Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Gold has long been a popular investment choice in emerging and Essay

Gold has long been a popular investment choice in emerging and developed economies. While portfolios become more diversified, allocations to gold remain significant - Essay Example It will also consider its place in credit driven economies, and its significance in compensating flaws of the banking system. Using survey, first hand observation and expert research; this paper will show that gold retains its popularity as an investment tool, which compares favorably with bank savings products. As a credit controller at the National Commercial Bank of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, I observed many misinformed invertors putting money in inappropriate investment products. These observations prompted my consideration of allocation to commodities such as gold. In order to diversify my portfolio I invested in gold at 1286 USD/Oz on April 28, 2014, and I have observed a 26 dollar per ounce increase in price following news of the escalation of the Ukraine crisis, the US job report, the devaluation of the Yuan and an increase in gold imports from China. However on June 2, 2014 gold dropped to around 1234USD per ounce after a sever hedge fund selling. Gold was sold, to cover losses on bonds as result of the rising yields. Simultaneously people were selling gold to buy stocks as good economic data boosted the US stock market. By June 10, 2014 the price of gold rose again to around 1260 USD/Oz, following a decrease in the US stock market. From this we can clearly see that gold prices are influenced by contrasting economic and political forces. From the behaviors of investors under negative world economic events, it is very clear that gold has an effective hedge against these assets and, therefore, it can provide diversification benefits to inves tors. As investors start questioning equity under these negative economic events gold will still remain a popular option. The survey was conducted to further investigate; the different attitudes to investments in gold, type of preferred investments, expectations of the market, and allocation to investments. In the survey, the main target was on professional and retail investors. The

Monday, October 28, 2019

Thinking Styles Essay Example for Free

Thinking Styles Essay According to Harrison and Bramson, there are six thinking styles: analyst, synthesist, pragmatist, idealist, realist, and spiritually-guided. In this paper, I will analyze the last three. An idealist is typically concerned with value judgments. He looks at the world with inquiring eyes, asking about what is good for the people and society and believes in the good in people. The idealist is like Pollyanna – optimistic with his view of man, the idealist believes that conflict can be resolved by getting down to the basics. We are after all linked by the same humanity, and our similarities will help reconcile our differences. The realist, on the other hand, looks at the world as is. Facts are of utmost importance, as is observation and objectivity. The world as perceived through the senses is the real world, and hopes and value judgments should not cloud one’s view of reality. A realist sees a bleak landscape than an idealist because a realist chooses to look things as detachedly as possible, to make objective assessments and not make excuses or conjure reasoning to defend negative behavior. A realist insist on having reality, no matter how awful it could be. Â  A spiritually-guided thinking style is radically different from the first two because it is anchored on a belief in God. Faith plays a central role, a determining factor. A spiritually-guided person will see everything in relation to God’s will and its place in God’s great scheme of things. Spiritually-guided people tend to be more accepting and forgiving in the name of faith; however, authentic belief in the principles espoused by the religion can be suspicious. Focusing on God does not mean that the person truly understands the values of the faith, but simply that he is looking at the world and connecting what he sees with an idea of God. Â   Source: Bramson, Robert and Harrsion, Allen. The Art of Thinking. Berkley Publishing Group, 1987.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Windows NT Proposal Essay -- Essays Papers

Windows NT Proposal Migration to Windows NT Proposal Plan As technology advances so should the products and services provided by companies. In every industry, technology is becoming the key success factor to growth and profit. The ability to communicate with people all around the world has created a new marketplace for business. In order to remain competitive, it is important for companies to utilize the most current technology. At ABC Inc., the use of the latest technological tools allows the company to provide first-rate, quality architectural engineering services to its clients. As part of the company's strategic goal to increase profits and clients, the board of directors established an information technology steering committee to look at how the company could improve its' technology. The committee was tasked to make sure the company had the latest available industry computer tools and to make sure all employees were uniform in terms of the technology. One of the most important findings of the committee's research was the fact th at the company and its branches were using varying types of software and hardware systems. The findings also showed that this lack of uniformity caused numerous communication problems not only with the branches and corporate offices, but also the clientele. These findings were reported to senior management. Based on the findings, recently, senior management made the decision to ensure all employees, branch offices and corporate office were working on the same software and hardware systems. Management decided to move the entire company to a Windows NT environment, in order to improve productivity, to create uniformity, to create a more functional network infrastructure and to develop an Intranet and Internet web sites. The Information Technology department (referred to as the "Team") was asked to take a look at the pros and cons of moving to Windows. The Team has prepared the following report based on its research efforts. Business Requirement(s) ABC Inc. is a progressive company based in San Diego, California. Since 1980, the company has offered a full range of architectural engineering services, from planning and analysis to design and implementation. We currently employ over 50 people in our home and branch offices that include Las Vegas and San Francisco. Like many companies that implemented computer... ...ipment. This problem would cause headaches when one network was not in synch with the others. Centralized manageability would increase the stability of the network system. Although Windows NT will be the operating system of choice, some of the company's UNIX system will have to be retained. The UNIX servers provide high-end graphics and geometric functionality so necessary in the architectural engineering field. However, once Windows NT 5.0 arrives with its 64-bit processor, the company will migrate its graphic functions to the NT format. Integrating the UNIX servers into the Windows NT system will be accomplished by using the public domain software known as Samba. Samba allows a UNXI server to "†¦behave similarly to a Windows-based server†¦" allowing clients to access and share Unix applications seamlessly via NT. Communication within our network has much improved with Windows NT. We are now capable of sharing files and data between all offices. Our Fast Ethernet Intranet provides speedy and stable communication transport. Justification {Explain and justify the selected operating system} 1. "Benefits of Migrating to Windows NT" Feb 1998, p. 186, Brian Honan

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Ideological support for state independence Essay

Introduction In federal polity, there is a need to provide for regulations to balance federal and state authorities. The rights of the state and the federal government should be clearly defined so that there is no infringement of one by the other. There are many cases where states and local bodies feel that their rights are curbed such as usurping of environment related authority by the Federal Government in 1999. (Schoenbrod : 1999). While ideal conditions in a democratic polity cannot be assured, there is a general equilibrium which emerges. It is commonly believed that conservatives are in favor of greater independence to states from federal mandates while liberals are more inclined to give priority to the federal government. The universal applicability of this maxim may be limited by factors such as local interests, lobbies and other issues which may result in cross support by liberals and conservatives. But general veracity of this trend needs to be examined. The legislative collegiate comprises of two houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate. This aspect will have to be thus seen in relation to legislation carried out by both these bodies separately to establish it as a general rule rather than a house specific injunction. Ideological support for state independence from federal mandates receives greater support from conservatives than liberals as conservatives are inclined towards greater self government and prefer limited federal impositions on states as against liberals who generally seek limited state autonomy. The issue is being examined in detail in the light of legislative action in two cases as given below:- (a) Legislative action on H. R. 5 in the 104th Congress. (b) Legislative action on S. 640 in the 102nd Congress Legislative action on H. R. 5 in the 104th Congress Legislative action on H R 5 in the 104th Congress in 1995 resulted in the, â€Å"Unfunded Mandate Reform Act of 1995†,(UMRA), the aim of which was to restrict the practice of inflicting unfunded Federal mandates on States and local governments and provide for Federal Government to pay the costs that are incurred by States while complying with the requirements of statutes and regulations of the central Government. This is also deemed to include costs incurred in providing information of Federal mandates to the private sector and for other purposes. The Act thus seeks compensation for states arising from matters concerning federal mandates. Support of this act would deem to indicate sustainment of the primary thesis of conservatives providing greater support for state independence and liberals being in favor of the federal government. Text of legislation There is a need to specifically study the text of the legislation including its purposes and exceptions. The purpose of the legislation has been indicated as manifold. The main aim, as is normal in cases of state versus federal jurisdictions is to strengthen the compact between the Federal Government and States, local governments, and tribal governments. Given this aspect there is no reason to believe that there should be any resistance to this legislation as it is the constitutional obligation of all elected representatives to support state – federal relationship. The other purpose stated is to end the burden imposed on states, local governments and tribal governments from Federal mandates which displace their priorities and which do not have the full consideration of the Congress. This is a significant purpose from the point of view of the hypothesis under examination for it seeks to end the imbalance which may be caused due to federal imposition on state and local government. Thus support of this legislation will imply that state is being favored vis a vis the federal government. The other stated purpose is also to assist the Congress, in considering proposed legislations for establishing or revising Federal programmes which comprise of Federal mandates affecting states, local government, tribal governments and the private sector by providing information about the nature and size of mandates in the proposed legislation and a mechanism to bring forth this information to the attention of the Senate and House of Representatives before, it votes on the proposed legislation. This too provides a very favorable outlook for protecting interests of states as full information of its impact on states is sought before a federal legislation affecting the state is brought into force. This is a binding feature which will enable legislators to seek full information on a large many acts if put forth before the Senate and the House of Representatives given the nature of legislations in a federal formation as that of the United States of America. The other stated purposes include promotion of informed and deliberate decisions by the Congress on the suitability of Federal mandates in any specific instance and to establish point of order vote on the considerations in the Senate and House of Representatives of legislation which has major Federal mandates. It is also designed to assist Federal agencies while considering proposed regulations which affect the states, local and tribal governments, to have a process to enable the elected and other officials of these bodies to provide inputs when Federal agencies are developing such regulations. Federal agencies are also required to prepare and consider the budgetary impact of the regulations of Federal mandates as these will affect the local and state governments. The agencies of the Federal government are to be enjoined to ensure that small governments are given special consideration in the process. This again is in favor of the local governments what ever their form be and imposes on federal agencies the burden of providing adequate information to these bodies before any legislation is moved especially affecting their fiscal powers or resources. There is strong support for small governments in particular. The final purpose is to establish a general rule that Congress does not impose any federal mandates on states, local governments and tribal governments without providing adequate funding for them to follow these mandates. Thus any support of this legislation can be considered in general as an ideological leaning towards states in the state-federal dyad. Perhaps the limitations given in the Act may provide a holistic projection of its impact. The Act is not to be applied to any provision in a Federal statute or a proposed or final federal regulation which impinges on the constitutional rights of an individual or it establishes or enforces any statutory rights that proscribe discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, national origin, or challenged or disability. It also requires for compliance procedures in terms of accounting and auditing procedures with respect to grants and other money or property which has been provided by the Federal government. The provision of emergency assistance is covered in the limitations which are quite natural considering the likely exceptional circumstances which should not restrict or limit its applicability. A final limitation is that of national security and the ratification for compliance of an international treaty as well as the emergency legislation of the President which has been included as a statute by the Congress. While these limitations have been included in the Act, these in no way can be construed to be providing the Federal government exceptional powers over state and other authorities in the normal course and are only applicable when individual liberties are likely to be infringed or an emergency arises. Thus despite the limitations, state authorities continue to find favor in the Act. There were 172 Co Sponsors to this Act which was led by Rep. William F. Clinger, Jr. , Rep. Rob Portman, Rep. Gary A. Condit, and Rep. Thomas M. Davis, who were all Republicans. 172 Co Sponsors in a house of 434 members represents strong legislative support of approximately 40 percent for the Act which could be considered as virtually apriori indication of its approval. This includes four Democrat sponsors for this legislation which suggests some division in the ranks of democrats which may not be purely on ideological grounds given the small percentage involved. While this strong support would have virtually guaranteed passing of this legislation in the Congress, the voting pattern will indicate that there was some resistance which was exclusively from the Democrats and one independent representing a total of 17 percent. This may establish that there are no doubt a percentage of liberals who are opposed to greater independence to states, though even within the liberal body their percentage is limited to approximately 35. 7 percent of the votes placed by Democrats. This decrees that this legislation has support by liberals as well and there may be grounds to believe that the support of liberals is issue based rather than based on ideologies. However there have been mixed reactions to the Bill which is considered by some as teeth less and difficult to implement. (Lund: 1995). A detailed quantitative analysis is being carried out with the help of tables below. The voting pattern as given in Table 1 clearly establishes the hypothesis wherein it would be seen that, Republicans have overwhelmingly voted in favor of this Act with 230 votes or a hundred percent going in for the legislation seeking compensation for the states. The liberal vote is split, with 130 Democrats voting in favor of the legislation and 73 against with one democrat having not voted. A percentage evaluation is being carried out of the votes polled in Ayes and Nays by the two parties in Table 2. It would be seen that 100 percent Republicans have voted for the legislation emphasizing the assumption of support of independence to the states. However the voting pattern of democrats can be seen to marginally challenge the assumption thus, as 63. 72 percent of the Democrats have voted in favor of the legislation, while 35. 7 percent have voted against it. This implies that there is substantial support amongst Democrats for providing compensation to states for Federal mandates which have been imposed against its interests. The issue thus may need consideration in a different light, to see if the pattern of voting by the Democrats has been on a general agreement of principle of fair compensation to the states when it is felt that these have been biased due to a Federal mandate or is it that Democrats too favor state rather than federal support in their approach to state – federal relationship. If the percentage of votes of conservatives and liberals in the percentage of votes polled in Ayes and Nays is seen as in Table 3, there may be some general conclusions which could be arrived at. The percentage of votes in Ayes is 63. 9, Republican and 36. 1 Democrats thus confirming the trend in Table 1 and 2. The overwhelming votes polled in Nays were that of Democrats, which if the single vote not polled is included will lead to conclude that while conservatives do not support federal authorities on issues of federal-state relationship, there may be some difference of ideology amongst the liberals, a percentage of whom may be supporting legislation on grounds which may not be related to specific ideological leanings but on local issues. A summation of the issues covered in the analysis above will reveal that a study of the legislation as enacted including its limitations reveals that there is an overwhelming consideration of the rights of states, local governments and tribal governments in relation to these being infringed upon by the Federal government. The Act specifically proscribes such an event from taking place unless there is an emergency. The Act also deems that adequate information has to be provided to the Congress before any enactment to the contrary is made. It provides for budgetary support to other bodies when any fiscal harm is caused. The overwhelming support as given out by the quantitative analysis will reveal that it has a total backing of the conservatives and a portion of liberals as well. Thus the liberal vote could be considered as divided yet in favor of the state authorities over the centre of up to two thirds of the legislation. Suffice to say passing of the bill was welcomed by even President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. (Remarks of President: 1995). Thus it would be evident that ideological support for state independence from federal mandates has greater patronage of the conservatives than liberals. For any definitive conclusions another legislation is proposed to be examined.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Health Care Organizations Essay

The importance of health care organizations, in Mike Moran’s hands is nothing less than to deliver quality care. According to Mike, health care organizations require substantial resources to perform day-to-day operations, and achieve long-term, strategic goals. As the manager of Iowa Park and Recreational Department, Mike is responsible for using his or her power selectively. He believes that understanding the risks, costs, and benefits of a health care organization is the key for managers to use his or her power effectively. The organization I have chosen to interview, Iowa Park and Recreational Department, is a selectively large organization that contains forty-seven full-time employees and five-hundred temporary employees. The service area is approximately five square miles and serves around 100,000 citizens of the Iowa City, Coralville area. Mike is the director and head of the Park and Recreational department. Under supervision, with some latitude for independent action or decision, Mike is responsible for programs of recreational activities. Mike is responsible for six divisions: parks, recreation, forest trees, central business districts, government building and cemetery. To attain this title, Mike achieved is Bachelor’s degree and then went on to achieve his Master’s degree from Northern Colorado. Some of the physical activities performed by Recreational Directors and environmental conditions experienced are: demonstrating, teaching, leading and officiating at recreational activities such as group teams, games, dances, and working outdoors. Mike is required to work evenings, nights, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. Although his education possibly landed Mike the job, he truly believes that his love for the community landed him to the advancement of director. However, Mike admits challenges arise at this position. According to him, the most frustrating challenge is maintain within his budget. Mike makes this easier by introducing fundraising strategies to the community. He also admits that working with people can sometimes challenge his role. Public relations are his downfall and require the most attention for improvement. Mike is responsible for the recreation organization’s daily operation. He primarily organizes and directs participants, schedule the use of facilities, keep records of equipment use, and ensure that recreation facilities and equipment are used properly. In addition, they may lead classes and provide instruction in a recreational activity. As a supervisor, Mike oversees recreation leaders and plan, organize, and manage recreational activities to meet the needs of a variety of populations. He also directs special activities and events or oversees a major activity, such as aquatics, gymnastics, or one or more performing arts. Mike develops and manages comprehensive recreation programs in parks, playgrounds, and other settings. He serves as a technical advisor or State and local recreation and park commissions and is responsible for recreation and park budgets. Iowa Park and Recreational Division provides a variety of leisure time recreational services, including organized activities to all populations. The professional staff of the Recreation Division provides purposeful recreation programming by utilizing departmental and other community facilities. This division strives to cooperate with all agencies and to coordinate activities with other recreational organizations in order to expand leisure time opportunities for the community. The recreational department strives to enhance the quality of life for the residents of Iowa City and surrounding area by providing cost effective quality programs and services, facilities, parks, open spaces, and information as an essential link in creating a dynamic, vital community. Recreational opportunities and leisure-time pursuits are plentiful for the residents in the area. It’s important to also maintain your fiscal responsibilities. While interviewing Mike, he discussed how he is responsible for a seven point two million dollar budget and also a C. I. P budget between five and fifteen million every year. To be involved in these types of important responsibilities your training responsibilities need to be maintained to keep certification. To maintain it you need to get your C. E. U (continuing education unit) credit. Overall employment of recreation workers is projected to increase by 15 percent between 2012 and 2022, which is faster than the average for all occupations. Although people will spend more time and money on recreation, budget restrictions in State and local government will limit the number of jobs added. Civic and social organizations and fitness and sports centers will also contribute to growth. Growth will be driven by the growing numbers of young and older Americans. The large numbers of births in recent years likely will increase the demand for recreation services for children, and retiring baby boomers are expected to have more leisure time, higher disposable incomes, and more concern for health and fitness than previous generations had. The latter factors should lead to an increasing demand for recreation services for baby boomers. Applicants for part-time, seasonal, and temporary recreation jobs should have good opportunities, but competition will remain keen for career positions because the recreation field attracts many applicants and because the number of career positions is limited compared with the number of lower level seasonal jobs. Opportunities for staff positions should be best for people with formal training and experience in part-time or seasonal recreation jobs. Volunteer experience, part-time work during school, and a summer job are viewed favorably. Those with graduate degrees should have the best opportunities for supervisory or administrative positions. Job openings will stem from growth and the need to replace the large numbers of workers who leave the occupation each year. The educational needs for people entering into this occupational field vary widely depending on the job and level of responsibility. For activity specialists, it is more important to have experience and demonstrated competence in a particular activity than to have a degree. Camp counselors often are older teenagers or young adults who have experienced camping as a child and enjoy the camping experience. A degree is less important than the counselor’s maturity level, ability to work well with children and teens, and ability to make sure that they stay safe. People planning careers in recreation should be outgoing, good at motivating people, and sensitive to the needs of others. Excellent health and physical fitness often are required, due to the physical nature of some jobs. Time management and the ability to manage others also are important. Recreation workers start their careers working with people. As they gain experience, they may get promoted to positions with greater responsibilities. Recreation workers with experience and managerial skills may advance to supervisory or managerial positions. Eventually, they may become the director of a recreation department. When Mike was asked if he could make any changes, he was very concerned with the community and he would like to make them more aware of the activities the Park and Recreational Organization offers. He also wishes he could get more people involved in the job skill and allow people more opportunities for a career in recreation. DON’T FORGET THE CONCLUSION!

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

How to Calculate Your ACT Composite Score, Plus 5 Strategies

How to Calculate Your ACT Composite Score, Plus 5 Strategies SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Your ACT Composite Score is an important part of your college applications. In this guide, we show you how exactly to calculate your ACT Composite Score from each of your section scores. More importantly, we give you custom strategies on how to use your Composite Score to adapt your ACT prep. Read on... Calculating Your ACT Composite Score The ACT has four core sections (English, Math, Reading, and Science), with one optional section (Writing). Each of the four sections has a score that ranges from 1 (lowest) to 36 (highest). The Writing score is a separate score, ranging from 2 (lowest) to 12 (highest). Your Composite Score is the average (the arithmetic mean) of your four core section scores, with these important points: The Composite is rounded to the nearest whole number. Scores ending in 0.5 or higher are rounded UP to the nearest whole number. Here are a few examples of ACT section and Composite scores: Test English Math Reading Science Average Final Composite Test 1 21 23 24 19 21.75 22 Test 2 23 23 22 25 23.25 23 Test 3 24 24 23 23 23.5 24 Get the hang of it? The ACT also uses a combined English/Reading/Writing score, called an ELA score. Honestly, this isn't used that often and isn't that important for college admissions, so I would suggest not worrying about it. Before diving too deep into your ACT prep, you should also know your target ACT Composite Score, which is largely based on which schools you'll be applying to. Calculating an ACT Composite Score is pretty simple. The more important part is knowing what ACT Composite Scoring means for your study strategy. 5 Strategies for Raising Your Composite Score Your goal on the ACT is to get the highest Composite Score possible. The Composite Score is by far the most important ACT score used in college admissions, beyond any individual section score. Colleges will use this score to compare you to the thousands of other applicants to that school. This means that raising your Composite Score can have a disproportionate effect on your admissions chances. We all know that raising your score overall by getting better at the test is the obvious way to improve your score. But let's dig into more specific strategies: Even just one extra point on a single section can increase your Composite Score. For example, in the Test 2 example above, if the student re-took the test but improved his English from a 23 to a 24, his average would increase from a 23.25 to a 23.5, and his final Composite would increase from 23 to 24. You can bet this increase makes a difference in college admissions. Therefore, if you've taken the ACT just once or twice, definitely retake the test because your Composite Score is likely to improve. Focus your initial prep on your weakest section,which will give you the most room to grow. For example, if you scored a 16 on Science but a 24 on all the other sections, your Science section is clearly dragging your Composite Score down. If you improve your Science section by four points, your Composite will increase by a point. Writing is less important than the four core sections. If you have limited time to study, concentrate that time on raising your Composite Score. Your target schools may emphasize either English/Reading or Math/Science. Given the same Composite Score, engineering schools will favor a higher Math/Science score over English/Reading. If you plan to major in the humanities, the opposite is true. Focus your time on the sections that are more important for your college goals. Some schools use the 'highest combined Composite Score', aka the 'superscore.' This basically means that the school will take your best section score across all your tests, then combine them into your best possible Composite Score.If you're applying mainly to schools that use the superscore, you can focus on improving one section at a time, then combine all your tests together into your maximum Composite Score. Now that you know the importance of the ACT Composite Score and understand targeted strategies to improve it, read more to get deeper into our philosophy of how to improve your ACT scores. What's Next? Which colleges superscore the ACT?Check out our list of every college that uses ACT superscoring. What’s a good ACT score? Read our article on good, bad, and excellent ACT scores so you can identify and prepare for your target score. Need help on a specific section of the ACT? Read our guides to getting a 36 on ACT English, ACT Math, and ACT Reading. I also highly recommend this free guide to picking up some extra points on the ACT:

Monday, October 21, 2019

Rising and Falling Intonation in Pronunciation

Rising and Falling Intonation in Pronunciation Use punctuation to help your pronunciation skills by adding a pause after each period, comma, semi-colon or colon. By using punctuation to guide when you pause while reading, you will begin to speak in a more natural manner. Make sure to read the example sentences on this page out loud using the pronunciation tips provided.  Lets look at an example sentence: Im going to visit my friends in Chicago. They have a beautiful house, so Im staying with them for two weeks. In this example, pause after Chicago and house. This will help anyone whos listening to you follow you more easily. On the other hand, if you rush through the periods and commas (and other punctuation marks), your pronunciation will sound unnatural and it will be difficult for listeners to follow your thoughts. Punctuation that marks the end of a sentence also has specific intonation. Intonation means the rising and the lowering of the voice when speaking. In other words, intonation refers to the voice rising and falling. Lets take a look at the different types of intonation used with pronunciation. Asking Questions Follows Two Patterns Rising Voice at the End of a Question If the question is a yes / no question, the voice rises at the end of a question. Do you like living in Portland?Have you lived here a long time?Did you visit your friends last month? Falling Voice at the End of a Question If the question is an information question- in other words, if you are asking a question with where, when, what, which, why, what/which kind of.., and questions with how- let your voice fall at the end of a question. Where are you going to stay on vacation?When did you arrive last night?How long have you lived in this country? Question Tags Question tags are used to either confirm information or to ask for clarification. The intonation is different in each case.   Question Tags to Confirm If you think you know something, but would like to confirm it, let the voice fall in the question tag. You live in Seattle, dont you?This is easy, isnt it?You arent coming to the meeting, are you? Question Tags to Ask for Clarification When using a question tag to clarify, let the voice rise to let the listener know that you expect more information. Peter isnt going to be at the party, is he?You understand your role, dont you?We arent expected to finish the report by Friday, are we? End of Sentences The voice usually falls at the end of sentences. However, when making a short statement with a word that is only one syllable the voice rises to express happiness, shock, approval, etc. Thats great!Im free!I bought a new car. When making a short statement with a word that is more than one syllable (multi-syllabic) the voice falls. Mary is happy.Were married.Theyre exhausted. Commas We also use a specific type of intonation when using commas in a list. Lets take a look at an example: Peter enjoys playing tennis, swimming, hiking, and biking. In this example, the voice rises after each item in the list. For the final item, let the voice fall.  In other words, tennis, swimming, and hiking all rise in intonation. The final activity, biking, falls in intonation. Practice with a few more examples: We bought some jeans, two shirts, a pair of shoes, and an umbrella.Steve wants to go to Paris, Berlin, Florence, and London. Pause After an Introductory Subordinate Clause Subordinate clauses begin with subordinating conjunctions. These include because, though, or time expressions such as when, before, by the time, as well as others. You can use a subordinating conjunction to introduce a subordinate clause at the beginning of a sentence, or in the middle of a sentence. When beginning a sentence with a subordinating conjunction (as in this sentence), pause at the end of ​the  introductory subordinating clause. When you read this letter, I will have left you forever.Because its so expensive to travel in Europe, I have decided to go to Mexico for my vacation.Although the test was very hard, I got an A on it.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

How to Write Content Both Humans and Search Engines Love

How to Write Content Both Humans and Search Engines Love I’m a big fan of Google. That means that every single word that I write has the â€Å"mumbo jumbo† that appeals to search engines. In other words, each post that I write has at least some sort of keyword analysis to it. For example, this post itself is based around keywords like how to write for search engines and content writing. But, that’s not all. I’ll let you in on a little secret. I’m a fan of writing for humans too. Why? Because even if you get ranked at the top, at the end of the day, Google doesn’t pay you, nor do they subscribe to your website. Humans do. That being said, it is an age long debate between SEOs  who you should really write for: search engines, or humans? Well, today, I’m going to show you how you can actually do both. In this post, I’ll share with you a little about the history behind the conflict between search engines and humans, why there has been so much debate going on around it. I will also go super in depth into how, by the end of reading this post, you can have a good idea of how to write content that both search engines and humans love. Let’s begin! Download Your Free SEO Content Template and Guide Bundle Creating the best content possible that achieves high search engine rankings and inspires readers to click isnt easy. That is, of course, unless you have these 12 free downloadable resources. Apply the advice youll get in this post with these free templates and guides: On-Page SEO Checklist SEO Content Strategy Guide Latent Semantic Indexing Infographic Best Time to Publish Blog Posts Guide Keyword Research Template SEO Rank Tracking Template Blog Post Outline Template Blog Post Writing Checklist Catchy Blog Title Infographic How to Write a Blog Post Template Emotional Power Words Tear Sheet Content Calendar Excel Template How This Post is Written I was originally going to write this post in the manner of a listicle, when I decided that â€Å"’s readers don’t need this! They don’t need another list telling them what to do!† And that’s true. The Internet’s already full of this stuff. That got me the idea of writing this post to be as actionable as possible. At every step of the way, I will be listing down particular steps that you can take, and apply immediately to your own blog. Recommended Reading: How to Boost Traffic With 34 Important SEO Tips You Need to Know (+ Free Kit) The Ultimate Blog Writing Process to Create Killer Posts How to Make an SEO Content Strategy That Will Improve Your #1-3 Results By 248% The Test Bed In order for us to understand this post in detail, we’ll have to use a standard post for our study. In this case, we’ll be using my post on LinkedIn profiles: The Debate Between Search Engines and Humans If you want to understand the debate between Search Engines and Humans, first you’ll have to understand how different these two beings analyze the same chunk of text. For this case study, let’s use the best search engine word reader that every WordPress owner knows and love: the YOAST analyser. Should you write for search engines, or for humans? The answer: both.Your SEO Best Friend, The YOAST Analyzer The Yoast Analyzer is a plugin  that you can install easily from the WordPress Repository, and is totally free (though it comes with paid upgrades that you really don’t need). Downloading Yoast Installing Yoast is pretty straightforward. First, you’d want to go to Plugins on your WordPress Dashboard. Click on it. Then, click on Add new on the top left-hand corner. Next, on the left-hand corner of the screen, you should see a box that looks like this: Type in Yoast, and you should see the following option at the bottom: Click on the blue install button (my button says active because it has already been installed). Accessing Yoast To access the Yoast analyser, simply click on Posts on the left hand side of your WordPress Dashboard: Next, choose a post that you’re working on: Then, inside the Edit Post section, scroll down to the bottom, and you’ll see the Yoast Plugin. The Yoast Analyzer displays key SEO information on your post that looks something like this: Here’s what the colors mean: Orange: Meh†¦Your content is good...but not that good Green: Yay! Red: Change it. NOW. Here's how to make the most out of @yoast for your #WordPress blogAnalyzing your Content for Search Engine-Friendliness The first thing we have to understand in order to create search engine friendly words, is to understand that how Yoast breaks down your post. In this section, you will learn all about the different ranking points that Yoast identifies after years of being in the industry as the top plugin for SEO. Step 1: Enter Your Focus Keyword The focus keyword is what the Yoast plugin operates around with. It’s this section that helps Yoast to analyze your post, and give you all the useful information that you saw in the screenshot above. Naturally, it’s also the first step that you should take when you use this plugin to analyze your text for search engine friendliness. Now, you try it: Select a keyword that you want to rank for, depending on the topic that you’ve earlier decided. For example, in the case of my LinkedIn profile post, I naturally chose to rank for the keywords Linkedin profile. If you’re just starting with writing a blog, you might want to consider using long tail keywords (3 or more words as your focus keyword), but for the sake of this tutorial, we will just keep things basic. Once you’ve decided on the keyword that you want to rank for, input your keyword into the focus keyword section, and wait, as YOAST analyses your text, and churns out your report. Step 2: Keep Your Slug Short and to the Point Simply speaking, the slug is simply the end phrase that your post URL ends with. For example, this is the slug of my LinkedIn article: Take note that the slug cannot contain stop words, which we will cover in Step 3. Take note that the slug should be short, concise, and should not contain irrelevant information in regards to your keyword. If you’re wondering what irrelevant information looks like, it might include the following: The date of your post The category of your blog The time that you posted One general rule of thumb that you can steal from me is to simply use the objective of your article and effect that it brings for the user. For the sake of helping you to understand what objective and effect is, here’s a deeper explanation: Objective: What is the purpose of the article? What is the article based around? Effect: What end goal or effect does it bring the user? What benefits can the user expect out of the article? The first step is to go your headline, and identify what your objective and effect is. For example, going back to my LinkedIn article, my post title looks like this: As you can see, I’ve identified the objectives and the effect of the LinkedIn post, which then gives me a starting point for my slug. In this case, my objectives and effect look something like this: Objective: LinkedIn profiles. Obviously, since the entire article is dedicated to talking about LinkedIn profiles, this part is a no-brainer. Effect: Simple steps. It’s a list of simple things that readers can do to get their desired effect. Converts. What’s the point of writing up a LinkedIn profile if it doesn’t convert? This is a sure winner. When you piece together the Effect and Objective of your title, it becomes super easy for you to come up with a decent slug. Here are some examples that I came up with for my post: Powerful-linkedin-profile Highly-converting-linkedin-profile Simple-steps-linkedin-profile-converts As you can see, I chose the first one, because I felt that it was more direct, to the point, and more importantly, search engine friendly for that particular keyword. Now that you understand what a slug is, it's time to understand what stop words are. Quick #SEO tip: make your slugs search engine-friendly.Step 3: Inbound and Outbound links Links are at the heart of the internet. They help search engines understand website, and they also help humans to better reach and access information. In other words, every time you create a blog post, be sure to do your linking correctly, if you want both search engines and humans to love it. Links consists of two types: inbound and outbound. Inbound Links Inbound links are links that pointing internally within your site, and are also known as internal links. In other words, these are links that you point out to the other pages in your website. For example, if I were to do a post on content marketing, and the work that I have done as a Content Marketing Consultant, I could include a simple line in my post that says â€Å"after being in the Content Marketing field for 6 years...† I could then point a link from the sentence to a page where I talk more about my Consulting career, and how I can help my clients. Internal links help search engines to better understand where all the information is connected together, and how your site functions. This means that from a technical standpoint, it’s a bonus for the search engines, because they don’t have to run into walls every time they crawl your site. Also, internal links help your audience to stay on your site longer, because you are hopefully pointing them elsewhere with relevant information, which then helps them to understand what you do, and what your site is about. Needless to say, your bounce rate (the percentage of people who leave your site without any engagement with it) decreases because your visitors are now staying longer on your site, because they're more engaged with your content. For example, at Contentrific, I found that by increasing the number of internal links to my site by five, I found out that my bounce rate actually decreased by roughly 7%, which is not too bad for a start. How can adding internal links help decrease bounce rates?Outbound Links On the other hand, external links are links that are actually pointing out from your site. In other words, they are links that point search engines from your site to other websites. To really understand external links, it's best to use an example. Imagine that you have a new shoe company in town. You’re trying to tell the town hall to put up advertisements on their noticeboards, so that you can advertise your town. But imagine the town hall doesn’t really understand what you’re saying. â€Å"Is it an apparel shop?† â€Å"Do you sell food there?† Frustrated, you come up with a brilliant reference for them: â€Å"My shop is like a Nike of this town.† Now imagine the collective sigh that the town office gives you, when they finally understand it. If you haven’t guessed it yet, the town hall was Google in my example, and your shop was your website. By externally linking out to other authority sites like Nike (assuming your site sells shoes and sports apparel), it helps search engines like Google to better understand your site by referring your content and pointing them towards authority sites that have already been ranked highly. For example, if I were to do a post on content marketing, I’d make it a point to link out to other   learning resources on authoritative sites like Content Marketing Institute, Copyblogger, and any other sites that have been around for awhile. Think of Google as a learning baby,  and your objective is to teach this baby how to associate red with danger, green with go, and so on. Although it might not seem like a lot, these changes do contribute to an increased ranking when it all adds up. Don't worry that you might be pointing to your competitors, because in due time, you'll just rub the authority that they have, establishing yourself as the main voice in your industry as well. Step 4: Length of Text The length of your blog post plays a significant role in getting your posts to rank. Long-form blog posts are also increasingly becoming the most popular form of content of choice, because of the changes in Google’s algorithm in the recent years. So what exactly is long-form content? To put it simply, you can assume that you’re writing long form content when your blog posts go beyond 1,500 words. You’re writing long form content when your blog posts go beyond 1,500 wordsMy personal recommendation is to write content that goes above 2,500 words, since it has been proven extensively that this form of content is the ideal type of content that gets the most number of social shares and engagements  (assuming you don't have time to write mega posts of 8,000 words like I do). At every step of the way, you want to make sure that the content that you put out is not just there so that you can hit the word count, but actively works to elaborate and reinforce your main point. For example, if you're writing a post on LinkedIn profiles, you'd want to write extensively on the different aspects of a LinkedIn profile, instead of just the usual â€Å"create an account on LinkedIn and start filling it up†. A good start point for elaborating on your main topic is to find related topics and subtopics to write about. The key point is to fill up the meat of your content, so that it becomes an impressive hamburger that your readers will boast about to their friends. Step 5: Keyword Density Keyword density is simply technical jargon which basically means the number of times that particular Focus keyword appears in your content. For example, if my focus keyword is "linkedin profile," then the measure of my keyword density is the number of times the words â€Å"linkedin profile† appears in my entire blog post. In general, it is best to come up with keyword density of more than 1.5%; if you can't go higher than 2%, it would be best. Take note, however, that over-stuffing your posts with keywords is a bad thing. This gives a negative signal to Google that you're trying to flood your blog post with the key word, in an attempt to rank for it, instead of really providing information that shows value to the reader. Recommended Reading: Your Ultimate Content Marketer's Guide to Keyword Research Step 6: SEO title Your SEO title is something that you want to pay particular attention to, mainly because your headline is a key make or break factor that determines whether or not a reader clicks through to your article. Now, this is where it gets a little bit tricky. It's tricky because marketers and bloggers like you have to come up with SEO titles that are both human friendly, which means it intrigues, persuades, and excites, but it also has to be easy enough for search engines to understand it at a glance. Fortunately, Yoast makes this extremely easy for us. Just follow the green button! Kidding. Recommended Reading: Here Are the 101 Catchy Blog Title Formulas That Will Boost Traffic By 438% Step 7: Length of Page Title The next step that we have to take is to make sure that your page title isn't too Long. It's important for you to pay close attention to the length of the page title, since you wouldn't want your title to cut off mid way like so: Step 8: Focus Keyword Appears in URL Next, you have to make sure that the focus keyword that you've selected earlier is included in the URL. In other words, make sure that your focus keyword is included your slug as we've mentioned in step 2. This might actually get a little confusing, since we just covered the topic of effect and objective, but if you get your objective right, it’s a piece of cake. For example, if I were to do a blog post about tennis balls, and the main objective is tennis balls, why wouldn’t you place the words tennis balls in your URL? Chances are, you would. Step 9: First Paragraph of Copy Search engines tend to prioritize the words that you place in front of your copy, as opposed to the words at the back. More specifically, by placing your focus keyword in the first paragraph of your content, you’re telling Google â€Å"Hey! This keyword has been repeated in the page title, the URL, as well as the first paragraph!† What does that tell you? It tells you that the keyword is something that Google should pay extra attention to. For example, if I were to do a post on blogging, but I only mention the keyword â€Å"blogging† at last paragraph of my blog post, how relevant do you think my article is? Well, search engines work in roughly the same way as well. Recommended Reading: How to Maximize Your On-Page SEO in 2017 With One Awesome Checklist Step 10: Meta Description Although the meta description has been widely debated by SEOs whether it is a ranking factor, it is generally agreed that they are relevant for driving human interaction with a site. This is because when a searcher searches for information about a particular topic or question on Google, the queries come back to him/her looking like this: The shaded portion is where the meta description is located. Can you see why it is still considered important, even though most SEOs think that it’s not considered a ranking factor? Think of your meta description as an elevator pitch of sorts. Its job is to condense the information in the post into either a question or a sentence, to attract the attention of the reader, and convince them to click  through. The important points that you must have in your meta description are: A value proposition of the article Clear, concise summary of the article Create points of intrigue about your article, so that the prospective reader is incentivised to click through Make sure that your keyword is also included in the Meta Description. You don’t need to place your keyword at the front of your Meta Description. Step 11: Single Instance of Keyword This might come as a shock to you, but when I first started out in SEO, I initially thought that the way to rank for keywords on Google was to create a ton of content around the same keyword! Boy, was I an idiot. But, now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense why I would think this way. It’s because most gurus online didn’t explain it clearly, or didn’t bother to explain it at all. When they say â€Å"create more content around your keyword†, it doesn’t mean create more content that are around the same keyword. Instead, what you should do is to create content around related keywords to your main keywords. Create content around related keywords to your main keywords.For example, in my LinkedIn profile writing article, my main keyword is obviously on LinkedIn profiles, but the topic is about LinkedIn in general. If I want to â€Å"create content around the same keyword,† what I should instead do is to find related keywords around the general topic â€Å"LinkedIn†, and find other keywords that are related to it. In this case, I can create come up with keywords such as: LinkedIn Publishing LinkedIn Sales Emails LInkedin Groups You get the point. When you create related content around a certain set of keywords (or keyword groups), you are in fact re-emphasising to search engine that your blog and website is about those particular group of keywords. Just don’t make the same mistake I did by using the same keyword over and over again- that’s suicide! Recommended Reading: How to Improve Your Keyword Research With Latent Semantic Indexing Before We Proceed to the Human Side ... Whew! We just covered what it takes to write for search engines. That’s a lot to digest (I know, my content gets comments like that all the time), but it’s information worthy to know. But, since this post is also about writing for humans, let’s cover that in the next section. What About Human Readers? Obviously, since this post is about search engines and human readers, we can’t continue without defining what human reading is. For those of you who are experienced bloggers (as I know you are, because you use :P), you’ll know that YOAST provides another section that helps you to analyse your post, and see if it scores well in the human’s eye too. This section is called the Readability Section. Again, access your Yoast Analyzer in your Edit Posts page, then click on Readability. You should see the Analyzer display a completely different set of information on your post. Again, the colors green, orange and red mean the same thing as I’ve mentioned above. Understanding the Different Factors that Make Up Human-Friendly Words In the next section of our post, we're going to take a look at the different factors that give us an understanding of how to write persuasively toward human readers. But before we proceed, let's take a look at the objectives of writing for humans: We want readers to subscribe We want to persuade readers to take a specific action Readers of our content have to be convinced that the content has value They have to find that the information on the blog post is easy to consume Now that we've defined the objectives of writing for humans, let's see what Yoast gives us. Step 1: Subheadings Do you like to read chunks of messages that are lumped together? I didn’t think so. That’s where subheadings come in handy. Subheadings are headings other than the H1 tag in your blog post: Generally, you’d want to make sure that you follow these steps when you write content on your blog: Have a subheading every 300 words Include your focus keyword in your subheadings - this keeps things on track for the reader too Include only 1 H1 in your content Step 2: Write Sentences No More Than 20 Words Long This should be a no-brainer too. Generally speaking, when you write sentences that are short and concise, it's easier to read your content. Step 3: The Reading Test Recently, I started seeing plenty of bloggers and writers trying too hard to write like the â€Å"big boys†, where they staff a ton of technical jargon and hard to understand sentences into their posts. While it's important to show that you know your stuff, it can hurt readability in the Long run, and lose you more readers than you would otherwise. For example, this post could have been explained using terms like canonical keywords, technical on-audits, and so on, but I deliberately chose to right in a simple way. But why? Shouldn't we write to impress? No. You should instead write to achieve your blogging goals, which most of the time means getting new subscribers to your website. Think about it this way. How are you supposed to convince new visitors on your site, sign up for your newsletter when they don't have a clue what you're talking about? For that reason, I always make it a point to  write in a way that even a high school kid will be able to understand. As a rule of thumb, you should always assume the majority of your readers are total beginners. In fact, Copyblogger did a case study, and they found out the number of beginners visiting their site was a staggering 80%, while advanced users were at 20%. How much traffic did you just lose? In fact, total beginners are the people who are trying to search for information the most, and the most desperate for a solution. If you can put across a concept or technique easily, in a way that is able to relate to that pain point, why won't they subscribe to you? Recommended Reading: How to Build New Marketing Skills in 11 Simple Steps (Backed By Science) Step 4: Paragraph Length With the attention span of a reader significantly reducing, it becomes harder and harder for marketers and content creators to maintain the level of attention to the words that we are saying. This means that any small mistake with the formatting of your content will turn off your readers, and significantly increase your bounce rate. And when it comes to keeping the attention of your readers, one of the most important aspects of overall readability of your content is the length of your paragraphs. Why is it so important to have paragraphs done right? Because the length of your paragraph creates an overall look and feel of your content. Which would you rather choose to read? Chances are, you’d choose the one on the right. Tip: For best results, keep your lengths to 20 words per sentence and no more than three sentences per paragraph. Step 5: Transition Words/Phrases Transition words are words that help to guide readers along your content. They make reading your content easier, in short. When you write blog posts, especially blog posts that are actionable in nature, you’d want to use words like these: Step 6: Passive Voice If you take away one piece of advice today from this post, and it'd be to  never write in a passive voice. I say this again. Never write in a passive voice. But, what exactly is passive voice? I'll give you an example. Say for example we are writing a simple sentence describing an elephant in a forest. Can you guess which voice is passive, and which is not? â€Å"The elephant went through the forest and came out a teddy bear† Versus: â€Å"An elephant is the best companion that you can have when you go to the forest, because it’ll become a teddy bear† The first one is the passive voice. Passive voice makes your content dull, monotonous, and irritating to read, because the reader is not a part of the action. For example, Ramit Sethi, one of the world’s top bloggers, uses a ton of active voice in his content. This keeps his content engaging, and is the main reason why readers read to the last sentence. Why should you never write in passive voice?Four Additional Tips So†¦ the key idea is to follow whatever Yoast tells us, and we’ll be alright, right? Well, not quite. You see, much as Yoast is a great plugin, it can only do so much by analyzing our text. The truth is, there are many other ways that you can improve your content, so that both search engines and your readers will love it. Since there are an endless number of ways that you can go about doing it (maybe I should come up with a blog post about it in the future), I’ll just list down four simple steps in this post that you can take additionally to improve your content.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

PLC Assignment 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

PLC Assignment 1 - Essay Example Wherever there is an enterprise or industry, you will find a PLC. The PLC has seen dramatic evolution since the first PLC, the Modicon, was introduced by Bedford Associates in the late 1960s (Kuphaldt, 2003). Paralleling the evolution of larger data processing systems, Allen Bradley and General Electric introduced programmable units with terminal input in the 1970s (Morley, 2006). They are now available as stand alone units, flexible card driven modules, and rack mounted with standardized cards for large scale centralized control. The unitary style is a self enclosed, ruggedised unit that has all the circuitry necessary to operate independently. It is generally used near the machine it is controlling and is dedicated to a small number of tasks. Modular construction has the advantage of placing several control units into a single module which allows the units to share power supply and computing capabilities. Sharing support circuitry reduces the cost of the unit as well as allowing for expanded control capabilities. Rack mounted systems are used to provide centralized control of very large scale systems. With the circuitry on cards that are attached to a standardized bus, the rack mount system offers greater networking and communication possibilities. This allows PLCs to run lengthy programs and control complex automated systems. In its most basic configuration the PLC reads a set of inputs, processes the inputs through a program, and makes a decision as to what output switching is required. The inputs are configured to sense the presence of a voltage, often 12VDC, but may be 5VDC or 115VAC. These inputs come from switches or relays on machines that may indicate level, position, or status of the equipment. A PLC can be used to stop a conveyor belt when an assembly machine is turned off. Sensors are widely used in process control to detect

Commercial Law Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Commercial Law - Research Paper Example On the other hand, there are cases in United Kingdom and Singapore that similarly dealt with your situation. In view to this, the following discussion will deal on these cases, and ostensible authority in the United Kingdom to further your knowledge on your current situation. Facts As an overview, Cheng-Han Tan cited that the agency relationship occurs when a principal allows an agent to represent itself, wherein the agent also agrees with the representation. There is a mutual agreement between the principal and the agent in the agency relationship, even in instances that either one disclaims or does not pronounce the mutual agreement. Also, the agent can be given authority, which is granted by the principal to enter within a contract with a third party. However, if the contract entered by the agent with the third party is not authorised by the principal, then the principal is not committed to the contract. Moreover, ostensible authority appears only in specific circumstances. Ostens ible authority comes in view when the agent surpasses the authority given by the principal, when the agent is no longer recognised as an agent of the principal, or when a person, never been recognised as the agent is then permitted to be the agent.1 In addition, Steyn LJ cited that ostensible authority or apparent authority is used in two main parts. ... However, in this case, Mr Pierce Hawthorne is not recognised as an agent but only as a Finance Manager of Blogon Breweries Pty Ltd. In this manner, we can cite the similarities of Mr Hawthorne to Chia in the Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (Publ), Singapore Branch v Asia Pacific Breweries (Singapore) Pte Ltd and another appeal [2011] SGCA 22, where Chia was also a Finance Manager which has lesser authority when compared to the general manager. Also, Asia Breweries Limited (APBL) was a large corporation which has higher appointed officials. In the current case and the above statement may be supported with Armagas that ‘In the commonly encountered case, the ostensible authority is general in character, arising when the principal has placed the agent in a position, which in the outside world, is generally regarded as carrying authority to enter into transactions of the kind in question.3 In contrary to the First Energy (UK) Ltd v Hungarian International Bank, Ltd [1993] B.C.C. 53 3 (‘First Energy’), Mr Croft had negotiated and directly discussed with Mr Jamison who was the Senior Manager of Manchester office of HIB. He has ostensible authority because his position allowed him to ‘sanction large credit transactions together with another senior employee. Like many merchant banks and trading banks, HIB drew a distinction between internal authority to sanction a credit transaction and authority to sign a facility letter.’ As a support statement on the status of authority of Mr Hawthorne in the Blogon Breweries Pty Ltd, in the Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (Publ), Singapore Branch v Asia Pacific Breweries (Singapore) Pte Ltd and another appeal [2011] SGCA 22, Chia as the Finance

Friday, October 18, 2019

Economics for managers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Economics for managers - Essay Example 246). This is the reason why the national governments of most of the nations attempt to enhance the GDP level of their respective economies. Some of the reasons why GDP of any nation could not be used to evaluate the standard of living prevailing in a nation and hence, its well-being, have been depicted underneath. Firstly, GDP takes no account of the distribution of wealth or income among the residents of a given nation and thus, does not portray a true account of the standard of living among various strata of the society. One appropriate example of a lack of discreteness of GDP, in measuring the well being of any nation could be derived from the terrorist attacks in USA in 2001. The attacks left the nation distraught and its citizens at a worse-off state. Many people lost their lives and among those who lived, many lost their jobs. Yet, the GDP of the nation was hiked primarily due to the fact that the statistic included the sums injected in the economy in the form of aids and fund reliefs (Baumol & Blinder, 2009, p. 474). Furthermore, the instance with that of the developing nations or rather the ones passing through the transition phase often record very high GDP values which does not go with the actual living standards prevailing in these nations. China and India are regarded to be the fastest developing nations in the world. These nations record one of the fastest economic growth rates even though the degree of well being in both of them are quite low with only a handful of the population base experiencing a betterment in their living standards. The primary reason behind this is the huge population bases in both the nations, which respectively are regarded as the ones endowed with the largest and second-largest populations in the world. A lion’s share of the population bases in both these nations live in utter poverty with dwindling resources. Though both these nations are associated with an economic growth rate of about 8 percent and more, the Gin i coefficient in these nations are evident of the deteriorating living standards. While it is 33 for India that for China as measured in the year 2006 was, 44.7 (Gehring & Kulkarni, 2006, p. 12). Hence, though China is slightly better off than India, none could be regarded in a highly good social condition. But income inequality and prevalence of poverty in a nation are not the only factors which indicate towards a nation’s standard of living. There are certain other aspects such as environmental concerns which are equally essential in evaluating the same. Secondly, GDP does not deduct the used up values from its account which is why it gives a wrong impression about the true economic picture in a nation. It includes the values depreciated through usage of capital, natural resources depleted on account of deforestation or excessive deployment, reduction in mineral and fuel resource endowments, as well as loss of fertilisation of land. Thirdly, the extent of environmental poll ution and degradation in a nation often hampers a variety of production processes in an economy which is why it is often counted as a drawback

Sexual Harassment and Availing Resources to Guardians and Instructors Research Paper

Sexual Harassment and Availing Resources to Guardians and Instructors - Research Paper Example The ethnography is an instrument, often utilized in sociology and anthropology inscription. It recapitulates notes on a certain group of individuals assembled over a period. Ethnography is the scientific depiction of dissimilar ethnicities and traditions. This volume by Pascoe explores the intricate landscape of sexuality and gender distinctiveness in high schools. The exploration is prudent and perceptive. This study took place under a period of eight months in an ethnically assorted working-class high school; River High. This volume illuminates masculinity as a field of denotation as well as a group of social practices. The technique of scrutinizing masculinity is eccentric. Masculinity is not only presented as a gendered procedure but also as a sexual one. In the volume, the ghost of the homosexual becomes a punitive method for regulating heterosexuals. In addition, it regulates the homosexual males as well. The homosexual dialogue is extremely related to gender as well as sexuali ty. Additionally, this volume attempts to delve into both male and female sexuality (Pascoe 3). The volume commences with a scene that underscores the divergent premise of masculinity at River High. The Mr Cougar contest evidently elucidates the intersecting dynamics of ethnicity, bodies, sexuality, gender, social class, and organizational procedures that represent adolescent masculinity in a situation. The setting is perfect for the study of sexual characteristics and sexuality. Two nerds Craig and Brent convert from un-masculine geeks who cannot guard their girlfriends into heterosexual, brawny males. This masculinising procedure occurs via an alteration of bodies, the affirmation of ethnic privilege and portrayal of heterosexuality. This scene depicts that heterosexuality is central to masculinity.  

Thursday, October 17, 2019

The United Nations And the European Union Essay

The United Nations And the European Union - Essay Example This essay declares that the efficiency of EU’s counter-terrorism operations is also highly questionable. Generally, the EU doesn’t support the US concept of a ‘war on terror’ and tends to criticize the US approach as highly military driven and overactive. The EU has adopted soft approach of sanctions and political pressure. The European governments are highly worried about the consequence of their anti-terrorism policies on their Muslim population which constitutes around 16 to 21 million of overall EU’s population. This paper makes a conclusion that both the UN and EU have played a crucial role in peacekeeping operations on a global and regional level. The end of cold war is marked as the transformation period for both the organizations in terms of their peacekeeping operations and foreign policies. The emergence of global terrorism, growing intrastate conflicts, rising nuclear proliferation, transformation of global political system from unipolarity to multipolarity in recent years, globalization, and growing economic inequality are some of the major common pressures which triggered developments in both the institutions. Despite radical reformation, the UN and EU possess significant deficiencies in their structure and flaws in their policies. The effectiveness of their peacekeeping operations is rather limited. In order to preserve collective security and global peace, it is necessary for both these crucial organizations to reform their policies and adopt effective measures to conquer present flaws in their functional framework.

Worplestrop Case Study Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Worplestrop Case Study - Assignment Example We have three methods of budget control and systems (Hofstede, 2001). These include; a) Forecasting It is the most important technique of budgetary preparation; it gives the company ability to lay out future plans for the organization. It gives a comprehensive plan and look outs of the future. We prepare targeted plans, and the resources needed, then make percentages of the head accounts, and let other concerned groups compare. b) Variable Analysis It is usually done every month, with a quarterly processed closing summary. This budgetary control shows the difference between the actual results and the budget, noting the differences down and then accounting for them. This form of control reduces significantly the necessity of going through all the review cycles (Hofstede 2001). c) Control centres It prepares the budget within the business groups by creating budgetary control centres. We have different kinds of responsibilities within the created centres. Control centres methodology is ideally accepted within Worplestrop organization, because the control centres are segmented, creating an easy environment of managing the budgetary information. The budgets operate in terms of monetary relation. This is because most organizational activities run by use of money, so the budgets describe the organizations, usage of the available capital in the organization.

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

The United Nations And the European Union Essay

The United Nations And the European Union - Essay Example This essay declares that the efficiency of EU’s counter-terrorism operations is also highly questionable. Generally, the EU doesn’t support the US concept of a ‘war on terror’ and tends to criticize the US approach as highly military driven and overactive. The EU has adopted soft approach of sanctions and political pressure. The European governments are highly worried about the consequence of their anti-terrorism policies on their Muslim population which constitutes around 16 to 21 million of overall EU’s population. This paper makes a conclusion that both the UN and EU have played a crucial role in peacekeeping operations on a global and regional level. The end of cold war is marked as the transformation period for both the organizations in terms of their peacekeeping operations and foreign policies. The emergence of global terrorism, growing intrastate conflicts, rising nuclear proliferation, transformation of global political system from unipolarity to multipolarity in recent years, globalization, and growing economic inequality are some of the major common pressures which triggered developments in both the institutions. Despite radical reformation, the UN and EU possess significant deficiencies in their structure and flaws in their policies. The effectiveness of their peacekeeping operations is rather limited. In order to preserve collective security and global peace, it is necessary for both these crucial organizations to reform their policies and adopt effective measures to conquer present flaws in their functional framework.

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Legal and ethical issues concerning violence in video games Term Paper

Legal and ethical issues concerning violence in video games - Term Paper Example Many cases have been put forward to ban the usage of violent video games in the United States. Strong legal measures have not been taken though a regulatory body by the video game industry has been formed. Legal and Ethical Issues Concerning Violence in Video Games Human beings have advanced from the Stone Age to an era of development and progress. Technological advancements have served to provide human beings with expansion and improvement in all fields of life which include sciences, medicine and different forms of entertainment. The scope of entertainment has widened from the outdoor games and there has been great progress in the development of indoor games. The expansion of media and its grip on today’s world can be highlighted by the strength that it has in overpowering many important decisions that an individual takes. Media affects the culture as well as living of the individuals in this society. It can affect the thinking of people by the way it portrays the different happenings in the world. Video games are an important form of the media. The wide usage and popularity of video games has greatly increased over the years and it is now widely used as a form of entertainment. The popularity of video games has been associated with different problems which include the fact that the exposure to violent video games serves to have negative effects on the people who play these games. Thus, it has also become an issue of debate owing to the fact that there have been controversies with regard to the ethical and legal issues concerning violence in video games. There has been a great surge in the number of people who use video games for their entertainment and hence the usage of video games has highly increased over the years. In the United States, it has been analyzed that children between the age group of 8 to 18 years are exposed to 40 hours out of one complete week to the various forms of media which include the video games. The popularity of video games has been highly increased amongst the younger age groups. An interesting aspect is that children who are only two years of age play video games and their exposure ranges to an average of one hour per day. Amongst the boys between the ages of 8 to 13 years, it has been analyzed that the exposure to video games is higher than 7.5 hours in seven days. The negative aspect of this issue which has been put forward by a research is that the video games that are purchased by the children are not supervised by their parents and hence the supervision of the games that are played by the children is minimal (Anderson et al 2001). Furthermore, it has been explained that the games played by almost 75 percent of the teenagers are not meant for their age groups as they provide for increased exposure and violence portrayal and are for adults (Adams, 2010). The severity of the violence exposure can be analyzed by the statistics of a research conducted in the United States which provided for the fact that the children have an exposure to 40,000 killings by various forms of media by the time they have attained the age of 18 years (Anderson 2005). Video games were brought into the market in the twentieth century and in particular after 1970. Video games were not controversial in the beginning but the invention of a new game which was referred to as "Death Race 2000" became a subject of debate. It was believed that the game was

Monday, October 14, 2019

Exploring Geneses and Linkages Essay Example for Free

Exploring Geneses and Linkages Essay The contours of international relations changed dramatically during the 20th century, which saw three great conflicts on the world stage. While the First and the Second World Wars were largely located in Europe but found the participation of every major power across the globe, the Cold War split the international system into two ideologically distinct parts, and escalated the scale and scope of contestation beyond Europe. The aim of this essay is to reflect upon the causes behind each of the great wars of the previous century, and also to explore the linkages (and resulting continuity) between one to the next. By looking at the origins of the First World War, we shall find the genesis of the Second, and by analyzing the circumstances of the latter’s conclusion, we shall seek to explicate the onset of the Cold War. The origins of the First World War, which stretched from 1914 to 1918, lay primarily in two distinct geopolitical developments of the late 19th and early 20th century. The first of these was the unification of the German state following the relative period of peace in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1871, the German unification found the dominance of a singular territory at the center of Europe. Even though thee were initial reservations against German expansionism, the country’s imperial aspirations soon became apparent. A growing population, vast territories, military and industrial growth in an emergent Germany upset the European balance of power at the beginning of the 20th century. As a response, Great Britain, France, and Tsarist Russia formed an alliance, which sought to curtail Germany’s increasing search for territory and markets, with North Africa and the Middle East emerging as primary spheres of contention. While the former alliance maintained that they were safeguarding national interests against German imperialism, the latter claimed it was the victim of the imperial system that restricted access to new opportunities. Matters came to a head in 1914 and war ensued between the imperial alliance and revisionist Germany. A great degree of debate surrounds the causation of the First World War’s outbreak, with some historians squarely placing the blame on Germany, while others arguing that the War resulted out of a series of chain reactions in part due to the manner in which German military plans were conceived. The War ended with a victory for the Anglo-French alliance, but the Tsar of Russia was overthrown by the (communist) Red Army in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The post-War settlement came at Versailles in 1919, with Britain and France held Germany completely responsible for the conflict. Therefore, the settlement – though there were disagreements among the victors over its terms – was harsh on Germany, and included a series of reparations that critically undermined Germany’s status in Europe. Germany was forced to demilitarize, while France occupied the strategic and resource-rich territories of the Rhineland. Perhaps the most humiliating of all clauses in the Treaty of Versailles, however, was the â€Å"War Guilt† clause, which demanded heavy economic extractions from Germany. These were presumably done because it was a popular move domestically for the Allies and also because it provided the opportunity to permanently curb German efforts to fight major wars. These strategies, however, proved imprudent in the end. One of the distinguishing features of the post-First World War world order was the formation of the League of Nations, an international organization based on the premise of common objectives and collective security. Though the League served as the precursor to the United Nations, its implementation left its leading voice – American president Woodrow Wilson – dissatisfied. The League adopted a policy of appeasement, without bearing down on Italian, German, or Japanese aggression in the 1930s, and precipitated the onset of the Second World War in 1939. However, World War II (which lasted from 1939 to 1945) had much deeper origins in the Treaty of Versailles than in the failings of collective security. We must remember that the harshness of the Treaty had embittered the German population, and the same set the scene for Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Party to come to power in 1933. Soon after, democratic institutions in Germany were obliterated and replaced by the Nazi propagandist machinery; Hitler began rearming the country and massively investing in industry and technological innovation, while adopting a policy of anti-Semitism socially. In Europe, a series of crises spiraled out of control and led to the outbreak of war. Italian annexation of Abyssinia, German remilitarization of the Rhineland, and expansion into Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, and sustained civil war in Spain were all contributing factors. Soviet Russia, under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, entered into a non-aggression pact with Germany in 1939, so as to secure its western borders; this provided Hitler with the opportunity to concentrate on the rest of Europe, as he gradually unfurled his plans of continental domination. There remains a considerably vigorous debate with respect to the origins of the War in Europe, as many historians see it as an extension of the First World War, with the structural imbalances resulting out of the rise of and alliance between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Others claim that it was a war effort carefully constructed and implemented by Hitler, who had prepared meticulously for the War throughout the 1930s, turning the German state into an efficient war machine. It must be noted, however, that the formal declaration of war in 1939 came from Great Britain and France. A significant difference between the First and Second World Wars was the proliferation of war in the Eastern front, as Japan joined hands with Germany and Italy to form the Axis powers. The Meiji Restoration in Japan, Japanese expansionism in China and the Manchurian Crisis of 1931 opened the casket of war in East Asia, and Japanese aggression on the United States (US) – the (in)famous Pearl Harbor bombings – in 1941 meant that the latter had to terminate its isolationist policy and enter the War. In Europe, the German invasion of Soviet Russia in 1941 facilitated the alliance of Stalin’s regime with the Allied Powers. The last two incidents are noteworthy because these tilted the strategic and military balance in favor of the Allies, leading to an eventual victory in 1945. The Second World War remains the bloodiest military conflict in the history of humanity, and left most of Europe devastated. However, even before the dust could settle on the scourge of war, a new form of conflict emerged, as the US and the Soviet Union (USSR) found themselves vying for supremacy at the world stage; the end of the War had seen the traditional great powers depleted in resources and influence, and this power vacuum attracted both the Americans and the Soviets. The ensuing Cold War between these two superpowers would define the topography of international politics for the next four and a half decades. There, however, were other lessons to be drawn from the end of the Second World War, which inform us about the onset of the Cold War. The Wartime alliance amongst the US and the USSR had grown fragile by 1945, and serious disagreements ensued over post-War settlements. On the eastern front, World War II in effect ended with America’s explosion of the atomic bomb in Japan (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) in 1945. This also confirmed the US’ position as the sole nuclear power, while the USSR retained a conventional superiority in Europe. Even before the latter could attain nuclear parity (which happened in 1949), the two superpowers were at loggerheads as both attempted to assert their influence over Europe, culminating in the Berlin Blockade of 1948, which concretized the Iron Curtain that divided Western and Eastern Europe. The Cold War was characterized by a struggle for power between the US and the USSR, in order to achieve global dominance, both in terms of ideology and military might. The East-West conflict was organized by way of two monumental alliances: the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the USSR-led Warsaw Pact. Further, a nuclear arms race was another defining feature of the Cold War, with massive arsenals stockpiled by either side. Though the world came close to Armageddon more than once (especially during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962), nuclear deterrence preserved the bipolar peace of the Cold War. We find that there are three distinct interpretations of the Cold War. The first understand the conflict as a contest between rival ideologies – liberalism and communism – that tore the world asunder from 1945 to 1991. This ideological divide not only resulted from the unique histories and political cultures of the United States and Russia, the ideologies in turn determined policies, further reinforcing the divide. A second explanation of the Cold War casts the conflict as a geopolitical struggle where adversaries of relatively equal strength endeavored to gather more power and influence over other states in the international system. In this view, the Cold War was nothing but a clash of national interests. Another view sees the Cold War as the result of technological developments, most importantly nuclear weapons, culminating in a deadly arms race between the two superpowers. A major characteristic of the Cold War remained that there was never any direct confrontation, except in diplomatic circles, between the two rivals; instead a series of proxy wars were fought across the globe, designed to advance superpower interests. The end of the Cold War, again, is an event surrounded by debate. Many suggest that it was the aggressive stance of the Reagan administration that brought an end to the conflict, while others claim that it was a result of changes in Soviet policies under Mikhail Gorbachev. Thus, we find in our exploration of the three major conflicts of the 20th century that there remain several linkages that establish continuity from one to the other. All of these bear historical significance in our understanding of war and, in effect, lead the paths to the present when contemplating about international conflicts.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Powerful Symbols in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Powerful Symbols in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston       In 1937, upon the first publication of Their Eyes Were Watching God, the most influential black writer of his time, Richard Wright, stated that the novel "carries no theme, no message, [and] no thought."   Wright's powerful critique epitomized a nation's attitude toward Zora Neale Hurston's second novel. African-American critics read a book that they felt satisfied the "white man's" stereotype of African-American culture and the humor which Caucasians saw in that prejudice. However, those critics and most of America overlooked the wonderful use of imagery, symbolism, and thematic application of one African-American female's journey into womanhood and self-identification in a male-dominated society. Hurston introduced Janie Crawford, a strong, articulate, and dramatic character whose life was best empathized by women or by inhabitants of migrant farms and rural Black towns. Their Eyes Were Watching God is permeated with recurring symbols, such as a pear tree, a fence-gate, and Janie's hair, that enlighten a young girl's quest for self-fulfillment, as she discovers the true meaning of love and happiness through two failed marriages and one successful but tragic third.    The strongest symbol in Their Eyes Were Watching God is the pear tree. The pear blossom is a representation of Janie, as she is a young girl blooming into a woman during a spring afternoon. Hurston explains this symbolism at the first of the chapter, describing Janie as à ¬a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branchesà ® (Hurston 8) Janie then lies beneath the tree, observes the bees pollinate a blossom, and ex... ...ecade of prejudice against African-Americans, women, and most importantly, African-American women.    Sources Cited and Consulted: Donlon, Jocelyn Hazelwood. "Power: Spatial and Racial Intersections in Faulkner and Hurston."Journal of American Culture (1996): 95-110. Online. Internet. 8 December 2001. Available: http:vweb.hwwilsonweb.com/ Fetterley, Judith. "Introduction to the Resisting Reader: a Feminist Approach to American Fiction." The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. Ed. David H. Richter. Boston: Bedford books, 1998. 991-998. Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Perennial Classics, 1990. Jacobs, Karen. "From 'Spy-glass' to Horizon: Tracking the Anthropological Gaze in Zora Neale Hurston." Novel (1997): 329-60. Online. Internet. 8 December 2001. Available: http:vweb.hwwilsonweb.com/

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Hispanic :: essays research papers

The Latin community in the area which I reside is weak. This is evident in the fact that less Hispanics are involved in community affairs than members of other ethnicity's. It would be rather interesting to be able to know what goes into government policy making. The enthusiasm that I would put forth on this topic would be exemplary. The experience that qualifies me to partake in this institute is my involvement in SALSA (Spanish And Latino Student Association), as well as the fact that I am an aware, young, Hispanic male who sees what really goes on in the Latin community.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It would be quite educational to learn what occurs during the process of the making of government policies which greatly affect our community. Perhaps if more teenagers were given the opportunity to be educated on these matters the community could be bettered. This would improve the community by enriching the lives of youths and pointing them in a direction to work for the people, not against them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The work as well as effort that would be put forth by me would have to be exemplary. This is so because one of my goals in life is to better myself so that I may in turn better my community, especially the Hispanic community. This is an opportunity that I have been waiting for to arise. This is my chance to make a difference.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The experiences that qualify me to take part in this institute's affairs are that I am an active member in the SALSA group, as well as the fact that I am a young, Hispanic male who sees how the Hispanic community works. My involvement in the SALSA club has given me a way to reach out to the Hispanic students in my school, in hopes that if I can inform these young individuals about how to better the community, as well as teach them a sense of self pride in themselves. Then hopefully when they go out into their towns they will also try to make a difference.

Friday, October 11, 2019

History of Healthcare and Economics

This paper will discuss the history and evolution of healthcare economics and healthcare funding timelines. In the 21st Century healthcare has proven to be one the largest industries world. The healthcare industry has changed dramatically in the last hundred years. As changes and progression are examined, it becomes clearer that healthcare and the economy it has created, is an important part of American life. The way the funds flow in the healthcare system allows financial managers to track the money through the health care system. The initial flow of funds has drastically changed throughout the years. The economics of healthcare, â€Å"the study of how scarce resources are allocated among alternative uses for the care of sickness and the promotion, maintenance and improvement of health, including the study of how healthcare and health-related services, their costs and benefits, and health itself are distributed among individuals and groups in society†, according to The journal of Mental Health Policy and Economy (2006). There are records as early as the turn of twentieth century that show that healthcare providers charged for services including surgeries such as tumor removal, appendectomies and gynecological operations. Services may have been exchanged for items such as livestock, food items, or cotton. The patient or his or her family may have exchanged services for patient care. No form of health care insurance was available; prices were not set by any organization or person. Physicians of the early twentieth century were tradesmen and essentially businessman. Patients paid the full price for the medical services offered by the physician. According to PBS (n. d. ), in the 1910’s some reformers argue that there should be some sort of health insurance. Although the idea seemed to have some support, many physicians and other interest groups did not approve. War World One took place in 1917 and for the moment healthcare reform was put on the back burner. The lack of technology and inadequate health centers raise the amount of cost needed for medical care. The current economic and war state of the country took priority over healthcare reform. General Motors offers life insurance for 180,000 workers through Metropolitan Life. The same time doctors’ wages increased. During the Great Depression, it became apparent that there should be some sort of benefits for individuals as they reached retirement age. Instead of health insurance, the Social Security Act was passed. During the Roosevelt Administration, many reformers pushed for health insurance again, but conflicts within the country once again pushed for health care insurance. Blue Cross started offering private insurance for hospital care in many states even though it was considered a bad idea by many insurance professionals. The timeline from the PBS (n. d. ), website in the 1940’s a radical reformation took place. War World Two wages were capped and controlled on American employers. Companies began offering health benefits to compete with other employers. This idea has sparked the employer-based system that is used by employers today. A Universal Healthcare plan is introduced by President Truman, but is never used. The American Medical Association (AMA) believes the plan is Communist in nature. As the Korean War approached, healthcare reform was once again a low priority. The government established a policy that would make the federal government responsible for sick poor. Many people in 1950’s can no longer afford health care insurance, especially those who do not work. The price of hospital care doubled. President Johnson signs Medicare and Medicaid into law. During the 60’s, more than 700 insurance companies are selling health insurance. During the 1980’s Medicare begins charging insurance by the diagnosis and not the treatment of the patient. Technology, vaccinations, medications, and a rise in hospital expenses raise healthcare costs tremendously. Medicare’s high expenditure rates and rapid inflation of the economy also affected the higher cost of healthcare. Health care has seen many changes over the past years, but all the changes have created the health care system and the economics of the system to this point. As the gross domestic product (GDP) , which is the total market of healthcare, started to increase annually, the private sectors of healthcare, government controlled entities, and insurance companies profit and change policies, which in turn increases the (GDP). An increase in population, aging population and communicable diseases such as Hepatitis, HIV, AIDS, and Tuberculosis has increased the cost of health care even in recent years. Small deductibles, low copayments, and employer-based healthcare insurance have molded the idea in many patients’ minds that the patient should use medical services often to â€Å"get what they pay for. † This has created an imbalance of supply and demand. There are numerous reports that there is a shortage of providers. Rapid training of Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners are being educated and trained to help fill the gap of the numerous amounts of patients that need medical attention. The elasticity in health care has forced changes to be made in healthcare billing and insurance. The increased amounts of patients that need medical attention have increased the amount of providers needed. The increased costs of healthcare, technology, research, drugs, and lack of funds available for Medicare have forced a price increase for patients. Many employers find it more difficult to provide costly insurance to employees. Elasticity of services might normally demand a decrease in price, but prices have been inelastic in nature. Elasticity can also have a direct impact on when the government intervenes to set a fair price for services according to Tutor2U (2006). The insurance companies play a huge role in determining the amount of money that is needed for medical care. Supply and demand differ so greatly in the health care community than any other service or industry, making supply and demand a very different story than simply buying milk or a computer. Macroeconomics is the branch of economics that deals with the economy as a whole, such as unemployment rates, deflation and inflation. Microeconomics deals with the insurance companies and other health care related aspects that are affected by the economy fall into a more specific category known as microeconomics. As the whole economy changes, families, patients and individuals must choose to make decisions based on the economy. Healthcare decisions within communities and household are examples of microeconomics. As advances in healthcare are introduced, government regulations are introduced and the economy faces multiple challenges in the future, healthcare will likely see more changes to come.