Conflicting Principles of Life in William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning”

William Faulkner’s â€Å"Barn Burning† presents the conflict between two forms of justice: (1) justice based on kinship and (2) justice based on human dignity. The conflict between these two forms of justice was presented within the text through Sarty’s perspective of Ab’s actions who sought to achieve ‘freedom’ from his previous agreements by defiling the rights of other individuals. Set after the period of the Civil War, the text presents Sarty’s conflicts as he tried to understand his father’s motivations for the actions that have led his family to further hardships in life. It is important to note that Ab, Sarty’s father, has a led a life geared towards self-fulfillment as his actions throughout his life have been motivated by his desire to attain material wealth. Note for example that even if Ab was considered as a ‘soldier’ in the ‘fine, old, European sense,’ of the term, his motivations for choosing to join in the battle was neither to save the South from the Northern invasion nor to protect his region’s views regarding slavery (Faulkner 1743). This is apparent if one considers that as Ab and Sarty reached the De Spain mansion, Ab ironically tells his son, â€Å"Pretty and white, ain’t it†¦. That’s Nigger sweat. Maybe it ain’t white enough yet to suit him. Maybe he wants to mix some white sweat with it† (Faulkner 1737). This statement was neither motivated by Ab’s disgust for slavery nor by his disgust in the African American’s position in life. His statement was motivated by his sense of outrage against the wealth and power symbolized by the plantation. His outrage statement was thereby meant to be a bitter view against the wealth and power that he could not achieve in life. The conflict, within the text, thereby arises as a result of Sarty’s inability to understand his father’s motivations and reasons for his actions. As was mentioned above, his father chose to defile another individual’s rights in order to free himself from his obligations. This is apparent as his father burned the barn of the man who has slighted him. Sarty recognizes the harm that was inflicted upon his father however he does not consider this a sufficient reason to defile the right of another individual. As a result of this, he was placed in a position where he will either amend the harm inflicted on the other individual in order to protect his father and thereby maintain his loyalty to his family or he will refuse knowledge of his father’s actions thereby allowing his father’s misdeed but enabling justice for the other individual. The conflict is thereby defined by the necessity to choose, on Sarty’s part, what he considers to be ‘the right’ decision within the text.

Mesothelioma

Mesothelioma is a malignant neoplasm that develops from the mesothelium tissue (a membrane that covers the internal organs present in the body).   It occurs very rarely and is more frequently caused by inhaling asbestos dust.   The incidence of the disease is slowly on the rise.   In the US, about 2000 new cases are reported every year.   About 70 to 80% of all cases with mesothelioma report exposure to asbestos (NCI, 2002).   Mesothelioma can develop in various sites of the body including the pleura (membranes that covers the lungs), peritoneum (membrane that covers the abdominal cavity), tunica vaginalis testis (membrane that covers the male internal reproductive organs) and tunica serosa uteri (membrane that covers the female internal reproductive organs) (NCI, 2002). It is made up of one layer of flat or cuboidal cells that surround a particular organ or an organ set belonging to a particular group (Weitz & Luxenberg, 2006).   In between these membranes a fluid is present that permits some amount of movement during physiologic functioning.   When the asbestos is inhaled, it gets deposited into parenchyma of the lungs from where it enters the immediate membrane that covers the lungs.   It may be carried soon to the other membrane of the lung.   The tumor usually begins as discrete plaques known as ‘malignant mesothelial plaques’ (Weitz & Luxenberg, 2006). These discrete masses soon combine to form a large sheet like lesion that spreads.   The exact process by which mesothelioma occurs is not understood clearly, however, it seems that chronic irritation of the membrane plays a very important role (Weitz & Luxenberg, 2006).   The chromosomes present in the cell are distorted (Tan, 2007).   One of the most frequent changes in the malignant cell was the loss of a copy of Chromosome 22. The chromosomal picture of the cell seems to be very complex (complex karyotype) and is rearranged (Tan, 2007).   Sometimes, the chromosome arms of 1p, 3p, 9p and 6q may also get structurally rearranged.   This may be brought about by close contact between the chromosomes or the structural proteins with the asbestos particles (Weitz & Luxenberg, 2006). The asbestos may get deposited in the peritoneum either through the lymphatic system or the due ingestion of the sputum from the lungs (Weitz & Luxenberg, 2006).   The long thin fibers of asbestos are more dangerous than the feathery fibers as they more easily cause cancer.   Once the fibers get deposited in the pleura, the cancer development process actually begins.   In experimental rats, it has been observed that when the pleura or the peritoneum are invaded by the asbestos particles, macrophages and the other cells of the body’s defense mechanism accumulate (Weitz & Luxenberg, 2006). As the disease progresses, the macrophages and immune cells continue to invade the lesion.   Slowly the cells get transformed into malignancy.   Studies have demonstrated that the asbestos particles may directly (through physical interaction) and indirectly (through accumulation of macrophages) bring about malignant transformation of the epithelium cells.   Indirectly, the macrophages begin to function abnormally.   They phagocyte the asbestos particles and release higher amounts of hydroxyl radicals. They may stimulate the cancer process by affecting the DNA present in the cell.   Several other substances are released from the macrophages such as mitogens, growth factors, etc, which may bring about chronic irritation.   They also alter entry of certain substances into the cell (by affecting the membrane) and reducing the effect of antioxidant action within the cells.   Asbestos is also known to suppress the action of the body’s defense mechanism by overcoming the action of the lymphocytes (Weitz & Luxenberg, 2006). Several structural and functional features have been observed in the cells affected with mesothelioma (which have asbestos particles within the cells): – 1.the suppressor genes against cancers present in the cells may get inactivated when the asbestos fibers enters the cells 2.other cancer-stimulating agents may get activated and affect the cell 3. the DNA of the cell gets altered due to the incorporation of a foreign DNA which encourages cancer formation 4. the DNA repair enzymes may get stimulated and frequently result in a faulty method of repair 5.the cell terminal processes may become abnormal resulting in immortality 6.the DNA sequence may be added at the ends of the cell which makes the cells immortal and results in abnormal functioning (Weitz & Luxenberg, 2006) References: NCI. Mesothelioma: Questions and Answers. 2002. NCI. 5 Apr. 2007 http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Sites-Types/mesothelioma Tan W.W. â€Å"Mesothelioma.† 2007. E-Medicine. 5 Apr. 2007 http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic1457.htm Weitz & Luxenberg. â€Å"The Pathophysiology of Mesothelioma.† 2006. Weitz & Luxenberg Inc. 5 Apr. 2007 http://www.weitzlux.com/mesothelioma/Pathophysiology_403723.html

Fertilizer Industry Pakistan

The enhanced productivity in agriculture sector can be achieved by improved and efficient crop husbandry. Applying fertilizers in required quantity and quality at appropriate times with the using of other inputs can improve yield per healthcare of agriculture crops. In the article, the production of fertilizers, factors that affect on it and other relevant aspects have been analyzed. Introduction The fertilizer industry has played a significant and responsible role in the development of both the agriculture and industrial sectors of economy. Fertilizer Industry is in turmoil due to 70% rise in gas prices in the year 1999. Agriculture sector occupies the dominant position but failed to give due attention to Economic Development. The yield per hectare is low in our country due to various reasons. Using Fertilizer in required quantity and quality at appropriate time is best hope to improve per hectare yield if irrigation water and certified seeds are provided according to requirement and weather conditions are favorable, because fertilizer provides essential nutrients which are required for the smooth growth of a plant. At the time of independence of Pakistan, there was no any fertilizer factory but at present eleven fertilizer units work both in private and public sectors. The Government imports fertilizers by investing huge foreign exchange every year in order to meet the requirement of farmers which results in balance of payment crisis and shortage of food. In England in 1842 Sir John Lawes treated bones with sulphuric acid and began producing a product he called superphosphate. In 1685, or the first time, potassium was Detected in the rock salt mined at stassfurt, Germany. This discovery led to the foundation of the potash industry. In Pakistan, Fertilizer is produced since 1957, at present five types of fertilizer i. e. N, CAN, AS, NP, and SSP are produced and marketed besides imported Fertilizers, by both Public and Private Sector.

Should we celebrate or mourn the demise of architectural utopianism Essay

Should we celebrate or mourn the demise of architectural utopianism - Essay Example Tafuri and La Penta identify with the benefits of elimination of utopia particularly due the fact that architecture will be purified and devoid of worthlessness occasioned by utopia. The position of the authors is a celebration of elimination of utopia since there will be more contributions to wholesome and quality architecture. â€Å"It’s possible to argue over the appropriate terminology for this stuff. Some have floated Iconism, Neo-Modernism, and Bilbaoism. I prefer to call it Pseudomodernism, a modernism of concealment, a stylistic shell left after all the original social and moral ideas have been stripped out.†2 In the words of Hatherley, the architectural world ought to be saddened and grieved by the marked loss of vital content to design amid elimination of utopianism. The author laments of the emptiness of ideas that rather capture the society moral and social values in architectural style. Since antiquity, utopia has characterized art in almost every sphere, oral and verbal as well as literal and intellectual. A conglomeration of idealist design from various sectors of the human society for over two millennia now has replaced design with utopia. The description of something as utopian in ordinary language implies some level of impossibility. This is mainly because utopia is likened to unrealistic dream whose actualization remains remote. Over a considerable duration of time, utopian designs have been actualized due to desperation regarding urban space utilization. Calvino likens modern cities to actualized dreams that have evolved in the utopian perspective. The author labels the cities’ design as a fabrication of desires which usually gets accompaniment from unfounded fears. Imagination is the main power behind creativity in utopian designs, which has developed over time to constitute some form of an acceptable practice. Perhaps, the architectural fraternity o ught to make merry on the

Organizational Behavior Indept Comapny Analysis Coursework

Organizational Behavior Indept Comapny Analysis - Coursework Example These functions are performed by all the managers at all levels of management and irrespective of the nature of the business. Organizations upgrade their management system with an aim of gaining competitive advantage over other organizations in the industry. Success or failure of an organization is directly connected to the effectiveness of the management team. For an organization or business entity to gain a competitive advantage over others, it has to strategically manage its affairs. Strategic management is aimed at improved returns, maintain operations and contain the prevailing competition in the market place. Basically, strategic management is aiming at adequately responding to the uncertainties, changes and adapting to the market demands. Therefore, when an organization strategically manages its affairs, it may gain a competitive advantage over other companies. Competitive advantage is gained only if the strategies developed by a company are expensive for or cannot be adopted by other companies in the market. An organization that strategically manages its affairs may gain and maintain competitive advantage which is essential for the survival of a business despite the market changes (Smith, and Conners, 2009, pp 34-78). Company history For instance, Euro Disney is of American origin but considered one of the largest companies in Europe. The company was initially formed in the United States but after successful operation for several years, it opted to grow to other regions in Europe. This led to the company growing from a domestic to international company. It is an international company hence operates several business entities in the region among them the Disneyland resort Paris. The site comprises of several components such as the discovery land, fantasyland, adventure land, frontier land and main street USA. The company also encompasses of a 27-hole golf course, Disney village, 68 restaurants, seven hotels, two convention centers and 52 boutiques. The company opened for operation in the late march 1992 for the employees. The presses were later formally invited to the company on April 11th 1992 and on April 12th 1992 for the visitors. The company enjoyed enormous profits but later incurred losses. Cultural differen ces Though Euro Disney operates in the European countries, it has encountered cultural differences in some countries. This is because the company was formed in the United States and had an American business setting. Therefore, the company operated with adoption of American business aspects. Since there are cultural differences between America and France, the company had to adjust to the cultural difference so as to suit into the French market. These cultural differen

Immigrations in California Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Immigrations in California - Research Paper Example Many of these problems the residents claim originate from traditional, cultural, and language differences. The culture and language of these new migrants behaves different from the main stream thus causing hardship for the mainstream. Immigrants are the backbone of California development (Olson 173). Since the nineteenth century, the American Indians crossed over to California State. They concentrated more on developmental activities thus becoming wealthy as opposed to Asians who were rioting. They then came up with well organized political unit, which they used as a platform to preach peace amongst all the diverse communities. Later on with the settlement of the Spanish settlers, the relative peace and stability of California State changed. There was excitement and uncertainty as the Mexican increased their attempt to impose their cultural values to Indians. This led to a thousand of Indians death from both diseases and the conflict between them and the Mexicans (Olson 173). Early twentieth century, Japanese immigrants began flowing in California. Their arrival as of more benefit to the mainstream community, as they offered cheap labor. They fully filled the main economic voids. Japanese welcome in California was short lived. This was due to the differences that existed between Japan and the united state of America during the Second World War. Sinking of the parlor harbor resulted to cold treatment of Chinese in California State. Of all the fifty states in America, none has been affected by immigration than California. The numbers of the immigrants have been tremendously increasing (Olson 276). This has brought problems caused by racial composition. The impact of immigration has been more powerful in California than elsewhere. The origins of California’s immigrant have differed with various historical eras. Majority of the immigrant coming to California has been from Mexico and Central America. In the year 2000, 46% of

MIcro-Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MIcro-Economics - Essay Example The first two months of the fourth quarter PAF was 95%. For the second and the third quarter the company recorded 83% and 85% respectively which was as a result of increased supply of coal from India. The steady supply of coal to meet demand will be facilitated by the signed agreement with India, to supply coal which will be fully completed by 2013. The terms price, demand and supply have their application in the attached article. Supply is the quantity of goods that are available to clients. In the attached article, thermal power corporation effectiveness depends on the amount of coal supplied. Demand is the aspiration to have something for instance, the power produced will be in great demand when the plant availability factor is low, because of scarcity. Price on the other hand is the amount paid back for goods or services provided (Glazer and Hirshleifer, 68). In this case price will stabilize if the supply of coal will be guaranteed as a result of signed pact. Coal therefore is an important natural resource for power production in the economy and to the people who consumes it. National Thermal Power Corporation or NTPC has shown higher capacity availability or plant availability factor during the first two months of the current quarter, indicating improved coal supply, according to data with the Central Electricity Authority. This augurs well for the state-run company considering that the previous two quarters were not so good for it and earnings declined due to lack of coal availability. This led to concerns over capacity availability of its thermal plants, which is directly linked to availability of coal. The plant availability factor or PAF of a plant is the maximum time that it can produce electricity over a given period and is mainly linked to fuel availability. Higher the availability of fuel, higher will be the PAF. NTPCs PAF for the first two months of the fourth quarter was 95%. The company witnessed PAF of 83% and 85% for the

No Child Left Behind Policy Making Process in Florida Research Paper

No Child Left Behind Policy Making Process in Florida - Research Paper Example Other analysts pose the question of whether it is justifiable to punish the schools that do not conform to the standards of the policy, and if the policy has contributed positively towards minimizing the gaps between the rich and poor in terms of accessing proper education. However, the policy has also been implemented in Florida State following the procedure of setting the agenda, decision making, implementation and evaluation of the policy. This is line to Shafritz, Russell & Borrick’s (2011) argument that indicates for all policies to be formulated, it is compulsory that the concerned stakeholders adhere to the process of policy making. Agenda setting The main agenda behind creation of the ‘No Child Left Behind’ policy in Florida was to come up with standards that would allow creation of a curriculum that would direct learners towards having a system that would make them useful even after their education, in terms of joining institutions of higher learning or w hile selecting their careers. Shafritz, Russell & Borrick’s (2011) indicate that setting the agenda cannot be alienated from creation and implementation of policies in the educational sector. The concerned stakeholders were concerned with ensuring that all American children are directed towards proficiency in terms of education, as well as attaining the basics of education that would be useful in the future careers. Decision making In the policy making process, decision making entails coming up with the most appropriate solution towards making the right decision from the proposed recommendations by the concerned parties. In the case of the ‘No Child Left Behind’ policy in Florida, various debates came up both for the policy and against the policy. Some analysts and researchers argued that the conditions in the policy would simply regarded as a fallacy, while on the other hand, another group of individuals in the policy making process argued that the policy would be a success if only the terms and conditions would be adhered. In the long run, the group of stakeholders came to a conclusion that the basics of the policy would be beneficial to the American children, and undertook a move to implement the same. Implementation process In an attempt to put the policy in practice, there was need for government intervention in the entire process. On February 2012, Obama’s ruling came up with a decree that declared that all states inclusive of Florida were to embrace all the aspects of improvement of education by raising the standards of education being offered in schools as well as increase the effectiveness of teachers in the entire educational system. In this case, it is warranted to argue that implementation process is inevitable in the policy making process. In the state of Florida, it was required that all the educationists undertake moves of ensuring that student achievement is on the forefront, though it would be extremely difficult to ensure that complete proficiency in the learners. Additionally, it was required that the school systems in Florida embrace accountable systems of performance in schools so as to differentiate between high performers and low performers. In the case of

Jamaica Kincaid Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Jamaica Kincaid - Essay Example Antigua and Barbuda is country located north of Guadalupe in Caribbean. Being country of around hundred thousand locales, there are not many countries in the world with such smaller population. St. John's which has a population of around 25000 is the largest city in the Island (Financial Standards Foundation 2009). Elaine Potter Richardson (the childhood name of Jamaica Kincaid) had lived with her stepfather who was a carpenter till she was sent to work as an au pair at Westchester in New York. By then, she had done her secondary education in the elegant British education system. Antigua continued to be a British colony until 1967 before it achieved the status of an independent nation within the Commonwealth until 1981. The obvious detest about the white power and colonialism seems to be cultivated in her since her childhood, along with an intense love and appreciation for the English literature (Vorda 1993) She felt first-hand the negative effects of British colonialism as the colonists attempted to turn Antigua "into England" and the natives "into English" without regard for the native culture or homeland (Kincaid 1988). The anger that Kincaid has in her for a long time towards English and the Antiguans is expressed through and as the main thread of 'A Small Place'. ... In her attempt to bring out the social, cultural, educational and infrastructural issues of Antigua, Kincaid undermined the sovereignty of Antigua as a free nation. The exaggeration to a great extent helped the reader to understand the intensity of 'colonial, postcolonial and neocolonial myths, thereby interrogating the tourists' perspective and unraveling the continuing colonizing construction of a place legitimized only by its visitors' (Corinna McLeod). The following are some of the realities of Antigua as a nation. 'Antigua and Barbuda has no indigenous sources of oil, natural gas, coal or hydropower. It is largely dependent on imported oil to generate electricity. Oil imports are around 4,500 barrels per day. The IMF estimated the external public sector debt at US$520.4 million at the end of 2008, which was equal to 46.3 percent of GDP. Agriculture is a very small part of the economy with crop production accounting for just 0.9 percent of GDP in 2006. There are 1,165 km of roads (723 miles) of which 33 percent are paved. Traffic moves on the left. The US State Department's Travel Advisory for April 2, 2008 noted that the "major roads are generally in good condition." Drug trafficking has become a major illicit activity. According to a March 3, 2009 article on the St. Maarten Island Time. The largest individual investor and employer was Sir Allen Stanford. The billionaire financier had extensive real estate holdings and also owned the Stanford International Bank, the Bank of Antigua, two restaurants, a cricket ground and the Anguilla Sun newspaper. In February 2009, Stanford's financial empire disintegrated when it was

Computers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Computers - Essay Example computer which would respond to the specific needs. It becomes quite a task for someone who is not well versed with computers to actually choose what will be the best buy; every computer comes laden with a number of specifications, configurations as well as technical decisions that one must make in order to select the best possible investment; there are a number of issues including the space in the RAM, hard disk, type of processor, graphics card etc to pick that may end up confusing someone. In the market currently, there are a few best computers that will best suit the needs of an organization. The computers must work in tandem with one another and make it easy to share files and documents within the organization in order to get the work done faster. (Botella, A) One of the computers is the iMac, created by Apple Computers. Apple Computers is best renowned for its sophisticated taste in creating digital products that completely enhance the experience that a user has. These computers are thus favored by people because they are not only smooth in terms of operations but are also very classy to look at and work with. The iMac 21.5 inch computer has an excellent screen with wonderfully displayed graphics (HD 6750M) which enables people to play video games, watch movies and videos, as well as view photographs beautifully. The computer also comes with a built in camera of 720 pixels which enables the user to make use of Face Time software assisting people to video call each other within the office. If an office has a number of these computers, people can easily stay in connect with each other through video calls; furthermore, it also becomes easier to have video conferences with people living in different states and countries. On the downside howev er, what sets the iMac apart from other personal computers is merely its suaveness. Most people that use the iMac, do so when they have to deal with graphic work and the use of high resolution displays; apart from that, it is very expensive and thus if the firm does not have too much money to spend, then choosing the iMac as a computer for every desk would prove to be a very expensive task. (Mac vs PC - Pros & Cons Comparison Review) The Dell Inspiron One 2320 is one of the sought after computers at present as well. It is considered to be an all-in-one computer and has been taking over big firms and organizations as a favorite. The best part about this computer is the touch screen – it comes with a portable mouse as well as a screen that one can constantly poke and prod, giving it a very laptop like personal feel. It thus becomes easier to sift through documents and files, photos and websites by simply

Relationship between the Strategic Position and Strategic Choices of Essay - 1

Relationship between the Strategic Position and Strategic Choices of Marks & Spencer Plc - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that Marks and Spencer (M&S) had occupied a leading position in the UK retail industry and had been able to sustain success for several years. However, its performance over the last two decades has not been much influential which has resulted in the decline in customer base and market share as compared to its competitors. Historically, Michael Marks, during the late 1880s established a penny bazaar wherein he offered a majority of products costing one penny. This business of Marks accorded significant success and inspired by this success Marks rapidly expanded his business. With the growing size of the business, Marks was joined by a partner Tom Spencer, this partnership led to the establishment of M&S. The partnership business steadily grew and by the beginning of 21st century, M&S growth began to roll out unprecedentedly. Later, Simon Marks took the management of M&S. He made numerous changes in the operational strategy of M&S. He transfo rmed that penny bazaar into stores and adopted simple pricing strategy. He also introduced ‘St Michael’ logo as a quality sign. However, since 1998, M&S had confronted with numerous challenges as well as it had adopted several strategies to deal with the emerging challenges. However, the most of measures undertaken by M&S to cope up with the problems encountered by it had not been fruitful. Strategic positioning is an attempt to realize sustainable competitive advantage by identifying and preserving the distinct resources and capabilities. It involves the execution of different activities from competitors or executing similar activities in a different manner than the rivals in the marketplace. Moreover, strategic positioning is ascertained to be closely bounded by the environment in which the business operates. Thus, strategic positioning can be precisely defined as devising future position of the business based on the analysis of the industry or environmental condition s in which it operates. Besides, strategic positioning involves positioning a business based on its strengths and weaknesses that enable it to outperform its competitors in the marketplace.

The special education process Essay Example for Free

The special education process Essay The purpose of descriptive, qualitative study will be to discover how parents and teachers of special education students see their roles in the special education process. The study also will seek to assess the level of participation of the parents and teachers of students with special needs. The questions that will be specifically posed for the study are: a) What is the extent of parental involvement (participation) in the education of their children in special education self-contained programs? b) Is there a significant difference between the perceptions of teachers and the perceptions of parents concerning their role and their importance of parental involvement for special education students in self-contained programs? The school district was selected based on its location, size and diversity. The school district was selected based on: 1) high incidence of special needs students, 2) racial composition of students in self-contained program and 3) racial composition of teaching staff. The population was multicultural being primarily composed of African-American, White, Hispanic, and Asian parents and teachers. The study was conducted through teacher and parent questionnaires which were specifically developed by the researcher for this study. The survey questionnaire was developed as a result of many discussions pertaining to parents’ and educators’ feelings about parental involvement in the special education process of their children. Two 25 item questionnaires (one for the parent and one for the special education teacher) served as instruments to compare the perceptions of parents and special education teachers. The 25 item questionnaires helped ascertain how often parents participate in the various parental involvement opportunities in the school, determine parents’ level of understanding of parental involvement, measure the parents satisfaction with their current involvement, and get the respondents’ opinions regarding the effectiveness of parental involvement in the education of the children. The primary source of data was collected through parent and teacher survey questionnaires within the school district. Each questionnaire and corresponding teacher or parent was assigned a number for tracking and confidentiality purposes. The anonymity of each survey participant was guaranteed because participant’s names were not placed on the instrument. Data collection entailed the use of self-administered survey questionnaires that were distributed by mail. Mailed surveys were utilized because they provided the most cost effective method of gathering data. Participating parents and teachers were given instrument packages with self-explanatory directions; they were asked to complete the questionnaires independently and return them. Participants were given two weeks to complete the 25 item questionnaire. At the end of the two weeks, a follow up call or letter was made to parents. Questionnaires completed by the parents of 22 students in self contained were analyzed in relation to the special education teachers’ responses. A survey instrument was used to assess the perceptions the parents of children in self contained program on parental involvement in the education of their special needs children. Teachers were given a similar author-developed questionnaire to determine teacher’s thoughts about the parental involvement of the parents of their students in self contained program. Participation was on a voluntary basis. The data for this study was collected through two questionnaires using a parallel sample. The parallel populations were: 1) parents who have children enrolled in special education program (self-contained) and 2) special education teachers. Variables considered were race, age, parents’ income, parent marital status, and parent educational level. Teachers’ variables include age, marital status, race, and teaching experience The nature and extent of parental involvement by parents of special needs children and teachers in self-contained classrooms were examined. The study was intended to provide information on the differences between parents and school teachers perceptions of involvement in the special education process. The data will be presented as a summation of teachers’ and parents’ response to the questionnaires. The responses of the two groups were transcribed and analyzed using a description of results. The responses of the two groups were also compared on their perceptions of parent involvement. All data received through special education teacher and parent questionnaires were reviewed and analyzed through a detailed description of teacher and parent responses

The Need Of Sound Information System Information Technology Essay

The Need Of Sound Information System Information Technology Essay Small to Medium Enterprise is an organization or business that only has a certain number of employees or revenues, different country has a different definition and standard for SME. In Singapore, SME need to have at least 30 per cent local equity and fixed productive assets not more than S$15 million and limit of only not more than 200 employees. In Australia, SME has a different category such as very small with only 1 to 9 employees, small with only 10 to 49 employees, medium with 50 to 149 employees and large with 150+ employees. Information in SME is a really important asset, the loss or damage in any pieces of information will damage the company really badly. Lose in competitive advantage, customers loyalty is the consequences that may happen and a company in SME could be out of business if an incident like that happened. Even though information security can be applied to all kind of business, but there are differences between SME and large company when applying security. SME and large company have a difference kind of challenges when applying security. SME does not have big budget like large company, fewer qualified security personnel and resources. Challenges for large enterprises are often because of their large size. They are difficult to track their users because they have a large number of users and sometimes they have a lot of branches in different locations to maintain. SME also has advantage compared to the large company, SME which has a smaller number of employees than large company has a lesser t hreat by insider attacks. One of the solutions for SME for security is outsourcing the security, but the problem occurred because of the price offered, some SMEs cannot afford the prices, so it comes again with the budget SME has. There is other solution offered to SME in security, some of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) increasingly partnering with security vendors to offers SMEs standard security products. The need of sound information system. Information security management is a management that manages threats and risks to the organizations information; it is applicable for all type of organization, from large to small organization. Information security management includes personnel security, technical security, physical security, access control, business continuity management and many other things. The standard of the requirement of information security management is ISO 27001; it is one of the ISO 27000 families. With this, it can help to make the information more protected and clients will also feel secured. ISO 27001 helps to protect all kind of information, information in soft copy or hard copy and even in communication. There 3 important characteristics in Information security, Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability (CIA). Confidentiality ensures that only some authorized user may access the information, so different level of information can only be accessed by certain users. Integrity is a state where the information is complete, and uncorrupted. Availability ensures that the information is available whenever the authorized user accessed. Information security management is needed because now information is the most vital asset for almost all the organizations. A lot of consequences when the information is destroyed, stolen or corrupted and the consequences may be very dangerous or even make the organizations fall down. Personal information is also vital to the people itself and also to the company, if the company do not handle the information carefully, it will be dangerous to the company because personal information can also be customer information and when it is not secured, the customers can lost their trust to the company and the companys reputation will be affected also, these can also applied to the companys staffs. There is this case study where some companies in London experienced loss of electricity because there was a problem in the London power company. Because of the loss of electricity, some of the companies have their data corrupted and also systems crashed, these incidents made the companies loss their clients, clean corrupted data, re input the data which cost them more and closed the business. There are some of the topics that cover the information security management: Biometric security devices and their use Biometric Security is a tool to protect from intruder to access information but using part of the body to authenticate the authorized user instead of typing the password. The advantages are it cannot be borrowed or made and also it is more secured than inputting the password. Biometrics that is using physical body that is unique includes fingerprints, palm, retina, iris, and facial. For the behavioral characteristics include signature, voice, keystroke pattern and human motion. This is a list of biometric and its uses. Fingerprints recognition is a biometric where it identifies by scanning fingerprints and looks for the pattern found on a fingertip. There are different kinds of fingerprints verification, some of them using pattern-matching devices; comparing the scanned fingerprints from database, they are also using moirà © fringe patterns and ultrasonic. Palm recognition scan, measure the shape of the hand and look for the pattern on the palm. Some of the organizations use this for time and attendance recording. Retina recognition analyzing the layer of blood vessels located at the back of the eye. This biometric uses low intensity light and source through and optical coupler to look for patterns of the retina, so the user need to focus on a given point. Iris recognition analyze the colored ring of tissues surround the pupil by using conventional camera element and the users do not need to be close to the scanner. Face recognition analyses the facial cha racteristics and it requires digital camera to scan. Some organization like casino, scan for scam artists for quick detection. Some of the company even government also using biometric security. Fujitsu Ltd. is now making the company desktop computer to use a palm recognition, it is not using fingerprints because it said that palm recognition is more secured than fingerprint. They are using infrared to scan the users palm, they look for the pattern of the vein in the palm and because they use infrared, they can see them. This technology is already in use in more than 18000 bank ATMS in Japan. Germany stores a digital fingerprints and digital photos in to the passport to fight organized crime and international terrorism. Biometric may be more secured but research says biometric like fingerprint recognition can be accessed by unauthorized users also. There is this mathematician named Tsutomu Matsumoto, he use a $10 ingredients; gelatin and plastic mold to reproduce a portion of finger and in four of five attempts, he can accessed to 11 different fingerprints recognition systems. Incident response management and disaster recovery Incident response is an organized plan or procedures to handle and counter some threats like security breach or attack. Incident response plan includes a policy that discusses how to response to a certain threats, reduces recovery costs and time. Some of incident response goals are reduce the impact, prevent future incidents, verify that incident occurred, maintains Business Continuity, and improve security and incident response. There is incident response team in the organization that handles the incident response plan. Incident response team also needs another party in organization to help them, such as business managers, IT staff, legal department, human resources, public relations, security groups, audit and risk management specialists. Business managers make agreements with the team about their authority over business systems and decisions if critical business systems must be shut down. IT staff help the team to access the network for analysis purposes and improve security infrastructure if recommended by the team. Legal staffs need to review non-disclosure agreements and determine site liability for computer security incidents. Human resources help to hire the teams staff and develop policies and procedures for removing internal employees. Public relations help to handle the media and develop information-disclosure policies. Security groups help the team to solve issues involving computer. Audit and ris k management help to analyze threat. There are a several steps to response to the incident. First, the organization needs to prepare the staff by having the staff to do some training; they need to be trained to response to the incident quickly and correctly and also educates the staff to update the security regularly. The response team has to identify whether it is a security incident or not and the team can also find some information about the current threats. Response team need to identify how far the problem has affected the systems and decide faster by shut down the affected system to prevent further damage. Then they need to find the source of the incident and remove the source. After that they need to restored the data from clean backup files, monitor them and upgrading the systems to prevent the same incidents in the future. Mobile device security management Mobile devices the staffs use also need some kind of security because they can contain pieces of information about the company, it can be the customer or staff information but it can be some kind of soft copy of some reports or documents. Some of IT staffs need to use mobile devices like PDA or smart phone to make business data. Mobile devices may look secure, free of viruses and malwares but they are not. There are several threats to the mobile devices. Intruder can intrude the mobile devices and expose the information out of it through wireless network by using wireless sniffer. Mobile devices can also be stolen or lost and if the devices are not secured by putting a password, information can be dig out easily from the devices. Less than 500 mobile operating system viruses, worms and Trojans can be found. Mobile viruses can be a major threat, some of the viruses can clear the data; corrupt the data and several other problems. Viruses can intrude the devices when application downloaded to the devices. There is one virus called 911 Virus, this virus cause 13 million I-mode user in to automatically call Japans emergency phone number. E-mail viruses affect the devices the same as e-mail virus affect regular PC. It makes the devices to send multiple emails. There are ways to prevent the threat to happen. The easiest way is to put a password to the mobile devices, the password can only be attempted for a several times and if it failed, the devices will be automatically locked down. Using encryption techniques can help to protect intruder from intruding when exchanging data using wireless network. Back up the data regularly to PC if anything happens to the data. Install antivirus and putting a firewall into the devices can help to prevent viruses. Administrator can take control of the mobile device and also wipe the data on missing or stolen devices. Linking business objectives with security Linking business objectives with information security can be expensive process and risky. It can create frustration in both sides. There are several actions that can be used to improve both sides. Reflect the business objectives in information security; reflect them in information security policy, objectives and activities. Information security has to be consistent with the organizational culture, changing the culture of the business from information security is often not possible. Protect the information in business process by establish a security program. Follow the information security standard, following them will make the staff, customers and client feel that their data is safe. Increase the understanding of the need for security, security manager should explain the benefit of them by using business terms, so that everyone can understand more. Obtain the support from management; ensure that risk management is part of every staffs job description. The last thing is to use the res ources wisely. Spend more resources when the problems are really occurred. With this plan, both business and security can improve and successful. Ethical issues in information security management IT security personnel are given the authority to access data or information about the individuals and companies networks and system. With this authority, they might use it in a wrong way which mostly is intruding someones privacy for example, scanning employees email just for fun or even diverting the messages, read others email and even worse, they can blackmail the employee. The IT personnel can monitor the websites that visited by the network user, they can even place key loggers on machine to capture everything that is displayed. There is ethical issues called real world ethical dilemmas, it is where the IT security personnel happened to see the company secrets and may print the documents, it can be use to blackmail the company or even trade the information to the other company. They also may encounter where they see a document where it showed that the company do some illegal things. With this crucial information, the company is in danger, not only the company but also the security personnel themselves. There are ways to prevent the people in internet that want to intrude users privacy, one of the articles said that when the author access a website, he saw advertisement in the website and the ad said about an event and it takes place at the authors area, and so he tried to change the location of the computer and when he click the ad again, it shows a different area, area where the his computer set up, this kind of ad using the users IP address to track the user, so he figure it out by hiding or masking IP address using some software, this way, the user can protect their privacy effectively One article talked about how IT security personnel deal with sensitive information in right way, first thing to do if to check whether they have signed a non-disclosure agreement that required them to protect information that they overheard, if there are then protect it, second things to do is to ask themselves whether it is reasonable to the host company to expect them to hold such overheard conversation in confidence. If so, they should not spread the overheard information to anyone. Security training and education With many organizations are using internet, many users including unauthorized can access and dig out information. They need to train or educate their staff to protect organizations information by creating a system to secure the information from unauthorized users. Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) educates the staffs about how information security works, secure the information, and maintain the information safe and secured. Network security will have the staffs quickly respond to defend the attacks and have countermeasures. Following by investigate the weakness of the systems. It is not easy to protect network security which is why they need to be trained. CISSP education consists of learning about database security, how the intruders intrude the systems, and the right countermeasures for a certain attacks. There is a survey regarding the intrusion to the US companies, the unauthorized intrusions to their network increased 67% this year from 41% last year. The cause of intrusions mainly because of hacker attack, lack of adequate security policies, employee web usage, virus, employee carelessness, disgruntled employee, weak password policy, lack of software updates and software security flaw. IT managers also take part of the survey about which is the biggest intrusion in the future and they identified that viruses, spyware, Trojan, worms and spam are the biggest risk, followed by hacking, uneducated user about security, sabotage, and loss of information. A group called QinetiQ North Americas Mission Solution Group, it provide security education and training to the users but before they train their user, they need to identify individuals required training objectives, plan, develop and validate training materials and then they conduct an effective training to the personnel and at the end evaluate course effectiveness. Defending against Internet-based attacks Internet-based attacks can be very dangerous to the company; a research said companies are losing an average of $2 million in revenue from internet-based attacks which disrupt the business. The average of 162 companies said that they are suffered one crucial incident a year from worms, viruses, spyware or other security-related causes, and for each attack the systems were down an average of 22 hours. The threats will grow as the companies increase their use of internet. Defend against the internet-based attack can be done by using intrusion prevention and detection, they can detect the attack and the company can quickly defend against them. IDS will be looking for the characteristics of known attacks. IPS can recognize the content of network traffic and block malicious connection. Wireless intrusion prevention monitors the wireless networks, detect unauthorized access points and provide reporting and analysis. There are also basic things like firewalls and antivirus that can be used to defend and there are many things that can be used to defend these kinds of attacks. Industrial espionage and business intelligence gathering Incident response is an organized plan or procedures to handle and counter some threats like security breach or attack. Incident response plan includes a policy that discusses how to response to a certain threats, reduces recovery costs and time. Some of incident response goals are reduce the impact, prevent future incidents, verify that incident occurred, maintains Business Continuity, and improve security and incident response. There is incident response team in the organization that handles the incident response plan. Incident response team also needs another party in organization to help them, such as business managers, IT staff, legal department, human resources, public relations, security groups, audit and risk management specialists. Business managers make agreements with the team about their authority over business systems and decisions if critical business systems must be shut down. IT staff help the team to access the network for analysis purposes and improve security infrastructure if recommended by the team. Legal staffs need to review non-disclosure agreements and determine site liability for computer security incidents. Human resources help to hire the teams staff and develop policies and procedures for removing internal employees. Public relations help to handle the media and develop information-disclosure policies. Security groups help the team to solve issues involving computer. Audit and ris k management help to analyze threat. There are a several steps to response to the incident. First, the organization needs to prepare the staff by having the staff to do some training; they need to be trained to response to the incident quickly and correctly and also educates the staff to update the security regularly. The response team has to identify whether it is a security incident or not and the team can also find some information about the current threats. Response team need to identify how far the problem has affected the systems and decide faster by shut down the affected system to prevent further damage. Then they need to find the source of the incident and remove the source. After that they need to restored the data from clean backup files, monitor them and upgrading the systems to prevent the same incidents in the future. Governance issues in information security management Security governance is a system that directs and control information security. Governance itself means setting the objectives of the business and ensures them to achieve the objectives. There are several examples of governance issues, CEO of health south corporation said that more than 85 counts that include fraud and signing off on false corporate statements that overstated earning by at least US $1.4 billion. Senior vice president and CIO of the company with the 15 other plead guilty. Another incident happened in an Ohio-based company that handles payroll and other human resources functions on a contract business which is already bankrupt, and they left their 3000 staffs without paychecks and reportedly that the companys client list has been sold. Personnel issues in Information sec Personnel security focuses on the employees involving policies and procedures about the risks the employees accessing the company information and prevents them from taking it. Threats in organizations are not only from the outside but also from the inside, which can make severe damages and costs. There are ways to prevent this from happening. Pre-employment checks are an act where the company will check whether the candidates have the qualification for employment, this way they will know whether the candidates have revealed important information about themselves. National Security Vetting determines whether the candidate is suitable to be given the access to sensitive information which can be valuable to the rival company. This process is usually included in the pre-employment checks. There are also responsibilities for each of some roles that involved in personnel security. Director has to publish and maintain policy guidelines for personnel security, decide the security access requirements and ensure that all the employees have been checked on their background and trained. Information Security Officer prepares the personnel security policy, monitoring the policy, and ensures that all the staffs are trained in computer security responsibilities. Supervisor need to speak with the user about the securitys requirements, monitor the policy, ensures that all the staffs are trained in computer security responsibilities, informs ISO when the staffs access need to be removed, tracking the staffs accounts when they create or delete the account. System Security Officer monitor compliance with the security policy, have the authority to delete systems password if the employee no longer need access, tracking users and their authorizations. Users need to understand their respo nsibilities, use the information for only certain events, response quickly by informing the supervisor if there is intruder access the data and abused the information. Privacy issues in the company are also personnel issues. Organization is also responsible of the privacy of the staffs, because all the staffs records are kept in the organization. Personnel records cannot be seen by other staffs or outsider without the holders permission. Social Security Numbers are not allowed to become private password like email password. Eavesdropping needs to be limited, eavesdropping to the telephone conversation and voicemail are not allowed. Monitoring is allowed as long as the purpose is to keep the employees work, employees need to be informed early that they will be monitored. Medical records and background information are confidential; no one can access them without permission excluding the holders themselves. Physical security issues in Information security Physical security is a security that focuses on protecting the information, personnel, hardware and programs from physical threats. Threat that can cause a lot of damage to the enterprise or building is also things that need to be aware in physical security, for example, natural disaster, vandalism, and terrorism. Physical security can be intruded by a non technical intruder. There are a lot of ways to protect from physical threats. Security can be hardened by putting difficult obstacles for the intruder including multiple locks, fencing, walls and fireproof safes. Putting surveillances like heat sensors, smoke detectors, intrusion detectors, alarms and cameras. There are key areas that need to be focused on. In facility security, they are entry points, data center, user environments, access control and monitoring devices, guard personnel and also wiring closet. For the company staff and the visitor, they need to be focused on control and accountability, use of equipment, awareness, security procedure compliance. Workstations, servers, backup media, and mobile devices need to be protected. Control, storage and disposal of information also need to be focused on. Physical security also issues hospitality industries. Example of hospitality industries are resorts, hotels, clubs, hospitals and also many other things. Physical threats that occurred in these industries are mainly theft, followed by assault, burglary, auto theft, robbery and sexual assault. If these industries experience this kind of threats, the industries can contribute to poor public relations. Company like IBM also offers physical and IT security. IBM Internet security Systems (ISS) products secure IT infrastructure with threat and vulnerability management, enabling business continuity and cost-effective processes. IBM integrate video surveillance and analytic technologies, the products can help reduce time and cost to collect and store video and it also enable analysis of surveillance data. IBM also provide products for intrusion prevention, mail security; protection of messaging infrastructure, and also security intelligence which provide information about the threats that can affect the network. Cyber forensic incident response One of the primary objectives in incident response plan is to contain the damage, investigate what happen, and prevent it from happening again in the future. It is a bit the same as computer forensic because they need to reduce the damage and investigate the cause of it. By understanding how the data is accessed and stored can be the key to find the evidence that someone has tried to hide, erase, or destroy. The investigator needs to take care of their evidence, make sure that it is not lost, destroyed or changed.

The Fmcg Industry Of Netherland Marketing Essay

The Fmcg Industry Of Netherland Marketing Essay This Global/ Country Study and Report is prepared as the partial fulfillment for Forth Semester of degree Program of Masters of Business Administration curriculum of GUJARAT TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY. The topic of the project is FMCG Industry in Netherland. Here, the project report on Netherland, we have tried our level best to Collect information from it and prepare this report as an error free report; We assured that all information is trusted: every effort has been made to offer the most authenticate position with accuracy. During the whole project period we got a lot of knowledge and came to know about the reality of the mining industry of the country. Acknowledgement The successful completion of a Global Country Project Report requires guidance help from a number of people. We were fortunate to have all the support from our faculty, therefore take this opportunity to express our profound sense of gratitude to the all those who extended their whole hearted help and support to us in completing the project study report work on FMCG Industry in Netherland. We also express our deep sense of gratitude to Prof. Ramzan Samaa (Guide Faculty), who has helped us to do our project. We also thank to other faculty of L J Institute of Management Studies respondents for his valuable help in each stage of the project. Because of his co-operation and continuous guidance successful completion of this project study report was made possible. No Acknowledge would suffice for the support of my family members, classmates friends. Lastly, we extend our thanks to all whose name have not been mentioned in successful way carrying out the project report. Index Sr No. Particulars Page No. 1. The FMCG industry of Netherland Introduction 7 2. Upgrades on major mines in North Korea 15 3. The North Korea Mining Business Projects Between Korean Mining Projects Foreign Company Mining Projects 26 4. The outlook for Inter Korean Mining Corporation 34 5. The Indian Mining Industry- Market Opportunities Entry 36 6. Future Prospects 38 7. Conclusion 39 Introduction of FMCG Industry Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) or consumer packaged goods (CPG) are products that are sold quickly and at relatively low cost . Examples include non-durable goods such as soft drinks, and grocery items. Though the absolute profit made on FMCG products is relatively small, they are generally sold in large quantities, and so the cumulative profit on such products can be substantial. Fast-moving consumer electronics are a type of FMCG and are typically low priced generic or easily substitutable consumer electronics, including lower end mobile phones, MP3 players, game players, and digital cameras, which have a short usage life, typically a year or less, and as such are disposable. Cheap FMCG electronics are often retained even after immediate failure, as the purchaser rationalizes the decision to not return the goods on the basis that the goods were cheap to begin with, and that the cost of return relative to the low cost of purchase is high. Thus low-quality electronic FMCG goods can be highly profitable for the vendors. The term FMCGs refers to those retail goods that are generally replaced or fully used up over a short period of days, weeks, or months, and within one year. This contrasts with durable goods or major appliances such as kitchen appliances, which are generally replaced over a period of several years. FMCG have a short shelf life, either as a result of high consumer demand or because the product deteriorates rapidly. Some FMCGs-such as meat, fruits and vegetables, dairy products, and baked goods-are highly perishable. Other goods such as alcohol, toiletries, pre-packaged foods, soft drinks, and cleaning products have high turnovers rates. An excellent example is a news papers-every days newspaper carries different content, making one useless just one day later, necessitating a new purchase every day. The following are the main characteristics of FMCGs: From the consumers perspective: Frequent purchase Low involvement (little or no effort to choose the item products with strong brand loyalty are exceptions to this rule) Low price From the marketers angle: High volumes Low contribution margins Extensive distribution networks High stock turnover Introduction of FMCG Industry in Netherland The Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) market in Europe is highly competitive. This market is quite saturated, with thight margins and difficult to predict consumer behavior. The battle to win consumers is forcing companies to give highest priority to cost reduction, risk management and logistics efficiency. Moreover, the recession has changed the behaviour of almost all consumers. Instead of impulsive shopping, price value trade-offs and extensive search for value are nowadays leading. In this respect, you can imagine that e-tailing and e-commerce are becoming more and more trending topics. Online presence of companies has improved enormously in recent years. Every company which delivers their products to end-consumers has its own webshop. MediaMarkt, the electronica retail chain with a franchise-formula, part of the German METRO Group, was one of the last large retail chains which hasnt a webshop untill now. Their invisibility on the web was due to regional price differences of their products. Up to now, because even the MediaMarkt now opened its webshop. Other examples are the British company, The Body Shop, which started last November with their webshop in the Netherlands. Its important to take care of reinforcement between online and offline shop, instead of the other way around. On the other hand, companies with a pure online focus, like bol.com and wehkamp.nl, are reaching the highest turnover levels. A recent research of JP Morgan reveals that the worldwide growth of e-commerce in 2011 will be 19%. In 2012 this growth will be more than 20%. The online sales in the US and Europe will grow at a stable level, but Asia will emerge as a growing e-commerce market. Regarding e-commerce in Europe, the main importance and presence in this segment is coming from West-Europe. In this are, the market is expected to grow with 11% per year in the coming four years. The turnover from online shopping in Western Europe in 2009 was equal to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 68bln. The most popular products to buy online are books, event-tickets and clothing. Recent transactions in the e-commerce market support the above statement. In 2007 Sanoma acquired mrticket.nl, an online ticketing agency. In 2010, the Italian company Arnoldo Mondadori Editore acquired Mondolibri, active in the book segment. Recently, Sanoma Digital acquired (a part of) No Search, an internet marketing company, active in the development of several fashion portals like Fashionchick.nl. As mentioned earlier, online fashion is a high growth segment in the e-commerce market. Based on recent transactions in the e-commerce market, the estimated EBITDA multiple for mid-market companies is on average around 6-8 times EBITDA. Despite the international character of the European e-commerce market, only 7% of all European consumers buy their products in webshops in other EU-countries. Probably, this number will rise in coming years. Looking at the Dutch e-commerce market, youll see that the Netherlands are rather active in this online segment, because 71% of all consumers buy products online. An important reason for the growth of the e-commerce market is the trust that consumers have in the security regarding payments. Just 7% of the Dutch population is worried about this financial security. In the Netherlands, since several years an online secure payment system exists, callled iDeal, which means that customers can easily connect with their bank to make safe online payments. This type of payment is an important succes factor in the e-commerce market. To further realise growth in the e-commerce market in the future, it will be important to develop a cross-channel strategy in the coming years. Consumers will buy offline as well as online and mobile commerce is a new channel, which will develop in the near future. In the Netherlands 69% of the consumers buy products via 2 or more different channels, in the US this percentage is even higher, 78%. In general, for the retail sector, branding and customer loyalty are important factors for success. Nowadays, social media is used to reinforce branding and to promote several in-store loyalty programs as well as customer loyalty programs. In the near future, social media could be used as well for sharing online purchasing activities. Recently, wehkamp.nl has invested in social shopping applications in their webshop, so that customers can shop online together with friends, or could start a private shopping session. Other key factors, which are important to realise the predicted growth in the future are the focus on expansion in other countries as well as a variety of segments in different webshops. Furthermore, the e-commerce segment is of interest to several private equity clubs. It is expected that this will lead to consolidation in the market, which will lead to larger e-commerce companies and a stronger competitiveness in the market. Figures released by Statistics Netherlands show that retail turnover was nearly 1 percent higher in August 2012 than in the same month last year. Prices rose by 1.9 percent, while the volume of sales fell by 1 percent. The favourable shopping-day pattern had a positive effect on turnover in August this year. After correction for this effect, turnover is nearly 2 percent lower, and the volume is around 4 percent lower. Compared with August 2011, turnover in non-food shops was nearly 5 percent lower. The decrease in turnover in the first eight months of 2012 is now just under 4 percent. The largest drop in turnover was reported by shops selling home furnishings; their turnover was 13 percent down on August last year. Textile supermarkets and clothes shops, too, experienced large decreases in turnover. Chemists were the only shops that saw turnover increase. For shops selling food, drink and tobacco turnover rose by 7 percent. After adjustment for the effects of shopping-days, however, this drops to only 2 percent. Prices in these shops rose by 1.5 percent, while the increase in volume was limited. Turnover for mail order companies and internet retailers rose by 9 percent, for petrol stations it grew by nearly 4 percent. FMCG companies/Retail stores in Netherland HEMA (originally an acronym for Hollandsche Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Amsterdam, Dutch Standard Prices Company Amsterdam) is a Dutch discount retail chain that started life as a dimestore. It was part of the Maxeda company until June 2007, when it was bought by Lion Capital LLP. The chain is characterized by relative low pricing of generic housewares, which are mostly made by and for the chain itself, often combined with original design. The first HEMA opened in Amsterdam on 4 November 1926, set up by the Jewish owners of the luxury department store De Bijenkorf. Originally, as a price-point retailer at prime locations in town centers, goods were sold using standard prices (hence its name), with everything having a Standard price of 10, 25 or 50 cents, and later also 75 and 100 cents. The relative economic boom in the Netherlands in the period 1900-1930 benefited HEMA. Branches http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/HEMA_interieur.JPG/220px-HEMA_interieur.JPG http://bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.21wmf12/skins/common/images/magnify-clip.png Since the 1990s, HEMA has also expanded into neighboring countries. HEMA branches by country per 2011: Netherlands: 445 Belgium: 88 Germany: 10 (in 2013) Luxembourg: 4 (in 2013) France: 16 (in 2013) De Bijenkorf De Bijenkorf (literally, the beehive) is a chain of high-end department stores in the Netherlands with its flagship store on Dam Square, Amsterdam. It was founded by Simon Philip Goudsmit (1845-1889). De Bijenkorf flagship store on Dam Square in Amsterdam De Bijenkorf was founded in 1870 by Simon Philip Goudsmit (1845-1889), starting as a small haberdashery shop at 132 Nieuwendijk, one of Amsterdams oldest streets. Initially limited to yarn and ribbons and employing a staff of four, the stock expanded gradually. After the death of Goudsmit in 1889, Goudsmits widow expanded the business with the help of a cousin, Arthur Isaac, and her son Alfred, eventually purchasing adjacent buildings. In 1909, these connecting shops were replaced by a new building. That same year, a temporary building was erected on the site of the demolished Beurs van Zocher, and construction of a new store commenced beside it. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Lahayebijenkorf19.JPG/120px-Lahayebijenkorf19.JPG http://bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.21wmf12/skins/common/images/magnify-clip.png De Bijenkorf in The Hague Rotterdam store, 1930-1940 A third store opened in Rotterdam in 1930, designed by Willem Dudok. 700,000 people attended the ceremony. The store was heavily damaged in the Rotterdam Blitz of 1940. The intact part of the store remained open to business until 1957, but was cleared in 1960 to build the Rotterdam Metro. A new store was designed by Hungarian-American architect Marcel Breuer (1902-1981). As of 2012, de Bijenkorf has 12 stores nationwide. The oldest and largest branches, situated in Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam have retail space ranging between 15,000 and 21,000 square meters. Smaller stores (7,500-10,000 m ² of retail space) can be found in Amstelveen, Arnhem, Eindhoven, Enschede, Utrecht and Maastricht. The branches in Breda, Den Bosch and Groningen specialize in fashion (3,000 m ² retail space). Metz Co Metz Co is a department store in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, founded in 1740 by Mozes Samuels who sold his company to his three sons in 1794. Metz Co. has the right to display the Dutch royal coat of arms with the legend By Royal Warrant Purveyor to the Royal Household since 1815. To celebrate its 150th anniversary in 1890 the store moved to a new location on the Leidsestraat, where the company is still located. One of the first designers was Paul Bromberg (1893-1949), he became famous as a author and promotor of Decorative Arts and Interior Design. The distinctive cupola on the stores roof was built in the 1930s and designed by Dutch artist Gerrit T. Rietveld. Metz Co celebrated its 250th anniversary in 1990 by launching its own fragrance. The roof of the store doubles as an exclusive location for wedding ceremonies. Introduction of FMCG industry in India India is one of the largest emerging markets, with a population of over one billion. India is one of the largest economies in the world in terms of purchasing power and has a strong middle class base of 300 million. FMCG companies operate in a highly competitive and fast-changing environment. In order to stay ahead, they need to regularly renew their product portfolio to suit the ever changing needs and preferences of their customers. ValueNotes has executed in-depth research in many segments of the FMCG industry and can help you keep your finger on the pulse of your existing consumers; identify new markets for your products; track the activities of your competitors; and monitor industry trends. India a large consumer goods spender An average Indian spends around 40 per cent of his income on grocery and 8 per cent on personal care products. The large share of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) in total individual spending along with the large population base is another factor that makes India one of the largest FMCG markets. FMCG Category and products Household Care Fabric wash (laundry soaps and synthetic detergents); household cleaners (dish/utensil cleaners, floor cleaners, toilet cleaners, air fresheners, insecticides and mosquito repellents, metal polish and furniture polish). Food and Health beverages; soft drinks; staples/cereals; Beverages bakery products (biscuits, bread, cakes); snack food; chocolates; ice cream; tea; coffee; soft drinks; processed fruits, vegetables; dairy products; bottled water; branded flour; branded rice; branded sugar; juices etc. Personal Care Oral care, hair care, skin care, personal wash (soaps); cosmetics and toiletries; deodorants; Perfumes; feminine hygiene; paper products. INDIA COMPETITIVENESS AND COMPARISON WITH THE WORLD MARKETS Materials availability India has a diverse agro-climatic condition due to which there exists a wide-ranging and large raw material base suitable for food processing industries. India is the largest producer of livestock, milk, sugarcane, coconut, spices and cashew and is the second largest producer of rice, wheat and fruits vegetables. India also has an ample supply of caustic soda and soda ash, the raw materials in the production of soaps and detergents India produced 1.6 million tonnes of caustic soda in 2003-04. Tata Chemicals, one of the largest producers of synthetic soda ash in the world is located in India. The availability of these raw materials gives India the locational advantage. Cost competitiveness Labour cost comparison Source: DIPP. Apart from the advantage in terms of ample raw material availability, existence of low-cost labour force also works in favour of India. Labour cost in India is amongst the lowest in Asian countries. Easy raw material availability and low labour costs have resulted in a lower cost of production. Many multi-nationals have set up large low cost production bases in India to outsource for domestic as well as export markets. Leveraging the cost advantage Global major, Unilever, sources a major portion of its product requirements from its Indian subsidiary, HLL. In 2003-04, Unilever outsourced around US$ 218 million of home and personal care along with food products to leverage on the cost arbitrage Opportunities with the West. To take another case, Procter Gamble (PG) outsourced the manufacture of Vicks Vaporub to contract manufacturers in Hyderabad, India. This enables PG to continue exporting Vicks Vaporub to Australia, Japan and other Asian countries, but at more competitive rates, whilst maintaining its high quality and cost efficiency. Presence across value chain Indian firms also have a presence across the entire value chain of the FMCG industry from supply of raw material to final processed and packaged goods, both in the personal care products and in the food processing sector. For instance, Indian firm Amuls product portfolio includes supply of milk as well as the supply of processed dairy products like cheese and butter. This makes the firms located in India more cost competitive. FAST MOVING CONSUMER GOODS POLICY India has enacted policies aimed at attaining international competitiveness through lifting of the quantitative restrictions, reduced excise duties, automatic foreign investment and food laws resulting in an environment that fosters growth. 100 per cent export oriented units can be set up by government approval and use of foreign brand names is now freely permitted. TRENDS AND PLAYERS The Indian FMCG sector is the fourth largest sector in the economy and creates employment for three million people in downstream activities. Within the FMCG sector, the Indian food processing industry represented 6.3 per cent of GDP and accounted for 13 per cent of the countrys exports in 2003-04. A distinct feature of the FMCG industry is the presence of most global players through their subsidiaries (HLL, PG, Nestle), which ensures new product launches in the Indian market from the parents portfolio. Critical operating rules in Indian FMCG sector à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Heavy launch costs on new products on launch advertisements, free samples and product promotions. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Majority of the product classes require very low investment in fixed assets à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Existence of contract manufacturing à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Marketing assumes a significant place in the brand building process à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Extensive distribution networks and logistics are key to achieving a high level of penetration in both the urban and rural markets à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Factors like low entry barriers in terms of low capital investment, fiscal incentives from government and low brand awareness in rural areas have led to the mushrooming of the unorganised sector à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Providing good price points is the key to success THE TOP 10 COMPANIES IN FMCG SECTOR S. NO. Companies 1. Hindustan Unilever Ltd. 2. ITC (Indian Tobacco Company) 3. Nestlà © India 4. GCMMF (AMUL) 5. Dabur India 6. Asian Paints (India) 7. Cadbury India 8. Britannia Industries 9. Procter Gamble Hygiene and Health Care 10. Marico Industries Market Summary Approximately 80 percent of the Dutch food retail outlets are full service supermarkets, operating on floor space between 500 and 1,500 square meters located downtown and in residential areas. The remaining 20 percent includes superstores located in industrial parks, convenience stores near human traffic and department stores. In Belgium, full service supermarkets, like Colruyt and AD Delhaize, account for an estimated 75 percent of the market. The share of superstores and convenience stores in Belgium is higher than in the Netherlands, an estimated 25%. In Luxembourg, full service supermarkets like Cactus, Alvo and Match dominate the market as well. In all three markets, independent food retail stores are increasingly leaving the scene. On-going consolidation in the retail market, changing consumer demands and shrinking margins seem to drive this trend. The top 3 biggest retailers in the Netherlands, Albert Heijn, C1000, and Jumbo [1] , have a market share of 56 percent. The market for discounters like Aldi and Lidl has stabilized around 15%. Also discounters like Bas van der Heijden, Dirk van den Heijden and Digros were able to maintain their share of the market. In Belgium, the leading 3 retailers have 75 percent of the market. The market share of the discounters in Belgium is about 40% where Colruyt saw its market share growing at the expense of Aldi and Lidl. Recent market share figures for Luxembourg were not available when writing the report. Table 1: Market Shares of Leading Food Retailers in 2010 Netherlands Belgium Luxembourg Company Name Market Share Company Name Market share Company Name No. of Stores Albert Heijn 31.1% Carrefour 29.0% Delhaize 30 C1000 14.9% Delhaize 25.0% Cactus 18 Jumbo 9.9% Colruyt 23.5% Match 14 Aldi 8.5% Aldi 12.5% Alvo 11 Plus 6.1% Lidl 4.0% Smatch 8 Lidl 5.5% Louis Delhaize 3.0% Cora 2 Other 23.8% Other 3.0% Auchan 1 Total 100.0% Total 100.0% Higher Prices For Food Products The turnover of the Benelux food retail industry in 2009 was an estimated à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬52.7 billion (à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬31.1 billion in the Netherlands, à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬21.1 billion in Belgium and à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬0.5 billion in Luxembourg). For 2010 turnover is expected to increase by 1.5%. Reasons for this moderate growth: Expected moderate increase of the unemployment rate Limited economic growth Consumers plan to spend more food euros at retail than foodservice Due to the current economic situation the growth of value-added products has decreased at the expense of more basic products. Table 2: Turnover Benelux food retail, past 5 years 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 44.1 billion à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 45.7 billion à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 47.7 billion à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 50.5 billion à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 52,7 billion The trend of higher prices for raw materials and therefore consumer products, as discussed in the previous Food Retail report, seems to have stopped. Benelux consumer prices rank among the cheapest within the EU-27. Changing Consumer Needs In addition to the fact that Benelux consumers are shedding retailer-loyalty, they shop at different times and locations. During lunch breaks, people buy their lunch and often the ingredients for that eveningà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸s meal. Small convenience stores, like AH To Go and Delhaize shop à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾n go are opened at locations near heavy traffic like train stations, schools, and shopping malls to satisfy these consumersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸ needs. The traditional neighborhood grocery stores are either going out of business, are taken over or are changing their product portfolio. They are expanding the grocery line of fresh and convenient prepared-foods with tailor-made sandwiches, filled tortillas and drinks to satisfy the consumersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸ need for food for now. The ready-to-cook segment is also expanding. Awareness of Health and Well-Being Consumers are becoming more aware of and are more concerned about the effects food has on their health and well-being. There is a trend to a healthier lifestyle in Western countries. The following US industries have all benefitted from this trend: nuts (like pistachios, almonds, walnuts, etc.), fruits (like cranberries, pomegranates, berries, etc.), seafood (like salmon, halibut, etc.). Consumers are more cautious about foodborne illnesses. Consumers are looking for and finding more information on this topic; the media, including the Internet, TV and magazines, respond to this desire and feed into it. Food processors and retailers play a crucial role as well, as they develop and market food products (like juices from POMwonderfull, Healthy People, etc.) to create, anticipate and meet consumersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸ needs. Climate Change Carbon Footprint Labeling Last year the European Commission conducted a survey on mandatory Carbon Footprint Labeling (CFL). Popular support for CFLl by country, varied between 47% to 90% of all 27,000 Europeans that were interviewed. Seventy percent of the respondents in Belgium and Luxemburg were supportive of a mandatory label whereas this was only supported by half of the Dutch interviewees. The latter, on the other hand, were after the Finnish the most likely (28%) to prefer a voluntary labeling system. After the December 2009 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, the discussion on CFL got a new boost. Belgian federal Minister of Climate and Energy, Mr. Paul Magnette, stated that in addition to the price, the CO2 emission should also be mentioned on each product. This way, consumers become aware and see to what extent the products they buy influence global warming. Carbon Footprint Labeling is not (yet) an issue in the Netherlands. The government hasnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸t come out with a statement or position on CFL. It seems that all the individual stakeholders are waiting for the other to make the first move. Within the EU-27, the U.K. and Sweden are taking a leading role in CFL. For more information on Sweden, see GAIN Report SW9016. The overall labeling requirements for the Benelux can be found in the following GAIN Reports: NL9020 and GAIN BE9004. Advantages and Challenges of the Benelux Food Retail Market Advantages Challenges Sector Strengths Market Opportunities: Sector Weaknesses and Competitive Threats: Expected slight recovery of the economy in the EU import regulation and tariffs. EU Benelux is a promising prospect (expecially enlargement has given and will give compared to some other EU economies) for the preferential access to products from retail industry. new member countries. Affluent, open minded and curious consumers create Discounters are the fastest growing opportunities for new products. segment in the Benelux retail market; margins continue to be under pressure. The region has an excellent infrastructure which Competition is growing from non-food offers great opportunities. retail players like IKEA, HEMA, VD and Bijenkorf as they enter the food market. Greater demand for healthy food products not or not The industry is highly consolidated and suffiently available on the local EU market; e.g. therefore has a strong negotiating seafood, tree nuts, (exotic) fruit, vegetables, juices, position and good contacts. Road Map For Market Entry Entry Strategy Success in introducing your product in the Benelux market depends mainly on knowledge of the market and building personal contact with knowledgeable and established importers. Prior to any export, invest in research that analyzes the Benelux food culture (concepts, flavor, price, requirements). Once the product has been chosen, be aware of fierce competition. There are tariff and non-tariff trade barriers that can complicate exporting to the Benelux. An importer knows the market, the trade barriers and the required documentation. The Office of Agricultural Affairs (OAA) offers guidelines on business practices and import regulations. For a complete overview of offered reports, see Section V of this report. Market Structure Supermarkets and Superstores The vast majority of supermarkets and superstores buy foreign (specialty) products via specialized importers. This is especially the case for retail-ready consumer-oriented products like sauces, beverages and snack products. Convenience stores operate, in general, on a much smaller scale and therefore buy smaller quantities through wholesalers. Department stores work either

Swordfish :: essays research papers

Swordfish   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the opening scene of the film a major character (John Travolta) has a monologue; it is one of my favorite monologues I have ever seen in a film. The scene is carried out in a very interesting way, all the while never losing sight on the main subject. Slight variations in the focal length, lighting, sound and of course the composition of each shot, it is the most well thought out scene in the film.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although I am no supposed to discuss the context of the scene, it is what adds a certain level of charm that would otherwise be missed. There is a discussion of the quality of film making in Hollywood, and the character relates his current situation to a quality film, the irony is not stressed which makes it believable.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The most obvious effect used in the scene, is the use and movement of both the focal length and point. Although moving the focal point can distract from the film and have it deteriorate very easily, but it is not overly done, you are able to concentrate on very particular details in the frame, instead of trying to absorb the whole frame at one time. Also you feel the dialogue is much more important than the image, you not only hear the dialogue but you listen to it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The lighting is very well though out, the scenery is slightly dark soft ambient side light giving you a somber feeling also hinting at the time of day giving the viewer a reference point on the time that has passed. What is really important is the lighting on the main character, a soft butterfly light makes him non-threatening and the uninteresting was the face is lit puts more importance on the dialogue. Making the viewer more open to what the character has to say.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The sounds or lack of sounds in this scene accentuates the importance what is going on. Other than the dialogue every other sound is extremely subtle, light musical sounds and very little Foley work make up the rest of the auditory stimuli. There is one sound effect that is extremely subtle that makes the scene feel scrutinized or watched, that is the sound of an automatic focus changing and trying to catch up.

A Comparison Between The Works Of Amedeo Modigliani And Jacques Villon :: essays research papers

Italian-born Cubist painter, Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) and the French, Jacques Villon (1875-1963), both painted vibrant and expressive portraits during the early twentieth-century. In this case, the chosen portraits are Modigliani's "Portrait of Mrs. Hastings", 1915 and Villon's "Mme. Fulgence", 1936. Both of these compositions are portraits. Nothing is of more importance than the sitter herself. The female sitter in Modigliani's piece, sits in an almost dizzying pose with a twist in her elongated neck (a Modigliani trademark), a stylized and mask-like head and a columnar neck. All of which give the sitter a blank and ashen expression. She looks at the viewer, head-on with a most piercing air in her eyes. In Villon's case, his female sitter has been created solely with the use of layered colours and a very random synthetist outline technique (a similar technique the post-impressionist painter Gaugin used). Modigliani outlines his figure moreso in black than Villon. Mme. Fulgence's age is understood by the strong dynamic colour quality that has been used to break her face apart. In a way, these colourful divisions act as wrinkles. For instance, the chunk of layered pink on her lip creates a scowl and the heavily applied white on her nose helps it to seem upright; a 'snobbish' upturn. Colours such as the orange, have been used to highlight her left cheek and only visible ear. With these effects, the viewer sees Mme. Fulgence as a very proper and'posh' (if you will) woman. Bitterness is only a common linkage with the other attributes. Modigliani's Hastings on the other hand seems to be an intense woman of a compassionate nature. Both of these pieces have relied heavily on the expressive and wild use of colour to create emotional expressions and unerring form. Both of these portraits are created using oil paints--Modigliani's on cardboard and Villon's on canvas. The most important element that draws their work away from the mainstream is their heavy application of paint. Although they both apply their colour liberally, Modigliani's strokes are thick, jagged, and for the most part random. His brushstrokes are also particularly long, whereas Villon's are short and brief. Modigliani uses monochromatic hues of red to create the prominent colour of the piece and like Villon, he has used a very vague background to express the importance of his sitter. Colour is of equal importance in both pieces as it draws the viewer in and allows the viewer's eyes to be brought around the piece. Modigliani has split his background from top to bottom, using red and strokes of burnt sienna at first, then an auburn and deeper red for the bottom.

Justification of Punishment! :: Philosophy Philosophical Essays

Justification of Punishment ABSTRACT: Both utilitarians and the deontologists are of the opinion that punishment is justifiable, but according to the utilitarian moral thinkers, punishment can be justified solely by its consequences, while the deontologists believe that punishment is justifiable purely on retributive ground. D. D. Raphael is found to reconcile both views. According to him, a punishment is justified when it is both useful and deserved. Maclagan, on the other hand, denies it to be justifiable in the sense that it is not right to punish an offender. I claim that punishment is not justifiable but not in the sense in which it is claimed by Maclagan. The aim of this paper is to prove the absurdity of the enquiry as to whether punishment can be justified. Difference results from differing interpretations of the term 'justification.' In its traditional meaning, justification can hardly be distinguished from evaluation. In this sense, to justify an act is to say that it is good or right. I differ from t he traditional use and insist that no act or conduct can be justified. Infliction of punishment is a human conduct and as such it is absurd to ask for its justification. I hold the view that to justify is to give reason, and it is only a statement or an assertion behind which we can put forth reason. Infliction of pain is an act behind which the agent may have purpose or intention but not reason. So, it is not punishment, but rather statements concerning punishment that we can justify. Regarding the justification of punishment philosophers are not of the same opinion. According to the utilitarian moral thinkers punishment can be justified solely by its consequences. That is to say, according to the utilitarian account of punishment 'A ought to be punished' means that A has done an act harmful to people and it needs to be prevented by punishment or the threat of it. So, it will be useful to punish A. Deontologists like Mabbott, Ewing and Hawkins, on the other hand, believe that punishment is justifiable purely on retributive grounds. That is to say, according to them, only the past fact that a man has committed a crime is sufficient enough to justify the punishment inflicted on him. But D.D. Raphael is found to reconcile between the two opposite views. According to him, a punishment is justified when it is both useful and deserved.

Taxation Fte

8/3/2011 The  Economics  of  Taxation Lecture  11:  Taxation  and  Business  Valuation:  FTE  approach International  Accounting International Accounting and Taxation Master  of Science  (MSc) University  of Liechtenstein,  Vaduz Dr. Tanja  Kirn D T j Ki Chair for Tax  Management  and the Laws  of International  and Liechtenstein  Taxation Institute  for Financial  Services University  of Liechtenstein,  Vaduz The  Economics  of  Taxation Taxation  and  Business  Valuation:  FTE  approach Exercise Suppose  Lucent  Technologies  has  an  equity  cost  of  capital  of  10%,  market   capitalization  of  $10.   billion,  and  an  enterprise  value  of  $14. 4  billion. Suppose   p $ , p $ pp Lucent’s  debt  cost  of  capital  is  6. 1%  and  its  marginal  tax  rate  is  35%. a. What  is  Lucent’s  WACC? b. If  Lucent  maintain s  a  constant  debt? equity  ratio,  what  is  the  value  of  a  project  with   average  risk  and  the  following  expected  free  cash  flows? c. If  Lucent  maintains  its  debt? equity  ratio,  what  is  the  debt  capacity  of  the  project  in   part  (b)? part (b)? d. What  is  the  free  cash  flow  to  equity  for  this  project? e. What  is  its  NPV  computed  using  the  FTE  method? How  does  it  compare  with  the   NPV  based  on  the  WACC  method?  ©Ã‚  2011  Dr. Tanja  Kirn  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ University  of  Liechtenstein  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Vaduz 2 1 8/3/2011 The  Economics  of  Taxation Taxation  and  Business  Valuation:  FTE  approach Exercise In  year  1,  AMC  will  earn  $2000  before  interest  and  taxes. The  market  expects  these   earnings  to  grow  at  a  rate  of  3%  per  year. The  firm  will  make  no  net  investments  (i. e. ,   g g %p y ( , capital  expenditures  will  equal  depreciation)  or  changes  to  net  working  capital. Assume  that  the  corporate  tax  rate  equals  40%. Right  now,  the  firm  has  $5000  in  risk? free  debt. It  plans  to  keep  a  constant  ratio  of  debt  to  equity  every  year,  so  that  on   average  the  debt  will  also  grow  by  3%  per  year. Suppose  the  risk? free  rate  equals  5%,   and  the  expected  return  on  the  market  equals  11%. The  asset  beta  for  this  industry  is   1. 11.  ©Ã‚  2011  Dr. Tanja  Kirn  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ University  of  Liechtenstein  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Vaduz 3 The  Economics  of  Taxation Taxation  and  Business  Valuation:  FTE  approach Questions a. If  AMC  were  an  all? equity  (unlevered)  firm,  what  would  its  market  value  be? b. Assuming  the  debt  is  fairly  priced,  what  is  the  amount  of  interest  AMC  will  pay  next  year? If  AMC’s   debt  is  expected  to  grow  by  3%  per  year,  at  what  rate  are  its  interest  payments  expected  to  grow? c. Even  though  AMC’s  debt  is  riskless  (the  firm  will  not  default),  the  future  growth  of  AMC’s  debt  is   uncertain,  so  the  exact  amount  of  the  future  interest  payments  is  risky. Assuming  the  future  interest