The Problem of Teen Pregnancy - 1335 Words

The Problem of Teen Pregnancy Red and blue lights are flashing and the noise of the ambulance impels everyone to a point where they have to look outside and observe the situation, as if a mystical force was compelling them. From what they can see, the paramedic is holding a tiny hand telling her to hold on. As the stretcher rolls by, the onlookers notice a huge lump, or ball as a few may say, under the pallid cotton covers. What they also take note of is that the pregnant woman is not a woman at all, but in fact a teenager. As some are astounded that a child is being born from a child, others possibly will look at it as a â€Å"blessing in disguise.† The issue of teenage pregnancy is affecting our society in innumerable ways and has become one of our top social issues of all time. â€Å"The latest estimates show that approximately 1 million teens become pregnant every year† (East, Felice, and Associates 1). With this high number of teenage pregnancy, it is no wonder tha t many authors try to exemplify this common subject matter. Katrina L. Burchett, author of Choices, accurately and effectively depicts teenage pregnancy among female adolescents living with domestic issues. As the years progress, the influence of sex has taken a more profound effect on teenagers. Nowadays, it seems that sex is everywhere. The television shows, the Internet, magazines and even the movies almost always have a â€Å"sex scene† in them or portray sex in some sort of way. Because the industry is realizingShow MoreRelatedTeen Pregnancy Problems924 Words   |  4 Pagesbabies were born to a woman aged 15-19 years. Most of those teens who got pregnant don’t know how to raise the kid. Theyre not physically or mentally ready to raise a baby. There multiple problems with teen pregnancy it’s a health risk to the childs life. It can break the bond between the parents and end up with them separating. Also its cause the parents to be stressed out and not be a ble to continue on with their regular life. Teens need to prevent having a kid at a young age and wait till thereRead MoreThe Problem Of Teen Pregnancy1829 Words   |  8 PagesSome things in life are just thrown at you without any warning and you simply may not be ready to tackle the task at hand. Pregnancy is one of those many things that are thrown into your life that can be a major issue for many people, especially teen girls. Finding out that you re pregnant is big news whether you are happy about it or not. The decision of what you re going to do with the baby is what makes it so life changing. Many possibilities arise for one to think about; one could choose toRead MoreTeen Pregnancy: A Problem for Society1195 Words   |  5 PagesThe problem with teenage pregnancy is it requires intervention from society. This debate is from the perspective of teens, and absent from the medical, ethical, and political views on teen pregnancy. According to Jewell, Tacchi, Donovan, (2000) , teen pregnancy is not a problem for teens themselves but more of a problem for society. The large numbers of unintended pregnancies are among unmarried teens. A number of teens do not want to become pregnant, although some are not opposed and other hasRead MoreTeen Pregnancy Is A Big Problem958 Words   |  4 PagesDespite the fact that having a baby is a beautiful thing in life, having a baby at a young age can ruin a teenager’s life. Teen pregnancy a big problem worldwide, but a bigger one in Bullhead City, Arizona. Since Bullhead City has one of the highest percentages for teen pregnancy in Arizona, people know it’s a big problem. Not only are those teens throwing their life away by not finishing school and stopping to raise the child, but they’re also ruining other people life too. Babies are very expensive;Read MoreTeen Pregnancy Is A Serious Problem1484 Words   |  6 Pages1) Going in public, many teens are pregnant or have already had a baby. Teen pregnancy is a very big concern in society. Everyone needs to come together as a whole to find ways to prevent this from happening so often. Teen pregnancy is a re occurring problem, but there are ways to prevent them such as starting programs or classes in schools so teens understand why they should not have children, using a contraceptive, and watching TV shows so they can understand being a teen mom is not easy. EducationalRead MoreEssay on Is Teen Pregnancy a Problem?1044 Words   |  5 PagesHow many pregnant teens have there been? Over the years more girls are becoming teen moms. In Oklahoma teen pregnancy has become a problem. Recently Oklahoma has had a pregnancy rate of 47.5% (Tulsa World). Not only is it an issue in Oklahoma but an issue in the United States as a whole. The lack of awareness and how to prevent pregnancy is a reason to blame for the increasing numbers. The more we don’t make people aware of the increasing teen pregnancy rate and how to prevent then the numbers willRead MoreThe Problem Of Teen Pregnancy Rates951 Words   |  4 Pagesthere is significantly more data and research in regards to the problem of teen pregnancy and the associated problems that are attributed to adolescent childbearing than there are specific to the effectiveness and efficacy of second chance homes. Second chance homes help teen mothers and their children comply with welfare reform re quirements under the 1996 law (Housing and Urban Development, 2016). Second chance homes can also support teen families who are homeless or currently residing in foster careRead MoreTeen Pregnancy Is A Global Problem Essay1657 Words   |  7 Pages Literature Review Teen pregnancy is a global problem, it affects all demographics, but certain populations are at greater risk. Statics show that African-American and Hispanic teenage women in the Unites States have the highest birthrates. Inconsistent research of young African American women is at a greater risk of becoming teenage mothers; the culture may contribute to this trend, though the complex relationships (Furstenberg, 1992; Geronimus, 2003; Sullivan, 1993). According to Trussell (1988)Read MoreIs the Problem of Teen Pregnancy Exaggerated?2411 Words   |  10 PagesSource 1 Title and Citation: The Problem of Teen Pregnancy Is Exaggerated. Opposing Viewpoints Digests: Teen Pregnancy. Ed. Jennifer A. Hurley. SanDiego:GreenhavenPress,2000.OpposingViewpointsResourceCenter.Gale.ApolloLibrary.27July2008 http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?contentSet=GSRCtype=retrievetabID=T010prodId=OVRC docId=EJ3010099211source=galesrcprod =OVRCuserGroupName=apolloversion=1.0. 1 Identify the principal issue presented by the source. The main issue presentedRead MoreEssay on The Problem of Teen Pregnancy1594 Words   |  7 Pages The Problem of Teen Pregnancy Red and blue lights are flashing and the noise of the ambulance impels everyone to a point where they have to look outside and observe the situation, as if a mystical force was compelling them. From what they can see, the paramedic is holding a tiny hand telling her to hold on. As the stretcher rolls by, the onlookers notice a

Standout Characters in Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

In the story of Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare, there are three characters that have characteristics that really standout. Juliet defied the stereotype of the weak female one often sees in literature. She was willing to leave everything for Romeo, and she refused to marry a man she did not love. Ultimately, she gave her life for love. As a thoughtless teenager, Romeo has trouble controlling his temper and emotions leading him to make poor decisions, that always come back to hurt him. Friar Laurence is very loyal, especially to Romeo and Juliet. He was the main tie throughout the novel of Romeo and Juliet and tied the main themes together. Although Juliet has never been in love before Romeo, she would do anything for Romeo because of how loving she is. When Juliet sees Romeo at the Capulets party, she instantly falls in love with him. (Act I, Scene v) Within a matter of hours, Romeo becomes the single most important person in her life. She knows that a relationship b etween a Montague and a Capulet could never realistically work out, but her immediate affection for Romeo far exceeds any line of logical thinking. Juliet is completely devoted to Romeo the entire play in many ways. First, she says that if did not lose his name as a Montague, than she would give up her own. Also, when her parents tell her she has to marry Paris, she vows that she would rather die than be apart from Romeo. The only moment in the entire play that Juliet feels against

Dizzy Gillespie free essay sample

Dizzy Gillespie deservedly ranks amongst the most influential and innovative Jazz musicians of all times. Every note played with his trumpet captivated a legion of devout followers from all different age demographics and cultural backgrounds. Only Males Davis and Louis Armstrong can tread the waters of his talent and his ever- growing legend, which was propelled by his revolutionary style. The Bebop revolution would have been a real yawner without notable Dizzy Gillespie tracks and stunning collaborations with top artists from the time period.He played alongside read musicians like Cab Galloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Earl Hines, Duke Longtime, Billy Stickiness, Charlie Parker, Charlie Christian, Theologies Monk, Max Roach and Coleman Hawkins. His career was well decorated with a mantle full of awards and memories of elated crowds from the most legendary venues in the country. Countless times the collective sigh of the crowd would be followed by wide-eyed enthusiasm, dancing and an eruption of applause. Dizzy was upset at the accusation and then stabbed Galloway in the leg with a small knife. Then Dizzy teamed up with Charlie Parker in 1945 and played in famous Jazz clubs like Moutons Playhouse and Monomers Uptown House, where bebop was beginning.Many of Tizzys music sounded very different, ironically, and rhythmically than the Swing music popular at the time. Gillespie taught many of the younger musicians, like Miles Davis, about the new style of Jazz. The one thing that he was focused on was to start a big band, and his first attempt was In 1945 but didnt work. After a while he did start a successful big band with Charlie Parker, but he also frequently appeared as a soloist with Norman Grands Jazz at the philharmonic. Then on March 11, 1952 went to France after being Invited by Charles Delaney. So he went to France and started his third big band.Then in 1953 he returned to the USA and one thing he accomplished in France was to show that he is a successful band leader. He also started another type of music called Afro- Cuban music. Afro-Cuban music has Latin and African elements together to create a new type of Jazz. Dizzy stayed true to his bebop music for the rest of his career. He even did something unheard of by musicians; in 1964 he put himself forward as a presidential candidate. He promised that if he were elected, the White House would be renamed The Blues House, Ray Charles would be appointed Librarian ofCongress, Miles Davis would become the head of the CIA, and Malcolm X the Attorney General. He also said his running mate would be Phyllis Dilled. He was nominated for Grammar awards and also was a guest on The Cowboys Show and Sesame Street. Towards the end of his Life he worked hard and was a very motivated muscular. In 1989 Gillespie gave 300 performances in 27 countries, appeared in 100 U. S. Cities in with two symphonies, and recorded four albums. He received his fourteenth honorary doctoral degree, last one from Berkeley College of Music and he was also even the Grammar Lifetime Achievement Award in the same year.On November 26, 1992 was Tizzys 75th birthday concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. This was going to be his 33rd appearance at Carnegie Hall, but Dizzy didnt make it because he was sick with pancreatic cancer. Then in 1993 at the age of 75, Dizzy died from pancreatic cancer. He was buried in the Flushing Cemetery in Queens, New York. Gillespie had two funerals. One was a Bahii funeral at his request, at which his closest friends and colleagues attended. The second was at the Cathedral of SST. John the Divine in New York attended by the world.

Revelation In NT Essays - Christian Eschatology, Book Of Revelation

Revelation In NT The book of Revelation is the last profound book in the New Testament. It conveys the significant purpose of Christianity by describing God's plan for the world and his final judgement of the people by reinforcing the importance of faith and the concept of Christianity as a whole. This book written by John in 95 or 96 AD, is the revelation of Jesus Christ illustrating the events that occur before and during the second coming of Christ. By using complex symbolism and apocalyptic metaphor the meaning of Revelation is defined. What is, what has been, and what is to come is the central focus of the content. When correlating the total concept of the book of Revelation the tremendous impact of the word of God cannot be overlooked. Revelation was written in the last 3rd of the 1st century clearly when the christians were being pressured by Rome to turn from their faith to the Roman emperor. This book was intended for the seven churches of Asia. Some think that the book was written around 64 AD, after the burning of Rome. Revelation 11:1 references the temple suggesting that it is still standing when history proves that the temple was destroyed by Titus in 70 AD. However, this could simply be a prediction and have no relevance as to the date the book was written. On the other hand, there is historical evidence that points to 95 or 96 AD as being the more probable date for the writing of this narrative. Among these include statements from christian writers such as church father who states that Revelation was written in the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian (81-96). In addition this date better agrees with description of the early churches and is accepted by them as well as by scholars as the better date. A man named John wrote the book of Revelation on an island in the Argean Sea named Patmos. This person is believed to be John the Apostle of Jesus Christ, author of the fourth gospel. There has been some confusion over this, due to the fact that John does not designate himself as an apostle and when mentioning them does not include himself in that group. Rather he claims to be a prophet and his book to be a prophecy. However, the early church as well as early theologians claim the author as John the Apostle. In 480 AD five passages written by Iraneous mentioned John specifically as the author, and in the middle of the 2nd century Justin Marty quoted verbatim "attributing the authorship to John, an apostle of Christ." (Tenney). In researching the fourth gospel and the book of Revelation similarities do occur showing the book to be written by the same person. A prime example being that the only mention of Jesus as logos in the entire bible exists in these two books. If this book was not written by John the Apostle, it was written by a John never before heard of or mentioned. Given these facts and the past statements of christian writers it is highly likely that the book of Revelation was in fact written by the apostle John, and is agreed upon by most scholars today. The word revelation or apocaylpse has two distinct meanings. In Latin "Revelatio" means unveiling and in Greek "apokalypsis means the removing of a veil. The purpose of this book is the revelation of Jesus Christ and the final judgement of the word of God. "The coming of sin into the world, the establishment of the economy of redemption, has necessitated the making known of truths not made known by general revelation. Therefore, God has given the special revelation brought to us in the Holy Scriptures. The scriptures reiterate the truths proclaimed in nature, in history, and in man himself; and, in addition thereto, declare the salvation which God has provided for mankind in Jesus Christ." (Unger 922). In retrospect, revelation unveils God's future plan for the earth and is written to be understood. Clearly the book of Revelation is the ultimate battle between good and evil. It is the time when all sin will be judged, demons will be cast away, and Christ will reign over the earth. This is the word of God showing us his plan for the retribution of his son Jesus Christ. By sending these words to John in a vision God is warning the people of the world to repent for their sins and that the time is drawing near. "John

National Guard Health Affairs

National Guard Health Affairs Background Study National Guard Health Affairs is an accredited healthcare centre that offers medical facility to Saudi Arabian people. The medical complex comprise of sophisticated medical cities that are located in various parts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Abdul-Aziz Medical City is its largest medical city, which is located in Rayadh.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on National Guard Health Affairs specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The hospital has almost all medical specialties and sub-specialties such as cardiac surgery, dental, oncology among other specialties. National Guard Health Affairs vision is its appraisal as a global acclaimed centre for excellence in promoting health care. Its mission entails providing high quality healthcare facility to Saudi Arabians, as well as other eligible patients. In addition, National Guard Health Affairs provides education opportunity to its employees. Moreover, it engages i n health related researches in order to provide solutions to various health related diseases. Moreover, National Guard Health Affairs participates in community and industrial health service programs that to enhance the health care of Saudi Arabian people (National Guard Health Affairs 2012). National Guard Health Affairs Strategies National Guard Health Affairs has adopted various strategies to enable it to become a recognized international centre for excellence in healthcare provision. The hospital has invested in highly competent human resource in order to ensure that the patient who visit the hospital receive high quality services. The hospital has very educated and specialized physicians such as cardiac surgery specialties, oncology specialties, pediatrics specialties, as well as highly qualified and competent dentists. In order to augment the skills of its highly competent staffs, the hospital offers training facilities to non-physicians staffs. The employees who receive supple mentary trainings and development programs in the centre are mainly the technicians, paramedics, as well as administrative workers. Some of the courses that foreign employees get at National Guard Health Affairs are Arabic languages that are instrumental in facilitating communication with those who cannot comprehend other languages. In addition, Saudi Arabian employees receive English language to assist them in their communication processes. National Guard Health Affairs has also noted that technology is essential for proper healthcare provision. In facilitating patients’ records and inter-departmental communication, the National Guard Health Affairs has implemented a total automated health information system. The IT infrastructure has greatly improved the tracking of patients’ records such as prescriptions and lab results, which has is associated in reducing medical errors considerably.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can h elp you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More National Guard Health Affairs is one of the few healthcare facilities that have fully implemented Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and one of the leading clinical information system that comprise of centralized computerized patient records (National Guard Health Affairs 2012). The implementation of an efficient IT framework has greatly enabled the hospital to achieve paperless as well as filmless healthcare organization that is associated with high patient care and improved efficiency and effectiveness. At the present, National Guard Health Affairs is adopting Enterprise Electronic Image Processing and Image Storage in all its Medical Imaging, Cardiac and Dental facilities as a strategy to enhance its technological development for high quality health care. Fully integration of filmless technology will assist in overcoming the environmental challenges that accompany film-screen system, film chemistry, as well as its disposal, which are associated with radiations emissions, which are harmful to our health (Croll 2008). Apart from being highly effective in curative services, National Guard Health Affairs is committed in the collection and analysis of infection control data. The data collected is very essential in risk assessment as well as in putting appropriate prevention and control strategies to stop the spread of infectious diseases. National Guard Health Affairs is committed in facilitating surveillance monitoring in order to control widespread of infectious illness. The centre also facilitates the education of patients, as well as their visitors about individual hygiene and community health initiatives as a measure to manage the spread of infectious diseases (Riyadh 2012). Strength of National Guard Health Affairs Strategies National Guard Health Affairs has very competent workforce that enables it to offer very high quality services to those patients who uses its facilities. The hospit al recruits very competent workforce and provides training programs, which help in upgrading the skills and knowledge of its employees. The competency of its workforce has greatly enabled the hospital to continue growing both in the number of patients, it serves, as well as in the efficiency and effectiveness of its services delivery. National Guard Health Affairs has a very intensive technology. The hospital has been equipped with the latest health technologies to facilitate effective and efficient delivery of health care. National Guard Health Affairs has adopted ERP systems that facilitate patient record tracking, interdepartmental communications, as well as diagnostic processes. The hospital is in the process of upgrading its x-ray departments to adopt a more efficient and environmental friendly technology. The hospital is adopting Radiology Information System and Picture Archiving and Communication System technology that will do away with the traditional method of film screen s ystem and replace it with filmless technologies that is more efficient and does not emit radiation particles.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on National Guard Health Affairs specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Moreover, National Guard Health Affairs is renowned in its ability to engage in surveillance and monitoring activities that have helped the hospital to be very effective in the prevention and control of infectious diseases (Ahmad Housen 2012). Weakness of National Guard Health Affairs Although National Guard Health Affairs has training facility for its non-physician staffs, the centre does not have a training facility for its physicians. The absence of training facility for physicians in National Guard Health Affairs means that the hospital relies totally on physicians from outside whom the hospital them huge salaries in order attract and retain competent doctors. This means that the hospital spends a considerable amount of its revenue in paying its doctors (InfoNet 2012). Moreover, there is no enough well trained, local and qualified staff. Opportunities of National Guard Health Affairs Since National Guard Health Affairs has learning institution that it uses in training its non-physicians staffs, it should equip the institution with appropriate human as well as technological resources in order to use it in training physicians. The availability of the college is a good opportunity for the hospital, as it will not require investing a lot of money to upgrade the institution in order to be an accredited college that can offer medical courses up to graduate level. By training medical doctors, National Guard Health Affairs will have enough supply of doctors and it will not use a lot of its revenue to source for doctors who it pays huge salaries (Afifi Berner 2007). In addition, it offers its employees sponsorship to go to Canada and U.S. Threats of National Guard Health Affairs There are many e mergent private hospitals in Saudi Arabia that competes stiffly with National Guard Health Affairs. Many investors have invested in private hospitals, as well as many Saudi Arabian doctors establishing their own clinics from where they attend their private patients. There are new governmental medical cities with high-qualified staff that offers high quality services. In addition, the new medical cities and private hospitals offer their employees huge salaries, which brings high turnover of employees in the hospital to the government and private hospitals.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Political factors affecting National Guard Health Affairs The Saudi Arabia government allocated 4 billion Riyals for ehealth programs. This fund greatly assisted National Guard Health Affairs to adopt a comprehensive information technology infrastructure (Acuff 2010). Moreover, NGHA should not accept non-eligible patients. Approximately 50% of NGHA patients are non-eligible in NGHA but because they are, Saudi and they need treatment they have letter of exception to have treatment in NGHA. Economic Factors National Guard Health Affairs Saudi Arabia is a country that has a very strong Gross Domestic Product. Over 80% of its budget comes from petroleum sector. The GDP of Saudi Arabia expanded from 5% to 6.8% in the year 2011. Saudi Arabia therefore, has a booming economy that has greatly facilitated the expansion of National Guard Health Affairs (Emoblis 2012). Social Factors National Guard Health Affairs Some of NGHA customers came from low socio economic class – illiterate bec ause of this NGHA need to invest more budgets in health promotion (Hooper, Smith, Qahtani, Memish Schlangen 2008). Environmental Factors The great fluctuation of weather in Saudi Arabia whereby during the day its very hot while at night very cold is associated with many bronchitis infections. Legal National Guard Health Affairs is instrumental in the Convention on the Right of the Child. National Guard Health Affairs is supporting the enacting of appropriate legislation that will help in controlling child abuse and negligence. Technological Factors National Guard Health Affairs Saudi Arabia health care has high technology. The National Guard Health Affairs has all its hospitals highly computerized. All processes in the hospital are computerized. The hospital has implemented ERP systems that are very effective and efficient in coordinating patients’ information. The information systems facilitate in diagnostic, tracking of patients information, as well as in communication pro cesses (Tech Target 2009). In order to optimize the strategy of NGHA, the researcher recommends for management of the hospital to increase the salaries of its employees in order to reduce the high turnover of its competent workforce to private and government hospitals. Moreover, the facility should start its own training college for training physicians. Training of doctors will ensure that NGHA will always have enough supply of doctors. NGHA has some patients that are illiterate and come from poor background. Therefore, NGHA should extend its surveillance program and increase its education programs on teaching them about prevention methods. This activity was importance as it enabled me to learn on how I can use business analysis tools such as SWOT and PESTLE analysis to assess the strategies adopted by an organization identify weakness and recommend appropriate solutions. In conclusion: National Guard Health Affairs has established efficient and effective strategies that have suppor t its superb performance. The facility has very competent workforce and the health facilities have been highly automated to facilitate efficient execution of tasks. However, National Guard Health Affairs will require starting a college for training doctors to avoid overlying on foreign physicians, as well as topping the salaries of its employees to stop losing them to government and private hospitals. List of References Acuff, K. 2010, Definition of Healthcare Policy. Web. Afifi, M. Berner, A. 2007, Research Policy in the Arab World: Lost in Translation. The Middle East Journal of Family Medicine, Vol.5, no. 6, pp. 148-196. Ahmad, D. Housen, M. 2012, A perspective on the Influence of Health Policy on Health Technology Use Within the Arab World, Journal of Health Informatics in Developing Countries, Vol. 6, no.1 pp.375-384. Croll, P. 2008, Special Issue: Health Information Privacy and Security, Electronic Journal of Health Informatics, Vol.5, no.1, pp. 1446-436. Emoblis, K. 2012, S audi Arabia GDP Growth Rate. Web. Hooper, T., Smith, T., Qahtani, M., Memish D., Schlangen, K. 2008, Saudi Arabia-United States Collaboration in Health Research: A formula for Success. Web. InfoNet 2012, PESTLE and SWOT Analysis. Web. National Guard Health Affairs, 2012, Patient Services. Web. National Guard Health Affairs, 2012, Training and Development. Web. Tech Target 2009, What is Health Information Technology and Policy Briefing Book. Web. Riyadh, 2012, Infection Control Practitioner. Web.

Sequences on ACT Math Strategy Guide and Review

Sequences on ACT Math Strategy Guide and Review SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Sequences are patterns of numbers that follow a particular set of rules. Whether new term in the sequence is found by an arithmetic constant or found by a ratio, each new number is found by a certain rule- the same rule- each time. There are several different ways to find the answers to the typical sequence questions- †What is the first term of the sequence?†, â€Å"What is the last term?†, â€Å"What is the sum of all the terms?†- and each has its benefits and drawbacks. We will go through each method, and the pros and cons of each, to help you find the right balance between memorization, longhand work, and time strategies. This will be your complete guide to ACT sequence problems- the various types of sequences there are, the typical sequence questions you’ll see on the ACT, and the best ways to solve these types of problems for your particular ACT test taking strategies. Before We Begin Take note that sequence problems are rare on the ACT, never appearing more than once per test. In fact, sequence questions do not even appear on every ACT, but instead show up approximately once every second or third test. What does this mean for you? Because you may not see a sequence at all when you go to take your test, make sure you prioritize your ACT math study time accordingly and save this guide for later studying. Only once you feel you have a solid handle on the more common types of math topics on the test- triangles (comng soon!), integers, ratios, angles, and slopes- should you turn your attention to the less common ACT math topics like sequences. Now let's talk definitions. What Are Sequences? For the purposes of the ACT, you will deal with two different types of sequences- arithmetic and geometric. An arithmetic sequence is a sequence in which each term is found by adding or subtracting the same value. The difference between each term- found by subtracting any two pairs of neighboring terms- is called $d$, the common difference. -5, -1, 3, 7, 11, 15†¦ is an arithmetic sequence with a common difference of 4. We can find the $d$ by subtracting any two pairs of numbers in the sequence- it doesn’t matter which pair we choose, so long as the numbers are next to one another. $-1 - -5 = 4$ $3 - -1 = 4$ $7 - 3 = 4$ And so on. 12.75, 9.5, 6.25, 3, -0.25... is an arithmetic sequence in which the common difference is -3.25. We can find this $d$ by again subtracting pairs of numbers in the sequence. $9.5 - 12.75 = -3.25$ $6.25 - 9.5 = -3.25$ And so on. A geometric sequence is a sequence of numbers in which each successive term is found by multiplying or dividing by the same amount each time. The difference between each term- found by dividing any neighboring pair of terms- is called $r$, the common ratio. 212, -106, 53, -26.5, 13.25†¦ is a geometric sequence in which the common ratio is $-{1/2}$. We can find the $r$ by dividing any pair of numbers in the sequence, so long as they are next to one another. ${-106}/212 = -{1/2}$ $53/{-106} = -{1/2}$ ${-26.5}/53 = -{1/2}$ And so on. Though sequence formulas are useful, they are not strictly necessary. Let's look at why. Sequence Formulas Because sequences are so regular, there are a few formulas we can use to find various pieces of them, such as the first term, the nth term, or the sum of all our terms. Do take note that there are pros and cons for memorizing formulas. Pros- formulas are a quick way to find your answers, without having to write out the full sequence by hand or spend your limited test-taking time tallying your numbers. Cons- it can be easy to remember a formula incorrectly, which would lead you to a wrong answer. It also is an expense of brainpower to memorize formulas that you may or may not even need come test day. If you are someone who prefers to use and memorize formulas, definitely go ahead and learn these! But if are not, then you are still in luck; most (though not all) ACT sequence problems can be solved longhand. So if you have the patience- and the time to spare- then don’t worry about memorizing formulas. That all being said, let’s take a look at our formulas so that those of you who want to memorize them can do so and so that those of you who don’t can still understand how they work. Arithmetic Sequence Formulas $$a_n = a_1 + (n - 1)d$$ $$\Sum \terms = (n/2)(a_1 + a_n)$$ These are our two important arithmetic sequence formulas and we will go through how each one works and when to use them. Terms Formula $a_n = a_1 + (n - 1)d$ If you need to find any individual piece of your arithmetic sequence, you can use this formula. First, let us talk about why it works and then we can look at some problems in action. $a_1$ is the first term in our sequence. Though the sequence can go on infinitely, we will always have a starting point at our first term. $a_n$ represents any missing term we want to isolate. For instance, this could be the 4th term, the 58th, or the 202nd. Why does this formula work? Well let’s say we wanted to find the 2nd term in the sequence. We find each new term by adding our common difference, or $d$, so the second term would be: $a_2 = a_1 + d$ And we would then find the 3rd term in the sequence by adding another $d$ to our existing $a_2$. So our 3rd term would be: $a_3 = (a_1 + d) + d$ Or, in other words: $a_3 = a_1 + 2d$ And the 4th term of the sequence, found by adding another $d$ to our existing third term, would continue this pattern: $a_4 = (a_1 + 2d) + d$ Or $a_4 = a_1 + 3d$ So, as you can see, each term in the sequence is found by adding the first term to $d$, multiplied by $n - 1$. (The 3rd term is $2d$, the 4th term is $3d$, etc.) So now that we know why the formula works, let’s look at it in action. What is the difference between each term in an arithmetic sequence, if the first term of the sequence is -6 and the 12th term is 126? 3 4 6 10 12 Now, there are two ways to solve this problem- using the formula, or finding the difference and dividing by the number of terms between each number. Let’s look at both methods. Method 1: Arithmetic Sequence Formula If we use our formula for arithmetic sequences, we can find our $d$. So let us simply plug in our numbers for $a_1$ and $a_n$. $a_n = a_1 + (n - 1)d$ $126 = -6 + (12 - 1)d$ $126 = -6 + 11d$ $132 = 11d$ $d = 12$ Our final answer is E, 12. Method 2: finding difference and dividing Because the difference between each term is regular, we can find that difference by finding the difference between our terms and then dividing by the number of terms in between them. Note: be very careful when you do this! Though we are trying to find the 12th term, there are NOT 12 terms between the first term and the 12th- there are actually 11. Why? Let’s look at a smaller scale sequence of 3 terms. 4, __, 8 If you wanted to find the difference between these terms, you would again find the difference between 4 and 8 and divide by the number of terms separating them. You can see that there are 3 total terms, but 2 terms separating 4 and 8. 1st: 4 to __ 2nd: __ to 8 When given $n$ terms, there will always be $n - 1$ terms between the first number and the last. So, if we turn back to our problem, now we know that our first term is -6 and our 12th is 126. That is a difference of: $126 - -6$ $126 + 6$ $132$ And we must divide this number by the number of terms between them, which in this case is 11. $132/11$ $12$ Again, the difference between each number is E, 12. As you can see, the second method is just another way of using the formula without actually having to memorize the formula. How you solve these types of questions completely depends on how you like to work and your own personal ACT math strategies. Sum Formula $\Sum \terms = (n/2)(a_1 + a_n)$ This formula tells us the sum of the terms in an arithmetic sequence, from the first term ($a_1$) to the nth term ($a_n$). Basically, we are multiplying the number of terms, $n$, by the average of the first term and the nth term. Why does this work? Well let’s look at an arithmetic sequence in action: 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19 This is an arithmetic sequence with a common difference, $d$, of 3. A neat trick you can do with any arithmetic sequence is to take the sum of the pairs of terms, starting from the outsides in. Each pair will have the same exact sum. So you can see that the sum of the sequence is $23 * 3 = 69$. In other words, we are taking the sum of our first term and our nth term (in this case, 19 is our 6th term) and multiplying it by half of $n$ (in this case $6/2 = 3$). Another way to think of it is to take the average of our first and nth terms- ${4 + 19}/2 = 11.5$ and then multiply that value by the number of terms in the sequence- $11.5 * 6 = 69$. Either way, you are using the same basic formula, so it just depends on how you like to think of it. Whether you prefer $(n/2)(a_1 + a_n)$ or $n({a_1 + a_n}/2)$ is completely up to you. Now let’s look at the formula in action. Andrea is selling boxes of cookies door-to-door. On her first day, she sells 12 boxes of cookies, and she intends to sell 5 more boxes per day than on the day previous. If she meets her goal and sells boxes of cookies for a total of 10 days, how many boxes total did she sell? 314 345 415 474 505 As with almost all sequence questions on the ACT, we have the choice to use our formulas or do the problem longhand. Let’s try both ways. Method 1: formulas We know that our formula for arithmetic sequence sums is: $\Sum = (n/2)(a_1 + a_n)$ In order to plug in our necessary numbers, we must find the value of our $a_n$. Once again, we can do this via our first formula, or we can find it by hand. As we are already using formulas, let us use our first formula. $a_n = a_1 + (n - 1)d$ We are told that the first term in our sequence is 12. We also know that she sells cookies for 10 days and that, each day, she sells 5 more boxes of cookies. This means we have all our pieces to complete this formula. $a_n = 12 + (10 - 1)5$ $a_10 = 12 + (9)5$ $a_10 = 12 + 45$ $a_10 = 57$ Now that we have our value for $a_n$ (in this case $a_10$), we can complete our sum formula. $(n/2)(a_1 + a_n)$ $(10/2)(12 + 57)$ $5(69)$ $345$ Our final answer is B, 345. Method 2: longhand Alternatively, we can solve this problem by doing it longhand. It will take a little longer, but this way also carries less risk of mis-remembering a formula. The decision is, as always, completely up to you on how you choose to solve these kinds of questions. First, let us write out our sequence, beginning with 12 and adding 5 to each subsequence number, until we find our nth (10th) term. 12, 17, 22, 27, 32, 37, 42, 47, 52, 57 Now, we can either add them up all by hand- $12 + 17 + 22 + 27 + 32 + 37 + 42 + 47 + 52 + 57 = 345$ Or we can use our arithmetic sequence sum trick and divide the sequence into pairs. We can see that there are 5 pairs of 69, so $5 * 69 = 345$. Again, our final answer is B, 345. Whoo! Only one more formula to go! Geometric Sequence Formulas $$a_n = a_1( r^{n - 1})$$ (Note: there is a formula to find the sum of a geometric sequence, but you will never be asked to find this on the ACT, and so it is not included in this guide.) This formula, as with the first arithmetic sequence formula, will help you find any number of missing pieces in your sequence. Given two pieces of information about your sequence ($a_n$ $a_1$, $a_1$ $r$, or $a_n$ $r$), you can find the third. And, as always with sequences, you have the choice of whether to solve your problem longhand or with a formula. What is the first term in a geometric sequence if each number is found by multiplying the previous term by -3 and the 8th term is 4,374? -0.222 0.667 -2 6 -18 Method 1: formula If you’re one for memorizing formulas, we can simply plug in our values into our equation in place of $a_n$, $n$, and $r$ in order to solve for $a_1$. $a_n = a_1( r^{n - 1})$ $4374 = a_1(-3^{8 - 1})$ $4374 = a_1(-3^7)$ $4374 = a_1(-2187)$ $-2 = a_1$ So our first term in the sequence is -2. Our final answer is C, -2. Method 2: longhand Alternatively, as always, we can take a little longer and solve them problem by hand. First, set out our number of terms in order to keep track of them, with our 8th term, 4374, last. ___, ___, ___, ___, ___, ___, ___, 4374 Now, let’s divide each number by -3 down the sequence until we reach the beginning. ___, ___, ___, ___, ___, ___, -1458, 4374 ___, ___, ___, ___, ___, 486, -1458, 4374 And, if we keep going thusly, we will eventually get: -2, 6, -18, 54, -162, 486, -1458, 4374 Which means that we can see that our first term is -2. Again, our final answer is C, -2. As with all sequence solving methods, there are benefits and drawbacks to solving the question in each way. If you choose to use formulas, make very sure you can remember them exactly. And if you solve the questions by hand, be very careful to find the exact number of terms in the sequence. The ACT will always provide bait answers for anyone who is one or two terms off the nth term- in this problem, if you had accidentally assigned 4374 as the 7th term or the 9th term, you would have chosen answer B or D. Once you find the strategy that works best for you, the pieces will all fall into place. Typical ACT Sequences Questions Because all sequence questions on the ACT can be solved (if sometimes arduously) without the use or knowledge of sequence formulas, the test-makers will only ever ask you for a limited number of terms or the sum of a small number of terms (usually less than 12). As we saw above, you may be asked to find the 1st term in a sequence, the nth term, the difference between your terms (whether a common difference, $d$, or a common ratio, $r$), or the sum of your terms in arithmetic sequences only. You also may be asked to find an unusual twist on a sequence question that combines your knowledge of sequences. For example: What is the sum of the first 5 terms of an arithmetic sequence in which the 6th term is 14 and the 11th term is 22? 2.2 6.0 12.4 32.6 46.0 Again, let us look at both formulaic and longhand methods for how to solve a problem like this. Method 1: formulas In order to find our common difference, we can use our main arithmetic sequence formula. But this time, instead of beginning with the actual $a_1$, we are beginning with our 6th term, as this is what we are given. Essentially, we are designating our 6th term as our 1st term and our 11th term as our 6th term and then plugging these values into our formula. $a_n = a_1 + (n - 1)d$ $22 = 14 + (6 - 1)d$ $22 = 14 + 5d$ $8 = 5d$ $1.6 = d$ Now, we can find our actual 1st term by using the $d$ we just found and our 11th term value of 22. $a_n = a_1 + (n - 1)d$ $22 = a_1 + (11 - 1)1.6$ $22 = a_1 + (10)1.6$ $22 = a_1 + 16$ $6 = a_1$ The 1st term of our sequence is 6. Now, we need to find the 5th term of our sequence in order to use our arithmetic sequence sum formula to find the sum of the first 5 terms. $a_n = a_1 + (n - 1)d$ $a_5 = 6 + (5 - 1)1.6$ $a_5 = 6 + (4)1.6$ $a_5 = 6 + 6.4$ $a_5 = 12.4$ And finally, we can find the sum of our first 5 terms by using our sum formula and plugging in the values we found. $(n/2)(a_1 + a_n)$ $5/2(6 + 12.4)$ $2.5(18.4)$ $46$ Our final answer is E, 46. As you can see, this problem still took a significant amount of time using our formulas because there were so many moving pieces. Let us look at this problem were we to solve it longhand instead. Method 2: longhand First, let us find our common difference by finding the difference between our 6th term and our 11th term and dividing by how many terms are in between them, which in this case is 5. (Why 5? There is one term between the 6th and 7th terms, another between the 7th and 8th, another between the 8th and 9th, another between the 9th and 10th, and the last between the 10th and 11th terms. This makes a total of 5 terms.) This gives us: $22 - 14 = 8$ $8/5 = 1.6$ Now, let us simply find all the numbers in our sequence by working backwards and subtracting 1.6 from each term. ___, ___, ___, ___, ___, 14, ___, ___, ___, ___, 22 ___, ___, ___, ___, ___, 14, ___, ___, ___, 20.4, 22 ___, ___, ___, ___, ___, 14, ___, ___, 18.8, 20.4, 22 And so on, until all the spaces are filled. 6, 7.6, 9.2, 10.8, 12.4, 14, 15. 6, 17.2, 18.8, 20.4, 22 Now, simply add up the first 5 terms. $6 + 7.6 + 9.2 + 10.8 + 12.4$ $46$ Our final answer is E, 46. Again, you always have the choice to use formulas or longhand to solve these questions and how you prioritize your time (and/or how careful you are with your calculations) will ultimately decide which method you use. You've seen the typical ACT sequence questions, so let's talk strategies. Tips For Solving Sequence Questions Sequence questions can be somewhat tricky and arduous to slog through, so keep in mind these ACT math tips on sequences as you go through your studies: 1: Decide before test day whether or not you will use the sequence formulas Before you go through the effort of committing your formulas to memory, think about the kind of test-taker you are. If you are someone who lives and breathes formulas, then go ahead and memorize them now. Most sequence questions (though, as we saw above, not all of them) will go much faster once you have the formulas down straight. If, however, you would rather dedicate your time and brainpower to other math topics or to the method of performing sequence questions longhand, then don’t worry about your formulas! Don’t even bother to try to remember them- just decide here and now not to use them and forget about the formulas entirely. Unless you can be sure to remember them correctly, a formula will hinder more than help you when it comes time to take your ACT, so make the decision now to either memorize them or forget about them. 2: Write your values down and keep your work organized Though many calculators can perform long strings of calculations, sequence questions by definition involve many different values and terms. Small errors in your work can cause a cascade effect. One mistyped digit in your calculator can throw off your work completely, and you won’t know where the error happened if you do not keep track of your values. Always remember to write down your values and label them in order to prevent a misstep somewhere down the line. 3: Keep careful track of your timing No matter how you solve a sequence question, these types of problems will generally take you more time than other math questions on the ACT. For this reason, most all sequence questions are located in the last third of the ACT math section, which means the test-makers think of sequences as a â€Å"high difficulty† level problem. Time is your most valuable asset on the ACT, so always make sure you are using yours wisely. If you can answer two other math questions in the time it takes you to answer one sequence question, then maximize your point gain by focusing on the other two questions. Always remember that each question on the ACT math section is worth the same amount of points, so prioritize quantity and don’t let your time run out trying to solve one problem. If you feel that you can answer a sequence problem quickly, go ahead! But if you feel it will take up too much time, move on and come back to it later. Ready to put your knowledge to the test? Test Your Knowledge Now let’s test your sequence knowledge with real ACT math problems. 1. What is the first term in the arithmetic sequence if terms 6 through 9 are shown below? ...196, 210, 224, 238 7 14 98 126 140 2. What is the sum of the first 8 terms in the arithmetic sequence that begins: 7, 10.5, 14,... 143.5 154 162.5 168 176.5 3. Answers: D, B, E Answer Explanations: 1. As always, we can solve this problem with formulas or via longhand. For the sake of brevity, we will only use one method per problem here. In this case, let us solve our problem via longhand. We are told this is an arithmetic sequence, so we can find our common difference by subtracting neighboring terms. Let us take a pair and subtract to find our $d$. $238 - 224 = 14$ $d = 14$ We know our common difference is 14, and 196 is our 6th term. Let us work backwards to find our 1st term. ___, ___, ___, ___, ___, 196, 210, 224, 238 ___, ___, ___, ___, 182, 196, 210, 224, 238 ___, ___, ___, 168, 182, 196, 210, 224, 238 And so on, until we reach our first term. 126, 140, 154, 168, 182, 196, 210, 224, 238 As long as we kept our work organized, we will find the first term in our sequence. In this case, it is 126. Our final answer is D, 126. 2. Again, we have many options for solving our problem. In this case, we can use a combination of longhand and formula (in addition to the standard options of using either method alone). First, we must find our common difference between our terms by subtracting any neighboring pair. $14 - 10.5 = 3.5$ $d = 3.5$ Now that we have found our $d$, let us finish our sequence until the 8th term by continuing to add 3.5 to each successive term. 7, 10.5, 14, 17.5, 21, 24.5, 28, 31.5 And finally, we can plug in our values into our sum formula to find the sum of all our terms. $(n/2)(a_1 + a_n)$ $(8/2)(7 + 31.5)$ $(4)(38.5)$ $154$ The sum of the first 8 terms in the sequence is 154. Our final answer is B, 154. 3. Again, we can use multiple methods to solve our problem. In this case, let us use our formula for geometric sequences. First, we need to find our common ratio between terms, so let us divide any pair of neighboring terms to find our $r$. ${-27}/9 = -3$ $r = -3$ Now we can plug in our values into our formula. $a_n = a_1( r^{n - 1})$ $a_7 = 1(-3^{7 - 1})$ $a_7 = 1(-3^6)$ $a_7 = 1(-729)$ $a_7 = 729$ The 7th term of our sequence is 729. Our final answer is E, 729. You did it, you genius you! The Take Aways Sequence questions often take a little time and effort to get through, but they are usually made complicated by their number of terms and values rather than being actually difficult to solve. Just remember to keep all your work organized and decide before test-day whether you want to spend your study efforts memorizing, or if you would prefer to work out your sequence problems by hand. As long as you keep your values straight (and don’t get tricked by bait answers!), you will be able to grind through these problems without fail, using either method. What’s Next? Phew! You have officially mastered ACT sequence questions. So...now what? Well you're in luck because there are a lot more ACT math topics and guides to check out! Want to brush up on your ratios? How about your trigonometry? Coordinate geometry and slopes? No matter what ACT topic you want to master, we've got you covered. Feel like you're running out of time on ACT math? Check out our guide to help you beat the clock. Want to know the score you should aim for? Start by looking at how the scoring works and what that means for you. Looking to get a perfect score? Our guide to getting a 36 on ACT math (written by a perfect-scorer) will help you get to where you want to be! Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes what you study to your strengths and weaknesses. If you liked this Math lesson, you'll love our program. Along with more detailed lessons, you'll get thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Check out our 5-day free trial:

Term paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 3

Term Paper Example Unfortunately, the inevitability of the assignment and seriousness of my instructor compelled me to set aside some evenings to study your book. I never knew that it would have such a lasting impact in my life. A couple of pages down from the cover page were enough reason to capture my attention in totality. It was beyond my wild imagination that a deaf person like you could be superbly gifted to come up with such a piece. As demeaning as this previous statement may sound, I must say that I personally do not read much from it as you have taught me to appreciate your coined concept of â€Å"deafhood.† And since your book sought to convince radical sectors, I being included, that deaf communities are far from being objects of pity and benevolence, I choose to regard the deaf culture just as any culture as I even dig deeper into your book. As a child I have always tried to figure out what life as a Deaf person is all about. Walking down the streets you meet countless people with varied facial expression. Some of them have smiling faces; others frowned, while others show no emotion. Also, you encounter people with different disabilities such as blind, lame, among many others. However, there is this special group you may never know their disability not unless somebody whispers to your ears or you see them constantly making some â€Å"funny† gestures. I am talking about the deaf people. Indeed the plight of the deaf is unimaginable. It is hard for them to communicate with majority groups as the majority group does not understand their language and neither do they understand the language of the majority group. Noteworthy, though, the majority groups have the ability to understand the language of the deaf, but the dead do not have the ability to understand the language of the majority. It is at such instances that I always pause and ask myself why our policy makers have failed to recognize sign

Compare life in a big city to life in a small town Essay

Compare life in a big city to life in a small town - Essay Example First, city life is different from small town life in their capacity to have access to government institutions. For instance, most people would prefer to be examined by more qualified doctors and be treated in hospitals which have advanced technological equipment which are found in large cities. Additionally, the quality of education offered in large cities is much better than that of small towns. This is because schools in big cities have better qualified teachers and the institutions themselves have far much better facilities compared to those in small towns. This brings up the concept of lifestyle as it will be outlined below. The kind of lifestyle that people experience in large cities is remarkably different from the everyday life that people in small towns are used to. For instance, in small towns, houses have sizable gardens and several pets. Furthermore, there is a respectable distance between houses in neighborhoods due to lack of congestion. However, in big cities, people generally live in high rise buildings. Also, large cities have better social amenities like cinemas, gyms and games compared to those found in small towns which makes the lifestyles of those staying in the big cities sophisticated (Inforbarrel, 2013). In the same way that these two environments differ in their lifestyles, so do they vary in their general atmosphere. The kind of atmosphere that one experiences in a large city and a small town are very different. Large cities are crowded with millions of people and thousands of vehicles, which bring about traffic jams, noise and environmental pollution. In contrast, the roads in small towns are usually quiet with countable vehicles and fewer people present. For this reason, the general atmosphere in the big towns is typically hot, stuffy and smoky. However, people experience a much clearer atmosphere in small towns due to manageable populations and also because

Airborne Express case study Essay Example for Free

Airborne Express case study Essay Airborne Express, an air express transportation company has succeeded to compete with a few big competitors such as Federal Express and United Parcel Service (UPS) even it does not have funding as much as its competitors. In 1996, it held third position in the industry with 9 percent of the market. Even Airborne is smaller size company compared to its main competitors, it still can survive with the competitive advantage through its resources and capabilities. With some unique resources and core competences, a company may have competitive advantage over its competitors, and this is the way small capital company able to compete with its competitors. Airborne Express is the first and only air express transportation company that owns an airport. Because of the limited control, Airborne has purchased an airline at Wilmington in 1980. Since then, the airport became the hub of the company, and all the operations of the company were conducted here. It is also the biggest privately owned airport in United States. With the ownership of the airport, Airborne is able to control the operations more easily. Besides that, Airborne does not need to pay for any landing or service fees to the airlines company like its competitors. Comparably, Federal Express and UPS own the planes but still need to lease the airport from other party. It helps Airborne to save a lot of costs. Apart from that, Wilmington airport is one of the strategic airports in United States. It means that the place is having a well weather record. For express air transportation industry, weather is a big factor that can affect the daily business operation. If the weather is bad, the shipments will not be sent to the final destination at the promised time. Time is the promise to the customers and it does affect the confidence of a companys customers. Besides airlines, Airborne also has a complete system of ground transportation. With the establishment of trucking hubs in some places, Airborne able to deliver the shipment that near to the hub using the ground transport. Almost 25 percent of the companys domestic volume is dealt with ground transport. However, the cost of service by ground transport is not transparent to the customers who assume that the packages are flown. Thus, the charge is same with the air-transported goods. Compare to air transport, ground transportation costs five times lower. From here, the profit margin  has been increased. In the other way, the company also can offer lower price for ground transportation packages. Instead of making more profit, the company can utilize the low cost benefit to compete with its competitors. In 1996, Airborne Express owned a fleet of 105 aircraft. To keep the capital expenditure down, Airborne has purchased only used planes. The planes will be modified to suit its specification for air express transportation. The cost of purchase and modification is $30million lower than purchasing a new plane. Compare to other companies, a big amount of money is being saved by Airborne. Further more, Airbornes DC-9 and YS-11 aircraft require only two person cockpit crew compared to normal three person crews required in Federal Express and UPS. Labour cost has been saved again. Airborne also have its own maintenance facility in Wilmington. It is the only all-cargo carrier to do so. It can handle most if the maintenance works except major engine repairs. It was estimate that the labour costs of $16 per hour is $49 lesser than the subcontracted labour cost. It was a major source of annual cost savings. Instead of serving all kinds of customers, Airborne decided to focus on serving the needs of high volume corporate accounts. It is because the severe competition and the cost of serving small customers. The company is able to establish scheduled pickup routes and use it as ground capacity more efficiently. Due to this factor, the unit cost structure has been reduced. According to the Airborne executives, their unit cost is $3 lower than its main competitor, Federal Express. Besides that, because of the different consumer behaviors between different groups, the focusing of the service is one of the ways to win a part of market in severe competition. By matching the needs of the groups, the company will have a better chance to win the customers than its competitors. Another aspects that Airborne get competitive advantage is the creation of the only privately certified Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) in United States at its Wilmington hub. In a FTZ, merchandise is tax-free and no customs duty is paid until it leaves. It is a big attraction to the foreign companies. The companies can keep their inventories in Wilmington hub, and the inventories  will be delivered to the destination by Airborne when needed. The local companies that implement Just-In-Time policy will prefer the service very much. It is because the inventories cost will bear by the suppliers that keep inventories in Airborne hub. For foreign companies, not only can satisfy the needs of local customers, but also can save the cost of tax and duty paid. The FTZ is a good factor that will help Airborne to set foot into the international market. However, because of the capital constraint, Airborne still unable to compete with Federal Express and UPS in the international market. Normally, large sizes A-containers are used in the air cargo business. Around $1million per plane is required to install cargo doors to take A-containers. To solve the problem, Airborne has developed C-containers that are six times smaller, and can fit through the passenger doors of the aircraft. The equipment to load the C-containers also about 80 percent less expensive than the equipment needed for A-containers. The shape of C-containers also designed to allow maximum utilisation of the plane space. To prevent other competitors copy the design, Airborne has taken out the patent on the C-containers. Therefore, C-containers seem to be the speciality of Airborne Express. It helps the company to save a lot of costs. It is a long term cost savings because it involves in daily operation. Therefore, it also a long term competitive advantage over the other competitors. Apart from that, through its subsidiary company, Advanced Logistics Services Corp., Airborne is promoting a range of third-party logistics service. It provides customers with the ability to maintain inventories in a 1 million square foot stock exchange facility located in Wilmington hub. The customers can choose to manage the inventories themselves or subcontract to Airborne. In stock exchange service, third party will involve in the instruction for movement of the inventories. It easier the process of the movement of inventories, and also help the customers to minimise inventory holding costs. Airborne is the first and only air express transportation company that provide this unique service. It actually involves a complex system. Therefore, knowledge or human resource is very important in order to develop the system. Since it is the only company, customers who interested  with the stock exchange service will come to Airborne. The unique competence gives Airborne a competitive advantage. Science and technology is developing rapidly in the world. Information system becomes more and more important in the business world. The more developed system a company has, the more competitive advantage it gets. Airborne uses three information systems to help in its daily operation. LIBRA II system is a metering device and computer software that easier the transaction between Airborne and customers. It also lowers Airbornes operating costs. FOCUS is the main system provided by Airborne and it benefits customers the most. It is a worldwide tracking system that help the customers to track the location their package through Internet link. It increases the companys reliability and service quality. With the trust on the company, customers will be more confident to give the job. The third system is the Customer Linkage electronic data interchange program. It eliminates repetitive data entry and paperwork by the customers. It also a system that created purposely to benefit its customers. The company also benefits from lowering the costs by eliminating manual data entry. From all the resources and capabilities mentioned above, we could realise that most of the competitive advantages Airborne has over its competitors is through costs reduction. According to Porters Generic Strategies Model, Airborne is actually implemented a cost-focus strategy to get the competitive advantage. Because of the lesser capital, Airborne is unable to compete with the giant of the industry, such as Federal Express and UPS. If Airborne can be the cost leader in the industry, it can give a severe competition to the competitors. Besides that, the unique resources such as C-containers and Foreign Trade Zone are also giving core competences to the company. In conclusion, facing the competition from competitors that have powerful funding, Airborne not only can survive, but also get a strong position in the air express transportation industry. A correct and suitable strategy adopted by a company can change the company position. A company, which can fully and smartly utilise its resources and capabilities, it can have  competitive advantage over the other competitors and it really benefits the company a lot.

A Comparison Between Charlotte Brontës Jane Eyre and John :: English Literature

A Comparison Between Charlotte Brontà «'s Jane Eyre and John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men looking closely at the themes of Friendship, Loyalty and Integrity I have recently read Charlotte Brontà «s 'Jane Eyre' and John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice And Men' novels. They are both clearly different novels. First are both set in different time spans, the settings are different, Jane Eyre was set in rural Victorian England countryside, in comparison, Of Mice And Men was set in the Agricultural side of the U.S.A. Finally both genders of each novel are the same i.e. Charlotte Brontà « and Jane Eyre to John Steinbeck and George Milton and Lennie Small. I will be looking closely at the three themes and similarities between the two novels; these are Friendship, Loyalty and Integrity. I shall also be looking in detail at the differences between the two novels. Both these novels have many differences, The first main difference is the time and settings between the two novels, first of all Jane Eyre was set in 1847 in the rural Victorian countryside placed in England during the nineteenth century. Then the main character Jane Eyre and then the writer Charlotte Brontà «. This novel has been written in a first person narrative point of view, this attempts the readers to focus on the style of writing and emotions that occurred through the novel. This style of writing will enable the readers to get up close to the characters and the details given by them. " I don't know, I asked Aunt Reed once, and she said possibly I might have some poor low relations called Eyre, but she knew nothing about them". This shows how Charlotte Brontà « decided to write the novel in the first person narrative, this will again enable the readers to get up close and personnel, this will also get the readers some of her life as they were with her as it happened. This is one of the advantages of writing in the first person narrative. However a disadvantage of this style of writing is that us the readers our only able to read one point of view, but to me this is also another advantage because this novel suits the style of a first person narrative, Charlotte Brontà « has done this deliberately, so the reader can focus more on Jane Eyre and her life. In comparison John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice And Men' was set in the agricultural side, in the heart of the 1937 U.S.A. Also John Steinbeck wrote the novel during the great depression. John Steinbeck made the two main characters 'George Milton and Lennie Small'. This is another difference form Jane Eyre as the gender is all male however the main

Hamlet’s Values Prevail Essay

Mark Twain once stated, â€Å"It is curious – curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare.† The zealous struggles between internal and external gratification and somatic and ethical honour have incontrovertibly led to man’s continual battle for integrity – pride versus ethics. Religious teachings impart that one show respect to all and utilize the power of oration to convey ideologies; yet religious crusades have instigated the bloodiest and most deadly battles in human history. Man’s universal and timeless question asks whether it is ethical to defend one’s honour through brutality or if the use of language and moral lessons are sufficient to deliver the message. Analogously, William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet bequeaths enlightenment to its audience of the universal beauties and faults of mankind on the comprehensive debate of integrity. The tragic hero, Prince Hamlet of Denmark, vies to comprehend his uncomfortably altered environment, while he relentlessly endeavors to seek morality, logic, and reason in a world where corruption and greed autonomously dictate action. His mother’s precipitous remarriage, the tormenting death of his father, and the forsakenness Hamlet feels from those he held close lead him to render epiphanic cognizance. Shakespeare’s use of soliloquys bestows unto the audience a voyeuristic view into Hamlet’s personal meditations, highlighting Hamlet’s introspective state. Though his vulnerability and pathos at times render him ineffectual and indecisive, it is purely reflective of his humanity and that is what entices him to the audience. Hamlet is in an internal battle with the imperfections of the world around him. In the hypocritical nation of Denmark, Hamlet is thrust into witnessing indecencies, both externally and in his own home; thus Hamlet’s lack of action is conjured not by feebleness of character. It is the moral contradictions and duplicity in the world before him that hinder his actions; he operates therefore with ethics, prudence, and wisdom. Heroic valor sets Hamlet apart from the supplementary nobility in Denmark. After the enigmatic death of the erstwhile King Hamlet Senior, goes unquestioned, Hamlet’s morals compel him to seek answers. Before Hamlet can pursue the truth he must however come to terms with his mother Gertrude’s remarriage to his father’s brother, Claudius. Disappointment in his mother and grief for his father, lead Hamlet to his first soliloquy, wherein he describes the consequences of suicide and his mother’s immorality. Even in his melancholia Hamlet understand the magnitudes of â€Å"self-slaughter,† as â€Å"the Everl asting [has] fixed / his canon ‘gainst† it (1.2.135-136). His ability to look past the superficial transient benefits of iniquitous actions helps Hamlet to stay firm in his beliefs throughout his journey. Though dismayed as to how â€Å"rotten in the state of Denmark† it is, Hamlet expresses his emotions by reacting to his surroundings in a gallant manner (1.4.90). Upon meeting the ghost of the late King, Hamlet is incensed by the horrific crime his â€Å"uncle-father† has committed (2.2.399). However, Hamlet does not immediately take the words of the ghost as factual; in his second soliloquy he concludes â€Å"the spirit that [he has] seen / may be a devil† and that he cannot trust him without evidence (2.2.627-628). Hamlet decides â€Å"the play’s the thing / wherein [he will] catch the conscience of the king† (2.2.633-634). Hamlet realizes the depravity of slaughtering a man based on the conjecture that he is a murderer. He refuses to place such marginal worth on an individual life as to take it without knowing the truth. In the most famous soliloquy of all the Shakespearean plays, Hamlet debates the value of life and the consequences of death; Hamlet asks â€Å"to be or not to be† (3.1.64). Realizing that death is a misleading and temporary fix, as one knows not of what lies hereafter – possibilities of eternal suffering from â€Å"the pangs of despised love† and life’s unanswered questions – Hamlet concludes â€Å"conscience does make cowards of us all† and with over analysis action is lost (3.1.74-96). Though the ghost’s words attest to be true as the players reenact the murder of the late King Hamlet in The Mousetrap, Hamlet waits to execute his plan. Morality often stifles one’s acceptance and trust in others. As his family has forsaken him, his childhood friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern comply with the will of the king to remove him, and those living within the walls of Elsinore Castle perceive him to be insane, Hamlet has but one true confidant – Horatio. Hamlet’s most enlightening epiphanic moment comes as he prepares for the match against Laertes; he finally untangles the webs of deceit which have been clouding his moral judgment. He responds to Horatio’s worry for the battle’s conclusion by telling him, â€Å"not a whit, we defy augury † he further explains, man does not control fate; if it is meant to happen, it will (5.2.231-238). Hamlet has hitherto looked at life like a slow moving game of chess, evaluating each move he makes by weighing the consequences of the subsequent moves; he now understands he must leave his fate in the hands of providence. Hamlet’s dawdling journey comes to a rapid close in the final act of the play. During the match against Laertes Hamlet is made witness first hand to his â€Å"uncle-father’s† crimes; Claudius accidentally murders both Gertrude, with the wine he had poisoned for Hamlet, and Laertes, by the poisoned sword intended for Hamlet. Hamlet no longer stands idly by whilst the injustices of Claudius tear his country down. Though he too is poisoned by Laertes’ blade, Hamlet fights for the justice of Denmark and slays Claudius once and for all. The tragic resolution leaves a bloodstained Denmark distraught and uncertain, yet the heroic legacy of Hamlet’s valor and morality live on. Horatio recounts Hamlet’s tragic tale as Fortinbras of Norway captures Denmark. Hamlet is buried â€Å"like a soldier to a stage, / for he was likely, had he been put on, / to have proved the most royal† (5.2.442-444). Though Hamlet never wishes to be king, his pure humanity and strong morals prove to manifest his capabilities, even after death. It is integral for any actor playing the role of Hamlet to be well versed in the characteristics of his Hamlet predecessors, and to embrace their qualities while learning from their frailties. Whether on stage or on film, Hamlet is one of the most challenging roles for any actor to play. Two contemporary silver screen adaptations of Hamlet by Kenneth Branagh and Franco Zeffirelli portray the young Prince as a grieving individual vying to keep his virtue as corruption ensues. Branagh presents Hamlet’s famous â€Å"To be or not to be† soliloquy as the cinematic essence of the unraveling of Hamlet’s layers. Hamlet questions the meaning of right and wrong, while searching for his own purpose within the mirrors. Unfortunately for Hamlet, the mirrors neither hold truths nor divulge answers, thus he is left feeling a forsaken sense of betrayal. Branagh’s acting and directing are impressive in this scene, his emotions depict Hamlet’s internal conflict; he attempts to keep hold of his morals in a world void of any such ethics. Zeffirelli’s interpretation of Hamlet’s renowned â€Å"To be or not to be† soliloquy captures a darke r side the tragic hero. Though Mel Gibson’s superb acting highlights Hamlet’s emotional conflict of where he morally stands, the distrait directorial choice to locate the scene in the family crypt conveys too nefarious a mood and is confusing to the audience. Zeffirelli’s redemption comes in a glorious form – his interpretation of Hamlet and Horatio’s conversation in the play’s final act. Zeffirelli shows an excellent understanding of the play’s overall purpose. He depicts Hamlet’s epiphany as a monologue rather than the end of a discourse between friends. By omitting Horatio from the latter portion of this scene, the audience is able to see Hamlet’s shift in perspective develop on its own. Hamlet overlooks the ocean and its horizon as he decides let his fate rest in the ebb and flow of life. Contradictorily, Branagh, using Shakespeare’s original context, does not enhance the viewer’s perception of Hamlet’s conflict. Rather Branagh chooses to show the intimate relationship between Hamlet and Horatio. Kenneth Branagh’s brand of symbolism in â€Å"Hamlet† delves into the true meaning beneath the pages of Shakespeare’s written word. He surpasses the usual film adaptations of a drama, which fail to provoke the imagination. He probes the audience with strong symbolism forcing thought, questioning, and imagination beyond the physical. Franco Zeffirelli, dissimilarity attempts to engage the viewer by shortening the scenes and speeches apropos to the common Hollywood adaptation. While the pace may be more exciting, it loses in cinematic depth. A great production of Hamlet incorporates the strife between the external forces pulling man from his values and learned morals. Hamlet should be portrayed by his struggle to protect his humanity while those he cares for try to strip the essence of morality from him. As Hamlet traverses grief, the actor should have the emotional depth to connect with the viewer, and versatility to surpass the realm of pure poignancy to enter profundity. Hamlet’s instructions to the players should be heeded by any director â€Å"let your own / discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the / word, the word to the action, with the special / observance, that you overstep not the modesty of / nature† (3.2.17-21). Plays should convey a universal struggle of man and act as a window to the natural world, where the audience members are permitted to view the intimacies of a society contrasting their own – to this rule, Hamlet is no exception. Works Cited Hamlet. Dir. Franco Zeffirelli. Perf. Mel Gibson, Glenn Close, and Alan Bates. DVD. Hamlet. Dir. Kenneth Branaugh. Perf. Kenneth Branaugh, Julie Christie, and Derek Jacobi. DVD. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat. Simon & Schuster, 2003. Print.

Is Hamlet a man of inaction? Essay

Humans are creatures of habit, we get into a daily routine, and over time, learning from experience our mind equips itself to dealing with certain situations that we encounter on a regular basis, when this routine is broken by an unexpected event our minds can be inadequately equipped to deal with this because you can only learn from teaching or experience. When a lightening bolt strikes out of the blue; a death of a loved one or such we immediately see things from another perspective, something like this can make us see things in a whole different light, things that you once thought you were sure of can take on a whole new face and cause us to wonder how we were ever so stupid to see what may now appear blatantly obvious. This may be for the better or for the worse but in any case it will almost certainly cause a turnaround in how we may see things in the future, this is what makes us human, are ability to learn from experience and put it into practice to hopefully avoid a similar situation ever befalling us again. A personal tragedy will obviously affect every person differently, it all depends on how many comparable situations we have encountered before, how much we expected it and how much we are willing to accept that bad things happen and move on. For any student away studying at university in a foreign country to be recalled out of the blue for such a matter as the death of their seemingly healthy father, who has apparently lost his life in such an unceremonious way as being bitten by a snake while asleep would be a devastating experience. Even in a modern day world something of this nature has enough potential to cause someone so much distress and confusion that it can be emotionally destroying. Now put yourself in hamlets situation you are a seventeenth century prince, a scholar based in a sheltered world, a world where you are oblivious to the fact that people lie, that people can be two faced and it is unbeknown to you that people are selfish and will put there needs before yours and others and will push as many people out of the way as they have to, to get what they want. None of these are things that would ever be part of his thought pattern, this other world; he has never seen it ; never heard of it, for him his world is the world of a prince, a place where no-one would ever make a remark about you to your face or to anyone that may have the ability to let you know about it, a world with servants and sycophants where your wish is everyone else’s command, a world where the most emotionally distressing thing you are likely to encounter is that maybe your best tunic has not been properly pressed for you by your legion of servants. You can already see even before his discovery of his mothers marriage to his uncle and the appearance of  his fathers ghost, that, for a person so uninformed of real emotional issues as Hamlet, that this would lay waste to all his current feelings and desires, leaving him with nothing on which to cling to support him through this time of hardship and solitude. This is why Hamlet is the perfect lead for Shakespeare’s tragedy, here he is saying â€Å"what if? † what if someone so unprepared as hamlet was to have to face something like this? Would the fibres of his whole human existence hold up to what he is about to face? He is forcing a collision between two different ends a scale, not even the same scale, he is submitting a characters (albeit fictional) mind and emotions to the whim of his most unimaginably ill fated predicament. You can understand that when he makes his first appearance speaking to Claudius and his mother, he has a tangible sense of bitterness towards them, especially when they speak to him in such a way that you would think it not uncommon for a woman to marry her deceased husbands brother within only two months of him passing. They enquire why he still is in his mourning dress, and think it inappropriate for him to still be actively grieving as death is â€Å"common. † They do not seem able to accept that they have had time to mourn, and that to him his fathers memory is fresh in his mind and that he is still besotted with grief not only about the death of his father, but even more so about their marriage. Claudius denounces him as showing lack of respect to their marriage and that â€Å"’tis unmanly grief† (act I scene II line 94 pg 13 OUP) he also lets Hamlet know that it is â€Å"most retrograde of their desire† for him to return to university at Wittenburg. For young Hamlet of course the memory is still green, and he has the added emotional trauma of seeing his mother wedded to his dead uncles brother and we get a strong tone of insensitivity from both of them, especially Claudius, you can imagine that hamlet, after just finding out about their marriage would be in a very fragile emotional state and their lack of consideration of his feelings can only be making him question him trust for anyone and pushing him further away from them, and driving his grief deeper inside him causing him to suppress his anger after not being able to relate this to them.

Historical Events essays

Historical Events essays In the Baroque Period, there were many changes in belief, science, art, and music. Up to this period, the church controlled everything. The church had an influence over everything. This period could be described as the period when people start to change their ways. Now I will tell you about some of the very important people of this period. Sir Isaac Newton was a very important person in our history. Newton discovered how gravity and inertia work together to keep planets in their regular orbit in space. Also, Newton had a very mathematical mind. He was always solving math equations that had others baffled. Plus, he made new equations, which have helped our society by giving us better education and technology. That is enough about Sir Isaac Newton, now I am going to tell you about architects. There were many famous architects during this period. The first architect I will mention is Carlo Maderno. Maderno is famous for the Santa Susanna building in Rome, Italy. Giacomo Della Porta was famous for the Vignola building also in Rome, Italy. The last one I have to tell you about is Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Bernini did the Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi that also stands in Rome, Italy. I am sure there were many other architects than what I mentioned in this paragraph, but these are a few of the standout architects of the Baroque Period. The Baroque Period was very much a changing time and turning point for culture in Europe and the colonies. There will probably never be a period like this again. ...

Get Inspired By 21 Of The Best Content Marketing Examples In The Biz

Get Inspired By 21 Of The Best Content Marketing Examples In The Biz Content marketing has been around forever. *Fun fact* many accredit Benjamin Franklin as the first ever content marketer  when he published the yearly Poor Richard’s Almanack in 1732. Historical marketing fun facts aside, every marketer worth their salt has likely experimented with content marketing tactics. So much so, that the very concept might be starting to feel stale and overdone. But the stats speak for themselves, content marketing remains one of best tools in a marketers tool belt. Here’s what we know: 78% of consumers prefer getting to know a company through articles rather than ads. content marketing costs 62% less than traditional Marketing. Per dollar spent, content marketing generates approximately 3x more leads than traditional marketing. Companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5 times more traffic and 4.5 times more leads than companies that published zero to 4 monthly posts. 55% of marketers say blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority. 47% of buyers viewed 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep. Visual assets are the single biggest content contributor when it came to social media in 2017. After watching a video, 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online. 53% of content marketers use interactive content in lead generation efforts. Lead generation, sales, and lead nurturing are the top three organizational objectives for content marketers. Sources:  https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/why-is-content-marketing-important/;  https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics #didyouknow that #contentmarketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing?If you’ve become disgruntled with the state of your own content marketing and are feeling less than inspired, you’ve come to the right place. We’re breaking down 21 of our favorite content marketing campaigns to get your creative juices flowing. Download Your Free Content Marketing Template Bundle First things first†¦ what do all these amazing content marketing examples have in common? They are expertly executed and distributed seamlessly. Are you prepared to do the same? It’s going to be  awfully hard to rock your killer content marketing campaign if your implementation and team coordination is a mess. Download our free content marketing template bundle. It contains everything you need†¦ A content plan template to help you measure and learn from your success. An Email Marketing template to distribute and communicate your new initiative. A blog calendar template to plan every post ahead of time in one place. Download your *FREE* #contentmarketing template bundle to make planning your next campaign a cinch.Get More Organized Than Ever With When you’re completely fed up with managing spreadsheets, sifting through countless emails, and all the time-consuming meetings just to get your marketing team on the same page, considering upgrading to . It’s the only way to get all your marketing organized in one place. Get a bird’s eye view of everything your team is working on; and collaborate, plan and execute your entire marketing strategy in one place. From social media promotion to blogging†¦ you can plan it all with . No more bouncing from tool-to-tool or hacking project management platforms that weren’t made for marketing teams. brings everything you need into one place. Table of Contents Charmin Nerd Wallet IKEA Facebook Make-a-Wish Babylist Primary ASOS Wistia Hershey's Bank of America Headspace Zillow Four Seasons Magazine Nike AirBnB Save the Food Blendtec Pandora Shopify Glossier

Islam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Islam - Essay Example Sufis are not an ethnic or religious group. Sufism is a mystical movement in the Islamic world. The group was formed to counterweigh the increasing worldliness in the Muslim empire. The group was important in fighting rigid legalism in the orthodox religious leadership. Sufism searches for the direct mystical knowledge of divine love and knowledge. The group seeks to progress beyond mere intellectual knowledge into mystical experiences. Sufism has an important role in the formation of Muslim societies through educating masses and channeling their emotions. They are also important in that they have converted new regions into Islam. There are five pillar of Islam. The first pillar of Islam is the profession of faith. Muslims recite the creed as a way of bearing witness in the union of the faith. The creed is the profound statement that expresses a Muslim’s acceptance and absolute commitment to the Islamic faith. Prayer is the second pillar of Islam. The faith insists that the in dividual must have direct relationship with God. Salah can be performed alone. However, it is considered meritorious to perform Salah with a group. It is also permissible to pray at home and work. It is preferable to perform the Salah in a mosque. Zakat The third arm is almsgiving. The social responsibility is viewed as a divine duty in the Islamic service. Zakat prescribes the payment of the fixed proportions of the possessions of Muslims for the welfare of the less fortunate and the entire community (Ibrahim, 1997). The equivalent of 2.5 percent of a Muslim’s net worth should fall under this pillar in terms of commitment to the faith. This excludes family expenses and obligations. Sawm Fasting in the month of Ramadan is the fourth pillar of Islam. The fast is ordained in the Holy Quran. During the fast, Muslims seek a deeper perception of divine issues and personal worship. The fast is an act of self-control and heightened sensitivity to the needy. After the fast, Eid ul-Fi tr festival is held to celebrate the end of the fast. Hajj This is the pilgrimage to Makkah. This is the most significant manifestation of Islamic faith. Hajj is a once in a lifetime duty which is considered to be the peak of the religious faith (Ibrahim, 1997). In performing Hajj, pilgrims follow the orders of the ritual from Prophet Muhammad as performed in the last pilgrimage. 3. Contrast contemporary Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Shia and Sunni are two branches in the Islamic faith. The differences between the groups is said to have stemmed from political struggles which emerged after the death of Prophet Muhammad. Shin is said to have originated from Egypt and Morocco while Sunnis are said to have emerged from Saudi Arabia. While the Shiites are about 120 million in number, Sunnis are estimated to have a population of about 1.2 billion. Shiites have Imams, Ayatollah ul uzma, Allama and Mujtahid as part of their clergy (BBC, 2009). The Sunnis have Mullahs and Caliphs only. Shiites b elieve that their teachings originated from the teachings of Prophet Muhammad and they hold that his son-in-law, Ali, became his successor. Unlike the Shiites, the Sunnis believe that that prophet Muhammad was succeeded by his close friend Abu Bakr. Shiites believe

The Controversy Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

The Controversy Analysis - Essay Example When this got to the department of criminal justice, they complied and eliminated to provision of last meal in Texas. By examining some of the various article about the matter, I will discuss what various individuals think about the last meal and the strategies writers have used to strengthen their argument on the subject such as foreshadowing, pathos and logos. In Molly Hennessey’s article, it is evident that the writer wishes to appeal to the readers’ emotion and outrage by describing in vivid detail the quality and quantity of food that was requested by the prisoner as his last meal. The menu which has been described in other quarters as having been enough to feed a family reads like something out of a fives star hotel rather than the content of prison kitchen (Johnson). â€Å"two chicken-fried steaks with gravy and sliced onions; a triple-patty bacon cheeseburger; a cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and jalapeà ±os; a bowl of fried okra with ketchup; one pound of barbecued meat with half a loaf of white bread; three fajitas; a meat-lover’s pizza; one pint of Blue Bell Ice Cream; a slab of peanut-butter fudge with crushed peanuts; and three root beers (Johnson). The first thought that comes to one’s mind is how much did it cost to make that much, and that good food? In addition, why would they make so much food simply because a condemned man requested when it is illogical that even he could not have eaten even a quarter of it? The description easily appeals to the reader’s pathos and likely makes them feel a sense of outrage even before they have read the essay. Furthermore, the writer has foreshadowed a scenario where the prisoner either did not finish or refused to eat the food creating anticipation of more conflict. However, this was not the first application of pathos, from a logical point of view, it would be unfair to blame the prisoner solely for what happened

Describe the laws of thermodynamics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Describe the laws of thermodynamics - Essay Example To understand energy better, there has been that study called thermodynamics that seeks to study and understand the various forms of energy. First, energy has been defined as the capability of perform some duty, the ability to bring change. Therefore, in order to understand the thermodynamics, there have been laws established. These laws try to explain how heat also called Thermo travels through other forms hence the term thermodynamics. As such thermodynamics connotes the different character of heat (Bub, 2001, p. 570). Under the first law, Zeroth Law, we are made to understand that if three bodies are at equilibrium, then they would have the same character. For instance, three bodies under similar conditions would have same temperatures in a matter of time. The second law, First Law is understood in the context that some form of energy may be at rest and would be changed if some other force is applied to it. Then we have the Second Law, which seems so difficult to comprehend. It behaves differently under different circumstances (Bub, 2001, p. 572). Lastly, we have the Third Law, which states that there are some things that are totally hard to change for instance cooling something to a particular degree. It is definite that there would be some factors to affect the targeted temperature basing on the already mentioned laws. From the above, it is now important to state the different types of energy. These include fossil fuels, solar energy, nuclear energy, wind power, hydropower, and bio-fuel. All these types have their good and bad sides. With fossil fuels, it is easy to establish the plants and extract. They provide efficient and cost effective energy, and they can be located anywhere. Fossils are also easy to find and cheap to extract. However, they are so much of pollutants that they threaten the environment. Harmful gasses emerge from minerals causing the destruction of the atmospheric layers. Further, by getting them from the earth,

The Wetherspoons company in UK

The Wetherspoons company in UK JD Wetherspoon PLC is a UK based company involved in the development and management of public houses in the UK (REUTERS). The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and operates its business through 793 pubs all over the UK (WETHERSPOON). It provides food and a variety of alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks to its customers at competitive prices. Wetherspoon is known for its cheap drinks and food promotions. It also focuses heavily on its breakfast and coffee menus. In addition to traditional pubs, the company also operates newer styled bars providing a more vibrant and contemporary atmosphere under the Lloyds No 1 brand name. It also operates a relatively new hotel chain consisting of 16 hotels. Wetherspoon was founded by Tim Martin in 1979 with the first pub in London. In its early days, the company grew by opening pubs in unusual former retail locations. Over the 80s the company differentiated itself from other pubs by ridding itself of music, television and games and thus created a unique identity. In 1992 it was listed on the London Stock Exchange as a UK wide chain of around 40 pubs. Going public, provided wetherspoon with the required funding to expand and within the next four years the number of pubs in the chain quadrupled to 160. In the late 90s, the company diversified into the lodging business which still represents a very small proportion of their revenues. Over the past ten years wetherspoon has continued to expand and has successfully established a reputable network of pubs throughout the U.K. This report focuses on critically analysing JD wetherspoons strategic, financial and stock market performance over the past five years in comparison with its competitors and the industry as a whole. In conclusion the report will attempt to make recommendations to a potential investor regarding potential in the company. Strategic Analysis Pubs lie at the heart of British life and culture. Going to pubs has been one of the primary sources of entertainment in the country. According to the Social Issues Research Center (SIRC), an Oxford based not for profit social research organisation, over 75% of the adult British Population goes to pubs and over a third are regulars who go to pubs at least once a week (SIRC). This represents an industry with a customer base of roughly 37 million people. Broad business environment The broad business environment in the UK has changed drastically over the last decade. There have been about 300 pieces of government regulation in the public house sector along with tax increases, smoking ban, and changes in consumer lifestyles and attitudes towards going out and drinking. Pubs have needed to change with the times in order to retain their margins and remain profitable. Those successful have adopted an active strategy of evolving their business with the changing times. A detailed PESTEL analysis has been conducted to analyse the broad business environment and its effects on the Pub industry. Please see Appendix A for the full analysis. The most significant factors responsible for shaping the business environment in the pub industry have been discussed below. Political Factors The UK pub industry has been highly regulated over the past few years. On the other hand, alcohol duty is rapidly increasing and is many times more than in other European nations. This coupled with the rising VAT and increased government activism against binge drinking and alcohol abuse has made it difficult for the pub operators to operate and maintain their margins. Economic Factors The Global economic crisis has led to consumer spending cuts, thereby leading to a decline in pub sales. Moreover rising national minimum wage and aggressive price competition with supermarkets are narrowing pubs margins and leading to reduced profits. However government intention to ban sale of below cost alcohol might come as a slight respite to the pub industry. Social Factors The rising national concern over Britains alcohol habits, have manifested itself in a number of ways. People are beginning to fully understand the problem and the government is taking steps to curb binge drinking and alcohol abuse. The UK drinks industry has launched a huge campaign to address this concern and to make people more aware about the problems associated with irresponsible drinking. Technological Factors The advent of technology has changed societys idea of entertainment, shifting it more inside the confines of the household. This has led to declining public interest in pubs. Pub operators have also increased their investment in technology considerably, in order to enhance the pub experience. These include among others, investments in television systems for sports, electronic point of sale systems and refrigeration systems to store alcohol at precise temperatures. Environmental Factors Pub retailers are becoming environmentally conscious and have taken steps to recycle most of the waste products particularly food, in order to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill sites. This is a great opportunity for pubs to portray themselves as socially responsible. Legal Factors The Licensing law allowed licensed pubs to potentially open 24 hours a day. This has been a huge opportunity for the pub industry and has increased competition. The law is currently under scrutiny by the government. Any changes to it might have a major impact on the industry. The drink driving laws over the past few years have also been made stringent. This has resulted in consumers avoiding driving to pubs and preferring to drink at home in order to avoid committing a drink driving offence. The above factors have had a very profound impact on all the major pub operators. They have responded to the environment and adjusted their strategy in order to succeed in these conditions. There has been a strategic focus on innovation in the pub industry through food development, skills training, interior enhancement etc. With growth in alternative forms of entertainment, socio-political pressures on pub operator margins, and tough economic climate, most of the market players are looking to diversify into the relatively less volatile and high margin businesses. Industry analysis With over 50,000 pubs catering to over 35 million customers, the pub sector represents a highly fragmented industry. The industry consists of a few big players with a chain of pubs throughout the UK. The six biggest pub chains own only about 42% of the total number of pubs. The biggest players in the industry by turnover, along with their main brands and number of outlets are as follows. Source : Mintel Pub Catering UK September 2010 While wetherspoon operates only managed pubs at city centre locations in major towns and cities throughout the UK (MINTEL, 2010), the business models for some of the other major players in the industry are very different and diverse. Punch Taverns operated both leased and managed pubs. Although a major proportion of their business comprises of leased pubs, they still have over 800 managed pubs in the UK. Enterprise Inns on the other hand only operates leased and tenanted pubs. Greene King has a much more segmented business model wherein its operations are divided into over 2400 managed, leased tenanted pubs and restaurants, two breweries, and a number of wholesale depots. Marstons has a similar mix of activities with over 2100 managed and tenanted pubs and bars, five breweries and wholesale facilities. Mitchells and Butlers (MB) operates managed pubs and pub restaurants mainly in the UK, but also has a small number of pub restaurants (43) in Germany. A very small proportion of their total estate consists of leased and franchised sites. They are the largest operator of managed pubs with over 1800 managed pubs in the UK. Competition for the smaller 58% of the pubs is largely limited to players in the local market. For example an individual pub in Leeds only competed with other individual pubs in Leeds. In order to analyse the pub industry in detail a full analysis has been conducted based on Porters five forces framework (Appendix B). The major outcomes of the analysis are as follows Threat of Entry Starting up a pub is reasonably easy process due to an undifferentiated market, and fairly low set up costs. Obtaining the individual pub license is fairly straightforward. Besides easy access to supply channels and low cost capital, have led to a significant threat of entry. However, a large scale of operations, popular brand identity, experience in the industry and established distribution channels are essential to operate competitively in the industry. Moreover increased government legislation and extraordinary levels of taxation in the sector have made it unattractive to new entrants, thus restricting the threat of entry to some extent. Threat of Substitutes Supermarkets, restaurants, hotels and off licensing shops represent a group of substitutes to public houses. Supermarkets in particular enjoy huge economies of scale and are in a position to undercut pub-prices. The perceived performance to price ratio to the consumer defines their choice between pubs and their substitutes. Although supermarkets cannot replicate the value added services provided by pubs, with the global financial crisis affecting disposable incomes, consumers have become highly price sensitive, thus increasing the threat of substitutes to a moderately high level. Bargaining power of buyers Buyers bargaining power has traditionally been moderately high due to low switching costs and easy availability alternatives. Recent trends categorised by declining alcohol consumption, low consumer disposable incomes, consumer preferences of drinking at home have further increased buyers power. Bargaining powers of suppliers The bargaining power of suppliers is quite high as the industry due to the dominance of a concentrated group of suppliers. A number of suppliers own powerful brands and hence pubs have to buy from them in order to satisfy consumer demands. Moreover, supply agreements such as tied house contracts give the suppliers an upper hand. The high power suppliers mean that pub operators, who have their own breweries and wholesale depots, have an obvious advantage. Competitive Rivalry The industry has traditionally been a growth industry with most major players looking to expand and open more pubs. However, pub margins have declined over the years and large volumes have become increasingly critical for pub companies to survive. The threat of competition from supermarkets has also become significant and combined with moderately high threat of entry, and strong bargaining power of customers, has led to increasing levels of competitive rivalry. The industry is categorised by low levels of product differentiation and aggressive price wars between competitors. The declining alcohol consumption, sluggish market growth, high taxes and pub closure rates have resulted in aggressive competition for retaining revenues. The pub industry is in a state of consolidation. The business environment has been tough and falling margins has made it difficult for pubs to meet their costs. With pub closure rates having reached record levels in 2009; all the major pub chains are in the process of reviewing and reorganising their business in order to adapt to the changing conditions. Wetherspoons Strategy Wetherspoon has adhered to simple principles of cleanliness, cheap drinks and good value food. With no music, wetherspoon pubs are seen as places where people can interact with friends over a round of drinks or food. The principle strategy that separates wetherspoon from most of its competitors is its focus on the consumer. Whilst a number of competitors lease their pubs out and are therefore less concerned about the ultimate consumer, wetherspoon makes constant efforts to innovate and enhance the consumer experience. This has given them the competitive edge over their competitors and hence they have chosen to stick to the 100% managed pubs business model. Wetherspoon has traditionally been quick to foresee impending changes in the business environment and strategise in order to adapt. They have stuck to their low price high revenue pricing strategy. Their efforts to provide products at the lowest price possible has been considerable success in recent times as customers have become highly price sensitive and are looking for value for money. They expect their promotions to remain a key driver to high revenues. Wetherspoon is aiming at rapid organic and inorganic growth by opening up new pubs and developing and refurbishing the existing ones. The economic downturn has provided it with the perfect opportunity to expand given low property prices and continued profitability of their pubs. Wetherspoon plans to open 250 new pubs in the period 2009 2014 (RICHARD WACHMAN, 2009). Their expansion strategy involves taking over underperforming bargain pubs and turning them around to profitability. The company rents most its pubs as opposed to buying them in a bid to keep its debt levels low. This has approach has enabled them to reach a position where they have considerable amounts of money to invest whilst their competitors are finding it very difficult to service their rising debts. Wetherspoon is focussing on developing their high margin food and coffee business. Wetherspoon started opening their pubs at 7A.M. to capitalise on early morning coffee and breakfast demand. This has also led to increase in overhead costs but having been rewarded with a 40% increase in coffee and breakfast sales, wetherspoon will continue to focus on the diversified product mix to stabilise and improve their overall margins. The company have invested significantly towards improving their service and standards. They have focussed on personnel and training and are making efforts to enhance customer experience in order to further boost the value provided for the money they charge their customers. Their strategy involves a number of efforts to portray themselves as a responsible business by taking on ethical business practices such as proper implementation of Challenge 21, conserving resources, recycling waste and reducing energy consumption. Wetherspoons chairman, Tim Martin owns around 23% of the company. This helps to reduce agency costs as the objectives of owners and management are likely to be more closely aligned. His 31 year long experience in the industry gives wetherspoon a strategic advantage over its competitors. The companys CEO John Hutson, has also been with the company for more than 20 years. There have been a few problems with the companys management in the past, most significantly the technical breach of the Companies Act 2006 in 2008, when the company failed to file the interim accounts with the registrar of companies prior to paying the 2007 final dividend and repurchasing its shares from the market (JD WETHERSPOON, 2008). Such incidents lead to financial and reputational losses and dent the public image of the firm. More recently, the unexpected resignations of the companys finance director Keith Down and its cheif operating officer Paul Harbottle have raised concerns about the managerial longevity of its board of directors. Financial Statement Analysis This section will analyse wetherspoons financial performance over the past five years as compared to its competitors and the industry in general. Of the competitors identified in the above section, Mitchells Butlers and Punch Taverns have a more similar business model to wetherspoon and hence their performance has extensively been used as a benchmark in this section. Year 2009-10 2008-09 2007-08 2006-07 2005-06 Revenues (Â £million) 996.33 955.12 907.50 888.47 847.52 Table: Wetherspoons revenues for the past five years Turnover and Profitability Wetherspoon has experienced consistent growth in revenues over the past decade. Rebasing the revenue at the 2006 levels, wetherspoon seem to have outperformed most of the competition in terms of revenue. Although its revenue growth is one of the highest in the industry, it is still far behind Mitchells Butlers and Punch Taverns in absolute sales numbers. A significant proportion of Wetherspoons revenue comes from its new pubs. Over the past few years absolute revenues from new pubs has remarkably increased with wetherspoon opening more pubs year by year. In 2010, an extraordinary 97.68% of the growth in revenues was attributable to revenues from new pubs while like for like sales only accounted for 2.38% of the revenue growth. This is up from new pubs contributing 77.13% of revenue growth in 2009 and 57% in 2006. This indicates saturation in the revenue capacity of the already established pubs and exemplifies the importance of wetherspoons growth strategy to its revenues. Wetherspoons cost of sales (COS) is the highest amidst the competitors. Over the past five years, the wetherspoons average COS has been over 80% of revenue. This combined with other operating costs leads to an average operating profit of just under 10%. This is considerably low, compared to its competitors specially Enterprise Inns which has an average operating profit of over 55% in the 5 year period. The big difference in operating profit is to a large extent representative of the differences in business models of these companies. As JD Wetherspoon operates managed pubs only, the cost of retail sales is significant. On the other hand, the revenues of some of the competitors like Enterprise Inns, Marstons and Greene King are composed of the less costly rent, lease receipts and proceeds from the wholesale sales from their breweries and other alcohol manufacturing facilities. Since wetherspoons activities are more direct cost intensive, the higher cost of sales is understandable. A unique factor which distinguishes wetherspoon from its competitors is the low and stable debt interest levels. Wetherspoons interest expenses on debt were lower by over 210 million as compared to Punch Taverns for the financial year 2009-10. Besides lower levels of total debt, a low effective weighted average rate of interest on debt has contributed to the smaller interest charge. While wetherspoon are able to borrow at an average of 5.47%, the weighted average interest on debt for Punch Taverns in 6.8% on secured loan notes and 6.5% on finance leases. This is either due to relatively good swap management of interest rate, a safer credit profile, or lower principle amount and maturity period of the loans. This gives wetherspoon a big competitive advantage and enables them to retain a sizeable proportion of their operating profit as Net profit. Excluding the interest charge, Punch Taverns net profit would have been higher than that of wetherspoon. This illustrates the real impact of interest on debt on the relative profitability of these firms. Wetherspoons exceptional items solely comprised of impairment of property and fixed assets and amounted to 10.6 million this year. This represents a steep reduction of 47% from last years figure of 19.9 million and is primarily attributed to no litigation costs and property related write downs. Wetherspoons net profit has been very consistent over the past few years as opposed to its competitors. The tough global economic climate and the hostile business environment in the pub sector have led to a sizeable decline in profits for both Punch Taverns and Mitchell and Butlers. On the other hand wetherspoons consistent growth in revenue combined with low relative impairment losses and interest on debt has enabled it to maintain a profit of 40.78 million in 2010. This is a 61% rise from its profits in 2009. This compared with losses of 84 million and 159.90 million from Mitchells Butlers and Punch Taverns, reflects an overall superior performance by wetherspoon in terms of profitability. As per the chart above, wetherspoons return on assets and return on capital invested are immensely higher than both of its competitors. The two ratios rose 37.42% and 48.78% respectively from their 2009 levels. These jumps are primarily because of the 61% jump in earnings and represents excellent management of resources by the companys management. Wetherspoon rents a majority of its pubs and hence has a low level of noncurrent assets. This is the primary reason for the high asset turnover and return on assets. Wetherspoons revenues are 1.12 times of their total assets as opposed to Punch Taverns 0.22. This astoundingly high ratio represents wetherspoons highly competitive pricing strategy and its low margin, high volume operations. Wetherspoons ability to extract over 3-4 times more revenue than its competitors, gives it a clear competitive edge. Liquidity A majority of the assets in pub businesses tend to be non-current and hence the short term liquidity ratios tend to be lower. Moreover since the current assets in managed and operated pubs are mostly cash and other very liquid items, slightly lower current ratios are not deemed to be very risky. Wetherspoons current ratio of 0.37 is amongst the lowest in the industry. This has been fairly stable over the past five years with a standard deviation of a mere 0.064. Mitchell and Butlers and Punch Taverns have much higher current ratio of 0.64 and 1.27 respectively. Similarly, Wetherspoons quick ratio of 0.18 is nearly a fifth of Punch Taverns ratio. Wetherspoons current and quick ratios are both the lowest and the most stable in the industry with standard deviations of 0.064 and 0.036 respectively. The incredible stability of the ratio indicates a strategic approach to business operations. Very low liquidity ratios generally mean trouble for businesses, as they are indicators of inability to honour short term obligations. Theoretically, if all the current liabilities need to be paid off, wetherspoon will not have to resort to selling its fixed assets in order to arrange for the payment. However, cash payments from its customers along with favourable and stable credit terms with suppliers ensure that wetherspoon are able to manage will low current and quick ratios. They attempt to keep the current ratio at a reasonably low level in order to extracts maximum value from their current assets. Nevertheless, a current ratio of 0.37 is too low compared to the competitors and hence liquidity issues are more likely. Punch Taverns liquidity ratios are a lot higher primarily due to a high amount of receivables mainly caused by its leased and rented pub business. In those businesses, punch taverns tenants are likely to have a payment period within which they can settle the rent/lease payments. This leads to a significant amount of trade receivables. On the other hand almost all of wetherspoons revenues are retail cash revenues and hence the receivables are either due to prepayments or accrued income Wetherspoons receivables are only about 10 of Punch Taverns which it converts into cash within 1.64 days. This is many times lower than its competitors. Moreover inventories held days is a mere 8.5 days representing a quick and highly efficient cash cycle. Gearing Wetherspoons business model of operating with low level of debt is quite unique in the pub industry. The company enjoys the lowest level of long term debt amidst its competitors. Wetherspoons long term debt of 411.64 million is just 8.6% of that of Punch Taverns. MB and Punch Taverns on the other hand have debts of over 2 billion pounds. A low level of debt despite an active growth strategy and a consistent rise in its plant property and equipment (PPE) is a rare phenomenon. Wetherspoons managed to make this happen by renting quite a few of its pubs and managing debt efficiently. The extraordinarily low levels of debt at wetherspoon are matched by an almost equally low relative level of common equity. As a result wetherspoons Debt equity ratio is not as different from its competitors. Wetherspoons total debts are 2.56 times its equity as compared to 2.89 for Mitchells Butlers and 2.42 for Punch Taverns. The ratio used to be 1.83 in 2006, before the company initiated massive share repurchase programme which was largely financed by additional debt. As per the above table, their Total Debt to Earnings before interest and tax ratio has been the lowest in the industry. Over the years, as other companies have taken more debt relative to their earnings, wetherspoon has continued to utilise its debt with the same efficiency in order to generate earnings. Dividends Wetherspoons dividend payout ratio is incredibly high for a company which is in the growth stage of its lifecycle. In 2010 wetherspoon paid 64.19% of its net income as dividends. This represents a 292% jump from the 2006 dividend payout and is the highest in the industry. While Mitchells Butlers and Punch Taverns havent paid dividends in the past two years, wetherspoon has continued to pay dividends at an average of about 39% of their net profit in the past 5 years. Wetherspoon declared a yearlong dividend freeze in during the financial year 2008-09 in order to direct its cash flows towards debt reduction. The freeze was ended in March 2010 once the new 530 million banking facility was renegotiated. Now with the financing issues sorted, a progressive dividend policy can be expected from wetherspoons management as a measure to signal a bullish future outlook. Cash Flow Analysis In 2009, the pub industry experienced a sharp decline in cash flow as most of the players make efforts to deleverage themselves post the credit crunch. Wetherspoons went from being a cash generator of 7.15 million in 2007 to a cash sink of 2.6 million in 2008. The financing outflows jumped threefolds mainly due to dividend payments of 17.38 million and repurchases of one million shares from the market. The net cash flow continued to be negative in 2009 primarily due to the repayment of long term debts to the tune of around 45 million pounds. Since then the cash position of the company has recovered and the company was a cash generator of 2.48 million in 2010. Wetherspoons has a positive growth in cash inflow from operating activities, but the overall level of operating inflow is low. While Punch Taverns operating inflows are declining due to dwindling revenue and profits, Mitchells and Butlers in contrast, enjoy a much better cash flow from operating activities and hence has access to a bigger pool of funds for its investing and financing activities. Wetherspoons growth policy has led to increased cash outflows from investing activities by over twice the amount in 2006. On the contrary Mitchells Butlers has decreased their cash outflows in investing activities. This is due to their strategic sale of a number of pubs in order to concentrate on the high margin food business. Wetherspoons repayment of the USD 140 million private placement was accompanied by a further advancedment of 96.68 million pounds of long term loans. As a result the cash outflow from financing activities decreased significantly from last year. The total cash flow position would have been much worse, if the company hadnt put a freeze on dividends in 2009. Wetherspoons decision to not declare a final dividend for the financial year 2008-2009 ensured prevented a further cash deficit, given the high levels of capital expenditure in 2009. Accounting policies and Problems in Comparison Given the immaterial size of the companies hotel business, and no international operations, wetherspoon doesnt split its results by business or geographical segments in accordance with the IAS 14. Wetherspoon follows a historic cost model and does not revalue its non current assets. Punch Taverns follow the same method, however Mitchells and Butlers actively revalue its assets. This can lead to distortions in actual value of non current assets and makes them uncomparable. For example Wetherspoon unlike Mitchells Butlers ignores the effect of inflation on the value of its assets. While wetherspoon depreciates fixtures and fittings over a time period of 3-10 years, Mitchells and Butlers do it over a period of 3-20 years. This can further make the asset values uncomparable. Stock Market Analysis The FTSE 350 index seems to be very highly correlated to the FTSE 350 Travel and Leisure index. Prior to the subprime crisis, the travel and leisure index seems to be doing marginally better, while post crisis, the FTSE 350 has slightly outperformed the FTSE 350 travel and leisure index. JD Wetherspoon has outperformed both the indices almost all the time during the last 5 years except for a brief period in 2008 because of the immediate effect of the economic crisis. As per the above graph, JD wetherspoon has consistently outperformed Punch Taverns throughout the past five years. It has also better than Mitchells Butlers since the middle of 2008. This is primarily due to relatively higher revenues and profits at wetherspoon. Wetherspoons expansion strategy has enhanced its future outlook and given a boost to the companys share price. January 06 March 07 The period from Jan 2006 until the beginning of 2007 saw a very sharp increase in wetherspoons share price. While the travel and leisure index only rose up by around 25%, wetherspoon rose by a phenomenal 120%. The football world cup kick-started the 8 month long rally in the travel leisure index. Wetherspoon took advantage of the opportunity by abandoning its no television policy and showing the matches in its pubs. Moreover, they also started to establish a very strong foothold in the coffee and breakfast market. Besides strong financial performance in 2006, wetherspoons purchase of 800,000 of its own shares in September 2006 (REUTERS, 2006) , the interest of Schroder Investment Management in 12.05% of its total common shares, along with significant interests from Aegon UK and Global Value fund Sicav, were one of the primary reasons why wetherspoons rose to its all time high level of 761 pence in March 2007. April 07 September 2008 The smoking ban was implemented in the UK with effect from July 2007. As expected, the ban put immense downward pressures on pub revenues, thereby leading to a crash in share prices. The travel and leisure index crashed around 30% by the end of the year and wetherspoon lost 50% of its value. 2008 presented even worse economic conditions for the pub industry with the advent of the credit crisis. All major pub operators continued to face loss of revenues and hence saw a significant decline in their share price. The extreme volatility in credit markets forced Mitchells Butlers to shelve a 4.5 billion pound property deal (BLAND, Ben, 2007) leading to losses of 274 million pounds on hedges tied to the transaction. Moreover, failed efforts by Punch Taverns to acquire Mitchells Butlers, led to further decline in share prices of both companies. On the other hand Wetherspoon continued to strengthen its revenues due to increased revenues in its food business. In September 2008, wetherspoon d eclared a 5.5% increase in sales and a 12p per share dividend as opposed to zero dividends and huge losses by punch taverns. As a result wetherspoons share price started to consolidate and by the end of