Power and Control in Hawk Roosting Essay

GRADE G In Shakespeare’s play a man called Macbeth kills the king to get his power. Ted Hughes’s poem ‘Hawk Roosting’ is about a hawk who thinks he is powerful. GRADE F In _Macbeth_ Shakespeare writes about Macbeth and Lady Macbeth who have a plan to kill the king and take over. â€Å"Hail, King thou shalt be.† Ted Hughes writes about a hawk and how powerful he is: â€Å"My manners are tearing off heads.† GRADE E Shakespeare shows that Lady Macbeth wants to be a powerful character because she wants to kill the king so that Macbeth can become the new king: ‘You can putt this night’s great business into my dispatch.† Ted Hughes also writes about power, but from the point of view of a hawk. We know that the hawk has a high opinion of itself: ‘I kill where I please because it is all mine.’ GRADE D The theme of power/ambition is explored in _Macbeth_ and ‘Hawk Roosting.’ Shakespeare focuses on Lady Macbeth’s relationship with Macbeth. When Lady Macbeth learns about the witches’ prophecy that Macbeth will become king, she hatches a plan to make it happen. Ted Hughes also writes about ambition because the hawk in the poem wants to be the best: â€Å"Now I hold Creation in my foot.† A difference between them is that the hawk is very confident about his own power, but Macbeth is too  loyal to the king to be able to reach his ambition.: â€Å"We will proceed no further in this business. He hath honoured me of late.† Lady Macbeth is more ambitious than her husband. GRADE C Ted Hughes’s poem ‘ Hawk Roosting’ shows the world as seen from a hawk’s point of view. The hawk seems very determined and powerful. Shakespeare also presents the theme of power and determination, but the difference is that he presents is with a husband and wife who plot to murder the king and take his crown. The hawk also has thoughts of murder: ‘in sleep rehearse perfect kills’. The word ‘rehearse’ suggests that the hawk enjoys killing, and practises to make himself perfect – even when asleep. This also suggests that he is proud of himself. Similarly, in _Macbeth_ Lady Macbeth is proud of her ambitious nature: ‘O never/Shall sun that morrow see.’ She has murderous thoughts and she will kill the king that night. GRADE B _Macbeth_ and ‘Hawk Roosting’ both seem to be about power and ambition. In ‘Hawk Roosting’ the speaker is a hawk who describes his view of the world: ‘The earth’s face upward for my inspection.’ This image suggests how the hawk is very confident that the world is there to suit his needs. It is in the form of a statement, which adds to the feelings of the hawk’s confidence. Lady Macbeth is also very powerful at the beginning of the play. She wants Macbeth to entertain the guests while she prepares to kill King Duncan. When hatching the plan, she says to her husband, ‘Leave all the rest to me’. This implies that she feels that she is more capable to commit the crime than Macbeth. The audience will see her as more ambitious at this point. GRADE A Although _Macbeth_ and ‘Hawk Roosting’ differ in form, there are distinct links that can be drawn between them. They both concern power and ambition  and how a character’s persona is formed by their self-belief, and what they are prepared to do to achieve their aims. In both texts we are given an insight into the characters’ innermost thoughts. In ‘Hawk Roosting’, because the poem is written in the first person, in the form of a dramatic monologue, we gain a great insight into the speaker’s confidence. The hawk starkly portrays how he feels that the world is there for his ‘convenience’. He arrogantly describes how the ‘air’s buoyancy’ and ‘sun’s ray’ are ‘of advantage’ to him. Similarly, Lady Macbeth initially believes that the crown is her right, and shows her desire for achieving it: ‘Take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers.’ The fact that she is calling on spirits to give her the strength to act implies that she will stop at nothing to achieve her aim. An audience may view this as a shocking, evil and ruthlessly ambitious act. GRADE A* _Macbeth_ and ‘Hawk Roosting’ share some common ground in that they are concerned with the unpleasant side of power and ambition. The main characters in both texts appear to be overly confident and assured. ‘Hawk Roosting’ is a dramatic monologue spoken by a non-human voice, a hawk. We are provided with a series of images which depict the hawk’s arrogance and pride. Indeed. The hawk is brimming with superiority: ‘It took the whole of Creation/To produce my foot, my each feather.’ The hawk is seemingly bragging and delighting in how magnificent it appears. This can be directly compared to Lady Macbeth. The way she belittles her husband, referring to him as ‘afeard’ and ‘a coward’ reveals her merciless ambition to become queen. She, like the hawk, feels that she deserves to be ‘great’, and wants her husband to share the power; he calls her ‘My dearest partner of greatness.’ COMPARING _MACBETH_ AND _HAWK ROOSTING_ – SAMPLE ANSWERS (THEME = POWER AND AMBITION) 1. Although _Macbeth_ and ‘Hawk Roosting’ differ in form, there are distinct links that can be drawn between them. They both concern power and ambition and how a character’s persona is formed by their self-belief, and what they are prepared to do to achieve their aims. In both texts we are given an insight into the characters’ innermost thoughts. In ‘Hawk Roosting’, because the poem is written in the first person, in the form of a dramatic monologue, we gain a great insight into the speaker’s confidence. The hawk starkly portrays how he feels that the world is there for his ‘convenience’. He arrogantly describes how the ‘air’s buoyancy’ and ‘sun’s ray’ are ‘of advantage’ to him. Similarly, Lady Macbeth initially believes that the crown is her right, and shows her desire for achieving it: ‘Take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers.’ The fact that she is calling on spirits to give her the strength to act implies that she will stop at nothing to achieve her aim. An audience may view this as a shocking, evil and ruthlessly ambitious act. 2. The theme of power/ambition is explored in _Macbeth_ and ‘Hawk Roosting.’ Shakespeare focuses on Lady Macbeth’s relationship with Macbeth. When Lady Macbeth learns about the witches’ prophecy that Macbeth will become king, she hatches a plan to make it happen. Ted Hughes also writes about ambition because the hawk in the poem wants to be the best: â€Å"Now I hold Creation in my foot.† A difference between them is that the hawk is very confident about his own power, but Macbeth is too loyal to the king to be able to reach his ambition: â€Å"We will proceed no further in this business. He hath honoured me of late.† Lady Macbeth is more ambitious than her husband. 3. _Macbeth_ and ‘Hawk Roosting’ both seem to be about power and ambition. In ‘Hawk Roosting’ the speaker is a hawk who describes his view of the world: ‘The earth’s face upward for my inspection.’ This image suggests how the hawk is very confident that the world is there to suit his needs. It is in the form of a statement, which adds to the feelings of the hawk’s confidence. Lady Macbeth is also very powerful at the beginning of the play. She wants Macbeth to entertain the guests while she prepares to kill King Duncan. When hatching the plan, she says to her husband, ‘Leave all the rest to me’. This implies that she feels that she is more capable to commit the crime than Macbeth. The audience will see her as more ambitious at this point. 4. Shakespeare shows that Lady Macbeth wants to be a powerful character because she wants to kill the king so that Macbeth can become the new king: ‘You can putt this night’s great business into my dispatch.† Ted Hughes also writes about power, but from the point of view of a hawk. We know that the hawk has a high opinion of itself: ‘I kill where I please because it is all mine.’ 5. _Macbeth_ and ‘Hawk Roosting’ share some common ground in that they are concerned with the unpleasant side of power and ambition. The main characters in both texts appear to be overly confident and assured. ‘Hawk Roosting’ is a dramatic monologue spoken by a non-human voice, a hawk. We are provided with a series of images which depict the hawk’s arrogance and pride. Indeed. The hawk is brimming with superiority: ‘It took the whole of Creation/To produce my foot, my each feather.’ The hawk is seemingly bragging and delighting in how magnificent it appears. This can be directly compared to Lady Macbeth. The way she belittles her husband, referring to him as ‘afeard’ and ‘a coward’ reveals her merciless ambition to become queen. She, like the hawk, feels that she deserves to be ‘great’, and wants her husband to share the power; he calls her ‘My dearest partner of greatness.’ 6. In _Macbeth_ Shakespeare writes about Macbeth and Lady Macbeth who have a plan to kill the king and take over. â€Å"Hail, King thou shalt be.† Ted Hughes writes about a hawk and how powerful he is: â€Å"My manners are tearing off heads.† 7. In Shakespeare’s play a man called Macbeth kills the king to get his  power. Ted Hughes’s poem ‘Hawk Roosting’ is about a hawk who thinks he is powerful. 8. Ted Hughes’s poem ‘Hawk Roosting’ shows the world as seen from a hawk’s point of view. The hawk seems very determined and powerful. Shakespeare also presents the theme of power and determination, but the difference is that he presents is with a husband and wife who plot to murder the king and take his crown. The hawk also has thoughts of murder: ‘in sleep rehearse perfect kills’. The word ‘rehearse’ suggests that the hawk enjoys killing, and practises to make himself perfect – even when asleep. This also suggests that he is proud of himself. Similarly, in _Macbeth_ Lady Macbeth is proud of her ambitious nature: ‘O never/Shall sun that morrow see.’ She has murderous thoughts and she will kill the king that night.

Global economic development Essay

If Gwlad want to achieve any economic growth and attain a strong economy as its neighbors in Western Europe it must carry out detailed SWOT analysis. Such an analysis involves determining the country’s strength, weakness, opportunities and threat. One of the major strength that Gwlad enjoys as a country is it strategic location. Being close to the most developed nation in the world then it will be easier to access and export goods abroad to a market which is willing and able to buy. The second strength is the relative peace that the country enjoys and that of the surrounding nation which means that foreign investors will be willing to set up businesses (Anderson, 2007). One of the main weaknesses in this country is low level of industrialization which will translate to low out put and therefore less export compared to other country in the surrounding. Also with a population of just 3 million people it means that the aggregate demand is very low and for multinational who want to venture into such country and market their produce, the low demand expected for their products may discourage them. Furthermore this country seems to be expecting poor infrastructure and this raises the cost of doing business which discourage foreign direct investment (root 2006). The low level of services may be another hindrance to foreign direct investment. Foreign investors Global economic development 2 values a strong financial system that is able to allocate capital efficiently, mobilizing saving, monitor firms, share and diversity risk with the low level of GDP the consumers’ purchasing power is weak and therefore this further reduces the aggregate demand and output levels in the country. Also the country relies on few sectors to support the economy and there is a need to expand on such areas (Carroll, 2006). One of the major threat that the country faces is competition form rivals who are well established and their industries have become stable such that they are able to supply goods in the global market at low cost. Secondly since the country is not a member of European Union then members may impose both tariff and non tariff barriers to trade from goods exported from Gwlad which will increase the prices of good exported on members country. High prices will discourage consumers’ consumption of such goods which will ultimately reduce export and affect the country’s balance of payment. The country should take steps to proceed with privatization of most public corporations since such move encourage foreign direct investment and also improves on transparency and good governance of such companies (ridout, 2005). Since the financial system play a pivotal role on the growth of an economy the government should implement policies designed to streamline the sector. To encourage investment in the country then it is also vital to revise its taxation policies and develop a scheme geared towards benefiting foreign business. Entry of multinationals in the domestic market have some adverse effects in that some of the domestics firm are not strong enough to compete favorably with foreign firms such that they require protection from the government. Therefore the government Global economic development 3 should develop policy geared towards protecting domestic firms and also protecting capital flight which mostly affect the balance of payment of the country if not taken into consideration. To ensure that employment level in the country rises and that multinational does not take advantage of lack of employment policies to bring in expatriate even in areas where local can work then labor policies should be drawn which includes issues of minimal wages to be paid. Regional trading blocks such as the EU and others aid international trade by reducing or eliminating both tariff and not tariff barriers to trade therefore incase Gwlad want to participate more in the global market then it should realign its foreign policies which will enable it to be accommodated in such trading blocks. Active signing of both bilateral and multilateral agreement is necessary in improving penetration to foreign market thereby improving on export which translates to a higher GDP (melchet, 2005). CASE STUDY 2 Though strategic location and the issue of wages rate are considered by a foreign investor in determining whether to invest in a certain country or not, there are other major factors which are first considered. The availability of energy and associated cost are given priority in manufacturing industries since energy cost comprises a huge percentage of manufacturing cost hence one of the main determinants in making investment decision. The level of infrastructure is also considered by business. The possibility of growth and political stability should also be an integral part of such a marketing strategy since these two factors will determine whether a business will grow in foreign market. Through most of the study conducted it has also been proved that vibrant financial system Global economic development 4 also plays a major role in encouraging FDI (zedillo, 2005). On marketing Gwlad I would include such issues as tax system which benefit inventors e. g. tax allowance on investment. To increase foreign income from tourism then issues such as beautiful scenery and variety of wildlife have to be included. Further more technology play a major role in global market and therefore a mention of the technological achievement and possible advancement in technology should be included in the countries marketing strategy as firms currently rely on technology in performing it core business. Case Study 3 Technology advancement have led countries like china and Japan to be the most industrialized and leading exporters in the global Market. Consequently their economy have grown and a country like china with a population higher than the whole of Africa have been able to support its citizen and even offer loans and grant to other nations. Though technological advancement is key to economic development it has to be matched with good governance and visionary leaders who are able to inspire their people to reach new height (Polanski, 2004). In developing the economic policy there are others sectors which should be considered. This includes, health, financial sector which includes among other banks, insurance market, and the capital market and aerospace and automotive sectors in the transport industry. Case Study 4 One of the major strength of developing domestic companies is that it protects capital Global economic development 5 freight which adversely affects the balance of payment and the exchange rate. Domestic companies mostly employ people from within the country which reduces the level of unemployment. The income generated by domestic firms is usually re invested back thereby improving in economic growth. Some of the other income which is distributed as dividend to the owner increases the level of aggregate demand and saving levels due to increase in disposable income. Where aggregate demand increases business will be forced to produce more goods which lead to their growth and expansion (McDonnell, 2003). As saving levels increase businesses will have available capital for investment and through the multiplier effect where investment increase the GDP will also increase therefore accelerating the economic growth of the country. If steps are taken to develop domestic companies then they may grow to a level of being multinationals which will generate foreign income to the country. One of the major threats in developing domestic companies is that in case of harsh economic condition they may not withstand and therefore collapse. There are also possibility of political interference in the management and operation of such firms. Due to the limited fund available it may not be possible to avail all the required capital for expansion which means that such business will be operating below capacity and there will be under utilization of resources. Further more the economy can grow at a very low rate if only the domestic business are relied upon to accelerate growth. Lack of competition will be another weakness in that business will not improve on core area of performance such as technology therefore products will be of low quality and higher Global economic development 6 price with inability o compete in global market. Where competition lack then there is low level of creativity and innovation in products and service development therefore the economy will lag behind (Coparosa, 2004). Where the country is able to attract foreign direct investment then it is able to improve on technological advancement since such investors transfer technology to the host country. Further more since the country is experiencing a capital rationing this foreign firms do not require any form of financing from government and the funds available could be used to develop other sectors where foreign companies are unwilling to invest. Furthermore this foreign firm introduces competition which forces business to produce goods effectively and efficiently. The major threat of encouraging multinationals to invest in the country is that they can kill local industries incase where such firms are not able to compete favorably. Some of the multinational which occupies a greater stake in the economy sometimes dictate or influence the policy made by government to their advantage since where e government fail to comply they threaten to withdraw. One of the main weaknesses of using FDI is the issue of capital flight. Most usually send the profit generated from its operation back to it parent company which adversely affect the economy. However such businesses are able to sustain harsh economic condition and also improve the level of infrastructure in the host country. In using combination strategy the government ensures that domestic firms grow while at the same time attracting foreign direct investment which steers the economic growth. There should be a balance between protecting domestic firms and maintaining Global economic development 7 environment which enables foreign firms to compete fairly with domestic firms (Roca, 1983) Due to shortage of funds that the country experience and other benefits that accrue from having FDI it is advisable that the country employs a combination of strategy if it aim to achieve faster economic development. Case study 5 In persuading multinationals to develop local supply chain then the country have to change policies on taxation of this foreign firms. Issues such as tax allowance on investment can encourage such multinational to set up business to take such advantages of allowance. Also policies that streamline the financing system are also important since the financial system is a factor considered by multinational before venturing into any market. To encourage multinational to undertake research and development in the country then the country should have a well designed policy concerning copyright, trade marks or use of intellectual property. Also where commercial services such as advertising, local research firms and professional service are established and well regulated then multinational can be motivated to use such services. Furthermore policies concerning regional integration are important since it assist business to supply it commodity to other international market without barriers to trade both tariff and non tariff therefore improving on it competiveness in the global market. In addition the transport system is necessary for efficient operation of any supply chain therefore policies should be designed to improve such systems. Global economic development 8 CASE STUDY 6 Where a country is a member of the EU then there is no obstacle on free movement of goods, people and capital therefore the country can easily market and export its goods to members countries thereby improving on its balance of payment. Through the European social fund then the country will be able to improve on its level of employment thereby raising the standard of living of its citizen. The creation of European investment bank will facilitate the economic expansion of the country through creation of new resources. The EU has also developed a well established system of ensuring that competition is fair in the common markets which will therefore means that weak members states such as Gwlad are not exploited or taken advantage of by other strong and developed nations. However being such a member of EU then you have to adopt a common custom tariff and common commercial policy towards non members which may therefore reduce the country aggressiveness to participate in the global market. Countries such as China, Brazil and Australia are the new fastest growing economy in the world hence they provide a ground on which new market can be found. Further more bilateral and multilateral agreement with such country can be more beneficial than joining a trading block for a country with a weak economy (godison, 1988). For a country like Gwlad which need to achieve faster economic development it need to develop free trade agreement with this growing economies as they present a better opportunity for growth than a trading block. CASE STUDY 7 Global economic development 9 One of the merit of having a cluster development policy is having a balanced economy in that you do not allow foreign firm to dominate the local market but also give chance for domestic business to grow and reach a level at which they can compete in the global market . having both local and foreign firm present multinational from influencing government policy with threat to with draw since their position will be taken up by local firms. One of the problems inherent in such a cluster development policy is development of policy which attracts foreign entity while at the same time ensuring protection to domestic firms. The best option of organizing sector development is having specific policies that take special need of each sector rather than general policies which just give a general outlay instead of specific guideline for sector development (madon, 1997). CASE STUDY 8 As the company is ready to employ 30,000 people this will be a great boost to the economy as it will reduce the level of unemployment and ultimately increase the GDP. However where foreign suppliers are contracted to supply good rather than local suppliers this will lead to loss of business and capital flight from the country. Furthermore the demand by this firm that the country liars with the host country of these suppliers to request for a tax break may be an added cost to the country as they may in return ask for other favors which may hurt the economy. The government should agree to give research and development grant but not succumb to demand of allowing foreign supplies to be contracted as this will erode most of the benefit generated. Global economic development 10 References Anderson, AT 2007, ‘Developing m-services: lessons learned from the developers perspective,’ Communication of AIS, VOL. 2007, issue 20. Carroll, M 2006, ‘An interview with Prime Minister Lee,’ Institutional Investors, vol. 40, issue 9. Caporaso, J 2004,’Dependence, dependency, and power in the global system: a structure and behavioral analysis,’ International Organization, Vol. 32 Issue 1. Emerging Markets Debt Report 2000, ‘Political risk: Thumbs up for Brazil, Stormy Clime in Vennie,’ Vol. 13 Issue 4. Godison, N 1988,’London’s place in the global securities market,’ International Affairs, Vol. 64 Issue 4. Madon, S 1997,’Information-Based Global Economy and Socioeconomic Development: The Case of Bangalore,’ Information Society, Vol. 13 Issue 3. Melchet, L 2005,’The Age of Environmental Impasse? Globalization and Environmental Transformation of Metropolitan Cities,’ Development & Change, Vol. 36 Issue 5. Global economic development 11 McDonnell, I & Lecomte 2003,’ Public Opinion and the Fight against Poverty,’ DAC Journal, Vol. 4 Issue 2. polenske, K 2004,’ Competition, Collaboration and Cooperation: An Uneasy Triangle in Networks of Firms and Regions,’ Regional Studies, Vol. 38 Issue 9.

Business Model of Amazon

As the economy has moved from agrarian to industrial to information age, the focus of the businessmen or the wealthy and powerful has also shifted in terms of the ways of obtaining wealth or doing business. In the agrarian age there was shortage of land which made ownership of land as the determinant of value. Powerful land barons typically accumulated vast tracts of land and coerced people who were bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord into living on and working it. As economy moved from agrarian to industrial age, physical assets owned by a firm became the determinants of value and shortage of raw-materials led the powerful industrialists to conspire to control the supply of raw materials. In this age, the market could absorb as much product as the industrialists could produce. The current era in which we live has been defined as the information age wherein relationships and intellectual capital are more important than anything else. One is not worried about physical assets anymore. Companies don’t compete with each other over superior products as they are largely commoditized rather compete increasingly on the basis of value added customer services. The economic battles of today are fought over the mind-space of consumers. In the information age power-play customers are not passive participants, in the way that land and raw materials were in the agrarian and industrial ages. In fact, according to Zang Hailing, it is the customers’ time that is in short supply, and therefore for any firm to succeed, emphasis needs to be given to the importance of reducing the customers’ time to adopt a new product. Thus, in a world where technology is changing every day and the transformation of consumers has happened from â€Å"Price Takers† to â€Å"Price Makers† as they are armed with more options and information; the companies that control more and more customer relationships will be the ones that hold the power in an industry and reap the lion’s share of the profits. E-commerce or e-business is an important tool that enables companies to reach out to the global market at low cost and provides abundant information about the consumers’ requirements and preferences easily which was not so easy earlier. Following figure is a glimpse of the promising future that the ecommerce industry holds. The US E-commerce has seen a 40% increase in the sales over the past 5 years as a percentage of the total retail sales in US. Source: http://ycharts. com Now when thinks about e-commerce, the first name that comes to everyone’s mind is that of Amazon. com. Not only most of the people have heard about it but there are many people who have actually used its services. Amazon was not only one of the few of the companies that thrived throughout the period in which many dot-com companies struggled to survive but has been constantly performing exceptionally well in terms of revenue per visitor which is one of the key parameters for any commercial website. Amazon has had one of the fastest growths in the internet’s history with revenues reaching $2, 8 billion in the first five years with Google’s revenue reaching only $15bn in the first five years. Now, just like any other traditional business in order to clearly understand an e-business one needs to have information on the following components: a) Business Strategy which determines the products and service offerings by the firm, the firms targeted customers and the firms value proposition. It also helps firms decide on the choices and the tradeoffs that the firm needs to make. b) Organizational form or structure c) Business processes which refer to the unique ways in which organizations coordinate and organize work activities, information, and knowledge to produce a product or service. ) Value Chain i. e. the sequence of activities that a firm undertakes to create value, including the various steps of the supply chain but also additional activities, such as marketing, sales, and service. e) Core Competencies which are the collective learning’s of the firms and being distinctive create long term competitive advantage for the firm. From the beginning, the focus of Amazon. com has been on offering their customers compelling value. In the current report filing dated 04/13/12, Jeffrey Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon. om writes â€Å"We realized that the Web was, and still is, the World Wide Wait. Therefore, we set out to offer customers something they simply could not get any other way, and began serving them with books. We brought them much more selection than was possible in a physical store (our store would now occupy 6 football fields), and presented it in a useful, easy-to-search, and easy-to-browse format in a store open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. † The Value Proposition offered by Amazon. com is â€Å"earth’s largest selection—24/7, at competitive price. † Amazon. om has continuously focused on improving the shopping experience owing to which they substantially enhanced their stores in 1997. Though they started off with books, they now offer customers gift certificates, 1-ClickSM shopping, and vastly more r eviews, content, browsing options, and recommendation features. The company’s stated goal was to â€Å"be Earth’s most customer centric company for three primary customer sets: consumers, sellers and developers. † It targeted its first set of customers through its initial retail model where it sold only books. It offered the perfect combination of low prices, large selection and convenience or customer experience. The digital media allowed limitless inventory, boosted customer care and allowed higher margins and hence lowest prices. In 15 years Amazon went from 1 category to 16 main categories of books. Amazon began with books and needed to grow big fast. From 1995-1998, Amazon moved from books to music and again through the same combination moved to become the biggest seller of music in just 120 days! Amazon moved on develop its own digital driven supply chain and distribution network by hiring from the expert: Wal-Mart. Amazon accelerated development through its strategy of â€Å"Build, buy, partner† a) Build: Amazon keeps on creating new categories. For example, Amazon kicked off a new service by the name MyHabit. com in May 2011 that made fashion available to consumers directly from designers and boutique brands. b) Buy: When there is a lot of competition in any area and the competitors have a strong hold, Amazon believes in buying out the incumbent. Few of the acquisitions made by Amazon include Internet Movie Database  (IMDb), Zappos (an online shoe and apparel retailer) etc. ) Partner: Amazon has also entered into a lot of merchant partnerships. It offers its technological service and ecommerce expertise to third- parties. For example in October 2011, Amazon. com announced a partnership with DC Comics for the exclusive digital rights to many popular comics, including Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Sandman, and Watchmen. As mentioned before as well, Amazon want to be the â€Å"wo rld’s most customer-centric† company, and so their focus is on the â€Å"Customer Service†. It ensures customer loyalty through three main approaches: a) Recurring usage b) Seamless Integration c) Lock-in The following table tells us how Amazon uses all above mentioned approaches for its both customers: Sellers and consumers. | Sellers| Consumers| Recurring Usage| a. Developed a customer base close to 615mn users that can’t be ignored by sellers b. Ensures profit through optimized and reliable technology c. Developed a trusted Brand name| a. Created an ecosystem through Kindle b. Stores user’s media library c. Offers personalization to customers d. Gives special offers everyday| Seamless Integration| a. Monitors sellers rating ratings posted by consumers and expels sellers with bad ratings b. Offers Fulfillment by Amazon service(FBA) which allows third party sellers to use Amazon’s large warehouse and distribution network| a. For customers, all the sellers are highly commoditized and invisible. They buy it because of the Amazons brand value b. Get benefitted by Amazon Prime and free super saver shipping| Lock-in| a. By controlling or owning the customer accounts b. High level of infrastructure development required to ensure same level of customer service as offered by Amazon| a. By providing digital content that works only on Kindle b. Amazon Prime Program which requires annual subscription| | c. | c. | Amazon developed a value chain of itself for internal appraisal so as to identify its strengths and weaknesses that would help it add value and maintain a competitive advantage. Amazon uses the value chain model from Michael Porter’s book, â€Å"Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. † The first table represents the Primary activities of Amazon which are needed to produce a product or services for the end customers. Inbound logistics| Operations| Outbound logistics| Marketing ; Sales| Service| Avoids the overhead and large amounts of inventory carrying cost because it orders the books from the distributors. Easy and fast payment systems. Online customer systems and feedback. | Operates a number of transportation hubs that they refer to as injection points. Injection point locations are located in heavily customer concentrated areas. | Customer tracking  is an Amazon stronghold through which it provides personalized customers’ exper ience| Free return policy within 30 days. Uses marketplace to increase channel and range of goods through 3rd parties and customers. Highly reduced returns to suppliers (such as unsold books and media) due to available accurate forecasting technology | Customized buyer experience| Ability to aggregate orders bound for specific locations. | Interactive shipping and parceling price calculations. Free delivery based on single transaction spends. | Price comparison of new products with used products in marketplace shops. | Efficiently gathering information about customer experiences to inform service inputs and inventory controls. | 24 hour warehouse operations to meet customer demands. |   Utilizes the capabilities of its supply chain partners to deliver orders directly to ustomers which bypass the Amazon. com internal distribution center network|   Discounts and price reductions made available with suggested product mixes. Similar products recommended to customers interactively. | Offers customers gift certificates, 1-Click SM shopping, and vastly more reviews, content, browsing options, and recommendation features. | The next table gives information about the various support activities performed by Amazon which help to facilitate or assist its primary activities. | Value Creation| Cost Reduction| Firm Infrastructure| Huge central customer data warehouse available to all business units. Amazon’s single technology platform with services being incrementally distributed to other worldwide locations, reduces costs by leveraging investments | Human Resource Management| Amazon. com has a great training for its employees resulting in talented, smart and hard working group. Offers employees unique benefits such as medical, paid time off and stock grants and relocation allowances and hence attract highly skilled workers| Amazon utilizes independent contractors and temporary personnel to supplement their workforce, particularly on a seasonal basis. Although Amazon has works councils and statutory employee representation obligations in certain countries, Amazon’s employees are not represented by a labor union| Technology Development| High investments in technology development (e. g. , Kindle) to best leverage digital products. Innovations such as personalized recommendations, one-click ordering, and search inside the book are all Amazon. com innovations. Highly customized software applications that support their supply chain business model. For example, Amazon. om is linked into Ingram’s systems to see Ingram inventory levels when deciding whether to use Ingram to drop ship an order to a customer | Building an IT strategy, IT infrastructure and Data Centre on Linux open source software thus reducing cost of technology development. Renting computing resources to other companies reduce total cost of ownership Using standard hardware systems from HP to reduce cost of maintenance and compatibility| Procurement| Utilize s a Sales and Operations (SOP) planning process to determine forecasts for each roduct that it stores in its distribution center inventoryUses the strategic business unit – Booksurge to keep a rich inventory of digital copies of books so as to make this readily available for customers through print-on-demand and reduce the time of delivery | Specially built distribution Centers, warehouses and fulfillment Centers to increase the speed of order processing thus avoiding transaction costs of contracting out| In addition to the business strategies the value chain components mentioned above, the success of Amazon. om can be attributed to the entrepreneurial spirit of its founder chief executive officer Jeff Bezos and the strong inclination of the firm towards bringing about innovation in the business model. Let us discuss both factors one by one. Entrepreneurial Spirit of Jeff Bezos: Jeff Bezos can be regarded as the forward-looking CEO responsible for the success of Amazon. com. He has not only efficiently managed the present but through his long term vision always taken steps to create the future. The computer science and electrical engineering graduate from Princeton University moved to Seattle after resigning as a Senior Vice-President at D. E. Shaw, a Wall Street investment bank. At the time Bezos didn’t know much about the Internet but he came across a statistic that the Internet was growing at 2300%, which convinced him that it was a large growth opportunity. Without knowing anything more, he plunged into the world of e-commerce with no prior retailing experience. It was his decision to locate the company in Seattle because it had a large pool of technical talent and since it was close to one of the largest book wholesalers located in Rosenburg, Oregon. Moreover, the sales tax laws for online retailers state that one has to charge sales tax in the state in which one is incorporated. Therefore it was logical to locate in a small state. Under his guidance and logical thinking Amazon. com quickly became the leader in e-commerce. Operating 24 hours a day, the site was user-friendly and encouraged browsers to post their own reviews of books and offering discounts, personalized recommendations, and searches for out-of-print books. In June 1998 it began selling CDs, and later that year it added videos. In 1999 Bezos, looking at the future trends, added auctions to the site and invested in other virtual stores. The success of Amazon. com encouraged other retailers, including major book chains, to establish online stores. As more companies battled for Internet dollars, Bezos saw the need to diversify, and by 2005 Amazon. com offered a vast array of products, including consumer electronics, apparel, and hardware. And with the Jeff Bezos vision to make every book ever in print in any language available to the consumer in 60 seconds, Amazon launched the handheld device called Kindle in 2007. Bezos is the quintessential dot-com icon. He proved to the business world that the Internet was about more than knowledge. He proved that it is possible to overcome fears about purchasing online, to drive down transaction costs, and to build an international e-commerce business over the Internet. He had the courage to attempt something that people doubted could be done. . At the age of 35, Jeff Bezos was picked as the 1999 Time person of the year. Describing why it chose Bezos, Time magazine said, â€Å"Bezos’  vision  of the online retailing universe was so complete, his Amazon. om site so elegant and appealing that it became from Day One the point of reference for anyone who had anything to sell online. † Innovation in the Business Model: Amazon survived the dot-com bust because it had a viable and innovative  business model  built around a market-changing customer value proposition and a radical profit formula and over it has been able to sustain its position as the leader in e-commerce by bringing about continuous innovations in its business model. Let us look at some of the different dimensions wherein Amazon. om has been able to bring about business innovation. a) Offerings: By offering a handheld device dedicated to reading, Kindle, Amazon. com revolutionized the books industry. By creating a product like Kindle, the created a perfect, integrated and streamlined customer experience. b) Platform: With Amazon Web Services, Fulfillment By Amazon, and Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon is creating powerful self-service platforms that allow thousands of people to boldly experiment and accomplish things that would otherwise be impossible or impractical. ) Customers: In 2002 Amazon launched a web services platform and identified a new area of potential growth by finding another new customer—the IT community. Serving this new customer’s needs required different processes, different resources, and a different profit formulaâ€⠀in short, another  new business model. d) Customer Experience: 1-Click combined with Gift-Click and Wish List made Amazon. com the most convenient, easiest-to-use shopping destination the holiday season. Wish List allows customers to post the gifts they’d most like to receive from family and friends, while Gift-Click allows customers to send gifts easily by entering just the e-mail addresses of their recipients. e) Value Capture: By opening up its storefront to other retailers that were essentially competitors, Amazon transformed its business from direct sales to a sales-and-service model, aggregating many sellers under one virtual roof and receiving commissions from the other companies’ sales. ) Supply Chain: Fulfillment by Amazon service (FBA) by Amazon is a classic example of innovating business model through supply chain. FBA allows third party sellers to use Amazon’s large warehouse and distribution network and in the last quarter of 2011, shipped tens of millions of items on behalf of sellers. When sellers use FBA, their items become eligible for Amazon Prime, for Super Saver Shipping, and for Amazon returns processing and customer service. From the above discussion of Amazon’s business strategy, value chain analysis and the success factors we can conclude that Amazon has a robust Business model. Amazon’s business model fends off all the four threats. It has the costly-to-imitate financial and technological resources, it has developed protection against holdup by seamlessly vertically integrating its both the customers i. e. the sellers and the consumers. Reduced slack by locking-in the customers and the sellers and fights substitution through innovation in business model. Business Model of Amazon As the economy has moved from agrarian to industrial to information age, the focus of the businessmen or the wealthy and powerful has also shifted in terms of the ways of obtaining wealth or doing business. In the agrarian age there was shortage of land which made ownership of land as the determinant of value. Powerful land barons typically accumulated vast tracts of land and coerced people who were bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord into living on and working it. As economy moved from agrarian to industrial age, physical assets owned by a firm became the determinants of value and shortage of raw-materials led the powerful industrialists to conspire to control the supply of raw materials. In this age, the market could absorb as much product as the industrialists could produce. The current era in which we live has been defined as the information age wherein relationships and intellectual capital are more important than anything else. One is not worried about physical assets anymore. Companies don’t compete with each other over superior products as they are largely commoditized rather compete increasingly on the basis of value added customer services. The economic battles of today are fought over the mind-space of consumers. In the information age power-play customers are not passive participants, in the way that land and raw materials were in the agrarian and industrial ages. In fact, according to Zang Hailing, it is the customers’ time that is in short supply, and therefore for any firm to succeed, emphasis needs to be given to the importance of reducing the customers’ time to adopt a new product. Thus, in a world where technology is changing every day and the transformation of consumers has happened from â€Å"Price Takers† to â€Å"Price Makers† as they are armed with more options and information; the companies that control more and more customer relationships will be the ones that hold the power in an industry and reap the lion’s share of the profits. E-commerce or e-business is an important tool that enables companies to reach out to the global market at low cost and provides abundant information about the consumers’ requirements and preferences easily which was not so easy earlier. Following figure is a glimpse of the promising future that the ecommerce industry holds. The US E-commerce has seen a 40% increase in the sales over the past 5 years as a percentage of the total retail sales in US. Source: http://ycharts. com Now when thinks about e-commerce, the first name that comes to everyone’s mind is that of Amazon. com. Not only most of the people have heard about it but there are many people who have actually used its services. Amazon was not only one of the few of the companies that thrived throughout the period in which many dot-com companies struggled to survive but has been constantly performing exceptionally well in terms of revenue per visitor which is one of the key parameters for any commercial website. Amazon has had one of the fastest growths in the internet’s history with revenues reaching $2, 8 billion in the first five years with Google’s revenue reaching only $15bn in the first five years. Now, just like any other traditional business in order to clearly understand an e-business one needs to have information on the following components: a) Business Strategy which determines the products and service offerings by the firm, the firms targeted customers and the firms value proposition. It also helps firms decide on the choices and the tradeoffs that the firm needs to make. b) Organizational form or structure c) Business processes which refer to the unique ways in which organizations coordinate and organize work activities, information, and knowledge to produce a product or service. ) Value Chain i. e. the sequence of activities that a firm undertakes to create value, including the various steps of the supply chain but also additional activities, such as marketing, sales, and service. e) Core Competencies which are the collective learning’s of the firms and being distinctive create long term competitive advantage for the firm. From the beginning, the focus of Amazon. com has been on offering their customers compelling value. In the current report filing dated 04/13/12, Jeffrey Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon. om writes â€Å"We realized that the Web was, and still is, the World Wide Wait. Therefore, we set out to offer customers something they simply could not get any other way, and began serving them with books. We brought them much more selection than was possible in a physical store (our store would now occupy 6 football fields), and presented it in a useful, easy-to-search, and easy-to-browse format in a store open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. † The Value Proposition offered by Amazon. com is â€Å"earth’s largest selection—24/7, at competitive price. † Amazon. om has continuously focused on improving the shopping experience owing to which they substantially enhanced their stores in 1997. Though they started off with books, they now offer customers gift certificates, 1-ClickSM shopping, and vastly more r eviews, content, browsing options, and recommendation features. The company’s stated goal was to â€Å"be Earth’s most customer centric company for three primary customer sets: consumers, sellers and developers. † It targeted its first set of customers through its initial retail model where it sold only books. It offered the perfect combination of low prices, large selection and convenience or customer experience. The digital media allowed limitless inventory, boosted customer care and allowed higher margins and hence lowest prices. In 15 years Amazon went from 1 category to 16 main categories of books. Amazon began with books and needed to grow big fast. From 1995-1998, Amazon moved from books to music and again through the same combination moved to become the biggest seller of music in just 120 days! Amazon moved on develop its own digital driven supply chain and distribution network by hiring from the expert: Wal-Mart. Amazon accelerated development through its strategy of â€Å"Build, buy, partner† a) Build: Amazon keeps on creating new categories. For example, Amazon kicked off a new service by the name MyHabit. com in May 2011 that made fashion available to consumers directly from designers and boutique brands. b) Buy: When there is a lot of competition in any area and the competitors have a strong hold, Amazon believes in buying out the incumbent. Few of the acquisitions made by Amazon include Internet Movie Database  (IMDb), Zappos (an online shoe and apparel retailer) etc. ) Partner: Amazon has also entered into a lot of merchant partnerships. It offers its technological service and ecommerce expertise to third- parties. For example in October 2011, Amazon. com announced a partnership with DC Comics for the exclusive digital rights to many popular comics, including Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Sandman, and Watchmen. As mentioned before as well, Amazon want to be the â€Å"wo rld’s most customer-centric† company, and so their focus is on the â€Å"Customer Service†. It ensures customer loyalty through three main approaches: a) Recurring usage b) Seamless Integration c) Lock-in The following table tells us how Amazon uses all above mentioned approaches for its both customers: Sellers and consumers. | Sellers| Consumers| Recurring Usage| a. Developed a customer base close to 615mn users that can’t be ignored by sellers b. Ensures profit through optimized and reliable technology c. Developed a trusted Brand name| a. Created an ecosystem through Kindle b. Stores user’s media library c. Offers personalization to customers d. Gives special offers everyday| Seamless Integration| a. Monitors sellers rating ratings posted by consumers and expels sellers with bad ratings b. Offers Fulfillment by Amazon service(FBA) which allows third party sellers to use Amazon’s large warehouse and distribution network| a. For customers, all the sellers are highly commoditized and invisible. They buy it because of the Amazons brand value b. Get benefitted by Amazon Prime and free super saver shipping| Lock-in| a. By controlling or owning the customer accounts b. High level of infrastructure development required to ensure same level of customer service as offered by Amazon| a. By providing digital content that works only on Kindle b. Amazon Prime Program which requires annual subscription| | c. | c. | Amazon developed a value chain of itself for internal appraisal so as to identify its strengths and weaknesses that would help it add value and maintain a competitive advantage. Amazon uses the value chain model from Michael Porter’s book, â€Å"Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. † The first table represents the Primary activities of Amazon which are needed to produce a product or services for the end customers. Inbound logistics| Operations| Outbound logistics| Marketing ; Sales| Service| Avoids the overhead and large amounts of inventory carrying cost because it orders the books from the distributors. Easy and fast payment systems. Online customer systems and feedback. | Operates a number of transportation hubs that they refer to as injection points. Injection point locations are located in heavily customer concentrated areas. | Customer tracking  is an Amazon stronghold through which it provides personalized customers’ exper ience| Free return policy within 30 days. Uses marketplace to increase channel and range of goods through 3rd parties and customers. Highly reduced returns to suppliers (such as unsold books and media) due to available accurate forecasting technology | Customized buyer experience| Ability to aggregate orders bound for specific locations. | Interactive shipping and parceling price calculations. Free delivery based on single transaction spends. | Price comparison of new products with used products in marketplace shops. | Efficiently gathering information about customer experiences to inform service inputs and inventory controls. | 24 hour warehouse operations to meet customer demands. |   Utilizes the capabilities of its supply chain partners to deliver orders directly to ustomers which bypass the Amazon. com internal distribution center network|   Discounts and price reductions made available with suggested product mixes. Similar products recommended to customers interactively. | Offers customers gift certificates, 1-Click SM shopping, and vastly more reviews, content, browsing options, and recommendation features. | The next table gives information about the various support activities performed by Amazon which help to facilitate or assist its primary activities. | Value Creation| Cost Reduction| Firm Infrastructure| Huge central customer data warehouse available to all business units. Amazon’s single technology platform with services being incrementally distributed to other worldwide locations, reduces costs by leveraging investments | Human Resource Management| Amazon. com has a great training for its employees resulting in talented, smart and hard working group. Offers employees unique benefits such as medical, paid time off and stock grants and relocation allowances and hence attract highly skilled workers| Amazon utilizes independent contractors and temporary personnel to supplement their workforce, particularly on a seasonal basis. Although Amazon has works councils and statutory employee representation obligations in certain countries, Amazon’s employees are not represented by a labor union| Technology Development| High investments in technology development (e. g. , Kindle) to best leverage digital products. Innovations such as personalized recommendations, one-click ordering, and search inside the book are all Amazon. com innovations. Highly customized software applications that support their supply chain business model. For example, Amazon. om is linked into Ingram’s systems to see Ingram inventory levels when deciding whether to use Ingram to drop ship an order to a customer | Building an IT strategy, IT infrastructure and Data Centre on Linux open source software thus reducing cost of technology development. Renting computing resources to other companies reduce total cost of ownership Using standard hardware systems from HP to reduce cost of maintenance and compatibility| Procurement| Utilize s a Sales and Operations (SOP) planning process to determine forecasts for each roduct that it stores in its distribution center inventoryUses the strategic business unit – Booksurge to keep a rich inventory of digital copies of books so as to make this readily available for customers through print-on-demand and reduce the time of delivery | Specially built distribution Centers, warehouses and fulfillment Centers to increase the speed of order processing thus avoiding transaction costs of contracting out| In addition to the business strategies the value chain components mentioned above, the success of Amazon. om can be attributed to the entrepreneurial spirit of its founder chief executive officer Jeff Bezos and the strong inclination of the firm towards bringing about innovation in the business model. Let us discuss both factors one by one. Entrepreneurial Spirit of Jeff Bezos: Jeff Bezos can be regarded as the forward-looking CEO responsible for the success of Amazon. com. He has not only efficiently managed the present but through his long term vision always taken steps to create the future. The computer science and electrical engineering graduate from Princeton University moved to Seattle after resigning as a Senior Vice-President at D. E. Shaw, a Wall Street investment bank. At the time Bezos didn’t know much about the Internet but he came across a statistic that the Internet was growing at 2300%, which convinced him that it was a large growth opportunity. Without knowing anything more, he plunged into the world of e-commerce with no prior retailing experience. It was his decision to locate the company in Seattle because it had a large pool of technical talent and since it was close to one of the largest book wholesalers located in Rosenburg, Oregon. Moreover, the sales tax laws for online retailers state that one has to charge sales tax in the state in which one is incorporated. Therefore it was logical to locate in a small state. Under his guidance and logical thinking Amazon. com quickly became the leader in e-commerce. Operating 24 hours a day, the site was user-friendly and encouraged browsers to post their own reviews of books and offering discounts, personalized recommendations, and searches for out-of-print books. In June 1998 it began selling CDs, and later that year it added videos. In 1999 Bezos, looking at the future trends, added auctions to the site and invested in other virtual stores. The success of Amazon. com encouraged other retailers, including major book chains, to establish online stores. As more companies battled for Internet dollars, Bezos saw the need to diversify, and by 2005 Amazon. com offered a vast array of products, including consumer electronics, apparel, and hardware. And with the Jeff Bezos vision to make every book ever in print in any language available to the consumer in 60 seconds, Amazon launched the handheld device called Kindle in 2007. Bezos is the quintessential dot-com icon. He proved to the business world that the Internet was about more than knowledge. He proved that it is possible to overcome fears about purchasing online, to drive down transaction costs, and to build an international e-commerce business over the Internet. He had the courage to attempt something that people doubted could be done. . At the age of 35, Jeff Bezos was picked as the 1999 Time person of the year. Describing why it chose Bezos, Time magazine said, â€Å"Bezos’  vision  of the online retailing universe was so complete, his Amazon. om site so elegant and appealing that it became from Day One the point of reference for anyone who had anything to sell online. † Innovation in the Business Model: Amazon survived the dot-com bust because it had a viable and innovative  business model  built around a market-changing customer value proposition and a radical profit formula and over it has been able to sustain its position as the leader in e-commerce by bringing about continuous innovations in its business model. Let us look at some of the different dimensions wherein Amazon. om has been able to bring about business innovation. a) Offerings: By offering a handheld device dedicated to reading, Kindle, Amazon. com revolutionized the books industry. By creating a product like Kindle, the created a perfect, integrated and streamlined customer experience. b) Platform: With Amazon Web Services, Fulfillment By Amazon, and Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon is creating powerful self-service platforms that allow thousands of people to boldly experiment and accomplish things that would otherwise be impossible or impractical. ) Customers: In 2002 Amazon launched a web services platform and identified a new area of potential growth by finding another new customer—the IT community. Serving this new customer’s needs required different processes, different resources, and a different profit formulaâ€⠀in short, another  new business model. d) Customer Experience: 1-Click combined with Gift-Click and Wish List made Amazon. com the most convenient, easiest-to-use shopping destination the holiday season. Wish List allows customers to post the gifts they’d most like to receive from family and friends, while Gift-Click allows customers to send gifts easily by entering just the e-mail addresses of their recipients. e) Value Capture: By opening up its storefront to other retailers that were essentially competitors, Amazon transformed its business from direct sales to a sales-and-service model, aggregating many sellers under one virtual roof and receiving commissions from the other companies’ sales. ) Supply Chain: Fulfillment by Amazon service (FBA) by Amazon is a classic example of innovating business model through supply chain. FBA allows third party sellers to use Amazon’s large warehouse and distribution network and in the last quarter of 2011, shipped tens of millions of items on behalf of sellers. When sellers use FBA, their items become eligible for Amazon Prime, for Super Saver Shipping, and for Amazon returns processing and customer service. From the above discussion of Amazon’s business strategy, value chain analysis and the success factors we can conclude that Amazon has a robust Business model. Amazon’s business model fends off all the four threats. It has the costly-to-imitate financial and technological resources, it has developed protection against holdup by seamlessly vertically integrating its both the customers i. e. the sellers and the consumers. Reduced slack by locking-in the customers and the sellers and fights substitution through innovation in business model.

Earth systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Earth systems - Essay Example posing a problem to the environment is the fact that the concentration of ozone in the ground-level is increasing while ozone in the stratospheric level is diminishing (Wright 774). This is a global environmental predicament because the stratospheric ozone has beneficial use while ground-level ozone produces detrimental effects. The stratospheric ozone layer was discovered sometime in the 1870s when scientists, led by G.M Dobson, observed the diminished amount of UV rays as they reach the earth’s surface, eventually attributing this phenomenon to ozone. By deduction, they concluded that the concentration of ozone in the upper atmosphere is higher than that nearer to the ground. A century later, it was discovered that certain elements could pose threat to this layer. When the US was planning to build supersonic transport planes (SST), studies revealed that the nitrogen oxide they would emit in the stratosphere layer, where they would be expected fly most of the time at a speed three times to that of sound and at an altitude of 12.4 miles, could destroy ozone (Konvicka 272). In the stratosphere, ozone is formed through a process called photolysis, when oxygen in the atmosphere is bombarded by solar UV radiation. This causes the two atoms of oxygen to split apart and merge with the atoms of other oxygen. The ozone gases then bond to form the ozone layer. This layer of ozone forms between 12 and 15 miles above the earth and protects it as well as life on it from dangerous UV solar radiation (Butz 376; Onursal et al 19). Ozone formation and destruction in the atmosphere occurs continuously and cyclically every time the UV rays of the sun act upon them, causing the breakdown of the gas and converting the resulting energy into heat. The heat raises the temperature at higher altitudes blocking the entry of the ultraviolet rays to the lower levels of the atmosphere. The split oxygen atoms then re-bond with the atoms of other oxygen to form new ozone. This continuous

Compare and contrast between iPad Air and kindle fire Essay

Compare and contrast between iPad Air and kindle fire - Essay Example Many people recognize the versatility of a tablet because it can function both as a smartphone and a laptop. Laptops are difficult to be carried around and a smartphone is too small to be used for some work applications, and these disadvantages led to the design of the tablets. Among the numerous tablet brands, iPad Air and Kindle Fire are the most popular. In my point of view, I prefer the iPad Air. I have seen many advertisements of the two products and I figured out that Apple is the best. This essay will demonstrate that iPad Air is more effective than Kindle Fire because the ads create stronger emotional, ethical and logical appeals. Emotional Appeal. After reading and watching the commercial ads of both iPad Air and Kindle Fire, I realized many things. Although both advertisements try to capture the emotions of the audience, the iPad Air ad connected more. The emotional appeal of the iPad Air ad is more effective because the images chosen for the ad gave the audience an idea of the different situations and places where the iPad Air and its software applications can be used (Apple, youtube.com). I can say that the iPad Air advertisement described how life looks like from one iPad Air user to another. In addition, the clarity of the images grabs the audiences emotions to try and see the difference themselves. The voice-over, the background music and images of beautiful places and different kinds of people greatly appeal to the emotions of the audience making it a very effective ad. Focusing more on the voice-over, I liked how it sounded, as if someone is reading me a poem. But other than aesthetics and delivery, the message also appealed emotionally. It was no longer just a poem being read to the audience, but more persuasive in nature, as if the audience was being courted by someone from a Shakespeare novel. At one glance, and with so much going on in the ad, I had to keep watching it over and over because with each

Does wal-mart do more good or bad in the world Essay

Does wal-mart do more good or bad in the world - Essay Example This many perceive to be corporate nonsense. Most jobs and careers associate Wal-Mart to a corporate that pays low wages compared to other corporate in the same job category and this engenders a sense of loathing from people getting such low wages. Due to this, Wal-Mart has received much resentment and scorn from all over as compared to other corporate entities. It is also seen as a large and powerful anti-industry, anti-free market call trap as its chain of stores is destroying small towns. This is achieved by acquisition of property in rural areas, thus maintaining monopoly. The rural as well as the town folks are availed open doors to convenient, one-stop shopping venue with ample supply of products at considerable cheap prices. This improves their efficiency in carrying out their activities and thus is appreciated by many. According to Coster, (Para. 5) there is a belief among the Americans that the Wal-Mart prices override the prices of other stalls due to the ability to have la rge stores, this economically it can be said that the reduced prices result from the ability to take advantage of the economies of scale. The domination by the corporate has not won favour among many Americans as they are not keen on strategies of clout and domination. On the other hand, these low prices drive the small and local competitors out of business as they do not have the ability to compete with Wal-Mart’s pricing and product selection. This is seen as an initiative to make Wal-Mart a monopoly which will then set high prices and make huge profits after driving out the competitive players who would have otherwise regulated its price. The strategy here is to drive the small competitors to shut down due to its low prices. The corporate would then look into the future in advance and set prices of goods just below costs long enough to corner the market. Afterwards through trial and error, find a new price that would be high enough to make super-profits but low enough to k eep potential customers from driving to another town to get the same products. This new price should be able to recoup the initial losses incurred when driving away the little players in the market. In general, the picture created in a small town is an easy way to drive competitors out of business but again this small town will remain with bitter memories among its population of the pricing strategy and small enough to boycott Wal-Mart before the strategy succeeded. In a larger town, the competitors are many hence much harder to drive away competitors and Wal-Mart remains with the option of lowering its price to a low level enough to attract customers. The low prices attract the not so well off population and hence concurring with Featherstone, (Para. 4) in that it’s the poor who make Wal-Mart tick. To the well-off members of the society, expensive commodities are observed to be of sound quality as compared to cheap commodities, where shortcuts might have been used in their p roduction. To the poor, they have to survive with the little they have and thus quantity rather than quality is most considered. As such, low prices that are offered always cot down the society along the social status lines. Reich (Para.1) on the other hand is of the view that symbolic analysts who solve, identify

Philosophy ( professional and business ethics) Essay

Philosophy ( professional and business ethics) - Essay Example Most likely, Bob is not only self centered but also materialistic in nature causing him to care very little about the benefits or positive aspects of â€Å"being good† or acting morally. One aspect of acting morally is how one is perceived by others. If Bob begins to act in a manner that appears moral and considerate of those around him, he is more likely to be trusted and liked. If Bob is trusted and liked, he will easily be able to convince others to do business with him or even help him out in a time of need, in the spirit of neighborly kinship. As an amoral person, Bob must feel the consequences of his actions in that others around him are repelled by him and avoid a great deal of contact with him. If Bob can be convinced that changing his attitude and actions will yield favorable results for him personally, he will most likely be conducive to such changes. The concept of â€Å"ought† or â€Å"should† may in fact be erroneous to Bob as the idea of what one should or should not do are subjective and void of scientific reason. Additionally, Bob is coming from a place of primal desire or concern as opposed to an ideology that doing the right thing is something that one should do in order to be a good person versus the motivation to do the right thing in order to perpetuate one’s own best interests. In theory, the latter of the two motivations, seems to in essence make the notion of Bob’s doing the right thing amoral because of the motivation behind those actions. This however, may be the only form of morality that Bob is willing to embrace and since it benefits those around him for him to act morally as opposed to amorally, it can be argued that regardless of Bob’s motivation for his moral actions, the actions themselves are moral due to their results all the way across the board. Additionally, if Bob can be convinced that his conversion to moral actions versus continuing in amoral actions will preserve his

Art History Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Art History - Research Proposal Example But what may have encouraged Cleaver's request may have been Howard Bingham's largely apolitical nature. Bingham always kept quiet about any political feelings that he had, but instead focused on individuals, as is evident in his recent exhibition at the Californian African American Museum; A Moment in Time: Bingham's Black Panthers. The exhibition's introduction summarises Bingham's role as follows; "This exhibition and the accompanying publication, not only showcase recognisable snapshots taken during public displays, but also posed, private and unusual moments that the Panthers' leaders could have only granted to a well trusted soul whose artistry and openness to the cause would be honestly reflected through the lens of a camera. That is the access that they gave to photographer Howard Bingham, from which he created an extremely personal and priceless tribute."3 For me Bingham distanced himself, or tried to distance himself, from the politics of the movement in order to portray the human, everyday character of its members and what I believe he felt to be the essential matters, especially community. It is for this reason that I want to concentrate on one particular photo by Bingham, simply entitled 'Panthers' Headquarters, Oakland'. The photograph shows two young girls, one African America, the other Caucasian, cycling past the Panthers' Headquarter building. The immediate symbolism of the photo is quite clear, portraying the notions of equality and possibility, but what makes the image especially interesting is the apparent anxious expression on the face of an African American woman standing in the doorway of the building as she watches the two children. And when one looks closer at the image the face of a man becomes recognisable in the window of the Panthers' Headquarters, peering out at the children. The viewer immediately asks his or herself what is the reason for the seemingly shared anxious expressions of the African American man and woman, in complete contrast to the children. Another feature of the image that encourages questions from the viewer is the role played by shadow. Although the two children are side by side they are separated by shadow, the African American child within it, and the Caucasian child outside it. But what we must not forget when analysing the work of this exhibition is that these photos are journalism as art, and that it is impossible to know how much of the scene has been constructed by the author. It is very likely that these two children just happened to be riding together at a particular time of day but the image still poses questions. Is the artist attempting to suggest that there is a natural division between the children or is he in fact highlighting the idea that racial division is as superfluous as how the sun's rays reach the sidewalk at a certain time of day, and that the innocence of these children allows them to transcend the division. Is Bingham here suggesting the idea of an integrated future A number of different aspects of the image can be interpreted as a variety of symbols, that lead to more questions arising, and give us an interesting view into, or interpretation of, of the artists own personal feelings towards the Black Panthers, and in fact the entire Civil Rights Movement. It is impossible to tell if the woman at the threshold of the Headquarters is stationary or if she is leaving the building,

Research Continuous Quality Assurance efforts in a school clinic Essay

Research Continuous Quality Assurance efforts in a school clinic - Essay Example For any treatment to bear fruit, a patient is required to admit the fact that he or she is sick and that they are open to the treatment they are being given. School going children are mostly encountered with psychological challenges that got to do with growth and transition. They are surrounded by various options that a largely influenced by their peers and guardians. They, therefore, need somebody they can trust with their psychological thoughts. Due to the various growth transitions that they go through, most of them tend to shy away from adults and instead choose to trust their peers. It is, therefore, vital for a healthcare provider to reassure them of their loyalty and trust.As stated earlier, quality healthcare is not just about physical illness but also psychological issues. It may not be easy for school going children to acknowledge the fact that emotional disturbance may be a form of a health care issue that requires intervention. It is hence important for school physicians to create awareness among pupils and students about their psychological health. Healthcare providers need to organize meetings to create such awareness and even help the children to know how to overcome some of the issues they are encountered with. There are questions such as relationships and drugs that are synonymous with certain age groups. A healthcare provider can organize meetings with children of particular age groups and ensure that they open up on some of the challenges they face and how best to handle them.

How HR Professionals Handle the Challenges Essay - 1

How HR Professionals Handle the Challenges - Essay Example Further, it would tell as to how these challenges should be dealt with by the professionals. It would take into view the Atkinson model of Job Flexibility and would tell as to what the professionals should do to provide the workers of the firm with a better working environment. The title of this paper is â€Å"The Challenges faced by the HR professionals when creating a better environment†. Flexibility in an organization refers to the provision of such principles and rules which provide its employees with an environment where they can easily balance their work and personal commitments like education, social activities, family relations, professional advancement and other leisure activities. The application of flexibility in the business depends on "securing lower labor costs, tighter manning levels, higher machine utilization, greater staff mobility and few interruptions and bottlenecks in production" (Blyton 1992, p.301 cited in Sheridan, Conway 2001 pp. 8). To understand the concept of flexibility Atkinson's model of flexibility is very useful and of paramount importance. He explains four kinds of flexibility, which firms may achieve, namely functional flexibility, numerical flexibility, pay flexibility and distancing flexibility. Functional flexibility is identified as a qualitative approach to work and talks about managements ability to organize and reorganize particular segments of the labor force on a broad variety of tasks in reply to market demand when needed (Sparrow 1998 cited in Teicher & Holland 2006 p. 241-242). The workers are given proper training in a broad number of skills in order to make its achievement certain. The unpredictable nature of consumer demands of the products makes this type of flexibility to continue in the market.  

Pest Analysis for market occupying Essay Example for Free

Pest Analysis for market occupying Essay Pest analysis: The following pest analysis has been created for three markets separately. Pest analysis stands for political, economic, socio-cultural and technological environment. Use of the pest analysis guides our company to work according to the changes taking place in these categories. Moreover good use of the analysis assist the company to avoid taking action that is condemned to failure from the outset, for reason beyond its control. The following is a pest analysis created for the market occupying Dubai and London. Socio-cultural: There is vast cultural difference in regard to locals in these countries. Both the countries population consists of various other nationalities. Dubai and London has tolerance of other religions and culture. Population density: London (12,450/sq mi (4,807/km2), Dubai 408.18/km2 (1,057/sq mi). Political: Legal and regulatory bodies: Both the countries share strict aviation based regulation and laws. Regulatory body for London: CAA (civil aviation authority) Regulatory body for Dubai: DCAA (Dubai Civil aviation Authority) There is no such political conflict in this market, which makes business between these two countries quite versatile. Market: Dubai and London Economical: London: Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased 0.8 per cent Dubai: finance official predicts the UAE economy will top US$272 billion (S$361 billion)- 2010 Foreign exchange market: Pound sterling- 12.9% (daily share). Londons largest industry is finance. Tourism is one of Londons prime industries. Dubai is also an international financial centre and has been ranked 37th. Technological: Dubais industry growth had given way for technological advancement. Use of  technology has increased: London based companies in Dubai. London has various companies advising on the use of new technologies to other companies. Airlines based in Dubai use advanced technology to operate their businesses in London and Hong Kong. Pest analysis occupying the market in Dubai and Hong Kong: Socio-cultural: Hong Kong: the culture is a mix of the Chinese roots with influences from its time as a British colony. Dubai: Dubai is a highly cosmopolitan society with a diverse and vibrant culture. Honk Kong Population density: 6480/km2 16,576/sq mi. Dubai 408.18/km2 (1,057/sq mi). Dubai and Hong Kong has an established business link, which is an advantage to the aviation industry. Political: Legal and regulatory bodies: Dubai’s aviation regulatory body: DCAA (Dubai Civil aviation Authority), Hong Kong: Civil Aviation Administration of China. Government of Hong Kong: Non-sovereign partial democracy with unelected executive. Hong Kong continues to follow the English Common Law tradition established under British rule. Dubai and Hong Kong has no existing political conflicts. Market: Dubai and Hong Kong Economical: Hong Kong: an important centre for international finance and trade. Hong Kong dollar: 2.4% (daily share) Hong Kong GDP growth rate: economy is expected to grow 5 percent in 2010, may shrink 2 percent this year. Unemployment: 4.3% (July 2010). Main exports partners: China, US and Japan. Technological: Dubais industry growth has given way for technological advancement. The Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) in Hong Kong supports applied  research and development (RD) and technology transfer and application. Hong Kong has seen a rise in technological advancement which has contributed to economic and social development. Pest analysis for market occupying in London and Hong Kong: Socio-cultural: Hong Kong: the culture is a mix of the Chinese roots with influences from its time as a British colony. In terms of population, London is the 25th largest city. London is also home to sizeable Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Jewish communities. Social trend (London and Hong Kong): career oriented, working class, low level of death rate. Technological: The Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) in Hong Kong supports applied research and development (RD) and technology transfer and application. Hong Kong has seen a rise in technological advancement which has contributed to economic and social development. London has a vibrant and growing IT sector. The region boasts over 350 companies with approximately 8000 employees. Economical: The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is the 6th largest in the world. London is a major financial centre for international business and commerce. Public debt: London: 68.5% of GDP (2009 est.). Hong Kong: 14.5% of GDP (2008 est.) Labor force: Hong Kong: 3.64 million (2007 est.) London: provincial unemployment rate fell from 8.9% to 8.6%. (2010) Market: London and Hong Kong Political: Legal and regulatory bodies: Hong Kong: Civil Aviation Administration of China. London: CAA (civil aviation authority) Hong Kong follows a free trade policy and hence  maintains basically no barriers on trade. There are various laws and regulations implied on businesses being set up in London, even for trading as well.

The Inbound Tour Operators

The Inbound Tour Operators Mass Market tour operators have dominated in the outbound market for years, with the rise of holidays abroad becoming more and more popular since the end of the Second World War. Thomas Cook, Thomson and First Choice are examples of mass market tour operators. Thomson and First Choice belong to TUI, these are known as mass market tour operators as they sell/sold holidays that appealed to the majority of holiday makers. Some of the larger mass market tour operators have diversified in now offering more specialised products such as safari and skiing. TUI AG is the largest travel group in the world; Thomson belongs to TUI and is a travel agency as well as having its own airline. First Choice is another travel agent that has its own airline, which belongs to TUI. TUI travel was formed in 2007, with the merger of TUI; their existing distribution, tour operators, air-lines and destination groups; with First Choice Holidays Plc. TUI travel is the majority shareholder of the company and is listed on the London Stock Exchange. They operate in 180 countries worldwide, making TUI the leading tour operator within Europe; to become this they provide a wide and varied service for over 30million customers. TUI is a British based company, with their head office in Crawley, West Sussex, not too far from Gatwick Airport; one of the UKs busiest international airports. TUI has over 200 different brands to over, over 140 aircraft and 3,500 retail shops across Europe, employing approximately 50,000 employees. TUI is separated in too four sectors of business, covering all 200 plus brands, these are: Mainstream Specialist Activity Accommodation and Destinations The mainstream sector is the largest of the four sectors in size, operating profit and the number of employees. The 3,500 retail outlets through-out Europe, providing over 25million customers per year, with package, self-package, sun and beach holidays. This sector operates over 140 aircraft to a wide variety of destination through-out the year, incorporating a large number of high street retail stores. The Specialist and Emerging Markets sector includes 40 specialist tour operator companies, providing and selling tour destinations to a smaller demographic, this sector is becoming more popular as people are starting to spread away from the usual package beach holiday. Specialist travel and emerging markets are places such as tours in North America, Europe and further afield such as China and Russia, the emerging markets that have not been popular in the past due to inaccessibility. This sector also provides escorted tours to the Galapagos, around-the-world trips and student gap years to Australia for example. The Activity sector is designed in providing customers that are seeking adventure or active holidays unique tours or packages to suit them. These specialised tour operators operate in the marine, adventure, ski, student and sporting segments, for example hiking in Kilimanjaro, polar expeditions, skiing in Canada and chartering yachts in the Caribbean. The Accommodation and Destination sector provides on and offline accommodation and destination services worldwide; selling accommodation directly to the customers through online hotel booking sites, such as Laterooms.com; Hotelpedia.com and Asiarooms.com. It also provides accommodation, transfers, excursions and a destination agencies portfolio to tour operators, travel agents, cruise lines and other corporate customers. Thomas Cook is another example of a mass market tour operator. As with TUI, Thomas Cook has travel agencies, airlines, hotels and tour operator; Club 18-30. In 2007, Thomas Cook merged with MyTravel; this was to cut costs; a predicted  £75million per year saving; and to combat competition from the low-cost airlines and web-based travel agents, that are on the rise in where customers are buying their holidays from. All tour operators that offer air inclusive packages are required by law to have an Air Travel Organisers Licence (ATOL). This protects customers from losing their money and/or being stranded abroad if something was to happen to the flights. ATOL is managed by the Civil Aviation Authority (www.caa.co.uk) Specialist Tour Operators Specialist tour operators cater for niche market holidays, they specialise in particular destinations and/or in a particular product. For example Journey Latin America specialises in the particular destination of Latin America (www.journeylatinamerica.co.uk) and Active Diving specialise in Scuba Diving holidays around the world (www.activediving.co.uk). Journey Latin America (www.journeylatinamerica.co.uk) specialises in holidays to Latin America; some of the destinations they include are: Antarctica Argentina Belize Chile Cuba Caribbean El Salvador The Galapagos Islands The Falkland Islands Guyana Peru Mexico Nicaragua Venezuela They provide a wide variety of different types of holidays for a wide range of different markets. The types of holidays available are: Tailor-Made Tours Small Group Tours Value Active Beach Wildlife Expedition Honeymoon Responsible Family Learn to (learning a new skill) Cruise JourneyLatinAmerica markets to everyone, with holidays suitable for low-budgets to the higher budgets, family holidays to romantic honeymoons. Wildlife holidays with JourneyLatinAmerica offers the traveller a vast array of wildlife and birdlife to see, from giant tortoises to llamas to sloths and penguins, all depending which country has been chosen to go to, there is the added advantage of there being the largest rainforest, driest desert to the longest mountain range and biggest river within the territories of the holidays available. There is plently of advantages of travelling with a smaller, specialised tour operator, the service is more personal and the smaller operators tend to have more of a passion for the area they specialise in. Smaller operators are experts in their destination, enabling them to give first-hand advice and recommendations to the holiday maker. They also have more care towards to the places, the people and the environment and try to minimise the negative effects of the holiday. Inbound Tour Operators Not only is there tour operators for outbound tourists, either specialised or/and mass market; there is also many tour operators for inbound tourists, specialised and/or mass market. These tour operators specialise and cater for inbound tourists to the UK from many different countries. They provide tours and holidays in many different languages and for different budgets. One example of an inbound tour operator is British Tours. British Tours (www.britishtours.com) specialise in tours of Britain. They provide tours to all size groups, from private groups up to 7 persons by car with their own guide; to larger groups by mini-bus or coach, with own guide. All prices are per car not per person. Tours are available in most languages, at an extra cost; including French, German, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Japanese and Chinese. Tours are suited to individual travellers, families, people with special interest, people with special needs and anyone who wants the freedom to travel at their own pace with their guide to help and inform. The tours of Britain cover the main tourist attractions and sites; the more famous to the lesser known authentic tourist sites; all with guide that are local to the area with a vast knowledge and interest of the particular site. Some of these tours are Stonehenge at Dawn, Legal London, Harry Potter and Englands Gardens. British Tours offer private day tours leaving London as well as personally guided tours of Scotland, Wales and England, special interest tailor-made tours. They also provide European destination tours, such as Paris, Normandy Beaches by private plane and private bus tours of Rome and Italy. British tours work with 100s of travel agents worldwide, as well as many UK companies for sightseeing, ground-handling, interpreting and corporate entertainment within the UK. British Tours is a member of the London Tourist Board, the British Incoming Tour Operators Association, The Society of the Golden Keys and the American Society of Travel Agents. An example of a tour and costs with British Tours: Harry Potter Tour includes the locations where the Harry Potter films have been made, including London, Oxford and Gloucester. Oxford and Gloucester tour only (not including the London sights) for up to 7 people taking roughly 10 hours to complete would cost  £655 per car; price includes private car and guide, collection and return to hotel; anywhere in London; entrance and meals are not included in the price. These tours are also available in most languages.

Presented With The Complaints Of Depression Psychology Essay

Presented With The Complaints Of Depression Psychology Essay The purpose of this case study is to describe the case of a patient known as Ellen Farber. Ms. Farber, an insurance company executive, arrived at a psychiatric emergency room at a university hospital with numerous complaints in regard to her overall well-being. It is apparent that Ms. Farber has been affected by her symptoms to a large degree. This case study will discuss the complaints provided by Ms. Farber and will provide a detailed discussion of how her symptoms fit the criteria provided in the DSM-IV-TR for several disorders such as Major Depressive Disorder, Single Episode; Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified; and Impulse-Control Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. This paper will also discuss differential diagnoses as well as co-occurring disorders that may be present. The final portion of this paper will discuss a possible treatment plan as well as an indication of the patients prognosis based on known information about her diagnosis. Ellen Farber is a 35 year old woman who presented with complaints of depression, the thought of driving her car off of a cliff, and numerous other symptoms. Upon closer evaluation of Ms. Farbers symptoms it appears that she is suffering from a Major Depressive Episode. The symptoms that she has exhibited that allow for this conclusion are a lack of energy for the past six months; a lack of pleasure for the past six months; increasingly persistent depressed mood for the past six months; oversleeping in amounts of 15-20 hours per day; overeating to the extent that she has gained 20 pounds over the past few months; and thoughts of suicide with a specific plan (Barlow Durand, 2012, p. 206). According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.; DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2000), the presence of a single manic depressive episode in the absence of another disorder, such as schizophrenia, indicates that Ms. Farber can be diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, Single Episode. It is also clear that Ms. Farber has never experienced a prior Major Depressive Episode indicating even further that Major Depressive Disorder, Single Episode is the proper diagnosis for her (DSM-IV-TR, 2000, p. 375). It is essential to point out that Ms. Farber is also a candidate for other diagnoses because she has engaged in binge eating and impulsive spending. Ms. Farber has reported that she has engaged in eating binges since she was an adolescent. During these binges she reports that she eats anything that she can find. Although she has engaged in intermittent binge eating since adolescence she has done so without using compensatory methods to rid her body of the excess calories. According to the DSM-IV-TR (2000), Ms. Farber should be diagnosed with Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (Binge-Eating Disorder) because she does not engage in the compensatory behaviors that are typically characteristic of Bulimia Nervosa (p. 595). Fin ally, Ms. Farber has engaged in shopping sprees that she refers to as buying binges. This excessive and impulsive spending has resulted in a large amount of debt, about $250,000, that has arisen from illegal practices such as unauthorized use of her employers credit cards and over drafting bank accounts to open new accounts, a process she calls check kiting. Since the money was used on impulsive purchases and cannot be accounted for by another disorder, such as substance dependence or a paraphilia, it appears likely that Ms. Farber is also a candidate for a diagnosis of Impulse-Control Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (DSM-IV-TR, 2000, p. 677). According to the DSM-IV-TR (2000), the following diagnoses are relevant for Ellen Farber: Axis I: Major Depressive Disorder, Single Episode Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (Binge-Eating Disorder) Impulse-Control Disorder Not Otherwise Specified Axis II: Borderline Personality Disorder Axis III: Moderately Overweight Axis IV: Unemployed, financial difficulties Axis V: GAF = 35 (current) On Axis II, Ellen received a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder for several reasons. First, she has reported that she has experienced lifelong feelings of emptiness, chronic feelings of loneliness, chronic feelings of sadness, and chronic feelings of isolation. In order to satisfy her feelings of emptiness she has engaged in weekly buying binges which established her current level of debt. Ellen has also engaged in daily episodes of binge eating without compensatory behaviors. She has also experienced chronic uncertainty with whom she wants to be friends and about what she wants to do in life. We also know that she has been in numerous brief and intense relationships with both men and women. In these relationships, Ellen exhibits a quick temper that has frequently led to arguments and physical fights. Based on a comparison of Ellens symptoms and the diagnostic criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder provided in the DSM-IV-TR it is clear that Ellen suffers from Borderli ne Personality Disorder (DSM-IV-TR, 2000, p. 710). Ellen has not presented with any other medical conditions other than the fact that she is moderately overweight. Since this is the only condition of concern it was listed on Axis III. Axis IV includes relevant information about psychosocial and environmental problems that may be affecting Ellen. Since Ellen is unemployed and is experiencing a large amount of debt as a result of her spending binges this information is listed under Axis IV (DSM-IV-TR, 2000, p. 33). On Axis V I have included a GAF score of 35. After evaluating the information provided in the DSM-IV-TR it seemed apparent that Ellen fell within the 40-31 range on the GAF scale. She fell into this range as a result of her suicidal thoughts with a specific plan and because she is currently unemployed but unable to work as a result of her depression. Within the scale it appeared that Ellens level of functioning was not severe enough to receive a GAF score of 31 but her func tioning was not well enough to receive a GAF score of 40. Based on this scale, it seems that Ellen fits in the middle of the 40-31 scale so I assigned a GAF score of 35 (DSM-IV-TR, 2000, p. 34). According to the DSM-IV-TR (2000), there are several common differential diagnoses present for Major Depressive Disorder, Single Episode. These disorders include Bipolar I Disorder; Bipolar II Disorder; Mood Disorder Due To a General Medical Condition; Substance-Induced Mood Disorder; Dysthymic Disorder; and Schizoaffective Disorder (DSM-IV-TR, 2000, p. 373). In the process of diagnosing Ellen, I made a differential diagnosis between Dysthymic Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder, Single Episode. The primary way that this differential diagnosis was made was comparing the length of time that Ellen reported experiencing her symptoms and comparing them to the length provided in the DSM-IV-TR. For Dysthymic Disorder, a period of at least two years must be met for depressed mood (Barlow Durand, 2012, p. 209). Symptoms for Major Depressive Disorder, Single Episode are only required to be present for a period longer than two weeks (Barlow Durand, 2012, p. 206). From the information that is known about Ellen, it only appears that Ellens symptoms have differed from her normal level of functioning for six months. Since Ellen did not meet the minimum two year requirement for depressed mood it seemed apparent that her symptoms only met the criteria for Major Depressive Disorder, Single Episode. Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified also presented with a differential diagnosis, Bulimia Nervosa. This was easily distinguished because Ellen did not engage in compensatory behaviors in order to control her caloric intake, and a diagnosis of Bulimia Nervosa requires that a person engage in inappropriate compensatory methods to prevent weight gain (DSM-IV-TR, 2000, p. 589). It is not uncommon for other mental disorders to co-occur with Major Depressive Disorder, Single Episode. These common mental disorders include Substance-Related Disorders, Panic Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and Borderline Personality Disorder. Axis II presents the personality disorders that Ellen has presented with and Borderline Personality Disorder is listed. Ellen has presented with chronic feelings of loneliness, emptiness, sadness, and isolation. She has also experienced chronic uncertainty about what she wants to do in life and with whom she wants to be friends. She has engaged in numerous intense relationships with both men and women that have often resulted in arguments and physical fights as a result of Ellens quick temper. In order to cope with her chronic symptoms she has engaged in weekly buying binges and daily episodes of binge-eating. Based on this information, as stated previously, Ellen meets the criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder (DSM-IV-TR, 2000, p. 710). There are no conditions listed in the DSM-IV-TR that co-occur with Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (Binge-Eating Disorder) or Impulse-Control Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. The treatment of Ms. Farber is complicated by her thought of driving her car off a cliff. This indicates that she possesses suicidal desire, capability, and intent. As a result, she should be asked to agree to, or sign, a no-suicide contract. This contract is essentially a promise that she will not attempt suicide without contacting the mental health professional overseeing her case first. If she declines to agree to the terms, or if there is doubt about her sincerity, hospitalization may be required (Barlow Durand, 2012, p. 251). Considering that Ms. Farber has presented with several co-occurring conditions, treatment for her Major Depressive Disorder would be most effective if she undergoes combined treatment. The first aspect of her treatment should be a medication based treatment, particularly treatment with a selective-serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). This medication functions by blocking the presynaptic reuptake of serotonin causing a temporary increase in the levels of se rotonin at the receptor site. All antidepressant therapies provide some form of benefit to about fifty percent of the patients who receive them (Barlow Durand, 2012, p. 236). In combination with the prescription for SSRIs, I would also recommend cognitive-behavioral therapy. A cognitive-behavioral approach, such as Lynn Rehms self-control therapy, could assist Ellen in gaining control over her moods and daily activities while incorporating cognitive therapy to assist her in identifying and correcting errors of thought, shifting her thought pattern from a depressive thinking pattern to a more realistic thinking pattern (Barlow Durand, 2012, p. 240). Ms. Farber should also undergo treatment for her diagnosis of Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (Binge-Eating Disorder). The most appropriate treatment for Ms. Farber would be a technique that involves therapist led treatment. It seems appropriate that she should undergo guided self-help therapy in which she would meet with a ther apist periodically to review a self-help manual. This approach would be the most effective for her because she presented with several diagnoses (Barlow Durand, 2012, p. 375). The prognosis for Ms. Farber appears to be relatively positive in regards to the alleviation of her Major Depressive Episode; however, there are some risks within the first two years following her diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder, Single Episode that may alter her prognosis level to fair. Approximately 67%, or two-thirds, of patients experiencing a Major Depressive Episode may experience complete remission of their symptoms. One-third, or 33% of individuals suffering from a Major Depressive Episode may only experience partial remission of their symptoms or may not experience any alleviation of their symptoms at all. At least 60% of individuals with Major Depressive Disorder, Single Episode will experience a second episode and 5%-10% will subsequently develop a manic episode, meeting the criteria for Bipolar I Disorder (DSM-IV-TR, 2000, p. 372). In the first year following an episode there is a 20% risk of reoccurrence. In the second year the risk of reoccurrence increases as hi gh as 40% which would qualify Ms. Farber for a diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder, Recurrent (Barlow Durand, 2012, p. 208). By undergoing combined treatment for her depression her chances for remission may increase slightly over receiving medicinal treatment alone (Barlow Durand, 2012, p. 243). At this point it is impossible to determine the exact course of Ms. Farbers symptoms. At best we can expect a more positive prognosis with treatment than without any treatment at all. Ellen Farber presented with several co-occurring conditions and psychosocial and environmental problems that have potentially affected the onset and severity of her symptoms. The purpose of this paper was to discuss Ms. Farbers symptoms, provide diagnoses based on the DSM-IV-TR, and discuss the appropriate means of treatment for her conditions. Ms. Farber has been affected immensely by her symptoms and requires appropriate treatment immediately in order to prevent her condition from worsening. In the end, her prognosis ranges between fair and relatively positive based on the available knowledge about her diagnosis. It appears that if Ms. Farber receives the appropriate treatment she is at a greater likelihood for remission of her symptoms and continuing treatment may reduce the risk of a reoccurrence of her symptoms. Only time can definitively show how Ms. Farber will be affected by the course of her co-occurring disorders.