Monday, September 30, 2019

Achievement Motivation Theory Analysis Essay

Every manager has a theory on how to motivate employees to perform his or her job. One of the oldest motivational methods is the Carrot and Stick method, which is a combination of rewards and punishments to bring about a desired behavior. Although this method of motivation can still be found in one form or the other in many organizations today, managers are learning new methods of motivating employees. This paper will analyze two different job positions the author has held, and how the theory of achievement motivation would and would not be applicable to those job positions. The author will also analyze the need to develop and create new theoretical models of motivation in today’s changing work environment. Theory of Achievement Motivation Atkinson’s Achievement Motivation Theory suggests that some individuals have a greater need for achievement and success than other individuals. Those individuals that have a high need to achieve and be successful will take on more difficult tasks than those individuals that are not highly motivated to succeed. The following two workplace scenarios will show how the theory of achievement can affect employees. Workplace Scenario One One workplace scenario that works well with the achievement motivation theory is the Wal-Mart organization. Employees of Wal-Mart are paid by the hour; however, individuals are able to increase his or her salary through yearly raises and quarterly bonuses as a direct result of his or her job performance and production level. The basis of this pay system depends on the motivation of its employees. Employees’ raise is based on a scale of one through 4. Employees that have consistently high production levels and provide excellent customer service will receive the maximum yearly raise. The quarterly bonus Wal-Mart offers its employees is determined by performance markers which include sales, customer satisfaction levels, inventory levels, and employee attendance. This type of work setting demonstrates achievement motivation theory clearly. Without the willingness to succeed average employees will not achieve the same monetary results as the harder working employees. Wal-Mart rewards employees for quality productivity, work ethics, and attendance. The combination of these factors is what motivates the employees in reaching the desired result for the organization. Workplace Scenario Two Another workplace scenario which demonstrates where the achievement theory does not work will is in the union; specifically the grocery stores that make us the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). UFCW is a national union made up of â€Å"more than 1.3 million people working primarily in grocery and retail stores, and in the food processing and meat packing industries† (UFCW, 2012). Individuals that belong to this union have negotiated wages and benefits. The combination of contracted wages and benefits, and the union’s backing removes a large amount of achievement motivation. The union employees in a grocery store usually work independently; whereas, in Wal-Mart the culture is more of a team. Through the negotiated contracts between Dierbergs and the union, employees know the amount of pay or the amount he or she will receive for an annual raise, regardless of experience or work productivity levels. Union employees also know the amount of pay or raise will not change, therefore there is little motivation to increase productivity, or work at a higher level than a coworker. In the grocery store setting employees are paid the same amount if they check out an average of 20 customers an hour or 2 customers an hour. The Need for New Theoretical Models of Motivation Decades ago working conditions we not as good for most employees in the work force. Unions, such as the UFCW, were formed to insure workers received fair wages and their workplace was safe. Since then laws have been passed and organizations behave toward their employees much better. Many non-union organizations reward their employees for exceptional productivity and work ethics. The union worker’s motivation is greatly reduced, because there is no incentive to increase productivity or practice good work ethics outside of what the contract outlines. The workforce of today is increasingly diverse with differing needs and demands of the workforce of decades ago. Technology has changed the way organizations do business and where that business is conducted. Global companies and e-commerce organizations with highly knowledgeable employees are now common. Another influence on in the workforce today is organizational tasks and goals are increasingly organized around teams. Managing these diverse, knowledgeable employees can be challenging and have a profound influence on how organizations attempt to motivate employees. The need to understand the influences of obvious and hidden motives and perceived abilities on motivation is needed. (Steers, 2004) Also, an understanding of â€Å"how participation in groups have a powerful influence on motivation above and beyond what can be understood by focusing exclusively on individual-level effects† (The Road Ahead). Failure to meet the need for new motivational models will result in influencing how organizations attract, retain, and motivate employees. Without motivating this new type of workforce organizations may lose their profitability and will not stay competitive. Conclusion Individuals are motivated to work for various reasons; however, most work for financial stability. The challenge for managers is too continual finds ways to motivate employees to achieve organizational goals in a changing workforce. Today’s workforce has new challenges such as technology, globalization, and team efforts, which did not exist before. â€Å"What all types of achievement situations have in common is that the person has encountered a standard of excellence and has been energized by it, largely because he or she knows that the forthcoming performance will produce an emotionally meaningful evaluation of personal competence† (Reeve, 2009, p. 176). References Reeve, J. (2009). Understanding Motivation and Emotion (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Steers, R. M. (2004). THE FUTURE OF WORK MOTIVATION THEORY. Retrieved from

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Deceptive Advertising Essay

Advertising is considered one of the most important tools of marketing for attracting customers towards the company and increasing the sale of its products and services. Advertising is done in a number of ways, the most effective being the television and print media. Though the main purpose of advertising is to attract customers and increase the profits of a company through increased sales, it has often been regarded as false and misleading. In today’s world a majority of customers are being wary of advertisements since it contains information which is actually false and misleading. Advertisements often promise certain benefits which the products or services when purchased fail to provide to their customers. Such types of advertisements are increasing on a gradual basis and today every ad is being suspected on this ground. These types of advertisements fall under the category of ‘Deceptive Advertisement’. These sort of advertisements make false claims or misleading statements and give their viewers a false impression which instigates them to try the product. People who most frequently use deceptive advertising are retailers and shopkeepers when they advertise for low-price products available in their shop just to get the customers in the shop but fail to produce them when asked for. There are many forms of advertisement which fall under the category of being deceptive. These include false promises, unsubstantiated claims, incomplete descriptions, false testimonials, partial disclosure or visual distortion of products. Deceptive advertisement includes all those ads which induce a person to make a purchase on the basis of false claims and promises about the price and quality of competitive products. The Federal Trade Commission is responsible for enacting laws against unfair and misleading advertisements and punishing the companies involved in the offense (Yeshin, 2005). Deceptive advertisement is not a new concept, instead it was practiced since the beginning of time and the trend is increasing in the business society with the passing time. This has led advertisement to become an ethics issue since it is sometimes being done unintentionally whereas most of the times the intention is to fool the customer in making the purchase through attractive and misleading advertisements. The customers are made to believe that they are getting some great benefits from the product however; this is not so the case after the purchase has been made. Deceptive advertisement is used for targeting customers of all age groups through intelligent marketing tricks and tactics therefore, people need to be aware. Retailers, airlines, weight loss programs, mobile phone warranties are some of the few companies who use this tactic for gaining sales. Such advertisements are illegal and unlawful in the eyes of law and legal action is taken against such companies even if the ad actually fooled the people or not. The overall impression counts in front of law which if false will create legal problems for the company besides its technical truthfulness (Davis, 1994). Consumers are faced daily with countless ads instigating them to try the product due to which they are unable to differentiate between true and false advertisements. People ponder why companies need to make use of false and misleading tactics to attract the customers since truth can also get them enough customers to make high profits. Often companies produce products which have a very low quality and are not competitive so they won’t demand high prices. For making their product sale in the market as a competitive one, they mark down its price and use eye-catching advertisements which mislead the consumers in making the purchase. This doesn’t mean that every other new company or others existing in the market adopt this strategy. Some of the advertisements are based on true and honest information while some others deceive the customers with false information. Educated customers can often see through such false claims but most of them fail to do so and end up wasting their money on deceptive products and services. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the ad must not always entail a purchase for it to be counted as deceptive; just the presence of misleading information or a false claim can demand an action against the company. The commission has taken action and filed lawsuit against many businesses and companies who have been accused for being a part of deceptive advertising. The consumers on watching such ads or after making the purchase can file a complaint against the company and sue them for damages. The FTC is doing along on its behalf for stopping the fraudulent activity by enacting various laws against deceptive advertising (Stern, 2000). The theory states that there are different models of advertising. There are three types of deceptive advertising that are done mostly (Hameroff, 1988). These are: †¢ Fraudulent Advertising which is also termed as ‘outright lie’ where the ad states a lie clearly about the product which is disclosed when the customer makes the purchase and does not finds the benefit promised. †¢ False advertising includes ‘a claim-fact discrepancy’ where all the conditions for receiving a promotion or a prize are not disclosed beforehand. †¢ Misleading advertising also called ‘claim-belief interaction’ where an ad can make people believe about a claim which is not want the product provides. Deceptive advertising mostly consists of three commonly found elements or in other words the representation, omission or practice of deceptive advertisements will be examined from three sides. Firstly, the representation, omission or practice that will likely mislead the consumer such as giving misleading price claims or misrepresenting a product or services orally or in written. One of the most common forms of deceptive advertising is oral misrepresentation and must taken great care of. The Better Business Bureau once stated that an advertisement can be misleading when seen complete though every single sentence treated separately might be true. Secondly, the representation, omission or practice is examined from the eyes of a reasonable consumer or a particular target group like the youth or elderly. This means that the misrepresentation, omission or practice in the advertisement has been introduced in order to attract a particular group of customers. For example, the weight loss programs target the fat people through false and misleading claims of reducing weight in 15 days etc. Thirdly, the representation, omission or practice must be analyzed from the perspective of being a material one. This means that the misrepresentation is a material one if it influences the consumer decision of buying the product or not. The consumer must have decided for something different if he would have not come across the deceptive advertisement (Richards, 1990). Furthermore, internet also falls under the category of deceptive advertisement since most of the websites often collect the personal information of the user without his or her consent. Deception through internet is mostly related to the privacy issues. Some examples of companies who have been cited for deceptive advertising include United Weight Control, Nutri-System, Inc. , The Diet Center, Physician Weight Loss Clinic, Weight Watchers International, Inc. , and Jenny Craig. Action was taken against these companies and they were made to modify their advertising and marketing practices. Not only are these companies held liable for deceptive advertising but also the advertising agencies who participated in designing the advertisement. All others who participated in the creation of deceptive ad are held liable by the law especially the advertising agencies that knew about the deceptive element in the ad but failed to substantiate the claims. Sometimes the producers are also held liable since they know about the true traits of a product and by not raising a voice against the ad means that they are backing the claim. The liable companies are subject to penalties by the law which may be stopping the ad immediately, paying for damages to the customers, correcting the ad or even requiring the company to leave the industry or banning it for a certain time period in extreme cases of deception. Besides Federal Trade Commission, Better Business Bureau and National Advertising Review Council has been also given the responsibility of monitoring the truth in advertisements. Moreover, competitors can be the greatest and most important source for detecting deceptive advertisements in their industry since they serve as watchdogs on their competitors marketing practices. The competitors can sue the company involved in the deceptive advertisement in order to gain market advantages. The customers too can file a complaint against the deceptive ads with the above mentioned organizations who will investigate the accusation (Garza, 2000). A question that comes to our mind is that is there anything which helps in identifying boundary between truth and deception in advertisements. When we see a number of advertisements daily flashing in front of our eyes, it is very difficult for us to pierce through the flash and identify the element of deception in them. This influences us to buy the product and to ultimately find that the benefit promised is not attained or that we have paid much more than what we got. However, if advertisements are watched carefully then consumers can keep an eye out for deception constantly. One should know of the many ways in which advertisers can trick the customers in buying the product they want us to buy. Advertisers usually incorporate into their ads the feelings, reactions and responses of customers which they obtained through tests and surveys in creating advertisements. They use these to trick the customers by including in their advertisements those claims which consumers want the most. There are several things which customers can look for while identifying a boundary between truth and deception in advertisements (Stern, 2000).

Saturday, September 28, 2019

What Challenges Does the Traditional Public Administration

WHAT CHALLENGES DOES THE TRADITIONAL PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION ENCOUNTER IN A CHANGING PUBLIC SECTOR ENVIRONMENT The traditional model of public administration (TPA) remains the longest standing and most successful theory of management in the public sector which pre-dominated for most of the 20th century.The TPA can be characterized as an administration under the formal control of the political leadership which was based on a strictly hierarchical model of bureaucracy, staffed by permanent, neutral and anonymous officials, motivated only by the public interest, serving any governing party equally, and not contributing to policy but merely administering those policies decided by the politicians. Its theoretical foundations were mainly derived from Woodrow Wilson and Frederick Taylor in the United States, Max Weber in Germany, and the Northcote–Trevelyan Report of 1854 in the United Kingdom.It is now being replaced by the New Public Management (NPM) due to the fact that the traditio nal model has been discredited theoretically and practically. The adoption of new forms of NPM means the emergence of a new paradigm in the public sector. This new paradigm poses a direct challenge to several of what had previously been regarded as fundamental principles of TPA. The aim of this presentation is to discuss the challenges that TPA encounters in a changing Public Sector environment. The discussion will focus on hierarchical structures, bureaucracy, political control, rigidity, one best way, meritocracy and technological change.The term administration is narrower and has a more limited function than that of management and in consequence, changing from public administration to public management means a major change of theory and of function. According to Hughes (2003:6), â€Å"public administration is an activity serving the public, and public servants carry out policies derived from politicians. † The Oxford dictionary defines administration as, â€Å"an act or p rocess of organising the way that something is done. According to Coulter (1996:8) â€Å"management refers to the process of getting activities completed efficiently and effectively with and through other people. From these various definitions it is argued that, administration essentially involves following instructions and providing service, while management involves the achievement of results and personal responsibility by the manager for results being achieved. The terms administration and management are not synonymous, neither is their application to the public sector. These two elements were not necessarily present in the traditional administrative system. Public administration focuses on processes, procedures and rules of etiquette, while public management involves much more.Instead of merely following instructions, a public manager focuses on achieving results and taking responsibility for doing so. It is this paradigm shift from Traditional Public Administration to the New Public Management which has exposed the weaknesses of the Traditional Public Administration Model as discussed below. The use of hierarchical structures which were not necessarily the best or efficient forms of organisations if comparing output and input was one of the problems or inadequacies of the Traditional Public Administration model.However, the hierarchical system meant that everyone knew his or her place and extent of authority. Someone is always technically accountable for all actions, from the lowest level to the highest. The system was reasonably efficient and effective in a narrow sense and meant instructions were carried out, especially when given clearly. It was also reasonably free from the temptations of diverting, eg, public funds for the personal use of the bureaucrat. When tasks were administrative and relatively simple, when the environment was stable, the system worked well.On the contrary, this system is not workable in big organisations. Many strata in a hier archical structure have a potential of slowing done work progress. The results or output take long to be realised. The Kavran Report of (1989:16) reported on hierarchical delays in the public service especially when processing business documents, water and electricity bills requests and others. According to Vecchio, (1991:510), to change the existing public system into one that is speedy, risk-taking, output-oriented, innovative and efficient requires a total change in organizational culture.The focus of subsequent reforms in the public service has been to move away from the idea of a rigid and bureaucratized career service, towards a more fluid structure. An example is that Foreign Direct Investment into Zimbabwe has been put under one roof to speed up processing and approval of projects. Bureaucracy is another problem associated with the TPA model. In small organisations like Civil Aviation of Zimbabwe, bureaucracy is ideal for control of human resource due to its defined reportin g and communication channels, it allows for certainty.Work is standardised due to laid down procedures, rules and regulations. The spans of control are scientifically calculated. However hierarchical structures are not good for management, is usually slow in moving, that is, work takes long to be accomplished and innovations are almost nonexistent. Any deviation from the norm through innovation can be punishable by law if ever anything goes wrong and investigations indicate that there was a deviation from the stipulated regulations or work procedures.However, Weber, in Hughes(2003:35) noted that, â€Å"every bureaucracy seeks to increase the superiority of the professionally informed by keeping their knowledge and intensions secret†, adding that the concept of official secrecy is the specific invention of bureaucracy. This concern still exists today, for example, in the ZRP any press release is done through their spokes persons. The Kavran report of 1989:17 reported that ther e were difficulties in obtaining information from the government. The same report indicated that one had to make innumerable visits and memorandum to get information even on a simple matter.There are now marked changes in the external environment functions with the greater external focus on NPM, through both strategy and managing of external constituencies, than was ever the case with TPA. Public service anonymity has certainly declined. Public servants are much freer to speak out in public, to appear at professional forum, to write articles in journals and generally to be visible and be public figures. The problem of political control or interference in public administration was also found to be one of the of TPA model challenges.Politics and administration are interlinked. Politicians make policies and administrators implement the policies. However, politicians are not necessarily administrators whereas public administrators are professionals in their work and are supposed to be a political; hence they need to be separated. Dahl (1998:59) argues that, â€Å"politics is ubiquitous†. This means that politics cannot be completely separated from administration. Hughes (2003:32) argues that, â€Å"The reform movement in the United States was not able to separate policy from administration, or politicians from administrators.It was only able to clarify the point where political appointments to the public service were to be separated from career appointments. † According to (Hughes 2003:26) â€Å"politicians should rule while public officials should do their bidding. Political offices should be filled competitively in the political arena whereas; bureaucratic offices should be filled competitively in the bureaucratic arena. Political officials should be selected on the basis of their political competence; bureaucratic officials should be selected on the basis of their bureaucratic competence.The separation of political and career routes should be inst itutionalised by legal or constitutional prohibition on concurrent office holding and interchange. Politicians should be judged by the electorate or their political peers whereas officials should be judged by their political overseers or their bureaucratic peers. Political office should be of limited tenure and subject to frequent elections and bureaucratic office should be of unlimited tenure, subject to good behaviour. According to the Zimbabwe Public Service Act, the Public service functions independently and is not answerable to the minister, however the minister can direct the commission on certain issues. Political interference has raised its head in a number of areas of the Zimbabwe Public Services like, the mining sector (ZISCO) where ESSAR was awarded a tender to run the mine and politicians interfered resulting in the withdrawal of the tender. The TPA model was rigid and bureaucratic, narrowly focused and preoccupied with structures and process..Rigidity to rules, regulati ons and order of doing work has a tendency of stifling innovation which is necessary for work effectiveness and efficiency. Robert Merton (1968: 260) argued that, â€Å"rigid adherence to rules could have unanticipated consequences, including a reduction in efficiency. The rigidity and bureaucracy of the system posed a problem to the NPM system which is result based and managers are accountable for their action. To maintain one’s job, is now dependant on one’s performance. The new pubic management encourages flexibility which is intertwined with innovation and increased output.The TPA model assumed there was ‘one best way’ of administering. Gulick’s POSDCORB and Taylor’s scientific management were ‘popular manifestations of this one best way theorising. ’ According to Stillman, (1991: 9) in Hughes (2003:25), the one best way, â€Å" is a methodology by which a few simple nostrums/remedies were followed in all circumstances. â⠂¬  Hughes (2003:33) argues that, â€Å"the one best way was determined by examining all the steps involved in a task, measuring the most efficient and, most importantly, setting out this method as a set of procedures.In the public services, the procedure manuals became ever larger with the method for dealing with every conceivable contingency spelt out in great detail. Once this was done the task of the public official was purely administrative, merely involving consultation of the manual and following the procedures laid down. There was little thought involved and no creativity other than that of finding the right page of the manual. Administrators by definition have no responsibility for results; one best way thinking allowed them to evade responsibility altogether. The results or output was also ignored by this notion of one-best way.This is prevalent in most government departments of Zimbabawe especially the military where things are done according to the book. There is very little room for innovations and accountability as demanded by the new public system. Meritocracy/ Professionalism. The TPA was based on non professional ways of recruitment. It was once common for those aspiring for employment by the state to resort to patronage or nepotism, relying on friends or relatives for employment, or by purchasing offices. This is still prevalent or being practised in most developing countries Zimbabwe included.This compromises standards, affects output and de-motivates professionals resulting in high labour turnover. The Zimbabwe Public Service Act requires that people be employed according to their professional qualifications or their merit. For example in the health sector, for a doctor to practice must be licensed, the same applies with lawyers. Weber formulated the theory of bureaucracy, the idea of a distinct, professional public service, recruited and appointed by merit, politically neutral, which would remain in office throughout changes in governmen t.One of the major challenges of TPA was that it was manual based hence slow moving. According to Muid, (1994:125). Technological change affects management, including the management of government. This should be regarded as one of the main driving forces both towards new forms of public management and away from traditional bureaucracy. With the adoption of forms of e-government (electronic government) technologically driven change is likely to accelerate.The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as distributed computer systems, Internet linkages, new databases could lead to a re-conceptualization of the very way that bureaucracies work. The changes have the potential to be beneficial, even though there are issues of privacy and security yet to be dealt with. It is inarguable that management of the public sector changes with the kinds of information technology currently available. In Zimbabwe the Presidential Computerisation programme is a typical example of p ublic sector effort.In conclusion, the traditional model of administration was an outstanding and widely emulated by governments all around the world . However with passage of time the TPA has been increasingly superseded by the NPM. The new model is not fully in place, there is now a greater focus on results rather than process, on responsibility rather than its evasion and on management rather than administration. This transition has its own challenges that it encounters during the process. The challenges include bureaucracy, political interference, meritocracy/professionalism and one best way and technological changes.It was only later,when NPM come into existence and managers became responsible for results, that there was any real thought that different methods could lead to different results and those methods and actions should be tailored to circumstances. According to Behn (1998:140), in reality there is no one best way but many possible answers. | Nostrum ineffective remedy: a remedy for a social, political, or economic problem, especially an idea or plan that is often suggested but never proved to be successfulMicrosoft ® Encarta ® 2009.  © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. ||

Friday, September 27, 2019

Researched essay on dining experience in advanced dementia care

Researched on dining experience in advanced dementia care - Essay Example â€Å"People who reach the advanced stage of dementia when food intake is curtailed have a low metabolic rate. Their resting metabolic rate is low because muscle wasting has shrunk their lean body mass and their brains are atrophic; their metabolic rate above basal is low because they are physically inactive.† (Aldridge 2006) Finally, they have a history of weight loss, which the body adapts to by diminishing its metabolic rate and retaining dietary protein more effectively. This adapted state can persist indefinitely. Hoffer writers, that â€Å"severely demented people may be thin and eat less food than seems appropriate to their physically active (and not infrequently overweight) doctors, nurses, and surrogate decision makers; but in many if not most cases they are not progressively starving. They are in a state of physiological homoeostasis.† (Hoffer 2006) Nevertheless, in some patients the weight loss profile shows that, without tube feeding, death by starvation is unavoidable. Thus, the problem of tube feeding is being discussed. Music therapy is a treatment which uses music and its components (melody, rhythm, vocal and instrumental performance, and so on) to make the patient heighten his perception, improve his â€Å"ability to use speech, motorics, socialization and, to open up to his unconscious self.† (Edwards 2002) â€Å"Musical stimuli like tones or melodies are known to be processed in the secondary auditory cortex in the right superior temporal gyrus.†

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Discussion 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 7

Discussion 3 - Essay Example Our products diversity, coupled with quality customer service has earned GFS a good reputation in the public as one of the major leading food supply agencies. From the high number also of customers GFS believes that its service products have a positive impact upon its customers. GFS has diversified its advertisement methods by enabling online display of the products available. This has given GFS an upper edge in competition with other food and supply agencies. Also its ability to develop of a nutrition research center is a major boost to its service product delivery. Not many agencies in the industry have a research center whereby food are analyzed and tested to ensure they are of a quality standard. GFS also offers food safety training programs to its customers. This helps customers learn on how to maintain a healthy and safe food habits in their kitchens. Hence GFS service products are one of the top in the market. Gordon Food Service can be able to increase in the quality of its services and products if it considers the following measures. 1) Develop an efficient customer help center: this can be an online help center which is ready to response to any customer inquiry or complains; 2) equip its nutrition research facility with latest technology and adequate specialists; 3) offer diversity in channels of delivery of services such as online shopping, and house delivery; 4) develop mechanisms to constantly review the company’s performance and measure its growth rate and note areas of

Psychological Perspectives on Organisation Essay

Psychological Perspectives on Organisation - Essay Example Hence, the knowledge of core psycho analytical concepts becomes important tools to the leadership for understanding the organizational behavior. The understanding of psychoanalytical concepts provides invaluable information regarding the socio-psychological factors that adversely affect the performance outcome of the workforce. Unconscious and repression, transference, envy and rivalry are few major concepts that considerably influence the human nature and consequently the behavior of the organization. Freud, the eminent socio-psychologist has contributed extensively towards understanding of these core psychoanalytical ingredients so that the one is better able to analyze human behavior within the prescribed social norms. Social scientists have corroborated that the psycho-analytical perspectives are important tools for understanding the hidden dynamics of human relationship, especially with regard to corporate culture, social defenses, leadership imperatives, motivation and other paradigms associated with organizational behavior (Levinson, 1972, 2002; DeBoard, 1978; Czander, 1993; Gabriel, 1999). The understanding equips th e leadership with the necessary knowledge to promote confidence building and strengthen interpersonal understanding with the group, within the organization. The theory of cognition tries to explain why and how the events take place and subsequent pattern of behaviour of man under certain condition involving emotional and metaphysical reaction. The role of brain and conscious and unconscious activities of the mind are seen to be the responsible for the general behaviour of man. The conscious and unconscious working of our mind is strongly co-related with our experience of the object reality. The conscious mind understands and interprets the sensations according to the partial or total recall of the events. On the other hand, sub conscious mind may or may not

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Information System Hardware and Software Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Information System Hardware and Software - Essay Example They generally include databases, word processors, and spreadsheets. Microsoft Office Professional 2007 is a type of application software. It includes Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and word that are widely used as business application software. By using Office Professional 2007 business professionals can work faster, efficiently and effectively, stays organized, and manage contacts and customer information more effectively and in one place. It helps in producing professional-looking marketing materials, dynamic business documents, spreadsheets, presentations and databases with no prior experience or technical staff. Microsoft Office Excel 2007 can be used for analyzing business information for making better business decisions. It has features such as new tools for filter, sort, graph, and visualizing information so that business information can be analyzed more easily. Office Excel 2007 provides improved PivotTable and PivotChart views for advanced analysis and it is much easier to create. Microsoft Office Word and PowerPoin can be used for creating professional-looking documents and presentations in less time. Microsoft had included new templates and tools that make Office Word easier to reuse content, apply professional formatting, and quickly preview changes. Office PowerPoint makes it quicker and easier to create presentations that are more dynamic. Office PowerPoint has a wide library of customizable themes and slide layouts, and new graphic tools. It enables to create powerful charts, SmartArt graphics, and tables, and then instantly preview formatting changes. Microsoft Office Access helps in find, use, and manages information more effectively. By using it, new database can be created easily without any previous experience. Microsoft has provided a library of predefined database tracking applications for the most common business processes and

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

From Pencils to Pixels Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

From Pencils to Pixels - Essay Example My parents are both hard-working people who had little spare time when I was young. My father in particular was away from home a great deal of the time, and I saw very little of him when I was very young, because I was generally in bed before he came home from work. My earliest and best memories are of the evenings when he would creep into my room and tell me a bedtime story. I remember the smell of cigarettes and chemicals on his clothes, and I know he enjoyed telling me stories because he used to make silly voices for all the characters. This is probably why I learned to love books, and perhaps why I enjoy poetry and drama also. We used to have a boxed set of fairy tales based on the Walt Disney cartoons, and these were my favorites. I thought there was something magical in storybooks and I used to have vivid dreams about the fantastic places in these stories. Writing was connected with pictures for me at first. I used to make pasta paintings, finger paintings, and sponge paintings and my mother encouraged me to make shapes like the letters of the alphabet. In my bedroom there was a poster with the letters of the alphabet in the shape of different animals. To this day I connect the letter d with a donkey and p with a parrot! I could write my name before I went to school, and I remember that I did not like writing with wax crayons. They are difficult to use because they do not have a well defined point, and I hated the way that the colors rubbed off on each other. In my pre-school years, then, reading and writing were connected in my mind with happy times in the family and I had a generally positive attitude towards literacy. I was happy to experiment with any new writing tools, although I do remember being in disgrace for a few days after a little experiment with some indelible markers and the wallpaper in the hallway. When I went to school I was surprised at the number of children in the class who did not seem to know what to do with a book or a pencil and p aper. I was not the best student when it came to writing, and in fact spelling is still not my strongest point, but at least I was willing to learn and I liked writing much better than math or science. Sometimes I used to buy notebooks and letter writing sets with my pocket money and my favorite toy was a post office set with tiny stamps and envelopes. The method of teaching reading in my first school involved a series of graded reading books which my parents were supposed to read with me. I hated these books because nothing exciting ever happened in them. They were usually domestic tales about children and dogs, or famous extracts from history. I remember there was one interminable story about pioneers but I don’t remember what happened in it. In my mind at that time, there was reading and writing for school, which was by definition not pleasurable, and then there was reading and writing for fun, which I did at home or in the local library and this very definitely did give m e pleasure. Looking back now with the benefit of hindsight, I think this was an unhelpful distinction, but at the time this was how I saw it. I came rather late to computers, compared to some other children in my class at school. I preferred music when I was a young teenager, and I used to listen to music until late into the night. In general I think that my awareness of language comes mainly through listening, and this may explain why I prefer television or YouTube when I am looking for facts or explanations. It was not until the last

Monday, September 23, 2019

Video Game Guru Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Video Game Guru - Essay Example My outward appearance gives a lot of my friends reason to classify me as a gamer. This is most likely because the images proudly displayed on whatever T-shirt I'm wearing at the moment usually feature some favorite video game character or another. If it isn’t a character specifically, it will most likely be an often quoted line from a game, an abbreviation in ‘gamer speak’ that usually only other gamers recognize or a walking advertisement for my most recent gaming equipment. I almost always have some sort of pocket game handy and I'm the guy everybody comes to when they want to know the best cheats for the most popular game to hit the market this week. Since this is the case, most of the time when my friends find me, I'm either buried in the game itself or deep in conversation with someone else about what to do when the aliens come jumping over boulders at you in Halo 2. No matter what my friends think, though, I identify myself as a gamer because I am intensely interested in all the different facets of gaming. More than just being interested in knowing what the different cheats are in the various games, I want to know about the graphics quality, the sound effects, the realism, the action, the artificial intelligence of the characters and so much more. For me, it is not enough to just play the game and see how far I get. When new games come out, I have known about them since their earliest development.

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Atmospheric Conditions Compared to Indoor Air Pollution Essay Example for Free

Atmospheric Conditions Compared to Indoor Air Pollution Essay There are many different air pollution problems that exist today. Ozone depletion, climate change conditions, volcanic eruptions, acid rains, and motor vehicle exhaust to name a few. One particular problem that is wide spread is â€Å"acid rain†. Acid rain is an effect caused by natural as well as man-made pollution, with a mixture of wet and dry deposited materials in our atmosphere containing nitric and sulfuric acids higher than normal amounts. Increase of these chemical compounds is caused from exhaust from burning of fossil fuels such as automobiles, electric power generation as well as volcanic eruptions and activity and natural plant decay. www. epa. gov). Nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxides are emitted from power generation and other sources where acid rain is created when these gases react with other components of the atmosphere, water, oxygen, and other acid compounds resulting in creation of sulfuric acid and nitric acid. Prevailing winds cause these particulates to spread out over long distances over wide spread regions. These acid rains are of environmental and quality of living concerns. Water vapors from acid rain can enter into the homes through open windows, poor insulation around doors and windows, ventilation systems and vent pipes that can affect air quality of the home as well as outside environments. Some of the environmental effects of acid rain can cause paint to peel, steal corrosion of bridges and structures, erosion of stone buildings and statues affecting the quality of air and life in residential and commercial areas. (http://en. wikipedia. org). Ground water supply sources can become contaminated and affects everything the water is used for. Acid rain can have harmful effects on animals, aquatic life, plants and their ecosystems. The effects are greater lakes, streams, wetlands and aquatic environments. Acid rain causes waters to become acidic and absorb aluminum deposits from runoff from the soils around them. The combination of this and the results of the chemical reaction make the water toxic to shell fish, crayfish and other aquatic species. Even though some species tolerate acidic waters, interconnected ecosystems that impact certain species will eventually impact others along the food chain. The damaging effects of acid rain on plant life are quite dramatic. Damage to forests in higher elevations is more apparent than lower lying regions. The acid content is at a higher level and leaches the soil nutrients and releasing aluminum making it harder for trees and plant life to absorb water. In lower lying areas the effects of acid rain, environmental stressors, and poor soil quality on plant life and trees cause them to become weaker where they cannot tolerate temperatures too cold or too hot, resist infestation of insects and susceptible to disease, and inhibit the ability to reproduce. Some areas the soil is better equipped to neutralize the acids in a â€Å"buffering capacity† that varies from region to region. (www. environment. nationalgeographic). By curbing the use of fossil fuel burning will decrease the forming of acid rains and conservation efforts of individuals. Not only is acid rain damaging to the outside environment, but also on inside air quality of the home. Physical contact of acid rain from rain droplets or swimming in acidic recreational waterways has little effect on human health. However, the pollutants that cause acid rain are associated with increasing the risks of health problems including respiratory and other illnesses. These pollutants infiltrate into indoor living spaces and cause many respiratory illnesses, breathing disorders including asthma and can even cause death. By improving ventilation systems and air purification techniques of the home, using better insulation and installing energy efficient windows and doors will greatly improve air quality of the home and diminish the risk factors from outside air pollution. http://greenliving. nationlageographic. com). Laws, such as the Clean Air Act has improved greatly the air quality. The EPA, through monitoring, and imposing strict guidelines on release of toxins in fossil fuel burning industries. The EPA has reported that from 1980 and 2009, the national average of sulfur dioxide content in the air has decreased by 76 percent, and the amount of nitrogen dioxide decreased by 48 percent. Congress has also created the Acid Rain Program Title IV of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendment. Some of the EPA’s initiatives are the SO2 Reductions and Allowances Trading under the Acid Rain Program involves Phase 1, which imposed tightened annual emission limits of higher emitting plants by installing pollution control devices. Allowance trading systems contributes the low-cost rules of exchange minimizing government intrusions and allowance trading to prepare for a viable compliance tool in reduction of SO2. (www. epa. gov). Another asset implemented by the EPA and Congress in the Clean Air Act Amendment is the reduction of NOx beginning in 1995 through 2000 as a two phase program concerning coal-fired electric electricity utility boilers. Phase 1 covered Group 1 Boilers and Phase 2 covered Group 1 and 2 boilers. Group 1 boilers are tangentially dry bottom fired boilers which has a tendency to give off higher NOx concentrations than Group 2 wet bottom wall fired boilers. Although the NOx reduction program incorporates many of the same characteristics as the SO2 program, it does not include allowance trading or caps the NOx emissions. www. epa. gov). The EPA also requires participants of programs to install, monitor and report data so tracking of the progress can be compiled on quarterly, semi-annually, and yearly bases. Monitoring devices known as CEMS (Continuous Emissions Monitoring System) are required to be installed and maintained by the participants. In the event that data is not compiled or not reported during a reporting period, the applicants will be considered non-compliant and the units deemed out of control for that period and fines incurred to the applicants. (www. epa. gov). The EPA requires any new or upgraded boilers or generating plants to install pollution control devices to capture, or remove sulfur before burning the fuel, and stack collectors for NOx particulates. There are several types of pollution control devices in use, and, depending on the fuels burned, amount of fuel burned, boiler types, amount of electricity produced and type of â€Å"stacks† used for venting on which device will meet the appropriate application. With the aide of the EPA and other government and private pollution control departments involved our air quality has improved greatly in the past few decades. With contributions of these departments and each individual persons working together to improve air quality of our open spaces and within businesses and homes will bring us that much closer to improving our world air quality for the new generation growing now, and even better for future generations. Keeping due diligence in our efforts ensures the planets recovery not only in air pollution, not only, but also our environment as a whole improving quality of life for all organisms large and small.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Processes and Components of a Studio Recording

Processes and Components of a Studio Recording Introduction In order to create to record any form of music, it is important to understand step by step how to get from the planning, and playing of a track, to the end result of a completed recording. In contemporary music production, it is much easier than ever to make your own studio recording, though there options to be considered when setting out to record contemporary audio, its important to know what you would like to create, in order to find the most suitable hardware. By the end of this guide, you should be armed more with knowledge on the following topics. Microphones: The Ins and Outs Polar Patterns The Mixing Desk Microphones: The Ins and Outs Microphones record an audio signal using sound pressure, which generates an electrically charged signal, this signal is then converted into digital so that it can be interpreted by a computer, a process known as Analogue to Digital Conversion (ADC), which is then converted into sound that can playback through the speakers of your computer using Digital to Analogue Conversion (DAC). Examples of Microphones Condenser microphones store energy in the form of an electrostatic field, which uses a capacitor to convert analogue energy, and stores it as digital energy (capacitance). In the image below, you can see the cross section of the inside of a condenser mic. On the front we have two plates, the front plate (or diaphragm) and the back plate. The diaphragm vibrates in response to sound waves, changing the distance between the two plates. The closer the diaphragm is to the back plate, the higher the capacitance, creating a charge which is passed through and amplified. Due to the diaphragm, condenser mics are more sensitive to higher frequencies. Known to be great for recording vocals. Dynamic microphones are an all-round choice suited for most purposes. Simple in structure, and resilient to rough treatment and for handling high levels of volume. A charge is generated via kinetic movement between the coil and magnet.      Ã‚   What are the key differences between these two microphones? Condenser microphones tend to be more sensitive, better at recording high frequencies, whereas dynamic microphones not normally have the same flat frequency response, and tend to be purpose made for certain applications. Condenser microphones generate electrical output around changing the capacitance of the transducer, whereas dynamic mics use a coil in a magnetic field Dynamic mics are durable and cheaper, condenser mics tend to be more expensive, much less durable. Polar Patterns A microphones polar pattern is the space surrounding the outside of the microphone that picks up audio. Some microphones have several in one mic, one such example being Blue Microphones Yeti . The polar pattern can determine the feel, ambience, and colour of the recorded audio. The most common microphone pattern is the cardioid mic. These typically have a 120 degree range to pick up audio. Good for speech for podcasts with a rich, full-bodied sound. Cardioid mics are good for rejecting sounds from other sources/directions. Similar to the cardioid microphone, the Hypercardioid has a tight pick-up range of 100 degrees, they are better at rejecting sounds from the sides, though pick-up a little bit of sound from the rear. Due to the design of these microphones, feedback is reduced, making them a good choice for recording quieter vocalists. Figure of Eight (or bi-directional) microphone. These are used to record a more natural sound quality, product of it having pick-up from both the front and rear, rejecting audio from the sides. It doesnt respond to sound pressure, only the change in pressure between the front and back. A common use for bi-direction mics is for interviewing, or for radio. The Mixing Desk The mixing desk is a device for combining several sound source, while being able to interact with them individually. A mixers main task is to mix down several tracks into a stereo track, combining sound from several sources to produce an acceptable balance and quality track. On the back of the desk, we have the inputs, where you would connect your microphone. Microphones connect to the desk using an XLR cable, if you are using an external sound card you might be more likely to use a line-in port. In order for sound to be stored onto a computer, that analogue energy generated from a microphone needs to be converted into digital using an ADC such as an audio adapter, or sound card, then converted back to analogue using DAC via a sound card for example, which then plays back through the speakers, allowing you to hear changes made via the mixing desk, and hear that in real time. A pre-amp may also be used to boost the signal strength without degrading the quality to noise (hissing) ratio much. Channel inputs receive this audio, which is manipulated via the desk, or DAW. The channel faders are used to change audio levels, mute cuts the audio from being received from a channel, pan changes how far to the left, or right a channels output audio plays back, there is also equalisation (EQ), which involves diminishing and boosting certain frequencies. There are many other ways to manipulate audio, though whats important is that you understand how audio is recorded, and the components involved. Conclusion Now that we have gone into detail about various microphones, features and how to connect that up to record audio, you should be armed with a better understanding what to look for when planning your first music production project. Please look into the sources below as well for further insight. Sources:   Ã‚   http://shure.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/742/~/difference-between-a-dynamic-and-condenser-microphone http://www.dawsons.co.uk/blog/the-mixer-and-its-feature http://www.mediacollege.com/audio/microphones/condenser.html http://blog.shure.com/multi-pattern-microphones-what-where-and-how/ http://ehomerecordingstudio.com/how-to-record-a-song/ http://www.bluemic.com/products/yeti/

Friday, September 20, 2019

Impact of Agricultural Changes in Goa

Impact of Agricultural Changes in Goa INTRODUCTION Etymologically the term Agriculture is derived as follows – ‘Agri’ means field or soil and ‘culture’ means the care of or tilling. It includes all such human efforts as are conducive to the quick and better growth of vegetables and animal products for the benefit of man. In the last fifty years of liberation, the state has undergone and witnessed in the agriculture sector. At the time of liberation, nearly two third of the population was involved in agriculture as their primary occupation. Paddy was the predominant crop of the state followed by cashew and coconut. The situation now changing and today we have cashew nut which is cultivated in nearly 55,000 Ha with paddy 31,000 Ha. The cultivation of horticulture crops nowadays are gaining importance due to the good returns, lower risk and tolerance of these crop for part time farming are greatly influence. The state of Goa is providing assistance to agriculture at all levels to provide substantial returns to rural people.The Agriculture Department gives assistance for farmer from land preparation of the extent of marketing of the produce. The Department of Agriculture with is head quarter at Tonca, Panaji implements developmental programme through zonal agriculture offices located in each talukas level and training center at district level. Laboratories are set up at district level to test the soil where soil health cards are issued for major and micro Goa being a progressive state, the farmers face tremendous shortage of labor who could work on the fields . The dependence of machine for activities in agriculture is emerging trend. Goan farmers having small land holding and nearly 80% of farmers own less than 1 ha of land. The government preferred smaller machine to farmers and provides financial assistance for such machines. In the state of Goa agriculture is one of the most important economic activity. . Lies between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats, to feed its own people Goa faces problems . The coastal areas are exposed to salinity and not suitable for agriculture , while the inland areas are not productive enough. So for its day-to-day needs of agricultural produce like vegetables, Goa is dependent on Karnataka and Maharashtra for its day to day needs of agricultural produce like vegetables. However, approximately one-third of the total land in Goa falls under forest areas and yields substantial profits. The government, however, has done much to improve and develop agriculture in Goa to make it more productive, thus enabling the farmers to get a better return for their labor. Rice and fish being the staple diet of the people, paddy becomes the prominent crop in the scenario of agriculture in Goa. The important crops, besides paddy, are maize, ragi, bajra, jowar and pulses. Cash crops like mango aerecanut jackfruit, banana pineapple, cashew nut coconut, are also grown in abundance. Cashew is one of the most important crop in Goa. One kind of intoxicating drink called Feni is produced from cashew. Sugarcane cultivation has been recent phenomena and a sugar factory has also been set up in Goa. There are different variety of mangoes are grown in Goa. Some of the famous Mango varieties are mancurade, mussarade, fernandine, xavier, alfonsa, colaco. Kapo (hard) and Rasal (soft) are two varieties of jackfruit are grown here. The vegetables that are commonly part of the agriculture in Goa are ladys fingers, radish, brinjol, pumpkins, cucumber, drumsticks, breadfruit and different varieties of gourds. Sweet potatoes, chillies, onions are also available in Goa. Paddy being the principal crop of Goa, it is grown in two seasons, namely Kharif or sorod and the rabi or vaingan. The crops which are grown in monsoon are called the kharif crops and the winter crops are called rabi crops. The main sources of irrigation for winter crops are the nallahs, rivers and streams, tanks, wells and canals. Crops which are grown in the Kharif season consist of paddy, ragi (locally called nachani) and some pulses. Crops grown in the rabi season are comprised of paddy, pulses like horse-gram (kulith), black gram (udid), a variety of beans and some vegetables. However even though one fourth of the population is sustained by agriculture in Goa, it contributes to only 15 to 16 percent to the income of the state. Due to rapid urbanization the availability of agricultural land is reducing. In Goa, shifting cultivation is locally known as Kumeri and it is this form of agriculture that is largely responsible for producing Goas output of nachne, other millets and pulses. However, agriculturally trained farmers, scientists or foresters condemn kumeri cultivation as ecologically damaging and sustained effort have been made by the forest and Agriculture department to discontinue such cultivation. There are basically 5 stages in Kumeri cultivation. Felling an area of forests, fixing the dead vegetation, planting or sowing seeds without the plough, weeding; and eventually harvesting. Though virgin forests give higher yields, kumeri cultivation prefers a secondary forest for cultivation. This is because clearing primary forest is quite an dangerous task, requiring more manpower and demanding a larger drying period for the felled vegetation. In Goa, Kumeri cultivation became a problem for 2 reasons. First, during Portuguese regime, large chunk of hilly areas have been declared a s forests and later by the Goa government thus reducing drastically the Kumeri cycles of the tribals. Secondly forest Department cleared felled forest with in the non-protected areas and converted these to monoculture species of eucalyptus and teak, thereby affecting forest availability to Kumeri cultivation. The elimination of Kumeri cultivation has led to a drastic decline in the availability of millets like nachne which have remained the traditional diet of the economically unprivileged population in Goa. Goa being a small state in area, agricultural land is sometimes used for nonagricultural purposes. Large areas are used to build bus-stands, highways, buildings etc. Being situated in the coastal belt, the real estate industry in Goa has grown much higher during the last few years and the land prices are soaring high, thereby luring the farmers to keep their land fallow and then sell it off for a huge market price. It is also found that the increase in residential area has led t o increased dumping activities which may include mud and rubble. These activities lead to rain water clogging instead of it rushing into the sea. This factor too keeps the farmers from cultivating their lands and they prefer to keep it fallow as improving the drainage can be a very costly affair. Farming in Goa is mainly dependent on the arrival of monsoons. The quality and quantity of cropd by timely required rains . At times the farmers are helpless with the late arrival of monsoons which in turn leads to delayed sowing and thus low yield. At times there is a dry spell which also affects the growth of crops. All this calls for better irrigation facilities. The fact that tourism industry in Goa has flourished, has had its implications on agriculture too. The tourism industry gives more lucrative offers to the present day youth, thus providing them with regular employment. And this aspect leads to the next problem faced by farmers i.e. availability of labour and high labour cost. Wi th the younger generation not wanting to soil their hands in the land and looking out for white collar jobs and green pastures overseas, shortage of labour has led farmers to hire labour from other states. This in turn has increased the cost of farming. The neighbouring states of Goa like Maharashtra and Karnataka have abundant of 4 agricultural activity and thus the agricultural products are low priced. Thus importing these products works out much cheaper than cultivating them. LITERATURE REVIEW According Olekar Ramesh (2008) agriculture has been one of the important part of our economy. There are more than 60% of our people depend upon agriculture for their livelihood. It is a way of life, a tradition; agriculture will continue to be central to all the strategies for socio-economic development of the country. Rapid growth of agriculture will not only ensure continued food security but also aid in growth in industry and the GDP. To maintain growth in agriculture credit plays an important role. The amount of agriculture credit given by the bank to the farmers has increased from over the year. This has been an impressive development in banking credit sector, considering the fact that there are several problems like accessing credit for agriculturist and problem providing loan by the bank. Chand Ramesh et. al (2010) talks about agriculturalproduction and farm income in India involve several risks. One and only mechanism available to safeguard against production risks is crop insurance. For eg.the scheme called as NationalAgriculturalInsuranceScheme(NAIS) operating in the country and has suggested several modifications to make crop insurance more effective. But the coverage of this scheme in terms of crop area, number of farmers and value ofagriculturaloutput is very small.To make agriculture risk management more effective the present level of coverage have to be improved. Such an improvement has financial implication and will have an impact on current insurance practices.Therefore it requires renewed effort on the part of the government in terms of designing appropriate mechanism and providing support in terms of finance.,to agricultural insurance. Kumar and Sameer(2009) focuses on the implementation Kishan Credit Card (KCC)Schemein India.The Government of India consulted with the Reserve Bank of India, and National Bank forAgriculturaland Rural Development to establish KCC. Providing credit support to the farmers through banking system timely and adequately manner is the objective of thescheme. Advantages of thescheme include a full year credit requirement, simplified documentation, and availability of credit for 3 years. Sharma and E. Kumar (2008) reports regarding agriculture related concerns of different Bt cotton farmers those who are not eligible for any benefit under Indias Finance Minister P. Chidambarams Rs. 60,000-crore farm loan waiverscheme. The farmer name Gurram Adi Reddy, hold a view that the real issues behind there non elegibility for any benefit under waver scheme is lack of adequate water power, the timely availability of inputs and fair, remunerative and consistent prices for the produce. Rajkumar P K et. al (2009) talks about of onion and maize growers who have been under Market Intervention Scheme(MIS) in the state of Karnataka by selecting two districts of the state. Dharwad and Gadag. Due to several problems such as procedural complexities the scheme has been delayed payments and the requirement of meeting Fair Average Quality (FAQ) stipulations for the crops. It has also been found that if the procourement centres as farther it is more likely that farmer to go in the open market sale. The study suggest that simplification of procedure making timely payment and increasing the number of procurement centres to cover larger number of farmer under Market Intervenion Scheme This study talk about an important innovation in providing healthcare for the rural poor: the Yeshasvini Health InsuranceSchemefor rural farmers and peasants in Karnataka. This is one of the worlds largest health insuranceschemefor the rural poor, theschemestarted in 2003. So it is designed in a suc h a manner that overcome several obstacles to providing health security for rural populations. In the the second year, the scheme covered about 2.2 million widely dispersed peasant farmers for surgical and out patient care for a low annual premium of approximately US$ 2. According Jana and Sebak Kumar(2011) in India more than 50% are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. Still Indian economy are agrarian economy.60% of the rainfed areas without any source of irrigation.And majority of these areas are covered by marginal farmers and rural poor. Due to lack of irrigation facilities small and marginal farmers are are at risk. There is need for sustainable and innovative forms of irrigation. For eg innovative experiment is happa experiment which is viewed as Integrated Natural Resource Management( INRM) emphasizing both water and soil management. According K. N. Rao(2002) inIndia nearly 2/3rd of the population depends onagriculturefor their livelihood andagricultureis highly depend upon nature, crop insurance has to play the role of a vital institution. Crop insurance alone cannot increase productivity or by providing finance both should increase same time .During the VIIth Five-year plan period, the Comprehensive Crop Insurance Scheme was introduce. Though the scheme has shortcomings, farmers received nearly 6 times the premium as claims, but only 5% of the total farming community were covered under this scheme. The National Agricultural InsuranceScheme(NAIS), which replaced CCIS w.e.f. 1999 is an improved version. Just like in other parts of the world the crop insurance programs in India is supported and financed by governments. According Jennifer(2009) In1985 crop insurance scheme is started offering by the government of India with the Comprehensive Crop InsuranceScheme.In the recent years NationalAgricultureInsuranceScheme replaced by comprehensive Crop Insurance Scheme. Though it is considered NAIS as an improvement over CCIS it is also flawed scheme just as the CCIS.It is found that Government crop insurance scheme have failed worldwide but India seems to have this reality. S.K. Mishra(2007) claims that rice, wheat, maize, millets and pulses are the major food crops of India where as major cash crops include Oilseeds, sugarcane, cotton, jute mesta, and potatoes. Minor cash crops include Tobacco, chillies, ginger, onion, turmeric, tapioca, sweat potatoes, etc. Plantationcrops includetea, coffee and rubber. 3/4th of the gross area under cultivation is cereals and pulses. This clearly shows that there is increaseinthe percentage area under thecashcropsis discernible. Less than 1% area is under Plantation crops. Among the foodcrops, wheat has highest growth rate followed by maize, rice and pulses. Millets having negative growth rate area. J K Sachdeva(2005) talks about cash crop like tea, coffee, spices, oilseeds, cotton and cashew . They are traditional export items, and India exports 50% cash crops of its total agricultural produce. These items are ready for consumption after some value addition. In industries these items are used as raw material in food. The commodities can be ranked highinhierarchy of demands after food items like wheat and rice. The consumer economic status plays a significant roleintheir demand. The paper analyses the exports of tea, coffee, spices, cotton, oilseeds and cashew byIndia, the growth in the exports after the coming of economic reforms, calculates the changes in export and discusses the relationship between exports, imports and production. According to Richa Kumar(2014) that farmers have limited information and many middlemen create problem in getting higher price for their produce . She gives the example of soybean farmersinMalwa, centralIndia, which is acashcropthat connects farmers to global consumers, this article argues that the very expectation of disintermediationinthe soybean supply chain is misleading.Indias positioninthese global networks puts farmers and intermediariesinMalwainthe position of price receivers: they are unable to influence the global price of soybean or manipulate its local priceinany way.Inthis context, providing price information has negligible impact on the final price obtained by farmers. To bring about potential changes there is a need to find out the waysinwhich power is exercised by various actorsinthe marketplace According Gulati, et . al (2002)Riceis the major food crop of almost 70% of the worlds poor who are stayinginAsia, where more than 90% of worldriceproduction and consumption takes place.Ricetrade liberalization therefore has tremendous implications for poverty. The worldricemarket of the world has been imbalanced partly due to intervention. Poor countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, andIndia not protecting à ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ¢â€š ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ rice sectors, the rich countries of East Asia (Japan and Korea), Europe, and the United States heavily support theirriceproducers. This leads to great diversityindomesticriceprice levels, with very high pricesinthe latter countries and very low pricesinthe former. Trade liberalization would thus resultsinflows from these poorer Asian countries to East Asia and Europe. This will be positive effect on poverty, where price of producer will increase. It will also bring about second-round effects (wages, employment, and investment)inexporting countries. Parshuram Samal Rabinarayan Patra(2012) focuses on production lossesinricedue to natural calamities like drought, flood and cycloneinOdisha during period of(1965-66 to 2008-09) by using secondary data. It also tells the coping strategies adopted byfarmerson the basis of primary data collected from 100 affected samplefarmers. The result show heavy losses in riceproduction in calamity years. To earn additional income and smoothen consumption spending in the calamity years coping strategies used by farmers were Migration and shifting to wage workinthe construction sector. Given the impossibility of preventing the occurrence of natural calamities, it is possible to argue that a greater allocation of funds forriceresearch for developingricevarieties is useful to tackle various calamity situations and generation Sathishka k and P. A.Rego(2013) studied about Agriculture in Dakshina Kannada. This paper studies the major trends of agriculture sector in Dakshina Kannada District and also examines the crop diversification in Dakshina Kannada District. Dakshina Kannada is primary an agriculture district of karnataka state. More or less 60% of population of district depends on agriculture for their livelihood. Dakshina Kannada has replaced food grains with non food grains crops like rubber, areca nuts, cashew nuts. The writer concludes by saying that urban migration of agricultural labor and urbanization led to the diversification. According D. N. Patil (2010) It is now understood that the changes in the institutional credit is important factor to bring about development in the farm sector. This is particularly true in areas which could not participate in the process of development. There is an urgent need to increase the institutional credit in the agriculral credit. Therefore to reduce the regional imbalance, new bank branches should be open in rural areas. Narwade S. S. et.al (2009) studied about agricultural performance in the state of Orrisa during the pre and post reform period . in the pre reform period there was decline in both area and yield growth rates. The analysis reveals that in Orissa an yield per hectare of food grain crops have received severe setback during post reform period over the pre reform period. Output of the food grain crops and instability has also significantly increased during post reform. S. A. Sujatha (2010) studied the problems faced by farmers in the existing farming system. That all the categories of farmers facing scarcity of family labor due to involvements in non farm activities and fragmentation of land. Large number of farmers are dependent on rainfall, they are also faced with problems like lack of transportation and marketing facilities.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

The Power of Language in Shakespeares King Lear Essay -- King Lear es

The Power of Language in King Lear      Ã‚  Ã‚   It is often difficult to gain entry into a work of such complete and dazzling genius as King Lear--reading Shakespeare can sometimes feel like trying to get a good long look at the sun on a cloudless day. And yet there are moments when one comes across passages that, by the sheer force of their lyrical, poetic beauty, leap off the page and resonate so strongly within one's mind that they become a kind of distillation of the entire play. One can read this play again and again, and still be struck anew by Shakespeare's utter mastery over language; surely there is no other writer who had so full a sense of, and who used to such merciless ends, the power of words. In a genre that denies the novelist's luxury of narrative explication, language in its barest, purest form, becomes Shakespeare's precision instrument, and he wields it with a perpetually astonishing combination of force, subtlety and exactitude.    The introductory quoted lines, when brought out of their immediate textual surroundings, form for this reader the kind of distilled illumination suggested in the preceding paragraph. These are the words of the sightless and stumbling Gloucester, as he begs a passing stranger, (who, unbeknownst to him is the son he so belatedly recognizes as faithful), to help him to his own death; by the end of the play, this passage becomes a central paradigm.    Despite the afore-mentioned obstacle (an obstacle the surmounting of which yields so much pleasure and insight) to readerly intercourse with Shakespeare, one can often recognize and trace logical devices he employed in order the more effectively and precisely to communicate his message. The parallel plot of Gloucester and hi... .... Jane Adelman. Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1978. Bradley, A.C. "King Lear." 20Lh Century Interpretations of King Lear. Ed. Jane Adelman. New Jersev; Prentice-Hall, 1978. Colie, Rosalie. "The Energies of Endurance: Biblical Echoes in King Lear. Some Faces of King Lear. Ed. R. Colie & F.T. Flahiff. UniversitV of Toronto Press, 19q4. Hunter, Robert G. Shakespeare and the Mystery of God's Judgments. University of Georgia Press, 19W6. Jayne, Sears. "Charity in King Lear." Shakespeare Quarterly. Spring, 1964. pps. 27-7-288. Knights, L.C. "On the Fool". 20th Century Interpretations of King Lear. Ed. Jane Adelman. New Jersey; Prentice-Hall, 1978. Matthews, Richard. "Edmund's Redemption in King Lear". Shakespeare Quarterly. Winter, 19q5. pps. 25-29. Snyder, Susan. "King Lear and the Prodigal Son." Shakespeare Quarterly. Autumn 1966. pps. 361-369.    The Power of Language in Shakespeare's King Lear Essay -- King Lear es The Power of Language in King Lear      Ã‚  Ã‚   It is often difficult to gain entry into a work of such complete and dazzling genius as King Lear--reading Shakespeare can sometimes feel like trying to get a good long look at the sun on a cloudless day. And yet there are moments when one comes across passages that, by the sheer force of their lyrical, poetic beauty, leap off the page and resonate so strongly within one's mind that they become a kind of distillation of the entire play. One can read this play again and again, and still be struck anew by Shakespeare's utter mastery over language; surely there is no other writer who had so full a sense of, and who used to such merciless ends, the power of words. In a genre that denies the novelist's luxury of narrative explication, language in its barest, purest form, becomes Shakespeare's precision instrument, and he wields it with a perpetually astonishing combination of force, subtlety and exactitude.    The introductory quoted lines, when brought out of their immediate textual surroundings, form for this reader the kind of distilled illumination suggested in the preceding paragraph. These are the words of the sightless and stumbling Gloucester, as he begs a passing stranger, (who, unbeknownst to him is the son he so belatedly recognizes as faithful), to help him to his own death; by the end of the play, this passage becomes a central paradigm.    Despite the afore-mentioned obstacle (an obstacle the surmounting of which yields so much pleasure and insight) to readerly intercourse with Shakespeare, one can often recognize and trace logical devices he employed in order the more effectively and precisely to communicate his message. The parallel plot of Gloucester and hi... .... Jane Adelman. Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1978. Bradley, A.C. "King Lear." 20Lh Century Interpretations of King Lear. Ed. Jane Adelman. New Jersev; Prentice-Hall, 1978. Colie, Rosalie. "The Energies of Endurance: Biblical Echoes in King Lear. Some Faces of King Lear. Ed. R. Colie & F.T. Flahiff. UniversitV of Toronto Press, 19q4. Hunter, Robert G. Shakespeare and the Mystery of God's Judgments. University of Georgia Press, 19W6. Jayne, Sears. "Charity in King Lear." Shakespeare Quarterly. Spring, 1964. pps. 27-7-288. Knights, L.C. "On the Fool". 20th Century Interpretations of King Lear. Ed. Jane Adelman. New Jersey; Prentice-Hall, 1978. Matthews, Richard. "Edmund's Redemption in King Lear". Shakespeare Quarterly. Winter, 19q5. pps. 25-29. Snyder, Susan. "King Lear and the Prodigal Son." Shakespeare Quarterly. Autumn 1966. pps. 361-369.   

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

A Missed Opportunity :: Personal Narrative Writing

A Missed Opportunity Every time we had visited Williamsburg, my mother had always wanted to see the famous Fife and Drum Corps. Dressed in full costume of red coats and tri-corner hats, these re-enactors parade down the Duke of Gloucester Street playing their instruments in a â€Å"call to arms† of the town’s militia. These men have always been one of the main attractions of Williamsburg and one of the symbols of the colonial area. They perform only once or twice a week and by either bad luck or fate, my mother has never actually seen them march. The single time that she did wait for their performance to start, it was cancelled due to bad weather. It was the second day of our family’s annual three-day trip to Colonial Williamsburg. We had spent the majority of the day strolling about the colonial area, and tensions were getting high. My brother, as the middle child, always picked the most inopportune times to annoy my sister, the youngest. After several near fights, my parents thought that a little separation was in order, at least until dinner. My mother suggested that we go see a program entitled â€Å"Dance: Our Dearest Diversion†. Of course, she knew that neither one of us would care to go see the show, being as uninterested in colonial dancing as a cat is of swimming. Per tradition, my brother and I had earlier in the day bought colonial styled games. He had chosen a handsome set of Fox and Geese, while I had decided on the more exotic and unknown Mancala. All the game consisted of was a flat board with fourteen pits on it, two of the pits being slightly larger than the rest. The bigger pits were at the ends of the board, and the other twelve were in two rows between them. Those pits had four stones (or flattened marbles) in them, and the object of the game was to capture the most stones. According to the little pamphlet that came with the game, Mancala required more mathematical reasoning than sheer luck. We had sat under the shade of one of the numerous trees that lined the main street of the colonial section, to try out my newly bought game and to rest my tired feet. The cool breeze soothed my scorched my neck as I contemplated my next move.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Comparison of Heterosexual-Parents and Homosexual-Parents Essay

Most people have an automatic belief that a child who is raised by heterosexual-parents is better off than a child who is raised by homosexual-parents. The belief held by most people may make the task seem more socially acceptable. However, there is no law against it, nor is it written in stone that a child should not be raised by homosexual-parents. Furthermore, with the same amount of love, structure, effort, and stability homosexual-parents can be equally as nurturing to a child. The ideal family has always consisted of having two parents which consist of a male and a female. Nevertheless, having parents of the opposite sex does not mean a child with homosexual-parents cannot get the same adequate amount of love. A child with homosexual-parents has two parents who work and take care of them also. Both heterosexual-parents and homosexual-parents can and do show the same amount of love by spending time with the child, talking to the child, working to provide for the child, and showing the child affection. Homes with heterosexual-parents may seem to have more structure and balance because they do not appear to have to deal with any outside negativity. Negativity can result from a number of things such as race and social status, not just the marital status of the parents. Nevertheless, both a home usually has one or more parents who works and provides for the family and there is typically one parent who devotes a lot of time and energy in focusing on the family, especially on the child. Both types of parents can have rules which have to be obeyed, household chores which have to be done, and family time which is a must for raising a well-developed child in today’s society. Therefore, if heterosexual and homosexual parents disregard whatever outside negativity they may encounter and focus on the family and focus on what is important there will be the same amount of structure and balance to a child with either type of parents. Everything in life that a person believes is worthwhile takes effort and time. Parents have to put forth great effort and huge amounts of time in raising a child, especially if a parent wants a well-rounded, well-mannered, happy, smart, and what they believe to be a perfect child. Both heterosexual and homosexual parents can work towards achieving the ultimate goal of raising a perfect child. However, even though at times it may appear to be an easier challenge for heterosexual -parents, it does not mean the same goal cannot be achieved by homosexual-parents. For the sake of the child both types of parents must put forth a worthwhile effort and spend time focusing on what is best for the child. Society, as a whole, automatically has a preconceived idea that heterosexual-parents create a more stable environment for a child. However, the preconceived idea of society does not mean homosexual-parents cannot create a stable environment for a child. The two different types of parents must ensure stability for a child. Stability enables a child to focus on academic achievements and being a well-behaved child who has a stable home life does not seem to get themselves into as much trouble when compared to a child without a stable home environment. In other words, it does not matter if the child has heterosexual-parents or parents who are homosexual, stability, love, structure, and effort plays a major role in the proper development of a child.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Developments in Hacking, Cybercrime, and Malware Essay

The number one web based attack of 2009 was Malicious PDF activity 49% of web based attacks–attempts to deliver malicious pdf content to victims through the web. The pdf attack is designed to exploit arbitrary vulnerabilities in applications that are able to process pdf’s. A successful pdf attack could compromise the integrity and security of affected computers. (Symantec Corporation, 2009) The number two web based attack of 2009 was the Microsoft Internet Explorer ADODB.Stream Object file installation weakness. This exploit accounted for 18% of the total number of web based exploits for the year.This vulnerability allows hackers to install malicious files on a vulnerable computer when a user visits a website hosting an exploit. In order for this attack to be successful, an attacker must exploit an arbitrary vulnerability that bypasses Internet Explorer Security settings.Then the attacker can execute the malicious files that were installed by the initial security weakness. This vulnerability has been known since 2003, and patches have been released since 2004. This exploit exposes the fact that many computer systems were not being kept up to date. (Symantec Corporation, 2009) The number three most common web based exploit of 2009 was the Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 uninitialized memory code execution vulnerability. This attack works by enticing a victim to open a malicious web page. Once a user opens the web page it gives the attacker the ability to execute remote code on the victims computer. Since this is a browser based attack, it gives the hacker potentially more targets than relying on a plugin that may not get installed. (Symantec Corporation, 2009) The top 3 Malware attacks of 2013 were W32.Downadup, W32.Sality, and W32.Ramnit. Although their names all begin with W32., each bug has it’s own way of exploiting a system. Let’s take for instance the W32.Downadup. This  worm has been around since 2008. This worm spreads by taking advantage of a remote code execution vulnerability found in Microsoft Windows server service RFC. This worm strives to block access to security related web sites while attempting to spread to protected network shares via brute force of weak passwords. The Security of the entire network is at stake with this worm. This virus demonstrates shows how important it is to keep servers and workstations updated with the latest virus definitions. (W32.Downadup.B, n.d.) The W32.Ramnit has been around since 2010. This worm is spread by infecting executable drives and removable drives. This malware steals bank usernames and passwords. Having a security policy prohibiting personal drives from being used in the workplace is paramount. This type of attack could cause data loss if unmitigated. (Symantec Corporation, 2013) The W32.Sality is in my opinion the nastiest of all three bugs. What makes the W32.Sality particularly nasty is that it can infect executable files on local, removable, and shared drives. W32.Sality is known as an (EPO) or entry point obscuring polymorphic file infector. Essentially, it’s a sophisticate worm-like virus that ensures its survival by downloading other malware and disabling security software. One of the most damaging features of the W32.Sality virus is how it decentralizes peer to peer networks with sophisticated code instruction that populates the network with infected computers. (W32.Sality., n.d.) References W32.Downadup.B. (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2014, from http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2008-123015-3826-99 W32.Ramnit. (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2014, from http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2010-011922-2056-99 W32.Sality. (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2014, from http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2006-011714-3948-99 Symantec Corporation. (2009). Symantec Global Internet Security Threat Report Trends for 2009. Mountain View: Symantec Corporation. Symantec Corporation. (2013). Symantec Global Internet Security Threat Report Trends for 2009. Mountain View: Symantec Corporation.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Feminism in South Park

Introduction South Park has been around for a while now. Since it was aired for the first time on 13th August 1997, the show has constantly pushed the boundaries taking on everything, leaving out nothing. The reception among the wider population and the media had a wide range from â€Å"shocking† to â€Å"excellent†. One of the aspects of this success story is that, because of its provocative tone the show has managed to stay in the limelight.Public debate was evolving around certain episodes, bringing more and more attention to the show. As it was constantly picking up contemporary themes, topics or events, expectations were growing and â€Å"‘How will South Park deal with x' has become a common catch phrase† Oohnson-Woods 257). Another reason why South Park is so appealing is its humour which is absolutely unrestricted and irreverent Oohnson-Woods 257). Seemingly, the creators of the show do not set any boundaries for themselves, taking on everything and everybody.Even public fgures and celebrities are not spared. The viewer witnesses events like Barbara Streisand mutating into a giant, destructive monster, Martha Stewart taking a turkey up her ectum, or Ben Affleck having a sexual affair with a nine-year old boy. People apparently enjoy the stylistic, humorous and critical social approach of the show, making it the most successful satire so far. Being full of toilet humour and foul language, South Park is pushing â€Å"the boundaries of good taste. Few shows have dared to go where South Park goes† Oohnson-Woods 244). It is also full of introspect and unbiased social commentary' (Khodasevich 2) and is characterized by its libertarian attitude, which is granting freedom to everyone and especially to itself. As it is a satirical approach to social conventions. South Park tries to make a point on various discourses within our society by â€Å"filtering these problems through children† Oohnson-Woods 163, 164). These childr en are a group of elementary school boys, namely Stan Marsh, the normal kid, Kyle Broflovski, a Jew, Eric Cartman, the fat and selfish kid and Kenny McCormick, who is the timid kid dying in every episode without further recognition.There's also several other characters that get developed throughout the seasons. However, it is interesting to point out that it is mostly male characters that grow. Female characters in the show are prevalently portrayed â€Å"as he boys mothers, classmates, and authority fgures†, and do â€Å"rarely develop past a specific role† (Khodasevich 2). This very fact, among others, â€Å"raises many red flags† among feminists (Miller 177). Furthermore feminist criticism is extended to the vulgar language and the derogatory words that are used in labelling females.Also the prevalent sexual inequality between men and women, namely the sexual objectification that is supposedly depicted makes the show a target for feminist criticism. So seemin gly, feminists rarely do belong to the wide fan-base of the show. However, the show is actually, despite the hateful, vulgar, and derogatory language which is often misinterpreted and misunderstood and therefore labeled misogynist, incorporating feminist standpoints and theories like the objectification of women, patriarchal views and stereotypical gender roles, and strongly supporting them.As sometimes† (177). 2. South Park and Feminism â€Å"South Park is a show that can either be considered as â€Å"cruelly funny and hysterically satirical [†¦ that] took animation one step backwards and five steps forward intellectually,† or as â€Å"degrading toilet humour, depending on your point of iew' Oohnson-Woods X'). This description by Johnson-Woods is perfectly serving as a transition to the main part of this paper. Is it â€Å"intellectually' challenging or is it simply â€Å"degrading† nonsense that feminists and feminist critics can not endorse? . 1 Use of Language Many feminist critics are focused on the derogatory and vulgar language in South Park. The choice of words is, for the most part of the series, bound to swearing and oaths which are mainly used by the male charactersl . Words like â€Å"bitch†, â€Å"whore† â€Å"chicks† or â€Å"cunt† are seen as generalizing terms for women, used to degrade their tatus within in the series and thereof for women in real life. This assumption might be conceivable, as most women in the TV-show are far from using comparable phrases to describe men.There are simply less words which would have the same descriptive and generalizing effect as the above-mentioned terms used for women. However, women in South Park are not expelled from using derogatory and vulgar language. Robin Lakoffwrote in his book Language and Woman's Place that little girls should not use rough language like boys because this would not enhance their status and prestige among men within the patriar chal system. In fact it would expose females to ridicule and ostracising (5).Within this scope South Park makes a feminist stand in â€Å"Tom's Rhinoplasty' (episode 11 of the first season). When Wendy Testaburger is, driven by Jealousy to the new class teacher Ms Ellen approaching her after class to have a word with her, she Just explodes with furious swearing and threatening. Wendy: Miss Ellen, can I talk to you Ms. Ellen: Of course Wendy. Wendy: I couldn't help but notice that you taking a liking in my boyfriend Stan Ms. Ellen: Well IVe taken a liking in all of you. You're all so young and cute and full of life.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Economics and Business Risk Information

Risk Information Rating is an interactive process relying primarily in gathering information from the issuer and supplementing it with strategic information obtained from outside independent sources. The entire process Is aimed at evaluating (a) Financial Risk and (b) Business Risk Information with regard to (a) Is generally provided by the company requesting for rating and, only when necessary, such Information Is corroborated or complemented by Information from other sources.However, comprehensive information with regard to (b) is not readily available from any identifiable source. PACRA has, therefore, proceeded to develop its own database consisting of economic data by industrial sub-sectors. Additionally, it continuously monitors macroeconomic developments and important government policy changes (like fiscal adjustments) for determining their likely impact on specific sectors and companies. PACRA does not assign unsolicited ratings.This policy is based on our sensitivity egardin g the motivation for such a practice: globally, unsolicited ratings have come under criticism as they seem to be a means of pressurizing recalcitrant entitles to subject themselves to rating. Again, the value of credit rating flows from the Interactive nature of the exercise. Thus, unless the rated entity has an opportunity to share the reasons for any delinquent performance In the past and Its view on prospects, the rating opinion may not be reliable. The rating process begins with a careful review of an entitys published information.From this review, analysts (normally two, the lead and support analyst, are assigned to each rating assignment) determine what additional data are needed and a detailed questionnaire is sent to the client. An initial rating assessment is made and discussed internally. A discussion agenda is then prepared for a meeting with the client company's senior management. The meeting Is wide-ranging, covering the company's flnanclal position, earning trends, ope rating practices, competitive standing, future prospects, the economic environment and many other Issues that an have a bearing on PACRA's assessment.In order to ensure full understanding of their position, companies entrust PACRA with confidential information, which is not disclosed in rating reports but which is certainly taken into account when assigning the ratings. In determining the initial ratings for an institution, a rating proposal is prepared based on the information gathered at the Management Meeting with the company, and is presented to the rating committee (comprising the Chairman, ManagingDirector, senior executives and the lead analyst). A draft rating report is then prepared and sent to the client for verification of the accuracy and confidentiality of the Information In the report. upon the client's approval, the one-page summary of the report Is made public and a press release of the assigned rating Is Issued. The detailed rating report Is sent to the client. plac ed on ‘RatingWatch'. The rating is then upgraded, downgraded or maintained after assessing the impact of any such change.