Secrets and the Scarlet Letter

â€Å"A secret between two is God's secret, between three is all men’s. †-Spanish Proverb. Secrets are not meant for being told. Usually everyone is supposed to take secrets â€Å"to their grave. † In certain circumstances, they must be told. Even though you’re thwarting your own honor by telling a secret, sometimes it must be done. In most cases, secrets should be kept, but in The Scarlet Letter, there are some that need to be told. There's nothing more powerful than finding someone safe to tell â€Å"the secret† to. No one knows how hard it is, unless they've been there. Your heart pounds, your body is rock rigid, you grind your teeth, your mouth is dry. You think of all the excuses to keep your mouth shut. They'll get mad. They'll laugh. They'll reject you. They'll treat it like it was nothing and tell you to forget about it. Or worse: they'll be polite, nod their head like they understand, leave and not ever have anything to do with you again. Even then, the depth of doubt, self-hate, fear and insecurity is so strong, that even after you tell even to someone who's been through it too you leave and wonder, did I say too much? Did I do the right thing? Will they hate me? Only experience lets you know your trust wasn't for nothing. In the Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Arthur Dimmesdale all have secrets. They will do whatever they can to keep their secrets a secret. Except for Hester, whose secret has been made public by her wearing the scarlet letter A. Arthur Dimmesdale’s secret is the most lethal. He is keeping his secret to protect his reputation even though it’s eating away at him and keeping him from what he wants most; Hester. For example, in chapter 17 page 182, we are told that Dimmesdale’s secret has taken hold of his life and made him a miserable man. â€Å"There is no substance in it! It is cold and dead, and can do nothing for me! Of penance I have had enough! Of penitence there has been none! Else, I should long ago have thrown off these garments of mock holiness, and have shown myself to mankind as they will see me at the judgment-seat. Happy are you, Hester, that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret! Thou little knowest what a relief it is, after the torment of a seven years' cheat, to look into an eye that recognizes me for what I am! † Dimmesdale’s secret should be told because then he won’t feel so guilty and his shame and hypocrisy will not eat him alive. It also isn’t fair to Pearl that she has no father and won’t be able to have one because of Dimmesdale’s secret. She has no knowledge of him being her father because of what he had to do to protect his name. Girls should have a father figure in their lives, Pearl never had that opportunity. Roger Chillingworth also exhibits secrecy. He’s keeping his identity a secret because he wants to find out who Hester’s acquaintance was and he also wants to protect his high reputation as well. It isn’t right for him to keep his identity a secret because it’s putting other people in harm’s way which is a circumstance when secrets need to be told. The torture he’s doing to Dimmesdale isn’t dignified and un-puritan like. In chapter 14, Chillingworth says â€Å"I have left thee to the scarlet letter, if that have not avenged me I can do more! † This quote says that Chillingworth is willing to do more to Dimmesdale and make him suffer more which is making Chillingworth’s secret deeper because the more he does that Hester knows about, the more guilt she feels about keeping his identity a secret from Dimmesdale. His secret should be told because it goes against moral values of the puritans. In some cases, secrets shouldn’t be told. Those who keep a secret keep themselves moral. Keeping a secret and respecting the secrets of others, as opposed to prying into them, is a virtue of self discipline and sensitivity. The heart can be seen as a safe for keeping secrets. Intelligence is the lock, and will power is the key. Keeping secrets is important for your dignity, pride, and personal gain. In response to The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is the only one who knows the secrets that Dimmesdale and Chillingworth are hiding from the townsfolk. Hester has to control her desire to tell the truth and practices the art of deception to hide these secrets. When she will not reveal the father of Pearl, Reverend Dimmesdale says, â€Å"She will not speak. † It is ironic that the person who committed the sin with Hester is the one who announces publicly that she will not reveal the name of the other sinner. Later, Chillingworth wants to know who it is and he says, â€Å"Thou wilt not reveal his name? † Hester refuses and continues to hold her silence. Then, Chillingworth, still trying to find out the name of her lover, comments, â€Å". . . but Hester, the man lives who has wronged us both! Who is he? † When he says this, he is hinting that he is going to do something to Dimmesdale. This is why Hester makes Chillingworth promise not to kill her lover if he finds out his identity. Chillingworth deserves to know who slept with his wife, although Hester should not have had to tell him. I think that Dimmesdale should have admitted that he was Pearl's father. Today, if a priest admitted such a crime, he would probably be sent to jail. However, in the novel, had Dimmesdale confessed, the townsfolk would have liked him even more. Hester also has to live with, and conceal, the secret that Chillingworth is her husband. When he comes to visit her in jail he says, â€Å"Thou hast kept the secret of thy paramour. Keep, likewise, mine! There are none in this land that know me. Breathe not, to any soul, that thou didst ever call me husband. † Hester shows great strength of character by her ability to keep the secret identities of her lover and her husband. There must have been times when the temptation to reveal her secrets was overwhelming, but she managed to do so. There are times when secrets must stay secrets and times when they should be told. The Scarlet Letter is an allegory for secrets. Chillingworth and Dimmesdale’s secrets should be told because they’re doing things for the wrong reasons and hurting either themselves or those around them. It was right for Hester to keep secrets throughout the book because she was looking out for herself, Pearl, and Dimmesdale and would do anything to make sure they weren’t in harm’s way of Chillingworth’s wrath. When it comes to secrets, to each their own. With different situations comes different ways to handle the condition and decide whether or not a secret should be held in or expressed for the world to hear. In most cases, secrets should be kept, but in The Scarlet Letter, there are some that need to be told.

Marketing ans supplementary services

Inna bid to form a boding relationship with consumers and customers, many organizations through their marketing activities have engaged in giving supplementary services such as additional services to argument or facilitate the core service or core product sold by the organization, after sales services, continuous enlightenment and communication to consumers on how to effectively utilize their products or service, among others. The supplementary services provided by an organization in its marketing strategy this is a way of retaining the patronage of old customers and winning the trust of new ones. As the strategy of retaining old customers is more cost effective than sourcing for new ones this supplementary services provision is a good way of increasing the bond between the organization and its customers. According to Stern (1997), â€Å"Bonding is an increasingly popular marketing strategy in which services marketers seek to establish personal long- term bonds with consumers so that current ones may be retained. Retention is now considered a more cost- effective strategy than continual prospecting for new customers, and this is made manifest by a firm’s commitment to the relationship as an enduring one†. Thus, enduring commitment to an organization’s relationship to its customers, it is adequately expressed via the level of supplementary services made available for them. Thus, the role of supplementary services and goods provision by an organization to its customers would be looked upon. SUPPLEMENTARY SERVICES IN GOODS AAND SERVICES PROVIDING ORGANIZATION An organization provides core services and goods to its customers. This core services or products are the main organization’s operation which they render or sell to customers. According to Iacobucci (2001:323), â€Å"An organization that provides services, either as its central provision or in a   value-added capacity in a bundle of attributes included in a customer’s purchase of some goods, may find it useful to distinguish those elements of the services purchase experience that are ‘core’ from the supplemental†. Therefore core services or core product of an organization is that function that forms the business identity. For example, a car manufacturing company will have its core product as the finished cars sold to customers. On the other hand supplementary goods or services are those additional services that an organization gives to customers as a way to augment the core goods or services that was purchased or rendered by the organization. â€Å"The supplementary services are the components of the service delivery system that are intended to facilitate and enhance the customer’s experience† (ibid). using the car manufacturing organization again to illustrate, its supplementary services may be that it have a car servicing center, repairs to brakes, sells spare parts for its brand of cars, run a driver training school etc. Looking at the core and supplementary service of an organization that is service base, for example, an airline organization will have as its core service the transportation of passengers from one city to another. Its supplementary services would include the provision of movies and meals for passengers on board, the operating of a frequent flyer accounts (E.g. Air China gives its frequent flyer a Mileage Awards and run a club for its frequent flyers), conveniently located hubs etc. Also, a business center for data processing and photocopy services as its core may have supplementary services as sending of fax messages, sending of overnight express packages etc. The illustrated examples go to buttress the fact that supplementary services is applicable to both an organization that deals in  Ã‚   goods and services. THE ROLE OF SUPPLEMENTARY SERVICES Supplementary services plays a vital role in making customers satisfy with the core goods or services they derive from an organization. The supplementary goods facilitate and make the customer have a quick satisfying experience from the utilization of the core services or goods from an organization. According to Iacobucci (2001:321), â€Å"In an attempt to create distinct advantage managers often seek to provide added value to customers and enhance their corporate competitive advantage by offering better customer service†. Hence, the provision of supplementary services to customer is a way by which a firm can gain competitive advantage over its rivals. The extra supplementary services goes a long way in putting the organization ahead over its rivals, that is as customers derives additional services they would be made satisfied and this is an advantage to the organization. Proctor (20000, argues that â€Å"marketing is about satisfying customers wants and needs and in the course of doing so facilitating the achievement of an organization’s objectives by paying attention to customers wants and needs organizations are likely to achieve their objectives in the marketplace†¦they have to compete with each other and also have to satisfy customers wants and needs at least as well their competitors.† Supplementary services brings the customers into forming a bond with the organization and hence, creating continuous patronage from the customers. Patronage motives, according to Beckman & Davidson (1967:300), â€Å"stressed in industrial   purchasing include accessibility to seller, rapidity of delivery, terms of sale and reliability of repair services, history of satisfactory business relationships, and other similar rational consideration†. Supplementary services helps in winning the continuous patronage of customers. For example, when a customer who buys television sets for his retail sales from an organization that offers supplementary repairs services, the retailer would be rest assures that if there is problem with any of the set, he stays to get expert to repair them from the organization. Thus, his patronage of the organization product would continue, and that bond would be established between him and the organization. Supplementary services also play the role of giving customers the ability to assess the level of satisfaction they get from the  Ã‚   core services or utility derived in consuming an organization’s product. For example, patience in a hospital may base his satisfaction on what he derives while being admitted as an in-patient. This could come in   supplementary services as the meal served, how conducive the environment is in terms of facility provided, and a clean environment, question like was the television in the ward too loud or in a good state? All these supplementary services which are not the core service from the hospital would go a long way in making the patient form his judgment on how satisfied he is with the core service from the organization. HOW TO RELATE SUPPLEMENTARY SERVICES WITH AN ORGANIZATION’S MARKETING STRATEGY The supplementary services rendered by an organization should be established with a focus to helping the organization effectively market its core services or core products. Thus, it is germane that these supplementary services are a streamlined in the direction of how effectively the organization could attain its corporate objectives. According to Proctor (2000), â€Å"a strategy is a plan that integrates an organization’s major goals, policies, decisions and sequences of action into a cohesive whole†. Thus, it is germane that the provision of supplementary services is targeted towards enhancing the organization’s core functions in order to make it effectively meet its goals and objectives. The need to make vital decision on what to bring up as supplementary service sis important in meeting the significant that goes along with the service creation. According to Lazar (1971), an organization can derive good intelligent decision through information gotten from assessing marketing alternatives and adjust to  Ã‚  Ã‚   dynamic market conditions. Thus the provision of supplementary services should be done with the cognizance of change in the environment where the organization operates. CONCLUSION The provision of supplementary services is an effective way of satisfying the desires of customers. And this is applicable to organization operating in services provision and goods production. Continuous patronage and the formation of bond between customers and the organization is enhanced and facilitated through supplementary service provision. Hence, the establishment should align its supplementary services or goods to be intone with its core functions, so as to effectively meet the organization’s objectives and long term goals. REFRENCES Beckman, Theodore N & Davidson, William R. (1967), Marketing New York: Ronald Press Co. Iacobucci, Dawn (2001), â€Å"Services Marketing and Customers Service’ in Iacobucci, Dawn (ed.) Kellogg on Marketing. New York: Wiley Lazar, William (1971), Marketing management: A Systems Perspective. New York: John Wiley & Sons Proctor, Tony (2000), Strategic marketing: An Introduction. London: Routledge Stern, Barbara B. (1997), â€Å"Advertising Intimacy: relationship Marketing and the Service Consumer† in Journal of Advertising. Vol. 26, No. 4   

The Watergate Scandal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

The Watergate Scandal - Essay Example Taken one at a time, each crime may not have been that egregious. However, the gravity of the scandal comes from the sheer number of crimes, the number of people involved, their sweeping impact, and the unbridled willingness to cover-up the crimes at any cost. . While the term Watergate referred specifically to the break-in at the Watergate Hotel, the scandal would ultimately involve a complex tapestry of political corruption, obstruction of justice, illegal domestic spying, abusing public agencies for political purposes, tax fraud, and corruption. The word has worked its way into the popular culture as a descriptive term for anything associated with political corruption such as Iran-gate, Whitewater-gate, and Paula Jones-gate. The case would drag on through numerous investigations, eventually resulting in the jailing or resignation of more than 40 public officials, many of them for the actions taken during the infamous cover-up. The Watergate scandal that broke into the public realm with the news that five men had been arrested while breaking into the Democratic National Headquarters on June 17, 1972 had actually begun much earlier. In September 1971, G.Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt had burglarized the office of a psychiatrist in an effort to obtain the medical files on Daniel Ellsberg, a defense analyst who had released documents to The New York Times that would prove embarrassing to the administration's war effort.1 An additional break-in in May of 1972 had placed an illegal listening device in the headquarters of the Democratic National Party. These operations had been financed by the operation of a secret slush fund consisting of tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions. In addition, the administration had used the CIA and FBI to spy on Nixon's political opponents, which illegally used public agencies for political purposes. By the time of the Watergate break-in in June 1972, the Nixon administration had already established a pattern of illegal activity. The report of the break-in at the Watergate Hotel initially dew very little public attention, but within a year would mushroom into a major political scandal. According to the Washington Star News, within two weeks of the 1972 burglary the Philippines sugar industry had funneled $30,000 into the Nixon campaign to help pay for the Watergate cover-up.2 The cover-up would eventually involve scores of White House insiders. Later investigations would reveal the existence of a cash fund kept in a White House vault to be used for hush money and to finance other illegal operations. During the trial of the burglars, Judge John Sirica learned that the men and the money connected to the crime were a part of the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), headed by John Mitchell.3 The defendants in the trial refused to cooperate, but subsequent hearings in the Senate would lead to the highest levels of the government. White House Counsel John Dean would be the lone White House official that wou ld come forward and cooperate with the government's investigations. Dean claimed that Nixon was aware of a secret $300,000 campaign donation by the dairy industry designed to influence the government,

What role did women play in the Solidarity Movement during Communism Research Paper

What role did women play in the Solidarity Movement during Communism in Poland - Research Paper Example The thesis of the research to be undertaken is the assessment of the role that women played in the Solidarity Movement during Communism in Poland, particularly how they helped in abolishing Communism in Poland. The proposed research can prove to be significant to the government in establishing the potential in women as leaders and to artists as it can enable them make proper and informed judgments when depicting women’s resistance of communism in their works. In addition, it can provide students with useful information on the significance of women in abolishing of communism in Poland while scholars would have established research to further explore or expand upon the dethroning of communism in Poland. In a personal interview on December 22, 2000 by Levy and his co-authors, Biedak asserts that on introduction of the martial law, the military that took over rounded up and arrested most of the Solidarity’s leaders at a time they had come together for a significant meeting. They paid little attention to women in arresting them since their work, as the support staff of the men who signed their names to articles and made the speeches, was largely invisible. Having escaped arrest, seven women two days later undertook the first steps in the lengthy protest march that dethroned communism in Poland in the 1980s. They started Solidarity over as an underground organization and took upon themselves the crucial obligation of preserving its authority and voice thus preventing its vanishing. In their first meeting, while six of them sat down to find the way forward, one of them by the name Ewa Kulik, who Penn personally interviewed, took on the responsibility of contacting and finding any of the elected Solidarity leaders who managed to escape arrest. She found Kulerski first, then Bujak, both of whom had been hiding in homes in Ursus (Penn, 2006). During the time when the male leadership was

Annotated Bibliography Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 7

Annotated Bibliography Example Barry’s article analyzes both arguments for and against the issue of gay marriage. The article aims is at providing a better understanding to the world before giving a summary of his opinion. Barry defines gay marriage as marriage between two people with the same gender identity. According to Barry (260), those in support of the gay marriage view the arrangement as marriage of equality. Proponents of gay marriage believe that this union should be of little concern to an individual as the case of heterosexual marriage. Therefore, gay couples should be allowed to celebrate their union in public just like normal couples. On the contrary, those opposed to gay marriage argue that, since time in memorial, marriage institution has always been defined as between two people of different sex. That is man and woman. In addition, marriage is about procreation and bringing up of the children within a family. According to Gale, Equal Marriage is dated back in 2001 when Joe and Kevin Bourassa married in Toronto Metropolitan Church. Thereafter, the two proceeded to court seeking the states recognition of their marriage right. This article provides an alternate point of view of gay marriage. According to Gale, the Ohio court instituted a right to same sex. Therefore, no state within U.S. should treat gay marriage as illegal. Despite the struggles in both political and legal field, we should know the world still discriminates the gay family. However, members of gay family have inner strength, resilience, and wisdom. These qualities help them develop unique ways in which they conduct their relationship. Nagle outlines his understanding on this hotly debated topic of gay marriages. As a rule of democracy, Nagle explains that every member of the society is entitled to his/her rights, expression, association, and opinions. He refers to the statement by the Prime- Minister who on his part hinted that gay marriage is not a matter of ‘if’ but

Dietary(Nutritional) recommendations for Asthma Essay

Dietary(Nutritional) recommendations for Asthma - Essay Example The presence of antioxidants in foods rich in these substances provides a relief of asthma symptoms (Gelfand 2012). But, more research needs to be conducted to understand the relationship between diet and asthma. Also, it is unclear if taking supplements provide definite protection against asthma development. This is because many studies which used vitamins and supplements to reverse effects of asthma have remained unsuccessful. Therefore, it is considered unlikely that food supplements will improve control on asthma (Gelfand 2012). It is important to reduce intake of alcohol and coffee because GERD or acid reflux is a big problem in 70% of asthma patients (CDC 2011). Bronchodilators are used to treat asthma and to avoid nasty drug-food interactions, it is recommended to take them with food to avoid stomach upset (Bellows & Moore 2013). In pregnant patients, treatment with inhaled corticosteroids like prednisolone is important to reduce risk of asthma exacerbations during pregnancy ( National Asthma Council Australia 2013). National Asthma Council Australia 2013, ‘Asthma and Healthy Living. An information paper for health professionals’, viewed 12 May 2014,

Issues in human resource management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Issues in human resource management - Assignment Example The industry faced major difficulties in generating revenue from the organisation. Reduced tourists and increased costs have affected the revenue growth for the industry. This situation was experienced by Hilton Worldwide, one of the biggest hotel chains based in the United States (Scribd Inc., 2012). Hilton Worldwide employs more than 100,000 team members in 665 properties across different nations (Hilton Worldwide, 2012). Thus, the costs incurred in managing human capital is huge and has become a concerning factor for the hotel chain. Three key issues that have been identified, do not imply only for the Hilton Worldwide, but is applicable throughout the industry. The issues that have emerged due to the recent recession include the transition and resistance of the employees, training and development costs, and engagement and commitment towards an organisation. Recession has discouraged companies to spend unnecessary costs for the top level managers, such as, official tours, business trips and corporate meetings that have indirectly affected the hospitality and tourism industry worldwide. The study surveys these issues through theoretical studies and practical implementations and finds different ways to tackle them. Furthermore, managing and retaining human capital cost effectively in the recession affected period will be discussed. HR Issue 1: Transition and Resistance Change is a common aspect for all organisations irrespective of countries of operation. The change can be in the processes, style of operating and implementing modern techniques among others that the leaders feel is essential for an organisation. As identified by Helps (2001), being in transition is often uncomfortable, uncertain and inconsistent. She further states that organisations face obstructions at different points or remain stagnant for considerable periods at a stage. Moreover, she stated that psychological factors do emerge in the minds of the employees while undergoing personal change for the organisation. Thus, it can be proposed that leaders should keep the psychological factors, such as depression, anger, disbelief and few more barriers that concern the employees going through the transitional phase. According to Elrod & Tippett (2002), change is constant that arises due to the variety in life and business events. They discuss the relationship between change and development models and recognise the link between leader and organisational development. Furthermore, they use Lewin’s model of change, unfreezing-moving-refreezing the three stages of change process. Lewin in his theory stated that in the unfreezing stage the organisations need to create an appropriate condition for the change to occur. At this stage, the resistance to change may be identical and initially can cause discomfort to even the beneficial employees. The objective of this stage is to make employees move from the ‘frozen’ state to ‘change ready’ or unfrozen s tate. The second stage i.e. moving or transition stage is described as the journey of the transitional process that involves psychological barriers and confusions. Employees are concerned as the old processes are being replaced and simultaneously curious for knowing the new process. Good leadership and psychological support is essential in this stage. The third stage is referred to refreezing stage where the goal is to reinstate a new place of constancy and ensure that

Disney Company Overview Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Disney Company Overview - Research Paper Example The research paper "Disney Company Overview" talks about a great success of Walt Disney and how they accomplished to stay a leader in their field for such a long time. While it is a fact that it has come to face many rivals in the past few years, Disney remains the leading conglomerate of its kind in the world with the highest revenues when compared to its rivals. Disney, because of the need to retain its top position in the industry, has worked towards ensuring that it gives free rein to its employees so that they can be able to develop better ideas without interference from management. For this to happen, however, this company has created an environment where its employees feel at home to ensure that there is a constant increase in their creative output, without which the company would not survive long in the market. The comfortable working environment which has been developed for its employees has made it possible for this company to attract the best talent in the industry to work within its ranks. Disney has followed the path of other companies in the industry by allowing itself to be influenced by the impersonal nature of the working environment. It has been realized that the development of such environment more often than not leads to the stifling of the initiative among employees. Disney has chosen to retain an environment where its employees are provided with the best opportunity to work as well as to be innovative. It has developed a cross-cultural environment within which its employees can work.

Pubic speaking paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Pubic speaking paper - Essay Example Our forefathers had a dream of building a great nation. Our country has made this large strides which can be traced back to the foundation of the dreams our forefathers had for this nation. They were ready to give their life for something they thought was greater than their individual interests. They wanted nothing but the best for our great nation. The United States of America remains one of the great and globally influental country and we hope to remain so for generations to come. We have been and we will always be so long we remain patriotic to our ideals and value the strength of our diversity. As a leader of this great country, I believe we will be able to achieve our millenium goals by being an exemplary global leader in investing in educating the young generation that will lead to globally competent leaders of the societies to come and offer lasting a lasting solution to global war crisis. There is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining to ones character than giving one’s all to a difficult task. United States of America is a far more diverse country than any other country in the world. We remain the most powerful nation because we have chosen the strength and the bonding we gain from our socio-cultural differences to be our driving impetus into the building of our great nation. The advancements we have achieved in providing globally competetive learning institutions and technological advancements are the prime indicators of our nation as the global harbour of knowledge for generations to come. Thats why we strive to make America a destination for the validity of any child’s dreams from any country in the world. This will go along way in academically financing children from needy backgrounds in the world by provision of fully of partially funded academic and merit based scholarship to study in our institutions of higher learning so that they ca n give back and change the leadership in

Article review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 9

Review - Article Example Both the international comparative and German Cranfield surveys give a clear overview of the current human resource practices in German (Festing, 2012). German faces challenges such as recruitment due to a demographic change, which in addition to low unemployment rates led to inadequately qualified personnel. Hence, most major companies use active employer branding while smaller ones use selected employer branding practices with an aim of attracting candidates. German uses a formal selection of the workforce such as psychological or legal writing less often as compared to other countries. After a semistructured interview of applicants, the required number for the position are picked based on their curricula vitae (Festing, 2012). The elected body representing the interest of employees may be the cause of the lack of formal selection methods. The work council neglects the use of the devices. Although the German companies tend to show a consistency in the use of carefully local selection procedures based on work experience, educational training, and internship report. It clearly brings out the employment system in Germany (Festing, 2012). Most of the companies in German use extensive staff development and long-term career planning which include technical capability and functional proficiency as central values. It influences the retention of most employees resulting in a steady job security making dismissal very carefully. Because of the job security, the company wins most employees who work for many years. Regarding compensations, the amounts vary according to the individual monthly earnings. The wages and salaries of most of the German workers, however, results from tariff agreements from collective bargaining. In the international comparison of HR practices as per the Granfield network in 2011, most of financial participation and performance-related pay are frequently used in United States than in Germany. German mainly majors in the use

Macroeconomics Song Essay Example for Free

Macroeconomics Song Essay The poem’s major theme revolves around the unravelling of the US financial sector – and particularly its impact on investment banks in the wake of the recent global economic recession that affected the US and most of the world economies. Some of the macroeconomic concepts addressed – tacitly and explicitly – include: executive compensation, and the business cycle (Paxton, 1). The crisis is said to have primarily been triggered by the sub prime mortgage crisis. Traditionally, investment banks and other lending institutions have financed their customers’ borrowings from the deposits they collect from the members of the public. With the demand for credit finance to purchase essential items such as homes rising exponentially, the deposits became inadequate to finance the borrowing requirements and many of these financial institutions resorted to innovative financial products such as the securitization model or mortgage backed securities. Here, the financial institutions sell bonds. Those buying the bonds are guaranteed of getting their money back after a certain duration plus an attractive interest, and the money raised from floating these bond is advanced to the borrowers (in this case, prospective homeowners). The bondholders will be paid back their money whether the borrowers pay the bank back or default. Thus, it can be seen that the investment banks here shoulder substantial risks (Zeese, 1; Rasmus, 3; BBC, 1). The main problem was that these loans were made out to a segment of the market that is considered risky due to its low income and poor credit history. This segment has been referred to as the sub-prime mortgage segment. As long as the prices of homes continued to rise, this model of financing home purchases made sense because the borrowers could refinance their home purchases. However, and against all expectations, the real estate bubble that had been so prolonged in the country burst, and home prices began trending south at a dramatic rate. The import of all these is that the sub prime mortgage borrowers were unable to pay back what they had borrowed. They defaulted, leading to massive foreclosures (Zeese, 1; Rasmus, 3; BBC, 1). The loans that had been made out by the financial institutions were in the tune of billions of dollars. When these borrowers defaulted, the banks were left holding toxic assets, which they wrote down leading to massive losses. A number of them were pushed to the brink of bankruptcy. These include: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Goldman Sachs, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Bears Stearns and Lehman Brothers (Zeese, 1; Rasmus, 3; BBC, 1). It is this backdrop that provides the context for the poem. The poet parodies the false sense of security that these institutions had projected – for long, investment bankers such as Lehman Brothers had been viewed as beacons of stability in the American economy, doling out priceless advice to Americans on maters economic. But as the poet shows, the sub prime mortgage crisis unmasked them for who they are, left them at a loss of what to do, and they have turned out to be â€Å"the blind leading the blind†(Paxton, 1). One wonders how, with all their wisdom, the investment bankers could have hedged their risks upon such a risky market as the sub-prime mortgage segment. One of the immediate responses to the financial crisis was the rollout of a bailout package by the US government (whose worth was â€Å"seven hundred million grand,† in the words of the poet) (Paxton, 1). The failing institutions were major beneficiaries of this bailout package. According to Nanking (1), Bears Stearns was bought by JP Chase for $236 million, with the Federal Reserve Bank providing a staggering $30 billion to facilitate its purchase. Courtesy of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, the government is said to have put in some $400 billion in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The AIG on its part received at least four cash bailouts, all of them amounting to $180 billion in total (Nanking, 1). The poet strongly questions the ethics behind these bailout packages, given that the crisis that affected the investment banks was largely self-inflicted. For example, apart from poor judgment resulting in the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the problems which the banks faced were also catalyzed by poor management practices such as excessive executive pay. The problems facing the banks also broke out at a time the issue of executive pay was coming under the spotlight. For example, Linn (2) writes that in 1970, top executives were earning 44 times what subordinate workers got and that by 2007 this had jumped to 344 times what the subordinate employees got. More telling is the fact that the CEO’s of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, two of the failed investment bankers, received a total of over $117 million in spite of leading their organizations down the drain (Bass and Beamish, 1). Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sach’s top honcho, got $54 million, when the bank made a loss, with the 116 investment banks that had been short listed for aid under the bailout package having paid a cool $1.6 billion as bonuses to their CEO’s. AIG was mulling paying its CEO $165 million, when it had made a loss of over $60 billion (Bass and Beamish, 1). Given that these banks had been advanced cash under the bailout plan (which itself is from taxpayer funds), it is logical to assert that it is the average American (who earns 344 times less what the CEO gets) who is being made to pay for the mistakes of the CEO’s. It is this obscenity that the poem seems to rant about. Listen to the poet: â€Å"And it said that failure was the only crime. If you really screwed things up, then you were through; Now––surprise!––there is a different point of view. All that crazy rooty-tootin’ And that golden parachutin’ Means that someone’s making millions––just not you!† Works Cited: BBC. (2007). The downturn in facts and figures. 21 Nov 2007. 28 May 2010.   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7302341.stm Bass, Frank and Beamish, Rita. (2008). AP Study Finds $1.6B Went To Bailed-Out Bank Execs. 22 Dec 2008. 29 May 2010.   http://corridornews.blogspot.com/2008/12/investment-bank-executives-pork-out-on.html Linn, Allison. (2009). â€Å"AIG flap gives ammunition to critics of high pay.† MSNBC. Mar 20th 2009. 29 May 2010. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29791834/ Nankin, Jesse. (2009). History of U.S. govt bailouts. 1 Nov 2009. 29 May 2010. http://www.propublica.org/special/bailout-aftermaths#penncentral Paxton, Tom. I am changing my name to Fannie Mae. Rasmus, Jack. (2008). Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac: phase two of the financial crisis. Sep 2008. 28 May 2009. http://www.zcommunications.org/zmag/viewArticle/18717 Zeese, Kevin. (2008). The causes of the auto crisis. 25 Nov 2008. 28 May 2009. http://www.countercurrents.org/zeese251108.htm

Pixel and Edge Based Lluminant Color Estimation

Pixel and Edge Based Lluminant Color Estimation Pixel and Edge Based Lluminant Color Estimation for Image Forgery Detection Shahana N youseph  and Dr.Rajesh Cherian Roy ABSTRACT Digital images are one of the powerful tools for communication. So Image security is a key issue when use digital images. With the development of powerful photo-editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop Light room 4, Apple Aperture 3, Corel PaintShop Pro X5, GIMP 2.8, photo manipulation is becoming more common. In this paper mainly detecting forged peoples in images. The main idea for the detection is, different images are captured under different illuminant condition, when combining these image fragments from different images, it is difficult to match the illumination conditions. This inconsistency of illumination leads to forgery detection. The main contribution of this method of forgery detection is how illuminant color can be used as a clue for forgery detection. The proposed method will be able to detect forgery using Linear SVM classification, with 70%-75% of accuracy. Keywords Pixel based illuminant color estimation; Edge based illuminant color estimation, I. INTRODUCTION Every day, millions of digital documents are produced by a variety of devices. They are distributed by newspapers, magazines, websites and television etc. In all these information channels, images are a powerful way for communication. It is not difficult to use computer graphics and image processing techniques to manipulate or to forge images. Video footage, scanned images, as well as digital and analogue images can be the target for manipulations. From a forensics perspective, several changes in a photograph are widely acceptable for improve the quality of images, e. g. to enhance the contrast, denoise an image, or highlight important regions etc.Forensics Science is a department for criminal investigation in distinct areas such as digital forensics, analogue forensics, multimedia forensics, network forensics etc.Image Forgery is the process of creating doctored/fake images, with the development of advanced image processing software’s such as Adobe Photoshop Light room 4, App le Aperture 3, Corel PaintShop Pro X5, GIMP 2.8 etc forgeries in images is easy process. Image Forgery detection is Active and Passive. Digital watermarking is an example of active. The passive image forgery detection is a blind approach, which means it does not have any prior knowledge of input image. There are various methods used for the checking of authenticity of images. In this paper the method used is based on illumination. When light fall on an object color of the object is reflected, depends on illuminant color/light color. Objects having different color in different illumination condition. So when we forge an image or making composite of various images it is very difficult to maintain the consistency of illumination. Illumination is one of the criteria for forgery detection. Some other criteria’s are used for passive image forgery detection such as, JPEG compression properties, Projective geometry, Chromatic aberration, Color filter array (CFA) and inter pixel corre lation etc. Literature Survey Table1. Illuminant Color Based methods Proposed Method First step is cropping face of the input image. This proposed method is mainly detecting forged peoples in an image. The estimation of the illuminant color is error-prone and it is affected by the materials in the scene, the illuminant color estimates on objects of similar material exhibit a lower relative error.Thus,the illuminant color detection to skin, mainly to faces. Pigmentation is the most obvious difference in skin characteristics. Second step is illuminant colour estimation, explained in next section. Fourth step is generation of illuminant map. Image is segmented with graph cut segmentation. Illuminant color is estimated using static methods on each segmented output with same index number. Based on the estimated illuminant color, apply it for the segments with same index number. The resulting output will be RGB components. This coloured representation of image with R G B components is termed as Illuminant Map. Fifth step is shape and colour feature extraction. For shape fe ature HOG Edge feature is used. An edge of illuminant map is extracted using various edge detection methods. Histogram of Oriented Gradients of edge points. For colour feature extraction. Colour Moments feature is used. Moments with first and second moments are extracted. Last step is SVM classification. Classify the illumination for each pair of faces in an image as either consistent or inconsistent. Assuming all selected faces are illuminated by the same light source, Train the SVM with two class with one class is for forged image and other for original image.When testing operation performed based on the test feature value image is classify either forged or original. ILLUMINANT COLOR ESTIMATION Pixel Based Illuminant Color Estimation Pixel values of the entire are taken for illuminant color estimation. In this methods focussed on low level features. Such as Grey World, Max-RGB, Shades of grey. Simple and less complex calculation is used for the estimation, with the help of some static variables. So it is also known as static illuminant color estimation. Grey World Hypothesis: In Grey World, Illuminant color is estimated from Average Pixel values of images. Under a neutral light source or white light source, Average reflectance of the entire image is achromatic (Having no colors), if any deviation from this condition is due to color of illumination. This average reflected color will be the color of the light source. Max-RGB Hypothesis: In Max-RGB, illuminant color estimated from maximum response of Red Green Blue (RGB) channel. Maximum response is obtained from perfect reflectance. A surface having perfect reflectance property will respond (reflect) for the full range of light colors it captures, when light incident on it. Then this reflected color is actually the color of light source. Shades of Grey: Grey world and the max-RGB illuminant color estimation in terms of Minkowski norm, is called shades of gray. , If p=1 Grey World Estimation If p=∞ Max-RGB Estimation If p=6 Shades of Grey Estimation Edge Based Illuminant Color Estimation Edge based illuminant color estimation is use low or higher order derivatives. In this methods edges and colors towards illuminant direction. In order to accurately estimate color of light source is use the pixel and edge points that coincide the illuminant direction. Highlights produce such types of points. In edge based estimation contains Grey edge and Weighted Grey edge estimation are used. In Weighted grey edge methods, using some weighting fuction to the edges. For that classifying the edges based on the photometric properties, material edges (e.g. edges between objects and object-background edges), shadow/shading edges (e.g. edges caused by the shape or position of an object with respect to the light source) and specular edges (i.e. highlights).These edges perform better influence on illuminant estimation. In Weighted Grey edge methods computing weighted average of edge points. The iterative weighting scheme is proposed, and by assigning this weighting scheme in to the grey ed ge method, the color of the light source is estimated. Edge based illuminant color estimation mainly contain, †¢ First Order Grey Edge †¢ Second Order Grey Edge †¢ Weighted Grey Edge First Order Grey Edge: The pth Minkowski norm of the first derivative of the reflectance in a scene is estimated. Computed by, Second Order Grey Edge: The pth Minkowski norm of the second derivative of the reflectance in a scene is estimated. Weighted Grey-Edge: Weighted Grey-Edge algorithm is computed by assigning a weighting function to the illuminant estimate. This weighting function is estimated by classifying edges based on the photometric properties and an iterative edge weighting scheme is generated. †¢ Derivative order x: the assumption that the average of the illuminants is achromatic can be extended to the absolute value of the sum of the derivatives of the image. †¢ Minkowski norm p: instead of simply adding intensities or derivatives, respectively, greater robustness can be achieved by computing the p-th Minkowski norm of these values. †¢ Gaussian smoothing ÏÆ': to reduce image noise, one can smooth the image prior to processing with a Gaussian kernel of standard deviation. Specular Edge Weighting scheme: Specular weighting scheme is the ratio of the energy in the specular variant versus the total amount of derivative energy. This ratio translates to the specular edge weighting scheme given by: , where , Results To check the accuracy of forgery detection using SVM classifier with SVM is trained with 50 forged and 50 original images and SVM is tested using total of 50 images where 25 are original and 25 are composite images downloaded from different websites in the Internet.SVM is trained several times for several testing process. First set of forgery detection testing is done with various illuminant estimation methods such as Grey World, MAX-RGB, Shades Of Grey and Grey Edge First and Second Order and weighted grey edge with shape feature and color feature extraction separately. In shape feature called HOG Edge use various edge detection methods such as Canny, Roberts, Prewitt, and Sobel for the comparative study. And finally the combination of color moment and HOG Edge is tested for forgery detection. Confusion matrix is generated accuracy is calculated. Accuracy=TP+TN/(TP+TN+FP+FN) Where, True Positive (TP) input-Forged, Output-Forged True Negative (TN)- input-not forged ,output-not forged False Positive (FP) -input-forged, output-not forged False Negative (FN)-input-not forged, output-forged . Table 2. Estimated Accuracy Of fogery detection with Various Illuminant Color Estimation Methods From the above result, when using all static illuminant color estimation method for forgery detection Weighted grey edge peform well when compare with other methods. Feature extraction used is HOG Edge and Color moments features for shape and color feature extraction. If use one feature extraction method only get 50%-64% of accuracy. If use combined HOG Edge and Color Moments features accuracy is improved to 66%-74%. Conclusions Presented a new method for detecting forged images of people using the illuminant color Estimation. Estimate the illuminant color using Pixel and Edge based Illuminant estimation method, and generation of illuminant map. Canny edge detector are used to obtain edges of illuminant map for the extraction of shape features using HOG Edge descriptor, which is used to get Histogram of oriented Gradients of edge points. For color feature extraction use color moments features. These two features are tested separately with different illuminant estimation method for the comparative study. Combination of these two features is also used for forgery detection for the comparative study.From the result it is clear that combined HOG Edge and color features get more accuracy than method used shape and color features separately.Accuracy is Estimated using SVM Classifier.The Combined feature extraction with Weighted grey edge testing process get 74% of accuracy. The proposed method requires only a mini mum amount of human interaction and provides a crisp statement on the authenticity of the image. Additionally, it is a significant advancement in the exploitation of illuminant color as a forensic cue. Prior color-based work either assumes complex user interaction or imposes very limiting assumptions. FUTURE WORK The accuracy of the classification can be improved by using adding more content based features. Use of training based illuminant color estimation also improves accuracy. References [1] Hany Farid ,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬-Image Forgery Detection [A survey]à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬-, IEEE signal processing magazine March- 2009 [2] C. Riess and E. Angelopoulou, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Scene illumination as an indicator of image manipulation,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- Inf. Hiding, vol. 6387, pp. 66–80, 2010. [3] Gajanan K. Birajdar ,Vijay H. Mankar ,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬-Digital image forgery detection using passiv techniques: A surveyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬-Elsevier 2013 . [4] J. van de Weijer, T. Gevers, and A. Gijsenij, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Edge-based color constancy,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- IEEE Trans. Image Process., vol. 16, no. 9, pp. 2207–2214, Sep. 2007. [5] M. Johnson and H. Farid, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Exposing digital forgeries by detecting inconsistencies in lighting,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- in Proc. ACM Workshop on Multimedia and Security, New York, NY, USA, 2005, pp. 1–10. [6] Yingda Lv Xuanjing Shen Haipeng Chen, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢An improved image blind identification based on inconsistency in light source directionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- in Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 [7] M. Johnson and H. Farid, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Exposing digital forgeries in complex lighting environments,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- IEEE Trans. Inf. Forensics Security, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 450–461, Jun. 2007 [8] M. Johnson and H. Farid, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Exposing digital forgeries through specular highlights on the eye,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- in Proc. Int. Workshop on Inform. Hiding, 2007, pp. 311–325. [9] E. Kee and H. Farid, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Exposing digital forgeries from 3-D lighting environments,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- in Proc. IEEE Int. Workshop on Inform. Forensics and Security (WIFS), Dec. 2010, pp. 1–6. [10] W. Fan, K. Wang, F. Cayre, and Z. Xiong, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢3D lighting-based image forgery detection using shape-from-shading,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- in Proc. Eur. Signal Processing Conf. (EUSIPCO), Aug. 2012, pp. 1777– 1781. [11] E. Kee and H. Farid, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Exposing digital forgeries from 3-D lighting environments,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- in Proc. IEEE Int. Workshop on Inform. Forensics and Security (WIFS), Dec. 2010, pp. 1–6. [12] S. Gholap and P. K. Bora, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Illuminant colour based image forensics,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- in Proc. IEEE Region 10 Conf., 2008, pp. 1–5. [13] X.Wu and Z. Fang, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Image splicing detection using illuminant color inconsistency,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Multimedia Inform. Networking and Security, Nov. 2011, pp. 600– [14] P. Saboia, T. Carvalho, and A. Rocha, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Eye specular highlights telltales for digital forensics: A machine learning approach,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Image Processing (ICIP), 2011, pp. 1937– 1940. [15] C. Riess and E. Angelopoulou, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Physics-based illuminant color estimation as an image semantics clue,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Image Processing, Nov. 2009, pp. 689–692. [12] S. Gholap and P. K. Bora, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Illuminant colour based image forensics,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- in Proc. IEEE Region 10 Conf., 2008, pp. 1–5. [16] K. Barnard, V. Cardei, and B. Funt, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢A comparison of computational color constancy algorithms–Part I: Methodology and Experiments With Synthesized Data,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- IEEE Trans. Image Process., vol. 11, no. 9, pp. 972–983, Sep. 2002. [17] K. Barnard, L. Martin, A. Coath, and B. Funt, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢A comparison of computational color constancy algorithms – Part II: Experiments With Image Data,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- IEEE Trans. Image Process., vol. 11, no. 9, pp. 985–996, Sep. 2002. [18] A. Gijsenij, T. Gevers, and J. van deWeijer, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Computational color constancy: Survey and experiments,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- IEEE Trans. Image Process., vol. 20, no. 9, pp. 2475–2489, Sep [19] P. F. Felzenszwalb and D. P. Huttenlocher, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Efficient graph-based image segmentation,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- Int. J. Comput. Vis., vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 167–181, 2004

Pathophysiology of Acute Renal Failure

Pathophysiology of Acute Renal Failure Intro The following pages will concern the scenario of Georgina Lawson. I will examine the pathophysiology of Acute Renal Failure and then highlight the pharmacological management specific to Mrs Lawsons treatment. I will then concentrate specifically on Mrs Lawsons condition by identifying three signs and symptoms that she displayed upon admission, and discuss how the diagnosis of Acute Renal Failure has been reached. Next there will be a discussion on the tests undertaken at the time of Mrs Lawsons admission, their relevance, results and also the expected findings when the assumption of Acute Renal Failure has already been made. Additional tests that could also been ordered but werent will also be highlighted with their potential benefits shown. In the last part of this paper, I will write about the impact of having a BMI of 50 on the disease of process of T2DM and Acute Renal Failure as well as the pharmacological implications of having such a weight. Part 1 Acute renal failure is a representation of the rapid decline in renal function whereby blood nitrogenous wastes (urea nitrogen, uric acid, and creatinine) accumulate due to a decreased glomerular filtration rate, impairing fluid and electrolyte balances.reference? Filtration of plasma through the glomerular capillaries into the Bowmans space is the initial stage of urine production.reference Large molecules can not easily cross through the glomerular wall during normal production therefore urine is protein free. The capillary filtration pressure is higher in the glomerular than in other capillaries in the body; this increased area of pressure is what allows for the afferent and efferent contraction and relaxation of arterioles to produce high volumes of filtrate. If the glomerular filtration rate is altered the initial stage of urine production does not occur, therefore diminishing the kidneys ability to remove nitrogenous waste from the body (Porth, 2005, p.?). Acute Renal Failure is categorised in 3 areas, prerenal, intrinsic and postrenal. As prerenal characterises the symptoms displayed by Georgina Lawson only that area will be discussed. Possibly intrinsic if going down the line of Glomerulonephritis. 3 Symptoms: BP on admission 160/80 Hypertension is a constant increase of resting systolic blood pressure greater than  140 mm Hg, diastolic blood pressure greater than  90 mm Hg or both.reference Primary hypertension with no known cause is most common where as secondary hypertension with an identified cause is usually due to a renal disorder. referenceUsually, no symptoms develop unless hypertension is severe or long-standing (Bakris G, 2010). Blood flow depends on the rate of heart beats and the volume of blood pumped out with each beat. If rate or volume increases, blood pressure rises, and prolonged hypertension may damage many organsreference. Initially the heart works harder to pump out more blood against higher resistance.reference The heart then requires more oxygen, and is more susceptible to damage, also predisposing arteries and arterioles to damage. Arteriosclerosis results when blood moves through arteries and arterioles at high pressure, damaging the vessel causing white blood cells to be drawn to th e damaged area to form a plaque.reference Prolonged hypertension causes the kidneys to be damaged as the delicate capillaries of the kidney are continually exposed to high blood pressure, they break down, becoming permeable to proteins and other molecules. Tubules can become clogged, decreasing the kidneys ability to make urine. The presence of protein injures capillaries cell wall membranes causing further damage and worsening the situation (Porth, 2005,p.?). Dark, cloudy, odorous urine Protein is present due to damage to capillary cell walls in the kidneys, which allow proteins to pass through pores in the basement membrane during glomerular filtration. Reference Normally red blood cells and plasma proteins do not pass through the glomerulus; therefore urine is a blood and protein-free filtrate. In a healthy person the glomerular filtration barrier will excrete less than 150mg of protein in the urine over a 24hr period (Porth, 2005, p.?). Georgina described to the GP low urine output with burning on passing urine, followed by a fluid increase. On admission urine output is still minimal, concentrated with a strong odour.Why do you think this is happening? Cloudy or murky urine is a sign of infection, which may also have an offensive smell. Reference Murky urine may also be caused by the presence of bacteria, mucus, white blood cells or red blood cells, epithelial cells, fat, or phosphates.reference Osmolality or specific gravity of urine changes with the concentration of solutes, depicting a sliding scale of the hydration status and functionality of the kidneys.reference The ability to concentrate urine is lessened when renal function in impaired, with specific gravity values falling to 1.006- 1.010, while normal values during times of hydration are 1.030- 1.040. What was Georginas result and what does this demonstrate? Pitting Oedema bilaterally Edema is the expansion of the interstitial fluid volume by 2.5-3L which is evident by palpable swelling where?. Edema manifestations associated with Georginas sudden onset of symptoms include; Increased capillary filtration pressure: An increase of extracellular volume is caused by the decrease of sodium and water excretion by the kidneys, increases of capillary volume, pressure and consequent movement of fluid into the tissue space.reference Deceased capillary colloidal osmotic pressure: caused by inadequate production or abnormal loss of plasma proteins, largely albumin, most commonly in the kidney. This is due to the glomerular capillaries becoming permeable to plasma proteins, predominantly albumin, allowing them to be filtered out of the blood and lost through urine.reference Increased capillary permeability; enlargement of capillary pores or integrity of capillary walls are damaged, causing permeability is increased. This allows plasma proteins and other osmotically active particles to move into the interstitial space and increase colloid osmotic pressure, in so doing enabling the accumulation of interstitial fluid. (Porth, 2005, p?) Part 2 Discuss the tests that were ordered for Georgina and explain why they were chosen in regards to your chosen element discussed in part 1. Bloods: Na+: 135 Sodium: 135- 145 K+: 5.5 Potassium: 3.2- 4.3 Cl: 108 Chloride 99 109 Urea: 12.0 3.0- 8.0 Creatinine: 1.5 mg/dl 45- 90 Cholesterol: 6 6, this occurs in the duodenum and small intestine. Highly bound to plasma protein, especially albumin Mainly in the gastrointestinal mucosa and the liver Largely excreted by the kidneys. 2- 4.5hrs 1- 2hrs Medication critique With the fluid overload and lack of urination Goergina is experiencing, aspirin would not have an effect on her current hypertensive. Although some studies have discussed that the vasodilatory effects of aspirin would out weight the negative anti platelet effects on patients with kidney diseases, standard treatments remain that those suffering renal failure and cardiovascular disease should not be routinely prescribed aspirin. Glibenclamide What is the above medication? How does it work? How does it achieve its therapeutic effect? Oral hypoglycaemic Appears to lower the blood glucose acutely in individuals with type 2 diabetes by stimulating the release of insulin from the pancreas, an effect dependent upon functioning beta cells. Therapeutic use? Or indication for use? What about for your patient? It acts with glucose to improved sensitivity of beta cells to physiological glucose stimulus and leads to an insulin secretion in the rhythm of meals. Increased bgls will be lowered by this and help stimulate Georginas pancreas to improve beta cell production What is the therapeutic range for this medication? Side effects? Hypoglycaemia may occur. Gastrointestinal effects such as nausea, vomiting, epigastric fullness and diarrhoea are the most common side effects.    Drug interactions. Drugs which may enhance the hypoglycaemic action should be used with caution. Pharmacokinetics A: D: M: E: HL: P: Nearly completely absorbed (84 +/- 9%) after oral administration. Is extensively bound (99%) to serum proteins. Completely metabolised in the liver. Excreted as metabolites in the bile and urine, approximately 50% by each route. 2-5 hours after oral administration. Peak serum concentration is reached in two to six hours Medication critique In patients with renal insufficiency, depending on the degree of the renal excretion disorder, there is increased elimination of the metabolites via the bile. If Georginas kidney dysfunction is significant she should be continued on this medication. References Metformin What is the above medication? How does it work? How does it achieve its therapeutic effect? Metformin  causes increased peripheral uptake of glucose by increasing effectiveness of available exogenous or endogenous insulin.reference The mode of action of  metformin  may be linked to increased insulin sensitivity. It does not stimulate insulin release but does cause antihyperglycaemic effects when insulin is present. Possible mechanisms of action include inhibition of gluconeogenesis in the liver, delayed glucose absorption in the gastrointestinal tract and increased peripheral uptake of glucose.reference Therapeutic use? Or indication for use? What about for your patient? Metformin  has antiketogenic activity comparable to some extent, to insulin itself.  Metformin  lowers both basal and postprandial blood glucose in diabetic patients but does not cause hypoglycaemia in either diabetic or normal individuals. reference What is the therapeutic range for this medication? 500 mg three times a day is often sufficient to obtain diabetic control, the dose can be increased to 1 g three times daily, which is the maximum recommended daily dose.reference Side effects? Mild gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and loss of appetite are very common, especially during the initial treatment period. These symptoms are generally resolve during continued treatment.reference Drug interactions. Calcium channel blockers may affect glucose control in diabetic patients therefore regular monitoring of glycaemic control is recommended.reference Pharmacokinetics A: D: M: E: HL: P: Oral administration  is absorbed along the entire gastrointestinal mucosa. not bound to plasma proteins. Excreted unchanged in the urine and does not undergo hepatic metabolism. 6hrreference Medication critique In patients with decreased renal function based on measured creatinine clearance, the plasma half-life of  metformin  is prolonged and renal clearance is decreased in proportion to the decrease in creatinine clearance. (Renal failure or renal dysfunction (creatinine clearance

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Essay -- Mental Health Disorders

Approximately five million people in the U.S., or about one in every 50 Americans, suffer from OCD. That’s about 2%, a substantial number of sufferers. It affects men, women, and children, as well as people of all races, religions, and socioeconomic backgrounds.OCD is an anxiety disorder characterized by symptoms that can include powerful, unwanted, or recurrent thoughts and/or compulsive, repetitive behaviors. Some of the most common obsessions are:Fear of contamination Fear of causing harm to another Fear of making a mistake Fear of behaving in a socially unacceptable manner Need for symmetry or exactness Excessive doubt Some of the most common compulsions may include:Cleaning/Washing Checking Arranging/Organizing Collecting/Hoarding Counting/Repeating Obsessions are unwanted, recurrent and unpleasant thoughts that cause anxiety. Compulsions are repetitive, ritualistic behaviors that the person feels driven to perform to decrease anxiety. At least 80 percent of patients with OCD have both obsessions and compulsions. OCD appears to be caused by increased activity in the orbital frontal cortex and caudate nucleus of the brain. OCD may also involve abnormal functioning of the neurotransmitter seratonin in the brain. Stress does not cause OCD; however, a stressful event can trigger the disorder. There are no hard facts to tell how OCD is obtained. OCD is thought to be a genetic disorder. This idea has plenty of evidence and is believed by most doctors. The chemical imbalance in the Brain is an imbalance of Seratonin and Dompamine. 80 percent of the people with OCD have another disorder called Tourettes Syndrome (TS). This syndrome is caused by the imbalance of Dompamine in the Brain. This causes the person to have muscular and/or verbal spasm which are called tics. Some people who are familiar with TS may think of people shaking wildly of cursing a lot, but that is only in a severe case. These are a couple of examples, or case studies, that I got off the internet.I. DickUp until this year, Dick had done fairly well in school, played basketball, held down a part time job cleaning a fish plant, and spent most weekends with his girl friend. Over the last year, he has had to let most of this go. His girlfriend found someone who had more time, he quit his job, and he stopped going to basketball. He could barely get his schoolwork done. Why? It took... ...ment is a treatment in which the person is exposed to there obsession and go without fulfilling their compulsions. This kind of like "facing your fear".In treating OCD with medications there are many medicines that are prescribed, here are five of the most common: Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Luvox, and Anafranil. These medicines do not always work, but 60-80% of the time they do. Also these medicines do not just work right away. They have to take time to balance in the body. This usually takes about 6-8 weeks. A person is usually on one of these medicines for 12-18 months, but can be more or less. Support groups are few, yet one that I found on the Internet, called â€Å"Emotions Annoymymous† seemed to help alot of people, since this disease isn’t well known by the general public, it is misunderstood, and the words â€Å"obsessive-compulsive† are used out of place far too frequently.My OpinionI think that OCD Is a common disorder that is underestimated and there are not enough people that are educated about it. The more people know about something, the less they are afraid of it. There are five million people that have it, I think more people should know about it, one in fifty people has it.

Internet Telesurgery Saves Lives :: Technology Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Internet Telesurgery Saves Lives People view the Internet generally in two ways either in a positive light or a negative view. What adds fuel to how people feel about the Internet is what they hear about the Internet from the media. Whether they read it in a newspaper, magazine, or hear it on television the media effects how people feel about certain things and this includes their feelings on the Internet. The Internet gets positive coverage from the media whenever it makes life easier or better, by making things more convenient. One positive advancement with Internet technology is the development of telesurgery over recent years. Telesurgery is a way to perform surgical operations without having the doctor in direct contact with the patient during surgery. This is made possible by giving the doctor control of robotic operating tools. The doctor can perform the surgery from almost any distance while the patient receives the surgery from remote control robotic operating instruments. What enables the doctor to control the surgery is a powerful Internet link to connect the doctor to operating tools, monitors, and to communication with other expert doctors. While the patient undergoes the surgery they are not left alone with the robotic instruments they have direct human assistance at the scene of the operation. The surgical assistant is needed to monitor any problems that doctors may miss due to slight delays in Lopez 2 the Internet link. While telesurgery can be used to perform most operations, some common surgeries that telesurgery has been used for are gall bladder removal, appendectomies, and gynecological procedures. This technology has an endless amount of benefits. A patient can receive the operation they need at their local hospitals from the most qualified surgeon in that field of medicine. The ability to operate on people without the doctor being present will enable the medical field to reach farther than it ever has before. With the right link to the telesurgery equipment the Internet is one step closer to having, no boundaries. Surgery can now be performed where doctors may not have the training to perform certain operations. For instance in underdeveloped countries, where the medical standards have not reached the capabilities of industrialized nations. Telesurgery will benefit those who are injured while fighting on the battlefield and are in need of major medical attention. The doctor can provide the injured soldier with the help they need from a safe location without the worry of injury to them self.

Impact of Charley on Willy Loman in Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman :: Death Salesman essays

Impact of Charley on Willy in Death of a Salesman Charley had a huge impact on Willy in the play Death of a Salesman. Willy is jealous of Charley's success. Repeatedly, Willy would go to Charley's to borrow money to pay the bills. Biff and Happy were failures; Willy refuses to recognize this because Bernard, Charley's son was so successful. Charley's effect on Willy has caused him to become extremely spiteful. At the end of every week, Mr. Loman found himself at Charley's feet, begging him for money. Charley continually gave him the money to keep him quiet. This is ironic because Willy thinks that he is so much better then Charley, when in fact he was just incredibly jealous. When Willy was fired from his job, his only friend Charley offered him a job. Willy reprimanded Charley for insulting him. This made a very clear assertion of Willy's jealousy. In Willy's eyes, his children were remarkable. They were, popular, good at sports, and intelligent. When in reality Biff and Happy were rapidly declining. Charley would try to tell Willy about his kids. Willy never listened because it pained him to see Bernard more successful then Biff and Happy. Charley was content with his life. His son was happily married with two sons. His job was going great. Willy on the other hand was scared of life itself. He lied to his family and Charley about everything. Repeatedly he contradicted himself. He said that blue-collar workers were stupid and were not going anywhere. However, he would brag to Charley about all the work he did around the house. Willy was never happy with what he had. He always thought he could have better.

The Human Resource Management

This paper is written from the perspective that Human Resource Management (HRM) practices are continually evolving to meet the changes of dynamic work environments. New technologies, increasingly rapid exchanges of information, social paradigm shifts and the restructuring of family systems contribute heavily to the need to find and apply methods of HRM that meet the needs of industry, workers and consumers. To do so effectively, vision and creativity are required in addition to on-going awareness of the bottom line. At the opening of the 20th century, the majority of jobs in America were held in two areas, agriculture and industry. Population distribution tables for that time demonstrate that most of the nation inhabited rural areas rather than urban areas. This continued to be the trend up until WWII, when men left the country to fight and women left rural America to fill factory jobs as their contribution to the war effort. This movement was the beginning of nationwide workplace and societal changes that have accelerated during the last half of the 20th century. The move from rural to suburban environments changed the way we did business as a nation. Where extended families resided in and supported each other in culturally defined rural settings, nuclear families found themselves alone in homogenous neighborhoods. (1) This created a demand for goods and services that were formerly provided by extended family and community members, opening up new markets and creating jobs. It also created the need to recognize the management of workers as a separate and formal discipline. As we move into the 21st century we can trace our nations† business growth over the last 100 years. We moved from an agrarian base to an industrial one. By the mid-50s† the majority of jobs were found in factories. Manufacturing suffered heavy blows during the late 60†³s and early seventies and was displaced by the service industry. With the closing of the 20th century those services have become increasingly technological. Surviving those changes requires adaptation, not only in the retooling of physical plants and the retraining workers, but also in the way we manage those workers. Some feel that there appears to be an underlying theme in books and papers on the subject of HRM, that there is only one correct way to manage people. (2) Maslow on Management offers a much different approach, demonstrating conclusively that one size does not fit all; i.e., that different people need to be managed differently. HMR models operating on the assumption that there is a single right way to manage people are using workplace criteria that are quickly becoming a thing of the past. The â€Å"one way† model views people working for an organization as employees who work full time and are solely dependent on that organization for their livelihood and their careers. These employees generally were viewed as subordinates with limited or very narrow skill sets. (3) These images of the worker may have been valid several decades ago. However, today every one of these images has become insupportable. While the majority of people working for an organization may be classified as employees, a very large and steadily growing minority – by working for the organization – no longer work as employees, but instead as outsource contractors. The concept of subordinate positions is fading as well, even in those areas that are considered fairly low level. As technology becomes increasingly more complex special knowledge is required in all operations. Subordinates, increasing their skill sets, become associates. The secretary, with knowledge of specialized software, becomes the Administrative Assistant. In order for the organization to run smoothly, the individual who does his job well, often has more knowledge about his job than his boss. (4) For example, the vice president of marketing may know a great deal about selling, but nothing about market research, pricing, packaging, service, or sales forecasting. Workers in these positions may report to the vice president, but are often experts in their own areas. Formerly, lower technological expectations and a firmly established hierarchy allowed general managers to delegate narrowly defined personnel responsibilities to those functioning as specialists. Today however, such practices would be inefficient to the point of being considered static, and must be replaced. To fail to do so would be to ignore and fail to address the many unprecedented pressures that demand a comprehensive and more strategic view in relation to the organizations† human resources. From the view point of General Management, what does the organization need? The General Mangement picture of HRM is viewed from a global perspective, as demonstrated by a survey of Fortune 500 CEOs in 1989. The results of that survey determined that effective management of Human Resources must address corporate needs in the eight following areas: 1. Increasing international competition makes the need for greatly improved human production mandatory. The crisis experienced in both the automobile and steel industries serve as clear illustrations. Foreign management practices, particularly Japanese management models, are being used to guide developing HRM techniques, especially those that seem to increase employee commitment while providing companies with a long term source of workers with necessary competencies and skills. 2. As organizations increase in size and complexity layer upon layer of management has resulted in expensive, but not particularly effective, bureaucracies. Multiple layers of management also serve to isolate workers from the competitive environment in which organizations operate as well as company policy makers. It†s hoped that a reduction of middle management layering will put workers closer to the competitive environment, fostering commitment to the organization as well as sharpening the competitive edge. Multinational companies have additional challenges in managing human resources, and need to adapt policies to work within diverse cultures and vastly different social values. 3. Some companies may face declining markets or slower growth, handicapping the organizations† ability to offer advancement opportunities and job security. How then to attract and retrain a competent and highly skilled work force? 4. Greater government involvement in human resource practices generates a need to re-examine HRM policies and mandates the development of new policies. For example, the Americans with Disabilities Act forced the revision of HRM policies in companies across the nation. 5. America†s workforce has become increasingly more educated making it necessary to rethink assumptions about employee capabilities and the delegation of responsibilities. Under utilization of employee talent is a major cause of workforce turnover. 6. Expectations and the values of the workforce are changing, particularly those values and expectations relative to authority. This fosters a need to reexamine how much involvement and influence workers should be given. Means of voicing employee concerns and addressing those concerns with due process need to be provided. 7. As workers become more concerned with life and career satisfaction corporations are revisiting traditional career paths and seeking more alternative career paths that take into consideration employee lifestyle needs. 8. Demographic shifts in the workforce, particularly the infusion of women and minorities into organizations, are causing corporations to reexamine all policies, practices and values that impact the treatment, responsibilities, and advancement of these groups. (5) How do universal General Management issues affect HRM departments and practices? While narrower in scope than those concerns voiced by General Management, impact areas identified by HRM professionals closely mirrored major corporate needs identified by General Managers. Human Resource professionals, in an effort to meet the needs of both worker and organization, have examined ways to ensure a desired working environment while increasing productivity. In the early 1990s, the advisory board of the Commerce Clearing House were asked to identify the issues that they felt would shape the role of human resource functions in the next decade. Commerce Clearing House advisory board members saw four main HRM areas where current issues would influence the role of the human resource function in the near future: compensation; communication and personnel practices; employment relations; and Equal Employment Opprtunity requirments. (6) Compensation issues focused on the diversity of worker needs, pay-for-performance plans, and the regulation of employee benefit plans. Flexibility and adaptability in HRM practices are primary keys in addressing worker needs. Job sharing, staggered scheduling and flex time are some of the outcomes generated by creative approaches to HRM practices. Pay-for-performance plans hold the allure of rewarding productivity while providing monetary motivation. Successful implementation of such practices, however, require effective performance evaluations. To attempt such compensation without valid, reliable, and standard assessment instruments is to court litigation. Fairness is a national concern strongly affecting human resource managers. Personnell plansfocused soley on organizational needs must be abandoned to benefit workers and organizations alike. One example is the growing social phenomena of two career couples. As the numbers increase nepotism policies must be reexamined. Managing change and preparing people for change also require HRM professionals to rethink policy. New demands for an increase in functions such as retraining evolve as workers move through change. Training and professional development are crucial in all areas of operation. Even the lowest clerk needs to stay abreast of the latest innovations brought on by technical advancement. The march of technology, however, not only changes jobs, it makes some of them redundant or obsolete. In an era of company reconfiguration it becomes apparent that layoffs and divestirtures will occur when retraining isn't an option. Outplacement policies must be considered and developed in preparation of the need. HRM professionals also understand the need for the development of effective HR auditing instruments to measure employee perceptions of management fairness and the climate for effective communication within the company. The information obtained by employee attitude surveys can be greatly beneficial to supervisors, but only if they've been trained to use it. (7) The legal environment of personnell management is many fingered and quite comprehensive. In addition to regulations stemming from the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), passed in 1970, HRM is greatly affected by the broad umbrella of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) regulation. As well as protecting workers form discrimination based on race, color, or creed, EEO serves workers in many other areas. Age discrimination also falls under this umbrella. With an increasing number of age discrimination suits, organizations need to develp a sensitvity to age issues and policy specific to older employees. A recent off shoot of EEO is the American with Disablities Act (ADA). ADA has created a need for new policies and procedures in accommidating employees with handicaps and disabilities. The emerging legal view that Acquired Immune Deficiancy Syndrome (AIDS) is a handicap brings policy questions about AIDS testing to the forefront. There is great potential for conflict in providing for the needs of other employees and creates an HRM channel that must be carefully navigated. Benefit plans that are regulated by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) require special attention. Companies must be prepared to provide resources that not only offer such plans but also impeccably manage those employee benefit plans. Failure to do so will lead to subsequent suits by employees challenging plans that are out of compliance with ERISA disclosure, reporting and fiduciary standards are problematic. Governemnt regulation is also partly responsible for shifting attention from union group representation to regulations and policies that emphasize the rights of individual employees. It is mandatory that this factor be taken into consideration in personnel planning and policy making. The role of unions as bargaining units is on the decline and will continue to diminish as bargaining relationships become increasingly stable. This translates to decreased strike activity and fewer actions filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). While that is a positive outcome the trade-off must be recognized, prepared and accounted for. While businesses will see fewer strikes, they can expect to see increasing numbers of employment-at-will and wrongful discharge suits. An additional considertion affects employers who contract temporary employees. This practice is experiencing an increasing number of suits by temporary employees alleging unlawful activity. This surely influences staffing policy decisions. It should come as no surprise that such pressures have created the need for a greater emphasis on the human aspect of business. With something so seemingly obvious the qustion is why hasn't this human aspect been addressed before? It may be due, in part, to the tendency to educate, develop, and train managers to fixate on analytical and technical aspects while assuming that â€Å"business as usual† in dealing with employees was sufficient to promote productivity. So why are companies now hoping to find solutions to business problems in the human side of enterprise? The answer lies in part to growing societal pressures. Concern over the condition of blue-color jobs in the 1930s, as well as civil rights and equal opportunity legislation in the 1960s and 1970s, has paved the way to revamping HRM policies to recognize and respond to shifting social values. More simply put, other approaches to improve employee productivity and organizational effectiveness haven†t worked. (9) The area of single most impact on worker performance lies outside of the work environment. Family needs are the primary cause of absenteeism, tardiness, and lower productivity. (9) The here are several factors creating this phenomena. First there is the steady flow of women into the work place. In 1970, 20.2% of women worked outside the home. That figure grew to 73.8% in 1995. The increase in two career couples has assisted families in reaching financial stability and filled a need for personal satisfaction. It has also, however, created a void in care giving that was traditionally a woman†s role. Another major cause of family issues impact is the increasing number of single parent homes. Single parent homes have grown from 12% in 1970 to 49.8 % in 1995. (10) As the sole burden of child rearing is placed on a worker, childcare arrangements, school obligations, and childhood illnesses are far more likely to interfere with attendance and productivity. Another social phenomenon, which strains workers and, in turn, disrupts the workplace, is increasing longevity. As the population grows older the phenomena of living longer allows workers the luxury of postponing marriage and having children. It†s relatively common today for couples to postpone their first child until their late thirties or early forties, a time formerly used for the preparation of an empty nest. Instead of retiring to grandparenthood these later in life parents are dealing with teenagers and how to get them through college. A large percentage of the workforce now finds itself in the position of not only having children to care for, but elderly parents as well. Add to the list of family pressures the moral and financial obligation workers must contend with in providing for the wellbeing of two generations. The American worker is now faced with a double whammy in the attempt to meet family needs. When looking at the increasing longevity of the workforce, one must consider that piece of the big picture which has to do with the rate that people retire. It†s estimated that within the next twenty to thirty years the retirement age in developed countries will, by necessity, move up to seventy-nine or so. Seventy-nine, in terms of health and life expectancy, correlates with the age of sixty-five and the health and life expectancies of 1936, when the United States, the last western country to do so, adopted a national retirement plan (Social Security). (11) As America continues to gray, a significant percentage of the work force will develop unprecedented needs that are geriatric in nature, impacting worker expectations of benefit packages. The question facing business in the future is determining what that age and experience are worth in terms of monetary compensation and benefits. This is a dilemma currently being faced by the Armed Forces, with many branches finding themselves to be top heavy with senior officers. The funding resources dedicated to personnel are not distributed in a fashion that attracts and retains military members, seriously jeopardizing the productivity of military organizations. (12) This is relevant in that many private organizations as well as public and government agencies are finding themselves in the same position. Retirement Incentive bonuses have become common place and are a primary tool used by organizations to cull the workforce. Will this remain a viable means of thinning an aging workforce? In addition to family pressures, and salary and benefits needs, there is a growing concern throughout the nation†s work force concerning quality of life. While benefits and compensation are key to employee satisfaction, and therefore productivity, a strong value is placed on the emotional satisfaction one finds professionally. These emotional perks come out of all areas, and are as solid as additional training and added responsibility or as intangible as recognition, appreciation, and creativity. (13) Business must take into account the social implications of such information, as it becomes essential to address staff needs and to determine successful strategies that should surround any HRM policy. The management of human resources centers on a single basic function of the management process: staffing. The HRM professional is charged with matching the right person to the job. While recruitment is an exacting area of HRM, a more significant piece of employee productivity lies in motivation. Motivation methods are key to fashoning successful HRM models. Motivation is a deceptively simple concept but probably one of the most complex components of human resource management. Motivation is simple in terms of human behavior. People are basically motivated or driven to behave in ways that they find rewarding. So the task seems easy; just find out what they want and hold it out as a possible reward or incentive. It becomes complex when trying to find a universal incentive in a very diverse workforce. What has value to worker A may be meaningless to worker B. And what has value at one point in time may become insignificant at another. For example, everyone has a need to eat. A big steak dinner, as an incentive to succesful completion of a task, is motivation – as long as your hungry! Had you just eaten, a steak dinner would hold no interest . An additional factor in the motivation equation has to do with the reality of obtaining the reward. Telling a person that they will be promoted to sales manager if sales in that jurisdiction increase is empty if that task is percevied as virtually inpossible. Two conditions must be met for motivation to occur, according to Vroom's expectancy theory of motivation. First the value of the particular outcome (such as recieving a promotion) is very high for the person and, secondly, the person feels that there is a reasonably good chance of accomplishing the task at hand and obtaining the outcome. This is the process of motivation. (14) Theories of motivation center on a a single basic question: what do people want? Abraham Maslow states that humans have five basic categories of need; physiological, safety, social, ego, and self-actualization. These needs have been arranged in order of there importance to humans. When the basic physiological needs, food, drink, etc., are met, they no longer serve as motivation. Instead, those urges toward safety, i.e., protection and security, become the driving force. Human beings move up this needs ladder as basic needs are met. Frederick Herzberg has divided Maslow's hierarchy into two planes, the lower meeting physiological, safety and social needs, and the higher meeting those needs surrounding ego and self actualization. Herzberg believes that the best motivation lies in satisfying those higher level needs. Based on his studies, Herzberg believes that factors that satisfy lower level needs, which he identifies as hygiene factors, are markedly different from those, reffered to as motivators, that satisfy higher level needs. Herzberg states that if hygeine factors are inadequate workers will become disgruntled, but once satisfied there is no incentive to perform. Therefore, hygiene factors are necesary for preventing dissatisfaction, but very inefficient in encouraging motivation. Job content, however is the source of motivating factors. Opportunities for achievement, recognition, responsibility, and more challenging jobs motivate employees. Motivating factors work because they appeal to higher level needs that are never completly satisfied. According to Herzberg, the best way to motivate employees is to build challenge and opportunities for achievement into their jobs. Herzberg reffers to this method of applying his theory as job enrichment. Basically, job enrichment consists of building motivators like opportunity for achievment into the job by making it more interesting and challenging.

Research in motion, strategic analysis

RIM Ltd. Is now in a dilemma of how to attract customers and recapture the market share to be the best one in the cell phone industry. The purpose of this report is to offer RIM Ltd. With the directions that it requires to achieve its business culture of â€Å"meeting the need of people who want simplicity, easing of use and speed, without having to think twice about it†. (Research In Motion Ltd, 2012) This report will make a comprehensive analysis of the current competitive situation of RIM Ltd. And the factors that affect its development.Then the business level strategies and corporate level strategies will be given so as the RIM Ltd. Can improve and maintain Its sustainable competitive advantages, becoming more competitive when compared to Its competitors. This report Includes specific Information regarding RIM Ltd. ‘s history, Its current competitive situation analysis, forward 5 year business environment and proposed strategic adaptation. The business and corporate level strategies will help RIM Ltd. Obtain its company goals and get a better development in the future. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Company History and DescriptionCurrent Competitive Situation Analysis 3 Industry Analysis Competitor Analysis Business Level Strategy research in moot Executive Salivary According to their website, RIM) is a Canadian wireless headquartered In Ontario. Can famous as the production of TTT Motion Ltd. 20 2) With the industry and the development corporations enter into the Mac how to attract customers and r cell phone Industry, The PU directions that it requires to AC people who want simplicity, EAI about It†. (Research In Motion analysis to the current compete development, Then the business he given so as the RIM Ltd. AR advantages, becoming more c port includes specific_ Inform competitive Situation analysis, strategic adaptation, The busily obtain its company goals and 1 Company History and Descried Current Competitive Situation Cost Leadersh ip Differentiation Corporate Level Strategy 8 Five Year Projection of Business Environment 11 Market Analysis Market Competitive Analysis Market Needs Strategy and Approach to the Market strategic Model – SOOT References 19 Appendices Appendix A – Group Contract Appendix B – Reflexive Assessment of Group Process Appendix C – Tables and Figures The purpose of this report is to objectively analyze listed Canadian Corporation. Research In Motion Ltd. Strategies are analyzed. Then the purpose is to usage corporate level strategy for Research In Motion Ltd. O its existent dilemma and keep its industry-leading POS History And Description Research In Motion Limited (RIM) (TTS: RIM, NASDAQ wireless and telecommunication equipment company. Canada and employs more than 17,000 people. It is FAA tablet and BlackBerry smartened. (Research In Motion products and services include the following: applicant communication devices, convergent devices phones, s BlackBerry wir eless platform. (RIM Company, Products, in Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific. Mike Lazars Company, 2012) and served as its co-CEO along with J then the new CEO is Thornton Hein. (Research In Moot company changed its focus from working with pagers communication.In 1997, RIM was listed on the Toronto $150 million in a public offering, (Research In Motion, releasing of the BlackBerry, a wireless handheld com line display and allowed two-way paging and basic me nominated as one of â€Å"Canada's Top 100 Employers† b company was listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange in the USA in 1992, raising $250 million at the same time. In the same year, the company launched its iconic reduce—the BlackBerry 850 Wireless Handheld, which integrated wireless data networks, email, and a traditional QWERTY keyboard in a hand-held device. The BlackBerry caused an enormous sensation. The marketing demands extremely excel its supplies. As the introduction of the 850, RIM became the world's fastest growing company, at least according to Fortune. (A History of RIM†¦ , 2007) With the upgrading of voice and data transmission of the Blackberry, the smartened began the revolution.The company laid off about 10 percent of its workforce because of massive operation losses. After the massive loss in fiscal 2003, RIM start to return to reparability by 2004 (March 1 , 2003 to February 28, 2002) because of continuing strong sales. Afterwards, BlackBerry surpassed one million subscribers all over the world. By 2010, RIM still controlled 10. 4 percent of the smart phone operating system market. (Research In Motion. Ltd, 2011) However, the good situation of RIM was not lasted too long. With the Apple and other product entering into the market, RIM is facing massive challenges. The top three competitors of RIM are Apple, Samsung and Google according to the statistics in Appendix C. Appendix C, Figure l) The company's uncial conditions experienced great challenge in 2011. RIM miss ed its earnings forecasts and delayed its product launches, which led to the share price plummeting. (Research In Motion, 2012) Owing to the declined performance in summer 2011, many employees left the corporation. The company eventually had to cut 2,000 positions for the voluntary exodus in the mid-year. (Marrow, l, 2011, P. 81) To change the dilemma of RIM, the CEO Thornton Hein announced a new SO, BIO, which he felt would â€Å"reverse RIM' s fortunes. â€Å"(RL Ltd, 2012) The new mobile phone with B 10 will be release in the beginning of 2013. We hope that Blackberry 10 could bring opportunity to RIM.With the business culture of â€Å"meeting the need of people who want simplicity, easing of use and speed, without having to think twice about it†, we look forward to seeing the BlackBerry 10 could enhance the sales of RIM and let RIM go up to the first-position in the telecommunication industry. Current competitive Situation Analysis â€Å"Economics define an industry as a group of firms that supplies a market. (Grant, 2010). † Since the prevail and convenience of borderless communication, many districts and countries without cell service in the last years are now provided with electrification because of the large efforts of big corporations, such as Samsung, Monika, LET, Motorola, TCL, LAG, Apple, RIM, Compel, Aroma, Sony, Hawaii, etc. As the progress of the mobile phone, the standard is also improving. With the need for smartness continually increasing, the need for data retaining across networks.New technologies are emerging to meet the need such as 36 on AT&T and ISO operating system was explored by Apple Cord. To be used in Apple's products such as phone. Over the past few years, the mobile phone industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. As the rapid development of economy in developed Mounties, more and more people could afford to buy cell phones. Undoubtedly, mobile phones have become one of the major parts of our everyday life. We use mobile phones to do their project and make video-conference and voice-conference. The arising of new technologies and the increasing demand make the mobile phone market worldwide.Worldwide smartened markets will continue to achieve enormous growth as facilities access the Internet, achieve almost universal penetration, and support machine to machine (M to M) communications. According to Susan Suites, lead author of the study, â€Å"Over one-half of all smartness in the global racket are made by Apple and Samsung. † (Wintergreen, 2012, P 1 . ) Competitor Analysis Research In Motion acts as a leader in the global telecommunication industry. Its main competitors are Apple, Google and Samsung. Other competitors include Monika and ETC. Apple is one of RIM's major competitors and also a industry-leader considering the manufacturing of cell phones, MPH players, computers and tablet PC.Apple offers a portfolio of products including Macintosh (Mac) computing sys tems, pods line of portable digital music and video players, phone handsets and pad portable multimedia and computing devices. Apple also sells a variety of related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications. Apple sells its products worldwide through its retail stores, online stores, and direct sales force and third-party cellular network carriers, wholesalers, retailers, and value-added resellers. The company offers the products across five operating segments: Japan, Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and retail. â€Å"The company recorded revenues of $108,249 million in the fiscal year ending September 2011, an increase of 66. % compared to fiscal 2010. Its net income was $25,922 million in fiscal 2011, compared to a net income of $14,013 million in the preceding year. † (Mobile Phones In Canada, 2012, PEP) Samsung, another competitor of RIM. Samsung Electronics main transactions are the manufacture and distribution of consumer electronics, home appliances, semiconductor products, and communication products. Samsung has a number of subsidiaries and operates respectively. The company operates by three business parts: device solutions, digital media, telecommunications and others. The device solutions part is made up of semiconductor and liquid-crystal splay (LCD) reporting parts.The digital media business part manufactures a number of products including audio-visual devices, digital TV's, printers and monitors. It also offers digital home appliances like washers, vacuum cleaners, air conditioners, ovens, refrigerators, and other appliances. The telecommunications part provides a wide range of related mobile products and solutions. (Mobile Phones In Canada, 2012, PEP) Samsung is now possessing the largest market share in the phone market and compared to RIM, it is around six times more. (Appendix C) Google is also a major competitor of RIM. Google Inc. Started as an online search firm, but it now provides more than 50 Internet products and services, from e-mail and online document creation to software for mobile phones and tablet computers.Additionally, with the acquisition of Motorola Mobility in 2012, Google is now enlarging its transaction to sell hardware such as mobile phones. Google's broad product portfolio and size make it become one of the top four influential companies in the high-tech marketplace, along with Apple, IBM and Microsoft. Despite this myriad of products, its original search tool remains the core of its success. In 2011 requests. (Google Inc. , 2012) However, with Google's powerful strength and branding, no one can overlook its influence in the future smartened market. Business Level Strategy Research in Motion has strong beliefs and values that creates a strong and inspiring foundation of the company.According to their website, â€Å"RIM seeks to make a positive impact in our communities, engaging the talents and resources of our people and partners to harness he power of technology. RIM strongly believes in the important of education and works to inspire the next generation of minds†¦. † Research in Motion, Ltd. ) RIM supports all their employees through a program called Protrude where they give back the company through fundraising and volunteering. According to Appendix D, the employees contributed approximately $201 ,OHO to 182 organizations, they have supported 22 food banks globally, donated 2,458 toys for children at Christmas and many other voluntary and deeds that demonstrates the company's values.RIM is also a proud partner of Free the Children charity where they strive to educate the awareness and education of children in order to shape our future leaders. Cost Leadership Research in Motion has been well known for its market of Blackberry smartness and has been offered in many different phone companies. However, the low cost differentiation causes the company to have a competitive advantage. According to Ap pendix C, the comparison of the phone and BlackBerry clearly shows that with the purchase of a BlackBerry, a substantial amount of money will be saved. In results with the cost advantage, the RIM is able to attract more customers and sell their products at a lower price.In addition to Appendix E, the table states that there are retain sections where even with the BlackBerry plan having a lower cost, the offers are still the same such as 1 50 daytime minutes, pm start time for unlimited evening calls, 2500 SMS, caller ID, who called, SAFE and 911 fees. Differentiation RIM believes that there are certain characteristics that gives itself a competitive advantage against its competitors that includes: BlackBerry Cloud – RIM has used its advanced technology to have this wireless solution where the device is in constant connection with the network. One of its main establishments for BlackBerry marathoner is IBM and how it has become a leading mobile instant messaging app. Other fea tures includes over-the-air distribution of applications, over-the-air calendar synchronization, over-the-air folder management, etc.BlackBerry Messenger – one of the biggest distinguisher about BlackBerry smartness is of its innovative and fast instant messenger program made specifically for BlackBerry users to communicate with each other known BlackBerry Messenger (IBM). Each device contains their own specific pin in order for it to communicate with others. These messages will be sent through the BlackBerry servers which is the reason for TTS faster service when receiving and sending messages. Return of Investment – ROI provides customers with the fastest payback when purchasing a BlackBerry. The network efficiency causes the users of BlackBerry devices to gain lower data roaming chargers and lower cost of buying. RIM continues to enhance their workflow, personal productivity and managing the BlackBerry Cloud in order for BlackBerry users to improve with their device .Addition of new products and devices – RIM introduced the enhance its multitasking abilities. This tablet enables its users to obtain full touch screen experience while rapid responses. Soon after that, RIM released BlackBerry Playbook SO which is a free software to help benefit and improve the system within applications and content services. Corporate Level Strategy Income Statement sales$1 Return on Equity/a Cash Flow cash cash$l Current Ratify. 20 12 months ended Seep 01, 2012. Trailing 12 month results shown above. All data is in U. S. Dollars. According to Appendix F, within the income statement it shows that earnings are in the negative, resulting in a loss.With this extreme loss of money being evident, Research in Motion needs to come up with a different direction in which the company should innovate and branch into a different direction, using what they know in different industries to gain a competitive advantage newcomers may not have because currently they are losi ng money, with their objective being to maximize profits. The new accompanied strategy that RIM should follow should be along the lines of innovating their phone designs, tablets, as well as operating software for both of their products. â€Å"Microsoft Corp†¦ Kicked off the Electronic Entertainment Expo on Monday by unveiling new software called Oxbow Smartness that will allow Oxbow 360 users to stream and share content across smartness, tablets and TV's. It also announced that it was bringing its Internet Explorer browser to the console this fall. Internet Explorer coupled with the power of Oxbow will, for the first time, deliver a fast, fluid, intuitive Web experience in the living room,† said Oxbow Live corporate vice president Marc Weatherboarding's was demonstrated in several ways, turning a smartened into a remote control used to surf the Web on a TV and utilizing a tablet as a way to display information about games, TV shows and movies that were simultaneously be ing played on a TV† . Marc Whiten, 2011). Due to the fact that the Oxbow 360, owned by Microsoft, will be coming out with this new technology based on tablets and smartness, RIM should get in on the action and gain a competitive advantage by designing a product that is cheap, durable, and specifically designed for this new era of gaming, as well as other essential tablet software, APS, etc..This is because when looking for a tablet to buy, consumers will look for a tablet that satisfies all their needs, and if they own an Oxbow, their wants for a tablet, being one that will give them their best gaming experience as possible. They could also go to Sony, with the technological information they will gain from the Oxbow experiment, and strike a deal with Sony to become one of the only tablet providers, other than Sony, that will incorporate the tablet gaming technology. Sony may get in on this due to the fact that Nintendo already has the WI U Gamed. â€Å"WI games, players and t he TV by creating a second window into the video game world. It also offers a new way for viewers to engage with their favorite entertainment. The Gamed incorporates a 6. -inch, 16:9 aspect ratio LCD touch screen, as well as rotational button controls and two analog sticks. Inputs include a *Control Pad, LIAR sticks, LIAR stick buttons, A/BIGLY buttons, LIAR buttons, CRUZ buttons, Power button, HOME button, -SELECT button, +/START button, and TV CONTROL button. The Gamed also includes motion control (powered by an accelerometer, gyroscope and geomagnetic sensor), a front-facing camera, a microphone, stereo speakers, rumble features, a sensor bar, an included stylus and support for Near Field Communication (MFC) functionality. It is powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery and weighs approximately 1. 1 pounds (500 g). WI U Technical Specs, 2012).This is similar to the Oxbow Smartness project, and since the Sony ASS does not have anything similar to these two, they will fall behi nd due to the competitive advantage the other two leaders in the gaming industry have. This is why Sony may hop on board with RIM, where the latter company receives a competitive advantage being one of the only ones on the ASS as well as being a competitor on the Oxbow 360. They will then be competing in the gaming industry, the tablet industry, and the smartened industry, three separate business industries, two being former industries but with more innovative ideas, and one industry that is totally new to them and the world, meaning they have an equal shot like everyone else on the Oxbow market, and a better shot on the ASS market. Reliance on strategic alliances and relationships with third-party network infrastructure developers, software platform vendors and service platform vendors, including RIM's ability to promote and advance the development of an ecosystem of applications and services for the BlackBerry 10 smartness and the BlackBerry PlayBook tablets;† (Research in M otion, 2012). This states that they are leaning on innovating the software technology for both smartened and tablet platforms, as well as forming alliances with other companies. Therefore the firm should try and sneak into the gaming/tablet gaming industry, using the strategies noted previously, to gain any sort of profit due to the fact that they have lost so much that in order to gain the money lost they need to start taking risks or else they run the chance of losing their company.With this decision to go into this industry, they have a chance at becoming one of the leaders in the tablet and smartened industry, u to the competitive advantage Research in Motion has over other providers with newer, more innovative, software that incorporates everything that a smartened and tablet has today, as well as gaming specialization that other tablets and phones will not have. Five Year Projection Plan Research in motion is motivated as an organization in the development, sale, service and m aintenance of software and mobile solutions for both the short and long-term care market. Let is a company that provides world class service and always puts the needs of our consumers first. Len addition to this, it is a company that is river by ideas. We believe that innovation and collaboration will foster sustainable growth for our business†( Research in Motion, 2012). Such professional growth, would be attainable with the continued effort to excel in a competitive environment, providing World Class service at a sensible cost for consumers. The strategic adapt to an ever changing technological environment. Providing quality products and services; Research In Motion (RIM) is the company behind the innovative and award- winning BlackBerry product line. In order for Research in Motion to be successful in he future, it is this type of quality and competitive edge that will lead the company down the pathway of continued growth and success.Market Analysis In this market analysis, we must take into consideration the company today, its competitors, consumers and any future business ventures. The market today is a direct foreshadow for the technological footprint that companies such as RIM will leave for tomorrow. As such, Research in Motion must account the many variable factors that may arise as well in the next five years. The current trends of the mobile and handheld software network are as follows; consumers' have the require taste for lit-use high functioning mobile devices such as smart phones with high processing operating systems. The days have passed where any product was made to last a lifetime.It is a world of if it's broken don't fix it; in the sense that, you are able to replace your once top of the line device with a newer model with more applications and a faster processor in only a few months' time. This new trend is seen in many forms of production, and is now widely accepted by the consumer market. It is the idea that today's population want s newer, faster and bigger in the sense of capabilities. Market Competitive Analysis One of the key components of determining your own success is based on how you compare to competitors in your specific market. In a recent poll † Score data, 32. 8% of Canadians own a smart phone. However, narrowing down to mobile operating systems, the data reveals that the top smart phone platform for March 2011 is BlackBerry with 42% of smart phone subscribers. Second up, following RIM, is Apple with 31%.The remaining of the statistics are made up from Goggles Android with 12. 2%, Ionians Simian with 6. 4% and Microsoft with 5. 1%. † (phone in Canada 2011) This leads to inclination that RIM stock is on the rise. However, this is not the case. It is important to recognize that both Apple (phone) and Google (Android) are currently growing in the Mobile device sector. Respectively, both the increase in software capabilities as well as faster processors and greater network connection is th e ever- growing trend in hand-held devices. An analysis of both Google Android and Apple phone appear to be designed for demographics from all walks of life.The Apple phone allows for people to talk across provinces using the application termed, â€Å"face time†. The idea that a mobile device that is able to fit in the palm of your hand can innocent people thousands of miles away gives the consumer extra leverage to lean towards the competitors product. The mobile device network is one that must appeal to several demographics and adhere to the wants and needs of its consumer. In the future, it is likely that the direction of the industry will produced by the these top three competitors. In order to be successful Research in Motion must target all the market segments with initial focus on research and development of current product.Such product diversity, as well as an increase significant ease of use of products will attract new customers . Converting numerous customers from competitive products to Blackberry, through a positive customer experience will allow for a continual growth over the long term. Time is a critical commodity in the long-term, success of a attractive to long-term consumers who are paying several hundred dollars per device. This segment of Research in motion of product quality will be far more user friendly than those products currently on the market. Market Needs The cellular market requires a highly functional product that is cost effective and easy to use.Research in motion in order to counter-act the competitors in their racetrack; must provide more product services, easy accessible product assistance, and continuous growth in there software, research and development sector to stay atop the main producers of the mobile networking world. In addition to this, the active cellular marketplace in order to be sustainable in the long run must account for the aging population. Clearly, the proportion of older citizens is growing and will continue to do so with the aging of the baby boomers. Following the trend in the mobile usage sector. It is evident that people from all ages are currently using smart phone devices. Applications that appeal to both young and old must be readily available in order to maximize sales.If the trends within the marketplace remain constant, that it appears that children will soon be talking across play grounds with high-tech mobile devices. Lastly, the needs of such a diverse marketplace may only be met by those that are willing to change, resistance to change could be detrimental to the long-term success of any company within the market. Albert Einstein once said, â€Å"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result† RIM has for the most part attempted to appeal to the business class of the market. Creating advertising the blackberry smart phone as the best option for Coo's of large companies'; to small business owners on the go. This has been the sta ple of their commitment to their customers and has been for several years.However it is imperative that with any strategy there is also current modifications made in order to adhere to the constantly changing environment. It is important to view everyone in mobile network of business as potential customers. A new strategic approach, of more touch-screen, higher processing software, user- friendly applications, for all gees and demographics must be adopted in order to compete with companies such as apple. More cost effective ways of producing these products will save money for both the company and its consumers. An approach through the market by internet, direct email advertising, advertising on such sites as Face book, and high-processing video websites such as Youth as well as traditionally advertising will also help boost sales.One of the key ingredients to success is to improve the customer service of existing customers to insure technological approach must be taken to appeal to the future demographics n their consumer base. If Research in Motion does not produce higher quality products to compete with the likes of the Apple I-phone than the future of the Company looks dim, and the stock of RIM and value of the company will only diminish at a steady rate. Strategic Model Among many strategic models to run a successful business like that of RIM (Research in Motion) in the present competitive business environment. SOOT model with its strength, weakness, opportunities and threat. In order to better evaluate RIM as a whole it is essential that we use such techniques to establish the productivity ND potential flaws in the current structure of the organization.In the following model, it will reveal the potential the company is capable of however, due to certain weaknesses and threats it has given them a disadvantage in the market. Strengths RIM has a variety of strength's beginning with its manufacturing of high technology products. Among these strengths, are tho se of the research and development sector. The main focus of the organization is their mobile device, the BlackBerry. An area which prides itself on being top of the line and the best option for any person in the world of business. Products are exclusive, unique and have very good quality in which existing and new customers are attracted. An important strength is that the RIM organization is very organized and competent within the management revolving around talent.Corporation is very strong and is very advancing with technological products in order to improve the quality. RIM has a very successful established reputation globally thus causing RIM to be a trusted brand and company. RIM provides a extensive customer care capabilities which helps the them gain the trust of their customers. Their incentive of balancing IT and consumer emends has led RIM a market leading role in the market. Weaknesses The competitors of RIM can cause a great affect on its ability to satisfy consumer need s because its competitors is capable of achieving it before the BlackBerry devices can. Apple and Android smartness are two companies coming out with newer, more innovative technology. Lacquerer may struggle to keep up due to the fact that these companies' phones focus largely on touch screen technology, while the blackberry only has 2 phones that use the touch screen form of technology. As well as the fact that the service blackberry provides has been subject to outages, arrive losses globally, and the fact that Android and Apple cannot experience a global outage, makes it that much more threatened by competitor innovation. Opportunities With the ever growing IT management team, they are all striving to improve and enhance its technologies through new products and devices. BlackBerry 10 is a new platform that all BlackBerry products will run on will be the new blackberry 10 software.This is opportunistic because it provides customers with a new look on the BlackBerry products as we ll as 2 new phones that will accompany the new platform as well as run off of the system. This also creates hype around the release of the software and phones bringing the blackberry community together and creating excitement for loyal consumers. â€Å"We look forward to getting BlackBerry 10 in the hands of our customers around the world. † (Thornton Hein, 2012). Moreover, with the experience of making mistakes in the past, , it creates opportunity to learn from their mistakes, and capitalize on that knowledge to execute objectives at the right times to achieve their goals. â€Å"RIM delayed the roll-out of the BlackBerry 10 phones to the first quarter of 2013 so as not to repeat the errors that surrounded the PlayBook