Fundamental Problems of Economic System Essay

Before we further move on we have to know about the sources of economic problems and a brief about the economic system. 1. 2. 1 Scarce Means and Unlimited Wants Want is Want is an effective desire for a thing, which can be satisfied by making an effort for obtaining it. We have unlimited wants and as one want gets satisfied another arises. For instance, one may have the desire to buy a car or a flat. Once the car or the flat is purchased, the person wishes to buy a more spacious and designable car and the list of his wants does not stop here but goes on one after another. As human wants are unlimited, we have to make a choice between the most urgent want and less urgent wants. Thus the problem of choice arises. Means also known as resources are limited. Means are the ways to derive the satisfaction of the various wants. For instance, money is an important means to satisfy many of our wants. As stated, means are scarce and as such these are to be used optimally. In other words scarce or limited means are to be judicially used and economized to get the maximum satisfaction. Another problem which is to be viewed is that resources have alternative uses i. e. the same resource can be used for more than one purpose. For example, money can be used either buying a laptop or a play station, all depends on how you perceive the urge of the desire or want you want to satisfy. 1. 2. 2 An Economic System or Economy The term economic system can be defined as a set of techniques by which a society decides and create balance between resources and unlimited human wants. It therefore clearly signifies that being a part of social system not only natural resources but also man made resources also get included in the economic system. The economic system thus comprises of people and institutions like banks, markets etc. The set of parameters thus used to determine the components of economic system is very dynamic and depends upon various factors like social, political, geographical and climatic etc. This shows that we can distinguish the two economies, no economy in the world will be same. The difference can be judged on the basis of control of the economy For Example: The economic system of the country can also be based on the basis of involvement of society, more involvement of society in the economy and the decision are taken with a view of society and equitable distribution of wealth is characteristic of Socialist Economy. Contrarily if the economy is decentralized and the power lies in the hands of private enterprises then the said economy is capitalist economy. Primarily the difference is done on the basis of the control but other things like growth, production of the economy can also be used to judge the economic scenario of the two economies, the production done in a fiscal year, purchasing power of the people and employment are primarily the factors considered. 1. 2. 3 Economic Agents Economic agents are the key units of the economic system, the whole economy revolves around them. Producers, consumers, institutions and various other bodies come under this category. The agents are considered to be the most critical part of the economy as they guide and drive the economy by their actions. Check your progress A 1. What is an economic system? Ans. Economic system or economy is known a set of principles by which problems of economics are addressed, such as the economic problem of scarcity through allocation of finite productive resources. The economic system thus comprises of people and institutions like banks, markets etc. . 3 FACTORS OF PRODUCTION Production process is an end to end activity which means that there is a relational pedagogy between input and output. Factors of production also known as productive inputs are the resources employed to produce goods and services, thus it constitutes the input part of the production process. Factors of production involve in the production process and improves the working of the process but do not form the ultimate part of the product. Factors of production can be broadly classified as: 1. Land . Labour 3. Capital 4. Entrepreneurship 1. 3. 1 Land In economics, land includes all natural resources which are free gift of nature. Thus, by land economists do not mean only agricultural soil, but also other natural resources such as minerals, water, climate and forests. Payment for use of land per period is called Rent. Land as factor of production implies the ground used to built and start the production moreover it serves as a pool of various minerals and valuable natural resources which facilitates the human mankind. Land is a fixed factor of production and thus it is not possible to increase. Land helps to facilitate the production only if the efficient workforce is used to generate the maximum output out of the limited resource. This means optimum utilisation of resources. 1. 3. 2 Labour Labour represents all physical and mental abilities which people can make available for production of goods and services. Labour is usually measured by the time spent in working during a period. Reward made per period of labour is called Wages. Labour is a non homogeneous factor of production. There are set of people in the underlying category which can be distinguished as skilled and unskilled worker. The workers that are skilled and educated are used in the operations of a more complex job requiring special skills and training and the other category belongs to the lower level working operations. The two factors which highlight the labour are efforts put in and performance which correlates the efficiency. The efforts put in by a labour can be modified with the motivational analysis that can help the person to make the worker work produce more. As land is the natural or passive factor in all production, so labour is the human or active factor. All the production results with the action of labour thus it can be said that labour is producer of all wealth. In economics the labour and capital is said to be the primary factors of production and from their union all of the production comes. 1. 3. 3 Capital Capital, which is not in itself a distinguishable element, but which it must always be kept in mind consists of wealth applied to the aid of labour in further production, is not a primary factor. There can be production without it, and there must have been production without it, or it could not in the first place have appeared. It is a secondary and compound factor, coming after and resulting from the union of labour and land in the production of wealth. Capital refers to man made resources of production. Labour plays an integral role in the capital formation, here too state of labour effects and relates with the capital formation an efficient worker will generate additional capital with additional production. Here the term investment arise which is the amount of capital formation in a year. The capital formation with a viewpoint of economy will include the accumulated part of the production process. The production is a continuous process and hence a halt can hamper the production in a big way, thus there is always some production in progress and some products add to the production of other products appreciating the value of the products will lead to the capital formation. 1. 3. 4 Entrepreneurship Entrepreneur represents a special human resource which provides his entrepreneurial abilities to the enterprise. Entrepreneur plays a crucial role in a free market economy it integrates all the factors of production land, labour and capital to produce the output with a view of anticipating all the losses if the output fails in the free market. Entrepreneur always is in the risky situation as he is the one who bears all d cost of inducing the other factors of production into the production process and the profits are the rewards of the entrepreneur at the end of everything. Nowadays Venture Capitalists and other financer are willing to diversify the risk of the new entrepreneur. The existence of the entrepreneurship as a part of factor of production is still debatable. Check Your Progress B 1. List the major factors of production? Ans. Major Factors of production are as follows: a. Land b. Labour c. Capital d. Entrepreneurship 1. 4 FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS OF AN ECONOMY Every economy has to face some problems as scarcity of resources having alternative uses in relation to demand give rise to the choice problem. The allocation of resources is the fundamental problem of the economy. These Fundamental problems are: 1. What to produce? 2. How to produce? 3. For whom to produce? 4. The choice between current consumption and growth through saving and investment. 1. 4. 1 What to produce? This question arises from the fact of limited resources in the society now apparently society has to decide which goods have to be produced and in which quantities, now it is clear that some of the goods have to be produced and some have to be foregone. This lead us to take an intermediate solution of what we must produce and what we must not as the goods that are foregone also have some wants associated with it which leads some of the customers dissatisfied. Another problem attached with the production is allocation of resources like for example if we have to produce product A and product B, both of them will require the exhaustion of the resources, here the problem of allocation of resources comes into picture as to how much resources we must allocate to which product. This is necessarily not an issue of the developing countries as developed countries can also face the problem of allocation of resources. 1. 4. 2 How to Produce? This is the problem of choosing method or technique of production which means that what combinations of factors a society decides to produce goods. For example if the economy decides to produce product A then how the production will take place and allocation of resources has to be decided. A combination of factors in appropriate amount for the production is known as the technique of production. The things that come into consideration while taking the decision of how to allocate the factors and which factors to be used can be decided with the current economic scenario. For example in developing countries where there is abundance of labour and relatively lesser amount of capital there we can use Labour Intensive Technique for the production and similarly in developed countries where labour is relatively less and capital is more, then Capital Intensive Technique can be adopted for the production purposes. The basic criteria of choosing the different types of technique in the different kind of scenario would be based on 1. Availability of the supplies of resources 2. Prices of the different resources which must lead to most cost effective way of production. The problem here is that the scarcity of resources which requires that the available resources must be used judicially and efficiently, if not economy has to face the inefficiency and thus productivity will hamper. 1. 4. 3 For Whom to Produce? This is the problem related with the issue of the distribution of the national product among the society. Society is a very vast term and includes a lot of components and consumers which include the ultimate consumers of the national produce thus it is very critical to state an effective distribution strategy, society thus itself decides how much is to distributed in what quantities. In a free market economy it is the income of the individual which is the deciding factor that how much he can purchase out of the available resources, Higher the income higher is the power to utilise the resource in his favour. The distribution strategy is also not free to operate in the economy on the basic principles of demand and supply there are certain factors which governs the marketing mechanism like from socialist perspective focus is on the providing basic necessities to all and generate motivation in the people to generate additional income by doing additional work, Similarly there has o be different strategies to be adopted in case of different economic structure. The problem of distribution does not have an easy way out it implies that there is always conflict of ideologies in setting up of the distribution strategy. 1. 4. 4 The Problem of Growth Economic growth suggests that there is an increase in the production of goods and services on a continuous basis. Growth thus i mplies that the economy must move on with increase in the substantial amount of the investment. Capital formation is thus necessary and for the expansion of the stock there has to be a sacrifice in the present level of consumption. If all the stock is used up and nothing is there for the future use, there will be no capital formation and thus no growth. 1. 4. 5 Choice between Public and Private Goods 1. Public Goods: It is those types of goods that can not be restricted and bounded by the use of an individual. The basic characteristic of these types of goods are: a) Consumption of the good by one person does not lead to the reduction in the availability for the consumption of others. b) No body can not get excluded from using the good. Free to air television channels are the examples of these types of goods. These are the goods available to all and anybody can see without getting obstruction in a way these goods comes as a right to a person. These goods satisfy a collective want of the society. 2. Private Goods: These types of goods are the just opposite of what we have just read Public Goods. The main characteristics or the Private Goods are: a) Consumptions by one consumer prevent simultaneous consumption by other consumers. b) It is reasonably possible to prevent a class of  consumers from consuming the good. Private goods are produced and marketed with a perspective of profit and it just satisfies an individual want. Bread can be one of the examples of Private Goods. 1. 4. 6 The Problem of Merit Goods The merit goods are those goods which follow the concept of need, rather than ability and willingness to pay. For example: Health Services it helps the society on the whole and caters the need at individual level, but since it is a costly merit service the same has to be privatised which results in the acquisition of services only by those whom have the power to pay the more money. Thus Merit Goods merit remains effective till it helps the individual as well society on a holistic level. Check Your Progress C 1. What is capital formation? Ans. Capital formation is the term used to coin the additional things added into the economy on account of growth. Capital stock added in the financial year counts on account of capital formation when it comes to real and tangible products and in case of services the additional value generated by rendering services that appreciates the value of Gross National Product. 1. 5 PRODUCTION POSSIBILITY CURVE Production possibility curve is also known as Production Possibility Frontier or Transformation Curve. Production Possibility curve is a curve which depicts Graphical  representation  of the alternative combinations of the amounts of two goods or services that an economy can produce by transferring resources from one good or service to the other. As the total productive resources of the economy are limited, the economy has to choose between different goods. The resources can be put into different types of goods it is therefore necessary to decide which product to be produced more and which has to be less. Assumptions underlying: 1. Given or fixed amount of resources available in the economy. 2. Given resources are being used fully and with utmost efficiency. 3. Technology does not undergo any change. Production possibility curve can be drawn with the help of a schedule that can be depicted between the two goods which can be produced with the full utilisation and efficient employment of given resources. This can be drawn on the basis of schedule for example we take Cloth and Tanks. Production Possibilities| Cloth| Tanks| A| 0| 15| B| 1| 14| C| 2| 12| D| 3| 9| E| 4| 5| F| 5| 0| This schedule when depicted on a graphical format takes a convex shape and depicts the optimum number of combinations of the two products with the given level of resources in hand. 1. 6. 1 Resource Allocation in a Capitalist Economy Capitalism, broadly speaking, is the economic system in which financial considerations dominate. It is a system in which the quest for financial reward is the driving force shaping what is done, by whom, how, where and when. This concept basically works on two dimensions: freedom of economic choice and freedom of enterprise. Freedom of choice means that in a world of scarce resources the individual is free to make his own decisions. Freedom of enterprise is usually more narrowly defined as the freedom to own and operate a business. Price Mechanism plays an important role in the role of determining the process of buying and selling. Market forces determine the price and quantity to be produced in the economy with the interaction demand and supply. In such economy the goods and services produced in the society with the aim of generating profit and thus the resources are allocated to the goods which provide better results on account of profit. The biggest concern een and faced in this type of economy is of income inequality, due to the price mechanism and profit motive the goods are not supplied to the poor and the philosophy rich is become richer and poor becomes poorer prevails. 1. 6. 2 Resource Allocation in a Socialist Economy Socialist economy is a structure of the economy which aims at providing great er equality and giving the working class greater ownership over the means of production. In a socialist economy or a socialist state believes that socialism is the most equitable and socially serviceable form of an economic arrangement designed to achieve human potentialities. Socialist economies are characterized by the means of production owned by the state or by the workers collectively called socialism. The authorities decide in a planned economy how the resource must allocate in a profitable manner which benefits the society at large, market forces are not allowed to influence the decision at all. It is the government who takes control of all the resources and decides what to produce and in what quantities. They produce with the perspective of the society at large and not with the view of the earning profit. 1. 6. 3 Resource Allocation in a Mixed Economy A Mixed Economy is an economy in which the decisions are taken in the combined manner some is taken by the market forces and some are taken under government regulation. The mixed economy as an economic ideal is supported by social democrats as a compromise between classic socialism. The production process is governed in a semi segregated manner, Critical sectors which are important with respect to the country as a whole is kept in hands of the government and rest consumer goods are kept open in the economy to kept work accordingly to the market mechanism. Check Your Progress D 1. What is production possibility curve? Ans. Production Possibility curve also known as Production Possibility Frontier is a curve which shows the combination of two or more goods or services that can be produced while using all the available factor resources efficiently. For Example: We can allocate the resources in the production of the cloths and tank. 1. 7. LETS SUM UP Knowledge has many branches and economics is an important and useful branch of knowledge because problems of poverty, unemployment, lack of growth, inflation which face all economies are best explained and explored and being solved with the help of Economics. An economic system can be defined as a â€Å"set of methods and standards by which a society decides and organizes the allocation of limited economic resource to satisfy unlimited human wants. The precise nature of economic system varies from society to society. Because , Economic system is the economics category that includes the study of respective systems. Means of production are the inputs used for production. The key term production is likely to be explained as the creation of an item or a production that gives maximum satisfaction to the people. Means of production can be classified into groups of homogenous (products having same features and can be substituted) and heterogeneous (products having different features from one another) units. There are various types of productive resources which are also generally called factors of production. Economists traditionally classify productive resources into four types: (a) Land – Includes all natural resources which are free gift of nature. Payment for use of land per period is called rent. b) Labour – Represents all physical and mental abilities which people can make available for production of goods and services. Reward made per period for labour services is called wages. (c) Capital – Refers to sum total of all man – made resources of production. Its formation in a year is called investment. (d) Entrepreneur – represents special human resource which initiates and organises the production process by combining other resources such as labour, capit al and land. In every economy, scarcity of resources gives rise to four fundamental problems of economy. These are: (i) what to produce – means which goods and in what quantity are to be produced, (ii) how to produce – means which methods of production are to be used for the production of goods and services, whether, labour or capital intensive, (iii) for whom to produce – means how the goods produced are to be distributed among the people, (iv) how much to grow – means how much to be saved and invested for increasing the productive capacity of the economy. The problem of what to produce is generally illustrated with the help of Production Possibility Curve (PPC) which is based on some simple assumptions. It gives an idea to the economy about what to produce and in how much quantity with full utilisation of its resources with given techniques of production and thus simultaneous increase in production cannot take place without reducing any one product. With economic growth only, it is possible to move PPC outwards and make simulataneous increase in production of all goods. Allocation of resources is different in every economic system. In capitalist economy, it takes place through relation between supply, demand and price forces wherein the means of production are owned by private sectors. Accordingly, it is the demand pattern in the economy which finally determines the resource allocation. In a socialist economy, the means of production are owned by government which tries to reduce income and wealth inequalities. Individual economic units are restricted in their decisions on the basis of economic rationality. In a mixed economy, both individual economic units and authorities take part in decision making process where even private sectors sometimes work under the government regulations such as price controls, subsidies and so on.

Higher Education Essay

Higher education is the key to new worlds. In past decades, college education was seen as a privilege which few had access to. Nowadays, it has become a culminating stage in people’s life. Higher education has proved that it has a monetary value, as the salary of a person with a college education is higher than that of a person with a high school education. Some people have sold the idea that a higher education is a waste of time and money, and that such education should only be offered to a limited group of people. However, what make these people believe they have the power to decide what others should do or not do with their lives? In my opinion, everyone should pursue a higher education because it would help to reduce monopolization of wealth and power, it would allow people to exercise their freedom and create more opportunities in their lives. Monopolization of wealth and power could be reduced by higher education. As long as the wealthy and powerful people keep the knowledge from those who are hungry of it, the economy will remain the same. As Linda Lee recalls from Caroline Bird: â€Å"College doesn’t make people intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal or quick to learn new things. It’s the other way around. Intelligent, †¦people are attracted to college in the first place† (671). I believe higher education enables people to acquire new skills and develop their intellectual capacities and grow as individuals, and of course this represents a danger for those who prefer to maintain a monopolized power and wealth from others. On the other hand, I do agree at some point with Lee that college education is being wasted on today’s youth. I have seen how here in America people are more interest in the â€Å"college experience† than focus on their education. It might also be true that the rate of lack of interest in a college education nowadays is higher than those who attended college fifty years ago. However, I do believe that fifty years ago there were also people who went to college for other reasons than learning; who can as sures us that Lee at some point of her years as a college student was not immersed in the â€Å"college experience†. Even when there are cases where people do not have a choice whether go to college or not, for the rest of the people go to college is a decision that resides within themselves. I disagree with Lee that college should not be offer for everyone. She even attacked people with learning disabilities, people who might do their best to be at the same level than the rest of us. It is usually these types of people who achieve more goals than those with not learning disabilities. Coupled with Lee’s perspective, there are also people who see college as something out of their reach. As David Leonhardt said: â€Å"†¦.For those families on the fence-often deciding whether a student will be the first to attend-the skepticism becomes one more reason to stop at high school† (646). For many families with low incomes, a higher education for their children can be the key for a better future, an even when most of the college can be expensive, there are many other college that can allow these young people to achieve a scholarship and even a four years degree without spending a penny. Thus, there are also thousands of students who do not have clear which career they should pursue. It is not a surprise that many of them decided to change careers after one of two semesters or even a coupled years. I think that as long as they are doing what they feel passion for, there should be allow changing their minds. After all, we are humans and change and mistakes are part of our nature. A higher education can create more opportunities for people. College allows students gain experiences that will help them in and out of the classroom. In college there are no more teachers trying to help them to get a decent grade, students are expose to the real world were things come to those who seek them instead of waiting for things to come to them. Gary Gutting said:† â€Å"Students, in turn, need to recognize that their college education is above all a matter of opening themselves up to new dimensions of knowledge and understanding†(628). I believe that higher education not only allows the possibility of a better future, also allows the person to develop personal, intellectual and social skills that can be used in daily life. Among with this, a higher education can enable people to get better jobs and create a better life for themselves and their families. Those who obtained a bachelor’s degree can find better jobs than those who only have a high  school degree. Perhaps the economic situation does not change much for them but it can mean a significant change for future generations. Moreover, the opportunities can be better for people with a higher education. Trying to decide what people want for their future may be uncertain when they do not have idea of ​​what they want. However, a simple way to find the right path is by making mistakes and learning from them. Whether people abandon the medical school to become engineers, as long as they do what is right for them, this decision should not become an obstacle for others. We live in a free country and no one can stop us to be who we are meant to be.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch

â€Å"There is No Such Thing as Free Lunch,† although is a clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ statement, is true. Nothing comes without a price, although whether the price involves money or not, is still there. Corepower Yoga, off Kipling and C-470, offers one free week of yoga to new time customers. The yoga is unlimited for the week and has no strings attached such as continued membership. Although the ad is labeled as free, and monetary it really is, due to trade-offs, benefit/cost analysis, and comparative benefit/cost analysis the free week of yoga comes with a price. The definition of trade-offs is giving up something to get something. Getting a free week of yoga at Corepower Yoga is great, but what if a different yoga center is better? Corepower Yoga does many hot yoga classes. This means that the room will be heated up to one hundred and five degrees and the humidity turned up to fifty percent. This could create a lot of discomfort and strain to new yoga users that they are not ready for. In addition, there are only about six classes a day, so the timing could not be right, considering there is a gap of classes between the times of twelve and four. These things could be wrong for a customer making the trade-off a costly thing. Another cost would be whether yoga is worthwhile or not. This is called benefit/cost analysis. Going to yoga involves working out and time and these are costs. Yoga creates a healthier body, more flexibility, more balance, and increased stamina. These are all positives, but take hard work to reach and maintain, which just one free week will not get you. To reach the full potential, a membership will be required, which is a monetary cost. If the addition of a membership is not taken at the end of the week, the yoga that has been done would not be very effective. A continuous membership costs about a hundred dollars a week for unlimited yoga. Not all people can afford this. One week of free yoga, although technically free, has the potential to cost more later on. This brings up the thought of if this week is a good deal, is it the best deal? This is called comparative benefit/cost analysis. Working out has benefits, but is yoga the best method? A gym also offers good workout potential. There are many different machines, work out classes, possibly tanning, and a very upbeat environment. Yoga is just one class and a very relaxed environment. Yoga created relaxation about life, and helps to distress the body, whereas working out just focuses on toning the body. The membership costs are about the same, but Corepower Yoga offers a free week to test out all of the things it has to offer. Nothing comes freely. Corepower Yoga's advertisement offers one free week of yoga to all new users. This is false advertisement, because it is not free. It must be taken into consideration the time, location, hard work, and the schedule of Corepower Yoga. All of these things cost something, although it may not deal with money are very important to the decision of taking up the offer or not.

Term Paper One Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Term Paper One - Article Example formulate their general HR strategy and then how such will influence their international recruitment strategy and what HR processes and policies they attempt to transfer. Obviously, Marriott International seeks to sustain and create a level of stability in their practices of managing people globally. The company knows that in order to be successful in the UK, it may also have to adjust its HR policies and practices to the particular regulatory, social, and economic conditions of the host country. Increasing regulation and economic instability are determined as two of the most difficult challenges confronting Marriott International in the UK (Nickson, 2013). This paper evaluates the key features of the equality and diversity policy of Marriott International, and critically examines the challenges in operationalizing the policy and the approaches which could be taken to ensure effective implementation. With roughly 133,000 employees across the globe, making up a broad array of cultural experiences, knowledge, and backgrounds, Marriott is thriving by willingly and committedly accepting and nurturing the diversity of its labour force (Clarke & Chen, 2009, p. 253). Consequently, Marriott has received numerous awards and recognitions for their initiatives to foster a diverse workforce, such as the Lifetime Achievement Award granted to the company in 2005 by the National Society of Minorities in Hospitality. Their attempts to nurture a diverse labour force undoubtedly established their general reputation as one of the most respected firms in America (Clarke & Chen, 2009). Not like numerous less profitable companies, an important part of Marriott’s strategy is that diversity concerns are not tackled merely by a separate, independent program that suggests detaching diversity concerns from the core features of the company. Hence, diversity is not only a matter of acquiring a cultur ally diverse workforce, but in looking for ways to incorporate and apply such diversity

UK Coffee Industry Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

UK Coffee Industry - Case Study Example Dominance of instant coffee is attributed to a combination of aggressive marketing and branding campaigns by brand manufacturers, as well as the price consciousness and brand loyalty characteristic of coffee drinkers. However, instant coffee growth rates lag behind ground and roast, increasing only by 11.1% from 2003-2005, compared to 13.6% for the latter, which can be attributed to the development of new pod technologies and the decreasing prices of coffee machines, which allows consumers greater convenience in home brewing; and the prevalence of repertoire drinkers2, indicating an increase in consumers drinking both instant and ground coffee. The market is also highly segmented with distinct divisions in terms of age groups, geography, and consumer behaviour. Demographically, consumption increases with age as majority of heavy coffee drinkers in both sectors found among the 35-64 groups, with 76% drinking instant coffee and about 43% drinking instant exclusively. With respect to ground coffee, consumption is concentrated in more affluent regions of the country, indicating price consciousness among drinkers. Only a few manufacturers do... Base: adults aged 15+ All users % Heavy users % Medium users % Light users % Non-users % All 76.1 37.1 25.1 13.2 23.9 Men 75.6 38.0 24.4 12.6 24.4 Women 76.6 36.3 25.8 13.7 23.4 15-24 52.2 20.2 20.0 11.5 47.8 25-34 73.1 35.1 22.7 14.8 26.9 35-44 78.3 42.8 21.1 14.0 21.7 45-54 81.7 43.9 23.7 13.4 18.3 55-64 85.1 44.9 25.7 13.7 14.9 65+ 84.4 35.8 35.8 11.9 15.6 Taken from the TGI survey of around 25,000 adults (Source: Mintel 2006) table 3: Usage of fresh ground coffee, by demographic sub-group, 2005 Base: adults aged 15+ All users % Heavy users % Medium users % Light users % Non-users % All 36.4 8.2 11.2 16.1 63.6 Men 36.5 9.5 10.9 15.3 63.5 Women 36.3 7.0 11.6 16.9 63.7 15-24 23.8 3.6 7.6 11.1 76.2 25-34 34.5 7.2 10.8 16.0 65.5 35-44 40.0 8.9 12.4 18.0 60.0 45-54 42.7 10.1 13.1 19.2 57.3 55-64 41.5 10.6 13.0 17.4 58.5 65+ 35.6 8.8 10.5 15.1 64.4 Taken from the TGI survey of around 25,000 adults (Source: Mintel 2006) Only a few manufacturers dominate the coffee market. For instant coffee, the market is dominated by Nestl (56%) through its Nescaf Original Blend (33%) and Gold Blend (15%) - the two highest-selling brands - followed by Kraft (22%), and Own-label products (11%), while other manufacturers made up the remaining 11% in 2005. There are no dominant suppliers for ground and roast. However one company, Douwe Egberts, had the highest market share at 12%, followed by Cafdirect, Taylors, and Lavazza, with 8% market shares each. Own-label manufacturers for ground and roast coffee, however, possess 40% of the total market. table 4: Market share of instant coffee, by producer, by value, 2003 and 2005 2003 2005 (est) %

The impact of Twitter on people's life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The impact of Twitter on people's life - Essay Example President Obama is one of the many politicians who use twitter to get his messages around the world. He shares his ideas about his new campaigns and even a little bit about his personal information. Being the social networking website that twitter is, it is also very different from other websites because a wide range of people come together and shares their stuff even famous people. They get their messages out, talk about their upcoming releases and movies because they are not penalized for whatever they say. Companies even promote their brands and products for example star bucks promoted their â€Å"promoted tweets† in order to get their business out there. Whatever the case, it is very important that we understand, to every ying there is a yang, everything has both negative and positive aspects to it which are as follows: It has never been easy for the people to connect with others and make new friends because just a few decades ago it was tough to meet new people and socialize now twitter has completely erased the distances. One biggest negative impact of social networking sites is that they can be very addictive. People may lose their focus at work or around the house. It is very important that they be used in moderation. One more drawback to twitter or any social website is the amount of information that is being shared. People can lose their jobs and even relationships over sharing confidential information over websites. People also have privacy issues because no matter how well hidden a person’s personal information is or it doesn’t matter if the privacy settings are on the highest level, it only takes an angry follower to copy paste a picture and leak it around to take revenge. It is great how big a change twitter has brought in our lives but the right checks and balances we can make the most out the opportunities we

Issues in Contemporary Auditing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Issues in Contemporary Auditing - Essay Example The aspect of financial transaction record would be quite vital to be thoroughly examined in the process. It has been revealed that Hammerson plc upholds proper financial statement by following the guidelines of Companies Act 1985 which depicts true and fair values that facilitate the company to maintain accurate financial records. Additionally, an audit report of the company is also conducted by following the guidelines of the International Standard on Auditing (ISA) which is authorized by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB). Moreover, while preparing an audit report, Hammerson also utilizes various financial transaction tests that facilitate it to identify the valuation of assets and liabilities which are essential to be considered. The Audit Committee should also note that Hammerson takes the responsibility for protecting the assets of the company along with safeguarding them from the hand of fraud, error, and non-compliance by adhering to the laws and regulations which are mentioned in Companies Act 1985 under Section 389(A). The company also provides other financial services under the Financial Services Act 1986. Compensation which will be due for the provided service to Hammerson can be calculated on the basis of the times which are spent by your partners and also on the basis of skills and responsibilities that are involved amid your staff. The scope of the audit will be to make a comprehensive evaluation of the books of account in order to ascertain the validity and reliability of the published materials of the company. Our company shall be highly obliged if you can confirm your agreement or engagement by singing and returning the enclosed copy of this letter. Thanks & Regards Yours faithfully Manager Loughran and Shrives Chartered Accountants B. Ethical Issues Leaflet Interdependence is one of the fundamental as well as considerable aspects while preparing an audit report. In order to maintain suitable ethical standards in an audit report, it is essential for the auditors to be independent in terms of mental attitude while dealing with their respective clients. The users of the financial statement are primarily concerned about the aspect that the auditors should not compromise with their interdependencies by considering the viewpoints of the clients during the preparation of an audit report. Truthfulness, honesty, integrity, confidentiality and professional behavior are the most essential aspects for the auditors in order to maintain ethical standards and also bring transparency while preparing an audit report. It is also necessary for the audit firms to maintain similar kinds of rules and regulations while preparing an audit report for their respective stakeholders.  

Why I Need A College Degree Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Why I Need A College Degree - Personal Statement Example Additionally, I need a college degree in order to cope better in turbulent economic times including recession. This is based on what I have gathered from research that individuals without a college degree were the worst hit by the recession and they had difficulty recovering from it after 2007 (Penn State, 2010). Another reason I need a college degree is to advance my critical thinking skills. College education will expose to situations that will challenge my existing knowledge and make me develop new ways of thinking and analyzing issues without taking some things for granted. Despite of the knowledge I have got while in service, I need a college degree in order to remain updated. Today’s world is changing fast and it requires a person to change at its pace and college education will equip me with the latest knowledge especially since college is a hub of research. In addition, more people are increasingly pursuing college education and as such, I need a college degree in order to identify and interact meaningfully with peers who are pursuing college degrees (Penn State, 2010). I need a college degree because it will be a step towards personal fulfillment and actualization. Besides the ease that the knowledge I will get from a college degree will give me working for a law enforcement agency, the certificate will be an artifact of achievement and will add to my fulfillment in life. This will further help me to motivate my children in their academic endeavor and to demonstrate to them that age is not a factors to academic success. I need a college degree for professional credibility that is important in today’s world. Peers and clients are confident working with a person whose service and capacity is credible and whose qualification is not doubtful. While it is possible to perform well in a job even without a college degree, I need a college degree because it will add onto better job performance. This is because college education will give me more

Data Protection and Cyber-Security 2013 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Data Protection and Cyber-Security 2013 - Essay Example What has made this a possibility is the improvement in the communication technologies and mediums. The social media has been the best hit. Over the past, the social media has realized great developments which have made it easier to communicate and build a network of people from all over the world. Because of this, just as Bishop J. implies on increasing online communities, millions of people who were once not interested in social network development have now diverted to the same and joined the booming social platforms.1 These developments have seen emergence of many social media platforms and chat rooms that people are now free to join for a chance to connect with both known and unknown people from every location of the world, thanks to the internet. Social chat-rooms like twitter and Facebook are just but examples of the freely available social platforms. The development in the social media has come at a price that the society has dearly paid in the past years. The adoption of digit al communication done through the social platforms has, over the past, paved way for many instances of the violation of many UK laws that govern the privacy of information and human rights. There have been several instances where people have used the various social platforms to pass messages that either violates human rights or laws governing the country. Twitter, a prominent social media website, has been used by various people to relay criminal tweets which have affected the public by a great deal. The government has been trying to control the information passed through the social media. As outlined by Bishop, various laws and regulations have been made to prevent people from posting offensive messages that might have adverse effects on the public.2 Contrary to what should happen, people who post criminal and offensive messages on these social platforms have, in the past, made away with the offenses. For instance, law enforcers now say that offensive comments that are posted on tw itter and Facebook rarely lead to charges unless they also include eminent threats and/or even lead to harassment campaigns. This and many past events has seen the government unable to curtail the harms caused by various social media offensive messages hence clearly showing that the law is unclear and ineffective in addressing the social media offenses. This has come along with mixed reactions from people who are now left with question that tends to explain whether the social media is really effective in controlling the digital content. The numbers of offensive messages which are posted on twitter and Facebook among others have been on the rise lately. Estimates now show that millions of messages are sent within a single day. The most surprising part is that this is a statistic for only twitter with other social websites not considered. A large number of the messages which are sent daily are offensive and pose threats to the public. What has made this a significant threat is that th e messages, which are initially only meant for a particular person or group, may eventually end up reaching millions of people worldwide. According to the U.K director of public prosecutions (DPP) Keir Starmer QC., many people who post criminal messages online may go uncharged. This he says happens since the

Generic Strategies Model by Charles O. Godornes Essay

Generic Strategies Model by Charles O. Godornes - Essay Example In order for these businesses to be successful they have to follow and practice a certain Generic Strategic model which would be Cost – Leadership, Differentiation or Focus. Cost – Leadership is where a business has a low level of differentiation or low level of costs in order to have a competitive market price edge to the market. Businesses that wish to venture and be successful in this type of strategy must focus on lowering their costs and offer value to their customers by producing effective products. Companies should be alert in controlling and monitoring their production costs, overhead costs, and their costs on research and development and in their service costs, so that they could offer a competitive price to the market. Companies should also invest in state-of the-art manufacturing technology in order to lower their costs which would lead to its primary goal which is having competitive market price. In differentiation strategy, businesses create value to their market by offering products which are unique in features and in characteristics; these are products that meets the customers’ preference and satisfaction by charging customers with a premium price. Companies that practice differentiation strategy must charge its customers with a premium price in order to attain its unique products which satisfies and meets the customer’s preference by producing high – end quality products which would also charge companies higher costs. In order for companies to have differentiated products they have to have superior quality, advanced technological features and etc. And in focus strategy, companies focus and pay very close attention to its core competencies or in its smaller segments to offer its products to a particular group of customers in the market, this strategy is commonly used by smaller companies.

Former incarcerated persons attitudes and perceptions of successful Dissertation

Former incarcerated persons attitudes and perceptions of successful reentry - Dissertation Example There has been a fourfold increase in incarceration, and parole release rates have reduced radically. At the same time, there has been a significant increase in parole supervision. This has been accompanied by a drastic increase in parole revocation, with the result that hundreds of thousands of people are forced back into prison. The policy makers have not accorded much importance to reducing recidivism and enhancing integration of the released convicts into the community (Travis, 2008). Latessa, another eminent professor in criminology claims that there is conclusive evidence, which clearly shows that treatment programs enjoy different levels of effectiveness. In fact, there should be a segregation of offenders into the low and high risk categories. Offenders belonging to the high risk category should be subjected to more intense supervision and treatment, as they tend to benefit from such measures. Services should primarily focus on the factors in offenders that lead to criminal b ehavior. It is now clear that programs that are properly designed and implemented have the capacity to reduce recidivism to a major extent. On the other hand, improperly designed and poorly implement programs can actually enhance recidivism (Latessa, 2008). ?American society has to envisage the onerous task of reintegrating into society, a large number of released prisoners. This number is quite significant, and was of the order of 635,000 per annum. The prison population, in the year 2002, was around 1.4 million, and 93% of these individuals would ultimately be released into society (Day, 2005, p. 346). Another disquieting feature of this state of affairs is that the average prison term does not exceed 2.5 years. In fact, some 44% of the prisoners would be released within a year of being incarcerated. Public safety is crucially affected, by prisoner reentry, which can be understood as the different activities that enable released prisoners to join the mainstream of society as respo nsible and law abiding members (Petersilia, 2009, p. 3). The majority of the ex – convicts suffer from social and medical problems. These individuals, in the main, tend to be uneducated, unskilled and devoid of adequate family support. In addition, they have to bear the cross of having been imprisoned, which invariably generates distrust and fear. Another, disquieting feature relates to the prevalence of substance abuse, in nearly 75% of the prisoners, and the affliction of a sixth of prisoners with mental illness. Less than a third of such prisoners are provided with treatment in prison (Holzer, Raphael, & Stoll, 2003). As revealed in a study a by Petersilia, an eminent scholar of criminal justice, the proportion of prisoners with infectious diseases is five times that of the proportion of the US population. The extent of this malaise can be gauged from the fact that around 25% of those infected with HIV or AIDS in the US transit through prison or jail. It has been stressed by experts in the area of public health that HIV will continue to increase in prisons and will eventually increase prevalence rates in the general community (Petersilia, 2009, p. 4). This will be the outcome of imprisoning and releasing a greater number of drug offenders. Furthermore, the number of prison inmates with marketable employment skills or adequate literacy to

Preferred language style Essay Example for Free

Preferred language style Essay Conduct a debate on: Most job candidates are concerned with baseline pay. Incentives and benefits do very little to persuade a candidate to accept an organization’s employment offer if baseline compensation is slightly below the candidate’s expectations. Incentives and other benefits are frequently given lesser importance by the candidates who want to join a new job. There are several reasons for this:- 1. Many of the employees do not give enough of importance to benefits and incentives that are not financial. They usually focus on improving their pay packages rather than their non-pay benefits. 2. Many candidates may not be sure whether they would be able to earn the incentives and other benefits provided. They would feel that such packages are merely eyewashes so that the job appears attractive and are able to take it up. 3. People often evaluate growth rate and the development rate in terms of monetary funds than by determining the incentives and other benefits. 4. Baseline pay is given greater importance to fairness by the employees than the incentives. 5. The external competitiveness is greater when the employees are being paid a higher baseline salary compared to incentives. 6. When the candidate comes for the interview for the job, he/she may consider to job duties to be tough. In such a circumstance, he/she would be considering earning the incentives very difficult, and hence would be looking at increasing their baseline salary. 7. People would more easily settle down for a job that offers more security (one that gives higher monetary funds) compared to those that are insecure and offer incentives. 8. Some employees may consider incentives as a form of encouragement for doing extra work. Many employees may even feel that incentives may prompt them to work beyond working areas, which may be not liked. References: Frederiskon, L. W. (1983). â€Å"Contents. † Journal of Organizational Behavior Management. http://www. haworthpress. com/store/Toc_views. asp? TOCName=J075v05n01_TOCdesc=Volume%3A%205%20Issue%3A%201 HRMC (2007). Baseline Pay, Retrieved on June 12, 2007, from My Own Private Radio Web site: http://www. citehr. com/baseline-pay-vt1462. html My Own Private Radio (2006). On employee compensation – note #3, Democracy in Action, Retrieved on June 12, 2007, from My Own Private Radio Web site: http://myownpirateradio. com/2006/02/13/on-employee-compensation-%E2%80%93-note-3-democracy-in-action/

Magic Methyl Effect: Transition Metal Catalyzed

Magic Methyl Effect: Transition Metal Catalyzed The insertion of a methyl group, the smallest alkyl group, into a C-H bond has been shown to enhance such pharmacological charactistics as bioavailability and potency.1 Traditionally, incorporation of a methyl group into a bioactive compound has required lengthy de novo synthesis. Consequently, synthetic reactions that allow late-stage installation of methyl groups into advanced intermediates are of great potential value in the pharmaceutical industry. In the past two decades interest in directed C−H activation followed by the methylation led to the development of strategies which use precious metals catalysts forarenes ortho-functionalizations.2, 3 Currently, only a few reactions exist which enable such transformations to be achieved in a single step,1, 4 highlighting the difficulty in converting a C-H bond to C-Me bond. Most of these methods require heavy loadings of precious metal catalysts to obtain the desired methylated product (Scheme 1).4 Moreover, some of them use hazardous and toxic methylating reagents1 with strongly basic reaction media what results in a limited scope1,4 and the uncontrolled formation of both mono- and dimethylated products.2 This reflects the need for new methylation methods which will overcome mentioned limitations. Scheme 1. Ortho-methylation with precious metal To address the toxicity and expense of the precious metal catalysis, first row metal-catalyzed C−H functionalization has recently been recognized as a straightforward and a powerful tool for the formation of Csp2 Csp3 bonds in modern organic synthesis. In addition first row transition metals introduce interesting mechanistic possibilities for ortho-methylation; they are readily available and relatively low toxicity.1, 4 Recently Lu and co-workers reported the cobalt (II)-catalyzed direct C-H methylation of unactivated (hetero)arenes using dicumyl peroxide (DCP) as the methyl source, base and most importantly as an oxidant. Cobalt mediated C-H functionalization is a maturing field; however, there exist only two examples of its application to methylation of aromatics, using N-methyl-1-naphthamide and benzo[h]quinolone substrates respectively. The reaction proved to be mild, functional group tolerant and uses a less toxic methylating reagent. The paper reports effective access to a range of ortho-methylated (hetero)aromatic carboxamides (Scheme 2).5 Scheme 2. Ortho-methylation with cobalt catalysts Chatani and co-workers reported the use of aryltrimethylammonium bromide and iodide as new methylating reagents in conjunction with nickel-catalyzed C-H bond activation (Scheme 3). Changing from a palladium6 catalyst to nickel makes the ammonium salt act as a methyl source rather than aryl source for a range of 8-aminoquinoline aryl amides. Unfortunately harsh conditions make it difficult to control the selectivity between mono- and dimethylation at the ortho positions in some cases.7 Scheme 3. Ortho-methylation with nickel catalyst using aryltrimethylammonium iodide as methylating reagent Nakamura and co-workers have reported two separate iron-catalyzed conditions seemingly solving a lot of issues associated with the previous examples. The direct C-H methylation reaction with a picolinoyl or 8-aminoquinolyl directing groups, an iron/diphospine catalyst, and inexpensive 2,3-dichlorobutane as an oxidant furnished an efficient, robust reaction (Scheme 4).8 Unfortunately the method relies upon superstoichiometric methyl equivalents in the form of the pyrophoric trimethylaluminum. Scheme 4. Ortho-methylation with iron catalyst using trimethylaluminum as methyl source Nakamura and co-workers further optimized the iron-catalyzed C-H methylation reaction by screening ligands.9 The tridentate phosphine ligand NMe2-TP in combination with Fe(acac)3 catalyzed the ortho C-H methylation of simple aromatic carbonyl compounds without requiring additional directing groups. This reaction showed wide substrate generality, functional group tolerance, and resistance to catalytic poisons taking advantage of functional groups inherent to the advanced intermediates (Scheme 4).9 This seminar will discuss the scope and limitations of these recently published methods, and assess the progress towards developing general solutions to the challenge of late-stage methyl incorporation. References: Schà ¶nherr H., Cernak T. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 12256 Lyons T. W., Sanford M. S. Chem. Rev. 2010, 110, 1147 Snieckus V. Chem. Rev. 1990, 90, 879 Yan G., Borah A. J., Wang L. and Yanga M. Adv. Synth. Catal. 2015, 357, 1333 Li Q., Li Y., Hu W., Hu R., Li G. and Lu H. Chem. Eur. J. 2016, 22, 12286 Zhu F., Tao J.-L., Wang Z.-X. Org. Lett. 2015, 17, 4926 Uemura T., Yamaguchi M., and Chatani N. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 128, 3214 Shang R., Ilies L, and Nakamura E. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 7660 Shang R., Ilies L. and Nakamura E. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138, 10132 Minds, Brains And Programs: Analysis Minds, Brains And Programs: Analysis Searle is arguing that a computer couldnt understand Chinese. Is this the right way to describe the view that Searle is arguing for in Minds, Brains, and Programs? If not, why not? In his Chinese Room argument, Searle observes that if manipulating Chinese symbols according to formal rules is insufficient for the person to understand Chinese, it is also insufficient for a computer to understand Chinese-both are engaging in mindless symbol manipulation. However, he isnt arguing that a computer couldnt understand Chinese, but rather that their programs themselves cant understand Chinese-symbol manipulation isnt constitutive of or sufficient for minds. Searle is not arguing that computers/machines cant think. In fact, he believes that only a machine can think (namely brains and machines that have the same causal powers as brains); he says that brains are machines, and brains think. However, according to Searle, whether something thinks depends not only on the program that it is running but also its hardware-the nature of the thing running the program. Simply implementing a program that is formally isomorphic to human thought processes, as in the Chinese Room example, is insufficient for intentionality and consequently thought (in this case, understanding Chinese) since a program can be instantiated without mental states-essentially, Searles argument is that formal computations on symbols cannot themselves produce thought. What is the systems response to the Chinese Room argument? Is Searle correct to think that the response begs the question because it assumes that the system understands Chinese? The systems response to the Chinese Room argument acknowledges that the man running the program does not understand Chinese. However, he is a part of a larger system that is comprised of the complete set of components that is necessary for answering the Chinese questions, and which as a whole does understand Chinese. Simply asserting that although the man wouldnt understand Chinese the whole system would, does beg the question. However, Searle is incorrect to think that the complete systems response begs the question-it counters Searles argument by observing that the Chinese room argument is logically invalid, being as its conclusion does not follow logically from its premise. Inferring that the system of which the man is a component does not understand Chinese from the premise that the man himself does not understand Chinese is invalid, because there is no logical connection between the premise and the conclusion. What is the point of Searles Chinese Gym example? What do you think the right response to it is? In his Chinese Gym example, Searle illustrates a hypothetical Chinese gym, populated by monolingual English speakers that follow instructions in English to collectively produce output indistinguishable from that of native Chinese speakers. It is analogous to the Chinese Room example but with more people and involves parallel processing-it can perform many computations at a time. Its purpose is to oppose Strong AI. Searles main argument is that it is self-evident that the only things occurring in the Chinese gym are meaningless syntactic manipulations from which intentionality and subsequently thought could not conceivably arise, both individually and collectively. Using the same method in which Copeland used the systems response to defend Strong AI and respond to the Chinese Room argument, we can respond logically to the Chinese Gym example. In other words, it is invalid to infer that a system (the gym) which consists of entities that dont understand Chinese doesnt understand Chinese, from the simple premise that the entities that comprise the system dont understand Chinese. There is no logical connection between the premise and the conclusion. Question 3 No amount of knowledge of the neural basis of taste experiences (or any other physical information) will enable you to know what Marmite tastes like. Only tasting Marmite can tell you what Marmite tastes like. Why is this an objection to physicalism? Physicalism holds that everything is comprised solely of its physical properties; that is, only physical things exist and everything is explicable in terms of the physical. The Physicalist would argue, for instance, that what it is like for someone to taste Marmite is one and the same as some physical quality-knowing the pertinent physical facts of the taste of Marmite are sufficient for knowing the actual taste of Marmite itself. Therefore the statement in question is an objection to physicalism being as it implies that there arent only physical properties since only tasting Marmite can really tell you what Marmite tastes like-for every experience there exist subjective, phenomenal qualities that one could not know of solely via knowledge, but only through experience. In other words, one will have experiences for which one has no corresponding concept; experiences extend beyond simple, learnable physical qualities. This is an objection to the physicalists argument that for everything in the universe there exist only objective, physical bases for everything in the universe. How would Lewis respond to the argument in (a)? Is this a good response? The argument in (a) is analogous to the Knowledge Argument, which Lewis would respond to with the Ability Argument. His position on (a) is in the middle. He agrees that there are aspects of ability that do not consist simply of information possession, and that we do call knowledge. However, he contrasts possessing a new fact with possessing a new ability-having a new experience does not imbue an individual with any new propositional knowledge, but only a bundle of abilities (to imagine, remember and recognize: know-how). These are abilities you cannot gain except by tasting Marmite, and learning what an experience is like means gaining certain abilities-he is fine with the argument in (a), but simply distinguishes that abilities rather than special phenomenal facts are acquired via experiences. This is a good response because learning what an experience is like means gaining certain abilities but its up for grabs what, if anything, the causal basis for those abilities may represent. There is no proof that tasting Marmite is the only way to know what it tastes like as the experience allows one to acquire special phenomenal facts which cannot be represented in any other way nor taught, other forms of tasting Marmite that lead to the same brain state may exist. What is the hard problem associated with the taste of Marmite, and how does it contrast with easy problems associated with explaining taste experiences? The hard problem questions how and why neural processes lead to certain subjective experiences. In the context of tasting Marmite, it is associated with the subjective experience of the taste of Marmite-facts about conscious experience that cannot be deduced from physical facts about the functioning of the brain. The problem of explaining the subjective taste of Marmite, or why the experience even exists in the way it does, is hard. In other words the hard problem is the problem of explaining why a brain state necessary and sufficient for having the experience of tasting Marmite is correlated with the experience of tasting Marmite and not with some other experience. Here we have no conceptions of how physical goings-on give rise to experiences. This contrasts with the easy problem of experiences, which concerns the objective mechanisms of the cognitive system-everything can be solved or explained in terms of neurological or physical goings-on that stimulate certain responses. In the context of taste experiences, the easy question would state that the experiences come into existence simply when neurotransmitters activate taste buds.

Agriculture In Deforestation And Desertification Environmental Sciences Essay

Agriculture In Deforestation And Desertification Environmental Sciences Essay The World Resources Institute estimates that more than 50 percent of the earths natural forests have already been destroyed (Hermosilla 2000). The United Nations Environment Programme (2009) states that forests cover 30 per cent of the planets total land area. The total forested area in 2005 was just under 4 billion hectares As a result a United Nations report has stated that deforestation and forest degradation are widely recognized as one of the most critical environmental problems facing human society, with serious long-term economic, social and ecological consequences (UN 1999). The causes of deforestation are widely debated and are attributed to many causes such as over population and urbanisation such as new settlements and transport extensions (Geist and Lambin, 2002). However one of the main causes of deforestation is attributed to agriculture. The arc of deforestation along the southern and eastern extent of the Brazilian Amazon is the most active land-use frontier in the world in terms of total forest loss (Morton et al, 2006) and Globally, the main forest conversion process in the humid tropics was the transformation of closed, open, or fragmented forests to agriculture (Achard et al 2002). Deforestation originally occurred on a small scale level due to subsistence farming or timber collection. However the Amazon rain forest has seen a recent increase in industrial agriculture intensive mechanized agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon grew by >3.6 million hectares during 2001-2004 (Morton et al, 2006) and this has been a significant source of deforestation in recent years. In 2010 cattle are projected to be grazing on some 24million hectares of Neotropical land that was once forest in 2000 (Wassenaar et al, 2006). Figure 1 shows the causes of Amazonian deforestation from 2000- 2005. The pie chart shows that cattle ranching, a part of agriculture is the main cause of deforestation. Cattle ranching accounts for 65-70% of deforestation; vast areas of land are cleared by commercial farmers to raise cattle (for meat and dairy) and to provide pasture land for the cattle to graze. Moreover another major cause of deforestation is small scale agriculture by subsistence farmers. Subsistence farmers are causing deforestation because of poor practices (Butler 2008). Farmers burn the trees to clear them, and then over-exploit the land causing the soil quality to decline which results in the farmers having to find new land (shifting cultivation) and thus destroy more trees. In addition government policies can lead to deforestation. In Brazil the government allows farmers to claim a piece of unclaimed public land which they must use for over a year; and after 5 years they become the official owners of the la nd and so can sell it and claim new land (Butler 2008). In addition population growth and subsequent food demand is also a cause for expanding agriculture. Figure 1. (Butler, 2008) However research has also shown that agriculture is not the main cause or contributor to deforestation. Instead the main cause of deforestation if attributed to population growth, and its subsequent need to find new land for settlements to be built on. Myers, 1984 says that the main reason for deforestation in the tropics is human population growth. In the African and Asian tropics, it is generally associated with high rates of natural increase (i.e., high net rates of population growth due to high fertility) and, in the Amazon, it is assumed to be the high rates of in-migrationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ followed by subsequent intergenerational high rates of natural increase. In addition another primary cause of deforestation, particularly Indonesia is the logging industry. The World Bank (2000) and WRI (2000) state that the leading cause of Indonesian deforestation in the 1990s has been large-scale commercial logging (Palmer 2001). Palmer (2001) continues to say that logging causes areas of forest to be cleared, allowing access to new areas of forest and as a result previously unexploited forest, thus allowing other economic activities such as agricultural conversion and shifting cultivation to take place. Consequently the logging industry can be seen as a major, if not the major contributor to deforestation and not agriculture. Agriculture has been linked to being a cause of desertification, however a variety of other factors are also causes of desertification and a combination or interaction of processes leads to desertification. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development defines desertification as land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities (UNCCD, 1992) The UNCCD states that Desertification does not refer to the expansion of existing deserts. It occurs because dryland ecosystems, which cover over one third of the worlds land area, are extremely vulnerable to over-exploitation and inappropriate land use. Poverty, political instability, deforestation, overgrazing and bad irrigation practices can all undermine the productivity of the land (UNCCD 2005). Agriculture plays a large role in desertification, the over grazing of land by animals particularly damaging to the soil and is a major factor contributing to desertification; overgrazing is by all measures the principal cause of rangeland degradation (Dregne and Chou, 1992).   Over grazing can occur by having too many animals, or by not managing and controlling the animals grazing activities (Rayburn, 2000). Overgrazing reduces plant leaf areas, which reduces interception of sunlight and plant growth.   Plants become weakened and have reduced root length, and the pasture sod weakensà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Overgrazing can increase soil erosion.   Reduced soil depth, soil organic matter, and soil fertility hurt the lands future productivity (Rayburn 2000). Darkoh (2006) highlights that overgrazing in North Africa has led to the desertification of land led to moderate to severe desertification of rangelands in arid and semiarid zones of Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia Moreover it is not just overgrazing that can lead to soil degradation and desertification. Poor farming techniques such as over exploitation, and constant crop growing without a fallow field can lead to degradation. Arid and semi-arid regions may initially support agriculture, but repeated cultivation frequently leads to a loss of a soils nutrients and water-holding capacity. (Global environmental Governance Project, 2009). Over cultivation removes nutrients from the soil which can lead to the soil becoming derogated and infertile, therefore nothing can grow on it which can lead to soil erosion. In addition to this, poor irrigation systems can lead to salinzation of the soil due to groundwater dissolving salts in the soil. When evaporation takes place, this leaves concentrated amounts of salts in the soil which are toxic to plants and thus the land becomes barren. However agriculture may not be a direct cause of desertification, it can be caused due to knock on effects of population growth and the subsequent increased demand for food. In Africa, a leading cause of desertification is human population pressure which leads to overexploitation and intensified stresses on the natural environment. Africas population has doubled in the past three decades to about 708 million (1994) and continues to expand at a rate of some 3 per cent a year. This means that Africas farmers must feed an additional 21 million people every year (Darkoh, 1998). Moreover population increase can lead to urbanization and more resources being demanded, such as fuel wood which is a common fuel in third world countries; deforestation is also a primary cause of desertification as tree roots bind the soil together, preventing erosion. As a result population pressure has lead to the need for intensive agriculture which can lead to desertification Increased population pressure on the fragile and vulnerable soils of Africas dryland regions, leads to overexploitation of water, land, forest and pasture resources through over cultivation, overgrazing and deforestation. These practices therefore constitute the principal threats to the livelihood of millions of people. These are the foremost causes of soil erosion, the rates of which in Africa are among the highest in the world. (Darkoh,1998). Agriculture plays a large role in deforestation and desertification, but it may not be the main causes of both. Shifting cultivation leads to deforestation as farmers move to new areas of land, often forests which need to be cut down so that the land can be used for agriculture. In addition over grazing and cultivation as well as as poor farming techniques and can lead to desertification. However the real cause of deforestation and desertification can be attributed to government policies and government mismanagement. If governments encourage farmers to seek out new land in the Amazon rain forest, and also do not stop practices of illegal logging. In addition if governments act in their own economic interests and issue policies that lead to environmental harm such as deforestation and desertification then it is not the practices of its people and their techniques (farmers) that cause the damage to the planet, it is the consequence of poor, and often myopic, government policies seeking economic gain; instead of addressing the real causes of the problems of desertification and deforestation. In addition many LEDCs rely on agriculture for economic growth; therefore a balance needs to be met between economic development and sustainability.

Johnny Got His Gun, by Dalton Trumbo :: essays papers

Johnny Got His Gun War in its self is a tragedy. Experiencing the tragedies of war has a life long impact on ones life. In the novel " Johnny got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo, Joe Bonham is a victim of war and he is forever changed physicaly, mentally and spiritualy. Through Joe it is evident that the price we pay for war is much to high. All people in life have some sort of basic function. Weather it be a parapaliegic who lives alone, goes to work, has some sort of social life, and is a member of a wheelchair basket ball team or a quadrapaliegic who is incapable of doing much but still communicate with friends and family members. Joe is in a terribly worse situation then any of them. Joe spends his days in a hospital bed. He is incapable of any sort of fuction other than moving his head up and down. He can not speak nor can he eat for he has no mouth nor a face. He must be assisted for thing's that a 3 year old child could probably do on their own like changing close or going to the washroom. This predicament, which Joe finds himself in, causes Joe tremendous mental anguish. "Please I can't. Please no. Somebody come. Help me. I can't lie here forever like this until maybe years from now I die. 1 can't. Nobody can. It isn't possible." (Trumbo 3.64) To try to imagine the mental stress which Joe suffers from is unconceivable to any human being. Joe can not distinguish his memories from his consciencnouss nor can he judge if he is awake or asleep. Joe can not communicate with his keepers which is the worst of all his folies "He kept tapping. He kept on now for another reason aside from the simple desire to speak which had started him out. He kept on tapping because he didn't dare stop he didn't dare think. He didn't have the courage to ask himself so simple a question as how long will it be before the nurse understands what I'm doing."(Trumbo 15.180) this causes Joe the most anguish because all he wants now, in his condition, is to go into the world and show everyone the horrors of war. Joe imagines himself in a schoolhouse recitng this nursery rhyme: "Hickory *censored*ory dock my daddy' nuts from shell shock. Humpty dumpty thought he was wise till gas came along and burned out his eyes.

Mending the Transatlantic Rift Essay -- Essays Papers

Mending the Transatlantic Rift The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 ushered in an era of dramatic change for foreign policy and the international system. Most obviously, the United States’ sense of invulnerability eroded as an acute awareness to the perils of terrorism gripped the American public. In American foreign policy, the dominant paradigms evolved. Whereas the Cold War notion of the centrality of powerful nation-states had helped order the Bush administration’s outlook before the attacks, the new paradigms explicitly accounted for the importance of non-state actors and rogue regimes as the salient elements of American foreign policy. In emphasizing rogue states, President George W. Bush focused on regime change in Iraq and ultimately decided to invade Iraq despite the opposition of important allies and the lack of authorization from the United Nations Security Council. The war in Iraq, along with an array of diplomatic and policy differences between the United States and its Eur opean allies, ultimately produced notable divisions in the transatlantic relationship. An analysis of the events and conceptual divergences that contributed to this rift renders a portrait of U.S.-European relations in which real rather than cosmetic differences separate the two sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Nonetheless, enduring commonalities and the realities of the present geopolitical situation leave hope for improvements in the relationship. In the end, mending the transatlantic rift will require the United States to exhibit a genuine commitment to diplomacy with Europe and engagement with the world’s most pressing issues. THE RELATIONSHIP Historically, the relationship between the United States and its European allie... ...ember/October 2002. Kagan, Robert. â€Å"America’s Crisis of Legitimacy,† Foreign Affairs, March/April 2004. Mandelbaum, Michael. â€Å"The Inadequacy of American Power,† Foreign Affairs, September/October 2002. The National Security Strategy of the United States of America, September 2002. < http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.html> Nye, Jr., Joseph S. â€Å"U.S. Power and Strategy After Iraq,† Foreign Affairs, July/August 2003. O’Hehir, Andrew. â€Å"Welcome to the New Cold War,† Salon.com, November 15, 2004. Pond, Elizabeth. â€Å"European Shock and Awe,† Washington Quarterly, Summer 2003. Project for the New American Century World Press Review. â€Å"We Are All Americans,† November 2001. < http://www.worldpress.org/1101we_are_all_americans.htm>

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Essay -- English Literature

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde This novel is more than just a traditional horror story as it has many hidden and complex meanings and explanations, of what seem and would have normally before this book, been simple events. Stevenson has very strong opinions and some are expressed in the book. A traditional horror story would either be a super natural In this novel Stevenson's characters, Jekyll and Hyde, are stereotypes of people who are 'good' and 'evil'. The good is the friendly doctor (the caring profession) and the evil is the hunched, ugly murderer. These two stereotypes combine to create the average man who has the capacity to be both 'good' and 'evil', and they have both 'good' and 'evil' thoughts and emotions. All people have the same emotions, some good and some bad and, like Hyde, when you follow the evil emotions like hate, jealousy and revenge, you are considered evil. Jekyll and Hyde both have these 'evil' emotions but what makes Jekyll 'good' is that he hides them, Jekyll is driven by reason whereas Hyde is driven by desire, he'll do what he wants when he wants. Londonand Jekyll's Houses The street where Jekyll lives is described as merely an anonymous street in London, whose shop fronts "like rows of smiling women" have a brightness that stands out in contrast to the dingy neighborhood. And yet on this street, two doors from the corner, stands a dreary, Gothic house, which "bore in every feature the marks of prolonged and sordid negligence." As we proceed further in the novel, Jekyll's houses will be seen to have their own connection with the characters prosperous, respectable, as well as threatening, mysterious, and sinister. It is clear by each of its two appearances the respectable; Je... ...public has seen only a veneer of my real self." This is true due mostly to the fact that no one knew Mr. Hyde was a part of Dr. Jekyll. Jekyll constantly emphasizes the greatness of his background. He reminds us of his wealthy family, and great education. But he also states "that man is not truly one, but truly two." Dr. Jekyll needed something, or someone to represent the evil which has built up inside of him. He created this through experiments, which lead to a potion. This potion transformed him anytime he wanted. He was transformed into Mr. Hyde. Evil is just a small portion of men, perhaps that is why Mr. Hyde had a dwarfish appearance. The main point was that the potion took over his life, and Dr. Jekyll finally realizes he is unable to transform back into his goodness. He attempts to commit suicide, as this is his only way of destroying Mr. Hyde.

Jerusalem Art Essay

Art involving Jerusalem is very controversial. One has to place into context the fact that Jerusalem is a significant city for three major religions—Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Having one city be so significant leads to both the creation of conflict and beauty. There is conflict in the sense of war and destruction, and beauty in the sense of art on the subject. The three pieces of art this writer selected were all twentieth century pieces, but all show significant scenes, buildings or represent significant Psalms in the life of Jerusalem. Because of Jerusalem’s historical significance, this writer has chosen a piece of Islamic art that depicts the old city of Jerusalem, a piece of Jewish art that represents the Psalms, and a piece of Christian art that depicts the triumphal entry and some of the significant events of Holy Week, which is the final week of Christ’s life. The first piece of art is an Arab work that shows the old city of Jerusalem. In the painting, one sees a blue-gray sky that overlooks a sandstone colored city. There is a partial wall surrounding the city, and there appears to be two large prayer towers in the background. There are also some people, men, in the picture, looking towards the city and in a couple of cases walking towards that spiritual city. The city appears to be old, but not ancient, which means this is probably dated somewhere around the Crusades. Though this is a contemporary piece, the artist has chosen to depict Jerusalem at its height in Muslim hands. This painting probably represents Jerusalem during the Crusades. This piece would be very inspiring to Muslims, as it shows the city as theirs. It also gives them an image to look to when contemplating their own religious heritage. This brings us to the point of religious iconography and the Islamic faith. Religious iconography does not play as significant a role in Muslim religious life than in other religions. This is due in part to their trepidation about displaying the human form in a religious setting. This writer feels that this piece could be taken a number of different ways depending on the perspective, whether Muslim, Christian, or Jew. For Muslims if would take them back to a time of Muslim supremacy, when they â€Å"owned† one of the most important cities in their religion. Jerusalem is a significant city for the Muslims. According to various scholars, Jerusalem is significant because it is believed it is the city from which Muhammad rose to heaven. It is also significant because some of Islam’s most significant prophets (Abraham and Jesus) preached and taught. It is also a place to which Muhammad made an historic night pilgrimage. For Christians and Jews, it would be a solemn reminder that there was a time when Christians and Jews lost their most holy city to a people they deemed â€Å"infidels†. It would bring about a profound sense of sadness and loss and might inspire a fighting spirit in Jews and Christians to reclaim their city. Over the years, the passions the Muslims have over Jerusalem have become inflamed to the point of outright violence. The attitudes have only gotten more intense and more inflexible towards the Holy City. This writer feels that the times have only served to strengthen the resolve of Muslims to reclaim the city that they perceive as theirs. Emotionally, the tensions in the region have made Muslims even more determined to control the city completely. As significant as Jerusalem is to Muslims, it also has a supreme significance to Jews. Jews actually fee as if the city belongs to them and was bequeathed to them by God thousands of years ago. It is so significant that dozens of Psalms were written about the city. One of the Psalms is 125, which says in part, â€Å"[a]s the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people from this time forth and forever (verse 2). † In this painting by Irv Davis, one sees an encapsulated city of Jerusalem surrounded by grey mountains. The city is cream, almost white, and it is implied that the city is made of marble. The sky is blue and the sun is shining, adding to the shine on the city. One can imply that the encapsulation is the spirit of God surrounding the city and protecting it from outsiders and enemies. The contrasts are very sharp, the darkness of the mountains are contrasted with the whiteness and purity of the city. This obviously represents a very young Jerusalem. This also represents a time when the Jews were extremely fervent about their faith and wished to follow the Lord and seek his will. This picture represents a Jerusalem on the rise. It is also a bit on the allegorical side, with the young city representing a young faith. The newness of the city represents the fervency of the believers. They wish to follow the Lord and, as with anything new, the new city represents a new faith. This piece of art could be taken by the three groups in different ways. For Jews, it represents a time in their history when they had a true passion for God and would write songs of praise to the Lord using their most holy city as an inspiration. For Muslims, it would be a dour reminder that a region and city of the world they felt they originally owned had been forcibly removed from their possession and would remain in control of another group for several thousand years. They would also bemoan the fact that a new faith system would be replacing the polytheism that had dominated the region in the years prior to the Jewish takeover. Jews view the city of Jerusalem with as many passions and emotions as the Muslims. They see it as one of the most significant cities of their faith, and as such, wish to reclaim it as a purely Judeo-Christian city. The emotions of the Jews towards the city have always been strong, but over time, have waxed and waned, leading to the times that we have now where the Jews are fighting as passionately for the city as their Muslim counterparts. Both groups have legitimate religious and traditional claims to the city, yet either refuses to give in and relent towards their passions for the city. They each want the city, and are willing to do just about anything to get and maintain control over it. Christians have a whole other unique perspective on the city of Jerusalem. Before we can discuss the artistic expression of the selected artwork, it bears discussing the cultural ties that bind Christians to the city of Jerusalem. Christians view the city as very important because not only did Jesus make his triumphal entry into the city during Holy Week, but also taught in the region. Additionally, the apostles taught in the region and it was from the city of Jerusalem that Christianity was established in the form of Christ’s death and resurrection. The piece of art that was selected was some hand painted tiles from Jerusalem that show scenes from the triumphal entry and major scenes from Holy Week. The tiles are well-painted and detailed. Though they are also twentieth century, the story they tell condenses the entire story of Christianity in four small tiles. They are done in yellows, blues, white, black, and red. These tiles show an older, wiser Jerusalem. There is an overall sadness to the scenes, when one places the tiles in the context of the Bible, one can find that there is indeed a sadness, but at the same time a joy in the scene being depicted. It is ironic that death represents life and birth, but that is indeed what this scene and this depiction of Jerusalem shows. For Christians, Jerusalem represents the birth of their religion and the new life that is promised from the rising from the dead of Christ. Though there may be other cities that are significant in Christendom, for Christians, the events that transpired the week of Holy Week in Jerusalem are what assured the promises made in all the other cities. This piece of art could be taken by the three religions in different ways. For Christians, obviously, there is an association with the outright birth of the religion. The death that occurred outside Jerusalem represented the birth of a whole new belief system. For Jews, while the beliefs of Christian might be unusual, would see Christians as having as legitimate a claim to the city as they do, since they feel that the two groups worship the same God. For Muslims, the scenes simply show significant scenes in the life of a major prophet of their faith. They may view the Christian’s claims towards the city as interesting, but not as significant nor as important as their own claim towards the city. Christian attitudes towards the city have always been passionate, and they actually fought seven crusades that were specifically designed to take back the city from the Muslims. While they were not successful for long in keeping the Muslims out, they were able to develop a life of â€Å"peaceful coexistence† with the Muslims. Christians traditionally have supported the Jewish claim towards the city, as evidenced in the fact that we actively support the mission of Israel today. Christian passions have always been high for the city, but they have cooled over time, and we no longer actively seek to crusade against those we perceive as infidels. Christians now instead seek peaceful coexistence with other groups, but especially the Muslims. Christians are a pragmatic people that see the realities of the situation and only seek to have the best possible outcomes for all the parties. As one can see from the above statements, Jerusalem holds a special place in the hearts of all three religions. While it has inflamed passions, it has also inspired Psalmists and believers for centuries. We should seek understanding of the situations that create the passions and instead of seeming to remain in a state of constant conflict. We should view Jerusalem as a source of inspiration and not as a source of contention. The world’s three largest religions each have legitimate claims to the city and each needs to give up something in order to get access to the one city that they all deem to be the most important in their religion. The city is a true test of negotiation and faith, and as such should remain a source of inspiration. Bibliography about. com, â€Å"Painting of Jerusalem Psalms. † Judaism. 2000. 19 Apr 2009 . (picture URL) about. com, â€Å"Painting of Jerusalem Psalms. † Judaism. 2000. 26 Apr 2009 . â€Å"Arab Art Gallery. † Arab Art Gallery. 2004. 19 Apr 2009 . â€Å"Easter Gift-Holy Easter Week. † Jerusalem Pottery. 2009. 19 Apr 2009 . â€Å"Importance of Jerusalem in Judaism and Israeli History. † 2005. zionism-israel. com. 23 Apr 2009 . â€Å"Memorandum of their Beatitudes the Patriarchs and of the Heads of the Christian Communities in Jerusalem on the Significance of Jerusalem for Christians. † al-bushra. org. 14, Nov 1994. 23 Apr 2009 . Procon. org, â€Å"What is the Significance of Jerusalem for Muslims. † 21 May 2008. procon. org. 26 Apr 2009 .

Dell E Marketing

dingle Enhances Online merchandise Capabili puffs and Improves Site Performance with handicraft host 2000 Published September 2001 To break shake up hold ofment and en equal to(p) analyz up to(p) online marketing run aways, dingle aro accustomd its online commerce plan from Microsoft Site horde 3. 0 commercialism Edition to medico master of ceremonies 2000. The flexible voice-based computer architecture and encompassing prebuilt functionality in profession waiter enabled dell to execute its juvenile campaign capabilities in full sextet weeks of growth measure.The countywide campaign management body integrates with dells existing guest affinity management (CRM) establishment, moving the stopy frequently closer to its goal of a real closed-loop online marketing environment. Company Overview dell electronic computer Corporation is the worlds jumper lead post computer organization go forthr, with the companys award-winning customer service, indust ry-leading growth, and passe-partout financial accomplishment continuing to tell dell from its competitors.At the heart of this achievement is dingles direct-to-customer barter model, alter the company to maximize its mogul to fit customer expectations while avoiding the unnecessary time and costs associated with retailers or other resellers. To dingle, the network is the purest and most efficient form of the direct model, providing biger convenience and efficiency to customers and, in turn, to dell. To Dell, direct refers to the companys relationships with its customers, from root PC users to the worlds mammothst corporations. unspoiltly one-third of Dells U. S. 28 billion in annual revenues is achieved through with(predicate) the companys Home and pure Business (HSB) Division, with the remainder generated from sales to median(a) and large tradees and institutional customers. HSB as well maintains self-control of Dells online gravelories store, which offers u sers a terminate selection of nearly 30,000 competitively priced bundle and peripheral returns from leading manufacturers, c atomic number 18fully selected to balance Dells bodys. Business gainsay As a premier system provider to many other e-commerce companies, Dell strongly believes in apply the products it recommends and sells.Toward this end, Dell traditionally has relied on Microsoft Site emcee 3. 0 duty Edition (SSCE) to provide significant portions of the e-commerce functionality needed for Dells complex blade land site. Site server 3. 0 provided great shop coerce and checkout functionality along with other benefits, wholly if we were still looking for ways to mend performance and get closer to our customers, says Gregg Hansen, using private instructor for Dell HSB. Specifi omeny, we wanted the ability to implement campaigns and use coupons.This presented challenges due to the heterogenous environment we had in place, with commerce functionality provided by S SCE, customer data residing in a third-party CRM solution, and a mixed bag of applications utilize to mine the data. Solution To improve performance and facilitate complex online marketing campaigns, Dell decided to upgrade from Microsoft Site innkeeper to commerce master of ceremonies 2000. The company took a phased approach, first upgrading to work boniface to achieve greater performance and constancy, followed by execution of the immature functionality it provided that would improve the companys e-marketing capabilities. The componentized nature of affair legion 2000 allowed us to advantageously break the project into phases, says Hansen. soma one consisted of upgrading the political platform before the pass lockdown, with phase two focused on implementing the invigorated functionality provided by Commerce legion 2000 to improve our campaign capabilities. Phase 1 Greater Performance and Stability heighten Management Capabilities After phase one, consisting ma inly of the platform upgrade from Site waiter to Commerce innkeeper 2000, Dell motto significant performance improvements in the areas of shopping cart management and user checkout. We took profit of the improved Commerce Server 2000 platform to increase performance by up to 100 per centum in nearly areas, says Hansen. While our upgrade to Windows 2000 last family resulted in much better stability and performance, migrating from SSCE to Commerce Server 2000 has led to surplus improvements in these areassomething I attri savee to the extermination of memory leaks and better use of the platforms core objects. As a result, the servers no longer require the come of attention that they used to. The platform upgrade also provided Dell with significant benefits in the area of system administration and management. The new management functionality in Commerce Server 2000 has enabled us to move away from a server-by-server management environment to a more than centralized one, sa ys Hansen. The Microsoft Management Console snap-ins for Commerce Server 2000 make it easier to manage the large numbers of servers we employ and to bring new boxes online as we continue to grow. Phase 2 Comprehensive Campaign Management In phase two of the project, Dell took good of the extensive new prebuilt functionality in Commerce Server 2000 to enable targeted marketing campaigns. development the new components inCommerce Server 2000, we were able to implement the functionality needed to manufacture the concept of a campaign, tie it to a discount, and enforce itall with just six weeks development time, says Hansen. Had we tried to do it on our own and build this functionality from scratch, it would declare interpreted six months. As part of this effort, Dell created a custom Commerce Server 2000 Business Process Pipeline (BPP) component to handle coupons created for each campaign. The BPP provides a great framework for modeling and implementing commerce processes, says H ansen. Its plug-in architecture makes it highly flexible and extensible, enabling us to achieve the overall functionality we need by combining out-of-the-box pipeline components with others that are both internally developed or purchased from a third party. Pipeline performance has also been greatly increased over the old version, resulting in better than 100 percent increases in some areas. To allow transaction users to easily implement campaigns, Dell uses the Commerce Server 2000 Business Desk. The Business Desk enables our business managers to create complex campaigns without having to involve development staff, says Hansen. We created extensions to the Business Desk that enable users to interact with our third-party CRM system to import lists of customers for a campaign. They can use the expression builder to define the campaign rules and create the coupons, which are then passed spur to the CRM system for the e-mail campaign. When these customers are set to the site, the new Commerce Server 2000 functionality weve implement tracks the users, enforces the campaign rules, and calculates the appropriate discounts. Moving preliminary with Commerce Server 2000With Dells new campaign management system now in production, Hansen is looking at other Commerce Server 2000 features to nurture enhance the companys online marketing capabilities. Were looking at the Commerce Server 2000 Targeting System to make product recommendations based on real-time customer behavior, which should significantly improve our ability to cross-sell extra items, says Hansen. Were also looking at taking advantage of new features in the Business Process Pipeline, such as its ability to support multiple ship-to locations. why Dell Chose Commerce Server 2000 Dell selected Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 because it provided extensive out-of-the-box functionality that easily could be integrated into the existing complex environment. We looked atseveral other products, but Commerce Server 2000 was the easiest to extend and get into production, says Hansen. The greatest benefits provided by Commerce Server 2000 are its extensive out-of-the-box functionality combined with a flexible component-based architecture thatcan be easily extended.With just six weeks of development, we were able to customize and integrate its prebuilt functionality into our existing environment, resulting in better performance, improved stability, and extensive new campaign management capabilities. For More education For more information near Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales study Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Resource heart and soul at (800) 563-9048. Outside the 50 unify States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary.To access information using the World entire Web, go to www. microsoft. com. For more information about Dell products and services, visit the Web site at www. dell. com. For more information on Del l/Microsoft solutions, please visit www. dell. com/microsoft. 2001 Microsoft Corporation. tout ensemble rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, chatter ORIMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, the . brighten logo, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.The label of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Solution Overview Profile Dell Computer Corporation, headquartered in Round Rock, Texas, near Austin, is the worlds leading direct computer system company and a premier supplier of technology for the net profit infrastructure. Scenario Business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce Microsoft Technologies/Products Used Microsoft Windows 2000 modern Server oo ? Business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce ?Microsoft Technologies/Products Used ? Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server operating system with Internet Information Services version 5. 0 Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Benefits By upgrading to Commerce Server 2000, Dell was able to improve performance in some areas by upto 100 percent. The flexible, component-based architecture of Commerce Server enabled Dell to use only the functionality the company needed and made it balmy to extend the product where needed to put together the companys specific business needs. The greatest benefits provided by Commerce Server 2000 are its extensive out-of-the-box functionality combined with a flexible component-based architecture that can be easily extended. With just six weeks of development, we were able to customize and integrate its prebuilt functionality into our existing environment, resulting in better performance, improved stability, and extensive new campaign management capabilities. Gregg Hansen Development film director Dell HSB Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 client Solution Using the new components in Commerce Server 2000, we were able to implement functionality to build the concept of a campaign, tie itto a discount, and enforce itall with just six weeks development time. Had we tried to do it on our own and build this functionality from scratch, it would conduct taken six months. Gregg Hansen Development Manager Dell HSB pic The . NET enterprise Servers are Microsofts comprehensive family of server applications for building, deploying, and managing next-generation, integrated Web experiences that move beyond straight offs world of stand-alone Web sites.Designed with mission-critical performance inmind, the . NET Enterprise Servers provide fast time-to-market as well as scalability, reliability, and manageability for the global, Web-enabled enterprise. They have been built from the ground up for interoperability using open Web standards such as the Extensible Markup Language (XML). The . NET Enterprise Servers are a key part of Microsofts broader . NET strategy, which will enable a distributed computing model for the Internet based on Internet protocols and standards in order to revolutionize the way computers verbalise to one another on our behalf.