Ratios Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Ratios - Case Study Example Furthermore, the times interest earned ratios computed above implies Wal-Mart has a better financial position of servicing interest obligations compared to Target Corporation. The times interest earned ratios indicate the WAL-Mart has the capacity of servicing the interest expense by 12 times using earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) while Target has capacity of 8.7 times (Brigham & Houston, 2010). Consequently, the solvency financial position of Wal-Mart Corporation is better compared to that of Target Corporation. However, the profit margin ratios reflect the financial performance of Target is better compared to that of Wal-Mart Corporation. The profit margin ratios indicate the Target Corporation in 2014 was able to generate gross profit worth 0.29 cents of dollars for every one dollar of sales revenue generated. In contrast, the Wal-Mart was able to generate 0.24 cents of gross profit for every one dollar generated (Maynard, 2013). Thus, the Target Corporation was more profitable compared to the Wal-Mart Corporation. However, the efficiency of WAL-Mart management in utilizing the assets to generate sales revenue is higher compared to Target Corporation according to asset turnover ratio. The asset turnover ratios indicate Wal-Mart’s assets were able to generate $2.38 of sales revenue for every one dollar of asset utilized. In contrast, the Target Corporation was able to generate $1.75 of sales revenue for every one dollar of assets utilized (Brigham & Houston, 2010). Consequently, Wal -Mart Corporation is more efficient in utilizing assets compared to Target

Exercise and Appetite Regulation versus Adipokines Essay Example for Free

Exercise and Appetite Regulation versus Adipokines Essay Adipose tissue has long been considered a storage organ for triacylglycerol, but it is now known, that adipose tissue also produces and releases a variety of signaling molecules – †adipokines† or â€Å"adipocytokines†. Some of these adipokines are well described as regarding plasma concentration and in vitro gene transcription, secretion and effect on various cell types, but only little is known about in vivo regulation of adipokine secretion [XLAB 2008]. Adipokines may mediate insulin resistance or modulate the likelihood that obesity results in the development of type 2 diabetes [CARE 2003]. Obesity is strongly associated with insulin resistance and dyslipidemia and increased risk of cardiovascular disease (Depres J-P 1990). There are recent studies that adipokines such as leptin and adiponectin suppresses the development of atherosclerosis which is a cardiovascular disease (Reilly MP 2004). Adipokine or fat can raise such insulin levels, which promote the growth of cancer cells [FHCR 2007]. And because of these risks in chronic diseases, exercise is very important to burn fat that causes these diseases. In order to reduce risk in chronic disease and strengthening the immune system, exercise is very important. Lack of exercise may contribute of having a chronic disease which may be long lasting or recurrent. A recent study showed that intensive workouts can not only slow the progress of coronary disease, but actually restore lost coronary function when the disease is still stable. For chronically ill individuals, the psychological as well as physical benefits of exercise can be profound. Even ten minutes of light exercise a day, can help most chronically ill patients feel more vibrant, energetic and alert [PREV c. 008]. Physical activity fights the intra-abdominal fat or Adipokine tissue that can fuel risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes [FHCR 2007]. Some people use anti-inflammatory drugs to regulate their metabolism and immune function such as Glucocortisoids. Regulation in the metabolism helps maintain the level of fat your body need. Whereas mineralocorticoids, it helps maintain blood volume and control renal excretion of electrolytes which are good for people with high blood pressures. While some anti-inflammatory drugs are just used to increase muscle and bone synthesis. Some anti-inflammatory drugs are used to stimulate secretion of hormones that burns fat. In addition to anti-inflammatory medical drugs, there are many herbs that have anti-inflammatory qualities. Some of these herbs are ginger, hyssop, Turmeric, Amica Montana and willow bark. Appetite regulation balances the food intake that results to stabling the fat that only the body needs. In appetite regulation, anti-inflammatory foods are sometimes being taken. These anti-inflammatory foods burns fat and sometimes stimulate hormones that make your brain think that you are not hungry even though you are not eating anything yet. Anti-inflammatory foods include most colorful fruits and vegetables, oily fish and certain nuts, seeds, herbs and spices such as ginger. Those following an anti-inflammatory diet will avoid refined oils and sugars, and show a preference for anti-inflammatory foods in their meal choices[Hyman M. 2006]. To regulate overall food intake, long-acting adiposity signals ultimately affect the number and size of individual meals. They, therefore, influence decisions regarding when to start and stop eating. The sense of fullness that contributes to meal termination results from mechanical, neural, and humoral signals that arise from the gut and are relayed to the brain primarily via the brainstem [AMER 2003]. Hormones that govern energy homeostasis—leptin and insulin—increase responsiveness to short-acting satiety signals (Schwartz MW 2000). Consequently, when fat stores diminish and leptin and insulin levels decrease, sensitivity to meal-related satiety signals is blunted, promoting increased meal size. Body adiposity indirectly modulates the efficacy of meal-related satiety signals from the gut, thereby influencing meal size [AMER 2003] Chronic disease may be prevented through these anti-inflammatory drugs or foods but not only anti-inflammatory drugs or foods but also accompanying these drugs with exercise and avoiding tobacco, because Exercise makes your heart stronger and improves the circulation of blood in your body. It also improves your body posture. I believe that in order to reduce the risk of developing certain common chronic diseases, regular physical exercise is an important step in taking care of your health and protecting yourself from health problems.

Entamoeba histolytica Essays -- Essays Papers

Entamoeba histolytica General Description Entamoeba histolytica is an ameba that feeds on cells in the human colon. It is the cause of amebic dysentery (bloody diarrhea) as well as colonic ulcerations. The infection is also referred to as amebiasis. If the organisms spread throughout the body via the bloodstream they may cause abscesses in the liver or, less frequently, other organs. Morphology The organism has two forms. The cyst is round and 10-20 micrometers in diameter, and contains four nuclei when mature. It is resistant to desiccation and stomach acid, and can survive long enough in the environment to be spread to other humans. When the cyst reaches the large intestine, it excysts and the four nuclei present in the cyst become four separate amebae, each of which undergoes binary fission immediately; thus the ingestion of a single cyst leads to 8 trophozoites. The trophozoite, 10-60 micrometers in diameter, is the active form of the organism and it is in this form that the damage is done to the body. In 1994 the CDC recorded 2,983 cases of amebiasis in the United States. Transmission E. histolytica is spread by the fecal-oral route. This is achieved through food or water contaminated with cysts, oral-anal sexual contact, or occasionally directly in childcare centers or institutions for the developmentally challenged. The disease is found far more frequently in people from developing countries or travelers to such areas than in developed countries. Virulence Damage is caused by the lysis of epithelial cells, due in part to the insertion of pore-forming proteins into the membrane of the cell. Neutrophils and non-activated macrophages may also be killed and ingested by the organism, limiting the ability... ...that brings about a mucosal immune response could be effective. However, the lack of projected profit limits the interest of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Sanitation and hygiene are effective controls but often cannot be applied in many poor nations. Until a vaccine is created and distributed, Entamoeba histolytica will remain an important disease in mortality rates, especially among children in developing countries. References pharmacy school info on metronidazole and other treatments of amebiasis http://rxweb.nlu.edu/pharmacy/414/antiprotozoals.htm CDC MMWR from march 08 1985 http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00000498.htm General info http://gsbs.utmb.edu/microbook/ch079.htm World Health Org cost-effectiveness study on treatment of asymptomatic carriers with metronidazole http://www.who.int/dap-icium/posters/4p1_text.html

Elizabethan Playhouses and Performance Conventions

When Elizabeth became Queen of England in 1558, there were no specially designed theatre buildings. Companies of actors (usually small, made of 5 to 8 members) toured the country and performed in a wide variety of temporary acting spaces, mainly in inn yards, but also in churches, Town Halls, Town Squares, great halls of Royal Palaces or other great houses, or anywhere else that a large crowd could be gathered to view a performance. It is true that they continued to tour throughout Elizabeth’s reign (especially during the Plague in London, when theatres were closed or earned but little money). Nevertheless, given the laws passed by the Queen to control wandering beggars and vagrants – which implicitly affected the acting companies as well – many actors were encouraged to settle down with permanent bases in London. The first permanent theatres in England were old inns which had been used as temporary acting areas when the companies had been touring. E. g. The Cross Keys, The Bull, The Bel Savage, The Bell – all originally built as inns. Some of the inns that became theatres had substantial alterations made to their structure to allow them to be used as playhouses. The first purpose built theatre building in England was simply called The Theatre, eventually giving its name to all such building erected in the outskirts of London and functioning until the closing of the theatres in 1642 during the Civil War. The Theatre was built in 1576, at Shoreditch in the northern outskirts of London, by the Earl of Leicester’s Men who were led by James Burbage, a carpenter turned actor. It seems that the design of The Theatre was based on that of bull-baiting and bear-baiting yards (as a matter of fact, bull baiting, bear baiting and fencing shows were very popular by that time, and they were often organized before the plays started. ). The Theatre was followed the next year (1577) by The Curtain, in 1587 by The Rose and in 1595 by The Swan (to mention but the most famous theatres). In 1599, a dispute over the land on which The Theatre stood determined Burbage’s sons to secretly tear down the building and carry away the timber to build a new playhouse on the Bankside which they names The Globe. By this time, the Burbages had become members of Lord Chamberlain’s Company, along with William Shakespeare, and The Globe is famously remembered as the theatre in which many of Shakespeare’s plays were first performed. (The Globe was destroyed in 1613 in a fire caused by the sparks of a cannon fired during the performance of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII. Rebuilt, it was closed and demolished in 1644 during the Civil War. The modern reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London was completed in 1997. ) Before going into more details regarding the structure of the Elizabethan theatre, distinction should be made, however, between two categories of playhouses: the public (outdoor) theatres and the private (indoor) theatres. The former were amphitheatre buildings open to the air and therefore cheaper – The Globe, for instance, charged two pence for a seat in the galleries or a single penny to stand in the yard. The latter (e. g. Blackfriars; The Cockpit) were built to a hall design in enclosed and usually rectangular buildings more like the theatres we know today. They had amore exclusive audience since they charged considerably more – the cheapest seat in a private theatre cost sixpence. The adult companies did not start to use the private hall theatres until after Elizabeth’s death, but they were used by the boy companies (made up entirely of child and teenage actors) in Elizabeth’s reign and were used by Shakespeare’s Company – by this time the King’s Men – and other adult companies in the Jacobean period. Structure and Design of Public/ Outdoor Theatres Public theatres were polygonal – hexagonal outside and round inside (â€Å"a wooden O† as Shakespeare puts it in Henry V). An open-air arena – called â€Å"pit† or â€Å"yard† – had, at one end, a wooden stage supported by large pillars, with trap doors for special effects (to allow ghosts, devils and similar characters to be raised up) and was surrounded by three tiers of roofed galleries (thatched, later on tiled roofs) with balconies, overlooking the back of the stage. The rear stage was covered by a roof – which they called â€Å"Heavens† through which, by means of ropes, they ould lower down the actors playing the gods/ angels, etc. , for flying or dramatic entrances – held up by massive pillars and obstructing the view of audience members from various angles. The stage wall behind these pillars was called â€Å"Frons Scenae† (taken from the name given by Imperial Rome to the stage walls of their amphitheatres ) provided with doors to the left and to the right and a curtained central doorway – referred to as the â€Å"discovery space† – which allowed characters to be suddenly revealed or a play within a play to be acted. The rear wall of this inner stage was covered by tapestry, the only usual â€Å"scenery† used on the stage. Immediately above the inner stage, there was the stage gallery which could be used for multiple purposes: – as an acting space: on either sides, there were bow-windows used for the frequent window/ balcony scenes (e. g. Romeo and Juliet). Thus the arrangement of a front stage and two-storeyed back stage permitted three actions to go on simultaneously and a life-like parallelism of events. – another part of the gallery could be used as a music-room. Music was an extra effect added in the 1600’s. The musicians started playing an hour before the beginning of the play and also played at appropriate moments throughout the performance. – when necessary, some of the boxes of the stage gallery were used for audience seating. They were referred to as the â€Å"Lord’s rooms† and considered the best (and hence the most expensive) seats in the ‘house’ despite the poor view of the back of the actors. (Nevertheless, the audience at large would have a good view of the Lords and the Lords were able to hear the actors clearly. There were also additional balconies on the left and right of the â€Å"Lord’s rooms† called the â€Å"Gentlemen’s rooms†, also meant for the rich patrons of the theatres. As previously mentioned, the stage wall structure contained two doors (at least) leading to a small structure, back stage, called the â€Å"Tiring House† used by actors to dress, prepare and wait offstage. Above the stage gallery, there is a third storey connected with the â€Å"Heavens† extending forward from the tiring-house over the rear part of the stage, which was often used to represent the walls of a castle or a city. Last but not least, on top of this structure, there was also what might be called a fourth storey of the tiring-house, referred to as the â€Å"Hut† presumably used as a storage space and housing suspension gear for flying effects, while the third storey stage cover served as a loading room for players preparing to ‘fly’ down to the stage. On top of the â€Å"hut†, a flag (a black one, if it was a tragedy, a white one, if it was a comedy, or a red one, if it was a history) was erected to let the world know a play was to be performed that day. The access to the playhouse was ensured by one main entrance, where playgoers had to put the admission fee – i. e. 1 penny, for those who watched the play from the yard, standing, called the â€Å"Groundlings† (shopkeepers, craftsmen, apprentices), or more, up to 4-5 pence for the gentry and the great lords sitting in the galleries. The galleries could be reached by the two sets of stairs in the structure, on either side of the theatre. The first gallery would cost another penny in the box which was held by a collector (â€Å"gatherer†) at the front of the stairs. The second gallery would cost another penny. At the start of the play, after collecting money from the audience, the admission collectors put the boxes in a room backstage, called the â€Å"box office. † The Players There were invariably many more parts than actors. Elizabethan Theatre, therefore, demanded that an actor be able to play numerous roles and make it obvious to the audience by changes in his acting style and costume that he was a new person each time. When the same character came on disguised (as, for example, many of Shakespeare’s female characters disguise themselves as boys – e. . The Merchant of Venice or Twelfth Night) speeches had to be included making it very clear that this was the same character in a new costume, and not a completely new character. All of the actors in an Elizabethan Theatre company were male (which might explain the scarcity of female roles in Elizabethan drama). There were laws in England against women acting onstage and English travellers abroad were amused and amazed by the strange customs of Continental European countries that allowed women to play female roles. Exceptions : One woman – Mary Frith, better known as Moll Cutpurse – was arrested in the Jacobean period for singing and playing instruments onstage during a performance of a play about her life (Middleton and Dekker’s The Roaring Girl) and some suggest that she may actually have been illegally playing herself in the performance, and women sometimes took part in Court Masques (a very stylised and spectacular sort of performance for the Court, usually dominated by singing and dancing), but otherwise English women had no part in the performance of Elizabethan plays. The male actors who played female parts have traditionally been described as â€Å"Boy Actors† – they were actually boys whose voices had not changed. The rehearsal and performance schedule that Elizabethan Players followed was intense and demanding. Unlike modern theatres, where a successful play can run for years at a time, Elizabethan theatres normally performed six different plays in their six day week, and a particularly successful play might only be repeated once a month or so. For example, in a typical season, a theatrical company could perform thirty-eight different plays. The Elizabethan actor did not have much time, therefore, to prepare for each new play, and must have had to learn lines and prepare his blocking largely on his own and in his spare time – probably helped by the tendency of writers to have particular actors in mind for each part, and to write roles which were suited to the particular strengths and habits of individual actors. There were few formal rehearsals for each play and no equivalent of the modern Director (although presumably the writer, theatre managers, and the most important actors – who owned shares in the theatre company – would have given some direction to other actors). Instead of being given full scripts, each actor had a written â€Å"part†, a long scroll with nothing more than his own lines and minimal cue lines (the lines spoken by another actor just before his own) to tell him when to speak – this saved on the laborious task of copying out the full play repeatedly by hand. There was a bookholder or prompter who held a complete script and who helped actors who had forgotten their lines. Costumes, Scenery and Effects Elizabethan costuming seems to have been a strange combination of what was (for the Elizabethans) modern dress, and costumes which – while not being genuinely historically or culturally accurate – had a historical or foreign flavour. Strict laws were in force about what materials and types of clothes could be worn by members of each social class – laws which the actors were allowed to break onstage – so it would be immediately obvious to the Elizabethan audience that actors wearing particular types of clothes were laying people of particular backgrounds and types. The colours were also carefully chosen so as to suggest: red – blood; black – gloom, evil; yellow – sun; white – purity; scarlet – doctor; gray – friar; blue – serving men. Extensive make-up was almost certainly used, particularly for the boys playing female parts and with dark make-up on the face and hands for actors playing â€Å"blackamoors† or â€Å"Turks†. There were also conventions for playing a number of roles – some of which we know from printed play scripts. Mad women, like Ophelia, wore their hair loose and mad people of both sexes had disordered clothing. Night scenes were often signalled by characters wearing nightdresses (even the Ghost of Hamlet’s father appears in his nightgown, when Hamlet is talking with his Mother in her chamber). The Elizabethans did not use fixed scenery or painted backdrops of the sort that became popular in the Victorian period – hence the playwrights had to provide the actors with spoken descriptions of landscape which with Shakespeare represent memorable poetry. That does not mean, however, that the Elizabethans performed on a completely bare stage. A wide variety of furniture and props were brought onstage to set the scene as necessary – ranging from simple beds, tables, chairs and thrones to whole trees, grassy banks, prop dragons, an unpleasant looking cave to represent the mouth of hell, and so forth. Death brought out a particular ingenuity in Elizabethan actors and they apparently used copious quantities of animal blood, fake heads and tables with holes in to stage decapitations. Heads, hands, eyes, tongues and limbs were dramatically cut off onstage, and probably involved some sort of blood-drenched stage trick. A number of other simple special effects were used. Real cannons and pistols (loaded with powder but no bullet) were fired off when ceremonial salutes or battles were required. Thunder was imitated by rolling large metal cannon balls backstage or by drumming, while lightning was imitated by fireworks set off in the â€Å"heavens† above the stage. One thing that Elizabethan theatres almost completely lacked was lighting effects. In the outdoor theatres, like the Globe, plays were performed from two o’clock until about four or four thirty in the afternoon (these were the times fixed by law, but plays may sometimes have run for longer) in order to take advantage of the best daylight (earlier or later performances would have cast distracting shadows onto the stage). Evening performances, without daylight, were impossible. In the hall theatres, on the other hand, the stages were lit by candlelight – which forced them to hold occasional, probably musical, breaks while the candles were trimmed and tended or replaced as they burned down. Elizabethan actors carried flaming torches to indicate that a scene was taking place at night, but this would have made little difference to the actual lighting of the stage, and spectators simply had to use their imagination. The nearest that the Elizabethans came to lighting effects were fireworks, used to imitate lightening or magical effects. Performance Techniques We know very little, unfortunately, about how Elizabethan actors actually played their roles. Performances probably ran continuously without any sort of interval or Act Breaks. Occasionally music may have been played between Acts or certain scenes, but scholars think this was quite unusual except in the hall playhouses, where candles had to be trimmed and replaced between Acts. We do not even know how long Elizabethan plays usually ran. The law (mentioned above) expected plays to last between two and two and a half hours, but some plays – such as Hamlet, which in modern times runs for more than four hours – seem much too long to have been performed in such a short time. What props and scenery there were in the Elizabethan Theatre were probably carried on and off while the scenes continued, while actors were continually moving forward and backward into the midst of the surrounding audience. All entrances and exits were through the doors at the rear of the stage proper: one actor left through one door while a second actor would appear through the second door to swing into the next scene. That means that there would have been no need to wait for scene changes. The actors were kept in constant motion and, given the design of the stage, they had to face in as many different directions as possible during a scene. Another aspect of Elizabethan performance that we know a little about was the use of clowns or fools. Shakespeare complains in Hamlet about the fact that the fool often spoke a great deal that was not included in his script, and in the early Elizabethan period especially it seems to have been normal for the fool to include a great deal of improvised repartee and jokes in his performance, especially responding to hecklers in the audience. At the end of the play the Elizabethan actors often danced, and sometimes the fool and other comic actors would perform a jig – which could be anything from a simple ballad to a quite complicated musical play, normally a farce involving adultery and other bawdy topics. Some time was apparently put aside for the fool to respond to challenges from the audience – with spectators inventing rhymes and challenging the fool to complete them, asking riddles and questions and demanding witty answers, or simply arguing and criticising the fool so that he could respond. With no modern stage lighting to enhance the actors and put the audience into darkness, Globe audience members could see each other exactly as well as they could see the performers and the Groundlings in particular were near enough to the stage to be able to touch the actors if they wanted to and the front row of the Groundlings routinely leaned their arms and heads onto the front of the stage itself. The Groundlings were also forced to stand for two or three hours without much movement, which encouraged short attention spans and a desire to take action rather than remain completely immobile. This means that the Groundlings frequently shouted up at the actors or hissed the villains and cheered the goodies. Elizabethan audiences seem to have been very responsive in this way – as their interactions with the Fool suggests – and were particularly well known for hurling nut shells and fruit when they disliked an actor or a performance. The Elizabethan audience was still more distracted, however, since beer and food were being sold and consumed throughout the performance, prostitutes were actively soliciting for trade, and pickpockets were busy stealing goods as the play progressed. Elizabethan audiences may have â€Å"viewed† plays very differently, hence the origin of the word â€Å"audience† itself. The Elizabethans did not speak of going to see a play, they went to hear one – and it is possible that in the densely crowded theatre – obstructed by the pillars and the extravagant headgear that richer members of the audience were wearing – the Elizabethan audience was more concerned to hear the words spoken than to be able to see the action. This idea is given extra weight by the fact that in the public outdoor theatres, like the Globe, the most expensive seats were not the ones with the best views (in fact the best view is to be had by the Groundlings, standing directly in front of the stage), but those which were most easily seen by other audience members. The most expensive seating was in the Lord’s box or balcony behind the stage – looking at the action from behind – and therwise the higher the seats the more an audience member had to pay. (Some Elizabethan documents suggest that the reason for this range of prices was the richer patron’s desire to be as far from the stink of the Groundlings as possible. ) Specific aspects of Elizabethan performances: bear-baiting: three bears in ascending size are set upon by an English hound in a fight to the death! fencing: less gruesome, this civilized sport also took place before plays. umb-shows/processions: parades or spectacles, these formal groups used all the most ornate costumes they owned, including crowns and sceptres, torches and swords. Dumbshows appeared at the end of each act to summarize the events of the following act. By the turn of the century, dumb-shows were considered old-fahsioned and corny. Processions were more solemn as actors moved mannequin-like across the stage. jigs: at the conclusion of a play, the actors would dance around the stage. Separate from the plays, these were bawdy, knockabout song-and-dance farces. Frequently resembling popular ballads, jigs were often commentaries on politics or religion. masques: masques were plays put on strictly by the royals. These were celebrations, i. e. royal weddings or winning a battle. Designed as banquets of the senses, these celebrations spanned several days during which each member of the party played a part in the allegorical theme of the banquet. Masques were always held in private playhouses.

University Application

I would like to explain about work experience. From 2005 to 2007, I worked as a help desk technician for a high school affiliated to Korea University in Korea. I maintained roughly 400 desktops and supported technical works including backup, error corrections of desktops and printers, and unskilled user’s mistakes. I formatted and installed Windows OS and replaced main-board’s condenser, VGA, RAM, HDD, LAN card, and ODD. I installed a LAN line for new class rooms to be internet accessible. In 2008, as a system operator I worked for one of the biggest securities companies in Korea.I implemented a daily batch job involved opening and closing a stock market, processing deals in stocks, ERP, marketing and whole stock task with Solaris UNIX. I was involved in discussion on a modification of a batch job scheduling and maintained a batch job by documenting on a scheduled manual record and analyzing the dependency while recording the elapsed time. The next job that I worked for one of the biggest telecommunication companies in Korea, where I discussed about annual operational plan and held the responsibility of including DB running on AIX UNIX and CTI, IVR and recording servers running on Windows 2000.I did first-level troubleshooting and informed a person in charge of a server when the issues arose. I continued to work as a technical support specialist for Apple in 2011 in Singapore. I provided front line support via live web-chat and email for Apple Care certified technicians. I drew on technical information from groups such as Apple care engineering, service training and documentation with a predominant focus on assisting field technicians with the repair of Apple Products.I identified potential engineering issues and trends in escalations by ongoing analysis and tracking of escalations, and analysis of reports. Currently I am working for Seagate as a technical support specialist. I answer to inbound customer inquiry calls and emails for individual and business Seagate hard drive customers. I work cross-functionally to resolve complex issues in Windows and MacOS environments. One day, I participated in a project in designing a team website to implement integrated trouble shooting.It became a great internal knowledge base for our team. It is also very helpful as all articles written by hands on experience for specific issues. After designing the project, I have trained team members for trouble shooting steps for Apple products, and it was a good opportunity for me to utilize my previous working experience at Apple. I am quite interested in UNIX system administration and database. I want to be a computer science professional who delivers environment friendly, convenient and secure life to the world.Special achievements I have made is that I was promoted to be an advanced network product support team member in Feb 2013. I was Chosen as a top 10 agent of all agents around the world in 2011. My personal aim is to know essential comput er knowledge to lay down the foundation. Furthermore, I wish to learn the computer and its related fields in depth. Actually, that was my hope when I was working as a system operator in a big data center. This was because I ran shell scripts daily but sometimes I did not fully comprehend how it works.I monitored SQL queries yet sometimes I had difficulty to understand it. I would like to build my career at business computer related. However, the requirements I applied were asking a degree in computer science. In addition, I hope to discover a potential and interesting area in computer filed through BCS. I would like to study with Adelaide University as they provide high quality teaching. I believe after graduation of this degree, I will be highly skilled and adaptable with the ability to design computer-based solutions to the problems of information management and processing.

THE TEMPEST AND TWO SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS

THE TEMPEST AND TWO SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS "The journey not the arrival matters."The above statement: "the journey not the arrival matters," holds very little credibility. This can be seen by the examination of 3 texts, all of different medium that portray similar, yet differently expressed ideas about the imaginative journey. The play: The Tempest (1623), by William Shakespeare will be shown to argue that the ultimate result for the real world is the most important issue, yet cannot be arrived at without the presence of an imaginative journey. The picture book Where the Wild Things Are by author Maurice Sendak will be shown to explore the ultimate effects for the real world, and hence the destination as the most important aspect, however again, the imaginative journey is essential to the ultimate arrival of the journey in the text. The final assertion of the importance of the arrival can be seen in Coleridge's Poem This Lime Tree Bower My prison where a message will be clearly learned as a result of the imaginative journey, hence affirming the importance of the journey's arrival.List of titles of works based on Shakespearean phr...All the texts have catalysts, journey processes and results, most often in the form of learning, and since these journeys cause a change in their protagonists when they return from their imaginative journey, it accentuates the importance of both the journey and subsequently, the arrival. Each text from different periods in time will support the 'contradictory statement' that "the journey and the arrival matter"The Tempest is a Renaissance play that explores the artificial construct of an island as a place of magic and imagination, yet despite the centrality of imagination to the play, its ultimate concern is for the effects of in the arrival in the real world. This can be seen with the harpy banquet scene, whereby the phantasm of the harpies as an illusionary...

Political Systems of the Athenians and Egyptians essays

Political Systems of the Athenians and Egyptians essays When comparing the political systems of ancient Egypt and the Athenians, one must consider the differences between the two societies to fully appreciate them. Analyzing them today allows us to identify their separate strengths and weaknesses in comparison to what they have accomplished and/or changed. Ancient Greece was revolutionary in its time, building on theories from earlier societies such as the Middle East and the Egyptians. Athens is perhaps best-known for its democracy, due to the fact that the Ancient Greeks were the inventors of democracy. One of the central features of Athenian democracy was the direct participation of the people, attending assemblies to decide on policies. Known as citizens, these people would meet ten times annually to discuss and make final decisions regarding policies. Everyone in attendance would have a say in how matters would be dealt with. The citizens would govern themselves on monthly and yearly bases. Estimates suggest that there were never more than 50,000 citizens, and a quorum of 6000 citizens was needed to make a decision for citizens rights. This tells us that a substantial number of citizens were involved at any given time, thus being true democracy (Arblaster, 1987). Citizens were chosen by lot. According to Webster, by lot is defined as: an object used in deciding something by chance; also: the use of lots to decide something. This was something completely unique at the time. So as not to infringe on the rights of the people, most offices were filled for limited amounts of time, not allowing any one official to remain in power for too long. Because the people wanted full participation for all, not just the elite, they offered incentives (Arblaster). Namely, wages were introduced to the people who held office, attended assemblies, or who served as jurors. The wages werent much, but they certainly guaranteed participation from the people...

How Much Does Xarelto Cost 4 Money-Saving Tips

How Much Does Xarelto Cost 4 Money-Saving Tips SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips If you have atrial fibrillation or a high risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), blood clots, and/or strokes, your doctor might prescribe you Xarelto. A novel oral anticoagulant (NOAC), or blood thinner, Xarelto works by keeping dangerous blood clots from forming. But how much does Xarelto cost? Read on to learn about the Xarelto price for those who do and don’t have health insurance. In addition, we'll explain how this cost changes depending on the pharmacy you visit, show you how to find a Xarelto coupon, and compare the Xarelto cost with those of other similar drugs. How Much Does Xarelto Cost? Without insurance, the typical Xarelto price is more than $400 for 30 tablets, or around $15 per pill. That said, it's possible to get Xarelto at a far cheaper rate. How much Xarelto costs for you depends on two main factors, which we'll discuss in more detail below: Your health insurance The pharmacy you go to Health Insurance Most health insurance plans, including Medicare, at least partly cover the cost of Xarelto. According to the official Xarelto website, â€Å"more than 90% of people with prescription coverage and on Medicare are covered for Xarelto at the lowest branded copay cost.† In other words, if your insurance covers Xarelto, you’ll only need to pay the lowest co-pay for brand-name drugs for your insurance plan. This means you'll likely pay around $10-$50 for your Xarelto prescription, or slightly more than whatever your co-pay is for generic drugs. If you’re on Medicare, you can get an estimate for your Xarelto co-pay through the website GoodRx, which offers a convenient Xarelto cost calculator. If you have a prescription deductible, be aware that you must meet this amount before you can pay your co-pay for Xarelto. So if you haven't met your deductible, you'll likely end up paying the full cost of Xarelto (that is, more than $400 for a bottle of 30 pills). There are a couple of things to note, though. For one, there are currently no generic alternatives to Xarelto (generics are usually cheaper than name-brand drugs). Thus, you won't be able to find an identical drug at a cheaper price. The other thing to note is that dosage doesn’t generally affect the cost of Xarelto. According to Drugs.com (as well as the table below, which we'll look at shortly), you’ll usually pay the same price for a 10-mg pill as you would for a 15- or 20-mg pill. A 15-mg Xarelto pill. Pharmacy The second major factor that affects Xarelto cost is the pharmacy you go to. The following table shows estimated out-of-pocket costs for Xarelto. These are the prices you’d pay at different pharmacies if you didn’t have insurance or if your insurance didn’t cover Xarelto. All estimates for pharmacies (except for Costco) are based on the price listings at GoodRx. Note: The â€Å"- † indicates that estimates are unavailable for that dosage of Xarelto. However, you can generally assume that the prices for all dosages will be close to the same. Pharmacy Dosage Price for 30 Tablets Price per Tablet Costco 10 mg $438.74 $14.62 15 mg $438.74 $14.62 20 mg $438.74 $14.62 CVS 10 mg $481 $16.03 15 mg $484 $16.13 20 mg $473 $15.77 Kroger 10 mg $466 $15.53 15 mg $466 $15.53 20 mg $466 $15.53 Meijer 10 mg - - 15 mg - - 20 mg $446 $14.87 Rite Aid 10 mg - - 15 mg $5 $17.03 20 mg $5 $17.03 Safeway 10 mg $527 $17.57 15 mg - - 20 mg $531 $17.70 Target 10 mg - - 15 mg - - 20 mg $471 $15.70 Walgreens 10 mg $495 $16.50 15 mg $507 $16.90 20 mg $477 $15.90 As you can see, there isn’t a whole lot of difference among Xarelto prices at various pharmacies. Most of the time, you’ll pay anywhere in the range of $440-$530 for a bottle of 30 pills, with Costco offering some of the lowest prices, and Safeway and Rite Aid offering some of the highest. Another feature to note is that dosage doesn’t usually change pharmacy costs, or at least not by more than $10-$30. How to Get a Xarelto Coupon or Discount There are a few ways you can get large Xarelto discounts, many of which are through the official Xarelto website. If you have commercial health insurance (not Medicare or Medicaid) with prescription coverage, you can sign up for the Janssen CarePath Savings Program Card. This card gets you a $0 co-pay on your Xarelto prescription each month, making it entirely free for you! Alternatively, if you have Medicare, Medicaid, commercial insurance, or no insurance at all, you might be eligible for an up-to-30-day free trial of Xarelto. Finally, if you don’t have prescription coverage for Xarelto, the official Xarelto website recommends getting in contact with the Johnson Johnson Patient Assistance Foundation (JJPAF) to see if you qualify for financial assistance. In addition to the official website, tons of coupon and medical websites offer Xarelto discounts. You can search for these on Google by typing in â€Å"Xarelto coupon† or â€Å"Xarelto discount.† Note, however, that many coupons cannot be used with health insurance. One solid website is Drugs.com, which offers a savings card you can use at most pharmacies to get discounted rates on your Xarelto prescription. GoodRx is another good resource, with free coupons knocking off up to $100 on a bottle of Xarelto. How Does the Xarelto Cost Compare With Other Drugs? According to the official Xarelto website, â€Å"Xarelto has the lowest out-of-pocket cost than any other blood thinner in its class in the U.S.† This means that, compared to other anticoagulants in the same class as Xarelto- i.e., factor Xa inhibitors- Xarelto should be more affordable. Other factor Xa inhibitors include Eliquis and Savaysa. Here is a quick look at how these three medications compare with one another in regard to cost: Drug Name What GoodRx Says What Drugs.com Says* Eliquis $482.69 for 60 5-mg tablets $413.44 for 60 5-mg tablets Savaysa $380.05 for 30 60-mg tablets $336.23 for 30 60-mg tablets Xarelto $480.09 for 30 20-mg tablets $413.09 for 30 20-mg tablets *All prices are based on the Drugs.com discount card. In this chart, we’ve compared the estimated prices of the most common dosages and quantities of these three similar anticoagulant medications. But because there are wide ranges in cost, quantity, and dosage for these drugs, it's difficult to determine which is the cheapest. Ultimately, it's best to consult your doctor or pharmacist to see which medication will be most affordable for you based on your insurance. Recap: What Is the Cost of Xarelto? The cost of Xarelto, a prescription blood thinner, ultimately depends on whether your health insurance covers the drug and which pharmacy you go to. Since most insurance plans cover Xarelto, your co-pay should normally cost around $10-50 (assuming you’ve already met your prescription deductible, if you have one). If your insurance doesn’t cover Xarelto or if you don’t have insurance, you’ll need to pay the full price, which is anywhere from $440 to $530 for a one-month supply. Most pharmacies charge similar fees for Xarelto. Costco offers some of the lowest prices at around $440, while Safeway and Rite Aid offer some of the highest prices above $500. Many discounts for Xarelto are available online and through the manufacturer. One discount, available on the official Xarelto website, works with your insurance to give you a $0 co-pay each month. It's difficult to compare the cost of Xarelto to those of other similar medications such as Eliquis and Savaysa due to differences in dosage, quantity, and pharmacy. Therefore, talk with your doctor or pharmacist if you want more information about which medication will be most affordable for you.

Christ in Concrete, by Pietro di Donato Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Christ in Concrete, by Pietro di Donato - Essay Example Paul’s as well as other worker’s aggravation in a capitalist scenario pushes them to take resort to the consolation of Catholicism. But the hollowness of the doctrinal consolation further throws them into more frustration. Ultimately Paul feels that he has to rise above the inertia that Catholic belief imposes upon him. Thus Pietro purports that Catholicism’s essential function is to perpetuate the working class people’s sufferings, since it allures those people to be more tolerating, submissive and compliant to their exploiters to achieve something intangible instead of improving their condition tangibly. Thus Catholicism has turned into one of the capitalist institution, as xxx says in this regard, â€Å"In a reality filled with deprivation, humiliation and exploitation the Catholic institutions lose influences and effective as capitalist entities, represented by the allegorical Job and Boss, take their place† (). From the very beginning of his li fe, Paul is familiar with the catholic beliefs and its tenets that have given birth to a lingering forbearance for suffering and to accept the hardship in the workplace as a test of faith in God. Ironically his father Geremio seeks God’s guidance and help in the problems and hardships, caused by the Capitalist omnivorous greed for money and benefit. Geremio says, â€Å"It is not possible to breathe God’s air without fear dominating the pall of unemployment†¦.To rebel is to lose all of the very little. To be obedient is to choke. O dear Lord, guide my path† (Donato 13). The underlying irony of the Catholicism is that it teaches people to seek heavenly guidance for problems created earthly exploiters like Boss and Job. Indeed the hollowness of Catholicism is further exposed by Geremio’s vain unanswered imploration for Jesus’ help in the collapse of the building, while burying him alive. He is constantly aware of the danger in the workplace and, Job and Boss’s reluctance to pay their attention to such danger. Yet he seeks for Jesus’ help: â€Å"Show yourself now, Jesu! Now is the time! Why don’t you come! Are you there! I cannot stand it-ohhh! Why do you let it happen-where are you? Hurry hurry hurry!† (Donato 18) Through little Paul’s experience Pietro’s readers view the church as an institution that survives at the mercy of capitalism; as an institution of capitalism that nourish capitalist interests by subduing the workers’ reaction to the injustice and exploitation of the upper class of the society, replacing these rebellious emotions of the working class people with a vain doctrinal optimism for God’s help and that is void of any compassion for the oppressed and the distressed. Little Paul, who has prematurely shouldered the responsibility of his family at his childhood, sees the priest sitting at a â€Å"long table reaching away beautifully lit with slim candle throwing warm glow on shiny porcelain plates containing baked potatoes and cuts of browns dripping lambs and fresh peas and platters of hot food cold food hard food soft food† (58), while he and his family remain hungry. Upon Paul’s request, Father John replies that he has â€Å"nothing to do with charities. There is a board of trustee who confers and pass on the expenditure† (59). Paul’

Macro4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Macro4 - Essay Example By removing inflation, real GDP allows economists to make more accurate comparisons between countries and across multiple years. For example, let us consider a scenario where Nominal GDP in year N-1 was 500 and 525 in year N. The nominal GDP has grown by 5%. Now we look at three scenarios, one where inflation is 5% (country like UK), second where inflation is 1% (country like US) and the third where inflation is 10% (developing countries like India or China). If the economic policy makers were to consider only nominal GDP, all the three policy makers might consider similar fiscal policies. However, by looking at the real GDP, we are able to see that even though nominal growth of developing countries is higher, it is still lower than the inflation rate and the real GDP would actually have dropped. The goal of economic policy makers is to have low unemployment, stable prices and to stimulate growth. They have two sets of tools for this objective: 1) Fiscal policy – Government sp ending and Taxation 2) Monetary policy – Discount rate, Bank reserve ratio, and Open market operations So, the assumption made about what policy makers want to know when considering Real GDP more meaningful is the following: a) Are economic policies creating a real increase in the output? b) How much real demand is being created by government spending and taxation policy? c) Is the monetary policy able to drive growth at constant prices? 2. Why is GDP inadequate as a measure of social welfare? Can you think of any ways to make GDP a better measure of social welfare? GDP simply adds up all the products and services that are bought and sold. It makes no distinction between transactions that ass to the social welfare and those that diminish it. GDP assumes that all monetary transactions add to well-being without separating cost from benefit. For example, as a result of the recent earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, GDP would not take into account the loss caused by it but would act ually add up the cost spent in bringing things back to normal. Also, activities that actually are negative for the social welfare are added up in GDP – like lawyer fees in divorces or property damage and medical expenses due to crime. Further, GDP does not take into account some of the most important social welfare work that happens in our everyday lives – childcare, DIY home repairs, or even voluntary work. As an example of the ambiguity of GDP, if we hire someone to do the home repairs, GDP adds the income but if we do it ourselves, the DIY repair goes â€Å"unnoticed† in the GDP. In order to make GDP a better measure of social welfare, we could represent GDP like the balance sheet of a company showing separately the assets (monetary transactions that lead to social welfare and development) and the liabilities (monetary transactions that cause negative impact on social welfare or those that have been made in order to be back to normal after a disaster). The ne t of these assets and liabilities would then be a good indicator of how much actual social welfare has occurred in the country or over time. 4. a. Compute real GDP for each year. 1987 is the base year. Show your work. Year Nominal GDP GDP deflator Real GDP 1989 5 244 1,08 4 856 1990 5 514 1,13 4 880 1991 5 672 1,17 4 848 Real GDP in Year n = Nominal GDP in Year n GDP Deflator for that year Real GDP in 1989 = 5 244 / 1.08 = 4

Accounting theory practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Accounting theory practice - Essay Example This revised IAS 1 is applicable to all entities whether those are profit oriented or not- for profit entities. ‘Not- for profits entities in both the public and private sectors can apply this standard, however they may need to change the description used for particular line items within their financial statements and for the financial statements themselves. This standard applies to those entities that present consolidated financial statements and those that present financial statements as defined in IAS 27: Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements. It does not apply to the structure and contents of condensed interim financial statements prepared in accordance with IAS 34: Interim Financial Reporting.’ (Barry and Jermakowicz, page 22)2. In other words IAS 1 is applicable to all financial statements that cater general purpose needs. ‘General purpose financial statements are those intended to meet the needs of users who are not in a position to demand reports t ailored to meet their specific information needs. They include statements presented separately or those within another public document, such as annual report or prospectus.’(David Alexander and Simon Archer, 3.04)3 IAS 1 revised in September 2007, issued by International Accounting Standard Board (IASB), is the first of the series of expected revisions on the standard. While issuing the revised IAS 1, IASB (2007)4 stated in the press release that ‘the changes made are to require information in financial statements to be aggregated on the basis of shared characteristics and to introduce a statement of comprehensive income. This will enable the readers to analyze changes in a company’s equity resulting from transactions with owners (such as dividend and share purchase) separately from non- owner changes (such as transactions with third parties)’. This indicates that the basic objective of changes is to present each financial

Avon Calls on Foreign Markets Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Avon Calls on Foreign Markets - Case Study Example This strategy guarantees increased sales because it captures the local customer needs. Given that the operation of the company is spread to different regions, this strategy captures the needs of people with different skin sensitivity to beauty products.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Additionally, another marketing orientation is the customer. Avon’s approaches in marketing are that it targets women. It takes into contemplation the age group of cosmetics users and the places where the women population propagates more rapidly. This strategy employs independent sales persons or Avon representatives, who places sales orders with Avon and deliver the same to customers. Another orientation employed by Avon is social marketing orientation that entails; a breast cancer crusade that creates a global awareness on breast cancer and community outreach and education. This strategy is core, because it targets its leading customers: the women.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A horde of re asons made Avon concentrate on more on the foreign operations than the U.S market. First, it was due to a forecast of a slow growth rate in the U.S market given that most of the market had been permeated already, and there remained no virgin market for its products. Therefore, any growth or increased sales would entail Avon competing to grab its competitor’s market share and given the nature of competition prevalent in the U.S market, Avon chose to direct its energy on less competitive arenas.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Secondly, Avon chose to redirect its energies away from the U.S market due to the changing nature and dynamism.... A horde of reasons made Avon concentrate on more on the foreign operations than the U.S market. First, it was due to a forecast of a slow growth rate in the U.S market given that most of the market had been permeated already, and there remained no virgin market for its products. Therefore, any growth or increased sales would entail Avon competing to grab its competitor’s market share and given the nature of competition prevalent in the U.S market, Avon chose to direct its energy on less competitive arenas. Secondly, Avon chose to redirect its energies away from the U.S market due to the changing nature and dynamism of its main market which affected its distribution strategies. Avon has been built around direct marketing whereby the Avon ladies sell directly to households and giving beauty advice. Therefore, direct sales were the backbone of the company for a long time. However, it the 20th century, many U.S women were making forays into the workforce. This had twin effect in t hat access to the women in their homes was hampered. Secondly, the number of women seeking part time employment with Avon reduced. On the other hand, there existed untapped markets elsewhere, for example, in inaccessible and remote part of Brazil and Philippines. A global recession like the one that happened in 2008 is not likely to curtail Avon activities materially. Indeed, it increases the number of people willing to work part time and independently, on which Avon marketing strategy is built. To add, since Avon has diversified its market to capture the foreign market is not likely to affect all the markets negatively at once. In fact, when things were gloomy in the United States, the foreign markets looked bright.

Employee relations-Japan Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Employee relations-Japan - Speech or Presentation Example include labour market deregulation, changes in nature of employment such as employment duration and permanence, wealth distribution inequality, changes in firm governance, and performance-related pay. Labour market deregulation involves measures by the government and policy makers to simplify and reduce restrictions on already existing labour regulations. The main focus of labour deregulation is to improve productivity and easing employee work. Additionally, labour deregulation seeks to achieve lower prices yet maintaining maximum efficiency and productivity. For example, in Japan there has been laws that facilitate adoption of agency workers who are in most cases women and migrants hence incur less costs in terms of wages. However, this has been met by opposition terming the government as inefficient since this policies are arguably in contrast with the 1985 amendments to the LSL seeking to reduce working hours for women (Kato & Kodama 2014, p.11). In the past, large firms in Japan had adopted a culture of recruiting young people, either fresh from universities or the final year, without necessarily seeking job experience. These young people normally remained in the firms as their career develop within the form by gaining promotions (Firkola 2011, p.2). As a result, this system has given employees a sense of belonging in the respective firms bringing hence feeling as part of the firm and consequently increasing production levels. However, with recent policies has forced a drop on the number of recruitments by the large firms and long term employments have also dropped significantly. Atypical employment refers to employment that is not permanent such as employments on the basis of a fixed term. This implies that after the agreed duration the contract can be either terminated or renewed. One of the emerging issues in Japan in the modern day is adoption of atypical employment. This can be attributed to the increased need to reduce production costs yet maintaining

Economic implications of the EU's single currency on German economy Literature review

Economic implications of the EU's single currency on German economy - Literature review Example In response to globalization, the initiative of the European Commission back in 1969 was put in place to coordinate the economic policies as well as to set a monetary integration among the European Union. On the 1st of January 1999, the ‘Euro’ (â‚ ¬) was launched in the world money markets. Since then, Euro has become the unit of exchange for the EU states except for the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Denmark (Central Intelligence Agency, 2011). The decision behind the European Union is to make the inter-regional and inter-state trading much easier (European Commission. The EU Single Market, 2011). Back in 2007, the goal European Commission has proven to be very successful. Implementing the ‘Euro’ (â‚ ¬) currency in 1999 was part of the strategy used by the European Union to achieve their purpose of making the inter-regional and inter-state trading much easier. Located in Frankfurt in Germany, the European Central Bank was made responsible for the impleme ntation of monetary policies and exchange rate policies throughout the European monetary union (Carbaugh, 2009, p. 280). Likewise, it is the European Central Bank that controls the supply of euros aside from setting its short-term euro interest rate or maintaining a fixed exchange rate for all members of the European Union (ibid). ... To give the readers a better understanding concerning the research topic, this report will first provide a brief overview concerning the economic condition of Germany before and after the country was required to use a single EU currency. As part of conducting a literature review with regards to the potential economic impact of centralizing the currency, this report will focus on discussing the advantages and disadvantages of using the Euro (â‚ ¬) currency in the economic performance of Germany. Finally, the economic consequences associated with using fixed exchange rate policy will be tackled based on the historical experiences of other countries. Brief Overview on German Economy Before and After the Use of EU (â‚ ¬) Currency Back in the 1950s, the economic situation in Germany was highly dependent on the exportation of agricultural and industrial products. In 1988, West Germany and East Germany were exporting a total of US$323 billion and US$30.7 billion worth of different agr icultural, mining, and industrial products respectively (Boyes, 2007). Since there was a high demand for food and non-food products manufactured in Germany, East Germany was able to maintain zero unemployment rate for quite some time (ibid). Despite the fact that the inter-regional and inter-state trading was made easier among the European Union (European Commission – The EU Single Market, 2011), Germany started to go through a series of economic problems. After the single currency was implemented in Germany, the country started to experience economic stagnation in the 2000s combined with a constantly increasing high unemployment rate (Merkel, 2009; Boyes, 2007). Since there were a lot of

Employee relations-Japan Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Employee relations-Japan - Speech or Presentation Example include labour market deregulation, changes in nature of employment such as employment duration and permanence, wealth distribution inequality, changes in firm governance, and performance-related pay. Labour market deregulation involves measures by the government and policy makers to simplify and reduce restrictions on already existing labour regulations. The main focus of labour deregulation is to improve productivity and easing employee work. Additionally, labour deregulation seeks to achieve lower prices yet maintaining maximum efficiency and productivity. For example, in Japan there has been laws that facilitate adoption of agency workers who are in most cases women and migrants hence incur less costs in terms of wages. However, this has been met by opposition terming the government as inefficient since this policies are arguably in contrast with the 1985 amendments to the LSL seeking to reduce working hours for women (Kato & Kodama 2014, p.11). In the past, large firms in Japan had adopted a culture of recruiting young people, either fresh from universities or the final year, without necessarily seeking job experience. These young people normally remained in the firms as their career develop within the form by gaining promotions (Firkola 2011, p.2). As a result, this system has given employees a sense of belonging in the respective firms bringing hence feeling as part of the firm and consequently increasing production levels. However, with recent policies has forced a drop on the number of recruitments by the large firms and long term employments have also dropped significantly. Atypical employment refers to employment that is not permanent such as employments on the basis of a fixed term. This implies that after the agreed duration the contract can be either terminated or renewed. One of the emerging issues in Japan in the modern day is adoption of atypical employment. This can be attributed to the increased need to reduce production costs yet maintaining

HR assignment for BP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

HR assignment for BP - Essay Example They are a very core part of the human resource management of any big company. Still under line managers, there are front-line managers who act as teams leaders and supervisors and report to the line mangers they work under. Having line managers makes the overall management function of a company simple and well coordinated (Gomez-Mejia and Robert, 2008). IT training has become an indispensable part of managing a big business with ease. It involves imparting computing skills to employees who run the virtual functions of a business. Today’s big businesses have immensely reduced paper-works and resorted to having very secure databases, and networked computer system which make global outreach not much of a hustle. In this front, BP conducts IT training on regular basis to ensure that the IT systems run effectively and are secure from hacking and other cyber-threats (Han et al, 2006). No business competes favorably today without integrating IT in their core operations. Training must be carried out from time to time in order to conform to the dynamicity of the computer world. At the end of such training, assessments need to be conducted to check if it was done in a manner that meets the prescribed standards (Proctor, 2011). Line managers and IT training are thus two different sections of a business, but that doesn’t rule out the fact they work harmoniously in order to achieve the goals of a company. They both are very important and must be run efficiently and

Bmw Films Essay Example for Free

Bmw Films Essay The primary issue faced by Jim McDowell is what to do for his next marketing campaign. He will need to decide what direction BMW will take in order to stay current in the target market and position the brand as the leader in the luxury car industry. A sub issue that Jim is facing is that in order for BMW to stand out compare to the competition, it must be at the forefront of the marketing trend. There is always pressure on innovative marketing campaigns as a bad campaign can lead to severe damage in the company image and reputation. Decision Alternatives. There are a number of alternatives that Jim faces when deciding in what direction to move with the BMW marketing campaign. Develop more short films and build a big series out of it. Develop a full length movie for the theatres Do nothing to the existing campaign and move on to develop a new campaign To continue to use the existing BMW films plus developing a new campaign Creating new films on the heels of the original films plus developing a new campaign Develop a full length movie plus developing a new campaign In order to decide the best alternative it is important to look at some key decision criteria. In this case the important factors would be: delivery time, risk, cost, competitive advantage, ease of implementation. Analysis of Industry In the luxury car segment, BMW and Mercedes have stand strong against the strong competition from Japan like Acura, Lexus, Infiniti. In year 2001, BMW is second best luxury car seller, just behind Lexus amount the other ten major luxury brands. However, BMW only ranked 8th in media expenditures, which again proved the great success on their innovative campaign. In terms of customer loyalty, luxury brand customers do tend to stay among the top brands and are very loyal. There are always customers who switch from BMW to Mercedes or the other way around. Since BMW has the competitive advantage of a younger clientele, it is very important for BMW to create marketing campaign to young adult so they can look forward to own a BMW when they can afford one. Analysis of Company Evaluation of Alternatives Alternative #1, 2, and 3 should only be considered as a short term alternative that can achieve quick beneficial results with no long term prospects because all the alternatives evolve around the same film concept, which eventually will wear out and target audience will not be interested in it anymore. Alternative #4 takes into account with BMW’s long term goal, to be the leader in the industry with innovative campaigns. However, developing a new concept takes time and research before implementation, therefore some immediate alternatives needs to be done before the new campaign kicks in. Alternative #5, 6, or 7 will achieve that goal. Alternative #5 Introduce the BMW films to new markets that may have missed the online films during the campaign period will enable BMW to entice an entirely new segment. By showing the films throughother mediums, BMW will be able to reach a wider audience plus raising the brand awareness. Since this campaign is so successful and unique, BMW can also produce DVD and make itas a collectible item. This alternative is easy to implement, low cost to run, low risk as the campaign is already running with huge success with good reputation. However, other companies may copy the idea and there is a chance that BMW will lose its competitive advantage as the films are getting overly exposed to the original audiences that BMW targeted during the initial campaign period. Therefore, developing another campaign while this is running is necessary in order to achieve BMW’s long term marketing goal. Alternative #6 The other option would be to follow up with another series of films on the heels of the original films. BMW would want to keep the number of films low to try and blend them into the successful original films and not to market them as another series of short films. This alternative will require some time to prepare, and the cost will be much higher in comparison to Alternative #5, which will make it harder as BMW will need more resources in creating a new campaign at the same time. It is easy to implement as all the ground works are in place from the previous films. However, this alternative will have a higher risk than other options due to the high anticipation of BMW to produce high quality films. If any of the film receives negative feedbacks, BMW will risk losing out on the campaign inwhole, plus the reputation of the series. BMW will still keep its competitive advantage with this alternative as they are still the one who leads the marketing trend. Alternative #7 Creating a full length movie can be the next big campaignfor BMW. It is a new approach and will make the brand stand out of all others. The target audience is also much wider in comparison to the initial campaign. It will take a long time to implement, and not as easy as short films because a full length film is more complicated in terms of plot and production. The cost will also go veryhigh that may use up all of BMW’s resources in marketing. It is a two sided sword because if BMW is not placed enough in the film there is no difference in doing product placement in the James Bond movie series; meanwhile if BMW is overly exposed in the film it may create negative feedbacks as it will look like an hour long commercial. The interest level of audience will also be much lower in watching a long commercial than a short film. Decision Criteria Chart Here is the chart for the best 3 alternatives: (X? low score, XXX? high score) Recommendation Based on the analysis above it is evident that the appropriate course of action is to utilize the existing movies in the short term while developing a new full scale marketing plan in the background. By utilizing the existing films BMW will be able to quickly get to market films that they have already completed. They will ride the coat tails of the internet marketing, however by introducing the films to another target markets, BMW will hopefully build on the impact created by the original films. There is relatively low risk to this model because BMW has already invested in the films and by using different mediums to convey their message it is likely that an entirely new market segment will appreciate the films as the original audience did. Although the potential payback may not as great as some off the wall innovative idea, the concept behind releasing the films to a different audience should allow more time and resources to develop another new campaign. If there are enough resources, BMW can also consider creating 1 or 2 more films to avoid losing the competitive advantage toward the target audience.

The Importance of Education :: Importance of Education Essays

After twelve years of school, it took me until now to figure out exactly why I had been there all those years. It was not to torture me by making me learn how to spell but to make sure that my classmates and I got the opportunity to make the most of ourselves. Opportunity that would come from learning as much as possible from books and beginning to see that the world focuses on more than just history and English . I owe my success in life and school to teachers who taught me to spell and to be respectful and responsible. Those quick to argue with me say that school's usefulness is shallow: deeper-real-life experiences truly educate a person. School should be seen not only as a place to study, but also as a place to learn about real life. People cannot depend on experience alone for education just as they cannot solely rely on information from school books to prepare them for life. The lessons, whether from a book or not, learned in school transcend the classroom to real life situatio ns. School, in essence, functions as a ladder to the future. The farther up the ladder a person goes, the more prepared for real life he will find himself. Respect is one of the keys to getting up the ladder and succeeding in many aspects of life. I grew up respecting my elders: whether it was my grandparents or the librarian, I have always had respect. The regard I have developed for teachers has come from knowing that I will need their help to make it through school and I can only get it by being respectful and polite. To help students up the ladder, school indirectly teaches its students about respect. Although not found on the pages of any text book, learning lessons in respect can be very helpful. The idea of respect starts with teachers and often branches to the development of peer and self respect. Everyone has experienced a teacher that they couldn't stand and dreaded going to that class. It was times like that which challenged the respect that had begun to develop. In eight grade, my english teacher was one of the mose mean people I have ever met. I got a 0 on a quiz because I spelled one word wrong (it was not a spelling quiz). I hated going to her class, half the time, I just wanted to scream at her.

Direct and Alternating Current :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  All useful generators of electricity come in two basic forms, alternating current and direct current. Direct current (dc) comes from generators that do not change in polarity, always producing a positive charge. In alternating current (ac) the polarity of the terminals is always changing from positive to negative. Thus you are left with alternating current flow. There are different ways of measuring and generating alternating and direct current.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Direct current only flows in one direction in a circuit. Because the polarity of a direct current voltage source is always the same the flow of current never changes direction. Batteries are one of the more common direct current voltage sources. Batteries are good because their voltage is fixed as well as their polarity. Direct current dose not always need to a constant voltage but it must always stay traveling in the same direction. There are such direct currents called varying and pulsating that change value but not direction.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Alternating current is always changing in direction and amplitude. The current flow in alternating current changes in even intervals. Ac usually changes in power and direction. The vast majority of power supplied for households and big business is alternating current. This is because of the ease of generating alternating current in alternators. The main concept of alternators is moving a conductor through magnetic lines. The change in the magnetic field around the conductor or vice versa makes electrons move. When you have physically moved either the conductor or magnet in a complete 306-degree circle you have produced one sine wave or one complete cycle. The amount of time it takes to complete one cycle is referred to as a period. The frequency of an alternating sine wave is the amount of cycles per second. Frequency is measured in hertz. One hertz is equivalent to one cycle per second. The frequency coming out of your electrical plug at home is 60 Hz. The peak v alue in a sine wave is the top voltage level away from zero. The peak-to-peak voltage value is referring to difference between the positive peaks value to the negative peak value. The effective or rms value of a sine wave is the actual amount you would use or measure using a multi-meter. In three-phase alternating current there are three different coils or conductors that produce three different sine waves.

Analysis of Capitalism: A Love Story Essay

Michael Moore is the writer and director of the highly relevant documentary film, Capitalism: A Love Story, which is a film explicating on the financial crisis during 2007-2010 as well as the other aspects such as the economic stimulus package with the government committed in resolving the economic order of the United States and capitalism. The approach used in the documentary film is the dialectic approach. This type of approach was best utilized in the documentary wherein it uses two contradicting ideas that try to overpower each other. The film narrates and explains on the financial crisis as well as of other topics that are encompassed in the film. However, a devil’s advocate that serves as an adverse critic emerges to challenge or question the points raised by the other. Thus, this causes a healthy discussion and arouses the critical thinking of the audience. The documentary film although appeals to the general public; however, the satirical sense of the documentary focuses on the personalities in the government as well as the people mainly involved in the fruition of the ideas discussed in the documentary film. Overall, the documentary film is an eye-opener for the public that leaves room for the audience to critic and think of. The fallacy in the documentary film is the contradicting definition of capitalism expressed in the film. The creator, Michael Moore, expressed the Marxists definition of capitalism and that it needs the state, which is the very opposite of the real definition of capitalism. However, as the film shows how the government dips its control through the different courses of actions in attempt to resolve the problem. The arguments presented by Michael Moore are quite convincing, especially through his dialectic approach that make the viewers critically think of the ideas presented and conduct their own deductions. Although the ideas are more abstract, the viewers make up of the gap through their logical and critical thinking. Reference Moore, M. (Producer & Director). (2009). Capitalism: A Love Story [Motion Picture]. USA.

The Market for Online Education

Introduction Traditional education is designed around face-to-face communication in a physical classroom. Educational institutions are required to pay for costly inputs, the costs of which are spread out over a limited number of students. It is no surprise then that this education delivery model has produced a 550% increase in the cost of tuition at U.S. universities since 1985 (Vella, 2012). In addition to this, most universities are run by non-profit trusts or governments, where there is little pressure to innovate and fully utilize the physical and intellectual resources of the institution. With this backdrop, online courses are offering low-cost learning alternatives, which are customized for needs of customers, and are available without regard to space and time for different groups of customers worldwide. Over time, attitudes of students and employers towards online education are also improving. Finally, new private companies are coming up to offer customized solutions often backed by cloud computing platforms, though they still lack the brand recognition of traditional universities. This paper will examine the limitations of traditional educational methods and explore sources of demand and supply of online education with a view towards how innovative business models such as crowdsourcing and technology infrastructures such as cloud computing are creating change in online education (Weld et al., 2012). Evolution of Online Education Traditional education delivery in thousands of universities globally is designed around transfer of knowledge from teachers to students via face-to-face, lecture based interaction in physical classrooms. At the outset, this imposes the limit of physical capacity of the classroom on the number of individuals who can enrol in the class. In comparison, recent advances in information and communication technologies have enabled alternative online education delivery mechanisms, which can optimize educational delivery in a cost-efficient manner for a large number of users. Online education can be defined as a new social process which utilizes digital technology to partially or fully substitute traditional classroom learning methods, optimized for learners without the barriers of a traditional educational setup (Hiltz & Turoff, 2006). Allen and Seaman (2013) define online education to include courses where at least 80% of the course content is delivered online. These courses are delivered ov er the Internet and include significant use of digital media, data storage and communication technologies such as computer-assisted instruction, group communications, use of immersive simulations, gaming and asynchronous learning networks, collaborative knowledge systems and use of wireless and handheld devices. Online education offers different sets of opportunities to different organisations and individuals. For existing educational institutions, it offers a way to increase enrolment or reach a different type of audience such as corporate training. For start-ups looking to shake up the education ‘industry’, it offers the opportunity to compete with traditional universities on different bases of competition, such as price, program duration or class timing. For others, it offers the opportunity for lifelong learning or the opportunity to learn from professors of top universities. Surveys show that the number of students taking online learning courses is on the rise. Allen and Seaman (2013) report that the total number of students in the U.S. taking at least 1 online course during 2012 has increased to 6.7 million, representing 32% of the total student population of 21 million students. In an endorsement of the online learning platform, 77% of academic leaders believe that online learning leads to better learning outcomes than face-to-face instruction. On the major obstacles that are holding back the growth of online education, the authors believe that most faculty members still do not have a positive view about online learning. 40% believe employers have reservations about online degrees. Product Offerings Online education is influencing different tiers of the market in different ways. Firstly, in traditional universities, more and more fully online classes are being developed, and technology is finding its way into more traditional classes as well. Many universities now offer online only classes for their students. In addition, universities such as Georgia Tech are creating tailor made degrees for corporations such as AT&T. This setup benefits the university which gets an extra revenue stream and also AT&T which gets high-end skills training for its employees on the job (Kitroeff, 2014). In addition, some new, non-traditional universities have also been set up. These online universities, such as the University of Phoenix, replicate the existing university model but without a physical campus, utilizing online content delivery. A different model has also been developed by some traditional universities such as MIT and Stanford. In partnership with private start-up companies such as Coursera and EdX, these institutions are putting together free classes open to global masses known as massive open online courses (MOOC). These courses are available to all the students in the world who have Internet access and some of these classes boast registrations in hundreds of thousands. Currently, nearly 3% of institutions of higher education in the US are offering MOOCs while another 10% are in the planning process of offering MOOCs (Allen & Seaman, 2013). Coursera is also expanding into China with its more than 1 million online learners (Larson, 2014). However, it is not clear how MOOC offerings will be financed (Anderson, 2012). The author points out that giving away content for free usually never turns out to be good business model. Suggestions for revenue generation include subscription and charging employers who want to hire successful students. Another issue is how to ascertain the identity and actual completion of work by a given individual. Udacity, another start-up has devised a solution by offering physical testing facilities in different countries where students can take certification exams in a supervised environment. While they are becoming increasingly popular, MOOCs offer limited customization. In comparison, some start-up education companies are exploring the idea of customized learning enabled by ‘crowdsourcing’. Crowdsourcing is a term which defines the development of an online community whose physically dispersed members may be called upon to provide results online to a given problem. One limitation of MOOCs is that grading assignments of hundreds of thousands of students requires using automated software, which can only grade multiple choice problems. This solution does not work very well in the humanities and social sciences. A crowdsourcing-based solution is to use peer evaluation for this purpose. These learning environments also deploy other technology enabled learning techniques such as using software to analyse common mistakes made by large groups with the highest frequency. Significant insights can be gained into human learning from observing such errors and analyzing their causes. Other automated software agents can crawl the web for useful resources pertaining to the course and collect it on a new website. Additional functionalities that can be offered by machine learning systems include services that link students with particular needs with tutors with skills suitable for teaching those subjects. Role of technology in the online education ecosystem Central to this paradigm shift in education is the Internet and technology revolution. A key enabling innovation in this regard is the development of a low-cost services model known as cloud computing. Cloud computing is an umbrella terms which describes how computers, servers, and applications and processes on those servers can be networked together in a distributed computing platform to create scalable infrastructure which enables users to connect from anywhere and using any device. Cloud computing may be considered an extension of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), which is a software design which makes it easy for computers on a network to cooperate. An institution or group of institutions that gets together to develop a cloud computing based platform needs to develop content and services that can reside inside the cloud since not all applications are cloud enabled (Mircea & Andreescu, 2011). Cloud computing is a way of designing a network in blocks, not all of which need to be owned or operated by one university. Instead some components of infrastructure, or the platform or the software or even the computing power itself may be owned and managed by service providers who allow the university to pay for them on an ongoing, pay-per-use basis (Matthew, 2012). Cloud enabled service delivery enables access to educational content by anyone, anywhere on a pay-per-use basis, thus enabling deployment of scalable educational services. If a substantial number of users exist, the cost per user and thus the fee charged to the user can be lowered substantially compared to traditional educational institutions (Moore, 2011). This can have several other advantages for institutions as well. For example, institutions can combine resources with others to share a cloud, and then focus on content creation to focus on their strength and outsourcing the IT services to a large degree. The new business models will begin with market need identification, and then deploying a solution to meet that need, offering a high return on investment (ROI). A major university offering a global MOOC would need a very different platform than a commercial service offering English as Second Language in China and cloud computing would allow each to have the right cost and infrastructure for the size of the opportunity. A lot of effort is going into the development of each of the elements of online education. These include digital books, grading software, intelligent software agents, cloud computing infrastructure and tablets. Amazon is also selling more digital books than paper books and it is now even possible for students taking online classes to rent their textbooks for limited time (Schuetze, 2011). Through its success, online education seems to be substituting traditional education (Mehaffy, 2012). This phenomenon has been labelled by Christensen & Eyring (2011) as the process of ‘disruption’. ‘Disruptive technologies’ are championed by new companies which do not compete with the incumbents along the existing bases of competition, but offer new and often low-cost product to a previously underserved group of consumers. Once successful in their niches, they increase volume, improve product quality and unseat incumbents in the high end of the market. Alternatively, disruption forces incumbents to change their business models. One of the reasons the education market seems ripe for disruption is the high cost of university education which makes the high-end of the market out of reach for many students. Some of the new business models in online education offer lower cost alternatives for those average students. In response, several mainstream universities are already considering lowering the residency requirement of their degrees to lower the total cost of earning them, while considering how to improve their online courses. While it may be too early to predict how successful they will be, for now the online education market seems set to grow globally. Conclusion In conclusion, it can be said that online education is a powerful business model because it can service large underserved segments of the education market at low average cost (Gaytan, 2007). It is a solution for those who could previously not afford the high cost of education or may only need to develop certain job related skills or they may be lifelong learners. Deployment of digital content and software over a cloud enabled distributed computing network is the first step towards infrastructure development required for online learning platforms. More high-quality content is required together with ingenious business models to take online education to the next level of success. Recommendations While they do not face any immediate threats, existing educational institutions will need to adapt their business models in order to not become obsolete. At a minimum, they should consider ways of reducing their cost without diluting the experience. Traditional universities have a strong competitive advantage – they offer a period of residence in an academic community. This is difficult to replicate for online institutions. Online universities should consider partnerships for revenue and content sharing with traditional institutions in order to build their brands quicker. Without brand acceptance, they will never be able to compete with traditional universities. Start-ups should focus on helping develop those innovations that increase the return on investment in new business models for educational service providers to encourage innovation and investment in technology supporting online education. Bibliography Allen, I. E., & Seaman, J. 2013. Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States. Sloan Consortium. PO Box 1238, Newburyport, MA 01950. Anderson, N. 2012. Elite education for the masses. The Washington Post, 4. Christensen, C. M., & Eyring, H. J. 2011. The innovative university: Changing the DNA of higher education from the inside out. John Wiley & Sons. Conn, S. S., & Reichgelt, H. 2012. Cloud Computing in Support of Applied Learning: A Baseline Study of Infrastructure Design at Southern Polytechnic State University. In Proceedings of the Information Systems Educators Conference ISSN (Vol. 2167, p. 1435). Gaytan, J. 2007. Visions shaping the future of online education: Understanding its historical evolution, implications, and assumptions. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 10(2). Hiltz, S. R., & Turoff, M. 2005. Education goes digital: The evolution of online learning and the revolution in higher education. Communications of the ACM,48(10), 59-64. Larson, C. 2014. Coursera’s plan for online education: Expansion in China. Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved on 28 October, 2014 from http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-27/coursera-ceo-richard-levin-plans-to-expand-the-company-in-china. Kitroeff, N. 2014. Why AT&T is investing in virtual school. Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved on 28 October, 2014 from http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-24/at-and-t-and-former-google-vp-back-georgia-tech-online-degree-program. Mathew, S. 2012. Implementation of Cloud Computing in Education – A Revolution. International Journal of Computer Theory and Engineering, 4(3), 473 – 475. Mehaffy, G. L. 2012. Challenge and change. Educause Review, 47(5), 25-42. Mircea, M., & Andreescu, A. I. 2011. Using cloud computing in higher education: A strategy to improve agility in the current financial crisis. Communications of the IBIMA, 2011, 1-15. Moore, J. C. 2012. A Synthesis of Sloan-C Effective Practices, December 2011. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 16(1), 91-115. Schuetze, C. F. 2011. Textbooks finally take a big leap to digital. The New York Times. Vella, M. (2012). Is higher education doomedFortune. Retrieved on October 28, 2014 from http://fortune.com/2012/07/18/is-higher-education-doomed/. Yuan, L., Powell, S., & CETIS, J. 2013. MOOCs and open education: Implications for higher education. Cetis White Paper. Weld, D. S., Adar, E., Chilton, L., Hoffmann, R., Horvitz, E., Koch, M., & Mausam, M. 2012. Personalized online education—a crowdsourcing challenge. In Workshops at the Twenty-Sixth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence.

Unfinished King Lear

Good Morning Class. Today I will be talking about Shakespeare’s play â€Å"King Lear†, and how it successfully relates to the modern world, family relationships and the forcefulness of love, and most importantly the themes of madness and blindness to reinforce the concepts of appearance and reality. The play King Lear examines the concept of appearance and reality. The issues of madness and blindness become powerful symbols reinforcing this central concept. The two universal themes, madness and blindness relate to our modern life because in our everyday life we go through this central dilemma and King Lear teaches us to look beyond superficial elements. For example; throughout the whole entire play, King Lear was blinded by the truth as result of his foolishness in which he rejects truth, due to his selfish vanity- He speaks to Cordelia: ‘Nothing will come of nothing’ and ‘Mend your speech a little. Lest it may mar your fortunes’, this suggests that if one does not speak, then one will not reciprocally receive anything. Instead he banishes Cordelia and accepts the lies from his two elder daughters and the Gloucester family that cause the Kingdom and King Lear to lose all its precious values and morals. Madness was one of the most dominant themes in King Lear because throughout the play King Lear goes mad because of the betrayal from his daughters, his loss and how he ruined his fate. For example, when King Lear was told by the fool that his pride lead to a ruined kingdom, Lear was furious and devastated, he became confused and lost all his precious values and morals, this soon left to his downfall. As shown in Act 1 Scene 5 the fool tells Lear that his making bad decisions and that listening to Regan will not be any better than the situation with Goneril. Lear is ignorant and still ignores the wise fools’ opinion and once again Lear is deceived and becomes mad. However, once Lear goes mad he loses his wisdom but reality becomes clearer to him, ironically, Lear is supposedly the wiser person in this play as he is a king with power and responsibility. Nevertheless, the fool which is believed to be childish and juvenile is the one who offers insight and comes up with the important advice. It was Lear’s stubbornness which didn’t let in the advice because he only wanted to hear what sounded pleasant. Shakespeare’s work heavily emphasises the importance of historical contexts in his pieces, in particular the play King Lear where delicacy and creativity played an important role in characterising King Lear and the extraordinary use of themes and language that allowed the play to be successful. Furthermore, this play has also clearly adapted to the modern world because it relates its audience to look into their own souls and consider what it’s like to be a human being, whether it is easy to see through lies or be fooled by them. This is also relevant to every human being in every time and culture because as humans we only accept and take in what we want to hear. Moreover, Shakespeare uses the concept of â€Å"Blindness and Madness† as a central theme and relates to the modern world because it gives us a personal insight into the concept of life, which is the essence of being a human being. King Lear becomes mad and struggles to maintain sanity as he is tormented by the pain endured during his life and the responsibilities held as King and as he questions his daughters’ betrayal of trust that suggests in human life, madness is a natural occurrence when one lacks meaning in life- ‘Ingratitude thou marble-hearted fiend, More hideous, when thou show’st thee in a child than the sea-monster†. This is one of the many examples where Lear is expressing his fury towards himself and his foolishness for believing the lies; he blames himself for ruining his given power of being a king. Another example where Lear is showing the suffering of how vulnerable and his outrage of having an unfaithful daughter is when he quotes: â€Å"How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is, to have a thankless child†. Appearance and Reality was a crucial element in Shakespeare’s play as it is constantly used throughout the whole play, whether it was family or friends. Appearance and Reality is evident in Act 1 Scene 1 when Cordelia doesn’t speak false words because she doesn’t find it in her heart to tell lies just to overrun a kingdom, however, from King Lear’s perspective she seems rude, unfaithful and untrue. Once King Lear banishes Cordelia, the kingdom starts to emotionally fall apart and King Lear loses all his values and morals. For instance, King Lear believes the lies that Goneril and Regan tell because he is vain and enjoys sycophancy, but as Cordelia refuses to speak of lies and tell the truth Lear gets irritated and banishes her from the castle as quoted ‘I am unhappy that I am, I cannot hear my heave my heart into my mouth; I love your majesty according to my bond, no more nor less’ emphasising the contemplation she has to hereby the words of King Lear as his daughter. Another example of appearance and reality was the love triangle between Edmond, Goneril and Regan. The two evil sisters were both ttracted to Edmund because of the mutual conflict between their two families; Edmund’s wickedness made both sister’s betray each other and in the end all that they were fighting over was worth nothing because the outcome for both sister’s was death. In Shakespeare’s play King Lear, forcefulness of love was a significant and empowering theme as the three daughters are fo rced to recite their love for Lear. However, King Lear is looking for a more over exaggerated and fictitious description of how loyal and faithful Cordelia can be. Cordelia refrains herself from doing so because she isn’t selfish and is honest. In the opening scene Act 1 Scene 1, in the lines â€Å"Then poor Cordelia, And yet not so, since I am sure my love’s more ponderous than my tongue† Family relationships also played a critical role because it showed betrayal, wickedness and Lear’s foolishness in rejecting Cordelia’s true love. However, Cordelia still remained loyal towards Lear despite all his cruelty towards her In Conclusion, King Lear has successfully related itself to the modern world by incorporating the concept of appearance and reality, family relationships, forcefulness of love and blindness and madness.