal translocation which occurs in two non-homologus chromosomes (Michael and Malcolm, 1997). In a normal population, 1 in 500 is known balanced carriers and they are clinically healthy but they can give a problem when they reproduce. It is possible for the balanced translocation carrier to pass on the translocation in an unbalanced form that can lead to miscarriage and physical or developmental problems (Munne et al., 2000). Deletion is the loss of a part of a chromosome that can cause multiple dysmorphic features because of the loss of one or more gene. For a deletion to be seen in karyotype analysis, the amount of deletion must be large. It may also occur as a result of an unbalanced translocation (Barber, 2005). Although deletion of a small piece of chromosome is not a serious problem, deletion of entire chromosome is lethal. Therefore, only a few viable conditions are found with a large deletion. Angelman syndrome Deletion of the terminal portion of chromosome 4 causes the Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome. Cri du chat syndrome is caused by a deletion in the short arm of chromosome 5. Both conditions are very rare and the incidence is 1 in 100,000 live births (Cerruti, 2001). Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome usually presents with variable phenotypic features. A characteristic feature of the Cri-du-chat syndrome is having a sound of cat like cry (Niebuhr, 1978). The phenotype is slightly different depending on their chromosome break point. There are two regions of break point in the short arm of chromosome 5 that have been identified in this syndrome. Loss of chromosome segment in 5p15.3 results in abnormal larynx development and deletion in 5p15.2 is associated with mental retardation (Overhauser et al., 1994; Simmons et al., 1995). Prader-Willi syndrome and Angleman syndrome are caused by deletion in the region 15q11-13 or by uniparental disomy (Ledbetter, 1981). If both copies of the chromosome are inherited from the father, the child will have Angelman and from the mother, the child will have Prader-Willi syndrome (Horsthemke, 1996). The incidence of Prader-Willi is 1 in 10, 000 whereas Angelman is 1 in 20, 000 live birth (Clayton-Smith, 1993; Petersen et al., 1995). A characteristic feature of Prader-Willi syndrome is sleepiness and of Angelmans are bouts of laughter (Zori et al., 1992). The children with Prader-Willi syndrome develop marked obesity and learning difficulties in the later life. These cytogenetic microdeletions in the long arm of chromosome 15 can be visible by using either FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization) or DNA analysis with probes from the deleted region (Nicholls, 1994). Wilms tumour is the one of the micro deletion syndromes and deletion occurs at chromosome 11p13. The affected child develops renal neoplasm (Wilms tumour) together with aniridia (absent iris), genitourinary malformations and growth retardation. This combination is also known as WAGR syndrome. It is due to loss of several genes within this deletion. For example, loss of PAX6 is responsible for aniridia and loss of WT1 causes Wilms tumour. DiGeorge syndrome is caused by a mocro deletion in the proximal long arm of chromosome 22. The incidence is 1 in 400 live births and is presenting with heart abnormalities, thymic and parathyroid hypoplasia. The half of the affected has short stature and partial growth hormone deficiency. In adult life, 25% of the cases suffer from schizophrenia. A micro deletion at the chromosome 7q11 causes Willams syndrome presenting with elf like face, hypercalcemia and supravalvular aortic stenosis. It is due to loss of one copy of the gene that encodes elastin. With the improvement in the cytogenetic techniques and the use of FISH, additional rare micro deletion syndromes are identified, for example; deletion 1p36 syndrome and Smith-Magenis syndrome. The other structural abnormalities include duplication, inversion and mosiacism and the rare structural variants are fragile site, heteromorphisims, isochromosome and ring chromosome. Cancer and chromosomal abnormalities Some of the cancers can be detected by karyotype analysis. The connection between chromosome rearrangement and cancer is evident in hematological malignancies. The several chromosomal translocations are found in various types of leukemia. The specific chromosomal translocation between chromosome 9 and 22 occurs in chronic myeloid leukemia is called the Philadelphia chromosome. In this case, a part of the proto-oncogene, c-ABL on the chromosome 9 moves to the BCR gene on the chromosome 22. The resulting BCR-ABL gene codes for fusion protein that has tyrosine kinase activity in excess. Therefore, Philadelphia chromosome positive cases are prolonged survival with the treatment of tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Moreover, detection of BCR-ABL transcripts in the bone marrow by PCR analysis is also necessity for the clinical follow-up. So, it can be used as a well defined diagnostic tool and prognostic factor. The most specific cytogenetic abnormality in childhood acute lymphoid leukemia is the translocation between chromosome 12 and 21 called TEL-AML1 translocation. Moreover, Philadelphia chromosome translocation also occurs in increasing age and carries a poor prognosis. Acute myeloid leukemia occurs in all age groups and is the common form of acute leukemia. The specific chromosomal abnormalities in acute myeloid leukemia are translocation between chromosome 15 and 17 and translocation between chromosome 8 and 21. In the chromosome 15 and 17 translocation, PML gene on the chromosome 15 is fused to the retinoic acid receptor ÃŽÂ ± gene (RARÃŽÂ ±). Therefore, acute myeloid leukemia associated with this type of translocation is well treated with all-trans retinoic acid and results in good prognosis. Furthermore, core binding transcription factor encoding genes CBFÃŽÂ ± and CBFÃŽÂ ² are involved in a translocation between chromosome 8 and 21. Another form of chromosome rearrangement in acute myeloid leukemia is inversion of the chromosome 16 in which CBFÃŽÂ ² gene is also involved. The four most common chromosome abnormalities in chronic lymphoid leukemia are trisomy 12, structural abnormalities of chromosome 17p, deletion at chromosome 13q14 and 11q23. These abnormalities carry the prognostic significance. Likewise in leukemia, chromosomal abnormalities are also seen in lymphoma. Lymphoma is a group of diseases caused by malignant lymphocytes that accumulate in the lymph nodes. Burkitts lymphoma is caused by viral infection that induces the transfer of C-MYC oncogene on the chromosome 8 to immunoglobulin gene on the chromosome 14. As a result, C-MYC gene is deregulated and the affected one clinically presents with massive lymhadenopathy of the jaw. Moreover, this specific translocation is associated with other forms of cancer including Burkitts lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Chromosome translocation associated with haematological cancers Translocation site Type of cancer t(9;22) Chronic myeloid leukemia (Rajasekariah et al., 1982) t(8;14), t(8;22), t(2;8) Burkitts lymphoma (Margrath, 1990) t(8;21) acute myeloblastic leukemia (Oshimura et al., 1976) t(4;18) follicular lymphoma (Fleischman and Prigogina, 1977) t(4;18) acute lymphocytic leukemia (Oshimura et al., 1977) The proportion of leukemia with a heritable component has been estimated as 25% in monozygotic twins. The risk to sibs in childhood leukemia is 2- 4 times higher than the population incidence. The risk of a relative developing Hodgkins disease is seven fold higher than others (Kelly, 1992). Retinoblastoma is the well known childhood cancer that involves in the developing retina cells of the eyes. The disease onset is usually in the first five years with a white cat eyes reflex or squint. Early diagnosis and treatment will have good long-term outcome. It can occur either hereditary or non-hereditary. In the heritable condition, the disease is an autosomal dominant in manner and is caused by the germline mutation that is the mutation in the RB1 gene. Approximately 5% of the cases reveal interstitial deletion involving the long arm of chromosome 13 in the cytogenetic analysis. In the non-heritable condition, the mutation in the RB1 gene arises as a post-zygotic event in early embryogenesis is also known as somatic mutation. Genetic counselling Genetic counselling is a communication process that deals with the problems associated with the occurrence of a genetic disorder in a family. Genetic disorder is a considerable health and economic problem because there is no effective therapy. So, high risk population group often seek advices as to why it happened and about the risk of having further abnormal offsprings. Therefore, the realization of the need of the individuals and couples together with the awareness of the importance of the accurate information, has led to the widespread introduction of genetic counselling clinics in parallel with clinical genetics. The introduction of genetic counselling services has been provided approximately 40 years ago. Thus, the genetic counselor provides the information related to the medical diagnosis, prognosis, complications and the possible treatment. Moreover, they have to explain the mode of inheritance of the disorder and also have to calculate the risk of the recurrence. Then, they h ave to bring out the options available for dealing with reducing the risks of having a disorder (Frets et al., 1991). . The options are no further pregnancy, adoption, in vitro fertilization with pre implantation diagnosis, artificial insemination-AID by donor (egg donation), termination of pregnancy, or ignore and accept the risk (Zare et al., 1973). AID is performed for husband with AD trait or both are carriers for a serious AR (Taranissi, 2005). In UK, due to the Congenital Disabilities act of 1976, legal action can be brought against a person whose breach of duty to the parents results in a child being born disabled, abnormal or unhealthy. Therefore, antenatal diagnosis with selective termination of pregnancy became a reality in UK with the abortion ACT OF 1967 (Macintyre, 1973). In the setting of genetic counselling, interviews must be conducted with great sensitivity and psychological insight as the parents may feel guilty for their abnormal babies. Therefore, genetic counselling should be offered to both parents and must give adequate time under an appropriate situation. The depth of explanation should be matched to education background of the couples, outlining of the genetic basic of the condition with the aid of diagrams and recurrent risk calculations (Sermon, 2002). The quality of the genetic counselling depends on the availability of facilities that ensure an accurate diagnosis can be made. If the diagnosis is incorrect, it will be totally misleading information. The important thing in genetic counselling must be non- judgemental and non-directive. The aim is to deliver a balanced version of the facts which will permit the parents to reach their own decision with regard to their reproductive future. Moreover, referral to an appropriate support group is also the essential integral component of the genetic counselling process. The recurrence risk is usually calculated by using Bayes theorem that express probability of disease occurrence mathematically. Bayes theorem is also known as Bayesian analysis or Bayesian inference. But some of the limiting factors are delayed age of onset, reduced penetrance and use of DNA marker. These are more complex in the risk calculation. Autosomal dominant trait is the risk to each child of an affected person at 1 in 2. However, the risk estimation in family counselling can be difficult because of the variable penetrance and expression. For example in case of incomplete penetrance, although the parents have a dominant disorder but the disease does not manifest itself clinically. This gives the appearance of the gene having a skipped generation. In Autosomal recessive trait, if one of the parents is carrier, the offspring have a 1 in 4 chance of being affected and a 2 in 3 chance of being carrier (Yoshikawa and Mukai, 1970). Recurrence risk of 1 in 4 chances does not mean that their next three children will be uneffected because of the tossed coin phenomenon and joint probability. Therefore, genetic counselor should be explained that there are 3 chances out of 4 that their next baby will be affected. Autosomal recessive disorders are more severe and higher motality than autosomal dominant. In this case, there is usually no family history although the defective gene is passed from generation to generation. Similarly the sex-linked disorder can be dominant or recessive as the autosomal genes. In an X-linked recessive trait, if females are obligate carriers, one half of her sons will be affected and one half of her daughter will be carriers. If an affected male reproduces, there will be normal sons and carrier daughters. An X-linked dominant condition is very rare and vitamin D-resistant rickets is the best known example. Consanguineous marriage and incestuous relationship in the parents provides further support increases for the risk of recessive inheritance. Risk for consanguinity is common in Arab population. As for the carrier detection, some of the inborn errors of metabolism are autosomal recessive disorder like Tay Sachs disease and haemoglobinopathies but these can be detected only by biochemical analysis. But because of X inactivation, few of these are absolute and this information needs to be combined with the pedigree risk using Bayes theorem (Markova et al., 1984). Fragile X syndrome is an X-inked dominant, single gene disorder rather than chromosome abnormalities. It is a common heritable cause of learning difficulties and affects 1 in 5000 males. The characteristic features are high forehead, large ears, long face, prominent jaw, large testes and repetitive speech. This is due to mutation of FMR1 gene encoding CGG repeats at the end of X chromosomes long arm. It appears as a constriction in the X chromosome in the chromosomal analysis called fragile site. The more repeats, the more severe the disease. If this reaches greater than 200 CGG triplets, it becomes a full mutation. Each son of the carrier woman with full mutation will have a 50% chance of getting this disease. Moreover, 50% of the female carriers with full mutation also have mild learning difficulties and there will have a 25% chance of getting a daughter with learning difficulties. Conditions needed for genetic counselling and investigation (Watson et al., 1992) Infertility one in ten of all couples are involuntarily infertile, such a couple needs chromosomal analysis to exclude a balanced structural rearrangement and Klinefelters syndrome. Recurrence miscarriage one of six pregnancies ends as a spontaneous miscarriage. 3-5% of cases have a balanced structural rearrangement Still birth Perinatal death with multiple malformations Gene therapy The recent progress in molecular genetics is the prospect of successful gene therapy. Gene therapy is the genetic alteration of the cells of the affected persons for curing the genetic diseases. Somatic cell gene therapy consists of the alteration of genes in human somatic cells to treat a specific disorder, for example, X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency disease. In this case bone marrow stem cell has been a prime candidate for somatic therapy because it is a proliferating cell and has a long life span in the body. Currently, the best source is believed to be embryonic stem cells and ethical consideration impinges on almost every aspect of clinical genetics. On the other hand, gene replacement therapy has been used for loss of function mutation. This involves replacing a missing gene product by inserting a normal gene into somatic cells. There are many techniques for introducing of gene into cells but retrovirus and adenovirus are the most commonly used as gene therapy vectors. Another method of gene therapy is the gene blocking therapy to encounter the effect of gain of function mutations. These include the use of antisense molecules and RNA cleaving riboenzymes. Conclusion The benefit of karyotype analysis in high risk populations provides the prevention and early management options to minimize the risk. As genetic science development, researchers and clinicians have more advanced diagnostic tool like multiplex PCR, SNP microarray, CGH (comparative genomic hybridization) to identify the far more complex chromosome abnormalities. Although karyotyping by FISH can detect both balanced and unbalanced translocations, uniparental disomy can only be detected by SNP arrays and high output sequencing. Despite the high cost, enormous benefit can be found for society to evaluate the superior treatment protocols and genomic technologies for the future.

The Process of Starting an IV (intravenous) Essay -- Expository Proces

The Process of Starting an IV (intravenous) Several skills are beneficial to the nurse and paramedic, but perhaps one of the most important skills is the ability to place an intravenous catheter into a vein. This procedure is most commonly referred to as â€Å"starting an IV†. In today’s medical community, intravenous cannulation is necessary for the administration of many antibiotics and other therapeutic drugs. Listed below are the procedures and guidelines for starting a successful IV. Following these instructions will provide a positive experience for the patient and clinician. First, you must obtain all of the necessary supplies: gloves, alcohol or Betadine preps, a tourniquet, tape, an appropriately sized IV catheter, a bag of IV solution, the IV tubing, and gauze pads. While obtaining the supplies, you should inform the patient that IV catheter placement is necessary, and why. Do not lie to the patient and tell him or her that it is a painless procedure. Instead, be honest with them and explain that the initial puncture feels like a sharp pinch on the skin and that the pain and discomfort associated with the IV placement is only temporary. You may find it helpful to demonstrate to the patient the amount of pain to expect by pinching the skin on the back of their hand. This is especially helpful for younger patients or patients who are more concrete in their thinking. Now, assemble and arrange all of the needed supplies so that they are easily accessible. Connect the IV tubing to the solution bag and allow the fluid in the bag to run through the entire length of the tubing, also known as priming the tubing. When this is done, clamp the tubing closed. You will then need to tear several pieces of tape, six to eight inche... ...f the clamps on the tubing to allow the IV solution to run freely. Slowly, decrease the flow of the solution to the appropriate rate as ordered by the physician. Using a small gauze pad, wipe away any excess blood or fluid on the surface of the skin. Then, using the pre-torn pieces of tape, secure the catheter hub and the IV tubing to the patient’s skin. Take extra caution not to kink the tubing. Once everything is secured, recheck the IV solution’s flow and then attend to the rest of your patients needs. Starting a successful IV takes practice, time, and patience. Once you have perfected this procedure, you will see that the above steps are simply guidelines to help beginners. As your experience grows, you will develop your own techniques and preferences. Remember these steps, and both you and your patient will have a successful IV catheter placement experience.

Debate Speech Essay

A pleasant afternoon to one and all, standing in front of you is Alliah Dominique M. Sta. Ana, 3rd affirmative speaker, opposing the proposition of Mr. Despi that â€Å"Republic Act No. 10354 also known as Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012† should be legalize here in the Philippines. Let us all be open minded as I begin. First and Foremost, let me give you brief information about RH Bill. It guarantees the universal access to methods of contraceptions, fertility control, maternal care and sex education.  There are many reasons why I stand before my proposition because implementing RH Bill is unconstitutional. Why? It seeks to regulate or legislate morality. It criminalizes the practice of faith and religion as well as other cts that are not inherently evil or against public policy. It is socially and economically unjust and destructive. The law justifies the imposition of new taxes and higher tax rates, government borrowing, price controls, distortions, massive regulations, that will affect not just the entire economy but also people’s rights. It will also benefit certain bussinesses and industries in a monopoly or crony system. Where will they buy contraceptives, preganancy kits, RH products and equipments, employer’s fee for their time and service? There are already dozens of RH Laws or RH related laws enacted in the past. It seems all of them didn’t work. Did they? Because the only solution to this problem would be having self control and discipline. I firmly believe that an ordinary person is capable to be good so it does mean that everyone, catholic or not, can be disciplined. The main purpose of sex is to procreate not to satisfy our senses or needs. So if you will have sex, bear in mind that its main purpose is to reproduce which is God’s will. Now, if you are to have sex with contraceptives, then that is not called procreation. It is called sense gratification or lust which is a strong desire for someone, that way doing sex is purposeless. If you are to have sex without contraceptives, without thinking the consenquences, without family planning, make sure you are ready to face such big responsibility that will change your life. Life is created and is the will of the Lord. How it begins and how it ends is His thing – Not ours. When God allowed the process of sex which at the same time is the free will of woman and man which will put that child in a woman’s womb, whether the mother or father is sick, that is His will. And now if you are a follower of God which the RH supporters also claim, and you are spiritually realized, then you must know that you do not have the right to hinder such event or manifestation by killing what is forming or what is inside you. Therefore, I strongly believe that RH bill should not be implented for this will not be created if we just control ourselves. This methods will offend the Church and the Catholics, this methods are just expenses, RH Bill will only change the clearer vision of life. It will be such a bad impact to the country. Bear in mind that we are in a religious country. Besides, Natural Family Planning helps the married partners to strengthen their communication. A baby made with conjugal love is the result of natural family planning that’s why I prefer natural family planning to be the only method to decrease our population rate. That’s all, thank you and Good Afternoon!

Expansion of Islam during the Medieval Period Essay

The development of Islam in world history has resulted in major political, economic, and military ramifications, not only in the Islamic world, but also in the global community at that period. Only decades following the first recitations of the Qur’an by Prophet Muhammad, a vast empire of the Islam religion can be traced from the Atlantic Ocean going all the way to Central Asia in the east. Islam has expanded greatly indeed during the Medieval Era. This new global order has massive implications, and resulted into various wars, and states and governments fought with each other and outside forces. Despite counter-revolutions in the spread of the religion, Islam continued to gain ground in the vast regions of Africa, the India, and Southeast Asia. The Islamic civilization was indeed one of the most highly developed in the world during the Medieval Era, which was later on exceeded by the Europe empires with the economic and military growth of the West. The advancement of Islam during the Medieval period was great and notable, as the religion that is fairly young grew to be one of the most dominant world religions even today, with an estimated more than 1 billion follower, second only in size to Christianity. The preceding paragraphs shall be the historical account of this rise of the Islam religion. Islam religion: Brief Overview The Islamic tradition finds its origins from the teachings of their prophet Muhammad during the 7th Century. Consisting of more than a billion followers all over the world, Islam can be said to be the 2nd biggest of all the world religions. The most holy text of Islam is the Quran, which is believed to have been given to Muhammad by God, or Allah. This religion also recognizes Moses and Jesus as prophets, and regard their teachings as important, which would account for certain parallelisms with world religions such as Christianity. The Islamic life is basically guided by the Five Pillars, which prescribes certain aspects of life and forms their culture and traditions. Believing in a single God whom Muslims would call Allah, most of the Quranic teachings are even used as laws of states that have Islam as the state religion. Like Christianity, the teachings of Jesus are one viewed with high regard; but for Islam, Jesus is a prophet rather than God, hence they reject the Trinity concept. Muslims follow certain codes of conduct, like the daily requirement of praying for a number of times a day and a strict diet, like the refusal to ingest pork. The church of Islam is called the Mosque, wherein like all other religions, certain rituals are being conducted. The history in the medieval era: Rise of the caliphate (632–750) Before starting his move to Medina, where he migrated, Muhammad commenced his teaching of Islam at the holy city of Mecca, and achieved the goal of uniting the Arabian tribes of Arabia into a unified Arab Muslim religious polity. Following the death of Muhammad during the year of 632, there were rising conflicts in the Islamic community on who would succeed him as leader of the community. Nominated to obtain such position was Abu Bakr, who was one of the closest people and collaborator to Muhammad; his name was raised by Umar ibn al-Khattab, also Muhammad’s companion. Abu Bakr was then became the first â€Å"caliph†, as his leadership gained great support. Although his leadership walso experience some opposition who would support another person in the name of Ali ibn Abi Talib, is argued to be a designated successor. The avengement of a defeat in war by the Byzantine forces was made one of the first agenda, although the Ridda wars, or â€Å"Wars of Apostasy†, which was an Arab tribe rebellion, were the first acts of Abu Bakr. The territory of the Caliphate in 750 Umar succeeded as the caliph, when Abu Bakr passed away in the year 634, which was then followed respectively by Uthman ibn al-Affan and Ali ibn Abi Talib, and these first four leaders where dubbed as the al-khulafa’ ar-rashidun or Rightly Guided Caliphs. Under their collective leadership, the Islamic territory saw continual expansion into Persian and Byzantine empires. When Umar was assassinated in 644, the election of Uthman as successor was met with increasing opposition. In 656, Uthman was also killed, and Ali assumed the position of caliph. After fighting off opposition in the first civil war (the â€Å"First Fitna†), Ali was assassinated by Kharijites in 661. Following this, Mu’awiyah, who was governor of Levant, seized power and began the Umayyad dynasty. These disputes over religious and political leadership would give rise to schism in the Muslim community. The majority accepted the legitimacy of the three rulers prior to Ali, and became known as Sunnis. A minority disagreed, and believed that Ali was the only rightful successor; they became known as the Shi’a. After Mu’awiyah’s death in 680, conflict over succession broke out again in a civil war known as the â€Å"Second Fitna†. Afterward, the Umayyad dynasty prevailed for seventy years, and was able to conquer the Maghrib and Al-Andalus (the Iberian Peninsula, former Visigothic Hispania) and the Narbonnese Gaul} in the west as well as expand Muslim territory into Sindh and the fringes of Central Asia. While the Muslim-Arab elite engaged in conquest, some devout Muslims began to question the piety of indulgence in a worldly life, emphasizing rather poverty, humility and avoidance of sin based on renunciation of bodily desires. Devout Muslim ascetic exemplars such as Hasan al-Basri would inspire a movement that would evolve into Sufism. For the Umayyad aristocracy, Islam was viewed as a religion for Arabs only; the economy of the Umayyad empire was based on the assumption that a majority of non-Muslims (Dhimmis) would pay taxes to the minority of Muslim Arabs. A non-Arab who wanted to convert to Islam was supposed to first become a client of an Arab tribe. Even after conversion, these new Muslims (mawali) did not achieve social and economic equality with the Arabs. The descendants of Muhammad’s uncle Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib rallied discontented mawali, poor Arabs, and some Shi’a against the Umayyads and overthrew them with the help of their propagandist and general Abu Muslim, inaugurating the Abbasid dynasty in 750. Under the Abbasids, Islamic civilization flourished in the â€Å"Islamic Golden Age†, with its capital at the cosmopolitan city of Baghdad. The Islamic Golden Age (750–1258) By the late 9th century, the Abbasid caliphate began to fracture as various regions gained increasing levels of autonomy. Across North Africa, Persia, and Central Asia emirates formed as provinces broke away. The monolithic Arab empire gave way to a more religiously homogenized Muslim world where the Shia Fatimids contested even the religious authority of the caliphate. By 1055 the Seljuq Turks had eliminated the Abbasids as a military power, nevertheless they continued to respect the caliph’s titular authority. During this time expansion of the Muslim world continued, by both conquest and peaceful proselytism even as both Islam and Muslim trade networks were extending into sub-Saharan West Africa, Central Asia, Volga Bulgaria and the Malay archipelago. The Golden Age saw new legal, philosophical, and religious developments. The major hadith collections were compiled and the four modern Sunni Madh’habs were established. Islamic law was advanced greatly by the efforts of the early 9th century jurist al-Shafi’i; he codified a method to establish the reliability of hadith, a topic which had been a locus of dispute among Islamic scholars. Philosophers Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Al-Farabi sought to incorporate Greek principles into Islamic theology, while others like the 11th century theologian Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali argued against them and ultimately prevailed. Finally, Sufism and Shi’ism both underwent major changes in the 9th century. Sufism became a full-fledged movement that had moved towards mysticism and away from its ascetic roots, while Shi’ism split due to disagreements over the succession of Imams. The spread of the Islamic dominion induced hostility among medieval ecclesiastical Christian authors who saw Islam as an adversary in the light of the large numbers of new Muslim converts. This opposition resulted in polemical treatises which depicted Islam as the religion of the antichrist and of Muslims as libidinous and subhuman. In the medieval period, a few Arab philosophers like the poet Al-Ma’arri adopted a critical approach to Islam, and the Jewish philosopher Maimonides contrasted Islamic views of morality to Jewish views that he himself elaborated. Starting in the 9th century, Muslim conquests in the West began to be reversed. The Reconquista was launched against Muslim principalities in Iberia, and Muslim Italian possessions were lost to the Normans. From the 11th century onwards alliances of European Christian kingdoms mobilized to launch a series of wars known as the Crusades, bringing the Muslim world into conflict with Christendom. Initially successful in their goal of taking the Holy land, and establishing the Crusader states, Crusader gains in the Holy Land were later reversed by subsequent Muslim generals such as Saladin; who recaptured Jerusalem during the Second Crusade. In the east the Mongol Empire put an end to the Abbassid dynasty at the Battle of Baghdad in 1258, as they overran in Muslim lands in a series of invasions. Meanwhile in Egypt, the slave-soldier Mamluks took control in an uprising in 1250 and in alliance with the Golden Horde were able halt the Mongol armies at the Battle of Ain Jalut. Mongol rule extended across the breadth of almost all Muslim lands in Asia and Islam was temporarily replaced by Buddhism as the official religion of the land. Over the next century the Mongol Khanates converted to Islam and this religious and cultural absorption ushered in a new age of Mongol-Islamic synthesis that shaped the further spread of Islam in central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Ottomans and Islamic empires in India (1258–1918) The Seljuk Turks conquered Abbassid lands and adopted Islam and become the de facto rulers of the caliphate. They captured Anatolia by defeating the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert, thereby precipitating the call for Crusades. They however fell apart rapidly in the second half of the 12th century giving rise to various semi-autonomous Turkic dynasties. In the 13th and 14th centuries the Ottoman empire (named after Osman I) emerged from among these â€Å"Ghazi emirates† and established itself after a string of conquests that included the Balkans, parts of Greece, and western Anatolia. In 1453 under Mehmed II the Ottomans laid siege to Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium. The Byzantine fortress succumbed shortly thereafter, having been battered by superior Ottoman cannonry. Beginning in the 13th century, Sufism underwent a transformation, largely as a result of the efforts of al-Ghazzali to legitimize and reorganize the movement. He developed the model of the Sufi order—a community of spiritual teachers and students. Also of importance to Sufism was the creation of the Masnavi, a collection of mystical poetry by the 13th century Persian poet Rumi. The Masnavi had a profound influence on the development of Sufi religious thought; to many Sufis it is second in importance only to the Qur’an. In the early 16th century, the Shi’ite Safavid dynasty assumed control in Persia and established Shi’a Islam as an official religion there, and despite periodic setbacks, the Safavids remained powerful for two centuries. Meanwhile, Mamluk Egypt fell to the Ottomans in 1517, who then launched a European campaign which reached as far as the gates of Vienna in 1529. After the invasion of Persia, and sack of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258, Delhi became the most important cultural centre of the Muslim east. Many Islamic dynasties ruled parts of the Indian subcontinent starting from the 12th century. The prominent ones include the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526) and the Mughal empire (1526–1857). These empires helped in the spread of Islam in South Asia. but by the mid-18th century the British empire had ended the Mughal dynasty. In the 18th century the Wahhabi movement took hold in Saudi Arabia. Founded by the preacher Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Wahhabism is a fundamentalist ideology that condemns practices like Sufism and the veneration of saints as un-Islamic. By the 17th and 18th centuries, despite attempts at modernization, the Ottoman empire had begun to feel threatened by European economic and military advantages. In the 19th century, the rise of nationalism resulted in Greece declaring and winning independence in 1829, with several Balkan states following suit after the Ottomans suffered defeat in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. The Ottoman era came to a close at the end of World War I. Conclusion The history of the Islamic religion during the medieval era is great and dynamic indeed, as the rise into global prominence could be noted to be a magnificent and unprecedented event in world history. Truly, the historical struggle of Islam is one that has witnessed countless conflicts and eventually successes. Even today, even as the religion has not regained the glory of the Golden Ages, it remains to be one of the most dominant world religions in our global community, as billions of followers continue to adhere to the teachings of their prophet Mohammad.

Playing with Titles

Playing with Titles Playing with Titles Playing with Titles By Maeve Maddox Sometimes writers need to take time out from the slogging business of writing to play a little. This week several members of my critique group had a little fun with a feature at Lulu.com. The Titlescorer is an interactive feature that purports to analyze a book title in terms of how likely it is to find its way to the bestseller list. According to the information at the site, a research team analyzed the title of every novel to have topped the hardback fiction section of the New York Times Bestseller List during the half-century from 1955 to 2004 and then compare[d] them with the titles of a control group of less successful novels by the same authors. The data is based on about 700 titles. If you type in the titles of some bestsellers you’ll find yourself wondering how the research team arrived at its conclusions. Some blockbusters come up with â€Å"a 10.2% chance of being a bestselling title.† Along with typing the title, you have to choose from a couple of drop-down menus that ask you to specify â€Å"grammar type† and indicate part of speech. Depending how you answer, The DaVinci Code can score as high as 35.9% or as low as 10.2%. I’ll have to admit to having spent more time than I should have playing with it. No matter what combinations I tried, the highest score for any title I was able to come up with was 59.3%. One of my colleagues put in a title that scored 65%. I wouldn’t be too influenced by the results you get for your title, but playing around with the Titlescorer is as good a way as any to hash out your ideas. Just don’t play too long. That draft is waiting. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Freelance Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Is She a "Lady" or a "Woman"?Comma Before ButThe Two Sounds of G

101 Cisneros and Eleven Professor Ramos Blog

101 Cisneros and Eleven Quick Write Reflection Reflect on the writing process for your solution essay. Answer these questions: What did you do well in your essay? What are the strengths and weaknesses of your essay? What grade do you think the essay deserves? Quick Write What are some possible reasons for banning books? Introduction to Sandra Cisneros Have you ever read anything by Sandra Cisneros before this class? Did anybody look here up? What did you find out? Her books were banned in Arizona. Why do you think they banned them? Pioneering Chicana  writer Sandra Cisneros  received the 2015 National Medal of Arts Award from President Barack Obama at the  White House, Thursday morning (Sept. 22). Why are we reading her stories in a composition class? How is this different from our previous readings? Birthday Party Eleven Write If you were Rachel, what would you have done? To answer this, write a dialogue between Rachel and Mrs. Price. Begin your dialogue with: Mrs. Price: Of course the sweater’s yours. I remember you wearing it once. Continue the dialogue any way you want. 101 Cisneros and Eleven Library Research Notes Reflection Reflect on the writing process for your first essay. Answer these questions: What did you do well in your essay? What are the strengths and weaknesses of your essay? Where did you struggle, if at all? Library Research Notes Today we are meeting in the Crafton Library computer room. In the Crafton Hills website go to the library link. Crafton Hills Library Databases You can search for books, ebooks, reference books, and articles. Use the  EBSCO Academic Search Complete  database under interdisciplinary section Find your keywords to search effectively in the databases. Example topic: the rising costs of textbooks Keywords: textbooks, cost, price, course reserves Search the keywords you came up with for your topic. Limit the results to full texts and scholarly. Can also limit the results to current publication date, depending on your topic. Boolean Terms Use the Boolean search terms to help narrow your search results AND, OR, or NOT Read the abstract, summary, and/or introduction of the article you are considering to see if it is useful and relevant to what you are researching. Quick Write What are some possible reasons for banning books? Introduction to Sandra Cisneros Have you ever read anything by Sandra Cisneros before this class? Did anybody look here up? What did you find out? Her books were banned in Arizona. Why do you think they banned them? Pioneering Chicana  writer Sandra Cisneros  received the 2015 National Medal of Arts Award from President Barack Obama at the  White House, Thursday morning (Sept. 22). Why are we reading her stories in a composition class? How is this different from our previous readings? Birthday Party Eleven Write If you were Rachel, what would you have done? To answer this, write a dialogue between Rachel and Mrs. Price. Begin your dialogue with: Mrs. Price: Of course the sweater’s yours. I remember you wearing it once. Continue the dialogue any way you want.

An Online Course Review of TestDEN TOEFL

An Online Course Review of TestDEN TOEFL Taking the TOEFL test can be an extremely challenging experience. Most universities have a minimum entrance score of 550. The range of grammar, reading and listening skills required to do well is enormous. One of the biggest challenges for teachers and students is identifying the correct areas to focus on in the limited amount of time available for preparation. In this feature, it is my pleasure to review an online course that specifically addresses this need. TestDEN TOEFL Trainer is an online TOEFL course which invites you to: Join Meg and Max in the TOEFL Trainer. These two, upbeat and friendly personalities will find the areas you need to improve the most and create a special study program just for you! Your virtual trainers will also give you focused practice tests to strengthen your TOEFL skills, and send you daily test-taking tips. The course costs $69 for a 60 day entrance period to the site. During this 60 day period you can take advantage of: personalized study guidesfull-length practice exams16 hours of audioover 7,000 questionsfull explanationse-mail test tips TestDENs TOEFL Trainer credentials are also quite impressive: TestDEN TOEFL Trainer is produced by ACT360 Media, a leading provider of education content. Since 1994, this innovative Vancouver company has been producing quality CD-ROM titles and Internet sites to enhance learning. Among these is the award-winning Digital Education Network and online tutorials for Microsoft Corporation. The only flaw seems to be that: This program has not been reviewed or endorsed by ETS. During my test period, I found all of the above claims to be true. Most importantly, the course is extremely well-planned and helps test takers pinpoint exactly those areas which cause them the most difficulties. Overview The course begins by requiring test takers to take an entire TOEFL examination called the Pre-test Station. This examination is followed by another section entitled Evaluation Station, which requires participants to take further sections of the examination. Both of these steps are required for the test taker to reach the heart of the program. While some people might become impatient with these steps, they are required to help the program assess problem areas. One reservation is that the test is not timed as in an actual TOEFL test. This is a minor point, as students can time themselves. The listening sections are presented using RealAudio. If the Internet connection is slow it can take quite a while to finish sections that require the opening of each listening exercise separately. Once both of the above sections have been finished, the test taker arrives at the Practice Station. This section is by far the most impressive and important section of the program. The Practice Station takes the information gathered in the first two sections and prioritizes a learning program for the individual. The program is divided into three categories: Priority 1, Priority 2 and Priority 3. This section includes exercises as well as explanations and tips for the current task. In this manner, the student can focus on exactly what he/she needs to do well on the exam. The final section is a Post-test Station which gives the participant a final test of his/her improvement over the course of the program. Once this section of the program has been taken there is no going back to the practice section. Summary Lets face it, taking the TOEFL test and doing well can be a long, hard process. The test itself often seems to have little to do with actually being able to communicate in the language. Instead, it can seem like a test that only measures the ability to perform well in an extremely academic setting using very dry and formal English. TestDENs layout does a wonderful job of preparing test takers for the task while keeping the preparation rather enjoyable by its user interface. I would highly recommend TestDEN TOEFL Trainer to any student wanting to take the TOEFL. In fact, to be completely honest, I think this program may do a better job of addressing individual needs than many teachers can! Why is this? Based on in-depth pre-testing and statistical information, the program uses computer technology to find exactly those areas that need to be covered. Unfortunately, teachers are often not able to access student needs so quickly. This program is probably quite sufficient for any high-level English student preparing for the exam. The best solution for lower level students would be a combination of this program and a private teacher. TestDen can help identify and provide practice at home, and a private teacher can go into more detail when working on weak areas.

Aquarius Advertising Agency Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Aquarius Advertising Agency - Article Example This is because the Accounts Department is a separate department which does not have direct control over the other departments. The specialists independently communicate and make their own recommendations to the clients. Aquarius' departments and the personnel working in these departments - the specialists - are not working as a team, they are competing with one another. The account executives can not impose their will upon the specialists, and are not informed of the progress and details of the business products or transactions, whether the contract is done or already terminated. With the changes in environment and mode of behavior of the clients, it is already too late of the account executive and the management to know that they have lost the contract. A. In the new organizational chart created for this paper, the Accounts Vice President portfolio is eliminated to avoid overlapping of functions. Streamlining is essential. Some departments have to go, others have to be created. The account executives will work under the Vice Presidents for Operations and Marketing, and will have direct supervision over the different departments/divisions under these two Vice Presidents. This is to ensure that department specialists working for various clients will have to report first to the account executives before they go to the clients. ... Q. What kind of departmentalization is appropriate here A. It is still functional but effective and well defined. Q. What are the present functions of the account executives with respect to the Aquarius specialists A. The account executives will now have more power than their previous positions because they will be working in the same department. Like for example, the TV/Radio Production Department, the account executive for this department will be working directly and have direct supervision over the specialists in this department. The liaison officer will be well knowledgeable of everything inside the department. Q. Why is this structure more effective than the previous one A. This is more defined and effective in the sense that the whole department may have to work as a team. Suggestions, conclusions, problems and all other recommendations will be sorted out inside before it goes to the clients. Account Executives will be working inside the department concerned. No contract will be wasted. Success is within grasp. NEW ORGANIZATIONAL CHART FOR AQUARIUS AD AGENCY References 1.

Special education and collaboration Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Special education and collaboration - Coursework Example Another component is the interaction process, which takes an interaction from the beginning to the end. Here there are such processes as problem solving and responding to conflict and resistance, which requires effective communication skills (Friend & Cook, 2009). Another component is a set of programs and services. These provide the baseline for the collaborative activities to take place. In these services, there are interactive processes that are meant to design and deliver student services takes place. The last component in the collaborative process is context. This is the surrounding where the collaborative processes take place. According to me, the most difficult component to implement is communication skills. This is mainly because of the diversities in cultural backgrounds that you come across when you meet different colleagues and parents. In this case, disagreements can easily come along since some people tend to be ethnocentric. For example, the student to be assisted may be living with grandparents, who may be illiterate, and can only communicate in their mother tongue. As a teacher, or any other team member, it will really need you to have the knowledge of that particular language, or else there will be no communication progress. The problem-solving process entails sequential procedures that have to be followed in order to come out with good results. The first step is to analyze the problem-solving context. Here, you examine the conditions related to the possibility of the problem-solving process to succeed. You also come up with ideas on what might happen if the problem is not solved. The next step is to identify the problem. In this case, you explore all data that can give information concerning the problem, having your main goal in mind (Friend & Cook, 2009). The next step is to find out if the amount of resources needed in addressing the problem in question. Here you can conduct some form of estimations and approximations. You will have

Obsessive compulsive disorder Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Obsessive compulsive disorder - Research Paper Example In many cases it’s onset begins in childhood at about the age of ten. It is thought to be two or three times more common than schizophrenia or manic depression. The Amercian Academy of Family Physicians (2006) describes Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as â€Å"an illness that causes people to have unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and to repeat certain behaviors (compulsions) over and over again†. They point out that although everyone has daily routines and habits for people with OCD the patterns of behavior get in the way of their daily lives. Thurkington (2009) describes OCD in the Encyclopedia of Medicine as a type of anxiety disorder. She defines Anxiety Disorder as â€Å"the experience of prolonged, excessive worry about circumstances in ones life†. OCD she explains is characterized by â€Å"distressing repetitive thoughts, impulses or images that are intense, frightening, absurd, or unusual. These thoughts are followed by ritualized actions that are usually biz arre and irrational†. The ritual actions are the compulsions and are thought to help to reduce the anxiety caused by the obsessive thoughts. People with OCD usually have both obsession and compulsion but there are occasionally people with only one. OCD can be accompanied by other anxiety disorders such as eating disorders or depression. A person with OCD can have ideas, images and impulses going through his mind repeatedly and not be able to control them. These obsessive thoughts make the person anxious and scared and they keep trying to get rid of these feelings by performing certain behaviors. These then become compulsive behaviors. The American Family of Physicians (2006) lists some of the common obsessive feelings and the common compulsive behaviors. Among the most common obsessions are the fear of dirt or germs, disgust with bodily waste, fear of harming someone, obsession with order and exactness and need for

Security Framework Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Security Framework - Research Paper Example Most computer network threats come from the internet and are done intentionally because people for malicious intentions develop them. The use of the ISO 27000 Series security framework is, therefore, an endeavor by individuals as well as organizations to protect their information and other digital assets from assaults from the internet. The measures stipulated in the ISO 27000 Series framework measures will involve various steps, the most important of these steps being an individual’s understanding of the different forms of cyber-attacks that they are likely to encounter (Ma, Schmidt and Pearson 58). Once one has knowledge of this, then it is his or her responsibility to ensure that they have put in place the best security system they can get their hands on. There exist diverse types of hazards and these can be regarded as to be of unstable levels and risks to an individual’s personal information in their computers. The higher the possibility of an attack, the more prog ressive the security system, that is to be put in place to ensure that the threat is minimized. The ISO 27000 security framework activities involve measures to prevent threats ranging from malicious codes, also known as malware and spyware, to computer viruses. Some of these viruses are so serious that they have the ability to erase entire operating systems of computers. These viruses also facilitate hackers to have right of entry to all the data stored in the infected computers, ensuring that they have access to information, which can be used for their own gain. It is necessary for individuals and companies to avoid such invasion into their computer systems by having the best security framework (Serrhini and Moussa 159). Measures taken involve the acquisition of antivirus software that is reliable, frequent checking of software to ensure that they are secure from attacks. The computer software should be updated frequently to assure they are working in full capacity. Thus, it vital for organizations to ensure all departments are conscious of their ISO 27000 security framework because it is not known when a threat is likely to be encountered. Borders have relevance in tackling information security, and looking at borders, domains of various countries interact because they do not have borders, therefore, the domains of a nation will be related to the nation’s willingness to assert sovereignty in the domains. With the detection of threats at the various nation states, it is possible to retain legitimate response actions by the state and this will be an important actor of the border in ensuring they continue being relevant. In cyber space, the territorial borders broadly define sovereignty of a specific nation irrespective of the domain and ability to locate domains physically. Despite the borders becoming insignificant when carrying out legal commerce, they are highly significant when carrying out policing actions of transnational threats. In China, there is a severe internet information security because there is a leakage of information and this requires protection of privacy and other personal data should be strengthened because internet abuse has become unscrupulous. Sufficient protection of private data in China is lacking and this is because of the existence of loopholes in the safety of public information because of ineffective management mechanism (Veiga and Eloff 361). The reasons behind mismanagement of public informa

Employee Rights and Responsibilities Research Paper

Employee Rights and Responsibilities - Research Paper Example Based on specific guidelines, granting â€Å"time off† with pay is a statutory right of every employee (Lawpack Publishing Limited, 2010). Aside from statutory rights, some contractual rights of employees were also presented in the Harding case. Contractual rights are rights contained in the contract of employment and which were agreed upon by the employer and the employee. Right to employee privacy. This is the right which the employees of Harding Space think is being violated by management. They felt bad having a surveillance camera monitor them and now even their calls will be monitored. Right to know the reasons for monitoring the staff. Employees have a right to know that there is monitoring, what is being monitored and why it is being done. Harding must explain to its employees why there is a need for it. One reason which they can give why the calls are being monitored is because of the highly confidential nature of their business which involves large aerospace contracts of the government. Right to join or not to join a labor union. In the last part of the case, the company spokesman mentioned about how grateful he is that they do not have a union because a disgruntled employee may decide to join the union, if it exists. In the case presented, the employees of Harding have a right to form a union. If they do so, the management might have a problem with the issue of monitoring employees because of the possibility that the union might fight against it. Question 9 There are several rights of privacy that employees have while on the job. Right to his personal possessions. The employee has the right to his personal belongings including his briefcase or handbag (FindLaw, 2011). Right to personal storage lockers. The personal storage lockers should only be accessible to the employee (FindLaw, 2011). Since Harding has already set up TV cameras in the workplace, they should be guided by law that they are not allowed to put cameras in private areas such as c omfort rooms or locker rooms. Right to personally-addressed mail. An employer cannot open a privately addressed mail to his employee because it is considered an intrusion to the rights of privacy of the employee. The case did not show any violation of this right. Right to telephone conversations and voice mails. This right is sometimes subject to monitoring restrictions as shown in the case of Harding Space. â€Å"The federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) places some limitations on an employer's right to monitor its employees' telephone usage at work. Under the Act, an employer usually may not monitor an employee's personal phone calls, even those made from telephones on work premises† (FindLaw, 2009). In the Harding’s case, management was concerned about the personal calls being made by its employees that is why they issued a memo asking their employees to eliminate personal calls. I don’t think that Harding can impose a â€Å"total ban† o n personal calls because that is a right of the employee. What Harding can do is to make a memo stating a certain limit to personal calls. I suggest that if long distance personal calls

SWOT Analysis of Apple Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

SWOT Analysis of Apple - Research Paper Example It could not be denied that this name has assisted them in becoming better pioneers of quality product and high-end service in the field of technological developments. As noted earlier in the discussion, Apple is a well-known brand worldwide. It is undeniable that this brand has naturally grown among the other brands that introduced high-end quality to the market. As an established brand, it could be observed that Apple Computer Corporation is already a well-known name in the industry that the market would likely be able to readily trust. (Carlton, 2000, 33) IT is also noticeable how the pioneering status of the organization was able to carry out its name in the field of global trade. Certainly, through this status, Apple has no problem penetrating any outside market besides the United States and the United Kingdom Territories. (Deutschmann, 2000, 43)From this particular fact, it could be observed that it is an essential asset of the corporation to take great concern of the fact that they were already able to establish the right kind of reputation for their carrier brand to make a great impact in the world market. Marketing the said brand to the worldwide number of target purchasers would become much easier to handle since the reputation of the organization has already been trusted within the global market. The proof for this fact had been continuously presented through the level of sales that the corporation annually makes worldwide. The level of profit that is set for the Weaknesses One particular mater that is serving as a weakness on the part of the business strategies adapted by Apple Corporation, as their primary asset against global competition, is that of loosing their contract with that of IBM and replacing their processor with Intel. This particular approach to change may cause a lot of troubles on the part of the confusion of the people as to what particular brand they are supposed to trust. Of course, both Intel and IBM have their own reputations in the industry. Over the years, there are some percentage of the major customers trusting Apple Computers simply because they trust IBM as a quality producer and distributor of processors. Hence, with the sudden change of provider, some of the customers may make different decisions when it comes to purchasing the products that they are offering today. OUTSOURCING is also one issue that may serve the Apple Corporation both the best and worst results of business. It could be noted that as the company began to outsource from China, India and Taiwan, the cost of expenses on the part of the company has decreased, giving them better chances of decreasing the rate of their products as offered to the market. However, it is also through this particular fact that some of the major clients of the organization may be lost simply upon knowing that the other parts of the gadgets distributed by the company was not made from the United States or UK. This situation cannot be controlled simply by saying that the works from other countries where the company outsourcers its programs and hardware parts from are of high-edge quality. Some consumers could not be robbed off from their belief on the brand and manufacturer that they trust. Opportunities With the growing number of technological gadgets released in the market every now and then, it could be

Employee Rights and Responsibilities Research Paper

Employee Rights and Responsibilities - Research Paper Example Based on specific guidelines, granting â€Å"time off† with pay is a statutory right of every employee (Lawpack Publishing Limited, 2010). Aside from statutory rights, some contractual rights of employees were also presented in the Harding case. Contractual rights are rights contained in the contract of employment and which were agreed upon by the employer and the employee. Right to employee privacy. This is the right which the employees of Harding Space think is being violated by management. They felt bad having a surveillance camera monitor them and now even their calls will be monitored. Right to know the reasons for monitoring the staff. Employees have a right to know that there is monitoring, what is being monitored and why it is being done. Harding must explain to its employees why there is a need for it. One reason which they can give why the calls are being monitored is because of the highly confidential nature of their business which involves large aerospace contracts of the government. Right to join or not to join a labor union. In the last part of the case, the company spokesman mentioned about how grateful he is that they do not have a union because a disgruntled employee may decide to join the union, if it exists. In the case presented, the employees of Harding have a right to form a union. If they do so, the management might have a problem with the issue of monitoring employees because of the possibility that the union might fight against it. Question 9 There are several rights of privacy that employees have while on the job. Right to his personal possessions. The employee has the right to his personal belongings including his briefcase or handbag (FindLaw, 2011). Right to personal storage lockers. The personal storage lockers should only be accessible to the employee (FindLaw, 2011). Since Harding has already set up TV cameras in the workplace, they should be guided by law that they are not allowed to put cameras in private areas such as c omfort rooms or locker rooms. Right to personally-addressed mail. An employer cannot open a privately addressed mail to his employee because it is considered an intrusion to the rights of privacy of the employee. The case did not show any violation of this right. Right to telephone conversations and voice mails. This right is sometimes subject to monitoring restrictions as shown in the case of Harding Space. â€Å"The federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) places some limitations on an employer's right to monitor its employees' telephone usage at work. Under the Act, an employer usually may not monitor an employee's personal phone calls, even those made from telephones on work premises† (FindLaw, 2009). In the Harding’s case, management was concerned about the personal calls being made by its employees that is why they issued a memo asking their employees to eliminate personal calls. I don’t think that Harding can impose a â€Å"total ban† o n personal calls because that is a right of the employee. What Harding can do is to make a memo stating a certain limit to personal calls. I suggest that if long distance personal calls

How P&G Brought the Diaper Revolution to China Essay Example for Free

How PG Brought the Diaper Revolution to China Essay When Procter Gamble set out to sell Pampers in China more than a decade ago, it faced a daunting marketing challenge: PG didn’t just have to persuade parents that its diapers were the best. It had to persuade many of them that they needed diapers at all. The disposable diaper — a throwaway commodity in the West — just wasn’t part of the cultural norm in the Chinese nursery. Babies wore cloth diapers, or in many cases, no diaper at all. And that, says Bruce Brown, who’s in charge of PG’s $2 billion RD budget, is why China presented — and still presents — such a huge opportunity. Today, after years of exhaustive research and plenty of missteps, Pampers is the No. 1-selling diaper in China and the company, in many ways, is just getting started there. The diaper market in China is booming. It stands at $1. 4 billion — roughly a quarter the size of the U. S. market — and is projected to grow 40 percent over the next few years, according to research firm Datamonitor. PG’s success in China has helped CEO Bob McDonald set some bold goals. Last October, he laid out a plan to add one billion customers over the next five years by promoting PG brands throughout some of the poorest corners of the world. How will PG go about doing that? To get a sense, just look at the way it cracked — and to a large degree created — the market for disposable diapers in China. Learning From Failure When PG first launched Pampers in China in 1998, the effort flopped. Instead of developing a unique product for the market, PG made a lower-quality version of U. S. and European diapers, wrongly assuming that parents would buy them if they were cheap enough. â€Å"It just didn’t work,† Brown says. Chinese split-pants, or kaidangku. Photo by The Wus Photo Land on Flickr It didn’t help that Chinese families had always gotten along just fine without disposable diapers. There, potty training often begins as early as six months, and children wear what’s called kaidangku — colorful open-crotch pants that let them squat and relieve themselves in open areas. Pampers’ pitch wasn’t compelling people to try something new — and neither was the product itself. â€Å"We scrimped on the softness in the earlier versions,† says Kelly Anchrum, director of global baby care, external relations, and sustainability. â€Å"It had a more plasticky feel. It took us awhile to figure out that softness was just as important to moms in a developing market. † PG had tried a similarly watered-down approach earlier in the decade, when it launched laundry and hair-care brands in several emerging markets. Those products also failed, Brown says. After these experiences, the company in 2001 came up with a new approach to product development: â€Å"Delight, don’t dilute. † In other words, the diaper needed to be cheap, but it also had to do what other cheap diapers didn’t — keep a baby dry for 10 hours and be as comfortable as cloth. So PG added softness, dialed down the plastic feel, and increased the absorption capability of the diaper. To bring down the cost, the company developed more efficient technology platforms and moved manufacturing operations to China to eliminate shipping costs. The revamped diaper, Pampers Cloth Like Dry, hit retail shelves in China’s largest cities in 2006, selling for the equivalent of 10 cents in local currency, less than half the cost of a Pampers diaper in the United States. The Universal Pitch PG had the right diaper and the right price point. Now it faced the bigger challenge. â€Å"You have to convince someone that they need this thing,† says Ali Dibadj, an analyst who covers PG at Sanford C. Bernstein Co. For Frances Roberts, global brand franchise leader for Pampers, every trip to China was (and still is) an opportunity to learn more about Chinese nursery habits. It’s part of the PG ethos that brand leaders visit consumers in their own homes — something Roberts has done in dozens of countries, including Germany, Russia, and Jakarta. The goal is to uncover the nuances of each market, and early on in its diaper research PG discovered a universal need. â€Å"Moms say the same things over and over,† Roberts says. Their cry: We want more sleep. With the help of the Beijing Children’s Hospital’s Sleep Research Center, PG researchers conducted two exhaustive studies between 2005 and 2006, involving 6,800 home visits, and more than 1,000 babies throughout eight cities in China. Instead of cloth, the research subjects were tucked into bed with Pampers. The results: PG reported that the babies who wore the disposables fell asleep 30 percent faster and slept an extra 30 minutes every night. The study even linked the extra sleep to improved cognitive development, a compelling point in a society obsessed with academic achievement. PG then put its marketing machine into motion. Pampers launched the â€Å"Golden Sleep† campaign in 2007, which included mass carnivals and in-store campaigns in China’s biggest urban areas. A viral campaign on the Pampers Chinese web site asked parents to upload photos of their sleeping babies to drive home the study’s sleep message. The response was impressive: 200,000 photos, which PG used to create a 660-square-meter photomontage at a retail store in Shanghai. The ad campaign boasted â€Å"scientific† results, such as â€Å"Baby Sleeps with 50% Less Disruption† and â€Å"Baby Falls Asleep 30% Faster. No diaper brand, not even rival Kimberly-Clark, maker of Huggies, has come close to spending as much on advertising in China, according to CTR Market Research, the China-based division of American media researcher TNS Media Intelligence. Since 2006, Pampers’ measured media spend topped 3. 2 billion yuan, or about $476 million — more than three times as much as any other brand. In 2009 alone, PG spent $69 million, compared to Kimberly-Clark’s $12 million spend for Huggies. Ruling the Nursery — in China and Around the World Today, Pampers is the top-selling brand in China, a country where about a decade ago the disposable diaper category hardly existed. PG does not release sales figures for specific countries, but Datamonitor estimates that the company has captured more than 30 percent of the $1. 4 billion market. Karl Gerth, an Oxford professor who researches the spread of consumerism in China, says PG’s marketing campaigns strike the right tone. â€Å"You don’t want to come off as paternalistic,† says Gerth, who wrote the book â€Å"China Made: Consumer Culture and the Creation of the Nation. â€Å"The idea that Pampers brings a scientific backing and gives children an edge in their environment — that’s a brilliant way to stand out from the competition. † You could argue that it’s easy being No. 1 when the market is still small. But PG still has a lot of work to do. The company faces challenges from private-label and domestic brands, including the No. 2 market leader, Hengan International Group, which has steadily grown its market share to 20 percent. Local brands, meantime, are catching up with better products, marketing, and distribution. Chinese consumers are going to want to root for the home team,† Gerth says. And there’s still the challenge of making disposables a habit. On average, diaper use still amounts to less than one a day. â€Å"We’ve only just begun to scratch the surface [in China],† Dimitri Panayotopoulos, vice chairman of global household care, told investors in a 2008 analyst meeting. There’s even bigger potential in India, where the birth rate is almost double that of China but the diaper market remains tiny at about $43. 4 million. (Pampers is the top-selling brand there, too. So now, PG plans to take the sleep argument throughout rural and poor areas in India and elsewhere. The company also makes its case by positioning itself as a baby-care educator. Pampers sponsors healthcare-outreach programs such as a rural immunization program in China and mobile medical-care vans in Pakistan and Morocco. In India, there’s a door-to-door program that offers baby-care tips and diaper samples for moms. Of course, PG tweaks the sales pitch to fit different markets; that’s what the company is known for. In India, for instance, the convenience of disposable diapers doesn’t resonate with parents. The company’s consumer research found that many Indian mothers think that only lazy moms put their babies in disposable diapers that last a full night. As Pampers brand manager Vidya Ramachandran reported in an internal video shown to employees, â€Å"We really had to change that mindset and educate [mothers] that using a diaper is not about convenience for you — it’s about your baby’s development. †

Unilever Organized Its Supply Chain Management

Unilever Organized Its Supply Chain Management Abstract According to the analysis of some cases of how Unilever organized its supply chain management, we found that Unilever organized their factories, regional supply chains, business groups and corporate center with strategic focus and in an operational environment. Plan-source-make-deliver is the way Unilever managed their supply chain. Simultaneously, we found that Unilevers supply chain management focus on the multi-local aspects of the business at a national or regional level and the multinational aspects. Introduction In todays globalised world, every company has to face strong competition. Each company has to consider many factors if they want to be successful in the market. One of important elements in this is the supply chain management, this involves the moment of materials as they flow from their source to the end customer. Unilever is a global firm and they have numerous products, as result the ways they manage the flow of their product from beginning to the consumers is vital. The question was asked: How do Unilever organize their supply chain management. Methodology The study was conducted by a group of four team members in Middlesex University on the pre-sessional program in August 2010, namely: Lam Trinh, Long Ta, Pan Zhen Zhao and Chi Doan. The instrument used in this study was secondary research. In which, individuals of the team used various resources, especially online academic directories to locate the necessary articles related to the topic supply chain management and take a specific British Group, Unilever and its organising system, as an example. After the research team had read the academic textbooks, the relevant information was analyzed and noted in order to assess the main ideas. The process took two weeks. The first week involved choosing a suitable topic and company. The choices were based on individuals possibility and interest in the field of business and management. The second week included researching resources from the schools learning resources and other reliable sources. A total of five sources were found, of which two were theory-based online journal articles and were obtained through academic directories, and three were from media articles and company-official website. There are some limitations with the study. One of them is that it is difficult for second language learners to understand complex articles and sophisticated arguments. Furthermore, it is a difficult task to identify and collect the best helpful and suitable information for the report amongst numerous of sources. Literature review Organizing supply chain management (OSCM) is one of the most important things which companies need to do to not lag behind economically in the fast-moving business world. That is why this report researches in-depth five articles: Unilevers supply chain efficiency, Unilevers supply chain vision, supply chain case study, how Unilever aligned its supply chain management, and Unilevers spotlight. According to Supply Chain Management Review (Monahan, Sean; Nardone, Robert, Nov2007, Vol. 11), it has been claimed that Unilever has to upgrade facets of its supply chain operations to stay ahead in the fast-moving consumer packaged goods industry. Furthermore, Srivni (http://www.zimbio.com/ Jun-19-07) asserted that while Unilever keeping its global branding, its strategy is to have local supply chain for local demand to minimize complexity. It seems a lucid strategy for OSCM in order to make profit and consolidate brand effectively. Findings In this section, author using SWOT analysis to analyze the internal and external environment of Unilever. Figure 1 Strengths Weaknesses Clearly supply chain management vision highly complex supply chain and production line Using information technology Local supply chain for local demand Strong network of sales and distribution Many products have low profit Opportunities Threats Increasing in environment friendly product Globalization There are many competitors Strengths Unilever is a global company so their supply chain management seems to be very well organized. The first strength is Unilever make a clear vision for their supply chain management. IEE (www.iee.org, 2004) states five strategies on Unilever supply chain management: Clearly defined global strategy and an effective and robust strategy into action processes. Focus on cost reduction, to be achieved through regular monitoring of a standard set of globally shared KPIs along with consistent data acquisition. Consistent global approach to, delivery of manufacturing excellence. Convergent organization. Clearly defined skill definitions of all supply chain roles. Established process to enable a rapid and cost effective implementation of innovation. Furthermore, Unilever implement information technology (IT) in their supply chain with the purpose to manage the flow of product better. Because Unilever have many factories in the world, they use different type of supply chain for each country so they can meet the demand of local customers. Strong network of sale and distribution is the one more strength of Unilever. Weaknesses Unilever have a huge number of product brands (over 1600 brands) but 400 brands make up over 90% of Unilevers total sales (http://www.zimbio.com, Jun-19-07)good . As a consequence, the ineffective brands make them money but not very profitable and become one of their weakness point. Opportunities Customers focus more on the products which are friendly with environment, it is an opportunity for Unilever to follow the trend and get more customers from competitors with the strategy in greening their supply chain such as cutting emissions. The second opportunity for Unilever is globalization develop. Their supply chain will find easier to approach customers because the world without barrier. Threats Unilever set up factories, branches in more than 100 countries and they have numerous competitors from other global companies like PG and Nestle and also competitors from local. Global enterprises with strong brands and experience in management while local companies understand the demand of consumers and they have support from local government lead to a threat for Unilever. Discussion and analysis IT solution According to Srivni (http://www.zimbio.com, Jun-19-07), the first solution for Unilever to organize supply chain management is the use of information technology. Firstly, Unilever use enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to manage activities in supply chain. ERP with huge databases can access the status of supply chain such as distribution and sales. As a result they can control the flow of products well and make sure it is not interrupted. By using IT in supply chain management, company also reduce the costs and improve efficiency in the chain and bring the company closer to their consumers. Moreover, IT helps Unilever track their products better from distribution centers to stores, they will have right strategy to reduce the length of product runs and make other refinements to react more quickly to changes in demand (http://www.zimbio.com, Jun-19-07). Finally, Unilever apply integrated supply management information system (ISIS) which help the collected information is analyzed quickly and easily by supply managers in national as well as global companies. With this system, its managers may discuss and make a decision with suppliers clearly and effectively. Therefore, both of them make benefits from this way (Sean Monahan and Robert Nardone, 2007). Path to Growth Based on the weakness point in SWOT analysis, Unilever make a plan name: Path to growth focus on reducing non production items (NPI). Before discussing the results of this plan, this report is going to analyze the reason why they have to cut NPI. In 2000, there were over 1600 brands belong to Unilever. However, the company recognized that the high profit brands were around four hundred and many other brands take a huge amount of money to organize their supply chain. Unilever decided to stop producing over five hundred and sell seven hundred brands and get over 16 billion euro. With this amount of money, they can invest more in supply chain management system. The goal of this plan is simplify the business and reducing complexity (http://www.zimbio.com, Jun-19-07). This plan brings to Unilever many advantages but there are some disadvantages when Unilever apply Path to growth. In 2004, their net profit lost by over 300 million dollars, and the company still focus significantly on local market lead to fragment in global market. Conclusion The purpose of this report is answering the question: How does Unilever organize their supply chain management? The finding is based on the SWOT analysis which shows the internal (strengths and weaknesses) and the external (opportunities and threats) environmental in supply chain of Unilever. Unilever apply IT to manage their supply chain to reduce the cost and improve the effect. They also use plan path to growth to sell and stop production over one thousand ineffective brands. These strategies help Unilever to organize their supply chain better and more effectively. Recommendations Unilever is a strong company in global market. They have many strengths point but they have some weaknesses point. After the process of findings and analysis the information of Unilever, the company should focus more on their supply chain of high profit products to maximize revenue and ensure their supply to customers is on time.