Monday, December 30, 2019

The Crucible By John Proctor - 968 Words

Choose three of the characters in The crucible and show how Miller presents the motivations for their actions. Think about: Reputation- is this a motivating factor for any of the characters Power – Which characters are motivated by power Witchcraft – how are the accusations used? Who benefits? How? The individual and the society – how might the particular community situation in Salem be a motivating factor for some characters? 800 – 1250 words The theme of the crucible is a tragedy. In the crucible characters are motivated by various themes such as, reputation, power, witchcraft and society. John Proctor, Reverend Hale and Reverend Parris’s actions are prime examples of how in the crucible these themes motivate character’s actions From the very start of the text we can see that reputation is a key factor throughout the text, the first time this is noticed is at the very beginning, act one, in which Reverend Parris’s daughter is sick, however this particular detail does not show the key reputation, it is the fact that he had found betty dancing in the woods with various other girls dancing aswell, atleast one of them were naked. This event could prove betty practising witchcraft, and the cause for betty to fall ill, it is revealed to use that he is ashamed calling witchcraft in the â€Å"holy† town of salem, let alone his own household, he states that he has â€Å"enemies† that if they find out this information would crush him w ith it. In addition to this at the end of the play afterShow MoreRelatedThe Crucible By John Proctor895 Words   |  4 PagesJohn Proctor, a prominent individual in both the Salem Witch Trials and The Crucible, was tried and executed for witchcraft in 1692. When the witchcraft hysteria first began in Salem village in the winter of 1692, Proctor became an outspoken opponent of the trials and stated to many that the afflicted girls, who had been accusing many of the villagers of witchcraft, were frauds and liars (Brooks). There were many parallels between John Proctor and his character in The Crucible, including his vocalRead MoreThe Crucible By John Proctor849 Words   |  4 Pages The Crucible Analysis: Is John Proctor a tragic hero based on Aristotle`s definition of a tragic hero An array of Aristotelian tragic heroes can be found throughout American literature. One of which includes John Proctor, main character farmer in mid-30s, from Arthur Miller s play, The Crucible. Yet, in order for him to obtain such a title he must possess specific characteristics. Five of which include possession of hubris, a flaw or decision leading to desire for revenge, a reversal of goodRead MoreThe Crucible By John Proctor1091 Words   |  5 PagesJohn Proctor, a character in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, was hung for â€Å"witchcraft.† Owen Lattimore’s, a former editor for the Institute of Pacific Relations Journal, reputation was tarnished after falsely being accused by Joseph McCarthy of being the number one spy for the Soviets. David Kato, a Ugandan gay rights campaigner, was beaten to death on January 26, 2011. These are just three examples of how witch hunts ruined and ended lives. Throughout history, many people have been persecutedRead MoreThe Crucible By John Proctor1134 Words   |  5 PagesIn The Crucible, Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Elizabeth Proctor are arguably the most important characters. The affair between Abigail and John drives the plot of the play. Abigail begins accusing societal outcasts as witches and gradually works her way up the social ladder until she is able to accuse an upstanding citizen like Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch and having people believe the accusation. She accused Elizabeth of being a witch so that Elizabeth would be hanged. Then, AbigailRead MoreJohn Proctor In The Crucible Essay783 Words   |  4 PagesIn â€Å"The Crucible,† a play by Arthur Miller about the Salem Witch Trials, we are shown the roles and fates of various characters, one of which is the farmer John Proctor. Throughout the play, John Proctor is shown to be an honest albeit hotheaded and stubborn man as he crusades to disprove the claims of witchcraft against his wife and other townsfolk. John Proctor best shows his honesty within â€Å"The Crucible† when he repeatedly admits to both his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, and the court about his relationsRead MoreExamples Of John Proctor In The Crucible712 Words   |  3 Pages The Crucible John Proctor shows himself to be a very powerful and charismatic person right. From the time he first appears in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, he is presented as an intelligent, sharp-tongued man with a strong independent mind. These traits would seem to make him a good person to question the motives of those who cry witchcraft. However, his guilt over his affair with Abigail makes his position problematic because he is guilty of the very hypocrisy that he despises in others.Read MoreExamples Of John Proctor In The Crucible985 Words   |  4 Pages John Proctor; Tragic Hero or Ordinary Joe Plays have been used as a method of storytelling and form of entertainment for hundreds of years. A tragedy is one type of play where the audience pities the characters and fear the same consequences that the characters face. In addition, tragedies often include a tragic hero who has a tragic flaw causing his or her downfall. One example of a play that is a tragedy and includes a tragic hero is the The Crucible. John Proctor in The Crucible is a true tragicRead MoreThe Role Of John Proctor In The Crucible1242 Words   |  5 PagesMiller Arthur’s play â€Å"The Crucible† takes place in Salem, the event of this play is about the witch trials. These witch trials had many different reactions and results, it influenced people in many different ways. The trials broke the whole village into different sides of their view of the trials, people get accused of being a witch or studying/practicing witchcraft and their trial could come with many different consequences. The trial would either lock up or hang those who are accusedRead MoreThe Importance Of Common Core Standards1114 Words   |  5 Pagessituation. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible; the character of John Proctor is an honorable man despite having committed wrongful acts. He was able to redeem himself through acts that is considered courageous, such as when he refuses to contribute to the lie of witchcraft in Salem, when he fights for the people who were convicted of witchcraft and when he regrets being a dishonest man. John Proctor showed his good nature many times throughout the play. In the last act, John Proctor refused to confess to theRead MoreThe Importance Of Common Core Standards1114 Words   |  5 Pagessituation. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible; the character of John Proctor is an honorable man despite having committed wrongful acts. He was able to redeem himself through acts that is considered courageous, such as when he refuses to contribute to the lie of witchcraft in Salem, when he fights for the people who were convicted of witchcraft and when he regrets being a dishonest man. John Proctor showed his good nature many times throughout the play. In the last act, John Proctor refused to confess to the

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Trees Carbon Dioxide and Global Warming - 1027 Words

advantages there would be way more trees therefor more and cleaner oxygen and disadvantages paper and all products made from trees would not be the same if they wernt made out of trees Advantages: 1. Gives us shelter from the hot and humid sun 2. Holds the sand firm to the ground so that it will not be blown by the wind everywhere and the world will not become deserts. 3. Help stop global warming by reducing carbon dioxide by breathing it in and gives out oxygen. 4. Being a food producer which provides food for some herbivores. Disadvantages: 1. Conducts electricity when there s thunder. A disadvantage of cutting down a tree is that trees supply our air with oxygen. Cutting down trees does reduce the oxygen level in our†¦show more content†¦The main trunks of large trees like the mango and the banyan bear many branches, which further divide into smaller branches. Leaves grow on these branches. Branching causes the tree to spread out wide on all sides. Trees are Nature s wonders and a great gift to mankind as well as to all those who depend on them. While some dependants stay on the trees, others come to them to rest or to feed. Still others use them to raise their offspring. Humans have used almost any and every tree to their benefit. It is very sad that the same humans are destroying trees all over the world in the name of development. This can be to create factories, new townships, wider roads, railways, entertainment centres and so on. They do not realise that they are making a big mistake. 2.0 Usefulness of trees: 2.1 How trees are useful: Trees are useful to us in many ways. 1. Food: Trees give us food such as fruits. These provide us with excellent nourishment. 2. Wood: The wood from some trees such as teak, walnut, rosewood and oak is used to make furniture. Wood from other trees is used as fuel for cooking and for warming houses. 3. Paper: Paper is made from wood. 4. Medicines: Many trees are the source of useful modern medicines. 5. Shelter: The canopy of leaves and branches gives us shelter. 6. Climate: Trees provide cool shade. Many trees, for example, in a forest, can make theShow MoreRelatedProblems and Solutions to Catastrophic Global Warming1025 Words   |  5 PagesProblems and Solutions to Catastrophic Global Warming Global warming is becoming a major problem for our environment. Global warming is causing the atmosphere to become warmer which causes many problems for the environment. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere allows sunlight to pass through, but it traps heat from escaping. This causes the earth to warm which keeps the earth from becoming a ball of frozen ice, but excess carbon dioxide causes global warming, which will affect the environment. ThereRead More The Problem of Global Warming Essay1139 Words   |  5 PagesGlobal Warming is the increase of temperature on Earth which is caused by human activities and will have very serious consequences for life on Earth if humans dont start to do something about it now. Global Warming is caused when the Greenhouse Gases combines with the atmosphere and traps heat. It is strongly related to pre-human and pre- industrial global warming, it is also weakly related to depletion of ozone layer, which was caused by the CFC (Chlorofluorocarbons) gas. The effectsRead MoreDeforestation of Our Rainforests931 Words   |  4 Pagesenvironment. Deforestation has many effects on the environment. First of all trees make oxygen and oxygen is a necessity for human life Trees exchange carbon dioxide (Green house gas) and turns it into oxygen which again we need to survive, if the carbon dioxide isnt changed fast enough then green house gases build up and the earth heats up carding to the cycle of Global Warming. Not only that but destroying trees destroys countless ecosystems and organisms that are a part of nature, and changingRead MoreGlobal Warming And Its Effects On The Earth927 Words   |  4 PagesGlobal-Warming Mother Earth is burning as we speak; humanity has killed our precious Earth. Global-warming is a vicious killer that was created by the humans on this Earth, and there s no way to cure it. We,as humans, have the power to cleanse the Earth, but instead we destroy it. Heat is absorded by carbon dixide and greenhouse gases. A greenhouse gas absorb thermal radiation emmited by the Earth s surface. As the sun s energy reaches the Earth’s surface some of it goes back out into spaceRead MoreIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change1404 Words   |  6 Pagesabout 90% of the use of fossil fuels worldwide to have a slim chance of stopping Global Warming. If the people have anything less than the percentage given, Global Warming will not stop. As of now Global Warming is a big issue throughout the world. Some say Global Warming is just a myth to scare people and it’s just a natural cause, but there is proof that Global Warming is a fact and that the main cause of Global Warmi ng is anthropogenic causes or man-made. Man has overused the burning of fossilRead MoreGlobal Warming: Fiction or Truth? Essay example1369 Words   |  6 PagesTrue or false; global warming is a catastrophic event that is occurring by natural and human means that is causing global temperature to rise and that can lead to many disasters? This has been an issue that hundreds and maybe thousands of scientists and citizens have debated about back and forth. The thought of global warming existing is a strong claim that many and most people have been backing up. Reliable sources have claims and evidence that is sufficient to prove global warming but other reliableRead MoreA Solution to Global Warming 1037 Words   |  5 Pagesbut have also helped to cause global warming. The emission of carbon dioxide from these machines in the atmosphere causes global warming. Global warming, defined by Oxford dictionary is a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earths atmosphere general ly attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants (â€Å"Definition of global†¦.†). There are several creative ideas to stop global warming and some of them have promisesRead MoreThe Effects Of Global Warming On The Earth s Atmosphere Essay1391 Words   |  6 PagesGlobal warming occurs due to an increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere. Various reasons as discussed in task 3 lead to the rise in temperature around the earth. The reasons include deforestation, burning fossil fuels, increase in human population and increase in the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses such as methane, chlorofluorocarbons, nitrous oxide and water vapor in the atmosphere. (Dai, 2013) Greenhouse gasses are produced when fossil fuels or wood isRead MoreEssay about Global Warming: A Dangerous Reality1439 Words   |  6 PagesGlobal Warming has been a nuisance to environment alists in recent years. It has been affecting Earth’s oceans, habitats, and biodiversity. Over the years, scientists have conducted experiments to understand the causes and effects of global warming and they have searched for solutions. They have warned others about the dangers of pollution and human activities and have urged others to do something about it. Films, such as Al Gore’s documentary â€Å"The Inconvenient Truth†, have also raised internationalRead MoreGlobal Warming Is A Significant Problem Over The Past Years1231 Words   |  5 PagesGlobal warming has become a significant problem over the past years. Global warming is the result of an increase in the Earth’s temperature due to the presence of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide and methane in our atmosphere. Though these gasses are required for the presence of human life one Earth excess amount in our atmosphere can lead to climate change. Some argue that human activity is primarily resp onsible for global warming. Others argue that global warming is a natural occurrence and

Saturday, December 14, 2019

TV is Bad for You Free Essays

Many people around the world spend tireless hour staring at the TV screen every single day. TV is becoming like a drug, people are addicted to it! TV’s can expose to us the weather forecast, sports and global events. TV’s also can give quality entertainment, education programs and something to look forward to after a harsh day. We will write a custom essay sample on TV is Bad for You or any similar topic only for you Order Now Though there are advantages, there are also many more disadvantages to watching TV. The passage from ‘Small screen big trouble’ about the crime wave of the Bhutan clearly shows the negative impact from TV. An editorial warns: â€Å"We are seeing for the first time broken families, school dropouts and other negative youth crimes. We are beginning to see crime associated with drug users all over the world –shoplifting, burglary and violence. † This editorial warning was shown after the Bhutan had free access to the TV. Firstly, TV can ‘brainwash’ people, youths especially. The study by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that children aged between 2-18 years spend an average of 5 hours ? watching TV every day. That’s around a third of the time an average person is awake for. Watching 3 or four hours of TV everyday can develop your mind to abnormal levels of uncertainty. In fact according to a researcher, three in five percent of children in the US were diagnosed with attention â€Å"deficit disorders†, this unnatural level leads to laziness, restless, and impulsiveness. Watching long hours of TV also leads the loss of clear eyesight. Secondly, watching the TV can give negative impacts on children’s behaviour and education. According to a researcher, the children in grade 4 who had a TV in their bedrooms achieved lower scores than children who did not have one. Poor study was also linked to the increasing numbers of aggressive behaviour in children such as bullying. Children often stay up late for late night shows which often have inappropriate themes and can also affect their sleep. Children that are not sleeping well are more likely to feel tired and doze off than being active and concentrating on their studies. During childhood, children are most likely going to gain knowledge by the simple rule: monkeys say, monkey do. This can explain why the Bhutan youths committed such inappropriate actions. Yes, we are seeing some different types of crime, but that just reflects the fact that our society is changing in many ways. A culture as rich and sophisticated as ours can survive trash on TV and people are quite capable of turning off the rubbish, â€Å"says the deputy minister of communications, Leki Dorji. Obesity is a very serious issue today. For children over four years old, watching TV is a lead to obesity. You are basically motionless w hilst you are watching TV and sitting there will make you want to snack on something. The TV is always advertising junk food that a fattening for your bodies, like fries, chips, McDonalds, KFC, calorie soft drinks or even Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Whilst children are sitting there looking at the junk foods, they probably going to get greedy and snack on something innutritious. TV is also preventing people from going outside to get fresh air and exercise. Ultimately, TV is bad for people who watch it in excess. BY all means, watch your favourite show, but switch it off afterwards. People have underestimated the power of TV and all we can do right now is face up to it and try to make things better. How to cite TV is Bad for You, Papers

Friday, December 6, 2019

Business Statistics Australian Firms

Question: Discuss about theBusiness Statisticsfor Australian Firms. Answer: Introduction: The current report aims to provide critical evaluation of the performance of the major Australian companies provided with the help of descriptive statistics. The main descriptive statistics used for evaluating the performance of the main Australian firms include mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation. In this context, Anderson et al. (2014) stated that descriptive statistics are descriptive coefficients, which help in summarisation of data set. This could signify the overall population or a sample of the same. The first segment of the report concentrates on providing advice to the investors regarding whether to purchase shares from a single firm or maintain a portfolio of shares. This is because such an advice is crucial in the current era due to the uncertainty of rapid growth in the existing global environment. The latter segment of the report sheds light on computing the different measures of central tendency based on the provided data. Finally, the implications of the values obtained have been discussed to depict the learning from statistics. Case Study: Performance of Major Australian companies Summary Averages and Measures of Dispersion for the Provided Group of Shares and their Implications: Particulars Mean Coefficient of variance Standard Deviation P/E Ratio Dividend Yield P/E Ratio Dividend Yield P/E Ratio Dividend Yield Shares 1-10 16.60 5.08 0.56 0.33 9.22 1.67 Shares 11-20 18.50 4.80 0.66 0.42 12.28 2.01 All shares 17.55 4.94 0.60 0.37 10.61 1.81 Table 1: Summary averages and measures for the provided group of shares (Source: As created by author) The above table mainly helps in illustrating the values related measure of central tendency (mean) and measures of dispersion (coefficient of variance and standard deviation). The provided data of the shares have been segregated into three groups, the first two contains 10 shares each respectively and the third group contains all the provided shares. The implications of the following statistical measures have been discussed as follows: Mean: According to Calhoun (2015), mean is the most popular measure of central tendency, which could be used with both continuous and discrete data. The mean value of the initial 10 shares in terms of P/E ratio has been obtained as 16.60, while that for the dividend yield is 5.08. The mean values of the remaining 10 shares and the overall number of shares in case of P/E ratio are computed as 18.50 and 17.55 respectively, while those for the dividend yield are 4.80 and 4.94 respectively. This depicts the inverse relationship between P/E ratio and dividend yield of the portfolio of shares. The higher P/E ratio indicates positive future growth of a particular stock in future; while a higher dividend yield provides greater returns to the investors (Edwards, Edwards and Xie 2014). Therefore, according to the mean values, the shares 11-20 could expect to grow more in future; however, the dividend payout might be minimised. Standard Deviation: The standard deviation values in terms of P/E ratio for three types of shares are obtained as 9.22, 12.28 and 10.61 respectively. Similarly, the values in terms of dividend yield are obtained as 1.67, 2.01 and 1.81 respectively. In this context, Fraser (2016) remarked that standard deviation is a measure of dispersion of the data set from its mean value. The SD values depict that the second group of shares carries greater amount of risk, which is followed by the third group and the first group. Therefore, the returns associated with the second group of shares might result in significant losses for the investors due to unanticipated external risks. Coefficient of Variance: In the words of Jaggia et al. (2016), the coefficient of variance helps in gauging the spread to explain the degree of variability with respect to the mean value. The coefficients of variances for the first 10 shares, last 10 shares and the overall number of shares are obtained as 0.56, 0.66 and 0.60 respectively relative to P/E ratio. In case of dividend yield, the coefficients of variances are found as 0.33, 0.42 and 0.37 respectively. Therefore, the coefficient of variance depicts that the amount of variability is nominal with respect to mean. Advice Regarding Purchase of Shares in a Single Organisation: In the current global competitive environment, there is uncertainty prevailing in the prospect of rapid growth. The purchase of shares in a single organisation has certain merits and drawbacks, which are briefly demonstrated as follows: Merits: The4 purchase of one individual stock would result in minimised fees for the investors. This is because the investors are not required to incur any yearly management fee to the fund organisation for asset investment. Instead, the fee is paid at the time of purchasing and selling the share (Rhodes, 2015).Therefore, the greater the holding period of the stock, the lower is the ownership cost. With the help of investment on a single stock, the investors could handle taxes effectively. This is because the investors are in charge of the selling time and therefore, they control the timing of taking profits or losses. Drawbacks: Holding individual share would restrict the investors in achieving diversification. The investment in a single share carries greater amount of risk in accordance with the portfolio theory and therefore, an investor is required to own between 20 and 50 stocks. The investors need additional time in monitoring their portfolios. This is because the investors are required to ensure that the organisations, in which they have invested, are not confronted with business problems (Selvanathan, Selvanathan and Keller 2014). Based on the above discussion, it is evident that the investors aim to achieve maximum returns with lower amount of risk involved in the shares. This is because diversification of portfolio would help in reducing the risk of losses possible from a single stock to compensate the overall amount of the investors. From the 20 provided companies listed in the ASX, it is recommended to the investor to invest in the shares of BT Investment by taking into account the P/E ratio and dividend yield of the firm. Although News Corp has higher P/E ratio in contrast to BT investment, the dividend yield of the former is lower compared to the former. The investors prefer to invest in shares, which have high P/E ratio along with effective dividend yield. However, the investors could diversify their portfolios by investing in AMP Limited and QBE Insurance to minimise the risk of holding a single portfolio. Mean, Median and Mode of the Provided Data: 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 5 In order to arrive at the values pertaining to measures of central tendency, the provided data set has been sorted out from smallest to largest values. Mean = (0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 5)/ 15 = 1.20 Median (Middlemost value) = 1 (8th position out of 15 values) Mode (Maximum frequency) = 1 (repeated 6 times, which is higher than any other value) Mean, Median and Mode of the Provided data: 19 29 33 36 38 42 45 52 60 Mean = (19 + 29 + 33 + 36 +38 + 42 + 45 + 52 + 60)/9 = 39.33 Median = 38 Mode = Not available Learning from the Above Statistics: In order to calculate the above statistics, it is necessary to arrange the values from ascending to descending order (Tran 2016). According to the mean value obtained, it has been found that the exam has been completed within 39.33 minutes. However, the median value suggests that the students have completed the statistics exam within 38 minutes. The modal value could not be obtained in this case, as no single value has been repeated more than once in the provided set of data. This is mandatory to arrive at the modal value. However, the most effective measure of central tendency is the mean, as it takes into account both continuous and discrete data. Therefore, it could be inferred that the average time taken on the part of the selected students to complete the exam is 39.33 minutes. Summary: From the above discussion, it has been found that both measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion are inevitable tools to facilitate the decision-making process of the investors. From the statistical values of the stock prices obtained for the provided 20 companies, it has been evaluated that the shares 11-20 have greater possibility to grow further in future. However, the dividend payout of the investors might be minimised in the long-run. Along with this, the investors are recommended to diversify their portfolios, instead of investing in a single stock for lowering the amount of risk to ensure steady returns. Finally, the measures of central tendency have been computed based on the provided data. The mean value has been considered as the most effective measure of central tendency and thus, the average time taken to complete the statistics exam is obtained as 39.33 minutes. References: Anderson, D.R., Sweeney, D.J., Williams, T.A., Camm, J.D. and Cochran, J.J., 2014.Essentials of statistics for business and economics. Cengage Learning. Calhoun, P., 2015. STAT 119 Elementary Statistics for Business. Edwards, H., Edwards, S. and Xie, G., 2014. BizStats: A Data and Story Library for Business Statistics. InTopics from Australian Conferences on Teaching Statistics(pp. 405-410). Springer New York. Fraser, C., 2016. Statistics for Decision Making and Competitive Advantage. InBusiness Statistics for Competitive Advantage with Excel 2016(pp. 1-3). Springer International Publishing. Jaggia, S., Kelly, A., Beg, A.B.M., Leighton, C., Olaru, D., Salzman, S. and Sriananthakumar, S., 2016.Essentials of business statistics: communicating with numbers. McGraw-Hill Education. Rhodes, C., 2015. Business statistics.Economic policy and statistics. Selvanathan, S., Selvanathan, S. and Keller, G., 2014.Business Statistics: Australia/New Zealand. Cengage Learning. Tran, D.H., 2016. Business Statistics II: Syllabus: Spring 2016.

Friday, November 29, 2019

Summer Experience at Stanfords EPGY and UC Berkeleys SIG Program

Going to summer school doesnt always sound appealing at first, but its often more rewarding and exciting than it seems. Take it from TerenceZ! Now a USC student, he shares his experience at Stanfords EPGY and UC Berkeleys SIG Program. Summer is truly the most fantastic time of the year — we are finally rewarded with a break from the dull monotony known as school. But to college admission officers, how you spend your summers is key. Gone are the simple summers where all that happens is â€Å"nothing much, relaxing at home,† or â€Å"nothing, just having some friends over.† That certainly doesn’t mean you stop having fun, though. I was blessed with the opportunity to attend EPGY at Stanford and SIG at UC Berkeley during my sophomore and junior summers, respectively. Both were on-campus summer programs that give students the opportunity to either pursue a subject area further than what typical high school classes allow with other students that share similar interests. There were a plethora of different courses offered at both camps, thus allowing every student to find at least one thing that they love. The biggest benefit of the two summer programs is that because of their prestige, they attract the best and most passionate students in each field. It’s surprising how much more one can learn when the entire class is constantly engaged, attentive, and always willing to test theories out. I was amazed when I got to the â€Å"Frontiers of Physics† class at EPGY and discovered the passion students had for exploring the edge of our universe and the mysteries it holds. The teachers were also highly specialized and enthusiastic, and I quickly realized the advantages—we got to experiment with explosives (under supervision, of course) at SIG and at EPGY we got the opportunity to visit the Lick Observatory, a large telescope owned by the UC system. Of course, if you’ll be living, eating, and learning with the same people, you are bound to make some pretty close friends. And yes, that’s one of the main benefits of investing three weeks of your summer to attend a summer program. I personally have made friends that I still talk to, even two years down the road. As an underclassmen, you’ll also have the advantage of knowing friends who’ll go through the application process before you, and will be able to help you out when it’s your turn. Plus, you get to visit when they are in college and get a personalized tour! Finally, we also got to experience the â€Å"college vibe† at both schools before we applied. If you have a school that you are interested in, spending a few weeks of your summer there will definitely learn more about the school’s academic offerings and culture. Both summer programs provide a rather extensive tour of the school, so students get to know the environment and the resources you’ll have access to as a college student. It’s a shame there weren’t that many college students on campus, but the ones that were there were often enthusiastic and happy to answer any questions you have about their school. Some may even give you a tour.

Monday, November 25, 2019

Raising Capital in the Financial Markets Essays

Raising Capital in the Financial Markets Essays Raising Capital in the Financial Markets Essay Raising Capital in the Financial Markets Essay CHAPTER 14 Raising Capital in the Financial Markets CHAPTER ORIENTATION This chapter considers the market environment in which long-term capital is raised. The underlying rationale for the existence of security markets is presented, investment banking services and procedures are detailed, private placements are discussed, and security market regulation is reviewed. CHAPTER OUTLINE I. The mix of corporate securities sold in the capital market. A. When corporations raise cash in the capital market, what type of financing vehicle is most favored? The answer to this question is corporate bonds. The corporate debt markets clearly dominate the corporate equity markets when new (external) funds are being raised. B. From our discussion on the cost of capital, we understand that the U. S. tax system inherently favors debt as a means of raising capital. During the 1999-2001 period, bonds and notes accounted for about 76. 9 percent of new corporate securities sold for cash. II. Why financial markets exist A. Financial markets consist of institutions and procedures that facilitate transactions in all types of financial claims. B. Some economic units spend more than they earn during a given period of time. Some economic units spend less than they earn. Accordingly, a mechanism is needed to facilitate the transfer of savings from those economic units that have a savings surplus to those that have a savings deficit. Financial markets provide such a mechanism. C. The function of financial markets then is to allocate savings in an economy to the ultimate demander (user) of the savings. D. If there were no financial markets, the wealth of an economy would be lessened. Savings could not be transferred to economic units, such as business firms, which are most in need of those funds. III. Financing business: The movement of funds through the economy. A. In a normal year the household sector is the largest net supplier of funds to the financial markets. We call the household sector then a savings-surplus sector. 1. The household sector can also be a savings-deficit sector. 2. From 1995 – 1999, the household sector was a net user of financial capital as a result of taking advantage of low interest rate mortgages. B. In contrast, the nonfinancial business sector is typically a savings-deficit sector. 1. The nonfinancial business sector can also be a savings-surplus sector. . Economic conditions and corporate profitability influence the ability of this sector to provide funds to the financial market. C. In recent years, the foreign sector has become a major savings-surplus sector. D. Within the domestic economy, the nonfinancial business sector is dependent on the household sector to finance its investment needs. E. The movement of savings through the economy occur s in three distinct ways: 1. The direct transfer of funds 2. Indirect transfer using the investment banker 3. Indirect transfer using the financial intermediary IV. Components of the U. S. financial market system A. Public offerings can be distinguished from private placements. 1. The public (financial) market is an impersonal market in which both individual and institutional investors have the opportunity to acquire securities. a. A public offering takes place in the public market. b. The security-issuing firm does not meet (face-to-face) the actual investors in the securities. 2. In a private placement of securities, only a limited number of investors have the opportunity to purchase a portion of the issue. a. The market for private placements is more personal than its public counterpart. b. The specific details of the issue may actually be developed on a face-to-face basis among the potential investors and the issuer. c. Venture capital (1)Start-up firms often turn to venture capitalists to raise funds. (a)Broader public markets find these firms too risky. (b)Venture capitalists are willing to accept the risks because of an expectation of higher returns. (1)Venture capital firms that acquire equity in a start-up firm manage risk by sitting on the firm’s board of directors r actively monitoring management’s activities. (2)Venture capital is often provided by established non-venture-capitalist firms that take a minority investment position in an emerging firm or create a separate venture capital subsidiary. (a)The investment approach allows the established firm to gain access to new technology and to create strategic alliances. (b)The subsidiary approach allows the established firm to retain human and intellectual capital. B. Primary markets can be distinguished from secondary markets. 1. Securities are first offered for sale in a primary market. For example, the sale of a new bond issue, preferred stock issue, or common stock issue takes place in the primary market. These transactions increase the total stock of financial assets in existence in the economy. 2. Trading in currently existing securities takes place in the secondary market. The total stock of financial assets is unaffected by such transactions. C. The money market can be distinguished from the capital market. 1. The money market consists of the institutions and procedures that provide for transactions in short-term debt instruments which are generally issued by borrowers who have very high credit ratings. . Short-term means that the securities traded in the money market have maturity periods of not more than 1 year. b. Equity instruments are not traded in the money market. c. Typical examples of money market instruments are (l) U. S. Treasury bills, (2) federal agency securities, (3) bankers acceptances, (4) negotiable certificates of deposit, and (5) commercial paper. 2. The capital market consists of the institutions and procedures that provide for transactions in long-term financial instruments. This market encompasses those securities that have maturity periods extending beyond 1 year. D. Organized security exchanges can be distinguished from over-the-counter markets. 1. Organized security exchanges are tangible entities whose activities are governed by a set of bylaws. Security exchanges physically occupy space and financial instruments are traded on such premises. a. Major stock exchanges must comply with a strict set of reporting requirements established by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These exchanges are said to be registered. b. Organized security exchanges provide several benefits to both corporations and investors. They (l) provide a continuous market, (2) establish and publicize fair security prices, and (3) help businesses raise new financial capital. c. A corporation must take steps to have its securities listed on an exchange in order to directly receive the benefits noted above. Listing criteria differ from exchange to exchange. 2. Over-the-counter markets include all security markets except the organized exchanges. The money market is a prominent example. Most corporate bonds are traded over-the-counter. . NASDAQ, a telecommunication system providing an information link among brokers and dealers in the OTC markets, accounted for 43% of the national exchange equity market trading in the U. S. , measured in dollar volume for the year 1998. Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. trades securities of over 3,600 public companies as of 2002. V. The Investment Banker A. The investment banker is a financial specialist wh o acts as an intermediary in the selling of securities. The investment banker works for an investment banking house (firm). B. Three basic functions are provided by the investment banker: 1. The investment banker assumes the risk of selling a new security issue at a satisfactory (profitable) price. This is called underwriting. Typically, the investment banking house, along with the underwriting syndicate, actually buys the new issue from the corporation that is raising funds. The syndicate (group of investment banking firms) then sells the issue to the investing public at a higher (hopefully) price than it paid for it. 2. The investment banker provides for the distribution of the securities to the investing public. 3. The investment banker advises firms on the details of selling securities. C. Several distribution methods are available for placing new securities into the hands of final investors. The investment bankers role is different in each case. 1. In a negotiated purchase, the firm in need of funds contacts an investment banker and begins the sequence of steps leading to the final distribution of the securities that will be offered. The price that the investment banker pays for the securities is negotiated with the issuing firm. 2. In a competitive-bid purchase, the investment banker and underwriting syndicate are selected by an auction process. The syndicate willing to pay the greatest dollar amount per new security to the issuing firm wins the competitive bid. This means that it will underwrite and distribute the issue. In this situation, the price paid to the issuer is not negotiated; instead, it is determined by a sealed-bid process much on the order of construction bids. 3. In a commission (or best-efforts), offering the investment banker does not act as an underwriter but rather attempts to sell the issue in return for a fixed commission on each security that is actually sold. Unsold securities are simply returned to the firm hoping to raise funds. . In a privileged subscription, the new issue is not offered to the investing public. It is sold to a definite and limited group of investors. Current stockholders are often the privileged group. 5. In a direct sale, the issuing firm sells the securities to the investing public without involving an investment banker in the process. This is not a typical procedure. VI. More o n Private placements: The Debt Side A. Each year billions of dollars of new securities are privately (directly) placed with final investors. In a private placement, a small number of investors purchase the entire security offering. Most private placements involve debt instruments. B. Large financial institutions are the major investors in private placements. These include (l) life insurance firms, (2) state and local retirement funds, and (3) private pension funds. C. The advantages and disadvantages of private placements as opposed to public offerings must be carefully evaluated by management. 1. The advantages include (a) greater speed than a public offering in actually obtaining the needed funds, (b) lower flotation costs than are associated with a public issue, and (c) increased flexibility in the financing contract. 2. The disadvantages include (a) higher interest costs than are ordinarily associated with a comparable public issue, (b) the imposition of restrictive covenants in the financing contract, and (c) the possibility that the security may have to be registered some time in the future at the lenders option. VII. Flotation costs A. The firm raising long-term capital typically incurs two types of flotation costs: (l) the underwriters spread and (2) issuing costs. The former is typically the larger. 1. The underwriters spread is the difference between the gross and net proceeds from a specific security issue. This absolute dollar difference is usually expressed as a percent of the gross proceeds. 2. Many components comprise issue costs. The two most significant are (l) printing and engraving and (2) legal fees. For comparison purposes, these are usually expressed as a percent of the issues gross proceeds. B. SEC data reveal two relationships about flotation costs. 1. Issue costs (as a percent of gross proceeds) for common stock exceed those of preferred stock, which exceed those of bonds. 2. Total flotation costs per dollar raised decrease as the dollar size of the security issue increases. VIII. Regulation A. The primary market is governed by the Securities Act of 1933. 1. The intent of this federal regulation is to provide potential investors with accurate and truthful disclosure about the firm and the new securities being sold. 2. Unless exempted, the corporation selling securities to the public must register the securities with the SEC. 3. Exemptions allow follow for a variety of conditions. For example, if the size of the offering is small enough (less than $1. 5 million), the offering does not have to be registered. If the issue is already regulated or controlled by some other federal agency, registration with the SEC is not required. Railroad issues and public utility issues are examples. 4. If not exempted, a registration statement is filed with the SEC containing particulars about the security-issuing firm and the new security. 5. A copy of the prospectus, a summary registration statement, is also filed. It will not yet have the selling price of the security printed on it; it is referred to as a red herring and called that until approved by the SEC. 6. If the information in the registration statement and prospectus is satisfactory to the SEC, the firm can proceed to sell the new issue. If the information is not satisfactory, a stop order is issued which prevents the immediate sale of the issue. Deficiencies have to be corrected to the satisfaction of the SEC before the firm can sell the securities. 7. The SEC does not evaluate the investment quality of any issue. It is concerned instead with the presentation of complete and accurate information upon which the potential investor can act. B. The secondary market is regulated by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. This federal act created the SEC. It has many aspects. 1. Major security exchanges must register with the SEC. 2. Insider trading must be reported to the SEC. 3. Manipulative trading that affects security prices is prohibited. 4. Proxy procedures are controlled by the SEC. 5. The Federal Reserve Board has the responsibility of setting margin requirements. This affects the proportion of a security purchase that can be made via credit. C. The Securities Acts Amendments of 1975 touched on three important issues. 1. Congress mandated the creation of a national market system (NMS). Implementation details of the NMS were left to the SEC. Agreement on the final form of the NMS is yet to come. 2. Fixed commissions (also called fixed brokerage rates) on public transactions in securities were eliminated. 3. Financial institutions, like commercial banks and insurance firms, were prohibited from acquiring membership on stock exchanges where their purpose in so doing might be to reduce or save commissions on their own trades. D. In March 1982, the SEC adopted Rule 415. This process is now known as a shelf registration or a shelf offering. . This allows the firm to avoid the lengthy, full registration process each time a public offering of securities is desired. 2. In effect, a master registration statement that covers the financing plans of the firm over the coming two years is filed with the SEC. After approval, the securities are sold to the investing public in a piecemeal fashion or off the shelf. 3. Prior to each specific offering, a short statement about the iss ue is filed with the SEC. E. Congress passed in July 2002 the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act. The short name for the act became the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. 1. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed as the result of a large series of corporate indiscretions. 2. The act contains 11 â€Å"titles† which tightened significantly the latitudes given to corporate advisors (like accountants, lawyers, company officers, and boards of directors) who have access to or influence company decisions. 3. The initial title of the act created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. This board’s purpose is to regulate the accounting industry relative to public companies that they audit. Members are appointed by the SEC. . As recently June of 2003, the oversight board itself published a set of ethics rules to police its own set of activities. IX. The Multinational Firm: Efficient Financial Markets and Intercountry Risk A. The United States’ highly developed, complex and competitive financial markets facilitate the transfer of savings from the saving-surplus sector to the saving-deficit sector. B. Multinational firms are reluctant to invest in countries with ineffective financial systems. 1. Financial and political systems lacking integrity will often be rejected for direct investment by multinational firms. . Countries that experience significant devaluation of its currency may also be considered too risky for investment. ANSWERS TO END-OF-CHAPTER QUESTIONS 14-1. Financial markets are institutions and procedures that facilitate transactions in all types of financial claims. Financial markets perform the function of allocating savings in the economy to the ultimate demander(s) of the savings. Without these financial markets, the total wealth of the economy would be lessened. Financial markets aid the rate of capital formation in the economy. 14-2. A financial intermediary issues its own type of security which is called an indirect security. It does this to attract funds. Once the funds are attracted, the intermediary purchases the financial claims of other economic units in order to generate a return on the invested funds. A life insurance company, for example, issues life insurance policies (its indirect security) and buys corporate bonds in large quantities. 14-3. The money market consists of all institutions and procedures that accomplish transactions in short-term debt instruments issued by borrowers with (typically) high credit ratings. Examples of securities traded in the money market include U. S. Treasury Bills, bankers’ acceptances, and commercial paper. Notice that all of these are debt instruments. Equity securities are not traded in the money market. It is entirely an over-the-counter market. On the other hand, the capital market provides for transactions in long-term financial claims (those claims with maturity periods extending beyond one year). Trades in the capital market can take place on organized security exchanges or over-the-counter markets. 14-4. Organized stock exchanges provide for: (1)A continuous market. This means a series of continuous security prices is generated. Price changes between trades are dampened, reducing price volatility, and enhancing the liquidity of securities. (2)Establishing and publicizing fair security prices. Prices on an organized exchange are determined in the manner of an auction. Moreover, the prices are published in widely available media like newspapers. (3)An aftermarket to aid businesses in the flotation of new security issues. The continuous pricing mechanism provided by the exchanges facilitates the determination of offering prices in new flotations. The initial buyer of the new issue has a ready market in which he can sell the security should he need liquidity rather than a financial asset. 14-5. The criteria for listing can be labeled as follows: (1) profitability; (2) size; (3) market value; (4) public ownership. 14-6. Most bonds are traded among very large financial institutions. Life insurance companies and pension funds are typical examples. These institutions deal in large quantities (blocks) of securities. An over-the-counter bond dealer can easily bring together a few buyers and sellers of these large quantities of bonds. By comparison, common stocks are owned by millions of investors. The organized exchanges are necessary to accomplish the fragmented trading in equities. 14-7. The investment banker is a middleman involved in the channeling of savings into long-term investment. He performs the functions of: (1) underwriting; (2) distributing; (3) advising. By assuming underwriting risk, the investment banker and his syndicate purchase the securities from the issuer and hope to sell them at a higher price. Distributing the securities means getting those financial claims into the hands of the ultimate investor. This is accomplished through the syndicates selling group. Finally, the investment banker can provide the corporate client with sound advice on which type of security to issue, when to issue it, and how to price it. 14-8. In a negotiated purchase, the corporate security issuer and the managing investment banker negotiate the price that the investment banker will pay the issuer for the new offering of securities. In a competitive-bid situation, the price paid to the corporate security issuer is determined by competitive (sealed) bids, which are submitted by several nvestment banking syndicates hoping to win the right to underwrite the offering. 14-9. Investment banking syndicates are established for three key reasons: (1) the investment banker who originates the business probably cannot afford to purchase the entire new issue himself; (2) to spread the risk of loss among several underwriters; (3) to widen the distribution network. 14-10. Several positive benefits are associated with p rivate placements. The first is speed. Funds can be obtained quickly, primarily due to the absence of a required registration with the SEC. Second, flotation costs are lower as compared to public offerings of the same dollar size. Third, greater financing flexibility is associated with the private placement. All of the funds, for example, need not be borrowed at once. They can be taken over a period of time. Elements of the debt contract can also be renegotiated during the life of the loan. 14-11. As a percent of gross proceeds, flotation costs are inversely related to the dollar size of the new issue. Additionally, common stock is more expensive to issue than preferred stock, which is more expensive to issue than debt. 4-12. The answer on this is clear. The corporate debt markets dominate the corporate equity markets when new funds are raised. The tax system of the U. S. economy favors debt financing by making interest expense deductible from income when computing the firms federal tax liability. Consider all corporate securities offered for cash over the period 1999-2001. The percentage of the total represented by bond s and notes was 76. 9 percent compared to 23. 1 percent equity. 14-13. The household sector is the largest net supplier of savings to the financial markets. Foreign financial investors have recently been net suppliers of savings to the financial markets. On the other hand, the nonfinancial corporate business sector is most often a savings-deficit sector. The U. S. Government sector too is a deficit sector in most years. 14-14. First, there may be a direct transfer of savings from the investor to the borrower. Second, there may be an indirect transfer that used the services provided by an investment banker. Third, there may be an indirect transfer that uses the services of a financial intermediary. Private pension funds and life insurance companies are prominent examples of the latter case.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Intergenerational Transmission of Education Research Paper

Intergenerational Transmission of Education - Research Paper Example However, others have believed associated demographic phenomena and drawn contradictory conclusions. Mare (1997) in his article, â€Å"Differential Fertility, Intergenerational Educational Mobility, and Racial Inequality† talks about the impacts of differential fertility prototypes among African-American and white women for secular drifts in educational ability within each of these populations and for race differentiations in educational ability. Mare has developed models that combine regeneration of population with intergenerational mobility for the 1925-1995 periods and look into the aggregate outcomes of demographic drifts on socioeconomic interests and inequality with a focus on the trend and allocation of educational achievement. He depicted the extent to which differential productiveness within the black and white populations has given to dissimilarities in the educational achievements of these two groups. Although this paper discusses current issues relating to communal inequality, it is provoked by theoretical issues about communal stratification as well. The study f ocused on the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic position. He described the population projection model that is applied to replicate trends in educational achievement for blacks and whites. He built discrete-time models of population expansion that include the impacts of age-specific fertility and mortality in addition to communal mobility for blacks and whites. Differential fertility by educational achievement of mother has hindered the expansion of average educational accomplishment over the past 70 years; however, this consequence is small. Although the differential level of fertility of women has decreased but the differential timing of fertility has approximately no impact. Diversifications in fertility, mortality, and intergenerational flexibility have self-effacing effects on racial disparity1. . It is obvious that there should have been differences

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Discuss the reasons why we need a regulatory framework for financial Essay

Discuss the reasons why we need a regulatory framework for financial reporting. What are the advantages and disadvantages of making accounting rules by law as opposed to using IASB standards - Essay Example Due to globalization, many UK companies are now acquiring subsidiary companies in other countries, which function under different financial parameters and there may be a need to modify the existing regulatory and financial frameworks (Haller and Walton, 2003). When different financial accounting standards exist in different countries, it may be necessary to harmonize them and this can only be achieved through modification of the financial regulatory networks. In this context, a report published by the Institute of chartered accountants in Scotland offers the view that the current position in the context of globalization is such that there is an â€Å"ever increasing volume of accounting rules†, which is not sustainable in the long run (ICAS, 2006:2). It’s only principles based accounting is likely to be beneficial Domestic law and regulation has changed in different ways. First, the London Stock exchange was once self regulatory but it is no longer the Listing authority within the U.K. The UKLA (UK Listing Authority) which is a part of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is now the responsible authority for this purpose. Second, professional bodies which are a part of the UK Accountancy profession, have set up their own private regulatory framework – the Accountancy Foundation – to provide independent oversight of their auditing standards, ethical standards and regulatory activities, including disciplinary procedures. New regulations have also been issued in respect of limiting the remuneration paid to directors and the Companies Act has also been modified (Fearnley and Hines, 2003). These changes in the domestic law mean that the framework which existed earlier and was largely self-regulatory may no longer be adequate. Bullen and Crook (2005) have explained why a conceptual framework is needed. Both the FSAB and IASB, share a common goal of ensuring that their standards are â€Å"principles

Monday, November 18, 2019

Measurement of the Turbidity of Raw Water and Study the Effects of Lab Report

Measurement of the Turbidity of Raw Water and Study the Effects of Coagulation and Flocculation - Lab Report Example During coagulation, matter in suspension becomes unstable due to the effect of cationic particles. Aluminum salts, ferric and ferrous salts are useful for the process of coagulation. The salts include alum, FeCl3 and Fe2 (SO4) 3. The iron sulfate used is that with and without lime. Introduction of the salts in waste water results, in the formation of Ions (Hijnen & Gertjan 33). The positive ions present in water exist in hydrated states. Positive ions combine with hydroxyl ions leading to insoluble hydroxides. Insoluble complexes result when ions combine with carbonates and bicarbonates. Coagulation results when the insoluble hydroxides precipitate in water and are separable through filtration. Precipitation of colloids takes place in the presence or absence of lime. The level of solubility of aluminum plus ferric hydroxides depends on PH, which determines the charge of the complex (Bratby 40). When PH is low, absorption of the complexes on the colloidal surface occurs leading to coagulation. When Aluminum chloride and sulfate are in wastewater, they exist as ion, which form non-dissolving complexes. The negative colloid repels anions and attracts cautions. The attraction power between positive and negative colloids results to agglomeration of particles (Wang 6). The repelled anions cling to positive colloids forming agglomerates. AlCl3 has a relative power of one against positive colloids and a power of 1000 against negative colloids. Al2 (SO4)3 exhibits a power of 30 against positive colloids and above 1000 against negative colloids (Bratby 39). ThuyKhanh, Trinh. & Lim Seok Kang. "Response Surface Methodological Approach To Optimize The Coagulation–Flocculation Process In Drinking Water Treatment." Chemical Engineering Research And Design 89. (2011): 1126-1135. ScienceDirect. Web. 2 Feb.

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Analysis Of The Pepsi International Strategy

Analysis Of The Pepsi International Strategy PespiCo is facing price hike issue in Saudi Arabia; it is hurting its further expansion in soft drink industry. PepsiCo requested ministry of economy of UAE to approve a price hike for their products in the country. But ministry said Government will send it to the higher committee of consumer protection association for approval. Reasons For Expanding To Foreign Markets: Coca-Cola, the major competitor of Pepsi has been exiled from the desert kingdom. Because of this, Pepsi expanded into Arab Countries has an 80% share of the $1 billion Saudi soft-drink market. Saudi Arabia is the third largest foreign market of Pepsi, after Mexico and Canada. In 1993, about 7% of Pepsi-Cola Internationals sales came from Saudi Arabia. The environment in Saudi Arabia makes the country very favorable to soft-drink sales because alcohol is banned climate is very hot and dry. Mode of Expansion: Pepsi uses franchise system for international expansion. Sources of Competitive Advantage: PepsiCo has competitive advantage in terms of worldwide distribution the company is able to produce all its products in the country where they are consumed. Pepsi has a competitive advantage over Coke because of its brand image good word of mouth. Pepsi promotes itself as the number one choice of the Next Generation. Government Policies: Currently a 50 percent rise in Pepsi prices in Saudi has angered customers and provoked the kingdoms government to call on more than 30 soft drink companies to hold off on further price hikes. Pepsi increased the price of a can to 1.50 riyals $0.40 from 1 riyal.it. Saudi Consumer Protection Association investigated the sudden unjustified price hike, the Saudi Gazette reported that official permission should be granted to soft drink firms before they are allowed to increase prices and price rise should not be more than 10 percent. PEST Analysis Political Influences: Many PepsiCo products are subject to different federal laws due to their manufacturing, distribution use, such as the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act ad the Americans with Disabilities. The international ventures are subject to the Government stability and businesses are subjected to different taxation policies in each consumer country. Economic Influences: PepsiCo relies on trucks to move products so fuel is an important subject fuel prices matters. The economic impact of foreign exchange rates movements on them is complex because such changes are often linked to variability in real growth, inflation, interest rates, governmental actions, etc. PepsiCo is also subjected to other economical factors like money supply, energy availability, cost and business cycles. Socio-Cultural Influences: Pepsi is subject to the lifestyle changes, so it bases her advertising campaigns in people with special lifestyle. For that PepsiCo has to pay special attention on lifestyle changes. It has to be very careful with the possible problems with the governments and those which could rise from PepsiCo act with the people of KSA. Technological Influences: PepsiCo is exposed to new manufacturing techniques, for its three business units, snack food, juices and soft drinks. It has to pay attention while adopting flexible advanced distribution techniques. PORTER 5 FORCES Analysis 1. Threat of New Entrants: The threat of new entrants in the industry is small yet substantial. This is because there are already four players in the market other then Pepsi itself. 2. Threat of Substitute Products: Currently, the threat of new viable competitors in the carbonated soft drink industry is not very substantial. Possible substitutes that continuously put pressure on Pepsi include tea, coffee, juices, milk, and hot chocolate. 3. Bargaining Power of Suppliers: The bargaining power of the suppliers tends to be low according to the recent analysis. PepsiCo needs to manage its relationships carefully with the bottling units in order to make changes in its way to market the local retailers. 4. Bargaining Power of Buyers: Here the concern is how to increase market share and retain its current customer because customer always try to optimize benefit. The buying power of consumers also poses a key threat in the industry. Moreover consumers can simply switch to other beverages with little cost or importance. 5. Rivalry Among Competitors: Pepsi has 48.9% share of market it is situated in an environment that is ever changing and dynamic because coca cola is holding 30.9% share Cadbury Schweppes 8%. The local brands are also in the market to compete Pepsi. These brands are Mecca cola holding 0.5% market share and 0.6% Zamzam cola. SWOT Analysis 1.Internal Attributes(Strengths Weaknesses) Pepsi has strong worldwide distribution system. But it is poorer in its fountain drink division. The ownership in fast food restaurants has always been challenging for Pepsi. The Coca Cola has been in the top position for fountain beverages because of their ownership in famous fast-food restaurants. 2.External Attributes(Opportunities Threats) External influences that are affect planning include the actions of competitors, and a series of social, legal, economic, and technological factors. An effective plan therefore needs to be designed to take account of the external environment threats. In addition to its large consumer base, Saudi Arabia has some of the regions biggest athletic clubs, most passionate sports fans, and has a growing population of athletes and active people. When PepsiCo started its own Pepsi Bottling Company, it allowed them to cut costs, reduce overhead, and coordinate their distribution to create a better synergy. Critical Issues or Barriers: Pepsi can serve the 90% market but problem is the bottling of the drink. War crisis between Palestine and Israel is bringing hate against Pepsi that why USA is not interest in resolving the issue As Pepsi is US product and these days US and foreign products are campaigned not to be used to show rage against non-Muslim acts. Due to recent oil prices increase, there is international factor of inflation and on the other hand Pepsi is cheaper in KSA compared to other countries, so Pepsi is facing problem to maintain the profits. Since employers in KSA are required to give their employees time to pray toward Mecca five times per day, as set forth in the Koran, break times caused additional operating cost. Health and stomach diseases due to over use. Obesity problem which is becoming common in Saudis. Rumors of Haram ingredients. The tough competition is carried out through packaging as well as price. Recommendations: Pepsi is being forced to re-examine their strategic models, based on carbonated soft drinks and move to new beverage categories. Heavy investmentment in risky innovations may be suggested in order to transfer resources from other brands. Pepsi spends 15% of overall budget on advertising and marketing to be no.1 in the consumer sight. Pepsi should use all media vehicles to attract consumers. Conclusion: Consumers want to buy soft drinks delivered at convenient locations with the right package. Pepsi have to make sure that the market keeps growing annually, and that company products are available everywhere. Pepsi has won the International Quality Award and Bottlers of the year Award, so the company feels quite optimistic. Although difficult challenges lay ahead, yet to exploit opportunities through the implementation of an effective and comprehensive marketing plan 2009. Appendix:

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

My Typical American Family :: Traditions Cultures Cultural Essays

My Typical American Family What is a typical American? What is generally viewed as a typical American is that your family has lived here for years and years and you don't personally know who immigrated here. Along with this, your family has molded into this typical view with no "foreign" traditions and things. A lot of people in my class can talk about their relatives that speak another language or have immigrated here. I don't have anything like that so I'll tell you about mine. According to Blauner: Members of an ethnic group hold a set of common memories that make them feel that their customs, culture, and outlook are distinctive. My family doesn't pass down stories or anything. No real passed on customs, no immigrant stories. Takaki thinks everyone should be educated in all culture that makes America so diverse. I don't really have a culture. My family more or less assimilated to the traditional mainstream American. AS far as I know, I am Irish, German, and Native American. Where or when each came together, I don't know. Randall Bass says: Individuals derive their sense of identitiy from their culture, and cultures are systems of beliefs that determine how people live their lives. Well I have my own story. I'll start by talking about my mother's side of my family. As far as I know both my grandparents grew up and lived in Detroit. They raised my mom and Uncle there too. My grandma stayed at home while my grandpa fixed airplanes. It's kind of cool because he was in WWII also to fix the fighter planes. They were fairly well off and had a boat on the river. They're background is Irish and German. Although they never personally told me there was German,I'm taking an educated guess because the last name (Volkening) looks really German. My dad's side is German and Native American. I've been told I have relatives in Germany with the same last name although I've never met them or know their names. My grandma also stayed at home and my grandma worked in a factory. They too lived in Detroit and raised my dad and my two Uncles in a two-bedroom house. My dad slept in the laundry room next to the water heater because there wasn't enough room in the other two rooms. My parents both met in Detroit and lived there for about twenty years. Both my parents worked through college to help pay for each other's tuition.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Observation Toddler

The name of the child that is being observed is Rachael. She is a female toddler who weighs 26 pounds and is 32 ? inches tall. According to biosocial development most children, by 24 months, weigh almost 30 pounds and are between 32 and 36 inches tall. According to the data of the United States, Rachael weight of 28 pounds lands between the 10th and the 50th girls percentiles, which are 22 ? pounds and 26 ? pounds. Her height of 32 ? is in the 10th girls percentiles. Her skin tone is dark and her hair long curly brown she is Spanish and causasion mix. Rachael and her eight year old sister were sitting on at the kitchen table when I came in. They both were having lunch, sandwich with turkey and cheese, raw carrot, chips and juice. Rachael’s mother told the girls after wash their hands; they can go out in the backyard to play. Rachael was excited and told her, â€Å"Play mommy†. As I watched Rachael wash her little had it looked like she loved the warm water and soap on her hands. She looked at me and smiled, and I winked at her with approval. Smiling is an emotional development which falls in biosocial and psychosocial development. Rachael dried her hands and rushed outside to play in the backyard. The first thing she did was get on her electric Barbie truck. Using her fine motor skills, she was able to manver it without any help, as her was grinded one hand on the wheel she waved to her mother. Hi mommy! Her older sister saw playing with a ball and started to bounce it. Rachel, stop her truck and jumped out and ran to her said and told her, no that’s mine and had gripped the ball and walked away. She then started to use her gross motor skills, she had bounced the ball as her sister did and then was hitting it with her hand. She then walked up to her sister and said, â€Å"Here ball† the emotional was a smile. Her social interaction is of her beginning to acknowledge sharing with others. She then went to pick up a toy and throw it and her Mother told her in a claim voice Rachael please does not throw the toy. She just looked at her Mom and just started running around chasing her sister. She was laughing and at one point started to crawl on the ground and rolling in the grass again using her gross motor skills. There was a little play structure and she climb the latter another motor skill in the biosocial development and in which context and culture are crucial for acquisition of this skill. Rachael used her sensor motor skills and memory skills today. Her social interaction I observed was positive which I saw in her playing and communication. In receptive vs. expressive language skills, she seemed to receive when spoken. Though at this age, language is a leading cognitive accomplishment. By doing this observation, I had learned that it’s much easier to understand children and their development by observing their unique ways.

Friday, November 8, 2019

Audience is Everything

Audience is Everything Audience is Everything Audience is Everything By Sharon Just as real estate revolves around the old adage, Location! Location! Location!, students, teachers, authors and any writer worth his or her salt lives by a motto as well. Quite simply, audience is everything. Audience dictates all of the elements that go into a successful piece of writing. For instance, one would generally write very differently when addressing a teacher or employer in a formal piece of writing than one would when informally addressing a friend, family member or classmate. For example, after missing a day of work, if you left a message for your boss, it might read: Dear Mr. Smith, I’m very sorry that I was absent from work yesterday, but I fell ill on Tuesday evening and felt it necessary to visit my doctor in an effort to make it back to the office today. In contrast, when writing a note to a friend or co-worker about the same situation, you might say: Carla, Sorry I missed ya yesterday. I got really sick the other night and had to go to the doctor. I’d hate to miss another day of work. The audience that will read your writing dictates the words you choose, the formality of your work and the tone of your writing â€Å"voice.† Writing that requires formality generally sounds proper and practiced while informal writing often comes across as conversational. Always keep in mind the appropriateness of your writing and the way your writing voice might sound to an objective reader when you put words to paper. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Wether, Weather, WhetherThe Six Spellings of "Long E"7 Proofreading Steps

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Womens Role in Greece essays

Women's Role in Greece essays Womens role in Greece can be seen when one first begins to do research on the subject. The subject of women in Greece is coupled with the subject of slaves. This is the earliest classification of women in Greek society. Although women were treated differently from city to city the basic premise of that treatment never changed. Women were only useful for establishing a bloodline that could carry on the family name and give the proper last rites to the husband. However, women did form life long bonds with their husbands and found love in arranged marriages. Women are "defined as near slaves, or as perpetual minors" in Athenian society (The Greek World, pg. 200). For women life didnt extend far from the home, which was thought to be their sole realm of existence. Though they ranked higher than slaves did, they were treated in many of the same ways. Just like slaves, their mothers trained women as adolescents what their domestic duties were. They were secluded from all males, including those in their family. They lived in gynaikeion, which were womens apartments in Athens (Daily Life in Greece, pg. 55). They were kept at home where they were taught the proper manners and duties of a desirable wife. "Marriage was the inevitable goal to which her whole life tended. To remain a spinster was the worst disgrace which could befall a woman" (Everyday Life in Ancient Greece, pg. 82). However, it was seen as more of a disgrace on her father who owned her until she was married. Although Athenian women were completely in charge of their household and slaves, they didnt have much freedom. They rarely left the house, unless they were part of some sort of religious procession. They could only walk abroad in the streets if accompanied by a slave or other attendant. It was improper for respectable women to share the same social entertainments as men. Even if caught in the courtyard of the house...

Monday, November 4, 2019

Leadership and nursing care management Assignment

Leadership and nursing care management - Assignment Example Scheduling and staffing in nursing care management is an aspect of management that poses a lot of challenges to managers. Formulating strategies to achieve the goal of bringing new nurses to the nursing profession and scheduling already recruited nurses is quite important to the profession. Employing forceful and well-researched scheduling tactics will tap the skills and competencies of qualified workers to the profession and on the right jobs (Seifert, 2000). After employing a new workforce, efforts must be taken to properly schedule the current nurses on the basis of their wealth of knowledge and expertise which are vital for assisting and developing trainee nurses into experts and sustaining qualified service delivery. The reason this topic is chosen is the negative physical and mental health consequences of poor scheduling on overworked health care employees. In addition, poor scheduling results in domestic problems as employees have little or no time for families and friends. Fi nally, low morale in employees due to overwork and lack of understanding and consideration from managers and administrators results in reduced productivity (Chin, 2008). This essay discusses the modern trends in staff and scheduling strategies as well as the challenges that these process pose to the management. Finally, it provides research based recommendations on how to solve problems of staff and scheduling in nursing care management. Implications of Staff Shortage on Scheduling Staffing plays a rather critical role in the operation budget of health care facilities. In fact, for many health care facilities, it has been established that up to between 50% and 70% of operation budget goes to staffing issues. It is thus a counterproductive trend or practice to ignore or underestimate the necessity of effective and efficient staff management strategies and nurse scheduling processes (Buchanan, 2002). In general, staffing and scheduling strategies and practices should not result in unc alled for overtime, lopsided caseloads and even staff suffering exhaustion. As is generally understood, unhappy or discontented staff implies unproductive and unprofitable business (Buchanan, 2002). For optimal staff scheduling practices that would yield happy and contended nurses, it is of the essence that a balance is struck between resident perceptions and the skill levels of the nurses in question (Buchanan, 2002). Importantly, health care managers should ensure that staff schedules are tightly connected to the needs and populations of the clients to be attended. Managers should be consistent in their scheduling, considering that no single nurse would want to work on holidays and every other weekend. Thus, there should not be any indications of favoritism in staff scheduling. This fairness would ensure no employee grumbles given that employees are the greatest asset that a health care facility may have. In addition, it pays for health care managers who ensure their nurses and ot her staffs are happy as this happiness would translate to better care and improved client outcomes (Buchanan, 2002). Numerous challenges are often encountered in staff scheduling, staff shortage being a key challenge. There is a wide spread shortage of registered nurses (RNs) in many countries including The United States of

Saturday, November 2, 2019

David Mas Masumoto's Wisdom of the Last Farmer Essay

David Mas Masumoto's Wisdom of the Last Farmer - Essay Example When his father was attacked by stroke, Masumoto, had no other option but to go back home and stay with his father, despite the fact that he was a sociology graduate, which could have earned him a different job (Heidmann, 116). Initially, his father used to teach him many lessons about farming and about life. However, after suffering from stroke, his speech is lost and his ability to work with the right hand also affected. The only way out, is for Masumoto to try and teach his father, how he can operate the farm machinery in his present condition. The attachment of the family to farming is more than just as a source of livelihood. It is more about the relationship with the life of the farm, and that of the consumers. Farming is not a mere way of earning a living for Masumoto and his family, but a pathway for supporting life. Therefore, there are more lessons that Masumoto learns from his father throughout his tenure on the farm, other than just farming skills. The first valuable less on that Masumoto learns is that; the growth cycle of the farm plants represents the stages of human life. The moment the seeds are sown on the fields, they emerge as new plants which need to be taken care of, since at that stage, the plants are still tender and the failure to take adequate care of them might mean their failure to grow to full harvest (Masumoto, 29). The same happens with the life of humans. Once a child is born, there is a lot of input applied by the parents to bring the child up, always taking good care of the baby and providing for the baby with all its necessities, since the baby cannot fend on its own. However, as the child grows, he/she turns out to be youthful and independent, capable of doing many things without much assistance, but still remains inexperienced in life (Masumoto, 37). It is at this stage that the young adult requires much lessons regarding life, since at this stage, there are chances that good advice will shape the youth for a better future, a nd the contrary lead to the young adult being a baggage to the society. Thus, as the plants in the farm are taken care of differently during their different stages of growth, human beings need to be treated the same. After the plant matures, it bears fruits that are ready for harvest by the farm owner, who then sells the farm produce to earn a living. Therefore, the usefulness of the farm plant is enjoyed when its fruits are transferred to the consumer. The same happens for the human beings, where the old people have to transfer their wisdom to the young adults, which helps them to shape their future, and make it fruitful even to others. This is exactly what happened with Masumoto, since he learnt a lot of wisdom from his father, which informs his life thereafter (Masumoto, 154). The other invaluable lesson learnt by Masumoto is the value of patience and persistence in life (Masumoto, 54). Whenever the farmers are planting their crops, they have hope that they will obtain bumper har vest from the fields. However, all it takes is patience and persistence, as the farmers sow, till and take care of the crops against all odds, such as pests and diseases. There are seasons when there is sun, and others when it is cold, yet the farmers have to be continuously working on the farm. There are seasons when the harvest will be bumper, and there are other seasons when the farmer barely gets any harvest. Yet in all these seasons, the

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Historical Impact on Working Conditions (HR, Employee Labor and Research Paper - 1

Historical Impact on Working Conditions (HR, Employee Labor and Relations) - Research Paper Example The momentum of ‘cotton culture’ took off with deployment of large number of Black slaves. In 1790, it is estimated that 700,000 slave workers lived around Ohio River and Mason-Dixon Line (Reef, 2007, pp. XVI-XIX). Throughout eighteenth century, factories grew rapidly where profit was the chief motive. Without any legislation to protect workers rights, the situation was quite messy for laborers who often had to work 14 hours a day. Laborers often protested, but could not match the power of employers. In 1835, a strike was organized in Philadelphia for 10 hours in a day work. By the end of civil war, factories were more organized in technical terms with better equipments and tools. Coming up of railroads carried the next level of growth momentum. Yet, labors had little say on their workings. After the civil war, the struggle gained momentum from labors, though in unorganized and uncoordinated fashion. With little or no government assistance, it was tough to move forward (Reef, 2007, p. XIX). Although the term ‘collective bargaining’ was initially used in 1891 by economist Sidney Webb, it was introduced in raw form ever since the inception of trade unions soon after the post civil war period. Collective bargaining is a method of arbitration between firm and the agents of a unit of employees intended at arriving at deals that sets operational conditions. Collective agreements normally specify wage amounts, shift hours, training, security, extra hours pay, and rights to take part in factory or corporation issues. Working conditions slowly improved side-by-side with the growth of trade unions. Many labor legislations were passed that set standard rules for hiring and remunerating labors. The first key event in the US labor history was establishment of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1886. AFL ran on the form of ‘craft unions’ and was conservative in the sense that it did not challenge capitalism per se. Instead, it was

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

U.S. Role in the Modern Middle East Essay Example for Free

U.S. Role in the Modern Middle East Essay For a period of more than sixty years, United States has been a prime player in politics of the Middle East. Since the 1991 Gulf War, Iran in the 50s and the time of contemporary Iraq devastation, the policy of United States has always created a big impact in the domestic affairs of the Middle East. For example, one of the current pervasive features is the Anti-Americanism in the present day public opinion of the Middle East. In this region, Israel is considered one of the best allies of the United States of America. Israel has been receiving aid from America since it was created in 1948. In fact, Israel receives a staggering amount of approximately $3 billion annually (Porter, 2010). This is a fact that foreign policy experts in the Middle East are supposed to be aware of. The Middle East is a hostile region and Israel requires guarantee from America on the security front. Moreover, the United States on the other hand relies on the Israel administration in several respects. For example, during the cold war, the Washington administration needed Israel so that it can counter communism. The United States needed Israel in formulation of a market economy approach in Middle East and again as a reliable ally in strategizing the Middle East policy projects. The foreign policy experts in Israel have several things they need to learn not only on what is happening today but also from history. According to Kaplan (1993), Arabist tradition dates back to the times of Eli Smith in 1827 who took to the Lebanese mountains to learn Arabic. The impact of Arabs however on the U. S. policy began in 1940s. This is the moment United States engaged itself actively in this region. Kaplan shows that the Arabs are just like â€Å"China hands† since they also had and still have skills Department of State needed such as reliable contacts, local culture knowledge and language. Arabs in State had that domination capacity in the Middle Eastern bureau and this enabled them to absorb several others to their viewpoint. Arabs are mostly bound in a small world of their own and thus during this time they lacked enough imagination on what were the interests of the United States in their region. Arabs want a pristine Middle East and for long they have been against its modernization. As Arabs strive to show the harmony between Arab- Islamic and Western culture, they loath the Greeks and Maronites. But of all, what they hate most is the Israelis. They blame them that they spoiled the century-old idyll. For the policy makers thus, there is needed for them to understand that America’s continued support for Israel angers Arabs and once made many of them to turn to anti-Semitism. Arabs carry old grudges which make them not to see the value Israel has on United States. Kaplan in general wants to show the policy makers that the issues concerning Israel are not just about Israel and oil but there is need for the country to devote to Arabs since they are part and parcel of the American history. In as much as America may decide to concentrate on what is happening within the boundaries of Israel, it should not be forgotten that the relations that Israel has with its neighbors determine the outcome. According to Bronson (2006), oil for example has always been a significant factor in Saudi-U. S. relationship as well as in all the rest of the Saudi dealings. This can hardly be otherwise for this country since it carries almost a quarter of the available oil resources in the globe and its oil exports carries between 90% and 95% of the overall export earnings. It is however important to state that even if oil offers a good explanation of what America wants in this region, it is not possible to explain the relationship strength. Thus, decision makers in the United States have to determine the relationships needed to be sustained and in what manner they should be maintained. The policy makers may be required to know that peace is the main solution to the major problems experienced in Lebanon and this will only be achieved if Lebanese are in a position to love their siblings more as it seems as if they hate them. According to Friedman (1989), he confesses that the internal divisions in Israel have to be papered afresh so that a new political life may take route. Even if Friedman looks like he has exaggerated on this point, U. S. decision makers in foreign countries like Israel need to see that there is a possibility of Israel going the Lebanon way. All in all, U. S. foreign policy experts need to understand in their endeavors that the hostility that Arab countries have towards Israel still acts as the heart of Israel-Arab problem. The missing debate in Washington is not between those few who want Israel to be destroyed and the majority who want it to survive. Irrespective of what, Washington must support the right for Israel to exist in recognized international borders and most of all defend its interests against nay threats. References Porter, K. (2010).The US-Israeli Relationship. Retrieved from http://usforeignpolicy. about. com/od/countryprofi3/p/usisraelprofile. htm Kaplan, R. D. (1993). The Arabists: The Romance of an American Elite. Retrieved from http://www. danielpipes. org/885/the-arabists-the-romance-of-an-american-elite Bronson, R. (2006). Thicker than oil: Americas uneasy partnership with Saudi Arabia, New York: Oxford University Press US. Friedman, T. L. (1989). From Beirut to Jerusalem. Retrieved from http://www. danielpipes. org/32/from-beirut-to-jerusalem

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Food Clustering For Diabetes Diet Health And Social Care Essay

Food Clustering For Diabetes Diet Health And Social Care Essay The common way for Diabetes Educators to inform diabetes patients of their nutrition therapy is by introducing food substitution. The existing categorization mechanism is not efficiently for classify the food for diabetic patient. Clustering Data Mining (DM) Techniques can be a very useful tool to collect food items with the same elements into groups. This paper looks at the use of K-mean to Cluster food dataset into groups based on food elements using RapidMiner tool .The output from the clustering algorithm will help other recommendation systems software to provide patient with a good recommendation for there diabetes diet. Keywords data mining; diabetes, data set ,K-meant. 1. Introduction Food and nutrition are a key to have good health. They are important for everyone to maintain a healthy diet especially for diabetic patients who have several limitations. Nutrition therapy is a major solution to prevent, manage and control diabetes by managing the nutrition based on the belief that food provides vital medicine and maintains a good health. Typically, diabetic patients need to avoid additional sugar and fat for finding the substitution from the same food group [4].The effective clustering from the various actual nutrients is needed to apply. The clustering will encourage diabetics to eat the widest possible variety of permitted food to ensure getting the full range of trace elements and other nutrients. This paper is set out as follows. Section 2, introduces some related work of data mining and diabetic diet. Section 3, describes the used data set and summarize the main features that it contains. Data preparation process is presented in Section 4. Section 5, describes the materials and methods used in this study. In Section 6, the conclusion is given. 2. Literature Review Li et al [1], this study proposed an automated food ontology constructed for diabetes diet care. The methods include generating an ontology skeleton with hierarchical clustering algorithms (HCA)also it is used intersection naming for class naming and instance ranking by granular ranking and positioning .This study based on dataset from food nutrition composition database of the Department Of Health the dataset. Phanich et al [2], proposed Food Recommendation System (FRS) by using food clustering analysis for diabetic patients. The system will recommend the proper substituted foods in the context of nutrition and food characteristic. They used Self-Organizing Map (SOM) and K-mean clustering for food clustering analysis which is based on the similarity of eight significant nutrients for diabetic patient. This study is based on the dataset à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Nutritive values for Thai foodà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  provided by Nutrition Division, Department of Health, Ministry of Public Health (Thailand). 3. Dataset Description This study is based on the dataset provided by The USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference (SR)[3].the Values in the database based on the results of laboratory analyses or calculated by using appropriate algorithms, factors, or recipes, as indicated by the source in the Nutrient Data file. Not every food item contains a complete nutrient profile. The used data set is an abbreviated file with fewer nutrients but all the food items was included. The Dataset contains all the food items with nutrients with 7540 records and 52 attributes. Table1, 2 and 3 show data set attributes and their description. In order to check for missing value I used Rapid Miner tool. Table 4 present sample of data set. 4. Data Preparation The quality of the results of the mining process is directly proportional to the quality of the data. I need first to prepare the data set by applying Data preprocessing strategies. Data preprocessing is an important and critical step in the data mining process, and it has a huge impact on the success of a data mining project. The purpose of data preprocessing is to cleanse the dirty/noise data. Fig. 1 shows the different strategies in the data preprocessing phase. In this study I focused on data cleaning and data reduction. Figure 1 strategies in data preprocessing Table 1 description of data set attributes from 1- 24Table 2 description of data set attributes from 25-48 Table 3 description of data set attributes from 49-52 Table 4 Sample of dataset Shrt_Desc Water Energ_Kcal Protein Lipid_Tot Ash Carbohydrt Sugar_Tot othersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ BUTTER,WITH SALT 15.87 717 0.85 81.11 2.11 0.06 0.06 BUTTER,WHIPPED,WITH SALT 15.87 717 0.85 81.11 2.11 0.06 0.06 BUTTER OIL,ANHYDROUS 0.24 876 0.28 99.48 0 0 0 CHEESE,BLUE 42.41 353 21.4 28.74 5.11 2.34 0.5 CHEESE,BRICK 41.11 371 23.24 29.68 3.18 2.79 0.51 Data Cleaning Data cleaning, also called data cleansing or scrubbing, deals with detecting and removing errors and Inconsistencies from data in order to improve the quality of data [6]. The aim of data cleaning is to raise the data quality to a level suitable for the clustering analyses. The Methods used for data cleaning are fill in missing values and eliminate data redundancy. Missing value: It is common for the dataset to have fields that contain unknown or missing values. There are a variety of legitimate reasons why this can happen. There are a number of methods for treating records that contain missing values [7]: 1. Omit the incorrect field(s) 2. Omit the entire record that contains the incorrect field(s) 3. Automatically enter/correct the data with default values e.g. select the mean from the range 4. Derive a model to enter/correct the data 5. Replace all values with a global constant Within this study both missing and unknown data have been set to zero. Duplicated Records Duplicate records do not share a common key and/or they contain errors that make duplicate matching a difficult task. Errors are introduced as the result of transcription errors, incomplete information, lack of standard formats, or any combination of these factors [7] . The data set used in this study include data objects that are duplicate. Using RapidMiner to removing duplication .As result from this process the 7540 records decreased to 7139 record. Data Reduction Data reduction can be achieved in many ways one way is by selecting features [5], The used data set contains many Irrelevant features that contain almost no useful information for data mining task As [2] I will focus only on eight attributes out of fifty two attributes, as they are important for diabetes diet. The eight nutrients include: Carbohydrate Energy Fat protein Fiber vitamin E Vitamin B1(also known as thiamine) Vitamin C Data Normalization Data normalization is one of the preprocessing procedures in data mining, where the attribute data are scaled so as to fall within a small specified range such as -1.0 to 1.0 or 0.0 to 1.0. Normalization before clustering is specially needed for distance metric, such as Euclidian distance, which are sensitive to differences in the magnitude or scales of the attributes. The K-Means typically uses Euclidean distance to measure the distortion between a data object and its cluster centroid .However, the clustering results can be greatly affected by differences in scale among the dimension from, which the distances are computed. Data normalization is the linear transformation of data to a specific range. Therefore, it is worthwhile to enhance clustering quality by normalizing the dynamic range of input data objects into specific range [8].in this study I will normalize data to the range of [0, 1] . Figure 2 show the result from the data preprocessing Figure 2 Result from Preprocessing(Data cleaning , Data Reduction , Data Normalization) 5. Data Analysis Methodology After data preparation, a second step is using a K-means to cluster food data set. In order to work with optimal k-value as [2] used the Davies-Bouldin index [9] to evaluate the optimal k-value. The k-value is optimal when the related index is smallest. For this study, I used K=19 since it gives the smallest value. The final result is the food clusters which foods in the same group provide the approximate amount of the eight nutrients. Data analysis solution RapidMiner was used to analysis the data set and cluster food item. The whole process sequence shown in figure 3.figure 4, 5, 6 shows the final result. Figure 3 data analysis process Figure4 food Items clustered into 19 clusters Figure4 distribution of 8 Nutrients into clusters from (0-12) Figure4 distribution of 8 Nutrients into clusters from (13-18) 5.1 K-mean Evaluation a performance based on the number of clusters. This operation builds a derived index from the number of clusters by using the formula 1 (k / n) with k number of clusters and n covered examples. It is used for optimizing the coverage of a cluster result in respect to the number of clusters. By applying the K-mean model to this data set the Cluster number index = 0.997 witch indicate a good coverage. 6. Conclusion Data mining has been widely used in many health care fields. The Diabetes Diet Care was one of the health problems that data mining play role on it .this experiment are conducted based on USDA National Nutrient dataset. The results demonstrate that K-mean is very effective and it can successfully create food groups that will help in many recommendations systems.