Saturday, August 31, 2019

A conflict of interest Essay

A conflict of interest is defined as a conflict between the professional or personal interests and needs of a health care provider and his or her professional responsibilities toward a patient or other consumer (financial gain based on a particular outcome or use of one drug rather than another). (Partners Healthcare states that â€Å"A conflict of interest is a set of circumstances that creates a risk that professional judgment or actions regarding a primary interest will be unduly influenced by a secondary interest.† Our textbook defines a conflict of interest as â€Å"when someone has multiple obligations that demand loyalty, and decisions based on these loyalties are different or in conflict† (Page 180) Partners Healthcare has an array of examples of conflicts of interest. Some being 1- â€Å"Receiving consulting fees from a company while performing clinical research on the company’s technology.† 2- â€Å"Accepting a gift from a vendor† and 3- â€Å"Participating in institutional purchasing decisions about products made by a company in which you hold stock.† — This presents a conflict that is always unacceptable. In order to minimize conflicts of interest in managed care the dual interests present in the relationships among MCOs, members and physicians has to first be acknowledged. This awareness permits avoiding or minimizing them. An ombudsman or consumer relations specialist can assist members can decrease conflicts of interest by assisting members and deal with their concerns. (Page 181) The role of a manager are expected to expectations: to focus on the welfare of those receiving care; maintain professional competence; maintain professional posture, holding paramount the interests of facility and residents; and meet the responsibilities to the public, profession, and colleagues. Managers must be aware and take steps to prevent or minimize potential or actual conflicts of interest. This could be through developing and maintaining high ethical standards in the profession, including searching out those who knowingly engage in conflicts of interest and educating those ignorant of them.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Implications Of Shared Characteristics For Literacy Instruction Education Essay

Child with Down syndrome ( DS ) have several general features in common which play an of import function in how good they are able to prosecute in literacy acquisition ; some of these features are cognitive, whilst others are physical. This paper identifies some of these shared features and high spots the deductions of these for literacy direction in mainstream schoolrooms ; it so provides illustrations of possible differentiated direction in reading and authorship, and support that instructors can give to DS kids so that their specific demands are met within a regular schoolroom context. Finally, it highlights how instructors, professionals and parents can work together in an organized manner to guarantee that DS kids are being every bit supported at both school and place. DS kids make a alone part to mainstream schoolrooms ; their emotional, physical and academic demands can be demanding for the instructor but when these are met, advancement can be made. This advancement will non g o on overnight but as the expression goes, â€Å" Good things take clip. † Shared Features of Down Syndrome Children Possibly the most of import feature of DS scholars is that their chronological age and physical adulthood are non declarative of their rational development, which develops at a much slower rate. For illustration, a DS pupil who is 10 old ages old might work cognitively and linguistically at the same degree as a typical 5 twelvemonth old ( Farrell & A ; Elkins, 1994 ) . DS pupils normally have problem with the development of their gross and all right motor accomplishments, which combined with a really low musculus tone affects the person ‘s ability to keep an appropriate position whilst acquisition. Fine motor accomplishment jobs mean that simple activities such as keeping a book and turning a page can be hard, as is handwriting ( Jordan, Miller & A ; Riley, 2011 ) . Because kids with DS frequently struggle to bring forth speech sounds and talk clearly, it is widely accepted that DS kids ‘s receptive vocabulary, is more advanced than their expressive vocabulary ( Farrell & A ; Elkin, 1994 ; Jordan et Al, 2011 ) . Stoel-Gammon ( 2010 ) states that DS kids by and large have a slow vocabulary growing ; by the clip kids are six, a DS kid has a productive vocabulary of around 330 words whereas his mainstream equals have productive vocabularies of several thousand words. Although hearing loss is a characteristic of these kids, they compensate by being extremely ocular scholars and when larning to read rely on their stronger ocular processing accomplishments to larn new words, instead than concentrating on letter-sound correspondences. Bing visually inclined, DS pupils learn to read utilizing a sight-word attack in which they recognise whole words based upon visual aspect and topographic point no accent on letter-sound relationships ( Lemons & A ; Fuchs, 2010 ) . DS kids have a high involvement in societal interaction and bask chances to collaborate, portion and learn with other people. They besides have high emotional demands and necessitate four times every bit much positive feedback as other pupils do ( Down syndrome WA, 2009 ) . Deductions of these Shared Characteristics for Literacy Instruction DS kids are sensitive to failure and deficiency consolidation schemes when larning. For this ground, Buckley and Bird ( 1993 ) recommend that instructors minimise pupil failure ; instructors can make this by to a great extent scaffolding them through each measure of a new reading or composing undertaking until they can finish it without the instructor ‘s intercession. Buckley and Bird highlight that DS pupils experience considerable trouble rectifying errors, much more so than other kids, so forestalling errors happening in the first topographic point is of import in the early phases of new acquisition, particularly with script. There are really strong links between DS pupils talking, reading and composing accomplishments. As mentioned, DS pupils learn to read best by larning sight-words instead than concentrating on letter-sound relationships to decrypt them. This impacts on the manner that instructors teach DS kids to read as it is non the same manner that they will learn the remainder of their mainstream pupils ( Buckley & A ; Bird, 1993 ) . As DS pupils are larning sight-words, instructors should promote them to correctly articulate them every bit good ; these two accomplishments interact with and inform each other so that the kid grows to understand the significances of words. The instruction and acquisition of composing straight links to speech and reading, excessively. Because DS pupils have small cognition of sentence structure, larning to compose utilizing common linguistic communication constructions influences how they begin to talk ; fundamentally, they learn the construction of sentences through acquisition to compose them and so get down to mime this construction when they are talking ( Buckley & A ; Bird ) . Although the usual attack to reading and composing for DS kids is through sight-words cognition, it is possible for them to larn letter-sound relationships ; instructors can help this by indicating out letter-sound correspondences in words that pupils already know good and pulling their attending to onset and rhyme within that word ( Buckley & A ; Bird, 1993 ) . Because DS kids do non follow auditory instructions good, instructors need to show information/directions/explanations/instructions in a ocular manner. Farrell and Elkers ( 1994 ) highlight that DS pupils prefer print because the ocular message does non melt away like a verbal message does. Kirijian, Myers and Charland ( 2007 ) reference that the instructor ‘s informed choice of literacy stuffs can maintain DS pupils engaged on the content for well longer periods of clip than they would be the instance if they were utilizing regular schoolroom stuffs. As DS kids have trouble with cognitive development, musculus tone and all right motor accomplishments, they find reading and composing undertakings more palling than others in their category do ; instructors need to be cognizant of this and give them smaller sums of work to finish or let short interruptions during lengthier activities ( Down syndrome Ireland, 2011 ) . Differentiated Direction for Teaching Down Syndrome Children Writing Before any authorship can take topographic point, instructors need to guarantee that their DS pupils have their organic structures supported in an unsloped place so they are non using energy seeking to keep an unsloped place because of their hapless musculus tone. Because all right motor accomplishments are ill developed, DS pupils ‘ handwriting direction can be adapted to holding the kid following letters in the air or on a flaxen surface with a finger, instead than doing them pull with a pencil on paper like other pupils. Once they have a strong tweezer clasp, the instructor can scaffold script by utilizing a highlighter to organize letters which the DS kid can follow over ; this will necessitate to be done many times before the kid is able to copy it, himself. It is of import that instructors ne'er assign the script to pattern and walk off to look into on other pupils because if the DS pupil makes a whole row of wrong letters, he is larning bad wonts that will be really hard to rectify. During these composing lessons, a feel good factor is critical for DS pupils to larn so it is better for them to merely compose 3 letters during this clip and have the lesson coating with them happy than for them to hold to compose more and stop up detesting authorship clip ( Down Syndrome WA, 2009 ) . During the existent authorship activities, instructors frequently need to back up DS pupils with both the formation of thoughts and so scribing them ; this is frequently done through joint building of texts by the pupil and instructor ( Moni & A ; Jobling, 2000 ) . As mentioned antecedently, instructors need to promote DS pupils to joint their thought as they read and write. To promote this, the instructor acts as a Scribe by composing down the pupil ‘s thoughts for him. Next, the instructor and child return turns physically composing the bill of exchange together ; this is done to avoid weariness in the pupil and assist him to accomplish something that would be beyond his ability if working unaided. By co-constructing texts, the instructor is besides patterning the thought processes required for authorship ; these texts can so be used for future reading pattern as it has significance for them. Another manner that instructors ‘ can distinguish composing for DS pupils is t o promote them to utilize a word processor to type up their co-constructed bill of exchange ; during this exercising, the instructor can cut down the scaffold by taking herself from the pupil and giving him a opportunity to work independently ( Moni & A ; Jobling, 2000 ) . Differentiated Direction for Teaching Down Syndrome Children Reading For the DS pupil, instructors need to make single reading ends and undertakings that are much simpler than those set for the remainder of the category. When larning to read, DS pupils require considerable more repeat to solidify larning than their mainstream equals do ( Jordan, Miller & A ; Riley, 2011 ) . By instructors uniting repeat of an activity with stuffs aimed at the DS kid ‘s ocular acquisition penchant, they are able to capitalize on run intoing both these demands in one spell. As pronunciation of sight-words is an issue for DS kids, instructors need to pattern this at the same clip that larning the word is happening. In several respects, DS kids learn to read in an opposite manner to mainstream students. DS kids learn the whole word foremost and attach significance to it at the same clip, whereas other pupils will utilize letter-sound correspondences to read the word and so use intending to it through sentence context. Once DS kids know a word, the instructor can construct on this by offering phonics direction utilizing that word, ab initio sectioning it into onset and rime and finally placing letter-phoneme relationships if the kid is able to. DS kids struggle with comprehension as their grammar and sentence structure cognition is ill developed or non-existent ( Buckley & A ; Bird, 1993 ) . To get the better of this, instructors can do simple books based on the kid ‘s ain experiences and write sentences with the kid ‘s spoken linguistic communication demands in head so that he is reading words, phrases and sentences aimed towards assisting him to speak with greater lucidity ( Buckley & A ; Bird ) . DS kids require little ‘bite sized ‘ reading undertakings instead than the 1s typically given to other pupils ; this enables them to experience a sense of accomplishment and stop the lesson on the all of import positive note. Because DS kids have high societal demands, instructors can integrate them into group and equal activities to increase larning chances accomplishments ( Snowling, Nash & A ; Henderson, 2010 ) . Teachers can besides offer reading support to DS pupils by supplying modeling of reading as equals read a text aloud whilst the DS pupil tracks the print in his ain book ; the same text can be repeated by several pupils as the repeat is of import for larning to happen. A similar affect can be achieved by utilizing engineering such as computing machine programmes that read aloud while pupils follow the text on screen. How Parents and Professionals can be Involved in a Literacy larning Partnership Due to the demands of learning DS kids literacy, instructors have terrible restraints placed on their clip as one-to-one direction is the most effectual manner of learning them. As such, it is necessary that the instructor receives help from a teacher adjutant or voluntary so that she can give attending to the other pupils in her category. The monetary value of holding an inclusive schoolroom is that particular demands pupils place force per unit area on the instructor. To get by with this, the instructor needs to garner together a support squad that can portion these demands and work hand in glove to learn the DS kid. With respects to literacy acquisition, it is of import that this school-based support squad works closely with the DS kid ‘s parents so that school and place literacy events are aligned and concentrating on a specific result. When DS kids are larning a specific reading accomplishment, instructors or specializers can teach parents how to reenforce this same acquis ition at place ( Snowling, Nask & A ; Henderson, 2010 ) . For illustration, Snowling et Al. province that parents frequently fail to inquire higher-level inquiries during reading activities with their DS kids ; as such, instructors can offer specific direction to parents on how to make this, likewise for onset/rime cleavage and phonological consciousness direction. This attack ensures that the kid is n't being instructed in two perchance counter-productive ways. Regular meetings and conferences between learning staff and parents should be held to measure advancement and program for following measure larning. These meetings besides give both parties an chance to discourse any concerns and maintain each other informed about other facets of the kid ‘s life, such as health/emotional province etc, which may hold an impact on larning ability. Decision Teaching DS kids is non a simple undertaking. They bring a combination of demands into the schoolroom which if separately broken down would each supply a challenge for the instructor to suit. The first measure to learning DS pupils is cognizing the issues that they face when larning to read, compose and talk ; these issues are both cognitive and physical and have deductions for how schoolroom instruction and acquisition is accomplished. DS pupils do n't larn the same manner as mainstream pupils do ; they require really heavy staging and advancement really easy when developing literacy accomplishments. However, single instructors are non entirely in this undertaking ; they have the support of other professionals and the kid ‘s parents, and jointly this group provides the kid with the emotional, physical, and academic support needed to go an active and valued member of both the schoolroom and wider society.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Knocking on Heaven’s Door

The movie tells us the story of two men who have heard bad news: they have to live a little, just a week and hardly one day more. For them, this is certainly a shock as they are still so young, but it is already the time for them to go to heaven. Of course they want to continue their lives, but unfortunately it is too late to change things. Trying to drown the sorrow with tequila, one of the main characters, demure Rudy realized that he has never been at the sea. On what second man lad Martin replies with a grin that on heaven all talks are about the sea as it the most remarkable and surprising phenomenon in the world. That's how it all begins †¦ It would be wrong to say that the story is only about the thirst for life and the man’s fear of not having enough time to do something important. Partly it is, but this film examines many valuable things and events in our lives that we perceive as a given, but still they are no less valuable. For example, the love of parents, real friendship, a desire to help and bring to the world something good. Every shot means something and teaches something, inspires and makes you think of. For example there is a scene in which Martin gives a Cuban cigar to a little girl who accidentally met him on the road from the bank. He wants to make random people happy, but what to give to a child? Candy? He hasn’t got any. Money? Children don’t really need them. There is only remaining a cigar, which he gave to her as an ice cream on a stick. The scene is funny and very touching. Generally, the film is about life with all its oddities, fortunate events, disappointments and of course loves. In some ways, the film looks like a zebra. White band, then black and white again and again the black. Everything goes well with the disappointing events, the opportunity to live in grand style at least slightly overlaps with the pursuit and arrest †¦ Everything is exactly how it is happens in the world †¦ This movie consists of small particular things. Martin calls the stolen car sky blue colored Mercedes, not blue, it was heavenly blue. How Rudy complains about the cheap suit for 2000 dollars. Of course because they have found a million of dollars in the trunk of stolen car. And many other significant moments from which the content of this film constructed. The duet of main actors is incomparable. Their heroes are complete opposites of each other. Perhaps in real life they would not even said hello, they are so diverse – desperate daredevil Martin and calm and quiet Rudy. But facing a total disaster, they rallied and become friends. Even for such a short period. They affect each other. Rudy gets Martins quality – lack of fear and a desire to taste more and more freedom. And Martin gets Rudy’s – caring for loved ones and the thought of the generous assistance. And yet they managed to do this, give their selves and their loved ones a little bit, but true happiness †¦ All this happened only because they had a goal. One goal! To do in one week everything that they failed to do in whole life!

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Collge Sports, its advantages (good) Research Paper

Collge Sports, its advantages (good) - Research Paper Example Notably, sporting coaches ensure the success of students in college sports. Nevertheless, the type of sports that specific colleges offer depend on various factors which may include the season of the year, orientation of the college, and the availability of resources. However, some of the sports that colleges offer include basketball, football, volleyball, American football, Water Skiing, Snow skiing, Tubes, swimming, athletics, Softball, baseball, field hockey among others. Moreover, there are college competitions that involve these sporting activities. At the same time, there are College Sports Channels that provide college sport highlights. However, there has always being questions and researches regarding the advantage and disadvantages of college sports. Most assuredly, the benefits that colleges derive from college sports may go beyond money and may be difficult to measure since they are not monetary (Drescher 1). Ideally, college sports bring massive exposure to the college (R obe 1). In fact, when colleges participate in big-sporting championships they get a chance for massive national exposure to thousands of spectators through the televisions that broadcast such events. As such, through college sports, many people get to know about the sporting colleges thus attracting students, sponsors, or donations subject to the fact that many people will get all the relevant information about the college. Moreover, college sports promote the academic mission of such institutions. In fact, there are major colleges whose mission statement abhors sporting success. As a result, participation in college sport will enable them to attain their mission (Robe 1). Indeed, according to Robe, â€Å"Martin certainly seems to think so, as he gushes that weekly televised football games give viewers â€Å"a chance to see what LSU is about† (Robe 1).At the same time, college sports are a very profitable adventure for an institution as it draws huge revenues from the ventur e. First, college sports attract huge returns from the loyal fans that pay the entrance fee to experience the college sports events. More so, colleges charge broadcasting fees that relate to loyalties to sporting channels that broadcast college sporting championships. Such fees amount to millions of dollars especially for big teams with huge stadiums. For example, according to Jonathan Robe, â€Å"It is true, on the other hand, that athletics is a highly profitable enterprise for LSU (the school had $111 million in revenues to go with its $102 million in expenditures)† (Robe 1). In addition, the college sports subsequently increases the donations and sponsorships to the reference college as there are partners who value sporting success and reward it inform of scholarships and donations to the institution. Indeed, according to Michael L. Anderson, â€Å"large increases in team performance can have economically signi?cant effects, particularly in the area of athletic donations † (Anderson 24). More so, students can also benefit financially from college sports in cases where colleges pay students to participate college sporting competitions. Similarly, colleges can use college sports to do fundraisers aimed at boosting the financial status of such institutions. Furthermore, college sports improve the academic reputation of a school and boosts enrollment (Anderson 1) as more people would love to associate with the

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Old advertising and marketing vs. effective new media campaigns Essay

Old advertising and marketing vs. effective new media campaigns - Essay Example Both Fordism and post-Fordism have to do with the organisation of businesses, but they are normally extended to include political and social spheres (Tuten, 2008). Fordism was the accepted process and practice in the industrialisation of nations in the past. It was focused on delivering effectiveness in the processes of mass production. Post-Fordism, on the other hand, is applied in modern definitions of industrial progress as the previous grew less efficient in handling the new technical innovations (Ioannides and Debbage, 1997). The fundamental values of Fordism were the establishment of big processing production facilities that were characterised by inflexibility in a procedure that was supervised by a hierarchical and bureaucratic executive system. A partially-skilled workforce was engaged to function in repetitive as well as highly specialised operations. The dominant political and societal constituent of Fordism was that it was centred on shielding the national market (Boynton and Milazzo, 1996). It aimed to preserve jobs within borders with the aim of selling principally to the populace of the local market. Fordism, which got its name from Henry Ford, proposed the design of central control, homogeny and the capacity to cultivate and meet the requirements necessary for the mass consumption of products and services market. Post-Fordism, on the other hand, has to do with the era of technical advancements which have altered the entire procedure of production. The extensive, bureaucratic business establishment that characterized Fordism is no longer relevant. The post-Fordist model is evident in the reorganisation of the administrative structures of organizations. In such corporate structures, there are fewer employees, as well as the specialization of all operations. Post-Fordism is interested in consumer preferences, and market segmentation (Kompare, 2006). The basic doctrines of post-Fordism would be making use of more flexibility, and ensuring that the la bour force is only constituted of specialists, with blue collar skills being subcontracted to other companies market. There is a greater stress on individual consumer tastes and distinctiveness instead of the perception of the consumer force as a joint homogenised unit. Another critical disparity between post-Fordism and Fordism is that the former sees the economy in international terms, having given up its domestic interests that were characterised by the Fordist glory days after World War II (Ioannides and Debbage, 1997). Both post-Fordism and Fordism are widely used in many industries in developing as well as developed nations in the world (Boxall and Purcell, 2008). The technology division has clearly espoused the principles of post-Fordism, but the Fordist principles are still used by many corporations. The bigger the business and the more conventional its manufactured goods, the more it is inclined towards observing the Fordist values of organisation. Moreover, the post-Fordis t method of conducting business is quickly gathering momentum, and is the obvious practice of the future (Boxall and Purcell, 2008). Post-Fordism has complicated the conventional Marxist connection between the employee’s labour time and the extent of her or his misuse (Hutchison, 2008). As work becomes more dematerialised and the distribution of labour in business production declines, investment not only takes precedence in the working hours in which commodities are produced, it uses up all of the employee’s time, and thoughts. Goods are formed not to be used up directly, but as a type of new communication, language, and knowledge (Grainge, 2008). The purpose of consumption these days is not just the creation of products, but the duplication of new variations as well as conditions for the manufacturing process (Grainge, 2008). The operations of the immaterial businesses become the creation of subjectivities that are creative as well as cultural categories, and not fina ncial ones. Consumption

Monday, August 26, 2019

Reputation and talent Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Reputation and talent - Essay Example The most important sustainable issue therefore to be discussed and explore is that of the reputation and talent management. Issues related with the labor, overtimes, low pays and unhygienic working conditions are some of the issues which constantly spring up in the media regarding Foxconn and which is ultimately hurting the reputation of our clients also. Apple has been focus of the controversy due to Foxconn. To successfully deal with this issue and to ensure that such negative publicity do not occur again, it is to be ensured that a systematic and thorough understanding of the Foxconn’s working environment will be conducted. Since Foxconn works in a particular cultural environment also therefore the emphasis would be placed upon helping the world to understand the actual cultural context within which Foxconn operates and how it is going to address all the related issues. In order to overcome the situation, a complete stakeholders’ analysis will be made to address the issue. Most important stakeholders will be taken into consideration and their views and concerns will be addressed. Especially those of Foxconn’s clients which operate into West and are subject to strict regulatory and ethical challenges regarding their operations and supply chain will be taken into consideration also. After discussions and thorough systematic study of the factors contributing towards the negative reputation of the firm, strategies will be recommended. Based upon the factors identified and the overall requirements of the stakeholders, a through change management plan will be implemented to overcome the management weaknesses and other related issues which are contributing towards this. After successful implementation of the plan, it is expected that the numbers of complaints in this regard will be reduced. Further, the employees will be

Biology Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Biology Research - Essay Example Basal like tumors are most commonly found in Nigeria and Senegal. Research is on to find drugs to block the specific molecules that these tumors need to grow. Women with mutations in a gene called Brca1 tend to develop this kind of aggressive breast tumor. Patterns of genetic activity of these tumors are measured through special tests because what the biological tests reveal turn out to be quite different from what the human eyes perceive. Researchers used new techniques of molecular biology to determine the patterns of gene activity in the cancer cells and then to classify and sort the subtypes by race. Further research is on to find an alternative to chemotherapy. Women of race are advised to get counseling in preventive care well before 40 especially if it runs in their family. As the incidence of breast cancer and mortality due to breast cancer keeps increasing in the USA, researchers and oncologists have been intrigued trying to find the root cause of breast cancer. While various physiological reasons have been associated, recent findings suggest that environmental factors react with genetic and individual predisposing factors and cause malignant tumors to develop in breast tissue. A paper Breast cancer and environmental risks: where is the link? by Mitra et al., (2004) was published in Journal of Environmental Health. To asses the environmental agents, the authors have reviewed previous studies focusing on xenoestrogens, organochlorines, polychlorinated biphenyls, and other environmental agents. Results revealed that exogenous estrogens present in the environment increase the growth of breast cancer cells while hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and oral contraceptives also play a significant role in the development of breast cancer during adolescence. X enoestrogens may increase the risk of cancer among those who are

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Essay questions Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 23

Questions - Essay Example US officials, on the other hand, viewed nuclear energy as having potential non-military benefits, thus giving rise to atomic diplomacy, in which the US sought to prove to the USSR that it was capable and willing to execute a nuclear attack (Ross 33). Atomic diplomacy was used in the Korean War, the first confrontation between the two super-powers, during which the US deployed B-29 bombers as a signal of its resolve, although by 1953, this idea was rejected as a means of coercion to further a cease-fire agreement in the conflict (Arnold & Wiener 21). When the USSR acquired capabilities to deliver nuclear war-heads on Western European and US territories in the late 50s, atomic diplomacy gave way to mutual deterrence, in which the two super-powers refrained from attacking each other due to the certainty of mutually assured destruction. During this period in which the USSR, the US, and its allies were separated by the ‘Iron Curtain’, the West’s general policy was to contain Communist states by keeping them within their present borders and hoping for internal failure and division that would end their threat (Arnold & Wiener 22). Although Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) was not the founder of the Civil Rights Movement, he can be considered its formative figure and its de facto leader due to his sacrifices and the influence he had on some of its most seminal milestones (Ward & Badger 18). MLK was one of the first African American leaders to advocate for a social movement against racial segregation that used non-violent means, which was a hallmark of the Civil Rights Movement. He provided leadership for the Civil Rights Movement, which sought to end racial discrimination and segregation against blacks, while also securing federal protection and legal recognition for them as enumerated in federal and constitutional law. He was a major contributor to the Second Reconstruction, which was a

Saturday, August 24, 2019

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock - Essay Example Elliot has used his poetic skill to create a complex character study. He also creates an image of the period with ladies in long skirts; tea rooms; smoke from chimneys; smoggy evenings; a man in a morning suit with a high collar cutting into his chin. To some extent though the poem reflects, not just the society of the time, but also Elliot’s own place in it and his rather pessimistic view of his own situation. In this essay the poem will be considered as to how it reflects his life. Poetry Genius (2014) describes it as being :- The lines at the beginning are taken from Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ and are spoken by one of the damned souls in hell, Count Guido da Montefeltro, who describes how nobody ever returns from this dead state. Prufrock in this poem may be walking and talking in an earthly city, but in some senses he too is one of the living dead, observing society, yet not quite part of it. Prufrock has a companion, a listener to whom he says (line1) ‘Let us go then, you and I.’ It is unclear whether or not this listener is a real companion, or just Prufrock talking to his inner self as an internal monologue in which he describes himself in both negative and positive terms as when he says :- So he sees himself as a lesser figure, an attendant upon society, an extra in a film set perhaps, but with a role nevertheless. He then acts this out, by moving only on the very edges of society, in this case at the head of the stairs, rather in the room with the women talking about Michelangelo. They are interested in a great and admired artist, so why should women even notice him? Even the soot from the many chimneys falls upon him, making him even more invisible (line 19). The original title for the poem was ’Prufrock among the women’ (Cummings, undated). He isn’t interacting with them, and seems totally unable to. He is just there at the same time. Time seems to have stood still for him,

Friday, August 23, 2019

Micro Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Micro Economics - Essay Example Profit is the difference between the total revenue obtained from sales and the total cost incurred by the firm. In the long-run the decisions taken would be only exit decisions. Exit decisions are decisions taken by a firm to leave the market. They are not called as Shut-down decisions. Shut-down is only in the short-run. Long run equilibrium plays a crucial role in deciding the existence of the firm. In the long run there are enough time periods for the firm to cover its losses and earn normal profits. This is because in the long run, all inputs are variable and the firm can have the most profitable level of output i.e. the profit maximization level of output. (B) In the recent years, the business travel market has seen a tremendous change with respect to the airline industry. Changes in demand for leisure travel include more short term breaks and more independent holidays where passengers book flights, car and accommodation by themselves. The reason for the decline in business class travel is the supply led high business fares which stretched the so called "inelastic business class segment" and also he expansion of low cost airlines. 2. Price Discrimination can be defined as the method of charging different prices for essentially the same good to different buyers. There are three types of Price discrimination. They are, first, second and third degree discrimination. First-degree discrimination - This is the most extreme form of discrimination in which each consumer is charged the maximum price he would be willing to pay for each individual unit consumed. This kind of discrimination can be noticed in the healthcare industry where doctors charge different fees from different patients. Second-degree price discrimination - This is a more practical form of price discrimination. Here firms charge a different price for each set of units sold. Different prices are charged for different blocks or portions of consumption. This kind of price discrimination is followed in the power and telecom industry. The reason behind this is the prices are based on the quantities of output purchased by individual consumers. By doing so, the firms can profit as the quantities used or consumed vary from individual to individual and hence if there is a high consumption by a particular consumer, there is a chance for the firm to earn more profits. Third-degree price discrimination - This is the most common form of price discrimination. Consumers or markets are segmented on the basis of their price elasticity of demand. Often, third-degree price discrimination occurs in the markets that are geographically separated. Foe example, books published by American publishers are sold in other countries at a lower price than in the U.S. Evidently, buyers in the other countries have greater elasticity' of demand that US buyers. At the same time, the high shipping costs makes it unprofitable for firms to buy in foreign countries and resell in the United States. (B) Whenever we travel, is it a train or a flight, it is noticed that adults are charged a different price for the ticket and children are charged a different price. Other similar price discrimination in the same context is that rails some have rail cards entitling them to discounts; others do not. It is cheaper for people who book in advance. This

Thursday, August 22, 2019

African American Oral Tradition Essay Example for Free

African American Oral Tradition Essay Modern African American Literature was formed under a stressful time for Africans, slavery. The only way the stories of the indigenous people of Africa were passed down was through oral recollections, or stories of the events. In America this was especially difficult for the slaves because of laws preventing them from learning English. By not being allowed to learn English, the slaves had to learn English solely on auditory purposes. This essentially made the slaves illiterate. When the slaves transferred the language that they heard to paper, a new style of language was formed which was referred to as dialect. Dialect is what the slaves thought they heard and the correct spelling of those words, not standard English. Dunbar, who wrote fluently in both standard English and dialect was praised by white critics only for his dialect poems, and not praised for his poems in standard English. His literacy works are still alive today, however the dialect works were attached with a stigma. Usually whites despised the African’s dialect. Therefore, the slaves would not try to publish any type of work with dialect because the slaves did not want to be associated with the stigma. In all, by creating a unique dialect gave the slaves a bilingual type of style. By not being able to write, slaves also made Genres such as, spiritual, folk songs and gospels. Songs such as these were ways of passing down stories to the next generation. These songs also contained secret messages. These messages may have contained information about escape routes or even the underground- railroad. However most of the songs were spiritual in nature. The songs also progressed through the years. The originals slave folk songs, spirituals, and gospels are now prevalent in modern day jazz and the blues. Martin even gives the example of Hayden, who mixes his song ideas with the ideas of Bessie Smith. Even though African are allowed to read and write, this is a form how their culture is still expressed today. Martin made the emphasis that the oral tradition is part of the African Americans distinct culture.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Age of Exploration Essay Example for Free

Age of Exploration Essay The age of exploration had many varied effects on the countries involved, mainly Spain, France, and England. By establishing a prosperous empire in South America by conquering the native people, Spain became vastly wealthy off of the gold collected by its native subjects. However, since the native people were dying off rapidly due to the foreign diseases brought over by the Conquistadors, as well as malnutrition and fatigue, Spain and Portugal were the first to introduce slavery to the New World by replacing them with African slaves brought over by Portuguese slave traders. The silver mining by these slaves caused world trade to increase. Often, silver brought to Europe from America was then traded with China and other Asian countries, making silk, porcelain, and Indian spices more prevalent in Europe. Products from America that became popular in Europe included corn, potatoes, pineapples, and sugar cane. Many cultures spread and combined with others: Spanish missionaries converted natives to Christianity, which then combined the new Christian beliefs with the natives’ cultural traditions. Another example, Arabian coffee with American sugar became quite popular throughout Europe. Although saying that anyone who crossed the Atlantic (at least when referring to modern theories) truly discovered America is ridiculous, I believe that the first to do so was Leif Eriksson and his group of Vikings whose settlement was found in Canada. According to the Greenlander saga and the Eric saga, his father, Eric the Red, a Viking outlaw, discovered Greenland. In order to establish himself as a man separate from his father, Leif sailed to the west in order to discover his own land. He sailed west because there had been a rumor in Greenland for the past fifteen years of a merchant sailing from Iceland to Greenland whose ship had been blown off course in a storm. According to the rumor, the merchant claimed that there were three separate lands west of Greenland. Around the year 1000, Leif purchased the merchant’s ship from the story, and obtained directions from the same merchant. He set sail only for a few days, which was reportedly was miserable due to the conditions on the open boat. On this expedition, they were seeking trees, which were scare in Greenland, but abundant in what is now northern Newfoundland, Canada, where the party landed. Leif named the new land Vinland after the wild grapes found there and the wine the grapes produced. Shortly thereafter, the settlers began to erect a settlement and scouted the land. In 1960, the archeologist and set out to find the fabled Vinland, using a four hundred year old Icelandic map and descriptions from the sagas. On the very northern tip of Newfoundland, they came across an area of mounds and ruins near a small town. Because the ruins predated the settlement of the area, the locals had always believed that Native Americans created the mounds. In fact, through almost seven years of painstaking excavations and radiocarbon testing, it was proven that the ruins were of a settlement dating back to the year 1000. Various artifacts found at the site also confirmed its Norse origins. Archeologists have gone so far as to pinpoint which ‘house’ was Leif Eriksson’s, based on size and complexity of the structure. I believe that Leif Eriksson was the first to cross the Atlantic and settle in America because of many factors. The radiocarbon dating of the site which puts it at 1000 C. E. immediately eliminates any of the explorers from the age of exploration, as well as the Chinese in 1492, in addition to the obvious implausibility of traveling above Canada in ice riddled waters in a flimsy wooden vessel. A case could perhaps be made for the merchant in the sagas who started the rumor, but as with all epic stories, the Icelanders who were the ones to transcribe the sagas based on oral stories, may have simply added him in as a fictional supporting character. Because of this and other equally plausible scenarios, I have to concede that Leif Eriksson was the first to reach the New World by crossing the Atlantic. There is confusion among certain people about whether America was colonized because of a desire for more money on the part of England or because the colonists were seeking religious freedom from the Roman Catholic Church. This confusion stems mainly from the watered down version of Jamestown and the Mayflower that we teach students at a young age. While it is true that Puritans did indeed come to the New World seeking religious freedom, the initial desire to colonize America was all about the desire for wealth. Because of Spain’s conquests in South America, the gold it had acquired from the natives and silver mining had made the country vastly wealthy and other nations were eager to get their share of the riches. America also had an abundant supply of farmland at a time when many farmers had small farms that they toiled over in an effort to merely support their families. In addition, as more settlers moved to America and created a demand for indulgences that they were accustomed to in Europe, the companies that sold such items made more money because of the higher prices the settlers had to pay in order to accommodate shipping costs. In short, while religious freedom was a noble and idealistic dream, it wouldn’t benefit anyone or make any money, which is what people were chiefly concerned with. How would America be different if it had been settled one hundred years later, in 1592? To begin with, it probably would not be called ‘America’. America is so named after Amerigo Vespucci; however, as he died in 1512, it is unlikely that we would have been named after him. Perhaps we would be named Raleigh, after Walter Raleigh, a British explorer of both North and South America in our actual history. Christopher Columbus would not be in history books, as he would not have been to Raleigh. Native Americans thus would have never been referred to as Indians. Because of our late start as a nation, it is reasonable to assume that certain historical events in our country would be delayed, let us say, fifty years or so. Because colonization was delayed, it would take longer for tensions to raise between the colonists and the French, so the French and Indian War would not have started in 1689, but around 1739 instead. This in turn would delay the Seven years war and thus the taxed imposed by the British that led to the American Revolution, which would now begin in 1825. Thus, we would have the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1826 and become our own country in 1833. Or alternatively, because of the differing technology, we might have lost the war and still been English today. But lets assume that we won and Raleigh was founded. I believe the Civil War would have been delayed as well until 1911, three years before World War One started. Both world wars, because we did not start them, would have happened the same years as they actually did, 1914 and 1939 respectably. However, I believe that the issue of civil and women’s’ rights would have been later in coming, perhaps in the 80’s. We would probably be dealing with racism more than gay rights today, if that were the case. And our music would be behind as well, so 60’s music today would then be 80’s music now.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Effects Of Thermal Pollution On Aquatic Species

Effects Of Thermal Pollution On Aquatic Species The pollution is the biological, chemical or physical alteration of the water, land, or air that is harmful to living organisms, ocean waters and surface waters. The surface waters, such as lakes, rivers, streams, and underground aquifers can get affected in different way. They can get polluted in common way including human and animal wastes, pathogenic microorganisms, pesticides, and sediment. The water pollution can happen in industrial nations by wasting toxic metals, organic chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and acids. The human activities that can contribute to pollution are constructions, drilling, dam construction, salting of roads and driveways to melt the ice, waste disposal and agriculture. Sometimes even hot water can consider as a pollutant. The effects of water pollution follow the path of the waters as they trickle through soil, filter through rock beds, and flow down streams and river system, and into oceans. The excess amount of inorganic nutrients such as nitrates and phos phates or raw sewage pollutes lakes or ponds, algae and aquatic plants overgrow. As of the aquatic plants die, they fall in the bottom of the water and the bacteria and other microorganisms decompose the remaining of them and that uses up all the dissolved oxygen in the water and suffocating the other aquatic life in the lake or pond. Thermal pollution is the degradation of water quality by any process that changes ambient water temperature, which is associated with increase in water temperature in streams, lakes or the ocean due to the discharge of heated water from industrial processes. How does the water quality change? It changes when water is used in industrial and power plants as a coolant. Whenever it is used and returned to the natural environment, the temperature changes, because warmer water effluent creates a reduced oxygen supply in the environment and therefore it affects aquatic ecosystems. Whenever the power plants are opened or shut off for repair, the fish and other aquatic species, cannot adapt to sudden changes in temperature and they are killed by thermal shock. In addition to harming aquatic life that cannot tolerate the warmer water, the warmer temperatures lower the amount of dissolved oxygen. The elevated temperature decreases the dissolved oxygen in water and this harms aquatic animals by increasing the metabolic rate of aquatic animal due to increased enzyme activity, which results in increase in food consumption within organism shorter period of time. Sometimes this results in disruptions of the food chain and decrease in biodiversity. The higher water temperature can also result in increases in aquatic plant growth rates, shorter lifespan and over population of the species. Algae blooms also reduce oxygen levels. The higher temperature denatures the life supporting enzymes by breaking disulphide and hydrogen bond in enzymes structure, which results in the inability to break down lipids which leads to malnutrition. The heated water has multiple effects on the nearby ecosystem. The warmer temperatures increase the ability of plants to photosynthesize, which may spur an algal bloom. It also increases the stress on plants and animals in the water. The temperature changing harms the fish and other aquatic organisms in many ways. The fish and invertebrates are ectotherm s; where they are cold blooded animals, which are slow moving, slow growing and adapted to specific water temperature. This warmer temperature speeds up their metabolism, which harms their ability to survive and reproduce. The native fish like trout may lose their ground while nonnative take place instead of them. All these power plants have different types of cooling systems, which is easiest and cheapest cooling method, where cool water is withdrawn from a nearby water body and hot water is returned to the same water body. Soon as the system is by far the most environmentally destructive, the closed cycle cooling reuses the cooling water so that the waste heat does not leave the plant, but still excess heat is released into the atmosphere from the plant towers. The nuclear energy is the No 1 source of the free electricity which provides 20% of the United States electricity. There are 437 nuclear power plants are in operation and 55 are under construction worldwide. Those 437 plants have a net capacity of about 371 GW and the 55 will have capacity of 51 GW to generate the energy. The 20% of the electricity is provided by 104 reactors in whole United State, where 35 of the reactors are boiling water reactors and 69 of them are pressurized water reactors. In the boiling water reactors, 14 of them are one reactor; 9 of them are two reactors and 1 has three reactors. For the pressurized water reactors, 15 of them are one reactor, 24 of them are two reactors and 2 of them have three reactors. There are 32 companies which are licensed to operate the nuclear reactors in United States. As of the 2009 records, 8 of the states have 31 reactors and those states generate largest percentage of the electricity. The Vermont state has generated largest perc entage of the electricity in 2009, which was 72%, then 2nd largest comes to New Jersey 55.1%, following Connecticut 53.4%, South Caroline 52.0%, Illinois 48.7%, New Hamphshire 44.1%, Virginia 39.6% and at last in 8 state Pennsylvania with 35.1%. The United States largest nuclear plant is located at Palo Verde in Arizona. That plant has 3 reactors which generates 1,311 MW, 1,314 MW, and 1,317 MW for a total of 3,942 megawatts. On the other side Uniteds smallest nuclear power plant is at the Ft. Calhoun in Nebraska with 1 reactor and capacity of the 482 MW of generation electricity. In the time line the newest nuclear power plant that was built was in June 1996, in Tennessee. This plant is called Watts Bar 1, which is located in the spring city, and the capacity for generation if 1,123 MW. From 1990s to 2000s there have been 4 other plants have been built, which are in August 1993, the Comanche Peak 2 with capacity of 1,158 MW and in 1990, the Comanche Peak 1, with capacity of 1,209 M W. The other 2 were in August 1990, the Seabrook 1 in New Hampshire with 1,244 MW capacity and in January 1990, Limerick 2 in Pennsylvania with 1,134 MW by Exelon Corporation. The oldest operating nuclear plant is Oyster Creek in New Jersey, operating license since April 1969. The nuclear reactor is a device to initiate, control and sustain a nuclear chain reaction. The most common use of it is in generation of electrical power and to transport the power. The nuclear reactor is usually involves heat from the reactor chamber to power steam turbines. These reactors are made by 4 major manufacturers. The reactor manufacturers are GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, Westinghouse, AREVA NP and Asea Brown Boveri/Combustion Engineering (ABB-CE), where ABB-CE is the worldwide nuclear business company. As of the generation capacity by all the nuclear power plants in United Nations 20.2% or 798.7 billion kilowatt-hours (bkWh) of the total U.S. electricity and 14% or 2,560 billion kilowatt-hours of the worlds electricity in 2009. In comparison to other sources, 1,000 MWe reactors has 90% of amount of electricity has generated in 1 year. The generated electricity is 7.9 billion KWh, which is good for 740,000 households. To generate that much amount of energy by other fuel sour ces, it would require 13.7 million barrels of the oil or 3.4 million tons of coal or 65.8 billion cubic feet of the natural gas. As of the plant performance the South Texas Project 2 in Texas has generated of 11.8 billion KWh in 2007 with most electricity generation record and the longest operating period between refueling goes to LaSalle 1 from Illinois in February 2006 for 739 days. Oyster Creek, Hope Creek, Salem Nuclear Power Plant Figure : Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station.The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generation Station (OCNGS) is oldest operating nuclear power plant in United States, which is located in Forked River in the Lacey Township, in New Jersey. This plant is spread out in 700 acres of the land and build by Burns Roe, Inc. and owned by the Exelon Corporation. It is one of the four nuclear power plant unit in New Jersey. The other 2 units are at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant, and the Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station. The OCNGS plant was built in 1965 and started power generating in December, 1969 with a license to work for 40 years, but in 2009 the license was extended for another 20 years by The Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The plant draws its cooling water from Barnegat Bay, and dumps the water into the Atlantic Ocean through Barnegat Inlet. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued the license for first 40 years on the basis of the economic and antitrust considerations, but not techni cal limitations (Peter N. Tabbot M.P.H. and Mark G. Robson, M.P.H. September 2006). The OCNGS has a capacity of producing 619 MWe, the total power generated in 2007 was 5077 GW-h and from last 5 year average generation capacity is 5042 GW-h by using a boiling water reactor (BWR). This power plant has generated 4.9 million MWh with capacity factor of 91% and served 600,000 homes as of 2009 record. Each day the OCNGS uses 1.3 billion gallons of Barnegat Bay Water for its antiquated cooling system, which is 2.2% of the total volume of the bay per day and over 790% of the bay per year (CITATION). When the plant automatically shuts downs for safety reasons, fish gets killed due to lack of warm water that input into the bay. In 2002, 5,876 fish were killed, and plant was fined $1 million, where as in 2006, only 80 fish died; 2007 another 5,304 were killed, and the plant was fined $67,859 and in 2008, 38 fish died in following a shutdown. These cooling towers should prevent these fish kil ls that is causing by higher temperature and somehow reduce the higher temperatures near the plants current discharge area back to normal. This plant has approximately 700 employees, which their payroll is around $53 million in 2003 and $63 million in 2009 also where the property tax for 2009 was $2.4 million. This plant has increased output associated with 1034 jobs in New Jersey and 915 jobs in Ocean County. This plant has sponsorship the united way of Ocean County by contributing more than $277,000 in 2009 and counted as largest employee run campaign in Ocean County. The plant intakes and discharges 1.4 billion gallons of the water on daily basis, and it taken in at a speed of 1-2,000 cubic feet per second, which is the force of medium sized river. The giant sucking action brings the assortment of the smaller aquatic life that flows through the grate and gets killed in the process of the cooling the reactor, which is called as entrainment. Where the larger aquatic life such as st riped bass, white perch and endangered sea turtles, gets pinned on the grate and often die, or seriously gets injured by the rush of oncoming water, which is impingement. This plant has developed a record of killing sea turtles in last ten years from 1992 to 2000, 17 sea turtles and 6 sea turtle mortalities. In September 2002, the plant has largest fish kill since 1985, they has over half a million fish dead, due to plant operators fault. They had failed to turn off the dilution pumps during emergency shut-downs and allowing millions of gallons of the hot water to enter the creek and bay. The modern pollution controls require them to install a closed cycle cooling system, which draws water into the plant for cooling, re-circulates and expels the heat through cooling towers. This system reduces the water intake and discharge by 95%, saving 13 million fish and shellfish and a loss of tens of millions additional larvae annually. It also eliminates the fish kills caused by thermal shock from the discharge, stop the dumping over 365 tons of toxic ware into the bay annually. The NJ DEPs current draft permit for oyster creek does not require the plant to install a closed cycle cooling system. But they have gotten 3500 acres of wetlands for restoration for fall back option as the alternative way. Figure : Salem Nuclear Power Plant. Figure : Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station. The other three nuclear power stations are located in Lower Alloways Creek Township, New Jersey in United States. Those all three plants owned by PSEG Nuclear LLC and Exelon Generation LLC. Two of the power stations are called Salem Nuclear Power Plants, which are pressurized water reactor nuclear power station and the other one is called a Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station, which is a thermal nuclear power plant. These three plants share an artificial island in the Delaware Bay. As of the 2004 record, the plants have paid $1.23 million in property taxed to Lower Alloways Creek, accounting for 55% of the townships $2.25 million property tax. The plants have expenditures in the four counties surrounding the plants totaled more than $170 million in 2004. The labor has represented $145.5 million, the goods and services represented as $24.7 million. These spending within region represents, around 27% of the plants total spending of $617 .8 million and 66% of the $256.3 million spent in New Jersey and Delaware (Nuclear Energy Institute September 2006). The Salem Nuclear Power Plant has two units, which were started in 1977 and 1981 and those two plants have a combined capacity of 2275 MWe. The unit 1 is licensed to operate until August, 2016 and unit 2 is licensed to operate until April, 2020. The PSEG have applied for a 20 year extension of license for both of these units. The technical problem made the Salem Reactors to shut down for two years in 1990s. They had found several difficulties, including leaky a generators, and unreliable controls on the reactor. In 2004, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission revised the oversight of this plant and ordered authorities to increase the monitoring overnight. Those plant uses more than 3 billion gallons of the Delaware Bays water every single day for cooling, replacing the closed cooling system. The Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station which is thermal nuclear power plant wa s established in 1986, and it has license to operate the plant until April, 2026. It also has applied for a 20 years extension for license renewal. This plant has producing capacity of 1059 MWe, and in 2007 it has produced 8104 GW-h, where it has average of 7528 GW-h in last 5 years of energy production. This is the plant has the cooling towers, which is designed to remove the heat by pumping water up into the tower and allowing it to fall down inside the tower. Soon as the heat passes the water, it exchanges the some of the heat and evaporates some of the water. The evaporated flows out the top of the tower and form of a fine cloud like mist, where the cooled water is collected at the bottom of the tower and pumped back into the plant for reuse. This kinds of cooling towers are used where the land and water is expensive and where the state of federal regulations make alternatives impractical. The New Jersey has been ranked 10th in nuclear capacity and 9th place in nuclear generatio n in 2008. Effects of the Nuclear Power Plants The discarded radioactive materials from nuclear submarines and military waste have been a major source of radioactivity in the oceans. Those discarding materials have caused fatal harm to marine life, and it has also entered the food chain as some organisms like shell fish concentrate radioactivity in their bodies which are later consumed by humans. The pesticides like DDT and PCBS can enter the oceans through city waste water and industrial discharges from farms and forests. The Thermal pollution is when high or low temperature water is discharged from an industrial source. The difference in temperatures can kill corals and other sensitive marine organisms that are not developed to handle the different temperatures. The Thermal discharges of unused heat from fossil fuel or from fission in the nuclear fuel constitute another kind of environmental impact. Thermal effects in biota include problems with reproduction, growth, survival of larval forms, juveniles and adults. Regulatory ag encies establish water temperature standards to govern heated discharges from the power plants to prevent catastrophic kills to occur, or thermally induced demise of aquatic populations. Fish, plankton and benthos are all affected at various degrees by thermal discharges from power plants. Other environmental impact common to all nuclear power plants are the highly visible transmission lines associated with the generation and distribution of electricity. Underground cables are not yet an economically feasible solution for most cases of transmission of electricity. Radioactive effluents released from nuclear power plants are, however, the main object of monitoring and control to minimize exposure of the public to ionizing radiation. Another effect of the nuclear power plant would be acid rain. The acid rain is the slightly acidic, with the pH of 5.6 of lower, which is due to small amount of carbon dioxide in water droplets to form mild carbonic acid. The other steps which lead to acid rain is the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides released into the atmosphere primarily by nuclear power plants and metal ore refineries. All these oxide gases then react with water vapor to produce sulfuric acid, nitric and nitrous acid, which dissolve in the water droplets, and then combine with normal droplets and form into raindrops, in this case count as acid raindrops. In the Northeastern United States, have very low buffering capacity, therefore if the rainfall is acidic the most rocks and soils have increased their acid levels by 5 to 10 fold in the past few decades. The acidic soil lover the pH of the streams those flow over them, and the Environmental Protection Agency has reported in 2000, that approximately 580 of the str eams in the Mid-Atlantic coastal plain were found to be acidic including 90% of the streams in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey and that was highest percentage in the nation. This combined acidity has lowered the pH of some lakes around 5.0 and even Little Echo Pond in Franklin, New York got lowered until pH of 4.2 in the Northeastern United States. Effect on the Ocean mammals Figure : The Green Turtle.The Green sea turtle is the larger sea turtle with binomial name Chelonia mydas from Cheloniidae family with only species in the genus Chelonia. It is the endangered species listed by IUCN and CITES. It is with low, broadly oval carapace and small head with one pair of pre frontal scales that are unique to them. Their shell length ranges from 36-43 inches and weights average between 200-300 pounds. They evolved more than 150 million years ago, and they spend entire lives in the sea, even more then come to the surface to breathe, and remain underwater for several hours for resting. They inhabit warm, tropical and subtropical waters, they migrate northward as temperature increase in the late spring, and stays there until late fall. Their nesting occurs in warm temperate and subtropical regions on open sandy beaches above high tide mark in front of well developed sand dunes. As of the Harold Haines and William Kleese, the scientist from the Miami, Florida, prov ed that the role of water temperature in the induction and maintenance of a dermal herpes virus infection (gray-patch disease) of young, green sea turtles, which influence of other recognized stress factors were negligible. In their research the animals that were subjected to a gradual increase in water temperature from 25 to 30C and a subsequent decrease to 25C, where they were maintained, had a period before onset of clinical signs and severity closer to that of control animals. In their findings they indicated that both the induction of clinical gray-patch disease and the severity of the lesions are affected by water temperature and suggest that one possible means of control of this herpes virus infection under intensive aquaculture conditions might be water temperature manipulation. The endangered Kemps Ridley, Atlantic Green and Loggerhead turtles are killed each year as they are attracted to the warm water and then sucked toward death on the fooling system intake. The manatees, the large, fully aquatics, and mostly herbivorous marine mammals, which sometimes known as sea cows. They eat over 60 different plant species such as mangrove leaves, turtle grass, and types of algae, using their divided upper lip. The adult manatee eats around 10% of their body weight per day and especially small amounts of fish from nets. They have very few natural predators, like sharks, crocodiles and alligators over time to time. The main causes of their death for sea cows are human related issues, human objects, habitat destruction and natural causes such as disease and temperatures. Another main natural event and unpreventable cause for the manatees death would be red tide which is proliferation of tiny marine organisms knows as dinoflagellates. Figure : phytoplankton.The phytoplankton is the autotrophic component of the plankton community. They are too small to see it with naked eye, but if they are in higher numbers, than it can appear as green discoloration of the water due to presence of chlorophyll in their cells. The Phytoplankton obtains energy from the process of photosynthesis, also it accounts for half of all photosynthetic activity on Earth. The effects of the elevated water temperatures and residual chlorine at a coastal nuclear power plant on the biomass and productivity or periphyton and phytoplankton, but not productivity was significantly lower in the outlet region than in the intake region. The phytoplankton is the key food item in both aquaculture and mariculture, where both utilize phytoplankton for the feeding of the animals being farmed. In mariculture, the phytoplankton is naturally occurring and is introduced into enclosures with the normal circulation of seawater, where in aquaculture; the phytoplankt on must be obtained and introduced directly. The phytoplankton is used as a food stock for the production for rotifers, which are in turn used to feed other organisms, and also used to feed aquaculture molluscs. The species made of only one or few cells, the phytoplankton is the responsible for 50% of the primary productivity on the earth. Waste Product of the Nuclear Power Plant Figure : Decay in radioactivity of HLW.The waste product of the nuclear power plant is the radioactive waste. The radioactive wastes are very small relative to the waste produced by the fossil fuels and other sources. This waste product is containing radioactive material, which is the product of the nuclear fission, which comes from not directly connected to the nuclear power industry. The waste that has been produce diminishes over time, so in principle to that that material needs to be isolated for long time to no longer pose a hazard. The waste can be generally classified either low level or high level. The low level radioactive waste considers as highly radioactive part of nuclear reactors and waste from medical procedures, which comparatively easy to dispose and relatively small half life. The high level radioactive waste is material from the core of the nuclear reactor or from nuclear weapon. Most of the high level waste emit large amounts of radiation and have really long half lives. The radiation coming of the radioactive waste exposes the human and that can cause about 1% of all cancers, which increase cancer risk by 0.002% of reducing the life expectancy. Each year the nuclear power plants produces the 200,000 m3 of low level waste and about 10,000 m3 of the high level waste products including fuel as waste. 1000 MWe of the light water reactor generates about 200-350 m3 low level waste per year, it also discharges about 20 m3 of used fuel, which corresponds to 75 m3 disposal volume. Where the used fuel is reprocessed only 3 m3 of glass is produced, which is similar to 28 m3 of disposal canister. All this compares with an average of 400,000 tons of ash produced from coal, plant and other power sources of the same power capacity.

Accounting Essay -- essays research papers

Accounting   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The nature of work of accountants and auditors is to prepare, analyze, and verify financial reports and taxes, and monitor information systems that furnish this information to managers in business, industry, and government. The major fields of accounting are Public accountants who have their own business or work for public accounting firms. They perform a large range of responsibilities such as doing taxes, numerous accounting and auditing, consulting activities for their clients, who may be corporations, governments, nonprofit organizations, or individuals. Management accountants also called industrial, corporate, or private accountants record and analyze the financial information of the companies for which they work with. Other responsibilities include budgeting, cost management, and asset management. These accountants analyze and interpret the financial information corporate executives use to make sound business decisions. Internal auditors are very important t o our system. When companies make information more timely, top management base their decisions on actual data, rather than their personal opinion. So these auditors verify the accuracy of their organization’s records and check for mismanagement, waste or fraud. Government accountants maintain and examine the records of government agencies, and audit private business and individuals whose activities are subject to government regulations or taxation. All ranks of government accounting sees that revenues are received and expenditures are made in accordance to laws and regulations. Many who have a background in accounting work for the federal government as Internal Revenue Service Agents. Within each field, accountants often concentrate on one aspect of accounting. Jonda Dunn who I interviewed works for B. Lee Hubbard and Company in Jackson, Ohio. She has worked there for six years and enjoys her job. She has received a bachelor’s degree in accounting and minored in Comput er Science. She chose this career because she loves math and numbers. Mrs. Dunn deals with payrolls, bank reconciliation’s, and financial statements.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In accountants working conditions they are usually placed in an office setting. Self employed accountants are able to do part of their work at home instead of the office. Those who may be employed by public firms and... .... With more than 90,000 people in over 130 countries, the members of Deloitte Touchà © Tohmatsu are dedicated to delivering world-class service to their world-class clients. They are located 10 Westport Road, Wilton, CT 06897, (203) 761-3000 but they also have numerous offices throughout the United States. Their worldwide revenue: $4.2 billion. CPA employees: 8,600. My last choice to be employed is at BDO Seidman, which is a national organization, focused on serving clients through business lines: Tax; Assurance; Financial Advisory Services and Wave Bend Solutions. Through leadership in Tax consulting, clients benefit from an unparalleled approach to tax planning, consulting and compliance and experience in transaction structuring to help reduce tax consequences. The practice employs a service philosophy of extensive partner involvement to provide insightful and constructive suggestions for improving clients' business strategies, management information, operating and accounting procedures and controls. They are located 15 Columbus Circle 1, New York, NY 10023, and (212) 765-7500. With worldwide revenue: $181 million. CPA employees: 840.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Monday, August 19, 2019

Lord Of The Flies - Ralph Monologue Essay -- English Literature

Lord Of The Flies - Ralph Monologue Should never have let this happen. Should never have let this happen. ===================================================================== (Ralph shaking his head) Jack’s an idiot, bloody idiot. Divide and rule. What does he think he’s playing at? Does nobody want to go home? I miss my family. Don’t they miss theirs? I just can’t understand (sighs). What’s wrong with him? It’s his fault we’re still here on this stupid island. He should have watched the fire like we said, not disappear off into the jungle. Showing off, â€Å"I cut the pig’s throat.† So what. Who cares! We can all do that if we want to, anyone can be a hunter. It’s so pointless, he did it on purpose we were nearly there. He did it on purpose, I know he did. (Ralph quietens down momentarily appearing thoughtful) If only Jack had done as he was told we would never missed that ship. Stupid face painting, do that at six not at his bloody age. (Kicks the ground in exasperation, throws his hands around his head grabbing his hair) When we worked as a team, cou...

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Ancient Sculpture And Architecture :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ziggurats were used in ancient times for purposes of worship and to fulfill spiritual needs. One example, The Pyramid of the Magician, has a legend attached to it depicting the god Itzamna who had single-handedly built it in one night. The Pyramid of the Magician is, by 100 feet, the tallest architectural structure in the city of Uxmal on the Yucatan peninsula. Interestingly enough, the pyramid has a stairwell that faces the setting sun on summer solstice. Also of note, the whole city is perfectly aligned to mimic how the planets were thought to lie in the solar system at the time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At the top of most Ziggurats, there were sanctuaries that were dedicated to the protective gods and/or goddesses of that particular city. The buildings were normally magnificent in size and the stairways leading up to the sanctuaries normally consisted of a very long series of steps. Experts feel that this symbolism represents how various peoples wished to unite the heavens and the earth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As ancient as Ziggurats may seem, they can easily be compared to modern day churches and place of worship. Modern day churches are used presently as places where people can worship their god, who is felt to protect and watch over them; highly comparable to the purpose of the ancient Ziggurats. Not only are their purposes analogous, but their appearances can also be similar. For instance, most modern day places of worship have some sort of symbolic representation of their god near or at the very top of the building. This may seem commonplace to most, but perhaps the origin of the influence comes from the ancient architects. The long and high stairways of most Ziggurats can be compared to the symbolism that we, today, use near the top of churches.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Along the same lines of thought, modern day churches also normally possess some sort of symmetry, whether it is to the surroundings or within the structure itself. This can be paralleled to the Pyramid of the Magician in that that structure was symmetrical to the solar system. Most modern day facilities, however, have symmetrical attributes to their outer appearance.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Church architecture could be researched in depth, but the purpose here is to express some similarities between the ancient centers of worship and modern day facilities. One such example could be the prevalent grand expanse. Perhaps this attribute is to accommodate for the large amount of worshippers, which does not seem to fluctuate in accordance with history.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Enterprise Data Storage Essay

Data Storage is generally divided into two; one is customer storage, which only uses typical disk drives, flash drives or local hard disk in PC or in laptop. While Enterprise Data Storage is the mainly use for large enterprise storage for big industry or company. The data that is being stored in this centralize storage comes from a variety of source, it can either come from customer transactions, that can come from the different parts of the globe, it can also include local data storage for development purposes, like these storage can hold data samples for integration testing and Users Acceptance Testing by both the development team and the customers respectively. Enterprise Data Storage is much prevalent in huge data centers, where amount of data running around the clock and these data are carefully stored and even backup properly. Data in these call centers is the most important one, more than anything, like the transaction report that happen between the customers and the call center agent, which in every end of each transaction, it will be stored in central database, where another team will automatically gets the information based on certain business process of the system, to actually addressed the issue, and so on and so forth. So this means that data in call centers are interconnected to many groups and that is why not even a small downtime is acceptable in their operation. To better implement effective enterprise data storage, there are four important factors must be considered: (1) storage, (2) backup, (3) archiving and (4) disaster recovery. In storage, this means that there should be enough storage capacity for all the transaction needed to run for all the entire systems and with ideal buffer systems in case there will be immediate need for additional space, next one is backup, it is already a common to all industries whether it is running in one server or in enterprise large type, backup plays a vital role in enterprise data storage, it does not only mean that regularly, based on scheduled task by the infrastructure team that the system will automatically backup it every 12MN of every day, but most importantly the importance of backup is to provide confidence to the company that data and information can be rolled back anytime if needed. Archiving is somehow, is something important for keeping both historical information, actually archiving does not work like as backup, archiving only happens in a certain period agreed by the management, and at this point not everything is being archived only those of high risk informat ion are being archived. Lastly, Disaster Recovery, these is also one of the most important use of enterprise data storage, that is to give confidence to the management and the whole company itself, that the company can still perform and no expectation of stop operation will happen, if problems encountered in the systems used by the company or faced with some unexpected events like fire, earthquakes, etc. (Enterprise Data Storage, n. d. ). Data Storage Industry and where it is going Data Storage Industries have earlier predicted that there are five most important information management and data storage trends for 2006. The first one was compliance; compliance talks more on the process side on how technically and procedurally things should be done, in order to avoid misbehavior of the company systems. It also provides a better deal of quality and reliability for the system to work better, since there are already set guidelines, and these guidelines where set after a series of study made and those where also the important input to the compliancy requirements of each processes, that is why if everything will just be followed according to plan, there should be no problem. Secondly, is Security, you can say it can be both physical and data security, for physical security these are the tangible component of your data systems, from the smallest valued mouse or keyboard up to the most critical enterprise servers that you keep in the company, which is important to secure these physical component of your company systems. Data security is still one of the most prevalent problems nowadays, with network access given to everyone, which definitely needs anyway in performing their job, there will still be problems about data security, the only way to combat this problem is to have a constant monitoring daily, actually if possible there should be either systems that will monitor this problems like firewalls, data encryption systems, and even tailored made mapping system fro each users or teams must be strictly be applied. Third, is Integrated backup, here it is simply better backup procedure and archival must be well implemented, like better naming convention and other systematic practices must be applied, Fourth is Virtualization, which also one of the top priority in 2006, this actually means the implementation of state of the art network system that will provide a smooth and faster networking from all the different locations where the company is operating, factors like bandwidth, virtual memory and transfer rate of speed, which is vital in transferring data within the network. Lastly is ECM or Enterprise Content Management, which continues to be one of the biggest challenge to all industry or company, because here we are actually looking at the importance of documentation and keeping it within the company systems, from the simplest how the different systems works, customer manual and up to company policies and procedures that in order to have a better grip of their job, these should be well stored in central repository and from there anyone can easily gets it through the network. (Top Five Information Management & Storage Trends for 2006, n. d. ). Actually, Enterprise data storage industries are continually giving big impact for the company, with the growing demand for data storage, most especially at this point we are now working globally like the existence of call centers worldwide, and that makes enterprise data storage becomes vital. Because in Data Centers, we are not only talking about one server but multiple servers running around the globe, which you can see, setup is like per country, but if you have purchased a enterprise data storage server that are really huge, the implementation can be by geographical zone, like one for Asia Pac, North America, Europe, etc. Lynx Technologies is one of the well known companies that specialize in enterprise data storage products, includes backup/recovery and business continuity implementation which is important for compliancy of the company. The main focus of the company is combining effective networking infrastructure and enterprise data storage solutions. From data storage hardware requirement, data storage management software, secure data storage. Some of the main data storage, for its disaster recovery includes on-line backup and data backup software. And lastly for its compliance service it includes HIPAA/ Sox Data Security. Limitation of local data center that only safe keeps the data storage that runs in the local network, the trend that was being look on to and continue to be a strong importance in the future is more on not only Total data Storage Backup but also must include and prepare to have the recovery solutions, which uses Enterprise Level Onsite Data Storage, and Remote Offsite Data Storage Solutions. Remote or Offsite data storage is one of the best service for data storage by enterprises that works very often outside their company network, and since you are detached and you need to be connected to your company network, this product provides you immediate access and with that, because of the speed of transfer on your data, it can provide your customer and yourself better appreciation on the system. It is also a very cost effective solution for all business partners, staffs and other stakeholders because they can easily work even not connected to their local company network. And with the big capacity and networking efficiency of this solution, which is the most critical part of the business at this time. In the future, what the industry looks onto is more on convenience and accessibility is being look onto, where people can work at home and students can attend to open university, and with that they only need to securely connect online through wireless connection and from there they can easily get a grip of the information needed. Upon using online data storage or remote data storage, it will not just easily be implemented right away because there should be compliance check on this before it will be implemented. The compliance is being conducted by HIPPA or Sarbanes Oxley. The following major impact to the industry is reliable and immediate availability to data and information in different strategic location, as well as easy deployment of application for the target customer. (Enterprise Level Onsite (Online) Data Storage, & Remote Offsite Data Storage Solutions, n. d. ). HP also has provided a good support on the future requirement of enterprise data storage. HP it is the primary storage or data deduplication will be the future of most industry. Active research and study for these technology movers in the future of data storage is being conducted at the company, and this will be the common data storage trend for all data storage industry in 2009-2010. Alongside with it there will also be encryption process that would separately take place, which will also be the part of the feature for data storage on the future. Another HP prediction is the integration of its high end applications with data storage, meaning putting their application on a high scale level. Specific integration like in search engines for faster processing. And since data warehousing is also gaining popularity and great acceptance by most companies at the present the need for scalable data storage will also be an immediate need, because having to implement that would make presentation and downloading of reports in a front end-system like with that of using portal technology will be faster and easy. Since the creation of application, development of databases and managing business intelligence tool and datawarehosuing will be in one very powerful enterprise data storage also includes the effective implementation of networking infrastructure, you can say that customers will no longer ask for more and sure enough satisfaction rating will really be high. (Pariseau, Beth, 2007). Next is CISCO, and this time, it will be how the look of a large call centers see how enterprise data storage works. Data Centers for Call Centers have greatly impacted the change in the industry not only storage requirements, which obviously increasing, but almost every factors in Information Technology it is impacted a lot. Actually there are two important aspects, Technology applied, and Data Centers Storage and Servers. To start with, Technology applied, for CISCO as one of the most well known and trusted name in their field, the implementation of VOIP, which makes it very effective and convenient in combining data and voice in one cable. One of its products SRST or Survival Remote Site Telephony which is used to protect the voice in case of server network failure. Data Centers Storage and Servers, in a typical data center, it is actually almost different types of server and data storage running for a typical call center that runs global support. For SAN or Storage Area Network, Most of the well trusted storage used is EMC and HP. The data center has production servers, where all application is installed for the customer to use and access. It also connects to hundreds of host to their data storage server. Which means that, many applications on the web or in client server applications that are being hosted by the enterprise data storage server and with that the enterprise data storage server hold critical data which all of the application gets and stored or even backup. The SAN is made up of CISCO’s MDS multi layer switches. SAN has greatly improve and utilize the storage resource. And, since it is used for large data centers, with multiple servers, it hold 2 Petabytes or a huge 2 quadrillion bytes of data, which even the numbers are hard to count. With this capacity you can say that it is a good example and direction for all enterprise data storage industries should be. Another one is the Tape Backup Storage, this is used for backup of important and necessary records or data. It’s primary purpose if to be on standby backup. This is actually designed to support the critical systems, that whenever there will be problem in the main site, this will be placed as the data storage to be used. (Data Center Storage and Servers, 2004).

Friday, August 16, 2019

Bangladeshi Soft Drinks Market

Soft Drings Executive Summary The purpose of this term paper was to focus on carbonated beverages (Pepsi and Mojo Cola). Theterm paper represents the different types of marketing activites undertaken by both products tohold customers of BangladeshThis report also gives an overview of beverage industry in Bangladesh and also an overview of  Pepsi and Mojo cola's parent companies. Akij Food & Beverage Ltd. has been established at a beautiful site Krishnapura, Dhamrai of  Dhaka. It has come with the best food & beverage in Bangladesh. There are various types of drink.Mojo is the brand name of cola, Lemu is the brand name of Lemon and Speed is the brand name of  energy drink. Immediately after the introduction of the brand it became very popular among itsconsumer because of the high quality and intensive distribution in every nook and corner of thecountry. Checky Monkey is the brand name of banana chips produced from this factory. It also is  becoming popular chips in Bangladesh. Most of our Raw materials come from various foreigncountries. The quality is very strictly controlled. At every stage, non standard products are rejected. On the other hand Pepsi Co. is a multinational company.Originated in The USA Carolina in 1898. Since then it has been able to stay in competition with its biggest rival Coca-Cola. Pepsi, now is aworldwide brand and consumed by millions of people. Pepsi was introduced in Bangladesh byTranscom Group. As a corporate citizen Pepsico believes it has a responsibility to contribute to thequality of life in our communities. Transcom Beverage Ltd has put into action this philosophythrough support of social agencies, projects and programs and the scope of this support is extensiveand it has not been difficult to blend with this philosophy since the TRANSCOM group alsofollowed such a corporate ideologyChapter:1 1. 1: INTRODUCTION (Beverage industry of Bangladesh) After independence of Bangladesh the food habit of people has been changed a l ot. Besides our  traditional food consumer of Bangladesh like to take western food also after 1980s. As a result of  global marketing this was not too hard for the consumers. Different foreign food companies wereestablished in Bangladesh. Beverage industry is one of them. But more interestingly we don’tknow beverage is also our cultural food because beverage doesn’t mean only carbonated drinks.Yoghurt, soup and lacchi are also beverage of our own tradition which consumed for the last 100years in Bangladesh. But carbonated beverage is new in Bangladesh and today our research is oncarbonated beverage market in Bangladesh and consumer reaction to it. Carbonated beverage entered into our market in the later part of 1980. At that time there were onlyfew companies in Bangladesh. But by the change of time and western culture influences it’s  become very popular in Bangladesh. By year 2000 more than 12 Beverage Company operating  business in Bangladesh and most of them are foreign companies. Bangladesh Beverage: 2006)At present there are 19 beverage companies operating business in Bangladesh. They are: 1. Transcom Beverage Ltd. 2. Sun Crest Beverage Industries Ltd 3. Abdul Monem Limited 4. K. Rahman and Company 5. Eastern Beverage Industries Ltd. 6. Sanowara Drinks and Bev. md. Ltd. 7. Asia Business Ltd. 8. Desh Beverage Co. Ltd 9. Northern Beverage Ltd. 10. National Beverage Industries Ltd. 11. Bridge Corporation Limited 12. Tezarat Enterprise 13. Southern Beverage Ltd. 14. K. Rahman and Company 15. Bangladesh Beverage Ind. Ltd. 16. Dhaka Beverage Industries Ltd 17.Sunny Foods and Beverage Ltd. 18. Tabani Beverage Co. Ltd. 19. K. Rahman and Company 1. 2: Akij Food & Beverage Ltd: Akij Food & Beverage Ltd. has been established at a beautiful site Krishnapura, Dhamrai of  Dhaka. It has come with the best food & beverage in Bangladesh. There are various types of drink. Mojo is the brand name of cola, Lemu is the brand name of Lemon and Spe ed is the brand name of  energy drink. Immediately after the introduction of the brand it became very popular among itsconsumer because of the high quality and intensive distribution in every nook and corner of thecountry.Checky Monkey is the brand name of banana chips produced from this factory. It also is becoming  popular chips in Bangladesh. Most of our Raw materials come from various foreign countries. The quality is very strictlycontrolled. At every stage, non standard products are rejected. 1. 3: Transcom Beverage limited: On the basis of an exclusive Franchise for Bangladesh from Pepsico USA, TBL acquired threemodern bottling plants at Dahaka, Chittagong and Bogra from BBIL Dhaka; Chittagong and NBIL,Bogra; in March 2000. TBL manufactures the famous range of beverages-Pepsi, 7up, Mirinda.As a corporate citizen Pepsico believes it has a responsibility to contribute to the quality of life in our  communities. TBL has put into action this philosophy through support of soc ial agencies, projectsand programs and the scope of this support is extensive and it has not been difficult to blend withthis philosophy since the TRANSCOM group followed such a corporate ideology. Chapter:2 2. 1: OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY This term paper would focus on market segmentation, marketing mix, consumer attitudes towards  beverage drinks of Bangladesh (i. e.Mojo and Pepsi). It should be noticed that this report has beenmade in the context of Bangladeshi market and different segmentations and promotional activitesanalyzed in this report are solely based on the Bangladeshi consumers’ perspective . E. g. It willdiffer from country to country. If Mojo becomes multinational and goes to countries like K. S. A,Libya, The U. S. A, The U. K. Then the current activities undertaken by Mojo has to be changed inorder to stay in worldwide competition. Because, cultures vary from country to country. 2. 2: Source of informationDue to limited time maximum data were collected from th einternet, shop to shop survey was done in order to estimate the sales of these beverages. 2. 3: Limitation The major drawback while preparing this report was inadequate time; as a resultthe report lacks some potential information. Moreover, due to class schedule clash in depthresearch on the topic was hampered. Some informations were not disclosed by Mojo dealers(Palashi, Azimpur) as they considered these informations to be confidential. Information on Pepsi was gathered from the internet and local shops as Pepsi is a multinational company.Adequateinformation about Pepsi is not available from the context of Bangladesh. Chapter:3 3. 1: Mojo (Information): Mojo, is a brand of Akij Food and Beverage Ltd. , a sister concern of  Ã‚  prominent group of companies of Bangladesh, Akij Group. In the year 2007 Mojo was themarket challenger in Bangladeshi cola market with a sales of about 52 crores BDT. The brandwas launched in 14th April, 2005 targeting the youth of Bangladesh who like the Bangladeshitrends. All there years, Mojo is doing quite good in the market and competing well with other  Ã‚  brands.Mojo's pricing is it's advantage but it has to improve its image & product quality. Unfortunately, Mojo is lagging behind due to inadequate promotional activities. E. g. Slogan,name's meaning etc. It has also failed to communicate its own positioning the target consumers. However, still now Mojo has the potential to recover its own position (according tosurvey). Consumer behaviour such as perception, attitude, self-orientation and life style, thisreport has found out some drawbacks and recommended some affective strategies to recover  those issues successfully. 3. 2: Market SituationMojo is not far behind in order to anticipating the current market situation. After being inthe introduction stage for a short period of time Mojo is successfully now in the growthstage and doing well for its good eminence and unique marketing effort. With theintention of increasing sa le and obtaining market share Mojo is targeting and creating awell company position into the market. To collect information regarding market, service  performance, competition and distribution Mojo is always developing promotionalstrategies, campaigns and carrying out market surveys. 4 April 2010, Mojo arranged afair and the duration was three days. It was held on field of Pranthapoth. They welcomedthe Bangla year 1417 very nicely. Because who had a bottle of Mojo, then that persongot the entry in the concert without any ticket. 3. 3: Target Market Most of the soft drink companies are now targeting the young generation and indeed this is the besttarget for any soft drink companies. Keeping this thing on mind Mojo has decided to targetespecially the young generation along with the people from various types of socio-economicclasses.Akij Group is now offering extensive distribution channel in order to capture and makesure the proper distribution of Mojo so that young generation can e asily avail it where ever they arein the country. Last time we saw in Mojo advertise that an old couple were sharing a bottle of Mojo. So, they cleared that it is not only a product for the young people but also their target is alsosenior citizens. Though Mojo is hardly preferred by Old aged people. PROFILE OF THE TARGET MARKET Cola drinks usually follow an undifferentiated marketing strategy to target their consumer.Keeping this fact in mind, we conducted a sample survey by selecting random sample fromdifferent places. The following discussion will attempt to analyze the profile of the target market  based on the sample group. 3. 4: Demographic Factors Age Age is the major determinants in targeting the consumers. MOJO reflects the Bangladeshi cultureand it represents youth. From our survey, we have found that MOJO is most preferred in the agegroup between 20-25 years (85% of 100). Moreover, the least MOJO preference comes fromtwo age groups: 25-35 years and 35-45 years, about 1%. SexBeverage is used for thirst-quenching purpose and this product is gender neutral, meaning there isno such kind of obligation to consume the product for male or female. However, from our surveyoutcome, we have found that 71% of the consumers are male and 29% are female from 100. Allthe respondents are from urban location. MARKETING MIX: 4P’S OF MOJO5. 1 Product The product MOJO cola has come with the following variations in the market- †¢ 250 ml bottle †¢ 500 ml bottle †¢ 1000 ml or 1 liter bottle †¢ 150 ml can The MOJO Cola has been made with a proper technology. So there is no chance to occur  fluctuation in taste.The cola drinks contain a very strong taste which can compete with the marketleader Coca- Cola and RC cola. Other Factors Meaning of MOJO Meaning of MOJO is the idea or feeling the respondent have instantly after hearing the name or  analyzing it. To 60% respondents, MOJO means fun or enjoyment. To 14% it means nothing. Inaddition, other 26% varies within music or art, sports, thirst passion etc. Competition Soft drink market always offer high level of competition among companies. Because,soft drink is a fast moving consumer good and its demand always fluctuate based onseveral reasons (E. . Taste, weather conditions, etc. ). It included the degree of competition andintensity of competition. So in that case both the degree and intensity of competition are very highfor Mojo. Because the market it was operating was already touched by big companies such asCoke, Pepsi, Royal Crown Cola. Surprisingly, these giant companies are considering Mojo, as aravenous competitor in the market. So it’s a good news for Mojo that competitors like â€Å" Coca Cola, Pepsi are thinking about Mojo consciously. It is because Mojo has already grabbed good portionof Bangladeshi beverage market share.Mojo believes that they have the strong distribution power,creative marketers, financial power and quality to grab competitions market s hare as well asincrease their own selling. Before preparing the term paper we made a brief market survey and we saw that in every popular market of Dhaka city, wholesalers are very active and demand is veryhigh. Distribution The strongest point of MOJO is their intensive distribution channel. They make this thing  possible because Akij Group of industries especially their beverage sector has a profoundlogistic and supply chain management system.So they can easily go to door to door of  their target consumers. They believe that delivering products to consumer hands is notsufficient or convenient enough that is why for near future betterment they are trying todevelop their distribution channel in such manner that they can easily make their  Ã‚  potential customer in to actual customer. And we must say that the dealer of a particular  territory is really expert and the do their job on the time. Objecetives & Issues The promotional campaign can undertake 3 types of objectives:1. To inform,2. To persuade3. To remind.In the case of Mojo, the campaign will basically focus on persuasion, since MOJOis in maturity stage of its life cycle and will try to spread out its current perception in urbanyouthful lives. The advertising objective for MOJO is to persuade the target audience to make a  purchase and to obtain 8% increase in sales. Now a day, Mojo is not a new product. And for thatreason, previously the company’s target was to make positioning about Mojo because it was a new  product and please try it. But now Mojo is in growth stage; so it is trying to maximize the marketshare and retaining the market share is also important hereAdvertising Strategy Advertising is a challenging factor for Akij Group’s Mojo. As the sales of Mojo highly relies onadvertising. It has to be done in such a way which is convincing, attractive to people, which willrun on people’s mind 24/7. Developing an effective advertising and promotional campaign mustsele ct the right spokesperson to deliver a convincing message and the appropriate channels or  media. As part of the development of the advertising strategy of Mojo, all the advertisingcampaigns will try to communicate the same message to meet the advertising objective as set anddiscussed previously. Their main logan is â€Å"Mojo Ontor e Ontor e† and for that reason they alwaystry to make every ad including this slogan. Stimulus Characteristics Logo The logo of MOJO is attractive and representing the youth although they did not forgot about theaged people. Therefore, this helps them to get a good result. Soul feeling All the multinational soft drink companies-showing advertisements are made abroad. In thiscase, MOJO cola differentiated themselves. They are making the ads in our country, as they wantto be the cult brand. As they are, doing this so people can feel that it is our cola and I am buyingmy soft drink that in terms help them to feel good.Therefore, people have a soft corner for them intheir mind. Packaging Packaging also helps in the perception process. Attractive package can grab people’s attention. MOJO cola know this and they are concentrating on it. The two most critical job of packaging are: Capture Attention The colorful packaging catches the attention instantly. People like colorful things and they go for  colorful things. That is why within a short time MOJO cola got the attention of the target aspect. Convey Meaning The colorful packaging conveys the meaning that MOJO is a youthful product.Mixing up the  brand with colors, which have a meaning, is sensible. That gives people meaning and they went for  it. CONSUMERS’ LEARNING & MOJO Learning is any change in the content or organization of long- term memory and/or behavior. Learning about soft drinks is a low- involvement learning situation. Consumer behavior is largelylearned behavior. Learning about MOJO Cola is for the most part low involvement learningstate of affa irs. Controls Just like all other companies Mojo is also very much concern about controlling their  monetary and operating cost.That is why every month Mojo conduct Quality assurancesurvey, Sales figure monitoring, Feedback from Retailers and Sales force not only bytheir employees but also by students from different universities by offering exclusiveincentives and gift items. They evaluate their inventory, quality, acceptance of Mojo fromdifferent perspectives. By keep checking these things Mojo can stay in the market by notonly minimizing their cost and expense by also maximizing their revenue and profits. Weknow its very much time consuming and expense become high, but to know the currentsituation the company must do it.Social responsibilities Akij group of industries not only concern about increasing their sales, capture market share andgaining profit but also concern to do something for the social betterment. Through out their  campaign Mojo has always been the pioneer in or der to come across to help old, orphanage andhomeless street children. The Group has been running a considerable orphanage free of charge indistrict town. The Group has also acquired a modern mother & children hospital previously owned  by Save the Children (UK). The hospital is being operated as a non-profitable concern by Ad-DinWelfare Trust. Pricing policy:The pricing policy of Mojo has been done very carefully. Mojo has manycompetitors (e. g. Coca Cola, Pepsi) in the market. Compared to them Mojo has set pricereasonably. The pricing of Mojo is discussed below: ? Litre ———- Tk 14/- ? Litre ———- Tk 25/-[pic] 1 Litre ———- Tk 45/- 2 Litre ———- Tk 75/- Chapter:4 4. 1: Pepsi (Information): Pepsi was first introduced as â€Å"Brad's Drink† in New Bern, North Carolinain 1898 by Caleb Bradham, who made it at his home where the drink was sold. It was later namedPepsi Cola, possibly due to the dige stive enzyme pepsin and kola nuts used in the recipe.Bradhams ought to create a fountain drink that was delicious and would aid in digestion and boost energy. In 1903, Bradham moved the bottling of Pepsi-Cola from his drugstore to a rented warehouse. That year, Bradham sold 7,968 gallons of syrup. The next year, Pepsi was sold in six-ouncebottles, and sales increased to 19,848 gallons. In 1909, automobile race pioneer Barney Oldfieldwas the first celebrity to endorse Pepsi-Cola, describing it as â€Å"A bully drink†¦ refreshing,invigorating, a fine bracer before a race. † The advertising theme â€Å"Delicious and Healthful† wasthen used over the next two decades.In 1926, Pepsi received its first logo redesign since theoriginal design of 1905. In 1929, the logo was changed again. In 1931, at the depth of the Great Depression, the Pepsi-Cola Company entered bankruptcy – inlarge part due to financial losses incurred by speculating on wildly fluctuating sugar p rices as aresult of World War I. Assets were sold and Roy C. Megargel bought the Pepsi trademark. Eightyears later, the company went bankrupt again. Pepsi's assets were then purchased by Charles Guth,the President of Loft Inc. Loft was a candy manufacturer with retail stores that contained sodafountains.He sought to replace Coca-Cola at his stores' fountains after Coke refused to give him adiscount on syrup. Guth then had Loft's chemists reformulate the Pepsi-Cola syrup formula. On three separate occasions between 1922 and 1933, the Coca-Cola Company was offered theopportunity to purchase the Pepsi-Cola company and it declined on each occasion. Ingredients: In the United States, Pepsi is made with carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup,caramel color, sugar, Phosphoric acid, caffeine, citric acid and natural flavors. A can of Pepsi (12 flounces) has 41 grams of carbohydrates (all from sugar), 30 mg of odium, 0 grams of fat, 0 gramsof protein, 38 mg of caffeine and 150 calories. T he caffeine-free Pepsi-Cola contains the sameingredients but without the caffeine. The original Pepsi-Cola recipe was available from documents filed with the court at the time thatthe Pepsi-Cola Company went bankrupt in 1929. The original formula contained neither cola nor  caffeine. 4. 2: Market Situation Pepsi Cola is a reknowned brand all over the world. Its demand is increasing each year. Pepsi is incompetition in Bangladesh for many years. Its major competitiors are Coca Cola, RC Cola andnow Mojo is progressing in competition.The main of Pepsi just like any other beverage companyis to make supernormal profit by increasing sales. Not only that, Pepsi carries out promotionalactivities throughout the year. â€Å"Transcom Beverages Ltd (TBL), the franchisee of PepsiCo International, has won the â€Å"Bottler of  the Year Award† for 2009 in PepsiCo International Annual Conference in recognition of itsoutstanding business results. Latifur Rahman, chairman and managing dir ector of TBL, received the award from SanjeevChadha, regional CEO of PepsiCo, and Katrina Kaif, an Indian film actress, at a function inThailand recently, said a statement.Transcom Beverages, which won the award for the third time, bottles, distributes and markets allPepsiCo brands such as Pepsi, 7up, Mirinda, Mountain Dew, Slice, Diet Pepsi and 7up Light inBangladesh. Present on the occasion from TBL were Arshad Waliur Rahman, director, Golam QuddusChowdhury, executive director and CEO, and Khurshid Irfan Chowdhury, general manager. Tejinder Khurana, country manager of PepsiCo International, and Goutam Bhattacharjee, territorydevelopment manager of TBL, were also awarded with â€Å"Ring of Honour† for their performances in2009. † [   Daily Star : Sunday, January 24, 2010] 4. : Target Market like any other beverage competitor in Bangladesh, Pepsi's main target is young generation assoft drinks are mainly preferred by youths. Despite local competition Pepsi has maintai ned itsreputation by chargining relatively high price. Within last fifteen years Pepsi has reached the peak by offering extensive distribution channel in order to make sure the proper distribution of Pepsi sothat people can easily avail it where ever they go. Pepsi customers are mostly young group  between the ages of 14 to 30 and also target at school, colleges, universities, home, restaurant,hotel and stores. . 4: Market Segmentation Positioning Beverages Soft Drinks: Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Royal CrownCola Juices: Pulpy, Nestle, Fruito Local Drinks: Mecca Cola, Mojo Cola Energy Drinks: Red Bull, Power 4. 5: Competition Pepsi has many rivals in the market. Pepsi considers Coca Cola and Royal Crown Cola as their  Ã‚  biggest competitiors. However in recent years local carbonated drinks like Mojo Cola and MeccaCola, etc are giving tough competitions to giant beverage companies like Pepsi and Coca Cola. 4. 6: Distribution Pepsi undergoes massive distribution all around the country.The distribution channel plays animportant role in the company’s success. Pepsi has distributors in all districts. Due to lack of datathe distribution process of Pepsi cannot be discussed. Objectives and issues Pepsi is in its maturity stage. Meaning, everyone knows about this beverage. All it has to do isremind people to consume this drink. The main objective of Pepsi is to make profit by theincrememnt in sales. By means of organizing concerts/trade fairs, Pepsi informs people about the  product. Advertising strategy Advertising is an important issue for Pepsi. It's competitors undertake massive advertising todominate in market.Equally, Pepsi does the same thing for survival. Most of Pepsi's advertising isIndian. Meaning, Indian ads are translated in Bangla. By doing so, Pepsi is able to advertising cost. The main aim of Pepsi has always been to deliver a convincing message via media. Pepsi usestelevision, newspaper, billboards as its advertising medium Controls â€Å"Quality At every level of Pepsi-Cola Company, we take great care to ensure that the highest standards are met in everything we do. In our products, packaging, marketing and advertising, we strive for  excellence because our consumers expect and deserve nothing less.We promise to work towardcontinuous improvement in all areas of our organization. At every step of our manufacturing and bottling process, strict quality controls are followed toensure that Pepsi-Cola products meet the same high standards of quality that consumers have cometo expect and value from us. We also follow strict quality control procedures during themanufacturing and filling of our packages. Each bottle and can undergoes a thorough inspectionand testing process. Containers are then rinsed and quickly filled through a high-speed, state-of-the-art process that helps prevent any foreign material from entering the product.Additionalquality control measures help to ensure the integrity of Pepsi-Cola products throughout th edistribution process, from warehouse to store shelf. † [Extracted from http://www. pepsi. com/] Social responsibilities â€Å"Environmental SupportPepsi and the entire PepsiCo family embrace our responsibility to be good stewards of our planet'snatural resources. We begin by understanding our environmental footprint and then work to findways to reduce it. We're focused on Energy, Water and Waste – areas where we know we can makethe greatest difference. †[Extracted fromhttp://www. pepsi. com/faqs. php? ection=environmental_support] Pricing policy Despite having many competitors, Pepsi is charging high price in comparison to local competitorslike Mojo. ? Litre ———- Tk 18/- ?Litre ———- Tk 30/ 1 Litre ———- Tk 55/ 2 Litre ———- Tk 90/- Product differentiation In Bangladesh Pepsi offers product differentiation in comparison to Mojo cola by offeringPepsi Diet in the market. From this sid e Mojo is a little weak because these days most people arehealth conscious, diabetes patients, etc. They prefer Pepsi Diet which does not contain sugar. Pepsi Diet is available in two sizes. Litre ———- Tk 30/- 1 Litre ———- Tk 55/- Though Pepsi’s offering differentiation by offering Pepsi Diet it is not charging premium price. The price of Pepsi Diet is same as Pepsi Cola Thus, Pepsi is having competitive advantage over Akij’s Mojo Cola. Swot Analysis: Mojo Cola: †¢Strengths: Brand image : Akij group is already a established brand name. So there already exists astrong brand image of the company. So if we launch any product under this brand name then itautomatically accept by the consumers. Quality : Most of their raw materials come from various foreign countries.The quality is verystrictly controlled. At every stage, non standard products are rejected. So we can say that howwell they are aware about their products quality. Strong distribution network   : Akij group has a strong distribution network and this isone of the most strongest competitive advantages for them. They make product available all over  the country through their strong distribution channel of retailers and whole sellers. †¢Weakness: The weakest point of akij group is that if any product sells fall due to poor quality then it willalso affect the other products of other brands. Opportunity: Increasing demand: As people are engaging more in taking beverage product, the demand isincreasing day by day for this kind of product category. †¢Threat: Akij group have a number of competitors especially under Akij Food & Beverage Ltd such asPran juice, Shezan juice, Acme juice. This competition is very high and works as a threat for AkijFood & Beverage Ltd. Pepsi: The strengths, the weaknesses, the opportunities and the threats of Pepsi. 1. The advantages of Pepsi-Cola1) Firstly, Pepsi has stayed in this market for almost one centur y.So they are so experienced andstationed in people's mind deeply. Now no one doesn't know the brand Pepsi-Cola Whenever thename Pepsi is heard, people will conjure up the image of fresh and cool drink .2) Secondly, Pepsi-Cola is not only in high quality, cool and fresh but also have a competitive  price. 3) Thirdly. Pepsi is such an experienced powerful global company, Which has a basic of a greatfund. So it has the ability to place an idle sum of money to the promotion. We can see that theadvertisement of Pepsi-Cola is so attractive. It also invited the top famous people to advertise for  it. ) Pepsi also compares with the competitors and find their disadvantages to update its own quality,flavor and also package promptly in order to satisfy the consumers' need. This is the biggestadvantage of Pepsi company. It is the most popular one. Pepsi company also produce the Diet-Cola to meet the people whomore concern their health. And it just changes the design of the package of Pepsi -Cola. 2. The disadvantages of Pepsi-ColaBut we cannot consider things just on one side. Still there are some disadvantages existing inPepsi-Cola . A survey suggests that 32% people prefer the package of Pepsi-Cola.So the design of  Pepsi-Cola's package is not as attractive as Coca-cola. It still needs to be improved. We suggestthat the package needs to be designed more colorful to attract people's attention. 3. Although in the cola market there are many competitors, Pepsi still has the opportunity toenlarge its market share because the cola in the market is quite monotonic. Most of the end user isyoung people. There are still some people who do not like the taste of the cola. So we can try to provide some other taste of cola such as adding some lemon juice. We can change the flavor inorder to meet different taste of different people. . As to the threats, all of us know that Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola have had the competition for  about 80 years. Although Pepsi-Cola have won sever al times during this competition, the marketshare of Pepsi-cola is a little bit smaller than Coca-Cola. Besides, there are many other competitorslike Mojo. In Mojo’s advertisement we can see the reflection of our culture. It is well known thatBangladesh is a patriotic nation. So these words can really catch Bangladeshi people's heart. Andthese local cola's flavor is more suitable for Bangladeshis. So it cannot be ignored. Recommendation: Mojo:After getting informations from the internet and local shops. It seems that Mojo has certainlackings. Mojo is local brand so its going to be hard for Mojo to stay in competition with Pepsi. Mojo can provide offers like â€Å"buy one get one free†, â€Å"win a car†, coupons, etc. All these activitieswill rise interests in people to consume more Mojo in order to get something. By offering such  promotions, Mojo may be able to give tough competitions to Pepsi. Mojo can persuade people via advertising. E. g. It can convey mes sages that â€Å"Mojo is BangladeshiDrink, We Bangladeshis drink our drinks†.Not only that, motivating employees will help Akij Beverages to reach its peak. E. g. Employeescan be given fringe benefits, promotions, monthly free medical check-up, etc. 24 SUGGESTIVE PROMOTIONAL TOOLS Billboards MOJO cola must concentrate on billboard advertising, for this at first they have to increase thenumber of billboards around the country. They have to create billboards with catchy look so that itcan grab the attention of the target aspect. They must make colorful and relevant billboards so that  people can find out what they want to tell them.At last, they have to place the billboards in theright place so that target aspect can have their full concentrate in it. Paper Ads The number of paper ads should have to be increased. Otherwise, they cannot make mass peopleaware about their product. It should also contain high imagery, relevant with product MOJO cola. TVCs The frequencies of the T V ads have to be increased. People who watch TV regularly are seekingfor innovative things made by the marketers. They pretty much bored with the traditional ads. So if  MOJO cola bring new thing with their ads them it will be a turning point for their sale.People willget more interest in their product and as a result, they can be the loyal customer of this product. SoTV ads should be brought with a new format, with more new things so that it can catch the targetaspect with the new ones. Sponsorship Till now MOJO cola make sponsorship of few events like concerts, â€Å"nabanno utsav, banglanoboborsho, etc†. they should include cyber cafe, canteens of university, fast food shop and other  Ã‚  places where people goes frequently. By doing so they can be with the target audience and we illfind more aware people. Sales PromotionThey should in for massive sales promotion to attract people from other drinks Pepsi: 1) Pepsi-Cola should improve the design of the package first. As it is advertised as† the choice of  new generation†, the design must be looked young and fresh. So the color should be more sharpand attractive. 2) As the flavor and ingredients of cola in the market are similar and the most active consumer isthe young people, we can diversify the Pepsi production to meet the different need of theconsumers. That is customer-orientated. 3) Besides the Diet cola for the health conscious people, we can have many other new choices.For  example, we can create a new kind of cola more suitable for children. Maybe we can add theVitamins or some nutritious element that are necessary to children. Or we can create a new flavor  like mint-cola. 4) However, pricing should not be reduced to an extent where initial investment cannot berecovered. So, pricing & finance has to be done carefully. Conclusion Mojo People prefer MOJO’s pricing but it has to improve its image in status and quality issues. Unfortunately, MOJO is lagging behind due to inadequate communication of its brand elementslike slogan, name’s meaning etc.It has also failed to communicate its own positioning to the targetconsumers. However, still now MOJO has the chance to recover its own position because about70% of the target customers (according to the survey result) are potential and have not constructedtheir belief structure for MOJO. For some particular aspects of consumer behavior such as  perception, attitude, self-orientation and life style etc, those recommended strategies provided withthe report will be supportive to recover those issues successfully if MOJO can apply thosesuggestive marketing tools. 6 Pepsi Being in such a tense competition with other beverages, Pepsi-Cola should not take the direct andtough attack upon any of them. The best wad is to keep a peaceful relationship with it and alwayscompare with others, We should find their disadvantages and show our advantages on this aspect. Then by and by, the people would think ou rs is better Of course the most important rule is toimprove the product, lower the price in comparison to other competitors to meet the consumers.