Analysis of Civil Rights Movement Literature review

Analysis of Civil Rights Movement - Literature review Example Certainly, it is comforting to believe that history progresses in such a manner. Yet, even if one could develop a cogent argument that the civil rights movement was inevitable, how does one account for its timing and shape Why did it take place when it did Why didn't these ideas prove compelling at an earlier or later time Why did "man's unending search for freedom" reach such heights in the early and mid-1960s Why did certain actors emerge as leaders and not others Why were certain goals or demands given priority And to a lesser extent, why did the movement achieve some objectives but not others The modern civil rights movement had both external and internal origins and causes. It came into being when and in the way it did because of both structural and human factors. Forces that were only indirectly related to the movement helped give rise to it and sustained it, as did complex developments within the African American community. Demographic shifts, particularly the great migration, the emergence of the United States as a world power, and the overall process of modernization played key roles. "... It's human nature, I guess. We did our best to control it, but there was a bit of a power struggle from the beginning between Nashville and Atlanta. After Dr. King had come up that spring and given his blessing to ..." 3 So too did several internal factors, most importantly the accumulation of resources by the African American community. These developments were intertwined and reinforced one another. In addition, the success of the civil rights movement depended on human agency. "... Jim Peck, Al Bigelow, and Jim Zwerg stand and suffer with us. 'v/N'e had become brothers and sisters to the struggle. We bled together. We suffered together. How could you look at something like a race after experiences like that ..." 4 (194) With the great migration, African Americans also advanced economically. Even though they continued to work for less pay and under worse conditions than whites, blacks in the industrial North began to enjoy a standard of living heretofore unknown to them or their counterparts in the rural South. Between 1940 and 1970, the mean income for black men, adjusted for inflation, more than tripled.  Ã‚  

Sociology class Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Sociology class - Essay Example So what does sociology actually imply? For me, based on my own understanding, sociology is concerned with individual action that is unavoidably connected to the action and behavior of other people. Hence, the focus of sociology is quite extensive, encompassing all issues of our social behavior. Nevertheless, the abovementioned description of sociology can be confined. Take for instance an aspect of behavior like a consumer’s decision to buy a product. In general we would view this behavior as an economic act in the sense that it involves a monetary transaction. However the consumer’s choice to buy can also be regarded as being a sociological act, because it definitely has personal significance for the consumer, and it is directed towards the assumed and actual conduct of other actors such as salespeople, other consumers, etc. So what is the importance of sociology? Why do we have to learn about it? Sociology becomes increasingly important nowadays due to the sweeping progress of globalization. This event led to the far-reaching transformation of the globe’s political landscape. The traditional state was displaced by a completely new form of ‘nation state’ founded on transnational institutions, areas, and metropolises. Hence, because of this, sociology becomes indispensable to the understanding of the effects of globalization on the current standing of the nation state. However, some argues that sociology loses its importance because of globalization. I do not think so. Sociology will never lose its importance in present-day civilizations. While long-established societies and cultures were displaced by the new systems, a contemporary sociology embracing them displaced traditional sociology. Certainly, the similarity between traditional sociology and the contemporary one is that as the former emerged in reaction to contained modernization, observed through the occurrences of industrialization and, later on, urbanization, contemporary

The impact of technology on the war in Afghanistan Research Paper

The impact of technology on the war in Afghanistan - Research Paper Example The Taliban has explicitly expressed their support of the Al-Qaeda, a global network of terrorists, and in September 9, 2011, Al-Qaeda operatives executed Ahmad Shah Massoud, a prominent commander of the Northern Alliances. Such killing assured Osama Bin Laden of the Taliban’s support and refuge after the 9/11 Attacks (Council on Foreign Relations). And so, the seed for the biggest and most wide-spread war on terrorism has been sown; the war on Afghanistan was bred, needing only the attacks on US soil to spark the powder keg. The problem about Afghan stability and counterterrorist efforts is not simple a problem; the Taliban is continually able to hold the Afghan citizens silent about their presence by the effective monopoly of fear, threatening the lives of Afghan should they provide any hint to the US troops concerning the Taliban or the Al-Qaeda operations (Ferguson). Poor governance, ethnic conflict, and administrative mismanagement have crippled the Afghan government syst em in trying to address the problem of terrorism in the post-Taliban democracy. Terrorists still plague the Afghan communities, storing ammunitions and high-powered rifles, and in some case, a Taliban flag, in places so close to Afghan homes. Security in the Afghan state and the elimination of terrorist cells is highly important to maintain global peace, and such is the goal of the United States for its involvement in places so far away from the New World. After the 1993 bombing on the World Trade Center and the more famous 9/11 attacks, global security has become US security as these attacks against the US sprang not from the American continents, but from places across the oceans. In order for the US government to ensure the safety of its people, it must secure the safety of the entire world from threats as eminent as the Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and all other terrorist networks and militant insurgent groups. As part of the study on the war in Afghanistan, there is a need to define c ounterinsurgency from counterterrorism, and in order to fulfill such, there is still a need to define the root-words that comprises the two military labels. Counterinsurgency is a concatenation of two words: counter and insurgency. Counterinsurgency is any organized military activity designed to combat insurgencies (Merriam-Webster). These are military activities geared towards combating insurgent groups that are against the central authority not recognized as belligerents. The term counterinsurgency was first used in the 1960s to combat communist-led revolutionists and insurgents, which Nikita Khrushkev termed as the â€Å"war of national liberation†, occurring all around the world that are against U.S. interest (Answers Corporation). The term replaced counterrevolution for public propaganda, since a revolution has a good connotation to the American public. Counterterrorism, on the other hand, is a concatenation of the words counter and terrorism. Counterterrorism refers to the practices, not necessarily military in nature, that acts as a response to terrorist threats and/or acts, be it real or imputed (Zalman). Terrorism is a criminal act that influences and audience beyond the immediate victim (Research-Terrorism). It seeks to achieve goals that are political, religious, or ideological in nature by inflicting terror and anxiety through the use of military equipments, usually aimed at civilian targets.

Color blue Essay Example for Free

Color blue Essay Blue is the favorite color of all people. It’s nature’s color for water and sky, but is rarely found in fruits and vegetables. Today, blue is embraced as the color of heaven and authority, denim jeans and corporate logos. It is cold, wet, and slow as compared to red’s warmth, fire, and intensity. Blue has more complex and contradictory meanings than any other color. These can be easily explained by pinpointing by the specific shade of blue. Bright blue: cleanliness, strength, dependability, coolness (The origin of these meanings arise from the qualities of the ocean and inland waters, most of which are more tangible. ) Light (sky) blue: peace, serenity, ethereal, spiritual, infinity (The origin of these meanings is the intangible aspects of the sky. ) Most blues convey a sense of trust, loyalty, cleanliness, and understanding. On the other hand, blue evolved as symbol of depression in American culture. â€Å"Singing the blues† and feeling blue† are good examples of the complexity of color symbolism and how it has been evolved in different cultures. Blue ranks so high as a favorite color that you can’t go wrong if you use blue. However, blue can be over-used and may wind up a design cliche if used alone. Combining blue with another color creates a more creative effect. Blue is the only color which maintains its own character in all its tones it will always stay blue;† Raoul Dufy, French Fauvist Painter, 1877-1953 Blue is sharply refracted by the eyes. This causes the lens to flatten and to push the blue image back. We perceive that blue areas are receding and smaller. The same refraction causes visual fog if used excessively in interior spaces. Blues global similarities are significant: Blue is the #1 favorite color of all people. 53% of the flags in the world contain blue. Blue is the most commonly used color in corporate identity. A dark blue suit is professional business attire. Blue jeans are worn all over the world. Aristocracy is blue-blooded in all European languages. Unique Meanings of Blue in Different Cultures Greeks believe that blue wards off the evil eye. The English â€Å"to feel blue† has no equivalent in other languages while in German â€Å"blau sein† (literally: to be blue) means to be drunk or in Russian â€Å"Ð ³Ã ¾Ã »Ã'Æ'Ð ±Ã ¾Ã ¹Ã¢â‚¬  (literally: light blue) means to be homosexual. Dark blue is the color of mourning in Korea. The god Krishna has blue skin. Shades of blue are described as shallow or deep instead of light or dark in China. Blue is for a baby girl; pink for a baby boy in Belgium. â€Å"Prince Charming† is called â€Å"The Blue Prince† in Italy and Spain.

Age of Innocence :: essays papers

Age of Innocence Chapter One Summary: The play opens at the opera. Newland Archer enters his opera box and looks out across the theater to see his girlfriend, May Welland, touch the lilies he had given her. While dreaming of their future together, his thoughts are interrupted by gasps from the gentlemen sitting with him. They are whispering about a fashionably dressed woman who has just sat down in the box with May. Sillerton Jackson gasps, "I did not think they would have tried it on," which means, he can ¹t believe the Mingotts would allow the woman to come and sit in their box at the Opera. Analysis: This is a book about the conventions of "Old New York", New York City in the 1870 ¹s. Wharton loves contrasting the old against the new. She begins these contrasts in the very first paragraph. Here she describes the new Opera theater that is going to be erected in the "remote" forties. We can assume that the forties have been built up since then and people reading her book in the 1920 ¹s (when it was published) would enjoy hearing about how New York has changed. Along these lines, there is also a description of the old people versus the "new people, whom NY was beginning to dread and yet be drawn to." Also important in this first chapter is Wharton ¹s discussion of fashionability and propriety. We can tell from the way that Newland Archer, Lawrence Lefferts and Mr. Silverton Jackson are introduced (all are so concerned with what is "moral" and "the thing") that Wharton will spend a lot of time in the novel discussing and perhaps critiquing these concepts in the book. Of note, as well, is the great attention to detail that Wharton has. The way she describes clothing and interior decoration with much detail has led many to dub this book a "costume novel". We will have to see for ourselves if the book develops beyond being a "bodice ripper" sort of book. May Welland will be one of the most important characters in the book. She is holding Lillies of the Valley. In the 1870 ¹s the lily of the valley was the flower of chastity and of the names Cynthia and Diana. Later in the book, May is often compared to Diana, the Greek goddess of the hunt.

No Easy Task

The well being of a nation begins with the development of its younger generation. They are the ones that will assume the task of running and maintaining the well being of this nation in the future. Unfortunately the task of to lead these youths in the right direction is no easy task. Numerous articles and studies have confirmed that our youth problems is a rising issue and should receive extra attention. Youth problems range from poor school achievement to youth pregnancy, crime, and drug addictions. Many experts have noted that one of the major causes that contribute to youth having problems is the lack of strong family value and substantial home-life. Youth belonging to this category are normally ones that have single parents or weak or uncaring parents. The above perspective along with some other variables, such as income level, media influence, and educational level, should explain why the youth problem phenomenon occurs. One of the fundamental ways to view why youth develop problems is to view their family structure. Many youth do not have what is considered to be a healthy or complete family. For example, if a youth is raised by a single parent, he or she may lack many of the family essentials, such family warmth, love sharing, or normal family life. The youth may also develop shame feelings among his or her peers. Another scenario might be a youth raised by weak and uncaring parents. The youth might not receive the adequate attention and guidance necessary for their thoughts, actions, and perhaps wrongdoing. In this case the youth may develop two types of feelings. They will either feel abandon because of the parents uncaring nature, or, the youth might feel exceptional freedom because the parents simply is weak or do not care. In both cases, youths having such family structures develops much higher percentage to differentiate themselves from their common peers. The second variable that seems to have a large influence as to why youth develop problems is the income level in which they reside. Income level is one of the issues that can t be changed so easily. Government aid and subsidies could only do so much in the aid of poverty stricken neighborhoods. Generally a great percentage of youth growing up in such a poor neighborhoods have a higher chance in exposing themselves to the numerous problems, such as, pregnancy, drugs, crimes. It is unfortunate, but no doubt that environment in which these youth grew up in are surrounded by such factors. Government funding and local group activist have trying to cure these blighted neighborhoods. Local activity centers, and youth organizations, and schools are fighting there ways into these area in hope to help give youth of these communities a better chance to succeed. Another variable that should be considered in why youth develop problems is media influences. Like Debra J. Saunders noted in her December 1999 editorial, youth are constantly being expose to the electronic media set out to influence youth to follow certain trends and mode of thinking. This is very true in this cyberspace, electronic media era. The Internet, television, and other media unconsciously place many messages in the minds of the youths. The youth are spending more of their time attracted to these media than they are in their necessary duties. The power or the media is so great that many of the youths mode of thinking are drawn to the character lifestyles of movies idols. The media have directly manipulated what is reality and what is fantasy in the mind of the youths. Therefore youths often try to be somebody or do something they saw from these electronic media exposures. Perhaps that the numerous in school shootings by teenage youths across the nation are the indirect results from too much media exposures toward youths. The final area that seems to contributes to youth problems are the educational level in which the youths are associated with. Educational levels vary greatly in schools that youths attend. The educational achievement accomplished by students determines if new educational programs are needed to aid underachieving students build there necessary skills to advance. Because the lack of such programs in some school, many youths in this category, find it difficult to continue their educational course. Therefore the rate of youth problems is the dependent variable of the drop out rate. Many students choose to alternative course of action if they cannot succeed in school. Their minimum knowledge is insufficient to land them much hope in making it the real world. Consequently problems are prone to along the route for these youths. We have briefly looked into the issue on contributing factors in youth problems. The variables we discussed are family structures, income level, media influences, and educational levels. It is important to acknowledge how these links intertwine in the life of a developing youth. Though we cannot simply generalize that a youth will develop problems once they have encounters with any or all of these variables for there are numerous successful examples for us to refer upon. But numerous studies have shown that the risk for youth to develop problems such as teen pregnancy, crime, drugs, and violence is at a higher rate when they are being raised in an environment that contains the variable we have discussed today.

Primark and Blockbuster Describe the main aims and objectives of the business

– Describe the main aims and objectives of the business and the external factors which have affected the ability of the business to achieve its aims and objectives. -Analyse how marketing activities, enterprise skills and teams have contributed to the success of the business Task 1 – Aims and Objectives All Businesses have a variety of goals that they aim to achieve and most businesses do achieve their goals. When they do they set their business with a much bigger goal that they will then try and reach. The common aims of business are to aim to make profit so that the owner can expand the business even bigger and which will influence the way that they behave. Some of the common aims are stated above and also explained in details below. The business I have chosen is Primark. First Primark store was opened in June 1969 in Mary Street which is where the Headquarter is also located. The business sells a variety of clothing, shoes and home ware such as curtains, pillows/cushions, rugs and simple bathroom equipment e.g. toilet seats. Primark has 238 and 156 store just in United Kingdom, 38 Stores in Ireland and etc. Also read The Story of an Eyewitness Essay Analysis Primark’s goals are mainly to provide what the public needs in a good quality and a low priced way. Seeing as Primark does not charge much money for any of the products that they sell, people should be realising that the product would not last very long as more expensive products that we would get from other store. The prices for Primark’s Products are all based on the quality of the product and its use which will all be taken into account when they price their products. Primark’s business aims and objectives Primark aims for increased sales by placing sales on a daily basis such as at the end of every season. For example, at the end of winter they place the winter products on half price sales which is a good strategy for a business to use because people will try to save money on products that they will be needing for the next winter and they want to be a step ahead and prepared for the arrival of the next winter. They objective here would be to make sure that they do not price their products at a higher cost rather than a reasonable and affordable price. Primark sell goods at a reasonable price and they want their customers to have a variety of options to them, so Primark are offering their customers good quality products at reasonable prices. This will be achieved by looking at their competitors and other stores, selling similar products, and making their prices lower than their competitors. Primark mainly aims to provide good quality products for their customers because they want their customers to realise that Primark is a good company. Just because they sell products at a very cheaper price, this does not mean that the products they sell are not good or at a bad quality. The main objectives in order to reach this aim will be to satisfy their customers and gain more potential customers. This will be done by making sure that they provide the customers with good quality products in order to grab potential customers. This will also help them to grab more potential customers as well as letting their customers know that they sell good quality products. Primark makes sure that their aims and objectives are linked to SMART which includes their aims and objectives being specific meaning that the goal can be accomplished than a general goal and measurable meaning that they can measure the progression that they are making to achieve the goal. Achievable, realistic and timely meaning that the aims and objectives can be achieved, realistic and can be achieved in the time they want to spend on achieving the aim. Primark aims to provide their customers with an excellent customer service which involves them being friendly and helpful towards customers and staff. Primark wants the public to think that they are a friendly company, so that this makes their customers want to come back to their store if they feel welcomed. Primark’s objectives for this are to make sure that the staff treat and greet their customers properly. They are trying to achieve this by greeting customers as soon as possible and making them feel welcomed at Primark and they also ask if they want any help in case they are shy to ask for help, just to make it easier for their customers. This will also help them grab potential customers and which will mean that Primark will be benefiting from a range of areas such as increased sales, potential customers and etc. Primark has a policy to treat everybody the same and everybody have their own rights. Primark wants to make their regular customers to feel like everyone is treated the same. Each and every customer are the same to Primark whether they have less money or lots of money with them, Primark intends to treat all their customers as equals. Primark will achieve this by having an objective to making everyone in the store feel individual and also by making everyone feel like they are ‘special' and no different from one another. Primark aims to target young, fashion-conscious under the age of 35’s, offering them high quality and fashion basics at a reasonable pricing, so that it could be afforded by everyone and are value for the amount of money they pay. Making a profit is one of Primark’s main aims and the objective to achieve this aim would be to make sure that they get increased sales instead of decreased sales. Increased sales will help Primark to make a lot of profit and will also show them if they have gained any new potential customers for Primark. This will also help Primark know the performance of their staff such as if they are providing an excellent customer service because this will increase sales. Primark comes up with their own designs for clothes that would attract their targeted customers which would be the under 35 year olds and the young who like to be up-to date with the latest fashion. Gaining more potential customers would also ensure Primark making more profit than usual. Making a profit will also help Primark to expand their business Total revenue is the total amount of money that comes into the business, Primark from selling products or service that were originally designed by the business. The total revenue can be calculated by: PEST Political Factors: There are several political factors that could affect the entire firm of Primark. One would be that if they were sued by their competitors for copying their similar products this will bring the market to a downfall for Primark. Primark was brought to court and sued by many of their competitors for copying designs of their products. This has a major effect on Primark as a whole firm because if they keep getting sued that will bring their market to a downfall and that is not great. In May 2004, Monsoon also took legal actions against Primark. Monsoon claimed that Primark had copied their  £44 butterfly skirt, selling it at  £11, as well as copying the Brittany top for girls. Primark charged around  £23,000 by Monsoon which was also an out-of-court settlement and this was after Primark admitting to the copies. In April 2005, Monsoon accused Primark of copying the designs of six more items that they claimed to have created. Primark was once again forced to remove all of these products that monsoon sued them form, from all the Primark shops when Primark was threatened by Monsoon to take legal action. Primark was not sued just by Monsoon because in 2009, Primark was sued by Superdry for making a cheap imitation of their ‘Brad' jacket. Primark got an out-of-court settlement with high street fashion brand Superdry, after Primark was accused of copying one of the Superdry’s leather jackets which was originally priced  £174.99 at the Superdry store and the imitation was sold for  £30 at Primark stores. This lead to Primark being sued which exposed that they were copying their competitors’ products which would have brought suspicion to all their other competitors on Primark. Primark was made to suffer the financial consequences of their illegal action that lead to a downfall of Primark. Political Analysis relates to the ability of the organisation to adopt or follow on the different governmental initiatives that might affect the performance of the entire firm, so basically this will affect Primark as a whole not just one Primark company the entire Primark companies and this will also include the headquarters. The government might establish certain policies for Primark and these policies that are established by the government might divert the local priorities of all the Primark companies. The government has a role to contribute in estimating and also forecasting the success of downfall of the Primark. The government might regularly take action in the changes of financial and economic policies in at a certain point on how the economy reacts. As the government also holds the regulations that should be part of the business’s cycle. Examples of the several acts that the organisation needed for compliance included the health and safety act, sex discrimination act, disability discrimination act, data protection act, sales protection acts, consumers’ protection act and so on. It is highly recommended that the organisation should be reacting to the impact of any increase or decrease in taxation or even to the impact of the acts in their business. Economical Factors: There are many Economical factors that may affect Primark and which may cause Primark to fall behind of their competitors. Primark targets the young Customer’s specifically the under 35 year olds. In 2008, Primark opened over 12 new stores and has now moved its business around Europe. This is a successful event that took place for Primark in 2008 and this could be affected in the future if they don’t make sure that they keep up with the forever changing economy. This will have an effect on few of the aims and objectives that Primark aims achieve because Primark’s potential customers would not have faith in them due to them copying products of other retailers. The business environment is ever-changing, and it is crucial that Primark analyses the environmental factors correctly in order to allow them to adapt to changes that may arise in the future. If Primark fails to analyse the environment changes correctly, or if they do not pay enough attention to observing the environmental changes then there are chances of Primark missing out of vital opportunities and will certainly fall under massive threat. This will also help their competitors to get ahead of Primark and it would not be an easy matter to handle. It will take Primark a very long time to get back on track and make sure that they handle things properly and to compete with their competitors on the same level. Economic analysis will help the Primark answer the increases and decreases in interest rates and its impact on their business or how a recession in the business cycle can affect their business as a whole. Primark has been recognised as one of the strongest businesses that can contribute a lot in the country’s Gross Domestic Product or GDP. In order to make Primark able to stand indifferent economic changes, there should be a strong financial fund that holds in the effects of recession as much in low exchange rates made by the import and export operations. Unemployment began to level off towards the end of 2011, and the beginning of 2012 saw the first fall in almost a year. This would have affected Primark due to the fall of Unemployment it would have made it harder for Primark to recruit appropriate and suitable staff for their companies which means less staff and it would have put more pressure on the staff that are employed at Primark because they will have to complete two people’s tasks in a day. Inflation could possibly be one of the factors to affect business. Inflation is actually a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a specific period of time. I don’t think Inflation would affect my selected business, Primark because their products are a mainly fast-fashion and a decent cost and that’s one of the main reasons that Primark makes a lot of profit and has many potential customers. Interest rates could also be a cause that affects the business. An interest rate is like the fee that you would have to pay as an interest which is paid by a borrower for the use of money that they borrowed from a lender such as the Bank. So basically the charge for borrowing money which is called Interest and Primark has also paid interests for the amount of money that they have borrowed of the bank. Primark has made sure that they pay back all the money that they have borrowed with the interest. Social Factors: Primark has received several awards for being value retailer of the year and UK retailer of the year. This will mean that Primark has an advantage of going abroad to other countries that they have not opened a Primark street store in those certain countries. Primark can now also easily expand and diversify, giving its competitors such as Next, H;M, New Look and so on, a competitive environment with the large amount of financial power that they hold. Primark now operates from 5.4 million sq. ft. of selling space which gives them the advantage of providing more goods and services for their potential and usual customers. Primark has many competitors and the competitive rivalry is â€Å"VERY HIGH† as there are a number of similar sized companies in the market who are offering similar kinds of products and due to high cost on exit (Exit barrier). The threat of substitutes are also â€Å"HIGH† for Primark because other company are offering similar products that are offered by Primark with a lower price and now it is very easy for customer to switch from one product to other as they have a variety of products to choose from for cheaper prices. The threat of new competitors for Primark is ‘LOW’ due to the high cost setup because new business cannot afford the amount of setup costs. Now-a-days banks tend to give loans for only larger businesses due to the smaller businesses not succeeding and failing to pay them back. Primark have number of smaller ones rather than relying on one big supplier. So here the negotiating power of suppliers is ‘LOW’ with Primark and amount of Buyers power is ‘HIGH’, as the market has many multi companies in them and now customer have become more sensitive than before towards the price that they pay for the products they purchase so they tend to visit every similar shores and then they come to an conclusion on where to buy the product and this would include the switching cost which is also not too high. The economies of scale may also have an effect on certain businesses. An economy of scale is the increase in the effectiveness of production as the number of goods that are being produced by Primark increases. In general, a company such as Primark that achieves economies of scale lowers their average cost per unit through increased production seeing as fixed costs are shared over an increased number of goods. There are two types of economies of scale; one which is an external economy, which means that the cost per unit depends on the size of the industry, not the firm. The second type of economies of scale is internal economies which meaning the cost per unit depends on size of the individual firm. The taste and preferences of the buying population is on the priority of the business. If there are newly-marketed products, the organisation will surely find many other ways that they could develop their own design which would make them be on the leading market. This would show the ability of Primark in different social changes and challenges mainly when they have many competitors. There are lifestyle factors that may affect Primark because they will also have to think about what the customers want. Most customers expect to have the latest fashion with the cheapest demands, meaning they would like to keep up with the latest fashions and be able to get them for cheaper. This could also affect the aims and objectives of Primark because if the customers decide not to shop at Primark t would decrease their sales. This would have a major effect on one of their aims, which is to get increased sales and they business would be on a downfall. Technological Factors: There are few technological factors that may affect the success of Primark and there are a number of technological factors that may help Primark succeed against their competitors. In Primark's bid for world class, cutting edge management of its ethical auditing programme, it has signed a deal with BSI Management Systems for the provision of Entropy Software. The investment in Entropy Software is a key part of Primark's ethical trade strategy, which will help calculate all supplier audits, non-conformances and remedial actions and also allow it to be managed through the Entropy Software platform, with much greater global visibility and management control. This means that Primark would either be on the same level or ahead of most of their competitors with this software installed at their stores. However, Primark lacks on online shopping whereas M;S have an online shopping which gives M;S a head start and gives the leading position to them. This affects Primark because they do not own an online shopping system which most people shop on. Online shopping is one of the most essential things for Primark as most people are lazy now-a-days and shop online. Moreover, most people tend to check out the new products that Primark has and customers will also want to find out if any products are on sale at Primark through online as well as shop. Environmental factors: Environmental factors can affect the business because if there was certain changes in the climate and environment. For example, if there was a sudden change in the sea levels, which would certainly have an effect on the transportation of supplies for Primark. If the goods are delayed for some time, this would decrease the sales for Primark and making them lose their potential customers that they have worked so hard to gain. Marketing activities: Marketing mix Blockbuster has been applying huge amount of effort in achieving their aims and objectives and in being successful. Factors such as marketing mix, they are providing the best product they possibly can. The products are high in quality, and original. The pricing they are keeping it fair. They are not ripping of customers, the customers feel safe with them because the customers know keeping a link with blockbuster mean they are happy with their pricing and the quality of their products. Furthermore, the placing is extraordinarily well; they have situated their store in a place where the customers are able to find it easily. Blockbuster is situated in a place where they are closer to wherever the customers are. The blockbuster organization knows what the best is for their customers, because of the carried out primary and secondary research. E.g. some primary research which blockbuster looked into was test marketing and focus group. Test marketing involved a certain product being tested in certain market to an individual age groups and seeing where it fits the best. Secondary research was looking at their competitors work, how they are getting all their customers and trying to expand in that idea and link it to the ones which blockbuster already has. So these types of secondary and primary research which blockbuster carried out and managed to gain the success in reaching their aims and objectives. To prove or disagree with that statement on the next page are graphs and charts of a questionnaire on the customers who shop at blockbuster asking how well blockbuster are doing in their 4ps and the overall business itself. Team working collaboration How the blockbuster team has effectively managed themselves in receiving their organisational aims and objectives. The meaning and importance of groups and team work in a business is essential. Work is a group based activity and if the organisation is to function effectively it requires collaboration and co-operation among members. In other words meaning any number of people who interact with one another are psychological aware of one another and perceive themselves to be a group. Group are characteristics of all social situations and almost everyone in an organization with will be a member of one are more groups. The working of groups and influence they exert over their membership is an essential feature of human behaviour and of organisational performance. So one event which blockbuster team has collaborated is the bankruptcy moment. Despite having the worst time and getting sued by Netflix, they were looking into their research more effectively. They looked at the 4ps carefully. They looked at the competitors’ way of gaining customers. The pricing, the productivity the quality of it and so on. The team work or the groups have co-operated with the business so well from going bankrupt they made the position of the business become number 1 in the rental retailing world. Questionnaire questions asked in the two different questionnaires are shown below for both questionnaires. Question on questionnaire audience What are your thoughts on the pricing on the products which blockbuster are holding them on? Public The qualities of the products are they up to the standards and are they up to your satisfaction! Public The promotional activities which blockbuster holds on occasions are they the best! So meaning should they reduce the price further or add additional accessories on to that deal and have it for longer periods of time. Public The placing of blockbuster is it situated in a place where you can easily get to it and find it easy to find! Is it the best place to reach the audience so customers? public Overall, blockbuster how good are they doing in their business, so are they achieving the best, most customers, and good quality products and so on? public The top questionnaire is a public based questionnaire which I handed out to those who shop at blockbuster and are working in place. The bottom questionnaire is a student based questionnaire. Why I chose to do two different questionnaire is because they will help me get the view of two different classes. Public side will tell me what they think of blockbuster rental industry, through what they can afford because they work. The student questionnaire is a based questionnaire on what they think of blockbuster rental industry because they buy mostly from blockbuster, e.g. games. The students will be saying what is good about blockbuster by not thinking of what the price of the products are, and how they are given out. Because they don’t work Questions Audience What are your thoughts on the pricing of blockbuster products? Students What are your thoughts on the products of blockbuster? Students What are your views on the promotional activities on the blockbuster deals? Students What are your views on the place where blockbuster store is nearest to you? Students What is the overall view on the blockbuster rental industry? Students The two questionnaires are compared at the bottom, which shows what they have in common and what they don’t and there you can see why I chose to do two different questionnaires. The different in minds and the classes they are in. Question 1) pricing of blockbuster? School public What the questionnaire found out for me from the students is that positive feedbacks may include something along the line that it is the value the pricing should be for their products because the value of the product is in high quality, the gaming renting and the buying of the movies or games are up to the customer s expectation. Furthermore you can buy membership for rent, so the students thought that that was a good deal. The public replied by the same sort of answer. The pricing for games as an example, is that high because firstly they are high quality, online severed, amazing graphics and the game modes. The movies are high definition. So the public graph shows the nearly the same sort of positivity and the amount of numbers which they thoughts was the right pricing. Negative feedback may be along the line of that it is expensive. So opposing what the positive feedback all concluded to. They don’t think the quality is up to what they think is right and so on. Negative feedback which I got back was that they are expensive. Again opposing the positive feedback. Some say that due to their pay they can’t buy it but overall, it’s good. The two pie charts above show the difference in views in acknowledgment of blockbuster from the students in Drayton manor high school and the people in workplaces or outside in public. The pricing of blockbuster utilizes where the faults and the goods are for this company or blockbuster. In general terms pricing is simply what the company gives their products in order to sell the most goods from their stores. In the bottom table you can see how the two graphs show the differences in themselves and the similarities in them self selves. Or moreover the disadvantages and the advantages blockbuster got in their pricing strategies. Overall, blockbuster has a good quantity of numbers supporting the goods of pricing. E.g. blockbusters are becoming global leaders through this. More and more people are renting their movies and games and buying them also. So blockbusters have been doing fairly good with their pricing but however. More people are downloading the movies and games of online for free. This put blockbuster into gaining loses of customers. So their profit level went done by miles. This also gives a bad impact on them reaching their aims and objectives. Question 2) quality of productivity? School public Firstly, products are simply what the market provides to its target audience. The charts above show the different thoughts on what they think of the productivity of the blockbuster products. The positive feedback which I concluded to get from the students was that they are up to what they expect to get. But some thinks that the products that blockbuster provides are of other companies like Disney or other game software companies. So it doesn’t actually count to what the products of blockbuster are up to high standards. What the positive feedback which I gained were that they were not scratched up, they worked properly. So you can see in the chart everyone ticked yes so full 10 people agreed that the blockbuster provide the best productivity they can offer. Negative feedback which I received about the products were that they are angry with the quantity of how many of the same product blockbuster has got. Some students went to buy fifa they get the response of `we are out of stock for that product’. So the quantity of the product matters when dealing with the productivity of any company. As you can see that the negative feedback which got was nothing. Because everyone I asked ticked yes. They did not objective with the productivity of the product of blockbuster. Overall, the productivity of the product from blockbuster is too what the customers expect. Blockbuster never had any complains about their products and they got positive feedback about their products. Blockbuster however, been unable to get the most amounts of people to buy their product. Because their competitor has been stealing their customers with their online movies watching site. With amazing quality and the best they can provide. So with the productivity blockbuster has been doing great but Netflix beats them by an inch of better nests. So competition is a main obstacle in reaching their required aims and objectives, so blockbuster must know what to do in order to restore its profit levels Question 3? Promotional activities? School public Promotion is type of communication that uses various methods to reach its target audience in order to sell the best and still gain the scene profit. Positive responses which I had been given by some of the students were the promotion types which blockbuster gives out are pretty effective. Why? Some say that it attracts the customers in varies different ways. Firstly, the deal itself. What it is? Secondly, the pricing, so what the deal is ended up adding to and how much of amount disc for movies and games can be bought. Positive feedback which was given to me by the public was as follow. The deals which blockbuster gives out are always amazing to look up to. They don’t give a slight dissatisfaction of what the deal disapprove them by. So any bad faults. Negative feedback such as they don’t have the best for their deals. They are simple. In order to gain more customers they need to promote their promotions through TV and billboards maybe. Negative feedback which I received back where they were still high in pricing. They may have some deals which give out 5-10 DVDs but people just download it from the internet for free and for high quality. The promotional activities for blockbuster have been effective in gaining various customers. However people just download the movies or get pirate copies for  £2. They can get cheapest games from gaming sites such as steam. Steam is an online gaming site where you can buy games including the latest ones like fifa 13 and mw3 and play them on your pc for the same type quality on the gaming consoles. So blockbuster may have great deals but, people don’t buy from them they download it free of the internet and or buy it for cheaper room online gaming sites like steam. Again blockbuster must research the competitions. There is not only Netflix or game, but online gaming sites like steam so this is a let-down for blockbuster they got ruined by an online gaming site. Question 4) the placing. School public Blockbuster which I looked at is in west Ealing the nearest blockbuster to my house and to those who I have asked to fill out my questionnaire. Positive feedbacks were basically as simple as the blockbuster store is near my house. Or it is around the corner. Blockbuster is on high street of west Ealing so they are seen without having the people for them or their store. They are easy to find. But most importantly they are close to their houses. Positive feedbacks were the same as the section for the students. Some whys which were the response were they are closer to their housings and in the main shopping centre to where they live. So in this case it is west Ealing. People say they can just walk to their nearest blockbuster so it’s great for them. Negative feedback not given because nobody though blockbuster had a bad placing. Negative feedback was they are not more than one blockbuster around their housing area. So in west Ealing there is only one blockbuster, none in Ealing Broadway and other towns. So they need to extend their store to further reaches. Blockbuster placing of their stores in fact done great for them, because whenever you enter west Ealing that is the first store you see. Most importantly it is the only blockbuster store you will find. Why this is a good thing, blockbuster will get all of its customers to that coming store so they will receive the great deal of profit and customers. However not having a blockbuster everywhere or every town, such as Ealing Broadway customers or consumer will go to their nearest gaming store. So Ealing Broadway has Argos or game or other stores like him. So blockbuster has lost in profit and customers due to this point. Question 5) overall view of the business. School public Overall view of blockbuster, means it include the 4ps and the whole business layout itself. Meaning the staff, the stores and what the business should, does provide. Some positive feedback which I got back from the students was that the students thought that the deals which blockbuster gave were amazing. E.g. game like call of duty, if you pre order it and get at midnight on the day comes out you get it for  £2. So the students enjoy these kinds of deals and that’s why the students think that blockbuster is the best store. Positive feedbacks are simple being just a great shop and the place for to rent and buy DVDs. The staffs are helpful; they tell you about any unsure products, they will give you feedback and their personal views on the product. So you if are buying it you won’t regret buying it. Negative feedbacks were that they weren’t enough stores in London. They need to build more stores in order to gain that max profit and take on their competitors like Netflix or game. Or as I previously said online gaming site named steam. Negative feedbacks were as follow, they said that it was slow on customer service and the stock levels. What that means whenever someone goes to buy something, blockbuster don’t have it or it’s for viewing only. Overall, the business has done great but for them to reach their aims and objectives they need to build more stores to reach their max profit and not go bankrupt. Blockbusters have gone bankrupt by Netflix. Blockbuster has been sued for coping Netflix ideas which concluded the future of blockbuster into bankruptcy. No customers went with them. No nothing bought and rent. So overall blockbuster has been having difficulties in life of its stores but blockbuster still managed to achieve the aims and objectives it has dreamt of. So global leadership is still highly stated with blockbuster, they still are in front of Netflix, they are still the best rental type. All this because they knew what they were doing. The 4ps were defined well. So the right pricing, good quality products, and so on. Blockbuster may of have been deflected in many ways but they stood their ground and did achieve their biggest aim of global leadership in the rental retailing world. Manager response to the success of business in achieving their aims and objectives In order to reach the aims and objectives, the manager gives me an answer of management and control. In the discussion the role of the manager attention was drawn to the motivation of staff and importance of control over the performance of other people’s work. Organisation implies control. A social organization is an ordered arrangement of individual human interaction. Control process help keep them conformant to the rational plan of organizational. Organization requires a certain amount of conformity as well as the integration of diverse activities. It is the functional of control to bring about conformance to organisational requirement and achievement of the ultimate purpose of the organizational. This shows that team work is an important factor in running blockbuster rental retailers. Control and management is essential in order to get the best out of the staff as a manger. In order to reach the max potential to gain the organizational aims and objectives you will need control on the staff. Furthermore you need control over the 4ps in order for the business to succeed in their aims and objectives. Control over the 4ps is essential. Control over the 4ps meaning full success on the business profit lines and aims and objectives. 4ps meaning control on place, product, promotion and price. The business needs to know what has the best meaning of customer needs is. They need to find out their expectation and what they can afford. This can help the business achieve their aims and objectives.

donor essays

donor essays The book starts by telling about the problems occurring in the hospital where Michael works. Too many patients are dying of causes that would not normally kill them. When Michael watches a little girl's life slip away despite the best that modern medicine can deliver, he becomes depressed about his choice of careers. Across town, a popular and prominent Congressman dies - his skull shattered by a shotgun, but police investigators determine the death to be a suicide. Despite what they say, the Congressman's beautiful young daughter, Shannon Donnelly, stubbornly refuses to believe that her father took his own life. In a twist of events, Michael becomes the top contender for the dead Congressmans seat. Jonathan Waverly, a billionaire who wants to organize a group of national politicians to back his dream of a nationwide chain of medical research centers, feels that Michael is the perfect man for the political job. However, before Michael agrees to the job, he takes a tour of the Waverly Research Center, but he only sees one building. In the building, he sees various robots, machines, and great technological advances. He sees some of the most amazing things and hears some amazing ideas that Waverly has for the medical field. The most unique thing he sees is a mannequin. It was the most realistic one he had ever seen. In fact, he thinks that it is a real man. At first he thinks this is strange, but Waverly quickly explains that it was made for an amusement park ride and Michael thinks nothing of it again. The other building contains mental patients, and other experimental medical instr uments and techniques. After some bribing, and offers of a lifetime, Michael agrees to run for the Congressmans seat. After Shannon meets Michael as he is paying his condolences at her house, she is angered with him and vows to find who murdered her father. She begins to check her mothers house, which was where her fath...

Miscellaneous Uses of the Spanish Conditional Tense

Miscellaneous Uses of the Spanish Conditional Tense As a general rule, as explained in our introduction to the Spanish conditional tense, the English would is the equivalent of the Spanish conditional. But there are exceptions. The major ones are listed below: Examples of when the conditional tense isnt translated as would To express speculation about the past: Just as the future tense can be used to express speculation about the present, the conditional can be used to express speculation or probability about the past. A variety of translations can be used, depending on the context. Despuà ©s de trabajar, tendrà ­an hambre. After working, they probably were hungry. Another possible translation is After working, they must have been hungry. (A would translation is also possible: After working, they would have been hungry.)  ¿Dà ³nde estuvo Jorge? Estarà ­a en casa. Where was George? He must have been at home. Another possible translation is Where was George? I wonder if he was at home. (A would translation is also possible: He would have been at home.) Where the conditional poder is translated as could: This is a variation on the would rule, for poder, which when conjugated can mean can, can also be translated as to be able. When could means the same as would be able, the conditional is usually used. Si tuviera dinero, podrà ­a ir al cine. If I had money, I could go to the movies. (This is a use of the conditional based on a condition. It also could be translated as If I had the money, I would be able to go to the movies.) Podrà ­an salir maà ±ana. They could leave tomorrow. (Here the condition is unstated. The sentence also could be translated as They would be able to leave tomorrow.)  ¿Podrà ­a tener un lpiz? Could I have a pencil? (Or, would I be able to have a pencil?) Examples of when would isnt translated as the Spanish conditional When it refers to a past repeated action: In such cases, the imperfect is usually used. This use of would in English is usually understood as used to or as the past tense. Whats different in this instance from cases where would is in the conditional tense is that the activity isnt hypothetical. Cuando era nià ±o, à ­bamos al cine. When I was a boy, we would go to the movies. (This is the same as saying we used to go to the movies or we went to the movies. Going to the movies isnt a hypothetical action.) Mi hijo jugaba con cuidado. My son would play carefully. (This is the same as saying, My son used to play carefully.)

Belie and Betray

Belie and Betray Belie and Betray Belie and Betray By Maeve Maddox A reader asks for a discussion of these two words: I get confused when using belie and betray. Sometimes they seem to mean the same thing. Would you please explain when each word should be used, and why. The OED cites two verbs spelled belie that were in use as early as 1000 CE. One belie meant, â€Å"to lie around or encompass.† It was used literally to describe a spatial connection. For example, an army â€Å"belied by the enemy† was surrounded by the enemy. This belie was also a slang word for â€Å"have sex with.† The other belie is the one still used in modern English. Its original meaning was â€Å"to deceive by lying.† Shakespeare plays on the different meanings of the words lie and belie in the scene in which Iago employs innuendo to stoke the Moor’s fears about Michael Cassio: OTHELLO: What hath he said? IAGO: Why, that he did- I know not what he did. OTHELLO: What? what? IAGO: Lie- OTHELLO: With her? IAGO: With her, on her, what you will. OTHELLO: Lie with her? lie on her? We say â€Å"lie on her† when they belie her! Lie with her- that’s fulsome.  - Othello, IV, 1. The belie associated with falsehood expanded to have the following meanings: 1. to tell lies about; especially to calumniate by false statements. 2. to give a false representation or account of, to misrepresent; to present in a false character. 3. to treat a thing as false by speaking or acting at variance with it. 4. to show to be false, prove false or mistaken; to falsify. Belie is often seen in headlines. Here are several examples from the Web: Companies’ Pro-Equality Rhetoric Belied by Their Campaign Donations Image of a Wealthy Gore Is Belied by a Net Worth in Senates Minor League Outsider claims belie political insider past Sometimes belie is used to mean cover up or conceal: Their campaign promises belie a more sinister agenda. Pickfords small stature and cinema sweetness belied a shrewd businesswoman, forming her own production company. Beware of euphemisms that  belie  Ã¢â‚¬Å"hellish†Ã‚  behavior.    A common use of belie is, â€Å"to misrepresent† or â€Å"to reveal as a lie†: Laboratory Tests Belie Promises Of Some GMO-Free Food Labels CO2 emissions belie climate  promises Shattered streets of Homs belie Assads promises of peace Sometimes belie is synonymous with â€Å"call into question†: Marias strength and  intelligence belie  our image of a â€Å"genteel southern lady   Strike, protests  belie  Haitian  governments  free education claims.   Marilyn Monroe and Joanna Lumley belie the dumb blonde image. Monroe was reputed to have an IQ of 170 and Lumley is a member of the Royal Geographical Society. The verb betray also has multiple meanings: to lead into error or sin A Don Juan is a villain who betrays virgins and abandons them. to deliver into the hands of an enemy When he had obtained the confidence of the citizens, he betrayed the town to Darius. to prove faithless or treacherous to a friend How should we react when we find out that a friend  betrayed  us?   to prove faithless to ones country Aaron Burr is often alluded to as the stereotypical traitor: a man who betrayed his country. to reveal A red brick chimney rising up the north side  betrayed the existence of  the small fireplace in the living room. The intended meaning of betray is usually obvious from the context. Because the meaning of belie is not always clear, writers may choose from the following alternatives: contradict be at odds with call into question show to be false disprove debunk discredit negate Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Grammar Test 1What is Dative Case?Plurals of Proper Names

Comparing a Past Decade with Todays Economy Research Paper

Comparing a Past Decade with Todays Economy - Research Paper Example At the same time, they face various types of barriers when they try to compete against other firms in the US marketplaces. 2000 is one of the decades that has created loss for employees and financial system of US. â€Å"The decade that just ended has been the worst for the U.S. economy in modern times by a wide range of data, with zero net job growth and the slowest rise in economic output since the 1930s. Many who stayed employed were hurt too, with middle-income families making less in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1999 — the first decade since the 1960s that median incomes have fallen† (Seitz-Wald para. 1). Recent financial data demonstrates that the poverty rate in US has grown the highest in the past 20 years. It is well recognized that the present financial climate in the US is not favorable. This pushes one to think on the subject of the level of economic growth over the last 10 years in the country. One thing to observe is the wide GDP alte rations that have occurred over the period. Considering the information from 2000 to 2011, the CPI representing the price of living has increased to 25.74% (January 2000 to September 2011). Individual income, deriving from interest, dividends, labor, and transfers made by government minus social security through the corresponding period rose up to 57.19%. 2) Relate that state to today’s economy based on those indicators. The US’ real GDP rate has increased annually by 2.5 % in the third quarter of 2011 (that is, from the second part to the third part) according to the "advance" estimation released by the agency of Economic study. In the second part, real GDP advanced to 1.3%. â€Å" †. (GDP United States 1). The increase in real GDP in the third part mainly reflected positive contributions from Individual Consumption Expenditures (ICE), exports, nonresidential fixed assets and federal administration spending that were partially counterbalanced by negative contri butions from private inventory investment as well as local and state government expenditure. Imports, which are a subtraction in the computation of GDP, have also been increased. â€Å"U.S. Inflation Rate Past Trend Present Value & Future Projection YoY Change in CPI. Percent. † (U.S. Inflation Rate Forecast para. 2). Recent financial Indicators published in November 08, 2011. Indicator Value of the indicator. Worldwide Stocks development, % 0.37 United State GDP development, % 2.45 United State Inflation, % 3.90 United State Unemployment rate % 9.00 Gold, $/oz 1,795.00 WTI Oil, $/bbl rate 96.89 US 10 Yr Treasuries, rate % 2.09 (US Inflation Rate Forecast) 3) Describe the state of the economy at the end of the decade: The US financial system is the world's biggest national economy. Its nominal GDP was anticipated to be almost $14.7 trillion in 2010, around a quarter of nominal worldwide GDP at buying power parity. The US economy also keeps a very high rate of production every year. In 2010, it was anticipated to have a per capita GDP of $46,844, the 7th maximum in the globe. The United State is the main trading country in the globe. Its three major trading partners at the end of the

Scottish & Southern Energy plc Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Scottish & Southern Energy plc - Case Study Example "SSE's strategy is to deliver sustained real growth in the dividend payable to shareholders through the efficient operation of, and investment in, a balanced range of regulated and non-regulated energy-related businesses. The successful implementation of this strategy in 2006/07 delivered another year of excellent financial performance, with profit before tax exceeding 1 billion for the first time, and strong operational performance, with our policy of responsible pricing helping us to gain more than one million additional customers" (Miranda.com, 2007). "We are committed to offering customers a combination of price, service and products which will enable us to achieve further growth during the rest of the financial year and beyond" (Ian Marchant, as quoted by Hamish Rutherford, The Scotsman, 2007). Scottish and Southern Energy plc, believe that the company's rapid growth has been due to a consistent and continuing focus on four essential areas: the maintenance and investment in present energy networks; continued investment in SSE's "leading-edge portfolio" (Annual Review, 2006, p.1); increasing and developing energy supply; and through the development of a strong presence in businesses such as gas storage, contracting connections, and telecoms. As a result of the achievements and progress made within these central goals, the company's 2006 reported its financial performance, with adjusted profit before tax, as being at approximately 858.2 million (Annual Review, 2006). Scottish and Southern Energy was formed in 1998, following the no-premium merger of Southern Electric and Scottish Hydro Electric, and required Connect South West contracting business just a year later. Following this Scottish Hydro Electric Contracting was launched, while by 2000, the company had acquired the energy supply business, SWALEC, it had completed its 50% investments into the Seabank 2 gas-fired power station, and the number of customers had exceeded more than four million. Then, in 2001, SSE began operating Cuilieg, the corporation's hydro election power station - it's first in forty years - and in 2002, the company's Annual Report showed profits of some 597.2 million (Annual Report, 2002). SSE's growth continued in 2003, the year in which the company acquired Neos Telecom, and customers passed the five million mark. It was also during this period that Scottish and Southern Energy announced its plans to construct the Glendoe hydro-electric power station, while also acquiring the balance of equity for the

Requiring students study of islam as part of social studies Research Paper

Requiring students study of islam as part of social studies - Research Paper Example he citizen, knowing when, where and how to make well-informed and reasoned decisions for the public good in a democratic and pluralistic society (Education 4). The focus for social studies is for students to explore their culture and then expand their study to other people and lands to study about the ways that those people live and work. It can argued that for religion and culture, for instance Islam which is a minority religion, to flourish and prosper in a predominantly Western, Christian, and secular society, Islamic teachings must be introduced towards Islamizing Muslim children. Islamization means that Muslim teachings should be promoted, assimilated, and integrated with any society. Islamic teachings also provided need to be in compatibility with secular and western values than with some rigid Islamic values (Timani 2). Therefore, the paper will mainly focus on supporting the argument as to why children should study culture and religion, including Islam, as part of social studies and how it can be useful for them in the future. During children, cognitive development stages; distractions and inconsistencies and confusions of thoughts are being replaced by basic logic gradually. Children begin to make some logical decisions about problems, which involve concrete and real objects. In addition, the development of a reversible and new system of mental operations and the ability to form stable new relationships among themselves and classes begins. During this period, rules and regulations mostly serve as useful guidelines for the character and behavior of such school going children. Teachers and their Parents become serious role models for these schoolchildren, and the cultural and religious-oriented character that is shown to the children becomes a genesis of their training and inspiration. Here comes the necessity of introducing culture and religion to these children during social studies classes. Making Friends are most likely to happen between children who

102 exam question 4 Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

102 exam question 4 - Article Example Friedman assumed that focusing on open social investments was not proper for business well-being and this would divert the goals of the business. The ideal goal of the company is to provide a return to its shareholders. By focusing on external social responsibilities, the corporation is distracted from its sole purpose. Friedman asserted that corporations do not know how to properly invest in social causes (Friedman, 1970/2002). Friedman deemed this as a tax upon stockholders of which they have no decision regarding how it is spent. Consequently, he added that an individual is on liberty to pursue social responsibilities; this is because the corporate executive lacks the ability to properly perform such actions (Friedman, 1970/2002). On the other hand, according to Archie Carroll’s, adding on to making a profit and obeying the law, a company should endeavor to improve or solve societal needs. His view is generally advocated through stakeholder theory. This theory maintains that corporations should consider the effects of their actions upon other individuals at stake or of interest in the corporation such as customers, suppliers, general public, and employees (Carroll, 1987). Businesses cannot pursue their long term profit returns if they have poor relations with their stakeholders or the environment. Meanwhile, firms cannot meet all the needs of their stakeholders and continue making profits. It is therefore advisable that management decisions should be based on an objective ethical code of conduct. Using the money that shareholders have invested in the businesses to support unprofitable needs of the society is clearly wrong. Therefore, businesses should make profits, obey the law, act according to an ethical standard, and only pursue corporate social responsibility activities that improve long-term shareholder wealth. A  corporation  is a legal entity, meaning it is a separate entity from its

Assistant VP OF Development at Al-Saif Trading Agencies Company Assignment

Assistant VP OF Development at Al-Saif Trading Agencies Company - Assignment Example Achieving of the targets will ensure the guaranteed profitability of the company and that will enable the company to gain market dominance over its competitors (Den 2000). Al-saif Company is a company that intends to specialize in utensils that would suit households in Saudi. The company aims at developing local utensils that were used in the past by modernizing them without any form of deformation (Al-saif.biz) .The Company is one of the biggest retailers in the country and it has a reputation that is suitable for most of its suppliers. The company is also considered to have a financial position that is unique because of the independence and strength that exists in the administrative structures of the company. My plans and strategies My strategies will be aimed at adding more coordination in the administration department. I will also ensure that the customers are satisfied with our services and the suppliers are comfortable with the payment terms. I will also strive to ensure that t he staff of the company is properly coordinated to ensure increased efficiency and productivity (brandhouseadv.com). Strategies aimed at customers The customers are the most important assets to the business. The customers should be the first priority when the company is coming up with any strategy. I will liaise with the management of the company so that we can establish a 12-hour respond time. This strategy will ensure that we respond to the customer’s requirements before 12 hours. Therefore, the customers will not repeat calls to follow up on the progress of their requests. That will lead to customer satisfaction. Satisfaction is a critical thing that customers want from their suppliers (Buhler 2002). I will also request for the establishment of a feedback system in which the customers can give their feedbacks in regard to the services provided by the company and the way that they thing that the company can enhance its service provision. I will also recommend that the manag ement come up with classes on communication skills. The lessons on communication skills will ensure that the customers are properly attended to (Lamont 2003).The class will also enhance communication among the staff and that will ensure that company policies are perfectly communicated and executed and that will result in efficiency. Strategies aimed at the administration department I will ensure that there are policies that will ensure that the administrative department is properly streamlined. I will do that by ensuring that the files of the customers and suppliers are updated on a daily basis to avoid any instances of backlogs or wrong entries. Updating of the company files will ensure that the company has up to date records on the items that are demanded most and the items that are out of stock (Day 1994). The policy will ensure that there are no instances of stock outs in the business and stock out costs will not be incurred in the company. The administration department will als o be responsible in ensuring that that office supplies are available when they are required. Strategies directed towards suppliers Suppliers are another important part of the business. The suppliers of Al-Saif Company are from all over the world. That means that there should be effective communication between the company and the suppliers. My experience in working in different places will enable me coordinate with the suppliers who are from a

102 exam question 4 Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

102 exam question 4 - Article Example Friedman assumed that focusing on open social investments was not proper for business well-being and this would divert the goals of the business. The ideal goal of the company is to provide a return to its shareholders. By focusing on external social responsibilities, the corporation is distracted from its sole purpose. Friedman asserted that corporations do not know how to properly invest in social causes (Friedman, 1970/2002). Friedman deemed this as a tax upon stockholders of which they have no decision regarding how it is spent. Consequently, he added that an individual is on liberty to pursue social responsibilities; this is because the corporate executive lacks the ability to properly perform such actions (Friedman, 1970/2002). On the other hand, according to Archie Carroll’s, adding on to making a profit and obeying the law, a company should endeavor to improve or solve societal needs. His view is generally advocated through stakeholder theory. This theory maintains that corporations should consider the effects of their actions upon other individuals at stake or of interest in the corporation such as customers, suppliers, general public, and employees (Carroll, 1987). Businesses cannot pursue their long term profit returns if they have poor relations with their stakeholders or the environment. Meanwhile, firms cannot meet all the needs of their stakeholders and continue making profits. It is therefore advisable that management decisions should be based on an objective ethical code of conduct. Using the money that shareholders have invested in the businesses to support unprofitable needs of the society is clearly wrong. Therefore, businesses should make profits, obey the law, act according to an ethical standard, and only pursue corporate social responsibility activities that improve long-term shareholder wealth. A  corporation  is a legal entity, meaning it is a separate entity from its

Lesson 1.3 Critical Thinking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Lesson 1.3 Critical Thinking - Essay Example Childhood cancers occur at different sites of the body as compared to adulthood cancers. Most of the childhood cancers are brain tumors, leukemia and lymphoma and bone cancer. On the other hand, cancer in adults tends to occur mainly in the breast, colon, lungs, and pancreas and prostrate. There are also cancers that affect adults but virtually never occur in children, while at the same type some childhood cancers never occur in adults (Jones, 2008). With respect to treatment, cancers occurring in children’s bodies tend to respond better to treatments such as chemotherapy as compared to the way adults’ bodies do. Though this is the case, these treatments, like the radiation therapy and the chemotherapy may have long-term side effects. This requires for there to be a careful follow up for the rest of their lives on children who undergo this treatments (McCance, 2009). In the case study given, the 14 year-old female suffered from various side effects as a result of the dicloxacillin therapy she was undergoing. Some of the effects are common adverse drug reactions which include: headache, fever, purpura, swollen and bleeding gums and generalized petechiae. From the lab-work results, the young girl’s platelets’ count is low. The path physiology of cells and tissues or the cellular environment attribute greatly to cancer (White,

The Front Desk Essay Example for Free

The Front Desk Essay The front office department is the most visible department in a hotel. The focal point of activity within the front office is the reception desk. The reception desk is usually the place at which the guests form their first impressions of the hotel. It is also the communication center for the hotel’s operation (Baker, S, Huyton, J and Bradley, P, 2000, p. 22). The reception/ front desk: The reception desk may comprise: Cashiering; mail and information; registration; and room assignment. The reception desk is located in the busiest area of the hotel’s lobby. The main financial tasks which are handled by front office staff include: receiving cash payments, handling guest folios, verifying cheques, and handling foreign currency and credit cards (Baker, S, Huyton, J and Bradley, P, 2000, p. 22). The front desk is controlled by the front desk manager. It is the duty of the manager to make sure that a hotel achieves the maximum revenue and the highest level of room occupancy possible. It is also the responsibility of the front desk manager to monitor and motivate the staff as well as to maintain a high profile with the guests. This helps to ensure that a quality service is being given by the front office departments in particular and the hotel in general (Baker, S, Huyton, J and Bradley, P, 2000, p. 52). The specific responsibility of the reception supervisor is to guarantee the smooth running of the front desk. Apart from this overall duty, they would organize duty rotas, and handles complaints or difficult customers which a receptionist may not be able to deal with. The notification and greeting of important guests would also be the duty of the front desk supervisor (Baker, S, Huyton, J and Bradley, P, 2000, p. 52). The senior receptionists are in charge of each shift of staff. The senior receptionists are in charge of each shift of staff. The senior receptionist will take responsibility of assigning rooms to guests, dealing with group arrivals and handling guests’ immediate problems or queries (Baker, S, Huyton, J and Bradley, P, 2000, p. 52). During a hotel stay, guests may require certain services from, and engage in various transactions with a hotel. These are mostly handled by the front office. It is important to note that each section of the front office has an area of task responsibility (Baker, S, Huyton, J and Bradley, P, 2000, p. 0). The main roles of receptionists (or front desk agents) are involved in taking enquiries and reservation requests from hotel guests; preparing for the arrival of guests; greeting guests on their arrival; checking guests in (registering them, allocating suitable rooms and checking methods of payment); selling the facilities and services of the hotel; responding to guest problems and queries, or referring them to other departments that can do so; providing information about guests to other front office units and departments of the hotel; and maintaining guest records. He customarily answers phone inquiries, greets guests as they arrive to check in, and assigns rooms. When guests depart, the agent is typically the person who settles their accounts before they leave (BPP learning media, 2010). In addition to handling arrivals and departures, the agent is customarily in charge of general front desk guest relations. He traditionally controls the guest room keys and keeps track of how many keys have been released for each customer. Handling and distributing guest mail and messages are customarily the responsibility of the front desk agent (BPP learning media, 2010). Front desk supervisors typically serve as the face of a hotel. They provide customers with a first and last impression as both greeters of new guests and well-wishers to departing ones. Front Desk Supervisor These hotel employees oversee that guests are welcomed, registered into a hotels computer system and assigned an appropriate room or suite. They also perform or delegate various tasks, such as making or confirming reservations, verifying and collecting guests payments, issuing room keys and contacting housekeeping or maintenance when guests report a problem. Front desk supervisors must be resourceful, take ownership of problems and issues that arise and have excellent problem-solving skills. In addition to managing the daily operations of the front desk, these supervisors provide hotel clerks with necessary training and support. They maintain all essential front desk equipment and supplies, as well as controlling guests access to safe deposit boxes. Other responsibilities might include tracking and posting appropriate food, liquor or telephone charges to guests accounts; completing bookkeeping duties, like balancing accounts and conducting nightly financial audits; and recording and referring patron comments and complaints to the appropriate hotel manager. Hotel front desk supervisors must be friendly and outgoing and possess excellent communication skills. Perhaps the most important guest service function that can be provided by a front desk agent is that of properly registering guests. This is a five-step process of registration of a hotel guest which is stated by (Hayes, D. K. and Ninemeier, J. D. , 2007) consists of: 1. Greeting the guest: When the guest arrives at the front desk, a professionally dressed, well-trained staff member should greet them in a friendly way. Because most hotel guests arrive in the evening and check-in time can be very busy, it may not always be possible to avoid guests having to wait in line for registration. Proper staffing, however, should minimize the wait. When it is their turn to be registered, guests should, above all else, be made to feel welcome! 2.  Confirming the information on the registration card. This includes the spelling of the guests name, their arrival date, departure date, and room rate, and any other information related to that specific guest. Since the registration card will serve as the record of the guests stay, it must be complete and precise. In addition, misunderstandings regarding room rate can be minimized if the room rate is clearly communicated and understood by both the hotel and the guest prior to room assignment. It is critical that all information on the registration card be accurate and complete. 3. Securing a form of payment.  In most hotels, guests must either pay for their room in advance or provide a valid alternative source of credit at registration. While many hotels accept checks, the most prevalent source of credit provided by guests is that of a credit or debit card. These cards must be legitimate, however, before they represent an acceptable form of payment. To establish the cards legitimacy, the desk agent should authorize the card at the time of guest registration. 4. Room assignment. Once a guests registration information has been confirmed and an acceptable form of payment has been offered, the guest should be assigned to a specific guest oom. In some hotels, all guest rooms are identical, and room assignment is of little consequence. In other hotels, the room types may vary greatly in perceived quality and/or rate based primarily on the rooms location, view, bed type, amenities 5. Issuance of keys. The final step in the registration process is the issuance of their room keys. The actual number of keys to be issued is a matter of hotel policy and guest preference. It is important, however, that the issuance of guest room keys be tightly controlled because the theft, loss, or unauthorized duplication of keys could seriously threaten guest safety. Upon receiving room keys, the guest would be taken or directed to their room. ?A reservation in the context of the front office of a hotel means the booking or reserving of a bedroom (accommodation) by a guest, and involves a particular type of guest room being reserved for a particular person or persons, for a certain period of time. When a reservation or room booking is made at a hotel, it is expected that the hotel will honor its commitment in accepting that reservation and guarantee that a room will be available when a guest arrives (Baker, S, Huyton, J and Bradley, P, 2000, p. 63). A contract of booking is an agreement which is entered into every time a reservations clerk offers a prospective guest a room and that guest accepts the room however, the guest must be informed of all relevant details relating to the booking, for example, the type of room, the cost, dates, VAT and service charges involved (Baker, S, Huyton, J and Bradley, P, 2000, p. 63. This contract of booking means that: * The hotel ensures there will be a room as a specified, available for the guest upon their arrival. * The guest will arrive to use the room which they have booked, on the specified day. The reservation process is of vital importance to a hotel because it gives the first impression of the hotel to guests, sells the main product of a hotel, i. e. accommodations, generates customers for other departments, and provides important management information to other departments. The reservation process is often the first contact between the guest and a hotel. It is, therefore, essential for the reservations clerk to provide prompt and accurate service in order to present a good first impression to the guest. In the hotel industry, strong competition exists for the selling of accommodation; a guest who experiences problems or slow service from the reservations section will think carefully before confirming a reservation or returning to that hotel. An efficient reservations system is, therefore, very important (Baker, S, Huyton, J and Bradley, P, 2000, p. 64). The reservations department sells accommodation and helps to generate income for other departments of a hotel, for example, the food and beverage department. Hotel rooms are a saleable commodity and are strictly limited by factor of time and quantity. Therefore, if a room is not sold on a particular night, the revenue from that room is lost forever. Reservations contribute to the three main objectives of a front office department, i. e. , to maximize rooms, beds and average room rate, thereby achieving the highest possible revenue and profitability for the hotel. In additions, other departments often benefit from the reservations department. Such details may include an accurate estimate of the number of guests staying in the hotel (Baker, S, Huyton, J and Bradley, P, 2000, p. 64). Front Desk and Guest Privacy  Once a guest has been registered for a room, the courts have ruled that these guests enjoy many of the same constitutional rights in the room as they would in their own home. It is not simply the legal thing to do, but it is the proper thing as well, to protect the rights of guests to privacy (Hayes, D. K. and Ninemeier, J. D. , 2007).? A professionally managed front office is one in which guests are confident that their privacy is maintained by all staff members. This includes maintaining a guests anonymity. Hayes, D. K. and Ninemeier, J.  D (2007) states that in order to maintain a guest’s anonymity, a front Desk agent should: Never confirm or deny that a guest is in fact registered in the hotel without the guests express permission Never give out information related to a guests stay (arrival, departure, rate, etc. ) to any third party without that guests express permission Always be vigilant in informing the guest of any unusual third-party information requests regarding their stay Just as guests expect their own privacy to be maintained, they should also feel confident that information regarding their actual room is kept confidential. This is both a safety and a privacy issue. To that end, front desk agents should: Never give out a guests room number to any third party without that guests express permission Never perform registration tasks in such a way as to allow guest room information to he overheard by others in the front office area Never issue a duplicate room key to anyone without confirming the positive identification of that person as the rooms properly registered guest Concerning the financial aspect of the hotel, accounting for guests, while less visible than providing guest services, is another critical responsibility of the front office. Accounting for guests simply means that all charges incurred by a guests use of the hotel are charged for properly. Depending on the services and amenities offered by the hotel, the source of guest charges can be numerous. The following product and services list is not inclusive, but does represent some of the many possible guest charges that must be accurately collected and posted to the guests folio. Bucket Check: A procedure used to verify, for each guest, the accuracy of that guest’s registration information. When performing the bucket check, the desk agent physically verifies that the information on the guests registration card is complete and matches that in the PMS (Hayes, D. K. and Ninemeier, J. D. , 2007). When an appropriate bucket check is performed at each shift, the number of errors related to billing guests folios is greatly reduced. Errors in recording the information related to a guests stay make the hotels accounting records inaccurate. In addition, room rate adjustments made at checkout are both annoying and time consuming to guests. The bucket is the industry term for the location of the actual registration cards signed by guests at check-in. The bucket check is simply a manual procedure for assuring the accuracy of information related to the guests actual room assignment, rate to be paid, departure date, form of payment, and any other accounting-related information (Hayes, D. K. and Ninemeier, J. D. , 2007). The front desk should be able to produce independent supporting documentation for each charge posted to a guests folio. The front desk agent responsible for checking the guest out may need to produce some documentation of the charge. In this case, the documentation would likely be the actual room service ticket signed by the guest when the wine was delivered. It is the responsibility of each shift of the front desk to ensure that all appropriate guest charges incurred are posted to the appropriate guests folio and that the documentation supporting such charges has been thoroughly reviewed prior to posting. The night auditor depends on appropriate documentation provided by each shift of the front desk to support the charges that will be finalized and posted to the guests folio during the night audit (Hayes, D. K. and Ninemeier, J. D. , 2007). One of the most challenging aspects of providing guest service at the front desk relates to ensuring that guests are satisfied during their stay. When guests experience difficulties in the hotel, they will most likely turn to the front desk and its staff for assistance. There are a variety of reasons guest may have special needs or experience dissatisfaction during their stay. During their stay, and at time of checkout, guests are likely to bring up any issues they find that detracted from their experience. Routine items such as requesting room repairs, additional room amenities, or information can, if handled professionally, actually enhance the guests experience (Chon, K. S. and Maier, T. A. 2008). The making of guest reservations is often the first thing that comes to mind when considering the major functions of a front office, and this is indeed an important and often complex aspect of the front offices role. In addition to reservations, however, it falls upon the front office to actually assign arriving guests to specific guest rooms and respond to their special needs during their stay. These needs can include anything from transportation and information to medical assistance. In all of these situations and more, the major role of the front office is to make the guests stay as comfortable and as welcoming as possible.

Long Bone Fractures in Children: IN Fentanyl Treatment

Long Bone Fractures in Children: IN Fentanyl Treatment Introduction The clichà © that states children are just small adults is certainly not true in the case of long bone fractures. A childs experience of long bone fractures is dramatically different from that of an adult on account of their rapidly developing physiology (Wood et al 2003). This rapid development results in biochemical and physiological differences between a childs and an adults skeleton, the mechanisms of fracture and healing, are an important component of their treatment needs and consequently crucial part of emergency care management (Bonadio et al 2001). In addition, children, from infancy through to adolescence, have common fracture patterns related to their stage of development. The structural differences between the bones of a child and an adult enable childrens bones to endure greater forces and to heal quicker a childs remodeling potential supports full recovery with limited or no long term side effects from long bone fractures (Lane et al 1998). Injuries of all types are the second leading cause of hospitalization among children younger than 15 years (Landin 1997). Musculoskeletal trauma, although rarely fatal, accounts for 10% to 25% of all childhood injuries (McDonnell 1997, Landin 1997, Lane et al 1998). Boys have a 40% risk and girls a 25% risk of incurring a fracture before the age of 16 years (Landin 1997, Ritsema et al 2007). The most common site of fracture is the distal forearm which accounts for 50% of paediatric fractures. The rates of fracture increases with age as children grow; peaking in early adolescence. Fortunately, most fractures in children are minor greenstick and torus fractures constitute approximately 50% of all fractures in children (Landin 1997, Lane et al 1998, Gasc Depalokos1999, Richards et al 2006) and only 20% require reduction. Thus, the management of paediatric fractures is often straightforward. Without exception children will experience pain at the time of injury, attending the accident and emergency department and during recovery. The most common pain management strategies involve a multi-modal approach that includes both pharmacological and non-pharmacological components delivered via the least invasive technique (Worlock et al 2000). In practice this includes oral medication, such as oramorph, paracetamol, and NSAIDs, inhaled entonox, intranasal diamorphine (IND) or intravenous opioid where necessary and distraction with age appropriate devices, such as interactive books, bubbles, music and computer games in older children. Notably, IND is currently embraced as the key route of opioid delivery for children attending AED with fracture pain in the UK British Association for Accident and Emergency Medicine (BAAM E 2002). Parents and guardians of children frequently seek care in AED for the relief of pain from traumatic injuries and as a result the field of emergency medicine has assumed a leadership role in paediatric pain management. However, despite this the literature suggests the provision of pain relief for children attending AED remains suboptimal when compared to adults with the same injuries. Further discrepancies are reported between paediatric accident and emergency departments (PAED) and district general accident and emergency departments (DGAED) (Emergency Triage 2004). One reason suggested for these differences is the geographic distribution of specialised services, which are predominantly located in large cities where they are affiliated with universities. However, a recent audit by the British Association for Emergency Medicine (BAAEM 2005) of their guideline for the management of pain in children shows inconsistencies in provision of analgesia particularly for fracture pain throughout the country with no measurable difference between PAED and DGAED. A key feature of this guideline is the algorithm which advocates the use of IN diamorphine for acute moderate to severe pain in children over the age of one year (see appendix 1). The whole topic of analgesia in the paediatric population is complex and still imperfect especially in acute moderate to severe pain requiring urgent treatment in the emergency department (Schechter et al 2002). The road to pain free suffering is still paved with impediments such as failure of pain recognition and methods of delivery of analgesia (Murat et al 2003). Oral administration can be inadequate in an emergency situation with particular limitations in potential choice of drug and delay in gastric absorption and gastric emptying. Intramuscular (IM) and intravenous (IV) administration can be distressing to children and have been shown to influence future response to painful procedures (Gidron et al 1995, McGrath et al 2000, Fitzgerald et al 2005, Walker et al 2007). Rectal administration has limited acceptability given unpredictability of onset together with occasional problems of consent (Mitchell et al. 1995). By contrast, the efficacy and safety of the IN route has been well documented for desmopression acetate (DDAVP), insulin, antihistamines, midazolam and calcitonin (Jewkes et al 2004, Loryman et al 2006). In contrast, intranasal administration has a number of advantages. It is technically straightforward, socially acceptable and demonstrably effective. The nasal mucosa is richly vascular and administration by this route avoids the first-pass metabolism phenomenon Summary Studies in the 1990s such as Yearly Ellis (1992) have also demonstrated the efficacy of administration of intranasal medication via a nasal spray rather than drops in adults, although the efficacy of this application in the paediatric population remains to be proven. Intranasal administration is possibly the ideal route of analgesic administration in children. Currently, within the accident and emergency department (AED) of Bristol Royal Hospital for Children (BRHC) intranasal diamorphine is used as the first rescue analgesia in the paediatric population presenting with acute moderate to severe pain, most frequently in patients with long bone fractures who do not require intravenous access for resuscitation. Diamorphine is a semi synthetic derivative of morphine with a number of properties that render it a desirable analgesic agent for administration via the nasal route. It is a weak base with a pKa of 7.83 and is water soluble allowing high concentration to be administered in small volume (Rook et al 2006). Unfortunately the legal use of diamorphine is limited to two European countries i.e. United Kingdom (UK) and Sweden. Furthermore periodic problems with its availability during the past few years (with further shortfalls in availability predicted by the NHS purchasing and supply agency) have resulted in an alternative efficacious analgesia being sought for this population. Fentanyl, however, is a short rapidly acting opiate has several qualities that render it useful as an IN analgesia and a potential candidate to replace IN diamorphine in the AED for acute facture pain management in children. It has a very high lipid solubility, potency and diffusion fraction, and unlike diamorphine it is not a prodrug and does not cause histamine release (Reynolds et al 1999). Assessment of a patients pain experience is not directly accessible to others, collecting and analyzing information about the processes of pain relief and pain prevention is not straightforward and presents significant challenges to health care professionals. In children, this task is further complicated by their varied stages of physical and cognitive development. Recent research by Bruce Frank (2004) however, has shown that the ability to measure pain in the paediatric population has improved dramatically and that today there now exists a plethora of age appropriate pain assessment tools for acute pain in children ranging from pre-term infants to adolescents, the majority claiming validity (strength and robustness) and reliability (consistency). However, most clinical research into pain management strategies continue to rely on the gold standard self report and visual analogy score tools (mostly 0-10) (Chalkiadis 2001, Walker et al 2007). Although these tools are reliable they are not always adapted appropriately for a childs stage of development. Childrens understanding of pain and their ability to describe pain change with increasing age in a developmental pattern consistent with the characteristics of Piagets preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational stages in cognitive development (Smith et al 2003). The quality or int ensity of the pain can be difficult to determine in children, as most tools rely upon a patients relative judgment between the intensity of present pain versus a patients worst pain experience (Murray et al 1996). These tools can therefore be unreliable where a childs age of development means they have limited or no memory of pain experience. Stevens et al (2002) recently described a conflict of understanding that resulted in a study bias and an insignificant reported power of (p=0.6). In the study an 8 year old boy had chosen the VAS (0-10) but frequently reported his score as 10, although he understood the increasing value of the scoring system further questioning identified he perceived 10 of 10 to be a good score and 0 of 10 to be poor. The boy was at a stage of development that limited his understanding of less is more. This case highlights the importance of utilizing a pain assessment technique that reliably accounts for a childs age of development. A preliminary search of literature suggests there is currently exists limited research to support for the use of intranasal diamorphine or intranasal fentanyl for the management of acute pain in long bone fracture in children as evidenced based medicine. Despite this lack of evidence it remains a key strategy within paediatric AED for the pain management of long bone fractures and is anecdotally reported as a gold standard for paediatric pain management. Therefore; its lack of availability could profoundly compromise pain management for this population. Thus, this extended literature review will examine the efficacy of intranasal fentanyl as an alternative to intranasal diamorphine for traumatic fracture pain in children attending accident and emergency departments. However, in these days of evidence based medicine, it clearly needs to be established beyond all reasonable doubt. In view of that only research into paediatrics will be included increasing the credibility of its applicat ion to practice. SEARCH STRATEGY A range of complimentary search techniques were used to capture key research including a systematic electronic literature search of the Cochrane library, Embase, CINAHL, Proquest, Medline, PubMed since 1990 up to 2009 (this has to be to year of submission). The scope of the search was extended beyond the recognised five years of current research so as to include the empirical work into the development of IN analgesia in children. Key words used included the following: pain, acute pain management, intranasal diamorphine, intranasal fentanyl, procedural, accident and emergency, emergency department, child, pediatric, paediatric, child and fracture pain, as well as various combinations. In addition, in order to ensure the completeness of the search, an internet search was completed using the Google search engine, IASP, Pain Journal, Paediatric Nursing, BAAEM, NICE, Medline, EBM; the RCN was also utilised. Backward chaining of references found was also performed to ensure all relevant papers were identified. Although this review identified twenty seven citations it should be noted that historically there are fewer Randomised Controlled Trials (RCT) in children compared to adults possibly due to problems gaining ethical approval and consent. Additionally even experienced researchers will be unable to find all relevant papers and much research is not submitted for publication. The studies identified were divided into the three modalities of IN route, IN diamorphine and IN fentanyl with the majority presenting evidence for the IN route. All papers were critiqued using a tool published by the Learning and Development Department within the Public Health Resource Unit of the NHS (www.phru.nhs.uk/casp). The tool facilitated critiquing different forms of quantitative research and is based on work by Sackett (1986), Sackett et al (1996) and Phillips et al (2008) (see appendix 2). The results of the critique process for each paper and level of evidence applied in line with the modalities they address informed understanding of current practice and development of a research proposal. STRUCTURE OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW This literature review will focus on determining whether IN fentanyl is an effective alternative to IN diamorphine for the management of long bone fracture pain in children attending an AED. The scope of the literature review considers literature from 1990 onwards although occasionally earlier research has been referenced. Given the limited available evidence on the topic the following review structure has been selected. Chapters 1, 2 3 will present the evidence sourced on each theme intranasal route, intranasal diamorphine and intranasal fentanyl with a short summary to conclude each chapter. Chapter 4 will present an in-depth discussion and conclusion on the utility of the evidence, its application to practice and the requirement for a multi-centred comparative randomised control trial to improve the credibility of the evidence base for this field of treatment. Finally chapter 5 will present a research proposal for a comparative study of these modalities. Intranasal (IN) route of medication delivery in children. Nasal administration of drugs has been reported as having several significant advantages over current practice which are predominately oral, IM, IV and rectal (Williams Rowbotham 1998). It is emerging as a low-tech, inexpensive and non-invasive first line method for managing either pain or other medical problems (Wolf et al 2006). Nasal medication delivery takes a middle path between slow onset oral medications and invasive, highly skilled delivery of intravenous medications. The nose has a very rich vascular supply, IN facilitates direct absorption to the systemic blood supply due to increased bio-availability of the drug by missing first pass metabolism, It avoids the potentially technically difficult of sterile intravenous access, is essentially painless and is considered acceptable to children when compared to other routes of administration (Shelly Paech 2006) (see table 1). a theory which will be considered when reviewing the studies within this chapter Therefore suggesting th e IN route will result in therapeutic drug levels, effective treatment of seizures and pain without the need to give an injection or a pill, furthermore; it is quite inexpensive, an advantage in this era of increasingly expensive medical technology (Shelly Paech 2006). Additionally given the complexity of the developing child and the known consequence of poorly managed pain on the future responses to pain the IN route does, if it is as efficacious and as safe as suggested offer one of the most acceptable, definitive forms of analgesia delivery in children. The degree of accuracy of the previous statements will be established within this chapter by critically reviewing the 16 studies identified on IN medications other than intranasal diamorphine or intranasal fentanyl in the paediatric population (see table 2) as these agents are considered individually in later chapters. The rigour of the studies will be addressed within this chapter and reflect the level of evidence applied according to Sackett (1986) criteria (see appendix 3). Most studies reviewed were randomised clinical trials and in some cases compared against a placebo Conversely, this does not concur with the trials discussed earlier (Lahat et al 1998, Al-rakaf et al 2001, Fisgin et al 2002, Mahmoudian and Zadeh 2004 and Holsti et al 2007) where significant dosing was applied or in Wilson et al (2004) who retrospectively studied 30 children age 2-16 years receiving 0.3mg/kg at 5mg/1ml INM and 13 patients receiving rectal 0.2mg/kg diazepam for seizures. The authors report equal efficacy for both routes. Success of these agents was considered on cessation of seizures, no reported complication and not needing to attend A+E. A total of 27/30 families who had used INM found it effective and easy to use. Although 20/24 (83%) who had previously used rectal diazepam still preferred it mostly due to the coughing and the volume of liquid administered via the IN route. Given it is generally considered that the optimum IN dose as stated above is 0.1- 0.2 ml per nostril, all but the studies discussed so far were using drug concentration and dosing regimes whic h resulted in large volumes of liquid being dripped in to the nasal cavity. This is particularly poignant in Wilson et al (2003) who compared buccal to IN midazolam in 53 children aged 3-12 years experiencing seizures lasting > 5 minutes attending AED. A key feature of this study is the mean age of the children (age 9 years), mean weight (24kg) the study drug concentration as with previous studies was of 5mg /ml. IN dosing was at a dose of 0.3mg/kg. Given these figure the average dose would have been 7.2mg = a volume of 1.4ml being administered. Since the comparative route of administration for this study was buccal there is a possibility that part of the IN dose was buccally absorbed therefore creating a flaw in this study methodology, raising questions over why this comparative route was chosen and suggesting the only real conclusion to be taken from this particular study is buccal midazolam is effective and safe in children. Furthermore although this is described as a blind RCT and the authors claim the time to cessation of seizure was quicker for the INM group 2.43 (SD 1.67) to 3.52 (SD 2.14) for buccal route there is little detail on the blinding process or data collection procedure suggesting the rigour of the study maybe flawed therefore the efficacy and safety claimed for the IN route should not be embraced without further study. On the other hand Fisgin et al (2002) and Hardord et al (2004) compared the INM with rectal diazepam. In Fisgin et al (2002) in an unblinded RCT equivalence study the authors compared INM with rectal Diazepam to ascertain the safety and efficacy of INM for the development of a clinical protocol in the management of prolonged seizure in children attending the AED. Forty five infants and children age 1 month -13years experiencing prolonged seizures > 10 minutes were either given INM 0.2mg/kg or rectal diazepam 0.3mg/kg. The authors report proven efficacy (p Intranasal Diamorphine (IND) The delivery of opioids via the IN route is perhaps one of the most valuable indications for IN medication delivery. Acute pain is a frequent experience for children whether attending an AED, hospital and hospice setting (Hamer et al 1997). Furthermore it is not unusual for them to experience frequent episodes of breakthrough pain which requires additional support from fast acting analgesic agents. Owing to the developmental and physiological difference in the paediatric population there is a need for a variety of effective treatment option from which to select and individualise the patients therapy to meet their needs. IN opioid is simply one such option available which may be useful in children. It has been suggested that the delivery of medications via the IN route results in rapid absorption with medication levels within the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) being comparable with (IV) administration (Chien and Chang 1997). Diamorphine hydrochloride is a semi-synthetic derivative of morphine. It is extremely hydrophilic, which makes it ideal to use when preparing in high concentrations in solution, thus allowing high doses to be administered in smaller volumes via the intranasal route (Kendall Latter 2003). However, this route of administration can be a painful process as reported by adults (Henry et al 1998). Despite this the intranasal route is considered more acceptable to children and their parents and is thought to lessen the opioid side effect profile seen in IV administration (Stoker et al 2008). This concept has been well recognised throughout the UK and many centres already use intranasal diamorphine for acute pain in children, following the guidelines by the British Association for Accident and Emergency Medicine Clinical Effectiveness Committee (2002) (BAAEM). Although the administration of intranasal diamorphine is now a first line choice for moderate to severe acute pain for children atten ding AED, as is the case within our institution, there is very limited research to substantiate this practice although as noted above it has been readily accepted by the BAAEM for acute pain management in children and very successfully used within our institution A recent shortage of diamorphine evoked the search for an equally effective and acceptable alternative. Early research in animals and adults reported pharmacokinetics of nebulised inhalation and intranasal administration of diamorphine as detected morphine in plasma at six minutes (Masters et al 1988, Kendall 2001). Despite the age of this research and the fact that the later study was in adults, it is still quoted as creditable evidence to support this practice in paediatrics. However the legitimacy of this should be questioned, due to children not being just small adults but have physiological differences intrinsic to their age and stage of development which may affect the bodys absorption and level of toxicity in different ways to adults. The extensive literature search highlighted four randomized controlled trials (RCT) that demonstrate IND to be clinically superior to intramuscular morphine and inferior to IV morphine particularly in the management of acute pain in children, a case study of an 8 year old boy and clinical audit of IND for pain relief in children attending AED (see table 3). The key methodology in the RCTs by Wilson et al (1997), Kendall et al (2001), Brennan et al (2004) and Brennan et al (2005) suggest these are superiority studies where the authors hypothesised improved pain management with the IND when compared to a variety of routes. The rigour of the studies will be discussed later in the chapter. Although while the critiquing process takes place it is fundamentally accepted that RCT are considered level 1 or 2 evidence as opposed to case study or audits at Level 3b and therefore generally sourced to Latest published clinical evidence to support the use IND in the paediatric population is presented in an audit by Gahir Ranson (2006) of 54 children whose care was managed by the use of an integrated care pathway for acute pain management while attending the local AED. This integrated care pathway focused strongly on the use of IND. Data collection was on a one page performa and included consent, date, patient demographic, pain score and side effect profile. Data collection was retrospective and data analysis illustrated limited recording of side effect profile but improved pain scores. However only 60% of patients have this information documented so data collection was difficult. Despite this lack of hard evidence no clinical incident, including the side effect profiles, were reported. Thus suggesting the practice of IND for acute fracture pain management in children could be safe, effective and more acceptable to children than the more painful alternative of IM or IV administration. However there is limited strength in an audit, other than a review of practice (Bowling Ebrahim 2005) and in this case a key feature for review should be the documentation process in the department as there were facets in the care pathway administration documentation missing. Therefore this audit suggests that IND is safe and effective pain management for children, but this conclusion can not be categorically drawn from the limited data available. The potential outcome of this audit could be education on documentation, to do a more rigours prospective audit of practice. Unfortunately at this point it only offers an insight to their clinical practice which is favourable for this agent and route. Albeit as noted before IND has improved childrens pain management and over all experience of acute care in our PAED additionally as with the results of the audit we have experienced no side effects or complications, further highlighting the importance of seeking an alternative to IND which offers equally efficacy. Intranasal Fentanyl (INF) Monitoring of the usual observations and pain scoring in the child was recorded prior to the administration of fentanyl (20 micrograms for 3-7 year olds and 40 micrograms for 8-16 yrs) and continued at 5 minute intervals for the 30 minute period. Additional doses of fentanyl (20  µg) were available if required at 5 minute intervals. Pain assessment was achieved with two validated pain assessment tools, the visual analogue scale (VAS) in older children and the Wong-Baker Faces (WBF) for younger children. Both are reliable and known to support consistency in pain assessment. Though there was no mention of training for those assessing this primary end point using these tools in the paper therefore this should be considered in the overview of the standard of evidence produced by this study. Additionally although forty five patients were randomized following consent unfortunately no details on the randomization process was disclosed in the paper either. This may not be significant, but when reviewing the credibility of the authors claims these obvious omissions could be responsible for a flaw in this study and remains to be established. On the other hand, the methodology that has been disclosed in the paper appears sound as it addresses key areas of sample calculation (power of the study) as a superiority study with the sub groups size adequate to detect a significant difference (Greenhalgh 2004); demographics, blinding of the drugs, assessors and appropriate statistical analysis of the data therefore supporting the validity of the results claimed and the application of the results to the age of patient targeted that this literature review is aiming to find an analgesic alternative to IND for. The results concluded by Borland et al (2002), are a reduction in pain score at 10 minutes to 44.6 mm (95% confidence interval) 36.2-53.1 mm from 62.3 mm 53.2-69.4 mm (95% confidence interval) at assessment using the VAS and 2.2 (95% confidence interval 1.3-3.1) at 10 minutes from 4.0 (95% confidence interval 3.3-4.7) at assessment in 16 children using WBS. Visual analogue pain scores demonstrated clinically significant reductions in pain scores by 5 minutes that persisted throughout the entire study (up to 30 minutes) for both INF and IV morphine. The second primary end point of this study (side effect profile) showed no significant change in physiological parameter of the childrens pulse or respiratory rate, blood pressure or oxygen saturations, interestingly the side affect profile chosen for monitoring such as pulse and blood pressure are not considered to be one of the primary side affects of morphine, however nausea and vomiting which are was not assessed. Ultimately, there wer e no negative side-effects and the sizeable reduction in pain scores (compared to baseline assessments) was accomplished in children using INF by 10 minutes and maintained throughout the 30 minute period with the mean INF dose at 1.5 µg/kg and ranging from 0.5-3.4  µg/kg. Interestingly 35.5% of children in the INF group only required one dose. Given the clinical equivalency of these two agents and routes the authors conclusion that INF offers the benefits of a simple painless technique for treating acute pain is substantiated. These benefits suggest that the IN route could be a valuable technique not only in an AED but also for breakthrough pain by offering a fast onset of pain control in moderate to severe painful conditions. It could also provide pain relief and allow topical anaesthetics to take effect on the skin prior to IV establishment. Therefore this may be a suitable alternative to IND. A similar and more recent double blinded RCT trial by Saunders et al (2007) claimed efficacy of a larger dosing regimen with a mean dose of 2 µg/kg INF (50 µg/ml) for pain reductions in paediatric orthopaedic trauma compared with IVM at 0.1mg/kg in 60 3-12 year old children. This study reports positive outcome for INF following both patients and carers reporting very effective pain management and satisfaction using this treatment method. However there is little information in the paper of methodology and results are given in percentages rather than a P value or NTT which should be expected in a rigorous creditable RCT of two agents (Bowling Ebrahim 2005) reducing the level of evidence applied to the paper to L3. Even supposing the results are an accurate reflection of the efficacy and safety of INF, particularly the fact that no significant difference in pain score or side effect profile and INF is a way forward, the lack of detail the randomisation process and analysis of data in the study methodology merely implies that these results maybe flawed. Interestingly given the concentration of fentanyl 50 µg/ ml a dosing volume for a 25kg child would have required one ml = 0.5ml per-nostril therefore suggesting some of the administration may have been oral rather than IN and present the issues of bad taste which is put forward as a possible study limitation by the authors. Then again there are no complications or reports on taste presented in the results and the authors conclusion on the efficacy of INF for acute pain management in children may be founded. However, without sourcing more details from the authors it cannot be considered evidence to inform this dissertations aims but merely an ex ample of poor research or appropriate omission by publishers. Further suggesting there remains a requirement for more research on the topic within double blind, equivalence, RCT focused on INF efficacy and dosing with sound methodology that is transparent in publication to answer the dissertation question. Conversely an older and more rigorous study which also looked at dose related analgesic effect between routes of administration is by Manjushree et al (2002). The authors demonstrated the clinical efficacy of INF in a cohort of 32 children (aged 4-8 yrs) in a postoperative situation and with a double blind level 1 RCT. The study design gives the impression of sound methodology as blinding, assessment and analysis of data was appropriate and available for scrutiny in the paper, particularly the analysis of both nonparametric and nominal data. The only weakness is possibly the sample size of 32 patients. Although the authors performed a power calculation which identified 40 patients to show a significant affect, they only recruited 32 patients, furthermore, this appears to be an equivalency study where the authors hypothesised INF would be equal to and not inferior to IVF therefore would have needed a larger sample to de