Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Issues Of Abusing Study Drugs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Issues Of Abusing Study Drugs - Essay Example Any student abusing the study drugs respective authorities ought to arrest him or her because these drugs end up doing more harm than good in the end. These study drugs have very many side effects. They include increased blood pressure, irregular heartbeats and changes in sex drive or impotence, in the long term. In the short term, the drugs may cause restlessness, anxiety, headaches, insomnia, dizziness, mouth dryness, paranoia, suppressed appetite, diarrhea or constipation (â€Å"The University of Texas†). In addition to these drugs having mild to severe side effects, the drugs have a potential overreliance (â€Å"The University of Texas†). These study drugs should be banned and every student abusing them to be arrested since they have many side effects that could have long-lasting effects on the user in addition to causing dependence. The fact that study drugs are abused more than marijuana and are easier to get is a worrying fact. Research shows that over 30 percent of students in the university have illegally taken the drugs, with the number being more for the upperclassmen. This is quite worrying since the federal government lists the Adderall as a schedule II drug. The schedule II drugs have the highest potential for abuse and a dependence profile (Cooper). Moreover, according to Dr. Kotwicki, these drug produce euphoria, they may temporarily work but in the end cause problems with functionality. Students abuse drugs such as Ritalin to enhance their alertness and attention leading to better performance. However, according to CBC news, evidence suggests that the drugs do not increase cognition (â€Å"CBC news†). It is so sad that students abuse these drugs thinking that it helps them but they end up harming them.

Monday, October 28, 2019

Motives, Triggers And Barriers To Internationalization

Motives, Triggers And Barriers To Internationalization In general, internationalization occurs when the company expand its business activities into foreign markets. There might be several reasons for this. Of course, the most frequent reason is to expand profits, but this is not the only one. The motives and triggers for internationalization are a key concept for firms that are planning to enter the global market since both concepts will shape the internationalization strategy or path (Äijà ¶ et al) and main characteristics of this process. Table 2 and Table 3 present the main motives and triggers. If the main reason to start exporting is to increase profits and growth, the potential new markets will be those where the competition is less fierce and margins can be set on a higher level. If the goal is to reduce costs by expanding the economies of scale, the target countries might be anyone, independent of the profit level that the company can achieve there as long as there are positive. If the fierce competition in the local market is the driver to star exporting, then the foreign market will be determined as a defensive strategy mainly by forces external to the firm. Another crucial concept is the barriers hindering the export initiation. If any one of this factors or a combination of them is available in the firms context, it may hold back the internationalization of the firm for a long period or even forever. According to Hollensen (2008), the critical factors hindering internationalization initiation are mainly internal. Table 4 summarizes these barriers. In the Day Chocolate case, and based on the general information analysed and on the company history, it will be assumed that the primary motive to start the internationalization process is to increase profits and to grow in revenue. In addition, some foreign market opportunities could be considered as a motive. On the other hand, Competitive Pressure as a reactive motive could also have been stated, but it does not seem the main one according to the information analysed. The Day Chocolate is a small company and usually the firms that react to competitive pressures are larger than they are. Furthermore, Days revenue and market share are increasing according to companies figures, so the competitive pressure is not really a problem yet. The rest of the motives in Table 2 were discarded after a careful examination. The main trigger found in the The Day Chocolate case can be the Perceptive management. The company management is highly professional, includes people with many different backgrounds and the fact that the headquarters are in London -a well known international financial and trade centre- provides another good reason to support this interpretation. The second trigger might be the Importing as inward internationalization. Although the products and the headquarters are I the United Kingdom, the production facilities are located in Germany and the final product is exported from there to the U.K., according to the BBC[19]. The knowledge accumulated by importing the product from one European country to England can be used to make easy the export process to any other European nation. In order to be able to answer the question regarding to which country they should go (export or invest in) it is assumed that no barriers hindering the export initiation exists or that if they exist, they are preventable at an affordable cost. It can also be assumed that these barriers will not stop the internationalization of the firm but rather slow the velocity at which the company expands abroad. 2.5.2. Strategic approach to internationalization Once it has become clear that the firm can, needs or wants to export or expand their operations abroad, there is a need of knowing how and where to go. In order to answer these questions it is necessary to have a framework to guide the analysis. For The Day Chocolate case the guidebook presented in Internationalization Handbook by Äijà ¶ (Äijà ¶ et al. 2005) was the most appropriated. This structure is presented in Figure 5. According to Äijà ¶ the first part (Part I) in Figure 5 is the selection of the appropriate Internationalization Path. In his book, he presents three typical pathways that the internationalization process of a software firm may take, but his steps and conclusions can also be expand to any firm in the confectionery market like Days chocolate. This area under discussion is also the same as the one that Hollensen refers as Internationalization theories or models in the third chapter of his book Essentials of Global Marketing. For the purpose of this work, the 3 pathways presented by Äijà ¶ can also be increase with the many other presented by Hollensen. Among many models, paths or theories, the most well known are the one presented in Table 5. Based on Days corporate webpage statistics and from private sector publications[20], like Tranchell Doherty, it can be assumed that the company started it internationalization process by choosing an Organic growth path. The timeline on the firms webpage confirms that Devines management decided to begin their operations abroad in markets that are very close in location but also in culture and institutions like the United States and that the internationalization process has been taking place in small but incremental steps. The size of the company and the market where it operates also support this view. In contrast with what happens with large companies, where the internationalization process happens in a relatively continuous and incremental fashion, for SMEs (like The Day Chocolate) in general this process is made in small incremental steps. According to Hollensen, usually for SMEs the internationalization process is relatively discrete and every project is distinct and individual. The fact that the company operates in the confectionery industry and not in the IT sector, among other facts, is also a good reason for not considering this firm chocolate as a born global company. Freeman (2002) also states that for Small and Medium Enterprises managers tend to gather and look for relevant knowledge and information before becoming internationalization ready, which is consistent with Devines history and with the Uppsala model[21]. In 2007, the company took the next step in its internationalization process by setting a foot in the United States market by opening offices there. According to Johanson, and Wiedersheim-Paul (1975) that would have constituted the third stage. 2.5.3. The country choice Once the company has determined the path for internalization, its management needs to start the potential markets selection process (Part II in figure x.1). To address this problem, the screening process detailed in Rugman and Collinson (1995) will be used. 2.5.3.1. First screening: determining what product to offer to the world market This first screening is crucial in determining the potential of the companys goods in markets other than the local. This task can be carried on successfully by using a wide number of market research tools. International trade statistics inspection, competitors financial information analysis and research papers or databases that are offered by international multilateral organizations like FAO, the World Bank and the IMF could be valuable tools as well. In general, chocolate confectionery is offered in all almost the countries of the world. In this sense, initially there are a large number of potential countries where to choose from. However, in this case, the company is selling a very specific product (high quality + socially friendly chocolate) that limits the scope of this first screening. One drawback when dealing with this kind of specific and one-in-a-kind characterized goods is the lack of information or the excessive cost of getting it. A first measure to identify the potential foreign markets for The Day Chocolate would be analysing the world trade evolution of Fair-Trade products. That might help the firms management in recognizing the most active markets for this kind of products. As it is shown in Table 6 and according to the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations (FLO) in 2009 they were many countries showing a dynamic market for this kind of products. Among them, it is necessary to highlight Canada, Finland, Australia and New Zealand where the surge in the transactions was higher that 65% in the first case and about 60% in the other tree cases. Other nations with a remarkable performance were Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and Sweden. Although the U.K. and the United States presented a performance below the average growth rate of 15%, it is necessary to state that they are still by far the most important markets in volume for organic and fair-traded goods. Regarding the specific case of this companys main product, a NGO -TransFair USA- declare that during 2008 the imports of fair-trade certified cocoa into the U.S. rose at rates of more than 50%.[22] Finally, the genuine potential of every market will be ultimately determined by the interaction with other factors such as socio cultural forces and economic conditions. 2.5.3.2. Second screening: Macroeconomic and financial conditions The last World Economic Outlook report from the International monetary Fund (IMF)[23] clearly shows what to expect for the upcoming years. The developed countries GDP will grow on average 2,5% in 2011, still trying to recover from 2007s financial crisis. The U.S., Germany, and the U.K, together with some developed Asian countries such as South Korea will be presenting above average growth rates. However, some countries like Spain, Italy and France will show a growth rate between 0% and 1%. On the other hand, developing nations are expected to growth on average 6,5%, with Developing Asia and Latin America leading among these regions. From a macroeconomic point of view, the next years are going to be very good ones for most of the developing countries and also for some developed nations. For the purpose of this document, the countries will be segmented in four categories, considering that The Day Chocolate should focus in the short run on those that are not experiencing a recession. Table 7 contains this information. However, the product that they are offering is not a cheap one. It is a premium product and usually the prices are above the average. In this context, the income levels of the consumers are also an important factor to be considered. This is what Rugman Collinson (1995) called the Market intensity. Figure 6 shows the relation between the per capita income level for all developed countries and the expected GDP growth for 2011. As it is shown, there are 1 group that is more desirable for the company. The second quadrant comprises all countries showing both very high income level and high expected level of economic activity. However, the companys management might find also attractive potential markets in countries that do not have a very high level of per capita income, but whichs economies are growing very fast (Quadrant 4). 2.5.3.3. Third screening: Political and Legal forces This step covers the examination of the political and legal forces in every potential market. There might be trade barriers that obstruct the export process or the lack of solid institutions can represent a serious risk in the form of the future losses. One way to detect this serious problems is by addressing to the World Economic Forums (WEF) Global Competitiveness Index (GCI)[24]. This index includes a weighted average of several different components, each one of them measuring a diverse feature of the competitiveness. Those components are grouped into 12 categories or pillars. The first one of these pillars is Institutions. The GCI is calculated for 140 countries and the results are available free of charge. Table 8 presents the most important variables and their weight within the first pillar: Institutions. Table 9 provides some of the results obtained by the WEFs researchers for the 2010/11 index[25]. There it can be seen that the countries with the most stable or trustworthy are in general also those with a higher level of economic development. 2.5.3.4. Forth screening: socio-cultural forces A multinational corporation or a company desiring to become one should examine the main social and cultural disparities between the potential market and the home country. The concepts of cultural distance and psychological distance as presented in Hollensen (2008) have the potential of disturbing the normal flow between the foreign market and the company. Language, religion, work habits, ethnicity, age and many other socio-cultural factors may influence the decision regarding where to locate the operations. Maps 1 and 2 illustrate this theory by presenting the world distribution of the main religions and of the English speaking nations. For The Day Chocolate to avoid problems generated by cultural distance it will be recommended to establish operations or to export to anglo-saxon countries, like former British colonies or commonthwealth nations. Other european nations, specially those from German and Nordic origins, might be suitable in this first stage of internationalization. In a future stage, and after reducing these distances by means of the learning process, the firm might also attempt to gain a foot in more culturally distant markets. Focus groups activities and consumer surveys can help the firm in determining the main differences and similarities between the foreign market and the headquarters values and culture. 2.5.3.5. Fifth screening: Competitive enviroment This last stage of the analysis focuses on the competitive forces. Confronted with comparable and equally desirable potential markets, the firms tend to internationalize to those where the competition is less ferocious. The lack of competition can provide the company with some degree of monopolistic power that might have the power to increase the earnings. In the case analyzed, there were detected many new actors entering into the market in the last years, also some big players in the industry like Nestle and Cadbury are making efforts to tap this fast growing segment[26]. Despite these facts, competition is still not a barrier in most of the national markets analysed. Special attention should be paid to Germany, Switzerland and Austria, where several small and medium local producers have a long lasting tradition manufacturing chocolate products of world recognized quality[27]. 2.5.3.6. Final selection According to The Day Chocolates website, the firm currently operates in 11 markets. In the U.K.[28] and in the United States, the company has direct control over its business. In the rest of the countries, they rely on other companies, which are in charge of the distribution channels (Canada, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Japan). Trough the screening process and its five stages many countries were considered as potential new markets: Finland, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, South Korea, Germany, Switzerland and Romania. Germany and Switzerland were discarded mainly because of the competitive environment and in second place because some possible cultural distance. South Korea was finally not considered fundamentally because the huge cultural distance and also because the physical distance. Due to the market size and growth projections, the chocolate per capita consumption[29], the similarities in the socio-cultural environments, the reliable legal and political framework, the expected friendly competitive context this document concludes that The Day Chocolates management should make an effort to analyse in more detail the potential of the following new markets: Australia, Finland, Belgium and New Zealand.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Baroque music Essay examples -- essays research papers fc

The Music of the Baroque Era The style of polyphonic music containing elaborate ornamentation and contrasting elements, that is how Baroque music is defined. The Baroque era was a kind of transitional era in art and music. The Renaissance means rebirth and is typically regarded as such. The Baroque era in music is not a set style in music but many diverse styles which may be broken down into at least three distinct periods. A renewed interest in art and music was experienced throughout the Renaissance which then led to the Baroque era which was more of a transitional stage leading up to the maturity of classical music in the Classical era which began as Baroque ended. (Howard n. pag.) The origins of the word Baroque itself is as obscure as the melodies contained in its music. Many people believe that the word baroque came from two different places. Some believe that it came from the word barocco, which is Italian and means bizarre or strange. Others believe that it is Portuguese and it came from the word barroco meaning distorted or irregularly shaped pearl. The barroco was considered more beautiful because of its uniqueness. Either way the name stuck. The era began in 1600 and ended with Johann Sebastian Bach’s (1685-1750) death in 1750. Bach is likely the best known and most widely appreciated composer of the era, although Antonio Vivaldi and George Fridiric Handel were certainly very important composers of the time as well. The music of the Baroque itself is very colorfu...

Thursday, October 24, 2019

An Early Marriage Essay

An early marriage, is an issue where argued by many now a days. Some people are advocated for early marriage because it is healthy. Prophet Mohammed said that it is better to marry early, but if you can’t then you should fast instead if you still can’t control your desire. I believe that early marriage had a lot of advantages. But people would argue that younger married couples are not matured enough to take the responsibilities. But this is not a big issue to argue for, since a most succeeded marriages in the past 10 years are a younger married which lasted longer. Personally, any person should have a step to marry early. People says , married earlieris the best way to destroy your life in such a young age besides drugs. Young people are not ready for responsibilities. They have not done any thing important in their life. But , I believe if people waited until they were older to marry they’d be a lot more careful about selecting a mate. That would be a terrible blow to the divorce industry. Although divorces didn’t depend on the age of the couples. It depends on how they faced and solved their problems. Moreover, I would say that it would be nice to have your children younger, and will be able to join them in many things, be closer to understanding their generational viewpoints, fashion, trends, etc. When your children have your grandchildren, you will be young grandparents able to enjoy your grandchildren, do more things with them, live longer to see them prosper as well. The nice thing is that once your children leave home, you will be still young enough and most likely healthy enough to do more things such as travel, or physical activity. Others says , that many females refuse to live with in lows , so as a consequencesmales most ready to assist their own financial situations first before they gettingmarried, which may cause to delay marriage . Well, it is all about whether they want to get married and your partner is supportive or not. It is about maturity levels, how much they care for each other and how much they want the marriage to work. You have those marriages which do turn out to work. These marriages seem to work because the couple has worked things out and have thought out every way possible to keep this marriage going and will work out the problems that come their way. If the couple is prepared, most likely the marriage will continue to go strong it both spouses take an equal part of the marriage and work it out.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Mary Shelley – Cloning

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the topic of cloning and the moral issues relating to it become prevalent. First of all, the creature in the novel was in essence a human clone. The creature was created by Victor Frankenstein in attempt to help humanity by searching of a way to perpetuate life and eliminate death. Ironically, Victor Frankenstein creates a being that takes life away making him, in a way, the real monster of the story. Mary Shelley explores the mindset of society by portraying the way society treats a product of scientific knowledge,such as the practice of human cloning.Shelley depicts society’s reaction to the creature that Victor Frankenstein created as negative, and displays Victor’s reflections on the problems that his creature creates for him. Shelley’s position on cloning is that the possible â€Å"benefits† are not reliable enough to overcome the bad and thus, making the practice of cloning negative. Mary Shelley begins her nove l with a well-known quote from John Milton’s Paradise Lost, â€Å"Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay/ To mold me Man,/ did I solicit thee from darkness to promote me? This rhetorical question made by Adam, a creation of God, epitomize the creatures feelings toward his creator, Victor Frankenstein. The creature is comparing himself as to both Adam and Lucifer, or Satan, as he is shunned and left in abandonment by his own creator, though he strives to be good. Because of the isolation and loneliness that the creature had to deal with, it caused him to turn evil and eventually, into a murderer. Eventually, it also led to Victor Frankenstein’s ruin in attempt to rid humanity of the creature when ironically, was for humanity in the first place.This reveals man’s attempt to play God, to create life from nothingness, can lead to horrible results. Mary Shelley’s novel is also reference to as the â€Å"Modern Prometheus†. Similarly, Prometheus and Vic tor Frankenstein both attempted to create something to benefit humanity; however, their creations ended up harming themselves and this led to their own destruction. Prometheus stole fire for man, trespassing on â€Å"immortal territory† and resulted in having his liver eaten out every night for eternity. In comparison, Victor Frankenstein suffered from prolonged torture and guilt due to his creation murdering all of his loved ones.Both characters go too far and does not accept their own limitations. Similar to Prometheus, who was tied up to a rock, alone in the middle of the sea, Frankenstein feels left out by society and cannot run away from his situation. Victor Frankenstein’s dream is to create a whole species that will bless him, a species of wonderful, perfect beings : â€Å"A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me†. In addition, it seems like Victor Frankenstein wanted to create th e creature to praise him more than to improve and help human nature.Even though, while Frankenstein had a good motive when creating the creature, he failed to ask himself if the creature himself would want to be brought into the world. On the other hand, he refuses his responsibility and flees from the creature after bring it to life. He leaves the creature alone and does not understand the fact that he as the creator is a father and his responsible for his creation. Frankenstein does not teach the creature how to deal with the badness of society and how to treat other human beings.He does not teach the creature from right and wrong and should have accepted the creature as a human, not a ugly monster. Eventually, the creature is, in a sense, corrupted by society, while Frankenstein deserts him due to fear of the creature. Therefore, Victor Frankenstein can be portrayed as a â€Å"monstrous† instead of the creature itself. Even at the end of the novel, he does not learn to acc ept his own failure of moral imaginations and dies without understanding the nature of his own guilt. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a great depiction of how science advancements, such as a the practice of human cloning, can go wrong.Even though Frankenstein is a fiction novel, contents contained in Frankenstein can well compare to the situations that we have in society today, especially in the field of science. Although some may say the practice of cloning could be used to find about many genes that can cause possible diseases, improving the quality of foods that we eat, and obviate the human aging process; however, it is scientifically proven that 90% of cloning attempts fail to produce viable offspring, cloned beings tend to have weak immune functions, higher rates of infection, develop diseases, alter normal human lifespan, and more.Relating to Frankenstein, the novel displays how discrimination and tension would arise in the world if cloning were to take place. Human clo ning would tear apart the world, and would result in to winning side, just one distraught world, similar to lives of people that were taken away by the creature in Frankenstein. Therefore, if Mary Shelley were to live in the present time, today, she would not approve of the scientific practice of cloning. The â€Å"beneficial† evidences that are believed in the practice of cloning can not overcome how disastrous the world would become if science were to take use of cloning.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

US Trade Barriers and Globalization essays

US Trade Barriers and Globalization essays Traditional international trade involves a complex system of trade barriers to ensure the protection of domestic industry and its workers interests. The trade impediments and subsidies include protective tariffs, import quotas, non-tariff barriers i.e. licensing, and export subsidies. Originally, a countrys economy acted independently of other nations. The growing trend ever since the establishment of GATT in 1947 is globalization. In globalization, a country acts as a part of a free trading community consisting of member nations around the globe. As a trading community, trade problems can easily be resolved through negotiations rather than a trade war (McConnell 104-105). The US government employs the use of protective tariffs and export subsidies to protect and aid domestic industry. The two types of tariffs used on imports are the Antidumping (AD) duty and the Countervailing (CVD) duty. These duties shield domestic industry from foreign competition. By raising the price of imports, domestic products become more attractive to the consumer, i.e. the phrase Buy American!. Export subsidies are government payments made to domestic producers. The payments allow lower operating costs, enabling producers to compete on the world market with similarly priced goods and services. An example is US subsidization of agriculture to boost the US food supply on the world market (Import). The Department of Commerce (DOC) oversees the establishment and maintenance of trade orders, i.e. policies implementing tariffs, non-tariff barriers, import quotas, and subsidies. These orders are continually updated as new trade issues arise. Under the DOC is the International Trade Administration (ITA) which ensures the protection of domestic industry from international trade for both imports and exports. Within the ITA is the Import Administration (IA) which specifically handles the imports for ITA. Both the DOC and IA work tog...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Triathlon Essays

Triathlon Essays Triathlon Essay Triathlon Essay Exercise: 23 min swimming (continuous) 15 min cycle machine (continuous) When I was swimming, I was in the sea and in a wetsuit. I believe that this is a good way to train for the south islands triathlon because I am able to get more comfortable to the conditions and adjust to them. The swimming was mostly continuous for the 23 minutes, and I was using my aerobic energy system with the work being continuous.From this exercise I have learnt not to swim too far out because then when trying to swim back in after doing work for a long period it was quite hard due to the rip, and pull of the waves. For the cycling I was on my cycle machine at home. For the time period I spent on the cycle machine, I was just going at a comfortable pace. The exercise was not too intensive because I treated it more like a warm down exercise. For the 15 minutes I spent on it, in ever stopped. REST PERIOD BETWEEN: from the sea to my house, approximately 600-700 metres away and I walked in betweenExercise: Duathlon. (Running, Cycling) For my Wednesday training, instead of following my trainer program, I completed a Duathlon in Oamaru. For the Duathlon, it was approximately 14 km cycle and approximately 4 km run. This exercise was all constant while pushing myself to find my limits to get a general idea of what things i will have to train on more than others, e. g. going from cycling to running in one motion. Although I am training for a triathlon, due to weather conditions and advise from my P. E. eacher, it would be too hard for me to complete a triathlon with the water being choppy and having a strong wind. Some things I learnt from doing the Duathlon were to control how much energy I am putting out at the start. There is no point wasting all your energy getting out front, then not being able to finish strong because you ran out of energy. Some strengths that I got out of doing the Duathlon is that I was able to get the feel of the motion from going from cycling to running. You can train for this but nothing beats doing the actual thing.In doing this I found that it was a weak point so I would be able to train around that in the near future. CONCLUTION: For the rest of my training program, i followed the days as closely as i could and the days i couldn’t complete my training, i would make up for it the next day or that same day in sport trainings and games. Things i would change if i were to do this again would be to train more around my swimming because when i completed the triathlon on the set date that is what let me down and that was the cause of losing some positions