Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Anastasio Somoza García, President of Nicaragua

Anastasio Somoza Garcà ­a (Feb. 1, 1896–Sept. 29, 1956) was a Nicaraguan general, president, and dictator from 1936 to 1956. His administration, while being one of the most corrupt in history and brutal to dissidents, was nevertheless supported by the United States because it was viewed as anti-communist. Fast Facts: Anastasio Somoza Garcà ­a Known For: Nicaraguan general, president, dictator, and founder of the Somoza Dynasty of NicaraguaBorn: Feb. 1, 1896 in San Marcos, NicaraguaParents: Anastasio Somoza Reyes and Julia Garcà ­aDied: Sept. 29, 1956 in Ancà ³n, Panama Canal ZoneEducation: Peirce School of Business Administration, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaSpouse(s): Salvadora Debayle SacasaChildren: Luis Somoza Debayle, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, Julio Somoza Debayle, Lilliam Somoza de Sevilla-Secasa Early Years and Family Anastasio Somoza Garcà ­a was born on Feb. 1, 1986, in San Marcos, Nicaragua, as a member of the Nicaraguan upper-middle class. His father Anastasio Somoza Reyes served as a Conservative Party senator from the department of Carazo for eight years. In 1914, he was elected vice-secretary of the Senate. He was also a signer of the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty in 1916. His mother Julia Garcà ­a was from a wealthy family of coffee planters. At the age of 19, after a family scandal, Somoza Garcia was sent to live with relatives in Philadelphia, where he attended Peirce School of Business Administration (now Peirce College). In Philadelphia, Somoza met and courted Salvadora Debayle Sacas, who had a politically well-connected family that objected to the marriage. Nevertheless, in 1919 they married in Philadelphia in a civil ceremony. They had a Catholic ceremony in Leon Cathedral when they returned to Nicaragua. They returned to Nicaragua and had a formal Catholic wedding in Leà ³n Cathedral. While in Leà ³n, Anastasio tried and failed at running several businesses: automobile sales, boxing promoter, meter reader for an electric company, and inspector of latrines at the Rockefeller Foundations Sanitary Mission to Nicaragua. He even tried counterfeiting Nicaraguan currency and only avoided prison because of his family connections. U.S. Intervention in Nicaragua The United States became directly involved in Nicaraguan politics in 1909 when it supported a rebellion against President Jose Santos Zelaya, who had long been an opponent of U.S. policies in the area. In 1912, the United States sent Marines to Nicaragua to bolster the conservative government. The Marines remained until 1925 and as soon as they left, liberal factions went to war against the conservatives. The Marines returned after only nine months away and stayed until 1933. Beginning in 1927, renegade general Augusto Cà ©sar Sandino led a revolt against the government, which lasted until 1933. Somoza and the Americans Somoza had gotten involved in the presidential campaign of Juan Batista Sacasa, his wife’s uncle. Sacasa had been vice president under a previous administration, which had been overthrown in 1925, but in 1926 he returned to press his claim as the  legitimate president. As the different factions fought, the U.S. was forced to step in and negotiate a settlement. Somoza, with his perfect English and insider’s position in the fracas, proved invaluable to the Americans. When Sacasa finally reached the presidency in 1933, the American ambassador persuaded him to name Somoza head of the National Guard. The National Guard and Sandino The National Guard had been established as a militia, trained and equipped by the U.S. Marines. It was meant to keep in check the armies raised by the liberals and conservatives in their endless skirmishing over control of the country. In 1933 when Somoza took over as head of the National Guard, only one rogue army remained: that of Augusto Cà ©sar Sandino, a liberal who had been fighting since 1927. Sandino’s biggest issue was the presence of American marines in Nicaragua, and when they left in 1933, he finally agreed to negotiate a truce. He agreed to lay down his arms, provided that his men be given land and amnesty. Somoza still saw Sandino as a threat, so in early 1934 he arranged to have Sandino captured. On February 21, 1934, Sandino was executed by the National Guard. Shortly thereafter, Somoza’s men raided the lands that had been given to Sandino’s men after the peace settlement, slaughtering the former guerillas. In 1961, leftist rebels in Nicaragua established the National Liberation Front: in 1963 they added â€Å"Sandinista† to the name, assuming his name in their struggle against the Somoza regime, by then being led by Luà ­s Somoza Debayle and his brother Anastasio Somoza Debayle, Anastasio Somoza Garcà ­a’s two sons. Somoza Seizes Power President Sacasa’s administration was severely weakened in 1934–1935. The Great Depression had spread to Nicaragua and the people were unhappy. In addition, there were many allegations of corruption against him and his government. In 1936, Somoza, whose power had been growing, took advantage of Sacasa’s vulnerability and forced him to resign, replacing him with Carlos Alberto Brenes, a Liberal Party politician who mostly answered to Somoza. Somoza himself was elected in a crooked election, assuming the presidency on January 1, 1937. This began the period of Somoza rule in the country that would not end until 1979. Somoza quickly acted to set himself up as dictator. He took away any sort of real power of the opposition parties, leaving them only for show. He cracked down on the press. He moved to improve ties to the United States, and after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 he declared war on the Axis powers even before the United States did. Somoza also filled every important office in the nation with his family and cronies. Before long, he was in absolute control of Nicaragua. Height of Power Somoza remained in power until 1956. He stepped down briefly from the presidency from 1947–1950, bowing to pressure from the United States, but continued to rule through a series of puppet presidents, usually family. During this time, he had the complete support of the United States government. In the early 1950s, once again president, Somoza continued to build his empire, adding an airline, a shipping company, and several factories to his holdings. In 1954, he survived a coup attempt and also sent forces to Guatemala to help the CIA overthrow the government there. Death and Legacy On September 21, 1956, Anastasio Somoza Garcà ­a was shot in the chest by young poet and musician Rigoberto Là ³pez Pà ©rez at a party in the city of Leà ³n. Là ³pez was instantly brought down by Somoza bodyguards, but the president’s wounds would prove fatal on September 29. Là ³pez would eventually be named a national hero by the Sandinista government. Upon his death, Somoza’s eldest son Luà ­s Somoza Debayle took over, continuing the dynasty his father had established. The Somoza regime would continue through Luà ­s Somoza Debayle (1956–1967) and his brother Anastasio Somoza Debayle (1967–1979) before being overthrown by the Sandinista rebels. Part of the reason that the Somozas were able to retain power for so long was the support of the U.S. government, which saw them as anti-communist. Franklin Roosevelt allegedly once said of him: â€Å"Somoza may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he’s our son-of-a-bitch.† There is little direct proof of this quote. The Somoza regime was extremely crooked. With his friends and family in every important office, Somozas greed ran unchecked. The government seized profitable farms and industries and then sold them to family members at absurdly low rates. Somoza named himself director of the railway system  and then used it to move his goods and crops at no charge to himself. Those industries that they could not personally exploit, such as mining and timber, they leased to foreign (mostly U.S.) companies for a healthy share of the profits. He and his family made untold millions of dollars. His two sons continued this level of corruption, making Somoza Nicaragua one of the most crooked countries in the history of Latin America. This sort of corruption had a lasting effect on the economy, stifling it and contributing to Nicaragua as a somewhat backward country for a long time. Sources Editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Anastasio Somoza: President of Nicaragua. Encyclopedia Britannica, January 28, 2019.Editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Somoza Family. Encyclopedia Britannica, August 24, 2012.La Botz, Dan. The Somoza Dynastic Dictatorship (1936–75). What Went Wrong? The Nicaraguan Revolution, A Marxist Analysis, p. 74–75. Brill, 2016.  Merrill, Tim L. (ed.) Nicaragua: A Country Study. Federal Research Division, U.S. Library of Congress, 1994.Otis, John. Dictators daughter wants UPI, April 2, 1992.Walter, Knut. The Regime of Anastasio Somoza, 1936–1956. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1993.

Monday, December 23, 2019

Comparing The Attitude Towards Human Nature On...

Jourdyn Lao Professor Mengjun Li EALC 350 (25307) 23 October 2017 Compare the attitude towards human nature in Confucianism and Legalism (e.g. Han Feizi). What are the implications of these attitudes for other aspects of their philosophy, such as education and government? The Juxtaposition of Confucianism and Legalism Amidst the chaos and political turmoil characteristic of the Warring States period in Chinese history, Confucianism and Legalism arose as two prominent and competing schools of thought. These two ideologies differed in their sociopolitical viewpoint, as well as in their methodology of achieving their version of a perfect society. However, they were alike in that they both investigated the meanings of a stable society†¦show more content†¦In order to achieve such a lofty goal, he advocated for government that ruled with morality and virtue, instead of punishment and forceful suppression. From the Analects, the viewpoints and values of Confucianism towards human nature mentioned prior are made clear. Confucius urged ethical and virtuous behavior, and believed a responsible government was a moral obligation of mankind. Such values are readily observed in the Analects, such as in the quote, â€Å"The Master said, ‘If a minist er makes his own conduct correct, what difficulty will he have in assisting in government? If he cannot rectify himself, what has he to do with rectifying others?’† (Analects 13:13). Another excerpt from the Analects that exemplifies Confucius’s perspective of moral conduct driving humanity is as follows: â€Å"The Master said, ‘Guide them with policies and align them with punishments and the people will evade them and have no shame. Guide them with virtue and align them with li and the people will have a sense of shame and fulfill their roles’† (Analects 2:3). This first part of this quote will be important when we analyze the main beliefs of Legalism. Lastly, there is no better example of the universality of Confucius’s attitude towards human nature than in the â€Å"golden† rule. When Confucius is asked if there is a concept that can be taken as a guide for the

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Contemporary issues on mobility and work spaces Free Essays

Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History. Retrieved 24 February 2011 . – also Jump up A A Legal Bridge Spanning 100 Years: From the Gold Mines of El Dorado to the ‘Golden’ Startups of Silicon Valley By Gregory Grooms, 2010. We will write a custom essay sample on Contemporary issues on mobility and work spaces or any similar topic only for you Order Now Assignment 1, mobility – Threaten Darkish First let me explain how this essays goes which I tough it would look and sound better if the definition and samples come first and then after that and also in between I refer them to interior design and our roles and use as one. I’ll start with the definition of the word mobility to get to know this term and see it’s difference from the other use of mobility as in the new technology and mobile APS for workplaces. Therefore â€Å"Mobility’ indicates a worker’s ability to physically move around freely in he workplace to accomplish work. Mobility for work can be assisted with items such as a wheel chair, crutches, canes, a desk near the door, a scooter to ride between distant buildings, and a shuttle bus. Mobility also refers to a worker’s ability to take advantage of various Job opportunities ( I will write more on this issue below), including the ability to relocate, move to a superior Job position, commute a particular distance to work daily, or change positions due to family and civic responsibilities. Some impediments to the mobility of labor include personal hindrances such as geographical location and ability to move, physical and mental ability, and prior Job experiences. Social/legal hindrances to mobility include a lack of educational opportunities, family responsibilities, and various laws. A frequent use of the word, mobility, occurs when organizations use the term to define the upward mobility of employees. An employee with upward mobility has the appropriate mix of needed qualities and characteristics including experience, knowledge, skills, education, cultural fit, and availability. An employee with upward mobility potential is ready for promotional opportunities*. Now at this point I going to write further more about the mobility of employees and various Job opportunities to see what that points to exactly and how that is related to mobility. Employee mobility is an issue that has taken on a whole new meaning as more and more businesses have gone global. Employees today are commonly asked to take assignments in company locations outside their home country. These kinds of opportunities are seen as Contemporary Issues in Interior Architecture- Fall 2014 2 benefits by many employees who enjoy experiencing new cultures and the multi- cultural exposure. Managing employee mobility is important though, because without the right training and planning, employees moving to foreign countries will not be prepared to meet the challenges such moves present. Your company does not want to find itself faced with loss of productivity, or worse, loss of its best managers because of lack of planning. Being prepared to address the issues related to employee mobility should be included in the company’s strategic planning. Quality of living in this matter can be an issue if a company frequently transfer employees within the country or outside the country. Either way there are concerns which should be addressed in these compensation and benefits packages. For example, in the US, a manager transferred from a small town in Texas to a large northeastern city will be faced with many of the same issues as an employee transferred from the US to Canada and that is a very simple and the most easiest transfer in contrast with moving to India or china, a completely different culture. These concerns or issues include cultural and compensation differences. These differences become more pronounced when the company re-assigns employees from a developed country to a third world country. But it is really a matter of degree. Making sure that the staff are well prepared for these types of moves will insure the transition is smooth and they remain productive. After all the reason managers are transferred is in order to better utilize their talents and skills within the company**. Here I can say our role as an interior designers may help with these issues but with prior researching, planning, somehow rearranging their working spaces even from their own country to their destinations. So that they can familiarize themselves and got to know those areas better prior going there to make them arm proof and repaper Just in case. Many transfers involve more than the staff also. The managers and workers in general have families who are as much a part of the move as the company employees. It’s important for the company to recognize the needs of the employee’s family also. Unless the staff feel as if their family will also benefit from the transfer without Jeopardizing their safety or welfare, company transfers will meet a lot of resistance. In these cases also our role as interior designers can come to great use by even designing and making their homes look like the one in future after move, better said aka and redesign them as person by hurt so they would not feel alienated. Now here are some instances of companies and how they help these employees related with this mobility matter. For instance the Whichever Workforce Mobility*** helps clients optimize their mobile workforce by delivering innovative solutions that make it faster, easier and more cost effective to deploy key talent and transfer critical skills anywhere in the world. Our expertise in Contemporary Issues in Interior Architecture- Fall 2014 3 relocation and assignment management ensures that our clients’ mobility programs advance their business and workforce strategies. They deliver sustained customer value through unique service and engagement initiatives, including: – Trusted Partner – Next Practices – Fans – Balanced Scorecard Here again we as designers can be creative about those mentioned above. Even by being faster, easier and more cost effective. By faster that can be as helping deploy critical talent at the speed of business by motivating them through Just by one look but by a great look. Because opportunity won’t wait. By easier that can be as to Just open communication, transparency, mutual trust and boundless innovation. And by ore-cost effective that can be vast global resources and in-house expertise to control our clients’ program costs which we can be ahead of it by being innovative or creative in these fields to somehow more economic but more fashionable. Also there is other term as labor mobility, which Labor mobility or worker mobility is the geographical and occupational movement of workers. Worker mobility is best gauged by the lack of impediments to such mobility. Impediments to mobility are easily divided into two distinct classes with one being personal and the other being systemic. Personal impediments include physical location, and physical and mental ability. The systemic impediments include educational opportunities as well as various laws and political contrivances and even barriers and hurdles arising from historical happenstance. Increasing and maintaining a high level of labor mobility allows a more efficient allocation of resources. Labor mobility has proven to be a forceful driver of innovations. There I also another International Labor Mobility. Which International labor mobility is the movement of workers between countries. It is an example of an international factor movement. The movement of laborers is based on a difference in resources between countries. According to economists, Over time the migration of labor should have an equalizing effect on wages, with workers in the same industries garnering the same wage. How to cite Contemporary issues on mobility and work spaces, Papers

Saturday, December 7, 2019

The Translational Marketing-Free-Samples-Myassignmenthelp.com

Questions: 1. What competencies may be related to transnational marketing? 2. How does mobility contribute to transnational marketing as a factor? Answers: 1.The translational marketing is related to the multi-componential competency which includes the sets of technological, cultural and the linguistic skills. The marketing is a broader promotion of the company image and the brand line. It puts the company and the products into the minds of the potential customers. The marketing standards include: The marketing managers need analytical skills to focus on the measurement of all the marketing campaigns and then analyzing the traffic. the marketing managers need to be the critical thinkers who are able to analyze the situations and the statements mainly to determine the validity. The marketing managers are project managers who are working in the creative industry like marketing, ad campaigns, and the design work. There is a need to think big with the terms of integrated and interconnected systems which helps the people to interact with and affect each other (Kanibir, Saydan, Nart, 2014). The marketing managers need to be necessarily the technical savvy who are working on influencing the marketing and accomplishing in their jobs. For this, the client engagement tends to occur more with delivering the services and information one wants. The marketing managers need to handle the details with oriented structure and focusing on the ability to capture the vision in detail. The skills also come handy with analyzing the data and approving the activities before they are life (Kneipp et al., 2015) 2.The translational marketing can depend on the knowledge mobility by exemplifying the profound tensions that come from the class between the international markets with the need to adapt to the global ideas set for local contexts. With the growing number of people, there has been an increase in the connectivity beyond the national borders. The transitional marketing is working on globalizing and moving fast in the world where the focus is on the proper organization and firms work on underlining the importance of the same for success. It introduces the concepts related to the increasing human mobility and its implications on the market (Mazzi, Passeri Bellandi, 2015). The business brief is the attempt for enhancement of globalization with improved transportation, communication and information technology to devise the strategies that involve the geographical and the temporal change. Thus, in return, it facilitates and forces the independence from within and among the organizations, na tion and other actors in the economic, political and the cultural spheres. The key variables are set with the fluidity of practice, mobility and then creating the living through business spaces across the different borders (Revell Revell, 2016). There has been stateless avoidance of the national borders where the managers work on solving the training problems in order to overcome the barriers set up by the factories in the country References Kanibir, H., Saydan, R., Nart, S. (2014). Determining the antecedents of marketing competencies of SMEs for international market performance.Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,150, 12-23. Kneipp, S. M., Leeman, J., McCall, P., Hassmiller-Lich, K., Bobashev, G., Schwartz, T. A., ... Riggan, S. (2015). Synthesizing marketing, community engagement, and systems science approaches for advancing translational research.ANS. Advances in nursing science,38(3), 227. Mazzi, C., Passeri, R., Bellandi, M. (2015). Exploring the role of complementary competencies in technology transfer: A new model for spin-off creation programs.International Journal of Management Cases,17(4). Revell-Love, C., Revell-Love, T. (2016). Competencies of women entrepreneurs utilizing information marketing businesses.Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development,23(3), 831-853.

Friday, November 29, 2019

It Role in Green Economy free essay sample

Green Economy: We depend on the earths natural resources that have a limited capacity to regenerate and renew itself, forcing us to design an economic model which is good in conserving energy, natural resources, reducing emissions, reducing pollution and at the same time providing Jobs to people. This kind of a design leads to the Green Economy which is a clean energy economy. It aims in providing: Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy and the efficient use of it. Green buildings which uses environment friendly and recyclable materials 0 Recycling of waste-to-energy, recycling of water and it also encourages the production and marketing of cleaner technologies such as less power consuming fluorescent light bulbs. Trends in Green Economy: There are various trends that shape the green economy and helps in building a sustainable eco-system. Construction of building with renewable resources and recyclable materials called as green building are being encouraged. We will write a custom essay sample on It Role in Green Economy or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Many movements and companies like Dell, Toyota and Honda have restructured their business strategies to support a green economy. Recent happenings such as depletion of topsoils, sudden increase in water levels, melting of glaciers, poisoning of fresh water supplies and ozone layer depletion has aroused the fear in the minds of people and has forced them to know the importance of green economy. Various sectors such as solar-energy, wind-energy and organic products manufacturing are increasing and the people have started to show interest in buying green products. Importance and Impacts of Green Economy: The Green Economy can act as a good solution to sort out many problems such as Job losses due to economic crisis, low-carbon emission, drastic climatic change and efficient use of energy. It provides Jobs in the construction industry by introducing the technique of insulation of homes and it also helps in efficient use of energy. In addition to this, shifting the money spent on transport to a very efficient form such as creation of public transport which can reduce the carbon emission will also be very helpful. Information Systems: Stair and Ralph(2006) says that, Information system(lS) is a set of interrelated components that collect, manipulate and disseminate data and information and provide a feedback mechanism to meet an objective. Information system plays different roles in everyones day to day life and its effect on green economy is also a important point. Role of information systems in Green Economy: Learning about green economy Just can t help in building the same, it needs a tool, a system that can nalyze the current system and helps in developing the green economy which brings in the role of Information Systems. Information system can play a vital role in developing a report which analyses the cause and helps in reducing air and water pollution. According to an article published on ibmsystemsmag website on June 2009, The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) reduces water pollution with the help of a software from 18M. Information systems can also help in proper energy

Monday, November 25, 2019

Leadership portrated in the movie, Crimson Tide.

Leadership portrated in the movie, Crimson Tide. Introduction.Set in Archbury Airfield, England, during World War II, "Twelve O'Clock High" is full of engaging individuals whose character development reveal insights into the different approaches to leadership and their resultant effectiveness. The movie centralizes on the American 918th Bomber Group, a flight crew suffering from low-moral, dismal performance and "hard luck" after several unsuccessful flight missions. However, their luck drastically changes under the leadership of a dedicated, relentless general bent on boosting the crew's morale and performance though self-actualization, motivation and pride.Many characters in this report display exemplary leadership qualities, but also highlight poor elements of leadership whose contrast sheds light on what truly makes an effective leader. Keith Davenport is the compassionate general and comrade to the 918th flight crew, who, after several mission mishaps with high crew and aircraft losses, is replaced by General Frank Savage. Sav age is a disciplined hard-ass who whips the flight crew into shape by introducing discipline, direction and structure within the 918 flight crew.They Don't Know (Savage song)Through it all, Major General Pritchard, the 'higher-up' in charge of delegating authority, reveals snapshots of leadership that his role plays towards the eventual success of the 918 flight crew.This report will highlight and compare these character's roles and approaches to leading the 918th crew towards self-actualization, success and excellence. Namely, this report will emphasize the four crucial elements of being a good leader that they display throughout the course of the movie: taking charge, maintaining strategic vision, communications and teamwork, and personal integrity. These components of leadership will be discussed in detail with supporting examples to reveal more insight into the crucial elements that make up a good leader.Taking Charge.An effective leader possesses the will, desire and the know-h ow of how to take charge in any situation. Prime examples...

Friday, November 22, 2019

Article on issues addressing a contracting issue Essay

Article on issues addressing a contracting issue - Essay Example In this paper the study of Akintan & Morledge will be discussed with its potential use in the defense sector. In the particular sector the challenges for those involved in contracts can be many. By improving the relationship between contractors and sub-contractors in the above industry the risks related to the industry’s contracts would be significantly limited. For Akintan & Morledge (2013) the current structure of ‘traditional construction procurement’ (Akintan & Morledge 2013 p.1) favors main contractors. Sub-contractors, in opposition, are left with no particular power to intervene in the construction process, even if the development of construction projects is quite demanding and the non-involvement of sub-contractors increases the risks for failures (Akintan & Morledge 2013, p.1). After highlighting the particular problem Akintan & Morledge (2013, p.2) present the benefits that the effective collaboration between contractors and sub-contractors would have in the construction industry. These benefits could also refer to other industries where a similar problem, i.e. poor collaboration between contractors and sub-contractors, appears. At the next level, Akintan & Morledge (2013) try to analyze the potential causes for the conflicts developed between contractors and sub-contractors. Emphasis is given to the key criterion on which contractors tend to choose their sub-contractors: price (Akintan & Morledge 2013, p.3). Building a business relationship only on this criterion can result to many risks as no room is allowed for trust and communication to be developed (Akintan & Morledge 2013). Other practices of contractors that increase the chances for conflicts between them and sub-contractors are the following: a) too strict contracting terms, b) most of risks related to the contract are transferred to sub-contractors and c) the use of ‘professional stereotypes’ (Akintan & Morledge 2013, p.3); in the context of

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Persuasive Speech Assignment on seat belt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Persuasive Speech Assignment on seat belt - Essay Example I also referred to my speaker notes occasionally and glance at the presentation regularly to ensure that I was presenting the right content for each slide. So as to make the presentation more interesting, I ensured that I gesticulated. I also made use of my other body parts in application of whatever I have previously learnt about non-verbal communication. One of the things that make the audience get bored during a presentation is monotony. However good the content of the presentation may be, the audience will be distracted by a monotonous voice. In order to ensure that my presentation overcame monotony, I varied my tone and volume. My presentation was well organized. Each slide was not overcrowded with words. Also, each slide was dedicated to a subtopic. Essentially, this was done to ensure that my presentation and speech was well organized and flowed seamlessly. I believe that my presentation was a great

Monday, November 18, 2019

Managerial roles and responsibilities Coursework

Managerial roles and responsibilities - Coursework Example It is their responsibility to ensure that there is an effective flow of information in the healthcare system. They must, therefore, ensure that the equipment and design are efficient enough. A healthcare delivery CIO must be innovative and be able to design and implement the innovation process. This way, they can influence the other healthcare executives (Ball et al. (2013). When the CIO is innovative, the rest will have to follow suit in order to produce good results. A healthcare CIO has the responsibility to oversee the handling of all the data in the healthcare delivery system. This is a huge responsibility considering there is a lot of data to handle in this sector. This includes the medical care data, patient self-service applications as well as other medical uses around the hospital. CIOs are, therefore, required to work together with other stakeholders in order to be successful. Ball, et al. (2013) insist that a CIO takes into account the management of the population health, ensuring that all patients are taken care of appropriately and also in the individual level where each patient experiences an improved service delivery through IT. Additionally, A the CIO ensures that there is a reduction readmission procedure where real-time data is

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Approaches to Economic Development

Approaches to Economic Development THE ECONOMICS OF DEVELOPMENT CONCEPTS AND APPROACHES Meaning of the term ‘Economic Development’ Actually, there are broadly two main approaches to the concept of economic development : The Traditional Approach or ‘The Stages of Economic Growth’ Theories of the 1950s and the early 1960s. The New Welfare Oriented Approach or ‘The Structural-Internationalist’ Models of the late 1960s and the 1970s. 1.  The Traditional Approach : The thinking of the 1950s and early 1960s focused mainly on the concept of the stages of economic growth. Here the process of development was viewed as a series of successive stages through which all countries had to pass. The propounders of this approach advocated the necessity of the right quantity and mixture of saving, investment and foreign aid to enable the LDCs to proceed along an economic growth path. They based their conclusions on the fact that this economic path historically had been followed by most of the more developed countries. Thus, in this period development had become synonymous with rapid, aggregate economic growth. This approach defined development strictly in economic terms and it implied : A sustained annual increase in the GNP at rates varying from 5 to 7 pcpa or more; Such changes in the structure of production and employment that the share of agriculture declines in both, while the share of manufacturing and the tertiary sectors increase. The policy measures that were suggested in this period were the ones which induced industrialization at the expense of agricultural development. The objectives of poverty elimination, economic inequalities reduction and employment generation were mentioned but only as a passing reference. In most cases it was assumed that the rapid gains in overall growth in the GNP would ‘trickle-down to the masses’ in one form or the other. 2.  The New Welfare Oriented Approach: Jacob Viner was probably the first economist (1950’s) to argue that an economy could not boast of having achieved economic progress if the incidence of poverty in that economy had not diminished. But it was in the early 1970’s that economists began to realize that Jacob Viner’s stance was relevant, as nearly 40 % of the developing world’s population had not benefited at all from the rise in the GNP and from the structural changes that had taken place in their respective economies during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Hence, in the 1970s it became necessary to redefine the concept of economic development. This modern approach views underdevelopment in terms of : international and domestic power relationships; institutional and structural economic rigidities; and, the proliferation of dual economies and dual societies both within and among the nations of the world. This approach places emphasis on policies that would lead to the eradication of poverty, provide more diversified employment opportunities, and reduce income inequalities. This approach insists that these and the other egalitarian objectives have to be achieved only within the socio-economic context of the respective growing economy. Thus today, economic development is a process whereby the general economic well-being (especially of the masses) of an economy is affected for the better. Meier defines economic development very concisely as: ‘Development is the process whereby the real per capita income of a country increases over a long period of time subject to the stipulation that the number below an absolute poverty line does not increase and that the distribution of income does not become more unequal’. This definition thus highlights the following aspects of the term economic development : 1.  Development is a PROCESS : Today, development implies the operation of certain socio-economic forces in an interconnected and causal fashion. This interpretation is more meaningful than merely to identify development with a set of conditions or a catalogue of characteristics. 2.  Development is a RISE IN THE REAL PER CAPITA INCOME : Since today the development of a poor country arises from a desire to remove its mass poverty, the primary goal should be a rise in the real PCI rather than simply an increase in the economy’s real national income, uncorrected for changes in the population. Simply increasing the real national income does not guarantee that there would be an improvement in the general living standards of the masses. If the population growth rate surpasses the growth of national output or even runs parallel with it, the result would be a falling or at best a constant PCI and as this would not be beneficial to the masses, it cannot be considered as development. 3.  Development can take place only over a LONG PERIOD OF TIME : This time period is significant from the stand-point of development being a sustained increase in the real income and not simply as a short-period temporary rise, such as occurs during the upswing of the business cycle. The underlying continuous upward trend in the growth of the real PCI over at least two or three decades is a strong indication that the process of development is on the right track. 4.  Development must lead to a DECREASE IN SIZE OF THE ABSOLUTELY POOR : Given the new orientation of the development thought, it is necessary that the quality of life of the masses must improve in fact improve to the extent of actually showing a fall in the amount of people living below the poverty line. This would automatically require, as suggested in the definition, a reduction in the economic inequalities in the economy. To achieve this goal, it is necessary that the policies implemented should actually divert economic power towards the economically vulnerable groups in the economy. The policies should aim at raising the real PCI, causing a diminution in economic inequality (ie., an alleviation if not an eradication of poverty), ensuring a minimum level of consumption, guaranteeing a certain socially relevant composition of the national income, reducing unemployment to a tolerable low level and removing regional development disparities. The framework of development as given by Charles P. Kindleberger and Bruce Herrick reiterates the improvement-of-the-masses emphasis of Meier’s definition. Kindleberger and Herrick maintain that economic development is generally taken to include : Improvement in material welfare, especially for persons with the lowest incomes, the eradication of mass poverty along with its correlates of illiteracy, disease, and early death; Changes in the composition of inputs and outputs that generally include shifts in the underlying structure of production away from agricultural and towards industrial activities; Organizing the economy in such a way that productive employment is general among the working age population and that employment is not a privilege of only a minority; and, Increasing the degree of participation of the masses in making decisions about the directions, economic and otherwise, in which the economy should move to improve their own welfare. The Economic Growth V/s Economic Development dEBATE The stress on the improvement in the quality of life of the masses has made it imperative to distinguish between the growth-oriented approach of the 1950s 1960s and the modern development-oriented approach of the late 1960s 1970s ie., the distinctions between Economic Growth and Economic Development must be highlighted. 1.  Definitional differences : Economic growth is a pure economic process whereby there is an increase in the economy’s GNP due to the increase in the productive capacity of the economy. Economic development, on the other hand, is a multi-dimensional process involving major changes in the social structures, popular attitudes and national institutions, as well as the acceleration of economic growth, the reduction of inequality and the eradication of absolute poverty. 2.  Differences in the objectives : Economic growth aims at: Increasing the size of the GNP, without actually considering the social relevance of the composition of the national income. Removing all the obstacles that could come in the way of increasing the economy’s productive capacity, eg., removing the market imperfections that exist in the economy. Supplying the ‘missing components’ like capital, foreign exchange, technology, skills and management, which are needed for improving the economy’s productive capacity. Hoping that the benefits of the increased capacity of the economy would some how reach the masses. Economic development, on the other hand, aims at : Increasing the availability and widening the distribution of basic life-sustaining goods such as food, shelter, health and protection. Raising the level of living including, in addition to higher incomes, the provision of more jobs, better education and greater attention to cultural and humanistic values, all of which serve not only to enhance material well-being but also to generate greater individual and national self-esteem. Expanding the range of economic and social choice to individuals and nations by freeing them from servitude and dependence, not only in relation to other people and nations, but also from the forces of ignorance and human misery. Thus, we see that the goals of economic growth are rather narrow in scope, while those of economic development are more broad-based in nature and in scope. 3.  Differences in the overall approach : a.  Quantitative versus Qualitative Approaches : According to Kindleberger, economic growth means more output, while economic development implies not only more output but also changes in the technical and institutional arrangements by which it is produced and distributed. Growth involves more output derived from greater amounts of inputs and with greater efficiency; but, development implies changes in the composition of the output and in the allocation of the inputs to the different sectors. Thus, growth is related to a quantitative sustained increase in the PCI accompanied by the expansion in its labour force, consumption, capital and volume of trade, while economic development is related to qualitative changes in economic wants, goods, incentives and institutions. b.  Revolutionary Speed versus Evolutionary Speed Approaches : Economic growth implies a certain degree of rapidity in the change process. Changes are introduced at a brisk rate and without a sufficient preparation of the socio-eco-politico foundations of the economy. Projects are literally imposed on the economy to create a global impression of progress. The masses are either not taken into confidence or are not considered vis-à  -vis the new projects. The rapid changes caused by the ‘Revolutionary Approach’ of economic growth ensure the failure of the system within a short time. Economic Development, on the other hand, adopts a more ‘Evolutionary Approach’ ie., it first ensures that the socio-eco-politico foundations are readied for the change. Hence, when the change actually takes place, it is readily and popularly accepted and supported. Thus, development involves creating a sense of awareness and a feeling of participation among the masses in the economy. This makes the development process painstakingly slow, long and drawn-out but it is this gradualness in approach that actually strengthens the economy in the long run. c.  Only Immediate Gains versus Also Futuristic Gains Approaches : The gains that accrue from economic development are far more sustaining than those made from growth, simply because of the differences in the way the future of the to-be-introduced projects are anticipated, analyzed and appreciated. Economic growth means increasing the economic activities, irrespective of whether the economy can continue supporting the newly introduced economic activity in the long run or not. For instance, along the lines of economic growth, an LDC would increase its current steel producing capacity, but it would not be able to keep up this new capacity for more than a few years. Hence, within a few years, the increased capacity would lay wasting leading to a wastage of scarce resources. Economic development, on the other hand, would consider the future sustaining capacity of the economy before actually increasing the steel capacity. If and only if the economy can continue supporting this higher rate in the future, the capacity would actually increase. Thus, economi c development guarantees that the scarce resources are currently used fruitfully and appropriately. d.  Only Economic versus Also Environmental concern Approaches : Economic growth, due to its rapid approach, more often than not, causes harm to the environment natural and/or social. Projects are undertaken without considering the cascading effects that could follow in the form of natural environment degradation, pollution, overcrowding, increase in crime rate, bottlenecks in infrastructural facilities, etc. For instance, an economy, for growth’s sake, could undertake an irrigational project without either making a thorough study of or without caring about its ramifications on the natural and social environment. Economic development, on the other hand, insists on the conservation and the protection of the natural and social environment. If a certain project could cause any sort of significant damage to the environment, that project would be either abandoned or altered. If the above mentioned irrigational project was approached from the development point of view, its site would be either changed, or its dimensions altered to prevent natural environmental harm; and if there is any sort of social environmental damage, like displacement of the inhabitants, then, rehabilitation projects would be undertaken, in consultation with the affected people. e.  The Trickle-Down versus The Direct-Attack Approaches : Economic growths, primary goal is to increase the productive capacity of the economy massively, irrespective of whether or not the poorer sections would benefit from this higher capacity. In fact, growth works on the assumption that the benefits that accrue from the increase in capacity would some how or the other trickle-down to the masses. Thus, growth makes no deliberate attempt ensure that the benefits do reach the poorer sections of the economy. The objectives of poverty eradication, economic inequalities reduction and employment generation are mentioned but only as a passing reference, as secondary gains that may or may not occur. Growth has a sort of an in-built tendency to bypass those very people in the economy who deserve to be supported the most by it. Economic development, on the other hand, by directly attacking economic misery, ensures that the benefits of the increase in the productive capacity actually reach the masses. The policies aim at diverting economic power towards the economically weaker sections of the economy. The policies directly aim at raising the real PCI, causing a diminution in economic inequality, ensuring a minimum level of consumption, guaranteeing a certain socially relevant composition of the national income, reducing unemployment to a tolerable low level and removing regional development disparities. 4.  Interrelationship between Economic Growth Economic Development : Although economic growth and economic development are indeed very different in their approaches, there exists an inter-relationship between them. It is difficult to conceive of development without growth. In low income countries, for instance, a substantial increase in the GNP is needed before they can hope to overcome their problems of poverty, unemployment and occupational distribution. However, it is possible to have growth without development, as growth is not concerned with the social aspects of an economy. In short, since development is a broader concept it encompasses growth and therefore can be said to be directly related to growth. Thus, development is growth with a human face. References: Todaro, M.Economic Development in the Third World. Chs 1 and 3 Meier, G.Leading issues in Economic Development. Ch 1 (1-A) Misra PuriEconomics of Growth and Development (4th Ed) Ch 1 Jhingan, M. L.The Economics of Development and Planning. (28th Ed) Ch 1 Mukherji, SampatModern Economic Theory Ch 50

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Gay Rights: Homosexuals Deserve the same Rights as Heterosexuals Essay

Homosexual people do not want to have special privileges. They just want to have the same rights as heterosexuals, nothing more, and nothing less. Homosexuals are a growing minority with nearly a million gays and lesbians identifying themselves as members of same-sex couples in the 2000 census. But the total gay population is much larger, since the census didn’t provide an opportunity for single homosexuals to identify their sexual orientation, and didn’t count gay couples who live apart (Mason 1). There are no legitimate reasons why homosexuals should not have the same rights as heterosexuals. Our country disgraces itself when it â€Å"[†¦] accepts homosexuality as a sufficient cause for deprivation of normal civil rights [†¦]† (Nava, Dawidoff 144). If a homosexual is United States citizen, they should receive the same rights as all other citizens, regardless of their sexual orientation. Gay men and lesbians deserve the right to marry, to not be discri minated against, and to be in the military. Marriage is ever changing. Wives are now equal rather than subordinate partners; interracial marriage is now widely accepted; and marital failure itself, rather than the fault of one partner, may be grounds for a divorce (Stoddard 32). With all of these changes would it not be accurate to say that legalizing and recognizing same-sex marriages is the next step? Marriage is more than a commitment to love one another. â€Å"Aside from societal and religious conventions, marriage entails legally imposed financial responsibility and legally authorized financial benefits. Marriage provides automatic legal protections for the spouse, including medical visitation, succession of a deceased spouse’s property, as well as pension and other rights† (Stoddard 4... ...cause there is no law stating it is illegal, but 48 states, all but Vermont and Hawaii, will not acknowledge a gay marriage. If a homosexual is United States citizen, they should receive the same rights as all other citizens, regardless of their sexual orientation. Gay men and lesbians deserve the right to marry, to not be discriminated against, and to be in the military. Does it seem fair to keep all homosexuals from what they justly deserve? References Jackson, Benjamin. â€Å"Anti-homosexual Crime†. Pages 1-2. Southern Poverty Law Center. 2002. Mason, Margie. â€Å"Census Figures on Same-Sex Couples†. Page 1. www.speakout.com. 8/8/01 Nava, Michael, and Robert Dawidoff. â€Å"The Ick Factor: Yes†. Taking Sides. Pages 144-151. 1994. Stoddard, Thomas. â€Å"Gay Marriage: Make Them Legal†. Current Issues and Enduring Questions. Pages 31 – 52. Bedford Books. Boston. 1996

Monday, November 11, 2019

Brittens Assignment

Bernie and Pam Britten are a young married couple beginning careers and establishing a household. They will each make about $50,000 next year and will have accumulated about $40,000 to invest. They now rent an apartment but are considering purchasing a condominium for $100,000. If they do, a down payment of $10,000 will be required. They have discussed their situation with Lew McCarthy, an investment advisor and personal friend, and he has recommended the following investments: The condominium – expected annual increase in market value = 5%.Municipal bonds – expected annual yield = 5%. High-yield corporate stocks – expected dividend yield = 8%. Savings account in a commercial bank-expected annual yield = 3%. High-growth common stocks – expected annual increase in market value = 10%; expected dividend yield = 0. Calculate the after-tax yields on the foregoing investments, assuming the Brittens have a 28% marginal tax rate (based on Public Law 108-27, The Jo bs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003). How would you recommend the Brittens invest their $40,000? SolutionWe use the provisions outlined in The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 to compute the applicable tax rates to be faced by the Brittens – a married couple subject to a 28% marginal tax rate – for the different investment decisions they will pursue. Given that the tax-free yield for each investment has been provided, we compute for the after-tax yield using this formula: After-Tax Yield = Tax-Free Yield x (1 – tax rate). But first, let us determine the tax rate applicable to the Brittens for each of the investments.A. The condominium – expected annual increase in market value = 5%. The 5% increase in market value of the condominium is not subject to taxes. While taxes are set at 18%, the Brittens can expense up to $100,000 of the property pursuant to the Section 179 Expensing, and can take advantage of the bonus depre ciation. Hence, tax rate is de minimis, or maybe assumed at 0%. B. Municipal bonds – expected annual yield = 5%. Any annual yield from municipal bonds is not taxed at the Federal Level.Municipal bonds are usually-tax exempt. Hence, tax rate is 0%. C. High-yield corporate stocks – expected dividend yield = 8%. Dividends received by a stockholder are taxed the same way as capital gain income. The 8% dividend yield, if it qualifies as a qualified capital gain or dividend, will be subject to the 15% tax rate, for the Brittens. D. Savings account in a commercial bank-expected annual yield = 3%. Savings account in a commercial bank is subject to the Britten’s marginal tax rate, which is 28%. E.High-growth common stocks – expected annual increase in market value = 10%; expected dividend yield = 0. High-growth common stocks are subject to 15% taxes. While the yield, which is subject to capital gains tax, is 0, any gain from the disposition of stock is considered a â€Å"gross income†, and is considered a capital gain, which is subject to 15% tax. Using those tax rates, we can compute for the after-tax yields: Pre-Tax Yield Tax After-Tax Yield Condominum 5% 0% 5. 00% Municipal Bonds 5% 0% 5. 00% HY Corporate Stocks 8% 15% 6. 80%Savings Account 3% 28% 2. 16% HG Common Stocks 10% 15% 8. 50% Basing from the after-tax yield itself, the best investment for the Brittens would be the High Growth Common stock. The Brittens’ 40,000 dollar investment may grow by 8. 50% if the whole amount is invested in High Growth Common Stock. However, if we take in to account the risks and the degrees of liquidity, or if the investment could be easily turned to cash. Municipal bonds and savings account (which are guaranteed) for example, while low yield, have low default risks.High yield corporate stocks, and high growth common stocks, while high yield, are subject to the volatility of the stock market, and are very high risk. Stock prices are fluctua ting everyday, and the value of the stock would depend upon the company’s performance and investor interest on the company. The condominium investment is medium risk, since it is also subject to supply and demand – real estate investments, for example, at these times are subject to risk due to the subprime mortgage crisis.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Cultural Diversity in Nursing Essay

Introduction Cultural diversity in nursing is concept that is derived from nursing and other cross-cultural health-related disciplines such as psychology, sociology and anthropology. Culture is simply used to refer to the belief systems held by groups of people in the society. Therefore, cultural diversity is defined as, â€Å"the differences between people based on a shared ideology and valued set of beliefs, norms, customs, and meanings evidenced in a way of life† (Lowe & Archibald, 2009). Culture influences individual’s behavior, perceptions and also interpretations. Therefore, integrating culture in healthcare is critical. This is in efforts to create a healthcare system that is sensitive to the needs of patients. For that reason, this essay focuses on cultural diversity in nursing by looking at the background of the issue, current trends, significance to nursing profession, controversies and strategies for dealing with cultural diversity. Background and Historical Development of Cultural Diversity in Nursing As defined earlier, cultural diversity refers to, â€Å"the differences between people based on a shared ideology and valued set of beliefs, norms, customs, and meanings evidenced in a way of life† (Lowe & Archibald, 2009). In the healthcare system, there are people from different cultural groups. For instance, we have people from different racial groups, ethnicity, tribe, religion and so forth. This includes both the providers and the patients. To a great extent, our culture defines our practice. The concept of cultural diversity in nursing was first established in 1955 by Madeleine Leininger, one of the pioneers of transcultural nursing. As an area of knowledge, cultural diversity in nursing, also known as transcultural nursing, was aimed at equipping nurses with knowledge that  will help them in delivering culturally appropriate nursing care (Lowe & Archibald, 2009). Madeleine Leininger believed in the diversity and universality of cultural care. For that reason, he established transcultural nursing from the year 1955 to 1975. Madeleine refined the concept of transcultural nursing through the â€Å"sunrise model†. The expansion of the concept continued even after 1975 to present. In 1966, the University of Colorado started transcultural nursing courses. The concept was later established internationally in 1983 (Lowe & Archibald, 2009). Current Trends in Cultural Diversity Currently, there are several issues trending in regard to cultural diversity. Among them is the slow and episodic movement towards cultural diversity in nursing. According to Lowe and Archibald (2009) in the article entitled, â€Å"cultural diversity: The intention of nursing,† the nursing profession was since the introduction of cultural diversity in 1986 focused on provision of cultural-sensitive care. The authors express their concern that despite the continued cultural growth witnessed in the country, the same does not reciprocate inn nursing. The progress in nursing towards creating cultural diversity in nursing has been slow and episodic. Hence, there is need to put efforts in order to expand cultural-sensitive practices in nursing. Another trending issue in respect to creation of a cultural diversified healthcare system is promotion of diversity. According to Pilkington, Singh, Prescod and Buettgen (2013) youth mentorship provides an important avenue for promoting cultural diversity. Through mentoring the youth, they will be equipped with relevant knowledge regarding diversity which will result in creation of a society which embraces diversity. Significance of Cultural Diversity Cultural diversity is a crucial concept in healthcare. Our current society is made of people from different ethnic, racial, religious and tribal groups. All these groups have their own culture. It is worth to mention that our culture affects how we interpret information, our perceptions and even  behavior. These aspects of culture make it important in nursing practice. The patient is always the center focus of care. Hence, the nurse is required to be sensitive to the needs of the patient. It is only through consideration of patient needs that the nurse is capable of establishing a strong therapeutic relationship with the patient. Establishing a strong relationship of trust with patients is important in involving the patients fully in their care (Pilkington, Singh, Prescod & Buettgen, 2013). Among the needs of patients are the spiritual needs. Nurses in some cases will handle patients from different faiths. Under such cases, the nurse might not be aware of some of the spiritual needs of these patients. For instance, let us take a Christian nurse and a Muslim patient. Muslims are supposed to pray five times in a day, and cleanse themselves with water every time they visit a washroom. The failure of the nurse to identify such things may hinder creation of trust between the nurse and the patient. In other words, the nurse will fail to deliver culturally-competent care (Lowe & Archibald, 2009). Therefore, providing culturally competent care is important in efforts to increase patient satisfaction, which translates to improved patient outcomes which signify improvement in quality of nursing care. Impact of Cultural Diversity in Nursing Profession The issue of cultural diversity greatly influences nursing profession and professional nursing practice. Nursing as a profession has for many years struggled to be seen as a field which is aimed at providing optimal care to the public. The profession is determined to be viewed in the light of universality, meaning it embraces people from all cultures. Therefore, by integrating cultural diversity, nursing profession will be recognized and respected in all parts of the world (Lowe & Archibald, 2009). In the nursing practice, cultural diversity is paramount. Every healthcare facility and provider is determined to provide patient-centered care. This is due to the fact that among the six goals of healthcare is provision of  patient-centered care. In order to provide patient-centered care, it is important to understand all the needs of the patient. This includes the culture. The nurse should understand what food the patient takes or does not take his or her beliefs and dressing style, among others. By doing so, the nurse will gain the trust from the patient which is important in the care. Eventually, the patient is satisfied with the quality of care which results in improved patient outcomes (Pilkington, Singh, Prescod & Buettgen, 2013). Controversies Related to Nursing Despite the benefits associated with integration of cultural diversity in healthcare, there are some areas of this concept that have brought about some controversies. Some cultural beliefs or practice are in contrary with the goals of healthcare. For instance, there are some people based on their faith who refuse to take any medication or seek conventional treatment. Hence, under such cases there is a controversy on which way to handle the situation (Pilkington, Singh, Prescod & Buettgen, 2013). The other area of controversy is extreme faiths held by some people. In some cultures, some behaviors such as undressing before someone of opposite sex are considered immoral. Hence, when a nurse from an opposite gender s handling such a patient, there is always some controversy. Enhancing Cultural Diversity in Nursing As noted, cultural diversity is critical in nursing practice. Therefore, there is need to embrace this concept. In order to improve the progress towards establishing cultural competence in nursing, it is important to introduce courses on cultural diversity in nurse training curriculum (Pilkington, Singh, Prescod & Buettgen, 2013). Another way of promoting cultural diversity in nursing is through training nurses on the importance having diversity at workplace. In addition, recruitment of nurses from different cultures will help in enhancing diversity in nursing. My Position Personally, I support the establishment of cultural diversity in nursing. My  position is based on the benefits associated with establishment of this concept. Hence, enhancing cultural diversity is crucial in improving the quality of care (Pilkington, Singh, Prescod & Buettgen, 2013). Conclusion In conclusion, cultural diversity refers to â€Å"the differences between people based on a shared ideology and valued set of beliefs, norms, customs, and meanings evidenced in a way of life (Lowe & Archibald, 2009).† Cultural diversity in nursing is important in improving the quality of care. The concept of transcultural nursing was established in 1955 by Madeleine Leininger (Lowe & Archibald, 2009). American Nurses Association adopted the concept of cultural diversity in 1986. Currently, the progress of nursing profession towards establishment of culturally competent care is trending. Establishing a culturally competent nursing care is an important milestone in improving quality of care. References Lowe, J. & Archibald C. (2009).Cultural diversity: The intention of nursing. Nursing Forum Volume 44, No. 1. Pilkington, F., Singh, D., Prescod C. & Buettgen, A. (2013). Inclusive Mosaic: Promoting Diversity in Nursing through Youth Mentorship. International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship Vol. 10(1): 1–10

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Sophie essays

Sophie essays Sophies World, by Jostein Gaarder, is a fantasy novel that explores the history of philosophy. It takes place in Norway in the 1990s. Some of the themes in the book are philosophy and free will. Dreams in the book often foreshadow events that occur later. Sophie is the primary narrator but point of view begins to switch between Sophie and Hilde. Albert Knags point of view is also told in a few pages of the novel. The story comes to a climax when Sophie and Alberto disappear from the party. The falling action is when Hilde gives Albert Knag a taste of his own medicine, while Sophie and Alberto explore life as a spirit. The characters are Sophie, Alberto, Hilde, Albert Knag, Sophies mother, Joanna, Hildes mother, Sophies father, Jeremy, and Hermes. Sophie is the main character. She is a creation of Albert Knags, and is meant to be a birthday present for Hilde. She is the same age as Hilde and their birthdays are on the same day. She learns from Albert but she thinks by herself. She is critical of everyone around her. She is very mature for her age and is quite the little philosopher. Although Alberto knows more about philosophy than Sophie, when they escape Albert Knags mind and gain an existence of their own, as spirits existing within Hildes world, Sophie gets along better. Alberto is Sophies philosophy teacher. He is a true philosopher in the fact that he thinks he knows nothing. He values time spent with company that can teach him something. In the beginning he is the one teaching Sophie but in the end they treat each other as equals. He holds onto his ability to think as the one thing that makes him human. He is great at reasoning and thinking things out. Hilde is Albert Knags daughter. She is why Sophie and Alberto were created. She is compassionate. She is willing to believe in things no matter what anyone else thinks, like Sophie. On her fifteenth birt...

Monday, November 4, 2019

How do electric cooperatives impact the local, as well as the national Essay

How do electric cooperatives impact the local, as well as the national economy - Essay Example The electric cooperatives have raised the standard of living for millions of Americans and have contributed greatly to our gross domestic product. Though electric cooperatives had operated sporadically since the early 20th century in the US, by 1935 electric power was available to very few US farmers. In the United States, electric cooperatives were established to bring electric power to rural areas that were not being served by the large public utilities. The large investor owned utilities saw this as a losing venture with few customers per mile of line ("A 2005 Snapshot, 8). However, by 1941, electric cooperatives were serving 35% of the nation's rural homes ("Historical Overview"). The immediate economic impact was to bring business, manufacturing, and commerce to areas that were previously dependent on agriculture and self-sufficiency. The introduction of electricity also placed an increase demand for electrical appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, and radios. This has been extended to "Alaskan fishing villages, dairy farms in Vermont and the suburbs and exurbs in between" (NRECA). Today, the electric cooper atives in the US maintain 43% of the lines and deliver 10% of the nation's electric needs (NRECA). While the impact on the national e... They provide employment for 67,000 workers in the United States that contribute a payroll of $3 billion to the businesses and commerce of the local area of the cooperatives (NRECA). In addition to providing a direct benefit for the people who are employed in the generation and distribution of electricity, there are also indirect economic impacts. Electric cooperatives supply their businesses through local purchases of the required resources. This can be anything from computers to vehicles. This money circulates back through the local economies and generates a ripple effect through the communities. Construction of major projects, though temporary, contributes a considerable financial input to a local area during the life of the project and can have a significant effect on the local economy (Schunk 5). The economic activity from these business transactions creates local jobs for service and retail businesses. In addition to providing employment and stimulating the local economies around the country, the cooperatives contribute $1.2 billion in local, state, and federal tax revenue (NRECA). These revenues provide relief for the tax system and generate increased economic activity through the funding of federal infrastructure programs. In addition to the direct input of tax revenue, the electric cooperatives receive a smaller federal subsidy than municipal and investor owned power companies. According to Lawrence R. Klein of the University of Pennsylvania, "...all types of utilities (Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs), Municipal Owned utilities and electric cooperatives enjoy some form of subsidy" (qtd. in NRECA). However, the lower subsidy received by the co-ops is substantial and may amount to as much

Saturday, November 2, 2019

The City To Surf Fun Run Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

The City To Surf Fun Run - Case Study Example The race is conducted in four categories which are Marathon, Half Marathon,  12km Run and 4km Run while each category has two sub-categories for male and female (City 2 Surf b). The event calls for a large number of runners around 60,000 runners from around the world to participate in the run in different groups to promote fast runners. On its 40th anniversary in August 2010 almost 80,000 people joined race making it largest run of its kind (The Sun Herald, 2012). A number of participants have been growing since then and last year 85000 people joined (Richardson, 2012). A similar event is also conducted in Perth state of Australia initiated by ACTIV foundation with the road course of 4km, 12 km and 42 km first initiated in the year 1975. This event is the largest in state and second largest in the nation (City 2 Surf c). This report will conduct the analysis of the event in reference to the project management factors in project management domain. Project Management, first coined in 1950’s has largely grown its domain in years. From the beginning of the topic, it was only confined with planning, budgeting and controlling areas of the given project (Bredillet, 2005) whereas now it has grown to link projects with corporate strategies to enhance corporate competitiveness (Richardson, 2012). For understanding nature of projects, it requires understanding the two fundamental modes in which firm operates; an operational mode and project management mode. In former existing competencies are exploited to increase firms’ competitiveness whereas latter is aimed at researching new opportunities, new competitive advantage by using resources and money (Alojairi and Safayeni, 2009). Difference between both is given in the image below:

Thursday, October 31, 2019

The Business of Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Essay

The Business of Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility - Essay Example Business of ethics and corporate social responsibility focus on issues concerned with morality. They focus on the issues that cover business activities fully such as reducing pollution, exploiting raw materials responsibly, frauds in the corporation and even fair payment. The relationship between business and ethics is complex and it incorporate approaches such as individual choices on what is right and wrong. This is where the individual’s decision is put on consideration. It also incorporate the values of what is bad and right involved in the business premises. In every business, they have their own way of doing things and offering services to their customers. This is where there are customs, beliefs and culture created which the employees follow as they handle their customers. The codes of conduct within organizations vary by many ways. Some societies may accept use of bribes while in others it condemned thus due to this the codes of conduct vary. We also find that some countries are prone to corruption thus when a business is situated in that country they tend to follow the norms. Due to these variations in social norms, individual values and cultures of the society in which the business is situated, it is the function of business ethics to standardize all. It ensures that the good moral conducts are followed thus contributing to the success of the business. As seen earlier the corporate social responsibility outlines the ethical concerns in a business by showing the groups to which it is responsible. It involves putting the business ethics into action. The groups it deals with are the stakeholders and the environment of the firm. These include the employees, suppliers, customers, the community, shareholders the government and the society. The relationship between the business and these groups should be conducted morally and

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Managerial Economics Essay Example for Free

Managerial Economics Essay 1) The elasticity of one variable with respect to another between two given points. It is used when there is no general function to define the relationship of the two variables. Arc elasticity is also defined as the elasticity between two points on a curve. The P arc elasticity of Q is calculated as The percentage is calculated differently from the normal manner of percent change. This percent change uses the average (or midpoint) of the points, in lieu of the original point as the base. 2) Definition of Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns A law of economics stating that, as the number of new employees increases, the marginal product of an additional employee will at some point be less than the marginal product of the previous employee. The law of diminishing marginal returns means that the productivity of a  variable input declines as more is used in short-run production, holding one or more inputs fixed. This law has a direct bearing on market supply, the supply price, and the law of supply. If the productivity of a variable input declines, then more is needed to produce a given quantity of output, which means the cost of production increases, and a higher supply price is needed. The direct relation between price and quantity produced is the essence of the law of supply. An economic theory that states as additional inputs are put into production, the additional return will be in successively smaller increments. This can be due to crowding, adding less appropriate resources or increasing inputs of lower quality. In More Laymen Terms As the saying goes, Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth, in any production there is a point of diminishing returns where just adding more inputs will not give the same income as it once did. Although many industrial firms strive to reach scale, where their size gives them a cost advantage at higher production levels, no matter what industry a firm finds itself there will always be a point where the additional gain from added input is reduced. 3) The prisoners dilemma is a canonical example of a game analyzed in game theory that shows why two individuals might not cooperate, even if it appears that it is in their best interest to do so. It was originally framed by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher working at RAND in 1950. Albert W. Tucker formalized the game with prison sentence payoffs and gave it the prisoners dilemma name (Poundstone, 1992). A classic example of the prisoners dilemma (PD) is presented as follows: Two men are arrested, but the police do not possess enough information for a conviction. Following the separation of the two men, the police offer both a similar deal—if one testifies against his partner (defects/betrays), and the other remains silent (cooperates/assists), the betrayer goes free and the cooperator receives the full one-year sentence. If both remain silent, both are sentenced to only one month in jail for a minor charge. If  each rats out the other, each receives a three-month sentence. Each prisoner must choose either to betray or remain silent; the decision of each is kept quiet. What should they do? If it is supposed here that each player is only concerned with lessening his time in jail, the game becomes a non-zero sum game where the two players may either assist or betray the other. In the game, the sole worry of the prisoners seems to be increasing his own reward. The interesting symmetry of this problem is that the logical decision leads both to betray the other, even though their individual ‘prize’ would be greater if they cooperated. In the regular version of this game, collaboration is dominated by betraying, and as a result, the only possible outcome of the game is for both prisoners to betray the other. Regardless of what the other prisoner chooses, one will always gain a greater payoff by betraying the other. Because betraying is always more beneficial than cooperating, all objective prisoners would seemingly betray the other. In the extended form game, the game is played over and over, and consequently, both prisoners continuously have an opportunity to penalize the other for the previous decision. If the number of times the game will be played is known, the finite aspect of the game means that by backward induction, the two prisoners will betray each other repeatedly. 4) Third degree discrimination involves charging different prices to different segments of customers. This method of price discrimination is really an imperfect variation of the perfect type represented by first degree price discrimination. In this method different segments of customers are identified and each segment is charged price base on what price is most profitable for the company in each segment. The most common way of segmentation for this type of price discrimination is by geographic location. A very prominent example of this type price discrimination is charges for operations by surgeons. For the same type of operations surgeons and hospitals charge different fees depending on the type of hospital room and other facilities that the patient chooses during hospitalization for  operation. Other common forms of such price discrimination include discounts such as those for students or senior citizens. SECTION B: CASE LET 1 1) Demand theory indicates that the determinants of consumption are income (I), the price of the good in question ( pi ), the prices of other goods ( po ) and other variables such as tastes: i i q ï€ ½Ã¯â‚¬  q ( i o I, p , p , other variables). Consider the case of an illicit commodity such as marijuana. The consumption of marijuana involves risks of fines, in some cases imprisonment and, possibly, other costs associated with the shame of being caught. Consequently, the price of marijuana in its demand function ( p ) m should be interpreted as being made up of the conventional money cost ( p ) mï‚ ¢Ã¯â‚¬  plus the expected â€Å"other costs† per unit: 2) Legalization of marijuana would eliminate the criminal sanctions and penalties associated with its consumption. As this would decrease the â€Å"full† price, consumption would be expected to rise. Marijuana consumption is significantly higher amongst males than females – 60 percent of all males have consumed it, compared to 46 percent of all females. Consumption of marijuana is estimated to increase by about 4 percent if it were legalised; and by about 11 percent following both legalisation and a 50-percentfall in its price. Price is a significant determinant of marijuana consumption. Whilst marijuana consumption is estimated to be price inelastic, estimates of most of the price elasticities are significantly different from zero. Two types of price elasticities of demand for marijuana were estimated, gross and net. The gross price elasticity includes the effects of both legalisation and a price change, while the net version excludes the legalisation effect. The price elasticity of demand for marijuana differs significantly with the type of consumer. For more frequent users (daily, weekly and monthly), gross and net price elasticities are estimated to be  -.6 and -.4, respectively. Occasional smokers having a gross price elasticity of about -.3 and net elasticity of about -.1. Regarding those who are no longer users, they have gross and net price elasticities close to zero. For a given type of consumer, males and females share the same elasticity value. CASE LET 2: 1) In my opinion Yes, the Indian companies are running a major risk by not paying attention to cost cutting. To illustrate Comparing major Indian companies in key industries with their global competitors shows that Indian companies are running a major risk. They suffer from a profound bias for growth. The problem is most look more like Essar than Reliance. While they love the sweet of growth, they are unwilling to face the sour of productivity improvement. Nowhere is this more amply borne out than in the consumer goods industry where the Indian giant Hindustan Lever has consolidated to grow at over 50 per cent while its labour productivity declined by around 6 per cent per annum in the same period. Its strongest competitor, Nirma, also grew at over 25 per cent per annum in revenues but maintained its labour productivity relatively stable. Unfortunately, however, its return on capital employed (ROCE) suffered by over 17 per cent. In contrast, Coca Cola, worldwide, grew at around 7 per cent, improved its labour productivity by 20 per cent and its return on capital employed by 6.7 per cent. The story is very similar in the information technology sector where Infosys, NIIT and HCL achieve rates of growth of over 50 per cent which compares favorably with the worlds best companies that grew at around 30 per cent between 1994-95. NIIT, for example, strongly believes that growth is an impetus in itself. Its focus on growth has helped it double revenues every two years. Sustaining profitability in the face of such expansion is an extremely challenging task What makes this even worse is the Indian companies barely manage to cover their cost of capital, while their competitors worldwide such as Glaxo and Pfizer earn an average ROCE of 65 per cent. In the Indian textile industry, Arvind Mills was once the shining star. Like Reliance, it had learnt to cook sweet and sour. Between 1994 and 1996, it grew at an average of 30 per cent per annum to become the worlds  largest denim producer. At the same time, it also operated a tight ship, improving labour productivity by 20 per cent. Despite the excellent performance in the past, there are warning signals for Arvinds future. The excess over the WACC is only 1.5 per cent, implying it barely manages to satisfy its investor’s expectations of return and does not really have a surplus to re-invest in the business. Apparently, investors also think so, for Arvinds stock price has been falling since Q4 1994 despite such excellent results and, at the end of the first quarter of 1998, is less than Rs 70 compared to Rs 170 at the end of 1994. Unfortunately, Arvinds deteriorating financial returns over the last few years is also typical of the Indian textile industry. The top three Indian companies actually showed a decline in their return ratios in contrast to the international majors. 2 ) Fast moving consumer goods will become a Rs 400,000-crore industry by 2020. A Booz Company study finds out the trends that will shape its future Consider this. The anti-ageing skincare category grew five times between 2007 and 2008. It’s today the fastest-growing segment in the skincare market. Olay, Procter Gamble’s premium anti-ageing skincare brand, captured 20 per cent of the market within a year of its launch in 2007 and today dominates it with 37 per cent share. Who could have thought of ready acceptance for anti-ageing creams and lotions some ten years ago? For that matter, who could have thought Indian consumers would take oral hygiene so seriously? Mouth-rinsing seems to be picking up as a habit — mouthwash penetration is growing at 35 per cent a year. More so, who could have thought rural consumers would fall for shampoos? Rural penetration of shampoos increased to 46 per cent last year, way up from 16 per cent in 2001. Consumption patterns have evolved rapidly in the last five to ten years. The consumer is trading up to experience the new or what he hasn’t. He’s looking for products with better functionality, quality, value, and so on. What he ‘needs’ is fast getting replaced with what he ‘wants’ Categories are evolving at a brisk pace in the market for the middle and lower-income segments. With their rising economic status, these consumers are shifting from need- to want-based products. For instance, consumers have  moved from toothpowders to toothpastes and are now also demanding mouthwash within the same category. The trend towards mass-customization of products will intensify with FMCG players profiling the buyer by age, region, personal attributes, ethnic background and professional choices. Micro-segmentation will amplify the need for highly customized market research so as to capture the specific needs of the consumer segment targeted, before the actual product design phase gets underway. 3) Industies impressive growth in value added as observed in the previous sub section is not accompanied by a commensurate rise in the level of relative productivity in terms of the cross–country analysis. The fragmented nature of Indian pharmaceutical sector characterized by the operation of a very large number of players, estimated to be about 10,000 units of which just 300 units are medium and large sized7, may be a reason for low level of productivity. The other important factor for low productivity can be due to the nature of technological activities in the sector, which tends to rely more on process than product development. Further, it may be that Indian companies are focusing at the low end of value†chains in the pharmaceuticals like producing generics than opting for branded products or supply bulk drugs to global players than market formulations of their own. 4) The Indian textile industry has been one of the foremost contributors to the countrys employment, exports, and GDP. The industry has been rated as one of the key drivers of the Indian economy and a bold target of exports of $50 billion (currently it’s $22 billion) had been targeted by the year 2012 by the government after the dismantling of the quota regime in 2005. However we are still far away from that target. Though now it can be blamed on the worldwide recession, I think we need to do some soul searching as to was it anyways possible. Globally, the Indian industry is recognized for its competitive advantages, especially in the cotton segment. The government has set huge targets for the industry and expects to attract investments of about Rs 1.5 lakh crore during the eleventh Plan period. This would meet the export and domestic targets, while taking various initiatives like setting up textile parks, training centers, and ‘made in India label promotion’ to global markets. The Indian textile industry is facing tough competition in the US, as exporters from smaller countries like Bangladesh are cornering the lucrative market at a faster pace, a FICCI study said. In addition to China, countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh have managed to perform better than India in the US market in 2009, the study said. Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam managed to increase their share in the US textiles and apparel import in 2009 year on year at a faster rate than India. The Indian textile industry will no doubt survive and move along by the strengths of its traditional position and domestic market. However, the growth envisaged and it being re-classified as sunshine industry over the last three years from a sunset industry may turn out to be a myth Section C: 1) A vision of the impact of free trade can also be gleaned from Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Samuelson (1970) who confidently asserted that: Free trade promotes a mutually profitable division of labour, greatly enhances the potential real national product of all nations, and makes possible higher standards of living all over the globe. It promotes a regional division of labor this means that some regions of the world (or countries) will specialize in certain things. They will specialize in areas where they have a comparative advantage. It enhances national production this means that countries will be able to produce more things if there is trade. That is because they focus on producing things they are good at and do not waste resources on things that they are not good at. It allows higher standards of living because there is more production. If there is more production, there are more things available to be consumed. Another belief in the importance of free trade can be ascribed to its  perceived indirect effect on peace, security and the prevention of war. One of the first articulations of this is by Baron de Montesquieu, who writing in 1748, stated: Peace is the natural effect of trade. Two nations who traffic with each other become reciprocally dependent; for if one has an interest in buying, the other has an interest in selling, and thus their union is founded on their mutual necessities. This theory of mutual interdependence has been explored in some detail by authors such as Keohane and Nye67 and is echoed in attempts to build and protect the mandates of global institutions seeking such co-operation. However few attempts are made to track the results of policy activities on whole population of States, and as a result the overtly negative impact on some groups, usually minorities and indigenous 2) The Decision Trees, used to help with decision making in business ( and many other areas), are a form of diagrammatic analysis. They are used as a tool for helping managers to choose between several courses of action. They provide an effective and clear structure for presenting options and within decision trees the probabilities and financial outcomes of these options can be measured. They also help to form a balanced picture of the risks and potential financial rewards associated with each possible course of action. In many business decision making situations chance (or probability) plays an important role, and the use of decision trees helps build probability into the decision making process. Pictorial representation of a decision situation, normally found in discussions of decision-making under uncertainty or risk. It shows decision alternatives, states of nature, probabilities attached to the state of nature, and conditional benefits and losses. The tree approach is most useful in a sequential decision situation. For example, assume XYZ Corporation wishes to introduce one of two products to the market this year. The probabilities and present values (PV) of projected cash inflows follow: A decision tree analyzing the two products follows: Based on the expected net present value, the company should choose product A over product B.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Data Prediction Strategy for ROSSMANN

Data Prediction Strategy for ROSSMANN Our task in this project is to predict 6 weeks daily sales for 1115 Rossmann stores located across Germany. Why is this important? This will help the stores maximize their profit by focusing on specific aspects to improve and help in inventory management to reduce operational costs. Missing data in Rossmann was identified initially. After fine tuning the data, we did some statistical analysis on it to explore the depth of data and find the major elements which are changing our values. We made sure that our results are not biased. Analysis such as Principle Component Analysis and Correlation Analysis has helped us know, in detail, about the data elements which are important to consider when predicting sales. We have validated the conclusions our group made in the previous presentation (exploratory analysis) about the data through the results of statistics. Many other conclusions can be drawn by just looking at the analysis in the following sections of this report. Furthermore, we did linear regression to see the relation between customers and sales. As expected sales increased linearly with the increase in the number of customers. However, it performed poorly for other variables due to the non-linearity of the data. In House Prices, there are a 79 factors over which we have to analyze the house prices. In order to first categorize the important factors influencing house prices, correlation analysis is done. Linear Regression and Step wise regression is also done to determine the important features for house prices in general, and in stepwise fashion. ANOVA was done for the neighborhood and house style to check whether the mean or individual house styles and neighborhoods was different or not. The standard hypothesis resulted false and it was displayed that individual neighborhoods and house-styles hold different average selling prices. The tests exhibited that 2.5 story houses were the priciest in house styles while 1 story houses were most popular. The NorthRidge neighborhood has the most expensive houses as per ANOVA, while North Ames comes out to be the most popular and one of the cheapest neighborhoods. Data prediction strategy for ROSSMANN (for next phase): To choose our prediction method for Rossmann we considered a number of factors. First being the size of the data. The Rossmann data is extremely dense with multiple variables. Second was which variables to use for prediction. For this we did a correlation analysis on minitab and found that customers, sales and promo were the most important hence we considered them. Third the data provides no customer information (just ids). Given the above factors we decided to use gradient boosting method for prediction (Jain, Menon, Chandra, n.d.). Although our model improves on accuracy the main tradeoffs are reduced speed and user interpretability. We will ignore the values for the days when the stores are closed to refine the prediction. Rossmann Data Statistical Analysis Strategy: Minitab was deployed to do statistical analysis such as Box Plot and Quantile Ranges, Histograms, Principle component analysis, Correlation analysis. Matlab was used to do linear regression of Sales Vs Customers. Statistical analysis was done to validate the hypothesis made in the Visualization Project and to explore the data in detail. House Price Data: Statistical Analysis Strategy: Minitab was used to do statistical analysis such as Stepwise Linear Regression, Correlation analysis, Residual Plots and Value Plots This report first covers the Rossmann Data exploration and then House Price exploration are presented. MISSING DATA: Table 1 shows the values of head to head analysis of data sets given in Rossmann. As shown, Store data in Test sheet is not covering the range of stores covered in Train. There are 11 records which does not give any information of whether those stores are open or they are closed. Figure 1 shows that there are clearly less number of days registered in year 2014 after the 27th week. The reason for this is the missing values of 180 store IDs from 27th week to 52nd week of 2014. Figure 1. Year wise trend of Data Registered Table 1 Head to Head Analysis of Data Sets Number of Unique Values Unique Values NA Value Quantity Field Name TRAIN TEST TRAIN TEST TRAIN TEST Store 1115 856 Day of Week 7 7 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Date 942 48 Sales 21734 Customers 4086 Open 2 2 1, 0 1, 0, NA 11 Promo 2 2 1,0 0 State Holiday 5 2 0, a, b, c 0, a School Holiday 2 2 1,0 1,0 Missing data set is assumed to be unrelated to actual values and may not be important. The data size is also smaller than the original data set, so ignoring the missing data will not lead to a biased result. Therefore, we considered missing data to be missing at random (Sazontyev Lim, n.d.). STATISTICAL ANALYSIS Quartile Ranges Customers Figure 2. Box Plot of Customers Sales Figure 3. Box Plot of Sales Histograms Figure 4 and Figure 5 shows that our data is slightly right skewed. The frequency of customers and frequency of sales are higher when their values are low. Figure 4. Histogram of Customers Figure 5. Histogram of Sales Principle Component Analysis Figure 6 shows the results of PCA in form of Scree Plot. We observe that the major effect on sales is due to customers (Component 1). Second influencing factor is the Number of stores which are open (Component 2). Promotions (Component 3) are influencing our sales but to a very low extent. We will also prove this via correlation analysis in coming sections. Figure 6. Scree plot of Train Data set Correlation Analysis Figure 7 shows the results of correlation analysis of the Rossmann Data. Cellular colors represent the intensity of correlations between the components. In the later sections, this correlation analysis is used to verify the results presented in visualization project. Following are the prominent correlations: Table 2 Major Correlation Results Positive Correlated Components Correlation Value Negative Correlated Components Correlation Value Customers Sales +0.895 Sales Days of week -0.462 Store Open Customers +0.617 Customers Days of week -0.386 Store Open Sales +0.678 Stores Open Days of Week -0.529 Promo Sales +0.452 Promo 2 Competition Distance -0.146 Promo Stores Open +0.295 Competition Distance Sales -0.027 Sales School Holidays +0.085 Promotions School Holidays -0.067 Correlation Matrices: VERIFICATION OF VISUALIZATION RESULTS: Claim 1: Sales decrease over the week. Statistics Confirmation: This claim is verified through the correlation analysis. Correlation results of Sales Vs Day of Week is -0.462 (Table 2 and Figure 7). Which clearly shows the negative correlation between these entities. Figure 8. Day wise sales trend Claim 2: Not much difference in sales when schools are open or close.Claim 3: There are more Promotions when schools are open. Statistical Confirmation: Correlation between Sales and School Holidays is +0.085 (Table 2 and Figure 7). As seen in Figure 9, sales when schools are closed is slightly greater than the sales when schools are open. This slight difference is proven by the small value of the correlation between these components. Also, there are more promotions when schools are open (Figure 9). This is confirmed by the negative correlation of -0.067 (Table 2 and Figure 7) between promotions and school holidays. Figure 9. Sales and Promo Comparison on School Holidays Claim 3: Sales increase with promotions but decreases with increase in competition distance. Statistical Confirmation: Promotions and Sales are positively correlated by +0.452 (Table 2 and Figure 7). This positive correlation can be seen in the claim we made in last project (Figure 10). Orange peaks are the sales when the promotions are there. And mostly they are above the blue peaks. However, from Figure 10, we also observe that with increase in competition distance, our sales decreases. And this is validated by the negative correlation of -0.027 between sales and competition distance. Figure 10. Sales Trend with Competition Distance Linear Regression Linear regression results in Figure 11 (obtained from Matlab) and Residual analysis results in Figure 12 (obtained from Minitab) show how sales is regressing with respect to the customers. The R2 value obtained is 0.8, which depicts that our linear regression is close to the data. Linear regression equation and regression coefficients is shown below: B1 = 8.5238 à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   regression coefficient/slope b1 = 1.077 and b2 = 0.0074 à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Regression Equation (y = 1.077 + 0.0074x) R2 = 0.8005 Figure 11. Linear Regression Figure 12. Residual Plot STATISTICAL ANALYSIS Regression Analysis à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · Regression Equation SalePrice = -323176 200.5 MSSubClass 116.1 LotFrontage + 0.545 LotArea + 18697 OverallQual + 5227 OverallCond + 317.0 YearBuilt + 120.6 YearRemodAdd + 31.60 MasVnrArea + 17.39 BsmtFinSF1 + 8.36 BsmtFinSF2 + 5.01 BsmtUnfSF + 45.91 1stFlrSF + 46.68 2ndFlrSF + 34.2 LowQualFinSF + 8980 BsmtFullBath + 2490 BsmtHalfBath + 5390 FullBath 1119 HalfBath 10233 BedroomAbvGr 21931 KitchenAbvGr + 5440 TotRmsAbvGrd + 4375 Fireplaces 49.1 GarageYrBlt + 16788 GarageCars + 6.5 GarageArea + 21.5 WoodDeckSF 2.3 OpenPorchSF + 7.2 EnclosedPorch + 34.6 3SsnPorch + 58.0 ScreenPorch 61.3 PoolArea 3.85 MiscVal 224 MoSold 254 YrSold à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · Regression Equation (STEPWISE) SalePrice = -714877 202.0 MSSubClass 106.7 LotFrontage + 0.545 LotArea + 18858 OverallQual + 6073 OverallCond + 326.0 YearBuilt + 31.29 MasVnrArea + 11.93 BsmtFinSF1 + 5.72 TotalBsmtSF + 46.77 GrLivArea + 9245 BsmtFullBath + 6171 FullBath 10759 BedroomAbvGr 22330 KitchenAbvGr + 5290 TotRmsAbvGrd + 4065 Fireplaces + 18107 GarageCars + 21.04 WoodDeckSF + 53.0 ScreenPorch 59.7 PoolArea Correlation Analysis SalePrice MSSubClass LotFrontage LotArea OverallQual MSSubClass -0.084 0.001 LotFrontage 0.352 -0.386 0.000 0.000 LotArea 0.264 -0.140 0.426 0.000 0.000 0.000 OverallQual 0.791 0.033 0.252 0.106 0.000 0.213 0.000 0.000 OverallCond -0.078 -0.059 -0.059 -0.006 -0.092 0.003 0.023 0.040 0.830 0.000 YearBuilt 0.523 0.028 0.123 0.014 0.572 0.000 0.288 0.000 0.587 0.000 YearRemodAdd 0.507 0.041 0.089 0.014 0.551 0.000 0.121 0.002 0.599 0.000 MasVnrArea 0.477 0.023 0.193 0.104 0.412 0.000 0.382 0.000 0.000 0.000 BsmtFinSF1 0.386 -0.070 0.234 0.214 0.240 0.000 0.008 0.000 0.000 0.000 BsmtFinSF2 -0.011 -0.066 0.050 0.111 -0.059 0.664 0.012 0.084 0.000 0.024 BsmtUnfSF 0.214 -0.141 0.133 -0.003 0.308 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.920 0.000 TotalBsmtSF 0.614 -0.239 0.392 0.261 0.538 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1stFlrSF 0.606 -0.252 0.457 0.299 0.476 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 2ndFlrSF 0.319 0.308 0.080 0.051 0.295 0.000 0.000 0.005 0.051 0.000 LowQualFinSF -0.026 0.046 0.038 0.005 -0.030 0.328 0.076 0.183 0.855 0.245 GrLivArea 0.709 0.075 0.403 0.263 0.593 0.000 0.004 0.000 0.000 0.000 BsmtFullBath 0.227 0.003 0.101 0.158 0.111 0.000 0.894 0.000 0.000 0.000 BsmtHalfBath -0.017 -0.002 -0.007 0.048 -0.040 0.520 0.929 0.802 0.066 0.125 FullBath 0.561 0.132 0.199 0.126 0.551 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 HalfBath 0.284 0.177 0.054 0.014 0.273 0.000 0.000 0.064 0.586 0.000 BedroomAbvGr 0.168 -0.023 0.263 0.120 0.102 0.000 0.371 0.000 0.000 0.000 KitchenAbvGr -0.136 0.282 -0.006 -0.018 -0.184 0.000 0.000 0.834 0.497 0.000 TotRmsAbvGrd 0.534 0.040 0.352 0.190 0.427 0.000 0.123 0.000 0.000 0.000 Fireplaces 0.467 -0.046 0.267 0.271 0.397 0.000 0.082 0.000 0.000 0.000 GarageYrBlt 0.486 0.085 0.070 -0.025 0.548 0.000 0.002 0.018 0.355 0.000 GarageCars 0.640 -0.040 0.286 0.155 0.601 0.000 0.126 0.000 0.000 0.000 GarageArea 0.623 -0.099 0.345 0.180 0.562 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 WoodDeckSF 0.324 -0.013 0.089 0.172 0.239 0.000 0.631 0.002 0.000 0.000 OpenPorchSF 0.316 -0.006 0.152 0.085 0.309 0.000 0.816 0.000 0.001 0.000 EnclosedPorch -0.129 -0.012 0.011 -0.018 -0.114 0.000 0.646 0.711 0.484 0.000 3SsnPorch 0.045 -0.044 0.070 0.020 0.030 0.089 0.094 0.015 0.436 0.246 ScreenPorch 0.111 -0.026 0.041 0.043 0.065 0.000 0.320 0.152 0.099 0.013 PoolArea 0.092 0.008 0.206 0.078 0.065 0.000 0.752 0.000 0.003 0.013 MiscVal -0.021 -0.008 0.003 0.038 -0.031 0.418 0.769 0.907 0.146 0.230 MoSold