Haighs Chocolates Marketing Plan Brief Essay

Haigh’s Chocolate is a family owned Australia chocolatier based in Adelaide SA. They specialize in handmade and single origin chocolates from Australia and around the world. The business is the oldest family owned chocolate maker in Australia and looking to increase awareness interstate and also around the world. Therefore, you are being called in as a consultant to develop new marketing opportunities to expand the brand. You are now employed as a team of 3 – 4 (max.) marketing consultants to help design a Marketing Plan for them. However you will need to firstly understand the brand by performing a SWOT analysis and then designing the Marketing Mix (4P’s). Lastly, it is very important that you are able to foresee or predict potential problems you might have with making or launching the product. As a team, you are required to pitch your marketing plan to your class. Haigh’s Chocolate is looking for a creative, practical and fun marketing strategy! Objectives of the Marketing Plan: 1) To build awareness for Haigh’s Chocolate 2) To increase brand recognition for Haigh’s Chocolate The brief There are many occasions, celebrations and festivals in a year. Some of them are celebrated with chocolates! Your consulting firm is given the task of creating a product, or packaging its current range of products into a product especially for an occasion of your choice. For example, for Valentine’s Day you may create a bouquet of Haigh’s chocolate roses, or a World Food Day chocolate where proceeds go to a non-profit organization or to theme the chocolates with a local festival! Your team can decide on the product strategy by looking at the various marketing theories taught this semester. The challenge is to think outside the box and create a product that is feasible for the brand! Your report MUST also entail a product (chocolate) design and a poster. You can use external images, or use software (e.g. Photoshop or Illustrator) to design your product. I you should choose to, you can also bring a prototype to your class for presentation. For more information about Haigh’s Chocolate, visit http://www.haigh’schocolate.com.au/ Word count: 2500 – 3000 (+/- 10%) words Mandatory 1) Application of theory: You will need to apply marketing theories for this assignment. You can refer to your textbook to help you to write the Marketing Plan. For specific guides on writing the marketing plan please refer to Chapter 2 of your textbook. 2) Presentation: You are required to present your Marketing Plan within your tutorial class to gauge feedback from your tutor and peers. This will help you to refine your plan for the written report. 3) Template: A report template has been provided on Moodle for this assignment. You will need to follow the template and discuss your marketing plan accordingly. However, if you need to add additional information, you can put it in Appendix. Do download and use accordingly. 4) Referencing: You are expected to refer to external resources for theories, ideas or current trends. However, you will need to apply theories to your statements/claims. These will need to be justified and supported by theory. Therefore, you will NEED to have at least 5 academic references for this assignment. Textbooks are not considered an academic reference, and it is expected that you would refer to it. You will need to reference it if you use your textbook. You should use resources from databases such as ProQuest, Emerald, Science Direct, and so on. 5) Formatting: 12pt, 1.5 spacing. Appendix. Optional 1) Appendix: You may choose to include an Appendix section. However it is not mandatory. Submission You will need to submit a HARDCOPY to your tutor via your tutor’s pigeon hole. A softcopy MUST be submitted via Moodle Deadline Penalties apply for late submissions (10% per day).

Fast Food Nation Analysis Essay Essay

The non-fiction book â€Å"Fast Food Nation† by Eric Schlosser writes about how the fast food industry works from different viewpoints. Throughout the book it can be very disturbing and very real about the fast food industry. Changing American society and causing many great problems. The author established well credibility by providing well facts and supporting it. He talks about the success and failures of what happened in the fast food nation. Many failures happened in the past such as mistreating the cattle and poultry. The animals were mistreated because they were being fed dead animal and chemicals. The cattle would get injected by hormones to make them bigger so once they get slaughtered there would be a lot of meat. This book is different from the other books I’ve read in my past English classes because the author supports and backed his claims and facts with evidence. Workers at slaughter houses would use lack of health care to treat the meat which caused infectious diseases. From pg. 195 the author talks about the foodborne disease which is very common. Ã'”Every day in the United States, roughly 200,000 people are sickened by a foodborne disease, 900 are hospitalized, and fourteen die. I agreed from everything of what the author wrote. Fast food business owners are mostly greedy and do not care about the public’s health. Read Also:  Analytical Essay Example Topics Teenagers, uneducated adults, and undocumented people work for low wages. Meatpacking jobs is the most horrendous and dangerous jobs today. Fast food has shaped American society because it contributes obesity that many Americans face every day. Fast food companies spend a lot of money to sponsor their food and make people buy their food. For an example Mc Donald’s spend millions to bring consumers especially children. Toys and a Mc Donald’s TV show manipulated children to make their parents take them to eat at Mc Donald’s and get the toys that were sponsored. Now thankfully there is more awareness of the fast food problem. More people are spreading the word of being healthy mostly at schools. Encouraging students to exercise and eat healthy. Natural and organic foods are becoming more popular in the country. Even though the government haven’t really taken any steps to stop the mistreating of animals and of what goes in our food.

Remembering the Alamo Essay

This article is of course about the Alamo. It gives a very brief history of the battle at the Alamo and the characters that participated there. It momentarily mentions that there are now facts and history of the Alamo being disputed among many historians today. This article also makes comments concerning the great influence The Alamo has had in today’s culture, referring to the many productions based off this historic happening. Each time I remember the Alamo inspiration fills my chest. I love to remember the great heroes that fought so brave and valiantly in the face of the opposition; a cruel dictator (Santa Anna) and the oppression he could inflict. Many of the people that inhabited 2nd Chance Texas migrated there for primarily one reason and one reason only†¦ a second chance. Most of them, having endured hard lives and relocating to a new country, terrain and lifestyle were not about to give up their God-given rights to a Mexican dictator. While many had the chance and opportunity to get the heck out of Dodge, they chose to stay and defend what was rightfully theirs and so they did. These brave men, led by Travis, Bowie and Crockett, took a stand at the Alamo that will be remembered forever. They gave their lives not for greatness, though they earned that and more in the end, they gave their lives for what they lived for and that was to be free. We shouldn’t argue or dispute over the noble and honorable history of these great men, doing so we taint there story with our ignorance. Not all of these men may have lived great, but all of them died great in the sight of ALL AMERICANS. REMEMBER THE ALAMO.

Vinke Air Freight Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Vinke Air Freight - Essay Example Vinke currently serves large- and mid-sized companies who occasionally need to ship parts to meet emergency needs. The present client base certainly must value the fact that their large packages can be delivered to an airport and Vinke will transport the parts as well as arrange final delivery. In an emergency, industrial delivery scenario, Vinke's personal attention to clients is a major benefit. In the overnight letter and small package market, however, customers are not seeking the specialized attention that has built the company's current market. They are more interested in having their letters picked up at their location and timely delivered to the intended destination. Neither are they faced with the issues of industrial shipping. These customers are consumers for whom overnight delivery has become ubiquitous. They don't need specialized personal care nor are they constrained by the logistics involved in moving large manufacturing parts to meet emergency timeframes; they simply want their letters to be picked up and delivered on time. In considering the organizational changes required by the proposed entry into the new market, and the competition already in place there, the task could prove daunting. Vinke's current client base is industrial or manufacturing companies. These organizations can be serviced from the airport to destination. For overnight letters and small packages, the company will not be able to expect its customers to drive to their airport; Vinke will need to implement a pick-up service. They won't be competing for a relatively small pool of clients; they will be forced to serve the general public. This will require extraordinary organizational changes. Further, rather than the occasional and urgent nature of delivering large industrial parts that easily fill up planes with just a few orders, the new market demands will centre upon frequent handling of routine letters and small packages. Planes will either have to be full of packages from a high volume of shippers or fly partially empty to meet de livery requirements. The likely costs associated with this operational change will be quite large and potentially threatening to operating capital. Finally, competition in this market is fierce. One need only visit the web site of a major potential competitor to see the complex bundle of service divisions required to fulfil demand in this market (FedEx, 1). The organizational changes required to effectively compete in this market are overwhelming. The criteria necessary for evaluating the proposed venture are found in a standard Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) analysis model. The critical issues for Vinke are clearly outlined in this matrix. Unable to utilize their key strength, personalized customer service, the company is overwhelmed by the weakness of its limited operation scope and mass-customer service incapability. Any potential opportunity that might be presented through the use of its current equipment and facilities is immediately and obviously threatened by the strength of the competition already in place. There may be growth potential in the overnight delivery of small packages market, as management

Ethics in Digital Content Sharing Research Paper

Ethics in Digital Content Sharing - Research Paper Example The PIPA works the same as the SOPA; with its main function also being the blocking, the sites that sell copyright materials. The stop online piracy act and the Protect IP Act have however not been amended yet. The two bills gave rise to a new procedure to take down the sites; the site is only those that violate the laws The creative commons, on the other hand, is a nonprofit organization whose main aim is to enable the use and the sharing of knowledge and creativity through free legal tools. The creative commons offer copyright licenses that are easy to use; these licenses provide a standardized and a simple way to give the public the permission to share and use creative works. The licenses let one to change the default copyright terms easily to some rights reserved, this license enables one to modify the copyrights terms to the best desired terms. The creative terms aimed at realizing the potential of the internet fully giving a new era of growth development and productivity The SOPA and the PIPA faces many critiques with many opponents proposing the stoppage of the two, the main question to ask however before criticizing the bills is "is copyright infringement right? Doesnt it violate the ethics, the privacy, and the security of the digital content?" Looking at the aims of the bills, the two of them are important as they protect copyright infringement. The SOPA is more functional as it goes, as it requires the operators to show the sites that steal the U.S media properties (Schmitz, p.220) Since the infringement of copyrights is illegal in many of the states, then the bill are important. It is, however, beneficial to understand that piracy and the copyright infringement leads to job losses; this is because it deprives content creators of profits. The legislation of the two bills will revamp a broken system that does not prevent criminal behavior. The bills face, however, face a lot of critics

Segmentation targeting positioning (stp) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Segmentation targeting positioning (stp) - Essay Example If we talk about positioning, it is the marketing concept, which is related to the creation of product image in target market segments. â€Å"Positioning is what the customer believes about your products value, features, and benefits† (Jackson, 2007). John Williams, who is the author of this article, focuses on the ideas of marketing segmentation along with the concepts of targeting and positioning. He believes that market segmentation means to recognize the diversity of a market and a company can get success in the market if it becomes successful in satisfying the customers by recognizing the needs and demands of each of the target markets. â€Å"The correct way is to segment the market on the basis of the differing desires† (Williams, 2006). He believes segmentation to be the key towards success of the marketing strategy. About targeting, the author believes that it is the process of targeting those market subdivisions where the demand of any specific product or service is high. The author’s stance regarding positioning is that it is the difference between a company’s product and the ongoing competition in the minds of the consumers. The article is a well-written document, which highlights different issues related to market segmentation, targeting, and positioning. Williams, J. (2006). Marketing GNOME Part Two: Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning. Retrieved October 09, 2011 from

Current Trends in the Tourist Infrastructure Development Literature review

Current Trends in the Tourist Infrastructure Development - Literature review Example Mr. Brian Summers believes that the success in this economy lies in putting the visitor at the heart of the tourism industry.   A global comparison is a factor for visitors’ choice of destinations and world-class experience is expected. Visitors yearn for excitement, foods, and drinks and to shop.   They enjoy more, when the places are clean, safe and attractive, with good roads and clear signage.   As effective advertising, a visitor has to be encouraged to come back and tell others of their wonderful experience. In March 2007, the Tourism West Midlands (TWM) gathered at the NEC for the annual conference and the presence of more than 200 businesses could attest to the fact that their growth effort in this industry is found to be significant.   On April 1, 2007, TWM was restructured, to make it the single official lead strategic body.   New members, who were mostly senior decision-makers in their own rights, were duly welcomed. Among other issues taken up were focused on their main priorities.   They appreciated the continuance of the support of the specialist businesses in tourism, to be undertaken by the Regional Centre for Tourism Business Support through the Brokerage service.   They saw the need to manage more effectively in countering climate change and they can expect a great deal of support by way of grants.   Marketing schemes will be reviewed and the importance of clearer advertising shall be promoted.   The improvement of low skill levels, such as chefs and customer service staff are vital, which can be addressed by the Learning and Skills Councils.   Being a focal point for the region’s tourism industry, the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be able to bring in a sizeable number of tourists. They intend to support the role that sub-regional partnerships play in campaigning for their destinations with the hope that tourists will stay longer.   Many iconic tourist attractions are being refurbished, inasmuch as Advantage West Midlands (AWM) and other partners continue to invest millions for such a purpose.

Korea impacted by cold war, changes of the country 1991-2014 Assignment

Korea impacted by cold war, changes of the country 1991-2014 - Assignment Example In terms of economics, the greatest change was that South Korea came to integrate with the global economy to a more full and complete degree. As a result of the continual threat of invasion and the protective shield the United States provided, South Korean markets were almost entirely restricted to US export. Although this was not based on extant treaty obligations, it is clear and apparent that the United States sought to defray the massive cost of having a military presence in South Korea by essentially creating a captive market for American products and a captive market for most exports (Ginsberg, 2014). Societal changes that have taken place within Korea are mainly contingent on the societal changes that globalization has provided over the past several decades. Essentially, recognition of the fact that Korean culture is unique but not the only means by which social norms should be constructed has come to play a primary role with respect to the way in which individuals live their lives, order their families, and seek to deport themselves (Dong-Hoon & Jungmin, 2014). Changes to expectations of morality and other issues pertaining to the way in which the average Korean lives their lives have also fundamentally changed as a result of the fact that after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War there has been a much lower focus on the need for upholding existing tradition. Whereas this is not to say that tradition does not play a valuable role in the life of the average Korean, its prominence now as compared to 20-30 years ago is most demonstrably diminished. Of all of the changes that have been effected, the area of gender roles are likely the most recognizable shift that has taken place since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. With the impact of globalization and western norms that flooded South Korea as a result of this geo-political shift and the increased

Herodotus Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Herodotus Life - Essay Example The essay "Herodotus Life" tells about the important aspects of Herodotus life such as his impact on Athens where Herodotus went and, therefore, it had a pool of intellectual brains making it have unique galaxy of talent eventually thereby making it grow more powerful. He was born as a Persian subject, and he continued to be so until he was approximately 30 to 35 years. At the time he was being born, Halicarnassus was under the rule of queen Artemisia. He thoroughly got Greek education that made him embrace the three essential subjects to a Greek which include: liberal education, music, gymnastic training, and grammar Herodotus had shown initial acquaintance with the largely Greek prose literature. He later turned to literature where he commenced the course of reading thus rendering him one of the instructive and charming writers of the ancient times. According Goodwin asserts that he traversed the European Greece and the Asia Minor due to his inquiring disposition. His traveling was typically in the period of 464-447 BC. He visited Egypt and the Athenians where he was recognized as a learned Greek. While in Egypt, he saw the Persian skulls that were slain by the Inarus. He resided in Samos for 7-8 years and it was during this time that a tragedy struck in his native town that made him return. The tyranny of Lygdamis went from bad to worse and at last, he was expelled from the foreign land. He went to his native city upon the enjoyment of the free citizen rights unto which every Greek set a very high value. He later went to Athens, which was a center of intellectual life and boasted of a galaxy of talent comprising of Pericles, Euripides, and Sophocles. It was here that he was welcomed but remained an idler, dilettante, and without any political duties. At the age of forty he continued with his journey and it is presumed that he got employed in Crotona or Metapontum. Herodotus was a literary genius as he wrote about the wars between the Greek an d the barbarians, a history of the struggle between Greece and Persia but he omitted the histories of Cathage, Phoenicia, and Etruia. Herodotus was also a great humanist who saw and respected the universe in the experience, actions of human kind, and the underlying idiosyncrasies of the regional beliefs and customs. In a 700 page book Herodotus tried to shows us that a well informed Greek requires to learn about nations, geography, cultures, fauna and flora, and the mythical origins. He died approximately at the age of sixty. The predominant voice of antiquity tells us that he may have died at Thurii where his tomb was shown in the later stages (Abe Books, 2009). The 9 books authored by Herodotus make him to be regarded as very distinguished writer of history. This s because the major themes in Herodotus’ books include: relatedness and unity of historical events over numerous generations; variety and universality of human existence and experience; incomprehensible destiny and interrelationships among different things (Goodwin 1996). Questions 1 The impact of the Persian war was that Athens and Sparta though they were great allies, it caused them to drift further apart. According to the Abe Books (2009) argue that Athens is where Herodotus went and it had a pool of intellectual brains making it to have unique galaxy of talent eventually thereby making it grow more powerful. On the contrary, Sparta grew jealous of Athens because of their lean resources. Herodotus went to Athens to regain his Greek citizenship and political rights that he had lost in Halicarnassus. As a consequence of the war, the government fell, trade dropped as the Scythians obtained their wealth from the slave trade which they controlled from the north of Greece through Cimmerian, Chersoneses, and Gorgippia. Also, it led to the city states to fight against each other. However, irrespective of the war, culture was still very important and creative as it had been insisted by Herodotus to be important to any learned Greek (Souza 2005). Question 2

Refer to other instructions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Refer to other instructions - Essay Example Subsequent to the closure of the first generation P2P networks, other companies, like Gnutella, entered the fray. Gnutella is a P2P network that operates by means of proxy servers. This network permits its subscribers to be anonymous. These types of networks are less vulnerable to legal action. Freenet functions as a parallel network to the Internet. It has all the feature of a P2P network, and it was developed on the P2P network technology. In this technology, the required information or data is not stored on servers at permanent locations. The information is delivered to the user only when the user demands the information. The subscribers to this network can therefore act anonymously; and the flow of data or content cannot be tracked (Dong, Li and Chen). The present Internet Service Providers or ISPs are not providing sufficient protection to the content that is stored on the servers. Similarly, the ISPs are not safeguarding the interests of the users of the internet. Even the most famous and well established internet based companies are not respecting the rights of the users. There are several cases against these companies on the charges of copyright infringements. One such company is Yahoo, which blatantly ignores the rights of the internet users. Similarly, there are a number of infringements of music industry’s rights on the internet. In order to address this problem, the WIPO had provided several guidelines, in its Treaties in the year 1996 (Kennedy). The music industry is losing its legitimate revenues due to this illegal downloading of music through the internet. At present, the music industry is the largest loser. In the future, the new budding music stars would publish their music works on the internet and make it available for the general public, without any cost, in the hope of gaining fame (Seifert and Hadida). At the moment

Communication and Its Importance in Creating Conflict Essay Example for Free

Communication and Its Importance in Creating Conflict Essay Conflict is essential in all works of fiction, whether it might a simple disagreement in a marriage or internally trying to deal with guilt. The real life situations of Interpreter of Maladies connect the problems with communication with conflict that will arise. In Interpreter of Maladies, communication problems in the short stories â€Å"A Temporary Matter†, â€Å"This Blessed House†, and â€Å"Interpreter of Maladies† resulted in conflict. In â€Å"A Temporary Matter†, the conflict in was the game that Shoba and Shukamar played, referring to the revealing one truth about oneself when there were not any lights, and the game where they were hiding from each other, hoping to avoid awkward encounters. This was an internal conflict from Shukumar’s perspective because Shukumar was thinking of how to play his next move in order to effectively restore the relationship. †Now he had to struggle to say something that interested he, something that made her look up from her plate, or from proofreading files.† Shukumar thought the purpose of the game where the couple would share previously unknown facts was that it would restore their relationship. Shukumar thought the game was used in order to reconcile and reform the marriage. But he was gravely mistaken. Shoba used this game to tell him that she was moving out. â€Å"It sickened Shukumar, knowing that she had spent these past evening s preparing for a life without him.† (21). The internal conflict in Shukumar was a result of miscommunication on Shoba’s part. She rarely communicated her thoughts and feelings after the stillbirth, and Shukumar took this as a sign to not talk. This resulted in their relationship slowing fading, and finally to the point of avoidance. In â€Å"This Blessed House† Sanjeev and Twinkle had many fights throughout the story because of the Christian artifacts that were laid throughout the house. Sanjeev believed it was impractical, since both he and Twinkle were not Christian. When he kept on insisting on eradicating the religious objects, Twinkle insisted on keeping them. While Sanjeev had a practical and logical reason of why, he never effectively compromised with Twinkle, and kept on believing that he was right. And without the proper compromise and communication, it resulted in Sanjeev not understanding Twinkle’s emotions. He was quite surprised when he saw Twinkle cry in the bath. â€Å"Oh God, please, Twinkle, I didn’t mean it.† But Finally in the end, they reached a compromise and managed to continue on to the party. But the conflict arose because of Sanjeev’s inconsideration and not communicating his thoughts along with listening to Twinkle’s approach. â€Å"In the end they settled on a compromise: the statue would be placed in a recess at the side of the house, so that it wasn’t obvious to passerby, but was still clearly visible to all who came.† Even though they come to a compromise, it was after Sanjeev made Twinkle cry, which is a poor example of effective communication. In â€Å"Interpreter of Maladies†, Mr. Karpasi was under a delusion that Mrs. Das was interested in him. The conflict was Mr. Karpasi’s internal struggle interpreting Mrs. Das’s actions and determining whether she liked him or not. â€Å"As he stole glances in the rear view mirror, wrapping elastic bands around Tina’s hair, he wondered how he might make this tour a little longer.† He stated that he was an interpreter in the story. Mrs. Das inferred that he was some sort of psychologist or therapist that would cure her of her guilt that she had been holding in. However she was mistaken, Mr Karpasi essentially was a translator for a doctor. â€Å"†¦But many people do not speak Gujarati in this area, including the doctor. And so the doctor asked me to work in his office interpreting what the patients say.† He did not process any knowledge in the field of which Mrs. Das was interested in. When Mrs. Das was asked by Mr. Karpasi about why she told him about the illegitimate child, Mrs. Das said, â€Å"Well don’t you have anything to say? I thought that it as your job.† Mr. Karpasi responded with, â€Å"My job is to give tours, Mrs. Das.† Mrs. Das continued with, â€Å"Not that. Your other job. As an interpreter.† Mrs. Karpasi answered with, â€Å"But we do not face a language barrier. What need is there for an interpreter?† Mrs. Das completely misunderstood Mr. Karpasi in what he meant as an interpreter. She was only interested in Mr. Karpasi because she believed that Mr. Karpasi would cure of her guilt. On the contrary, Mr. Karpasi thought that Mrs. Das was interested in him in an attracting fashion. In Interpreter of Maladies, communication problems in the short stories â€Å"A Temporary Matter†, â€Å"This Blessed House†, and â€Å"Interpreter of Maladies† resulted in conflict. In â€Å"A Temporary Matter†, Shoba gave Shukumar the impression that she was trying to reform their marriage when her true purpose was to end it. She also is responsible for their avoidance with each other. In â€Å"This Blessed House†, Sanjeev was oblivious to Twinkle’s connections to the Mary statue, and kept on pressing his belief. This resulted in a fight in which Sanjeev finally realized his misdemeanor. In â€Å"Interpreter of Maladies†, Mr. Karpasi miscommunicated what his job was, which then resulted Mrs. Das giving him a problem that he could not solve. Mrs. Das regarded Mr. Karpasi with interest because she believed that Mr. Karpasi can help her. However this resulted in her humiliation when she told Mr. Karpasi her biggest secret that she believed he could resolve. Communication is essential to the everyday life of humans. A small mistake in communication can destroy a relationship or start an unwanted situation. It is essential that people would communicate in order to create a more stable relationship.

Personal Goals Essay Example for Free

Personal Goals Essay My goal in life is to become a neonatal nurse practioner; this not only accomplishes my long-term professional goal but a long-term personal goal as well; I want to provide for my family, and set an example for my children. To teach them that if they work hard and never give up they can accomplish anything. My professional short term goal is to be able to stop my two in the morning paper route and become employed by the local children’s hospital; giving back to a wonderful profession that helped me when my two littlest were in the NICU. My personal short term goal is to pass my courses as they come here at University of Phoenix, and gain the necessary knowledge to become the best nurse and mother I can possibly be. The skills I need to accomplish these are good time management, attention to detail, compassion, and persistence. I hope to be able to pass these qualities on to my children, but also use them in my professional life as well. To accomplish these goals there are a lot of milestones to achieve along the way. First I had to receive my ADN-RN degree; this was something I did not know if I could accomplish. With the loving support, understanding and help from my family I graduated and made the Dean’s list, all while pregnant, working a full time job and taking care of 4 other children. Next milestone, after six years, was deciding to back to school to obtain my BSN, this too will be an uphill climb but I will accomplish it. It took me forever to get all the paper work in order, get the financial aid needed, get my transcripts from my other university, but through it all I was helped by the wonderful staff here at University of Phoenix. After all that are my Masters degree and my NNP license my final milestones as my professional goals are concerned but just the beginning of the rest of my career. Along the way my personal milestones will be to get into a house that I do not rent, watch my children go off to college themselves and enjoy the peace and quiet of an empty house. By doing these things, taking one step at a time and enjoying he moments I will be gaining the necessary skills to not only be a great nurse but a great teacher to my children; good study habits, time management, determination, and will to accomplish the goal at hand will be needed in both my profession and as a mom. According to Anonymous 2002, â€Å"nearly 40,000 low-birth-weight babies are born each year in the United States, there will continue to be a market for neonatal nurses. † This saddens me to think of all the babies in the NICU, but also reassures me that I will always have opportunity to be employed and able to take care of m y family. Salaries vary by region but may start â€Å"in the upper $30’s to $40’s† (Anonymous 2002). This financial security will allow me to not only support my family, get a house of my own, but also continue my education with minimal stress. Putting in my due diligence not only academically but personally helps alleviate doing everything last minute. By setting aside a few hours a day for rigorous studies allows me to budget the rest of my time accordingly between my children, me and research to improve my career. I recommend a planner or calendar of some sort to keep you accountable for how your day is spent. Remember the dishes will be there, the laundry will eventually get folded, the paper will get written but time with your family can never be replaced, so make sure to schedule that time as well. It helps sometimes to step back regroup and get a perspective of why you are doing this and relax. According to Harvey and Leslie (2006) â€Å"†¦senior neonatal nurses can do much to develop an evidence and research culture on units and to guide program development. † This milestone is also a great goal of mine, to be able to make a difference in neonatal evidence based practice. To apply my knowledge, do research, better a prognosis and pass it on to the next generation of nurses. This should be a goal of every nurse to improve the medical field while being advocates for our patients. By building good time management skills now while I am still in school will help me prepare to continue doing so in my professional and personal life. In Harvey and Leslie (2006) it also states, â€Å"by developing a substantial community of people embedded in clinical settings and universities who can address these diverse issues surrounding research leadership, neonatal nursing will move to a new era of evidence based practice. In conclusion, I want to make a difference this is my short and long term professional and personal goal. To help my fellow student succeed in their endeavors when possible, but to also see my own children grow, prosper and head out into the world themselves. Cappleman (2004) describes â€Å"the process of initiating, maintaining, and eventually terminating the professional-family relationships. † I want the families to be comfortable talking with health care professionals as people not just doctors and nurses; to ask questions, learn how to care for their infants on their own. Cappleman (2004) witnessed â€Å"teaching mothers how to interpret their infants’ behavior, and helping them to acquire skills in caring for them, are therefore essential nursing activities. † I recommend becoming more than just a nurse to our patients; become a confidant, friend, mentor, shoulder to cry on giving them the necessary tools to eventually take care of themselves, but also making them feel comfortable in asking questions and talking to us when necessary. By breaking down these barriers we not only care for the medical needs but emotional and psychological as well. When we allow ourselves to become in tune with our patients by sharing of ourselves, our fears it shows that we are people too. This allows us to be more caring and sincere in our personal lives to show compassion and understanding for those around us. Although there is no formal training, time management issues, obstacles and milestones I have accomplished with difficulty, and more to come, my goal remains to become a neonatal nurse practioner, be an example to my children and make a difference in the world.

Major Causes Of Voltage Instability

Major Causes Of Voltage Instability I. INTRODUCTION Power system stability is defined as the characteristics of a power system to remain in a state of Equilibrium at normal operating conditions and to restore an acceptable state of equilibrium after a disturbance. The power systems are heavily stressed due to the increased loading and this leads to voltage stability problem. Voltage Stability can also be called as the load stability. A power system lacks the capability to transfer an infinite amount of electrical power to the load. The main factor causing voltage instability is inability of the power system to meet the demands for reactive power in the heavily stressed systems to keep desired voltages. Voltage instability in the system generally occurs in the form of a progressive decay in voltage magnitude at some of the buses. A possible outcome of voltage instability is loss of load in an area, or tripping of transmission lines and other elements by their protective system leading to cascading outages. FACTS devices have been used, both for steady state power flow control and dynamic stability control. Using controllable components, such as controllable series capacitors and phase shifters, line flows can be changed in such a way that thermal limits are not violated and losses are minimized. These also increases stability margin, help in fulfilling contractual requirement, without violating system operating limits. II.VOLTAGE STABILITYANALYSIS Continuation Power Flow Continuation power flow was introduced to solve this singularity problem. The continuation power flow can be described as a power flow solution that can maintain the stability of the power system under normal and disturbances conditions. Therefore the main purpose of Continuation Power Flow is to find the continuity of power flow solution for a given load change. It employs the predictor-corrector scheme with an addition of load parameter ÃŽÂ » and the technique used is local parameterization. Figure 1 Predictor and Corrector illustration in CPF As shown in Fig.1, it starts from a known solution and uses a tangent predictor to estimate a subsequent solution corresponding to a different value of the load parameter. This estimate is then corrected using the same NR technique employed by a conventional power flow. The local parametization provides a means of identifying each point along the solution path and plays an integral part in avoiding singularity in the Jacobian. First let ÃŽÂ » represent the load parameter such that 0 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ ÃŽÂ » à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ ÃŽÂ » critical Where ÃŽÂ »=0 corresponds to base load and ÃŽÂ »= ÃŽÂ » critical corresponds to critical load. We incorporate ÃŽÂ » into conventional Newton Raphson load flow equations. Load change in PLi and QLi terms are modified by breaking each term into two components- one corresponds to original load and other represents load change brought about by a change in load parameter ÃŽÂ ». Thus PLi= PLi0 + ÃŽÂ »(kLi SΆbase cos ÃŽÂ ¨i) (1) QLi= QLi0 + ÃŽÂ »(kLi SΆbase sinÃŽÂ ¨i) (2) Where the following definitions are made; PLio, QLio original load at bus i, active and reactive respectively. kLi multiplier to designate the rate of load change at bus i as ÃŽÂ » changes ÃŽÂ ¨i power factor angle of load change at bus i SΆbase- a given quantity of apparent power which is chosen to provide appropriate scaling of ÃŽÂ » In addition, the active power generation is modified as: PGi = PGio (1+ÃŽÂ » kGi ) (3) Where PGio is the active generation at bus i in the base case and kGi is a constant used to specify the rate of generation as ÃŽÂ » varies. Now the Jacobian gets modified with the addition of a new element dÃŽÂ ». The tangent vector is calculated and the predicted solution is determined. With the local parametrization technique corrected solution is obtained. B. Contingency Ranking 1) Static Loading Margin Contingencies such as unexpected line outages often contribute to voltage collapse blackouts. These contingencies generally reduce or even eliminate the voltage stability margin. To maintain security against voltage collapse, it is desirable to estimate the effect of contingencies on the voltage stability margin. Action can then be taken to increase the margin so that likely contingencies do not cause blackout. Contingency can be defined as to a condition which involves removal of line, disconnection of generator or transformer. This creates a condition which disturbs the normal state of the system and may lead to voltage instability. A number of methods have been proposed for static voltage stability based contingency ranking. However there exists a need of efficient method requiring minimum computational time to accurately rank the contingencies based on static voltage stability Figure 2 Static loading margin The system contingencies have been ranked based on post contingency VAR requirement using two methods-Static Loading Margin (SLM) and Reactive Compensation Index (RCI). True ranking of the various contingencies have been obtained considering post-contingency static loading margin. The foremost step is to perform continuation power flow by using PSAT software. The static loading margin is the distance between the base case operating point and the nose point. A contingency having smaller value of the static loading margin can be considered more severe. 2) Reactive Compensation Index Reactive compensation index is used to perform voltage stability based contingency ranking by measuring severity of the outages. It is based on the premise that the distance between the normal case (pre contingency) nose point (max loadability point) and the post-contingency case nose point can be approximated by the total reactive injection required at the load buses to maintain similar voltages. The ranking obtained by reactive compensation index is compared with the true ranking. III. FACTS DEVICES The flexible AC transmission systems controllers have been established as an effective means in improving the system stability including voltage stability, enhancing loadability and also providing voltage control. TCSC Figure 1 shows the simple diagram of TCSC comprised of a series capacitor bank, shunted by a Thyristor Controlled Reactor (TCR), to provide a smoothly variable series capacitive reactance. It is a one-port circuit in series with transmission line; it uses natural commutation; its switching frequency is low; it contains insignificant energy storage and has no DC port. Insertion of a capacitive reactance in series with the lines inherent inductive reactance lowers the total, effective impedance of the line and thus virtually reduces its length. As a result, both angular and voltage stability gets improved. However, the sub synchronous series resonant frequency is produced that introduces negative damping of generator models leading to unstable system. That is the reason for not placing TCSC between lines having generators at both the ends. Figure4 Equivalent circuit of TCSC SSSC Static Synchronous Series Compensator (SSSC) is a voltage sourced converter based series FACTS device that provides capacitive or inductive compensation independent of line current. The SSSC is a synchronous voltage type compensator which is analogous to an ideal electromagnetic generator that produces a set of alternating voltages at the desired fundamental frequency with controllable amplitude and phase angle. The operating principle is based on conventional series capacitive compensation which is used as a means of reducing the line impedance, which in turn increases voltage, current and transmitted power across given physical line. The SSSC offers fast control and it is inherently neutral to sub-synchronous resonance. Figure 5 Equivalent circuit of SSSC IV. SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS For optimal placement of series FACTS devices, linear sensitivity of loading factor (ÃŽÂ ») with respect to line reactance has been computed using MATLAB coding technique. The calculation of the index is done such that transformers and lines connected between generators at both ends are excluded. The line having the most negative value of the Æ ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ »/Æ Xij sensitivity factor for the critical contingency cases has been identified for optimal series FACTS devices placement. Sensitivities are calculated under severe outage conditions at a stressed point near to maximum loadability point i.e. the values of voltage, angle and power factor are taken at the critical point as obtained from Continuation Power Flow results. The optimal location of TCSC placement has been considered in a line producing maximum in each line A criterion for the optimal placement of TCSC, in this work, has been that it should not be placed in aq line connecting two generator buses. V. DYNAMIC ANALYSIS Dynamic voltage stability is analyzed by monitoring the Eigen values of the linearized system as a power system is progressively loaded. When the ÃŽÂ » parameter varies, the equilibrium points of the dynamic system also vary accordingly, and so do the Eigen values of the corresponding state matrix ASYS. The equilibrium points are asymptotically stable if all the Eigen values have negative real parts. The point where a complex conjugate pair of Eigen values reaches the imaginary axis with respect to changes in ÃŽÂ » is known as Hopf Bifurcation point. Power system oscillations are associated with a pair of complex Eigen values of equlibria crossing the imaginary axis of the complex plane, from the left half plane to the right half plane, when the system undergoes sudden changes. If this particular dynamic problem is studied using gradual changes it can be viewed as Hopf bifurcation problem. Thus by predicting these types of bifurcations well in advance, a possible dynamic instability problem may be avoided. Figure 6 Hopf Bifurcation point VI. RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS To implement the optimal placement two case studies were taken of IEEE 14 bus system and 39 bus New England system. The software packages used in the system analysis are MATLAB, and PSAT (power system analysis toolbox) A.STATIC ANALYSIS: Continuation power flow for intact system was performed and SLM was found to State of the system Divergence point Weakest Bus Intact 2.88 5 With TCSC 3.10 4 With SSSC 3.20 4 Table 2 Comparison of loadability of the 14 bus system Line outages SLM True Ranking RCI Ranking 1-2 * 1 0.308 1 2-3 0.5593 2 0.2798 2 1-5 0.5596 4 0.1292 3 5-6 0.65508 3 0.1271 4 7-9 0.7066 5 0.0815 5 Table 1 Contingency based ranking for SLM and RCI for 14 bus system Fig7 PSAT simulink model of IEEE14 bus Test system For the placement of series FACTS devices sensitivity index for various cases is calculated and it is inferred that line 1-5 is the optimum location as the index is having most negative value for it. Newton Raphson load flow was performed on the 14 bus system and the values of P load were incremented in steps of 0.2 percentage of loading with NR load flow being performed again on the modified system. The NR diverged at 2.88 times of loading and system suffered voltage collapse. The weakest bus observed to be is the 5m bus followed by 4m bus. With TCSC placement, the NR diverges at 3.1times loading while it does the same for 3.2 when SSSC is incorporated. Thus proving that compensation provided by series FACTS devices enhances the capacity of the system to bear stress in the form of increased load. The improvement in the voltage profile for the 5th bus is better with SSSC as compared to TCSC. B. DYNAMIC ANALYSIS: The test case considered for the dynamic analysis is IEEE 14 bus system. The approach to study the stability is Hopfield Bifurcation as already mentioned. For the analysis of dynamic stability, dynamic model of 14 bus system was made which includes synchronous generators and AVR connected at the PV buses apart from the other static components. After obtaining the Hopf bifurcation of the system for the weakest bus the optimal location of the FACTS devices is determined and they are placed accordingly to provide stability to the system. The power flow is performed for the intact system and the Eigen values are found to be negative with PL = 0.076 p.u. at bus 5. When the PL is increased to 2.419 times of the initial load, two Eigen values cross the imaginary axis leading to Hopf bifurcation and instability. To render stable conditions, TCSC is optimally placed in line 1-5 based on the sensitivity index already calculated and it is found that the load can be increased till 5.58 times of the actual load before reaching the Hopf bifurcation point. The comparison of the stable and unstable system due to increased loading effect is depicted by the Figures 9 and 10. The placement of SSSC is not possible as it produced negative compensation in the system which can be related to the presence 3 synchronous condensers in the IEEE 14 bus system. This is inferred from the fact that SSSC, also acting as a VAR generator at times, adds to the reactive power generated from the other dynamic components present in the system. VII. CONCLUSION: Static voltage instability in the system may occur due to deficit of reactive power. The reactive power requirement of the system may increase under severe contingencies. Therefore, contingency ranking based on Static voltage stability criterion, can be obtained based on the extra reactive support requirement from existing sources. Dynamic voltage instability, on the other hand has been attributed to Hopf bifurcation when one pair of Eigen values of the systems state matrix reaches imaginary axis, following change in the system parameters such as load. FACTS devices prove to be an effective remedy in enhancing system voltage stability. But due to high cost of FACTS controllers their placement should be such as to improve both static and dynamic voltage stability. The comparison between the placement of TCSC and SSSC has been shown for both the static and dynamic analysis. SSSC is found to be best suited for the static stability enhancement whereas the dynamic stability improvement incorporates only TCSC.

FIFA Corruption Essays -- world cup, ethics committe, presidents

Fifa has made  £1,200,000,000 per year from sponsors, television and the World Cup. Fifa’s latest financial amount over the four years to the end of 2010 show the organisation has earned more than four billion. That's an increase of fifty-nine percent over the previous four year stretch which included the World Cup in Germany (BBC, pars. 1). Its broadcast rights and marketing which are leading the boom of course, and Fifa is riding the wave that's thrown the Premier League skywards too (BBC, pars. 2). Fifa has banked $631m to its reserves, which now stand at $1.2 billion (BBC, pars. 3). Fifa says of the money it raised, seventy percent was ploughed back into the game by staging tournaments and investing in projects. Fifa put $794m into football development, including its 'Goal' and 'Win in Africa' projects (BBC, pars. 4). More than $350m has been handed out to the member FAs, under what's called the Financial Assistance Programme (BBC, pars. 5) FIFA was first created in the year 1904 and since then they have a long history about how soccer became a worldwide sport. The history of FIFA begins after an international soccer match played between France and Belgium, taking place in Brussels, Belgium on 1 May, 1904. The French and Belgium soccer players decided that it would be a good idea to create a soccer association to make rules of soccer.So they created the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) which is now one of the most famous football associations in the world. FIFA was founded in the rear of the headquarters of the Union Franà §aise de Sports Athlà ©tiques at the Rue Saint Honorà © 229 in Paris on 21 May 1904(CFH, pars. 1). The Fà ©dà ©ration Internationale de Football Association(FIFA) was named by the French d... ...History of Fifa† FIFA.com, Web. 18 Feb. 2014 Hughes, Rob. â€Å"One by One , Those Atop FIFA Are Falling† The New York Times, Web. 7 Feb. 2014 â€Å"History of FIFA-More associations follow† FIFA.com, Web. 18 Feb. 2014 Tannenwald, Jonathan. â€Å"FIFA's Sepp Blatter Qatar won 2022 World Cup bid with political influence† Philly Sports, Web. 7 Feb. 2014 â€Å"Fifa Origin† Essoccer.com, Web. 17 Feb. 2014 â€Å"Fifa History† Essocer.com, Web. 17 Feb. 2014

What is Style? Essay -- Style Personality Individuality Papers

What is Style? What is style, and how do we know when we have a style that is all our own? This is one thought that I ponder on cloudy dreary days, and when I have nothing better to do than think. In all actuality, do we even have a style we can call our own, or are we a conglomeration of what we like in the people around us? I would like to think I have my own style, but then reality sets in, and I start to realize I'm a clone of all the people I admire, and desire to be like. I has taken me a long time to realize that no matter how hard I tried to be my own person, I was still following in other peoples footsteps. When I was in high school, I did all I could to remain in the "in" crowd. But if you were to ask me if I had my own style, I would have said yes. Even though I wore the same clothes, talk the same language, and played the same sports, I still thought I had my own style. I was so convinced that I was different. But now when I look back, I can see that I was exactly the way I didn't want to be. The only comforting thing about style is that no matter how hard we try to be individuals, we all copy one another. It's nice to know I'm not the only person this happens to, although I think this is rather evident in many people. There are still many groups that dress alike, talk alike, and listen to the same music. No matter where we live, or our social status, we can all become victims of style. One of the best places to see different styles is while visiting a mall, grocery store, or a music shop. These stores can also be a cheap form of entertainment. I can remember one time when a friends of mine, and I had some time to waste before we went to a movie. We went to the mall to engage in our favorite pass time of p... ...to another person, I feel that in some way I have violated this person. But I think that if we don our best make the style look as good as we can, than there shouldn't be any need to worry. I guess the only way I can have a person think about the other is to use your better judgment. If it was your style that was being used wouldn't you feel terrible if someone else ruined the whole idea that you had. It would be like if someone were to read a paper for you, and then this person turned it all around to make it sound nothing like you had wanted, or intended. But then again, there is no way to stop people from ruining what you had created. I guess this is a part of living. We can't control the people around us, so we should be who we want to be, and do what we want to do. And if someone has a problem with that, then that is something that they will have to deal with.

Satisfaction Gained from Blogging :: Blogs

Satisfaction Gained from Blogging The question most frequently asked about blogging is why. What is in a blog that makes it something unique that people find attractive enough to want to write about their daily lives to the whole world? While there are many reasons bloggers do what they do, I’m looking specifically at what satisfaction is gained from it. The blog I have observed over the past few weeks is very much like a regular journal posted by Jim. He talks about anything and everything he deems important enough in his life. Generally speaking, he posts about real events and thoughts on real things that happen directly in his life. His posts go back quite a ways too, about a year, and he posts daily. To me, this sounds almost addicting. It was at this point that I began to wonder what made blogging so addicting and questioned the enjoyment and pleasure factors that are involved. I finally emailed Jim and asked him why he blogs and who he blogs for. His answer was the expected answer; "Really, I just do it for myself. My thoughts have no...order, really...they're all very disjointed and random. I don't know why anyone reads mine, it's really not that good and not as interesting as some of the others out there. Though I am flattered when people tell me they do enjoy it. I also think they're crazy, but that's not the point...My friends do theirs as a journal of sorts...but I try not to write anything too incredibly personal." I think many people like Jim want their readers to think that they just do it for themselves and not for any real reasons. However if this were true, no blogger would write their journals online in the first place. The idea of having potentially thousands of people reading their blogs and commenting on them is enough to make bloggers post. If Jim and all those out there that really just do it for themselves they would keep it private. He states that he doesn’t do his as a journal like his friends, but upon reading a few entries, you’ll find that is exactly like a journal, and some of his posts are extremely personal. â€Å"Though I am flattered when people tell me they do enjoy it.† That kind of reinforcement from the internet public is precisely the idea I am trying to get across to the bloggers who may be in denial about doing it just for themselves.

Political Message

Nearly a quarter century ago, Denmark broke down barriers to become the first nation to legally recognize same-sex couples through registered partnerships. Same- sex marriage Is currently legally recognized nationwide In eleven nations – Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain and Sweden (The Economist, 2012). In the united States, the decision is made at the state level. After the 2012 elections, there are now nine states (Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont andWashington) and the District of Columbia who permit legally binding marriages between same-sex couples (The Economist, 2012). The Working Group, appointed by the PAP Council of Representatives, stated ‘The PAP recognizes the Importance of the institution of civil marriage which confers a social status with important legal benefits, rights and privileges (PAP, 2004). † Statues and Bates (2010) surveye d couples, both homosexual and heterosexual, on what words define marriage. In the surveys, the biggest theme, with 79%, was that marriage is â€Å"contractual. Another ajar theme was the Idea of â€Å"love† as being an Important part of a marriage – almost half of the respondents agreed. Additionally In the surveys respondents were asked about their stance on same-sex marriage – over half, 55%, were against a same-sex marriage but acknowledged the loving bond that comes from the relationship. Card (2007) contends that â€Å"the laws should no more declare which durable intimate sexual unions between freely consenting adults are legitimate and which are not than it should declare which newborns are legitimate and which are not. The language of he Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) does not specify the genders of the partners ? â€Å"Man and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality, or religion, have the right to marry and f ound and family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage, and at its dissolution. † But with the rights and privileges of marriage also come hardships and legalities if the union wishes to be dissolved. In heterosexual marriages the solution is easy. Show residency in the state where the divorce wishes to be granted and begin the legal proceedings.In homosexual marriages, the process Is fraught with complications. Even In states that do recognize gay marriage, gay divorce can soul be a legal mess because gay marriages aren't recognized by the federal government – or the IRS (Smith, 2011). Missouri was the first state to pass a referendum for a constitutional restriction limiting marriage to one man and one woman (Cooperate, 2004). The struggle continues with 31 states in agreement with an affirmative vote on a referendum. Additionally same-sex couples cannot get a divorce In over 80% of the nation and couples are not bound to live In the same s tate In which they married.Must the couple stay married since there is no clear avenue for dissolution? Should a state allow divorces when it does not allow marriages? What happens to the assets and dependents in a same-sex divorce? What are some precedents other countries have put into effect and could this work for the United States? This paper will address the conundrum of marriage equality at the beginning of a marriage and the limbo Same-Sex Divorce and the Legal System In 1942, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that â€Å"marriage is one of the ‘basic civil rights of man,' fundamental to our very existence and survival† (Mourn, 2012).In landmark cases of the asses, including the watershed case of Loving v. Virginia in 1967, the court applied this line of thinking to interracial marriage and the subsequent legal acceptance nationwide, overturning a court decision held for 84 years. Almost a half century later, states are coming under the microscope with their Defense o f Marriage Acts, or Dooms, which detail how each state recognizes a legal marriage and its benefits, and the relationship of a DOOM to same-sex marriage and divorce requests.The birth of the DOOM began in Hawaii in 1991 when, in Hawaii, three same-sex peoples filed a state court civil lawsuit claiming that they were denied a marriage license based on discrimination of sex, in the case Baber v. Lenin (Thornton, 2009). While the trial court sided with the Department of Health (the department responsible for marriage licenses) the case was appealed to Hawaii's Supreme Court for further review, who eventually overturned the decision. The case sparked an interest in the federal House Committee on the Judiciary who were debating H.R. 3396, the proposal of DOOM, and considered that the Hawaii issue was â€Å"legal assault against traditional heterosexual marriage laws. (Thornton, 2009) DOOM passed in September 1996 with two purposes – â€Å"to defend the institution of traditional heterosexual marriage† and â€Å"to protect the right of the States to formulate their own public policy regarding the legal recognition of same-sex unions, free from any federal constitutional implications that might attend the recognition of one State of the right for homosexual couples to acquire marriage licenses. (Thornton, 2009) From an outsider's perspective, it could be perceived that the federal government was supporting heterosexual marriage (and, by default, not supporting same-sex arraign) but at the same time supporting a state's ability and responsibility to make a decision on the issue. This contradictory stance was positioning the DOOM to become a conflict-builder in the coming years after adoption. In 2008, then- presidential candidate Barack Obama, when he supported a full repeal of the DOOM act, stated that â€Å"Federal law should not discriminate in any way against gay and lesbian couples, which is precisely what DOOM does† (Mourn, 2012).Yet it is in the power of each state, not federal law, to determine what is and what not a marriage is. Some courts have asserted that they do not have subject-matter Jurisdiction over same-sex divorce (Byrne and Holcomb, 2011) while other states Justify their legal stance thusly – since they do not recognize same-sex marriage in that state, they cannot grant a subsequent same-sex divorce if the marriage in question is not recognized as legal. This unique situation is becoming commonly known as â€Å"wed- locked† (Landau, 2012).When a same-sex former couple is wed-locked, they cannot divide property and debt legally, have child custody and visitation issues, cannot marry and are deprived of psychological resolution of the former marriage. All fifty states have no-fault divorce options and cannot force couples to stay married (Brand Holcomb, 2012). Under this line of thinking, a same-sex divorce should be considered the same as a heterosexual divorce but there are vast differenc es and asserting that there were three reasons that led into the final decision that the â€Å"categorical denial of access to divorce is constitutionally suspect† (Byrne and Holcomb, 2012).The first reason is that couples who wish for a same-sex divorce are being denied access to courts. Secondly, couples cannot dissolve their legal marriage because of a court's monopoly on divorce (since marriage is a legal proceeding, a dissolution of such is also a legal proceeding). Lastly, since the same-sex former couple cannot be granted a legal divorce they therefore cannot remarry, which is Bodied acknowledged is a fundamental right. States have equal protection jurisprudence, or the requirement that people who are in a similar situation will be treated similarly (Byrne and Holcomb, 2012).So if a Judge denies a same-sex divorce, he is making a decision against constitutional rights that are protected. It is only institutional if the situation passes an equal protection review (Byrne and Holcomb, 2012). Prohibiting a same-sex divorce violates both substantive due process and equal protection under Bodied. Currently only the state of Georgia explicitly states in its constitutional Defense of Marriage Acts that it has no Jurisprudence in same-sex divorces (Byrne and Holcomb, 2011).Therefore the other 49 states should have subject matter Jurisdiction over same-sex divorces – but not all acknowledge as such. Over two decades ago a company began called Collaborative Practices, to offer an alternative to legal divorce for same-sex couples (Sacking, 2006). The company works together with the couple and a team of family law specialists, psychologists, financial advisors and more to work with the separating couples on non-controversial options to their ending relationship.Marietta Goldenness, a Collaborative attorney who specializes in LEGIT family law, states â€Å"to have to rely on a court system that doesn't protect your rights or legally recognize your iden tity is scary – very scary' (Sacking, 2006). The company currently practices in ten countries and in some U. S. States where a same-sex legal divorce is a hindrance. The problem with a state's Defense of Marriage Acts is that it was created for protecting marriage rights, and not necessarily the right to divorce. Yet a court does not need to recognize a marriage in order to grant the relief of a divorce.Divorce is not a â€Å"benefit of marriage† because a divorce is not asking for the rights and privileges of marriage – instead it is asking for the removal of such. Currently same-sex couples cannot be married in one state and presume that they'll receive or demand the marriage and divorce rights in their home state. There is no language in any state's DOOM that explicitly states that it provides relief of a same-sex divorce. Yet there is also no divorce statute that asserts that the marriage needs to be valid in the state in which the divorcing couple files. By rne, 2012). Stark Jokes that â€Å"gay divorce will lead to a change in the meaning of ‘gay divorcee'. No longer will it mean fun and carefree. Instead gay divorcees will be grouped together with the straight people who [hopefully] escaped bad marriages. (Stark, 2011)† Couples who are unable to divorce under these DOOM restrictions and limitations may also have their income h/she earns, while searching to secure a divorce, be regarded as â€Å"marital income†, which in some states have strict guidelines n how to divide it.A same-sex marriage partner may be forced to split his/her income earned months or years after the initial separation. Some states, such as Pennsylvania, have the authority to issue a declaration to void a marriage (Mourn, marriage with copious amounts of income, savings, real estate or possessions, might go about this option. Others, who feel as if a declaration negates the realness of a marriage (similar to an annulment) and who have material and immaterial goods shared throughout their relationship, may view the declaration as taking away each ember's marital rights to the other.If the marriage wasn't real in the court's eyes, then the division of property cannot exist. Yet courts regularly provide property division, custody orders and spousal support to same-sex couples (Byrne, 2012), so why can courts not grant a legal divorce or separation as well? An additional problem is that there is no guarantee that a declaration from one state will be upheld in another state that has a different standpoint on same-sex marriage and divorce. In contrast , all Nordic countries now have the term ‘registered partnership' to define a same-sex marriage.These registered partnerships are not part of the Marriage Act. Anchorperson, Knack, Asserted and Wooden-Faker(2006) states that â€Å"one reason was purely pragmatic, as it was easier to introduce a new law than to alter the existing one†. Another argument presented in the debate before Norwegian law was passed, was a fear that modifying the existing marriage code might be perceived as a threat towards marriage as a social institution and its unique position on society' (Anderson et al, 2006).However couldn't this be seen as a cry of support for heterosexual marriages if they are the standard for the social institution? Registered partnerships are given the hazy veil of marriage but not the symbolic Justifications. Yet where Norway registered partnerships stand out from U. S. ‘s same-sex marriages is the ease of the dissolution. Ending the relationship is very similar to the process of conferring the relationship. One, or both, partners file for a separation license and must be separated for at least one year before filing for divorce.Tax laws are also more lenient with the addition of four key statues – registered partner, separated partner, divorced partner and surviving partner. In comparison, in 2003 Canada's Divorce Act stipulated t hat legal separation would only be recognized as between â€Å"a man or women who are married to each other† (Hays, 2004). That changed in 2005 and again in 2012 with an amendment to the Civil Marriage Act with Bill C-32 (House of Commons of Canada, 2012). Bill C-32 is specifically for divorce of non-resident spouses.The former spouses must be living separate for at least one year before a couple can seek a divorce as well as be residing in a state (or country) â€Å"where a divorce cannot be granted because that state does not recognize the Aladdin of the marriage† (House of Commons of Canada, 2012 Another issue brought forth by Afar is what does it really mean to be a â€Å"man†, a â€Å"woman† or â€Å"opposite sex† in the legal system? (Afar, 2010) He questions what happens to the status of transgender people who legally change their identifying documents from â€Å"man† to â€Å"women† after a sex change, etc.If a former male, no w a legal woman, enters into a marriage and subsequent divorce with a male, what rights does the transgender person have in the divorce? Which matters more – the way a person was physically born or the body parts a person now possesses? The U. S. Supreme Court will hear challenges to the federal Defense of Marriage Act and Californians Proposition 8 ban this year (Grossman, 2013). Rulings in those cases, likely by late federal benefits and protections as opposite-sex married couples and whether a state can ban gay marriage. If the U. S.Supreme Court redefines legal marriage, a state that recognizes same-sex marriage might have to recognize a declaration of judgment from a non-recognizing state as terminating the marriage effectively, and vice versa. Also, redefining legal marriage will also affect the legal rights of parents and the definition off parent. Same-Sex Divorce and Children With same-sex commitment ceremonies, marriages, separations and attempts at divorce running parallel to those of heterosexual couples, one may ask – what does it really mean in this modern age to be a parent?Grossman (2013) visualizes: The Florida Supreme Court recently heard arguments in the case of a lesbian couple in which one of the women's eggs, fertilized with donor sperm and nurtured in vitro, was implanted in the birth mother/partner. The egg donor parent could not adopt their baby because Florida does not recognize same-sex marriages or permit same- sex adoption. Nine years later, the birth mother took off with their daughter. The original Judge in their custody battle granted custody to the birth mother. An appeals court overturned that Judgment, granting parental rights to both women.If the donor mom's rights are upheld by the state supreme court, the decision could redefine Florida law. Which of the mothers has more claim to the child – the one whose egg was used or the one who nurtured and gave birth to the child? Additionally, what assurance do the mothers have that their insurance company Coin policy if available, or separate) will carry the dependent of same-sex partners on the policy? Card (2007) writes that the denial of auxiliary benefits such as this is both an injustice and an arbitrary unjustified inequality to the dependent .In the absence of legal protections, lesbian co-mothers, if they are not the biological mother, are likely to lose access to the child they helped to parent (Abram, 1999). What happens to the child of two (or one, if one partner carried the child) non-biological parents during a divorce? If a presumed parent, one who has been in the child's life on an ongoing basis, is not legally recognized as the parent, due to the laws of same-sex marriage ND divorce in that state, does the parent have legal parental rights or visitation to the child?Allen (2007) relates a personal experience of ambiguous relationship. When one of the partners ends the relationship, all the so-called legal safeguards are nu ll and void except property rights, such as home ownership) because the law, the society, and the culture define former LEGIT partners and their children as legal strangers (Allen, 2007). The biological child of one partner and the biological child of the other partner (already born when the relationship began) do not have contact anymore since the family unit is now two separate family units.Thus when a same- sex marriage ends, there is cause for thought to gain the same legal benefits as a heterosexual divorce in terms of child custody and visitation rights. Summary The stance on marriage issues is currently both a unifier and a divider in political, social, economic and religious platforms. The same holds true for divorce and the roadblocks in obtaining a legal divorce – including vague laws, the interpretation of laws or code and child custody or visitation rights.

Managerial Finance Essay

ASSIGNMENT BMMF5103 MANAGERIAL FINANCE 15 July 2013 QUESTION 1 a) Maximizing shareholder wealth is a â€Å"moral imperative† for financial manager means managers are supposed to work for shareholders who are the actual owners of a company or corporation. Shareholders elect company directors who in turn hire managers to run the company on day to day basis with the view to make profit for the company. Managers are paid for their services rendered to the company whereas the shareholders own the company. As such morally managers should pursue policies that enhance shareholder value with the primary objective focused on stockholder wealth maximization. b) Managers make key day-to-day decisions to maximize shareholder value. But how do the owners of a business know that managers are operating to maximize shareholder value? This lack of information is known as the principal-agent problems. The agent performs the tasks on shareholders’ behalf yet the shareholders cannot ensure that the agent performs precisely the way the shareholders would like. Agency costs as related to a corporation refers to the costs of preventing agents (e.g. managers) pursuing their own interests at the expense of shareholders. There might be conflicts between shareholders and the company managers. Shareholders who are owners want the managers to make decisions which will increase the share value. Managers who receive salaries prefer to expand the business with the view to increase their salaries which may not necessarily increase the share value. Thus, agency costs tend to decrease the value of a corporation because the rising costs make the share price low when there is substantial debt involved. Costs of monitoring will increase and thus reduce wealth maximization of shareholders. c) Business ethics is the acceptable set of moral values and corporate standards of conduct in running a business organization. It includes proper business policies and practices such as corporate governance, as a check against insider trading, bribery, discrimination and covers corporate social responsibility and fiduciary responsibilities. Business ethics is a basic framework providing proper conduct, it may be guided by law or put in placeso as to gain public confidence and acceptance. An example of business ethics is when an employee lie to a potential client to get him to sign for services or purchase the product offered. Business ethics is important to a corporation because it will determine its reputation. It will give public confidence towards the corporation. It is essential for the long-term survival and success of the corporation in business. Implementing an ethical program will foster a successful corporation culture, values and enhanced profitability. Business ethics will also influence the way the corporations conduct its business and affect all including customers, employees, suppliers, competitors, etc. d) Advantages i) There is no maturity period in common stock. Thus, eliminating future repayment obligation and enhances the desirability of common stock financing. ii) There is no obligation for repayment of the funds. Instead, there are others to share the risk of the business investment with. Since there is no debt obligation, there is no finance fee. iii) Issuing common stock can increase firm’s borrowing power.The more common stock is sold, the larger the firm’s equity base. Therefore, the more easily and cheaply long-term debt financing can be obtained. iv) Once capital is raised through stock, the corporation is free to use the proceeds in any way it pleases. Disadvantages i) Involves high cost.It may be the most expensive form of long-term financing. Dividends are not tax-deductible and common stock is a riskier  security than either debt or preferred stock. ii) Potential effects of dilution on earnings and voting power. When a company or corporation issues more shares, its financial results must be divided by a larger number of shares, causing dilution. This is because selling of shares of the company means giving each investor a piece of ownership. Because they own the share of the company, the investors have the right to demand explanations and justifications for business decisions. iii) Market perception that management think. Management issues involve examining perceptions about management and perceptions by management. It includes various judgments regarding the competence of current and future management team as well as issues related to insider buying such as future strategies to increase operations and market share.When management makes large purchases of their own stock with private funds, investors may feel that the company is undervalued or that a favorable company event will occur soon. e) The three main users of ratio analysis i) Owners: The owners of a firm are mainly interested in the firm’s profitability, liquidity and hence survival. Therefore, they need financial ratios to test the performance of their company such as profitability ratios to find outwhether management is able to convert sales dollars into profits and cash flow. The common ratios are gross margin, operating margin and net income margin. The gross margin is the ratio of gross profits to sales. The operating margin is the ratio of operating profits to sales and net income margin is the ratio of net income to sales. The return-on-asset ratio, which is the ratio of net income to total assets, measures a company’s effectiveness in deploying its assets to generate profits. The return-on-investment ratio, which is the ratio of net income to shareholders’ equity, indicates a company’s ability to generate a return for its owners. These ratios are useful to owners of companies. ii) Creditors Creditors are interested in a firm’s ability to pay their debts over a short period of time.The ratio analysis will evaluate the firm’s liquidity  position. Creditors use liquidity ratio, which is the ratio of current assets to current liabilitiestogauge the ability of the company to pay its short-term bills. A ratio of greater than one is usually a minimum because anything less than one means the company has more liabilities than assets. iii) Management Management team comprising financial managers regularly use ratio analysis to evaluate financial policies and decisions they have made. It is the overall responsibilities of the management team to make sure available resources are used most effectively and efficiently and that the financial positions of the company is sound.Management uses profitability ratios to analyze the company’s ability to convert sales dollars into profits and cash flow. For example, the return-on-investment ratio, which is the ratio of net income to shareholders’ equity, indicates a company’s ability to generate a return for its owners. Examples of ratio formula: Example 1: Gross margin ratio Gross Margin = Gross Profit Revenue Gross profit and revenue figures are obtained from the income statement of a business. Alternatively, gross profit can be calculated by subtracting cost of goods sold from revenue. Thus gross margin formula may be restated as: Gross Margin = Revenue − Cost of Goods Sold Revenue Example 2: Operating margin ratio Operating income is same as earnings before interest and tax. Operating income and revenue figures is available from the income statement of a company. Operating Margin = Operating Income Revenue QUESTION 2 a) There are five different categories of financial ratios. They are: i) Liquidity ratio is used to measurecompany’s ability to pay its short-term debt obligations. As such, they focus on the firm’s current assets and current liabilities on the balance sheet.The most common liquidity ratios used is the current ratio mainly to give an idea of the company’s ability to pay back its short-term liabilities such as debt and payables with its short-term assets such as cash, inventory and receivables. ii) Debt ratio is used to measure company’s ability to meet its long-term debt obligations. The ratio indicates what proportion of debt a company has relative to its assets. The measure gives an idea to the leverage of the company along with the potential risks the company faces in terms of its debt-load. iii) Financial leverage ratio measure the extent to which a business or investor is using the borrowed money. A company having high leverage is considered to be at risk of bankruptcy in the event the company is unable to repay the debts. The most common financial leverage ratio is the debt-to-equity ratio calculated as total debt divided by shareholders equity iv) Asset efficiency or turnover ratios measure the efficiency a company uses its assets to produce sales. The most common asset efficiency ratios are the inventory turnover ratio, the receivables turnover ratio, the days’ sales in inventory ratio, the days’ sales in receivables ratio, the net working capital ratio, the fixed asset turnover ratio, and the total asset turnover ratio. v) The profitability ratios measure the company’s ability to generate a profit and an adequate return on assets and equity. The ratios measure how efficiently the firm uses its assets and how effectively it manages its operations. An example is the Net profit margin ratio is a ratio of profitability calculated as after-tax net income (net profits) divided by sales (revenue). It shows the amount of each sales dollar left over after all expenses have been paid. Limitations of financial ratios i) Although financial ratios can be effective tools for gauging financial performance and managerial effectiveness, they rarely provide answers. Ratios will not say why something is going wrong and what to do about a particular situation; they only pinpoint where a problem is. ii) There is no international standards on the use of financial ratios. Limitation of ratios interpretation emerges when a particular set of ratios of a company is compared to other company or business. For example, for calculating the inventory turnover one company may use the cost of goods sold as the numerator, while another may use its sales figures. A company may use the operating profit to calculate its total assets turnover, while another may use the net income after taxes. iii) Benchmark for assessing company’s financial position is needed. Different operating methodologies may be employed to run a company may render the comparison of financial ratios irrelevant. Example, a company prefers to lease most of its assets while another company may own them. Thus, some of the ratios, such as debt to total assets, fixed-charge coverage, total assets turnover, and return on total assets, would be unrelated. iv) The inflation factor can make the ratio of a particular company look good or bad. Inventory turnover may have deteriorated over a three-year period; the problem may not due to the increase in physical inventory, but rather, to increase in the cost of the goods. b) Effect of an increase in a company’s debt ratio to its return on equity. An increase on debt-ratio will be increase in the return of equity. If a company finances itself through debt, the creditors shoulder the risk. If the debt results in increased earnings, the return on shareholder investment is exponential. Total liabilities include both the current and non-current liabilities. The formula to calculate the debt ratio is: Debt Ratio = Total Liabilities Total Assets Return on Equity is expressed as a percentage and calculated as: ROE = Net Income/Common Equity c) Long-term interest rate = (RM13,000,000) (8/100) = RM1,040,000 Short-term interest rate = RM1,300,000 – RM1,040,000 = RM260,000 Short-term interest rate = RM260,000/RM1,546,000 = 0.168 Rate of interest on notes payable is 16.8% d) Changes in value of equity (in millions) (RM in millions) Shareholders’ beginning equity 537 Shareholders’ ending equity 485 Difference beginning & ending equity 52 Net income 128 Less: Paid dividends 57 Difference 71 Stock/shares purchased in the year (52+71) 123 Shares purchased throughout the year is RM123 million e) If the current ratio of corporation is 5.65 when industry average is 1.42, this disparity means that the corporation is having: i) an excess build-up in inventory. When the corporation holds a high level of inventory, it ties up business funds that could have been used in other areas such as in development or marketing. The cost of the inventory is not recovered by the corporation until it sells the inventory. ii) aged account receivables which is the amounts owed to the company by its customers. The corporation’s account receivables reports will identify problems with receivables management process and identify accounts that require collection action. QUESTION 3 a) Although ownership of stock represents ownership in a company, not all stock is created equal. Therefore there are two basic types of stock: common stock and preferred stock. Preferred stock is sometimes referred to as a hybrid security because it has features of common stocks and bonds. A company’s preferred stock trades independently of its common stock and offers preferred stockholders a different set of benefits. Preferred stocks paid amount of dividends just as fixed interest bond. It is not debt but equity like common stocks. b) Preferred stock par value of RM100 with annual dividend 10%. Annual rate of return is 11.5%. i) RM100 X10/100% = RM10. Yield of 11.5% 11.5%/100 = 0.115 = RM86.96 ii) As the risk-free rate increases, the required rate of return will increase and the price will drop. When rates increase, the price of the preferred stock will likely fall. If price falls, the issuer will likely call the preferred stock and replace it with a new preferred stock issue at a lower rate, conventional debt, or perhaps even common stock c) RM4.63(1+0.05)/(0.12-0.05) = 4.8615/0.07 = 69.46 The value of the company’s stock if the required rate of return is 12% is RM69.46 d) Before change in price per share, r =5% + (8% -5%) beta 1.3 = 8.9% After change in price per share, r = 4% + (10% – 4%) 1.5 = 13% Therefore, the change in price per share is RM4.87 e) Formula for constant growth is rs = r RE + (rm – rRE)b = 6% + 5% (1.4) = 13% 2013 = RM0 dividen 2015 = RM1.00 2016 = RM1.00 (1.2) = RM1.20 2017 = RM1.00 RM1.44 2018 = RM1.00 RM1.728 2019 = RM1.00 RM1.849 Calculate growth between constant rate = The price of the stock is RM20.16 QUESTION 4 a) Needs RM40,000/year during retirement period n = 10 yrs, i = 9 % PVA = PMT (PVIFA) = RM40,000 (9.129) = RM365,160 PV = RM365,160 (0.422) = RM154,097.52 The Mirians should deposit RM154,097.52 b) Model A: PV = PMT (PVIFA) = RM5,000 (3.993) = RM19,965 Model B: Year Payment (RM) PVIF PV 1 7,000 0.926 6,482 2 6,000 0.857 5,142 3 5,000 0.794 3,970 4 4,000 0.735 2,940 5 3,000 0.681 2,043 Total: 20,577 I would purchase/buy model A because it is cheaper by RM612 compared to model B. c) Which option to be chosen? Option 1 PMT = RM3,500/2.487 = RM1,407,318.05 Option 2 PMT = RM3,500/3.102 = RM1,128,304.32 Option 3 PMT = RM3,500/3.605 = RM970,873.79 The company should choose option 3 because lower by RM157,430.53 compared to option 2 which is second lowest d) Present value is exact invest of the compound interest calculations. Applying compound interest calculation is to find the future value of a present amount. Using the present value calculation a present value amount is found to be received in future. e) Over certain period the principle amount increases as a result of the installment payments resulting in lower amount of interest that is charged by the bank. QUESTION 5 a) When an investor buys a bond, the investor is lending money to the bond issuer, which could be a government, corporation, etc. The issuer promises to pay a specified rate of interest during the life of the bond and to repay the principal, also known as face value or par value of the bond, when it â€Å"matures,† or comes due after a set period of time. Thus bonds provide interest payment and principal payment. Payment of interest is done annually or semi-annually. Coupon payments are paid periodically. When bond matures a principal sum is paid which is a lump sum payment. b) Bond prices and interest rates are related. Interest rates and bond prices have â€Å"inverse relationship†, when one goes up, the other goes down. If interest rates is high enough, bond prices would fall. If interest rates is low, bond prices would rise. Prices of short-term bonds do not fluctuate  more often compared to long-term bond. Premium bond is sold when the stated rate of interests exceed the required rate of return. Example, if rates dropped to below original coupon rate of 7% for RM1,000 bond, it would be priced at a premium since it would be carrying a higher interest rate than what was currently available in the market. A bond will sell at a discount when the stated rate of interest is less than the required return. Bond is sold equal to the par value when the stated rate of interest is equal to the required return. c) Param does not have enough money to buy 10 bonds if the required rate of return is 9%. This is because the required rate of return which is 9% is less than the coupon rate of the bond which is 10%. The price of the bond is greater than the par value of RM1,000. Considering there are 10 bonds, the total price is greater than RM10,000. That is the reason why Param would not have enough money to buy the 10 bonds. d) FV = RM1,000 PMT =150 N = 10 PV = RM1,250 1/YR = 10.79% e) Interest rate risk is the risk of decline in bond values due to the increase in interest whereas reinvestment risk is the risk of an income decline due to a drop in interest rates. Bond holders who bought long-term bond is greatly at risk to the interest rate risk. QUESTION 6 a) [(RM18+RM4+RM3+RM2-RM24)/24] X 100% = 12.5%. Therefore, Billie jean’s realized rate of return during the three years holding period is 12.5% b) (i) Stock 1 8 + 0.8 (12 – 8) = 11.2% Stock 2 8 + 1.2 (12 – 8) = 12.8% Stock 3 8 + 0.6 (12 – 8) = 10.4% (ii) Stock 3 is undervalued due since E (R) ≠¥ RR c) Beta is the measurement for market risk which is non-diversifiable. The risk must be dealt with by the portfolio manager. Diversifiable risk should be diversified away by portfolio manager so that it would not pose a problem to the investment. As such all market risks is all relevant to the portfolio manager since it is his job and responsibility in balancing the likely risk and return. d) The situation suggest that investors are more risk adverse compared to before the shift taking place. On the portfolio, a risk premium of 11% (16% – 5%) is required whereas previously 10% (15% – 5%). If slope were to change downward, it means investors are less aversion to risk. e) Expected return: 0.9(12%) + 0.1 (20%) = 12.8% Beta: 0.9(1.2) + 0.1(2.0) = 1.28%

Long Haul Destinations Essay

Task 3: Explore the factors affecting long haul destinations P3&M115% still in November.ase .er numbers in the future as security tightens further to keep up with the constant threat of att Many things will affect people’s decision to travel, the destinations they choose and for how long they stay. Different destinations are affected by different factors, here we will explore these factors and the destinations they effect. Time Zones & Length of flight All journey times are given in local time which incorporates any addition or subtraction for GMT. This can cause confusion when working out journey times. There is also daylight saving to take into account, British Summer Time (BST) is when the clocks go forward on the last Sunday in March – all other countries use daylight saving too. New York are behind 5 hours  this is expressed as GMT-5 South Africa is 2 hours ahead  this is expressed as GMT+2 An inconvenience of time zone changes during travel is fatigue caused by jet lag, this is the effect unusual rapid change has on the body’s internal clock. This can make you feel tired and unwell which, if you are travelling for pleasure especially, you may be disappointed to start your holiday this way. Another worry of long haul travel is deep vein thrombosis (DVT) caused by long periods of inactivity, this can easily be combated though by regular leg stretching whilst flying. An example of this could be flying from the UK to Australia. As this is such a long flight, around 24 hours (not including the stop over) and with a time difference of around 11 hours, jet lag is a major factor for anyone making this journey as is the threat of  DVT. Seasonality & Extreme Climactic Conditions Seasonal weather differs between destinations, as the northern hemisphere (UK) has its cold winter in the second half of the year, while the southern hemisphere (Australia) has its warmer ‘summery’ season during this time. This affects tourists for many reasons. Most people will do the most holiday travelling during the warmer months or ‘peak’ season, although this is usually more of an attractive idea, it is usually a lot more costly. Seasonal public holidays can also effect travel, in countries where the winter season is the off peak time of the year meaning travel bookings are usually cheaper, public holidays such as thanks giving, Christmas and new year can make travelling at certain times during this season very expensive. Another effect of seasonality is restricted travel caused by bad weather. Restricted travel is a regular problem in countries with high rain fall, snow fall and other adverse weather. In 2011, seven of the nine provinces of South Africa were affected by extreme flooding caused by excessive rainfall leaving 100 people dead and thousands homeless. The effects of disasters like this can be devastating to the travel industry as people begin to view the affected destination as unsafe so opt for other destinations with a lower risk factor. Africa in 2011 due to excessive rainfall her adverse weather. . in the year meaning for the most part Extreme climactic conditions such as monsoons, hurricanes and other forms of tropical storm can also have dramatic effects on peoples travelling habits so certain destinations. Extreme climactic conditions affect many parts of the world in different ways. For instance: In Southeast Asia between May and October is the monsoon season – This mix of torrential rain and gale force winds effects 1/3 of the world’s population each year and has had devastating effects. Although this is a beautiful part  of the world and popular with tourists, many people would consider when they travel there due to the weather risks. In the USA many states have been effected by hurricanes. The most recent of these was hurricane Sandy in October 2012, the most destructive storm in the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, the largest Atlantic hurricane on record and the second costliest hurricane in American history. The human cost of this horrific hurricane was a death toll of 285, also leaving thousands homeless. This horrific storm cost the tourism industry in the area hundreds of millions daily in lost revenue and repairs, and spanned the 450 mile long Boston to Washington DC corridor, which is the most densely populated such stretch in the U.S. and is the location of the country’s most densely collected tourism infrastructure. Many holiday makers and travellers were put off greatly from travelling to this part of the USA, in October 2012 hotels saw a 25% decrease in their occupancy rate and 15% still in November. Entry Requirements Ruleslimactic conditions affect many parts of the world in different ways.tinations sk factor. by excessive rainfall leaving 100 po of entry for foreigners vary from country to country. One entry requirement that is now common place with most long haul destinations is a visa. A visa is a stamp in your passport that permits you to enter a certain country for a certain period of time. There are different types of visas depending on the purpose of your visit e.g. work, student or holiday. For some, the visa process is fairly straight forward and not to costly, however the process and fees are determined by things like where you come from, your personal back ground and which country you intend to visit. Up until 2013, in the UK the process for Chinese visa applicants was very costly and complicated. The chief executive of British Airways announced in 2012 that the complicated process for Chinese nationals was deterring them from visiting the UK and as a result, the British economy was su ffering with 149,000 Chinese nationals visiting the UK in 2012 compared to the 1.1 million that visited the Schengen area. The Chinese visa process was simplified in 3 ways. The first, Chinese travel agents can now send the UK application as part of the Schengen visa application instead of two separate forms, to reduce duplication as many  people travelling from china will not travel solely to the UK. The next, a 24 hour superior priority service and finally a mobile visa service cutting the entire process time to less than 5 minutes. This has already made a significant difference in the number of Chinese tourists arriving in the Uk with figures for the first half of 2015 up 4% on the same period of the previous year. Although this example is based around a relatively specific group of people, it demonstrates how the visa application process can heavily effect tourist habits to a destination. Another common entry requirement in certain parts of the world its of the world are vaccinations. To some people, vaccinations are simply a necessary evil in the process of travelling abroad and one which a lot of people are happy to accept as part of their journey if it means they will be protected against deadly diseases and sickness. However, there are people who are put off greatly by the idea of having to have shots to go on holiday. For instance, to enter Brazil 7 immunisations are required; hepatitis a, hepatitis b, diphtheria, tetanus, rabies, typhoid and yellow fever. Travel Restriction In July 2014 fighting broke out following a long conflict between Israel and Gazza. Since then and still now there are restrictions in place affecting travel to the affected areas which include parts of Israel, Egypt and Syria. Due to the unpredictability of the security situation, people are strongly advised not to travel to the area at all. Another type of travel restriction is what we are allowed to pack in our suit case. Following terrorist attacks such as 9/11 and other security threats, what some view as harsh restrictions have been placed of the things we are allowed to carry with us on an airplane. Other causes for this are natural, such as in Australia where the rules on food items and natural material being brought into the country are very strict this is due to the threat of parasites, bugs and diseases that are not present in Australia being brought in and infecting crops etc. Certain countries have strict rules about what they can eat due to religious and cultural tradition, these people may be put off travelling  to Australia if they could not bring certain food items with them or risk facing a heavy fine if they try. As security measures at airports tighten, passengers begin to ask if their rights are being infringed upon in the attempt to keep us all safe. In October 2010, the Daily Mail reported on the outrage felt by passengers regarding the new pat down and search techniques being used in airports across the world. After the prsvious disgust at thAfter the previous disgust at the x-ray body scanners that are able to see through clothing, passengers are now given the choice of the new pat down search instead. The new procedure has been described as invasive, passenger rights groupsed as invasive and are saying it could become a moral issue. A regular female flyer from Florida said she felt helpless and violated and that the process left her in tears. With technology advancing, security measures must be constantly updated and tightened. Such extreme measures as ‘naked’ x-ray scanners and invasive body searches are relatively recent as the threat of attack becomes more apparent but will we see a decline in passenger numbers in the future as security tightens further to keep up with the constant threat of attack? mes more aparent of attack s searches and the fear over the threat of terrorist attack Safety Safety is one of the main factors for people when making travel arrangements. Many of the issues I have written about such natural disaster, international conflict and infectious diseases affect the safety of a place and therefore peoples decision to travel there. Something which has become more and more of a worry to people traveling is terrorism. The terrorist bombings at the Boston Marathon on 15th April 2013 had a short term effect on tourism but will cause increased security at future events. Although the immediate effects of the bombings were mostly economical, the tourism industry was affected, the city of Boston was brought to a stand-still, with people unable to get in or out. Flights were cancelled and delayed while low level air space was closed while police searched for the bombing suspects, dinner and hotel reservations were cancelled affecting the hospitality trade, as a  large area in the heart of such a big city was closed off while the events were under investigation, businesses in the area suffered, having to close, thus causing implications for the local economy. Tour operators and travel agents suggest that there is no lasting impact on the tourism industry and that people are still happy to visit and remain in the city and the marathon organisers expected the event to take place as expected the following year. A news report in July 2014 by the Economist outlined the effects seen by the Kenyan tourist industry after 2 nights of terror attacks carried out by Islamic extremists left 65 people dead. Tourism in Kenya, which accounts for 15% of the nation’s GDP, has been left in tatters after warnings from UK and other foreign governments pr ompted tour companies to evacuate tourists from the resorts of the tourism hot spot Mombasa, operators say it will take years to restore confidence in the region. Health Issues Pandemics and the threat of international infection affect the travel industry greatly as when a destination is deemed unsafe to enter all non-emergency travel is halted. In February 2014, Ebola broke out in West Africa and soon after all non-emergency travel into the affected areas was stopped to stop the infection spreading. Ebola has claim almost 2000 lives to date and could potentially kill 90% of those infected. Some countries have now relaxed their Ebola related travel restrictions although despite the improvement of the outbreak and its transmission in affected countries, many places continue to enforce travel restrictions for safety reason, with many airline totally suspending travel to a from Sierra Leon, Liberia and Guinea. Many other countries located close to the effected are also have entrance restrictions in place. In December 2014 the Daily Mail published a report attempting to reassure tourists that areas such as the Gambia are totally unaffected by the Ebola outbreak and are still safe to visit as usual. Since the outbreak, the Gambia in west Africa has seen a 50% decrease in charter flight compared with the previous year as terrified holiday makers turn their backs on the region over fears of infection and the tourism industry in the area has been brought to its knees despite the fact the country does not even border the affected areas and the UK government  have declared the Gambia an Ebola free zone. Speaking in the report Dr Marina Novelli, reader in the School of Sport and Service Management at the University of Brighton, said panic caused by misinformation has had a huge impact on tourism in Ebola-free countries. DR Novelli urged holiday makers not to be discouraged from travelling to the Gambia saying if the area was not safe to visit she would not have travelled there. Social Situations Difference in culture can also effect people’s decision to travel. People who live in western countries such as the UK and Europe might have quite a culture shock when visiting other countries whose traditions and customs are upheld so strongly. In 2013 Russian president Vladamir Putin passed a law which means now foreign tourists could be subjected to the same anti-gay rules as residents. Gay (or pro-gay) tourists can now be arrested and detained for up to two weeks before being sent back their home countries. This will drastically affect the decision for members of the gay lesbian bisexual transgender community to travel to Russia in the future. In July 2013 a news report by the gay star news documented how 4 Dutch tourists had been the first tourists to be arrested for ‘gay propaganda’ under the new anti-gay law. One of those arrested was councillor for the Dutch groen links or green party of Groningen Kris Van der Veen. Van der Veen and his party were believed to be visiting the county making a documentary about gay rights in Russia. After the arrest the 4 tourists were detained awaiting trial in Moscow. After trial, the possible punishment they could expect for their ‘crime’ could be as much as a hefty fine and two weeks detention in a Russian prison before being deported back to the Netherlands. On the 11th Marsh 2011, an earthquake hit off the pacific coast of Tohoku, Japan causing an undersea mega surge with tsunami waves. It was the most powerful earthquake ever to hit Japan and the fourth most powerful in the world since modern records began in 1900. The final report confirmed 15,889 deaths, 6150 injuries and 2601 people missing, as well as 127,290 building totally collapsed. The earthquake and tsunami caused heavy structural damage to roads and railways in the north of Japan.