Anti-Trust

The law was broken when the group of anesthesiologists banded together to drive out any form of competition, which resulted in the failure of Mr†¦ Alto's business. Initially the organization of anesthesiologist from SST. Peters Community Hospital agreed to a settlement of $462,500. The trial Judge deemed the award from the Jury was excessive and ordered a new trial. The conclusions of the new trial were, the damages incurred were not the hospital's responsibility due to lack of evidence and the settlement from the physicians was sufficient (Bazaar 2012).Exclusive Contracts Hospitals routinely enter Into contracts with various professional groups for the sight to be the exclusive provider of their specific services at the facility In exchange for the group agreeing to provide and manage all aspects of that service wealth the hospital. These â€Å"exclusive contracts† generally result In the chosen medical department and associated equipment being closed off to physicians w ho are not part of the contracting group. Exclusive contracts are generally considered to be good for most doctors who participate in the groups and bad for those excluded by them.In fact, while exclusive contracts offer obvious benefits to the physicians who receive he perks from the contracts and obvious disadvantages for those who are excluded, they also present pitfalls for physicians in the chosen group. The included doctors are somewhat slaves to the groups and will be kicked out of the groups if the physician does not comply with the rules and regulations of the contract. Exclusive contracts are agreements that initially appear to be anta-competitive on face value; multiple courts have rejected anti-trust challenges to exclusive contracts creating an unfair advantage, which reduces competition.Physicians and nurses that have been excluded because of exclusive contracts have had much greater success in attacking exclusive contracting arrangements on the premise of breach of co ntract and lack of procedural process grounds. In order to prove there has been a violation of anti-trust and elimination of competition within a work environment such as a hospital. Typically exclusive contracts are built to keep outside providers from competing with the physicians who are already employed at the hospital or medical treatment facility. In rare cases like the Alto v.SST Pewter's Community Hospital case, the nurse anesthetist was already contracted with the facility and performed similar procedures as the anesthesiologists except for a cheaper rate (Bazaar 2012). The hospital administration should have analyzed the formation of the group odd providers and recognized what the Intentions were. Remedies to Breach Arbitration of breaches In anta-trust laws were frowned upon years ago when anta- trust laws were first set into place. Arbitration is a relatively fast way to arrive upon a being flexible and not as formal as a traditional courthouse.Usually, arbitration can b e scheduled quicker and with less working parts than a trial. In rare instances, if all parties involved come to an agreement, arbitrators can sometimes create rulings that judges are not allowed to decide. In arbitration, both sides present all evidence to an arbitrator in efforts to prove each side's case. The arbitrator reaches a final verdict and decides whom the winners and losers are. An arbitrator does the Job that a traditional Judge or Jury would normally do in court if the matter escalated to that point (Hill 2014).Summary Judgment is another remedy to handling the decision process in the event of a suspected anti-trust law breach. Summary Judgment is a decision entered by a court on behalf of one party that was in disagreement with another party, without the length and expense of a full trial. The idea of the summary judgment process is to remove the need to argue agreed upon facts and to decide without trial one or more causes of action in the complaint. The presenting a nd pleading procedures are extremely technical and complicated. This process is fairly dangerous to the party that the decision is being made against (Hill 2014).Conclusion In this scenario, the groups of anesthesiologists were guilty of violating anti-trust saws with the internal contract that was created to eliminate competition from outside vendors for delivery of care. Anti-trust laws were created top prevent larger companies and organizations from pushing smaller entities out of the ability to fairy compete for business. Mr†¦ Alto received a settlement from the hospital initially but was later unable to recoup legal fees and damages from the hospital once the trial judge ruled the damages were excessive.

Effects of Alcohol Abuse Essay

Alcoholism means addiction of alcohol; it could explain as a person who could not stop to drink and craving for it. In fact, alcohol abuse can damage a person’s health and life. Alcohol would affect a person’s mind and body that causes the person did wrong thing. Besides, when a person drunk, he or she might not know what they had done. Which mean, when they are drunk, they could not judge what are right and wrong. Consequences, there are many cases happened because of alcohol abuse since alcohol would impact a person’s mind and cause them loss of control and do wrong things. Signs and symptoms of alcohol abuse: †¢Slurred or incoherent speech. †¢Poor balance and clumsiness †¢Delayed reflexes †¢Stomach pain, vomiting and nausea †¢Blacking-out †¢Redness of the face during or after periods of consumption Slurred or incoherent speech When a person is drunk, he or she might not be able to speak fluently. In the other words, the person who is drunk might not know what they are talking about because the impact of alcohol. Thus, those people who are drunk are usually slurred or incoherent speech. Poor balance and clumsiness The person who is drunk will get injured easily. It is because alcohol would affect our brain and cause us become clumsiness that we could not balance our body. Furthermore, when we could not control our mind and balance our body, we might fall down or bang the wall easily. As a result, the effect of alcohol abuse will cause us become poor balance and clumsiness. Delayed reflexes Alcohol will make people blur and delayed reflexes action since it impairs our brain driver. Therefore, those people who are drunk might not be able to give respond immediately since the alcohol effects. Hence, alcohol abuse could cause a person delayed reflexes action. Stomach pain, vomiting and nausea The other obvious signs of alcohol abuse are stomach pain, vomiting and nausea. Stomach pain might a sign of stomach cancer which cause by alcohol abuse. When this sign occur, it means the cancer already progressed. It is impossible to get cancer easily, only if the person is an alcoholism victim. Alcohol abuse might cause gastritis which is an inflammation of the stomach lining. In a long run, it will become stomach cancer if the person who ignores the sign. Moreover, drinking too much might also lead to serious effect like vomiting blood. As a result, alcohol is harmful to our health. Blacking-out Black-out happened when an alcoholism victim consumed a large amount of alcohol in a long period. Black out is a serious â€Å"disease† in biological that we categories as brain damage. There are 2 types of blackouts. First of all, inability to recall any memories from the period of intoxication is called â€Å"en bloc blackout†. Which mean, the person who could not remember at all what he or she had done when they drunk. In addition, the second type of blackout is called â€Å"fragmentary blackout† which has ability to recall certain part of intoxication period. It means the person who just can remember certain part of his or her memories when they took a large amount of alcohol. Redness of the face during or after periods of consumption Why people who drunk their face will red? It is because alcohol will enlarge the blood vessels whenever we drink. In addition, alcohol will enlarge the blood vessels until they lose their quality or tone then caused those people who drunk will get a redness face. Furthermore, water in our body and skin will evaporate after a long period of alcohol abuse that cause skin wrinkles. Besides that, alcohol abuse will also reduce the level of vitamin A in our body which is an important vitamin can support skin health.

The Impact of Co-teaching on the Student Achievement

The term co-teaching refers to a teaching practice whereby two or more professional teachers are involved in delivering substantive instructions to a group or class of students, who are diverse and blended. The delivering of instructions by the teachers occurs in a single physical space. In this arrangement of teaching, the regular and special educators (co-teachers) are involved in teaching students who belong to the same class. In some cases, co-teachimg is done in order to assist students with disabilities or those with learning difficulties, as compared to other students in the class (Brooks, V.2004).The two educators in co-teaching are referred to as the regular and the special educators. The responsibility of a regular educator includes the preparing of the general class content as well as the lesson plan. The special educator on the other hand is responsible for adapting the content of what is to be taught to the students. In addition, the special educator presents the class c ontent in a manner that meets the needs of the students especially those who may have learning difficulties.It is therefore important to note that in co-teaching, the special and the regular educators have their different responsibilities and roles. However,the teachers are expected to work together in harmony so that each individual student ‘s learning needs are catered for. Co-teaching is one of the ways through which collaborative teaching can occur (Adams, L. et al. 1993). Collaborative arrangement based on co-teaching brings together two educators (regular and special) and the related personnel in order to ensure that students with disabilities have all their learning needs met.This requires the teachers to spend some reasonable amount of time in a regular class so that students are provided with the appropriate support. A teaching program that adopts co-teaching as a teaching practice should always be effective for both the teachers and the students. This ensures that th e objectives of co-teaching are achieved. The concept of co-teaching has existed in the education system for some time now. This method of teaching has been growing very fast in schools due to the important role it plays on student achievement.Though effective as a teaching tool, co-teaching has faced some challenges when it comes to evaluation as well as supervision. Just like in the other teaching practices, co-teaching requires the teachers to prepare a co-teaching module in order to increase the success of the education programs. Thesis Statement Co-teaching has now become a very popular method of teaching in many schools. As a concept, the teaching arrangement aims at meeting the needs of all students, including the disabled and those with learning difficulties.This aims at boosting the students’ achievement. The objectives of the education programs that are used in class can be easily achieved through effective co-teaching. This will involve the adoption of good co-teac hing relationships as well as skills. Co-teaching has some impact on the student achivement. In this paper, both the lesser and the greater impacts of co-teaching on the student achievement will be discussed. Discussion Co-teaching increases student achievement by developing a good learning environment.Having a good classroom environment enables students to perform well, because it ensures that factors that increase the students’ achievement are always present. The students show poor performance when the classroom environment hinders their proper concentration and understanding in their learning (Cowley, S. 2006). Therefore, a good learning environment improves the performance of the students and vice versa. A good example of a good classroom environment that improves student performance is the one that is heterogeneous.The co-teaching programs are very instrumental in creating a heterogeneous classroom environment (Cook, L. 2004). This discourages monotony in learning, hence learning becomes exciting and enjoyable for the students. When students enjoy learning, they become more engaged in learning and they are ready to work hard in order to perform well. The increased participation of students in learning promotes a healthy teacher-student relationship, which is very important when it comes to effective teaching and good performance in students.Co-teaching creates more room for learning and sharing for both the teachers and the students, which is a great step towards positive achievement in students. Co-teaching facilitates positive achievement in students through improved instruction. Through the co-teaching programs, the teachers are able to deliver improved instruction to the students. Due to the students’ different academic abilities, the teachers have a great responsibility of ensuring that the students achieve their learning objectives despite their different academic abilities (Kyriacou, C. 2000).The differences are used to determine what needs to be done so as to assist a particular student. For instance, while some students are academically gifted, the others have average ability. In addition, some students are always at the risk of failing in class due to their low academic ability and lack of effective teaching methods by the teachers. It is only by identifying the individual students’ academic abilities that teachers can offer the necessary assistance to students who need special attention. For example, the ability of the disabled students to perform well depends on how well their special needs are met in class.There is need for teachers to ensure that all students learn well, despite the differences in their academic abilities. This can be done by assisting the students to maximize their potential in class. This is what co-teaching does through improved instruction. The needs of the students based on their different academic abilities are well addressed in co-teaching. This improves the achievement of t he students, since their learning needs are addressed on time and in the right manner. The problems that are faced by the students can always be solved at the right time to promote good student achievement.In any profession, having unique professional relationships encourages commitment and dedication of the workers. In the teaching profession, teachers who have unique professional relationships are able to work together in a complementary manner. Because professional relationship has to be built on trust, communication, parity, and respect, the co-teachers integrate these values in their teaching (Richard, A. et al 2008). When the teaching is based on positive values, the students are able to learn properly.This increases the students’ ability to adopt learning based on values that maximize their potential, hence they show a high level of achievement. Creating a sense of belonging and support in the classroom encourages the sharing of learning experiences between the teacher s and the students (Rosenberg, M. 2003). This means that all learning experiences, whether good or bad can be shared. For instance, co-teachers who have been involved in teaching programs have clearly stated that they have enjoyed a sense of support fostered by the teaching programs.Therefore, teachers are always able to share a spectacular lesson with the students. On the other hand, whenever a lesson is challenging, the teachers are able to share their experiences. When students feel that they need to share their learning experiences with the teachers, they are able to appreciate learning. Since the students feel obliged to participate in the learning process, they can perform well to achieve what is expected of them. This increases the students’ achievement. Co-teaching is an innovative approach in teaching, which has both the conceptual and operational aspects.There is need to develop and adopt co-teaching programs through proper planning, implementation, and also evaluat ion. One of the impacts of co-teaching on student achievement is closely related to solving the problem of stigmatization of the students with disabilities. In a regular class, students with disabilities are sometimes faced with learning difficulties due to being perceived as â€Å"different†. This means that the students tend to be disadvantaged when it comes to learning because of their nature of being disabled.The other students in class may stigmatize the students who are disabled because they consider them as lacking something. Consequently, the students with special needs may be treated unfairly by the others due to their special needs. By being stigmatized, students with special needs may tend to show poor performance in class. They fail to meet the goals of the courses that they are taught in class. In order to improve the performance of these students and to increase their achievement, co-teaching can be used (Marston, N. Accesed on October 9, 2008). This is very ben eficial to the students.The teachers who are involved in co-teaching programs are able to deliver their services effectively to the students who are disabled, and therefore have special needs. The stigmatization of the students is greatly reduced, a situation that has been proved to improve the performance of the students. Through the co-teaching programs, the teachers increase understanding of the students about the content of the courses that the students are taught. This motivates the students to learn, as well as to share what they have learned in class with the others.In addition to increasing the students’ understanding, co-teaching advocates for respect towards the disabled children from the fellow classmates. The fact that the disabled students have special needs means that they may require some special attention from the others, a situation that the fellow students may try to ignore. When co-teaching promotes respect for the disabled and minimizes their stigmatizatio n, the student achievement in learning increases. It is very important to note that, co-teaching takes care of the students’ and teachers’ needs.For instance, co-teaching advocates for a teaching approach that minimizes transitions when students show the tendency to disrupt transitions. At the same time, co-teaching approaches create room for frequent changes so that the students’ needs for extra motivation are encouraged. Co-teaching approaches promote the addressing of the teachers’ needs. The approach can either allow independent teaching for teachers with different teaching styles, or working together within a shared approach. The most appropriate approach can then be adopted depending on the teachers’ and students’ needs.The student achievement is increased when the most appropriate approach in co-teaching is adopted. For instance, a student can be able to have a more detailed observation in the learning process. A teaching approach, â €Å"One teach, One Observe† has teachers decide on the type of observational information that needs to be gathered during instruction in advance. The teachers can then easily agree on the best gathering data. The co-teachers are then able to analyze information, which they can use constructively in the classroom. Instructional fragmentation in learning affects the performance of students negatively.This often occurs when service delivery options are offered to students in the learning process. This requires the students to leave the classroom so as to receive the services, a situation that promotes instructional fragmentation. This can be well minimized when students do not have to leave the classroom in order to receive instructions. When students receive instructions through the co-teaching programs, the instructional fragmentation is minimized. This is because, the students do not necessarily leave the classroom to receive the services.Well referred to as the co-teacher, t he special service provider improves student learning by their good understanding of the class curriculum. This means that the curriculum is well developed and implemented to suit the needs of the students (Moran, G. 1997). In addition to this, a special service provider is empowered by the co-teaching programs to understand well the academic expectations. By understanding the curriculum, the teacher concentrates on issues that aim at ensuring that the performance of the students is always improving.Co-teaching encourages the development of a teaching model that promotes positive achievement in students. The teaching models used in co-teaching require individual teachers to always bring certain characteristics and knowledge voluntarily in class. This is further complemented by skills that the teachers voluntarily use in class. Since teachers have special personal charateristics, bringing their characteristics in class voluntarily enable them to work effectively with the other teache rs. By working together in harmony, the teachers are able to strengthen each other in teaching (Jill, A. ET al.2007). A co-teaching model requires teachers to have sets of common skills as well as common knowledge. Furthermore, the teachers show knowledge that is specific to discipline. Through the models, teachers are able to coordinate classroom activities to suit the needs of the students, and to facilitate learning in a good classroom environment. Since teaching becomes voluntary for teachers, they are able to fully maximize their potential in teaching. When the teachers deliver their best, the students on the other hand receive the best. This no doubt improves the performance of the students in class.The classroom dynamics based on co-teaching models make the classroom interactions very unique. Having well defined classroom responsibilities and duties allows the teachers to specialize on particular classroom topics (Gail, E. et al. 2001). These topics can be taught intensively such that the students’ understanding about a particular topic is increased. The teachers are then able to provide support to individual students by ensuring that a whole class instructional flow is successfully maintained. A co-teaching curriculum is very instrumental in reflecting the students’ needs.By so doing, the curriculum is then implemented with the aim of addressing the compensatory, developmental, and academic skills. The student achievement is boosted when skills are improved based on how the co-teaching curriculum is implemented. The students’ efforts are easily monitored by the teachers in a co-teaching program. The students’ performance can be improved when the curriculum and the teaching techniques are reviewed (Ellis, V . 2004) this calls for appropriate teaching measures based on the weaknesses and the strengths of a co-teaching curriculum.Another co-teaching approach, â€Å"One Teach, One Drift†, allows teaching by one teacher wh ile the co-teacher at the same time assists students in class without disrupting the one who is teaching. The student supervision by the teachers is important in good student perfomance. This is what the â€Å"Parallel Teaching† co-teaching approach does. Through such an approach, the students who have been involved in co-teaching have had their class achievement increased greatly. Other approaches that can be used in co-teaching include Station Teaching, Alternative Teaching, and Team Teaching.The diversity of teaching approaches offers teachers an opportunity to adopt the best and the most appropriate teaching approach based on the different and diverse student needs. This encourages proper matching of a given particular approach with the needs. The students’ achievement is increased when proper teaching approaches are adopted in teaching (Curren, R. 2006). Students in a co-teaching program are able to develop a comfortable relationship with the teachers through the well-built relationship between the two parties. The students can express themselves freely, sense harmony, and tension that may exist in a learning environment.A positive relationship can easily be established between a teacher and students in a co-teaching program. Through the relationship, misunderstandings that may arise in class are minimized (Capel, S. , and Turner, T. 2005). The problems that may arise in a class room environment are then resolved before they affect the students’ performance negatively. Co-teaching creates a cohesive classroom where the teacher and the students are able to work together towards achieving the goals of the courses taught in class. While they appreciate the strengths of what they experience during the learning process, they also recognize the weaknesses.By recognizing the weaknesses, the teachers and the students strive to turn the weaknesses into opportunities of improving learning. Furthermore, learning that integrates Individualized Ed ucation Plans can be developed. The plans are very important in ensuring that the needs of the students are well taken care of. Through co-teaching, the teachers are able to take risks . This means that new methods of teaching can be explored. This makes it easy for teachers to learn from each other, and hence they can grow as professionals. Conclusion Learning is very important in any society, whether formal or informal (Cohn, L.1976). The teaching methods in formal and informal education differ, but the two shares certain priciples. In formal education, co-techinh has bee used as one of the most effective teaching practices when it comes to assisting the students to improve their perfomance. This increases the students’ achievement. The impact of co-teaching in student achievement varies. Co-teaching uses different approaches. Despite the differences, the most important thing in co-teaching is to ensure that the students’ needs are appropriately addressed in a class environment. ReferencesAdams, L. , Cessna, K. , and Friend, M. (1993). Effectiveness Indicators of Collaboration in Special Education. General Education Co-teaching Final Report. Denver; Colorado. Department of Education Brooks, V. (2004). Preparing to Teach in Secondary Schools. Open University Press Capel, S. , and Turner, T. (2005). Learning to Teach in the Secondary School. Routledge Cohn, L. (1976). The Good Old Manners as Seen through the Sears. Ayer Publishers Cook, L. (2004). Co-teaching; Principles, Practices, and Pragmatics www. ped. state. nm. us/seo/library/qrtrly. 0404.coteaching. 1cook. pdf Accessed on October 9, 2008 Cowley, S. (2006). Getting the Buggers to Behave. Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd Curren, R. (2006). A Companion to the Philosophy of Education. Paperback Edition Ellis, V. (2004). Learning and Teaching in Secondary Schools. Learning Matters Ltd Gail, E. , Arnold, A. , Cynthia, W. (2001). Renaissance in the Classroom: Arts Integration and Mea ningful Learning. Published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Jill A. , Dianne K. , Judith K. , Kristin M. (2007). Common-sense Classroom Management forSpecial Education Teachers, Grades 6-12. Corwin Press Kyriacou, C. (2000). Stress-Busting for Teachers. Nelson Thornes Publishers Marston, N. Six Steps to Successful Co-teaching www. nea. org/teachexperience/spedk031113. html Accessed on October 9, 2008 Moran, G. (1997). Showing How: The Act of Teaching. Continuum International Publishing Group Richard, A. , Jackqueline, S. , and Anne, N. (2008). A Guide to Co-teaching: Practical Tips for Facilitating Student Learning. Corwin Press Publishers Rosenberg, M. (2003). Life-Enriching Education. Puddle Dancer Press

Challenges Faced by Graduates and Volatile Global Economy Essay

Challenges Faced by Graduates and Volatile Global Economy - Essay Example Hence the graduates and aspirants of opportunities are advised to capacitate their personal and professional skills based on the analysis of actual demands of the new business horizons. Various elements are to be considered responsible for the new economic trend of excessive completion in the international job market. Generalised expectations of most of the job market is that graduates from developed countries are basically exposed to luxurious life with the abundance of opportunities while the part of luxury is a rare incident in case of job seekers from emerging economies. As Farley, Malkani and Smith (2008) point out, majority of the graduates are in search of lucrative jobs in developed economies and the employers of the emerging economies find it difficult to fill the positions with efficient people, which will eventually result in reduced productivity and quality performance. Developed and emerging economies are facing the problem of internal competition in most of the producti vity regions in pursuit of claiming a stable economic position in the world. Presently, the world economy is moving through the crisis-hit segments in many spheres of international business owing to the competition among countries those have agreed to collaborating ideas and exchange of human intelligence for industries and trade. â€Å"The world around is being dramatically reshaped by scientific and technological innovation, global inter-dependence, cross-cultural encounters and changes in the balance of economic and political power† (Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2009). A majority of the leading economies in the world are now on verge of declining themselves from their perspectives of economic leadership over other countries over the past few years. This economic policy changes in the recent years are the earmarking revelation of an imminent move for cut-downs and distribution of intelligence requirement among job markets across the world mostly throug h information technology. Apart from the various norms of the governments to regulate the job market, a majority of graduates are forced to the risk of losing their technical knowledge in highly intellectual professions like doctors and engineers if the individual abstains from practice over a long period after the studies. As International Business Report (Sep 28, 2010) points out, in the scenario of volatile global economy, graduates are a target for certain challenges like excessive competition against limited requirements, economic downturns in local job markets, inadequate exposure to quality education with facilities for real-world exposure and also the setback of the height of expectations set above the achievable levels of opportunities to them and the development of intellectual debate between job searching with the graduation and further drive of higher education. Advancement in technology and computerisation in the field of operation of all the industries and offices in t he recent decade demands for a higher level enthusiasm among young aspirants to update their professional skills with the demands of the time. Unlike the traditional belief that industry involved the physical production of certain commodities, the world today is looking for the excellence of graduates in

Sexual Profile of Gomez Addams Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Sexual Profile of Gomez Addams - Essay Example The director sets the pace for the audience of a Gomez character who gives the impression of a lustrous man, with the qualities of a high sexual profile trait that sets a good example of the qualities of a sexually endowed profile that a man would crave for. His lifestyle is vast, well attributed with good qualities that enhance his sexual profile. Some of his attributes give him the chance to elaborate an ideal character of a well endowed sexual profile (Miserocchi, & Addams, 2010). Financial Background The character formation of Gomez Addams is portrayed in the TV series of the Addams family. He features as a multi millionaire family man who possesses a wide range of investments all over the world, particularly possessing investments in real estate and additionally an extraordinary crocodile farm named Crocodiles Unlimited. Furthermore, he has made investments in uranium mining, a tombstone factory and in farming. His character is portrayed as a well financially endowed character, who does not share much enthusiasm in spending sums of money in the event of pleasing his wife and family. This character brings out a charm that would intrigue and intimidate sexual orientation to many of the viewers. Financial endowment brings a certain expression of a well defined sexual profile that intrigues certain audience in different ways. Psychologists place a great part of good sexual profiles on financial stability and endowment as a whole. Gomez Addams has a wide range of sturdy outfits that state his eye for good fashion, and his commitment to good taste. A great part of his consciousness is drawn from the sturdy easy to spot qualities of his dressing. He is portrayed as clear individual, who has an eye for sporty fashion. In his presentation, he dresses in a stripped pair of trousers, a smart bow-tie, charcoal black suits and an extremely thin moustache. Early Spanish communities are expressed as having precise tastes, thus developing their character with very sleek t astes as well endowed in terms of sexual profiles. In the modern day setting, psychologists advocate a great deal of sexual profile attributable to the general dressing style, as it gives an impression of neatness, precision and basically a god reputation for uniqueness (McAnulty, & Burnette, 2006). In the preceding features of Gomez in play presentations (for instance in the 1991 and 1993 plays), Raul Julia plays the part of Gomez Addams. The character brought out in the play gives an impression of a man concise to style, with a clear streamline sense of style. Raul gives the audience a clear definition of the character traits of Gomez. Gomez is well informed; having studied law, good sense of style is meticulous to him. Additionally, Gomez likes playing golf, chess and playing with swords. These characters of Gomez point out his high lifestyle which in turn adds a point of his sexual profile. Being as such, the writer and developer of the Addams Family bring out some distinct char acter of Gomez that portrays his ability to possess a high grade sexual profile. Family Background The Addams family series eludes the life of highlife family that is entrenched in the life of materialism, and has an affinity to looking down upon the problem stricken characters of their society. The family headed by Gomez, seems to enjoy a variety of loads of family time and they always enjoy doing things together.

Planning and Controlling Direct Labor Costs Term Paper

Planning and Controlling Direct Labor Costs - Term Paper Example As a result of which the total revenue and total sale of the organization might get increased that may amplify its market share and brand value to a significant extent among others. Apart from this, if the organization became successful in reducing its actual cost, then it might present its product or services at a quite competitive cost as compared to its rival players. However, due to which, a huge range of customers might get attracted towards the brand and the product line that may amplify its demand and profit margin in the market among many other rival players (Hansen, Mowen and Passalacque 29). Thus, it might be stated that in order to enhance the range of profits of the organization by a consistent range, planning is the most essential facet. In order to enhance the sustainability and position in long run, the organization might plan for long term strategies. It might prove effective in increasing the overall costs and revenues thereby reducing the total costs. The importance of the study is to analyze the importance of planning for an organization in this age, in order to amplify its total revenue and reduce the total cost. This might act as the first stage of budgeting that may prove effective for the organization to forecast its future expected sales, earning, expenses etc. Along with this the process of planning and staffing also includes the future forecast of the changes of the business and economic environment that may offer significant impact over the operations and functions of the organization. Along with planning and staffing, forecasting is another important step of budgeting, that helps to determine, the degree to which the long term strategies are useful or feasible for the organization in long run. However, this process of forecasting is a mixture of two important functions such as planning for long period of time entirely based on real goals or objectives of the organization as well as short term planning’s.

Investing in Energy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Investing in Energy - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that one reason for the oil foreign policy being different from the conventional Prisoner’s Dilemma game is that we are dealing with exchanges in the world’s political economy. One of the most common and fundamental interests of a multi-national corporation is the land rights on which oil can be produced and manufactured. Most of the oil consumed in the world today has moved from one country to another. It is, by far, the largest single commodity in international trade. This is why it is important. The Red Line Agreement of July 31, 1928, is an example in the history of oil co-operation, in which the United States did not get what it wanted in negotiations. Negotiations for the agreement began with the US and Great Britain squaring off for access to oil in the region that is now Iraq. At the end of World War I, the San Remo agreement awarded Britain mandate over Iraq, but the Americans opposed this. They claimed that since the war was won by the Allies collectively, oil exploration rights in the Iraq region should be shared. However, the British refused. Facing this impasse, the seven American oil companies decided to pursue their oil interests by official means through the Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC, later known as the Petroleum Company). Thus, negotiations with the TPC began in 1922, with the Americans actively pursuing the open-door policy. Essentially, it was in their interest to be assured that they had access to the oil regardless of the new developments that took place in oil production, in the Mesopotamian region. This was a critical time for the Germans and French since the US was making the transition from being one of the major providers of oil to one of the largest importers. One of the biggest problems for the American group and their pursuit of the open door policy is what is referred to as the â€Å"self-denying clause.† In the Foreign Office Agreement of 1914, the â€Å"self-d enying clause† prohibits owners of TPC from handling the production or manufacturing of crude oil other than through the TPC.

Case study 2 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

2 - Case Study Example The reason one experiences pain in the right upper quadrant is because of the position of the gallbladder, and what happens to the gall bladder whenever it is blocked by the gallstones. The gall bladder has the cystic duct through which bile flows into the duodenum. A blockade of this duct means that bile cannot pass through. It becomes concentrated in the gall bladder causing irritation and inflammation. This inflammation causes pain that radiates to the surrounding parts. This is why an individual with gallstones experiences pain in the right upper quadrant that may further extend to the back (Whitney & Pinna 565; Bluth & Benson 1). When one eats, more bile is produced from the liver, and this goes into the already inflamed gall bladder. The act of eating stimulates the gall bladder to contract and push the bile into the duodenum for the normal digestion process. Because of the existence of the gallstone on the cystic duct, the contraction causes pain (Crutchlow, Dudac, MacAvoy and Madara 213). If Martha gets lucky and the doctor finds out that the gallstones can be dislodged, they will pass through the duodenum. Here they can be dissolved using ursodeoxycholic acid, or can pass through the intestine (DeBruyne, Whitney & Pinna

Select a Film and Analyze Relationships in the Film Essay

Select a Film and Analyze Relationships in the Film - Essay Example The Phantom hails from a cave found beneath opera house in Paris meant for dance performance. On the other side, Christine is a dancer in the opera house; a situation which hints on their possible encounter. In his cave, the Phantom dreams of controlling the way Opera house operates and this leads him to making attempts of frightening the residents in the opera house. Initially, the Phantom had escaped his master after murdering him then meeting the French girl who brought him to the cave. Since she was a resident at opera house, the film brings out several incidences in which the phantom had taught her to sing perfectly. In this case, the main reason for having a close relationship with Christine was to use condition her to changing the running of the opera house. In personality, his face was full of deformations making him more embarrassed and in dire need for an intimate relationship. This leads him to developing obsession and lust with Christine as he continued teaching her how t o sing. At the instance when new owners took over the control of the house, the Phantom fought for Christine to be put as a lead singer. This shows his sacrifice for the relationship since he ends up causing destruction in the house. The sacrifice and the growing relationship makes Christine believe that her father’s dream for an angel to protect her was coming true through the Phantom. The following is a quote made by Christine, which served as a turning point in their relationship: In most of the cases, the Phantom makes use of non-verbal communication in his relationship with Christine. A mutual attraction arises in the relationship between the two. Phantom manages to teach Christine how to sing and brings her to the limelight, while the latter makes the former more powerful because of the company. The beautiful voice of the Phantom makes Christine attracted besides the chaos he creates at the expense of bringing her to limelight. The Phantom goes to the the

Training and development Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Training and development - Assignment Example Training and development are crucial to the business because it equips the employees with the relevant knowledge and skills for realizing the business objectives through a well laid down strategies (Werner, Jon and Randy, 15). With the increasing level of competition, the most organization embraces the fact that there exist the link between policy and training and organizational development. Therefore, human resource is regarded as equally important as any other resource in an organization, in that respect, the team must spend so well in their training. In the training process, the employees go through professional certification. Professional certification is important to both the organization and the individual. It is important to the organization in that the operator will execute his or her duties with due competence. Furthermore, it is also important during the execution of strategy. On the other hand, the employee who has undergone professional certification will have courage in the performance of his duties and policy implementation. Training and development is one crucial and important thing in many organizational setting. Training and development usually lead to improved performance of groups and i ndividuals in any organization. In most cases, professional certification is financed by the business organization (Werner, Jon and Randy, 43). On the part of the organizational development (OD), it is imperative especially for the effectiveness and widening of productivity in the organization. Furthermore, OD acts as a way of solving the problems that involve the execution of strategy. However, the process of executing organizational development requires an investment of both time and finance. It is prudent that the company invests on the human resource through training. Human resource management is always the department charged with the duty of training and development (Wilson, 65). Training

Curriculum Development Essay Example for Free

Curriculum Development Essay In the early 20th century, there was a stable increase in high school enrolment and graduation rates. This is because of the second industrial revolution which led to an increased demand for white collar jobs. It is important to understand that the aims of secondary have the societal needs as their point of departure. The societal social, economic, political and even religious needs have hitherto determined the content. However, sometimes it is possible that the two i. e. high school education goals and societal needs may be out of touch thus making the education boring irrelevant and boring. This paper seeks to highlight how American high school viewed as irrelevant can be rearranged to fit the needs of a rapidly emerging high-tech society in the United States. The paper also dwells on a model development of a flexible one-block schedule for a medium sized high school that will include provisions for both departmentalization and team instruction can be. It finally compares the issues and problems in the high school education in the past 50 years with the present ones. The emerging American society has become high tech and calls for a high degree of specialization in any field that an individual deals with. Americans need experts in all fields. Based on the premise that there is need for experts in the job market, the products of high school education are found to be less prepared for this kind of demand. In the American education, there is no specialization until the sophomore year in college. Therefore, there is a pressing need to embrace specialization in the early years in high school to make the students better prepared for the job market. Another issue of concern is the fact that American students have full control of their education in that they choose even the core classes. The curriculum drafters have the responsibility of ensuring that the languages, science and mathematics be compulsory because the respective skills of communication, critical reasoning and evaluation are necessary in the job market. Consider a model one block schedule for a medium sized high school. The model emphasizes the core or compulsory classes that each student must take. These core classes can be taken together in large classes by one teacher but when it comes to the electives, and then the classes need to be at the departmental level. The departments need to develop there own timetables in consideration of the core classes timetable and a curricula tailored to be in tune with the job market specifications. The core classes need ton run everyday. A student is supposed to belong to at least one department and at most three. These are the departments that will help the students specialize in the field of his/her fancy. Before a student t joins any department, there is need for him to clearly describe his career to the careers master at the department so as to determine how what is offered at the department can fit the student’s career goals. The career master is then supposed to advice the student to either join that department or refer him to another one which will fit student’s specifications. This model schedule emphasizes the concept of early specialization as a way of preparing the student for the job market. A number of issues have bedevilled secondary or high school education. The major one being lack of security in the school. The recent shootings by students with guns in schools serve to illustrate this rather unfortunate issue. These shootings underscore the very responsibilities of the school officials of ensuring that students, teachers and other workers are safe while at school. Another issue is the completion rates of high schools which have stagnated for the last 30 years. If progress exists, there is need for the completion rates to be seen increasing. A major issue in education in American high schools is the lack of a nationalized curriculum. Every state has its own specifications and this has in the past attracted cries for the nationalization of education so as to establish national standards that should be adhered by all states. The above issues are either a recurrence of last 50 years or new altogether. Fifty years ago, there was high security in the schools, the completion rate increased especially during the second industrial revolution due to the high demand for skilled manpower. For the case of the nationalization of secondary education, this has been an issue from time immemorial. Each state has been giving its own curriculum with a few resemblances here and there.

Teaching A Diverse Population Essay Example for Free

Teaching A Diverse Population Essay Diversity within the American classroom makes the process of teaching and learning a growing challenge.   The faces of todays students are becoming increasingly dissimilar. Schools are faced with the challenge of integrating the cultures and ethnicities of American based curriculum and students from a variety of cultures and ethnicities. Each of these students brings different culturally based rules, expectations, value systems, and educational needs to the learning environment. Facing the challenge of educating these increasingly culturally and ethnically diverse learners begins not only with a change in the management, pedagogy, and instructional delivery system, but also with a change in designers, trainers, or teachers. Research indicates that most mainstream cultural educators automatically view the world exclusively from their own viewpoints, which serves as a reference against which all others should be evaluated. This process has been commonplace in the classroom.   This results in an unwarranted belief that ones own way of doing things is best and that ones own group is markedly superior to another. â€Å"Generally speaking, this type of person is the one who neither understands nor accepts the culturally different learners values, their motives, the rewards that are meaningful to them, their locus of control, their linguistic systems, their learning styles, and their cognitive styles.† (Zhang, 2001)   This is a person who may, upon entering or creating a learning environment, do so with cultural orientations and expectations that reflect his/her own cultural values and expectations.   This can create an environment that perpetuates the predominant culture and shuts out others learners. Zhang identified talking points to enable an educational system evaluate their ability to meet the needs of minority or diverse students.   These questions include: (1) What form of educational system is most familiar to the students? (2) What kind of learning environment is most customary to these students?   In some cultures, for example, teachers are revered individuals who teach sacred truth. The task of the students is to absorb knowledge, and they seldom disagree with the teacher. In the programs designed for these particular students, we can put more fundamental basic skills for them to memorize. (3) How do the cultural backgrounds of the students influence their uses and views of time? Americans uses and views of time reflect cultural biases that alter their educational processes.   In contrast to the American clock-oriented value, some cultures are not conditioned to use every moment in a productive, task-oriented manner.   Classrooms may not be able to design curriculum in a strictly time-controlled system. Some students may need more time. (4) What kind of relationship is most natural for these students to have with the teachers? The teacher-student relationship is culturally mandated. (5) What rewards are attractive to these students? Rewards and reinforcement for learning differ in effectiveness across cultures. Some cultures teach their children different reward systems.   For instance, verbal praise, which is viewed by most teachers as a reward, is not perceived as such by children of some minority groups. (6) How can the program use some slang? American classrooms are structured on standard English, but some minority students feel more comfortable learning in a rather informal setting. The use of some slang in the program may improve learning achievement. (7) What about the students cognitive styles? American schools favor the abstract, conceptual style. Studies have shown that some cultural groups develop different cognitive styles. Some theorists express the view that culturally different children are often judged as incompetent, whereas in reality, it is their individual performance, not their competence, which is deficient. The gap between competence and performance is attributed to inappropriate situation cues inappropriate because they fail to stimulate the child into action. Mathematics requires more abstract, conceptual ability. Some minority students develop their cognitive style with concrete, objective base. Therefore situated learning environment supported by most of constructivism theorists is a good choice.   (Zhang, 2001)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Zhang offers the following criteria to evaluate a good culturally balanced curriculum: 1)   Materials are respectful of cultural, ethnic, sexual, and/or religious diversity. 2) A balance of historical perspectives is represented that recognizes the complexity underlying historical events, especially wars, and politics. 3) Gender inclusiveness is evident. 4) A balanced perspective on the values and contributions of diverse cultures is represented. 5) Images and icons are sensitive to cultural taboos and customs. 6) An ethical perspective is presented that maintains that cultural practices should be respected unless they violate principles of basic humanity. 7) Ethnic groups are represented in ways that reflect the diversity within these groups. 8) A balance of different cultures and societies is represented in images or texts. 9) Ethnic groups are represented in ways that reflect accurately their overall contributions to society. 10) Ethnic pluralism based upon respect for differences are held forth as the ideal approach to societal development. Teachers are well aware of the demographic trends in todays schools indicating that the student population is becoming more ethnically, culturally, and racially diverse.   Curriculum development and teachers are challenged to provide meaningful, relevant, and motivating educational interventions to all learners. Instruction must be responsive to the needs of these new learners, who often have backgrounds different from our own. This pluralistic focus, which requires us to accommodate diversity in the education process, must start with our own cultural   sensitivity.   This requires being able to view the world from the standpoint of a culture other than ones own.   For educators, this means accepting as valid the culturally different learners values, their motives, rewards that are meaningful to them, their locus of control, their linguistic systems, their learning styles, and their cognitive styles. Incorporating these issues into program designs, valuing this diversity and seeing it as an asset to meaningful and effective instruction are key components for relevant instructional design. Deep Teaching   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Angela Rickford, while assessing the progress of reading skills among culturally diverse classrooms, found that there still exists inequities with the system and the instruction methods of teachers.   Rickford identified six sound principles, which formulate her theory on deep teaching, which is defined as â€Å"a teachers ability to communicate and impart stated concepts, curriculum content and lesson objectives to a class of students with enjoyment, clarity, understanding, and the permanent acquisition of new knowledge by those students even if they are academically challenged.† The six principles identified in deep teaching are: 1) student engagement, 2) learner participation, 3) repetition and reinforcement, 4) high expectations, 5) sound pedagogy and 6) conceptual understanding. Student engagement: In order to educate our children successfully, we should first seek to discover where their interests lie, and then teach to those interests. Contemporary educators believe that a curriculum that incorporates real-world connections and applications will engage learners. Real-life work is meaningful to students, and effective as it allows the student to apply what they are learning.   Rickford promoted culturally relevant literature for teaching ethnically diverse studentsliterature containing themes, ideas, and issues that are consonant with their lived experiences, and with which they could readily identify. Learner Participation:   The second element of learner participation forms a natural pairing with student engagement. In the classroom, the reading teacher must be a facilitator of knowledge, and a guide and coworker. The current educational emphasis is on learning strategies such as partner reading, shared reading, homogeneous and heterogeneous grouping, authentic assessment and interactive reading comprehension techniques (predicting, visualizing, questioning, and self-monitoring), and on communication and interaction. These techniques are designed to foster a participatory, pro-active, hands-on approach to student learning. Repetition and Reinforcement:   Practice it until you can get it without thinking. It should be automatic.   It should become part of the individual. Expectations:   The issue of low expectations continues limit the progress made by minorities in todays classrooms in both direct and indirect ways. It has been well documented that low expectations are endemic in the mechanism of schooling that supports low-achieving students, and the trend is further manifested in fundamental measures of excellence such as teacher quality, teaching pedagogy, classroom management, and curricular selection.   The direct impact of low expectations on the part of classroom teachers has a cumulative effect on students. One of social psychologys most profound contributions to education has been the finding that teacher expectations can affect both childrens intellectual growth and their academic achievement.   High expectations should be the prevailing standard for all students. Sound Teaching and Conceptual Understanding:   Sound teaching pedagogy is the principle upon which the successful transfer of knowledge from teacher to student depends, while conceptual understanding is what the student gains when that knowledge has been successfully transferred. Sound teaching pedagogy and conceptual understanding are the hallmarks of effective teachers. Research has shown further that teacher knowledge and expertise are directly and systematically related to student growth and achievement. Multicultural Strategies Coleman Hamm identified multicultural strategies (integration, fusion, and alternation) that involve a desire to relate positively to individuals from multiple cultural groups, and are characterized by positive attitudes toward ones own and other groups, a moderate to high degree of facility with the roles and values of multiple groups, and a belief that members of different cultures can successfully form positive relationships. Although integration, fusion, and alternation strategies differ with respect to the specific knowledge, beliefs, and skills that guide them, each is based on a belief that cultural boundaries can and should be implemented successfully without compromise to either culture and are believed to motivate behavior to further integration. A common experience in ethnically diverse schools is to collaborate in a group format on academic tasks with peers who are from ones own, as well as from other ethnic groups.   Using a multicultural strategy, students would interact with all members of the learning group, taking steps to ensure that group members of all ethnic backgrounds are respected and are involved with the project. Learning as a Social and Cultural Process   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Given that research has demonstrated the under-performing of minority students within the Western classroom, perhpas learning is primarily a social and cultural process.   This is not to diminish the role of the individual; however, individual thinking is strongly influenced by cultural assumptions and beliefs.   Because all communities do not think, believe, or learn in identical ways, there may still be much, that is confusing to or misunderstood by children with   language, culture, and socioeconomic differences. Teachers must be willing to learn not only who their students are but also who they, themselves, are as cultural beings and how that strongly affects their teaching.   (Pransky Bailey, 2002)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Pransky and Bailey identified a four step process for teachers to implement in the classroom to increase effectiveness: Step 1. Awareness. A teacher notices a breakdown in communication or an inability (or unwillingness) of a student or group of students to perform adequately on an academic task. Step 2. Inquiry. The teacher examines the nature of the lesson and begins to identify cultural assumptions that may negatively affect at-risk students. Step 3. Reconceptualization. With this new information, the teacher reconceptualizes his or her perspective on the students, lesson, curriculum, or school culture. Step 4. Lesson. A lesson is revisited, revised, or restructured, and ones instructional decisions change based on that new conception. What is learned through this process expands the awareness of the teacher, and effectively increases teaching skills.   As one develops more awareness, knowledge, and experience with a cultural perspective on learning, one is better able to reconceptualize and then redirect or refocus ones teaching within the flow of the lesson. This might be termed real-time inquiry. In real-time inquiry, especially, it is important to engage in dialogue with students to try to discover the understandings they have of the lesson task or interaction. (Pransky Bailey, 2002) Teaching Science in a Diverse Classroom Houtz Watson evaluated teacher performance in the science classroom and identified the following needs in order to meet the needs of diverse students: They must recognize what is required in learning tasks such as vocabulary knowledge, the ability to make inferences, and the ability to work independently. They also should know their students strengths and weaknesses. Once these tasks are accomplished, the educator must determine the reason for the mismatch between a students abilities and the task requirements of the lesson Culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students may be at risk of performing poorly in science if they lack the linguistic, the cognitive, the social, and the emotional behaviors required by science learning.   Because the behavior, culture, and language of CLD students may be different from those involved in the task requirements, these students may experience difficulty completing science projects.   Teachers need to identify the discrepancy between task demands and student ability and then modify to their lesson plans accordingly. By understanding the process of acquiring a second language and a second culture and the cognitive, linguistic, emotional, and social demands involved in the process, science teachers can incorporate instructional conditions that attend to the students needs. Science teachers can use numerous instructional strategies to accommodate CLD learners without weakening the curriculum.   Contextualization allows students to draw from personal experiences and build on their prior knowledge to learn the new scientific concept. Teachers can group individualize the process by structuring questions that encourage students to think about their own personal experience as it relates to the topic or content to be learned. The use of contextualized instruction provides CLD students the support they need for understanding the lesson by visually representing the information through experiments, pictures, graphic organizers, and charts. Contextualization allows teachers to (a) consider their students language proficiency levels of vocabulary control and (b) highlight specific text information. Analogies and examples that are culturally relevant may also be used to help students understand scientific concepts.   Analogies show the similarities between a new concept and a familiar concept, making the new concept more meaningful to the student. Analogies can assist in diminishing the cognitive and linguistic requirements of the task. Cognitive modeling and demonstration are especially beneficial for CLD students because these strategies increase understanding by providing concrete, step-by-step procedures that lessen the cognitive, linguistic, and social requirements of the task.   (Houtz Watson, 2002) A Learner Centered Approach   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   An essential factor for a learner-centered approach is placing the learning characteristics of all learners under close scrutiny with emphasis on low-performing learners.   The focus in a learner-centered approach is on individual learners heredity, experiences, perspectives, backgrounds, talents, interests, capacities, and needs.   A learner-centered approach is defined as clarifying what is needed to create positive learning contexts, in order to increase the likelihood that more students will experience success.   The culture of the learning context is as important to learning as the content and the methods used.   (Brown, 2003) In the learner-centered environment, classroom teachers share narratives about students interaction with content and methodology. Teachers participate in professional development to learn how to differentiate instruction. Differentiation is a way of thinking about teaching and learning that is based on a set of beliefs that students who are the same age may differ in their readiness to learn, their interests, their styles of learning, their experiences, and their life circumstances.   The differences in students are significant enough to make a major impact on what students need to learn, the pace at which they need to learn it, and the support they need from teachers and others to learn it. Differentiated instruction meets the needs of diverse student populations by combining   student needs with a focus on content, process, and learning profiles.   The learner-centered approach, focuses on content knowledge and design flexibility to allow learners to construct their learning. Learner needs and characteristics take precedence over knowledge of facts and skills; the emphasis is on engaging learners in learning for understanding and thinking, to help them build their own interpretations. Creating Equitable Classroom Climates Kelly outlines recommendations that include creating a mixed set of expectations for all students in order to reduce the participation inequity altogether. These expectations focus on being able to identify each individuals area or areas of strength and expertise. In order to create this new set of expectations,   teachers must convince students of three things: (a) the cooperative task requires many different intellectual abilities, (b) no one will have all of these abilities and, (c) everyone will have some of these abilities.   Kelly believes that teachers who teach and model equitable classroom culture will probably be more likely to convince students to behave more equitably to their peers.   (Kelly, 2002) This method of implementing change by using a multiple-abilities approach and assigning competence to low-status groups, teachers will limit the impact of high expectations for high-status learners and low-expectations for low-status learners, and create a mixed set of expectations for everyone. This approach should reduce the differences in participation noted previously in high- and low-status students.   Kelly identifies the key factor to success in the latter intervention is recognition, a truthful evaluation by the teacher of the low-status student showing him/her as being strong in a specific, relevant area. Conclusion Diversity in the classroom and the challenges faced by teachers to meet the needs of minority students has been studied and debated for more than twenty years.   Progress in the identification of strategies has been made, but implementation is likely to be slow, as the revision of curriculum is a costly and time consuming project. The strategies outlined in this paper are not dependent on the revision of curriculum however, and may provide for ease of implementation.   One focus of these strategies is to assess each student, understand who they are, based on their culture, and direct your teaching methods accordingly.   Further, teachers must identify their own cultural beliefs and how those may prejudice their teaching methods.   Including students in the process of learning, modifying the process, and outlining the challenges will be beneficial to the learning of all. References Brown, K. L. (2003). From Teacher-Centered to Learner-Centered Curriculum: Improving Learning in Diverse Classrooms. Education, 124(1), 49+. Retrieved May 19, 2006, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=od=5002018664 Hamm, J. V., Coleman, H. L. (2001). African American and White Adolescents Strategies for Managing Cultural Diversity in Predominantly White High Schools. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 30(3), 281. Retrieved May 19, 2006, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=od=5001037737 Kelly, C. A. (2002). Creating Equitable Classroom Climates: An Investigation of Classroom Strategies in Mathematics and Science Instruction for Developing Preservice Teachers Use of Democratic Social Values. Child Study Journal, 32(1), 39+. Retrieved May 19, 2006, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=od=5000659006 Mitchell, B. M., Salsbury, R. E. (1996). Multicultural Education: An International Guide to Research, Policies, and Programs. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Retrieved May 19, 2006, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=od=26227378 OByrne, B. (2001). Needed: A Compass to Navigate the Multilingual English Classroom. Journal of Adolescent Adult Literacy, 44(5), 440. Retrieved May 19, 2006, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=od=5000100580 Pransky, K., Bailey, F. (2002). To Meet Your Students Where They Are, First You Have to Find Them: Working with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse At-Risk Students Research Has Shown How Attention to Cultural Mismatch May Be a Key to Equitable School Achievement. This Article Presents a Series of Case Study Vignettes to Assist Practicing Teachers. The Reading Teacher, 56(4), 370+. Retrieved May 19, 2006, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=od=5000600644 Rickford, A. E. (2005). Everything I Needed to Know about Teaching I Learned from My Children: Six Deep Teaching Principles for Todays Reading Teachers. Reading Improvement, 42(2), 112+. Retrieved May 19, 2006, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=od=5010994248 Watson, S. M., Houtz, L. E. (2002). Teaching Science: Meeting the Academic Needs of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. Intervention in School Clinic, 37(5), 267+. Retrieved May 19, 2006, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=od=5000755185 Zhang, J. X. (2001). Cultural Diversity in Instructional Design. International Journal of Instructional Media, 28(3), 299. Retrieved May 19, 2006, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=od=5001037930

Examining Revenue Management In The Hospitality Industry Tourism Essay

Examining Revenue Management In The Hospitality Industry Tourism Essay Revenue is dependent on capacity, market segment, duration, supply and demand. To manage revenue means to manage the source of income, by doing which can maximize the profit. Furthermore, the purpose of revenue management is to provide right products to right customers at right time at right price. The illustration below showed the concept of revenue manager: In this article there will be four areas of revenue management being discussed: restaurant, function room, hotel room and golf course. After reading this article, you will understand how revenue management can be applied to these areas, and what it will affect. Restaurant is a perfect candidate for applying Revenue Management because of its five elements: fixed capacity, demand inventory, time-variable demand, appropriate cost structure and segmentable customers. There are two traditional ways to manage revenue in restaurants: duration control and pricing strategy. Duration control helps to maximize the revenue, it consists uncertainty of meal durations and arrivals. In order to analyze and forecast meal durations, history data should be collected from reservations and POS system. Observing the guests during different meal periods will help to have more accurate information. After analyzing and forecasting meal duration, some strategies can be applied to control it. Those strategies include menu design, service process, staffing, improving communication, external approaches and reduce change over time. In addition, arrivals also needed to be controlled because of inconstant customer behavior. Some arrival-related problems may occur for example no shows, short shows and late shows. These can be prevented or avoided by overbooking, applying maximum hold time, taking deposits and forecasting. Reservation strategies and seating methods can help controlling duration. For example, no reservations available for peak hours can prevent having empty tabl es; call-ahead seating during busy times can avoid having empty seats. Pricing strategy could be based on different elements. Common strategies include cost based pricing, competitive pricing and demand based pricing. Cost based pricing is setting the sale price based on cost, for instance sale price equals three times of cost. Competitive pricing is considering the prices of competitors products when setting a price. Demand based pricing means when demand goes up, the price goes up as well, for example higher dinner prices for weekends. Rate Fences are always being used when a restaurant apply demand pricing strategy. A rate fence simply means a certain price provides to a certain people. There are many ways to introduce rate fences to a restaurant for instance buy one get one free, happy hour, coupon, higher price for window seats and so on. While setting a price of a product, business ethics should always be considered. A fair price makes customers happy. Here is a way to make sure the price is fair: compare the price with competitors but not fixing it with them or go much higher than their price. The best way to practice Revenue Management in restaurants is RevPASH, which stands for Revenue per Available Seat-Hour. It gives a clear picture of revenue made by the covers, and combines with the two methods mentioned above. Simply three ways to increase RevPASH: sell more covers, increase average check and increase seat occupancy. There are five steps to develop Revenue Management in restaurants: establish baseline, understand the causes, develop strategy, implement strategy and monitor results. To establish a baseline means to collect information on arrival patterns, RevPASH patterns, unconstrained demand, meal duration, customer preferences, seat occupancy, table occupancy, and so on. Some tools can help to understand the causes of those data, like fishbone diagram and bottleneck analysis. Strategies that have been mentioned above could be applied to a restaurant according to its specific problems or needs. When implementing the strategies, it is important to communicate with employees, to let everyone understand the strategies in order to enhance the productivity, efficiency and as well as ensuring the outcome. After implementing the strategies, the outcome should be monitored consistently. It helps to determine whether the strategies are useful or not and if there is anything that can be improved, monitori ng RevPash performance, dining time, and compare to baseline performance help to measure the results. Revenue management in room: In hotels, the goal of Revenue Management is to sell the right room (types of rooms such as standard, luxury or sea-view, etc.) to the right customers (from a particular segment) at the right time (depending on demand) and for the right price (when customer wants room). The necessary attributes of hotel revenue management include segmented market which hotel bases on to manage the tradeoffs between a higher room rate for business customers, and a lower room rate for leisure customers. Business customers are willing to pay a higher price holding a flexible room which can be book at last minute and leisure customers are willing to give up in exchange for a cheaper room. Fixed capacity means the number of rooms in hotels is impossible to increase or decrease. The appropriate cost structure means the fixed cost is higher than the variable cost. Perishable inventory means rooms cant be stored, and can lose its value forever for that night if it is unoccupied. Demand fluctuation which accords with seasons and day of the week, which affect the room pricing process, for example, in peak season, the hotel can increase its room rate to maximize revenue, while during valley season, reducing rate is the best way to increase utilization. (Admin, 2010) Revenue management is introduced in room as RevPar, which stands for revenue per available room. It is a measure of how the how the hotel has been able to fill room during low season and high season with appropriate for rates to maximize the profit. To achieve the most effectivity of RevPar, revenue manager need collect historical data from hotel and consider another hotels to implement it. There are two factors that need to be controlled carefully, including duration control and demand based pricing. For duration control, revenue manager can reduce arrival uncertainty by credit card guarantee, calling customers the day before to confirm the guest reservation and arrival time; overbook rooms to maximize occupancy in order to fill up the no shows, and if there is no show, the revenue manager will have penalties for guest like charging the first night room rate; call the night before to in-house guests to verify their departure time. Besides, there is a money penalty to the guest if they depart earlier. Otherwise, to minimize the duration uncertainty, revenue manager should forecast demand accurately based on historical data. For the pricing, most hotels have the categories of pricing which determine how much customer are going to be charged and who are willing to pay that price. Price are determined by the following three ways: Competitive pricing which the price is esta blish based on comparing with competitors; reference pricing which the price is lower than the hotels main competing brand; and demand based pricing, which price is set up depending on season, or guests demand such as view of room, length of stay. Those prices which decided who are willing to pay are introduced in revenue management as rate fences. Actually, rate fence is a condition somebody has to meet to get a particular price; on the other hand, its also a tool to maximize revenue for hotel, because the hotel takes the ultimate advantage of the rooms condition. In general, revenue manager classify rate fences into physical and logical fences correlating the different market segment, and the condition as well, as shown in the table below: Nowadays, customers consider that hotels set the room rate based on market segment is unfair, such as charging different prices for the same room with different types of customer. Mindshare is one of the biggest challenges for revenue manager and mindshare means that customers are more knowledgeable in the way that hotel set the room rate. Therefore, they examine rate fences as logical, transparent, clear communicated and fixed to generate short-term profits, and create long-term customer loyalty. Revenue management in Golf course: In the golf industry, it is also suitable for practicing revenue management because the condition of fixed capacity, predictable demand and perishable inventory. The land, equipment and facility are fixed capacity; the investment on land, facility and maintenance are incredibly high. The demand can be segment by different season and time. It could be forecast by using historical data, customer profile and arrival pattern. The tee times are perishable inventory. Once the product is not sold, we cannot recall the losses that made from that period. The main sources of revenue come from club membership fees, golf lessons, golf clubs, cart fees and green fees. To practice revenue management in their business, they would need to have different strategies to increase revenue. For example, Duration and arrival control, Discount allocation, Marshalls, Peer pressuring by posting playing time and Different pricing. To restrict the arrival, the company can set up arrival policies to minimize the risks of no show, late show and short show. To control duration, they can use Marshalls and Posting Playing time as strategies to pressure or remind the guest how long they have been playing. The other strategy is having different prices in different times and course. The company can provide Time of the day based pricing according to the Hot and Cold time during a day and provide Membership fees and senior prices to the customer. Discounts can offer to big party, ages and the time of reservation. The discount rate can apply based on reservation time and location. Disney Golf in Orlando applied revenue management to its golf club. First, they have segmented the market to manage the availability of tee times by the party size, business people, and different group for example, locals, foreign. They provide discount and packages to the groups, members of the club and employees. They even provide discount to beginning level golfer. When they forecast the high-demand day comes, they will close lower revenue buckets for all or part of that day and selected profitable course or customer to reach the highest profitable customers and use up-selling to motivate consumer to spend more money. The company said it is so important to know 6W, who, what, where, when, why and how. They use a very attractive way to collect the customer data. The customers who give their personal data and opinion will receive discount where appropriate. By using this strategy, they increased the customer loyalty. Since Disney Golf implemented revenue management in 2001, it is a great success to the company. Lastly, when company set up a price, it has to be logical, transparent and fix. Consumers have an acceptable price to most products in their minds. Company should always communicate and maintain relationship with the consumer. It is an easy way to know their opinion. Do not against the law by fixing the price with the competition and price gouging which setting up the price higher than the fair price. Revenue management in function space: Firstly, the function space cant be extended so that the maximum capacity is fixed. However, the function space can be adjusted since hotels apply air wall which can separate a function room to be 2 or more meeting rooms. Secondly, same as rooms, restaurant, and golf course, if the function room doesnt sell out it means the hotel loses the chance of making revenue- perishable product. Third, there is variable and uncertain demand. Even though customer pays the deposit, they might break the contract. Furthermore, the price sensitive varies from people to people. Lastly, function room pricing structure are setting higher than it should be in case customer demands to cut down the price or a special package. Thus, hotel will not lose money in business. Hotel will send contract which includes time of duration, price, quantity of customers and related agreements after guests confirm with sales to ensure both parties right. There are 2 rights of decisions that hotel hold on hand- price and duration. Pricing a function space need to consider the rooms sales and FB sales. Same as rooms and restaurant revenue management, hotel apply rate fence by physical and non-physical reasons. Physical rate fence can work by facilities and equipment, location and ceiling height. For example, price will be set higher in the high technical function room compare with the others. Non-physical rate fences will determine by booking pace, transaction characteristics, frequency of reservation and timing. Hotels mostly offer special meeting package with two different prices in a day and different price between weekday and weekend since price based on demand. Generally, there is higher demand in the evening day part then afternoon section. However, customers might think it is unfair to get higher price because of different day part. The second element that hotel doing good at control is duration. The duration can be predicted by customer history in Delphi. Hotel normally asks guests refundable deposit and prepayment in order to prevent no-show or cancellation since the duration uncertainty. Furthermore, if guests hold the function room longer then the agreement time, they might have to pay extra fees since hotel need more people to turn down the room. In order to apply revenue management in function space, hotel need to set up the baseline and understand the drivers of performance which needs to consider customer profile, revenue contribution, seasonal demand history, ConPAST, current market environment, and demand behavior of segments. The next step is to develop strategy like pricing, special package and so on. Following the point mentioned above hotel need to implement the strategy properly and also monitor the outcome. According to hotels forecasting, hotel will keep the function room for the most profitable customers for each function room in high demand period. However, hotel wont say obviously that you need to pay higher amount of money in order to get this function room. Actually, people feel it is unethical to reject customers if you are waiting for higher contribution customers. Nowadays, hotel sets the minimum charge for each function room. As long as both party make agreement and sign the contract, hotel dont have rights to sale the reserved function room to other people. Conclusion Revenue Management is a perfect tool to maximize profit in any organizations. Restaurant, Golf, Function Space and Hotel rooms, they all have the same condition of fixed capacity, predictable demand and perishable inventory, they all can implement revenue management to maximize profit in their way. In order to achieve the goal and objective, the strategies have to be logical, circumspect with every single historical data and decision making from your experience.

Analysis in narration of the The Tell-Tale Heart :: essays research papers

Analysis in narration of the The Tell-Tale Heart In this paper, it talks about what type of narration of the story  ¡Ã‚ ¥Tell-Tale Heart ¡Ã‚ ¦ used, and will explain why this type of narration is effective. Obviously,  ¡Ã‚ ¥Tell-Tale Heart ¡Ã‚ ¦ is a first person narration story. From the wording and the way of presenting, it is clear to see there is one major character and some other minor characters; there are some reasons of why the narration is effective in telling the story. It is very easy to make reader to get involve in the story and easy to picture the actions. The whole story draws reader interested in what happened next of the story. It attracts reader ¡Ã‚ ¦s attention, understand the mental state of the narrator directly. Author gives confusion to reader between narrator ¡Ã‚ ¦s action and his speech in order to illustrate a piece of myth to the story.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚ ¡Ã‚ §Tell-Tale Heart ¡Ã‚ ¨ is a first person narration.  ¡Ã‚ §I ¡Ã‚ ¨,  ¡Ã‚ §my ¡Ã‚ ¨,  ¡Ã‚ §me ¡Ã‚ ¨ or  ¡Ã‚ §myself ¡Ã‚ ¨ appear many times in the story.  ¡Ã‚ §I was never finder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him ¡Ã‚ ¨(36),  ¡Ã‚ §He had never wronged me ¡Ã‚ ¨(36),  ¡Ã‚ §Ã‚ ¡Kwhen my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening ¡K ¡Ã‚ ¨(37),  ¡Ã‚ §Ã‚ ¡KI felt myself getting pale ¡K ¡Ã‚ ¨(38). It shows that the narrator refers to himself as  ¡Ã‚ §I ¡Ã‚ ¨ through the story. The way of presenting in the story helps reader to know it is a first person narration. At the beginning of the story, reader knows the mad man is going to tell his own story.  ¡Ã‚ §Ã‚ ¡Kbut why will you say that I am mad ¡KHow, then am I mad? Hearken! And observe how healthily  ¡V how calmly I can tell you the whole story ¡Ã‚ ¨(36). The narrator is going to tell us a story. He wants to explain he is not a mad man. Therefor e, he tells reader his own story and if he telling his own story, then it must be a first person. From above all, it proves that  ¡Ã‚ §Tell-Tale Heart ¡Ã‚ ¨ is a first person narration story.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is effective by using first person narration in  ¡Ã‚ §Tell-Tale Heart ¡Ã‚ ¨. Readers can throw themselves into the main character and to follow the actions described in the story. Since the first person participants appear in every sentence, thus it makes reader to get involve in the story easily. For example,  ¡Ã‚ §Ã‚ ¡KI turn the latch of his door and open it ¡K ¡Ã‚ ¨(36),  ¡Ã‚ §Ã‚ ¡KI move it slowly-very, very slowly ¡K ¡Ã‚ ¨(36),  ¡Ã‚ §I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him.

The Benefits of Preschool Essay examples -- Argumentative Persuasive E

The Benefits of Preschool Preschool isn't just a place for parents to drop off their children while they are at work for the day. It is in preschool where children learn the necessary skills needed to succeed in school and in life. With high-quality preschools and qualified teachers the possibilities are endless. It's not only the children who reap the benefits of Early Childhood Education; their parents, fellow peers, and even society feel the positive effects of quality preschool programs. Children enrolled in quality preschool programs are more likely to succeed academically and socially when they are older. Many children begin school at the ages of 5 or 6, the age when a child enters kindergarten. However, children?s learning capabilities are at there peak at earlier ages than that. Alison Gopnik, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley says, ?Children learn more in their early years than they ever will again. With the dissolution of the extended family, the best way to support early learning is with publicly funded pre-K? (Starr, 2002). Their brains are more primed to learn and will absorb more information earlier in life. Therefore the earlier children begin their education, the better. It is through these programs that the children learn proper etiquettes when dealing with teachers and fellow students. ?Children who attend well-planned, high quality programs?tend to learn more and are better prepared to successfully master the complex demands of formal schooling,? says one government commissioned review of research on early childhood education (Ruben, 2000/2001). The results of quality preschool programs can be seen early after they begin. Children learn many important life le... ...e San Francisco Chronicle, A27. Retrieved October 4, 2002 from Lexis Nexis ? Academic-Document. Rhodes, M. (1999 Fall). What kids really learn in preschool. Parenting, 13(7), 74. Retrieved September 17, 2002 from MasterFILE Premier. Ruben, D. (2000 December/2001 January). Preschool for all?. Parenting, 14(10), 160. Retrieved September 17, 2002 from MasterFILE Premier. Starr, A. (2002 August 19/2002 August 26). The importance of teaching tots. Business Week, (3796), 164. Retrieved October 14, 2002 from Academic Search Premier. Wagner, Senator J. (2002 April 17). Money for early childhood education is money well Spent. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, A-24. Retrieved October 4, 2002 from Lexis Nexis ? Academic-Document. Wang, P. (1998 February). The impact of delaying school. Parenting, 12(1), 26. Retrieved September 17,2002 from MasterFILE Premier.

Comparing Portrayal of Women in One Hundred Years of Solitude and The House of the Spirits :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Portrayal of Women in One Hundred Years of Solitude and The House of the Spirits The portrayal of women in the novels One Hundred years of Solitude and The House of the Spirits differs greatly. In One Hundred Years of Solitude empowerment comes only through age, for instance Ursula Iguaran, the matriarch of the Buendia family and to some extent Macondo, or through strength of sexuality, for instance Pilara Tenera the 'sexual matriarch' of Macondo. This is in contrast with The House of the Spirits where empowerment comes also through force of conviction, as seen with Nivea, and also through commercial enterprise as seen with Transito Soto. These women represent Allende's own brand of feminism Furthermore those women who accept a traditional role of subservience and remain staunch in their conservatism are shown to finish their days alone and mostly forgotten as is seen with Ferula and Nana. As the novels were set in first half of the twentieth century in Latin America, the role of women in the social hierarchy of this backdrop is worthy of consideration. This was a patriarchal society where men of whatever age were always superior in standing to women. As a woman aged, her position in the social hierarchy would increase. Furthermore women had few career choices; all were linked to some form of domestic service whether solely as a wife and mother or as a nanny or a combination. Religion played a very important role in this predominantly catholic area. The role of women as portrayed by the church was somewhat of a paradox, simultaneously acknowledging and praising women for the gift of child bearing and yet depicting them as the root of all sin, as the temptress inducing thoughts of fornication as well as causing the original sin, that being Adam eating the fruit in the 'Garden of Eden'. Despite Marquez's well documented anticlericalism this idea in church ideology of the temptress is paralleled in One Hundred Years of Solitude albeit the figure of Eve in her roles is split between the matriarchs of Macondo namely Pilar Tenera and Ursula Iguaran. In the beginning of One hundred years of solitude: "The world was so recent that many things lacked names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to

External Analysis of Computer Industry Essay

* Threat of new entrants: The threats from new entrants to the personal computer industry is weak to moderate due to the presence of dominant players reduces the entry of new players to immediately enter the market and establish their own brand. In such a competitive market, these companies have invested heavily on their research and development, customer service, and marketing departments which increased the competition between companies who are competing to build superior products. Due to increased standardization in operating system and microprocessors, it is easy for any new entrants to manufacture white-box personal computers. However, this would be low since the companies have created strong branding awareness. Some more reasons of why threats of new entrants are less are:- * Access to distribution channels: Being distribution channel most important in the PC industry, it is prerequisite to have a strong distribution network which is difficult to built for the new entrants specially in initial stages of competitive market. Weak distribution networks mean goods are more expensive to move around and difficult to reach end customers. The expense of building a strong distribution network positively affects Computer Industry. * Capital requirement: There is a high capital requirement in computer industry which means a company must spend a lot of money in order to compete in the market which is a big issue for new entrants to enter in this industry. * Product differentiation: It is difficult to make your product different from existing products offer in the market as it needs huge investments and R&D to get core competency in your product in the well settled industry with n number of large players with maximum market shares. * Switching cost: New entrants have to face high switching costs in this industry .High switching costs make it difficult for customers to switch from products they normally purchase, due to high costs. * Customers are loyal to existing brands: It takes time and money to build a brand. Existing brands have their brand image in the market and are able to make their loyal customers which makes difficult for new entrants to shift those customers towards them. * Patents limit new competition: Patents that cover vital technologies make it difficult for new competitors, because the best methods are already patented  and that is why they have spend a lot of time and money in inventing new technology to compete with existing technologies. * Bargaining power of Buyers * Dependency on distributors: Buyers in this industry has low dependency on distributors which makes them at powerful position and distributors have less bargaining power. * Limited buyer choice: In computer industry, customers have limited choices hence they end up paying more for the choices that are available which positively effects this industry. Limited Buyer Choice has a significant impact, so they shpuld put more weight to this for increasing their profits. * Product is important to customer: In this era, customers are tech savvy and ready to pay for best technologies. So, computer industry has an edge to charge more from customers by providing best products. * Large number of customers exists in this industry which makes it difficult for them to bargain more as no single customer have the bargaining leverage. * Bargaining power of suppliers * Competition from suppliers: High levels of competition among suppliers acts to reduce prices by producers which effects positively in the computer industry. * Concentration from suppliers: low concentration of suppliers means there are many suppliers with limited bargaining power and computer industry with high bargaining power. * Production inputs: In this industry, when critical production inputs are similar, it is easier to mix and match inputs which reduces supplier bargaining power and positively affects this industry to gain profits. * Inputs have less impact on costs: when inputs have less impact on costs, suppliers of the inputs have less bargaining power. * Volumes are critical to suppliers: In cases when volumes are critical to supplier, producer can threaten to cut the volumes to cut their profits which give producers more bargaining power. * Threat of substitutes: * Limited number of substitutes: A limited number of substitutes mean that customers cannot easily find other products or services that fulfill their  needs which is a good sign for Computer Industry. * Inferior substitute products: Inferior products means customers are less likely to switch from computer industry which helps in retaining their existing customers by providing best products. * Substitutes :PDA(Personal Digital assistant) Palmtops, handheld PC which is smaller than standard laptops. Smart phones, It is a phone that runs complete operating system software providing standardized interface and platform for application developers. So above substitutes can prove to be a threat to computer industry. * Rivalry from existing firms: The competition in personal computer industry is very intense and fierce. The five main manufacturers namely IBM, Dell, Apple, HP and Compaq are in competition to produce the least expensive and most efficient machine. Apple focuses more on innovation while Dell focuses on distribution channel and services, which create differentiation to some extent. Price competition has become severe in the industry as PC has become a more commodity-like product which drives the industry to embrace any cost-cutting measures in an effort to increase their decreasing profit margin. Quality of a personal computer is largely determined by the microprocessor and application system installed, the profitability and prosperity of the industry is dependent of the profitability and prosperity of these suppliers.