An Analysis of the Observed Heterozygosity of Lake Trout

An analysis of the observed heterozygosity of Lake Trout populations from three lakes: Devil, Eagle, and Loughborough, inferred from microsatellite genotypes. Abstract: This study was undertaken in order to compare the heterozygosity of three Lake Trout populations at various loci. Samples of twenty-five Lake Trout were collected from three lakes: Devil, Eagle and Loughborough, all three of which are situated north of Kingston, Ontario. An autoradiograph was used to analyze the genotypes of the individuals at six different loci of microsatellites, which are repeat sequences in the DNA that are neutral and do not code for proteins.This data was used to compare the genetic diversity of the three different trout populations. Numerical values for observed heterozygosity (Ho) were then generated using the data and the Doh heterozygosity calculator. The results have indicated that the mean heterozygosity in respect of Devil Lake trout was significantly greater than that of the trout in Eag le Lake (p=2. 89E-7) as well as that of Loughborough Lake (p=1. 44E-19). Furthermore, the mean heterozygosity for Eagle Lake trout was significantly greater than that of Loughborough Lake (p=2. 2E-6). This may be due to the fact that natural selection acts as a force to cause inbreeding to eliminate harmful genes causing low heterozygosity in a population. In addition, human and natural effects occurring in the lakes, for example, fishing and water temperature may cause differences in heterozygosity. Understanding and using these findings may help with sustaining fish populations. Introduction: Heterozygosity is the measure of the genetic variation in a population at a particular gene locus.Genetic variation within a population is important in maintaining or increasing the fitness of members in the population and ultimately the survival of the species. Fitness describes the capability of an individual species of a certain genotype to reproduce, and is usually equal to the proportion of the individual's genes in all the genes of the next generation. A positive correlation was found between the heterozygosity at the loci and the fitness (survival and maturation) of the fish, suggesting that heterozygosity is advantageous (Pujolar et al. 005). A heterozygote advantage describes the case in which the heterozygote genotype has a higher relative fitness than either the homozygote dominant or homozygote recessive genotype. An individual's fitness is manifested through its phenotype, and the phenotype may be affected by both genes and environmental characteristics. One such characteristic that was observed to possibly have an effect on levels of heterozygosity in a population was the area in which the population lives. In an experiment conducted by Rowe et al. 1999) the heterozygosity of various populations of Natterjack Toads (Bufo calamita) found in several areas were compared, ultimately discovering a lower heterozygosity in a population that is isolated from other s. Volckaert and Zouros (1989) conducted a study to measure genetic diversity levels in scallops (Placopecten magellanicus) and discovered levels of heterozygosity to be highest as age increased. Ferguson (1990) found similar information that affects diversity among rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and concluded that heterozygosity levels were proven to have a direct relationship between the sex, size and age of the fish.There are many factors that may affect the genetic diversity of a population. In particular, various events and environmental characteristics may affect the genetic diversity of Lake Trout. One factor may include fishing. This activity may cause the population of the fish to decrease at an unstable rate, thus this study will be undertaken to determine the many factors that may contribute influences to the genetic diversity of Lake Trout in three lakes: Devil, Eagle and Loughborough Lake.Using six microsatellite loci from 25 Lake Trout from all three lakes, observ ed heterozygosity values that act as an indicator for genetic diversity, will be obtained and analyzed. This data can be further used by analyzing and providing additional information about the influences of certain characteristics on population genetics. Results: Figure 1 illustrates that the lake with the greatest observed heterozygosity is Devil Lake. It was determined that the observed heterozygosity of Devil Lake is significantly greater than the observed heterozygosity of Loughborough Lake (p=1. 4E-19). The sample size for all 3 lakes was 25 Lake Trout. Figure 1. The graph illustrates the mean observed heterozygosity of the three lakes. The error bars represent standard deviation. Discussion: The conducted experiment involving heterozygosity of Lake Trout from Devil, Eagle and Loughborough Lake shows that there are significant differences between the three lakes. Devil Lake had the highest mean heterozygosity within its population, Eagle Lake heterozygosity was found to be in the middle and Loughborough Lake with the lowest.It was determined that the observed heterozygosity of Devil Lake was significantly greater than the observed heterozygosity of Loughborough Lake (p=1. 44E-19). The difference in the data set’s outcomes may be explained by a number of factors, such as natural selection, fishing and restocking the lake, and lake temperatures. All these factors may cause diversity in heterozygosity. The goal of an organism is to reproduce and pass their genes on to the next generation allowing the species to survive.The passing on of genetic material can be achieved through inbreeding or outbreeding. Inbreeding is the breeding amongst family or self; outbreeding is the breeding with members of the same species that are not closely related. It may be believed that inbreeding is not good for a population with such opinions being based on having seen the result of inbreeding in humans. Inbreeding as well as outbreeding, however, has both advantages a nd disadvantages. One advantage of inbreeding is its ability to depress the expression of recessive alleles (Ellstrand and Elam 1993).In a population with a damaging recessive allele, an individual may not seek to mate with anyone who potentially carries or expresses that allele. In this example the population might inbreed to decrease the heterozygosity in an attempt to remove the harmful gene. Mating within the family- when it is apparent that the family does not carry the detrimental allele, is more ideal in an evolutional prospective than putting the survival of that population at risk.In regards to Ellstrand and Elam’s study, this situation could occur in the Lake Trout from Loughborough causing the Lake Trout to have a lower mean heterozygosity. This Lake Trout population could be purging undesired alleles from its gene pool. One can conclude that not only does genetics have an effect on heterozygosity, but humans do as well. Another factor that may cause a loss of gene tic diversity is fishing pressures. Smith et al (1990) suggested that fishing activities which concentrate on spawning populations differentially remove the older and more heterozygous individuals from the virgin stock.Previously stated, levels of heterozygosity are higher as age increases (Volckaert and Zouros 1989). Due to fishing, the amount of Lake Trout may decrease and there would be less fish. To fix the amounts of fish in the lakes, humans restock the lakes with hatchery fish (fish that are grown by humans and released into the wild). Evans et al. (1991) found that the human harvested fish tend to have lower genetic variation and actually decrease the fitness and survival of the native species. Loughborough Lake has the biggest population but the lowest heterozygosity.Compared to Eagle Lake and Devil Lake, most people from the Loughborough Lake area receive their income from fishing (Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources 1970). Excessive fishing depletes the amount of fish a nd creates the perceived need to continually restock the lake with fish. The practice of restocking the lake with hatchery fish may result in the large population of Lake Trout which would in turn decrease the heterozygosity of Loughborough Lake. There are other factors that may contribute to increase levels of heterozygosity in fish.One such characteristic that may increase levels of heterozygosity in fish is fluctuations in water temperature. Zimmerman and Richmond (1981) found that highly variable thermal regions demand for greater fitness. The fittest of fish are more heterozygous because they are able to survive in different temperatures. In Zimmerman and Richmond’s experiment, the greatest temperature fluctuation was 7Â °C, with the highest heterozygosity level of 49%. This trend may prove that the greater the temperature fluctuation, the greater the heterozygosity of a population living within the waters.The temperature fluctuations of the three lakes are: Devil Lake at 31Â °F, Eagle Lake at 21Â °F, and Loughborough Lake at 7Â °F (Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources 1970). These numbers correlate with the data by showing that Devil Lake with the highest temperature fluctuation has the greatest heterozygosity, whereas Loughborough Lake with the lowest temperature fluctuation has the lowest heterozygosity. The mean heterozygosity of Lake Trout from Devil Lake was significantly greater than that of trout from Eagle Lake, which was greater than that of Loughborough Lake.Potential reasons for genetic diversity may be caused by natural selection acting as a force to cause inbreeding to eliminate harmful genes, fishing in the lakes which then require the lakes to be restocked with hatchery fish, and thermal fluctuations that cause differences in heterozygosity. Further research and experiments specifically looking in depth at effects that causes genetic diversity should provide greater insight into why the heterozygosity in populations varies. Lit erature Cited: Ellstrand N. , Elam R. 1993.Population genetic consequences of small population size: implications of plant conservation. Annual Review of Ecological Systems. 24: 217-242. Evans D. , Casselman J. , Wilcox C. 1991. Effects of Exploitation, Loss of Nursery Habitat, and Stocking on the Dynamics and Productivity of Lake Trout Populations in Ontario Lakes. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. 193: 1-3 Ferguson M. 1990. Enzyme Heterozygosity and growth in Rainbow Trout: Genetic and Physiological Explanations. The Genetical Society of Great Britain. 8: 115-122. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. 1970. Map of Eagle Lake. Map of Loughborough Lake. Map of Devil Lake. Queen’s University Map and Air Photo Library. 613. Pujolar J. , Maes G. , Vancoillie C. , Volckaert F. 2005. Growth Rate Correlates to Individual Heterozygosity in the European Eel, Anguilla Anguilla L. Evolution. 59: 189-199. Rowe G. , Beebee T. , Burke T. 1999. Microsatellite heterozygosity, fitness and demography in natterjack toads Bufo calamita. Animal Conservation. 2: 85-92. Smith P. Francis R. , McVeagh M. 1991. Loss of Genetic Diversity due to Fishing Pressure. Fisheries Research. 10: 309-316. Volckaert F. , Zouros E. 1989. Allozyme and physiological variation in the scallop Placopecten magellanicus and a general model for the effects of heterozygosity on fitness in marine molluscs. Marine Biology. 103: 51-61 Zimmerman G. , Richmond M. 1981. Increased Heterozygosity at the Mdh-B Locus in Fish Inhabiting a Rapidly Fluctuating Thermal Environment. American Fisheries Society. 110: 410-416

Intelligence Three Test Comparison

Society has been intrigued with the human mind since the beginning of time whether it deals with expanding the mind, strengthening, conditioning, or testing the limitations. A popular way to test the human mind is through the use of an intelligence test. In order to test the human mind on intelligence it must be defined to have reliable constructs that can be measured. Intelligence is being able to how well you learn from experiences and being able to adapt to the environment. Intelligence test the WISC uses four subtest groups to measure intelligence, which are verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory, and processing speed. These four subtest groups are constructs of intelligence broken into categories based on the skill type. Within the subtest these categories are used in intelligence test, for example the Shipley uses only vocabulary and abstraction as measurements of intelligence. IQ test vary with what types of constructs being used from using two items to all fifteen items. This paper is comparing the scores of three different IQ test, the Shipley, Wonderlic, and the classical IQ test. Similar to the comparing and contrasting of scores the ways each test defers will be examined along with the strength, purposes, and weaknesses of each test. The first test the Shipley, which is an intelligence test that is measuring education and intellectual deterioration. The test is broken up into two parts first the vocabulary section where participants have ten minutes to answer forty vocab questions based on the similarity of the word compared to the four answer responses. The second part of this test was the abstraction part where twelve minutes was given to answer twenty-five questions. This particular test showed high internal consistency at . 92 along with acceptable test-retest scores at . 87-. 4, and a SEM at 4. 57, which is a medium SEM. The Validity for this test showed good concurrent validity. The standardization for the Shipley is a total of 2,826 with the demographic of 1,203 adults and 1,876 children. The downfall of the Shipley is that scores are highly depend on the verbal and abstraction ability not including any of the other constructs for testing intelligences. Thus this supports the issue of the Shipley being bia s to people who have poor English skills or it is their second language making the test more challenging for them. I felt that the score I received on the vocabulary portion was accurate in regards to vocabulary IQ because I do struggle with learning and comprehension, spelling, and vocabulary. I scored in the lower 21% ranking for vocabulary, which isn’t surprising because a large amount of words I didn’t understand and was guessing. The scores seemed to favor people with a wide comprehensive vocabulary and people who are native English language speakers. What doesn’t seem fair is for the people who struggle with aspects such as vocab are going to have low scores, which can hinder aspects where the scores of the Shipley are used as a deciding factor. Although overall the abstract portion balanced out the combined score leaving me at a average percentile ranking for the Shipley. Some sources of error that my affect the results of the test could be the time of day the test was taken, if each test was instructed in the same manner along with the other previously discussed examples. The Wonderlic intelligence test is more widely used in the work force and is used to evaluate and aid in hiring decisions. It intends to measure the general intelligence of adults in the business and industry field. The test consists of fifty questions that progressively get harder as they go on. The time limit is twelve minutes to complete as many correct answers as possible. The test was not intended for people to complete in the elapse time. The internal consistency, test re-tests, and concurrent validity are all excellent for this test. This suggest that this test is reliable and measures what it intendeds to measure. The SEM is much smaller than the Shipley at 1. 4. While having excellent standardization with a sample size was 100,000 individuals. This test has been known as or called unfair, because for ESL individuals have a much harder time with the vocab and comprehension part. It could take them longer to read or understand certain aspects, which could slow them down and affect their scores for the test that could potentially decide who gets the job based on scores. The tests are scored and compare the standard score with the corresponding grade level. Age is also a factor in this test to where the older you are the higher number of points you can add to your final score. On this test I strongly agree with the idea that this test is unfair because of the short time limit you are given to take the full test. Also the content on the test may be examining your intellectual abilities but may not relate to the on the job aspect of learning or type of work duties. This is starting people off who need accommodations such as longer test taking, anxiety, ESL individuals, and people struggle in school to perform lower than people who don’t need these accommodations. It has been proven that certain ethnicity do better or worse on this test. So that alone is giving an advantage to a particular group because a portion of people start out with a disadvantage based on socioeconomic status, education, ethnicity, and parents education level. A source of error that can occur with this test could be the amount of time given to participants, time of day or beginning or ending of a school week and possibly ethnicity based on previous scores. The online intelligence test is used as a predictor of your academic achievements. It is measuring general intelligence; this test used several of the subtests that were previously discussed. The scoring was scaled by the ability to retain previous learned knowledge. The knowledge being tested was acquired through education and experience. What I learned about intelligence assessment was that there are many types of intelligence test and they each vary in aspects of testing. What I learned about my own intelligence was simply confirmed with the three test results. Prior to the intelligence test I would have guested that my levels of intelligence was around average. Overall for all three test a consistent finding of an average IQ score was found after reviewing the results. For the first Shipley my standard score was right on the 100 mark that coordinates to the fifty percentile of the overall scores of the Shipley. This is right on the average of overall scores for the Shipley. The Wonderlic showed similar results where I answered twenty-eight items scoring fifteen items correct out of fifty total items. The scoring was comparing your total score to the years of education completed. I scored in the tenth grade category with the cumulative ranking of 18. 72 when compared to adults and a 2. when compared to college graduates. When looking at the level of education completed the score puts me at grade level ten, which is right in the middle of the years of education. The interpreting of the WPT test results state that I may enter high school and will probably select classes that are on a less academic track. This is the lowest amount of educational success that is interpreted and I am on my way to achieving the highest level of interpretation being a coll ege graduate. This test doesn’t seem to be an accurate predication of education levels. Although my scores fall below the mean on this test it is fairly close to the overall mean. For the final online IQ test found that I was right around the overall mean again with my percentile ranking at 45% which is very close to the middle. Moreover I have confirmed through the three IQ test that I rank in the overall average category. When comparing the IQ results to my class performance or GPA they do correlate. My cumulative GPA is 2. 5 which is right on the average for overall GPA, which relate to the three scores I received from the test confirming an average overall IQ and learning processing. With my GPA and the overall IQ test scores correlating can suggest that the IQ test are a good predictor or accurate predictor of GPA. Also can imply that GPA is a predictor of your overall intelligence. Looking at my overall data suggest that I am of average intelligence with strongly correlates with my GPA. I agree with the findings of average IQ score because it reflects my grades in school throughout high school and college and attitude about my cognitive functioning. Although I disagree that the test should be used as a predictor or and outcome variable for selection decisions.

Psychology and common sense Essay

Psychology is a scientific and research based study of human mind-set and behaviours. The field of study focuses on emotions, characteristics and behaviours of individuals in their daily lives and their behaviours when interacting with other people. Wilhelm Wundt is the father of psychology, whom set up his first laboratory in Leipzig, Germany in 1879. His main contribution to the field of psychology was his idea of structuralism; the use of introspection to study individual’s experiences comprising of sensations, images and feelings. Throughout his course of research, he insisted on using systematic observation and measurement, which serve as a strong foundation for psychology studies in the future. Whereas, common sense basically refers to the common knowledge shared by the majority human population. Such knowledge usually arise from daily observation and interaction one another, past experiences, beliefs that are being passed down for generations and scenarios commonly port rayed in television shows. Much of psychology is not based on common sense, but on research, testing, and applications of theory. As such, psychologists are heavily trained in research methods and statistics. Psychology is a real science as It uses scientific methods such as the experimental research and analysis to support a hypothesis and that psychology is not just things we see everyday. Psychology has a wide variety of aspects; from the social side of understanding why people behave in a specific way, to the neuroscience side of understanding what goes wrong in the brain of people with mental health disorders. As psychologists attempt to explain the mind and brain in the context of real life, it is definitely not common sense. One common sense belief states that if someone recalls something vividly and confidently, that memory is true and accurate. In another words, an individual will not false memories. Even if there is, the individual will have the ability to differentiate real from false memories. However, psychological research have proven this common sense belief to be wrong. False memories, also known as pseudomemories, can usually be formed when individual try to fill up the gaps in their memory by logic guesses combining with their actual memory (Koutstaal, Norman & Schacter, 1998, p. 289-318). This action is otherwise called constructive processing. A study by Braun, Ellis and Loftus (2002) shows that sixteen percent of the people who were shown with a fake advertisement of Bugs Bunny in Disney resort actually insisted that they met  Bugs in Disney. However, it was not possible since Bugs is a character from Warner Brothers and not Disney (p. 1-23). This study reflected that some subjects experience constructive processing after seeing the fake advertisement. Hence, the false memory formed seems rather logical to them. In another research carried out by Loftus (1997), together with her research associate, Jacqueline Pickrell, they told a group of subjects, ranging from 18 to 53 years old, a series of their childhood incidents recounted by their fami ly members or close relatives. Out of all the incidents told, they included one whereby the subjects had been lost in a shopping mall when they were still children. In the next two interview sessions, the subjects were asked to recall the incident of being lost in the mall. Surprising, about a quarter of them said they could remember it and even supplied extra details about what happened even though the incident was actually made up. This shows a way of inducing a completely false memory into someone simply by providing external evidence that prompt the happening of such incident (p.71). Similar situation of implanting false memories into someone would be under therapy or hypnosis. The ‘misinformation effect’ is also theory accounted for the formation of pseudomemories. This refers to the distortion of memory as a result of the presence of misleading and suggestive information as well as source confusion (Porter et. Al., 2010, p. 55-61). The above mentioned studies and psychological theories such as constructive processing, hypnosis, misinformation effect, memory construction and schemas, have proven the common sense belief to be wrong. It is possible for an individual to take pseudomemories as their true and accurate memories. In conclusion, common sense beliefs are knowledge that everybody are exposed to whereas psychology comprises of careful and scientific researches and analysis. Though common sense beliefs may be widely used and agreed to, that do not necessary mean that they are correct. In fact, they are generally false explanations of thought process and behaviour. Psychologists are hence able to come up with psychological explanation to prove the direct opposite of the common sense. Nonetheless, psychological explanation can also be used to prove certain common sense beliefs which are true. As such, people can view psychology as a tool employed to prove the credibility of common sense. Therefore, psychology is not just common sense.

Sex Education in primary schools Research Proposal

Sex Education in primary schools - Research Proposal Example Many think that giving them sex education in school will help them understand the dangers of sex before they are ready and help them abstain from sex. Children are not capable of understanding sex at such an early age and therefore it gives them a license to have sex if they are not already doing so. The truth is that when children have free sex information available to them and they receive condoms and other contraception methods they will want to experiment and have sex early. This is not a good thing. There are three main reasons for this: 1) Without being taught about ethics and responsibility, kids will see this education as a green light to do whatever they want; 2) It should be more the responsibility of parents to discuss this with their kids rather than teachers who may or may not know the students very well; 3) Sexual education is not one-size-fits all—people should be taught according to their maturity. Where do children get their information about sex? In todays world they are getting it from their teachers in most elementary, secondary and high schools. With the Internet and other methods of information that children have access to they are able to find just about anything they want easily. The question then is why should they have access to sex education? They are very young and the more information they receive the more they will want to try sex early. There education should be commensurate with their ability to take responsibility for their actions. In this case, there is a big gap between the two. There are several sides to this debate. Much of it comes from parents. Many parents think that all children should be taught abstinence which means that children are told to abstain from sex before marriage. Kim and Rector report that according to a 2005 study those children who took a vow to abstain from sex when they were adolescents are the least likely to engage in sexual intercourse as teenagers (74). This is a very

What is the foundationalist response to the Pyrhhonian sceptical Essay

What is the foundationalist response to the Pyrhhonian sceptical challenge - Essay Example The general argument is that knowledge needs justification (Striker, 72). However, the Pyrhhonian skeptical challenge presents a totally different opinion, which in itself does not reject that knowledge requires justification, but rather offers that the only true way is to remain non-judgmental (Casey, n.p.). Thus, it can simply bee said that the Pyrhhonian sceptical challenge was inspired by ethical concerns, which holds that it is not right to judge that a person does not know, since such a person may not even that he does not know, and thus he might know something after all (Burnyeat, 133). The fundamental principle of the Pyrrhonian Skepticism is that in matters of opinion, observing quietude is noble, while in matters concerning things that are unavoidable, adapting moderate feelings is the most appropriate approach. The essence behind this principle of Pyrrhonian Skepticism is that; a person, who spends his entire life giving opinions regarding anything that is in nature as eit her good or bad, spends his entire life in a disquiet state (Striker, 77). The disquiet in the life a person who keeps categorizing the things off nature as either good or bad emanates from the fact that such a person keeps avoiding the things he considers to be bad in life, while at the same time chasing the things he considers good, yet spending all his energy in trying to avoid losing the goods he considers good, which he has already achieved (Burnyeat, 135). On the contrary, a person who neither opines on anything as either good or bad does not shun or pursue anything eagerly, which then means such a person is unperturbed in life (Striker, 71).

Wind turbines Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Wind turbines - Essay Example The earth’s surface does absorb heat at different rates since it is made up of quite distinct types of water and land (School of Earth and Environment, 2014). A good example of uneven heating is found in the daily cycle of the wind. Air over water does heat up less fast compared to air over land. After heated air over land rises up, after which the air that is cooler over the waters rush to replace it (Met Office, 2013). In this way, wind is made. Wind power is generated by use of wind energy that is created by the wind. Towers that have wind turbines, which are mounted on the top, capture it. The three or two blades, which catch the wind, rotate sometimes at a hundred feet or more above the surface of the ground. They are attached to an internal shaft. A generator is spin by the turbine blades through the shaft and as a result, electricity is produced (Energy Saving Trust, 2014). Electrical current produced is produced and a transformer is made use to step up voltage produced , something that makes it possible for electricity to be sent through transmission over distribution lines to businesses, homes, and other users (BBC Weather Centre, 2009). Concurrently, wind power in windmills form has been used for different tasks like pumping water as well as grain grinding for centuries. Currently wind energy use has been widened and generation of electricity generation (Renewable UK , 2014). Wind turbines that generate electricity are of two types basically, determined by the way in which they spin. Most common are wind turbines that spin around a horizontal axis, the way a windmill does. Their blades have a look that of a propeller that spin on a horizontal axis. They do have their main rotor shaft as well as a generator at the tower top, and they have to point into the wind. A wind vane is placed squire with blades (rotor) and is used to point small turbines, while large turbines make use of wind sensors, which is

Credit Risk Analysis - Application of Logistic Regression Essay

Credit Risk Analysis - Application of Logistic Regression - Essay Example The scales of different variables are set as most of the variables are set as â€Å"nominal†, which however, is not correct. Out of a mix of 20 independent variables, 7 variables are referred as â€Å"scale† variables, 4 variables are labeled as â€Å"ordinal† and the rest of variables are considered as â€Å"nominal†. 2. In applying binary logistic regression, â€Å"Forwards LR† method is used to run the data because this method takes variables one by one in the analysis and in the last step, present the most statistically significant and important variables which are helpful in the analysis. 3. Hosmer and Lemeshow Test, is selected to find out the relationship between the observed values and the expected values. With the help of SPSS, following tables are generated, since â€Å"Forward LR† method is used and due to this method, 11 steps are taken by this method, therefore, in order to maintain the conciseness of the report, the values of al l previous 10 steps have been omitted from the tables. Only values pertaining to step 11 are taken in the analysis. All the tables and their interpretation are presented from next page. Classification Tablea,b Observed Predicted CreditRisk Percentage Correct Bad Good Step 0 CreditRisk Bad 0 300 .0 Good 0 700 100.0 Overall Percentage 70.0 a. Constant is included in the model. b. The cut value is .500 The 2 x 2 table that has been presented above, tallies the incorrect and correct estimations for the constants of null model. Rows represent the actual (observed) value of dependent whereas columns represent the predicted values. The overall percentage is taken as 100%. In a perfect model, the cases will be in the diagonal. If there is heteroscedasticity in logistic model, then for both the rows, the percentage will nearly be same. This phenomenon is not found here, the model is predicting â€Å"Good† cases but any â€Å"Bad† cases are not predicted. While, the overall perc entages are predicted exactly having overall percentage of 70% which is moderately good. It is to be noted by the researcher that the category which is most frequent for all â€Å"Good† cases produces the same and correct percentage of 70%. Variables in the Equation B S.E. Wald df Sig. Exp(B) Step 0 Constant .847 .069 150.762 1 .000 2.333 In the above mentioned SPSS results, for all the independent variables, the coefficients are 0. The findings significantly reveal that in this case, the null hypothesis should be rejected. Omnibus Tests of Model Coefficients Chi-square Df Sig. Step 11 Step 5.276 1 .022 Block 300.781 31 .000 Model 300.781 31 .000 The purpose of chi-square goodness of fit test is to investigate whether the step of judging null hypothesis is justified or not. In this case, the step has been taken from constant-only model to independent model. The step of adding variables or variable in this scenario can be justified if the values are less than 0.05. If the step would be to exclude variables from equations of this model, than it would be justified by taking the cutoff point as greater than 0.10. Since the sig. values are less 0.05, therefore null hypothesis can be rejected and the model is statistically significant. Model Summary Step -2 Log likelihood Cox & Snell R Square Nagelkerke R Square 11 920.948a .260 .368 a.† Estimation terminated at iteration number 5 because parameter

Harvard referencing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Harvard referencing - Essay Example Available from: http://www.unn.ac.uk/central/isd/cite/index.htm (Accessed: 21 May 2004). University of Liverpool/Laureate Online Education (2007) Lecture notes from Managing People Module Seminar 4 [Online]. Available from: University of Liverpool/Laureate Online Education VLE (Accessed: 28 February 2007). Fedchak, E. & Duvall, L. (1996) An engineering approach to electronic publishing, Proceedings of the International Workshop on Multimedia Software Development, 25-26 March, Berlin. Los Alamitos, California: IEEE Computer Society Press, pp.80-88. Al-Madhoun, M. & Analoui, F. (2004) Developing SME managers under fire: negotiating obstacles and weaknesses in Palestine, Journal of Management Development, 23 (5), pp.479-495, IngentaConnect [Online]. Available from: http://www.ingentaconnect.com (Accessed: 9 June 2005). 5. Podcast University of Liverpool/Laureate Online Education (2007) Lecture notes from Managing People Module Seminar 4 [Online]. Available from: University of Liverpool/Laureate Online Education VLE (Accessed: 28 February 2007). Pears, R. & Shields, G. (1995) Cite them right: referencing made easy [Online] Northumbria: Northumbria University. Available from: http://www.unn.ac.uk/central/isd/cite/index.htm (Accessed: 21 May 2004). University of Liverpool (n.d) Referencing and Developing a Bibliography using the Harvard Method. Available from: http://www.liv.ac.uk/library/ohecampus/referencing/referencing.htm. (Accessed: 8 July

Business case for an IT Solution for solution to a real healthcare Research Paper

Business case for an IT Solution for solution to a real healthcare issue in Population Healt Management - Research Paper Example This has made it hard for the organizations to meet their set goals or targets. Even though the EHR (Electronic Health Records) provides many of the health facilities with clinical data in raw form, there have still been some challenges. The challenges include ensuring that the data is accessible and the same time usable. An additional challenge has been reporting the outcomes of the data that has been accessed and used (Health Catalysts, 2015). According to WPRO, the integration of information systems in the health sector can be defined as, â€Å"the process of combining different components of health information systems so that they function in a more coordinated and unified manner† (Lum, Bennet & Whittaker, 2009). Information technology can be used to integrate and share the data in the health sector. The data integration can occur in different number of levels in the system of health information. These levels include: contents, data management, data quality assurance and analysis, organization support, data dissemination and sharing and donor inputs. The contents include the information or indicators while the data management involves the information technology use with a central repository. Quality of data assurance and analysis include the use of statistical and analytical techniques that are standardized. The organization support entails capacity building and training of the human resource. The sharing and dis semination of data is where there is the use of visual analytics. The donor inputs entail and not limited to, resource sharing. The art of integration of data entails effort being put in place to link data elements that are independent. The different sources of data that have different types of data or media of storage are integrated to develop new information. This is made possible through the use of information technology in the health facilities. Data integration covers all data handling

Why the early European Settlers viewed the “Indians” as Savages Essay Example for Free

Why the early European Settlers viewed the â€Å"Indians† as Savages Essay Like just about any people, the European settlers who first came to the Americas were ethnocentric and gain-driven. When they came to the Americas looking for riches and land, they encountered the indigenous people, whose ways were vastly different from the Europeans. These â€Å"Indians† were an apparently backward people, relying on apparently â€Å"primitive† methods to get things done, without the benefit of what the Europeans viewed as their superior technology and science. To the European settlers, people were savages if they did not have the European level of scientific and technological sophistication. The Indians lived in flimsy homes and used simple tools, which the Europeans saw as inferior. Since the Indians did not possess advanced technologies, the Europeans speculated that they were probably of inferior minds. The notion that the Indians were savages was almost immediately generalized among the white population The European settlers acknowledged that the Indians were human beings, but ethnocentric attitudes and concerns over power—both political and economic—led to the treatment of the Indians as an inferior people. Thus the native people of the Americas were viewed as savages. Added to this was the fact that the Indians were not of the â€Å"white† race, which further condemned them to a socially, politically, and economically inferior status. There was a backlash of sorts against this attitude towards American Indians. The notion of the â€Å"noble savage† surfaced. The noble savage was supposed to be a â€Å"superior† person, one uncorrupted by the evils of civilization, one who was healthy and in harmony with nature. However, instead of raising the status of Indians, this new conception of Indians was condescending and merely further entrenched the idea of Indians as â€Å"savages. † Ultimately, the â€Å"savagery† that Europeans saw in the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas was founded on a perceived difference between the European and Indian societies, and depended most of all on the ignorance and ethnocentrism of the settlers.

Examining different types of budgets and their uses

Examining different types of budgets and their uses Budgeting operations are very important for any kind of an organization, that is involved in making profits or not. This is the case because all forms of organizations have a number of resources, both material and human, which have to be managed in order to promote and effective realization of goals and objectives. As well, all organizations shall have a number of obligations and missions that have to be realized within stated time durations, and hence budgeting acts as one of the major tools that can be greatly applicable towards realization of goals and objectives. This paper shall hence give the major findings on the budgetary framework, usage and benefits of the 8 types of budgets. Introduction Definitively, a budget refers to forecast of companys incomes and expenses anticipated for a given period of time. With a budget, an organization is able to analyze how much money they are making and spending, and they are able to figure the best way to channel it among various categories and departments. Budgeting depicts the entire process of analyzing and planning using a budget. Since budgets are vital tools for management and planning, the process of budgeting generally affects all types of organizations regardless of their size and composition. Many organizations participate in budgeting process with the view of determining the most cost effective and efficient strategies of making profits and intensifying its capital and asset base. In management, budgeting guides an organization to use its scarce resources in a way that exploits the existing business opportunities well. Good budgeting concepts integrate efficient business judgment and help the management to make decisions reg arding the overall performance of the company. In budgeting, an organization typically develop long-term and short-term plans that assist in implementation of its policies and even though its expensive and time consuming, it increases awareness of costs and coordination of activities channeled towards achievement of company goals and objectives. In any organization, an effective budget always explains the projected route a company would follow in achieving its objectives and goals, and it summarizes the forecasted result of production and marketing efforts, and acts as a benchmark in which the management compares its performance against the actual outcomes. The major functions of budgeting include planning and control. Planning activities convey the views and plans of a company in scientific terms and the eventual planning on its part creates the framework for control, which an organization uses to delegate duties and standardizes procedures (Banham, 2000). Budgeting process is chronological in nature, and consists of many budgets that are roughly classified according to methods and techniques of an organization in generating and spending its money. Different budgets are used for different applications. Some of these mentioned budgets deal with income coming from dividends, sales and interest. Consequently, other budgets give details of sources of expenditures like labor, selling costs, purchases, and factory costs. Some unique types of budgets are chiefly concerned with investments and forecast for company productivity and performance. These budgets are classified according to their usage and include ,Sales budget, Production budget, Direct materials usage budget, Direct materials purchase budget, Direct labor budget, Factory overhead budget, Selling and administration budget and Cash budget (Colin, 2005). Types of budgets Sales budget In any organization, its the sales department that has the overall responsibility of preparing the sales forecast. Sales forecast is a requirement in devising sales budget on which an organization can schedule its production. Sales budget refers to a comprehensive schedule that shows the anticipated sales for a given period of time. The plan for this given period is usually expressed in terms of volume of total sales and selling prices of each class of goods or services. An accurate sales budget is an important element in budgeting as it contributes to the overall organization budgeting process. If sloppily done and formulated, the rest of the budgeting process becomes a waste (Adams, et al., 2008). The sales budget is also referred to as revenue budget since its a preliminary step in preparation of master budget. In an organization, sales budget assist the management to determine the amount of units to be produced thus the production budget is formulated after the sales budget, whic h in turn is used to determine budgets for production costs that include direct materials , production overhead costs and direct labor budget. In essence, the sales budget is very critical in that it elicits a chain of reaction that often leads to growth and development of other types of budgets. The sales budget consists of sales that are expressed in terms of number of units and the amount of revenue including all expenses that support sales, advertising and the cost of distribution of goods sold. Sales budget also consist of forecast of distribution of expenditure for goods sold (Banham, 2000) When developing a sales budget, the following calculations are formulated; the sales budget is erected by multiplying the budgeted sales in units by the selling price. Budgeted Sales = [Budgeted Unit Sales] [Budgeted Sales Prices] For the management, sales budget is often the preliminary step in preparation of the master budget. All other components in the master budget do depend on it in some way. Production budget Its mostly prepared with data from sales budget. Companies that are product oriented usually create production budget that tends to estimate the number of units that ought to be produced in order to meet the sales goals and objectives. The other function of production budget is that it estimates different types of costs involved in production or manufacturing of the said units, inclusive of material and labor costs (Colin, 2005).Any typical organization spends huge amount of money in production than in any other type of expense. For this reason, its vital to create production budget that include all production expenditures so as to estimate the future working capital and future effects on inventory and levels. Production budget is an all-inclusive plan that considers all manufacturing works to be done within the period including the amount expenditures to be incurred on these projects. When creating production budget, it requires individuals involved to be accurate with detailed prod uction estimates .This kind of estimates are typically prepared in combination with the title budgets, which must be finished prior to contracting of other project (Horace, et al., 2007). Before production budget is prepared, the management should always review the production period of budget. The major function of production budget is that it calculates approximately different costs involved in production or manufacturing of products including the cost of materials and labor. When calculating the total production needs, an organization adds anticipated sales to ending inventory and deducts the commencement of inventory from that sum. Total production= (projected sales) + (ending inventory) (starting inventory). Direct materials usage budget Direct material budget refers to analytical plan that shows how much materials would be required in manufacturing or production and the amount of material required to meet the production needs. Its usually prepared after calculation of production needs or requirements. Materials budgeting show the amount of raw material to be purchased in order to accomplish production requirements and the necessary amount to provide adequate inventories. Preparation of this kind of budget constitutes the organizational overall use of material requirements planning (MRP).This organization tool help manage inventories and materials, and ensures the required materials are available in the right quality and quantity and at the required time to meet the production needs of the company. Direct materials budget regularly go along with a schedule of anticipated cash payouts for raw materials and this plan is required for the preparation of the overall cash budget. Expenditures for materials include the cost of purchases of purchases the present budget period. Direct material budget is mostly constructed to determine the amount and cost of any additional materials needed to fulfill the anticipated production levels. Most organizations depicts this in two tables, where the first table shows the number of units to be purchased and the total cost for those purchases while the second table shows a plan of the projected distributions of cash to suppliers of materials. The formula for the computation of materials purchases is given by:- Purchase costs = (Materials Purchase Costs Unit of Materials to Be Purchased) X (Unit Price). Most successful organizations uses the planning and control of a direct-materials budget in order to determine the level of competence in their cargo space, inventory system success and to appraise the capacity of dealers to supply raw materials in the estimates and qualities that are required, and plan material purchases in relation with movement of funds into the organization (Livingstone Leslie, 1994). Direct materials purchase budget Production budget provide necessary information for determining the projected amount of direct materials that ought to be purchased.   Simply by multiplying these amounts with the anticipated costs of purchase price, gives the total costs of materials to be purchased. The major function of direct material purchases budget, is that it provides the essential framework to plan and schedule cash payments for direct materials (Peter McLaney, 1997).This budget also critically reveals the companys planned end of the fiscal year inventory .this value is very important in cost accounting techniques because it a vital component in preparation of the budgeted year ending balance sheet. For effective implementation, the direct purchases budget should be incorporated with the production budget to make sure any level of production is not interrupted during the period of production. This budget tends to estimate the quantity of materials to be purchased in order to promote the budgeted production level and keep desired inventory levels. Direct materials to be purchased are given by:- Materials to be purchased = (materials required for production) + (desired ending materials inventory) (estimated beginning materials inventory) (Horace, et al., 2007). Direct labor budget Definitively, direct labor budget refers to a fixed Schedule for anticipated labor cost. The anticipated labor costs is chiefly reliant on projected volume of production or production budget. The labor needs are dependent on production volume multiplied by direct labor-hours per unit. The derived product is then multiplied by direct labor cost per hour to achieve the exact budgeted direct labor costs. This budget is created from the production budget where direct labor needs are computed to make the management know whether there is sufficient labor time to fulfill the budgeted manufacturing requirements. This advance knowledge helps the management in to develop plans to regulate labor force when adverse situations occur (Livingstone Leslie, 1994). Organizations that fail to budget well always face the risk of having labor shortages or increases in unwarranted times. This kind of unpredictable often leads to inconsistent labor policies that contribute to insecurity, low workers moral e, and low productivity. Direct materials budget is used in an organization to illustrate the amount and cost of direct materials to be purchased. It also provides the foundation for preparation of direct labor cost budget (Colin, 2005).Most organizations give this budget in terms of the number of units and the total costs. Labor hours are displayed using parameters like the type of operation, workers used, and the overall cost centers involved. Total direct labor cost is given by:- Total direct labor cost = (Expected production) + (direct labor hour per unit) + (direct labor cost per hour) Factory overhead budget In cost accounting, factory overhead budget is referred to as a to-do list of all anticipated manufacturing or production costs apart from for costs related to direct material and labor. Factory overhead include items like indirect material and labor, cost of insurance, rent and rates Factory overhead are usually variable or fixed, or a blend of the two. The major function for this schedule is that it critically analyzes all the anticipated production costs for the specific period of time. Factory overhead budget does not include miscellaneous expenses incurred in marketing and administration. These expenses are considered miscellaneous because they are not involved in the production process. As mentioned earlier, production overhead costs determine the total production factory overhead costs and also determine the manufacturing overhead cost per unit. The overall overhead costs include the costs of materials required to make the finished product, direct labor costs needed to produce one unit and the factory expenses required to create one finished unit. The summation of the three costs gives the manufacturer a rough idea of the cost required to produce one unit or finished product (Horace, et al., 2007). Selling and administration budget Selling and administrative expense budget refers to a schedule of budgeted expenses for other areas rather than manufacturing. In organizations this type of budget consists of assemblage of many and individual budgets that are forwarded by various departments. It provides a detailed plan involving all the companys operating expenses, other than the ones involved in production. The said expenses are required in maximum in order to maintain the sales and organization overall operations for a given period of time (Peter McLaney, 1997). This comprehensive financial plan is analytically used by the management to plan and control the day-to-day running of business affairs and activities. In this budget the organization gives details of the amount of money it projects to spend in support of manufacturing or production and sales efforts to be taken. Selling and administrative expense budget consists of employees salaries and benefits, office supplies and expenses; expenses sustaining admini stration, taxes, and any other professional services (Livingstone Leslie, 1994).Normally, these expenses differ little for changes in the volume of production which fall within the period of budget. As a result, the selling and administrative budget is always a fixed budget. Cash Budget Cash budget is definitively referred to as an evaluation of cash outflows and inflows for an organization for a  given period of time. They are mostly used to appraise the performance of an organization and check whether it has adequate cash to accomplish the overall regular operations of a company. The budget is also used to check whether funds are being used as per laid down guidelines. The cash budget shows the companys liquidity position and shows the capability of an organization to meet it goals and objectives. Even though profits promote liquidity, they do not have a high relationship. This budget assists the management in keeping proper cash balances that relates with needs and objectives of the organization. It also helps the management to plan usage of cash where by it avoids cash fro lying idle and prevents possible funds shortages. most budgets consists of four sections that include receipts section, disbursement section, cash surplus section and finally the financing s ection which gives details of payments and borrowings expected during the budget period (Horace, et al., 2007). A budget properly prepared shows how funds flows in and out of the organizations and indentify any loopholes that may slow organization productivity. The cash budget also determines the organization future ability to pay expenses, loans and as well as debts. Banks and other financial institutions grant loans to organizations that have effective liquidity ratio and proper systematic cash plan. Similarly, organizations that function on a casual basis are able to borrow more funds at unfortunate times (Colin, 2005).Cash budgets are commonly given by:- Budgeted Cash Available = (Beginning Cash Balance) + (Budgeted Cash Collections) Conclusion Therefore, for any organization, Budgeting involves the process of controlling and planning the overall activities of a company. It analytically covers precise details of management, sales, marketing, operations, and finance, and thereby provides the management effective guidelines for future performance. Through the concept of budgeting, the management is also able to verify the most profitable use of its limited resources and also it increases the organization ability to deploy resources effectively. In conclusion, its imperative for any organization to trade effectively and efficiently without proper budgeting skills. Its important for individuals and organizations to build budgets to ensure proper movements of resources. References Adams, R., et al. (2008). Self-review for  higher  education  institutions. Melbourne: Australian Universities Quality Agency. Banham, R. Better Budgets. Journal of Accountancy, vol.2, no.1, 2000, pp.32 55. Colin, D. (2005). Management and Cost Accounting. 4th ed. New York: Thomson Business Press. Horace, R, Charles, E., P., Billie, M, (2007). Accounting Principles and Applications. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. Livingstone, Leslie, J. (1994). The Portable MBA in Finance and Accounting. New York: Wiley. Peter, A., McLaney, E. (1997). Accounting and Finance for Non-Specialists. New York: Prentice Hall. Question Two Budgeting and its functions Introduction Budgeting refers to the process of predicting or forecasting the organization incomes and expenses for a given period of time. Budgeting depicts the entire process of analyzing and planning using a budget. Since budgets are vital tools for management and planning, the process of budgeting generally affects all types of organizations regardless of their size and composition. Many organizations participate in budgeting process with the view of determining the most cost effective and efficient strategies of making profits and intensifying its capital and asset base. I budgeting is vital in an organization in that it provide measurements that help the organization management in planning and setting of goals and objectives. Effective budgeting assists an organization to forecast future performances and productivity. They make available a feasibility analysis that help an organization create an effective business model; identify required resource and capital requirements. Budgeting at times also helps in finding funding. Budgeting guides an organization to use its scarce resources in a way that exploits the existing business opportunities well. Good budgeting concepts integrate efficient business judgment and help the management to make decisions regarding the overall performance of the company. In budgeting, an organization typically develop long-term and short-term plans that assist in implementation of its policies and even though its expensive and time consuming, it increases awareness of costs and coordination of activities channeled towards achievement of company goals and meet its objective, and to measure up to standards set (Iain, 2003). Functions of budgeting For any individual or organization with the yearning for financial freedom, the most significant thing they can do is to appreciate the fundamental functions of budgeting. Generally without figuring what one owns and spends it would be impossible to make changes in ones spending habits. With the use of adequate budgeting schedule, it acts as a tool that assist individuals and organizations track areas where changes can be done to improve monetary situation. Budgets serve a number of useful purposes that includes planning, coordinating, communicating, motivating, controlling and evaluating (Rubin Irene, 1997). Planning Generally, a budget is a plan for the operations of a company for a given period of time. As a planning tool, budgets are vested with the sole function of determining an organizational programs and objectives .They tend to evaluate available alternatives as a way of achieving its goals and objectives. Planning also involves prioritizing where the most beneficial projects are put forward first and the less beneficial ones follow suit. In all financing activities, budgeting is the core function. Proper budget makes planning easier because it allows people to know which direction the company is following and what business activities it plans to engage in, in the future. Budget planning involves discovering and looking for sources of revenue and expenses, with the intention of meeting personal or organizational goals and objectives (Downes Goodman, 2006). Planning as the primary function of budgeting, it makes sure there is savings after the funds have been allocated for spending. Organ izations that plan and use effective budgeting strategies, they are ensured of successful management of their expenses and savings hence they are able to secure better investments in the future. The major advantages of budget planning are that they put checks and balances at specific points to prevent overspending I future at various levels, also they assist the management of an organization to take account of any unexpected need or requirements for funds. Though beneficial, planning as a function of budgeting has few shortcomings that include, it affects the quality of life and productivity of people and organizations especially in situations where there is excessive emphasis on savings. Also when the budget is planned to rigid, devotion to it tends to become a problem and fulfillment of organizational goals and objectives becomes a problem (Brookson, 2000). Coordinating In order an organization to properly grow and develop, the management needs to know what is happening within the company and have an unambiguous idea of what they expect in the future. Coordination as a component of budgeting has fundamental objectives that are important to the management. The act of Coordination makes budgets from various specific departments to work together with sole function of meeting the organization goals and objectives. The way budget are constructed is very vital including the figures it carries. The entire process of putting budget together involves correction of data regarding the business and the present and future needs of the company (Iain, 2003). Coordination of activities makes different individuals to participate in the making of budget where each of them contributes his or her knowledge to the areas of their expertise. In the process, employees learn from each other and this promotes the concept of teamwork and working together. Diverse units found in the company should coordinate different works they do. Communicating Budgets act as communication tools in that they allow individuals and management of organizations to pass information regarding the goals and objectives of the company. The management is able to promote goal congruence that allows the companys limited resources to be coordinated and channeled to key areas. Budgeting process gives organization opportunities communicate and this allows them to accomplish their goals, and hence gives them chances scrutinize those achievements as well (Rubin Irene, 1997). Communication being a core purpose of budgeting provides information that is significant in the entire business strategic planning. The communication between the management and employees helps establish a mutual understanding that is geared towards achieving the companys goals and objectives. Also different units in the company must communicate with each other during budget making process in order to effectively and efficiently coordinate their plans and efforts. Motivating Effective Budgeting and budgets allow an organization to motivate its workers by involving them in the budget making process. This concept of giving them a chance to make organizational decisions makes them feel valued and appreciated, and they respond by working harder with the sole aim of meeting the goals and objectives they set in the budget. Even if top-down budgeting technique does not realize this objective effectively, participative budgeting can be very encouraging and motivating. Budgeting can be an effective tool in promoting teamwork in places of work though many people and businesses dont realize it. Since the employees know the companys performance and productivity, they tend to channel all their effort in adhering to budgetary policies and work extra harder to make sure the companys goals are met (Sullivan, Arthur Steven, 2003). Controlling Budgetary control involves deliberate actions that are performed analytically with the guidance of a budget plan. Budget control involves the use of budget plan to control expenses with the aim of maximizing accountability. This purpose is mostly connected with line-item budgets. Technically once the budget is created; it acts as a planning tool for the organization operations. Management has power to use up funds within the set budget and to generate revenues within the specified margin of the budget. These Budgets are scrutinized regularly to countercheck variations and to establish whether the company is moving on the right target. If the company performance and productivity does not meet the requirements of the budget, immediate action is always taken to adjust its activities. The general aspect of budgeting allows an organization to control costs and avoid things not budgeted to be done. Proper budgets also give organizations a benchmark from which they evaluate the companys per formance. Control involves monitoring, and involves comparison of different informations to a given standard from where it is used to make corrective actions (Brookson, 2000). Evaluating The aspects of budgetary control are much valued and appreciated in an organization since they help an organization to evaluate and monitor team and organizational performance and provides the management of the organization with a clear idea of the company financial position and makes information and data available on which they base their action. Budgets at times are used as a tool of management, which reward and punish managers and their employees and also they are used as a basis for modifying future plans and budgets (Iain, 2003). One way to evaluate the management and employees performance is by comparing the company budget and the overall actual performance. Though an important concept of business, budgeting can cause massive problems in parts of workers especially in situations where they are not involved, and also where their jobs are dependent on meeting certain organizational goals and objectives established by the budgets. This happens in organizations that concentrate so much on evaluation purposes of budgeting and those organizations that conduct top-down budget process, rather than the bottom -up or participative one. Effective evaluation and monitoring of employees and the management as a whole, improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the company products and services and makes them competitive in the global scene (Rubin Irene, 1997) Conclusion Budgeting always form an integral part in our society. Its ideal concepts require individuals and companies to look ahead and sanctify future goals. Budgeting involves the process of controlling and planning the overall activities of a company. It analytically covers precise details of management, sales, marketing, operations, and finance, and thereby provides the management effective guidelines for future performance. Budgeting depicts the entire process of analyzing and planning using a budget. Since budgets are vital tools for management and planning, the process of budgeting generally affects all types of organizations regardless of their size and composition. Many organizations participate in budgeting process with the view of determining the most cost effective and efficient strategies of making profits and intensifying its capital and asset base. Budgeting is vital in an organization in that it provide measurements that help the organization management in planning and setting of goals and objectives. Through the concept of budgeting, the management is also able to verify the most profitable use of its limited resources and also it increases the organization ability to deploy resources effectively. In conclusion, its imperative for any organization to trade effectively and efficiently without proper budgeting skills (Budgeting is vital in an organization in that it provide measurements, 2009). Its important for individuals and organizations to build budgets to ensure proper movements of resources.

Model Of Web Of Causation Health And Social Care Essay

Model Of Web Of Causation Health And Social Care Essay The model of web of causation dates back to 1960, when it was developed to represent different pathways that point on a genesis of a health problem or a disease, giving rise to defined causative risk factors. The model has been used in community health and nursing to explain diseases and disabilities caused by multiple factors and identify possible points for preventive interventions in community health problems. This research paper introduces the conceptual nursing model of the web of causation and uses a community aggregate of children below 18 years diagnosed with type 1 and type 2 diabetes to discuss conceptual nursing web of causation. Introduction Medicineamigo (2007) defines web of causation as a medical term used to represent a complex group of subjects and relationships that can contribute to occurrence and spread of a disease. The model of web of causation shows that diseases are not distributed randomly in any group but isolation of how they are distributed requires one to study several factors. This implies that there are multiple and heterogeneous causes of any disease, symptom or health condition, collectively forming a web of causation. Clark (2008) argues that the model of the web of causation represents pathway factors that point to a genesis of a health problem and gives rise to or mitigate more precisely defined causative risk factors. Based on this model, one can increase the chances of controlling a disease or a health condition by breaking more links within the web of potential factors in the model. The model offers a solution in conceptualizing health problems that have multi- factoral etiologies such as diabe tes. Historical Development of Model of Web of Causation MacMahon, Pugh, and Ipsen (1960) came up with the model of web of causation; whereby it was used explain the occurrence of icterus for a group of patients who were receiving treatment for syphilis. This was followed by a more sophisticated but generalized web of causation that Stallones came up with in 1966. The purpose of his web of causation was to to describe the interrelationships among the 3 main types of cardiovascular disease. After some further research, Friedman developed a web of causation that was more detailed in 1980. His model was based on causation for the classic heart attack. This development marked the beginning for mapping what is today known concerning the etiology of heart diseases. The model of web of causation has continued to gain popularity since its discovery in 1960 and has proved useful in identifying possible factors for preventive interventions in community health. How Concepts Relate Within the Model of Web of Causation Duncan (2007) points out how the model of web of causation emphasizes on agents in explaining causes of diseases, while providing multifactoral causes that traverse various pathways, mirroring reality. In this model, the disease or a health condition is not only seen to be having different causes, but each one of these individual causes is viewed as a consequence that came from the multiple causes, of which each is an effect resultanting to multiple causes. This web is built using arrows of causation, with each arrow of causation implying that the element at the arrow source is somehow an individual cause of the element at that particular point of the arrow. Using type 1 and type 2 diabetes in children under 18 as an example, the disease can be as a result of new potential risk factor within the neighborhood or a variable in the web of causation representing a toxic environment that leads to diabetes or a variable representing lack of health care for possible underlying causes of dia betes such as high blood pressure or obesity, or having genetic predisposition that leads to diabetes (At Health 2005). Model Application to Nursing Process The model of web of causation can be used in nursing process to explain diseases and disabilities caused by multiple factors such as hepatitis and diabetes, which can be explained using complex relationship in the disease agent, host and environment; integrating factors such as genetic factors, environmental factors and race among others (At Health, 2005). American Diabetes Association (2000) highlights the importance of the model of web of causation in monitoring of diabetes in children and adolescents to avoid further complications resulting from the disease. This can be achieved when families work together with health care providers to help set a childà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s target for blood glucose levels and develop a personal diabetes plan for healthy meals, regular exercise and oral medication. Duncan (2007) explains how the model can be applied in nursing to address health related threats and conditions such as the problem of teenage pregnancy, which is attributed to complex interaction between several causative and contributing factors such as ignorance, peer pressure and lack of contraceptives among others. Applications Model of Web of Causation to Community Health Problems According to Clark (2008), the model of web of causation is applied in enhancing the understanding of non-communicable diseases. The model has further been used in identifying possible points for preventive interventions in community health problems. Based on this model, prevention of obesity can be used as an intervention measure to protect the target population from being infected with type 2 diabetes. Duncan (2007) explains the importance of the model of web of causation in summarizing community health information for presentation, communication and analysis. He points out the importance of the model in study of distribution of health outcomes in a given population through interpretation of epidemiological relationships. Importance Of Community Partnership In Community Health Projects Community partnership in community health projects brings collaborative efforts to improve health through sharing of resources, combining talents and enhancing opportunities to achieve positive health outcomes (World Health Organization, 2002). According to World Health Organization (2002), involving communities in community health projects is a sign of giving up control and concern about who contributes to success of the partnership. This empowers people to creatively develop skills and build competencies and capacities because better and more sustainable decisions are made by involving communities in decision making. Furthermore, community participation in health projects is a way of extending the democratic process by opening up governance and redressing inequality in power for organizations involved. This offers new opportunities for creative thinking and innovative planning of health projects. Partnership with community in community health project implementation creates dedicated staff in project implementation as communities positively identify with the projects. This ensures ownership and sustainability of the projects, provides a source of information, knowledge as well as experience and eliminates deficiencies in the society, while empowering members to put emphasis on problem solving (WHO, 2002). Conclusion The model of web of causation is an important model that has been used in community health to represent different pathways that point on a genesis of a health problem or a disease, giving rise to defined causative risk factors. It has proved to be a viable model in addressing health problems that have multifactoral causes like the type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Lasting solutions in addressing community health problems can be achieved by involving people at community level in decision making and participation in community health projects.

Essay --

Currently in international market and domestic market, there are two types of the purchasing methods purchaser uses. One method for the buying the products from the market is â€Å"spot market buying† and the second method of buying the products is with â€Å"future contract†. The on the spot method is also called â€Å"cash market† or â€Å"physical market†, where the products, currencies or commodities sold for cash and delivers the products immediately or within short period of time. For example, â€Å"oil, grains, silver, beef, sugar, natural gas, milk, and gold are done through the spot market, where the prices are the set by open market and the transfer of cash and goods takes place immediately†, and deliver as requested date in the future or within short period of time. The spot market is an instantaneous exchange for the current list or spot price for a particular commodity. With the integration of internet technology, the spot market has be come even more efficient and useful especially in the energy industry. If energy companies have large surpluses of energy, the internet can give them a chance to find buyers in current need almost immediately. Though the spot market is good for company I need â€Å"right now†, its drawback is the fluctuating prices that can cause chaos when calculating the logistics over the long term. There are several pros and cons of on spot buying, such as; it conducts the market research and supplier identification quickly in new market. Also, it provides easy access for lower value purchases. Moreover, it improves the sourcing productivity; as well as alleviates the capacity issues that enhance the productivity of plant and category buyers. Also, it provides easy platform ability for market tests across geographies Though apro... ...vent of the futures contract negotiated by Calpine, it did not fulfill the need for sodium hypochlorite, which implementing the spot market as a way to assure the efficiency of operations that would be the decision most logically made. If Calpine’s buyers or sellers know that they will be buying certain chemical in future, and selling certain number of products or energy, then they should consider taking a long term future contract for purchasing, and short tern future contract for selling the products which hedge its positions in market. So, operations ramp up, more energy needs to be supplied for the increased demand that was not accounted for in the purchase of the particular chemical Calpine ordered. Supply of the chemical dwindles and it up to the men and women at Calpine to search the spot market to find a company with a surplus looking to sell â€Å"on the spot.†

Alfred Hitchcocks Rear Window Essay examples -- Film Movies

Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window In Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock took a plot-driven short story and transformed it into a character-driven movie. Although differences must exist between text and film, because of the limitations and advantages of the different media, Hitchcock has done more than translate a word-based story into a visual movie. Aside from adding enough details to fill a two-hour movie, Hitchcock has done much to change the perspective of the story, as well as the main character. The novel’s Hal Jeffries, a seemingly hard-boiled and not overly intellectual man contrasts sharply with the photojournalist J.B. Jeffries of the movie. The addition of supporting characters, such as Lisa, diminishes somewhat the loneliness of the short story character. The character in the short story has more in common with Humphrey Bogart’s Sam Spade than with Jimmy Stewart’s Jeff. That Hitchcock took a story written in a style similar to Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler, and cho se not to make a film noir detective story speaks much to Hitchcock’s purpose here. Rather than creating a conventional detective story, Hitchcock creates an everyman, whose injury prevents him from action. The impotence the character feels heightens the tension of the film, as well by forcing the viewers to identify with his frustration. The movie disguises the many of the darker moments with humor, a device commonly used to lessen the shock of less acceptable aspects of a story. While the story was merely the narrative of one man, the film portrays different concepts of, and stages of love, in the images of the people across the way. The story is a guiltily related narrative of one man’s voyeurism, repeatedly rationalized by him. B... ...that we, not Jeff, have been spying on the neighbors across the way. While both the story and the film contain aspects of voyeurism, as well as a physically limited character, Hitchcock’s film does more than simply add enough filler to complete a movie. He adds facets to the character not included in the story. He provides the character with a career and social life and motivation. Additionally, Hitchcock uses the visual aspects of the film to convey more about the characters. By associating Thorwald with the color red, and using light and shadow to highlight Jeff’s ambivalence about Lisa, we get hints about how we are supposed to feel about the various characters. Hitchcock has taken an adequate short story and transformed it into a fascinating and funny character study that seems to comment on the isolation of life in a modern urban environment.

My recount – Match of the Day

I checked my watch for the third time in five minutes, willing it to be three o'clock. After a ten minute wait which seemed to last hours, I headed eagerly towards the front door on a cloudless summer afternoon. This was it – I was on my way to watch my first senior match at the Emirates! I twisted and turned through the winding, crowded streets of people chanting and singing; glorifying ‘the Gunners'. Peering through the sea of red and white shirts, I found my friends and pretty soon, we joined the waves of supporters. Every sense in my body was tingling as I heard the optimistic songs of the passionate fans; with the smell of hot dogs, chips and burgers hanging in the air. The street was a river of Arsenal shirts, with rows of policemen on the banks. We all strolled past underground station, admiring the remains of the old stadium along the way. At last, we curved round the final corner and arrived at the Emirates. I gazed up and gawped in awe at the monumental grey blocks ahead of me. A roar erupted inside, the match was starting soon. Breaking out of my trance, I continued following the mass of people towards the ticket barriers. As I scanned my ticket and squeezed through the narrow gates, I realized just how loud things were. Echoes of laughter floated from the canteen; of excited children chatting incessantly about their predictions and of others asking to go to the loo. I was inside the stadium, but not at pitch-side yet. Everything around me was still grey, from the smooth walls of concrete to the thick grey slabs on the stairs. It was as though the stadium had not been completed; like a parking lot, it had not been painted at all. However, I would soon find out why. As I trotted up the broad stairs as fast as possible among the thousands of fans also making their way up, I was caught completely off-guard when I entered the stands. The effect was phenomenal. The bright green grass of the pitch couple with the intense red ring of seats took my breath away. If there was ever a sight for sore eyes, this was definitely it. Inside, the stadium looked like a colossal spaceship. I was thoroughly dumbstruck, it was much better than I had imagined. Smells of delicious fast food jumbled with the smell of freshly mown grass lingered in the air, creating a whole new sensation and slapped me in the face. The chants of the Gunners Faithful were contagious, and by the time I found my seat, I was singing along at the top of my lungs. The stadium was jam-packed with people. Spectators filled every seat available and every space to stand was taken up, yet somehow it was rather spacious. There was enough room to sit down, stand up and even stretch easily. The smooth, cold, metal handlebars in front of me were comforting to touch among the rows of strangers. In any other context, fully grown men with beer-bellies ranked along young boys, singing their hearts out would seem totally bizarre. Everything happened with such fluency, I realised that this is what happened game after game after game. Suddenly, the players came marching orderly out of the tunnel onto the pitch. As the twelve men took up their positions on the vast stretch of faultless grass, we all stood up spiritedly and applauded the Arsenal players. Finally, the referee counted up the men on the field and blew a familiar long, high pitched whistle. The ball rolled from Thierry Henry to Robin van Persie – the long awaited match had begun†¦ What we all wanted to see now was a thrilling, perfect volley; an immaculate strike or just feel that moment when an entire stand holds its' breath to witness that one thing we all understand. Some may see it as just a game. But to others, this was about heroes and tribes. Loyalty and devotion. It was their commitment and their passion. Their battle and belief. This was the beautiful game at its finest. This was football.

Minsk: Towns are like people

Towns are like people. Some are rich and influential from their conception; others need to acquire such qualities over centuries. Minsk is an example of the latter though founded as a border fortification in the Polatsk Principality, over its millennial history Minsk has managed to be the predominant centre of power in an appanage, capital of a province and at long last the capital of an independent nation counting 10 million people. Well, as Minsk is more that 900 years, it is quite enough to speak about its antiquity. But unfortunately almost all traces of old times are lost. There are practically no ancient buildings in Minsk, but the hero-city tries to keep memory about its past. And nowadays numerous names of the streets and squares, churches remind us not about the stormy past of Minsk, but of our country. And the first place that is worth visiting is the Red Church (the church of St. Simeon and Helen). It was built in the early 20th c. under the sponsorship of the Vaynilovich family (a Slutsk judge, landowner Vaynilovich and his wife Olyrnia) who donated all their money to commemorate their children Simon and Helen who died unexpectedly of an unknown disease. Their names are given to 2 small towers, white the big one as the symbol of eternally mourning parents. The church is mainly decorated in Roman style with its majestic forms, balance, quiet strength though some details of Gothic style could also be seen. The sculptural composition of Archangel Michael who kills a winged dragon symbolizes the victory of the divine army over the forces of darkness. Nowadays, the red church building, which has already served as Belarusian SSR's National Polisk Theatre, a film studio and a cinema, has since 1990 been returned to believers, but it serves not only a religious purpose. Concerts of organ music, religious music concerts of world-famous composers are held here, one-actor theatre performances are staged and sketches are played. The Church of the Holy Trinity and St Roch on Golden Hill is another attraction. Golden Hill is the old name for this region of the town. Maybe for the wonderful golden decoration of trees, maybe for that as the legend says â€Å"the citizens collected the golden coins for the church building, this region was called Golden Hill. The church was dedicated to St. Roch, who was noted pilgrim a healer, invoked for his miraculous powers against the plague and cholera. The church is a monument f neogothic architecture. The interior of the church was of timber painted to resemble marble. On the High Altar stood a wooden statue of the Madonna and Child and a represent of the Holy Trinity. The church was restored in 1983 and given over to the nearly State Philharmonic as a small concert chamber on account of its excellent acoustics. You can't but visit St Alexander Nevski Ghurch which was built in memory of Belarusian soldiers who perished in the Russian-Turkish conflict of 1877-78 and carries a miraculous story. In June 1941 a bomb managed to pierce the church dome and fall in front of the altar without exploding. Later it was one of only two active churches in Minsk. Both of the nations celebrated poets Y. Kupala and Y. Kolas, as well as various masters of art, culture and science in Belarus, are buried in the Military cemetery alongside the soldiers who laid their lives to free Minsk from the Fascists. Even the name of the next place to see reflects the historic past of the country. That is Victory Square. The obelisk of Victory commemorates the deaths of soldiers, partisans, and all the inhabitants of Belarus killed in the struggle with fascism during WWII. Its height is 38 m. It is covered by grey granite. It is topped by the Order of Victory which is decorated by multi-coloured smelt. The Eternal Flame was inflamed on the 3 d of July in 1961 and bright scarlet flowers seem to bum together with the flame till late autumn. Well, I suppose that nobody can resist the temptation of visiting one of the chief glories of Minsk – Trinity Suburb. It is a tangle of narrow streets lined with a fascinating array of little craft and curio shops. Delightful small houses seem to whisper their secrets to each other across the cobbled way. Here you have a feeling of coming back into the 18th c. Suburb is renowned for its historic buildings. You can enjoy the view of the Holy Spirit Cathedral and the church of St. Paul and Peter also can be seen here. Not far from these sacred places, on a bend in the river Svisloch there is a humpback bridge leading to the Isle of Tears, the monument to the sons of Fatherland who died beyond its borders. The monument is designed in the shape of a temple. It stands on 16 piles which go deep into swampy soil. In the centre of the monument there are figures of mourning mothers, who personify Belarusian women crying over their dead sons. Some of them hold icons in their hands, others – portraits of their sons. Mothers, standing at the front, hold lamps which symbolize the warmth of home health. Inside there are altars with the inscribed names of 771 dead soldiers. In the middle of the monuments there is the sacred Place where the Bells of Memory are ringing. Weeping willows bend over the water. So you see, there are a lot of sights in Minsk that are connected with the history of Belarus. Their beauty and their historical heritage attract thousands of tourists from all over the world and make Minsk and amazing place, which is really worth seeing.

IBA Final Paper Group

In this simulation, we were tasked with successfully launch info Alleles in new markets over the next 7-10 years, effectively expanding the Alistair Brand into Latin America. Alistair Brands is doing well in its traditional markets of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, but the markets IR those countries are mature with lots of competition. Latin America is a region that provides great potential and a variety of trade enhancement actions have been struck in recent years. NONFAT for example, reduced the trade barriers between the United States, Mexico, and Canada.This allows for establishing production in Mexico to take advantage of low labor costs and seamless access to the U. S. And Canadian markets. The MERCURY agreement also provides similar ease of access among the South American countries of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. These factors combined make Latin America a ripe market for Alistair Brands to enter. Initially, we entered the Mexican market and created five SKU that covered all four benefits to test the market for each type of benefit, as well as wanting to implement SKU that none of our competition was using, such as economy gel.Our primary target markets were families with kids focused on economy, and younger focused on whitening. No one had tapped into the kid's market, SC we created a SKU to fill that demand, which also created a niche in the mark hat We dominated. Our primary channels Were the traditional and hyper- market, with a small section focused in web. The traditional channel had the largest number of outlets; thus, we allocated 25 sales people to that channel and it generated 12. 1 % of our sales.Hypermarket had only one competitor and had the most growth potential, while the web had no real competition. We positioned ourselves in regards to pricing towards the lower spectrum with a 5% allowance. We set our MSP at double our production cost, still maintaining an economy price by being priced lower than our competito rs. Striving to get our name out there in the initial period, we also spent SSL 50 million in promotion and $76 million in advertising and our ad campaigns focused on highlighting two of our SKU (younger/white and families/ economy).Over the course of the simulation we entered three more Latin American countries (Brazil, Argentina, and Chile), built a plant in Brazil, left the traditional channel and entered the wholesale channel, changed SKU and pricing, discontinued and created new ads in all countries, tried to make our products standard in each country, exited a country that was not performing ell, and added new products to our existing product lines. After implementing and tweaking our marketing plan each year in the simulation, we ended the simulation with a BEE of 76. We saw a 6. % growth in unit sale 18. 3% growth in manufacturer sales, 29. 7% growth in gross margin, and 60. 3% growth in net contribution. We finished in fifth place with a cumulative net contribution of $400. 6 million. In the following few pages, we will demonstrate what our marketing plan was and how we implemented it in each year Of the simulation from beginning to end to effectively demonstrate owe our decision criteria led us to the position that we ended in. Situation Analysis Throughout the study, the opportunities and threats varied among the 1 0 decision making periods.However, threats were mostly, actively controlled by a third party stimulator, while the opportunities describe our reaction to openings in the market for potential revenue. For example, a population product benefit without a SKIS to squelch the market need provided a clear opportunity for a new SKU with an updated promotional budget and campaign. The opportunities listed below detail the groups research for opportunities as well as the active response. After a forced entry in the Mexico market, one of the first opportunities was the cheap tariff and shipping costs from the US to Mexico. With a 0. % tariff, as a percent of CIFS and a shipping cost of approximately two cents per unit, entry into the market provided a strong base to grow our brand. There were also free trade agreements between the US and Mexico, making distribution, cost effective and permittivity seamless. With Brazil economic boom, it was impossible to ignore the specific opportunities in this market. With a surge in population, there began to arise product benefits that were not being met by competing products. Therefore, Alleles responded by implementing a SKIS that filled the family/healthy/ economy and size gap, as well as the kids market.With space in the hypermarket and web. The Alleles group capitalized on these channels and spiked the promotional budget to raise product awareness and our resulting As the success in Brazil continued, Alleles constructed a second plant in period 3 that would offset the high shipping costs to the later entered, Argentinean an Chilean, markets, combined with a free trade agreement. Furt her, entry into the Brazilian, Argentinean and Chilean market was titivated by low transportation costs and tariffs. However shipping costs, from the home plant, did not prove a lucrative. With an opportunities analysis, a weakness analysis must follow.Because Alleles was on a first mover into the South American toothpaste market, the company missed out on many of the advantages awarded to competitors, such as the ability to set standards concerning product expectation, the bill ¶y' to educate the public about the product, and capitalize on unused distributors and suppliers. However, these weaknesses also provided an opportunity for Alleles to responds in self-benefiting methods. First, being a late entering competitor to an already established market, much of the risk was alleviated associated with introducing existing markets to new products.There was also less of a need for an educational promotional budget. Alleles was allowed to piggyback off of the market penetration of earl y entry competitors. Another additive that come with entering a market post-establishment, is the ability to put pressure on existing products, forcing them to make adjustments to account increased market competitor. Some of the changes included, price reductions, increasing sales force and raising advertising expense, all efforts to attempt to solidify their, now threatened, position in the market.The Alleles response to increased opportunity was to lesson dependence on a single market by entering others. Finally, market threats perpetually interrupted the opportunity response progression for Alleles. For example, after entry into Chile, the brand began to notice a reoccurring cost that could not justify the company's market activity. Therefore, it became necessary to pull out of Chile in period 8. Also, the highly competitive arena in Brazil and Argentina provided the need to constantly adjust product SKILL, racing, production, promotion and advertising to account for competitor s uccess.The largest threat in the South American toothpaste market proved to reside in Venezuelan and Argentinean markets. Venezuela entered a recession walkway through the simulation, which prevented entrance from Alleles, and Argentina began to experience the impending effects of a recession, however, we had already invested too many resources to pull out of the country, so we had to adjust our skews to account for the change in shopping habits. Market Entry International market entry decisions are complicated. Most companies must rye to balance the benefits of increased control and the costs of resource commitment and risk [Country Manager].Factors such as international experience, firm size, market knowledge, and economic attractiveness must all be taken into account. Therefore, market entry is critical to Allele's success. Alleles is interested in entering Latin America. Due to its large population and a variety of trade enhancement actions (NONFAT, MERCURY) that have been estab lished in recent years Latin America has great potential. Before choosing which country to enter we wanted to perform a competitive analysis and selected macro-level indicators, such as economic development, to examine.We then weighed their importance. We also examined product markets, such as market size and the number of competitors. These can be seen in the country attractiveness analysis sheet in the appendix Of this report. After weighing all of our information, Alleles decided to enter Mexico market first. Alleles chose to enter Mexico through exporting the product from our home plant. Five Kiss were chosen to test the market for each type of benefit. We also wanted to implement SKU that no other competitor was using. Finally, we chose three distribution channels.In this first market, and I being essentially a test market, Alleles was somewhat successful in establishing our name in the market. After being in Mexico for a year, we decided to use the ‘X†tearful marke ting effect† to enter Brazil. Alleles chose Brazil because of its similarities to Mexico. Using a slight product adaptation, four SKU and three distribution channels were chosen for Allele's entry into Brazil. Continuing with the â€Å"waterfall marketing effect† and utilizing straight extension, we next entered Argentina. At this time we had been establishedMexico for a few years and in Brazil for one. With moderate success in previous markets, Alleles entered Argentina with the same SKU and distribution channels utilized in Brazil. We also weighed the cost and benefit of continuing to export from the home plant against the risk of building a plant locally to our markets. Indicators weighed in favor of building locally. Therefore, Alleles began building a plant in Brazil. In the fourth year of marketing in Latin America we decided not to enter a new market. We wanted to focus our time and attention on Mexico, Brazil AR Argentina, as well as the new plant.The plant also began to distribute to the Brazil and Argentina markets which lowered costs and increased profit. Year five did see a new endeavor for Alleles. We chose to enter the Chilean market further increasing our regional diversification.. The SKU and distribution channels were again a straight extension of the product. As we did in year four, years six and seven were spent focusing on our established markets. Alleles also took this time to increase capacity in our plant to accommodate the market need. Due to several issues, especially our sustained losses, Alleles exited Chill?s market.We had been in the country for three years and we continued to set in the red. Furthermore, after examining the competition, we knew it would take us years to compete as market leader and the markets in Brazil and Mexico had much greater potential. Exiting Chile was the last â€Å"market entry/exit† decision that Alleles made. We spent the new couple of years focusing on the markets that we had entere d and that were doing well. Overall, by utilizing the â€Å"waterfall† approach and using the money made in one market to help fund efforts in new markets, Alleles was successful with our market entries. Manufacturing location and sourcingThere were many factors to consider when our company was assessing the attractiveness of building a plant in another country. Political stability, shipping expenses, market economy, natural hazards and transportation were just a few indicators that needed to be examined. Understanding these influences enabled our company to make the right decision. Brazil is one of South America's most stable and prosperous nations. It's economy outweighs that of all other South American countries and Brazil is expanding its presence in world markets. Shipping costs from Brazil to it's neighboring countries is quite cheap.According to Country Manager, hipping from Brazil to Mexico is the highest at . 040. Therefore, We would continue to ship to Mexico from o ur home Plant and use the Brazilian Plant to ship to Argentina (. 020) and Chile (. 020). A local plant, which Brazil would be for all but Mexico, results in fixed costs from depreciation and the per unit (variable) cost of production. Country Manager cost analysis has Brazil at the head of the pack in terms of fixed cost (1 5% cost reduction). Furthermore, building in Brazil would result in a 0% tariff in regards to Argentina and Chile. Both of these indicators pointed favorably to building in Brazil.Natural hazards are present in every country, however, it is an indicator that must be taken into account. Brazil is home to droughts in the northeast and frost in the south. These particular natural hazards aren't very severe in terms of affecting shipping further making Brazil our top choice in Plant location. Transportation was an important factor we took into account when deciding where to build Allele's plant. Having the means to transport/ship the product to market is essential. Brazil is home to 4,000 airports, 28,857 km of railways and 1 , 751 ,868 km of roadways and this doesn't take into account its shipping ports.Because there are so many options for transporting goods, the cost of goods sold can be kept reasonable. Utilizing all of these indicators, it was clear that Alleles should build in Brazil. The plant's capacity was set to the projected unit sales in Brazil for the following period because we did not want to have a large excess which would lead to avoidable loss. However, we increased our plant production capacity by 50 million units (100 million units total) after one year. This was done to meet the demand of our past sales and accommodate for our forecasted sales.We also began distributing to Argentina from our Brazil plant in effort f decreasing shipping and tariff expenses. As each period progressed we assessed the plant's capacity and adjusted accordingly, for example, we increased our plant production capacity again by 40 million units (1 40 million units total) in order to accommodate our entry into Chile. Once this capacity increase was accomplished there were no changes made to the production capacity for one year because our capacity perfectly lined up with the amount of units sold in Chile, Argentina, and Brazil.However, the following year we increased production capacity by 15 million units to accommodate projected unit sales and a further 55 million units, eased on our need forecast for the next period, the year after that. With Alleles exiting Chile in year eight, we did not increase our plant capacity again. Building our plant in Brazil proved to be a success. Alleles was able to put pressure on all other competitors, especially other domestic companies. This helped drive share of mind and sales leadership in Brazil – enabling us to more effectively compete with the local and regional competitors which were two of the market leaders.Target Marketing Strategy Target marketing strategy was an important part to make Alleles achieve success when we enter and explore a new country. In target marketing strategy, we have to determine our main potential customers, try to attract attention from them, raise our target customers' interests, convince our customers' desires and lead our customers purchasing. Therefore, we had used MIMIC and AID (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) model to help Alleles make a right target marketing strategy for each country that we entered. Mexico Alleles chose enter Mexico market first.Based on data provided from cross- section decision analysis in Mexico, price was customer most care about with 50. % weight and product effect was second with 27. 6%. For demographic, the families was most demographics population which was 55. 9% Of customers with 62. 2% of demand. The younger was second largest demographic population (27%) with 23. 7% of demand. See demographics with benefits, families/economy are largest market with 34. 6%pop and 36. 7% demand; younger/wh ite are second with 6. 9% pop and 10. 2% demand. By benefits view, the economy and white are majority benefits that Mexican customers would like to buy.