Saturday 31 August 2019

Health Care Careers Diagram and Summary Essay

The role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) in healthcare has become one of the main lifelines in the industry. The CIO is the most important person within an organization in regards to the collecting, organization, monitoring and securing of data. The CIO is a critical member of the executive leadership team. Charged with developing the organization’s strategy, he or she is responsible for leading the IT staff and ensuring overall compliance with all regulatory requirements. The CIO is also responsible for keeping up-to-date with the latest technology trends as well as threats and being able to adapt the organization’s strategy to mitigate those threats. The CIO also facilities and drives change within the organization (Glaser & Williams, 2010). The CIO is responsible for establishing and maintaining many key relationships within an organization’s leadership team. They work to provide valuable input that helps shape the entire organization’s vision and path to success. The CIO reports consistently on the progress and development of all information technology (IT) projects, issues, and tasks. â€Å"They are the brain of the business-body, monitoring and regulating all the data that passes through. Without CIOs, a healthcare company would collapse under the weight of unprocessed information.† (Becoming a Healthcare CIO (Chief Information Officer), 2012) The CIO focuses on updating and optimizing existing systems while utilizing new systems effectively and efficiently. They are also responsible for updating and maintaining capabilities, strengthening policies and reworking procedures on a daily basis. The CIO is the front line of defense for protecting the organization against fraud and abuse, as well as securing all electronic patient health information (ePHI). The role of the CIO has evolved as the health care industry has faced changes with the dependency on  information technology. Figure 1. Chief Information Officer’s responsibilities within a health care organization. As shown in Figure 1, a health care CIO faces many challenges on a day-to-day basis. These challenges are in the form of maintaining existing systems, optimizing new systems, and protecting PHI. The role of the CIO will continue to evolve as the health care system changes and the dependency and regulations surrounding the role of information technology increase. References Becoming a Healthcare CIO (Chief Information Officer). (2012). Retrieved from HealthcareAdministration.com: http://www.healthcareadministration.com/becoming-a-healthcare-cio-chief-information-officer/ Glaser, J. P., & Williams, R. B. (2010). The Definitive Evolution of the Role of the CIO. Journal of Healthcare Information management, 21(1), 9-11. Retrieved from http://www.himss.org/files/HIMSSorg/content/files/03_column_Leadership.pdf

Friday 30 August 2019

Hamlet and Othello Essay

The two plays by William Shakespeare, Hamlet and Othello, reflect the Renaissance philosophy, with its most important schools- Platonism, Aristotelianism and Humanism, especially in their treatment of human nature and human condition. The works of the two philosophers – Plato and Aristotle, which formed the basis of the two movements that took the names of their initiators, were reinterpreted by many scholars of the Medieval and Renaissance period, and of the later periods. Platonism and Aristotelianism were opposed philosophies in their first articulation. The Platonists believed that there is a world of abstractions, the pure world of ideas. The characteristics of the material objects, formed an abstract world, which was moreover, the true word. For example, the Platonist school of thought implied that the material world was only a reflection of the perfect world of ideas, that is, a beautiful object is only the reflection of the idea of beauty. Aristotle revised these ideas that Plato had first initiated, and proposed an opposed view, which was based on an empirical way of knowing the world, and which constituted the first step towards natural science. The two doctrines referred obviously to both ontological and epistemological facts about the world. On the other hand, the Renaissance humanism which was actually the most characteristic philosophy for this period, emphasized the nobility of human nature, and the powers of human intellect and spirit, while joining the two main philosophies – Platonism and Aristotelianism. As Brian Copenhaver and Charles Schmitt observed in their Renaissance Philosophy, both Platonism and Aristotelianism presented many problems for the humanists and for the theologians as well, like, for instance the transmigration of souls and other beliefs which seemed incompatible with Christianity: â€Å"Why should an upwardly mobile scholar or bureaucrat sympathize with Plato’s elitism? Were humanists not troubled by his scorn for poets and rhetoricians? Plato’s advocacy of communism and advertisement of homosexuality invited political and social complaint. Even his renowned piety seemed out of tune with a philosophy that made matter eternal, the human soul preexistent and migratory, and the gods and demons many, powerful, and worthy of worship. As the Renaissance came to know Plato better, discussion of his thought could not have been other than complex and divided, and the controversy had been prepared by an anti-Platonic tradition long sustained by pagans and Christians alike. As early modern thinkers developed new modes of reading unknown to antiquity and the Middle Ages, Plato’s compatibility with Christianity remained the leading question. â€Å"(Copenhaver, 129) However, many of the ideas of the two philosophies were either kept or reinterpreted as the main philosophical views at the time of Renaissance, and this is very well reflected in the plays of William Shakespeare. In Hamlet, which is one of Shakespeare’s plays that most approaches a metaphysical view of human nature seems to waver in its essential purport upon the edge separating Platonism from Aristotelianism. One of the greatest dilemmas in Hamlet is that of individual action. Shakespeare’s prince of Denmark is called upon to revenge the murder of his father. As critics have observed repeatedly, on of the most essential and telling things in the play is Hamlet hesitation when he has to take definite action against the murderer. One of the essential differences between the humanists who advocated Plato’s theory and the ones who adopted Aristotelianism, was that between the contemplative life that was characteristic of the Platonic movement and that of active life as presented by Aristotle. Various philosophers of the Renaissance took up one or the other of the two doctrines, and encouraged either contemplation or action: â€Å"Ficino’s work (†¦) also glorified the contemplative life and professed an ascetic contempt for the material world not in keeping with the pragmatic interests of the civic humanists. But to see the Aristotelian Argyropoulos as champion of the active life and the Platonist Ficino as prophet of contemplative quietism is too simple. For one thing, Argyropoulos seems to have intended no activist propaganda in his teaching, and, even more important, Ficino’s theory of the contemplative life kept his philosophy attractive to the politically and economically vigorous Florentines who supported him. Always urging the ascent of the soul, Ficino presented the contemplative life as the final step in a hierarchy of human action that led people to surpass the active life without utterly denying it; lived well, the active life becomes a step on the way to escaping matter and uniting with God. It was the genius of Neoplatonism to open channels between the divine and the mundane that transcended the world while preserving it as a platform for ascent to the godhead.† (Copenhaver, 144) Hamlet seems to be a contemplative character altogether, for whom the ideal world of abstract moral values constitutes the guiding principle. When he is faced with the baseness of the many crimes that occur in his own family, he postpones taking action and revenging his father. Moreover, the revenge takes place almost accidentally at the end of the play.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   His hesitation in front of these â€Å"material† problems is relevant for his Neo- Platonic frame of thought:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"How all occasions do inform against me,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   And spur my dull revenge. What is a man   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   If his chief good and market if his time   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Sure he that made us with such large discourse,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Looking before and after, gave us not   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   That capability and godlike reason   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   To fust in us unus’d. [†¦]† (Ham. IV. 4. 32-39) It becomes obvious from Hamlet’s speech that his reflections regarding human condition and human nature are based on main principles of both Humanism and Platonic thinking: man is seen alternately by Hamlet as a superior being endowed with â€Å"godlike reason† and a beast, whose main concerns are its primary needs. That is, Hamlet’s own ideas about the world and about man, which are essentially idealistic and Platonist, meet with an obvious obstacle in the material world, where he sees the baseness of character of both his uncle and his mother. An even more poignant example of how he is repelled by the idea of a purely material world in which the spiritual realities he believes in are hardly perceptible is his unjust condemnation of Ophelia, whom he blames without proof for the frailty he sees in his own mother. Hamlet ponders himself on his own hesitation in when he is supposed to take action, and realizes that his wavering comes from what he calls â€Å"thinking too precisely on the event† ( Ham. IV. 4. 41), that is to say, his own contemplative nature and the need to understand first and meditate on the event, as well as to judge it, prevent him from taking action. At the end of the monologue however, he determines that his â€Å"thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth†( Ham. IV. 4. 66), that is, he chooses action over contemplation, as he feels he is compelled by the events to mend things and do justice to his father’s death. Thus, it can be said that Hamlet has to take action and reestablish the ethical order in the world, which had been so terribly disturbed by the crimes which took place in his family. This structuring of the events reflects the Renaissance philosophical context, which blended Platonism with Aristotelianism and Humanism. First of all, according to the Platonists man should tend to contemplation of the ideal world, and live in the purer world of the spirit, not be limited to the material one. The protagonists in Hamlet, that is the king and the queen, have sinned against these precepts by giving in to desire of power and to lust. The fact that Hamlet feels that he needs to take action is in tuning with the humanist idea that man can reestablish the divine order and that, in order to do that, he must play the part that is required of him in the material world. Thus, the two worlds- the material and transcendental are not completely separate, and the Renaissance man believed that the spiritual perfection can be reached through action as well, insofar as this would imply reestablishing the divine order. In Othello, similar ideas appear about individual action. Othello too is called upon to take action against what he believes was the betrayal of his wife Desdemona. However, the first significant difference between Hamlet and Othello is that the latter is a moor, that is a colored man, of a different race and religion. The Renaissance views on the subject of race are very significant in the context of the play, and are reflected especially in Othello’s character, which appears to be the very opposite of that of Hamlet. If Hamlet is of a contemplative nature, given to musings about the nature of man and his place in the world, Othello is a rough, impulsive man who acts without hesitation, but also, acts when he shouldn’t. He is easily deceived by Iago and therefore he believes him when he tries to inflict him with false ideas about Desdemona’s love. Thus, Othello, who like Hamlet, can be said to perform an act of revenge, actually does something which is useless and, moreover, unjust. Othello’s character is also evident at the end of the play, after he kills Desdemona and confesses the manner in which he loved her: â€Å"one that loved not wisely, but too well† (V.2.340). Thus, his own statement reveals the nature of his impulsive and tempestuous character and emotions: he was capable of true and strong love, although he did not love â€Å"wisely†. This proves essentially that Hamlet and Othello are two opposite characters, both acting in the name of revenge, although for different reasons, Hamlet in his attempt at reestablishing the moral order and Othello in the name of love. However, if Hamlet hesitates to take action for most of the play, and moreover, chooses the device of the staged play to commence his revenge, that is, another intellectual, contemplative device, Othello takes action without judging the events for himself, but being merely influenced by what Iago was telling him. Othello is a military character in a way, who is prone to take action and fight:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content! Farewell the plumed troops, and the big wars That makes ambition virtue! 0, farewell![†¦] The royal banner, and all quality, Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war! And O you mortal engines, whose rude throats Th’ immortal Jove’s dread clamors counterfeit, Farewell! Othello’s occupation’s gone. ( Othello, 3.3.347-57) It is interesting to notice that both Othello and Hamlet may be paralleled to Cervantes’ Don Quixote. Hamlet lives interiorly in a Platonic world, which could be likened to Don Quixote’s confusion of the books of romance with actual reality. Don Quixote lives in the world of the stories he has read, and moreover, those stories are chivalric romances, that is stories of quest and exemplary deeds which aim at mending the world and which are always fraught with symbolic meaning. But, he needs to accomplish the deeds that fill his fantasy, and although it can’t be said that he does so, he does act. In Don Quixote thus, action is itself unreal, since his chivalric deeds are not what he believes they are: â€Å"Were those mud walls in thy fantasy, Sancho,’ quoth Don Quixote, ‘where or thorough which thou sawest that never-enough-praised gentleness and beauty? They were not so, but galleries, walks, or goodly stone pavements—or how call ye ‘em?—of rich and royal palaces.† (Cervantes II, 489) The chivalric romances which are Don Quixote’s faith are also that of Othello in a way, because of the latter’s military character, and his search for adventures. Othello’s love for Desdemona also has something of the chivalric about it. Thus, all the three characters, Hamlet, Othello and Don Quixote evince the same Platonist and Aristotelian dilemmas of contemplation and the spiritual versus action and the material.

Thursday 29 August 2019

Introduction to Business: Walmart Essay

1.  Unethical Business Ethics is defined as beliefs about what is right and wrong or good and bad in actions that affect others.( Therefore, unethical behaviour is behaviour that is believed to be bad or wrong actions or decisions. Other definition about ethics is ‘the activity of examining the moral standards of a society, and asking how these standards apply to one’s life and whether these standards are reasonable’ (Velasquez, 1998; pg 11). Ethics are based on personal or social beliefs. Furthermore, these beliefs are our moral standards, and moral standards differ among individuals. Thus, no one can say with certainty that a particular action is right or wrong and good or bad. Business ethics refers to ethical or unethical behaviour of a firm’s employer. Unethical business refer to decision made by employer with getting maximum profit as the main reason and other parties such as employees and customers receives negative effects. For example, a firm advertises their product as the best brand compared to other brands with the same type of product, but the product’s quality is not as good as it purported in the advertisement. 2. Wal-Mart Wal-Mart is the largest American corporation that runs discount department stores. It was found in 1962, Arkansas, USA by Sam Walton. It was incorporated on October 31st, 1969. Furthermore, Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the world. Wal-Mart owns and operates Sam’s Club(, Wal-Mart Stores Divisions U.S., and Wal-Mart International. Wal-Mart has nine different formats of retail business, which is, supercenters, food and drugs, general merchandise store, small markets, cash and carry stores, membership warehouse clubs, apparel stores, soft discount stores and restaurants. Wal-Mart also offers private label store brands. Private label store brands are products offered by Wal-Mart which usually has the lowest price compared to other brands that offers the same product in the store. These brands are produced by subsidized contracts awarded to the lowest bidder. Wal-Mart’s private label brand includes Sam’s Choice, Great Value and Equate. 3. Discrimination Companies are responsible for any problems in regards to their employee’s welfare. Employees with high position jobs should give proper treatment and avoid discrimination to other employees with less paid jobs. Employees who apply for a position in a firm should not be subjected to discrimination because of their national origin, race, gender, or religion. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits such forms of discrimination. (Madura, J. 1998) To estimate that a certain company is practicing discrimination against a certain group, is by looking at how that certain group is distributed within the institution. There are three kinds of comparisons that show the practicing of discrimination. They include; comparisons between the average benefits that the discriminated group gets and the average benefits of other workers, comparisons between the level of jobs and comparisons of advantageous positions between the discriminated and the normal labours. However, as an established company, Wal-Mart is not responsible to its workers. In fact, the three kinds of comparisons can be clearly seen in its management. They have been discriminating against women, minorities, and the disabled workers. Furthermore, Wal-Mart’s staff has also been discriminating their customers, racially(. This is very unethical, as the company cannot survive without their clients or customers. By discriminating and making offensive actions racially to customers, customers will switch to the firm’s competitor as the services provided are not satisfying. Moreover, some customers sued Wal-Mart for not being ethically responsible.

Wednesday 28 August 2019

Provide an example of one of the forces in Porter's Five Forces Model Assignment

Provide an example of one of the forces in Porter's Five Forces Model - The threat of the entry of new competitors - Assignment Example American Boeing has 70% of the worldwide market share and is a prime manufacturer of engines and aircrafts. Remaining 30% is shared by Airbus. Boeing has established its market and brand name over the years and cannot be threatened by new entrants or competitors that easily. We can analyze that because of the high capital and technology requirement of the business, the entry barriers are quite high. The high entry barriers show that the threat of new entrants and thus for any competitors for Boeing is quite low. Any company to enter the industry and to compete with Boeing has to be financially stronger than Boeing. It has to bring in with it new and highly advanced technology to give fierce competition to the existing and established company. The initial investment or the startup cost in the airline industry is very high. An 800-seat plane that Boeing manufactures requires an investment of more than $10 billion. Competitors require huge costs and budget for research and development a nd production of the differentiated and unique product that Boeing produces. The threat of new competitors for Boeing is quite low it is because barriers of the knowledge and expertise required for the business as well.

Tuesday 27 August 2019

Irony in Silas Marner Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Irony in Silas Marner - Essay Example This paper illustrates that from the very start of the movie "Silas Marner" Silas feels sympathetic for the cobbler’s wife as she was suffering from the same disease which claimed Silas’ mother’s life. He prepares a herbal concoction and gives it to her which effectively cures her. Seeing this, the townsmen start believing that Sally possesses some special powers and they begin offering him money and silver to get treatment for various diseases. Turned down by Silas, the people start to fear his healing powers and limit their interaction with him. Therefore even though Silas cures Sally Oates, he finds himself in isolation because of his noble deed. Further, into the movie, we see the growing love of Eppie for Silas. Eppie loves Silas more than anything in the world and wanted to stay with him always. Godfrey was Eppie’s real father and together with Nancy, he wanted to have Eppie back with him; however Eppie had previously told Godfrey that she would neve r leave her ‘father’ and that’s where the irony lies because in reality she refuses to stay with his real father and prefers to stay with Silas who had given her love and affection. Dunstan Cass has been portrayed as a villain in the story. Throughout the movie, he is seen to be surrounded by evil and sin. He steals Silas Marner’s money, blackmails Godfrey and always appears to be motivated by greed and selfishness. He considers himself superior to others and constantly brags that whenever he falls, he lands upright. The irony lies in the fact that Dunstan suffers death in the way he has always bragged about. He falls into a stone pit and drowns. Irony also lies in the theme of Interdependence of Faith and Community. In the entire movie, we see faith and community closely linked with each other. The place where he lives, people share similar beliefs. Therefore when Silas loses his faith, we see him abandoned by the community as well. The faith of Silas in the Supreme Being has a close association with his faith in the society.

Bx3082 part2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6750 words

Bx3082 part2 - Essay Example The main barriers to entry are represented by the legislative requirements as per the Appellation dorigine contrà ´là ©e and the relevant business requirements. These issues will be addressed according to the requirements, and in conjunction with the Invest in France Agency, which will add valuable insight and assistance to establishing within the Burgundy region. The selected geographical location of operations stand to benefit in terms of reduced distribution costs by virtue of the existing location and infrastructure, whilst the staggered approach to location and facility development alleviates mass capital cash flow and enables the suitable implementation over the defined period. The selection of the Premier and Grand Cru farms, together with a professional winemaker and team, allow the company to produce a differentiated high quality Pinot Noir wine that can be marketed to the discerning individual and upper class establishments, ensuring the brand positioning within the competitive wine

Monday 26 August 2019

Reflective Portfolio Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Reflective Portfolio - Essay Example This reflection has been drawn from my experiences from working in a group with fellow classmates who have different character traits, seeing how I fit in and respond to various situations and consequently the end result of our working together. My ability to form judgments on these various areas has been drawn from reading scholarly work by Kolb on learning styles; along with Belbin’s Self-Perception Inventory. Ultimately, the learning process will have been improved as I will able to consider what I have learnt and relate it to my personality as I endeavor to get into the job market and this knowledge will help me better myself as a student with my career in mind; thus achieve professional development. Section I: Intrapersonal Effectiveness In establishing my effectiveness in an organizational setting, I have sought out reference for such knowledge from Kolb’s work on learning styles. Kolb explores the theory of experiential learning to determine how this knowledge im proves learning in higher education. He establishes that this theory is based on six propositions that are shared by the scholars who have previously researched the issue. The first is that learning is best actualized as a process not in terms of outcomes, where students should be engaged so as to get feedback and examine effectiveness of their learning efforts. Education should then be looked at as having the same goal and process of reconstructing experiences continuously. Looking into my personal learning experiences through this unit, I have come to see that I am a visual learner where illustrations such as charts and diagrams help me understand a concept better and remember it later on. Effective learning is achieved through repeating the process whilst adding new ideas, knowledge that are then examined, tested and combined to previous material. All this should be done with the student’s beliefs and ideas on a topic being explored. This second proposition is essential as it allows for refinement of the entire learning process to ensure it is beneficial to each student (Kolb& Kolb 2005, p.194). Personally, this became clear in the course of this unit where I discovered that developing a relation to every new topic with a previous one allows for integration in my mind. This means that I can create a mental picture of the whole unit with each topic in perspective. The usefulness of this proposition is that allows a student to be adaptable and embracing to new topics that may be challenging, which is a crucial intrapersonal skill. Practiced over time, this relearning process will enable me to always be willing to discover and seek out new information and work-related skills that will in turn help me excel in my career. The third proposition involves getting equipped with conflict-resolving skills as learning involves interacting with opposing modes of adaptation to the world that result in differences, disagreements and conflicts. One should thus be pr epared to engage in fruitful contentions in styles of reflection, thinking and feeling. Through this course, I have realized that even though business shares several universal principles every entrepreneur will have a different viewpoint on which principle surpasses the rest. For instance, I believe that when I decide to

Sunday 25 August 2019

Marketing plan Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Marketing plan - Coursework Example The service-profit chain is a concept introduced in the Harvard Business Review in 1994. A book describing the concept was published in 1997. According to the description, in the book, the service-profit chain serves to demonstrate the existing relationship between service excellence and a company’s financial growth and performance. According to this concept, profitability and revenue growth come because of customer loyalty. Without customer satisfaction, loyalty does not result. Therefore, organizations strive to ensure that their services exhibit a high-perceived value to the customer in a bid to increase customer satisfaction. It is impossible to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction if the employees do not exhibit high levels of commitment and outstanding competencies (Yee et al., 2009). Therefore, organizations seek to hire individuals with remarkable competencies and empower them through training programs in order to increase their productivity. Empowered employee s are more likely to serve customers in an exemplary manner. The Starbucks Company has relied on the service-profit chain in order to register the evident financial performance. The company invests in human resource development through training programs that empower employee to deliver high-quality customer service. Over the years, the company has applied service innovation in order to ensure that employees serve as a valuable link between the organization and the customers. The company regards employees as partners, a factor that triggers employee satisfaction. The satisfied employees have worked for Starbucks for a long time registering high levels of productivity. Since employees are in a position to deliver service value to customers, the company prides itself with high levels of customer satisfaction (Gold, 2010). Due to the high levels of satisfaction that customers

Saturday 24 August 2019

Questionnaire Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Questionnaire - Essay Example All fully engaged employees have a deep rooted bond with the organization and they develop feelings of loyalty, control, trust and empowerment at work. Such personnel are able to identify vital business opportunities required for growth and have the willpower of committing value added personal and emotional energies mandatory for excelling in the professional life (Sanders, 2012). For the organization, employee engagement is a crucial element as it enhances its efficiency which increases the customer satisfaction, lowers the employee turnover and boosts the productivity rate (ADP Research Institute, 2012). The questionnaire is designed to get your viewpoint about the organization’s working conditions. You are required to give honest, true and fair opinion about the following statements. In front of each statement, select the box which is an indication of your opinion related to the statement. The main purpose of all of these questions is to get an insight about the employee’s feeling about the work and value within the organization. With the help of this questionnaire, the company will be able to determine the effectiveness of employee engagement within the business and monitor the results over a period of time. ADP Research Institute. (2012). Employee satisfaction vs. Employee engagement: Are they the same thing? Retrieved February 24, 2014 from

Friday 23 August 2019

AMERICAS EMPLOYMENT AND LABOR LAWS Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

AMERICAS EMPLOYMENT AND LABOR LAWS - Coursework Example The laws that touch unemployment benefits should be strengthened. Currently, the law is too restrictive and has many requirements (United States Department of Labor). The presence of these many requirements makes it possible for many employers to prevent employees from claiming unemployment benefits. It would be beneficial the law to cover ways to prevent employers from manipulating workers. The penalty for preventing an employee to get unemployment benefits should be huge to discourage the behavior. The law will be stronger if it directs all employers to inform workers of their unemployment benefits at the time of employment. The legislature should consider adding new laws to cover people working in small firms and independent contractors. Currently, they do not have any form of protection despite the fact they work hard. According protection for independent contractors within the law would help in protecting them against unpaid services. Additional laws are required to prevent online frauds that cost job seekers so much money. It is paramount for the government to control things like multilevel marketing to prevent

Thursday 22 August 2019

United States Ambassador’s Speech to the United Nations Essay Example for Free

United States Ambassador’s Speech to the United Nations Essay Ladies and gentlemen and citizens of the world, my name is Susan Rice and I am honored to speak to you today. Our countries, which all embrace the United Nations’ quest for worldwide peace and stability, face many challenges that we can and must solve together. My nation, the United States of America, is prepared and determined to act constructively, responsibly and morally to contribute toward the realization of our shared goals. The United States of America has recently chosen a new and hopeful president who has bold, optimistic, and pragmatic ideas for his country and for our world. I am fortunate and privileged to have known and worked closely with Mr. Obama for the last several years, and I am honored that he nominated me for this post within this eminent organization. Working closely with all of you, I will strive to reflect and embody our country’s renewed principles of fairness, justice, respect for human rights, and love of freedom. Our individual homelands and our world as a whole face daunting challenges as we gather here today. Economic turmoil, security threats, political instability and human rights violations weigh on all our minds and on the minds of our respective countrymen. Let me assure each of you, and the people of your country by extension, that we are intent on charting a hopeful new path that will benefit us all. The United States is proud of our history of doing what’s right for our country and for the world of peace-loving nations as a whole. We believe that the vast majority of our actions over our more than 200 years have been just and beneficial for the free world. However, we know that our record is not perfect. Our new administration is committed to righting recent wrongs and working with our United Nations counterparts to face and conquer the issues and challenges that confront us today. I want to lay out some broad concerns and objectives that we believe must be addressed and confronted for the benefit of all our nations. Let me quote our United Nations charter. It â€Å"gives the Security Council primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security† (United Nations, 2009). As we all know, that objective is never easy to attain. As a permanent member of the Security Council, the United States holds a precious and weighty leadership role in helping to keep our world safe from those elements and regimes that plot every day against freedom and its enduring principles. We steadfastly and clearly say to those rogue elements that our nation and our allies cannot afford and will not allow your efforts to succeed. This body has the obligation and the ability to impose sanctions on those countries and factions that are intent on assailing peace and freedom. Within that framework for peace and worldwide security, the cessation of nuclear proliferation will continue to be an unyielding quest. We will strive to lower the number of nuclear weapons that exist across the world and we will tirelessly seek to thwart the development and deployment of nuclear warhead delivery systems. More specifically, let me address another security issue that threatens all our countries, directly or indirectly. Political instability is a major problem within many countries, particularly those who are engaged with us today, on their soil, in the fight against terrorism. Let me quote Mr. Obama directly as he engages our enemies of freedom. Our president stated yesterday â€Å"Let me be clear: Al-Qaida and its allies†¦are in Pakistan and Afghanistan and we have a clear and focused goal to disrupt, dismantle and defeat (them)† (C-Span, 2009). In that vein, let me also assure each of your nations that our country will not engage in cruel or tortuous practices on any of the combatants that we capture and detain. Let me close by stating that United States foreign policy goals are consistent and congruent with the stated goals of the United Nations. We are honored, one nation in a sea of many, to contribute to the well-being and security of our world. References C-SPAN. (2009, March 27). C-span. org. United Nations. (2009, March). un. org.

Wednesday 21 August 2019

Human Resource Management Essay Example for Free

Human Resource Management Essay Under what conditions is a group performance related pay scheme likely to fail? Should organisations employ only individual PRP schemes? Performance related pay (PRP), or merit pay, as it is often called, can be defined as the explicit link of financial reward to individual, group or company performance, or any combination of the three. In simple words, this means that the better the individual, group or company performs, the higher the financial reward will be for the worker. This reward can be in the form of a pay-rise, bonus, benefit such as a company house or car, or any such financial incentive that will in effect, motivate the employee to work even harder, and produce even better results. There are also different fixed types of PRP schemes, such as commission, profit-related pay, piece-rate (which is a more primitive method, as compared to the now modernistic methods that have been incorporated into management). PRP schemes are often categorised into three stages; The nature of the performance criteria, how performance against such criteria is assessed, and how this assessment is linked to pay. In accordance to these three approaches, it is possible to differentiate between individual schemes, and group approaches. This brings us to the focus of the discussion, which questions what could bring about the failure of group PRP schemes. This could come about due to many reasons. Some of the more basic ones being that particular members of the group might not be motivated, or hard-working enough to put in that effort in order to reap the benefits. Thus, due to certain individuals, the whole group could end up losing out on that financial gain. Normally when employing group schemes, it is specifically aimed at project completion, or some other such activity. The incentive normally given to the group in these situations, is in terms of either profit-sharing, or share ownership schemes. These normally provide the workers with a sense of producing enhanced performance, or showing strong commitment to the completion of the project. Other ways in which group PRP may fail is due to workers not getting along well together, or not communicating well with one another. This could be due to reasons such as some of them getting higher profit shares than others, or along other lines, some of them wanting to lead the group, or show their leadership abilities in order to impress their superiors. Also, it can divide the workforce into those supporting the plan, and those against it, which can then go on to create adversarial relationships. High levels of competition can be formed within the group. Offering financial incentives is a motivational tactic employed by the managers of firms, however, as Maslows hierarchy suggests, workers have other needs as well. Once their financial needs are satisfied, they move on to needs such as social, esteem, and self-actualisation. They need to feel that they belong, and they need to feel comfortable in their work environment. Offering them these financial rewards might make some of them feel as though they are robots, working just for money. This brings in Taylors theory of Scientific Management. He said that workers are robots, and as long as you pay them and satisfy their basic needs, they will work. However, this brings about dissatisfaction. In this sort of scenario, PRP could fail as well. The following table is an indication of the different PRP schemes, and how they function; Types of PRP schemes Nature of Performance Criteria How Performance is Assessed How Performance is Linked to Pay Individual PRP schemes Individual results, either in terms of inputs or outputs By individual appraisal with a superior, often against mutually agreed targets Either by a predetermined bonus or by movement within an incremental salary band Group PRP schemes Group or company performance, either in terms of profit or project targets According to a pre-determined formula based on company results for a specified period In terms of a regular bonus or various forms of share options applicable to all those involved in the scheme This brings us to individual PRP schemes. This is a system, which fulfils a number of functions that are relevant to organisational effectiveness. It has some features which are very favourable; Firstly, financial gain to the company is a prospect, since this system reduces the fixed pay-bill. This is done by the company paying out only based on what they get back in return, that is quality goods. Secondly, it is an effective method in terms of recruiting, and retaining because of the assumption that it will be attractive to quality employees, and unattractive to poor workers, whom the firm would be glad to part with. Also, it is a fairer method of payment, this being because it does not reward both, high and low performers equally, but only rewards them based on output, or productivity. Lastly, it is held to focus effort where the organisation wants it, strengthening the performance, planning process, and generally encouraging a performance-oriented culture, emphasising results rath er than effort. There are many advantages of an individual PRP scheme, as well as many failures. Firstly, the advantages are that individual differences in job performance are great enough to be worth the time and effort it takes management to measure and relate pay to them. Also, the pay ranges are wide enough to allow for significant base-pay differences among employees on the same job. Management is able to validly, and reliably measure individual differences in job performance. Another advantage is that the appraisers are skilful in employee performance planning and appraisal. The organisations culture supports performance-based pay. This can be said because it works out to be more cost-effective, as well as to be more production effective for the firm. A very important benefit of using this system is that the level of compensation technology in the organisation is reasonably high, the pay structures are equitable and competitive, and management knows how to relate pay to performance. Because of the well-carried out appraisals, the level of trust between the managers and employees is high. Individual PRP schemes also allow for the worker to put in their best, because it is a form of motivation. Offering financial incentives makes the worker work harder, and longer, and at the same time, by offering profit sharing as an incentive, it helps maintain the feeling that they are still a part of the firm, and are a contributing factor. They get a sense of belonging, and thus are comfortable in their work environment, thus making them work harder and better. Individual PRP schemes also allow mangers the will to manage, that is, the willingness to establish and communicate performance criteria and standards and the willingness to make tough human-resource decisions. Although these individual schemes have a lot of advantages and benefits, they also do have some points of failure. This could be due to the fact that the factors that encourage success, could also result in a preoccupation with the task at hand, and do not relate individual performance to the larger company objectives. This leading to the smaller things being accomplished, but the big picture of the company, and the goals that they set not getting achieved. PRP works against creating a climate of openness, trust, joint problem solving, and commitment to organisational objectives. This is again in terms of specialisation taking place. The worker will concentrate on only his specific task at hand, and the rest of the company objectives will get left behind. On the other hand, group schemes provide the chance for the company objectives on the whole to get achieved, as well as the smaller tasks simultaneously being carried out. Also, as mentioned earlier, individual PRP can also divide the workforce into those supporting the plan, and those against it, which could create adversarial relationships within the workforce. As one can see, there are advantages and disadvantages to both, individual and group PRP schemes. I dont think it possible to be able to generalise and say that one is better than the other, and that firms should use only one or the other. It mostly depends on the type of goal the firm is setting, what they want to achieve, and how they want to achieve it, which can help decide which system to use when. PRP schemes on the whole, are being used so far and wide these days by firms, and it is essential to the overall success, and progress of the firm, that they know when to use which type of scheme. Thus, I think it is not possible to say that organisations should employ only PRP schemes, I think it mostly depends on the situation, and the goal to be achieved. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Hendry, C., Human Resource Management A Strategic Approach to Employment, Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd.: 1995 2. Goss, D., Principles of Human Resource Management, Routledge: 1994 3. Storey, J., Human Resource Management, A Critical Text, Routledge: 1995 4. Towers, B., The Handbook of Human Resource Management, Blackwell Publishers Ltd.: 1996

Tuesday 20 August 2019

Image Segmentation: Theories and Technology

Image Segmentation: Theories and Technology Theoretical Concepts and Technical Aspects on Image Segmentation Image segmentation is a very significant area in computer vision. Image segmentation, partitions an image into multiple regions based on certain similarity constraints. This acts as the pre-processing stage in several image analysis problems like image compression, image recognition etc. Segmentation is the vital part for the successful extraction of image features and classification. Image segmentation can be defined as the partition of an image into several regions or categories. These regions can be similar in any features like color, texture, intensity etc. Every pixel in an image is assigned to any one of the categorised region. Quality of segmentation is described as pixels in the same region are similar in some characteristics whereas pixels in different regions differ in the characteristics. The segmentation process includes restoration, enhancement, and representation of the image data in the required form. Image Segmentation Techniques Image segmentation techniques can be broadly classified based on certain characteristics. Basic classifications of image segmentation techniques include local and global image segmentation techniques. The segmentation method that is concerned with segmenting specific parts or region of image is known as local image segmentation. The segmentation method that is concerned with segmenting the whole image, consisting of very large number of pixels is known as global image segmentation. The next category of image segmentation method is based on the properties of the images to be segmented. It is categorised as discontinuity detection based approach and similarity detection based approach. In discontinuity detection based approach, the segmentation is based on discontinuities in the images like edge based segmentation and similarity detection based approach is based on similarity of regions like Threshold based, Region growing, Region Splitting and Merging etc. The segmentation technique which is based on the information of the structure of required portion of the image is known as structural segmentation. Most of the segmentation methods are stochastic type, where the segmentation is completely depended upon the discrete pixel values of the image. Threshold based segmentation method is the simplest method of segmentation. The image pixels are segmented based on the intensity level. This kind of segmentation is more applicable for images where the objects are lighter than the background. This method is based on prior knowledge of the image features. There are mainly three types of threshold based segmentation. Global Thresholding: This method is done using a proper threshold value. The threshold value will be constant for the whole image. Output of the image is based on this threshold value. Variable Thresholding: In this type of segmentation method the value of threshold can vary in a single image. Multiple Thresholding: In this kind of thresholding, the output of segmentation is based on multiple threshold values. Threshold values can be computed from image histograms. In [1], threshold based level set approach based on threshold based segmentation and fast marching method [2] for medical image segmentation is proposed. To im prove the image acquisition process in computer vision, threshold based segmentation method based on entropy criteria and genetic algorithm is mentioned in [3]. Edge based segmentation method is based on the sudden change of intensity values in an image. In image processing, object boundaries are represented using edge. Edge based segmentation works by identifying the region of abrupt intensity change in an image [4]. Mainly there are two types of edge based segmentation methods. Grey Histogram Technique: In this method the foreground is separated from the background based on a threshold value. Choosing the correct threshold value creates a problem. Gradient Based Method: Gradient can be defined as the first derivate of the image near the edge. Higher change in the intensity values between two regions is depicted by the high value of gradient magnitude. In order to perform multi scale image segmentation an edge based auto threshold generating method is introduced in [5]. Another method for edge detection using variance filter is introduced in [6]. Theory based segmentation method uses derivatives from several fields. Several types of this kind of algorithm includes, Clustering based segmentation: In this method clusters are formed based on the similarity criteria (size, color, texture etc). Methods include k-means clustering, fuzzy clustering, hard clustering etc [7]. Artificial Neural Network: In this method the neuron represents the pixels and segmentation is performed with the help of trained images. Methods using Wavelet Decomposition and Self Organization Map of artificial neural networks are proposed [8]. Region based segmentation [13] methods are similar to edge based segmentation. The advantage of region based segmentation upon edge based is that, the former is more immune to noise. In this method, the region of an image is either splitted or merged into areas based on similarity. Region Growing: the collection of pixels is grouped into a region with similar properties [9]. Region Splitting and Merging: Here the image is further subdivided into several regions based on some pre-defined criteria. Graph cut image segmentation is a very significant technique of segmentation under region based segmentation. Several techniques of region growing methods include techniques that combine edge and region based information using morphological watershed algorithms [10]. In this method, initially a noise filter along with magnitude gradient is used and pre segmentation is performed through region merging. A region similarity graph is then produced and final segmentation is performed using Multi Class Normalized Cut. This technique overpowers the Spectral clustering method. As the method mentioned is a time consuming task, new method is presented [11]. For the purpose of detecting objects sharply, least square method is used for region based segmentation. Here the local information is also considered by calculating the weight matrix. This segmentation technique is optimum and fast. Graph-cut Image Segmentation As mentioned in the above methods, the techniques either use the region information or use the boundary information [12]. This results in limited segmentation. In graph cut segmentation optimal result for energy function is computed and segmentation is based on that result. Basics of Graph-Cut An undirected graph, set of vertices and a set of edges, are considered. Vertex represents the pixels in an image and edges denote the connection between the adjacent pixels. There exists a source and sink node which holds the foreground and background respectively. In graph cut method, each edge is assigned with a non-negative weight which coins the term cost. [12] A graph cut is actually the partitioning of the edge set into several component sets. Graph cut method can be either min cut or max cut. Min cut can be defined as cut through minimum cost and max cut can be defined as the cut through maximum cost. That is after the cut performed, the vertices are divided into two sets, source and sink, which holds the foreground and background pixels respectively. Implementing graph cut method assigns value 1 to the pixels in the foreground and 0 to the pixels in the background. This is achieved through minimum graph cut method by minimizing the energy function. Types of Graph Cut Based Algorithm The graph cut based segmentation can be mainly divided into three types. They are Speed-up based graph cut, Interactive based graph cut and Shape prior based graph cut. The speed up based graph cut method is used to improve the speed of the graph cut method through parallel computing. Earlier implementation was based on CUDA code [14]. The best way to speed up the computational time is to reduce the number of graph nodes while reconstructing the graph [15] [16]. Another method used for speed up based graph cut method is clustering based graph cut. Clustering based graph cut is based on reducing the number of nodes by grouping similar pixels into a single cluster and treating a cluster as a node. Watershed based method is another important speed up based approach where, gradient images are considered and the concept of catchment basins are used [15]. Interactive based graph cut plays a very important role in segmentation of natural images and the situations where the segmentation requires high precision. In this kind of methods the seed points are selected and then segmentation is performed based on these points. Several methods are performed using the concept of bounding box, where the centre portion of the bounding box corresponds to the object and histogram is constructed. The area outside the bounding box is considered as the background region [17] [18]. Certain interactive segmentation is performed by choosing both the foreground and background region together. Iterative interactive graph cut segmentation is also performed. Shape prior based graph cut segmentation finds its importance where the image to be segmented is affected by noise, diffuse edge, obstructed objects etc. In this kind of segmentation, the shape information is included as the energy function [19] [20]. Case Study In this chapter a graph based image segmentation method is explained. The efficient graph based image segmentation method initially considers the input image as a graph. The pixel values are considered as the nodes of the graph and edge is drawn between the adjacent pixels. The edge weight is represented by the difference between adjacent pixels. Initially, the considered edge set is sorted in the increasing order of edge weight. The segmentation process actually segments the entire vertices set into disjoint sets based on some similarity function. The vertex set is initially randomly partitioned into several component sets. This is considered as the initial segmentation. The vertices producing the largest edge weight is considered first. Let the two vertices be v1 and v2. Then check whether these two vertices belong to disjoint component sets in the previous segmentation (initial segmentation). If the two vertices are in disjoint component sets then compare the edge weight connecting these vertices to the internal difference of these two component sets. If the weight of the edge connecting these vertices is smaller when compared to the internal difference, then these two components are merged. Otherwise, it is neglected. On continuing these steps till the smallest edge weight, a final segmentation of the input image is obtained. Expected Outcome In the proposed chapter, an exhaustive review on image segmentation such as threshold based, edge based, graph based and region based segmentation will be included. The various approaches employed for graph cut segmentation include interactive graph cut, efficient graph cut, shape based graph cut and speed up based graph cut. The chapter would conclude with results on a list of benchmark images. At the enclosure of the chapter, open research problems will be discussed.

My Teaching Philosophy :: Essays Papers

My Teaching Philosophy Why do you want to be a teacher?This is a question I am frequently asked by rich relatives considering my choice from a monetary perspective; by my grandparents who both taught in the Bronx for 30 years; and most frequently by myself.Why do I want to teach?Why have I decided on history and social studies? In all honesty there have been many different answers to that question and the answer has changed three times since the start of this paragraph.I suppose part of being young is inconsistency.I am no different.But understanding these differences and understanding people is the key.I think I have a gift to see inside people and to help them see inside themselves.Right now there are three main reasons why I have chosen teaching history to by my life long profession, or at least until I have a mid-life crisis.These reasons are as follows: passion, ability and, no matter how clichà ©, the desire to make a difference. Since I was a child I have always been fascinated with history.I could watch the History and Discovery channels for hours. I had read the complete works of Jane Austin by the end of middle school.I used to go to the local museum and wander around for hours.In the second grade we took a field trip to see the Bill of Rights, which was on tour for its 200th birthday.Honestly, I remember very little of the actual document itself, but I will never forget the feeling.I knew it was important, because my teacher told so, and I know the awe it inspired in people.I think that is where this passion began.I received the Civil War documentary by Ken Burns on my tenth birthday and went to the Tower of London on my thirteenth.What started as awe has become my passion. What will this passion mean to my students you may ask?My father is a Roman Catholic from the Netherlands.My mother is a Jewish girl from Brooklyn.They met in a sheep field in Israel.I am a child of divorce and have a crease in my nose.The point is that I have a story.This story is more important than I can say.To know my story is know where I come from.This story, the story of my students, history is my passion.We are living it and breathing it.We are history.In my classroom I want to teach my students to care about who they are and where they come from.

Monday 19 August 2019

Susan Glaspell’s Jury of Her Peers Essay -- A Jury of Her Peers Essays

â€Å"Jury of Her Peers† is a short story that combines murder, lies and sexism while exposing the reader to the truth about women’s abilities and skills. Aside from being a murder mystery about the investigation of the sudden death of John Wright, the story’s theme is more about respect for women and making decisions based on one’s own beliefs and morals rather than allowing others to control them. Glaspell is a firm believer in women’s rights, and she dedicates most of her writing, including this piece, to displaying to society that women are indeed as smart and capable as men are to perform the duties and jobs of everyday life (internet*). The setting is in rural Dickson County, USA, just prior to 1920. This was a period in America’s history when women were seen as household workers only, that men were the only ones capable of making important judgment calls and decisions. Although one of the main characters, Mrs. Peters, lives her life by what the men make her to be, in the end she undergoes a movement that changes her into an independent person of society. The female characters in â€Å"Jury of Her Peers† include Mrs. Peters, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Wright. These are the women who, at different points in their lives, turned the degrading things men did into motivation to go through with actions they never thought possible. For Mrs. Hale, this happened when she was only a girl, and a young boy slaughtered her young kitten in front of her own eyes. As she described it, she felt from that experience that â€Å"If they had not held me back I would have†¦hurt him.† (Glaspell, 277) Likewise, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Wright go through a similar situation regarding how their husbands treat them. Mr. Hale and the Sheriff, Mr. Peter... ...y, Mr. Hale describes Mrs. Peters as being â€Å"married to the law† (Glaspell, 280). In many ways, this statement is true for Mrs. Peters. However, after hearing this, she undergoes a transformation that leads her to conceal the evidence she and Mrs. Hale discover. It is a bold move that shows her ability to stand for what she believes is right, and what she believes the men deserve. Glaspell’s ideas about women in society were, at the time of their release, very controversial. As time has progressed, women have risen to the challenge and become the very figures she described in â€Å"Jury of Her Peers.† Not necessarily people who are willing to kill, but people who stand for something and will openly express their feelings and beliefs without sensing a biased for men. That is what this story is about, and that is what the author wanted everyone to realize.

Sunday 18 August 2019

Aristotles Categories :: Philosophy Aristotle

Aristotle’s Categories Things are said to be named 'equivocally' when, though they have a common name, the definition corresponding with the name differs for each. Thus, a real man and a figure in a picture can both lay claim to the name 'animal'; yet these are equivocally so named, for, though they have a common name, the definition corresponding with the name differs for each. For should any one define in what sense each is an animal, his definition in the one case will be appropriate to that case only. On the other hand, things are said to be named 'univocally' which have both the name and the definition answering to the name in common. A man and an ox are both 'animal', and these are univocally so named, inasmuch as not only the name, but also the definition, is the same in both cases: for if a man should state in what sense each is an animal, the statement in the one case would be identical with that in the other. Things are said to be named 'derivatively', which derive their name from some other name , but differ from it in termination. Thus the grammarian derives his name from the word 'grammar', and the courageous man from the word 'courage'. 2 Forms of speech are either simple or composite. Examples of the latter are such expressions as 'the man runs', 'the man wins'; of the former 'man', 'ox', 'runs', 'wins'. Of things themselves some are predicable of a subject, and are never present in a subject. Thus 'man' is predicable of the individual man, and is never present in a subject. By being 'present in a subject' I do not mean present as parts are present in a whole, but being incapable of existence apart from the said subject. Some things, again, are present in a subject, but are never predicable of a subject. For instance, a certain point of grammatical knowledge is present in the mind, but is not predicable of any subject; or again, a certain whiteness may be present in the body (for colour requires a material basis), yet it is never predicable of anything. Other things, ag ain, are both predicable of a subject and present in a subject. Thus while knowledge is present in the human mind, it is predicable of grammar. There is, lastly, a class of things which are neither present in a subject nor predicable of a subject, such as the individual man or the individual horse.

Saturday 17 August 2019

Illy coffee Essay

Is one of the ten best companies in the coffee industry in Europe. It was founded in1933 by Francesco Illy, and in 1994 was given over to Andrea Illy. Since its formation, Illy Caffe’s main goal was to deliver the best quality coffee to its customers. Th e company wascareful when choosing its suppliers and always made sure it receives the best quality coffeebeans. However, after the last CEO has joined the company in 1994, Illy Caffe decided to changeits strategy and to become more responsible in the area of its business. The circumstances, whichthe coffee industry appeared to be under in 1989, was the first step toward the strategic changesmade in some companies, like Illy Caffe. Now, Illy Caffe buys highest-quality Arabica beansdirectly from Brazil, Central America, India, and Africa. The company has restructured itssupply chain completely, and has brought many innovations into the coffee industry in Brazil,making it the exporter of the best-quality coffee beans grower and producer in the world. Thefollowing paper aims at analyzing the changes made in Illy Caffe in 1989 and identifying the key issues and their potential solutions in the company’s new strategy. Changes in Illy Caffe’s supply chain describes the strategy and its benefits In 1989 Illy Caffe’s management decided to change its supply chain from a regular one to adirect purchasing. The quality of the coffee played a significant role in Illy Caffe’s business.Company’s CEO and managers believed that coffee loses its quality after going th rough differentstages in the supply process. They believed that the more intermediaries they would have, theworse would be the quality of their coffee. Therefore, changing this situation through refusing tohave a single intermediary appeared to be the most appropriate thing to do. Illy Caffe became thefirst company in the coffee industry, which started buying directly from farmers. In return tohigh premiums, company expected to receive higher quality coffee beans from Braziliangrowers. Brazil was the largest producer of coffee at that time, however, had poor reputationbecause of the bad quality of their products. Illy Caffe was aware of the situation in Brazil,however, it could find required amount of growers only in that country. The company, therefore,decided to teach Brazilian farmers, how to become its suppliers. Since Illy Caffe was good atinnovation throughout its existence, it found a good way to attract coffee growers (not only fromBrazil but from all over the world) and to make them produce higher-quality coffee. The Illycaffe Brazil Quality Espresso Coffee Award was designed in order to find company’s potential suppliers among the farmers from Brazil. The main idea of this project was to create afeeling of mutual benefit from the partnership and to motivate growers to start producing higher-quality goods. Getting an award and winning a competition meant receiving a good opportunityfor the company in the future. The project became very successful, and hundreds of Brazilian farmers were accepted toparticipate in it. Illy Caffe succeeded in finding good producers and to make them become even better through selecting them among other participants to become company’s long -term partners.Illy Caffe wanted to make sure its relationship with Brazilian partners would be strong and longlasting.

Friday 16 August 2019

Relationship between the numbers of goals of the FIFA world cup 2014 score with the height of the players?

IntroductionThe FIFA world cup is one of the most celebrated soccer tournaments around the world today. Not only does it serve as entertainment to everyone that watches the tournament but to participate teams have to have play a game against every team of there area teams classified this year include country’s like Argentina, Spain, Bosnia, Brazil, USA, Italy, France and many more. This being said for teams to win games they have to score more goals than other teams in this investigation the purpose is to verify if there is a correlation between the height of soccer players and the amount of goals they score.Statement of taskThe main purpose of this investigation is to determine whether there is a relationship between the height of the player and the amount of scores that they scored through out the period of qualifications for the 2014 FIFA world cup Brazil. The type of data that will be collected will be the Height of  fifteen different players who have scored and all are from teams that have qualified to go to the 2014 FIFA world cup and the amount of goals they have scored.Plan of investigationI am investigating the relationship of Players and height of players. I have collected the data of the players height through the use of the official FIFA 2014 website; I have also used this website to collect the number of goals the players made. Furthermore with the collection of data that I have acquired I have performed several mathematical processes to analyze the data such processes consisted on; finding the mean, median and mode, making a scatter plot of the data, finding the correlation, making a cumulative frequency chart, a box and whisker plot a histogram, and finally finding the standard deviation. I will also perform a chi square test on the data to show the dependence of the height of the players and the amount of goals they have scored.

Thursday 15 August 2019

The Return: Nightfall Chapter 17

In the first days after she'd come back from the afterlife, Stefan had always put her to bed early, made sure she was warm, and then allowed her to work on his computer with her, writing a diary of sorts, with her thoughts on what had happened that day, always adding his impressions. Now she called up the file desperately, and desperately scrolled to the end. And there it was. My dearest Elena, I knew you would look here sooner or later. I hope it was sooner. Darling, I believe that you're able to take care of yourself now, and I've never seen a stronger or more independent girl. And that means it's time. Time for me to go. I can't stay any longer without turning you into a vampire again – something we both know can't happen. Please forgive me. Please forget me. Oh, love, I don't want to go, but I have to. If you need help, I've gotten Damon to give his word to protect you. He would never hurt you, and whatever mischief is going on in Fell's Church won't dare touch you with him around. My darling, my angel, I'll always love you†¦. Stefan P.S. To help you go on with your real life, I've left money to pay Mrs. Flowers for the room for the next year. Also, I've left you $20,000 in hundred-dollar bills under the second floorboard from the wall, across from the bed. Use it to build a new future, with whomever you choose. Again, if you need anything, Damon will help you. Trust his judgement if you're in need of advice. Oh, lovely little love, how can I go? Even for your own sake? Elena finished the letter. And then she just sat there. After all her hunting, she'd found the answer. And she didn't know what to do now but scream. If you need help go to Damon†¦. Trust Damon's judgment†¦.It couldn't be a more blatant ad for Damon if Damon had written it himself. And Stefan was gone. And his clothes were gone. And his boots were gone. He'd left her. Make a new life†¦. And that was how Bonnie and Meredith found her, alarmed by an hour-long bounce-back of their telephone calls. It was the first time they hadn't been able to get through to Stefan since he'd arrived, at their request, to slay a monster. But that monster was now dead, and Elena†¦ Elena was sitting in front of Stefan's closet. â€Å"He even took his shoes,† she said emotionlessly, softly. â€Å"He took everything. But he paid for the room for a year. And yesterday morning he bought me a Jaguar.† â€Å"Elena – â€Å" â€Å"Don't you see?† Elena cried. â€Å"Thisis my Awakening. Bonnie predicted that it would be sharp and sudden and that I would need both of you. And Matt?† â€Å"He wasn't mentioned by name,† Bonnie said gloomily. â€Å"But I think we'll need his help,† Meredith said grimly. â€Å"When Stefan and I were first together – beforeI became a vampire – I always knew,† Elena whispered, â€Å"that there would come a time when he would try to leave me for my own good.† Suddenly she hit the floor with her fist, hard enough to hurt herself. â€Å"I knew, but I thought I would be there to talk him out of it! He's so noble – so self-sacrificing! And now – he'sgone .† â€Å"You really don't care,† Meredith said quietly, watching her, â€Å"whether you stay human or become a vampire.† â€Å"You're right – Idon't care! I don't care about anything, as long as I can be with him. When I was still half a spirit, I knew that nothing could Change me. Now I'm human and as susceptible as any other human to the Change – but it doesn't matter.† â€Å"Maybe that's the Awakening,† Meredith said, still quietly. â€Å"Oh, maybe him not bringing her breakfast is an awakening!† Bonnie, said, exasperated. She'd been staring into a flame for more than thirty minutes, trying to get psychically in touch with Stefan. â€Å"Either he won't – or he can't,† she said, not seeing Meredith's violently shaking head until after the words were out. â€Å"What do you mean  ¡Ã‚ ®can't'?† Elena demanded, popping back off the floor from where she was slumped. â€Å"I don't know! Elena, you're hurting me!† â€Å"Is he in danger? Think, Bonnie! Is he going to be hurt because of me?† Bonnie looked at Meredith, who was telegraphing â€Å"no† with every inch of her elegant body. Then she looked at Elena, who was demanding the truth. She shut her eyes. â€Å"I'm not sure,† she said. She opened her eyes slowly, waiting for Elena to explode. But Elena did nothing of the kind. She merely shut her own eyes slowly, her lips hardening. â€Å"A long time ago, I swore I'd have him, even if it killed us both,† she said quietly. â€Å"If he thinks he can just walk away from me, for my own good or for any other reason†¦he's wrong. I'll go to Damon first, since Stefan seems to want it so much. And then I'm going after him. Someone will give me a direction to start in. He left me twenty thousand dollars. I'll use that to follow him. And if the car breaks down, I'll walk; and when I can't walk anymore, I'll crawl. But Iwill find him.† â€Å"Not alone, you won't,† Meredith said, in her soft, reassuring way. â€Å"We're with you, Elena.† â€Å"And then, if he's done this of his own free will, he's going to get the bitch-slapping of hislife .† â€Å"Whatever you want, Elena,† Meredith said, still soothingly. â€Å"Let's just find him first.† â€Å"All for one and one for all!† Bonnie exclaimed. â€Å"We'll get him back and we'll make him sorry – or we won't,† she added hastily as Meredith again began shaking her head. â€Å"Elena, don't! Don't cry,† she added, the instant before Elena burst into tears. â€Å"So Damon was the one to say he'd take care of Elena, and Damon should have been the one last to see Stefan this morning,† Matt said, when he had been fetched from his house and the situation was explained to him. â€Å"Yes,† Elena said with quiet certainty. â€Å"But Matt, you're wrong if you think Damon would do anything to keep Stefan away from me. Damon's not what you all think. He really was trying to save Bonnie that night. And he truly felt hurt when you all hated him.† â€Å"This is what is called  ¡Ã‚ ®evidence of motive,' I think,† Meredith remarked. â€Å"No. It's character evidence – evidence that Damondoes have feelings, that he can care for human beings,† Elena countered. â€Å"And he would never hurt Stefan, because – well, because of me. He knows how I would feel.† â€Å"Well, why won't he answer me, then?† Bonnie said querulously. â€Å"Maybe because the last time he saw us all together, we were glaring at him as if we hated him,† said Meredith, who was always fair. â€Å"Tell him I beg his pardon,† Elena said. â€Å"Tell him that I want to talk with him.† â€Å"I feel like a communications satellite,† Bonnie complained, but she clearly put all her heart and strength into each call. At last, she looked completely wrung out and exhausted. And, at last, even Elena had to admit it was no good. â€Å"Maybe he'll come to his senses and start callingyou ,† Bonnie said. â€Å"Maybe tomorrow.† â€Å"We're going to stay with you tonight,† Meredith said. â€Å"Bonnie, I called your sister and told her you'd be with me. Now I'm going to call my dad and tell him I'll be with you. Matt, you're not invited – â€Å" â€Å"Thanks,† Matt said dryly. â€Å"Do I get to walk home, too?† â€Å"No, you can take my car home,† Elena said. â€Å"But please bring it back here early tomorrow. I don't want people to start asking about it.† That night, the three girls prepared to make themselves comfortable, schoolgirl fashion, in Mrs. Flowers' spare sheets and blankets (no wonder she washed so many sheets today – she must have known somehow, Elena thought), with the furniture pushed to the walls and the three makeshift sleeping bags on the floor. Their heads were together and their bodies radiated out like the spokes of a wheel. Elena thought, So this is the Awakening. It's the realization that, after all, I can be left alone again. And, oh, I'm grateful to have Meredith and Bonnie sticking with me. It means more than I can tell them. She had gone automatically to the computer, to write a little in her diary. But after the first few words she'd found herself crying again, and had been secretly glad when Meredith took her by the shoulders and more or less forced her to drink hot milk with vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and when Bonnie had helped her into her pile of sleeping blankets and then held her hand until she went to sleep. Matt had stayed late, and the sun was setting as he drove home. It was a race against darkness, he thought suddenly, refusing to be distracted by the Jaguar's expensive new-car smell. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was pondering. He hadn't wanted to say anything to the girls, but there was something about Stefan's farewell note that bothered him. The only thing was, he had to make sure it wasn't just his injured pride speaking. Why hadn't Stefan ever mentionedthem ? Elena's friends from the past, her friends in the here and now. You'd think he'd at least give the girls a mention, even if he'd forgotten Matt in the pain of leaving Elena permanently. What else? There definitely was something else, but Matt couldn't bring it to mind. All he got was a vague, wavering image about high school last year and – yeah, Ms. Hilden, the English teacher. Even as Matt was daydreaming about this, he was taking care with his driving. There was no way to avoid the Old Wood entirely on the long, single-lane road that led from the boardinghouse to Fell's Church proper. But he was looking ahead, keeping alert. He saw the fallen tree even as he came around the corner and hit the brakes in time to come to a screeching stop, with the car at an almost ninety-degree angle to the road. And then he had to think. His first instinctive reaction was: call Stefan. He can just lift the tree right off the ground. But he remembered fast enough that that thought was knocked away by a question. Call the girls? He couldn't make himself do it. It wasn't just a question of masculine dignity – it was the solid reality of the mature tree in front of him. Even if they all worked together, they couldn't move that thing. It was too big, too heavy. And it had fallen from the Old Wood so that it lay directly across the road, as if it wanted to separate the boardinghouse from the rest of the town. Cautiously, Matt rolled down the driver's side window. He peered into the Old Wood to try to see the tree's roots, or, he admitted to himself, any kind of movement. There was none. He couldn't see the roots, but this tree looked far too healthy to have just fallen over on a sunny summer afternoon. No wind, no rain, no lightning, no beavers. No lumberjacks, he thought grimly. Well, the ditch on the right side was shallow, at least, and the tree's crown didn't quite reach it. It might be possible – Movement. Not in the forest, but on the tree right in front of him. Something was stirring the tree's upper branches, something more than wind. When he saw it, he still couldn't believe it. That was part of the problem. The other part was that he was driving Elena's car, not his old jalopy. So while he was frantically groping for a way to shut the window, with his eyes glued to thething detaching itself from the tree, he was groping in all the wrong places. And the final thing was simply that the beast was fast. Much too fast to be real. The next thing Matt knew, he was fighting it off at the window. Matt didn't know what Elena had shown Bonnie at the picnic. But if this wasn't a malach, then what the hell was it? Matt had lived around woods his entire life, and he'd never seen any insect remotely like this one before. Because it was an insect. Its skin looked bark-like, but that was just camouflage. As it banged against the half-raised car window – as he beat it off with both hands – he could hear and feel its chitinous exterior. It was as long as his arm, and it seemed to fly by whipping its tentacles in a circle – which should be impossible, but here it was stuck halfway inside the window. It was built more like a leech or a squid than like any insect. Its long, snakelike tentacles looked almost like vines, but they were thicker than a finger and had large suckers on them – and inside the suckers was something sharp. Teeth. One of the vines got around his neck, and he could feel the suction and the pain all at once. The vine had whipped around his throat three or four times, and it was tightening. He had to use one hand to reach up and rip it away. That meant only one hand available to flail at the headless thing – which suddenly showed it had a mouth, if no eyes. Like everything else about the beast, the mouth was radially symmetrical: it was round, with its teeth arranged in a circle. But deep inside that circle, Matt saw to his horror as the bug drew his arm in, was a pair of pincers big enough to cut off a finger. God – no. He clenched his hand into a fist, desperately trying to batter it from the inside. The burst of adrenaline he had after seeingthat allowed him to pull the whipping vine from around his throat, the suckers coming free last. But now his arm had been swallowed up past the elbow. Matt made himself strike at the insect's body, hitting it as if it were a shark, which was the other thing it reminded him of. He had to get his arm out. He found himself blindly prying the bottom of the round mouth open and merely snapping off a chunk of exoskeleton that landed in his lap. Meanwhile the tentacles were still whirling around, thumping against the car, looking for a way in. At some point it was going to realize that all it had to do was fold those thrashing vine-like things and it could squeeze its body through. Something sharp grazed his knuckles. The pincers! His arm was almost completely engulfed. Even as Matt was focused entirely on how to get out, some part of him wondered: where's its stomach? This beast isn'tpossible . He had to get his arm freenow . He was going to lose his hand, as sure as if he'd put it in the garbage disposal and turned it on. He'd already undone his seat belt. Now with one violent heave, he threw his body to the right, toward the passenger seat. He could feel the teeth raking his arm as he dragged it past them. He could see the long, bloody furrows it left in his arm. But that didn't matter. All that mattered was getting his armout . At that moment his other hand found the button that controlled the window. He mashed it upward, dragging his wrist and hand out of the bug's mouth just as the window closed on it. What he expected was a crackling of chiton and black blood gushing out, maybe eating through the floor of Elena's new car, like that scuttling thing inAlien . Instead the bug vaporized. It simply†¦turned transparent and then turned into tiny particles of light that disappeared even as he stared at them. He was left with one arm with long bloody scratches on it, swelling sores on his throat, and scraped knuckles on the other hand. But he didn't waste time counting his injuries. He had to make it out of there; the branches were stirring again and he didn't want to wait to see whether it was wind. There was only one way. The ditch. He put the car in drive and floored it. He headed for the ditch, hoping that it wasn't too deep, hoping that the tree wouldn't somehow foul the tires. There was a sharp plunge that made his teeth clash together, catching his lip between them. And then there was the crunch of leaves and branches under the car, and for a moment all movement stopped, but Matt kept his foot pressed as hard as he could on the accelerator, and suddenly he was free, and being thrown around as the car careened in the ditch. He managed to get control of it and swerved back onto the road just in time to make a sharp left turn where it curved abruptly and the ditch ran out. He was hyperventilating. He took curves at nearly fifty miles an hour, with half his attention on the Old Wood – until suddenly, blessedly, a solitary red light stared at him like a beacon in the dusk. The intersection with Mallory. He had to force himself to screech to another rubber-burning stop. A hard right turn and he was sailing away from the woods. He'd have to loop around a dozen neighborhoods to get home, but at least he'd stay clear of any large groves of trees. It was a big loop, and now that the danger was over, Matt was starting to feel the pain of his furrowed arm. By the time he was pulling the Jaguar up to his house, he was also feeling dizzy. He sat under a streetlight and then let the car coast into the darkness beyond. He didn't want anyone to see him so rattled. Should he call the girlsnow ? Warn them not to go out tonight, that the woods were dangerous? But they already knew that. Meredith would never let Elena go to the Old Wood, not now that Elena was human. And Bonnie would kick up a huge noisy fuss if anyone even mentioned going out in the dark – after all, Elena had shown her thosethings that were out there, hadn't she? Malach.An ugly word for a genuinely hideous creature. What they really needed was for some official people to go out and clear the tree away. But not at night. Nobody else was likely to be using that lonely road tonight, and sending people out there – well, it was like handing them over to the malach on a platter. He would call the police about it first thing tomorrow. They'd get the right people out there to move that thing. It was dark, and later than he'd imagined. He probably should call the girls, after all. He just wished his head would clear. His scratches itched and burned. He was finding it hard to think. Maybe if he just took a moment to breathe†¦ He leaned his forehead against the steering wheel. And then the dark closed in.

Program for Education, Health and Food in Mexico Essay

The United Nations formulated global targets to be attained by all nations which are referred to as millennium development goals (MDGs), which need to be met by 2015. This is the foundation for the major development agendas set by separate nations in the world today that all are geared towards these goals. For instance these goals includes poverty and hunger reduction, universal primary education, equitable access to all levels of education and a reduction in maternal and child mortality (Behrman Sengupta, 2001, p. 45). Therefore in order these targets to be achieved globally, they ought first to be achieved by the individual nations as units making the globe. This therefore calls for the commitment of nations geared towards implementing multi sectoral strategies of these individual nations in the whole world to attain these MDGs which bears the common good to the majority. In this connection, Latin America is not an exception to the global programs. In this regard, Latin America established five conditional cash transfers programs aimed at reducing poverty and to increase human capital in form of education, (Cardoso Souza, 2003, p. 23) health and nutrition in order to contribute to the attainment of the United Nations development targets set by the year 2015 in the globe (Coady Parker, 2004, p. 178). These programs include Bolsa Escola program (which provides school grants), Programme for the Eradication of Child Labour in Brazil, the Families in Action program in Colombia, the Social Protection Network in Nicaragua, and Oportunidades program in Mexico. However this term paper shall give focus to the Oportunidades program in Mexico (Cardoso Souza, 2003, p. 63). Concepts of Conditional cash transfers The concepts of CCT (Conditional cash transfers) are new development programs adapted by nations as a result of global development challenges. The approach of CCTs are adapted with an aim to foster human capital accumulation among the young generation in order to break inter-generational vicious poverty cycle in the modern generation (ECLAC, 2002, p. 82), so that tomorrow world can have a poverty free generation with reduced social crisis. Therefore CCTs involves providing and availing money to poor families conditional upon investments in human capital such educating children, improving the health through creating health centrers close to the people and nutritional aspect (Coady Parker, 2004, p. 23). This is done through the use of the demand-side interventions to support directly the beneficiaries as opposed to traditional supply-side mechanisms like provision of general subsidies or investments in health providers of social services or health facilities and centrers or schools. In this regard therefore Conditional Cash Transfers programs targets at improving children’s human capital. Which is similar to the case of Latin America and Mexico’s Programa de Educacion, Saludy Alimentacion (PROGRES) (Behrman Sengupta, 2001, p. 131). However in order to analyse the conditional cash transfers, the analysis should be based on the new approach to social protection, that encompasses risk management approach that is aimed at enhancing human capital and defeating poverty in the longer term plans (Attanasio Gomez Heredia Vera-Hernandez, 2005, p. 5). For instance the social risk management strategy indicates that individuals, households and communities are exposed to multiple risks in their environment. Thus Poverty translates to greater vulnerability of the poor community, simply because poor people in the community or society usually are limited to access to instruments that are necessary for risk management (Behrman Sengupta, 2001, p. 213). In addition poor sect of society or community are always poorly prepared to cope with crises whenever they occur. For example the poor sect would handle a financial crisis using an informal method and approach like taking their children out of school and keeping them at home, which is insufficient approach to crisis management. This way of handling crises results to irreversible loss of human capital and perpetuated intergenerational poverty cycle that becomes hard and difficult to reduce (Cardoso Souza, 2003, p. 141). In this respect the social risk management model uses three functions that are vital for the public policies. This includes the prevention, mitigation and coping, which embraces the long term benefits and reduced consequences. Therefore, it ends up helping benefiting people living in structural poverty, people who are just above the poverty line and groups with special needs in the society. Therefore, the CCTs approach is rooted from the concept of social protection as human capital investment that holds that poverty is reproduced across human generations due to a lack of investment in human capital (Behrman Sengupta, 2001, p. 63). In this respect CCTs approach is more effective than the traditional approach, since it incentivizes this human capital investment by attaching conditions to transfers to produce desired results to the community and world at large. The use of CCTs in education ensures that opportunity cost of education is reduced hence reinforces the income effect of the transfer in such a way that school attendance and child labour is not as a substitute to income effect. This is aided by implementation regulations such as compulsory attendance of school by children with income substitution to enhance its impact. In this case when the children spend much time in school they would not consume as much resources as they would consume when are at home. Hence in terms of conditional cash transfers it implies that,there will be a minimum transfer amount needed to produce incentives >0 to send children to school (Attanasio Gomez Heredia Vera-Hernandez, 2005, p. 56). Therefore, this ensures that the saved resources are put to development agendas that will enhance wealth creation and more investment realization. The program was created in the year 1997 by Mexican Federal Governments as a strategy to support rural families in extreme poverty to alleviate from those poor conditions (Cardoso Souza, 2003, p. 39). But the name changed to Oportunidades meaning Opportunities that was extended to urban populations by president Fox in the 2001. This program uses the conditional cash transfer concept within Latin America and its design marks a significant shift in social services provision in Mexico today. The guiding principles that the program uses to work are; targeting, intersectorality, empowerment of women and shared responsibility. The program was created for the purpose of increasing the capabilities of families that live in extreme poverty by investing in human capital in Mexico (Attanasio Gomez Heredia Vera-Hernandez, 2005, p. 42). This goal has three main objectives which includes education, health and nutrition. This is because the three component are dependent of each other. For instance, education will enhance technological development in the health and food production sectors to handle diseases and agricultural areas respectively, while education can not continue and progress within the environment that is infested by diseases and poor health as a result of malnutrition. Both components, if they are not balanced, can result to poor productivity in the economy and society. In this connection, the following section shall look at these three components Educational component The payments that concerns educational expenses are made to families with children under the age of 18 who are enrolled in school between the first year of primary education and the third year of secondary school. But in order to create and initiate incentive for families to invest in human capital, payments are conditional to children attending school. In addition, if a child has a non-attendance rate of over 15 percent in one academic month without a valid reason, the family does not receive the assistance that concerns education. By doing so, the government ensures that great emphasis is laid to education and eliminates unnecessary laxity in the implementation process, by involving parent to monitor their children and educationalists to keep updated record which the government uses to allocate payments to parents hence, each stakeholder participates in the process (Calde Coady, 2004, p. 272) . The amount of money that is transferred are set basing on the additional income the children would be fetching to the family if the child would be working and not attending to school. The payment rises with an increase in the age of a child. However, this is schemed higher for girls at secondary level (ECLAC, 2002, p. 71) . This is to encourage a girl child education like many parts of the world today do. In addition to regulation of the payment, the pay is designed to be inflation concious that prevents falling of value. In general, the grant is dependant on the enrolment and school attendance. While, the grant covers both direct costs required like school fees, school supplies, transportation and the opportunity costs as a result of attending school in Mexico (Davis, 2003, p. 30). Health component In relation to the health component Oportunidades program invokes the provision of primary health care to all members of the family, this to cultivate an enabling environment for the leaner to able attended to well. The health services are provided at clinics, dispensaries and health centrers which are operated and run by Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (Mexican Social Security Institute) and the Secretariat of Health (Davis, 2003, p. 128). These grants are targeted to newborn children of about 2-3 years of age (ECLAC, 2002, p. 129), hich may continue up to the time the children enrols in primary school level. In addition to the that, pregnant and lactating women are included in the program. This component consists of a cash transfer aimed at health care, nutrition education and food consumption that benefits mothers and children. The transfer is on the basis of compliance by participating household members with a pre-determined number of health centre visits and health and nutrition workshops which are attended, this ensures a full participation in the process and community unity (Gertle, 2000, p. 61). The children’s health care visits are linked to growth monitoring and vaccination protocols that needs to be observed by mothers. This ensures that, the health standards are maintained by citizen which forms a healthy nation. In addition to that, Health Care visits for pregnant and lactating women ensures appropriate prenatal, childbirth and puerperal care (Calde Coady, 2004, p. 76) through attending clinical check-ups once or twice per year in Mexico. This health component ensures that the society’s well being is taken into account therefore, this will translate to good education involvement and participatory. Therefore health component indirectly or directly promotes and support education. Nutrition component The grant provided is directed towards providing money to improve food consumption and availability, especially to children below age of 4 months to 2 years (Gertle, 2000, p. 232), weaned babies and breastfeeding mothers. This package is inclusive of children aged above the age of 2 years to 5 years who are at risk of malnutrition or those who are poorly nourished (ECLAC, 2002, p. 223) in the society. The condition to continue and get the grants is based upon ability to visit the health clinics regularly, in this way, the population continues to be updated on the health prevention and cure methods while the government gets the required statistics that are vital for planning and fighting infections to its citizens. It should be noted that the nutrition and health voucher as equivalent to the value of the time invested by the mother during the trip and waiting at the health centre to to get health services (Calde Coady, 2004, p. 267). For instance, the statistics indicate that health grant per beneficiary per month was set at the same level as the education transfer of about US$9, which is twice the monthly expenditure per person on health care and medicine costs.