Life Choices and Consequences

My Grandfather always said to me â€Å" s3 wo si as3 Ny3 wo d3 a 3h) na wo tafiri† –â€Å"Even if you don’t like the taste in your mouth that is where you will always lick† The diversity of life impinges on us to make a choice in every single decision. Whatever you have done in your life and whatever you will do is simple a bundle of choices you have made or will make. And every single one of these choices serves as a foundation for another choice. But the more fascinating thing about choices is that every single one of our choices reduces the probability of options that are readily available to us .And this is extremely important because the surprising number of us do not realized that all that we are and everything we have are the results of choices . We are in control of our choices and thus our life’s direction and destiny. Our choices and our life go hand in hand . the life you are living is simply a cumulative series of choices you have made. We have gotten used to making choices that we scarcely think of it as the means that unfolds our life before our eyes. Choices are about yielding and resisting. They are about reflections and impulsiveness.They are about the present and future and it is a yes and no affair and a now later business but whatever it is the laws of living demands that we make one in every circumstance in other to live. But every single choice we make comes along with a shadow . This shadow is generally referred as consequence . It is very easy in the choice making decision to conjure our best planning skills to navigate the maze of options that covers the path to wherever we want to go and whatever we want to achieve. However, we scarcely make provisions for dealing with the consequences of our choices .And so consequences of our choices have become more or less a headache in society. More often than not, the consequences of our choices open our eyes to the glitter of all the other options we pushed asi de. And then we start to think that the choices we made were poor ones . Sometimes we feel like turning back the clock and rewinding the tape in other to make a better choice. Truth is, it does not matter how hard or how badly you want to change the choice. A choice made is a choice made. The best that you can do about it is to develop a positive attitude about it and face the consequences.The bottom line is this: regardless of the consequences that we are going through now, we are all trying to accomplish increasingly more out of the choices we made with increasingly less resources –whether these resources are money, time, focus or energy. The challenge is not that we do not make rational choices, rather, our refusal to focus and work hard at the choices we have made, make those options we left behind glitter like the twinkling stars. Instead of constantly looking over your shoulder at the glittering options you left behind, your best bet is to live positively with your choi ces and look towards the future .Looking back means you are dwelling on the past instead of living in the present and being stuck in the past does not help you make any better choices in the future. We can all look at our circumstances and point out instances where different choices could have given us a different way of life . But it only sounds easy in words. In action, they are difficult . For the surprising majority of us, when the consequences of our choices rear its ugly head, we respond in a very predictable way. We turn in the opposite direction and try to outrun it .The only problem is that, before long the consequences catches up with us. And so instead of outrunning the consequences, we actually run into it , maximizing our exposure to it. Or like we say,† Challenges and problems compound when we ignore them , and we end up being exposed to something longer and or worse than what might have been. Our best bet is to wait for the consequences to come right at us and a s it arrives, we must charge directly into them. By charging at the consequences of our choices, we run straight through it, which minimizes the amount of negative effect we experience .And why not, in life most of the brilliant options are about doing the hard things you know you should do, even when you do not feel like doing them, but doing as early on as possible. As long as we live, we are going to make a lot of choices. And if we do not want negative consequences, then we have to think about and evaluate our choices differently than we have been doing. It is about giving a lot of forethought to the consequences of the choices we are faced with. And it is about being ready to deal positively with whatever consequences that materializes out of the choices we make.

Mergers & Acquisitions Paper Essay

Mergers and acquisitions is an important aspect of corporate strategy, finance and management. This is done with the buying, selling, dividing and combining of different companies and similar entities. It can help an enterprise grow rapidly in its sector as well as the new sector it just acquired without the hassle of creating a subsidiary from scratch. This activity is on the rise worldwide. According J. Finnegan in â€Å"Global Mergers and Acquisitions Activity Continue to Rise† article, this increase has been accompanied by the return of mega-deals (value exceeding $10 billion) driven primarily by large multinational corporations flush with cash in the U.S. Two of the biggest acquisitions in 2012 are from the Energy Industry and Tech industry where Duke Energy Corporation acquired Progress Energy Inc. and Google acquired Motorola Mobility. I) Duke Energy Corp. acquired Progress Engergy Inc. According to Yahoo finance, in the first case in the energy industry, when the merger was announced on January 10, 2011, the transaction value totaled $26 billion, including Progress Energy’s debt. Currently based on Duke Energy’s share price and including Progress Energy’s debt, the transaction is valued at about $32 billion. Duke Energy Corporation (DUK) announced that it has acquired Progress Energy Inc., effective July 2, 2012. The original Duke Engergy includes Duke Energy International, which operates power plants in Central and South America; Duke Energy Renewables, which develops and owns wind and solar projects in the U.S.; and Duke Energy’s Midwest generation and Duke Energy Retail, which generate, market and sell electricity in the Midwest. Now, the new entity has nearly $49 billion in market capitalization, total assets more than $100 billion and 7.1 million electric users in the Carolinas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. The transaction makes Duke Energy the largest U.S. utility and increases its ability to build new power plants to meet future greenhouse-gas emissions limits. Earlier, Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (EXC) was the largest U.S. utility. The new company would be known as Duke Energy with headquarters in Charlotte, and substantial operations in Raleigh, North Carolina. Duke Energy would trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol â€Å"DUK†. Pursuant to the merger deal, Progress Energy has become a wholly owned direct unit of Duke Energy. On a standalone basis, Duke Energy had an adjusted earnings per share guidance range of $1.40 – $1.45 for 2012. Under the terms of the merger agreement, each share of Progress Energy common stock has been converted into the right to receive 0.87083 shares of Duke Energy common stock. Due to the effect of the 1-for-3 reverse stock split, which was completed related to this merger transaction, this guidance range is the equivalent of $4.20 – $4.35 per share. The combined company continues to target 2012 adjusted earnings per share range of $4.20 – $4.35. The reverse stock split is designed to reduce the number of outstanding Duke Energy shares. The merger is expected to keep the company’s long-term goal of 4% – 6% growth in good shape. Overall, their strong balance sheet, ongoing capital expansion projects and an above average dividend yield are very good signs that this merger and acquisition is working well for them. II) Google acquired Motorola Mobility One of the world’s most valuable brand name in the tech industry is Google, Inc. – a silicon valley native company. Founded in 1988 out of a garage, it has now become the largest and most popular search engine on the Internet. Its strong growth is credited to its creative, think outside the box and risk-taking culture. In recent years, it has been involved in a lot of new ventures and mergers and acquisitions with different industries to expand its operation. One of its new product is the Android operating system offered for free to smartphone manufacturers to compete with the Apple iphone’s iOS system. Google has also been trying to produce and release its own smart phones but hasn’t met much success. In addition, it is facing the risk of many lawsuits relating to pattern with Apple. So in smart and bold move, Google has decided to acquire phone maker Motorola Mobility and completed this deal in May 2012 for a whopping $12.5 billion which makes it the largest Google acquisition ever! This will definitely push it deeper into the fast growing cell phones industry. Motorola Mobility used to be a strong player in the cell phone industry but in recent years, it has struggled and suffered constantly. As its line of smartphones has waned in popularity, Motorola Mobility has suffered losses totaling $1.7 billion during the past three years while Google has earned a total of $25 billion over the same stretch. The acquisition is largely a defensive one from Google’s perspective. Google needs Motorola’s trove of 17,000 cellphone patents (plus an extra 7.500 that are awaiting approval) to defend Android phones against lawsuits by Apple, which accuses them of copying iPhone features. It’s now playing in Apple territory. Buying Motorola gives Google the ability to control both hardware and software, by making its own integrated smartphones and other devices. Under the term of the acquisition, Google will acquired all outstanding common shares of Motorola for $40 per share and transaction costs were $50 million. Out of the 12.4 billion total purchase price, goodwill takes up to $2.6 billion, patterns takes up to $5.5 billion with only $670 million to other net assets. Although it initially was drawn to Motorola Mobility for its patents, Google has been signaling recently that it has been drawing up more ambitious plans for Motorola Mobility. Besides producing smartphones and tablet computers, Motorola Mobility also makes cable-TV boxes that could provide Google with a springboard for delivering more of its services, including advertising, to living rooms. References Goldman , David. â€Å"Google seals $13 billion Motorola buy.† 22 2012: n. page. Print. . â€Å"Google completes $12.5B acquisition of phone maker Motorola Mobility after China clears deal .† 22 2012: n. page. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. . Finnegan, Jim. â€Å"Global mergers and acquisitions activity continues to rise.† 24 2011: n. page. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. .

The Economy and the Impact on Students, Parents and Colleges Coursework

The Economy and the Impact on Students, Parents and Colleges - Coursework Example education and training of the country’s workers. The wage rate of a particular country is affected by the education as well as training of a particular worker. It is a well known fact that a well-trained as well as educated worker is found to be more prolific and tends to earn more money in comparison to illiterate workers. It is the difference in the level of the training that has a propensity to separate the rich as well as poor nations. Most of the employers prefer staffs who tend to be efficient and productive as well as necessitate minimal management. There are various factors that need to be considered by the employer when making plan whether to pay for the employees training or not such as the enhancement of the productivity of the employees, loyalty of the employees and employees commanding a higher wage among others (Sturm, 2012). Most of the workers are found to be enhancing their earning capacity by emphasizing upon their capabilities about a particular job. The emp loyees are found to be interested in learning to operate the new technologies in order to compete for high wages. The employees are supposed to consider numerous factors when taking training. They need to consider the extra productivity that they expect to attain, the cost of training program and the trends in labor market for trained professionals. Most of the countries focus upon the creation of the education system so that they can attain skilled workers. The economy of the country is found to be flourishing with the increment in the number of the educated personnel (Sturm, 2012). Education and Its Impact upon Economy of New Jersey The impact of the recent economic downturn has been hard-hitting in New Jersey. This downturn has compelled the... This essay approves that two factors tend to determine how well a country’s economy will do i.e. education and training of the country’s workers. The wage rate of a particular country is affected by the education as well as training of a particular worker. It is a well known fact that a well-trained as well as educated worker is found to be more prolific and tends to earn more money in comparison to illiterate workers. It is the difference in the level of the training that has a propensity to separate the rich as well as poor nations. Most of the employers prefer staffs who tend to be efficient and productive as well as necessitate minimal management. Most of the workers are found to be enhancing their earning capacity by emphasizing upon their capabilities about a particular job. This report makes a conclusion that there is a considerable impact of education on the economy. With the increase in the number of the educated personnel in a particular economy, there is rise in the economy as well. It is the knowledge as well as the dexterity of the workers accessible in the labor market that determine the growth of the businesses as well as the economy. The economies possessing supply of skilled personnel brought up by means of school and college education and training is capable of capitalizing on this through creation of value added industries. The workers with high college degrees earn relatively high wages in comparison to the ones without college degrees. Hence, it is significant for the economy to place greater emphasis upon the training and education of the citizens.

Explain why you believe you should be accepted into the MAB graduate Personal Statement

Explain why you believe you should be accepted into the MAB graduate program in UGA - Personal Statement Example ecause of the role it plays in sustaining human life and, therefore, finding a long lasting solution to this problem will go a long way in making the human life sustainable. As a youngster, I realized that I dedicated much of my time to agriculture especially, crop production since my high school and undergraduate level and thus, I wish to take it a notch higher and pursue my MAB at your prestigious university. By undertaking MAB program, I believe I will go a long way in realizing my childhood dreams as well as the intimate passion I have for this program. In addition, the University of Georgia has everything that am looking for in pursuing the MAB program. This appealing program consists of components such as management, agribusiness marketing, and finance, which are requisites that can help me realize my long-term dreams. The components are vital in perfecting my practical experience and research skills. Apart from my mindset in crop production, I have a special interest in business and, therefore, the combination of the two i.e. agriculture and business will help me in realizing my dreams. Additionally, I believe MAB program will equip me with multivariate skills not only in agriculture field, but also in business. Production of crops in large scale is a vital to eliminating food shortage but producing the crops at a lower price is the greatest achievement that the world is striving to achieve. Therefore, I see MAB program as the key to finding solutions to these problems. I have learnt about agri-business especially the area of crop production during my childhood days. Additionally, I strongly believe that the program will facilitate both my long term and short term career aspirations. If given the opportunity to undertake this program, I believe that my strong motivation and aspiration in this field will not only benefit me but the world at large. The experience and skills I will learn from MAB program, will present me with the opportunity to be able to

The Significance of Software Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Significance of Software Development - Essay Example The utilization of Custom Software facilitates higher stakes in the rush for efficiency and productivity amongst firms. All the same, the usage of Business Software development has potential to efficiently meet full business needs. Â  Moreover, Software development is widely viewed as a very lucrative venture especially given that the high and mighty in this field is also amongst the richest globally. So, although it is not such a young field, its continued progressive growth indicates it has large capacity to be amongst the dominant industries and rival, like say, oil mining. To say it simply, all that one requires to start software development is a computer and internet connection. Once this is well laid out, it is possible to pursue new ideas in this field. The dominance and significance of software development in the information technology industry imposes important legal, social, ethical and social implications that is worth consideration. Legal Issues emerging in software deve lopment are basically to do with intellectual property rights and freedoms. Right of software ownership largely depends on whether the software is copyright protected or not. Alongside the intellectual property rights, that are largely proprietary, there is also open source software, which has come a long way since the late 1990s. Â  Software developers who subscribe to this school of thought insist that it is the best way to raise the standards of software. One of the complications in copyright laws is the notion of fair utilization.

The Forces of Capitalism and Global Economic Interdependence Research Paper

The Forces of Capitalism and Global Economic Interdependence - Research Paper Example According to the United Nations Human Development Index, the development includes a variety of attributes and is not solely an economic consideration. The Human Development Index, or HDI, explores development using a wide net and combines a variety of social indicators in its index to account for development including life expectancy, rates of literacy, GDP per capita, educational opportunity, standards of living, and opportunities for advances for women, etc. HDI is used to measure the development of a particular country and focuses on a variety of indicators to do so. Sustainable development, the belief that development can sustain itself, promotes development not only now but also in the future. Development which is long-term and not focuses only on the immediacy is said to be sustainable. The UN Human Development Index explores the sustainability of development and views development through a wide lens. Since the purpose of this analysis is economic development however, the follo wing will focus more on economic modes of development, while keeping in mind the important indexes put forth by the United Nations. The following will discuss capitalist development as the primary engine of economic growth in a global era (United Nations 2008). Capitalism is arguably the most well-known model of economic development and growth and is responsible for the globalization of international trade, foreign capital and the growth and development of much of the Western world (excluding Cuba and including Australia, which is commonly included in economic analyses of the â€Å"West†).

Determine if there are similarities or differences with respect to the Essay

Determine if there are similarities or differences with respect to the treatment of Aboriginal youth by the governments of Canada and Australia, - Essay Example It is reported that the indigenous people have the highest incarceration rates in both countries as compared to any other lots. It is realized that the two governments treats and victimized offenders in the similar manner resulting from highest number of criminal activities undertaken by these indigenous groups. In Australia, statistics shows that 15.1 percent of the homicide victims are felt by the indigenous groups despite their less population of 2.2 percent of the Australian population and 15.7 percent of victimized offender’s results from same indigenous groups according to the 2011 Mouzous research (In Chall,& ProQuest Firm,1953, p.123). Aboriginal are also found in police custodies mainly because of violent and justice offences as compared to other lots who mainly being in custody for drug and traffic offences. Governments in both countries are thus find it necessary to detain more number of Aboriginals with Australian figure rated at 26 percent of all the people detained calculated to be 17 times that of non-indigenous persons. Australian government differs in terms of Aboriginal policing with that of Canada in the sense that indigenous policing systems seen to be relatively centralized divided into eight main police services with one attached to each state and territory and federal department. Unlike in Canada where there is correctional institutions and absence of federal-state split in sentences, Australian states are mandated to enactment of criminal laws and the policing programs are only within the state jurisdictions. Australian aboriginal have found themselves tasks with self-policing as well as hired as police officers after the discussion erupted on the failure of the government to include indigenous in such services but to use police services throughout course of Australian history in which police were universally expected to apply government policies to Aboriginal which led to Aboriginal

High School Graduation Ceremony Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

High School Graduation Ceremony - Essay Example It could never have brought more joy to my family and me as it marked a great step in my academic and social life. This is mainly because, I was going to process to my next level of education, and this would mean a lot especially to my parents who were eager to see me complete my education in a successful manner. To me, it meant relieving myself of some academic stress as I set my eyes on college education. On the other hand, it was a turning point in my social life in many aspects mainly because I was going to change my learning environment. This is especially what excited meowing to the numerous enticing stories I had heard concerning higher education. Due to enthusiasm about completing my high school education, I together with my parents planned appropriately to ensure that the graduation ceremony was a success. This was particularly so because I was in the process of transition to new levels of academic engagements and, therefore, I had to bid farewell to the high school life tog ether with my friends. Concerning my social life, I had great anticipations that high school graduation was going to be the turning point by influencing the kinds of friends I was going to make in my future life. Although I had good friends in high school, I was very anxious on that day because I was sure that I was going to make even more friends and perhaps take my relationships to the next level. In this respect, I vividly remember talking with friends about the kind of life and friends that we were to expect once we would be enrolled for colleges. Since I was leaving my friends in order to go and make new friends, I had to make the day memorable by inviting friends and families. What particularly motivated me was the fact that I would miss most of my friends whereby I was going to meet strangers and make new friends. Thus, the social aspect of my graduation ceremony was a real factor to reckon with. In the above regards, my graduation ceremony was a colorful one thanks to many f riends and relatives who gave a helping hand in the planning and organizing parts.

Human Recources Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Human Recources - Essay Example This needlessly and unreasonably marginalizes people categorized as being religious or belonging to any religion. Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act 1964 limits the abuse by any employer. It provides a guideline to the employers’ acts and decisions and to a certain extent even his belief towards managing his employees. Title 7 of the act states that it would be an unlawful employment practice if an employer intentionally or unintentionally tends to limit or classify his employees in any way that an employee is deprived of an opportunity towards the employment or affects the status of the individual. As part of the title 7 under the civil rights act 1964, constructive dismissal is considered as unfair and unlawful employment practices. The law prohibits firing employees without cause. Constructive dismissal is a way for an employer to circumvent the intentions of the civil rights act by creating such an atmosphere in a work place that an employee has no option but to resign. In th is case the former employee is alleging that the practice of constructive dismissal has taken place. ... s it prove that the employer was targeting any specific employee in order to get rid of the individual or creating circumstances for constructive dismissal. The former employee would need to prove that these changes in the factory scheduling had no other reason than to discriminate against certain religions. In order to successfully defend against these allegations and respond to the former employee’s allegations, the company has to show the necessity of the change in schedule and why it was inevitable for the management of the company to reverse back the change that was brought about. I believe if we can demonstrate that these changes were necessary for the business needs, we will be successful in our defense. Firstly, production facilities that use a just in time factory schedule for production might get raw material supplies at night. If such a company changes its factory schedule from day hours to night hours, some employees might not prefer the new schedule and would need to quit their jobs. In this case the company has a demonstrated need for a change in schedule and any employee no longer used to the new schedule cannot allege constructive dismissal. Second, instead of getting raw material supplied for production daily, the company shifts to buying raw material in bulk for the next week, in order to be more efficient. Again, the company needs to prove that this change might have not been suitable for certain employees but the change is clearly motivated by business needs rather than discrimination prohibited by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in order to reply to the employee’s charge of constructive dismissal. Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides a definition to religious discrimination by stating that it involves treating a person unfavorably

Teacher Shortage Essay Example for Free

Teacher Shortage Essay Today teachers are not paid a lot and as a result there has been a shortage of teachers, especially good, qualified ones. Until teacher salaries are raised and teaching comes to be a desirable profession, teacher shortage is going to have a negative impact on both teachers and students. Teacher shortage is bad for students because it means an increased number of students in class. Teacher shortage is bad for teachers because larger class sizes mean more students to be responsible for and more papers to grade. Currently, most teachers are older men and women. Today there are an average of twenty teachers per district retiring ever year (Perrin). But what is going to happen when those teachers retire? Who is going to fill all those positions? Most likely, it will not be education majors currently enrolled in college because everyday, education majors are changing their majors. Teaching does not seem like a desirable profession due to the low salaries and strenuous work load. After spending thousands of dollars to earn a college degree, college students want their degree to work for them. They do not want to work a high hour, low paying job when they know they could be out making good money at an entry level computer job. Until teacher salaries are increased, things are only going to get worse. Already, many of the teaching jobs are held by substitutes, many without college degrees, and that are not always experts in the field in which they teach. With the current teacher shortage, large class sizes are just going to get larger. The problem does not sound serious right now, but what will happen when those students are doctors, teachers, or presidents years down the road? This is a serious problem that could have a very negative impact on our nations future. So, what are we doing to address the teacher shortage? Right now, recruiters are going out of the country to find qualified teachers. Recruiters are mainly tapping into India, Russia, Canada, and Spain for new teachers. While it seems like a good idea, school districts are paying high dollar to fund these recruiting trips. Districts often even have to pay a finder fee of up to five thousand dollars per teacher. They also must sponsor them for special visas, help them with housing, and hold orientations to ease the cultural transitions(Lord). Perhaps a better alternative wouldbe to use this money to increase teacher salaries. Paying for the new teachers is not the only problem with this idea. Even while the foreign teachers might be experts in their fields, what are they going to teach the students if they students can not understand them? Also, a teacher from India is not used to walking through a metal detector every day before work. Classroom discipline may also be a critical issue. Indian students tend to be more orderly and respectful. When an Indian teacher walks into a classroom, they expect the full attention of the class. Unfortunately, this is not always the case today. In this kind of case, I think it is bad for the students and the teacher. The students may not be able to understand the teacher. The teacher may not be ready for the type of students that they are going to see. So, what do we need to do about teacher shortage to make people want to go into teaching? The teachers need to be paid more money. According to Jared Bernstein, an NEA official, most teachers are underpaid at least five thousand dollars a year, based on their education skills, even taking into account summers off. Teachers are even more underpaid in Missouri. With the national average at just over forty thousand dollars per year, the Missouri average is just under thirty-five thousand dollars per year. So if most teachers are underpaid five thousand dollars, Missouri teachers are underpaid about nine thousand dollars per year (Bernstein). The First Lady, Laura Bush is even trying to help solve the nations education problem, vowing to go to college campuses and military bases to recruit desperately needed new teachers. She and President Bush are even going to try to set an example by teaching in classrooms. The First lady used to teach second grade and holds a masters degree in Library Science. A program has started called Teach for America becauseit is estimated that over thenext ten years the United States Education Department will need over two million teachers (Perrin). The program encourages college graduates to make a minimum two-year commitment to teaching. Another plan the First Lady and the President are committed to is the Troops to Teachers program. This plan is to recruit qualified teachers that are retired members of the military. Many of the retired members have degrees in science, math, and engineering. Plus, they bring something to schools that is desperately needed, discipline. Bush believes in the Troops to Teachers program so much that he plans to increase spending from three million dollars to thirty million dollars on the program (Killian). The teacher shortage is really a serious problem. But, I really do feel that the necessary steps will be made to move in the right direction. The change will not happen overnight though. Great ideas to come up with new teachers, especially the Troops to Teachers plan, are being pursued. Many of the retired military members are overqualified for the jobs. Their discipline in the classroom is much needed. The bill they are working on could be a good idea. The bill gives the districts more freedom with the money, which could be a good or a bad thing. They could use the money to hire good teachers, or they could use the money to build better facilities for the schools. The answer is not to go to other countries to find teachers because it costs too much money to go recruit teachers. Why not just use that money to increase teacher salaries?

United Health Group Ingenix Subrogation Services

United Health Group Ingenix Subrogation Services The company that I am most familiar with and will be discussing is Ingenix a wholly subsidiary of United Health Group. United Health Group is the parent company of Ingenix, therefore a lot of the financial information and applicable laws, regulations budgetary information will be Ingenix and United Health Group. Other information that I will providing, will included United Health Group, because it fall under the parent companys financial and budgeting background in regards how they filed Form 10-K with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The financial reporting statement sheet that is filed on form 10-K are separated among the different business entities that is under the umbrella of United Health Group Incorporated. United Health Group Incorporated (2010) a diversified health and well being company, United Health Group offers a spectrum of products and services through seven was operating business: United Health Care, Ovations, Americhoice, Uniprise, Optum Health, Ingenix and Prescription Solution. In 1977, United Health Care Corporation was created and is now one of the largest health insurer in the United States. (http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/main/Businesses.aspx, 2011) The organization that I am employed is Ingenix, in the subrogation department. founded by United Health Group in 1996 to develop, acquire, and integrate the worlds best in class health care information technology capabilities. Ingenix (2010) serve market needs for data and analysis, to build core data assets and expertise, built the largest health care expertise work and developed core intellectual property. Headquarter in Eden Prairie Minnesota, with annual revenue of more than $1.8 billion as of 2009. (http://www.ingenix.com/about/history/) In 2006, Ingenix emergence of market focused and launched and developed Ingenix Consulting, developed leading information based business solutions, health reform, payment, revenue cycle management, health IT. Between 2011 and 2014 Ingenix will enhance connectivity and workflow competencies, provide ubiquitous infrastructure to connect all parties, have close partnership with Optum Health in care setting and expand globally. (http://www.ingenix.com/about/businesses/2010) At Ingenix getting valuable information to the right place at the right time requires a unique set of strengths (http://www.ingenix.com/about/businesses/), Ingenix have built to stride to deliver the information and technology needs that are unique to health care, gathering information and analytics to make it useful. To create secure, interoperable networks that enable the exchange of information among communities, understand how those in health care actually can do their work; so that information can be seamlessly introduce the flow of their everyday activities. Critical to our success, Ingenix includes several best in class businesses with specific, leadership roles in healthcare. The market service by Ingenix is physicians, government agencies, hospitals, employers, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology. (http://www.ingenix.com/markets/2010) Ingenix ethics and integrity believes that no other industry deals with an individuals privacy and personal well being more intimately than healthcare. (http://www.ingenix.com/about/ethics-integrity/). As the leading health information company Ingenix maintains clear, firm policies on privacy and transparency, and promote an atmosphere of culture based on integrity, compassion, relationships, innovation and performance. Ingenix, (2010) has implemented policies, procedures and training ((http://www.ingenix.com/about/ethics-integrity/, 2010) in order to comply with the standards of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule and Security Rule. (Understanding Health Information Privacy, 2011) Information is the lifeblood of health care, applied at the right time and in the right place, when decisions need to be made, information can enhance the affordability, quality, usability, and accessibility of care integrity (http://www.ingenix.com/about/ethics-integrity/). As with any organization a cost analysis will determines the benefits and savings that are to be expected from the organization systems and compare with the expected costs. The cost benefit analysis for Ingenix is used to determine the degree of access to or the benefit of health care services to be provided to their members. Since Ingenix is a wholly subsidiary of United Health Group it is a complex system complied of many other subsidiary that falls under the umbrella of United Health Group. The ethical consideration as it relates to Ingenixs finance and budgeting came under fire, when United Health Care-Ingenix was sued by the former State Attorney General Perry Cumo. Ingenix settled out of court in the amount of $350 million dollars that they agreed based upon the determination of reimbursement that were used by insurance company nationwide. It argues that United Health -Ingenix rate setting practices violated several federal laws, including ERISA, RICO and antitrust law. Since that time United Health -Ingneix ethical consideration regarding to their finance and budgeting has put in place, a system that will attained independent certification of security procedures, Ingenix will demonstrate that the company will recognized and accepted measures to safe guard its assets. Providing health services, Ingenixs revenue has increased, $271 million or 17% during 2009 to 1.8 billion primarily due to the growth in new prayer business and new internal offerings. The contract of Ingenix backlog revenue grew $80 million or 21% percent during 2009 to $2.2 billion, which was led by growth in the government and payer sectors (UHC 2009 Annual Summary Report, Financial Results, pg. 36) While reviewing United Health Care 2009 Summary Annual Report of the Financial Results, the information that is excluded is the cash flow for each operating services, it only included as a whole the cash flow of United Health Group from operations revenue, reached $5.6 billion, which represent 147% percent of 2009 net earnings. (UHC 2009 Annual Summary Report, p.33) In reviewing the financial report for 2010 for United Health Group, according to the report for the full year of 2010 the net earnings were $94.2 billion an increased if 8% year over and it includes a 10% percent increase, which is $24 billion. Ingenix increase sequential revenue by 21%, buy 2010 year end. (United Health Group 2009, Annual Report, p.33) Table1: United Health Group 2010: Earning Release-Financial Content Three Months Ended Year Ended December 31, December 31, September 30, December 31, December 31, 2010 2009 2010 2010 2009 Ingenix Revenues $715 million $536 million $592 million $2.34 billion $1.82 billion Earnings From Operations $101 million $74 million $70 million $284 million $246 million Operating Margin 14.1% 13.8% 11.8% 12.1% 13.5% Note: Financial Statement. Three Months Ending to Year Ending 2009-2010 Because Ingenix (2010) is a wholly subsidiary of United Health Care, applicable laws and any regulation with the new health care reform bill or better known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) could potential effected the ability of price, managing medical costs, the enforcement that could have an affected on the companys financial position. These changes would have an overall effect, which will touch upon Ingenix that could including limited or reduced revenue, increase costs, and loss of businesses. These increase in costs and other liabilities associated with auditing and/or reviews cost, will impact future cash and capital requirements on the ability to maintain the quarterly divide payment cycle. Also this will affect the abilities to maintain the misappropriation of proprietary technology, and the ability to obtain sufficient funds from the other regulated subsidiaries (i.e., Ingenix) to fund United Health Group obligations. Ingenixs revenue cycle solution is part of a technology to improve the company financial and budgetary operations. The system will support the full spectrum of revenue cycle performance. The technology solution will included several systems from Patient Access Management, Billing Management, Payment Management and Audit Management technology to engage and conducted the finding of gaps in the ability to analyze the system for solutions. Ingenixs Management and Administrative Reporting Systems (MARS) have the capability of reporting expenditures, budget information, recoupment and collection according to federal and states criteria. MARS meets federal reporting and CMS system certification requirements with fiscal oversight and management. This reporting of various criteria will include funding sources, categories of the services and eligibility, the provider types. When processing and reviewing claims activity and the statistical analyst such how long it take to process claims, the remittance and payment summaries will be done for the financial analysis. (http://www.ingenix.com/government/solutions/business-intelligence-govt/solution/mars/features/, 2010) The MARS systems will provide specific provider either as individual or they will be categorize, in reporting which will include any error codes analysis, participation analysis, ranking and the status of filing of claims. With the MARS systems more than 80 core reports that will divided in six separated reporting modules and there will be one balancing module, that will provide the cost settlement and adjustment and financial transactions. (http://www.ingenix.com/government/solutions/business-intelligence-govt/solution/mars/features/, 2010) Ingenix-United Health group has to content with complex state and federal and local rules, laws and regulation in regards to their financial and budgetary operations, but it is bound by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to file a Form 10-K at the end of each year on December 31, 2010, which is part of the annual report for financial reporting to shareholder, and company executives. (United Health Group, Financial Annual Report, 2010). United Health Care Group is highly regulated at the federal, state, local and also international. Therefore, since the signing of the new health care laws or new regulations, and/or changes in the existing laws including and the enforcement of them could have an adversely affect on the company (i.e., United and their subsidiary) financial position and cash flow. (SEC Form 10-K, pg 19) Each state that United Health Groups wholly subsidiary businesses ( i.e. Ingenix) operates in, is require to keep a minimum level of statutory capital. This could place restriction on the dividend and distribution that is paid by regulated subsidiaries, this would limit the base entitys level of those statutory income, capital and surplus United Health Group Inc.(United Health Group Consolidated Balance Sheet, pg. 59), conducted an audit in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight (United States), the short term investments (in millions) for the end of the year of 2010 was $2,072 and for the year $1239.00 a gain of $833, the long term investments (in millions) for the year ending of 2010 $14,707 and for year ending of 2009, $13,311 a gain of $3396. (http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/invest/2010/UNH-2010-10-K.pdf) Stated in the (United Health Group 2009, Annual Report) is that, Ingenix has increased their revenue by 17% or $271 million dollars in 2009, from the organic growth of the new payer business and new internal services offering a total of 1.8 billions. As Ingenix revenues backlog increased by 21% or 300 million dollars, during the same period during 2009, the growth in government and payer sector totaling in the amount of $2.2 billion dollars. The backlog for Ingenixs revenue as of December 31, 2010 was $3.3 billion that was up 47%. Therefore, Ingenix full and fourth quarter for 2010 operation is $284 million against $246 million for the same period a year ago. Earning from their operations was very strong, exceeding management expectation for the full year. Looking forward to the first quarter of 2011, it is on the fast track of having a positive revenue and cash flow.

Things They Carried Essay: Buried Social Issues Exposed -- Things They

Buried Social Issues Exposed in The Things They Carried The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is a wonderful and personal look into one of this countries darkest times. The vivid imagery that the author uses lets the reader actually experience the feeling of actually being in the war. By using the cultural studies method of literary criticism, we can use the social conditions during the time of the writing to explore beneath the surface. What we find underneath just might be more interesting than the story itself. In the story "Enemies", Lee Strunk and Dave Jenson get into a fistfight over a missing jackknife. "Stupid" (p.63) is the way the author describes the fight, but yet he describes in vivid detail the gory battle and its emotional outcome. If we look at society of the 1960's, we find that America was going through a period when sharing was a common value. "Free love" and "Peace, love, and Rock-n-Roll" were the battle cry of a whole sub-culture that was revolting against the stuffiness of their parents. (Bob Dylan versus Ward Clever) This counter-culture was not very interested in individualistic ideas as we can see by the droves of groupies that followed (and still follow) the Grateful Dead. The United States Army had basically the same effect on the young boys that were volunteered for war. They were stripped of their individualism and made into a team- a fighting machine. The only way for them to have any real sense of individuality was to grasp onto a few small personal possessions that they were allowed to keep or those that were contraband. On the other hand, growing up in the early 1980's and 1990's (the ME generation) makes it difficult to understand how a sim... ...he time. When Dave feels that he can no longer tolerate the situation, "He borrowed a pistol, gripped it by the barrel, and used it like a hammer to break his own nose". (63) Again like society of the time, the "establishment" felt that they needed to break up "sit-ins" and peace marches because they thought the protestors were going to get violent anyway. It was a type of pro-active violence. In conclusion, there are numerous ways of unwrapping the many layers of a piece of literature. The most simplistic of these ways looks primarily at the words and their basic meaning. The more complex, such as the cultural studies method, will divulge deeper insight and motivation by the author. You may discover more than just a story about a fight over a jackknife. In the end, you may learn a lesson in human psychology and socio-economics. Things They Carried Essay: Buried Social Issues Exposed -- Things They Buried Social Issues Exposed in The Things They Carried The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is a wonderful and personal look into one of this countries darkest times. The vivid imagery that the author uses lets the reader actually experience the feeling of actually being in the war. By using the cultural studies method of literary criticism, we can use the social conditions during the time of the writing to explore beneath the surface. What we find underneath just might be more interesting than the story itself. In the story "Enemies", Lee Strunk and Dave Jenson get into a fistfight over a missing jackknife. "Stupid" (p.63) is the way the author describes the fight, but yet he describes in vivid detail the gory battle and its emotional outcome. If we look at society of the 1960's, we find that America was going through a period when sharing was a common value. "Free love" and "Peace, love, and Rock-n-Roll" were the battle cry of a whole sub-culture that was revolting against the stuffiness of their parents. (Bob Dylan versus Ward Clever) This counter-culture was not very interested in individualistic ideas as we can see by the droves of groupies that followed (and still follow) the Grateful Dead. The United States Army had basically the same effect on the young boys that were volunteered for war. They were stripped of their individualism and made into a team- a fighting machine. The only way for them to have any real sense of individuality was to grasp onto a few small personal possessions that they were allowed to keep or those that were contraband. On the other hand, growing up in the early 1980's and 1990's (the ME generation) makes it difficult to understand how a sim... ...he time. When Dave feels that he can no longer tolerate the situation, "He borrowed a pistol, gripped it by the barrel, and used it like a hammer to break his own nose". (63) Again like society of the time, the "establishment" felt that they needed to break up "sit-ins" and peace marches because they thought the protestors were going to get violent anyway. It was a type of pro-active violence. In conclusion, there are numerous ways of unwrapping the many layers of a piece of literature. The most simplistic of these ways looks primarily at the words and their basic meaning. The more complex, such as the cultural studies method, will divulge deeper insight and motivation by the author. You may discover more than just a story about a fight over a jackknife. In the end, you may learn a lesson in human psychology and socio-economics.

Reasons Teen Disrespect Is On The Rise Essay -- essays research papers

Though cultures have many differences there have been a few traits that have united them across the spans of time and geographical area. Many of these traits have even been included in religious doctrine or social and moral laws. In western philosophy and religions the concept of respect has help a high place, allowing a clear distinction between those who have experience and answers to those who are young and naà ¯ve. Religions such as Christianity and Mormonism stress greatly that the young should respect the elderly, while the Judaic religion provides a strict consequence, should this command be broken. By Old Testament law, the disrespectful child was to be taken to the town council, and then promptly stoned to avoid the spread of the sin and to keep ?God?s Chosen? pure. In recent times the respect that teenagers have shown for the elderly has decreased significantly, this trend has become extremely apparent in the 1980?s and 90?s. Though modern social guidelines do not dictate the killing of a disrespectful youth, it is still considered something that must be stopped. High school students have always been notorious for their lack of respect for authority. Many have wondered how these changes occur, most children are respectful at a young age but seem to ?change over night? into a youthful teenager who is often disrespectful to those around them. Studies done in recent years have shown that society, media, and the physical changes that a teenager undergoes may all be res...

Hiroshima & Nagasaki :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Truman made his decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I think it was a bad idea, but in a good way of protecting ourselves from Japan. The reason why I think it was a bad decision was that he didn’t really give them enough time to respond, and send a surrender letter. When we didn’t receive a letter, we figured they didn’t take us seriously. I think the Japanese didn’t get the letter yet, or we didn’t give them enough time to respond to it. The reason why I think it was a good thing we responded when we did, is because in the time of waiting for that surrender letter, we could have given them enough time to come and attack us when we weren’t ready for it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  July 25, 1945, Truman made his final plans to drop the first and only two atomic bombs in existence, at this time, on Japan. A day after his decision, the United States of America warned Japan of their attack, and that they would stop only if Japan surrendered. Japan refused to surrender.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On August 6, 1945, President Truman dropped the first atomic bomb, named â€Å"Little Boy†, on the Japanese center, Hiroshima. Seconds later almost every building collapsed to the ground. Even after the Hiroshima bombing, Japan still refused to surrender. In regards to their â€Å"response†, three days later we dropped the second bomb, named â€Å"Fat Man†, right on top of Nagasaki, Japan. Destroying half of the city, and taking 200,000 people’s lives, due to radiation poisoning and injuries caused by this deadly atomic bomb.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After the second blast, Emperor Hirohito finally realized that his innocent people were getting hurt. He decided very quickly to end this war and surrender to the Americans. He told his leaders to â€Å"draw up the papers, to end the war†.

Level 3 Diploma in Health and Social Care, Children and Young People Unit 11 Essay

Poverty can have a huge impact on a Young Persons life. A family living on a low –income or benefits might not be able to provide for their children as they would like or as is necessary. Accommodation may be poor and inadequate, with not enough space or functioning essential home items. Money may not be available to pay the energy bills. The children’s dietary needs may be affected by low income. The local community in low-income areas may be impoverished. This may lead to a higher crime rate, vandalism of local amenities, reducing the Young Person access to local parks and playgrounds and affecting them being able to play outside of the house at leisure time. The prospects of a lack of continued higher education after school and fulfilling employment in impoverished areas could affect the Young Persons outlook on life causing fear and insecurities and a lack of motivation. In some research carried out by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2007 into the impact of poverty on young children’s experience of school, the key points found from interviewing 220 children aged Four to Eleven as well as parents and teachers were The level of disadvantage they face determines how most children experience school. Poorer children in the study accepted that they were not going to get the same quality of schooling, or the same outcomes, as better-off children. Children and parents identified the main costs of school as uniform (including shoes), lunches and school trips. Children in disadvantaged schools were very aware of all the costs and of the difficulties parents faced in finding as little as 50 pence or a pound for school events. The experiences of school for children from poorer families were narrower and less rich. For example, children in disadvantaged schools had limited access to music, art and out-of-school activities that children in advantaged schools generally took for granted. Boys as young as nine in disadvantaged schools were disenchanted with school and starting to disengage. They are being particularly failed by the education system due to the interaction of: educational disadvantage faced by children growing up in poverty; the difficulties faced by teachers in disadvantaged schools; and differences in the ways that boys and girls are socialised. Social Issues – Divorce introduces a massive change into the life of a child no matter what the age. Witnessing the loss of love between parents, having parents break their marriage commitment, adjusting to going back and forth between two different households, and the daily absence of one parent while living with the other, all create a challenging new family circumstance in which to live. In the personal history of the boy or girl, parental divorce is a life-changing event. Life that follows is significantly changed from how it was before. For the young child, divorce affects the trust of the parents who can now behave in an extremely undependable way due to their own problems and life changing circumstances. This can produce anxiety, aggression and rebellious behaviours in a child. Cultural – I have chosen to look at one aspect of Culture and that is Religion and it’s positive effects on young people. Religious practice is usually done in a  group context and thus involves social relationships. These relationships can provide friendship and social support in times of emotional needs. Religious participation can have beneficial psychological effects. Religion can improve psychological health through increased self-esteem, producing a sense of belonging to the immediate religious group and an interconnection with the world, which is so lacking in modern times, and can help a young person to find meaning in life. Family participation is typical in religious activities, as distinct from other groups that family members may individually participate in (e.g., sports clubs, after school clubs, book clubs) that tend to separate people by age, sex, and personal interest. Thus, if the whole family practices the same religion, religious activities can serve to strengthen ties among family members. 3. 2.3 The choices young people make can have immediate and long-term effects on their lives. As adults and support staff we have to ensure we empower young people to make the right decisions. Children and young people can be seen as experts in their own lives; they often know what it feels like to be in their situation and to have had their personal experiences. Children and young people know something different to adults. It has ben said that adults follow paths, children explore. Treating children and young people as experts in their own lives means showing respect for what they say or communicate. This is not to say that children and young people always know what is in their best interests and they often want adults to help them make important decisions. Sometimes it is the role of adults (parents, family and professionals) to set boundaries and to identify the best course of action. Yet this needs to be done with children and young people who may know best how they feel. Some of the choices young people face making are – academic, career pathway and lifestyle choices i.e. smoking, drinking and drug taking. Children and young people with disabilities may need parents and support staff to make decisions for them if they are unable to due to their conditions. This always needs to be done in the best interests of the child and within international and local law and guidelines. Learning outcome 2 – Understand how practitioners can make a positive difference in the outcomes for children and young people 1. 2. Every child is an individual with individual needs and their own potential that they should be encouraged to develop. As support staff we should try to get to know the young people we are caring for as best as is possible to be able to achieve this. Sometimes the positive outcomes for a young person are seemingly small, but because of varying disabilities these small steps can be massive. One of the young people I am supporting has many issues with diet. I recently through much hard work encouraged him to try a new food. This addition to his diet is the first new foodstuff he has eaten in Three years. We should be constantly striving to help our young people to be all they can be through the person centered approach to caring. With the help of the multi-disciplinary team working holistically each young person can actuate to the best of their abilities. Each young person has their own care plan, which is constantly updated through the feed back from all staff supporting that YP. These care plans are in place so each member of staff is aware of the specific needs of the individual. The person centered approach to care means we are supporting and treating the individual and not the disability.

Working Memory?

Write-Up The field of memory provides excellent opportunity for research, drawing theoretical models and implementing them to check their validity. Working memory, in psychology, is a memory system that holds information to perform various verbal and non-verbal (even physical) tasks. It is very important from the viewpoint of processing information and enacting it in day-to-day life. Though a simple three stage model for memory (Encoding, storage and retrieval) was proposed initially, experts like Baddeley proposed that working memory is much beyond these three phases and memory functions of short-term memory and long-term memory are very complex in comparison to what initial chunking of memory into theoretical aspects initially suggest (Becker & Morris, 1999). He introduced a novel approach to depict working memory as a not as three-part system that temporarily holds information as people perform cognitive tasks but a perennial work-desk on which information is manipulated and assembled to help us comprehend decide, and in problem-solving (Baddeley, 1996, 2003). According to Baddeley’s view of working memory, we can pictorially imagine a managerial executive (Central executive memory) with two helpers (Phonological loop & Visuo-spatial working loop) (Hamilton, Coates & Hefferman, 2010; DeRenzi & Nischell, 1975). This theory and its fractionization have neuropsychological evidence, experimental evidence and developmental evidence. A study states that left posterior hemisphere of the brain is actively involved in working memory. Other studies show that even right posterior is actively involved but in working memory but non-visual aspects. It might be involved in spatial aspects. Despite the heavy argument, involvement of different brain regions in working memory (Phonological and visuo spatial) establishes a base for neuro-psychological evidence (Vallar & Baddeley, 1984; Hamilton, Coates Hefferman, 2010). Laboratory based experiments show how visual short-term memory task is strongly disrupted by visual as opposed to spatial interference, and also spatial memory task was simultaneously more strongly disrupted by spatial interference. This double dissociation supports the theoretically proposed fractionation of working memory (Klauer & Zhao, 2004). Developmental evidence suggests that visual subcomponent of the visuo-spatial sketchpad is distinct from the spatial subcomponent as seen in children aged 5-6, 8-9 and 11-12 (Logie & Pearson, 1997). Thus, arising from strongly evidenced studies, Logie presents a distinct model of two separate systems (Visual and Spatial) (DeRenzi & Nischell, 1975). The visual storage aspect stores information about form and colour whereas spatial control takes care of aspects pertaining to locomotion, limb movements and also rehearsal of information (or series of information in visual cache) (Logie & Pearson, 1997). The proposed study explores the topic of fractionalisation of memory in lines with the above mentioned strong theoretical and research based evidence. However, the trajectory of interest is along the lines of research done by Logie and Pearson (1997) in developmental field. This study examines the visual and spatial development in children and adults. There may be many limitations pertaining to use of methodology. The visual recall of design and Corsi blocks are two distinct materials, not only in terms of format but also in terms of material to be recalled. Thus comparison of two unequal factors may raise questions about the validity and outcomes of the studies. Logie and Pearson’s study focussed solely on children of different age groups, but since it is purported to measure visual and spatial aspects of working memory under a developmental pathway, this study will use children and adults are subjects (Logie & Pearson, 1997; Klauer & Zhao, 2004). Other arguments against the reliability and objectivity of studies in this area have been in terms of usage of participants and individual, genetic, ethnic and anthropologic differences within the patterns of development. It is not possible to outline a single or a group of factors that predict the pathway of development. Our research hypothesis is designed to measure two questions. The first part of the hypothesis seeks to inquire whether according to the fractionation; the visual and spatial systems should develop at different speeds in humans. In accordance to the first part of the hypothesis, the second part inquires whether the developmental trajectory for visual system is shallower than spatial system. MethodParticipantsThe study has 139 participants in all comprising of 65 (46.8%) children and 74 (53.2%) adults. Among these participants are 56 (40.3%) males and 83 (59.7%) are females. The mean age for boys is 15.65 years and that for girls is 18.5 years.MaterialsTwo basic materials (tests) have been utilised viz: Visual recall of designs and Corsi Blocks. The recall of design is a paper-pencil task that requires the experimenter to show a particular design on paper to participants for 5 seconds and the participant recalls it by drawing it on paper (Logie & Pearson, 1997). The Corsi test presents a blue board with nine wooden cubes. The experimenter taps out a sequence of blocks (in increasing order after each successful completion) and the participant taps out the blocks in exactly the same sequence (Fischer, 2001).DesignThe variables design in a classroom based experimental condition testing factors between subjects (Adults, Children) and within subjects (Males, females) performance of Recall of design and Corsi. The visual and spatial working memory development are the Independent variables whereas the developmental trajectory is the dependent variable. Procedure In a classroom settings, both children and adult group were individually given tasks performance on Visual recall of design and Corsi block task. The scores of recall of design and corsi test were done during task administration itself. Calculated scores for each individual in the adult and the children group are put up before conducting statistical analysis. Statistical analysis Statistical analyses used can be divided into Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. SPSS 19.0 was used for data analyses. Graphs, Histograms and Comparitive bar charts along with mean and median related data falls into descriptive statistics category. We have also conducted two unrelated t-tests; one to compare children’s recall of design with adults and the other one to compare children’s Corsi scores with that of adults. The mean score of children on visual memory is 14.17.(Mean=11.02, sd=1.727) and that of adults is 14.42 (Mean= 17.45, sd=2.765). The mean score of children on spatial memory is 11.02 (Mean=14.17,sd=2.275) and that for adults is 17.45 (Mean= 14.42, sd=2.196). The above table clearly shows that with respect to the spatial component there is a statistically significant difference between the adult mean and children’s mean (p=0.000) which is well below the 0.05 threshold. In fact from the above table it can be seen that the adult mean score is 17.45 whilst that of the children is 11.02 meaning that on average the adults scored about 6.4 more than the children. The above table clearly shows that there is a statistically significant difference between the adult mean and children’s mean on spatial component (p=0.000) which is well below the 0.05 threshold which is very highly significant The above table clearly shows that in terms of the visual component there is no statistically significant difference between adult mean and children’s mean (p>0.5) which exceeds the 0.05 threshold. It depicts how the mean difference between adults and children in relation to the visual component is very small resulting in no statistically significant difference in mean scores. Since there is high significance between the children and adult’s spatial component but no statistical significance between children and adult’s visual component, we can say that there might be a different trajectory in children and adult’s development patterns. It doesn’t however completely fulfil the hypothesis. Discussion The findings do not support the hypothesis in all earnest. There is no correlation between children and adult scores on visual component but there is a very significant relationship between children and adult scores on spatial component. It may be said that the difference has emerged because of the previously raised issue of different methods. Since, Corsi and Recall of design are two distinct tasks, it can be argued that their performance cannot be correlated. However, since the spatial component shows good correlation, it signifies that the trajectory may be well defined and that it develops more easily. However, not much light is thrown on why the results have come up the way they have. Further research may be interested in using Multiple regression to predict the possible factors that may have caused a high correlation in spatial scores and if there are any common factors in children and adults, they might as well be highlighted. However, like previous studies, this study support s the Logie -Pearson model as well as justifies the fractionation approach given by Baddeley. Memory is much beyond its’ structural and functional aspects. Though initial divisions on memory and development of theories have described functions and its’ aspects at a superficial level, this research has gone in depth to investigate difference in developmental trajectories. Since, it is a part of developmental aspect, it has many possibilities of further research (Baddeley, 2003; Logie & Pearson, 1997). References Baddeley A (2003) Working memory: looking back and looking forward, nature reviews Neuroscience, 4, 829-839 Baddeley, A (1996) The fractionation of working memory, Proceedings of national academy of sciences, 93(24), 13468-13472 Becker, J.T & Morris, R.G (1999) Working memory, Brain and cognition, 41, 1-8 DeRenzi, E & Nischell, P (1975) Verbal and non-verbal short term memory impairment following hemispheric damage, Cortex, 11, 341-353 Field, A (2007) Discovering Statistics Using SPSS (Ed:3 ), Sage Publications: London (United Kingdom) Fischer, M (2001), Probing Spatial working memory with Corsi blocks task, Brain and cognition, 45(2), 143-154 Hamilton, C; Coates, R & Hefferman, T (2010) What develops in a visuo-spatial working memory developmentEuropean journal of cognitive psychology Klauer, K.C & Zhao, Z (2004) Double dissociations in visual and spatial short term memory, Journal of experimental psychology, 133 (3), 355-381 Logie, R.H & Pearson, D.G (1997) The inner eye and the inner scribe of visuo-spatial working memory: Evidence from Developmental fractionation, European Journal of cognitive psychology, 9(3), 241-257 Vallar, G & Baddeley, A (1984) Fractionation of working memory: Neuropsychological evidence for short term store, Journal of verbal learning and verbal behaviour, 23(2), 151-161

Lvmh in the Recession the Substance of Style

http://www. economist. com/node/14447276 LVMH in the recession The substance of style The world’s biggest luxury-goods group is benefiting from a flight to quality, but the recession is also prompting questions about the company’s breadth and balance Sep 17th 2009 | Paris | from the print edition * * Bloomberg â€Å"THERE are four main elements to our business model—product, distribution, communication and price,† explains an executive at LVMH, the world's largest luxury-goods group. â€Å"Our job is to do such a fantastic job on the first three that people forget all about the fourth. For decades LVMH's formula has worked like a spell: seduced by beautiful status-symbols, perfect shops and clever advertising, millions of people have swooned forgetfully towards the firm's cash registers. At Louis Vuitton, LVMH's star company, the model's pricing power has yielded consistent profit margins of around 40-45%, the highest of any luxury-goods brand. These days customers are finding it far harder to forget about price. The seriously rich, of course, are still spending freely.But much of the industry's rapid growth in the past decade came from middle-class people, often buying on credit or on the back of rising house prices. According to Luca Solca of Bernstein Research, 60% of the luxury market is now based on demand from â€Å"aspirational† customers rather than from the wealthy elite. The recession has quickly reversed the trend to trade up, and people are delaying expensive purchases. Bain & Company, a consulting firm, expects the industry's sales to fall by a tenth in 2009, to â‚ ¬153 billion ($225 billion).Some executives even expect a lasting shift in customers' preferences, towards discretion and value. Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive of LVMH, believes that the whole industry needs to rebrand itself. â€Å"The word luxury suggests triviality and showing off, and the time for all that has gone,† he say s. Brands which sold â€Å"blingy† easy-to-sell products, milking old names, he says, will fare particularly badly in the new environment. LVMH, by contrast, has never taken such an approach, he says, instead emphasising quality, innovation and creativity.To underline these values, the group is going back to basics in its daily operations. â€Å"Before the crisis, we were putting a lot of energy into beautiful stores, but now we care a bit less about expanding our network and even more about design and price,† says an executive. A few years ago, for instance, at the height of the boom, one LVMH brand was putting diamonds all over its watches, so that it was almost difficult to tell the time. â€Å"Now we are getting back to what really matters, which is nice movements and design,† he says.For some luxury firms, the recession's effects have already been brutal. Private-equity firms and other outside investors which rushed into the industry at its peak have suffer ed most. â€Å"At the top of the market this industry was perceived as easy by outsiders,† says Mr Arnault. â€Å"You borrowed 80% of a target's asking price and hired a good designer, but the strategy has not been successful in several cases. † Lenders to Valentino, an Italian fashion house, are reportedly trying to renegotiate its debt. Permira, a private-equity group, bought the firm in 2007 in a deal valuing it at â‚ ¬5. billion. Permira has since written down its equity investment of about â‚ ¬900m by more than half. Prada Holding, through which Miuccia Prada and her husband control Prada Group, another Italian house, recently restructured its loans in order to defer payment to banks. Prada Group has denied that there are talks to bring in a minority shareholder. Two particularly weak firms, Christian Lacroix, a Paris-based ready-to-wear and haute couture label which used to be part of LVMH, and Escada, a German maker of luxury womenswear, filed for bankrupt cy earlier this year.Amid this turmoil, LVMH is performing relatively well (see chart 1). It has benefited from an established pattern in the luxury industry: when people have less, they spend what they do have on the best quality. Shoppers are going for fewer, classic items—one Burberry raincoat, rather than three designer dresses, or a single Kelly bag by Hermes, a French luxury-goods group, instead of four bags from various lesser designers. For this reason, says Yves Carcelle, chief executive of Louis Vuitton and president of fashion and leather goods for LVMH, â€Å"Vuitton always gains market share in crises. As reliable and sturdy as one of its own handbags, therefore, Vuitton is carrying LVMH fairly comfortably through the recession. In the first half of 2009 the group's revenues were about the same as a year before, though profits were 12% lower. Two divisions—wine and spirits, and watches and jewellery—were the worst affected: their revenues each fell by 17% and their profits by 41% and 73% respectively (see chart 2). Rapid de-stocking by retailers exacerbated the effect of falling demand.But the falls were offset by Vuitton, where revenue rose by a double-digit percentage, registering gains in every market. â€Å"It is incredible that in a downturn the consumer still buys so many Louis Vuitton bags, but she or he does,† says Melanie Flouquet, luxury-goods analyst at JPMorgan in Paris. Vuitton's performance, and the overall robustness of LVMH, a global conglomerate with more than 50 brands and revenues of â‚ ¬17. 2 billion in 2008, should allow it to take advantage of its competitors' weakness in the recession. In the next few years we expect several failures in the industry and good opportunities to acquire assets at attractive prices,† says Mr Arnault. Shareholders in the firm are particularly preoccupied by what he might buy and sell in the next few years. What explains Vuitton's resilience? Beneath the gloss of advertising campaigns, catwalk shows and each season's fleeting trends, Vuitton brings a machine-like discipline to the selling of fancy leather goods and fashion. It is the only leather-goods firm, for instance, which never puts its products on sale at a discount.It destroys stock instead, keeping a close eye on the proportion it ends up scrapping (which it calls the â€Å"destruction margin†). In 2005, when Maurizio Borletti, owner of several prominent department stores in Italy and France, was preparing for the opening of a refurbished La Rinascente department store in Milan, he recalls, the Vuitton people built a scale model of the building in their offices to understand customer flows and get the best positioning. â€Å"In this they're the most professional in the industry,† he says.Unlike most other luxury marques, Vuitton never gives licences to outside firms, to avoid brand degradation. Its factories use techniques from other industries, notably carmaking, t o push costs down ruthlessly and to allow teams of workers to be switched from one product to another as demand dictates. It has adopted methods of quality control, too: one quality supervisor came from Valeo, a French auto-parts supplier. The result is long-lasting utility, beyond show, which is valuable in difficult times. Owning shops gives Vuitton control over levels of stock, presentation and pricing.It was not therefore affected by the panicked price-slashing of up to 80% by American luxury department stores in the run-up to Christmas last year—a â€Å"catastrophe† for others in the industry, according to Mr Arnault. Although other LVMH divisions have been hit by outside retailers de-stocking during the crisis, Vuitton has managed its own inventory, with no competition for space from other brands. With a global network, says Mr Carcelle, the firm can move poorly selling stock to shops where it has performed better. The luxury of diversityVuitton's ability to offs et the steep falls in other divisions shows the value of the diversified conglomerate model in luxury goods. Richemont, the industry's second-largest company, has a less varied portfolio and greater exposure to watches and jewellery, demand for which has been especially weak. According to a recent trading statement, its sales fell by 16% in the five months to the end of August. A group structure also yields savings when negotiating deals for advertising space, property and credit-card fees. It helps to have a specialist beauty retailer, Sephora, and a chain of airport shops, DFS, to sell perfumes and cosmetics.When Vuitton develops watches, say, it can call on the talents of TAG Heuer. But LVMH's breadth also comes in for criticism. Although there is undoubtedly value in some diversification, some people ask whether 50-odd brands under one roof are too many. Vuitton, for instance, would doubtless like to see disposals of weaker brands as a result of the crisis, and a greater concent ration of resources on the group's key businesses. The group's executives devote the bulk of their attention to the most important of these: Louis Vuitton, Moet Hennessy in drinks, TAG Heuer in watches, Christian Dior in perfumes and cosmetics, Sephora and DFS.The group has many smaller businesses, and these get much less attention in such a big group. LVMH does not disclose financial figures for individual brands, but at its presentation of first-half results the group's finance director replied to an analyst asking about fashion and leather-goods that a â€Å"handful† had lost money â€Å"somewhere†. There is speculation that Celine, a ready-to-wear clothing and accessories label, Kenzo, a fashion brand which analysts have long suggested LVMH dispose of, or Loewe, a Spanish leather-goods brand which has so far failed o win much of a following outside Spain and Japan, are among the less profitable. Nevertheless, the group can use the might of Vuitton to support its sm aller, upcoming brands. A department store, for instance, may be asked to take Loewe or Celine in order to get Vuitton. That often frustrates people at Vuitton, however, who would prefer to use the power of the brand for its own benefit, says a person who knows the company well. â€Å"They've never heard of another of LVMH's brands saying, ‘Either give this to Vuitton or I won't come',† he says.Apart from the synergy in watch design, Vuitton does not find that it benefits much from the rest of the group. The reason why LVMH has many small brands which aren't quite making it, says another person familiar with the company, is that Mr Arnault is an optimist who believes that every property can at some point be turned around. That can pay off: some years ago Mr Arnault halted the imminent sale of a make-up line. Thanks to the distribution muscle of Sephora, it has since turned into a bestseller in America.Investors, however, are nevertheless wary of what they see as Mr Arna ult's tendency to collect brands. The crisis has also underlined the fact that Vuitton dominates the group's results. Were it not for Vuitton, estimates one analyst, LVMH's sales would have fallen by 3% in the first half of 2009 and profits would have plunged by 40%. In normal times Vuitton contributes about half of the group's profits, and most of the rest comes from Moet Hennessy. In the first half of this year, however, Vuitton contributed an estimated 70% of profit.That leads some people to question whether LVMH is overly dependent on the leather-goods firm. â€Å"You can argue that there's nothing as good as Vuitton in LVMH's portfolio,† says Pierre Mallevays of Savigny Partners, who was formerly director of acquisitions at LVMH, â€Å"but that simply states the fact that LV's business model is the gold standard of luxury brands; no other brand in the world compares to it. † The biggest risk to LVMH is Vuitton, argues Ms Flouquet, since it accounts for such a big proportion of profits; the company depends on it, she says.The risk to Vuitton, in turn, is that it could fall out of fashion or lose its exclusivity in the eyes of consumers. So far there is no sign of fatigue with the brand. LVMH's senior managers have devised ways to refresh it. In the late 1990s, for example, Mr Arnault saw that there was a risk that as a maker of leather goods alone, Vuitton could be perceived as boring. In 1997 he hired Marc Jacobs, then a relatively unknown designer, to design a fashion line. The aim was to generate seasonal buzz and press coverage.Vuitton's senior executives at the time were against the idea, fearing that adding fashion could undermine a timeless image, but Mr Arnault's move proved successful. To avoid overexposure of its signature â€Å"Monogram† print, Vuitton has taken care to develop a wide range of products and other patterns. â€Å"We increase the number of product lines and we are careful to have several different colours and shapes,† says Mr Arnault. Thus Vuitton sells reasonably priced handbags—the smallest Speedy Bag costs â‚ ¬430 in Paris—but also wildly expensive custom-made luggage, reinforcing its exclusive image.Another effective tactic is to make limited-edition handbags which are hard to get hold of. Five or so years ago Vuitton depended to a large degree on one market, Japan. Most Japanese women owned at least one Vuitton product—and hence provided a large proportion of Vuitton's profits, which worried analysts at the time. Yet the Japanese market for luxury goods was souring. Spending on such items in Japan has fallen sharply since the end of 2005, according to a recent report by McKinsey, a consulting firm. Young women are more individualistic than their mothers, and are seeking out lesser-known brands. You used to see thousands of Vuitton bags coming at you in the Ginza shopping district but far fewer now,† says Radha Chadha, author of a book, â€Å"The Cult of the Luxury Brand: Inside Asia's Love Affair with Luxury†. That reliance on one country is no longer so marked (see chart 3). Fortunately, Vuitton has since rapidly established a strong position in what it hopes will become another Japan: China. â€Å"The Chinese consumer is in a love affair with the Vuitton brand,† says Ms Flouquet. According to LVMH, in the first half of 2009 sales to Chinese people (at home and travelling) made up 18% of Vuitton's revenue.Despite widespread concerns about counterfeiting in the country, the Chinese are now Vuitton's biggest customer base after the Japanese. The key to the firm's success, says Mr Arnault, has been approaching the market exactly as if it were a developed market. â€Å"We treat the Chinese customer as being very sophisticated. † Many competitors, by contrast, have at times lowered their standards for shops in China, he says, using inferior furniture or positioning their stores poorly. Going into new markets and developing new product lines will enable Vuitton o continue producing double-digit growth for years to come, says Mr Carcelle. On every trip to mainland China—he makes five or six a year—he tries to discover a new city and meet its mayor. Mr Carcelle is also tackling other new frontiers: in October he will open a shop in Sukhbaatar Square in Ulan Bator. â€Å"Already if you go to an upmarket disco in Ulan Bator you will see a significant number of our bags,† he says. Vuitton's expansion into China, Mongolia and new product lines such as watches and shoes, suggest that the leather-goods firm will continue to be LVMH's main source of growth.However, it also means that the group may become more rather than less reliant on Vuitton. In theory, the answer could lie in strengthening some of LVMH's smaller names, such as Fendi, a fashion and leather-goods brand. But buying a big, established, global brand with potential for growth could be both a quicker and a sure r route. Or maybe that oneImagineChina A new collection? Analysts and bankers are convinced that Mr Arnault wants to buy the Hermes Group, a producer of leather goods and fashion which matches Vuitton for quality and design.Because Hermes is run so conservatively, says an investment banker who knows LVMH well, it is only a quarter of the size that it could be. â€Å"Mr Arnault would grow it while preserving its values,† he says. Earlier this year, there were rumours that LVMH would sell Moet Hennessy to Diageo, the world's biggest spirits group, which already owns 34% of the business. Such a sale could raise money to buy Hermes. Mr Arnault, however, refuses to be drawn into commenting. For the moment, such an acquisition is impossible, since the family which controls Hermes does not want to sell, and the firm is strongly defended against takeover.Nevertheless, says the banker, the family which controls it has several branches, all with different views. â€Å"It's a pressure cooker and some day it will blow up,† he says. Chanel, another closely held global luxury brand, could also make a desirable target for LVMH. Some people recommend a merger with Richemont, which, Mr Solca argues, would address LVMH's relative weakness in watches and jewellery. Any such deals, or selling Moet Hennessy, would radically change the balance of the group. â€Å"I would be surprised if LVMH sold Moet Hennessy. The business has high margins, high ashflow and it is well managed,† says Ms Flouquet. â€Å"They would probably only sell it if they had a large deal ahead. † Shareholders are nervous that LVMH will pay too high a price for a large acquisition. For this reason the group's valuation may not fully reflect its performance during the crisis. Such concerns are not likely to deter Mr Arnault, who has demonstrated his confidence in LVMH's prospects in luxury by raising his stake in the group over time: he owns 47%. If LVMH does go shopping, it will prob ably behave like one of its best customers: with price in mind, but willing to spend on enduring prestige.

Diary extract from the poem blessing Essay

Today was the best day ever; the pipe through our village burst. I first spotted it on the way back from my two mile hike to the well, I had two buckets in my hands had spilt a little water on the way back when seeing a spurt of water coming from the pipe. I filled up the buckets and ran home, I told everyone in the village to bring buckets and cups and everything, by this time the gap had grown and there was a good amount of water coming from it. Everyone gather around bring mugs and tin cans to collect some clean water, we filled our metal bath tub with our buckets and everything we could, we have so much water now, the crops we have tried to grow have been watered and we have kept a good amount to water them more often, the drought had finally ended, there hasn’t been rain in a while, but I believe that this is the work of god, he’s finally come through for us, everyone had prayed and thanked him for this deed, the party still hasn’t finished, I am tired, I have been dancing and singing and drumming until the sun rose again, I was the village’s favourite person today because I spotted the leak that has praised us all, I wouldn’t trade the feeling I had for anything in the world, people chanted my name and cheered all night long I loved it, none of the water is being wasted anything waterproof is being filled with clean healthy water, I will not have to go on my hike for water for the next few days and I will not have to be thirsty we are going to church again tomorrow and I think that the whole village will be there just to thank him for this blessing. I can’t believe how lucky we were, this is truly a miracle, the water came when we needed it the most, when everyone was finding it harder and harder to drink the dirty water, but the question is how long will this water last? How long will it take for the rich people to realise they are paying for our water? And will they stop it? I believe that these questions will be answered in time, God may have let this miracle but I don’t think there is much he could do to change those idiots, they have everything, clean house, clean food and clean drinking water and we have nothing. Our homes are dirty so is our food and out drinking water they just get water whenever they want whereas we have to walk over 2 miles to get dirty water from a well. Everyone hates them if only we could swap places for a week, they would know what it’s like how hard it is for us just to survive, to stay alive but they have no idea I wish something could be done about this.

Drinking age Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Drinking age - Essay Example Using the research conducted in 2005 by White and Hayman via ‘Australian Secondary School Students and Drug Use Survey’, reports show that approximately 40% out of samples from the 16-17 year-old drinking Australian population confessed that parents bear chief influence in alcoholic consumption. Additionally, such findings had no substantial variance from among those who obtained influence from friends through the peer pressure of drinking on a weekly basis. Still the question remains what age must one be legally allowed to drink and to what extent should it be tolerated relative to other forms of addiction. White and Hayman (2006) examined whether parental control of drinking may be attributed to the occurrence of risky drinking for short-term harm (RSOD) and alcohol-related difficult behaviors such as physical and verbal assault from a sample of underage drinkers. Research indicates that 86% of adolescents 16-17 years of age are existing alcohol consumers whereas some 20% appear to be weekly RSOD and more than 34% get involved in at least one case of alcohol-linked problem with conduct. Moreover, it is found that mere banning of alcohol drinking for the sake of youth 18 is not practically sufficient. Fresh plans for appropriate mediation and avoidance are apparently essential according to the study of parental supplication that was figured to impact lesser rates of RSOD and alcohol-related social behavior. This rather implies the likelihood that by changing the normal supply of alcohol from the source other than the parents to the parents alone, the shift may bring about good restrict ion to the amount of consumption and injury among the adolescents. However, as much as parental guidance toward alcohol supply control is considered one positive approach, it is quite unexplored and must therefore undergo thorough investigation as promising alternative (Dietze, Livingston,

The cold War and Masculinity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The cold War and Masculinity - Essay Example The Cuban missile crisis had been the most glaring example of a possible nuclear war. While the possibility still remains valid today, the menace appeared more eminent in cold war era. The cold war can actually be compared to a chauvinist conflict, whereupon both nations involved tried to use their supposed technological supremacy as a tool to undermine the influence of other nation. This notion is quite obvious in Stanley Kubrick's movie "Dr Strangelove: or How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb", as well in the text authored by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Joseph Rotblat, "A war-free world". Though the cold war no longer exists but the situation in Iran, Iraq and the role of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has again compelled this world to think of a very different approach towards nuclear deterrence. Mohamed ElBaradei, the eminent scientist who is heading IAEA while giving a lecture at Stanford, called for a new commitment from the peace loving world to go for nu clear disarmament rather than nuclear deterrence. The human urge to use things of mass destruction in satisfying their hatred and paranoia has been the main theme of the movie Dr. Strangelove. Right at the start of the movie,

Innovations in computer technologies (this needs to be narrowed down Essay

Innovations in computer technologies (this needs to be narrowed down pls review the comments from teacher - Essay Example Considering the present scenario it has become an essential component in nursing education. Just recent years ego new technology has been emerged in the nursing education and which is named it as clinical simulation. â€Å"Clinical Simulations is the use of model-driven patient simulators, such as the METI HPS, ECS and iStan, in a realistic clinical environment for the purpose of immersing the healthcare profession students/trainee in environments that closely mimic real patient environments† (What is clinical simulation? 2008, para.1). The use of this simulation assists nursing students in many ways. This helped in making clinical decision, data analyzing and in solving the problems. The evolution of this technology has bought many changes in the field of nursing education. These changes are due to a rapid expansion in technology. â€Å"These changes have been associated with incumbent ethical and moral dilemmas which are borne out in the daily practice of nurses† (Simpson & Courtney, n.d., p.3). These clinical simulation has bought significant change in the learning abilities of nursing students as it models real life nursing situations. It also ensures competency and self-taught learning strategies for the nursing students. By utilizing these simulations, many problems can be solved and learning can be increased in very cost effective manner. It is sure that clinical simulation can provide low cost learning atmosphere. Traditional system requires lots of costs input in order to facilitate needs for the students in learning. Traditional system requires lots of faculties for teaching purposes. With the evolution of this system it requires only very less number of faculties in order to teach the course. Presently hospitals are not allowing students to perform nursing intervention, as they believe that students will put patients in jeopardized state. Also to use

Abortion vs Adoption Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Abortion vs Adoption - Essay Example Though there are many debates on making abortion safe for mothers, the fact is that no abortion may be considered safe. Considering the varying degrees of effects that affect the mother after this exercise, there should be no debate on the safety of an abortion. These complications may be physical, emotional, spiritual or psychological and do usually affect a mother for the rest of their lives. For instance, statistics today show that about 10% of all mothers in induced abortions have immediate serious complications, with 2% of these complications being life threatening. In addition, there are many mothers who suffer from many minor complications that may involve infections, damage to the uterus, too much bleeding, hemorrhages, and serious injuries in their cervix among others. Some of the major complications that are known today include premature births. This is because in induced abortions, the cervix is opened before its time is due, which damages the cervical muscles. Consequentl y, depending on the degree of the damage, as the woman bear another pregnancy, the baby increases pressure at the cervix where the weakened muscles open prematurely. Moreover, the mother may suffer from sterility on the long term with 3-5% of all aborting women becoming sterile after abortions mainly due to the morbidity of the process. This is more serious when a woman may have venereal disease at the time of an abortion. The major psychological effects related to abortion are mental problems. In a study of aborting mothers in their eight week after abortion, 44% of mothers complained of having nervous disorders, 36% complained of having some serious sleep disturbances, 31% bitterly regretted of having aborted their babies and 11% were placed under psychotropic drugs by a doctor (Ashton 1117). In fact, the research noted that women who had procured an abortion had much higher chances of admission in psychiatric facilities than those who did not. Moreover, these effects are compounded by increasing guilt, and increases in the level of anxiety in the mother, though there is a short period marked by post abortion numbness of what may be termed as emotional paralysis. Teenagers are particularly affected by these post abortion complications. These effects are mostly related to the internal conflict between one’s moral standards, ethics and the decision to abort, which explains the temporary period in which the mother feels relieved. Therefore, with these abortion danger s and side effects, there is need to consider a better and healthier approach for the mother and the baby in cases where the mother may not be interested in the; consequently, pro-adoption becomes the best alternative. In the last three decades, adoption practices have considerably changed in the US; today, there are many couples across the US willing to adopt a child than bearing their own child (Berry 125). This is because today there are more career based families where both partners are in highly involving careers and lack time to undergo the normal child bearing process, mainly driven by changes in the role of women in the labor force. Moreover, there are increasing cases of infertility among many couples, which increases the number of people seeking to adopt children (Berry 125). However, there is a trend where abortion practices, birth controls and a changed impression of families towards single motherhood has drastically reduced the number of available children for adoption (Berry 125). Considering these factors, there are no reasons for women to procure an abortion when there is an increasing demand of healthy children to adopt across the US. One of the adoption practices that has gained much success today is open adoption.