Merck and River Blindness Essay

1. Why was Merck hesitant about developing a human version of Ivermectin? Merck considered this opportunity as a high risk investment. The cost of developing the drug was estimated at $100 million. Even if it was successful to cure river blindness the victims were too poor to afford the drug. There was no way to distribute it in these rural areas were the victims were located. In addition, there was a possibility that people would misuse the drugs, which would cause negative side effects and stimulate bad press for Merck. During this time, healthcare costs were on the rise, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements were limited for companies developing drugs like Merck. Congress was also about to pass an act that would make it easier for competitors to copy and market generic drugs. All of this opposition made Merck hesitant about developing Ivermectin. 2. What were the benefits and cost of developing a human version of Ivermectin? The case described benefits of the new drug as a low-cost, safe, and simple cure for river blindness. The current residents suffering from this parasite did not have funds to afford alternate treatments like expensive hospital visits or other drug options that are required for a cure. As reported in the reading, the condition is caused by a worm that is passed through the bite of a black fly along the tropical areas of Africa and Latin America. The worm then burrows under the skin and continues to grow up to a length of two feet. As the worm reproduces, it releases millions of offspring that slowly wriggle underneath the skin until invading the eyes, eventually causing blindness. Victims often commit suicide due to the pain and itching that this parasite causes. The development of this drug would relieve victims from immense suffering and potential blindness. It would also lead to a possibility of brand m arketing for Merck the area of treatment. Foreseen costs include a potential $100 million to develop the drug. This cost includes a large amount of time for extensive testing of the drug and its side effects on humans. After testing is completed, Merck would be required to distribute the drug to victims within the affected rural areas. The distribution cost would be high as there are no distributors already established in these rural areas. There was also a risk that there would not  be large enough revenue to regain money spent in the research and development of the drug. 3. Why did Dr. P. Roy Vagelos and his team ultimately decide to develop a human version of Ivermectin? The case provided motives why Roy and his team decided to develop the drug. After conducting several earnest meetings with his management team, they eventually decided that the benefits that the drug had concerning its effect on river blindness were too significant. Many managers felt Merck was morally obligated to develop the drug despite the cost and slim chance of economic reward. They decided to move forward with the development of Ivermectin in order to contribute to the welfare and interests of society. 4. How do you think Merck’s Investments in the human version of Ivermectin created value for its stakeholders and corporate goodwill? Upon learning about victims suffering from river blindness, Merck realized that they had a potential cure to the problem. With this knowledge Merck had a corporate social responsibility to develop a drug because they now had an obligation to take action that could possibly contribute to the welfare and interests of society, as well as the organization and its stakeholders. Each stakeholder (which is any person who has a direct or indirect relationship with the organization) could feel and see the value that this project could provide. As people invest time and money into an organization they want to experience a return of their investment. One of the greatest returns a person can experience is seeing someone’s life change for the better. This investment of each stakeholder’s time and money in a human version of Ivermectin would create a high level of value for the entire organization and the corporate goodwill.

Generation gap Essay

When we talk about thinking, then in today’s fast changing scenario, the younger generation become more practical, more wild, more assertive and ambitious then the older generation. Now days, â€Å"Success† become a buzz word in between the younger generation and younger generation is trying to achieve this word at any cost. Now, the question is arises that â€Å"What is the major reason behind this deep difference?† Lots of conclusions are also there but I think over ambition, greed of money, glamour world attraction is the major reasons behind this difference. Due to these reasons, we have to face lots of problems like suicide rates have gone up, which is a matter of concern. The crime rate is also going on and it is done by between 16 to 22 years old younger children’s, which is not good at all. In most of the crimes we found that most of the students or children have done crime in the first time of their life. This is not good news at all. The cut thro at competition encourages our younger peoples to develop the new strategies to take instant decisions, and decide their own future direction as they want. There is no sense of satisfaction and contentment in young generation. Now, if we are talking about older generation then in earlier, the fame, money and satisfaction was come with their maturity level and with their age also. Older generation have more practical experience. â€Å"Famous Today, Forgotten Tomorrow† is the main aim of today’s generation. I think, this topic is an everlasting topic and a very long topic which give a lot of conclusion. We can’t deny the age factor and the age difference also but there are some factors that are responsible like today’s easy made life make younger generation life so easy. They (young people) can easily know what is the current affair, who is online, what are new invention and many more. I admit that sometime the younger generation becomes more over board but it is also important for them to respect their older generation thoughts. So, I can safely said that younger generation is far ahead than their previous generation isn’t.

Medical advancements in World War Two Essay

World War II brought death and destruction upon the world. On the other hand, it also opened doors for pioneering developments that commonly occur during such situations of high adversity. Some of the most important advancements took place in the field of medicine when the world was embroiled in World War II. As Dr. Ralph Major states, â€Å"An army is a vast laboratory of medical research where disease and injuries are seen on a far larger scale than in peacetime. Many improvements in the treatment of infections have come from experiences on the battlefield† (Major 52). Devastation in the war left countless soldiers and civilians with life threatening injuries and diseases. This devastation and destruction, led to the innovation of the three most important medicines in history namely Penicillin, Blood plasma and Sulfanilamide. These three innovations in the field of medicine helped save thousands of soldiers in World War II and are considered to be the most important medical advancements in the war. â€Å"Penicillin fought for the soldier as bravely as the soldier fought for his country† (www.lib.niu.edu). Out of the three innovations in medicine during World War II, penicillin undoubtedly was the most important. Penicillin was invented by Dr. Alexander Fleming in 1928 and was crucial in saving lives of soldiers on D-Day where stockpiles of penicillin were gathered in depots of England and were on hand in time for the Allied invasion of Germany (Rowland 32) . Operation Overload was the pivotal point of World War II because that was when the Allies took the offensive and attacked the German stronghold of Normandy Beach. It was estimated that 3000 lives were saved on that day with the use of Penicillin and by the time the war ended that number turned out to be over two million (www.historylearningsite.co.uk). These figures clearly show how useful penicillin was during the period of the war. Penicillin however was first seen in action in the Battle of Britain where air raids by the Luftwaffe left many civilians and soldiers wounded and the doctors needed more effective ways to treat burns (www.lib.niu.edu). Penicillin was needed in large numbers as it was the only way Britain could save their soldiers and civilians. Penicillin was also the first broad spectrum antibiotic ever created. It was first broad spectrum antibiotic because it cured various diseases such as: â€Å"hemolytic, streptococcus, gonorrhea, syphilis and it was a wonderful antibiotic for wounds and burns†Ã‚  (www.historystudycenter.com). All these diseases could be cured with the use of penicillin and displays how penicillin outnumbered any other medical advancement during World War II in the number of diseases it cured. Soldiers also felt more confident having penicillin in their pockets as they knew that no disease could affect them as long as they had penicillin. This passionate bond could be observed through posters from World War II saying â€Å"Thanks to Penicillin†¦He Will Come Home!!† which was used as propaganda in an attempt to diminish the fear of going to war on the home front (www.mcatmaster.com). Penicillin had motivated civilians to get involved in the war effort and was rightly called the war’s ‘wonder drug’ (www.abc.net/au). Penicillin had motivated the medical industry to expand and an accidental discovery more than sixty years ago in the laboratory of Alexander Fleming helped save countless lives during World War II. Blood Plasma was also an important medical advancement during World War II as when war was raged in Europe, blood was needed for the wounded troops and plasma was used to transfer blood to the wounded soldiers. It was invented by Dr. Charles Drew in 1938; he discovered it by separating the plasma from the whole blood and then refrigerating them separately (home.att.net/steinert.htm). They could then be combined up to a week later for a blood transfusion (www.history.amedd/army). Blood plasma could replace whole blood and this discovery played a major role in World War II where many countries experienced extreme casualties with a lot of bleeding, resulting in the huge losses of blood. Plasma was used to transfer blood as it served to keep satisfactory blood pressure and supply critical proteins and globulins (antibodies) to the wounded soldiers (www.usaaf.net/wwii). There were many uses of Plasma on the battlefield and on the whole, it helped keep a proper balance in the body which ma kes it one of the best innovations in medical history. The pressing demand for blood on the battlefields led to Britain organizing the International Transfusion Association in 1940 which collected blood (people donated blood) and turned it into blood plasma. This program collected, processed and transported 14,500 units of plasma to the allied armies and it was all done within five months (home.att.net/wwii.htm). Dr. Drew was an important member of the group and his scientific research helped revolutionize blood plasma  transfusion so that blood plasma could readily be given to wounded soldiers on the battlefield, which dramatically improved opportunities to save lives. Blood plasma could also be dried which made it very easy to transport, pack, store and the soldiers could also carry it around in their pockets (www.history.amedd/army). As mentioned in the ‘United States office of war’ newsreel â€Å"Soldiers in Normandy got the best medical care science could offer and plasma cheated death in cases of many soldiers† (www.concise.britannica.com). Soldiers received the most modern medical treatments on D-day in Normandy beach and blood transfusion of soldiers was sometimes done just behind the fighting army lines. Planes carried almost a ton of Plasma on that day to the beach which helped save approximately 900 soldiers (www.concise.britannica.com). All these miracles had been performed by blood plasma during WWII which offered the victims of war a glimmer of hope and saved massive amounts of people at Normandy Beach, truly making it a panacea that improved several aspects of life. â€Å"The Nazis discovered it. The allies won the war with it†¦This incredible discovery was Sulpha† (www.asm.org). Sulpha drugs or Sulfanilamide greatly affected the mortality rates during World War II, especially for the Allies and helped save thousands of soldiers and many important people. One of them was Winston Churchill who was the British premier in 1943. He had caught a fatal disease called contracted pneumonia and was on the verge of death. His physician had to give him M + B 693 sulfanamide to cure him and â€Å"there is little doubt that the novel Sulfa drug defeated the pneumonia and probably saved his life† (www.asm.org). His recovery was very important to the Allies as that was the time they were making plans for D-Day in which Britain had a major role. Approximately 140,000 allied soldiers carried a package of Sulfa powder (Sulfanilamide) on D-Day in their medical pouches and they were also taught how to immediately sprinkle sulfa powder on any open wound to prevent infection (elibrary.bigchalk.com). This evidence illustrates how important sulfanilamide was to every soldier in the war and all the countries were quick to realize its importance. At an outbreak of Meningitis in the French Foreign Legion in Nigeria, while sulfanilamide was available, there was an eleven percent mortality rate. But after the supply was exhausted, mortality climbed up to seventy five percent (Margotta 58). The mortality rates in  World War II would have been much higher if it were not for sulfanilamide and this incident is a clear depiction of what would have happened. In the United States in the early thirty’s, about hundred thousand people died annually of pneumonia, blood poisoning and cerebrospinal meningitis. Gonorrhea had afflicted some twelve million Americans which became a serious issue for the United States government (www.pubs.acs/org). These numbers however, decreased dramatically by the early 1940’s and much of the credit goes to Gerhard Domagk and his team of chemists who developed the very first sulfa drugs that could treat the diseases (mentioned earlier) and also opened up the door to modern medicines (www.pubs.acs/org). Sulfa drugs preceded penicillin by almost ten years as they first developed in 1932, so â€Å"they carried the main therapeutic burden in both military and civilian medicine during the war† (elibrary.bigchalk.com). They also proved extraordinarily fruitful as starting points for new drugs or classes of drugs, both for bacterial infections and for a number of important non-infectious diseases. The initial breakthrough in the 1930’s of sulfa drugs research is the stem today in the current search for the effective treatments for AIDS making it a truly revolutionary antibiotic. So, therefore Penicillin, Blood Plasma and Sulfanilamide were considered the most important medical innovations during World War II because of the tremendous impact they had in the war and the countless number of lives they saved. All of the medical advancements in World War Two went on to benefit society after the war had ended. Whether such developments would have occurred at the same pace in peace time will never be known. But the one very interesting thing here is that, medical advancements take place at such a rapid pace mainly because of a major war and the problem of the great number of casualties due to a major war is solved by medicine. Therefore, war and medicine are fatal partners and are very closely related but are not the same thing, as war causes the problems and medicine solves them. Citations/ ReferencesBooksMargotta, Roberto. History of Medicine. Britain: Hamlyn, 1996. Major, Ralph Hermon. Fatal Partners: War and disease. 3rd. London: Doran &Company, 1941. Rowland, John. The Penicillin Man: The story of Alexander Fleming. EightImpression. London: Lutherworth Press, 1969. WebsitesDixon, Bernard. â€Å"Sulfa’s True Signicance.† 11 Nov 2006. 26 May 2007. Kiefer, David. â€Å"Miracle Medicines.† Today’s Chemist at Work. AmericanChemical Society. 26 May 2007. Kendrick, Douglas. â€Å"Plasma equipment and Packaging.† Medical department U.SArmy. 06 June 2006. 26 May 2007. Mailer, John. â€Å"Penicillin: Medicine’s Wartime.† Illinois Periodicals Online atNorthern Illinois University. Illinois Periodicals Online. 26 May 2007. Nanney, James. â€Å"Aeromedical Evacuation.† The U.S army Air Force In WWII. 26 May 2007. Steinert, David. â€Å"The History of WWII medicine.† World War II: Combat Medic. 04 May 2002. 26 May 2007. Torok, Dr. Simon. â€Å"Maker of the Miracle Mould.† Howard Florey: The story. 26 May 2007. Trueman, Chris. â€Å"Medicine and World War Two.† WWII. 26 May 2007. DatabasesRoff, Sue. â€Å"The Technology of healing: A century of Medicne.† History StudyCenter. 2003. Helicon. 26 May 2007†³Sulfa Drug.† eLibrary. 12 Jan 2005. Encyclopedia Britannica. 26 May 2007. Primary SourcesWorld War II Poster. â€Å"Thanks to Penicillin†¦ He Will Come Home!!†U.S. Office of War Information newsreel. â€Å"Penicillin and plasma save lives.†Normandy, June-July 1944. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

How does nano technology play a role in communication, design, and Research Paper

How does nano technology play a role in communication, design, and information technology - Research Paper Example Experts define nanotechnology as the visualization or measurement at the 1-100 nanometer scale. However, there is an increased acceptance of the idea that reorganization and control of matter at the nanometer scale is an essential element of nanotechnology. Communication, design and information technology are the highly innovative industrial sectors that are quickly growing. Massive progress have resulted due to the transition to nanotechnology electronics from the traditional electronics. Nanotechnology has led to an incredible change in communication, design, and information. Advancement in communication, design, and information technology as a result of nanotechnology can take place in two steps. The first step is the miniaturization top-down approach that takes microstructures that are conventional across the border to nanotechnology. The second step entails the emergence of the bottom-up nanosystem engineering and nano-electronics through technologies such as the process of self-organization to bring together systems and circuits. Nanotechnology has several roles in communication and has immensely impacted the development of wireless communication technologies. In mid-1990’s, micromechanical sensors were developed. They become a critical element of automotive technologies. Approximately ten years later, micromechanical sensors that are more miniaturized are now ensuring features that are novel for mobile devices and consumer electronics. In the present day, the development of sensors that are embedded and based on the nanostructures has become part of the communications industry. Nanotechnologies has augmented the human sensory skills. It is based on integrated sensors and the ability to aggregate this enormous worldwide sensory data into information that is meaningful to people every day (Ermolov et al. 1). Nanotechnology can assist in the development of

Reflection and refraction Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Reflection and refraction - Research Paper Example eflection to occur, the light waves have to encounter a boundary that cannot absorb radiation energy forcing the waves to bounce away from the surface. Reflection is always enhanced by suppression of wave propagation in metals. For one to understand reflection, one must understand the law of reflection and also the different types the reflection has. Reflection of light is either specular meaning it is mirror-like or diffuse meaning that it retains energy. Specular light reflection also called regular reflection is seen when smooth surfaces direct reflected light at an opposite angle (Rezetko and Auld, 19). Specular reflection is mainly seen on smooth surfaces like mirrors or even a calm body of water. During specular reflection, laws of reflection are applied. The light rays that usually hit the surface of the mirror are called the incident rays. Those lights that are reflected from the surface of the mirror are always called the reflected rays. The first law entails that the incident rays of light, the reflected rays and even the normal to the reflection surface which is at the point of reflection should lie in the same plane. The angle of incidence is that angle at which beams of light hit a reflecting surface. The second law of specular reflection is that the angle made by the incident ray with the normal is always equal to that angle in which the reflected beams of light make to the same normal. The third law of specular reflection is that the reflected rays and the incident rays lie on the opposite sides of the normal. Since the light behaves somehow as waves and in other ways as if it is composed of particles, there has emerged a number of independent theories that explain this phenomenon. In reference to wave based theories, the waves of light spread out in all directions from the source. Immediately they strike a mirror; they become reflected by an angle that is determined by the angle that the light arrives. The process of reflection thereby inverts

International Trade Theories Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

International Trade Theories - Assignment Example A brief discussion of the classical trade theories will provide a backdrop of the detailed examination of the modern trade theories and how these could be viewed in the present patterns of international trade. Classical theories Mercantilism During the 17th and 18th centuries, the theory of mercantilism was widely practised in international trade. Essentially, mercantilism saw international trade as a zero-sum proposition. French statesman Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who pioneered this theory, believed that the wealth of the world was essentially fixed and that trade was a closed system, so that those nations which exported more and imported less acquires more of the world’s wealth and becomes richer, and vice-versa. While mercantilism is the oldest of the trade theories, this does not mean that it is obsolete. Even today, the effects of mercantilism are evident in policies of trade protectionism, and makes the argument that rather than import from other countries and risk a trade deficit, a country would be economically better off if it were self-sufficient (Peng, 2010, p. 149). Absolute Advantage Advocated in 1776 by British economist Adam Smith, the theory of absolute advantage stated that the force of the free market should best determine the economic activities of a nation and, inclusively, the level of international as well as domestic trade. Smith’s theory of free trade (also called laissez faire) relied on forces of the free market to operate unrestricted, to enable free trade to seek out the most efficient means for value creation. The absolute advantage in the creation of a product or service is that which is attained by the nation that is able to produce that good or service most efficiently. The implication of this theory is that (1) the principle of self-sufficiency is best abandoned because no country could efficiently produce all goods and services; and (2) countries would best specialize in production of good and services where they hav e the advantage. International trade ceases to be a zero-sum case, and becomes a win-win proposition. Comparative advantage In 1817, British economist David Ricardo developed the theory of comparative advantage. The theory saw the ability of countries to efficiently produce goods and services not in absolute terms but in relation to which country they trade with. Comparative advantage is the relative advantage in one economic activity possessed by one nation over other nations. Net gains from trade may be realized when countries specialize in producing goods and services where they have comparative advantage. There is a trade-off, however, known as the opportunity cost, which is the cost incurred by a producer in choosing to give up production of a good or service in favour of concentrating on another (p. 152). The three foregoing theories, while useful in conceptualizing trade relations, make the necessary but unrealistic assumption that trade is static. Through time, factor endowm ents and trade patterns change, necessarily debunking the theory that trade is static. This gave way to the modern trade theories of the mid-twentieth century, also known as the dynamic theories, which aim to account for the change in trade patterns over time. New theories Product life cycle Product life cycle was developed by Raymond Vernon, an American economist, in 1966. Vernon saw the world’s trading nations as consisting of three categories: (1) the lead innovation nation which is usually assumed to be the US, (2) other developed nations, and (3) the developing nations. Aside from distinguishing among the nations, Vernon also classified products according to three life cycles: (1) new, (2) maturing, and (3) standardized. New products commanded a higher price (price premium)

Income Inequality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Income Inequality - Essay Example en noble countries are among the richest in the world, the figure of income per capita does not add up to the income distribution of the available population of individuals. This proves the income inequality serving in wealthier countries in the current world, especially, the United States and the United Kingdom countries (Beggs, 2015, Pg. 1). Income inequality within such countries is regularly disguised by the national average. This essay focuses on the growing income inequality issue in the wealthiest countries across the globe and the consequences of concealing economic inequality. Economic variation differs between civilizations, historical epochs, economic arrangements and systems. The term can denote a cross sectional distribution of income or capital at any specific era, or to the generated income and capital over lengthier phases of time. There are numerous arithmetical indices for calculating economic disparity. The commonly used methodologies include the Gini coefficient and the Lorenz curve, however, there are still other methods (Conferenceboard, 2015, Pg. 2). Economists have stressed that income inequality has brought about growing social problem. The economist view that the world cannot be a just and fair place for everything but too much disparity can be damaging. This is because income disparity and wealth focus can obstruct long term growth of a country’s economy. Previous economic studies contrasting disparity in economic growth had been unsatisfying, nevertheless in 2011, the International Monetary Fund economists revealed that bigger income parity, less disparity, heightened the period of countries economic growth development more as compared to while having free trade, low institutional corruption, overseas investment, or small foreign debt (Beggs, 2015, Pg 1). Nevertheless, the increase in income disparity over the past few decades, the subject was mainly overlooked. An article on The Economist post was dedicated on income inequality

A Taste of Honey Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

A Taste of Honey - Movie Review Example never wrote anything at all in her entire life and she wrote it with all gritty realism and the overweening bravado of a veteran playwright. The question on everybody's lips was 'where on earth had she extracted all those emotions and experiences' The answer could lie on her own background. A daughter of working-class parents and herself born and reared in the shabby, squalid environment of Salford, she could only be gifted with a keen, perceptive insight of things, an empathy for the socially marginalised and an innate talent for accurately depicting the world as she saw it . Plot Synopsis of A Taste of Honey The play opens with a fortyish mother Helen squabbling with her 18-year old daughter on trivial matters such as how to prepare coffee and other paltry issues. Both have just transferred to this new squalid apartment. Helen's paramour, Peter who is much younger than Helen suddenly barged in and is surprised to learn that Helen has a daughter and invites her to come with him for a drinking bout. Rejected, he offers her marriage while at the same time boasting to Jo his collection of girlfriends as shown in the many women's photos in his wallet. The next scene introduces Jo's suitor, a young black man who is a sailor-on leave for the Christmas holidays. He offers to marry Jo which Jo assented to. After 'The Boy' has left, Helen comes to announce her wedding with Peter and that she is leaving Jo to live with Peter in his house. Jo wept in abject desolation and was comforted by The Boy, who in Jo's misery and... The play opens with a fortyish mother Helen squabbling with her 18-year old daughter on trivial matters such as how to prepare coffee and other paltry issues. Both have just transferred to this new squalid apartment. Helen’s paramour, Peter who is much younger than Helen suddenly barged in and is surprised to learn that Helen has a daughter and invites her to come with him for a drinking bout. Rejected, he offers her marriage while at the same time boasting to Jo his collection of girlfriends. The next scene introduces Jo’s suitor, a young black man who is a sailor-on leave for the Christmas holidays. He offers to marry Jo which Jo assented to. After ‘The Boy’ has left, Helen comes to announce her wedding with Peter and that she is leaving Jo to live with Peter in his house. Jo wept in abject desolation and was comforted by The Boy, who is Jo’s misery and loneliness was invited to spend one week with her. Jo’s depression is further compounded by Helen’s revelation that Jo is, in reality, her daughter by the village idiot with whom she had a one-night stand. She further relates that this is the reason she was divorced by Jo’s putative father. Distraught with the thought that she could have inherited idiocy-tainted genes, Jo is left on the brink of despondency while Helen prepares for her wedding. The next scene shows a six-month pregnant Jo, courtesy of The Boy, with her gay friend and housemate Geoff. He was evicted in his own apartment on account of his homosexuality and thus Jo offered him a place to stay.

Company law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Company law - Essay Example The committee must also make sure that remuneration arrangements strictly abide by the regulatory bodies’ requirements and meet the expectations of shareholders as well as the wider employee population (ibid). Earlier, controversial director remuneration increases in the United Kingdom were widely criticised and as a result, the UK government framed a set of regulations to control executive director remuneration. According to the Code of Best Practice suggested by the Greenbury committee, the remuneration committee must be comprised of non executive directors. The Greenbury committee also directs to completely disclose the remuneration policy as well as directors’ individual remuneration package. The UK Corporate Governance Code 2010 or simply the Code, which is a set of some good corporate principles, describes various procedures involved in setting executive director remuneration in public limited companies. Section D.1 of the UK Corporate Governance Code 2010 states that the level of remuneration should be sufficient enough to attract, motivate, and retain executive directors and thereby run the company successfully. At the same time, the level of executive remuneration must not be more than necessary. The section D.1 specifically says that â€Å"a significant proportion of executive directors’ remuneration should be structured so as to link rewards to corporate and individual performance† (The UK Corporate Governance Code, 2010). The Code continues that elements of performance-based executive remuneration must focus on the company’s long term success. In addition, the remuneration committee has to decide whether to structure their remuneration policy relative to other companies; however, the committee must consider the risk of higher levels of remuneration with no corresponding performance improvement. The committee should also consider pay and employment conditions while making decisions on annual salary increases. The Se ction D.2 deals with procedures involved in setting executive directors’ remuneration. According to this section, â€Å"there should be a formal and transparent procedure for developing policy on executive remuneration and for fixing the remuneration packages of individual directors† (The UK corporate governance code (The UK Corporate Governance Code, 2010). Referring to Main principles of the UK corporate governance code (genius methods, 2010) section D.2 clearly tells that no executive director must not be allowed to involve in setting his/her own remuneration (ibid). The remuneration committee has the obligation to confer with the chairman and/or chief executive regarding the effectiveness of the proposal framework structured on the executive director remuneration. The committee also has the responsibility to appoint consultants in order to effectively set a potential executive director remuneration policy. If there is an involvement from the part of executive direc tors of top management in advising or assisting the remuneration committee, due care must be exercised to timely identify and avoid conflicts of interest. It is the duty of the board chairman to ensure that the company effectively communicates to its shareholders regarding various aspects of the remuneration proposal. The section D.2.1 of the Code tells that there should be at least three (it can be two in case of smaller

In the book aptly titled Hannibal Essay Example for Free

In the book aptly titled Hannibal Essay In the book aptly titled Hannibal, Serge Lancel provided a nitty-gritty exposition of Rome’s Great Commander life history. Through this book, Lancel aims to provide a concise account of Hannibal’s greatness to enlighten some misconceptions about the hero, and to outline how Hannibal reached the summit of success, in terms of war. The book explicates Hannibal’s historical biography from childhood up to the moment of his downfall, to give the reader a clear picture of Hannibal’s attributes, strengths, weaknesses, and most especially his essential characteristics that made him a true hero. Lancel does not only establish Hannibal’s internal complexities but he also provided a precise status quo of the Carthaginian world throughout the progression of the Great Commander’s life history. With this, Lancel successfully sketched the annihilation of Hellenistic world and the ascension of Rome. Hannibal was brought in to world in 247 BCE at Carthage, which was experiencing a tremendous loss from Rome during the First Punic War (264-241). The domination of Rome during this period has a great influence to young Hannibal’s life because he was the eldest son of a Carthaginian general named Hamilcar Barca. At the age of ten, Hannibal witnessed the step by step triumph of his father through the latter’s accomplishment of other territories for the expansion Carthage empire. Many believed that Hamilcar compelled Hannibal to make a promise that the latter will have a perpetual abhorrence to the Roman Empire. Lancel posited that these could be hearsay only but this event could be true since Carthaginians have all the reasons to detest the Romans. When Hamilcar died in 229 BCE, Hasdrubal the Fair (Hamilcar’s son in-law) assumed the position, and during his reign he changed the landscape warfare by promoting diplomatic means. Eight years after, Hasdrubal was assassinated, which paved way for Hannibal’s commandership over the Carthaginian militia in Iberia. From diplomatic practice, Hannibal went back to his father approach of battle, which is aggressive in nature. His first attack was towards the natives of Salamanca in 220 BCE, followed the seizure Santagnum, which led to a conflict with the Romans because during Hasdrubal supremacy, Carthage and Rome made a treaty to prevent any disagreement between the two empires. Carthage and Rome underwent a negotiation, and while it is going Hannibal continued his goal of extending his territory. When he completely invaded the Iberian Peninsula the Carthage-Rome relationship worsened and catapulted the Second Punic War. Rome sent out reinforcement in Sicily, while Hannibal made a bold move in beleaguering Italy before the former can prepared themselves in the waging war. The existing war gave Hannibal an opportunity to get the support Gaul militia, which in the end made his army more powerful, and resulted, to his second triumph at Trebia River. In March 217 BCE, the Great Commander winning streak perpetuated though in an unfortunate event he lost one of his eyes (some historians posited that this due to opthamalia) during the war. Roman militia’s power diminished as the war went on, in an unexpected happenstance their consul Flaminius was ambushed near the Trasimene Lake. Because of this, Hannibal exterminated two Roman legions, but it did not stop Rome and its allies from engaging and continuing the war. Instead, they aggravated the conflict when Quintus Fabius Maximus was chosen to be Rome’s dictator. The Roman council suggested an end-all be-all war, in which they were successful at its first battle at Cannae but they were eventually defeated when Carthaginian army overwhelmed them in a circular formation. Several of Roman allies was so disappointed with result of the Second Punic War, they decided to turn their back with Rome and decided to join the Carthage Empire. Then at age of thirty, Capua was established as Hannibal’s capital in Italy. He commanded his brother Mago Barca to relate the good news in Carthage and in doing so; Mago decanted hundreds of golden rings taken from the decimated cadavers of Roman army, while he was entering the entrance hall of the Carthaginian senate. Nevertheless, Roman council, along with their remaining allies, still resisted any agreement with Hannibal. Then the Great Commander decided to make an alliance with the Macedonian empire, which he acquired through the approval of King Philip V of Macedonia. With this approval, the Carthaginian forces were joined by Syracuse forces in 214 BCE. Rome did not falter; instead, they started an alliance with the Aetolia since this Greek town has a dispute with Macedonia. In the undying desire of Hannibal to expand his territory, he pursued Cumae and Puteoli ports, in order for him to strengthen his militia, but due to this, Rome found an opportunity to regain its nation’s confidence and to start anew because Hannibal neglected his offensives in Central Italy. In 212 BCE, Hannibal tasted his first failure.

Examples of Social Responsibility in Business

Examples of Social Responsibility in Business Ethical reasoning is a peoples thinking about right or wrong on human behavior or act. The author gave an example to understand human different approaches on situation under the concepts of duties, rights, and commitment. Morality is determined by the consequences of action. A consequences theory focusses on consequences of human action. Egoism cannot resolve conflicts of interest. The utilitarianism is the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number. The author gave an example of firm that produced pollution as byproduct to its manufacturing process with both side of argument with government against business people to understand concept of ethics has nothing to do with business, nor business with ethics. The author gave Kantian (a business person) view of breaking a contract is not a moral act. All stakeholders be treated as persons, with respect for their individual dignity. A trust is the correct starting point for the derivation of ethical behavior enables the construction of practical ethics in business and other contexts. The H.B.Fuller is a company that manufacture sniffing glue. In Honduras, the children drugging themselves by sniffing glue. It was easy to get glue through H.B.Fuller company. Honduras faced some economic problems in effort to industrialize. The company has some option to reduce this problem. One was add mustard oil into glue or close the product. The government of Honduras must concentrate on children education to overcome this issue. The H.B.Fuller company was very reputable company and now they have to rebuild their image, moral and philosophy of company. The Milton Friedman gave his view on social responsibility of business is to increase its profit. In a free-enterprise, private-property system, a corporate management is an employee of the owners of the business. He argue that, executive a different social responsibility, rather than serving as an agent of the stockholders or the customers or the employees, only if he spends the money in a different way than they would have spent it. He described political principle under two different mechanism, which are market and political. The Friedman said that executive is exercising a distinct social responsibility, rather than serving as an agent of the stockholders or the customers or the employees, only if he spends the money in a different way than they would have spent it. The Freeman described basic idea of stakeholder that business and executive who manage them, actually do and create value for customers, employees and financiers. The Freeman said about stake is an interest or a share in an undertaking and can be categorized as interest, right and ownership. There are two types of business stakeholders. Primary stakeholders and secondary stakeholders. Primary stakeholders are those that have a direct stake in the organization and its success. Secondary stakeholders re those that have a public or special interest stake in the organization. The Freeman explained responsibility of the executive in managing for stakeholders with a different example. He also described some argument to manage stakeholders. One of the strongest arguments for managing for stakeholders is that it asks executives and entrepreneurs to consider the question of what kind of company they want to create and build. Italian federal corporate tax system has a legal tax structure and tax rates as U.S. system does. The Italian tax authorities believe that no any firms submit tax return. All firms lies about their income and fraud to Italian tax authorities. The Italian corporation is represented by its commercialista, a function which exists in Italian society for the primary purpose of negotiating corporate (and individual) tax payments with the Italian tax authorities. The Italian service did lying and fraud. The negotiation of corporate tax by Italian tax authority managed with commercialista and bustarella, it is wrong action to earned money. The author Bowie described three formulation of fundamental of ethics. Act only on that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law. The Bowie said that if everyone made lying promises, the consequences would be bad although they would. Rather, Kant is saying that the very concept of lying promises, when assumed as a principle by everyone, is confused. The Bowie gave two example to illustrate Kants view. If a maxim for an action when universalized is self-defeating, then the contemplated action is not ethical. That is Kants conceptual point.

Role of Nature in the Evolution of Modern Cities

Role of Nature in the Evolution of Modern Cities

Disgrace: Parent-Child Relationships Essay -- Literary Analysis

Family is often a common theme that is shared across many of J.M Coetzee novels. Family members are usually distant to each other or the relationships between parents and children do not succeed in a conventional way. When Coetzee allows for members to engage in relationships with one another they are either â€Å"strained† or tainted by â€Å"violence† (Splendore 148). This is especially true in his novel Disgrace. In Disgrace David Lurie, an English professor, is arguably forced to resign from his position at the University, because of this Lurie moves to his daughters’ farm in Eastern Cape. The pair appears to have a normal relationship most of the time, but there is some obvious discomfort. As time progresses the relationship begins to improve, only to be ruined by an attack. Lurie is locked up, beaten and set on fire, where Lucy, his daughter, is gang raped and left with a pregnancy. It is at this point that their relationship begins to crumble. Alth ough Lurie loves his daughter it is his failed attempts to understand her situation and his eagerness to push her in the right direction that lead to a colder, more distant relationship. Lurie’s displays of love towards Lucy are undeniable. From the attack on Lurie shows overwhelming amounts of love for Lucy. This is mostly apparent during the attack, where Lurie very seldom shows any concern for his own well-being, but shows enormous amounts for Lucy’s, even when his own life is in jeopardy. As soon as Lurie regains consciousness, and realizes that he has been locked in the bathroom he begins to worry about â€Å"his child in the hands of strangers† and that â€Å"whatever is happening to her will be set in stone† (Coetzee 94). With these thoughts in mind Lurie attempts to escape by kic... ...e end of the novel Lucy and Lurie have grown so far apart that they rarely speak or spend any time together, this is all a result of the problems that Lurie’s arrogance to her situation. Works Cited Coetzee, J.M. Disgrace . New York: Penguin Books, 2000. Print. Dooley, Gillian. J. M. Coetzee and the power of narrative . Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2010. Print. Kossew, Sue. "The Politics of Shame and Redemption in J.M Coetzee's Disgrace." Research in African Literatures 34.2 (2003): 155 162. Project Muse . Web. 26 Oct. 2010. McDonald, Bill. Encountering disgrace: reading and teaching Coetzee's novel. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2009. Print. Splendore, Paola . ""No more mothers and father": The Family Sib-Text in J.M Coetzee's Novels." Journal of Commonwealth Literature 38.3 (2003): 148-161. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature. Web. 26 Oct. 2010

The Importance of Education Essay -- Personal Narratives Education Sch

The Importance of Education â€Å"Come on sweetie, you can do it!† These words have constantly been spoken to me ever since I was a child, and by my parents enforcing these words towards me they inspired me to achieve all that I am able too. In the Mexican culture there are many of us who yearn to learn new things yet there are many of our people who instead of lending a helping hand they thrust each other downward. With this key fact in mind I push myself to become an educated person with a degree so that I can prove to myself that if you want it you will get it. My family has always been very keen on education. One of my childhood memories is that of my father telling us â€Å"The only great inheritance I can leave you with is that of your education, because nobody can take that what you have learned away from you.† My mother also told us that if there came a day in which we had to leave our husbands for any type of abuse we would not be empty-handed since we could be able to support o ur self as well as our families. With my parents always asking me â€Å"how was school today,† or attending all (well not all) but most PTA meetings they showed me that they care a lot for my future. I wish to make them happy and to know that they did a good job in raising me since education is one of my top priorities. Another top priority that I believe influences me is to read, from books about magic sorcerers to Biology or chem. Textbooks, (Who knew right?) I love to explore new things and meet different people. Reading is the key element (I believe) of wisdom since it opens new boundaries to ones mind. I remember in 5th grade the new accelerated reader program was barely starting and the excitement of it was breathtaking. ( not really but i... ...assignments were this past year. My senior year my teacher was named Joanna Schmidt, she inspired us too write many different literature works. We read many Shakespearean works as well as books by Alice Walker, some of the amazing stories we were contained satire and we were asked to identify it in the different books. Gulliver’s Travels, Brave New World, and the movie Gatttica, were mainly written with satire. This was interesting to me because we had to really use our brains and analyze what the author was trying to get across to us as the reader. Now that I am in college I look forward to learning new things and I am glad that I have made in this far with an extreme amount of hard work yet my race is not over. I wish to add more inspirations to my list so that when I am older my children can look up to me for the enjoyment of learning I provide them with.

Business Simulation Game Essay

The aim of the Competition and Strategy course is to provide students with deep knowledge on strategic decision-making in a business environment and the strategic principles behind it. Within this course my team members Kristijan, Yaniv, George and me (Team KUGY) had the opportunity to apply our academic and theoretical understanding and knowledge in an online business simulation game, wherein we created our own car business and competed on the European car market fictionally. This paper aims to elucidate the advance of our strategic decision-making, observes the reasoning behind it and examines the following implementation of our approach. Founded on the definition of strategy being â€Å"A plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim†, we questioned ourselves in the commencement of the game what our strategy would be (Andrews, 2010). Subsequently, after considering the theories studied in class we decided that we needed to express our own and coherent strate gy in less than 40 words, fitting to the restrictions objective, advantage and scope (Tregoe, Zimmerman, Schuster, 2008). â€Å"Attaining maximised profitability by carefully trying to get to know our customers’ needs, consequently adapting our products to suit their expectations to an extent where we would stop serving and start appreciating, so as to charge a premium price† (Yaniv, George, Kristijan and Ugo). The theoretical model we chose to establish our strategy was Porter’s generic strategy, that led us to a differentiation-focused strategy. Given to Porter, a competitive strategy is about differentiation (Andrews, 2010). Thus we thought that we should differentiate our business best by concentrating on a narrow target, hence, few market segments and decided that differentiation would be our competitive advantage. Furthermore Porter claims that decent strategic decision-making necessitates compromises and is slightly about what not to do rather than what to do (Porter, 1997). Based on this statement and our differentiation-concentrated strategy we decided to serve only 4 out o f 16 offered market segments, medium cars for 25 to 40  year old customers, medium cars for 41 to 55 year old customers, large cars for customers over 55 year old and finally luxurious cars for 41 to 55 year old customers. So as opposed extending our products over the whole market to realise maximised revenue KUGY decided to concentrate on three different segments with customers sharing similar needs, form three strategic business units whose goal it is to get to know the customer’s wants and needs to offer greater customer value and allow us to charge premium prices. Regarding finance, KUGY’s started position was up to  £500 million in the bank. In the first three rounds, KUGY took out two loans in the first 3 rounds so as to have enough capitals to finance our very cost concentrated strategy. Our expenses for research and development, competition market research, product, and marketing were considerable over all five years, which is replicated in significant fixed cost figures over all five years. However the data acquired on market perception and competition allowed us to get more familiar to our customers but also to design our products and put marketing efforts in harmony with thei r needs, by either adding and dropping product features, replacing research investments and distinguishing our products from the competition. Furthermore, KUGY increased the prices of all four models every year, which allowed us to increase revenue progressively over the five years of the game. KUGY has preferred to limit its production to small quantities because a limited target market is one of the most fundamental parameters of a focus strategy (Andrews, 2010). In the segments KUGY served, quantities demanded tend to be small in comparison with segments whose customers demand is based on less price demanding cars. Hence, if revenue is defined as R = Q * P, price was definitely the main factor in creating revenue instead of selling important quantities. KUGY tried to adapt production to such a level where our team would not have any car in stock at the end of each business year and normally succeeded in this concern with minor exceptions. Moreover KUGY tried to decrease its labour cost and invest in automation instead. Our team decided it will suit our company strategy and image and to have three extremely technologized production plants, with small but very skilled labour forces. We achieved further trade-offs concerning our marketing efforts. In regards to the four Ps, including price, product, place and promotion, KUGY took the decision to focus on all four would have opposed our strategy implemented in the  beginning. Hence, we focused our marketing strategy on product and promotion. As previously mentioned, we have invested significant sums in the development of our products, by investing in research and development over the rounds of the game, but also by adding and dropping features into sectors that seemed to be of significance to our customers and hence rose perceived benefits of our products from year to year. In addition to this advertising expenses were similarly high too, because of the fact that KUGY recognized communicating the benefits of both our efforts and our products to generate superior customer value as a first priority. George constantly highlighted that even the greatest product in the car market would not sell if its ascendancy or predominance were not communicated effectively. Given to Porter if a corporation decides upon a generic strategy, the corporation is best informed by thoroughly sticking to this strategy so as to remain differentiated (Andrews, 2010). According fact that we decided to focus on a relatively narrow target market, KUGY decided that trying to study more segments could jeopardize our current business. When presenting a new model KUGY stuck to segments whose customers’ needs are comparable so as to avoid â€Å"being stuck in the middle† as Porter cites it (Andrews, 2010). We all agreed that changing our strategy could lead our team to fail. Regarding the company decisions and overall performance we decided to stick to this strategy. Nevertheless, according to the fact that we defined every model to be one separate market based strategic business unit, the production and marketing activities achieved within the business units varied to an extent. The strategy used to every SBU was also a focus strategy. However the methods used to attain differentiation varied. For instance, we decided to reveal our luxurious car model by using newspapers and dealer incentives instead of TV advertising that we used for our medium and large car models. Additionally, we decided upon less radical price rises for our medium and large cars in comparison with our luxurious model. KUGY’s achievement can be measured thanks to its profits. Furthermore, in the second year, our corporation’s profits have been rising yearly, which signifies a good tendency in achievement. When looking at our overall profit calculation, as Pr = (P*Q – Q*VC – FC), with P (Price), Pr (Profit), Q (Quantities demanded), FC (fixed cost) and VC (variable cost), the most significant factor on revenue was the constant annual price rises as contrasting to  quantities demanded that raised regularly. Concerning the cost, overall cost was mostly defined by elevated fixed costs for marketing/advertising, product research and development, and competition and market research. KUGY’s competitive advantage was based on these considerable investments that allowed us to raise prices. According to the fact that we were making profit, our strategy appeared to work quite well, but it was unexpected to what extent price was receptive when comparing to all the efforts we put into our marketing and products. We were amazed how little we could raise the price keeping in mind how much money and effort we put into perceived customer value/benefits and the quality of our products. It would not have been fair to contest the elasticity used for profit calculations by the creators of the game, according to the fact that we lack the mathematical understanding to do so. Though it was quite disappointing when realising how little difference measures such as increased research and development, optimised marketing efforts and improved features made in comparison to changes in price. After comparing this business game with the real life, businesses that obey to the differentiation focus strategy such as Porsche or LVMH are making a lot of profits. Nevertheless, these firms have been into their business for decades and have invested considerable resources and efforts to attain their profit margins and their position within the market. I assume that if we would have played this business game for a longer period of time, applying a differentiation-focused strategy could have possibly resulted to a higher profit margin overall. However, theory and practice are very different. Particularly in very competitive industries such as the car industry and especially in times of considerable economic fluctuations, price seems to be the main factor when it’s about making purchasing decisions. Moreover, in my opinion, trying to attain maximised profitability by a cost leadership method in this business game is perhaps easier and less time consuming in comparison to KUGY’s strategy according to the fact that the players do not have to change the same amount of parameters and pay as much attention to few variables besides quantit ies demanded and price differences. While observing the data from both competition and market reports, trying to draw conclusions and also conducting endless amounts of test was sometimes very exhausting but at the same time very addictive. I have to admit I have very benefited from contributing in this business game  experience. My group work with George Yaniv and Kristijan was on of the rare first good teamwork experience I had in the last three years at Richmond University and even if we ran into some problems over the simulation game, we always took time to talk about it and try to find solutions to those issues. The fact that we were meeting on a regular basis has really facilitated the cohesion into our group. Moreover, everyone has contributed equally to the overall outcome, concerning creative inputs, estimating data, drawing conclusions and essentially trying to put it into decisions. I sincerely appreciated working with my group members and after every round of the game we sometimes had extra discussions on this topic. We all agreed that the key issue with implementing a strategy was that there is no right answer and hence no fundamental truth in this topic area. There are a lot of different methods to attain profitability and uncountable factors within the ever-changing industry environment that can affect a company’s profitably. When implementing a strategy all those factors need to be taken into consideration so as to allow the company to react properly to modifications in its environment. The theoretical part of implementing a strategy remained difficult, while the practical achievement were even harder. When KUGY understood that we could not be able to raise prices to the extent we hunted so as to to attain estimated profit margins, we started to question our approach and wondered if the decisions we took in the beginning were still suitable. We finally decided to stick to our strategy and accomplished a reasonable work with it even if it could have been better, but especially after we ended round three with a important loss, I really felt like we were not applying the good strategy and after brainstorming with our team and while everyone was trying to convince each other what to do we finally decided to stick to our first plan. I believe that managers in real firms who need to communicate and defend their strategic decision to their superiors, board of directors or employees cope with real difficulties. However, contributing in this business simulation game was a fun and very addictive experience and I really think I benefited a lot from it. I also hope that the experience I gained from it will at some point be useful in the future me when I will have to take my first strategic decisions. Bibliography Tregoe, B., Zimmerman, J., Schuster, S., 2008. Top Management Strategy? Harvard Business Review April 2008. Available at: http://www.nickols.us/strategy_definitions.pdf/ [Accessed 13 April 2014] Andrews, K., 2010. The Concept of Corporate Strategy, 3rd Edition. Financial Times Prentice Hall. [Accessed 13 April 2014] Porter, E., 1997. What is Strategy? Harvard Business Review Nov-Dec2008. Available at: http://www.nickols.us/strategy_definitions.pdf [Accessed 13 April 2014]

Lillian D. Wald

Dear Mr. President, To keep the country running smoothly, the citizens must participate in it. If we, the citizens of the United States, don’t do our part, the government will have full reign over OUR society. Essentially meaning that would no longer be a democracy. That is something that we Americans pride ourselves on, being a democracy. We must ensure that we maintain and keep the rights and freedoms that we have. The purpose of this letter is to ask you to consider declaring a new holiday in the name of Lillian Wald.This day wouldn’t just be to recognize her as a person and all of her accomplishments, but what her accomplishments really were- Civil Rights. Lillian Wald’s achievements stretched from the health field to civil rights for children. Her feats have shed a new light on the American society, inspiring to us all. Lillian Wald was a nurse, social worker, public health official, teacher, author, editor, publisher, and most importantly a civil rights act ivist for peace, women, children, the sick, and many others.She had such an unselfish devotion to humanity, which ultimately made her great. It all started when Wald met a young nurse who inspired her to follow in her footsteps. At the age of 22 she had graduated nursing school and enrolled in the Women’s Medical College to begin studying to become a doctor. During her time in college, she managed to be a volunteer nurse for the poor and less fortunate in New York’s lower east side. While volunteering, Wald saw the need for change. Immediately dropping out of med school, she moved closer to the needy.In 1893 Wald created the Henry Street Settlement. Starting off with the help of 10 nurses, she created a small empire that would expand to 250 nurses that treated 1300 patients per day by 1916. All of this needed some kind of funding. Well Wald took care of that with fund raising and volunteer donations. Also made it a point to make all of this racially integrated. Lillian Wald, with the help of some volunteers, treated and cared for the poor and educated people about health, hygiene, and protecting themselves from diseases. But that’s not all.She had now moved her sights to the New York Board of Education. She had made it a goal to make it mandatory to put a nurse in every school, everyday. Of course, that goal had been accomplished, following it by protecting children further by ensuring that their civil rights had not been forgotten. From children she went to help women, and protecting them from being forced into almost slave labor conditions, making sure divorced women weren’t left without money, and giving them the right to birth control. Did she stop there? Not if her name was Lillian Wald!She was also an anti-war activist and fought whole heartedly for peace. But after those efforts went amiss, she didn’t hesitate to do her part and become the Chairmen for the committee on Community Nursing of the American Red Cross. Major industries were her next target, making sure to protect workers with health inspections, and also making sure a nurse was on site at most job sites and factories. Of course all of this hadn’t gone unrecognized; she had been named in the New York Times 12 greatest living American women in 1922.Also she had received the Lincoln Medallion and proclaimed and outstanding citizen of New York. But all of this was a long time ago, and I’m afraid people have forgotten what she has done, which calls for a reminder. Lillian Wald once said â€Å"We have found, that the things which make men alike are finer and stronger than the things which make them different, and that the vision which long since proclaimed the interdependence and the kinship of mankind was farsighted and is true. †She began her journey to achieve her dreams in 1893 when she came across a situation that needed attention now. Her answer to this problem served as an essential stepping stone to all of her li fe’s accomplishments that in time spanned to an international scale. Without her, health care amongst many other things wouldn’t be where they are today. Considering this information, I ask you Mr. President, to make a new national holiday to be recognized in her name, with the thought of our Civil Rights that she made sure we had.

Nyaya Panchayats Essay

Government proposes to establish Nyaya Panchayats in every Gram Panchayat or a cluster of Gram Panchayats, for providing a system of fair and speedy justice, both civil and criminal, to the citizens at their doorsteps, outside the formal judicial system. The Nyaya Panchayats are proposed to be constituted through the election of the Nyaya Panchas by people residing in the area to which the jurisdiction of the Nyaya Panchayats extends. Provisions are proposed for the reservation for women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to ensure their representation in the Nyaya Panchayats. The Draft Bill defines the civil, criminal and additional jurisdiction of Nyaya Panchayats. In the Draft Bill, conciliation is proposed as a primary means of dispute resolution. Further, Nyaya Sahayaks, who will assist the Nyaya Panchayat in performing their function of dispute resolution, have been proposed. Nyaya Panchayats are proposed as separate and independent dispute resolution bodies, distinct from the Gram Panchayats. The draft Nyaya Panchayat (NP) Bill was circulated to Ministry of Law & Justice, several other Ministries/ Departments and all States/UTs. Based on comments received, some modifications were made in the Draft Bill. The Draft NP Bill is again being circulated for inter-ministerial consultations. The above information was given by the Minister of Panchayati Raj Shri V. Kishore Chandra Deo in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. Amendment to Article 243 D of the Constitution of India for enhancing reservation for women in Panchayats The Cabinet today approved the proposal for moving an official Amendment to the Constitution (One hundred and Tenth Amendment) Bill, 2009 for enhancing reservation for women in Panchayats at all tiers from 1/3rd to at least 50%. The Constitution (One hundred and Tenth Amendment) Bill, 2009 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 26. 11. 2009. The official Amendment proposes to add word ‘rural’ before the word ‘population’ as and where the same occur in 1st Proviso of Clause (2) (iii) of the Constitution (One hundred and Tenth Amendment) Bill, 2009. This Provision will apply to the total number of seats filled by direct election, offices of Chairpersons and seats and offices of Chairpersons reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Enhancement of reservation for women in Panchayats will facilitate more women to enter the public sphere and this will lead to further empowerment of women and also make Panchayats more inclusive institutions, thereby improving governance and public service delivery. The addition of word ‘rural’ before word ‘population1 occurring in the 1st Proviso of Clause (2)(iii) of the Rill will reflect appropriate demographic representation of categories of population for whom reservation is made. At present, out of the total elected representatives of Panchayats numbering approximately 28. 18 lakh, 36. 87% are women. With the proposed Constitutional Amendment, the number of elected women representatives is expected to rise to more than 14 lakh. Having more elected women representatives would benefit the entire population of the States and UTs where Panchayati Raj is in existence. Ministry of Panchayati Raj had moved a Bill for amendment to Article 243D of the Constitution on 26. 11. 2009 after approval of the Cabinet for enhancing reservation for women in (i) the total number of seats to be filled by direct election, (ii) offices of chairpersons and (iii) in seats and offices of chairpersons reserved for SCs and STs, to 50% in all tiers of Panchayats. The proposed official amendment, as indicated above, in the original Amendment Bill will be moved in the Lok Sabha at the earliest. All States / UTs are parts thereof to which Part IX of the Constitution applies would be covered (Part IX does not apply to Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram, tribal areas of Assam and Tripura and hill areas of Manipur). Background The Constitutional Amendment Bill for enhancing reservation for women in Panchayats at all tiers from one third to one half was introduced in Lok Sabha on 26. 11. 009 with the approval of Cabinet in its meeting on 27. 08. 2009. The Bill was referred to Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development by Hon’ble Speaker on 21. 12. 2009. The Committee has recommended that word ‘rural’ be added before word ‘population’ occurring in Clause 2 (iii) of the original Amendment Bill in order to maintain better demographic representation to SCs and STs Class. In view of this, it has been decided to make official amendment accordingly in the Bill already under consideration of Lok Sabha.

Main Stages of Child and Young Person Development Essay

Development skills can often be divided into categories such as emotional, social, physical etc. but all the different type of skill link together and help people to complete an activity, for example playing football needs physical skills for good balance and running, social and communication skills as you have to work as part of a team and intellectual skills for working out tactics as well as many more of the development skills. Building on these skills influences a child or young person to grow to become independent, more confident and to have the ability to socialize. The more skills needed the more interested a child or young person may be in a specific activity especially when they get older and enjoy being slightly challenged. An example of how a child may be affected because of a delayed development in one of the areas is a child with speech problems such as an speech impediment, this will have delayed her communication skills. This then may have affected their intellectual skills slowing her process of learning to read and write. It also may affect her social development as their may find it difficult to communicate with others and they may not understand her and may start to ignore her. The child may them feel frustrated and lonely effecting their emotional development. All these are led from having a delayed communication development due to their speech impediment. Another example is a child with a physical disability, their physical development may not be to the normal standard so they may not be able to join in with certain activities other children can. This could affect their emotional development as they may feel left out but also their social development as they can’t interact with other children when not joining in with an activity. If the physical disability is noticeable they may feel embarrassed which also with effect their emotional development and other children may not understand and think the child is different so they might not want to interact with that child which would then effect their social and emotional development as well.

Groups and Teams Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Groups and Teams - Essay Example In the first section of this document, I shall critically discuss the impact of Belbin team roles in the three areas that I shall major: leadership skills, problem solving and decision making. Moreover, I shall inculcate the Mary Brown scenario and relate it to the specific three theories discussed. Additionally, I shall deliver an eventual concise summary on the Belbin team roles. Moreover, I have critically explored the above-mentioned areas, with regard to thorough studies I have conducted and which I have cited within the text. Groups and Teams Apparently, all teams are groups but not all groups are teams. Definitely, a group is any given number of entities that are considered as a complete unit. Moreover, a collection of various people who share various aspects, interact freely with each other, give in to obligations and rights as members of the specific group and share an identity form an entity. Moreover, groups are established to segregate the incident into practical areas of operation. Additionally, a collection of individuals who operate together to deliver products or services are mutually accountable. The members of the team share common goals and are mutually accountable for accomplishing them while affecting interactions between them. Each member of the team is held responsible for the work of integrating with each other since the entire team is held accountable. Groups embody various traits that are retrospective relative to those of teams. For instance, group members have paltry communication, they lack vision, members always seek to conceive their identity, leaders are manipulative, the whole group entity is ideally less than the summation of its independent parts, their members have exclusive cliques and there is minimal support. As disputed to groups, teams have advantageous traits that include plentiful support, members always seek to find identity, there is honesty and openness, there are numerous opportunities for motivation and new member s are always welcome and communication is effective. Mary Brown Scenario This scenario regards a situation where a family in a given town faces problems emanating from drug abuse. For instance, George Smith and Mary Brown, the father and mother respectively; to three children: Joe, Lucy and Tom have numerous problems within their marriage, issues that come from intake of drugs and short temperedness. This scenario also encompasses the outside parties concerned with the family, with an aim to help them elude the problems they face. This inculcates Ann, the family’s social service worker, Teachers, welfare personnel and youth workers among others who seem to have issues with effective communication across their specific agencies. Theories on the Leadership Skills, Problem Solving and Decision Making Linked With Mary Brown Scenario With regard to leadership skills, the Mary Brown scenario applies in the sense that virtually all involved parties have weaknesses in one aspect or t he other in process of trying to work as a team. For example, Ann, the family’s social worker seems to be overly concerned with helping the family by addressing the need to hold a meeting with the concerned parties such as the police, youth workers, welfare officers, teachers and drug advisors among others. This shows that she is a leader of good sort. With regard to George’s family, he is anticipated to take leadership over his family though he

Texts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Texts - Essay Example This illustrates direct effect on the performance of the training and education sector (Baum, 2001) The Barnett learning triangle is very significant. It enables the analysis of three main concepts. The concepts are; the society, higher education and knowledge. The influences of the three terms are interconnected. In the present society, they are constitutive partially. The level of tourism programs delivery according to the vocational aspects directed at promotional literatures and also the validation documents may b easily challenged. Undergraduate tourism course have been greatly publicized in recent years, through the internet and the prospectuses, as employment preparation in the tourism and service related sectors, as shown by the 1997 Airey and Johnson study. But, the study illustrated that many tourism lecturers seem to be following the liberal vocationalism approach (Silver and Brennan, 1988). The approach of course delivery that integrates the academic and vocational perspectives, as illustrated by Raffe (1994), illustrates aggressive education approach, in spite of the illustrated aims that enhance the employment preparation perspective. The flexible perspective to directing the vocational programs in HE towards the general work preparation, instead of illustrating explicit tourism jobs has been shown through the introduction of the undergraduate tourism courses. The tourism courses are simultaneously illustrated as providing both education for and about, as shown by Business Studies (Macfarlane, 1994). Tourism lecturers explain that tourism development is determined by two issues. Firstly, concentrating on the knowledge and skills enhancement of the subject; and secondly, on the generation of transferable academic competencies. Jafari (1997) illustrated the development of three classification of tourism in HE. The classes are; tourism, hotel and also hospitality. The classification focuses

Social Networking and Enterprise Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Social Networking and Enterprise - Essay Example Introduction The use of social media for the enhancement of organizational performance has been highly expanded the last years. In fact, since the appearance of social media and social networking, the terms of competition in the market have been changed. Businesses tend to focus on social media and social networking even if risks have not been eliminated. In banks and financial institutions the use of social media has an important implication: it can threaten the data stored in these organizations’ IT systems (Business Wire 2012). The case of Wells Fargo proves that social media can be successfully embraced in banks, even if changes are required so that the relevant framework to become more effective. The potential benefits of social media and social networking for Wells Fargo are explored in this case. It is proved that the organization is highly developed in terms of social media; still, the development of certain policies could allow the organization to improve its social p resence, even in the long term. 2. Main Findings 2.1 Advantages and disadvantages of social networking presence for Wells Fargo 2.1.1 Social Networking and Social Media in business environment Social networking has become a quite popular practice in organizations worldwide. In order to understand the potential value of social networking for modern businesses it would be necessary to explain primarily its general context, as described in relevant literature. According to Daft (2009) the term ‘social networking’ reflects a framework that offers to its users the potentials of ‘peer-to-peer communication and sharing of information’ (Daft 2009, p.312). In other words, social networking represents an ‘online community the members of which can interact and share personal data, information and opinions’ (Daft 2009, p.312, Figure 1). Waddill and Marquardt (2011) note that social networking refers mostly to the ‘online clustering of individuals int o groups’ (Waddill and Marquardt 2011, p.237). The terms under which these groups are developed are depended on the rules of each social networking site, as aligned with existing legislation in regard to online activities and communication. The organizations that employ social media and social networking in their daily activities are also known as social organizations (Bradley and McDonald 2011, p.18). These organizations are aware of the value of social networking and social media and are capable of using these frameworks not only for increasing their performance but also for establishing a long-lasting relationship with their stakeholders (Bradley and McDonald 2011, p.18). The level at which social networking is currently used in businesses worldwide is significant, but still there are prospects for further growth (Waddill and Marquardt 2011, p.237). In 2008 the business journal McKinsey Quarterly developed a survey in regard to ‘the use of second-generation web techn ologies, known as Web 2.0’ (Daft 2009, p.312). The survey showed that just a 28% of the organizations had incorporated social networking in their daily operations (Daft 2009, p.312). In regard to the other forms of advanced Internet technologies, such as blogs and wikis, the relevant percentages were significantly higher: 34%.

The Impact of Inward Foreign Direct Investment on Host Countries Essay

The Impact of Inward Foreign Direct Investment on Host Countries - Essay Example According to the research findings, Foreign Direct Investment has over the last three decades aroused conflicting responses from the first and third world. In essence, FDI gives the investor the power to operate a company in another country for the long term. Developed host countries are not too welcome to the idea on the premise that they fear foreign firms will end up dominating their local firms. In contrast to this, developing countries are more welcome to the idea on the grounds that FDI will bring additional capital, expertise and new technology into their country. Host countries record FDI flows as liabilities along with similar items in their balance of payments. In host countries like these FDI flows make up a large percentage of the total investment in the economy as compared to more developed countries; the effects of FDI on these countries differ as well, with developing countries showing a steady growth trend as compared to developed countries who showed boom and bust cy cles as a result of engaging in FDI. Growth is normally measured by looking at the trends in per capita GDP growth. Analysts relate FDI to per capita to GDP growth by looking at figures of gross FDI inflows and FDI inflows per capita to see if they have any impact on the economic growth of a country. Research has revealed a positive relationship between FDI levels and growth levels in an economy, in some cases, these results have been insignificant as well but these variables have never shared a negative relationship. The extraneous variable has a magnitude changing effect on this relationship. It has been seen that the more developed a country is, the better and greater positive effect FDI will have on its economic growth. Most studies that have analyzed the impact of FDI on the economic growth of the host country have found the results to be pretty elusive. Most established relationships are based specifically on the host country’s own specific economic characteristics. Thu s it is difficult to generalize these effects and apply them to other countries as the findings of a study. However, the probable effects are not completely elusive, as the endogenous growth theory provides a framework for the positive linkage between growth and FDI inflows.

Explain the key arguments presented by Thomas Szasz (in the texts Essay

Explain the key arguments presented by Thomas Szasz (in the texts studied on this course) against the current practice of psychiatry. Assess the significant strengths and weaknesses - Essay Example psychiatry is against autonomy and individual choice; psychiatry is based on false assumptions which cannot be proven; and finally, that psychiatry should be a means through which there is an attempt to help individuals understand themselves and others in society. One of the most significant arguments made by Szasz against psychiatry is that psychiatrists are successors to priests and other religious figures. This succession came about through getting directly involved in the attempt to solve the various problems that seem to be plaguing individuals, especially in the case where it was believed that these individuals needed spiritual intervention (Szasz 1974, p.181). He argues that this is exactly the case with modern psychiatry where practitioners seek to classify the various problems of living that some individuals in society might have as mental illnesses. The argument of classification is strength because it creates a situation where the psychiatrist comes to have incredible control over the lives of his patients and this in such a manner that he is able to determine what he would like to do with them. That psychiatrists have a level of power over their patients comes about through their being able to recommend that they be confined in me ntal institutions for a certain period as a means of treating their mental illnesses. It creates a situation where it is extremely difficult for individuals in society to escape the clutches of control because psychiatrists, using medical terms, act as priests did using religious terms, can still impose control over those who have put their faith in them. A weakness of this argument is that it does not attempt to show the origins of the behaviours which can be considered as not being normal within human society. Such behaviours include the mentality of murderers who do not feel remorse for their actions despite the latter being horrific. However, one would agree with Szasz’z argument because it is a means of showing the

The impact of divorce on children Research Paper

The impact of divorce on children - Research Paper Example Most couples separate after a considerable period of marital upheaval, so it may be more accurate to think of divorce as a series of interrelated events rather than a single, easily categorized experience. (Emery, 2004) The effects which have been noted in children varied considerably with several factors including but not limited to a child's age, their gender, and even the number of siblings in their family. Being such a complex issue, it is not always a simple matter to tease apart individual correlations, to say nothing of ultimate causes, of divorce outcomes. Several impacts of parental separations are immediate and obvious, such as changes in the child's living arrangements or financial situation. Others are more difficult to quantify, such as the effects divorce may have on the emotional states of children, their senses of self, their friendships or their later intimate relationships. The number of children who experience their parents' divorce each year has been rising for so me time, and is now recognized as a significant public health issue. (Wolchik et al., 2002) It is extremely difficult to quantify the full impact of divorce on children for several reasons. According to Cowan and Cowan, most studies of divorce's impact on children have the following notable flaws: 1) They were begun after the divorce or separation had occurred; 2) Most studies do not assess the impact of parents in a highly conflicted relationship who stay together, instead comparing only married and divorced parents; 3) Divorce can have a positive effect on some lives, while it has a negative effect on others. Research has not yet managed to explain under what circumstances a divorce will have a negative or positive impact (nor the extent of that impact) on children. (Cowan & Cowan, 2006) It has been well-documented that divorce can have a decidedly negative impact on a child's mental health well into adulthood. As long as 30 years after the separation of their parents, adults who were children when their parents divorced may continue to experience anxiety, depression, and trouble connecting intimately in their lives with spouses or their own children. (Estimates of the number of children who experience divorce each year vary widely, but most agree that at least one million children see their parents divorce each year, joining the over 40 million children and adults whose parents have already separated. (Emery, 2004) â€Å"Parental divorce is experienced by 1.5 million children each year in the United States† according to Wolchik et al. (2002) Custody is a common source of stress for children and adults when a couple with children decide to separate. â€Å"Tragically, it rarely works out very well. It is usually extremely difficult for the parents to work out a satisfactory arrangement, and even more difficult for them to fully abide by whatever arrangement is made. And when the situation is problematical for them, this inevitably causes the children to suffer.† (Meyerhoff, 2005) Later Meyerhoff calls joint custody, an agreement which arranges for both parents to share equal custody of a child, â€Å"a failed experiment,† but says that most parents become extremely distressed when primary custody is awarded to their partner. (Meyerhoff, 2005) Children of divorce often continue to suffer for many years after the custody disputes have been settled.

Does Quantitative Easing Policy in US Affect Market Liquidity Research Proposal - 1

Does Quantitative Easing Policy in US Affect Market Liquidity - Research Proposal Example The effect is due to the contrast it has in increased awareness of potential risk and the cost that are associated to quantitative easing as expressed by policy makers as purchases continued (Krishnamurthy & Vising-Jorgensen, 2011). In the initial program of quantitative easing, officials of Federal Reserves suggested potential risk but the focus they had was mainly on implementation of the program without taking into consideration the costs that were associated with the ongoing purchases. They were mainly concerned with using the policy to support stronger economic recovery (Krishnamurthy & Vissing-Jorgensen, 2011). The effect that quantitative easing had to the economy is on the stimulation. Through the policy, the federal government is able to auction large quantities of treasuries so that they pay for expansionary fiscal policy. As the treasuries are bought, demand increases keeping yields of the treasury low. This leads to keeping the consumer debts affordable since treasuries are the basis of long term interest rates. This is also similar to corporate bonds as they allow business to expand more cheaply. To show liquidity channel, analysis can be made on the second program of Fed which was from November 2010 and was concluded in 2011. In the period, there was effect on priced frictions to trading in the market for treasury inflation protected securities and the markets that they were related for inflation swap contracts. To quantify the effects of TIPS purchases on the functions the market and the related market for inflation swaps, there is use of sum of TIPS and inflation swap liquidity premiums (Lessambo, 2013). The measure is only reliant on the law of one price and provides a good proxy for the priced frictions to trading. The hypothesis formulated for the study is that there are several ways through which quantitative easing has affected

The Business Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Business Environment - Essay Example These profit seeking activities are performed by the enterprises that provide goods and services to the people of the country and which are necessary for the economic system of the country. Some of the enterprises produce tangible goods like automobiles, computers, etc., while others provide services like banking, insurance, etc. (Pride et al 2011). Business activity is very important for the economic development of the country, as it not only creates the job opportunities for the people of the nation, but also improves the standard of living. Business determines the needs and demands of the people and fulfills them by providing various goods and services. Business also acts as a major source of foreign exchange for the country (Dunning & Lundan, 2008). For example, many enterprises sell their products across the national borders. They also organized various international events which not only bring the foreign currency in the nation, but also lead to the development of infrastructur e which further facilitates the growth of the country’s economy. There are different factors according to which the enterprises working in a country can be categorized. One of the criteria of dividing the enterprises is the objective of the organization. On the basis of the objectives, enterprises can be divided into two categories: for-profit organization and non-profit organization (Kerlin, 2009). The term â€Å"profit† represents the rewards that a business person seeks to get against the risk which is involved in the combining the people, technology and information to fulfill the demand and needs of the people of the country (Thuronyi, 1998). The enterprises with the objective of earning profit are called as for-profit organizations. Such organizations mainly help the country to grow financially and provide the source of income to its citizens. Apart from the acting as income source, these organizations also help the society by launching different social programs w hich are known as corporate social responsibility. They pay heavy taxes to the government which improves the infrastructure of the nation. Consumers are the major beneficiaries of such enterprises. Their major objective is to increase their profit, for which they try to attract as much as possible consumers. Inter rivalry among the different enterprises results in better quality products in the market at acceptable prices (Blackford, 2008). The other category of enterprises is known as the non-profit organizations. These are the enterprises which aim to work for the social development rather than earning profit for the owners (Kurtz & Boone 2008). They need to earn profits for their operations but their main objective to work for the society which is the major difference between them and for-profit organizations. They operate in both public and private sector. They help in the economic development by improving and fulfilling the social needs of the citizens like education, better sa nitation, and working for weaker section of the society (Keough, 2008). Both types of enterprises are different in nature, but both are required for the economic development of the nations. Government policies are the other major factor which defines the economic growth of a country. Fiscal policy and monetary policies are two tools that are

The Decision Making Process How Communication Is Important Essay Example for Free

The Decision Making Process How Communication Is Important Essay Good decision making is an essential skill for career success generally, and effective leadership particularly. If you can learn to make timely and well-considered decisions, then you can often lead your team to spectacular and well deserved success. However, if you make poor decisions your organization can tumble. Regardless of the size of business you are in whether a large corporation, a small company, or even a home based business effective communication skills are essential for success especially when a decision has to be made. Decision making in management is an important skill and making the right decisions is essential. Every manager should be looking to improve their decision making skills and communication skills. The process of business decision making is of the utmost importance for effective management. Decision making process in management must be informed by expert knowledge and experience in all departments. â€Å"The decision-making role in organizations is crucial. If things are going smoothly, there is not much for management to do, but if things go wrong or new opportunities arise, somebody has to decide on hiring and firing workers, investing in new machines or scrapping old ones, marketing new products and dropping old ones, and how to raise the necessary finance. † (Fong, Kwok, 2005) The role of management is to take these decisions, communicate with all the departments in the organization that are involved, and make the right decision. The people who do the managing, this may involve a members of the organizations at different ranks, with subordinates, branch, or assistant managers exercising limited caution, and the managing director as the overall boss of an organization, laying down general outline of policy, all of the people can help to carry out the decisions. They all need to communicate and bring out their point of views before making a decision. â€Å"The six step decision making process is a balanced decision making process. It is based upon thinking about, comparing and evaluating various alternatives. † (Dollak, 2008) Each step must be completed before going to the next step. And occasionally it may be necessary to go back several steps to more fully complete them before moving forward again. The steps are: * define the situation and the desired outcome * research and identify options * compare and contrast each alternative and its consequences * choose an alternative * design and implement an action plan * evaluate results Decision making is at the heart of business operations. High quality decision making is essential for businesses to succeed and prosper, and communication is really crucial during that time. Unfortunately, the decision process is hard to pin down and understand and often receives far less attention than it deserves. The future of ones business is written in the decisions of today. Every effort to make those decisions of high quality will be rewarded. Organizational decision making involves translating inputs of information to outputs of courses of action and implies that the capacity to act depends on a shared understanding among organizational members. â€Å"Interactive communication and decision making within the organization and any group within the organization, at that time there will be varied opinions on the suitable actions to take in any scenario but these differences exist within a structure of shared values and agreed procedures. † (Kelly, 1994) Decision making and communication in organization go hand in hand, one relates to another, and they are both essential in any organization.

A Study Of Rivers In Malaysia Environmental Sciences Essay

A Study Of Rivers In Malaysia Environmental Sciences Essay Heavy metals are most abundant forms of pollution in Malaysia either in the forms of solid or liquid. With the vast industrialization and economic development in coastal region, heavy metals are continuing to be introduced to the estuarine and coastal environment which eventually end up into the river, runoffs and land based area (Yu et al., 2007). Metals diffuses into the aquatic environment will settle down and be incorporated into sediments together with organic matters, Fe/Mn oxides, sulfides, and clay (Wang and Chen, 2000). However, heavy metal mobility or availability in contaminated materials depends to large extent upon the different chemical and mineralogical forms that occurred (Song et al., 1999). Therefore, sediments seem to be an excellent medium in the assessment of the metals bound to the particulates. Nonetheless, sediments are known to act as a sink for heavy metals to be introduced into waters either from both natural and anthropogenic sources thus providing an exce llent proof of mans impact (Pempkowiase et al., 1999; Guevara et al., 2005). In addition, they may also act as traps for various types of pollutants including heavy metals (Poh and Mun, 1994). Indeed, changes in environmental conditions such as pH and redox potential should be monitored since it may results in remobilization of heavy metals. Unfortunately, due to the scarcity of information available to establish the heavy metal concentration in sediment using sequential extraction, no data is presented concerning the heavy metal pollution in the rivers except for one author Shazili et al., 2008 on Langat River Basin. Heavy metals element is particularly crucial because any slight changes in availability may cause these elements to become either toxic or deficient to plant (Krishnamurti et al., 1995). In fact, sequential extraction analysis is a technique which is used to investigate the geochemical partitioning of heavy metals amongst solid mineral and organic phases in sediment or other earth minerals (Howard and Vandenbrink, 1999). Sequential fractionation also frequently used in approaches to evaluate metals distribution into different chemical forms present in solid phases. Although direct methods provide an unambiguous identification of the heavy metal forms and ways why they occur, they might not be sufficiently sensitive where heavy metals occur at relatively low levels and they do not provide quantitative information on heavy metal mobility and availability (Song et al., 1999). However, sequential extraction approach is undoubtedly useful since few attempts have completed and few modification have been made based on Tessier et al., (1979); such as Silviera et al., (2006); Krishnamurti et al., (1995); Song et al., (1999); Forghani et al., (2009), Poh and Mun, (1994). 2.0 Problem Statement Langat river, Bernam River and Klang River basin is located in the state of Selangor in which known to be the most developing states in Malaysia other than Kuala Lumpur. All of these rivers are primarily important as water source not only limited to supplying water to consumer but also for other purposes such as aquaculture and agriculture activity, fishing, effluent discharge, irrigation and even sand mining. With the vast industrialization held in the river such as sand mining it generate the release of metal bound in sediment into the water promoting metals diffussion into the aquatic organisms and eventually ends up into humans body. Moreover, each metals poses their own threat to human, particularly Cadmium (Cd) are known for causing adverse health effects, once ingest into our body it will cause lung cancer moreover it seldom important as a cause of phytotoxicity in paddy field (Chaney, 2010). On the other hand, Zinc (Zn) is a deficient and phytotoxic element in sediment which causes abdominal pain to humans, the latter due to industrial contamination (Chaney, 2010). Copper (Cu) in sediments strongly adsorbs to clay minerals, iron and manganese oxides and organic material. In addition, it tends to remain in horizons that have a greater organic content whereas sandy sediment with low pH poses the greatest potential for Cu leaching. On contrary, lead (Pb) is considered to be one of the major environmental pollutants and has been incriminated as a cause of accidental poisoning in domestic animals more than any other substance. In a nutshell, these metals are emboldened to be analyses since this metal endured high toxicity in the environment thus poses high potential threat and risk to humans and living organisms. 3.0 Significance of Study This study is prominent since in Malaysia there is only few attempted study using sequential extraction as medium in determining the fate of metals in environment. Particularly, this study will be useful as a baseline data for goverment bodies to be more sensitive on the issues related to heavy metals. On the other hand, this study will provide a delineation on the sources of metals which contribute the most anthropogenically or naturally to the environment since the major contributor on the environment deteroriation is a non point source. Therefore, identifying the potential sources is crucial in maintaining the environment. Nonetheless, by conducting this study it ables to generate a profound understanding on the sources and parent materials of which heavy metals are highly introduce to the estuary. Thus, contribute to the discovery of metals strength and percentage of binding to organic or inorganic pollutants. Hence, providing an illustration on the status of pollution in the sel ected rivers based on screening of the forms of metals associated in the river. In addition, the attempted method will utter a method development in assesing the metal in the environment. This study is beneficiary especially by the Department of Irrigation on the overview of the river status thus able to mitigate a scheme on reducing the metal accumulation into the river by identifying the source of pollution. 4.0 Research Objective To ascertain the chemical and mineralogical forms of Pb, Cu, Cd and Zn in selected polluted river. To profile the metal speciation (Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn) in the sediment at selected polluted river in Selangor. To determine the heavy metals affinity for specific geochemical phases in the recently deposited sediments in the river. To identify the pollution sources and active component of heavy metals accumulate into the surficial sediment and its chemical behavior in the aquatic environment. 5.0 Literature Review A river is component of water cycle. Mostly rainfall on land will passes through a river on its way to the ocean and smaller side streams will joins the river forming a tributaries (DID, 2010). In Malaysia, the water within a river generally originates from precipitation through surface runoff, groundwater recharge (as seen at base flow conditions / during periods of lack of precipitation) and release of stored water in natural or man-made reservoirs, such as wetlands, ponds or lakes (DID, 2010). Therefore, the rainfall will generate the surface runoff and flows into the river. While the runoff will collect all the suspended particulates on the land surface into the river. This is why source of metal is very hard to trace since it is a non point sources elements which diffuse into the river Basin. Therefore, in this case sediments play an important role in identication of the metals since it acts as transport and storage of potentially hazardous metals (Yu et al., 2008). Bernam River is approximately about 3335 km2 and it forms a boundary between States of Perak in the north and Selangor in the south. The undulating hills of Bernam River merge into an undeveloped peat swamp area where the downstream of the peat swamp is a densely populated coastal strip along the Bernam River. Rice is cultivated in the lower areas ad- jacent to peat swamps and rubber, oil palm, coconuts and cocoa are cultivated in estates and smallholder schemes. Agrochemicals (fertilizers and herbicides) used on agricultural lands suggest a potential non-point source of pollution and toxicity affecting the aquatic ecosystems (Yap and Ong, 1990). Logging generates pollution through soil erosion, siltation and sedimentation in the streams. On the other hand, Langat River basin covered an area of 1300 km2 in the south of Kuala Lumpur and the length of Langat River is approximately about 120 km long (Sarmani, 1989). Langat river known as an important water source not only limited to sup plying water to consumer but also for other purposes such as recreation, fishing, effluent discharge, irrigation and even sand mining (Juahir, 2009). Whereas, Klang River is notable as a highly polluted river in Selangor which flows through Kuala Lumpur and suburban area of the densely populated and highly industrialized Klang Valley (Tan, 1995). The upper reaches of the Klang River serve as an important source of water supply to an estimated population of two million people in this region, together with its growing industrial activities (Tan, 1995). According to the Environmental Quality Report (Department of Environment, 2007), the Klang River is regarded as one of the rivers which have been seriously affected by pollution. Discharges of wastewater from industrial activities in the Klang River basin have also contributed to increasing levels of organic chemical pollutants in the waterways. However, metals in sediment comes in various forms of elements. Therefore, each metals may give beneficiary and may also cause a potential threat to human. Once consumable in our body it might cause a significant imbalance thus causing deformities and poor health (Birungi et al., 2008). Sediment are an important features in the river any activities occured related to sediment such deepen or mining may cause the release of heavy metals into the river. This is because heavy metals may enter into natural water and become a part of the water sediment system and their distribution processes are controlled by a dynamic set of physical-chemical interactions and equilibrium (Jain, 2003). Therefore, the metals may bind to the aquatic organisms. Since these river is an essential water source in the state of Selangor, any aquaculture activity held in the river may have a significant potential of heavy metals accumulate into the fish or prawns. On the other hand, the deposition of metals in sedi ments usually occurs through an interaction between sediment and water (Piron et al., 1990), whereby changes of metal contents of sediments and water depend on changes of water chemistry, such as, temperature, pH and solute concentration. That is why such study is prominent since metals interactions between bed sediment and water in aquatic environment play an important role on water quality and the fate and transport of metals. There are series of modification of sequential extraction technique have been made upon the suitability of the study. The recent modification are introduce by Silviera et al., 2006 which proposed to the studies specifically on the tropical soil. This method listed out seven fractionation steps which each illustrates the metal bound particulate in the sediments. The first three fractionation steps explains the geochemical condition of the sediment whereas the fourth to the seventh steps refers to the anthropogenic conditions. This method is an alternative way to determine the source of metals, because the anthropogenically sourced metals preferentially partition to the non-residual phase of the sediment while the residual phase generally reflects background geochemical conditions (Forghani et al., 2009). Moreover, this method were chosen since it selectively extracts metal bound by specific sediment fractions with minimal effect on the other sediment components (Silviera et al., 2006) . In addition, this method are an important tool for predicting the potential effects of environmental changes and land application of metals on the redistribution of chemical forms in tropical sediments (Silviera et al., 2006). 6.0 Research Methodology Sediment Sampling Thirty representative surficial sediments (0-20cm depth) will be taken from selected polluted river in Selangor from upstream to downstream of the river. Surface sediments samples will be collected in triplicates and homogenised in a zip lock polyethylene bags. The sampling will be conducted during low tide to enable the source of pollution from the mainland to be determined without the influence of input from seawater compared to sampling during high tide. Sediment samples will be collected using plastic scoops, Eckman Grab or core sampler and place into acid-washed double zip-lock polyethylene bag. All samples will be stored in cool box at 4 °C during transportation to the laboratory prior to analysis. Sampling preparation The laboratory apparatus are also acid washed and rinsed thoroughly first with distilled water to ensure any contaminants and traces of cleaning reagent were removed before the analysis. Pre-clean polycarbonate centrifuge tube with soaked overnight in 5 % (v/v) nitric acid rinsed with distilled water after 24 hours prior to analysis. It is performed in clean laboratory to minimize the potential risk of contamination. Laboratory Analysis Physicochemical parameters such as pH, redox potential, salinity and conductivity will be measured using the 1:2 ratio of sediment and double deionized water (DDW). In addition, cations exchange capacity (CEC) and loss on ignition (LOI) will also be determined in the study. Physicochemical Parameters The sediment physicochemical analyses will be determined by mixing 10 g of air dried sample ( Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) Sediment samples for CEC determination will be prepare in two 10 g portions, one for treatment with a 1 M NaCl solution and other with a 1 M NH4Cl solution. Approximately about 10 ml of 95% ethanol will be carefully poured on sediment sample and drawn through the sediment by suction. The ethanol remaining in the sediment will later be removed by overnight evaporation. Then, the sediment will be transferred to small 50 ml Polycarbonate centrifuge tubes. Hence, about 30 ml of 1M NaCl was applied to one set of sub samples and 1 M NH4Cl solution was added to other set. The centrifuge tubes contains with the sediment pre-treated with NaCl and NH4Cl then will be shaken end over end for about 10-20 minutes and subsequently centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 30 minutes in order to settle the fines. After the samples are centrifuged, the supernatant will be removed with syringe and filter through a 0.45  µm filter. About 15 ml of sample will be used for the analysis of Ca, Mg, and K from the NaCl supernatant solution and preserved with 1% 7M HNO3. Meanwhile, the solution from NH4Cl supernatant will be used for determination of Na and also preserved with 1% 7M HNO3. Sample analysis for Ca, Mg, Na and K adopted similar procedure as in the case of major cations determination. The exchangeable cation concentration are converted from meq/100g to equivalent fractions (ÃŽÂ ²T) as (Apello Postma, 2005) ÃŽÂ ²T = meqI-Xz_____ à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬ËœI, Jà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. meqI-Xz Where I, J,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. are exchangeable cations, meqI-Xi is normally given in meq/100 g dry sediment and à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ meqI-Xz is essential equal to CEC, ignoring minor amounts of Fe, Mn, etc. Loss of Ignition (LOI) Dry a sample in an oven at 105 °C to constant weight. Accurately weigh 1g of this dried sample and pour into a preweighed dry crucible. Optionally, a few drops of H2O2 may be added at this stage to promote oxidation. The samples will be transfered into muffle furnace and gradually increase the temperature to 500 °C. Leave inside the oven at this temperature for at least 4h or overnight if convenient. Cool, transfer to a dessicator and allow it to cool to room temperature. Weigh and calculate loss on ignition in % as: LOI (%) = 100 x (M1 M2) M1 Where M1 is the initial weight (g) and M2 is the weight after ignition (g). Sequential Extraction Procedure The methods that will be used in this study are based on modification methods from (Silviera et al., 2006). The fractionation of heavy metals in sediments will be carried out in triplicate, using 1 g of air-dried sediment. Then, sediment samples will be placed in 50 ml polycarbonate centrifuge tubes, mixed in a stepwise fashion with various reagents as shown in figure 1, and the suspensions equilibrated. By following equilibration, the solution and solid phases will then be separated by centrifugation at 1225 g for 10 min. In between each successive extraction, the solid residues are suspended in 5 ml of 0.1 M NaCl, shaken by hand, and centrifuged to displace extracting solution remaining from the previous step. The supernatant will be added to the former extractant. The steps are intended to reduce sample dispersion and to minimize read sorption of the metal. The supernatants will be filtered through a 0.45  µm membrane, and the solid residues are preserved for the subsequent extr actions. The concentrations of Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd in the various extracts will be determined by Inductive Couple Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Mass balances, calculated by summing individual Pb, Cd, Cu and Zn masses recovered from fractions, were compared with the independently determined total metal masses. Data Analysis Further data analysis will be conducted using the raw data obtained from the sample analysis. Descriptive analysis, cluster analysis, factor Analysis will be conducted using few softwares such as SPSS version 17 and Multivariate Statistical Package (MVSP) and AQUACHEM. Enrichment factors (EF) will be calculated to determine the level of trace metal contamination of the sediments. 7.0 Project Benefit Research Publications 2 research journal with impact factor Output expected from the project It is expected that several publication can be produced from the data obtained in this study which useful as a reference for future research. It will provide the latest information on the level of metal pollution in Selangor which useable for relevant authority to make the future planning and management purposes. Economic contribution of the project By using the information gathered in this research, the relevant government bodies can make better planning and take preventive measures to avoid further contamination of the river as it is crucial source for the nation fisheries and aquaculture activity. Moreover, important because a lot of the population which resides near the mangrove area depend on it for their livelihood. Since, the destruction or contamination of this area will affect their source of income. The reduction in fisheries produce from the mangrove area due to metal pollution will results in higher imports of fish products which in turn increase the outflow of money from the country. 8.0 References Apello, C.A.J Postma, D. 2005. Geochemistry, groundwater and pollution. 2nd edition. Roterdam: Balkema. Birungi, Z., Masola, B., Zaranyika, M. F., Naigaga, I. and Marshall, B. (2008). Active biomonitoring of trace heavy metals using fish (Oreochromis niloticus) as bioindicator species:the case of Nakivubo wetland along lake victoria. Chaney, R. L., 2010. Cadmium and Zinc. Trace Element in Soils. Wiley Publication. United Kingdom. Department of Environment, 2007. DOE Annual Report 2007. Retrieved from http://www.doe.gov.my/files/multimedia141/AR_JAS.pdf on 10 October 2010. DID, 2010. Department of Irrigation. River Management-Activities. Retrieved on 5 October 2010 at http://www.water.gov.my/index.php?option=com_contenttask= Forghani et al., 2009. Geochemistry and speciation of metals in sediments of the Maharlu Saline Lake, Shiraz, SW Iran. Environment Earth Science (2009) 59:173-184 Guevara et al., 2005. In Yu, R., Yuan, X., Zhao, Y., Hu, G., Tu, X., 2008. Heavy metal pollution in intertidal sediments from Quanzhou Bay, China. Journal of Environment Science 20, 664-669. Howard J. L., Vandenbrink W. J., 1999. Sequential extraction analysis of heavy metals in sediments of variable composition using nitrilotriacetic acid to counteract resorption. Jain, C. K., 2003. Metal fractionation study on bed sediments of River Yamuna, India. Water Research 38 (2004) 569-578 Juahir, H., Zain, S., Yusoff, M., Hanidza, T., Armi, A., Toriman, M. and Mokhtar, M., 2010. Spatial water quality assessment of Langat River Basin (Malaysia) using environmetric techniques. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. Krishnamurti, G. S. R., Huang, P. M., Van Rees, K. C. J., Kozak, L. M. and Rostad, H. P. W., 1995. Speciation of particulate-bound Cadmium of Soils and its bioavailability. Analyst, 120.851. Pempkowiase J., Sikora A., Biernacka E., 1999. Speciation of heavy metals in marine sediments vs their accumulation by mussels. Chemosphere 1999:39(2):313-21. Piron, M., Pineau, A. and Mabele, R.M., 1990. Sediment, parameters and distribution of metals in fine sediments of the loire estuary. Water, Air, Amp; Soil Pollution 50(3), 267-277. Poh E. L., Mun Y. K., 1994. Determination and speciation of heavy metals in sediments of the Juru river, Penang, Malaysia. Environmental Monitoring Assessment 35:85-95, 1995. Sarmani, S., 1989. The determination of heavy metals in water, suspended materials and Sediments from Langat River, Malaysia. Hydrobiologia 176/177 : 233-238, 1989 . Shazili, N.A.M., Yunus, K., Ahmad, A.S., Abdullah, N. and Rashid, M.K.A., 2006. Heavy metal pollution status in the Malaysian aquatic environment. Aquatic Ecosystem Health Management 9(2), 137-145. Silviera, M. L., Alleoni, L. R. F., OConnor, G. A., Chang, A. C., 2006. Heavy metal sequential extraction methods A modification for tropical soils. Chemosphere 64 (2006) 1929-1938. Song, Y., Wilson, M.J., Moon, H.S., Bacon, J.R. and Bain, D.C., 1999. Chemical and mineralogical forms of lead, zinc and cadmium in particle size fractions of some wastes, sediments and soils in Korea. Applied Geochemistry 14(5), 621-633. Tan, G. H., (1995). Residue Levels of Phthalate Esters in Water and Sediment Samples from the Klang River Basin. Environment Contamination and Toxicology 54:171-1769 1995 Springer-Verlag New York Inc. Tessier, A., Campbell, P. G. C., Bisson, M., 1979. Sequential Extraction Procedure for the Speciation of Particulate Trace Metals. Analytical Chamistry, Vol 51, No 7, June 1979. US EPA, 1996. Method 3050B. Acid digestion of sediments, sludges and soils. Available from http://www.epa.gov/osw/hazard/testmethods/sw846/pdfs/3050b.pdf viewid=16Itemid=395 Yap, S.Y. and Ong, H.T. (1990) The effects of agrochemicals on an aquatic ecosystem: a case study from the Krian River basin, Malaysia. The Environmentalist 10(3), 189 ±202. Yu, R., Yuan, X., Zhao, Y., Hu, G., Tu, X., 2008. Heavy metal pollution in intertidal sediments from Quanzhou Bay, China. Journal of Environment Science 20, 664-669.