American Childhood essays

American Childhood essays 1. The setting of the story was a little confusing because of the different perspectives and scenery jumps. It takes place in the 1950s. The place where the story first occurs is a suburban Pittsburgh neighborhood. The background is her environment. The tone relates to the story by it being in 1st person perspective. She is remembering her childhood and telling the reader about how her feelings on different things changed. The mood is family warmth and togetherness and how it relates to the suburban neighborhood. 2. There was only one main character in the story, and it was Annie Dillard, the author. Annie has light colored hair and a slender body. She is very adventurous and loves nature. She spends a lot of time reading books. She inherited her fathers taste for music. She likes jazz and Dixieland. Her family loves comedy and teaches her the science of joke telling, so she practices as the straight man in her fathers jokes. There are many different words to describe her, but if I had to choose one I would have to say she is a daydreamer. 3. The theme has to deal with life in general and all changes in it. Life is a journey from childhood to death; with each step through life you become more awake and aware. When she talks about becoming more awake and aware she is saying that youre able to notice changes in yourself and the world. Also, you realize the more you know the less you really know. The world is a very big place always changing and never ending, thats how I think the author would describe the theme of her book. She was showing how everyone elses perspective on life and the world change, as you get older. 4. She starts out in a Pittsburgh neighborhood remembering her early childhood. The story starts with her talking about her family and how she changed over the years. There is no conflict it is just her remembering her childhoo...

Must-Read Blogs for College Survival

Must-Read Blogs for College Survival This post may look like an ordinary blog list. But it only seems so. In fact, it is not just a blog list. Blogs are not ranked by popularity or information relevance. Neither are they grouped into specific categories. However, be sure that all of these blogs contain the information you will require at some point of your college life. And when you reach that point - youll know where to look for the information you need! So, what we offer you is not a blog list, but rather a powerful college survival tool. The bloggers listed here are doing a great job supplying students with everything necessary - study tricks, tips to survive exams and cope with tasks, help with college adaptation, job opportunities, and brilliant campus life hacks. Study Prof The blog has it all - tips about studying, self development and even making yourself zombie-proof. You will find good videos and infographics here as well. The writing style is interesting, and you dont feel that you are actually reading an educational blog - you entertain while learning something new! studyprof.com/blog Grey Matters: Blog Mathematics and mental games turn out to be fun here. Reading this blog daily you actually risk to become a mathematical ninja! Though the blog is aimed at people more or less connected with math, it would be interesting for anyone who wants to develop logical thinking. headinside.blogspot.com Mind Hacks The blog concentrates more on your brain development rather than regular studying. The point is youd better start taking care of your mental health and broaden your outlook in college, and this blog is the right resource for that. It raises contradictory questions, motivates you to research, makes you think about the crucial issues and exercise your mind every day. mindhacks.com Thank You Brain Learning process and memory are interconnected and inseparable. Thus, the blog focuses on both of these processes, helping you to exercise memory and improve your learning skills. Deep research and practical relevance is what makes blog posts so valuable for the readers. After reading this blog fro a while you really get the insight to our mental processes and memory development. thankyoubrain.blogspot.com Hack College What apps will help you study? What things you have to pack for college? How to travel on a budget? What can make you really a successful student? Time to learn the truth and debunk myths on college life. And thats what HackCollege is living for! Moreover they sre looking for talented students to write for them, so you can not only read about interesting things, but also share interesting things about college life. hackcollege.com That College Kid The blog is overflowing with useful apps, tips, hacks to help you survive freshmen year and go further. You will find instructions on how to save your budget, how to raise your productivity, what classes to choose and what to do with all that education later. In other words, this blog has everything you need to turn from college kid into the college pro. thatcollegekid.com College Times College is not about studying only! It is about drinking, partying, trends in fashion, relationships, and more fun! If you want to take a minute and rest from studying routine - this site is for you. Stay in trend and enjoy life having best time in college collegetimes.com Life After College Is there life after college? Jenny Blake thinks there is, and discovers the opportunities and career prospect for college graduated in her blog. Even if you are a freshmen and there is a long college journey ahead - do not neglect this blog! Knowing what is waiting for you after college, you can start planning your life today and be prepared for the future to come. lifeaftercollege.org/blog Ð ¡ollege Info Geek As soon as you enter the site, it tells you that it will help you upgrade your college experience. Innovations, tips to make your college life easier, mistakes to avoid and geekery of course - thats what you should expect from the blog. collegeinfogeek.com/blog The College Solution Thats the resource you should read as a student and offer your parents to read as well. It offers practical solutions on different problems and issues that may appear in college. You will find answers on frequently asked questions concerning college admissions, campus life, studying abroad and much more. Perfect resource for freshmen! thecollegesolution.com Scott H Young When a writer, a programmer and a traveler (being all one person) starts a blog, it definitely has a lot to share with audience. And its not only about studying. Its about life experience in general. If you are young, active and enthusiastic you should definitely start reading this blog and sharing your ideas with the author. scotthyoung.com Cal Newport The author of books How to Become a Straight-A Student and How to Win at College definitely knows some secrets of college life, and he is eager to share them with you on his blog. The articles are thought provoking, and include deep investigation of the problems they cover. This is definitely the resource you can rely on concerning time management and planning, setting goals, proof reading, productivity and much more. calnewport.com Teen College Education Great source for students at every stage of college!Starting from freshmen and students-to-be, as it contains a lot of tips on choosing college and majors, analyzing college rankings, passing SAT, surviving college interview, and preparing for the big first day. And finishing with graduates who will find career opportunities, MBA tips, and ideas on what you can do with your university degree. The will literally guide you through the whole education process making it smooth and simple. teencollegeeducation.org Honest College Tons of free information on job search, studying abroad, travelling while college and tricks to make your college life easier. All tips are tested with time and experience and shared by the author and numerous student contributions. What can be better than real working advice straight from the students mouth? honestcollege.com SayCampusLife The last but not the least (and one of the most powerful) source of college tips. Posts are neatly divided into categories - sport, study tips, financial aid, budgeting - so youll easily find your way here. saycampuslife.com

Human Resources, Competitive Advantg Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Human Resources, Competitive Advantg - Essay Example HR will have to ensure that they are given equal opportunity and they are protected against issues such as sex discrimination. 2. Sexual harassment has been defined as sexual moves that are unasked for by the victim, requests of favors that are sexual in nature in exchange of promotion or threat of firing the employee and physical and verbal actions and movements that are sexual in nature. Sexual harassment that is recognized as Quid Pro Quo occurs when an individual is offered promotion or is threatened to be fired from his/her position if the employee rejects or accepts favors that are sexual in nature. Sexual harassment that is recognized as Hostile environment occurs when people on the same level of the hierarchy conduct activities that are sexual in nature and are unwanted and make the environment difficult for the victim to continue to operate in an efficient manner. 3. When during the procedure of selection and hiring the HR employs a multiple hurdle model, the applicant has to stay successful during different steps of a test and they have to prove to be successful in every step. If they fail to achieve the passing score in a particular test, they are deemed as unfit for the job. If the HR has employed a compensatory model, they will be making their hiring decision based on the overall scores of all the tests. This model is based on the premise that if an applicant performs well on one test and fails to perform well on the other test, the earlier score will compensate for the score of the second test. 4. According to the job characteristic model, there are five characteristics of a particular job. The first characteristic is skill variety, which is defined as the number of skills that are required to perform a particular job; the second is task identity, which is defined as the completion of the job from the starting point to the ending point. The third is task significance which is defined as how

What are the two principle demands for artefact in Italy between 1300 Essay

What are the two principle demands for artefact in Italy between 1300 and 1600 - Essay Example Between 1300-1600 years, Italy was influenced by economic and social changes which had a great impact on social values and traditions, tastes and preferences. The demand for art was caused by different factors including wealth accumulation and the role of religion in everyday life. The principle demands for artifacts in Italy were increasing role of religion and church in life of citizens and new consumption patterns caused by accumulation of wealth and financial prosperity.The demand for a religious art was caused by increasing role of church and religion in life of the state. The supreme task of church art was to serve the liturgy. Hence church art was determined by a particular purpose. The building and furnishing of the House of God were subordinate to that purpose. This subordination was the very reverse of a restriction or hampering of creative power. It was not so much a matter of subordination as of integration into the great reality of God's dealings with man. Images in chur ch were meant to be at the service of the preaching of the faith. This immensely high task required the artist to submit his creative action to the judgment of the word of God. His uncontrolled subjectivity and creative fantasy had to be disciplined by faith. Since he was being called to be a witness to the truth through his work, he did not regard it as a restriction of his freedom when the Church exercised her pastoral office and refused to have images inside the church which contradicted truths of faith. This ordinance was not concerned with aesthetic questions of style and form. In these, so long as no offense was offered to the dignity and holiness of the faith, the artist was free. The Church's preaching, whose task was to declare and explain it, had to conform to this same order. Hence it had to be the measure of the making of images. No indifference could attach to the question of what was displayed in a church, nor to that of where the emphasis was placed in the choice of t hemes (Nanert, 2006). In Italy, literary texts were essential for understanding the devotional trends, and the art of the era was likewise a rich source of information. This was particularly true of panel painting, in which the artist was free to incorporate a wide variety of primary and secondary motifs. The painting of the fifteenth century, for example, was well known for its elaborate symbolism: not only conventional details such as saints' attributes but also specific vestments worn by angels could hold symbolic value (Nanert, 2006). The painter of an annunciation scene, for example, could draw upon several kinds of symbolic and expressive vocabulary: nuances of emotion might be conveyed in the Virgin's facial expression and posture; the painter might suggest linkage between the Old and New Testaments by showing Mary with a Bible open to a prophetic text; an anachronistic portrait of Jesus might hang on the wall behind his mother-to-be; Trinitarian theology could be expressed by showing the Father ho vering above the scene, while the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove winged its way from the Father to the Virgin along a beam of celestial light; and the artist might use flowers, candles, and other objects for their established symbolic value. "Liturgical utensils, accessories, and furnishings constituted a distinct category of these goods that satisfied a steady demand generated by religious needs, and Italian products enjoyed great success in markets abroad" (Goldthwaite 1995,p. 9). Panel painting was increasingly used to represent narrative scenes as well as static portraits (or icons): scenes from the life of Christ, the legend of the Virgin, and legends of the saints were favorite narrative motifs. The accumulation of symbolic, iconic, and narrative elements reached its fullest development as individual

Deer Valley Lodge Project Essay Example for Free

Deer Valley Lodge Project Essay The purpose of this unit 5 individual project is to take into consideration the revamping project associated with Deer Valley Lodge. The ski resort has made plans to add to the already sprawling location and wish to determine whether based on tax and cost information, if the new improvements are of an advantage or a disadvantage to the company as a whole. ? Deer Valley Lodge Deer Valley Lodge is a ski resort that has plans to add five new chairlifts to their site. The costs/interest to the company per chairlift is as follows: †¢Lift Costs $2 Million †¢Preparation of slope and installation costs $1. 3 Million †¢300 additional skiers if built †¢ONLY 40 days a year when the extra room for skiers will be needed. †¢New lifts will cost $500. 00 per day for 200 days †¢Tickets cost $55. 00 per day †¢New lift has an economic life of 20 years The above figures are very important when taking into prospective the planning and implementation of the planning for future extensions. Based on this knowledge, this exercise will call for explanation of the following information in this paper: 1. Assume that the before-tax required rate of return for Deer Valley is 14%. Compute the before-tax NPV of the new lift and advise the managers of Deer Valley about whether adding the lift will be a profitable investment. Show calculations to support your answer. 2. Assume that the after-tax required rate of return for Deer Valley is 8%, the income tax rate is 40%, and the MACRS recovery period is 10 years. Compute the after-tax NPV of the new lift and advise the managers of Deer Valley about whether adding the lift will be a profitable investment. Show calculations to support your answer. 3. What subjective factors would affect the investment decision? Computing Revenue and Cost Based on the previously listed figures it is safe to assume that the below figures will show the appropriate yield given the costs associated with the building of the new lift. Figuring the Incremental revenue and cost is of importance to complete this exercise. Incremental Revenue: $55. 00 per day (X) multiplied by the extra intended tickets which is 300 (X) then multiplied by the intended 40 day usage brings the total revenue cost to 660,000. 00, while Incremental cost is the lift costs of $500/per day multiplied by the total amount of days in service which is 200, which will bring the cost to 100,000. Then you take into prospective the Profit which is the difference of the Incremental revenue and the Incremental costs which in turn is 560,000. If this is the case then it is understood that the before-tax cash flow is as follows: 1. Initial year: 3,300,000 2. Every year after: 560,000 These figures are important when determining the factors that will suggest that the building of the new lift is of the utmost importance. Computing the before-tax NPV of the new lift: Will it be profitable Due to the NPV being a positive number listed in the above calculations it is my belief and will be the advantage of the company in question to go ahead with the project and expect a great return for their efforts.

Cold War Essay -- essays research papers

What was the Cold War and what events caused it? Cold War is the term used to describe the intense rivalry that developed after World War II between groups of Communist and non-Communist nations. On one side were the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) and its communist allies that referred to as the Eastern bloc. On the other side were the United Staes and its democratic allies, usually referred to as the Western bloc. Cold War was characterized by mutual distrust, suspicion, and misunderstandings by both the United States and the Soviet Union, and their allies. The United States accused the Soviet Union of seeking to expand Communism throughout the world. The Soviets charged the United States with practicing imperialism and with attempting to stop revolutionary activity in other countries. Each bloc’s vision of the world also contributed to East-West tension. The United States wanted a world of independent nations based on democratic principles. The Soviet Union attempted to control areas it considered vital to its national interest, including much of Eastern Europe.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Yalta Conference is often cited as the beginning of the Cold War. During the seven days of February 4 – 11, 1945, the Big Three – Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Josef Stalin – met in Crimea at the Lavidia Palace on the Black Sea. The main purpose of Yalta was the re-establishement of the nationas conquered and destroyed Germany. Poland was given back it...

Compare and Contrast Hinduism and Christianity Essay

A. Christian and Hindu Hinduism is one of the oldest religions of the world. Its followers are called Hindus. Its largest following is found in India. Hinduism traces its roots to the Indus Valley civilization about 5000 years ago. It is an intermingling of the  Ã‚  Ã‚   religion of the nomadic Aryans (indo –European tribes) called Vedism and the more sophisticated indigenous Indian native beliefs and practices, often referred to as â€Å"Indus valley culture†(Famighetti, 1996, 654). It has no single founder or creed but drew on many traditions as it evolved. In spite of the fact that it was subject to many influences (a little Islam practices are incorporated into it) it stayed flexible enough to be the dominant faith of most people of India (Hammer 1982). After the Aryans, Hinduism went through many developments and in 1200 AD the religion was officially named â€Å"Hinduism† by the Muslim invaders. There is a minimal organization in Hinduism and an absence of creed particularly because Hinduism operates more as culture than a religion. The religion is so diverse in scope that it does not fit well into the western concept of religion but rather it leans more to a commitment to or respect for an ideal way of life, known as Dharma: eternal order, righteousness, religion, law and duty (Hammer 1982). In a much later time, a new kind of religious movement, Christianity, was founded around AD 30. Christianity is based upon the teachings of Jesus, a Jewish carpenter who resides in the Roman province of Palestine. He was a popular figure in that part of the world because he was known to perform many miracles of healing. His life and his teachings are found in the Bible– the first four gospels of the New Testament; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These gospels were written by diverse authors (excluding Jesus). Jesus Christ is believed to fulfill the prophecy of Messiah (a redeemer of the world) in the Old Testament. In fact, the main teaching of Christianity is that Jesus died on the cross to reconcile sinners back to God. He offers unconditional love and forgiveness to those who accepts him as Lord and Savior. He gained many followers especially after his â€Å"resurrection† and before long, amidst persecutions; Christianity became the official religion of the many provinces of the most powerful Empire in that era, Rome. At present, Christianity is embraced by many countries of the world (Crofton, 1991, 312-313). B.   Two characteristics of each religion The Christians believed in a Triune God; God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit. Although they are three, they are also considered as one (monotheistic). The Christian concept of Trinity is that God is one but manifested himself  Ã‚   in three ways, each with separate function. As God the father, he expresses himself as the Supreme Creator of everything, whether seen or unseen, as God the Son he expresses himself as God born as man (incarnation) with a mission to reconcile man back to God by dying in the cross as a sacrifice for sin, and as God the Holy Spirit he expresses himself as a spiritual Being who indwells Christian believers to impart to them the power and strength to overcome the trials and temptations while living on earth(Boettner , 1976 , 80-81 ). The Hindus, on the other hand believed in a supreme being (Brahman) who is thought to be present in all creatures and that, at the same time, creatures are also considered as part of him. They believed in many different gods and goddesses, but all are considered to be symbols and expressions of Brahman. Each deity can appear in many forms or incarnations. Their most important expressions or manifestations of Brahman are Brahma the creator, Shiva the destroyer and Vishnu the preserver (Crofton, 1994, 304). Although the west may consider the Hindu faith as polytheistic, Hinduism can be viewed as Trinitarian, one God in three major manifestations: Brahman, Vishnu and Shiva. However, Hindus can be accurately described as henotheistic; they adhere to the belief that gods and goddesses are facets, forms, manifestations, or aspects of the one supreme God (Perry, 1988, 230). The Christians also believed that man lived only once on this earth and after he dies he is destined to two places, Heaven or hell. Heaven is for those who lived a godly life on earth, who ask for forgiveness of their sins and acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Together with God and his heavenly beings the â€Å"saints† will live a life of bliss forever.   Hell is the destiny of those who persisted in transgressing God’s established Law, revealed to man through the Bible, and to those who did not acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They will be with the Devil forever and be tormented without end. Wherever he may end up, death eternally liberates man from a life on earth (Crofton, 1994, 312-313). The Hindus, on the other hand, believed that after a man die he would be reincarnated into another life depending on Karma. Karma can be understood most simply as the accumulated good and bad acts of man’s previous lives, which consequently determines his type of birth, length of life and kinds of experiences in the next life. Hindu concept of reincarnation is the continuous transfer of one’s soul from body to body. Hindus believed that good Karma assures a person of being reborn into a better life. A person with bad Karma may not be reborn in a human body, but perhaps as an animal or insect. In Hinduism, the goal is liberation from an endless cycle of rebirth (Perry, 1988, 230). B. Similarities and Differences between Each Religion’s Concepts of each of the two characteristics, Both religions are similar in their belief of a Triune God (although in Hinduism it cannot be accurately stated that they believe in Trinity because there are other lesser gods and goddesses that vie for worship).   In the two religions the first and second and third persons of the Trinity are similar; as God the creator, God the preserver and God as the destroyer.   However there are obvious and important differences in their characters or functions.   Brahma is considered a very impersonal God because he should not be disturbed by man in fulfilling his duties and obligations as a creator (Cory, 1986, 10). God the Father on the other hand longed to have a personal relationship with man and in fact many verses in the Bible expressed his desire to be man’s provider, sustainer and protector.   He even promised man that whenever man calls him, he would answer him (Thompson, 1983, 812). In the case of Vishnu he is so different from God the Son because of the fact that whenever dharma on earth is threatened Vishnu travels to earth in ten incarnations including as fish and tortoise (Crofton, 1994, 304). God the Son for his part traveled to earth only once to settle the issue of sin (which threatens whatever is good on earth) and to accomplish this mission he was born incarnate as full God and full human in the person of Jesus Christ only. Unlike Vishnu (who lived in milky waters of Vaikunth surrounded by thousands of hooded serpent) he lived a truly human life subject to all of its trials and temptations (McDowell, 1991, 271-276). Lastly, Hindus knew Shiva as a destroyer in a positive way; he destroys imperfections, illusions, desires, attachments, impurities and ignorance for the welfare of the world and those who inhabit it (Perry, 1988, 304). Although God the Holy Spirit can be an agent to dispense judgment on errors like Shiva, he is different from Shiva in the sense that his primary function is to empower men to live a godly life by indwelling in them so that they themselves will overcome whatever is negative in this earth (Thompson, 1983, 1112). Unlike the Brahman who can manifest himself in various forms and in innumerable gods and goddesses, the Christian God does not manifest himself aside from the three mentioned above (Thompson, 1983, 76). Also, while in Hinduism it is believed that all things are part of Brahman, in Christianity God is distinct from his creation. He does not in anyway appear as a fish or tortoise but may use his creation to advance his purposes through the exhibition of his power (Thompson, 1983, 646). With the case of the doctrine of the afterlife, both religions believed that there is life after death and this next life is made possible because of the existence of the immortal human soul. Both religions also believed that whatever man’s state will be in the afterlife is determined by the actions he had while living on earth. However, similarity ends here for both religions because surrounding this doctrine are many obvious differences. In Christianity, there are only two destinations, the good to heaven, and the bad to hell. The human soul is transported to these places and will permanently live there forever. There is no way that his eternal condition can ever be reversed or change. Also his death is the final liberation of human existence, there is no way that he will ever be born again either as man or in any other form. Moreover, his destination will determine whether he will be finally liberated from any human suffering or continue to live with it in eternity. If he ends up in heaven, then he will be liberated from suffering but if he ends up in hell, suffering will be his lot (Crofton, 1994, 312). In Hinduism, however, after the physical death, man is going to be reborn either to a better life or to a worse one depending on karma. Good karma enables him to be reborn to a better life, perhaps from a peasant to a king, or for a bad karma to a worse one from a peasant to an insect. Departed soul search and find out a body, where it can continue doing what ever it left off in the last life. The Hindus believed that as long as the ‘soul’ engages in egoistic and desire ridden actions, considering himself to be the doer of his actions, he will be forever subject to the cycles of birth and deaths and the laws of nature. The only way to be liberated from this endless cycle is to perform selfless desireless actions for humanity and to offer to God detached devotion and sacrifices, acknowledging him as the doer of all (Hammer 1986). This Hindu belief expresses the idea that a person can make up for whatever wrong he did while alive on earth and eventually end up liberated, unlike Christianity where a person can never undo what was done while his was on earth and the consequences of his actions in the afterlife can never be changed. D. Origin and Contemporary Expression of Each Characteristic. Tertullian was the first one to use the word Trinity in 215 AD when the early Christian church was facing a lot of doctrinal errors concerning the existence of God, as various heresies circulated (Cairns, 1967, 122). Although the word Trinity is not stated directly in the Bible nor explained thoroughly nevertheless it was amply implied. Trinity in fact was subject to controversy as it was humanly impossible to understand a â€Å"one God in three persons†. Early Christian scholars were forced to give this doctrine a careful thought and consideration through studying of the Biblical truths. The doctrine of the Trinity is widely accepted by the Christians of today, in fact, it is considered to be central to the Christian faith (Ryrie, 1972, 29).Today Christians make a statement of faith in Trinity through reciting the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. Celebrating the Trinity takes place the first Sunday after Pentecost. Christians expressed their faith in the Trinity by making the sign of the cross â€Å"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit† (â€Å"cross†, 2007, 1). But it must be remembered that the Christian concept of God is a monotheistic one. In Hinduism, the vague concept of Trinity is expressed in the Vedanta, a section of the Vedas (foundational scriptures of the Hindus). Vedas is believed to be revelations of God and its teaching are handed down from generation to generation through the gurus. Written Vedas were made around 500 years ago. But generally, the Hindu religion as a polytheistic one derived its concept of many gods also from the Vedas. Contemporary Hindus today visits Hindu temples to worship major Gods and local shrines to worship their local gods and goddesses (Perry, 1988, 230). The origin of the Christian doctrine of life after death, in Hell and Heaven is taken from the Bible. The writings, which eventually were gathered together and came to be known as â€Å"The Holy Bible†, were written over a period of 1500 years by more than 40 different authors living on 3 different continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe). The first book of the Bible were believed to be written by Moses around 1450-1400 BC (Crofton, 1991, 312). The Christians today, just like those who had gone before them, do not expect their loved ones to live again after death except in the final bodily resurrection when Christ returns for the second time. They knew that the physical separation was final. They bury their dead (usually enclosed in a coffin) in a cemetery and visits regularly to pay their respect to the dead (Crofton, 1991, 311). The endless cycle of rebirth is known as Samsà ¢ra by the Hindus. The precise origin of the Indic belief in Samsà ¢ra is uncertain. However, it is a fact that the ancient culture of India celebrated cycles of nature and human –earthly fertility rhythms. The concept of rebirth may be derived from this. Nevertheless, no matter how samsara originated, the doctrine of rebirth became popular in India in the sixth century B.C. The contemporary expression of their belief in reincarnation can be seen in the cremation of their dead. It is believed that as the skull of the dead cracked upon burning in a funeral pyre, the soul of the dead is released for its rebirth in the next life. The ashes of the dead are cast upon the sacred waters of the Ganges River. Also, the Hindus never set a monument for the dead for the person continues life onwards; it is not shackled to the past (Perry, 1988, 231).

Management Information System Essay

Maxis Berhad is a leading telecommunication company in Malaysia with more than 11.4 million mobile subscribers, Maxis has been providing a full suite of services on multiple platforms to fulfill the telecommunication needs of individual consumers, SMEs and large corporations in Malaysia. Other than that, Maxis Berhad is offering on postpaid services under the Maxis brand and via prepaid formast under the Hotlink. It uses the dialling prefix identifier of â€Å"012†, â€Å"014† and â€Å"017†. The uses of different brands are to support each other by synergy value. It helps Maxis Berhad to maintain and develop prepaid businesses while keep on maintaining their growth in postpaid field. Maxis Berhad is the first telecommunication company who build up integrated communication service and launched 4G LTE which is the highest internet speed in Malaysia. Besides that, Maxis Berhad is a trendy company that brings in iPhone, BlackBerry and Samsung Galaxy to the local mar ket compare to the other telecommunication companies, it helps local users to catch up their technology knowledge with other countries. In addition, Maxis Berhad is having customer service center throughout the countries, which provides conveniences to the customers for paying bills, signing up, and reporting problems. Customers are now able to reach Maxis service representatives via telephone, web and social media platforms. Maxis Berhad had significant growth and strong track record of bringing innovation and excellent customer service. Maxis Call Centre was awarded the ‘Best of the Best’ honor at the 2012 Customer Relationship Management and Contact Centre (CCAM) Annual Awards. They are the only service provider that awards scholarships to children of their own postpaid customers. Maxis Berhad had awarded as Malaysia’s Top Ten Companies: Ranked 1 – Asia’s 200 Most Admired Companies, The Wall Street Journal Asia in 2006. Morten Lundal was appointed as a Director of Maxis on 1 October 2013. Maxis Berhad currently is streamlining its organisational structure into four business areas, each with its respective head in order to strengthen their core business areas for future growth. The first area, enterprise solutions, it manages the company’s enterprise, government and SME business. For the second area is about consumer business. It is responsible for the end-to-end management of all mobile and fixed business for the consumer segment. Sales and service, the third area, focuses on customer service and channel and  supply chain management while the fourth, digital services, oversees the development of Maxis’ innovative digital media and cloud-based services including mobile apps. The four business areas will be supported in their day-to-day operations by the information services, network, finance, human resources, corporate affairs, regulatory & government affairs and legal divisions. In telecommunication industry, there are many companies to choose with, but finally our group end up with Maxis Berhad because we found that it is perform better when compared to its competitors. The primary reason that we choose Maxis Berhad as our company is due to Maxis Berhad has maintained their leadership among the telecommunication companies. They have approximately 13 million of customer during the year end 2013. They were also the first company that launched 4G LTE which is the highest internet speed in Malaysia. They always seek for new ideas and innovations by putting a lot of effort and capital on the R&D investment. Next, Maxis Berhad has achieves many awards and recognitions throughout its operations period. There are two awards we have to emphasize here due to these achievements have truly lead them to be more well known. Maxis Berhad has won the prestigious 2011 Global Telecoms Business Innovation Award for the Missed SMS Notification service in the Wireless Network Infrastructure Innovation, SMS network innovation category. Maxis is the first in the world to provide this service in partnership with Acision. Besides, Maxis Berhad has received the award, â€Å"Asia’s Best Employer Brand Award at the second Asia’s Best Employer Brand Awards year 2011† which was hosted by the Employer Branding Institute of Singapore. It succeeds in creating a culture of contribution and innovation at work and its belief in consistent improvements in Human Resources policies. Maxis was also recognised for its role in developing future leader. Part 2: Types of e-commerce used Electric commerce is commonly known as e-commerce, and it is defined as the exchange of goods, services, and money through electronic mediation using Internet technology. There are seven types of e-commerce we learnt, which are business to consumer (B2C), business to business (B2B), consumer to consumer (C2C), consumer to business (C2B), government to business (G2B), government to government (G2G), and government to consumer (G2C). First and foremost, one of the types of e-commerce used by the Maxis Berhad is the business to consumer (B2C) e-commerce. Based on the research made, there is a 80% of the internet user has looked for the goods and services to purchase in the internet, however, only 30% of them has really purchased the goods the services online as they may worry about the security system of the online payment. This trend has been observed by the Maxis Berhad and thus, the company has made a strategic decision to have collaboration with the PayPal, a popular online payment platform, to ensure that their consumers (customers) can easily and safely shop online. This will provide the convenience to their customers as the collaboration between the Maxis Berhad and the Paypal will simplify the process of the online shopping today which require the customers to repeatedly fill in payment card and contact details for each transaction or merchant. The customers can enjoy the speed of the online payment with the Maxis-PayPal account. They just need to log in with their Maxis PayPal credentials as well as their phone number to make the payment and the payment option is available online and in all major smartphone platforms, such as iPhone, Android and Blueberry. The most important thing is the customers do not need to worry about their financial details such as credit card number will be exposed to others as the process of the payment is highly secure. Besides, the business to business (B2B) e-commerce is used by the Maxis Berhad. Maxis Berhad offer an online business partnership application to those who are interested in on their main website, https://www.maxis.com.my/en/about-maxis/partnerships/business-partnership.html. On the website, the company show the brief introduction of their business partner, job description and partnership criteria to make the internet users more familiar with the business partnership which the company looks for. There are 3 types of select partners that the company desires, which are application solution provider, content provider as well as system integrator. Furthermore, the types of alliance displayed on the website are technology partners, device and hardware partners, and the consulting partners. As the appliers has been successfully selected, Maxis Berhad will collaborate with the selected business partner (applier) to create a variety of mobile services for the applier’s enterprise. Moreover, the collaboration  will generate repeatable and market-impacting mobility solutions for the selected business partners, within selected industries. There are also some benefits that the selected business partner will gain such as the leverage on the Maxis’s strong branding, leverage on Maxis’s global communications alliances, leverage on Maxis’s communications technology expertise & technology roadmap and so on. Part 3: Identify of the Information System The Information System is explained by the BusinessDictionary.com as a combination of hardware, software, data, telecommunications and trained personnel organized to facilitate planning, control, coordination and decision making in an organization. According to Valacich and Schneider (2014), Information System allows an organization to be more productive and profitable. It also helps the organization to gain competitive advantage towards the competitor in the industry. Most importantly is reaching out to more customers and improve the organization service to their customers. Maxis Berhad as one of the main organizations in Malaysia telecommunications industry, its business nature will generate a huge amount of transactions, each of the transaction contains a specified subscriber’s activity such as phone calls, SMS and data roaming. Maxis Berhad has to use the various information system to help its organization to deal with their customers correctly. 1) Transaction Processing System While any transaction occurs by the subscriber, Maxis Berhad is recording those transactions and encoded into various format. The recorded transactions is called Call Data Records (CDR). The CDRs could be encoded by various formats and protocols, for examples ASN.1, XML and CSV. To allow Maxis’s Transaction processing system to function, first those encoded transaction data will be separated into batches and periodically transfer to the position where this system can process it. The Transaction Processing System is arranged and grouped into batches and periodically to check all the new transactions data batch. The TPS uses standard network protocols to transfer the CDR batch file to the TPS. TPS is responsible in ensuring the integrity of each file transferred, ensuring that no IP network errors renders the file corruption. Other than that, it also ensures the  transaction data are not corrupt and not process more than once. After the error checking complete, those subscriber’s transaction data will back up in a long term memory for future use. Some Governments require that a record of every transaction need to be stored infinitely in its raw format. Once the Maxis Transaction Processing System gathers the batch of transaction data, it will decode the data into human readable format. Followed by, enhances the information within the transaction data regarding the subscriber’s activity and have a duplicate checking. After all the transaction has been processed, it will load into a particular datastore. The decoded CDR batches are then checked for duplicate records. While the intermediate processing on the CDR batches have completed, the CDR will loaded into the specific data store, the Transaction Processing System will summarize the important detail of the CDR and ready to present those details to the Maxis management in order for Maxis management to assess the performance of Maxis Berhad. Lastly, the Transaction Processing System enables Maxis Berhad to present its company performance through the annual report to the shareholder regarding the daily operation. 2) Management Information System According to BusinessDictionary.com, Managing Information System (MIS) is refers to an organized method to understand the information needs of an organization’s management at every level in making operational, tactical, and strategic decisions. This system objective is to design and implement procedures, processes, and routines that provide suitably detailed reports in an accurate, consistent, and timely manner. In management information system, modern, computerized systems continuously gather relevant data, both from inside and outside an organization. This data is then processed, integrated, and stored in a centralized database (or data warehouse) where it is constantly updated and made available to all who have the authority to access it, in a form that suits their purpose. Managing Information System (MIS) is one of the commonly used information system by Maxis to verify the customers, recover pending bills, and distribute the bills to their customers. The information prov ided by MIS enable managers to plan and control the different strategies of Maxis in order to make better decision for the business. The purpose of MIS is to meet information needs for decision-making of all the managers in Maxis. The next objectives of MIS is  provide and set strategies and goals. Those processed data received will be used for different purposes in Maxis. Computer based MIS helps Maxis to gather process and information efficiently. Maxis using the concept of information technology to improve their overall performance and working capacity. Normally MIS is used by Maxis to process their data and present the output in different types of reports used at regular intervals. Different level of managers of Maxis is using the information to recognize the purpose of the organization, its policies, programs, plans and goals. Maxis mainly focus in Customer Verification, Recovery and Bill Distribution. Without using MIS, Maxis will face problems to check the status of customer verification, recovery or bill distributed to the customer. While using the concept of MIS, Maxis can easily determine the status and situation stated above. By developing TAT (Time Allocation Table) in MIS, the MIS executive gives predefine time to each customer verification executive to complete the case. The TAT will complete the verification case by showing the case, assigned executive, date of case allocated to executive and date limit. By using such TAT, the MIS executive or manager is able to check the status of performance of verification easily. In conclusion, MIS is one of the effective systems for collecting and managing the data for Maxis. The development of MIS for organization enables Maxis to find several types of report like pendency at executive level, pendency at agency level, the overall performance of Maxis in an effective way. 3) Electronic Commerce system According to Valacich and Schneider (2014), Electronic Commerce is defined as the exchange of goods, service and money among firms and their customers, and between customers, supported by communication technologies such as the Internet. From the previous study given, the business to customer e-commerce system (B2C) is used by Maxis Berhad. Maxis Berhad has made a world first strategic collaboration with the PayPal, the the world’s leading online payment solution provider to provide their customer a better and efficient online service. With a Maxis PayPal account, the customers can carry out the online payment faster and conveniently. They did not need to go to the Maxis store/department purposely to set off the payment, but instead, they just need to log in with their Maxis PayPal credentials or  their phone number to make the payment and this changes will provide the convenience and save the time of the customers. Besides, there are major smartphone platforms where the payment option is available, such as as iPhone, Android and Blueberry. Furthermore, the customers do not need to have the security concerns about the system and their financial details such as credit card number will be protected under the system as the process of the payment is highly secure. Morever, the business to business e-commerce system (B2B) is also implemented by the Maxis Berhad to ‘communicate’ with the potential partner. Maxis Berhad has created their own website and in the website, there is a webpage of online business partnership application which is used to attract the potential partner. The potential partner (webpage viewer) can get the enough information and details about the partnership in the webpage through the B2B system, thus, it will make them to be more confident in doing the business with the Maxis Berhad. Part 4: S W O T Analysis Strength (a) Quality of Internal and External Communications A good information system must be supported by electronic data communication network systems which are the extranet and intranet. With the proper application of intranet and extranet for their company communication management, both inside and outside party of the company especially among the staffs, customers and suppliers can exchange information more effectively and efficiently. By now, Maxis is no longer relied on papers, telephone and faxes to further convey their information to the public. (b) Quality of Planning Planning is an essential process for every business. Maxis use Management Information System (MIS) which is a computer systems used for data managing to make searching, analysing data and spring information easier. MIS are widely used by Maxis to analyse and facilitate strategic and operational activities to generate information to improve efficiency and effectiveness of decision making. (c) Quality Control and Supervision Maxis with the Transaction Processing System (TPS) and Management Information System (MIS) are built and maintained properly in their management, the activities within the business environment are constantly monitored. This is because monitoring is certainly an impact on improving control over every procedure and activities occurring within the company. By this, Maxis is able to reduce the loss of information and keep a better record of the management. (d) Quality and Responsiveness of the Competitors’ Condition Aspect of business intelligence is very important since a long time with a variety of formats and needs. Maxis in order to reach the point of rapid and appropriate response on the dynamics of the competition, they rely on the Management Information System (MIS) to require, collect, analyze and compile the information needed by decision makers in the company. With the help of information system, Maxis is able to grow and remain competitive in the telecommunication industry. (e) Customers’ Satisfaction Maxis able to easily detect the activities and behaviour of their customers with the help of Transaction Processing System. Besides, Transaction Processing System (TPI) will speed up the process so that, the time required to serve a customer can be faster. This not only helps to improve the effectiveness and efficiency in operation but also increases their customers’ satisfaction of their services. Weaknesses (a) High Maintenance Fees Information Systems such as Transactional Processing System (TPS) and Management Information System (MIS) need a high cost to maintain its operation from day to day as the company need to hire maintenance team for the maintenance to run the system smoothly. Maxis Berhad has to hire employees or technical who can accurately maintain the operation of computers, company website, and other Information Systems as well. It means that Maxis Berhad has a huge budget on the wages and maintenance fees. For example, the organisation has to hire expert technical with high wage to monitor the systems and repair it when it is broke down. This would lead to the increasing of the labour cost and directly increase the company expenses. (b) Lack of internal securities control Information outflow is one of the serious problems faced by Maxis Berhad. Customers’ information is the top priority needed to secure for the telecommunication company. Maxis Berhad has approximately 13 million of customer during the year end 2013. For example, the outflow of confidential information of Management Information System (MIS) will cause the competitors to gain competitive advantages over Maxis and directly lead to the loss of the profit. The existing of the information outflow for Maxis Berhad are when their database system attacked by the outsider or taken from the inside employees. It is because the price for the information is very high. Besides, this is a very strong weapon for the competitors. (c) Unstable Services of the Information System Maxis Berhad has launched 4G LTE, which is the highest internet speed in Malaysia. However, Maxis Berhad has received some complaints from the customers about its 4G and 3G services. Even though the quality of Maxis service has been deemed to excellent in Malaysia, but, the services is yet to be enough stable to reach the customers expectation. The network service of Maxis often drops to edge, and sometimes is very slow and even has no connection. The 3G service still has not fully cover in the Malaysia and for the new 4G service; it only covers for the few particular place. Besides, information system may not be always function perfectly. It may cause by system break down, operations interruptions and so on. (d) Poor customer services Although the distribution of the Maxis outlet is very wide and available in many places, but, not all the Maxis outlet is able to provide the sufficient customer service. For example, some of the Maxis centre is only able to let customer make the payment and deal with some small case, and customers need to travel to urban areas to get further services. For example, the small Maxis firm is unable to help the customer if the customer has loss his simcard and want and get back the number, he might need to go to the Maxis centre in order to get this service. The most important thing is the customer even need to pay for the services. Opportunities (a) Increasing Visibility to Outsider By using the e-commerce system, the message regarding to the sales can be  transmitted to the public by Maxis Berhad more effectively compared to the other communication companies. In that case, the customers can get the latest sales information of Maxis Berhad all the time through their website, those users able to get most accurate data whenever they need. E-commerce system offers different ways to present data. Therefore, Maxis Berhad is more user-friendly when it adding more features to their website. (b) Decision Making of Investment Decision making of investing Maxis Berhad can be made through the reports provided by the Managing Information System (MIS) of Maxis Berhad. Decision supported with faultless information combined with the intelligence of the company’s directors can lead to unexpected opportunities. Maxis Berhad provides their financial report to the public, so their potential investor will make decision whether to invest Maxis Berhad. (c) Speed time-to-market for new products B2C e-commerce of Maxis can introduce their new telecommunication plans more efficient in the market. When Maxis publishes their plans online, it is faster for the information to reach their customers in the market because it eliminated the time consuming processes such as printing and distributing the hard copies, flyers, leaflet and brochures to the customers. In order to compete with other potential competitors like DiGI and Celcom, Maxis have to be first letting the information of their products reach the customers. This way can lead them to have competitive advantage. (d) Focus on Market Segment Using Managing Information Systems (MIS) enable Maxis Berhad to analyse specified market, and narrow the target market in the telecommunication industry. This Managing Information Systems help organization to analyse consumers’ buying behaviour so that Maxis Berhad can efficiently advertising and marketing their business plans to the target market. (e) Lower procurement and distribution costs When there is a direct online interaction between Maxis and its customers, so this company able to understand the market better. The formation of  relationship with the customers will lead to subscribe services or purchase electronic devices from Maxis directly. As a result Maxis can get rid of the middleman; it will result in reduction in cost. At the same time, customer of Maxis will be beneficial from the reasonable price. Threats (a) Strong Competitors In telecommunication industries, there are a lot of other strong competitors such as DiGi, U-Mobile, Celcom and so on. Strong competitor is one of the threats that almost all firms will experienced. Strong competitors will offer much more benefits to the consumers which might influence Maxis’ customer choices. This will cause Maxis to suffer loss on their sales and customer. For example, consumers will prefer a lower cost telecommunication network in order to save more expenses. (b) Malicious Emails Electronic messages enable easy communications between Maxis and their customers in B2C e-commerce but most of the electronic messages today cannot be easily trusted. This is because most of the emails were sent by anonymous and they might attach some phishing links in the messages. With an accidently click of the phishing link will lead Maxis’ computer software defects bugs which will automatically infect computers without further action. (c) Identity Theft and Internet Frauds The bigger the size of the organizations and the more advance information systems used, therefore Maxis will expose to more risk regarding the frauds on the Internet. For example, Maxis will face loss of important information if they fall into the trap of identity theft that uses false credentials to obtain information, services and credit while Maxis using Transaction Processing System (TPS). When TPS is processing the transaction data, the data might be alter and be stole in the process of encoding and decoding. Leak out of important information will give a big impact to Maxis as they might lose the competitive advantages in the telecommunication industry. (d) Blended Attacks Blended attack happens when the criminals use multiple methods to beat even the best security in order to get the confidential information of a company.  Since the competitive advantages are so strong in the telecommunication industry, the hackers might hack into the Managing Information System (MIS) to obtain Maxis’ various confidential reports, Maxis will be the next victim to be hacked as the criminals leak their company’s confidential information to the competitors. Maxis will face losses of their confidential information which might affect the company’s future performance and shareholders’ confidence in their company. (e) Delivery Risk Business to Customer (B2C) as one of the e-commerce using by Maxis. While having online businesses, Maxis facing a very important issue which is how this company deliver the electronic devices. Company must be very careful in choosing the delivery methods to ensure the product reach the customer in time and no damage should be found or to minimize the damages that can be caused. For example, when Maxis deliver handphone device like Apple or Samsung to the customers, they have to ensure the deliver cost be minimized including the damages that might happen in the process of delivery. Part 5: Recommendation Weakness (a) High Maintenance Fees In the telecommunication services market, it is hard to reduce the production costs to set lower price in order to pay for the maintenances fees and compete with the others competitors such as Digi, Celcom, and U-mobile. Maxis Berhad may concentrate to focus on the product innovation and product features in order to fulfill the customer needs. For example, the launched of the 4G LTE services have huge increases in their profit. Besides, Maxis Berhad can apply for funds, discount or allowance from the government to minimize their maintenance fees. (b) Lack of internal securities control Maxis Berhad need to always update and improve their securities system in order to prevent attacked by the hackers and viruses. Maxis Berhad can hire security agencies to monitor and protect their system all the time. Besides, Maxis Berhad has to strengthen internal control policies, processes and procedures as well as monitor their employees which are responsible for the customer’s information to prevent information outflow. The information of  the customer needed to fully secure to protect the company’s image. (c) Unstable Services of the Information System Maxis has to concern about the unstable services. Most importantly, Maxis must spend for the regular upgrade and maintenance for the unstable services although the cost is very high. Besides, 3G and 4G services available place should be expanded in order to get more customers who stay at rural areas. It is because nowadays the 3G and 4G is very important, customers tend connect to internet wherever and whenever by using the services, so, the stability of 3G and 4G will be the important criteria for customers in choosing the telecommunication service. With a better 3G and 4G services and wider coverage, Maxis will have the competence to compete with the strong competitors, for example P1 wimax is a competitor of Maxis who offers cheaper packages. (d) Poor customer services Customer service plays an important role in the business especially in the telecommunication industry, with good customer service, it’s able to retain the existing customers and attract more potential customers to subscribe the Maxis services. Maxis has to make the Maxis centre become one-stop service in order to facilitate the customers and make them to be more satisfied with the Maxis service. Besides, Maxis has to promote their services and offer free services to the customer in order to attract more customers and improve company’s image. Threats (a) Strong Competitors The business nature of Maxis Berhad is oligopoly competition, which is a type of market form in which the industry (telecommunication) is dominated by a small number of sellers. Competitive relationship between the Maxis berhad and other companies is strong. Therefore, the Maxis Berhad have to aware of the actions of others and make the most suitable decision based on the decision of other company. Thus, we will recommend that the Maxis Berhad could implement the market research and analysis system to investigate their competitors as well as deploy the job costing system to control and minimize the cost of production, and indirectly, they could adjust and lower their pricing in order to gain the competitive advantage. (b) Malicious Emails The other threat is the malicious emails. In this case, we would recommend that the Maxis Berhad could create their own unique symbol or signature on the email they sent to the customers in the B2C ecommerce transaction in order to differentiate it with the malicious emails. (c) Identity Theft and Internet Frauds The identity thief and internet fraud is also one of the threats the Maxis Berhad faces. In our opinion, the company could deploy the information security management system (ISMS) to provide an additional protection on the company information to make it secure. (d) Blended Attacks The other threat is the blended attack. In order to manage the blended attack, we will recommend that the Maxis Berhad should master the urge network administrators to make it more vigilant about patch management, employ server software to detect the malware and keep updating and using the firewall products. (e) Delivery Risk The delivery risk is also a threat the Maxis Berhad needs to concern about. In our opinion, the Maxis Berhad should implement the service delivery risk management (SDRM) to enable the Maxis having a better understanding on their client profitability, cost and revenue drivers, and exception management and governance process. Part 6: Conclusion In the beginning, our group decide to choose Maxis Berhad based the company’s performance and its achievement. From the part of the type of e-commerce used by Maxis, our group found that there are two type of it which is business to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B). There are three type of information system used by Maxis which is transaction processing system (TPS), process all the routine transactions in the business which is necessary and able to track consumer behaviour at the same time; Managing Information System (MIS), system that produce detailed information to help manage the firm; electronic commerce system (ECS), system enable customers to buy goods and service from Maxis. From SWOT analysis above we recognise the strength part include Quality of Internal and External Communications,  Quality of Planning, Quality Control and Supervision, Quality and Responsiveness of the Competitors’ Condition and Customers’ Satisfaction. As the weakness part of the information system brings to Maxis which is High Maintenance Fees, Lack of internal securities control, and Unstable Services of the Information System and Poor customer services. The opportunities are Increasing Visibility to Outsider, Decision Making of Investment, Speed time-to-market for new products, Focus on Market Segment and Lower procurement and distribution costs. In addition, there are also five threats of the information system assist Maxis which Strong Competition, Malicious Emails, Identity Theft and Internet Frauds, Blended Attacks and Delivery Risk. Reference Artem Evgenovich Babenko, h. (2014). E-commerce Systems. ITSource. It-source.net., from http://it-source.net/en/E-commerce/ Khurana,. (2014). Is Ecommerce Right for Your Business? 36 Pros and Cons. About., from http://ecommerce.about.com/od/eCommerce-Basics/tp/Advantages-And-Disadvantages-Of-Ecommerce.htm MalaysianWireless,. (2011). Maxis won Asiaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Best Employer Brand Award., from http://www.malaysianwireless.com/2011/08/maxis-asias-best-employer-brand-award/ Role of Management Information System in Telecom Agency. (2012). International Journal Of Computer Applications & Information Technology, 1(1). Themalaysianinsider.com,. (2014). Maxis streamlines organisation structure into four areas – The Malaysian Insider., from http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/business/article/maxis-streamlines-organisation-structure-into-four-areas TRANSACTION PROCESSING SYSTEMS,. (2014). PROS AND CONS., from http://transactionprocessingsystem.weebly.com/pros-and-cons.html Valacic h, J., Schneider, C., & Jessup, L. (2010). Information systems today. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall. Winksite.mobi,. (2014). Maxis Wins Best In Consumer Innovation Award | Happenings | eNEWS July. from http://winksite.mobi/xhtml/ms_fo_pg_v?fid=34148&id=24628&susid=39495&s=1&s2=1

Cultural Globalization Essays

Cultural Globalization Essays Cultural Globalization Essay Cultural Globalization Essay while National Basely National movies re based on Islamic values, contraindicative, romantic and they turn to appeal and be watched more by Islamic countries. QUESTION 2 2 ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENTS: According to the business dictionary economic environment is the totality of economic factors such as employment, income, inflation, interest rates, productivity and wealth that influences the buying behavior of consumers and institutions. The Nigerian economic environment is the biggest in Africa. It is also one of the fastest growing and robust economy in the world which will be suitable for selling the Nebulas Gal . GAL toothier. 2. Economic infrastructure: According to a study done by economy watch, Insignias economic structure suffers from a lack of infrastructure and poor regulation related to foreign and private investments. To encourage foreign direct investment in foreign direct investments, the country has aligned trade tariffs with the Economic Community of West African States (SHOWCASE) standards. Prior to 2005, trade tariffs were the second largest source of revenue for the country and this will give Karmic International Motors an advantage to migrate its motorbike business to Nigeria. 2. Standard of living: Still, for 80 percent of the Nigerian population, the cost of living is around USED 1 per day. And there is also a deteriorating infrastructure. Although there is a small but growing middle-class in Nigeria there remains a glaring absence of a middle class. The rich are filthy rich and the poor are dismally, irrevocably poor. Hence Karmic International Motors needs to consider these disparities for pricing. 2. 3 Economic infrastructure: Among its African peers, Nigeria has relatively advanced power, road, rail, and CIT networks that cover the national territory quite extensively. In the transport sector, Insignias road networks are in poor condition from lack of maintenance, and the country has a poor record on air transport safety which means that when Karmic International Motors should expert logistical challenges especially when transporting the motorbikes from the assembly plant to the show rooms. 5 | Page 2. 4 Per capita income: According to the World Bank national accounts data, and COED National Accounts data files, the latest value for GAP per capita (current SIS$) in Nigeria was $1,501. 72 as of 201 1 . Over the past 51 years, the value for this indicator has fluctuated be;en $1,501. In 201 1 and $91. 37 in 1960. This will affect the profit margins of Karmic International Motors especially taking into considerations all capital that has to be spent on running the business and looking at the time to make a return on investment. 2. 5 Exchange rate: according to the money converter the latest exchange rates is 1 South African Rand is equals 16. 1683 Nigerian Naira. This is a good thing because it means all assembling of the motorbike and logistics will be done in Nigeria for a very small amount then transported to other African states at a lower rate. It also means that the motorbike will be marketable nice oil prices are low in Nigeria. 3 CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT: is a set of beliefs, practices, customs and behaviors that are found to be common to everyone that is living within a certain population. Cultural environments shape the way that every person develops, influencing ideologies and personalities [o] 3. 1 Living standard: In Nigerian living in poverty has risen to nearly 61% over the past 5 years. Absolute poverty is measured by those who can afford only the bare essentials. According to WFM Poverty has risen in Nigeria, with almost 100 million people living on less than a $1 a day, despite economic growth. It is a concern for Karmic International Motors besides of doing business in Nigeria, CSS projects that will fit in to the standard of living must be considered to improve the standard of living. 3. 2 Gangue Although: English is the official language of Nigeria but Hausa, Your, Gobo are the some of the domino languages in Nigeria. For marketing the bike on different radio stations all of these languages have to be taken into considerations. 3. Lifestyle: Nigerian are outgoing and friendly. Unlike in South Africa, The motorbike is a very popular mode of transport used in different areas of remonstration in Nigeria. This is a pulling factor for Karmic International Motors to invest in Nigeria. 3. 4 Values: Extended families are still the norm and are in fact the backbone of the social system. Grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers and in-laws all work as a unit through life. Family relationships are guided by hierarchy and seniority. Social standing and recognition is achieved through extended families. These are the values that will be used by Karmic International Motors when they are running marketing campaigns to sell the motorbike. 3. 5 Taboos: Nigeria is a religious entry, the northern part of Nigeria is comprised Of conservative Muslims while the South has conservative Christians. Therefore it is taboo to eat in 6 | Page public during the month of fasting and this is one of the points that Karmic International Motors needs to put in mind when hiring some of the staff members. 3. 5 Norms and customs: Many Nigerian use gestures when communicating. They may smile to mask their true feelings, especially when disappointed or confused. Many employ indirect eye contact to demonstrate their respect for the other person. It is common to gaze at the forehead or shoulders of money they do not know well. Very direct eye contact may be interpreted as being intrusive unless there is a longstanding personal relationship. Members of staff of Karmic International Motors who will be going to train and work in Nigeria from South Africa needs to be trained on the Norms and customs before departing. DEMOGRAPHIC ENVIRONMENT: According to business dictionary [o] this is the demographic factors of the market in which an organization operates, and which are used to segment the target population for effective marketing. 4. 1 Size of population: 173. 6 million in 2013 and over 250 ethnic groups including Hausa and Filial 29%, Your 21 Oh, Gobo (Bib) 18%, Jaw 10%, Kanji 4%, Bobbie 3. 5%, Tip 2. 5% ,Muslim 50%, Christian 40%, indigenous beliefs 10%. This is a huge market for Karmic International Motors. The different demographic dynamics needs to be taken into consideration when setting up the business as well. 4. 2 Education level: The majority of curricula found in the international schools in Nigeria follow British, American or International Baccalaureate standards. The quality of education tends to be high, and students who are children of employees who decides to relocated there need not worry about ailing behind during their time abroad. Furthermore, many of the private schools are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, and offer a healthy choice of extra-curricular activities. 3 Income level: The income levels are low however there is growing middle-class. The pricing of the motorbike should consider this fact. The Nebulas Gal . GAL motorbike needs to cater both the middle-class and the lower class. Furthermore this will also be at the advantage of Karmic International Motors when it hires staff from Nigeria. 4. 4 Employment rate: Although there is oil in Nigeria and other thriving sectors like farming by big business, however there is also a thriving small medium business enterprises. It also very much important for Karmic International Motors to note this because they will most of the time not be dealing with people who get monthly income but people who will be paying their installment at any given time in a month. 4. 5 Occupation distribution Incentives looking for work in Nigeria can average as much as 45 percent above basic pay, and range between about SAID 100,000 and USED 200,000 per annum. The average is about USED 123,000 a year, but is often quoted in terms of (approximately) USED 71 Page 00 per day. Very high-level senior management jobs in the oil sector will command higher salaries, sometimes as much as USED 450,000 a year. 5 CONCLUSION This assignment discussed different issues that entailed an in-depth look at the Exportability of global markets where issues such as the relationship between national culture and the film industry were explored on the first question. There was also a description of cultural globalization as a two-way street and a look as to why certain film genres do better in some cultures than in others.

Qué es USCIS, qué hace y cómo contactar con una oficina

Quà © es USCIS, quà © hace y cà ³mo contactar con una oficina El Servicio de Inmigracià ³n y Ciudadanà ­a de los Estados Unidos (USCIS, por sus siglas en inglà ©s) es la agencia federal encargada de gestionar todos los trmites relacionados con la inmigracià ³n legal. Todos los migrantes legales deben hacer trmites con el USCIS, al igual que los ciudadanos americanos que desean pedir los papeles para un familiar. Por esta razà ³n, es importante conocer cules son los trmites de los que se ocupa USCIS, dà ³nde estn ubicadas sus oficinas,  cà ³mo contactar para obtener informacià ³n y, finalmente, en quà © consiste la verificacià ³n de antecedentes penales (background check, en inglà ©s) que realiza esta agencia y cà ³mo saber lo que esta agencia sabe de cada migrante. Qu hace USCIS y cules son los tiempos de espera en sus trmites USCIS se ocupa de asuntos muy variados. Por ejemplo, es el organismo que estudia y aprueba o deniega las solicitudes de tarjeta de residencia permanente, conocida  como green card, por peticià ³n de un familiar o de una empresa. USCIS gestiona las solicitudes de adquisicià ³n de la ciudadanà ­a estadounidense por naturalizacià ³n o la aprobacià ³n de visas temporales de trabajo. Tambià ©n se encuentra dentro de las competencias de USCIS aprobar permisos de trabajo (EAD, por sus siglas en inglà ©s), programas especiales de proteccià ³n a migrantes como, por ejemplo, VAWA para và ­ctimas de violencia domà ©stica, TPS, para ciudadanos de paà ­ses en situacià ³n de catstrofe humanitaria, o DACA, para jà ³venes indocumentados que llegaron a Estados Unidos siendo nià ±os. Asimismo, USCIS gestiona el programa e-verify para determinar que una persona est autorizada para trabajar legalmente en Estados Unidos. Por à ºltimo, entre otros trmites  frecuentes tambià ©n destacan la gestià ³n de los casos de asilo afirmativo, los de adopcià ³n internacional y  las solicitudes de advance parole, para permitir salir de Estados Unidos y su regreso sin problemas. En cuanto al tiempo de demora para que USCIS apruebe o deniegue un trmite hay que decir claramente que no hay una respuesta à ºnica, ya que depende del tipo de trmite. En su pgina oficial se pueden verificar tiempos aproximados, una vez que se sabe el centro que gestiona el trmite y el nombre del documento del tipo de peticià ³n o solicitud. Por ejemplo, I-130 para el caso de peticiones de un familiar, N-600 para la naturalizacià ³n, etc. En todo caso es necesario destacar que si se trata de una peticià ³n de familia donde hay un là ­mite  de solicitudes que pueden ser aprobadas por aà ±o fiscal, como es el caso de todas las peticiones de residentes o en las peticiones de ciudadanos para hijos mayores de 21 aà ±os o casados o para sus hermanos hay que esperar ms. Es decir, hay que esperar a que exista cupo para lo cual es ms indicativo verificar las fechas que publica el Departamento de Estado cada mes en el Boletà ­n de Visas. En relacià ³n a los trmites que se realizan con USCIS, se debe  recordar que todos los formularios oficiales son gratis y pueden descargarse de su pgina oficial, incluso admitià ©ndose casos de e-file. Adems, en ciertos casos es posible solicitar una exencià ³n para no pagar la tarifa que requiere el caso. Asimismo, se debe  insistir que todos los documentos que se presentan en espaà ±ol, como por ejemplo, las partidas de nacimiento o matrimonio, deben ir acompaà ±ados de una traduccià ³n al inglà ©s, que debe ser certificada. Por à ºltimo, tener en cuenta que cuando el USCIS deniega una peticià ³n es posible apelarla en algunos casos. Oficinas de USCIS y cmo obtener informacin En la actualidad, USCIS cuenta con ms de 19.000 empleados repartidos en aproximadamente 200 oficinas, algunas de las cuales se encuentran ubicadas fuera de los Estados Unidos. Desde el punto de vista orgnico, el USCIS pertenece al Departamento de Seguridad Interna, conocido en inglà ©s por sus siglas de DHS. Lo importante es enviar los formularios y la documentacià ³n de apoyo a la direccià ³n correcta, que va a depender de dos factores: el tipo de solicitud y el lugar en el que se reside habitualmente. Todos los formularios especifican claramente este punto, y tambià ©n se establece una distincià ³n segà ºn el tipo de envà ­o: ordinario o urgente. Tambià ©n es posible solicitar informacià ³n del USCIS. Si es de carcter general, se puede acudir a una de sus oficinas locales con servicio de atencià ³n al pà ºblico, aunque es recomendable que se abstengan de esto los migrantes indocumentados. Otra opcià ³n para no esperar es realizar una cita previa mediante el sistema de INFOPASS. Si la pregunta que se desea realizar es sobre un caso concreto se puede marcar  a USCIS al 1-800-375-5283 para lo cual es necesario tener a mano el nà ºmero de caso, que se puede encontrar en la carta en la que USCIS notifica que ha recibido los papeles para una peticià ³n o solicitud. Asimismo, con esa informacià ³n es posible obtener informacià ³n và ­a Internet. En qu consiste la verificacin de antecedentes penales que realiza USCIS Para realizar los trmites, USCIS pide frecuentemente datos biomà ©tricos, como foto y huellas dactilares de la persona para quien se solicita un beneficio migratorio. Esos datos le sirven para verificar los posibles antecedentes penales de una persona. Es lo que se conoce en inglà ©s como background check. Esto consiste en cotejar las huellas digitales con las bases de datos de otras agencias federales y tambià ©n enviarlas al FBI para determinar si la persona que solicita el beneficio migratorio ha sido arrestada o detenida en el pasado y, en caso afirmativo, la causa. Adems, se envà ­a informacià ³n biogrfica a otro departamento del FBI para que lleve a cabo la verificacià ³n del nombre para determinar si la persona es un delincuente, se tiene sospechas sobre ella o se le considera un riesgo para la seguridad de Estados Unidos. Todas las personas con un expediente presente o pasado en USCIS que desean saber cul es su contenido pueden solicitar dicha informacià ³n mediante lo que se conoce como FOIA. El formulario a llenar es el G-639. La direccià ³n a la que se debe enviar es: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration ServicesNational Records Center, FOIA/PA OfficeP.O. Box 648010Lees Summit, MO 64064-8010 Cmo evitar problemas con USCIS y fraudes En asuntos migratorios es fundamental llenar bien los formularios de peticià ³n y enviar a tiempo la documentacià ³n de apoyo. No es necesario usar los servicios de un abogado pero es recomendable, particularmente en los casos que no estn claros y pueden dar lugar a interpretacià ³n.   Datos sobre buenos abogados de inmigracià ³n pueden obtenerse en la base de datos de AILA. Tambià ©n se recomienda verificar la reputacià ³n de un abogado en el BAR (colegio de abogados) del estado. Finalmente, tambià ©n se puede obtener informacià ³n para buenas referencias o letrados pro bono en asociaciones de defensa de los intereses legales de los migrantes. Debe desconfiarse de los llamados notarios, que no pueden ejercer como abogados en Estados Unidos y de todas las personas que prometen resultados porque supuestamente conocen a alguien dentro de USCIS. Esos casos son fraudes. Finalmente, USCIS no se dedica a juzgar casos migratorios ya que eso es competencia de las cortes y del Board de Apelaciones (BIA, por sus siglas en inglà ©s). Tampoco se ocupa de arrestos ni de ejecutar deportaciones ni de guardar la frontera, que es competencia de ICE y la CBP. Este es un artà ­culo informativo. No es asesorà ­a legal.

The Transformation of the World By the Automobile Revolution Annotated Bibliography

The Transformation of the World By the Automobile Revolution - Annotated Bibliography Example The automobiles have made the economy as the core of the modern society. The cars have made the movement of goods and services from and to the market (Sutter, Driven Wild 09). In the offices, they make people are punctual. The automobiles take the perishable goods produced locally to the market (Raghnaill, 2014). This eliminates chances of getting losses. Secondly, automobiles have influenced the health of individuals in the society in cases of an emergency and non-emergency case to take the patients to the hospitals (McKinsey & Company, 2014). Today there are flying doctors without boundaries who spend most of their time in their offices waiting to utilize these vehicles to make the lives of the community better (Schensul, 2014). The automobiles have a unique way of bringing the people of the society together. With travelling over long distances made so easy and cheap, people can meet as if they live in the same village. Besides, today cars form part of entertainment in various form s. As a hobby, these people watch the rally games at their time of leisure making their life enjoyable. It is true that the impact of the automobile in the modern society is significant. It has brought about a better life and improved the quality of life. The automobiles role in the creation of economics autonomy is also marvelous. With the integration of the automobile to sport and health, it has also improved the quality of life. The automobile makes for almost all the aspect of the modern society.